Was John the
Baptist, the Elijah to come of Malachi
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There is so much confusion
about who
John was. If God never changes and He doesn’t, then if He
introduced the Messiah with a person with the Elijah Spirit, (Mat
17:12), the
first time, won’t He have to introduce the second coming with a person
with the
Elijah Spirit,(Mat 17:11)?
When we look at Mat
17:11-12 closely
we can see that Jesus is speaking of two separate persons. In
verse 11,
we see that Jesus says, WILL COME (future tense) and restore all
things,
we know that John the Baptist didn’t come to restore anything at
all. The
new church had not even come yet, he came to introduce God in the form
of His
only begotten Son, who would bring forth the new church. Jesus
had to be
speaking of this same Elijah Spirit to come again in the end time to
get the
church out of the mixed up mess it was and is in.
In verse 12, Jesus is
speaking of
John the Baptist and verse 13 says as much.
So with a little
background,
Was John the Baptist the
Elijah of
Malachi? The Truth is (Yes and No.)
Well here is the bible
truth of the
matter.
The Spirit of Elijah comes
more than
one time, so it must come according to God’s numbers. Three, Five
or
seven and with five being the number of GRACE, The
Elijah Spirit comes five times.
The first time
the spirit came in the Prophet whose
name was Elijah.
1 Kings 17:1 was
this Prophet.
The 2nd
time this spirit came it came
with a double portion on Elisha.
II
Kings 2:9 And
it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto
Elisha, Ask
what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha
said, I
pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.
10.
And he said,
Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am
taken from
thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.
11.
And it came
to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there
appeared a
chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and
Elijah
went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
12.
And Elisha
saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and
the
horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own
clothes,
and rent them in two pieces.
13.
He took up
also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood
by the
bank of Jordan;
You see that here it is
the spirit of
Elijah that came back upon Elisha, a double portion.
The 3rd
time that the Spirit of Elijah
came was upon John the Baptist. Some do not believe this to be
true, but
it is. Jesus said so.
MATTHEW
17:12 But
I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him
not, but
have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son
of man
suffer of them.
13.
Then the
disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.
MATTHEW
11:7 And
as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning
John, What
went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the
wind?
…….
10.
For this
is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy
face,
which shall prepare thy way before thee.
You can see
here that
Jesus says that John is the fulfillment of Maliah 3:1
MALACHI
3:1
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before
me: and
the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the
messenger
of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the
LORD of
hosts.
And he was also a
fulfillment of part
of Maliah 4.
LUKE
1:17 And
he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn
the hearts
of the fathers to the children,
MALACHI
4:6 And
he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the
heart of
the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a
curse.
You can see that John was
to fulfill
part of Malachi 4:6, he was to turn the hearts of those following
the LAW
to the GRACE of JESUS CHRIST. He couldn’t have fulfilled the 2nd
part of Malachi, or he would have been trying to turn the new church
back to
the law.
The question arises as to
whether
John new who he was or not. Jesus said he was Elijah and John
said he
wasn’t Elijah in (John 1:21).
The
truth is that Jesus and John are both correct with their answers.
Jesus
is correct just as shown above and John is correct in that John knew
that they
were asking him if he was the end time Elijah. (4th
time the Spirit of Elijah came)
So now we have more of the
story, John did have the Spirit of Elijah, the 3rd
coming of
the spirit of Elijah.
The 4th
time the Spirit of Elijah came,
it was to (Turn the hearts of the children back to their Pentecostal
fathers.)
The 2nd
part
of malachi 4.
MATTHEW 17:11
And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first
come, and
restore all things.
So here is
another piece
to the puzzle. Jesus said that this Spirit of Elijah would come
more than
once. He said that he would come and RESTORE ALL THINGS.
Now
we know that John the Baptist didn’t restore all things. We also
know
that the church world today is so mixed up with different doctrines
that only
by the return of a Prophet of God would those that are His be able to
come out
of the mess.
As it says
here,
REVELATION 10:7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh
angel,
when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as
he hath
declared to his servants the prophets.
A Prophet
must come in
the last days, right before the Great Tribulation sets in. And
this
prophet must reveal the truth of the hidden mysteries or doctrines that
the
church world has corrupted.
