The Conclusion of the Whole Matter - Number Two

The heart of the warning message of the book of Ezekiel is represented by the siege that began in 587 BC. That siege led to the destruction of Jerusalem a year and a half later in 586 BC. The siege that began in 587 BC typified the siege of Cestius in the year 66. The destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC typified the siege and destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70.

587 BC and 66 were both signs. The death of Ezekiel’s wife pointed forward to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the standards of Rome’s authority being placed in the sacred precincts of the temple was not only the sign to flee, but it also represented the mark of the beast that arrives at the Sunday law. Both Ezekiel’s wife and the year 66 pointed forward to the destruction of Jerusalem, which is the Sunday law—the mark of the beast.

Ezekiel’s siege represented God’s people going into captivity at the Sunday law and the year 66 represented the escape from the mark of the beast. Ezekiel’s wife represented the captivity of the foolish virgins of Adventism, and those that escaped in the year 66 were representing the wise virgins in the very same crisis. The wise virgins who escaped in the year 66 understood the sign in advance of the placing of the Roman standard.

The Roman standard represents the mark of the beast, and it is there where the door closes in the parable of the ten virgins. The destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 also represents the Sunday law. The year 66 represents the warning of the third angel. That warning begins to swell into the loud cry in the year 66. The period from 66 to 70 aligns with the period of the formation of the image of the beast, and that period begins and ends with the Sunday law. The year 66 is the alpha of the period and is therefore the type, and the year 70, being the omega, is the antitype Sunday law. The year 66 is the shadow, and the year 70 is the substance. The door closes for the church at the alpha waymark of 66, and the door closes for the nation at the omega waymark of 70.

The warning sign of the year 66 marks the beginning of the siege and the point where it is too late for Adventists to prepare for the coming enforcement of the Sunday law when Jerusalem is destroyed in the year 70. The siege is where the seal is impressed, but only seen by angels, and the destruction of Jerusalem is the Sunday law where the seal is visibly seen by the world.

The seal is applied at the siege, but it is then only visible to angels.

At the Sunday law the ensign is lifted up and then the whole world sees those who have been sealed.

At the destruction of Jerusalem, which is the Sunday law, the ensign is then lifted up and the distinction between those who worship on either the seventh or first day becomes the focus of attention for all of mankind. The sign of Cestius is typifying and also warning of the coming destruction at the Sunday law. The year 66 represents a period that leads to the Sunday law, represented by Jerusalem’s destruction. The structure of the siege through to the Sunday law is the same structure as the three witnesses represented by the history of the church of Pergamos.

A sign identifies the beginning of the siege that covers a period of time until Jerusalem is destroyed. The years 321 and 538 align with 586 BC and the year 70. All four dates represent the soon-coming Sunday law. The Sunday law of 321 was preceded by the Edict of Milan in 313, and the Sunday law of 538 was preceded by the Decree of 533. 313 and 533 align with 66 and 587 BC.

The image of the beast and the mark of the beast are two related, but different symbols. The formation of the image of the beast represents a period of time, and the mark of the beast represents a point in time. The siege represents a period of time, and the destruction of Jerusalem represents a point in time. Inspiration underlined this distinction by providentially destroying Jerusalem in the year 70 and in 586 BC on the identical month and day of their respective years. The destruction of Jerusalem, which is the Sunday law and the mark of the beast, is a point in time. The siege is a period of time that begins with a sign. That sign typifies the Sunday law.

The death of Ezekiel’s wife, “the desire of his eyes,” and the warning of Jesus concerning the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet provide two biblical witnesses. The Edict of Milan and the Decree of Justinian are likewise historical signs, for both mark the beginning of the same prophetic period that leads to the Sunday law.

The sign Jesus set forth in Matthew 24 required that those who would escape understand the warning in advance of its fulfillment.

In the warning message of Matthew 24, Jesus identified the destruction of Jerusalem as an illustration of the end of the world. He also compared the conditions preceding His second coming to the days of Noah. Thus, both the destruction of Jerusalem and the flood in Noah’s day serve as prophetic illustrations of the events associated with the end of the world.

