John the baptist, the second coming of Elijah.

John 1.19-23, Matthew 17.10-13.

There are two series I’m starting: One on the prophet Elijah, and one on the prophet John bar Zechariah, also called John the baptist.

Yes, I know the custom is to capitalize “baptist,” along with way too many other things in Christendom. But if I capitalize the word, I mean people and things of the Baptist tradition, started by English dissenters in the 1600s and continued in the United States by Roger Williams and John Clarke. The prophet John is “the baptist” in that he ritually washed (Greek ἐβάπτισεν/eváptisen “baptized”) people as a sign of their repentance, Mt 3.11 which is not traditionally why people ritually cleansed themselves. It was odd, so it got people’s attention, made him stand out, and drew people to him.

In the Pharisees’ beliefs about the End Times, they taught before Messiah came to Israel to overthrow the Romans and rule the world, God would send forerunners. Multiple forerunners, actually. There’d be the Prophet, and there’d be the second coming of Elijah. Obviously the Pharisee End Times Timeline had a few screws loose—same as all the Christian End Times Timelines—because they mixed up God’s benevolent intentions with their own selfish desires to see God smite anyone they considered their enemies. Human depravity regularly befouls our End Times views, and makes each one more fearful and vengeful, and less Christlike, than the last.

But some parts they got right. There is an End Times Prophet… and he’s Jesus. And there is a second coming of Elijah… but he’s not a literal second coming of Elijah; he’s someone just like Elijah, and that’d be John. Although John was entirely sure he’s not Elijah, and said so:

John 1.19-23 KWL

19This is John’s witness

when the Judeans of Jerusalem

send priests and Levites to him

so they could ask him, “Who are you?”¹

20John confesses,

and doesn’t refuse them.

He confesses this:

“I’m not Messiah.”

21The Judeans ask Johnᴾ, “Who then?

Are you¹ Elijah?”

He says, “I’m not.”

“Are you¹ the Prophet?”

He answers, “No.”

22The Judeans tell Johnᴾ “Who are you?¹

—so we can give an answer

to those who send us to you.¹

What do you¹ say about yourself?”¹

23John says, “I’m ‘the voice

shouting out in the wilderness,

“Straighten the Lord’s road!” ’

just as the prophet Isaiah says.”

So he’s neither the Prophet nor Elijah; he’s some third guy they hadn’t detected in their End Times studies.

But it turns out… John was wrong. (Yep, John put an error in our bibles!) Jesus says he totally is Elijah. And Jesus is absolutely in a position to know, so whenever I quote what John had to say about himself, I make sure to tell you Jesus corrects him.

Matthew 17.10-13 KWL

10The students are questioning Jesus,ᴾ

saying, “So why do the scribes say this?—

‘Elijah has to come first’?”

11In reply {Jesus} says, “Elijah comes {first} indeed,

and restores everything.

12I tell you² this:

Elijah comes now.

They don’t acknowledge him,

but do to him whatever they want.

In this same way the Son of Man

is about to suffer under them.”

13Then the students understand this—

Jesus is speaking to them about John the baptist.

No really; he’s Elijah.

Back in Jesus’s day, people figured the End was near. People certainly wanted the End to be near—especially since the prognosticators who taught about the End were promising them a happy ending. Same as now.

Since John was gaining a lot of attention, Pharisees wanted to know whether John considered himself one of their End Times guys. They might’ve had their doubts. But John immediately silenced their doubts by saying nope, he’s none of them. He’s just a voice in the wilderness, like Isaiah described, telling people to get ready ’cause the Master is coming.

Isaiah 40.3-5 KWL

3A voice in the wilderness calls:

“Clear the LORD’s path!

Smooth out a desert highway for our God!

4Lift up every valley!

Lower every mountain and hill!

Rough ground will be level.

Rugged ground will be a valley.

5The LORD’s glory will be revealed.

All flesh, together, will see,

for the LORD’s mouth says.”

No, this “voice in the wilderness” is not a specific prophecy about John the baptist. It’s just a verse John borrowed to describe what he was up to. Because anybody who speaks up for God in a lawless, fruitless, godless culture is a voice in the wilderness. Any Christian can be such a voice. Many Christians have been.

Likewise anyone who tells people to get ready for Jesus’s second coming—especially to a culture who’s more interested in appearing to follow God instead of bearing actual good fruit—is a similar voice in a wild, undeveloped, untended land. Wouldn’t hurt to have more of them.

But part of the reason the crowds came to check out John, was his lifestyle. He looked like they imagined Elijah would look. The camelhair clothing and leather belt? Mk 1.6, Mt 3.4 Deliberately meant to remind people of Elijah, the prophet of rain and fire who wore the very same getup. 2Ki 1.8 John was intentionally mimicking Elijah. Stands to reason people’d wonder if he was Elijah.

Problem is, Pharisees had very specific End Times beliefs about Elijah. Christians aren’t the only ones with wild and wacky End Times theories. Plenty of religions have ’em. Pharisees cherry-picked scriptures from Daniel, Ezekiel, and other prophets, and spliced together their very own End Times timeline. And they added books from the pseudepigrapha—books which claimed to be written by famous Old Testament saints like Enoch, Moses, and Ezra, but weren’t really. Much like End Times prognosticators who quote the Left Behind novels and John Hagee books far more often than Revelation.

