The third Elijah.

Introduction.

When Jesus, Peter, James, and John were on the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, and then they heard a voice saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him, (Matthew 17:5). In verse 10, the disciples ask Jesus the following question. Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? To this question, Jesus answers in verse 11: … Elijah truly first come, and restore all things.

The scribes taught that Elijah had to come before the great and dreadful day of the Lord could come. They obviously believed that the Messiah would come and make Israel the great they believed, and that Jerusalem would become the capital of the world after the Messiah had defeated the Romans and cast them out of Judea and Jerusalem. The scribes based this on verse like this here in Malachi 4:5 where it says, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

We who sit with the fact in hand can see that it was not the Lion of the tribe of Judah who was born in the stable in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago, but it was the Lamb of God who came at that time. The question we must look at is what Jesus meant by what He said in Matthew 17:11. According to Jesus, it says that Elijah must first come and restore all things, and He continued in verse 12 to say that Elijah had already come. We will eventually return to this.

We know for sure that there was once a prophet named Elijah, a prophet who did the work he was commanded by God to do. Elijah was truly a man of God, and he carried out the commission God had commanded him to do. In the words of the Prophet, neither dew nor rain fell in three and a half years, he made sure that the widow in Zarephath, who had no flour or oil, got enough flour and oil during the whole drying period because she shared the last flour she had with it hungry prophet Elijah. He also raised up the widow’s son who died of a serious illness, and he defeated all the prophets and priests of Baal. These are just some of the things Elijah did. He, Elijah, came and restored the people’s view of God’s law, and they began to call upon the name of God again. Finally, he was taken in a chariot of fire and taken up to heaven without seeing death. This Elijah is a picture of two events that will happen in the distant future for Elijah.

All Bible texts are from the King James Version 1611/1769 unless otherwise stated.

The first Elijah.

It may seem confusing that I am writing about the first, the second and the third Elijah. In the Bible we find only one prophet named Elijah. For the record, the name Elijah means: God is Jehovah.

We call this Elijah the first Elijah, and the first time we meet the prophet Elijah in the Bible is in 1 Kings 17:1. Elijah’s ministry was when Ahab was king of Israel. Ahab was married to the Phoenician princess Jezebel, who was also the priestess of Ba’al. Because of Jezebel’s influence over Ahab, he led Israel into extensive pagan worship, setting up altars and worshiping Ba’al, the sun god. The Semitic peoples also used Baal as an honorary title, meaning lord or master. This is very interesting all the time today’s occultists and Satanists call the devil lord and / or master. Elijah’s commission from God was to rebuke the paganism and decay that Ahab had begun, and to restore true worship.

The first thing we can read about in the Bible that Elijah did was to close the heavens for three years so that neither dew nor rain fell during this time. And Elijah the Tishbite, [who was] of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, [As] the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. 1 Kings 17:1. The reason why Elijah was allowed to close the heavens for three years is found in 1 Kings 16:30-33: Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him (NIV 1984).

For a time after Elijah closed the sky, he had to seek refuge east of the Jordan in the Cretan Valley, where the ravens gave him bread every morning, bread, and meat every night, and he drank water or a stream that flowed there. Some time later, there is a meeting between King Ahab and the prophet Elijah on Carmel, and we read in 1 Kings 18:1 that it came to pass [after] many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.

Now follows a conversation that is highly interesting in terms of events that will happen in the end times. In 1 Kings 18:17, King Ahab asks the following questions: [Art] thou he that troubleth Israel? In verse 18, Elijah answers: I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed Baalim. We see that the king, the leader of the people, questioned Elijah’s preaching, and blamed him for the things the king himself had caused with his unfaithfulness to the God of heaven. This is a type of what will happen in the end times. The antitype of this will soon be set up when the leaders of the world, in the form of the beast from the earth (Revelation 13:11), who will set up an image of the first beast (Revelation 13,1) and force the people of the world to worship the image of the first beast. This happens while the last seven plagues fall over the earth, and God’s people who are now sealed with the seal of the living God, and who will not submit to the image of the beast, will be blamed for all the misery that afflicts all who do not have God’s seal on their foreheads.

