The Book of Joel and The Laodicean Seventh-day Adventist Church - Number Thirty-Two

It has been a slow-moving journey to get to the book of Joel, with Peter as our witness. Peter is one of the most amazing symbols within God’s prophetic Word, but aren’t they all? Peter is at Caesarea Philippi, and he is also at Pentecost in the upper room at the third hour, and then in the temple at the ninth hour of the same day. Jesus was crucified at the third hour and died at the ninth hour. Peter is called to Caesarea at the ninth hour, but the Caesarea that he is called to in the story of Cornelius, is not Caesarea Philippi at the base of Mount Hermon, it was Caesarea by the sea, called Caesarea Maritima.

Caesarea Maritima is the coastal city on the Mediterranean Sea, about 30–35 miles north of modern Tel Aviv (built by Herod the Great as a grand Roman port city). It appears frequently in the book of Acts (mentioned 15 times), and is the one most people refer to simply as “Caesarea” in the New Testament. Philip the Evangelist lived there with his four prophesying daughters (Acts 8:40; 21:8). Paul was imprisoned there for two years, appeared before governors Felix and Festus, and King Agrippa (Acts 23–26). More significantly, perhaps, Peter preached to the Roman centurion Cornelius here—the first major Gentile conversion to Christianity (Acts 10) in 34 AD, when the week that Christ confirmed the covenant with many, ended.

Caesarea Maritima served as the Roman administrative capital of Judea and a major Gentile hub. Caesarea Philippi is a different city, located in the far north near the base of Mount Hermon (about 25–30 miles north of the Sea of Galilee), in what is now the Golan Heights area (modern Banias). It is mentioned only in the Gospels (Matthew 16:13 and Mark 8:27), when Jesus took His disciples to Caesarea Philippi. This is the famous location where Peter confessed that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” and where Jesus declared, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:13–20). It was a pagan area with temples to Greek gods, especially the goat-god Pan, whose grotto of Pan was called the “gates of hell,” making Jesus’ declaration there particularly striking.

The two cities are completely separate geographically and historically—one a bustling Roman seaport in the south-west, the other a northern Hellenistic/pagan site near the headwaters of the Jordan River. The coastal one dominates the Book of Acts, while the northern one is central to a pivotal moment in the Gospels. Caesarea of the sea is a symbol of Rome—the beast, and Caesarea of the earth is a symbol of the dragon. Sister White identifies the period from the cross to Pentecost, the “Pentecostal season,” which began at the cross and ended at Pentecost.

Technically the Pentecostal season would start at the feast of first fruits, which aligns with Christ’s resurrection; but without the death of the cross there would be no blood for the risen savior to take with Him when He arose. Without His death, He, as the Bread of life would not have rested on the day of the feast of unleavened bread, and the Bread of life needed to rest in advance of it’s rising on the feast of first fruits, thus beginning the fifty-day period that led to the day and feast of Pentecost.

When Christ came to confirm the covenant for one week; the week began at His baptism and then “in the midst of the week,” three and a half years later, He was crucified, rested in the tomb on the day of unleavened Bread, rose as the feast of the first fruits of the barley harvest on Sunday, thus starting the fifty-day Pentecostal season that reached to the first fruits feast of the wheat. From the cross to the end of the week, three and a half years later, the seven-year-period came to its conclusion with Cornelius of Caesarea Maritima, who became the very first Gentile convert–to the Christian church at the end of the week in 34 AD.

The week Christ came to confirm the covenant is prophetically 2,520 days, and the cross is “in the midst of the week,” so it was 1,260 days after the baptism and 1,260 days before Cornelius was converted. At the cross Christ was crucified at the third hour, and He died at the ninth hour. That was the beginning of the Pentecostal season and at the end, (for Jesus always illustrates the end with the beginning) on the day of Pentecost, Peter gives his first sermon of the book of Joel at the third hour in the upper room, where Christ met the disciples on the day of His resurrection. Peter then gives his second sermon on Joel in the temple at the ninth hour. Clearly the third and ninth hour are an alpha and omega symbol of the beginning and ending of the Pentecostal season.