The structure of the siege is represented in the days of Noah with the death of righteous Lamech and Methuselah. Lamech died five years before the flood and Methuselah died the year of the flood, seven days before the door closed. Lamech was 777 years old when he died, and thus represents the sign of seven at the beginning of the last five years before the flood. The 777 symbolism at the beginning represents the sign that marks the beginning of the siege. The omega number “7” of the period of the siege is the seven days following Methuselah’s death as the animals entered the ark. The period of the siege is the period when the image of the beast is formed, the period which culminates with the mark of the beast. The closed door at the Sunday law is typified by the closed door on the ark.

The five years from righteous Lamech’s death to the death of Methuselah align with the period of five years from 1448, when John Palaiologos died, to 1453, when his brother died in the fifty-three-day siege of Constantinople. Both periods begin and end with the death of either a father and son, or brothers. Both periods are five years, and when Constantine the last died on the walls of Constantinople, he aligned with the closed door of the ark, for probation closes for the United States when the destroy the symbolic wall of separation within the Constitution. Truth is established upon two or three witnesses, and within these two lines they both possess parallel beginnings and endings, which is the signature of Alpha and Omega. They both are five years in duration. They both end with an emphasis on the Sunday law.

The five-year history of Constantinople began with the death of John VIII Palaiologos in 1448 and concluded with the fall of the city in 1453. Following his brother’s death, Constantine XI succeeded to the Byzantine throne in 1449, with his accession traditionally associated in Millerite prophetic interpretation with the recognition of Ottoman supremacy. July 27, 1449, marked the beginning of the three-hundred-ninety-one-year-and-fifteen-day prophecy, which concluded on August 11, 1840. At the end of the five-year history, Constantinople fell following a fifty-three-day siege, and Constantine XI was killed defending the city. The fall of Constantinople marked the end of the Eastern Roman Empire, whose forces had defeated Persia at the Battle of Nineveh in 627, thereby completing the historical connection with Mohammed’s prediction concerning the Romans.

John VIII Palaiologos sought military help from the West against the advancing Ottoman Turks. To obtain it, he led a Byzantine delegation to the Council of Florence (1438–1439), where he formally accepted the union of the Eastern and Western churches. The agreement included acceptance of Western doctrines (notably the Filioque and papal primacy) that the Eastern Church had long rejected.

When he returned to Constantinople, the union was widely opposed by the Byzantine clergy, monks, and people. It was never effectively implemented, and the hoped-for Western military aid failed to materialize. The rejection of the Florentine union remained a major source of division until the fall of the city in 1453.

All the prophets speak more specifically of the latter days than the days in which they lived, and all those things written therein are for the admonition of those who live in those very same latter days. Sister White points to the “rise and fall of kingdoms” as a primary point of prophetic study. These principles identify the falls of ancient kingdoms as symbols of the fall of kingdoms in the latter days. At one level of understanding, the five-year period that marks the beginning of the time prophecy that ended on August 11, 1840, and that described the cause and effect of the beginning of that prophecy, and also that ended with a fifty-three-day siege in 1453 was preceded by the leader of the kingdom seeking help from the Roman Catholic church through an alliance based upon the acceptance of the two primary doctrines that separated the orthodox and western Catholic churches. That council runs parallel with the first council of Nicaea of 325 that had been convened by Constantine the Great.

The fractal at the beginning of the five years identifies an alliance between the political leader of the kingdom that is about to fall and the Catholic church. In so doing it aligns with Constantine the Great who called the initial council in 325 to combat the false religion of Arianism, as did Palaiologos to combat the false religion of Islam. In the alpha fractal of those five years the third time prophecy of Revelation nine began. Then in the fractal at the end the siege of fifty-three days is marked. In the beginning of the five years at the death of Lamech there is a specific opening history to the period, for both Lamechs are prophetically located as dying at the same waymark.