The second and third Elijah we do not find mentioned by name. So who are these two? In Malachi 4:5 we can read this: Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. The first Elijah served as a prophet when Ahab was king of Israel approx. 875 to approx. 850 BC while Malachi, who says that the prophet Elijah will come before the great and dreadful day of the Lord, served between 433 and 408 BC., or more than 400 years after Elijah served. Malachi can therefore not talk about the same Elijah, the first Elijah, as 1 Kings tells of.

The second Elijah.

About 450 years later, Jesus speaks of an Elijah, and this is found in Matthew 11:13-15. Here Jesus says this: For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive [it], this is Elias, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear let him hear.

Nor can it be the first Elijah that Jesus speaks of here in Matthew 11. The ‘Elijah’ that Jesus refers to is John the Baptist, and his task was to prepare the way for Jesus’ first coming. We read in verse 12 that Jesus says from the days of John the Baptist … … and in verse 14 Jesus concludes that John the Baptist is the Elijah, which was for to come. That is why we call John the Baptist the second Elijah.

If we go to Matthew 11:7-11 we find the following text, 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? But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft [clothing] are in kings’ houses. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is [he], of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee*. Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. (* This verse points back to Malachi 3:1.) We see that Jesus calls John the Baptist more than a prophet and in verses 13-15 Jesus says the following about John the Baptist, for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive [it], this is Elias, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear let him hear.

In Malachi 3:1, God says this through the prophet, 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.

In Matthew 17:10-12, an interesting conversation takes place between Jesus and his disciples, And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. 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.

What did Jesus mean by Elijah having to come first and restore all things?

The first Elijah, the original Elijah, had the task of rebuking the apostasy and restoring the true faith and worship of God when King Ahab had introduced idolatry in Israel. In other words, the first Elijah was to prepare the people for the coming of the Lord, and restore true worship. Was this the mission the second Elijah, John the Baptist, also received, or was it something else? We find the answer to this question in Matthew 3:1-3. In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 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.

As we see, the second Elijah was to prepare the way of the Lord. John the Baptist, as the second Elijah, was to prepare the people for the fact that Jesus was about to appear as the Messiah. This was the first coming of Jesus, and he was to teach the people about the right things, everything the scribes and Pharisees had forgotten or overlooked including salvation, or as Matthew expresses it: make His paths straight.

In Luke 1:13-17 and 1:76-80 we find some characteristics of the second Elijah: (13-17.) But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. And 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 Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, (see also Malachi 4:5-6) and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. (76-80.)And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways. To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and [in] the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.

We can assume that the same characteristics and qualities as the second Elijah were also present in the life of the first Elijah. It says about John the Baptist, the second Elijah, that he shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, i.e. not drink anything with alcohol. He should alsobe filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. The reasons for this were that he should prepare the people for the first coming of Jesus, and John the Baptist was to be the prophet of the Most High, to go before Jesus and preach repentance, conversion and baptism.

If we look at what the first and second Elijah were to do, the task of the first Elijah was to rebuke the apostasy and restore true worship. The second Elijah was to prepare the way for Jesus’ first coming and preach repentance, conversion and baptism. The sum of what they did can be summed up in what we call the loud cry in Revelation 18:4: come out of her my people.

The third Elijah.

What about the third Elijah? Who is it? Who is it that has received a mission from God that corresponds to the missions that the first and second Elijah received from God? We know that every time God is going to do something special for His people, He raises up special prophets. We have God’s own word on that through the prophet Amos. Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets, (Amos 3:7).

