Thank you for your willingness to teach all of us through your articles and by answering questions that arise as we study the Bible.
My son is a recent convert and has presented me with many questions while studying the Bible. A recent one concerns various passages he has read that can be interpreted to mean that Elijah could come to prepare the way for the second coming of our Lord. He is reading the New Testament as well as Revelations. Is there anyway that you can shed light on his question? He is certain that another will come to ready the world for the rapture.
I am confused as to who Elijah really is. I know Elijah was a prophet in the Old Testament and also that John the Baptist was said to be Elijah. Does the word Elijah have a different meanings throughout the Bible?
Elijah was an Old Testament Prophet with an unfinished role. In the last verses of the Old Testament (Malachi 4:5-6), the Lord promised to send Elijah back to warn the people of Earth before the great and dreadful days of judgment at the End of the Age.
Even though John the Baptist said he wasn’t Elijah (John 1:21), Jesus said that if they’d been willing to accept John as such, he would have been. (Matt. 11:14)
Many, myself included, believe Elijah will be one of the two witnesses of Revelation 11, fulfilling God’s promise of Malachi 4:5-6.
All that said, there is no advance warning of the Rapture. No one know exactly when it will happen and there’ll be no prior announcement by either men or angels.