Line upon line, when we align the third and ninth hour of these two events, we find the six hours as a prophetic period that both provide a witness of a division. Christ goes from life to death to life. He goes from earth to heaven and back to earth. Peter is outside and then inside the temple. There are of course other parallel alignments of the third to ninth hour, but we first need to consider Peter, Cornelius and Caesarea by the sea.

As with the prophetic divisions that are represented in the six hours, when the angel was sent to Cornelius to direct him to send for Peter it was the ninth hour.

The arrival of an angel is a symbol of a message, and of a waymark, and the angel confirms that it is a waymark when he says, “Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.” The waymark of the conclusion of the week is Cornelius sending for Peter at the ninth hour after fasting for four days, and it is called a “memorial,” which is a waymark. As a “centurion,” Cornelius was a captain over one hundred men.

When Peter is at Caesarea Philippi in Matthew sixteen there is no reference to any hour. Caesarea Philippi is the name of the city at the time when Jesus took the disciples there. In the history of Daniel eleven, verses thirteen to fifteen, verses that were fulfilled at the battle of Panium, and that typify the war that leads to the Sunday law in the United States, Caesarea Philippi was named Panium. Peter is in verses thirteen through fifteen when he is at Caesarea Philippi, which is Panium.

Identifying that the Battle of Panium was a fulfillment of verses thirteen to fifteen of Daniel eleven, and that the verses and the history of the Battle of Panium identifies a war that leads to the Sunday law in the United States is exactly how the methodology of line upon line is designed to work. Employing that methodology demands that Caesarea Philippi and Panium must be aligned, for the primary rule of prophecy that addresses this truth is that “each of the ancient prophets spoke more for our day than the days in which they lived.” Paul adds that the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, so not only do they all identify the latter days, but they all agree.

For this reason if and when Panium is identified in God’s prophetic Word as Panium and thereafter as Caesarea Philippi, they must both be applied in the latter days, and they must align together, for they are the same city.

In conjunction with this logic, though slightly different, is Caesarea Philippi and Caesarea Maritima. Peter went to Caesarea Philippi with Christ, but he was sent to Caesarea Maritima by the Holy Spirit. Yet at both Caesarea’s it is Peter who is the main covenant character. What is wonderful about this line is that it was at the ninth hour that Cornelius was visited by the angel and instructed to send for Peter. Peter at Caesarea is a prophetic symbol, but the two Caesarea’s are distinctly different. One is Caesarea by the sea, and the other Caesarea on the earth. Caesarea by the sea is associated with the Gentiles, and Cornelius was the first Gentile convert exactly at the end of the covenant week in 34 AD. Caesarea by the sea is the ninth hour and aligns with Peter in the temple at Pentecost, and the death of Christ at the ninth hour.

Caesarea by the earth, that is Caesarea Philippi is the third hour. There is no other options to choose. Caesarea Philippi at the beginning, the third hour and Caesarea Maritima at the end, the ninth hour. Philippi is the alpha of the period of six hours and Maritima is the omega. The omega at the ninth hour was the death of Christ in the midst of the covenant week, and Peter in the temple at Pentecost was also the ninth hour. Cornelius calling for Peter aligns with the death of Christ, which typifies the Sunday law, and also Peter in the temple at Pentecost, which once again typifies the Sunday law. Cornelius, as the first Gentile convert represents the first eleventh-hour worker at the Sunday law.

The third hour when Christ was crucified, and the third hour when Peter was in the upper room must, and can only represent Caesarea Philippi. The upper room that Peter was in on the day of Pentecost, was the very same upper room that Christ appeared after His resurrection, ascension and descent. Christ came to the upper room and then fifty days later, on the day of Pentecost, Peter presented the message of the book of Joel in the same upper room.