If we look at the history of God’s people, we see that every time God had to do something for His people, He sent a prophet to announce the coming event. a) When God was about to send the flood of sin over the earth, He raised up Noah who both announced a coming judgment and built an ark that would give everyone who wanted it a saving way through the judgment. The condition was that they had to turn to God and board the ark in faith. b) When God wanted to free his people from slavery in Egypt, God raised up Moses, who was God’s instrument when he led his people out of Egypt with a strong hand with miracles and signs. c) When Jesus was about to begin his work on earth, John was raised up to prepare the Lord’s first coming, and he preached salvation in such a convincing way that many turned to God and were baptized in water. We see that in all large and deeply affecting events in people’s lives, special prophets with unique characteristics were raised up.

What are we waiting for in our time? We await the greatest event in history – the return of Jesus. Is it then not to expect that God will again raise up a special prophet who will prepare the Lord’s second coming? The return of Jesus is undoubtedly as great an event as the flood, the exodus from Egypt and Jesus’ first coming. The second coming of Jesus will put an end to the life we ​​know today.

Who will prophesy again?

Before we continue, we must decide on the question of whether it is a single prophet or whether it is a prophetic movement in the last days. We must remember that at the time of the first Elijah and the second Elijah worked, God’s people lived concentrated in and around Israel and Judah, in the end times God lives people all over the world, from the biggest cities to the most secluded places in the great jungles of the world. Therefore, a prophetic movement is needed to effectively prepare the Lord’s way in the end times.

Therefore, we must ask ourselves what did the first and the second Elijah do. They prophesied against people and kings. Elijah dealt with King Ahab and the idolatry he had introduced into Israel. John the Baptist dealt with King Herod and his promiscuous use of God’s Ten Commandments. What can we then expect the work order of the third Elijah in the end times to contain? Since both the first two prophesied against people and kings, we can expect the Elijah of the end times to receive the same order.

In Revelation chapter 10, we read about a mission given to the apostle John. This happened while John was a prisoner on Patmos when he was about 90 years old. In the vision John received from God, the angel tells the following in verse 11. Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

That it is not John the apostle who will prophesy against before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings comes out in verse 6 in the same chapter where the angel says that there should be time no longer. This is an expression that indicates that we have moved forward in terms of time to the transition between prophetic times and end times. It also becomes known in verse 7 where it says 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. In other words, the person or the people who are to prophesy will live in the last time of the earth’s history, in what is called the end times. Johannes lived more than 1,700 years before the end times began. We who live in the end times, and long after this prophecy was given to John, have the facts and can see that it was not John who received this mission.

Thou must prophesy again:

God has raised up many prophets throughout time. When God raised up Isaiah, it says in Isaiah 6:8 that he heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here [am] I; send me. To Jeremiah God says when He calls him a prophet. Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, [and] I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations, Jeremiah 1:5.

If we go to Revelation 10:8-11 we find this text. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go [and] take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take [it], and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

In his vision, John asks the angel to give him the little book, which the angel says has been opened. Why does the angel make a point of the fact that there is a book that has been opened? Are not all books open? Not all of them according to the Bible. In Isaiah 29, we find these verses: And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which [men] deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it [is] sealed. And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned, (Isaiah 29:11-12).

This was said to a people who were blind and drunk, but not from wine (verse 9, NIV 1984) for the Lord has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered your heads (the seers) (verse 10 NIV 1984). God has the quality that He can close a book for all people until He finds the time to open it again. The question then is whether there is a book in the Bible that was closed or sealed at one point. If we find such a book, we will also find out which book Revelation 10 talks about.

In the book of Daniel, we find no less than three verses that tell us that the book of Daniel was to be sealed or closed over a long period of time.

In Daniel 8:26, it says. The vision of the evenings and mornings that has been given you is true, but seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future*.

In Daniel 12:4, it says. But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.

In Daniel 12:9, it says. He replied, Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end.

* This expression, for it concerns the distant future, refers to the end times.

Daniel was told to seal his book, and in Revelation chapter 10, as I said, the angel makes a number out of the fact that the book he brings is an open book. This strengthens the statement that the prophecy in Revelation 10 does not apply to John who received the prophecy, but applies to God’s faithful remnant in the end times. They are the ones who will prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

Now probably many will question eating a book. Revelation 10:10 tells us: I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. What does this have to do with preaching or prophesying?

