RESPONSE TO AUTHORITY

 

CONT., page 2

 

ELIJAH

 

There will be four more sections to this writing that each relate to this matter of government and authority – this one on the Elijah, one on a most interesting choice that one must make today, one on the issue of good and evil as it relates to responding to authority, and a final look at the Bride and “the prophet.”  What you have just read in this opening section is the core of this matter, but you will find the following sections very supportive of what we just learned.

 

What we will discuss now is a sober validation of the critical necessity and great relevance of authority and government, this being in the last days Elijah work.  Government is critical, and we read in Acts 3:19-23 that a new collateral government will be established in these days that is as separate as the church was legally separate from Judaism.  In Acts 3:19-23 we read the following declaration by Peter:

 

“Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Messiah appointed for whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things, about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.  Moses said, ‘The Lord God shall raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren; to him you shall give heed in everything he says to you.  And it shall be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from the people.’”

 

Though this was covered in The Love of Money, page 14, we will review it here again.  You will notice that (1) Peter begins by addressing Yahshua – “Jesus, the Messiah.”  Then (2) we read that it was appointed that heaven would receive Him and He would be there “until the period of restoration of all things.”  Then (3) Peter went on to describe that period that precedes Yahshua’s return – “about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets.”  One such prophet was Moses; and concerning that preceding period, Moses declared that Yahweh would “raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren.”

 

Let us pause and note that the period spoken of here that precedes Yahshua’s return after His appointed time of staying in heaven (now for almost 2,000 years), is “the period of restoration of all things.”  Where else do we see this stated purpose?  In Matthew 17:11 and Mark 9:12 we read the words of Yahshua – “Elijah is coming and will restore all things.”  This statement is made after John the Baptist was killed, and it looks to the Elijah that precedes His return.  So we already see that Peter was speaking of Elijah, who restores all things and prepares the way for Yahshua’s return from heaven where He has been received.

 

But there is more evidence to this as well.  Moses said that Yahweh would raise up “a prophet like me from your brethren.”  First, James 5:17 specifically tells us that “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.”  In other words, he was a man “from your brethren.”  Yahshua, though a man, was not “from your brethren.”  He specifically tells us that He was from above and that we are from below.  He and His Father were not of this world, like all other men (John 8:23).  So whoever this prophet is to be, he cannot be the Son of God who is from above, but just a man like us.

 

Furthermore, when Moses said that Yahweh would raise up a prophet “like me,” who else in the Scriptures ever stood in a place like unto or opposite Moses?  There was only one – Elijah!  When Yahweh made the promise to Moses in Exodus 33:17-23, it was in fact Elijah who fulfilled it (1 Kings 19).  And when it was time for Elijah to ascend alive into heaven, where did he go?  He went to the precise place where his predecessor, Moses, went to die – near Mount Nebo, opposite Jericho, east of the Jordan.  And finally, most conclusively, who do we see on the mount of transfiguration with Yahshua with the glory of God on them?  Once again we see the two alternate witnesses – Moses and Elijah!

 

Clearly, the one “like” Moses is none other than the one who was always identified with him – Elijah.  And for clear and obvious reasons, it was Elijah who was spoken of here by Peter who would restore all things and prepare the way for Yahshua’s return from His place in heaven.  Therefore, the “prophet” is the Elijah.

 

This message found here in Acts 3:19-23 is repeated and confirmed in Jeremiah 30:21 where we read:

 

“And their leader shall be one of them,

And their ruler shall come forth from their midst;

And I will bring him near, and he shall approach Me;

For who would dare to risk his life to approach Me?” declares Yahweh.

 

This, once again, is the Elijah, “one of them” who “come(s) forth from their midst,” “a prophet like me from your brethren.”  Read all of Jeremiah 30 to better understand this.

 

Now for the matter of government.  What then does Moses say regarding this prophet, this Elijah?  He instructs – “to him you shall give heed in everything he says to you.  And it shall be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from the people.”  What could speak more vividly concerning authority than this?  This is not authority given by man, but authority from above.  This is the sober warning that if one does not listen to this man who is raised up as the Elijah, they will be cut off from the people who are a part of this promised restoration of all things that prepares the way for Yahshua’s return.  This authority is equally evidenced in the companion verse, Jeremiah 30:21, which speaks of “their leader,” “their ruler.”

 

Again, this is government.  It is structure.  It is a new collateral government.  And the truth of the trinity of submission will never be more important.  If one does not come under the government of this prophet, then he is cut off and remains in the sleeping body of Christ to be resurrected on a latter day.

 

 

Continue to page 3 of Response to Authority for CHOOSING BETWEEN THE SONS OF TWO FATHERS

 

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