Caesarea Philippi is the third hour that aligns with the crucifixion and the upper room at Pentecost. The crucifixion is a symbol of scattering and the upper room a symbol of unity. This identifies Caesarea Philippi as the point just before the Sunday law where one class is scattered, and the other is gathered. When the history of the Battle of Panium begins to be repeated, the foolish and wise virgins will be forever separated, and they will be separated over the cross, which represents the approach of the Sunday law. It was at Caesarea Philippi that Christ began to teach about the approaching Sunday law. When He did so, Peter opposed the message, thus in nine verses, Peter represents those who are sealed and those who are scattered by the message of the cross, which is the Sunday law.

The third hour crucifixion and Peter’s upper room message aligns the prophetic transition of the church militant, defined as the church with both wheat and tares, unto the church triumphant. The church triumphant is the first fruit wheat offering of Pentecost, which is the Sunday law. When the tares and the wheat reach maturity, the angels separate the two classes. It is the rain that began to sprinkle at 9/11 that causes the wheat and tares to come to fruition.

A period of six hours represents the history of the Exeter camp meeting unto October 22, 1844, the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem and the entry of king David into Jerusalem with the ark. The ninth hour is also the time of the evening sacrifice, around 3 PM.

The word translated as “even,” is sometimes represented as “between the evenings.” Between the evenings speaks to the six-hour period between the third and ninth hours. Christ’s covenant week represents the six-hour period at the cross, which becomes the alpha of the six-hour period on Pentecost. Two witnesses in the covenant week that identify a period of six-hours that are directly connected with not only the prophecy of the sacred week, but also with the symbols of the Pentecostal season. Then at the conclusion of that very same prophetic week, Peter is called to Caesarea at the ninth hour. The fact that three ninth hours within the same prophetic structure of the sacred week; two of which are omega endings of a six-hour period, that was also the period between the morning and evening offerings, demand of prophetic necessity that a third hour exist as the alpha of a period that ended at Cornelius’ ninth hour.

Two Caesarea’s, both with Peter as a central figure identify Caesarea Philippi as the third hour. That six-hour period begins and ends with Caesarea, because the end is illustrated by the beginning.

The Passover lamb was to be killed in the evening, which is the ninth hour—when Christ died.

The hour of prayer is also the ninth hour, for it was at the evening sacrifice.

In agreement with the evening sacrifice being the hour of prayer, Ezra is praying at the evening sacrifice, so he is praying at the ninth hour, when Peter is in the temple, when Christ died and when Cornelius was told to send for Peter.

In his prayer, Ezra is repenting after understanding that those who came out of Babylon to rebuild the temple and Jerusalem were joined to heathen wives.

The covenant of the one hundred and forty-four thousand is represented as a separation from those who had taken strange wives. This is the separation of the wise and foolish virgins, and it occurs at the ninth hour, which is the death of Christ, Peter in the temple on Pentecost, and Peter being called to Caesarea by the sea. Ezra’s separation is also the purging of the Levites by the Messenger of the Covenant in Malachi chapter three. The purging in Malachi illustrates the two temple cleansings of Christ.

Ezra and those who enter into the covenant are told to “arise” and Joshua was told to rise up after all the rebels died over a period of thirty-eight years. It took two years for ancient Israel to fail the tenfold testing process, and thirty-eight years later the rebels were all dead and God tells them to arise.

In John five, Jesus healed the impotent man that had been that way for thirty-eight years, and when He healed him, He told the man to “arise.”

At Ezra’s illustration of the covenant of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, the people were to “arise.” In 1838 Josiah Litch, a prominent Millerite preacher predicted the end of the Ottoman supremacy around 1840, and the Millerite message arose, only to be empowered with the exact fulfillment on August 11, 1840. The lifting up of the church triumphant includes a prediction that causes God’s people to arise when the covenant is established. In Ezra’s separation from strange wives we find Malachi’s purging of the Levites, and also the two temple cleansings of Christ, and each line identifies a separation of wheat and tares, that is accomplished when Christ forever removes sin from the hearts of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. Christ’s ninth hour, and Peter’s two ninth hours along with Ezra’s prayer for purification align with the Sunday law, when the latter rain will be poured out without measure. In Daniel chapter nine, Daniel receives and answer to his petitions at the time of the evening oblation, which is the ninth hour.