There are several places in the Bible that this expression ‘to eat a book’ is used. Besides here in Revelation 10, we find this expression in Jeremiah 15:16 where we read: When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty.

Jeremiah was delighted when he had eaten the word of God, which really means to absorb God’s word – to read God’s word and not least to understand it correctly. But Jeremiah does not give us any good explanation of what this has to do with preaching or prophesying.

In Ezekiel 3:3-4, however, it says, he said to me, Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it. So, I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth. He then said to me. Son of man, go now to the house of Israel and speak my words to them. Here we see the connection to Revelation 10, the book Ezekiel ate was sweet as honey in his mouth. It was exactly what John also experienced when he ate the book he was given by the angel, and then Ezekiel explains our question by explaining it like this: go now to the house of Israel and speak my words to them.

When the 1812 war between the United States and England raged, the deist William Miller gathered a company of soldiers who were placed under the 30th infantry regiment and he was eventually promoted to captain. He miraculously survived a shell that exploded a few feet from where he was standing. He later wrote that the fort I was in was exposed to every shot, and bombs, rockets and shrapnel fell as thick as hail, he said. One of these many shots had exploded two feet from him, wounding three of his men and killing another, but Miller survived without a scratch.

After the war Miller began to study the Bible, he was overwhelmed by what he read in the book of Daniel about the prophecy of the 2300 evenings and mornings that we find in Daniel 8:14. Miller ate the open book that the angel showed John in his vision, and it was sweet as honey in his mouth (Revelation 10:10), because the way he interpreted the prophecy about the sanctuary, it meant that Jesus would return in 25 years. This was in 1818. Miller continued to study the Bible, and gradually he began to tell about what he had discovered to friends and acquaintances and other interested people, but he had no desire to become a preacher, he was only an old farmer.

I will remind you of Jonah who was commissioned by God to preach judgment and destruction in Nineveh, the most powerful city in Jonah’s time, because the course of events in this story is quite similar to what happened to William Miller. Jonah refused to do as God wanted, and began to travel west instead of going east to Nineveh. We all know how it went with Jonah. He finally had to bow to God’s will and carry out the mission.

God asked William Miller to go out and preach the message he had discovered through his studies of the Bible, but he would not because he was just an old farmer. One day he responded in this way to the call he received to preach what God had entrusted to him. I will make a covenant with God. If I am invited to preach in a church, I will do so, in the full assurance that no one would invite an unlearned farmer to preach the word of God in a church. When he and his wife were having breakfast the next day, there was a knock on the door, and one of their nephews entered. He had the following message for his uncle. The minister of the local church to which Miller’s family belonged in the neighbouring village had become ill, and so this boy was sent to Miller to ask him to talk about what he had found in the book of Daniel the next day, on Sunday. Miller was stunned, and then stormed out of the house and into the woods, continuing to tell himself that he was not competent to preach the word of God. Then he heard his own words ringing in his ears, and he surrendered and laid himself completely in God’s hands. The next day he went to the neighbouring village and preached.

Then things went on and by the beginning of the 1840s, what was only a local event had become a national event.

Eventually many joined Miller and they preached the soon return of Jesus with zeal and anointing, and the Advent movement, the prophetic movement, grew in numbers, and in 1840, Ellen G. White was at a meeting that W. Miller held. Here she was fascinated by the thought of Jesus’ imminent return, and she eventually joined the Advent movement. Christians from all denominations and non-Christians who accepted Jesus as their saviour joined together in this cross-denominational movement, and the preaching really made people apply to the movement. There are no reliable figures on how many received the Advent message, but it is claimed that there were more than 50,000 who received the Advent message in 1844, but regrettably many did so out of fear of what they thought would come this the year.

Dan 8,14 And he said unto me, Until two thousand and three hundred evenings {and} mornings: then shall the sanctuary be vindicated.

