37. What did Malachi prophesy about sixty years later concerning Jehovah’s refining work and the restoring of pure worship at His temple?

³⁷ The prophet Malachi, who prophesied in the land of Judah about sixty years after Zechariah lived, foretold that Jehovah, accompanied by his “messenger of the covenant,” would come to his temple.

39. Was there a fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy in the first century C.E., and what indicates whether there should be any fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy since 1914 C.E.?

³⁹ There was a first-century fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy at the time that the Messiah Jesus was present in the flesh among the nation of Israel. (Matthew 11:7-10; Mark 1:1, 2; Luke 7:24-27) There should likewise be a further fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy after Jesus Christ was enthroned in the heavens in the year 1914 C.E. and thus became present in his kingdom. At the due time thereafter Jehovah God, accompanied by him as “the messenger of the covenant,” must have come to his spiritual temple for the judgment of all his worshipers there, including those who were merely professing to worship Him. Certainly Jehovah must have been at his spiritual temple as the Supreme Judge by the year 1919, when he liberated the spiritual Israelites from Babylon the Great and restored them to their “land” or God-given spiritual estate on earth.