We are informed that the visions given to Daniel by the great rivers of Shinar are now in the process of fulfillment, and that we are to consider the circumstances when the prophecies were given.

The light of the visions associated with the Hiddekel and Ulai rivers represents the last six chapters of Daniel chapter eleven. In chapter nine, represented by the Ulai river, Daniel is given light upon chapters seven, eight and nine. In chapter ten, represented by the Hiddekel river, Daniel is given the light of chapters ten, eleven and twelve. The prophetic information is represented by both the prophetic events represented within the chapters, but also by Daniel, for we are to consider the circumstances of the Jewish nation when the prophecies were given.

We are to bring those considerations to the latter days and align them with the other prophet’s testimonies. This means that just as Peter is at Caesarea Philippi and also Caesarea Maritima, Daniel is visited by Gabriel at the ninth hour in chapter nine, and he is visited on the twenty-second day in chapter ten. The light of the Ulai and the Hiddekel for the last days is unsealed to Daniel at the ninth hour of the twenty-second day. That light represents the outpouring of the latter rain without measure at the Sunday law.

Daniel’s testimony is fully opened at the ninth hour, for it identifies both the external and internal history of what “befalls” God’s people in the latter days. When that light is proclaimed the Gentiles, represented by Cornelius, will send for the one hundred and forty-four thousand, the law of God will be murdered by Sunday enforcement, and Peter will deliver a message to the temple that Christ had departed from and identified as the Jew’s empty house. Peter addresses the Gentiles, and also the Sanhedrin, while Ezra pleads for the separation and Daniel fasts and prays for light. The ninth hour at Pentecost, at Christ’s death, at Cornelius’s call of Peter, the evening sacrifice all align with Elijah on Mount Carmel.

It is evident that the six-hour period represents a period that ends at the Sunday law, but that it begins with an event that is directly connected to the end, such was the morning and evening offerings. In terms of Peter, the six-hour period is Caesarea Philippi to Caesarea by the sea. At Pentecost it was the upper room to the temple. The period that is the bright light that is set up at the beginning of the path is the Midnight Cry, and that period reaches to the Sunday law. The six hours, between the evenings represent the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem, which in turn represented the period from the Exeter camp meeting from August 12 to 17, 1844, that initiated the proclamation of the message that reached its conclusion on October 22, 1844. Exeter is Caesarea Philippi and Caesarea by the sea is October 22, 1844. The beginning is marked by Caesarea as is the ending.

The triumphal entry is marked by a controversy at the beginning and a controversy at the end. The controversy at Exeter was represented by the false worship that was taking place on the grounds in the Watertown tent. Two messages were represented by those two tents, and when Christ entered Jerusalem the quibbling Jews complained about the message being proclaimed as He came down from the Mount of Olives, riding into Jerusalem on the recently loosed ass. The first and the last controversy identify an alpha and omega to the period. At Exeter the Watertown class represent a class of virgins that had no oil, and for them the door of salvation was closed. At the end of that period the door into the holy place was closed, thus providing an alpha and omega to the period. That alpha and omega aligns with the two controversies of the triumphal entry, and Caesarea to Caesarea with Peter.

In Caesarea Philippi, Simon Barjona’s name is changed to Peter, in a passage where he is praised as a mouthpiece of inspiration, then condemned as Satan, for opposing the message of the cross. Peter is a symbol of the two classes that are separated by the message of the baptism and cross, which is the message of 9/11 and the Sunday law.

At the ninth hour, which is the time of the evening offering in answer to the prayer of Elijah, fire came down and consumed the offering for the purpose of making God’s people know that the Lord is God. There are two classes symbolized at Mount Carmel, one class that then knows that the Lord He is God, and the other represented by the prophets of Baal who are thereafter slain.