The disappointment

Based on what Daniel 8:14 says. And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred evenings [and] mornings; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed, (ASV 1901) the entire Christianity interpreted, as already mentioned, that it was the earth that was the sanctuary. This was what everyone believed, and Miller and the early Adventists were children of their time, and interpreted the prophecy from this view. Imagine the joy Miller must have felt when he understood the time prophecy in Daniel chapter 8. The calculation of the time was absolutely correct, and the sanctuary was to be cleansed at the end of the 2300 evenings and mornings. Miller understood that this was a time prophecy and had to be understood according to the year/day principle, where a prophetic day is a real year. This prophecy therefore spans 2300 actual years. Miller found out when the prophecy began to run, and it was in the year 457 BC when Artaxerxes issued what we call the third decree about the return and rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple.

The year 1844. Some had studied what is written in Leviticus and the great Day of Atonement in chapter 16, in order to find an exact date for Jesus’ return. In this chapter, the great Day of Atonement is described as the day when all sin would be eradicated from the people. This happened in a figurative way in Old Testament times, and is an image of the service that Jesus was to come to do. The entire temple service is also an image of Jesus’ service. After meticulous studies, they concluded that Jesus’ return must coincide with the great Day of Atonement, which in 1844 was 22 October.

The day they were waiting for came, and it passed into the next day without Jesus appearing. This caused a huge disappointment in everyone, who responded to and when I had eaten it, my belly was made bitter, (Revelation 10:10). Then we can ask the question why God allowed them to be wrong. I can immediately see a couple of explanations for this.

1) God allowed them to be wrong because the most important thing in raising up the prophetic movement Adventists was to proclaim the return of Jesus through the three angels’ messages that they had discovered.

2) God allowed them to be wrong so that all those who did not have 100% honest intentions to join the Advent movement would be shaken out before they could destroy what has later been named Seventh-day Adventists.

The spirit of prophecy given to the Advent movement.

After the disappointment, those who were faithful to God began to search for answers about where they had gone wrong and what they had not understood correctly. Those who were sure of their cause therefore continued to seek the Lord for light. They examined the calculations and the prophecies, but could find no error in them. Shortly after the disappointment, probably the next day, seven of the remaining Adventists held a prayer meeting in a barn. Among these was Hasen Foss. Here they thanked God for the light they had received, and asked for guidance from God so they could see where they had gone wrong.

After the prayer, Hasen Foss and one of the brothers were to visit a brother on the neighbouring farm to support and encourage him after the disappointment, and they made their way through a cornfield. There, in the middle of the field, Hasen Foss suddenly stopped. He received a revelation from God, which showed him what they had done wrong. When they came over to the neighbouring farm, they saw the beauty of it all. With the help of a revelation and the Bible, they found out that the sanctuary spoken of in Daniel 8 was the heavenly sanctuary, and they pointed to Hebrews chapter 8 and that it says the following in Daniel 7:13. I saw in the night-visions, and, behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. They saw the connection between this verse and Daniel 8 and Hebrews 8. This caused the great disappointment to become a turning point. With new zeal and energy and in gratitude to God, they continued the work of proclaiming the imminent return of Jesus, without setting any date for this.

William Miller and William Fay also received visions and revelations from God. And shortly thereafter, God raised up a young woman, 17-year-old Ellen G. Harmon (later White), as His prophet. The Advent movement had been given the spirit of prophecy, and had become a prophetic movement. All this is according to Amos 3:7 and Revelation 10:11. In 1863, the movement took the name Seventh-day Adventists, and formed a separate denomination.

What characterized the first and second Elijah will also characterize the third Elijah.

About John, the second Elijah, it says that he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. He was to go before Him – Christ – in the spirit and power of Elijah to make ready for the Lord a people prepared [for him] and give the people knowledge of salvation and the forgiveness of sins and give light to those who sit in the shadow of death to lead people into on the saviour’s path.