The 5th
time this Spirit of Elijah will
come will be one of the two witnesses of Revelations
Revelations
11:3-6
But I say
unto you, even
if a Prophet did come and if He did the same things that Jesus did,
most would
reject him, just like most rejected Jesus. Oh they loved Jesus
when He
was healing the sick, but when He started preaching hard doctrine, they
left
Him. It would be the same if a modern day True Prophet of God
came, most
of you would reject Him. God’s doctrine that he would bring would
be so
different from what you have been taught that it will be near
impossible for
most to receive.
I say to you
that God did
fulfill His Word and the fourth Elijah Spirit did come, He did send a
prophet
and he did the same things that Jesus Did. And most of the church
world
leaders did reject him. This Prophets name was William
Branham. Jesus Christ was God in flesh, yet most of the
leaders of
that day rejected Him, it wasn’t the man, William Branham that knew the
thoughts and intents of the heart, it was the Holy Ghost, it was Jesus
Christ,
it was God in that man. This man was foretold that he would come
and he
was God’s choice, you owe it to yourself to check it out thoroughly.
The
following answers
some of the objections about this man of God.
How
Did He Do It?
A
Biographer Answers Critics of William
Branham....
My
name is Owen Jorgensen. Some of you
may know me as the author of Supernatural: The Life of William
Branham. It
took me twenty-five years to research and write that biography, so you
know
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about Brother Branham’s life. Here
are some
thoughts that might be helpful to those who might be questioning his
ministry.
Brian
Tracy, a famous motivational
speaker, says of human nature: “Your beliefs act as a set of
filters that
screen out information that is inconsistent with them. You do not
necessarily
believe what you see, but rather you see what you already believe. You
reject
information that contradicts what you have already decided to believe,
whether
or not your beliefs, your prejudices, are based on fact or fantasy.”
I
agree. It takes effort to be honest
and objective. The easy path for people is to filter out any facts that
contradict their theories and then they will always feel they are
right. I think this is one reason people reject the Message
of the
Hour.
One
could go many directions with
explaining William Branham’s extraordinary life, including how he fits
into
dozens of scriptures. But here I would like to present one
very
basic idea. Nicodemus said to Jesus, “We know you are a
teacher sent
from God because no man could do these things unless God was with him.”
If that
was true for Jesus, why wouldn’t it be true for someone else who did
similar
miracles in Jesus’ name?
Consider
for a moment
William Branham’s miraculous gift of discernment.
I
will pick one
particular case for this example because it happened to Minnie
Peterson, who is
a personal friend of mine. She was a stranger to Brother Branham when
she stood
before him in a prayer line in 1955. He told her seven things… (1) You
are standing
here for someone else; (2) It’s your half-sister (3) who is ill with
rheumatic
fever; (4) And your daughter is sick (5) with a fever; (6)
And your
son is sick; (7) And your teeth need healing. (You can hear what
Brother
Branham said to Minnie on the sermon “Doctor Moses” 55-0114, E-55; at www.Branham.org)
Minnie
Peterson told me that every one
of those things was true. “But wait,” the critic might say, “Branham
was wrong
when he started off by saying ‘you are standing here for someone else,’
because
she wanted prayer for her own teeth.” No, his discernment was correct.
Minnie
told me that her teeth had been hurting her earlier in the week, and
she had
prayed about it earlier in the week… but when she stood in the prayer
line, she
wasn’t thinking about her teeth because she was so worried about her
nine-year-old half-sister, who had suddenly become paralyzed with a
high fever.
That’s
my first point... the critics don’t know all the facts. No one
knows all the
facts. Some of the critics in Jesus’ day said he couldn’t be the
Messiah
because he came from Nazareth, and the Scripture said the Messiah
would
come from Bethlehem. They made their judgment based on incomplete
information.
But
my second point is stronger. What are
the odds of a man telling a stranger seven facts about her, and that
man being
correct on all seven? The statistical odds are so astronomical as to be
practically zero. Brother Branham had never seen Minnie
before, or
heard of her. How did he know she had a sister, let alone a
half-sister? How
did he know she had children? And how did he know she had prayed about
her
teeth earlier that week? But this did happen. He knew.
