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this thousand-year period begins,
will be as full of the true knowl–
edge of God as the oceans are full
of water (Isa. 11 :9). How will this
be brought about?
The prophet Micah gives part of
the answer: "But in the last days it
shall come to pass, that tbe moun–
tain of the house of the Lord shal l
be estab1ished in the top of the
mountains, and it shall be exalted
above the hills; and people shall
flow unto it" (Mic. 4:1 ).
Prophecy uses "mountain" as a
symbol of a major nation, and
" hills" as a symbol of smaller na–
tions. In other words, the kingdom
of God, the kingdom of resurrected
immortals- the ruling kingdom–
will be established in complete au–
thority over the major nations (of
mortals) and exalted above the
small nations-and people will flow
to God's kingdom. Now continue:
"And many nat ions shall come,
and say, Come, and let us go up to
the mountain of the Lord, and to
the house of the God of Jacob; and
he will teach us of his ways, and we
will walk in his paths: for the law
shall go forth of Zion [the
Church], and the word of the Lord
from J erusalem. And he [Christ]
shall judge among many people,
and rebuke strong nations afar off;
and they shall beat their swords
into plowshares, and their spears
into pruninghooks: nation shall not
lift up a sword against nation, nei–
ther shall they learn war any more"
(verses 2-3).
This knowledge- this teach–
ing- and even knowledge of God's
law- shall go fo r th from the
Church- and from Jerusalem, the
new world capital.
Christ, himself, will be ruling
from Jerusalem. Stationed there
with Christ, under immediate di–
rection of Elijah , it is indicated,
will be those immortals chosen by
Christ to constitute the Headquar–
ters Church. Revelation 3:12 indi–
cates those of the " Philadelphia
era" will be pillars in that Head–
quarters Church.
Next, in this all-important
Headquarters Church organization,
working with and directly under
Elijah, it appears, will be the resur–
rected Jo.hn the Baptist. He carne
"in the spirit and power of [E1i–
jah]" (Luke 1:17) . Of him, Jesus
November/ December 1986
said , "Verily
1
say unto you ,
Among them that are born of
women 'there hath not risen a
greater than John the Baptist ..."
(Matt. 11:11). He was the Elijah
prophesied to come (Matt. 11 :7-
11) .
Jesus said that no man who ever
lived was greater than John the
Baptist. Yet, even the . least in the
resurrected kingdom will be
greater (Matt. 11: 11).
lt
is evident
that John the Baptist will be placed
in very high office. It seems logical
that be should be placed with, or
immediately under, Elijah.
Elljah to Come In Our Day
Remember, once again, God's prin–
cipie of duality. As Jesus said in
Matthew, the prophecy of Malachi
3: 1 applied to John the Baptist in
type; but if you will continue read–
ing through verse 5, it beco'mes
very clear that the prophecy is
speaking of one to prepare the way
before the Second Coming of
Christ.
John the Baptist was a voice
cry ing out in tbe physical
wilderness of tbe · Jordan River,
preparing the way for the First
Coming of Christ, as a physical
human being, to his physical
Temple at Jerusalem and to the
physical people of Judab, an–
nouncing the advance good news
that tbe kingdom of God would
in the future be established. But
also preparing the way before his
Second Coming was a messenger
of whom Elijah was a type. A
voice crying out in the worldwide
spiritual . wilderness of religious
confusion, preparing tbe way for
the spi ritual glorified King of
kings and Lord of lords to come
in tbe supreme power and glory
of God to his spiritual temple, the
Church (Eph. 2:21 ), to actually
establish the kingdom of God.
Further, in Matthew 17: 1-8, Pe–
ter, James and John saw the vision
of Moses, Elijah and Cbrist glori–
fied in the kingdom of God. Tben
in verse 1O the disciples asked Je–
sus, "Why then say the scribes that
Elias [Eiijah] must first come?"
Remember John the Baptist had
finished his ministry and had been
imprisoned before Jesus even be–
gan bis ministry. At the time the
disciples asked tbis question, John
the Bapt ist had come and been put
to death. Yet J esus answered,
speaking of the yet future, "[Eii–
jah] truly shall first come, and re–
stare all things" (verse 11 ).
This could not possibly refer to
John the Baptist. J ohn the Baptist
restored nothing, but called on peo–
ple to repent in preparation for the
First Coming of Jesus as a physicaJ
human.
In the first few years of the New
Testament C hurch, J esus' true
gospel had been suppressed and
supplanted with a false gospel- not
the gospel of Christ (the kingdom
of God) but man's false gospel
about a Christ who did away with
his Father's commandments.
Also Malachi 4:5-6 pictures the
Elijah to come at the very end of
the Church age-at a time wben, if
this end-time message were not
proclaimed, the glorified Christ
would come and smite the world
with total destruction. (The word
curse
in this verse is translated
from the Hebrew, which includes
the meaning
total destruction
.)
Education in the World Tomorrow
This Headquarters Church , at
Christ's own world capital of
Jerusalem, then, undoubtedly will
be given the admi nistration of the
world's new system of education.
Also the indication is that the
teaching of spiri tual truth--of the
true gospel , the spiritual conversion
of the world- will be directed,
worldwide, from this Headquarters
Church, under Elijah and the over–
all direct su pervision of J esus
Christ.
The principal purpose for which
Christ is returning to earth is to
spiritually develop in bumanity
godly character, and to save the
world. Most religious people, min–
isters, and evangelists (fundamen–
talist) have supposed that this time,
now, is the only day of salvation.
The verse of Scripture they rely on
is a mistranslation ( II Cor. 6:2).
It
should read
" a
day of salvation,"
not
"the"
(quoted from Isaiah
49:8, where it is
a,
not
the
).
lf
Christ had been trying to "save"
the world, he would have saved the
world.
It
hasn't been "saved." God
doesn't use a babylon of confused,
disagreeing religious organizations,
divided into hundreds of different
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