If we do not do God’s will but neglect to do it despite knowing that we should do what God asks of us through his commandments and laws, we will not be filled with the Holy Spirit. It means in plain language that we must keep all of God’s Ten Commandments as they came from His hand when He wrote them on the two stone tablets He gave Moses. In our time, there are two versions of the Ten Commandments. God’s Ten Commandments and the Pope’s Ten Commandments. The Pope has changed the commandments by removing the original second commandment, which we find in Exodus 20:4-6 and which reads as follows: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of anything] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. The Catholic Church (the Roman Church) says that this commandment is an explanation to the first commandment, but according to Jewish tradition, this commandment has been the second commandment ever since Israel received the commandments at God’s mountain.

Because the Roman Church has removed the second commandment, the other commandments have ‘moved’ up one place so that God’s third commandment has become the Pope’s second commandment, etc.

The Roman Church has also broken God’s fourth commandment, which reads as follows:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work. But the seventh day [is] the Sabbath of the LORD thy God, [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates. For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. Exodus 20:8-11.

What the Roman Church has done here is to remove almost all text in God’s fourth commandment that points back to the creator and which day of the week is God’s day of rest which is the same as God’s Sabbath. Of the 94 words that are used in the King James Version 1611/1769, 86 words have been removed in the Pope’s edition of the Sabbath commandment, which they have placed as commandment number three. The Pope’s third commandment reads as follows. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

As we see, the Roman Church has removed and broken the two longest commandments in God’s Ten Commandments. The second commandment that has been removed tells us that we are not to have any kind of imitation of anything either in heaven, on earth or down in the water under the earth. This is problematic for a church that has so many saints and beatified in its midst. At the end of February 2011, the number of such sub gods as I call them – because that is what they really are – these more than 11,600 people and martyr groups. The Catholic Church encourages its members to pray to these people, because as the Catholic Church says, the good works of these saints and beatified are added together with the good works of Mary and Jesus, and work for our salvation.

I mention this to show how the power that we are called to warn against continues to deceive God’s people. The Catholic Church has appointed, and continues to appoint, saints for this and that. All professions have their patron saint, and Saint Sebastian is the patron saint of sportsmen, archers, crusaders, soldiers and police, doctors, war invalids, ironmongers, potters, tinsmiths, stonemasons, cloth makers, gardeners, tanners; for weak and sickly children; the dying; for wells; against plague and animal diseases; against enemies of religion. This patron saint is celebrated together with the holy saint Pope Fabian. Saint Arnold of Soissons is one of many patron saints of beer brewers. There are also patron saints for completely trivial matters such as falling in love, and Saint Valentine of Rome is the patron saint of those in love. There is no difference between these saints and Babylon’s many gods. The gods of the Babylonians were supposed to protect people from various things, exactly as today’s Roman Catholic gods, or saints, do. If we celebrate Valentine’s Day, or Saint Valentine’s Day, we are actually worshiping one of the Catholic Church’s many saints or sub gods, and with that, we commit adultery and are unfaithful to God. If you want to have a good harvest, fall in love, brew good beer or whatever, all you have to do is pray to one of the many thousands of sub gods, lesser gods or demigods, the so-called saints you have at your disposal. It must sound tempting for a sportsman to pray to Saint Sebastian before a sports competition to achieve a victory… …something we see more and more often in football arenas around the world. When players enter the field, we see many of them cross themselves, kiss their fingers, and touch the grass and look up to the sky and say a prayer – probably to Saint Sebastian. Nevertheless, no matter how the battle goes, the intoxicating wine of modern Babylon seduces these people.

Having removed one commandment, they had to find a solution to the problem that arose when they only had nine commandments. They took the third longest commandment, God’s tenth commandment, and split it in two. God’s Ten Commandments read. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour’s, Exodus 20:17. The Pope’s alternative ninth and tenth commandments read as follows. You shall not covet your neighbour’s house, this is the ninth commandment of the Roman Church, and you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour, as the tenth commandment of the Roman Church.

