For 2,000 years, Catholics have been blessed to understand that John the Baptist fulfilled the Prophecy of Malachi 4:5-6, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of the LORD.”
Mt. 11:14 tells us that He Who Fulfilled the Messianic Prophecies said: “And, if you are willing to accept it, he (John the Baptist) is the Elijah who was to come. The one who has ears, let him hear.”
Jesus is also clear in Mt: 17:12-13: “’But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way, the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.”
The Bible repeats that in Luke 1:16-17: “He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Mark 9:11-13 repeats that Word of Jesus: “And they asked him, ‘Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?’ Jesus replied, ‘To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.’”
How does Catholic Fundamentalism reconcile that Word of Jesus with what John the Baptist said in John 1:19-21? “The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask John who he was. John spoke the truth to them. He did not try to hide the truth. He spoke to them openly. He said, “I am not the Messiah.’ They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’”
Many have used what seems to be John the Baptist disagreeing with Jesus as an excuse for them to not obey The Church-Creating Word of Jesus to His First Catholic Pope: “And I say unto you thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I give you the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.”
Now, after 2,000 years of seeing Protestants use that as an excuse for rejecting The Catholic Church, Catholics recognize what John did not: The Loving Programmer downloaded DNA atoms and molecules from Elijah’s DNA program into John the Baptist’s parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth. They are described in Luke 15-6:
“In the time of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly.”
The Loving Programmer downloaded their son, John the Baptist, with enough of Elijah’s DNA atoms and molecules to “be Elijah”.
Modern knowledge of DNA also lets Catholics think clearly enough to understand why the DNA of Mary was perfect enough to allow The Incarnation of Jesus within Her: Luke 1:28 shows what Gabriel recognized when He “Hailed” Mary and told the world She was blessed to be “full of grace”. Therefore, there was no room in Mary’s perfect DNA for any error. Not one electron, atom, or molecule was out of place!
What a blessing it is to “Be Catholic!” and among the only people in The Loving Programmer’s Creation Program blessed to make sense out of things.
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Today’s Simple Rhyme: “All of time and all of space / lets Catholics see and have God’s Grace.”
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