A.A. Bunner,
a minister of the Church of Christ (the “Campbellites”), in his debate with
Latter-day Saint Ben E. Rich in 1912, said the following during his first
speech on the first night of the series of debates focused, ultimately, on the issue of biblical sufficiency:
Jesus was to be a prophet like unto Moses,
not like others such as Elias and Elijah, but like Moses. (The Bunner-Rich
Debate, p. 14)
Throughout
his speech, Bunner was clearly cognizant that OT Elijah and NT Elias were one
and the same, so he clearly did not err in thinking they were numerically
distinct persons. Indeed, in light of the debate thesis (the opening portion
being “Resolved: That John the Baptist and Jesus Christ were the last Prophets
sent by God . . .”) it does seem to suggest that he used “Elias” (1) in the
generic sense of a forerunner as
did Alexander Campbell did in Delusions,
his negative review of the Book of Mormon from 1831 and (2) such may have been
used for John the Baptist. Notwithstanding the identity of “Elias” for Bunner
in this context, it does show that this could be further evidence of “Elias”
being understood in Restorationist circles as a term to denote a forerunner. Also, in light of his identifying OT Elijah with NT Elias up to this point, it does seem unlikely that he erred on this point (though it is always possible that he said "and" instead of "or," so it may have been a slip of the tongue or that the one who transcribed his comments made a mistake too, thus my use of "possible" in the title of this blog post).
On Joseph
Smith’s use of “Elias” in this way, see:
"Elias"
as a "forerunner" in LDS Scripture
With respect to the topic of Sola Scriptura, see:
Not By Scripture Alone: A Latter-day Saint Refutation of Sola Scriptura
