RE: Elijah
Castonguay, Gregory (GCastong@NesbittBurns.com)
Thu, 10 Apr 1997 16:36:24 -0400
>YOEL
>Jesus said:
>"And if you are willing to accept it, he (John the Baptist) is the Elijah
>who was to come." (Matthew 11:14)
>
>John 1:21-
>"They asked him (John the Baptist) 'Are you Elijah?'
>He said :'No, I am not.'"
>
>TILL
>Here is the explanation of this "alleged" contradiction that you can expect
>to hear from biblical inerrantists. When an angel announced to the priest
>Zacharias that his wife would bear a son and that he should be named John,
>the angel said, "And he [John] shall go before his [the Lord God's] face in
>the SPIRIT and POWER of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the
>children, and the disobedient to walk in the wisdom of the just, to make
>ready for the Lord a people prepared for him" (Luke 1:17). Thus, the
>solution to Yoel's imagined contradiction is simple. When Jesus said that
>John the Baptist was "Elijah who was to come" (Matt. 11:14), he meant only
>that John the Baptist had come in the "spirit and power" of Elijah, but when
>John was asked if he was Elijah, he said that he wasn't, because the people
>questioning him wanted to know if he was literally Elijah. John was telling
>them only that he was not literally a reincarnation of Elijah.
>
Greg
Adding to the point..
John would have a hard time being the reincarnation of Elijah "in
spirit" or "body"
because according to the Old Testament, Elijah never died!!.
The Gospel of John also claims that John was not a prophet. How could
>John have the spirit of Elijah and still yet not be a prophet?
>