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It is clear that the disciples did not take Jesus' explanation to mean that there would be another Elijah coming 2,000 years later.
It is clear that the disciples did not take Jesus' explanation to mean that there would be another Elijah coming 2,000 years later.
==Why did John deny that he was Elijah?==
There was a sense in which John was Elijah and a sense in which he was not. He fulfilled all the preliminary ministry that Malachi had foretold (Luke 1:17), and thus in a very real sense Jesus could say that he was Elijah.
But the Jews knew that Elijah had left the earth in a chariot of fire without passing through death (2 Kings 2:11), and they expected that in due course the identical figure would reappear.  None of the Gospels supposed that John was literally Elijah (see Mark 9:4; Matt 17:3; Luke 9:30).  John was not Elijah in this sense, and he had no option but to deny that he was.<ref>Leon Morris, The Gospel according to John, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 119.</ref>
It is true that before John’s birth, an angel prophesied to his father, Zechariah, that John would “go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17). John the Baptist denied being “Elijah” to counter the expectation (that was held by the Pharisees in his day) that the same Elijah who escaped death in a fiery chariot would return in like spectacular manner.<ref>Andreas J. Köstenberger, John, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004), 60.</ref>


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[[Category:Doctrines]]
[[Category:Doctrines]]
[[Category:William Branham pointing to himself]]
[[Category:William Branham pointing to himself]]