CHAPTER 2
ELIJAH IS A “TYPE” OF THE LAST DAYS CHURCH
There are some people who claim that there must be several rapture(s) in order to escape the plain teaching of the Bible. They point out that Elijah was raptured; therefore, there must be more than one rapture of God’s saints. However, if you recognize that Elijah is an allegory for the last days Church, everything begins to make sense. Let’s look at the life of Elijah and see how he is a perfect “type” of the Church in the last days.
Elijah means God of Jah or God of Jehovah. The world system does not want us to rely on Jehovah (Jesus Christ). The world wants us to rely on the world system as our source of physical and spiritual sustenance. The true prophet of God will always direct people towards God (Jesus Christ) whenever they have a need. If you are sick, addicted, poverty stricken, bound by sin or in need of anything, the world will always direct you to someone or something in the world to supply your need. The world looks on God and his promises in the Bible with contempt.
JESUS IS JEHOVAH
By the way, for all you Jehovah Witnesses out there, Jesus Christ IS Jehovah!
Psa 118:14 The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my “salvation” (Jesus).
Salvation means: yeshû‛âh = Yeshua is the Hebrew name for Jesus
yesh-oo'-aw; something saved, that is, (abstractly) deliverance; hence aid, victory, prosperity: - deliverance, health, help (-ing), salvation, save, saving (health), welfare.
LORD means: yâhh = Yah or Jah is the shortened version of the sacred name Jehovah.
Yaw contracted for H3068, and meaning the same; Jah, the sacred name: - Jah, the Lord, most vehement. Cp. names in “-iah,” “-jah.”
Let me translate Psalm 118:14 into plain English – Jehovah is my strength and my song, and is become my Jesus.
Also, let us read one of the most important verses in the Old Testament concerning the second coming of Jesus Christ:
Zec 14:3 Then the LORD (Jehovah) will go forth And fight against those nations, As He fights in the day of battle.
Zec 14:4 And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, Making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south.
yehovah
yeh-ho-vaw'
From H1961; (the) self Existent or eternal; Jehovah, Jewish national name of God: - Jehovah, the Lord. Compare H3050, H3069.
The mirror image of the coming of Jehovah in the Book of Zechariah is spoken of in the Book of Acts:
Act 1:9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
Act 1:10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
Act 1:11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Act 1:12 Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey.
We see that Jesus Christ rises up to heaven from the mount of Olives and the angels tell the apostles that he will return there in the same exact manner he left. Jesus is Jehovah!
I noticed three things Elijah and apostate Israel had in common with the Church of the last days:
First, in the days of Elijah there is a great apostasy in the Land of Israel. Ahab, the king of Israel, had taken a foreign wife named Jezebel and begins to worship Baal, the God of the Zidonians.
1Ki 16:30 And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD above all that were before him.
1Ki 16:31 And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.
As in the days of Elijah there will also be a great apostasy in the last days.
2Th 2:3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
2Th 2:4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
Apparently the whole world will worship the man of sin when he is revealed. Either they will actually believe he is God or they will agree to worship him in order to survive and to escape persecution. The man of sin will demand that everyone worship him and his image on pain of death.
God will judge the modern world for the exact same sins for which God judged the ancient Canaanites and ancient Israel. I call it the Satanic modus operandi (M.O.). The Devil uses the same methods of operation over and over again throughout the Bible. He has the same M.O. today as he had thousands of years ago. The Devil knows if he can get people to walk down the same well warn path of sin and rebellion, eventually God’s judgment cannot be withheld.
1Ki 21:25 But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.
1Ki 21:26 And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all things as did the Amorites, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
Baal worship is associated with images of calves, sexual immorality, child sacrifice, and the occult. The worship of a golden calf with its associated sins also caused the judgment of God to fall upon the Israelites in the wilderness. It appears that all through ancient Israel’s history, the worship of Baal rears its ugly head over and over again.
2Ki 17:16 And they left all the commandments of the LORD (Jehovah) their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
2Ki 17:17 And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
2Ki 17:18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.