The evening sacrifice, the death of Christ, Peter healing the lame man, Peter taking the message to the Gentiles, Daniel receiving prophetic light, Elijah’s prayer being answered with fire, while Ezra is in sackcloth and ashes praying for the transition of Laodicea to Philadelphia, for the transition the church militant unto the church triumphant. The ninth hour is the hour of sacrifice, the hour of answered prayer, the hour heaven touches earth, the bridge between judgment and mercy and that is why Christ dies at the ninth hour, for the ninth hour of sacrifice opened the gospel to the Gentiles, who were those that sat in darkness, but would see great light when the book of Daniel is opened fully at the Sunday law.

At Gideon’s offering in Judges 6:21, the Angel of the Lord touches Gideon’s meat and unleavened bread offering with his staff, and fire springs up from the rock to consume it entirely. The fire confirmed God’s call to Gideon and his acceptance of the sign.

The angel appeared to Gideon in the first verse of the chapter and called Gideon, “a mighty man of valor” and Gideon asked for a sign to prove that claim. Then Gideon asks the angel to tarry, and the angel that tarries in prophecy is the second angel. After the tarrying time had ended, Gideon sets forth an offering and fire consumes the offering. Gideon is at the ninth hour for Elijah was the evening offering, and the ninth hour is the Sunday law when the Pentecostal tongues of fire align. Gideon represents a class that sees the Lord face to face, which is what happened to Daniel in chapter ten. When Gideon saw the fire consume the offering, he then realized that he had been interacting with the Lord, who he had seen face to face.

Gideon awakens to this reality when the miracle of fire confirms the sign, and the sign was Gideon, the mighty man of God and the army of 300 priests, who all had Habakkuk’s 300 tables in their hands. The sign, or ensign is Gideon himself, and the army of three hundred, that is also Ezekiel’s mighty army–that stands up in chapter thirty-seven.

When the tabernacle was dedicated in Leviticus 9:23, 24, after Aaron’s first offerings as high priest, fire comes out from before the Lord and consumes the burnt offering and fat on the altar. The people shout and fall on their faces in awe. This must, line upon line, align with Elijah’s fire.

Ezra’s ninth hour prayer for the separation of wheat and tares, which occurs at the Sunday law, is fulfilled then when the church militant transforms into the church triumphant. It must align with Gideon’s fire as well. The consuming fire upon Aaron’s first offering, that was made after seven days of consecration on the eighth day, returned on the same day, and destroyed Aaron’s two wicked sons. When the Holy Spirit is poured out without measure at the ninth hour, at the Sunday law, there will be a separation of two classes of priests, and the church triumphant will begin the work represented by the white horse of Ephesus, that goes forth conquering and to conquer. The anointing of the church triumphant finds a second witness in Solomon’s temple.

Solomon’s temple dedication in 2 Chronicles 7:1–3, after Solomon’s prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offerings and sacrifices. The glory of the Lord filled the temple, leading the people to worship and declare God’s goodness and enduring mercy. At the Sunday law the church triumphant is lifted up above all the mountains as a crown and an ensign according to Zechariah and Isaiah. When the fire descended at Solomon’s dedication of the temple, the temple was filled with the glory of the Lord, symbolizing that the sounding of the seventh trumpet has finished its work upon God’s people and is about to finish that very work upon the eleventh-hour workers. The seventh trumpet represents the atonement, the combination of Divinity and humanity that occurs as Jesus lifts up His kingdom of glory. That fire which came down at Moses tabernacle and Solomon’s temple was also a fire of judgment for Aaron’s son, as it was for David.

David’s offering on the threshing floor of Araunah/Ornan in 1 Chronicles 21:26, during the plague brought about by David’s census, was answered with fire from heaven on the altar, signaling acceptance and halting the plague. The plague of Laodicea is ended when the fire descends upon David’s offering to stay the plague of His dependence upon human strength and wisdom. The transition from human to Divine human is marked when the atonement is accomplished, and the church is lifted up as an ensign. At that point, in agreement with Solomon’s temple, the glory of the Lord filled the temple as Divinity is combined with humanity.

We will continue our consideration of the period of the Midnight Cry as represented by the third and ninth hours in the next article.