Major, (grin) well, cough, if the Book of Enoch were true, it would have been written before, Deuteronomy, but still, I stand corrected. And you know I don't accept the rapture (altho I pray it is true). And as was prophesized, Elijah came back, according to scripture as the Baptist, making the way for Christ (Matt 17:11).
Silk, to believe that John the Baptist was Elijah means you believe in re-incarnation. Now there is no other way to look at it than that.
Now, may I say to you that the Angel Gabriel announced to Zecharias that his son's name would be called John in Luke 1:13. He goes on to say in verse 15 that he will be great in the sight of the Lord and “shall drink no wine or strong drink and will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb.” Verse 17 says of John, “he will also go before Him (The Lord)
IN THE SPIRIT AND POWER OF ELIJAH,” which is a ministry of reconciliation, would have the “hearts of the fathers turned to the children and children turning to their fathers.”
Notice that the Scriptures do not say that John the Baptist is Elijah,
only that he comes in the spirit and power of Elijah.
To claim that Elijah is John the Baptist is to teach reincarnation. The premise is that a spirit in a former body comes back to be born in another body. At the very least, it is transmigration. The Bible has never taught this and does not teach it now. The Bible teaches resurrection not re-incarnation.
Lets prove it. In Matthew 11:13, Jesus states: “For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until
John.”
(Jesus calls him “John” not “Elijah.”)
Elijah is included with 'all the prophets' who came before John. In verse 14, Jesus says “and if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.” John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt and preached in the wilderness. This was the same attire that Elijah wore (2 Kings 1:8), bringing attention to the Jews of the similarity of John's mission to that of Elijah's. Prophecy has many patterns and sometime dual or more fulfillments.
Malachi had predicted that before the Messiah's appearing, Elijah would come as a forerunner (Mal. 4:5-in relation to the day of the Lord). If the people had been willing to receive Jesus as the Messiah, then John would have filled the role of Elijah. Jesus then tells them to heed His words. If John fulfills Elijah's coming then Jesus is the Messiah.
Jesus pointed to John the Baptist as a type of fulfillment of Elijah's coming but he was not a reincarnation.
This is proven in John 1:20 when the Jews sent out the priests and Levites to investigate John's ministry. They ask him if he is the Christ. He states emphatically “No!”
They ask him again if he is Elijah, John answers “I am not.” This is not a temporary memory loss for John that Jesus has to correct later. In verse 25, John the Baptist is asked, ‘Why do you baptize if you are not the Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet?’ In verses 25-27 John points to the Messiah who is coming after him. He states that it is he who is the forerunner of Malachi 3:1. In Luke 1:76, we see that John's father, Zecharias, is filled with the Holy spirit and says that his child will be called the prophet of the highest and will “go before the face of the Lord and prepare His ways again.' This relates John's ministry to Mal. 3:1, 4:5, and Luke 1:17. John labored in the same Spirit and power of the former prophet by calling people to repentance and he was preparing them for the salvation that Christ would later bring.