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rerun7378
Wed Oct 05, 2011 3:35 pm

Re: Was St. John the Baptist the "Second Messiah" 
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And immediately after the mean spirit to call down a curse in God's name on children who teased him about being bald (as kids are want to do) whereupon two bears came out of the woods and mauled 42 of them (2 Kngs 2:23-25). 

That is why I don't prefer the King's English.  It is always found wanting.

Here is a good article that explains the grammar and context of the passage.  I know they are not MY words, but they do a very good job of explaining the difficulty of the passage better than I can.

http://bible.org/seriespage/elisha-and-two-bears-2-kings-223-25

I thought you might have a different take on testimonies of "dead" people. 

Nope.  That is mine.

I didn't think you had to die to return.

I didn't say that.  Elijah would have been killed if he returned at that time.  God seems to have a different time for Elijah's death.

It is destined for man to die once, and then the judgement.

Here is another plausible alternative:

Those that trust in Christ for salvation have seen and accepted John as the fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy of Elijah's return and will not see the literal Elijah's return during the tribulation because of the rapture.

Those that don't accept Christ will see the literal return of Elijah during the tribulation because they will not be raptured.  As one of the two witnesses of Revelation, Elijah will be killed, too.

That sounds very plausible.  There are more than a few instances of double fulfillment in the bible.

Abraham's seed was a reference to the nation of Israel AND to Christ Himself.

Daniel prophesies about the antichrist in chapter 8.  There is a double fulfillment that must occur.  Antiochus Epiphanes didn't do half of what was attributed to this "little horn".  Antiochus Epiphanes was a "type", a foreshadowing of the main Antichrist in the tribulation period.

There are many more as well.

Elijah didn't die so he could have just done an "Arnie" and said "I'll be back"

What if he didn't know he would "be back"?