If we accept commandments and ordinances that come from any man, we will not be filled with the Holy Spirit, regardless of what Catholics and other Christians claim. God has given us a recipe for how to live life, and it is God’s Ten Commandments, which tell us that we should not have any form of idols, no matter how well we mean it. Furthermore, God’s Ten Commandments say that we must keep God’s Sabbath holy, and God’s Sabbath, or day of rest, has ever since creation been the seventh day of the week, which is our Saturday. The calendar was changed over much of the world on January 1, 1973, when Sunday, which until that date had been correctly placed as the first day of the week, was incorrectly placed as the last day of the week, in order to align with human tradition.

Furthermore, the second Elijah was not to taste neither wine nor strong drink. This is a big problem among Christians today. There are almost no abstainers, except for a strange, small group of people who do not drink any kind of alcohol. Israel was told to eat unleavened bread on the night they were to leave Egypt, because the exodus from Egypt is a picture of salvation in Jesus Christ. Many make a big deal out of the first miracle Jesus performed, when He turned water into wine at the wedding in Canaan, and point the finger and say: look, Jesus made wine and he drank wine – referring to Matthew 11,19 and Luke 7:34. One seems to overlook the fact that the word translated wine also means grape juice, the vine is the grape plant.

In Luke 5:37-39 Jesus addresses these problems and says, and no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, The old is better, (NIV 1984).

Why does Jesus say that no man putteth new wine into old wineskins? What does that have to do with the case? New wine is pure and unfermented grape juice, or non-alcoholic wine to use that expression. If we have pure and unfermented grape juice in wineskins, they will start to ferment straight away, because there are yeast spores in the old wineskins. This fermentation will cause the leather sacks to burst due to the fermentation that takes place and produces alcohol.

When Jesus talks about new wine in the Bible, this is pure, grape juice, which is not fermented. What is fermented or leavened is seen as an image of how sin develops. If I first commit a small sin, and I do not take the necessary precautions afterwards so that I do not commit new sins, the sin will soon take hold and fill my whole life, as leaven (leavened dough) spreads to everything it meets.

Those who want to defend wine and strong drink do this with zeal and fervour, and completely ignore what Jesus himself says in Mark 14:25; Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God.

What will be preached in the end times?

Such as Elijah, the first Elijah, and John the Baptist, the second Elijah, had special messages from God to preach in their time. These were messages adapted to the event that was about to happen. In this way, the Elijah of the end times, the third Elijah, will have a special message from God to preach, a message that is specially adapted to the end times. None of the messages are identical, but all three messages address the apostasy of God’s people, the decadent leaders, the widespread idolatry and repentance.

The first Elijah fought against King Ahab and his queen Jezebel, who was a priestess of Baal, and 450 of Baal’s prophets and 450 prophets of Asherah to restore true worship of God and throw out the idols Jezebel and Ahab had introduced. The second Elijah fought against King Herod and his crimes, which included marrying his brother’s wife while Herod’s brother was still alive. He also denounced the people’s sins and asked them to repent, turn to God and be baptized with water, preached that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, (Matthew 3:2) and preached the coming judgment, (see Matthew 3:10). Both the first and second Elijah dealt with the paganism of their day, and made the people focus on God and God’s word.

The third Elijah must in the end times fight against the fallen denominations of the end times, where all the paganism that has accumulated through the kingdoms Daniel had visions of, from Babylon via Medo-Persia and Greece and finally into the Roman Empire and through it into the church which gradually developed into a place of all kinds of abominations, a mixture of Christianity, paganism and human traditions. This is what the third Elia has had to deal with. As we understand, the third Elijah must do a rather special preaching in the last time. The message is not quite identical to the messages that the first and the second Elijah preached, but it must be preached that Jesus will soon return, and then to collect His faithful people. The sins of Babylon must be exposed, because in the end times they will reach all the way to heaven. Just look at how Babylon is described here: Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. (Revelation 18,2), and because her sins (= Babylon) have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities, (Revelation 18:5).

The message the third Elijah must preach can be found in Revelation 14:6-11 and 18:1-4, and is called The Three Angels’ Message and The Loud Cry, respectively.

The three angels’ message.

