The angel’s announcement of the coming of John the Baptist broke the 400 years of silence of the spirit of prophecy. In all ways John was unique. Compared with the other prophets, Jesus said, “There were none greater born of women.” His incorruptible sincerity, his humility, his fearlessness and courage, together with the tragic story of his death all combine to give him a distinctive place in the Bible narrative. We are told that he came to Israel in the power and the spirit of Elijah. He stood alone between the Jewish dispensation and the Christian dispensation. But his greatest work and the ministry by which he will ever be remembered was that he was the forerunner of the Messiah.
—Gordon Lindsay