CLAIM: The Lord will raise up forerunner ministries to prepare His people and the nations for Jesus’ Second Coming. This prophecy was partially fulfilled in John the Baptist as a forerunner who prepared the way of Jesus’ first coming (Mt. 11:10, Mk 1:2, Lk. 7:27). John’s ministry did not result in the ultimate judgment or
purification of Israel that Malachi describes in this chapter.
False.
While it does seem true that God is repeating the pattern to a degree, in that God always sends messengers beforehand to prepare the way, for those who would listen. That God is repeating pattern does not change that this chapter is fulfilled in the ministry of John the Baptist. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).
We understand that, while God may speak out of pattern and fulfilled scriptures, we understand that this is a fulfilled prophecy, as regards the scriptures themselves. Through modern understanding and the full breadth of scripture, we understand that the heart of the Lord is always to prepare His people, but such a ministry would only ever be of the same heart as both Elijah and John the Baptist, in which the cry was to deliver a nation.
John the Baptist was in the Spirit of Elijah, and was the greatest man born of a woman. Without a single miracle, and apparently only one word of knowledge (John 1:33), this man and Elijah, without being in a governmental position (a king or a judge), both single handedly turned an entire nation back to God.