Part Two
In part one, the physical parallels of the first EliYah were compared to the second EliYah, John (Yahanan) the Baptist. But; can we now transcend the physical and apply a spiritual application to all the Biblical material that describes EliYah? Can we take a E. L. Martin approach and spiritualize the Bible to suit our understanding and basically reject the physical as non-applicable? Who is E. L. Martin? He was a former member of the WWCOG when Herbert W. Armstrong was alive and in his own glory. He believed you could spiritualize the Bible and place less emphasis on the physical. This is where transitional errors are being made. The physical applications come first. You must keep the Sabbath day in the physical sense although there are spiritual implications in doing so. The Sabbath day points toward a future time, but still requires observation in the physical being.
In part one, the parallel indicated the physical temple was standing while both EliYahs were on earth during their calling and mission by Almighty Yahweh each in their own time frames. EliYah one prophesied during the reign of Ahab and Jezebel. EliYah two prophesied during the reign of Herod and Herodias the wife of Herod's brother that Yahanan rebuked Herod for taking. Yahanan said:
"For having sent, Herod himself
had seized John and bound him in the prison, because of Herodias the wife of his
brother Philip, because he had married her.
For John had said to Herod, It is not lawful for you to have the wife of your
brother.
And Herodias held it against him, and desired to kill him, but was not able."
Mark 6:17-19
Another relevant piece of the EliYah puzzle is the Priest connection. The question that should be considered is this; will the temple be rebuilt? Will this precede the second coming of the true Messiah Yahshua?
Both of these messengers were in the flesh and the temples were physically standing. But; this is not all that is in their profiles that can serve as an identifier. Both EliYahs had part of Yahweh's name as their personal identifier. Can this be an insignificant point and parallel? The same can be said of Messiah in effect. If Messiah were to come, what would be His name? The name of Messiah can be determined from many textual references and the changing of Hosea's name.
"These are the names of the men that Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Yahshua." Numbers 13:16 Yahshua said that he came in His Father's name (John 5:43) and he was to be called:
"And she shall bring forth a son; and you shall call his name Yahshua; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins." Matthew 1:21 Yahshua had a part of Yahweh's name in his appellative/name.
The naming of Yahshua the Messiah and Yahanan were by supernatural means. John (Yahanan) was to be called a specific name.
There was in the days of Herod,
king of Judea, a certain priest named Zachariah, of the course of Abijah: and he
had a wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
And they were both righteous before Elohim, walking in all the commandments and
ordinances of Yahweh blameless.
And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now
well stricken in years.
Now it came to pass, while he executed the priest's office before Elohim in the
order of his course,
according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to enter into the
temple of Yahweh and burn incense.
And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the hour of
incense.
And there appeared unto him an angel of Yahweh standing on the right side
of altar of incense.
And Zachariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.
But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zachariah: because your
supplication is heard, and your wife Elisabeth shall bear you a son,
and you
shall call his name Yahanan. Luke 1:5-13
Yahanan was the son of a Priest.
Now you may think that the Levitical Priesthood ended with Yahanan, yes, it did
for this era, but; someone forgot to tell the Jewish people. They have
plans to build the temple, they have plans to reestablish the Levitical
Priesthood. They also plan to sacrifice animals and burn incense on the
altar in the rebuilt temple. So; there will be a temple standing and the
messenger of the covenant will appear suddenly to that temple as Malachi 3:1
prophesies.
Let's digress a bit, was Herbert W. Armstrong a true prophet? Was he the EliYah to come? Many believed and followed this false prophet. We should consider some of his false prophecies. The following was taken from this website; http://www.triumphpro.com/prophetic_errors_of_hwa.htm
The Incredible Prophetic
Errors of
Herbert W. Armstrong!
Most people in the Worldwide Ch-rch of G-d look upon Herbert Armstrong as a unique man gifted with tremendous understanding of Bible prophecy. But a careful, candid look at this man's actual record on the interpretation of Bible prophecy boggles the mind! Most people over the years became associated with the ch-rch at least to some degree because of its ostensible understanding of prophecy. Here are the unvarnished facts. YOU decide!
William F. Dankenbring
Early Predictions that "Bombed"
Herbert Armstrong, like many evangelicals, had a general sense of Bible prophecy. Like them, he saw that the Bible predicts a union of 10 nations which will coalesce in the end time, and fight Chr--t at His return. This belief, of course, is not original to the Worldwide Ch-rch of G-d. Many evangelical, Sunday-observing ch-rches also believe it!
However, in his attempt to fit this fact into his own prophetic framework and timetable, Herbert Armstrong often went astray.
In the June-July 1934 issue of The Plain Truth, for example, he wrote:
". . . the year 1936 will see the end of the Times of the Gentiles . . . we may
expect the present worldwide depression, time of trouble and fear of war to
continue until the year 1936! . . . quickly after that time, we may expect to see
the heavenly signs of the sun and moon becoming dark, the stars falling . . .
which shall be followed by the 'Day of the L-rd.'" (page 5).
But 1936 came and went -- and nothing earthshaking happened. Nothing like heavenly signs, stars falling, and the beginning of the "Day of the L-rd"!
In the March 1938 Plain Truth, page 8, however, Herbert Armstrong was even more bold. He audaciously asserted:
"Mussolini and the pope will hatch up an idea . . . of setting up a world-
headquarters at Jerusalem -- and so Mussolini's armies will enter into
Palestine (Daniel 11:41), and eventually will capture just half of the city
of Jerusalem! (Zech.14:2)."
Notice how clearly and forcefully Herbert Armstrong spells out the exact sequence of future prophesied events! Unfortunately for his dogmatic and unequivocal assertiveness, he was totally wrong! Again, his prophecies failed to come to pass.