This,
then, is the first important
question a skeptic should ask about William Branham’s unusual
ministry—how did
he do it? How did he know those 7 facts about Minnie Peterson’s life?
This is a
serious question that calls for an honest query. What possible
explanations
could there be for such a fantastic thing to happen? Here are the
choices as I
see them…
Theory #1: He
made a lucky guess.
My
response: Once or twice,
maybe, but he displayed this accurate discernment tens of thousands of
times.
So, the ‘lucky guess’ theory is statistically impossible.
Theory
#2: He could
read minds.
My
response: Scientists have done
many double-blind experiments trying to find out if there is such a
thing as
extra-sensory perception, and all such experiments have
failed to
prove ESP exists. Exactly how would mind reading work anyway—I mean,
what would
be the science behind it? No, Brother Branham couldn’t read minds. No
one can.
Theory
#3: It was
all a scam. He planted people.
My
response: Over 17 years
Brother Branham prayed for upward to 100,000 people personally all
around the
world; and in all that time no one ever came forward and said they were
paid to
lie, or anything like that. No, it was not a scam. He discerned people
with
prayer cards; he discerned people without prayer cards. Many times he
would
tell strangers their names and addresses. He had a number of different
campaign
managers over the years. None of them cried foul. There were no tricks
involved. Remember that in the 1950’s microphones were the size of
hotdogs and
the smallest speakers were the size of baseballs. You couldn’t hide a
speaker
in your ear like you can today.
As
far as I can tell, that rules out the
natural possibilities, leaving us with only supernatural theories to
consider.
Theory
#4: Perhaps
he got his discernment directly from Satan.
My
response: Brother Branham used his gift of discernment
to
raise the faith of people high enough to accept Jesus Christ as their
healer.
He gave all the credit to Jesus Christ. This is not something Satan
would
sanction. When Jesus was on earth, the demons that he came near cried
out,
asking him to leave them alone. There is no example in the Bible of a
demon-inspired person using a gift of discernment in conjunction
with
divine healing. None. In contrast, Jesus definitely had the
gift of
discernment and the gift of divine healing. Therefore it would be an
error to
attribute Brother Branham’s gift to Satanic forces, when there is no
Bible
references to support such a claim.
Theory
#5: Brother
Branham was one of the false prophets Jesus warned us against in
Matthew 24:24…
“beware of false prophets who will do great signs and wonders and will
deceive
many.”
My
Response: What Jesus
said is true… beware, because false prophets are out there and they are
busy
deceiving. But notice, Jesus didn’t tell us what those great signs and
wonders
would be. Why would those “signs and wonders” be “discernment and
healing”—which are the same things Jesus did when he walked the earth?
Why
would “discernment and healing” be good 2000 years ago, but bad now? It
wouldn’t,
of course. Hebrews 13:8 says Jesus Christ is same today as he was
yesterday. So
Brother Branham does not fit the false prophets of Matthew 24:24.
Besides, if
you read on to verse 27, it takes you right into the prophecy of the
“coming of
the Son of Man,” which is Jesus in his prophetic form, coming in the
end time
as openly visible as lightning. William Branham’s ministry was open to
the
world—and still is.
Nevertheless,
some Christians say it was
his doctrine that made him a false prophet. I suppose by this they mean
his
doctrine came from Satan.
My
response: What did William
Branham teach that would harm someone’s soul? Answer:
Nothing he
taught would hurt anyone. He taught that people should repent and get
baptized
in the Name of Jesus Chirst, and then God would give them the Holy
Spirit,
which is eternal life. (Hmm… that’s the same thing Peter preached in
Acts
2:38.) Brother Branham taught that we should love one another; and
forgive each
other; and do good things for everyone we can. (Are there any
complaints about
that?) Yes, he said some things that offended some people. So did
Elijah, and
Elisha, and John the Baptist; and so did Jesus, for that matter.
Brother
Branham is in good company there.
“Wait
a minute,” the critic says.
“William Branham taught against the Holy Trinity. That right there is
enough to
make him a false prophet.”
My
response: That’s not
exactly true. Brother Branham believed in the Father, the Son, and the
Holy
Spirit, but not as “one god in three persons” the way it is so often
taught.
