Malachi

The last of the Minor Prophets is Malachi.

Behold I send My messenger and he shall prepare the way before Me; and the Lord whom you seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant…behold He shall come says the Lord. But who shall abide the day of His coming?…And I will come near to you in judgement…(Mal 3:1, 2, 5).

Here we see the coming of John the Baptist, the messenger (Is 40:3), the coming of Christ to the temple in Jerusalem, to announce the New Covenant and the judgement that would accompany the end of the Old Covenant era. These scriptures cannot refer to Christ’s Second Coming. They refer to the New Covenant established in His first coming. Jesus stood in the temple when He came. It was in the days of John the Baptist.

Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. (Mal 4:5).

This was the last word of the prophets before the 400 silent years of the Intertestamental period. The next prophet Israel would hear would be John the Baptist with the exact same message, “Repent or go into the day of fire.” (Mal 4:1). Jesus said that John was Elijah, that is, the one Malachi spoke of that would come in the spirit and power of Elijah (Matt 11:14).

When these scriptures are taken out of their Hebrew context and misapplied to a future fulfilment and a Second Coming, this is foreign to biblical intent. Jesus did not do this. The New Testament did not do this. The prophets are all to be taken in context, as speaking of the end of the Old Covenant and the coming of Christ to establish the New Covenant.

Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of the prophets. Jesus is in the prophets, speaking of Himself before His incarnation and then He fulfilled them exactly. Just as Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58). It is all about Him. Dispensationalism has twisted these texts from the clear meaning.