The most popular Pharisee theory of the day, claimed Israel would undergo 12 tribulations before the End. Then after the 12th ended, “the Prophet”—the very last prophet in history, a prophet like Moses Dt 18.15 whom Israelis were obligated to heed—would appear. Pharisees didn’t agree whether this Prophet was a whole new prophet, or the second coming of Elijah. (Elijah hadn’t died, remember? Got raptured. Went straight to heaven in a whirlwind. 2Ki 2.11) If you took Malachi literally—and plenty still do—Elijah should be literally coming back.

Malachi 4.4-6 KWL (3.22-24)

4“Remember the Law of Moses—

my servant whom I commanded at Horeb.

Statues and rulings

for all Israel.

5Look, I send you² Elijah the prophet

before the coming great and awesome day of the LORD.

6Elijah will return parents’ hearts to their children,

and children’s hearts to their parents

lest I might come smite the land with a ban.”

Elijah would straighten roads, get parents and children to love one another, and work together with the Prophet to prep Israel for Messiah. Other Pharisees insisted yes to all this, but Elijah and the Prophet are the same guy. Either way they’d do this, then Messiah would come, defeat Israel’s enemies, and rule the nation for 400 years… although some Pharisees claimed nope, there were two Messiahs; one who’d die, Is 53 and one who’d reign. Nope, they weren’t unanimous about their End Times timeline; no more than our prognosticators nowadays.

Despite looking like Elijah, 2Ki 1.8, Mk 1.6 John insisted he wasn’t. He was a lowercase-P prophet; a whole other guy. Nobody special. And maybe he honestly didn’t think so. Which is a little weird because his father Zechariah had been told he was very special. The angel Gabriel had interrupted a temple service to tell him so.

Luke 1.17 KWL

“He will precede before the Lordᴾ

in the spirit and power of Elijah,

turning parents’ hearts back to their children

and the disobedient back to the wisdom of justice,

preparing for the Lord

a rebuilt people.”

Now okay, “spirit and power of Elijah” indicates he’s an archetypical prophet like Elijah; not literally Elijah. And that’s fair: John’s not literally Elijah. If the Pharisees thought Elijah was literally returning to earth, same as Christians and Muslims say Jesus is literally returning to earth, this clearly isn’t that. The skies aren’t parting and Elijah’s coming down. John was born to two old Levite prophets, and intended to be a prophet since birth, but that’s clearly not a literal second coming of Elijah.

Except, y’know, Jesus said he is Elijah. He fulfills the prophecies about Elijah. It’s totally John.

Matthew 11.11-15 KWL

11“Amen! I tell you none born of women

rose greater than John the baptist.

Yet the smallest in heaven’s kingdom

is greater than him.

12From the days of John the baptist till now,

heaven’s kingdom has been abused;

abusive people snatch it away.

13For all the Prophets and the Law

prophesy till John.

14And if you wish to receive this,

Johnᴾ is the second coming of Elijah.

15One who has ears,

listen!”

He’s not like the second coming of Elijah; he is the second coming of Elijah. When the LORD told his prophets Elijah was coming, this is what he meant. The LORD didn’t mean it literally; we shouldn’t presume there’s any Elijah yet to come.

Prognosticators who think Elijah is yet to come.

But you already know I’m gonna talk about those End Times prognosticators who claim John is only a type of Elijah’s second coming; that there’s an actual second coming yet to come.

There are these two guys in Revelation 11. Two witnesses. They wear sackcloth, prophesy 1,260 days, stop the rain like Elijah, and call down plagues like Moses. Rv 11.3-6 And since some biblical interpreters have simply gotta take the scriptures as literally as they can plausibly get away with—and sometimes even further than that—these guys insist the two witnesses literally are the second coming of Elijah and Moses.

Although not always Moses. Moses died. Dt 34.5-7 He ain’t coming back till the resurrection. For that matter, in this vision, the two witnesses get killed, Rv 11.7 then get raised and raptured, Rv 11.11-12 and it seems really unlikely that God would raise Moses from the dead, send him to be a witness to “Sodom and Egypt,” Rv 11.8 then let him be killed and raised again. When we get resurrected, the idea is we’ll never die again. So they swap “Moses” out with another guy from the bible who was raptured before dying: Enoch. There; now these witnesses can die. They didn’t die before, so they still owe God a death.

I’m gonna rant for a second about this “owe God a death” idea. Jesus atoned for humanity. This atonement works retroactively; Jesus died for Elijah, same as he did for you and me. That’s why, when Jesus returns and the rapture happens, every Christian still living is not gonna die. 1Th 4.17 Nobody “still owes God a death.” Not us, not Elijah. Saying he does, implies Jesus didn’t die for him—and since some of these prognosticators are dispensationalists, they’ll actually claim Elijah’s under some previous system of salvation where he earns his salvation. But there is no such system. We’re saved by grace. Always have been.

Anyway, these two witnesses are supposedly “Moses and Elijah,” or “Enoch and Elijah,” and this is the real second coming of Elijah. Which has yet to happen. So what about John the baptist? Doesn’t count.

Ignoring Jesus’s teachings about John the baptist to promote your favorite End Times beliefs, is a ridiculously obvious sign you have no respect for the teachings of Jesus. I shouldn’t have to tell you it’s okay to dismiss absolutely everything such prognosticators claim. But I’m still gonna: If they won’t prioritize Jesus over their teachings, they’re false teachers. Stop listening to these fools; they’ll lead you astray.