Oh my. Dare we muddy the water even more? Or perhaps this will serve to prove what I have taken the time to share with you: many events precede the actual physical return of Jesus.

Elijah is coming again, too.

Let's carefully examine the Biblical record. It was a question on the mind of the disciples that starts this study. See Matthew 17: 11-12 and/or Mark 9:12-13.

Matthew and Mark tell identical episodes, with one significant difference. The Greek in Mark supplies a word that Jesus said, proton, that Matthew does not mention. It is the Greek word for "first." Just so you know. It's in there. Nearly every translation uses that word in the Mark account. Jesus says that Elijah comes first.

The setting. Jesus and his closest men have just witnessed the transforming power of God on His Son. Also witnessing the event were the Prophets Moses and Elijah.

Seeing all this dazzling manifestation, questions came. This one in particular. Master, we've been taught that Elijah will come first. But here you are, and Elijah has not come. So are you the Messiah foretold in Scripture?

I have added my explanation of their question to the actual words. They wanted to be sure. Their lives were on the line.

Jesus' assurance is two-fold. Yes, He says, Elijah will come first. And he has already come, at least in one sense.

Urgent that we see both portions of Jesus' answer, or the passage gets lost in hopeless confusion. There are two comings of Elijah spelled out by Jesus. One of them had manifested, after a sort, in the person of John the Baptist.

It is Luke who supplies the information, via an angel (1:17), that John will come in the spirit and power of Elijah, to do what Malachi said he would do, (Malachi 4:6), turn the hearts of the people toward God so as to prepare the way for Jesus' teaching ministry in Galilee and surroundings.

So we know that in Jesus' mind, "Elijah" had already come. The people had been prepared. When it was time for him to move on, in John the Baptist that is, he quietly exited the stage, and Jesus took His place.

But wait. Before we let him walk out, hear his words to the seekers at the beginning of his powerful ministry. They wanted to know who he was, and they rattled off a list of possibilities to him for affirmation or denial. One candidate on their list was Elijah! Are you Elijah? they said.

Denial. Clear denial. He knew he was John, a man called to prepare the way for this first coming of Jesus, a voice for sure, even a fulfillment of a prophecy, but not Elijah!

Contradiction here? Not at all. He was like Elijah, in many respects. He fulfilled the coming of Elijah in a spiritual way. But we all know that he was not the man Elijah.

Yet that Elijah still lives and needs to be dealt with. if we stop here, we don't get the fullness of what Jesus was saying.

Jesus said first, remember, "Elijah does come first and restore all things." Some versions, doing some interpreting, read "will come first." Meaning there is still a coming out there.

That further explanation dovetails with other things we know about Old Testament prophecy and the Book of Revelation. And Elijah, who waits in Heaven as I write.

Malachi saw the coming of this great prophet before the "great and terrible day of the Lord." Well, it was a great day when Jesus came, but none could characterize it as "terrible." That is, it was not earth-shattering, accompanied by judgment and the very wrath of God, as the final day will be.

Yes, such a day is coming. The prophets are clear on that point. But Jesus' first advent did not trigger the judgment. Yes, there was a sense that an Elijah figure had come, and we must listen to the way the Son of God interprets this verse.

But if Jesus is coming again, and He is, and on that day there will be judgment, and there will be, it seems proper also to say that Elijah, this time the actual man Elijah, will return before Him, to restore His own people to where they ought to be.

So far I appeal to logic, not clear revelation. But there is clear revelation too!

I was fascinated as I did the research for this treatise to run across the fact that the two doors to the inner sanctuary of the Temple were made of pure olive wood (I Kings 6:31-32). To get to the Holy of Holies, you passed by two olive trees.

What is so fascinating about that?

To answer that question I take you first to Zechariah 4. The prophet is having a vision of a portion of the Temple, it seems, and he is shown a golden lamp-stand accompanied by two olive trees. When he asks about the olive trees he is told that they are two "anointed ones" standing by the Lord.

And there it ends in Zechariah. You see two trees, which are called two beings, and that is all you know.

Until.

Until another prophet comes to the fore, a man we also call an apostle, the great Revelator John.

Revelation 11. Yet another Temple scene. Three and one half years are measured out for earth's inhabitants, the times of the Gentiles, nations that will trample the Holy City. But concurrent with them, two witnesses, called also by John the two "olive trees" that stand before the Lord, a clear reference to the prophecy of Zechariah.

Lest anyone try to "spiritualize" or generalize the text, we are made sure that these two beings are not angels, nor are they groups of men or organizations. Two men.

They prophesy for three and one half years, while antichrist is waging his campaign against all things holy. 77 u 7

They are at first unstoppable. They have supernatural protection flowing from within them outward to anyone who tries to harm them. Shades of Elijah already. Read the stories of the men he consumed by fire.

They can keep rain from falling. As did Elijah.

Then they will be killed by a power far greater than Ahab and Jezebel, and with no ravens and angels to deliver them.

Their dead bodies will simply be left in the streets of Jerusalem.

They will be viewed on worldwide media, and each view will trigger jubilation and parties. Finally the message of righteousness is finished.

But in 3 plus days they are resurrected like their Lord and called up to Heaven. While the world watches.

If we say correctly that these witnesses are men, then which men? Zechariah saw them. They were living then, but in heavenly realms. They had lived before, but had not died. It is appointed unto man to die, though, and so they must come to earth to keep that appointment.

Certainly Elijah must be one of them. Carried up into the heavens while Elisha watches, he never dies. Enoch also is a candidate, though some want to put Moses in the second spot.

But for sure, Elijah comes first.l

8. CONCLUSION

So stand with me on the low plains of Earth and look up to yonder hills, from whence comes our Help, our Lord, our returning King. Can you see the distant hill, the hill of His return?

Can you also see a lesser hill in the foreground of your vision, a man pretending to be that Savior and that King? No need to focus on it. No need to be discouraged by it. Definitely no desire to sleep through it. Our salvation is, then, nearer than any time in history.

It is really acceptable to see both hills at the same time, as did Peter and Paul. Jesus saw them too and spoke of them in Matthew 24.

Antichrist truly comes first, concurrent with Elijah the prophet and his companion. There is no reason to slacken our zeal because of this. God's true people have been zealous for the Lord of hosts for thousands of years, knowing He might not come for a thousand more.