Joel’s two chapters give us a most compact and vivid view of “the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” From these alone we can clearly see what it is like. And as Elijah comes just before that day begins, he must necessarily be the one who is to interpret these prophecies of the day, and who consequently announces that the day is at hand.
This surely confirms the conclusion that since Elijah is to herald the great day, he can therefore be the only one who will rightly interpret the prophecies of the day, which are still mysteries to Christendom, and even to our own Denomination! Indeed, to reiterate, it is for this very reason that the prophet is sent. He is to unroll the scroll to explain what the day of the Lord is like, what the Lord will do then, and how we may survive His judgments. To re-emphasize the fact, let it be said again that being the last of the prophets Elijah is, therefore, the only one who can open to our understanding all the prophecies of the Scriptures pertaining to the great and dreadful day of the Lord — prophecies which heretofore have been only mysteries to all. Thus he is, as the Scriptures say, to blow the trumpet in Zion, and to sound an alarm in God’s holy mountain, in the church.
In doing all this, he sets in motion the
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Power that is to restore all things. Hence Christ’s positive declaration: “Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.” Matt. 17:11. Inevitably, then, without his message we would die in our ignorance and in our sins — never live to see the restoration completed.
The conclusion of Joel’s prophecy in chapter 2 and also in chapter 3, definitely reveals that “the great and dreadful day of the Lord” is the time of God’s delivering His people from the Gentile nations, and of His cleansing their blood. But do you say, We never heard of such a thing? Well, if it is in God’s Word, we should hear it. And that is exactly why Elijah is sent. Concerning the cleansing, the Scriptures say:
“And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call…. But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion.” Joel 2:32; 3:20, 21.
And should we still ask when this will be, Joel gives us even further light:
“For, behold, in those days, and in that
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time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for My people and for My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted My land.” Joel 3:1, 2.
Joel lays even greater emphasis on the dreadfulness of the day, than Malachi does, for he says:
“…the day of the Lord is great and very terrible and who can abide it?” Joel 2:11.
The prophet’s greatest emphasis, you see, is on the dreadfulness of the day rather than on the greatness of it. Again he warns:
“Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.” Joel 1:15.
Still again, this time through the prophet Ezekiel, Inspiration declares it in these words:
“Therefore say unto the house of Israel [the church], Thus saith the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for Mine holy name’s sake which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. And I will sanctify My great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst
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of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
“For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them.
“And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God.” Ezek. 36:22-28.
Since the Scriptures clearly picture Elijah and his work, and also what the day is to be like, none who will humbly inquire about him and his work need to guess or to be in the dark concerning either his identity or his mission, for it is his God-given duty to publish the timely truths as revealed to him out of the prophecies. And so all who are willing and obedient, will have no trouble recognizing him and his message (John 7:17). They will know that anyone
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who comes with a message other than the message found in the prophecies concerning the great and dreadful day of the Lord, is not the promised Elijah.
What is more, should God send another than Elijah, that is, someone with a message other than of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, he will not claim to be the Elijah, he will not lie. Hence, for anyone to make the claim that he is the Elijah, but bear another message than that of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, is in itself positive proof that he is not a prophet of God at all, but a rank imposter. And if any should tell you that a former prophet has fulfilled the promise, although the prophet himself has not said so, then not to know for a certainty that such are not working for the God of Elijah, but for the devil, is Laodiceanism of the worst kind.
“…Let us act as Christians, true as steel to God and His holy work; quick to discern the devices of Satan in his hidden, deceptive workings through the children of disobedience.” — “Testimonies to Ministers,” p. 276.
Since the promised Elijah is to be the last prophet to the church today, as John the Baptist was the last prophet to the church in his day, and since the last work on earth is the Judgment for the Living, the truth stands forth like the light of day that
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Elijah’s message is the message of the Judgment for the Living, the last, which in the very nature of the gospel is of far more importance and consequence than any other message ever borne to a people.
