'For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the

proud ... shall be stubble ... but unto you that fear My name shall the

Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings'.

Here there is close association with another messenger and forerunner,

namely Elijah:

'Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the

great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the

fathers to the children ... lest I come and smite the earth with a

curse' (Mal. 4:5,6).

What, then, is the connection between these two personages and the two

comings?  Turning to the New Testament we shall find that the two messengers

are intimately related.  When the birth of John the Baptist was announced to

his father, Zacharias, the angel said of John: 'Many of the children of

Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.  And he shall go before Him in

the spirit and power of Elijah' (Luke 1:16,17).  When John was asked by the

priests and Levites, 'Art thou Elijah?' he said, 'I am not' (John 1:21).

The Lord, however, when He had vindicated John the Baptist, as we have

already seen in Matthew 11, spoke of the kingdom of heaven suffering violence

and opposition.  Then alluding to John, He says: 'And if ye will receive it

(i.e. the kingdom), this is Elijah, which was for to come' (Matt. 11:14).

That this was a cryptic, or parabolic, utterance seems certain by the added

words, 'He that hath ears to hear, let him hear' (verse 15).

When the Lord descended from the mount of Transfiguration, the

disciples raised the question of Elijah's coming:

'Why then say the scribes that Elias (Elijah) must first come?  And

Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias (Elijah) truly shall first

come, and restore all things' (Matt. 17:10,11).

Here is a plain answer, endorsing the belief that Elijah himself must

come before the restoration of all things can take place.  But the Lord then

proceeds to bring the spirit of the passage to bear upon the time then

present, continuing:

'But I say unto you, That Elias (Elijah) 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.  Then the disciples understood that

He spake unto them of John the Baptist' (Matt. 17:12,13).

While there were, therefore, at the first Coming of the Lord,

provisional arrangements sufficient to remove all idea that the non -

repentance of Israel was destined and therefore without responsibility, He

Who knew all things in a manner we cannot even imagine, knew that the Messiah

would be rejected.  John the Baptist was not Elijah, but he came in the

spirit and power of Elijah.  Except in a typical, anticipatory fashion the

kingdom was not set up.  The great work of redemption was accomplished, but

the real coming and restoration of the kingdom await the day of days toward

which all the prophets point.

It must be obvious to all that any system of interpretation that takes

up the teaching of the Second Coming without due regard to this consistent