- 11 - In order to lead them back, God subjected them to terrible judgments. Christ sent the prophets in an effort to win them back to the good cause. These prophets were the mediums of the good spirit world, and they were hard put to maintain a successful fight against the influence of the demonic mediums, the ‘prophets of Baal’. God's true prophets were incarnated celestial spirits, although in their life as mortals they were quite as much exposed to evil as the rest of mankind. Thanks to their efforts, the belief in the true God and in the coming Redeemer were not completely eradicated among the generations that followed. The time finally came when a great part of humanity was ready, at least in their yearnings, to accept Christ’s act of Redemption in faith and to cross the bridge he was to build over the gulf dividing the realm of the abyss from the kingdom of God. Countless human souls stood waiting to cross. At last, the fullness of time had come when under God’s Plan of Salvation, the Redeemer was to appear. Shortly before Christ was born upon earth, he sent a herald to prepare for and proclaim his coming. This herald also was a celestial spirit, Elijah, the same spirit which, at a time when idolatry was at its worst, had come to earth on Christ’s behalf and had fought victoriously against the instruments of the Forces of Evil. After accomplishing his mission, he had been taken back to Heaven without having experienced earthly death. Now, as Christ’s predecessor, he was born as a mortal for the second time, as the son of Zacharias, and bore the name ‘John’. Even before John’s birth, the incarnation of God’s Anointed was foretold. The archangel Gabriel, who had brought Zacharias the message of the birth of John as the forerunner of Christ, was also entrusted with the message of the human birth of the Redeemer. Gabriel was sent to a virgin in Nazareth named Mary. She had been chosen as the mother of the saviour.
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