(Look, even those people who believe the “one god in three persons”
doctrine,
even they admit that it doesn’t make any sense.) Brother Branham taught
that
God the Father is a spirit (the Holy Spirit) and we can’t know a
spirit. So God
became flesh and dwelt among us for a while. That was Jesus Christ, who
we call
the Son of God. (That is exactly what John chapter 1 says. No false
doctrine
there.) After Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected, he returned
to the
Father, and then He sent back His Spirit to indwell His children.
Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit—just like the New Testament teaches. Besides, where in
the
Bible does it say you have to believe in “the Trinity” to be saved? It
doesn’t
say that. The New Testament says you have to believe in Jesus Christ to
be
saved. And surprise… that’s what Brother Branham taught
also.
Theory
#6: His gift was from God, but William Branham
went wrong when he taught doctrine. If he had just prayed for the sick,
he
would have been all right.
My
response: Have you thought that idea through? Are you saying
that
God was shortsighted and picked the wrong man to give such a monumental
supernatural gift to? Or are you saying that God purposely gave William
Branham
this great supernatural gift knowing he would end up teaching wrong?
What would
be the purpose in that? Neither of these responses matches the
omnipotent,
omniscient God of the Bible. What you really might be saying
is, “He
didn’t teach what I believe, so he must be a wrong.” (Re-read Brian
Tracy’s
comment about human nature.) Well, if we we’re all correct in our
doctrine, God
wouldn’t have needed to send a prophet at all, would he? But Jesus
said,
“Elijah shall first come and restore all things,” so apparently Elijah
must
show up sometime, somewhere, and do some restoring. If you were God,
how would
you vindicate such a modern day Elijah?
Theory
#7: William
Branham’s amazing gift of discernment came from God for the purpose of
vindicating him as a true servant of God.
My
response: This is the only
theory that matches all the facts: physical, spiritual and biblical.
That’s why
I believe it this way. Brother Branham never said he had the spirit of
Elijah—but he did point out many of the scriptures this end time Elijah
would
fulfill—and guess what, Brother Branham’s life matched all those
scriptures.
I’ll tell you at least one thing he obviously restored—he restored
visible
proof that Jesus Christ is real. Jesus said, “He that believeth on me,
the
works that I do shall he do also; even greater works than these shall
he do
because I go unto my Father.” No one has fulfilled this scripture more
fully
than humble little William Branham.
For
those who are skeptical, before you
reject William Branham’s ministry, give some serious consideration to
this
question: How did he do it? Don’t skip this question. You need to
settle on a
honest, sensible answer. If you come to the same conclusion I came to,
then
your next question should be: What does this mean to me?
One
of my favorite spots in researching
Brother Branham’s life was when I heard him say to a woman who was
sitting in
the audience during one of his 1957 meetings in Edmonton, Canada. “Here, there hangs that Light over a woman. She's
suffering with
high blood pressure. Stand to your feet. Her name is Mrs. Fishbrook. You're from this city. You live on
125th Street.
The number of your house is 13104. That's exactly right. If that's
right, raise
your hand. All right, go home. You're healed, lady. Jesus Christ makes
you
well.” (God Projecting His Love, 57-0806, E-52)
Now,
what are the statistical odds of
William Branham guessing that?
Owen
Jorgensen, 2014
Author
of
Supernatural:
The Life of William
Branham
www.supernaturalchristianbooks.com
So if you want to listen to any message that Brother Branham
preached you can goto
Branham.org or
bibleway.org
If you want to hear what the far left says, the false
prophet people
William-branham.org
or believethesign.com
And if you want to hear what the far Right says, which would
include his own sons.
They believe every word he ever preached was “thus saith the
Lord”
Neither of these two extremes are correct, he was a very
humble man, a brother in the Lord who
made many mistakes And even left the
ministry once because some of his followers were making him into the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was only a man that was sent
by God to introduce the 2nd coming of
our Lord Jesus in spiritual Form. He had an open vision ministry with "thus saith the Lord", (without
failure), of which has not been seen since Jesus Christ walked the
earth in the flesh.
For me, he proved that Jesus Christ is real and that He
knows every little detail of past, present and
future.
It is only the Word that knows the thoughts and intents of the heart Heb4:12
So the question you must settle in your own heart is "How did he do it"