The Book of Daniel - Number One-Hundred and Five

In the last article we noted that inspiration identified that the Jews “sealed their rejection” of the gospel at the cross, and then confirmed their rejection again at the stoning of Stephen. How can this be? Of course, the rejection of the gospel by the quibbling Jews of that history was accomplished progressively. They had already been passed by at His birth. Christ’s birth to the stoning of Stephen illustrates a progressive rejection of the gospel.

From the birth of Jesus to the death of Stephen the progressive rejection of the gospel by ancient Israel is illustrated. Acknowledging the Jews rejection of Christ as progressive allows an identification of “sealing their rejection,” at both the cross, where the veil of the temple was rent, and at Stephen’s death. The rending of the veil was a symbol that they were no longer God’s covenant people, and when Stephen was stoned, Stephen saw Jesus standing on the right hand of God, which in Daniel chapter twelve, verse one is a symbol of the close of probation. The destruction of Jerusalem is also a symbol of the close of probation.

It was only God’s mercy that prevented Jerusalem from being destroyed at the cross.

It was only God’s mercy that lingered in not bringing Jerusalem’s destruction at the time of the cross.

At the time of His last temple cleansing Jesus had set forth the warning to flee Jerusalem when the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, was seen by His followers. The first time He cleansed the temple He had stated that the Jews had made His father’s house a den of thieves, but the last time He said “your house” is left unto you desolate. Even before the cross, which was just about to take place, the temple where the veil was to be rent at the crucifixion had already been identified as the Jew’s house, not God’s house. Sister White addresses when Christ made that declaration, and as her testimony proceeds she also addresses the forty years of extended mercy.

Christ was crucified in the year 31, and nearly forty years later in the year 70, Jerusalem was destroyed after a three-and-a-half-year siege. How could Jerusalem have been destroyed at the cross in the year 31, if there was still three and a half years of probationary time identified as seventy weeks in Daniel chapter nine, verse twenty-four? How can these seeming inconsistencies be resolved? The easiest resolution is to simply identify the fact that when it comes to the close of the probationary time represented by the seventy weeks, that it must be understood as a progressive close of probation. This is true, but it removes any prophetic specificity when applying the waymarks of that history. I will try to explain.

If Pentecost represents the soon-coming Sunday law where the other flock in Babylon is called out, why was it three and a half years after Pentecost that the gospel went to the Gentiles? Is the death of Christ or the death of Stephen a sign of the close of probation for ancient Israel? If Laodicean Adventism ceases to be a church at the soon-coming Sunday law, did the destruction of the temple in the year 70, represent the end of the temple of Laodicean Adventism at the Sunday law? What might appear as seeming inconsistencies is resolved by the application of “line upon line,” and when that application is employed the testimony of the waymarks we are identifying become very clear and concise.

The week that Christ confirmed the covenant is broken up into two equal periods of three and a half years. The first three and a half years begins at Christ’s baptism and ends with His death. Baptism is the symbol of His death and resurrection, so the beginning of that period of three and a half years is identical to the ending. In that period Christ presented the gospel exclusively to the Jews. The end of that three and a half years marks the beginning of the following three and a half years. The beginning of the second period of three and a half years begins with the death of Christ, and it ends with the death of Stephen. In that period the disciples presented the gospel exclusively to the Jews.

Those two periods, which are separate prophetic lines, are to be brought together “line upon line.” Both beginnings and endings possess the signature of Alpha and Omega, for the beginning and ending histories are the same. Both periods of duration are identical, and the work that is carried out during each period is identical. Christ who is the First and the Last, is also the creator of all things, and in that regard He is the Creator of Truth. The Hebrew word “truth” was created by three Hebrew letters. The first letter, followed by the thirteenth letter, followed by the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet are combined to make the Hebrew word “truth.”

Both of the periods of three and a half years have Christ as the first and the last, for Christ is at the beginning of the first period at His baptism, as He is at the ending at His death in the first period. And Christ is at His death in the beginning of the second period and He is standing at the right hand of God at the ending of the second period. The number thirteen is the symbol of rebellion, and in both periods whether the gospel was presented in person by Christ, or in the second period by His disciples, the quibbling Jews rebelled against the message of the gospel.

Both periods are the same duration, possess the signature of Alpha and Omega, and identify the same gospel message. Those two periods are to be brought together “line upon line.” The methodology of “line upon line,” is the testing methodology of the latter rain. It is the methodology of the last days, and the truths which are identified and established by that methodology in the last days are what purges or purifies the sons of Levi during the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand.

The next verse in Isaiah addresses the scornful men that rule the people of Jerusalem. For those scornful men, the “rest and the refreshing” (the latter rain), which they refused to “hear,” is what causes them to “go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.” That test was presented to them from another tongue, for Elijah, John the Baptist and William Miller were not trained in the theological schools of their respective histories. The latter rain message that tests Laodicean Adventism, is the message that is produced by the application of “line upon line.”

When the first three and a half years of the week in which Christ confirmed the covenant is laid over the second three and a half years, we find prophetic light that clarifies any seeming inconsistencies that might arise in an inquiring mind. The week was when the Messenger of the Covenant was to confirm the covenant, and a biblical covenant must be confirmed with blood. The baptism and crucifixion of Christ and the stoning of Stephen all identify blood. Both lines represent the blood of the covenant, and those lines are confirming the covenant.