Lamech in the line of Cain emphasizes the close of probation with his curse of seventy times seven, which equates to four hundred and ninety years. Coupled with the fact that there are three four-hundred-and-ninety-year probationary periods for the prophets, the priests and the kings in the history of the divided kingdom, the righteous Lamech’s death at 777 represents the threefold makeup of the church triumphant. Prophet, priest and king are each sealed. The sealing and marking of the end of probationary time with the two Lamechs is the type of the closed door at the ark. The fractal at the end is the seven days the animals ascend the ark. The beginning of the siege is a sign, so the fractal of seven days at the end of the five years of Noah begins with a sign.

Eight people were on the ark who went from the old world unto the new world, thus typifying the one hundred and forty-four thousand who go from this earth unto the earth made new without tasting death. As the symbol of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, Noah also represented the third angel’s message. Enoch, who walked with God for three hundred years and then was taken, represents the same people of the latter days represented by Noah’s eight souls. The eight souls typify those who do not die, and Enoch, who represented those very same persons, did not die. Enoch was the first angel who typified William Miller, who also proclaimed the Second coming of Christ and the judgment.

Enoch as the first angel typified Noah who was the third angel. Enoch as the first angel represents the time of the end, when the first angel arrives. For the Millerites that was 1798; for the one hundred and forty-four thousand it was 1989. The time of the end in 1798 arrived at the conclusion of the seven times of Leviticus twenty-six, and the time of the end arrived in 1989 at the end of one hundred and twenty-six years from the rebellion of 1863 unto the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. The seven times representing the twenty-five hundred and twenty years from 723 BC unto 1798 is broken into two equal periods of twelve hundred and sixty years. Twelve hundred and sixty years is a symbol of the seven times, and one hundred twenty-six is a tithe of twelve hundred and sixty years, so both times of the end of 1798 and 1989 arrived at the conclusion of a period that is represented by Leviticus twenty-six’s seven times. Enoch, as a symbol of the first angel and the arrival of the angel at the time of the end, was the seventh from Adam.

Enoch was the first angel; Lamech was the second angel, for the second angel always possesses a doubling, and Lamech in the line of Seth is contrasted with Lamech in the line of Cain. Methuselah represents the message of the Midnight Cry that joins and empowers the second angel of Lamech. The death of Lamech marks the sign of the siege, for Lamech’s death aligns with the death of Ezekiel’s wife. The sign of Ezekiel’s wife was of the coming Sunday law and the captivity that follows. The sign of Lamech was his age of 777. His sign aligns with Ezekiel’s wife and Cestius in the year 66. Those signs align with the sign of the Edict of Milan in 313. Just as Ezekiel was separated at his wife’s death, the sign of the Edict in 313 separated the righteous church of Smyrna from the unrighteous church of Pergamos.

The separation of two classes is marked at the sign of the siege. That separation is also illustrated by the two groups represented by the Watertown tent and the tent where Samuel Snow presented the true message of the Midnight Cry during the six days of the Exeter camp meeting. The six days of the Exeter camp meeting were followed by sixty-six days leading to the closed door on October 22, 1844. Lamech of the line of Seth marks the sign of the siege with 777, and his counterpart, Lamech of the line of Cain, marks his sign with four hundred and ninety years of probationary time. The year 66 represents the sign of the siege that precedes the destruction associated with the Sunday law, as typified by the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70. The six days at Exeter align with the year 66, while the sixty-six days leading to the closed door align with the period between the sign of the siege and the destruction in the year 70, representing the probationary time that ends at the closed door.

At the sign of the siege the number 666 is symbolized in these lines in contrast with Lamech’s 777. The siege is a prophetic period, and Jesus always illustrates the end with the beginning, so the seal of Lamech the righteous in conjunction with the mark of Lamech the unrighteous identifies the lost and the saved being marked at the beginning of the siege, while also identifying the two classes that are manifested at the end of the siege. All the sieges align with the formation of the image of the beast that leads to and concludes at the mark of the beast.

We will continue these things in the next article.