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And THAT, brethren, is the REASON God has called you and me
TODAY -- ahead of time -- before He calls the other 3,600,000,000
people to salvation.
We are called, NOW, for a VERY, VERY special commission!
BUT WHY YOU?
Prophecy for Second Coming
Let's look a little further into Malachi's prophecy about
God sending Christ with this MESSAGE. It's in Malachi 3,
beginning in verse 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
Eternal of hosts."
In Mark 1:2, in Luke 1:17, in Matthew 11:10 and elsewhere,
this first messenger preparing the way for Christ is referred to
as John the Baptist. But in a greater sense it refers to a Work
to be done preparing the way for the Second Coming of Christ NOW,
in our time!
Read the next verse -- Malachi 3:2:
"But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall
stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and
like fullers' soap." The Moffatt translation makes the meaning
a little sharper: "for he is like the fire of smelters and the
acid used by fullers."
Continuing: "And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of
silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as
gold and silver.... And I will come near to you to judgment;
and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against
the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those
that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the
fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right,
and fear not, saith the Eternal of hosts" (through verse 5).
This is NOT speaking of Christ's first coming, more than
1900 years ago! It is NOT speaking primarily of John the Baptist,
who was only as one preparing the way before Jesus' first coming
over 1900 years ago.
Primarily it is speaking of one to prepare the way before
Christ's SECOND COMING, now, today, IN OUR TIME! It is speaking
of things Christ will do when He comes in all POWER and AUTHORITY
to RULE ALL NATIONS!
Does the full significance of that sink into your
consciousness?
Now notice Luke 1:17. It is speaking, again, of John the