Is it true that what God makes us saints to be in this life is the preparation for what we will do in the life to come? I have come to believe that it is. In my case it seems my destiny is to be a writer of sorts; a scribe if you will.

And scribes are important both to us and to God. Without them we wouldn’t have a Bible. The Old Testament prophets wrote the words down as God told them to, and so did the apostles, penning their gospels and letters to the churches.

Though my own scribblings are not worthy to be compared with theirs, nevertheless writing is what God has shown me I should do and, in my last few years, such scribing matters more to me than almost anything else. Consequently, when I am resurrected, as I firmly expect to be, it would be a shock if I did not in that wonderful new world of his creation still get to write for Him.

Now, when we turn to the Bible we see that God does indeed work in and through his chosen vessels to prepare them for the “good works” He would have them to do both in this life and in the world to come.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).

Many of us who have been saved by grace and enlightened by the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” (Ephesians 2:17) have mistakenly thought the “Father of glory” was showing us these wonderful truths mainly to share with others in our present life. Not so. They are but a preparation for the far greater mission we shall have in the “Day of Christ”, the pre-millennial kingdom of Christ which is the next main event on God’s calendar.

Indeed, right now we are being made by his workmanship into the persons the Father purposes us to be in soon-to-be kingdom of his dear Son. That not only takes away the fear of dying; it replaces with a bright hope for a far better future.

But, you say, where’s the scriptural backing for this assertion? Good question and a real life example of what God makes his servant to be in this life is what he will be in the next is coming right up.  It concerns that great prophet Elijah.

You see Elijah was, and is to be, the “prophet of restoration” to Israel. Restoring and returning the children of Israel back to God is what he did in his life on earth those thousands of years ago and it is what He will do when God resurrects him and sends him back to live on earth to “finish the job” in the “Day of Christ” to come..

If you doubt that take a look at what Jesus said to his disciples in the gospels:

Elias truly shall come and restore all things. But I say unto you that Elias is come already and they knew him not. 13 … Then the disciples understood he spake to them of John the Baptist (Matthew 17:10).

Now many folk get hung up on Jesus’ declaration that “… if you will receive it this (John the Baptist) is Elias (Elijah) which was for to come” (Matthew 11:14), and think that John the Baptist’s ministry fulfilled the promise of Elijah’s “coming the second time”.

But there’s no need to do so. Yes, John the Baptist came “in the power and spirit of Elijah”. It was prophesied before his birth that he would…

…go before him (the Lord)  in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just-to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Luke 1:17).

But that didn’t mean John the Baptist was Elijah come again in the flesh. John himself clearly stated “I am not Elias, nor that prophet” (John 1:21). However, in 2026 we can look forward to a time soon to come when Elijah will return in the flesh to restore “all things” to Israel. Jesus said so. This will occur when the present “dispensation of the grace of God and the mystery” (Ephesians 3:1-4) gives way to a new age of the “restitution of all things” (Acts 3:21), cited by the Apostle Paul as the “day of Christ” seven times in his epistles.

This huge change in God’s dealings with mankind will be brought in by Lord’s “appearing” (Titus 2:13, 2Timothy 4:1) when He will shine forth his heavenly glory upon all on earth. The curse of sin and death will be lifted and the earth restored to its original creation splendour.

Importantly, this time of great blessing and restoration will mark God’s return to fulfilling of prophecy after having put it on hold during the 2,000-plus years of the unprophesied dispensation of grace. Acts 3:21 heralds this as the very next thing God will do, saying that Christ must be retained in heaven “until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” [is complete].

And clearly the Prophet Elijah will be God’s man to bring about the “restoration of all things” as far as Israel is concerned. You see, when asked why the scribes of their day said Elias “must come first”, the Lord replied: “Elias truly shall come and restore all things. But I say unto you that Elias is come already and they knew him not. Then the disciples understood he spake to them of John the Baptist” (Matthew 17:10-13).

What prompted the disciples’ question? Answer: Two things:

1. They had just seen in vision Elias and Moses appear with the transfigured Jesus on the “high mountain” (Mark 9:2-12), so, naturally, they wondered when they would see him again.

2. Jesus had said (Mark 9:1), that what they saw when transported in vision to the future “Day of Christ” at the transfiguration was “the kingdom of God come with power”. So, when Jesus said Elias (Elijah) “truly would come first” they understood that Elijah would return and “restore all things” before the (second) coming of Jesus himself as Israel’s king.

Which leaves us with the question: Just when will the resurrected Elijah appear again on earth? The answer is found in Malachi 4:5:

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the hearts of fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

That means Elijah will come after the close of the present (and unprophesied) dispensation of the grace of God and the mystery (Ephesians 3:1-4) but before the start of the terrible judgement of the Day of the Lord (2 Thessalonians 1:8-10, Joel 2:11). In other words Elijah will live again in the “Day of Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:8, Philippians 1:6, 10, 2:16, etc.)

Very importantly, the mission of the resurrected Elijah sent into the world once more, is to RESTORE ALL THINGS. That means restoring all the sacred things the children of Israel have forfeited so long. As Hosea 3:4-5 explains:

For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without a teraphim. Afterward (i.e. in the day of resurrection and restoration of all things) shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.

So, just as Elijah in his ministry in Old Testament times turned Israel back to the Lord (particularly in the dramatic showdown on Mount Carmel) thus “restoring” God’s blessing to the nation , so when he comes again he will once more turn Israel’s descendants back to their God. Thus he will…

…turn the hearts of fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse (Malachi 4:5).

When in the Day of Christ the Lord regathers the true descendants of Israel by resurrecting those dead and recovering the living from abroad, Elijah will determine which tribe and family “of the fathers” they belong to. More than that he will also supervise the physical building again of the temple in Jerusalem.

Elijah’s work in restoring temple worship and all of Israel’s precious things will occur in the now imminent “Day of Christ”. However, in that wonderful time of worldwide restoration time the risen glorified Lord Jesus will remain seated in heaven:

Whom the heaven must receive until the times of the RESTITUTION of all things which God hath spoke by the mount of all his holy prophets since the world began (Acts 3:21).

This much has been said to among other things show that what a chosen servant of God does in his first life on earth is also a preparation for what he will also do in the next.

John Dudley Aldworth

You’re welcome to contact me at the email address below.

Email: john.aldworth@hotmail.com

Website: https://www.dayofchristmnistries.com/rss/all.xml