The Christadelphians are a 19th-cenutry Unitarian Restorationist group. I have done a lot of studies into the history and theology of this small group since August 2011 when I got interested in so-called “Biblical Unitarianism.”
As with Latter-day Saints,
there is some understanding of “Elias” being used in some way to denote a forerunner. Consider the following examples:
It is true that Jesus said, “Elias has already come,”
(Matt. 17:12) in reference to the appearance and work of John the Baptist; but
this statement does not preclude the coming of the real Elijah at a future
time; for several reasons. In the first place, it was testified of John before
his birth that he should “go forth in the
spirit and power of Elijah.” (Luke 1:17.) which would warrant the saying of
Christ—who often spoke in a representative sense—that Elijah had come. In the second place, Jesus
while making the very statement in question, specifically said “Elias truly shall first come and restore all things, ” (Matt. 17:11.)
for which words there could be no meaning or application, if there was to be no
other coming of Elijah than that which at the time Jesus spoke, was an
accomplished fact, John having finished his testimony in martyrdom. In the
third place, the coming of Elijah spoken of by Malachi, was to occur “before the coming of the great and dreadful
day of the Lord.” Now the mission of John related to “the acceptable year
of the Lord” and not to the “day of vengeance of our God.” He was the harbinger
of Christ’s appearance as “the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world,”
and proclaimed his approach in these words (John 1:29). His mission was “to
make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17), by creating the
expectation of Christ’s approach and disposing the minds of the good and honest
hearted of Israel to receive him when he should appear. Now, since Christ at
his coming in weakness had a forerunner in the person of John the Baptist, who
was invested with the “spirit and power of Elias,” what more appropriate than
that his coming in power and great glory, should also be preceded by the
appearance of John’s prototype, the stern judicial prophet of whom John was but
the representative, viz., Elijah himself who must be presumed to have an
engrossing interest in Christ’s work seeing he appeared on the mount of
transfiguration and “spake of the decease which he should accomplish at
Jerusalem.” The testimony of Malachi is that he will be sent as a forerunner of
this great and dreadful day, and it specifies his mission in words which are
significant enough, though at first they may not convey a very definite idea to
Western minds, viz. “to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the
hearts of the children to their fathers,” that is, to induce such a moral
change among the Jews that the fathers will have the humility and tractableness
of children, and children the wisdom and understanding of their fathers, or in
general, as paraphrased by the angel in his message to Elizabeth, the mother of
John, “to turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just” (Luke 1:17). John
accomplished this to a limited extent at the first advent; and it is the
mission of Elijah to realise it to the utmost at the second. (Robert
Roberts, “God’s Purpose with the Jews: Sixth Article,” The Christadelphian 2,
no. 10 [April 1865]: 152-53)
The Coming of Elijah
C. O. (D.)—Mal. 4:5 (the prophecy of the coming of
Elijah) can only mean what God there says He will do; send Elijah to Israel
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. He took him away
in the midst of his work; he must in any case reappear as one of “the prophets”
who are to be seen, as Jesus says, “with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the
kingdom of God.” It seems not out of place, but much the contrary, that he
should reappear in the special character in which he was removed. Alone among the
prophets in being removed without death, he will be alone among them in not
requiring resurrection; and it seems in the natural order of events, therefore,
that he should reappear in the land of the living to take part in the national
reorganization of the tribes, and prepare them for introduction to Christ, whom
they have rejected. The statement of Christ that Elias appeared in John the
Baptist is not inconsistent with these things. That statement is explained in
the announcement of the angel at the birth of John the Baptist: “He shall go
before the Lord in the spirit and power
of Elias” (Luke 1:17). This both identifies John with Elias and
distinguishes him from him. Since the Lord has two comings, there is something
appropriate in his having two forerunners: John his precursor in the day of his
weakness; Elijah, his precursor in the day of his power—not that John is
excluded from the “day of his power,” for John will have his high place among
the accepted in the day of glory; or that Elijah has no connection with the day
of his weakness, for Elijah appeared on the mount of Transfiguration and spoke
with Christ on the subject of his approaching crucifixion (Luke 9:31). It is
but a beautiful duplication and diversification in the pattern of the glorious
scheme. (“The Coming of Elijah,” The Christadelphian 32, no. 377
[November 1, 1895]: 60-61)
NOVEMBER 25TH.—(Isa. 40:1–3; Mark 1:1–7).—JOHN THE
BAPTIST.—Mark begins with the Prophets when introducing John the Baptist, and
finds reference to him in Isaiah 10:7, 600 years before his birth. The voice of
the Prophet is one of comfort after a message of uncompromising severity (39.).
Jerusalem is not always to be subject to Babylon. There comes a day when her
wars are over and her sins pardoned, and she is to be comforted. This is to be
in the Kingdom of God under Christ, but before he comes his forerunner is
foretold, “The voice of him that cryeth in the Wilderness.” Literally, this was
the Ghor or Aulon, the district on the west of Jordan. John did no miracle, but
roused great enthusiasm by his severity of life and his preaching of the
Messiah. Compare the description of him with Elijah and note Christ’s words
bracketing him with the Old Testament prophet, “Elias hath already come.”
John’s power and popularity waned as Christ’s fame grew, and at last being cast
into prison for a faithful rebuke of wickedness, he died victim of a rash oath
and the whisper of a wicked woman. Nevertheless, the greatest of this world is
less than John will be in the Kingdom of God. (C. A. Ladson, "The Sunday
School Lessons," The Christadelphian 60, no. 712 [October 1, 1923]:
480)
13—AN UNLIKELY FISH
AFTER the Transfiguration the Lord Jesus and his
disciples began to move in the direction of home, that is to say Capernaum, and
in particular to Bethsaida, the fishing village on the edge of the Galilean
lake. On the way they discussed a saying of the scribes that Elijah must come
before the Messiah “to restore all things”. Whereupon Jesus told them that John
the Baptist had come in the spirit and power of Elijah and that the scribes had
not known him. They had not recognised John as the forerunner of the Messiah
and had not heeded his message. Likewise also would the Son of man suffer many
things of them and be set at nought. John had been the “Elias” in relation to
our Lord’s first coming. There is however a second coming in relation to which
many feel that Jesus’ words: “Elias truly shall come first” (Matthew 17:11)
will apply literally to the person of the Old Testament prophet, who was last
seen by Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration, and that he,
like John the Baptist will “turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and
the disobedient to the wisdom of the just” (Luke 1:17). (John Mitchell,
"Simon Peter," The Christadelphian 136 no. 1621 [July 1999],
249)
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