The question naturally arises now as to what is the nature of the Judgment for the Living. Since all of us Seventh-day Adventists are acquainted with the work of the Judgment for the Dead, we should have no difficulty determining the nature of the Judgment for the Living. We know that the former is to separate, in the books above, the names of the backsliders and sinners from the names of the penitent and the enduring who are among the dead. It removes only their names, because their bodies are non-existent. We know, too, that it is to determine whom Heaven is to bring forth from their graves in the first resurrection (Rev. 20:6), and whom to leave till the postmillennial resurrection (Rev. 20:5). Accordingly, then, for what else could the Judgment for the Living be but to “cast out” bodily the still living sinners from among the penitent, as is figuratively shown in the parable of the net — the separation of the bad fish from the good.
The same event is again brought to view in the parable of the separation of the wheat from the tares (Matt. 13:30), also in the parables of the wedding garment and
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of the talents (Matt. 22:1-14; Matt. 25:14-30). Each of these gives further evidence that the separation is the Judgment, during which the chaff is blown away and the wheat garnered in. And as each has reference to the separation, the Judgment of those who are in the church, in the house of God, whence come the first fruits, the 144,000, each emphasizes the same fact as does the Apostle Peter:
“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” 1 Pet. 4:17.
In additional testimony the prophet Zephaniah declares:
“And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil. Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.
“The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day
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of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.
“And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy: for He shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.” Zeph. 1:12-18.
These verses are so transparent as to need no comments.
Our subject brings us back to Joel’s prophecy:
“The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and
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will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for My people and for My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted My land.” Joel 2:31, 32; 3:1, 2.
From these verses it is to be seen at a glance that the separation (Judgment) takes place not only in the house of God but in the whole world as well. The Lord very emphatically says, “I will also gather all nations,…and will plead with them there for My people….” Joel 3:2.
The same event, the separation in the church, is also forecast in The Revelation:
“And the serpent [the Devil] cast out of his mouth water as a flood [unconverted multitude] after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth [did away with the hypocrites, doubters, and men-followers]. And the dragon was wroth with the woman [the church], and went to make war with the remnant [with those that escaped] of her seed [those that are truly her children] which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Rev. 12:15-17.
Thus both Scripture and logic make
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clear that these escaped and separated ones are the remnant people of God, in fact.
Once the church is purified, — the sinners removed from her midst, — then the call made by “the remnant” for God’s people to come out of Babylon, goes forth in a very loud voice:
“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Rev. 18:4.
These called out ones are, as the Scriptures make clear, beckoned to a place (Eze. 36:24; Isa. 66:20) where there is no sin (Isa. 35:8; 52:1; 62:12) and no fear of the plagues falling upon them (Isa. 4:5, 6; 32:17-20; Ps. 91:10); that is they are gathered into the purified church of God — the kingdom of the First Fruits.
This latter separation, the one that takes place in Babylon’s dominion, is further affirmed in Christ’s parable:
“And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.” Matt. 25:32, 33.
As to the former separation, that which
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takes place in the house of God, it is set forth in both the prophecy of Ezekiel and that of Isaiah.
Ezekiel declares:
“And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. And to the others He said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.” Ezek. 9:4-6.
Isaiah declares:
“For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many.
“And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the
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isles afar off, that have not heard My fame, neither have seen My glory; and they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles. And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord.” Isa. 66:15, 16, 19, 20.
No one but a hopeless Laodicean, one who forever holds to his day-dreaming that he has need of nothing more, — no more Truth or prophets, — can fail to see that the prophecies pertaining to the day of God are only dark sentences to him, that he is in need of everything instead of nothing, and that the work of the promised Elijah is not the work which the Laodiceans are doing. The Laodicean message (the Judgment for the Dead) is definitely not Elijah’s message, although many may think it is. That many are blind to this, the Lord points out: “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked.”
Moreover, we all know that the work of typical Elijah was to do away with the prophets and priests who served Baal instead of God, those who led ancient Israel
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into the greatest fallacy and folly of the day. Accordingly, the antitypical Elijah’s work, being in the spirit and power of typical Elijah, must therefore be similar to typical Elijah’s work-restoring Truth and righteousness, and bringing judgment upon the false prophets and teachers in the antitypical day which in itself is the separating of the chaff from the wheat — the work of the Judgment for the Living.
The substantial weight of evidence which the Scriptures on the subject have amassed to this point, has, I am again confident, impressed the discerning one that he is here face to face with God’s solemn Truth for these closing hours of probationary time. All such who have unbiasedly thought their way through the subject this far will surely continue on now through the next part to “prove all things; [and to] hold fast that which is good.”
