by Donald Clayton
“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, and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
(Malachi 4:5, 6)
The promise to send Elijah “before the great and dreadful day of the Lord“, has special relevance to us today as we are aware that of all generations who have ever lived, we stand closest to the “day of the Lord“.The most obvious question however, is “Why Elijah?” What is the significance of the work of Elijah to the last days?A clue to the answer will be found in Verse 6 “He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers.” If we can understand this, then we will perhaps be able to recognize the work of Elijah today, and where we may fit into the plan of God.In I Kings 16:29-33 we read:
“And in the thirty and eighth year of Asa king of Judah began Ahab the son of Omri to reign over Israel:… And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. 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 ….. and went and served Baal and worshiped him. And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal… and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.”
Here we see a situation where the King of Israel had risen to the height of rebellion against God. In the process of apostasy he had gone and married a woman who did not believe in God. In fact she worshiped a false god; Baal. As is usually the case when God’s people become unequally yoked with unbelievers, the unbeliever, (Jezebel), converted the believer, (Ahab), to her religion. Now that in itself can be bad enough when the believer goes and joins himself to the unbeliever’s church, but what happened here was that the believer began to take the unbeliever’s type of religion right into his church. He felt that he was still in the right church, serving God, and leading God’s people, but his union with a woman of another religion had caused his concept of God to change, so he was now worshiping another god, and as the leader of God’s people, he was leading them to do the same thing.The hearts of the children of Israel had been turned away from God and so He needed a man brave enough to go against the popular religious current, which was teaching about many gods; the religion which was being forced upon them by their leaders, and turn the hearts of the people back to Him.
Elijah went straight to the heart of the problem. He could have gone around Israel, trying to convince the people individually, but while this method may reach a few, and may even convert some, he would not have been able to reach, let alone convince, the majority. You see, people have a tendency to love following the leader. “How can an insignificant little man like you be right, while the King is wrong?”Recently one church sister asked me, “Are you trying to say that all the presidents, pastors and leaders of the church are wrong, while you are right?” Maybe somebody today would have asked Elijah the same question.Elijah said to the King “Because of you Israel has lost its blessing. Because of you there will be no rain.”
“The leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.”
(Isaiah 9:16)
The rest of the story tells of how Elijah finally got Ahab and the prophets of the false god to show up their true colours on Mount Carmel. Pray as they might, scream as they may, their god could not answer. Then Elijah spoke to God.
“Hear me, O Lord…that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.”
(I Kings 18:37)
Elijah’s desire was that Israel would get back into a right relationship with their Father. Note the similarity of the portion underlined in the above verse, to the statement in Malachi 4:6. “He shall turn the hearts …”Today we have reached the place where, in most of the “Christian” churches the true Lord God has been substituted by a false god. Israel has left the worship of the one true God and is now worshiping a pagan god called the Trinity.
This concept of a trinity began with the Babylonians as they started to worship Nimrod, Semiramus and Tammuz. Most of the heathen nations adopted this three-god concept and Israel was distinguished from them by the fact that Israel’s God was “ONE GOD” (Deut. 6:4; Mark 12:29)
Are you worshiping the true God when you worship the trinity? Obviously not! for one God cannot be three, and neither can three be one God.This false god was brought into Christianity by the same power which brought in the false sabbath. THE PAPACY The scriptures clearly teach us that this church is false and therefore not to be trusted in her doctrines. Yet the great majority of Christians today have adopted either one or both of her major false doctrines. The two major doctrines of this church are concerned with: “Who is God” and “What is His day of worship”
Both of these, the Catholic Church has changed and used tradition, rather than the scriptures as the basis for the change. First she changed the day of worship from the seventh to the first (Saturday to Sunday), and then changed the god of the people to the Trinity. In both cases, those who refused to comply with the changes were punished by the church. Yet most churches today, follow her in this.
It is clear that Israel of today has turned away their hearts from God and that is why God has promised that He will send Elijah the prophet to turn the hearts of the children back to Him. See Luke 1:16.
Elijah is YOU! ELIJAH IS ME! Can God depend on us today, to turn the hearts of His children back to Him?The TRINITY IS IDOLATRY!! Let us teach people about the one TRUE GOD. It may mean that we will have to hide beside the brooks from those who hate us for teaching the truth; It may mean that we will have to be fed by blackbirds; It may mean that your own family will hate you, but does God mean enough to you to risk the security and comfort of your home?
Is it important to you whether the millions of “children” in the churches worship the true God, or is it enough that you are one of the seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal?
In the time of crisis Elijah made it clear that the undercover Christian (Obadiah) and the prophets in the caves did not count, for they were doing nothing to try to turn Israel away from idolatry, that is why he said, “I, even I only remain a prophet of the Lord.” (I Kings 18:29)In this time of crisis God needs someone to send; someone who will “turn the hearts of the children to the Father” In this time of crisis God needs someone who is no less than Elijah, who is not afraid to stand ALONE against the leaders who are leading the people astray. It is time now for someone to “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins.” (Isa. 58:1)The leaders of our churches can no longer be trusted to lead us in the pathway of Christianity, for they have married themselves to the pagan woman; the Catholic Church, and are now worshiping her god, the Trinity, and forcing the people to do the same. Jeremiah says:
“Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pastures! saith the LORD.” (Jer. 23:1)
“For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the LORD.” (Jer. 29:9)