When brought together “line upon line,” the baptism and crucifixion are the first waymark, and the crucifixion and stoning of Stephen are the last waymark. When brought together into one line we find the cross and Michael standing up at the death of Stephen as two witnesses of the Jews sealing their rejection of the gospel. The death of Christ, is also the death of His disciple Stephen, which is Passover when the two lines are combined. Three days later Christ is resurrected as the First Fruit offering.

In between Passover and the feast of First Fruits on the third day is the beginning of the feast of Unleavened Bread. Unleavened bread does not “rise”, and Christ did not rise on the second day, He rose on the third day. Christ and Stephen die together in the “line upon line” application, but Stephen is resurrected after Christ for there is an order to the first fruit resurrection.

The Spring feasts cannot be separated from each other, for they are directly related to one another. In this sense, Pentecost represents the soon-coming Sunday law, when there will be a repetition of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, and the second voice of Revelation chapter eighteen will then call those that do not currently know the gospel, to come out of Babylon. The word “Babylon,” is based upon the word, “Babel,” which means confusion, for it was in the fall of Babel that God confused the languages, and it was at Pentecost that God reverses the confusion of the languages in order to carry the gospel to the world. Thus Pentecost and the Sunday law align.

At Pentecost the gift of languages was given to the disciples, but their message then was still restricted to the Jews. When both lines are brought together Pentecost occurs in the year 34, when Stephen was stoned and the gospel was then carried to those who do not currently know the gospel.

Stephen represents those who are resurrected “at His coming,” but who have died with Him. The First Fruit offering marks the resurrection of Christ on the third day, and it also marks the beginning of the Feast of Weeks, which is also the feast of Pentecost, and which commemorates the giving of the Ten Commandments at Sinai.

October 22, 1844, aligns with the cross, for among other proofs Sister White aligns the disappointment of the disciples after the cross with the disappointment that followed October 22, 1844. Both the cross and October 22, 1844, prefigure the soon-coming Sunday law. Pentecost also typifies the soon coming Sunday law, but Pentecost came fifty-two days after the cross. The cross, which was typified by Passover, ushers in a series of feasts which commemorate the old paths of ancient Israel from the night the angel of death passed over Egypt, through to the giving of the law. Though the feasts possess their own distinctions, they are inseparably linked to each other. It is therefore accurate to apply the complete fifty-two days from Passover to Pentecost as one singular waymark.

For this reason, the cross, the death of Stephen, and Pentecost all prefigure the soon coming Sunday law, when the progressive executive judgment upon Modern Babylon begins, as the second voice of Revelation chapter eighteen begins to call God’s other flock out of Babylon. It is at that waymark that the executive judgment upon Jerusalem arrived, though God in His mercy deferred the actual destruction of the temple and city nearly forty years after the cross to the year 70. The destruction of ancient Jerusalem represents the beginning of the progressive executive judgment that begins in the United States when “national apostasy is followed by national ruin.”

Truth is established upon the testimony of two, and in the two lines of three and a half years that Christ confirmed the covenant we find two witnesses of a death and resurrection that is associated with the history that identifies the soon-coming Sunday law. That Sunday law in Revelation chapter eleven, is identified as the “hour of the great earthquake.” That “hour” is directly connected to two witnesses that gave a testimony of three and a half years. Their testimony ends with their death and resurrection.

Their testimony of three and a half years, followed by their death and resurrection has been represented by the death and resurrection of both Jesus and Stephen, for “line upon line,” Stephen is represented as being resurrected with Christ. In the feast of First Fruits, two primary offerings were presented.

One was a lamb without blemish, and the other an offering of barley. The barley represented the crop to follow, and the lamb represented Christ. Christ was resurrected on the third day, and Stephen represented those that follow, and the barley represented the crop that was to follow. The two witnesses in Revelation eleven testified for three and a half years, after which they were then slain and then were resurrected three and a half days later. Those two witnesses had been typified by Christ, who was the First Fruits, for they represent the one hundred and forty-four thousand, who are also first fruits.

The barley offering on the feast of First Fruits represented the crop that was to follow, and Stephen in the year 34, followed Christ’s death in the year 31, though “line upon line,” they died at the same waymark. In relation to the first fruit offerings, Christ was the lamb that was slain and Stephen was the barley. According to Paul “Christ” is “the first fruits of them that slept,” and then “afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.” The one hundred and forty-four thousand are first fruits, and they are those “which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.”

In the “hour” of the “great earthquake” of Revelation chapter eleven, the two witnesses that have prophesied for three and a half years, only to be slain and lie in the streets for three and a half days, are resurrected. They are those represented by Stephen who prophetically was resurrected with Jesus, but also after Jesus. They are therefore resurrected “three and a half days,” after they are murdered by the beast that ascended from the bottomless pit. The same “hour,” that they are resurrected they ascend to heaven as an ensign. The process of their resurrection and ascension is carefully outlined in God’s prophetic Word, and it includes that they were typified by the literal death of Stephen, thus representing a spiritual death that is accomplished upon the two witnesses as they are transformed from the Laodicean movement of the third angel unto the Philadelphian movement of the third angel.

We will continue this study in the next article.