All men were in expectation of Messiah, but in addition, they were expecting the Prophet Elijah. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD” (Mal. 4:5). Elijah was known to have worn rough clothing, and now along came John the Baptist wearing rough clothing and speaking with authority. Hence many thought he was the predicted Elijah. John spoke with such conviction that the people were willing to be baptized. And they assumed he was doing the very “Elijah” work predicted: “He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers” (Mal. 4:6). The point is that the appearing of John the Baptist in this manner alerted and awakened the nation of Israel so that he could introduce Jesus as someone different.

At the end of the contest with the 450 prophets of Baal, the drought of 3 1/2 years also ended, picturing in the antitype the year 1799, the end of the long 1,260-year period of famine for the Word of God. The time periods indicated after Elijah fled from Jezebel in Jezreel are (1) the day’s journey into the wilderness when he separated from his servant and (2) the 40 days and nights of travel, which represent, respectively, one year and 40 years. What are the 40 years in the antitype?

After a quick review of the scriptures quoted above. We will give our reasoning: First is that Elijah did not go to heaven. He is part of what we call the Ancient Worthies, a class of Godly men or women, who followed after God. John the Baptist being the last of this group. Jesus opened up a “new and living way.” which by implication of that statement it was not opened up before his death, therefore none had the opportunity of entering in. We are told two things in the scriptures quoted above, 1) King David, a man after God’s own heart, was still in his tomb, he hadn’t gone anywhere in the hundreds of years that had elapsed. 2) we are told that who ever is least in the Kingdom of Heaven was greater than John the Baptist, meaning John was not of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The seventh time the servant saw a cloud formation shaped like a man’s hand, or fist, arise out of the sea. The time setting was at the end of the 3 1/2 years of drought, or antitypically at the end of the 1,260 years from 539 to 1799. It was not unusual for a little cloud to arise from the sea, but the timing and the shape of the cloud were unusual. The cloud was miraculously seen after the defeat of the false prophets, and to Elijah, it was an indication that rain was coming, that is, the end of the drought. Thunder was associated with the rain. In the antitype, the cloud (trouble) that arose out of the sea (the anarchistic masses) represented the French Revolution, which was a mini-picture of the great Time of Trouble to occur at the end, or in the seventh period, of the Gospel Age. Shortly after the end of the French Revolution, Bible societies printed Bibles in great quantities. In other words, just as thunder preceded the rain, so the French Revolution preceded the Bible societies, the “rain” of truth.