It Is Written: The 400 Years of Prophetic Silence | Malachi 4:4-6

Lord's Day: January 18, 2026  Preacher: Carlos Montijo  Series: It Is Written: Scripture Alone  Topic: Church History  Scripture: Malachi 3:13–4:6; Acts 3:24; John 10:22–23; Luke 1:11–17; Matthew 11:7–15; John 10:27–29

⁴“Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and judgments which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel. ⁵“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of Yahweh. ⁶“And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land, devoting it to destruction.” Malachi 4:4–6

• These words mark the end of the Old Testament, the last of the Old Testament prophets, and the beginning of the 400 years of silence.

I.  These are “The 400 Years of Prophetic Silence,” the Intertestamental Period

• Although there was a glaring prophetic silence in Israel, there was also great political and spiritual change, and turbulence. No new Scripture was given at this time, though the entire Old Testament was eventually translated into what became the next universal language of the time—Greek.

II. No prophet had come to Israel during that time, no God-breathed Scriptures had been written.

• “So there was great distress in Israel, such as had not been since the time that prophets ceased to appear among them.” (1 Maccabees 9:27)
• John the Baptist

III. Now we have an historical, prophetic, biblical context to the apocryphal writings.

• The issues surrounding the apocrypha do focus on what they say and teach, but especially on how they are regarded and used by religious traditions and churches.

IV. What are the apocryphal books? Do they evidence God’s breath?

• None of the apocrypha claim to be inspired by God; on the contrary, some explicitly claim to be mere human writings, in part because they acknowledge that prophecy had ceased during that time.
• All of the apocryphal books were written during the 400 years of prophetic silence.

V.  The apocrypha contain various errors and contradictions

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Scripture quotations marked LSB are from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com