Question about John the Revelator Being God’s End-Time Servant

Question: Thank you so much for all the work you do. I appreciate your books and I am grateful to be participating in a study group. I have had this question for years and in reading this weeks’ newsletter article, it came up again. Thus far, I have not yet been able to resolve it. The article entitled, “The Restitution or Restoration of All Things” talks about the end time servant being “Elias” and I can see from all the scriptures quoted that it appears to be the case. However, in D&C 77:14, the Lord appears to say that John the Revelator is the promised Elias; that the “little book” he was commanded to eat is a mission and an ordinance for him to “gather the tribes of Israel; behold, this is Elias, who, as it is written, must come to restore all things.” If John isn’t the Elias, why does the Lord seem to say it? I’m having a difficult time reading any other meaning into this particular verse Am I reading this incorrectly?

Answer: The name Elias is a title that has come to signify a forerunner or restorer of God’s truth (see Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p 159). So was John the Baptist, whom Jesus also called an Elias (Matthew 11:12–14). In other words, though it originated in the person of Elijah (Greek Elias), the name refers to a mission or office. In fact, the entire mission of God’s 144,000 end-time servants similarly qualifies as a restorative mission of Elias.

Through his earthly ministry, moreover, John had already attained a translated state, which is the highest a person may attain on this earth. Unlike God’s end-time servant, who is physically “marred beyond human likeness” and who requires the Lord to “heal him” (Isaiah 53:14; 57:18; 3 Nephi 21:10), we know from the scriptures that translated beings can’t be marred or disfigured.

As an integral part of the servant’s descent phase under the terms of the Davidic Covenant, it is in passing through that ordeal that he “pours out his soul unto death” and “makes intercession for the transgressors,” thereby offering up an acceptable sacrifice and freewill offering in order to accomplish the house of Israel’s end-time restoration. And all this in emulation of Jehovah/Jesus and his atoning sacrifice for sin (Isaiah 53:2).

Lastly, it is contrary to the scriptural “pattern in all things, that ye may not be deceived” (Doctrine & Covenants 52:14) for God’s servants from a past era to serve an end-time mortal mission. God has ever raised up servants from their own day and age to perform his redemptive tasks.