Mussolini's armies never got near Palestine -- much less to Jerusalem! And suffice it to say, he and the pope never got a chance to capture half of Jerusalem!
Herbert Armstrong continued to make these kinds of predictions. In the January 1939 Plain Truth, page 4, he dogmatically prophesied,
"MUSSOLINI WILL FIGHT Chr--t!"
Was he right in his prediction? Let history judge. As everyone knows, Mussolini, far from fighting chr--t, was killed by partisans, and hanged, toward the end of War II. He was not the prophesied "beast" of Revelation that Herbert Armstrong thought he was!
Herbert Armstrong wrote in the August-September 1939 Plain Truth, page 6,
"Once world war is resumed, it must continue on through the Great Tabulation,
the heavenly signs, the plagues of the Day of the L-rd, and to the Second Coming
of Chr--t, at the last battle, at Armageddon! . . . But this you may KNOW!
THIS WAR WILL BE ENDED BY Chr--t's RETURN! . . . WE ARE JUST
THAT NEAR Chr--t'S COMING!" (Emphasis mine).
Notice again how dogmatic Herbert Armstrong was! Did G-d ALMIGHTY inspire him to predict those errors? Did G-d miscommunicate His intentions to His "servant"? Did G-d get His signals crossed? Or was it Herbert Armstrong who presumed to speak when G-d had not spoken?
Truly Amos the prophet was inspired of G-d to write, 'The Sovereign L-rd NEVER DOES ANYTHING without revealing his plan to his servants, the prophets'' Amos 6:7). Obviously, therefore, Herbert Armstrong did NOT understand the prophetic plan of G-d, did not have G-d's plan REVEALED to him -- and therefore was not inspired of G-d when he made these self-proclaimed, dogmatic prophecies during the 1930s! In retrospect, his prophecies seem utterly foolish and uninspired.
During World War II, Herbert Armstrong continued making false prophecies and predictions based on his understanding of Scripture. In the August-September 1940 Plain Truth he boldly asseverated,
"The Italians will capture both Palestine and Egypt."
Less true words were never misspoken!
In the November-December 1940 issue (which, ironically, was one month before my birth), Herbert Armstrong continued his bold foray into Bible prophecy and its interpretation. He unerringly predicted,
"G-d has decreed that Joseph -- Great Britain and the United States -- are
to utterly consume and annihilate the Turks from off the earth!" (p.7).
Although the Turkish Empire was ended by the victory of the Allies during World War I, in 1917, the nation of Turkey continued to exist, and still exists, today! This "blazing prophecy" of the heralded "spokesman for G-d" also has failed to come to pass. In actual fact, there is NO prophecy of the Bible that predicts the "annihilation" of the Turkish people from :"off the earth," as Armstrong claimed.
At the beginning of World War II, when Britain was suffering its darkest hour, and Nazi invasion seemed imminent, it is interesting to note that Herbert Armstrong quickly got on the bandwagon of the pessimistic, and he joined in the chorus of nay-sayers and doom-predictors. With seemingly unshakable confidence and unflappable insistence, Herbert predicted:
"It is part of G-d's prophesied plan that Britain shall be invaded
and conquered" (Nov-Dec 1940, Plain Truth).
Herbert certainly did not foresee the glorious "battle of Britain," or the stout-hearted courage and tenacity of the British people, led by Winston Churchill! Rather, he thought the Nazis would overrun England and Scotland, and conquer all the British isles.
When Hitler then launched his blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union, Herbert Armstrong again was not found wanting for words, to interpret the invasion in the light of Bible prophecy. Seeing Hitler's troops initially cut through the Russians like a knife through hot butter, he proclaimed "G-d's Truth" on the invasion. Apparently he had learned nothing from his dismal record of continuous mistakes. He tried his hand at prophecy once again. He asserted:
"Bible prophecy does indicate that HITLER MUST BE THE VICTOR IN
THE PRESENT RUSSIAN INVASION! . . . Hitler will emerge from the
Russian campaign stronger than ever, free to turn the entire might of his
forces against Britain -- and America" (Sept-Oct. 1941 Plain Truth, p.7).
As history shows, far from winning his Russian winter campaign, Hitler's armies were defeated by the Russian winter at Stalingrad. Germany lost over a million soldiers in the Russian invasion. The German army was mired in the snow, ice, and mud at Stalingrad, and was forced to retreat in bitter defeat.
Again, Herbert Armstrong was diametrically in error -- 180 degrees from the truth! But at least he was persistent -- and consistently wrong!
As late as 1943, Herbert Armstrong was still whipping a dead horse. He wrote in the March-April 1943 Plain Truth, page 6,
"But Hitler (or his successor if there is one), and the False Prophet
shall fight against Chr--t!"
Talk about "false prophets," Herbert Armstrong's batting average, during the late 1930's and early 1940's was on a scale of one to ten, hovering at absolute ZERO! He was wrong every time! Hitler did not "fight against chr--t" His successor? There was none. Hitler died in a Berlin bunker, as the Russians invaded the city, thus ending the "Third Reich" in flaming ruins.
So many people over time have seized the mantle of a prophet only to be found delusive in their assertion. Yahshua the Messiah warned about this in Matthew:
"And Yahshua answered and said unto them, Take
heed that no man lead you astray.
For many shall come in my name, saying, I am the Messiah; and shall lead many
astray. Matthew 24:4-5
This also applies to those who emphatically
state that Messiah is with them and their group. I call to mind the group
in Texas wherein the leader was arrested and placed in jail under 10 Million
Dollars bail for Bigamy et al.
They would just swear to you that they were
the end time messenger (s). But; are they? Would anyone of Yahweh's
people exhibit such behavior? I do not believe they would. More to
examine on this matter...
Yours in Yahshua, Hawke
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