The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum John the Baptist

It is clear in Malachi 3:1 that there is a messenger of preparation. There is, also, a messenger of the covenant who is the Lord himself.

Mark draws attention to this in the opening verses of his Gospel Account. He draws attention, first, not to the greater Prophet, Isaiah, who also has precedence, but to the lesser and later prophet Malachi. Thus he emphasises the 'beginning of the gospel' as being the preparatory ministry of John the Baptist.

I can see no reason whatsoever to think that Malachi 4 relates to another than John. The sending of the prophet and the day of burning, in that chapter, relate both to the first coming of Messiah and to the second coming of Christ, the two events merging in the vision of Malachi as they are both distant in the future and both merge into almost one, from his perspective in time and in progressive revelation.