The first angel’s message in verses 6 and 7. And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come, and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

The first message that Elijah of the end times will preach is to make people on earth aware that the time of His judgment is come. The verb form used here is the present participle active, which describes an ongoing action. This is the investigative judgment, which when it is finished leads to Christ returning to earth and redeeming His faithful people, who are all who have distanced themselves from the fallen churches and gathered around God’s ten commandments. Furthermore, this message points back to the fourth commandment in God’s Ten Commandments, and to creation in the phrase worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. When this message has been preached to the whole world no one can say they have not heard about the judgment and God’s Ten Commandments. Then there is no excuse for not accepting Christ as your saviour and keeping all of God’s Ten Commandments.

The second angel’s message in verse 8. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

The second message to be preached along with the first message is that Babylon, or the Catholic Church is fallen, because this church has deceived the whole world with its false religion. After this message has been preached, no one can say «we did not know about this«. This has been preached since before 1840, and will intensify now in the end times.

The third angel’s message in verses 9-11. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive [his] mark in his forehead, or in his hand. The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

The third message, which is preached together with the first two, tells the world what judgement await those who do not choose to follow God. They have been given every opportunity, and there will still be time to repent when the three angels’ messages sound, for God is a gracious and merciful God who does not want anyone to perish, but He does not force anyone. If you choose to ignore the warnings, you are in reality judging yourself. However, it is not too late, the door of mercy is still open, but no one knows when it will close. God will also give a final warning to those He calls my people but who are in one of the fallen churches. That is what we call the loud cry.

We find the loud cry in Revelation 18:1-4. And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

When this warning sounds together with the message of the three angels, it rises to the Loud Cry. Now the second angel’s message is repeated, … Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen … and the God of love is calling people for the last time out of the confusion that prevails in all the fallen denominations so that they will not be lost.

In connection with the three angels’ messages, a description is also given of those who will preach these messages. We find this in Revelation 14:12, and describes with all desirable clarity the character of the people who are called the third Elijah: Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

In our time, we find a veritable jumble of denominations, and they spread in all directions. Some do this, while others believe that. It is only one denomination that relates to God’s Ten Commandments and the Bible alone as a guideline. There are several denominations and religious communities that keep God’s Sabbath, but the majority of these do not believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah who came as the Lamb of God over 2,000 years ago. Others keep nine of God’s Ten Commandments, but choose to follow the Pope and keep Sunday as God’s day of rest. There are denominations that keep all of God’s Ten Commandments, but that believe in an eternal burning hell where God takes his greatest pleasure in seeing the condemned being tormented in a lake of fire with no possibility of escape. This is not compatible with God’s character.

As I see it, it is only the Seventh-day Adventists who follow all God’s regulations and commandments, therefore we, the Seventh-day Adventists, are the third Elijah. It is to us that God has given the awe-inspiring, responsible and great mission of preparing Jesus’ return. However, God does not allow us to do this unless He will enable us to do it. God wants today, as in Adam’s time, as in Noah’s time, as in Abraham’s time and as in Miller’s time, a people who are willing and who want to please the Lord. If we are willing to clothe ourselves in Elijah’s robe and go out to proclaim the return of Jesus, then the Lord of hosts will give us all the knowledge and courage we need to bring this work to an end. Just look at all the promises He has given us through the Bible. Here follows a small selection.

Exodus 4:12 Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.

Isaiah 51:16 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou [art] my people.

Isaiah 59:21 As for me, this [is] my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that [is] upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.

Jeremiah 1:9 Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.

Luke 12:12 For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.

Luke 21:15 For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.

Dear reader, if you find yourself in what the Bible calls Babylon, take God’s call seriously: Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. (Revelation 18:4). God calls you and says. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD (in Jeremiah 29:11), thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.In Ezekiel 33:11 we find this. Say unto them, [As] I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

The choice is yours. Where will you spend eternity? Do you want to spend it with God or be destroyed by a bad choice you have made in this life? You do not know when the possibility of turning to God ends, or when the door of mercy is closed. Choose God today and you will never regret it.