It is interesting that Jezebel also appears in the Book of Revelation. She represents false religious teaching, her main goal is to lead the saints away from the safety of committing their lives to Jesus Christ. Jezebel is a “type” of false religious system that will exist during the reign of the beast political system. The Jezebel spirit tells the saints that they can enjoy a relationship with Jesus Christ while continuing to enjoy all the benefits that the world has to offer including:
1. Worshipping idols (the love of money is the worship of Mammon…there is a gold bull on Wall Street).
Rev 13:15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
2. Sexual immorality (fornication, adultery, and homosexuality are widespread and accepted as normal)
Rev 2:20 Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.
Rev 2:21 And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.
Rev 2:22 Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.
3. The sacrifice of children (abortion on demand is widespread and accepted as normal in most of the world).
2Ki 23:10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
Rev 2:23 I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.
4. The widespread use of illegal AND legal drugs (the occult, sorcery…pharmakeia in Greek) will increase violence, sexual immorality, and thievery upon the earth.
Rev 9:21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Sorceries: Pharmakeia = Drugs
far-mak-i'-ah
From G5332; medication (“pharmacy”), that is, (by extension) magic (literal or figurative): - sorcery, witchcraft.
Spiritual adultery will always manifest itself with ever increasing sexual immorality, violence, and theft, both in the world and in the apostate church. Eating foods sacrificed to idols represents trusting the gods of this world (the governments and institutions of the world) to provide for your needs as opposed to trusting in God to supply your physical and spiritual needs. We see that the LORD will allow those who continue to have a relationship with Jezebel and the beast system to go through great tribulation. I believe the Beast will actually financially support ministers, priests, and religious leaders if they will play ball with the evil corrupt world system:
1Ki 18:19 Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel's table.
Eventually, this Jezebel false religious spirit and the beast world system will demand total allegiance and will begin actively persecuting and murdering the true followers of Jesus Christ for their intolerance toward sin and refusal to worship the man of sin just like the prophets of Jehovah were persecuted and murdered in the Old Testament.
1Ki 18:4 For so it was, while Jezebel massacred the prophets of the LORD (Jehovah), that Obadiah had taken one hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty to a cave, and had fed them with bread and water.)
The governments of the world will become more and more controlling of their citizens until eventually all world governments will combine into one totalitarian world government. This one world government will insist that you rely on its resources to meet your physical AND spiritual needs. This one world government, the beast system, will be controlled and ruled by ten rulers who will give ALL their authority to a man possessed and controlled by Satan himself.
Rev 17:12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
Rev 17:13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
This man of sin, possessed and controlled by Satan, will demand that the whole world worship him and only him. If you refuse, you will suffer persecution and eventually death.
ELIJAH COMES BEFORE THE LORD
There is a famous prophecy in the Book of Malachy:
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
The prophecy concerning Elijah was also well known during the ministry of Jesus and his disciples asked him about it.
Mat 17:10 And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?
Mat 17:11 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.
Mat 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.
Mat 17:13 Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.
Jesus directs his disciples to John the Baptist when they ask him about Elijah. If we study John the Baptist we have a better picture of an Old Testament prophet:
Mat 3:1 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
Mat 3:2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Mat 3:3 For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
Mat 3:4 And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
Mat 3:5 Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,
We get some interesting clues about Elijah from John the Baptist:
Listen to what Jesus says about John:
Luk 7:24 And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind?
Luk 7:25 But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings' courts.
Luk 7:26 But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet.
Luk 7:27 This is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
Luk 7:28 For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.
John the Baptist was DIFFERENT and people were willing to travel through some difficult country to see and hear him. The world is impressed by fine clothing and nice houses but John the Baptist was impressive for just the opposite reason. He did not love the world or anything in it and neither did Elijah.
I believe Elijah is going to come again before the second coming of the Lord. He will live in the wilderness and he will be preparing the people for the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Mal 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.
When you hear about two witnesses in the Judean wilderness performing astounding miracles, I suggest you prepare to leave the world system if you haven’t already. You will have only a very short time to escape before the antichrist is revealed to the entire world.