John the Baptist WAS NOT ELIJAH

There is an ongoing heresy of the New Age movement that teaches that John the Baptist is Elijah reincarnated as the son of Zechariah the priest and his wife Elizabeth. Here are the Scriptures being justified by believers in reincarnation that John the Baptist is Elijah:

Malachi 4:5- "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:" 

Luke 1:17- "And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

Looking at it, it seems John the Baptist was Elijah being reincarnated. However the Bible is clear in Hebrews 9:27, "For as it appointed unto man ONCE to die but after this the judgment." meaning that, there will be no reincarnation meaning no second chance after death. One can argue that Elijah did not die but went to Heaven, well since he's in Heaven then the statistics office should list him as "dead".  If one is to further examine the whole context, to call John the Baptist as Elijah would be a metaphor and not a literal like saying, "Wow! Pastor Kent P. Jesalva was a lion in his preaching." The pastor didn't become a lion when he preached, he was called a lion because he was brave in his preaching.  To call John the Baptist as Elijah was to compare him to Elijah.

As said, the Bible has other metaphors like when Jesus compared Himself to bread, water and door.  Jesus is not a literal bread, He is not literal water and He is not a a literal door.  It takes real common sense and proper examination of the Bible to understand it clearly.