The Hidden History of Verse Forty - Number Twenty-Four

In the passage from Testimonies, volume five, which we have been considering for a few articles now, we are informed of the vision of the temple given to Ezekiel, Isaiah and John:

Tisha B’Av, which means “the Ninth of Av” in Hebrew, is the Jewish day that commemorates the destruction of both the First Temple by the Babylonians in 586 BC and the Second Temple by Titus in the year 70. Both destructions occurred on the same calendar date—the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av (usually falling in July or August on the Gregorian calendar). When Sister White aligns the destruction of Jerusalem to the “time that will try men’s souls” in the last days, she is identifying two destructions which both illustrate the soon-coming Sunday law.

Verse sixteen of Daniel eleven represents that Sunday law, and aligns with verse forty-one. In Ezekiel the destruction of Jerusalem is used to illustrate the separation of the wise and foolish virgins at the Sunday law. Ezekiel was a captive in Babylon when he was miraculously transported to Jerusalem to view that very separation in chapters eight through eleven.

The four chapters of eight through eleven are a description of the separation, and Sister White, when commenting on Ezekiel nine, identifies not only that it was the same sealing as Revelation chapter seven, but that Jerusalem represents the Laodicean Seventh-day Adventist church in the latter days.

The entire book of Ezekiel is set within the context of the destruction of Jerusalem. In Ezekiel’s testimony the siege of Nebuchadnezzar that lasted a year and a half is specifically marked, but the “more direct application” of Jesus' warning in Matthew twenty-four is in the latter days. In Ezekiel that line of truth is found in chapter twenty-four.

On this date, which is also established on other biblical witnesses, a siege of eighteen months began. The word of the Lord that came to Ezekiel on that date consisted of the parable of the bloody city that is illustrated with a boiling pot followed by a great fire. The parable clearly is representing the judgment upon Jerusalem, and it is followed in the same chapter with Ezekiel’s wife being laid to rest by a stroke as a symbol that the siege that would ultimately destroy the sanctuary had begun.

Then the people around Ezekiel asked the meaning of the parable and his wife’s death.

Ezekiel’s wife and the sanctuary are both identified as the “desire of your eyes” in the passage. Biblical historians identify that the siege lasted eighteen months, whereas the sieges of Cestius and Titus lasted four years from the year 66 unto the year 70. A close count of the time from the first siege of Cestius unto the destruction is three and a half years, but when applying “inclusive reckoning,” which is the most often employed application in the Bible, it is four years. Knowing that both reckonings are valid allows us to see both three and a half years from Cestius to Titus and also four years.

We have two witnesses of the Sunday law in the two destructions of Jerusalem, and the details of both histories are to be applied to the soon-coming Sunday law—where Laodicea is spewed out of the mouth of the Lord. The beginning of the siege of Nebuchadnezzar is marked by the death of Ezekiel’s wife. At her death, Ezekiel was commanded not to openly mourn, for he was the sign of the Jews being carried away into captivity.

The beginning of the four-year period of 66 to 70 is marked by the sign of the abomination of desolation, which was the sign for the Christians in Jerusalem to flee.

Two sieges clearly align with each other, and both sieges contain a “sign” at the beginning of the siege. When Ezekiel explained what was meant by the death of his wife and the lack of mourning on his part, he explained and then recorded:

The sign of the death of Ezekiel’s wife was an identification of the soon-coming destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and the following captivity in Babylon. The sign of the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel was a warning to escape the destruction, but both sieges have a sign at the beginning.

There will be a prophetic siege before the soon-coming Sunday law, and Ezekiel’s wife’s death is the symbol that the Laodicean Seventh-day Adventist church has been fully passed by, whereas Ezekiel is a symbol of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, and is the symbol of the ensign that is lifted up at the beginning of the siege. Ezekiel is the ensign of the one hundred and forty-four thousand at the beginning of the siege of Babylon, and the sign of the abomination of desolation at the beginning is the “sign” of Rome. One sign speaks to an internal warning and the other to an external warning. There was certainly a warning to the Christians in the year 66, but the warning sign was Rome. The sign in the destruction by Babylon of Jerusalem was Ezekiel’s wife. Rome is the class who receive the mark of the beast and Ezekiel the sign of those who receive the seal of God.

The first siege lasted eighteen months and the second siege lasted four years. Both sieges find their “more direct” fulfillment in the latter days, and both sieges are directly connected with the prophecy of three hundred and ninety-one years and fifteen days located in Revelation nine verse fifteen.

The beginning of the five months of Revelation nine, verse ten included a history that marks a thirty-eight-year period that culminates in a four-year siege, that is associated with the number thirty-eight, and identified the rising up of Islam. That four-year siege finds its counterpart in the history that began when the (five months) one hundred and fifty years concluded and the three hundred and ninety-one years and fifteen days began. It began on July 27, 1449, and four years later, Islam brought a siege of fifty-three days against Constantinople that concluded on May 29, 1453.

When the time prophecy that began on July 27, 1449, concluded on August 11, 1840, the four years of the movement of the first and second angels from 1840 unto 1844 aligned with the four-year siege of 1333 unto 1337, and also the four-year period from 1449 unto 1453. Those three witnesses, which are all directly part of the same prophetic line, represent a symbolic four-year period when the first and second angels’ movement of 1840 unto 1844 is repeated in the history of the movement of the third angel. Those three witnesses typify a four-year siege in the history of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. That four-year period is also illustrated by the sieges of Jerusalem in 66 and 70.

The beginning of the four-year siege by Cestius in 66 and then the ending by Titus in 70 produce an alpha symbol and an omega symbol to a period of four years. That same period is also represented by three and a half years, which in turn aligns with the three and a half prophetic years that papal Rome trampled down the sanctuary.

It is essential to note that I am employing both “inclusive” and “exclusive” reckoning to the period represented by the alpha symbol of Cestius unto the omega symbol of Titus. This identifies that two applications of time are represented with one history. We have already dealt with this biblical principle when we considered (many articles ago) the time between Jesus’ visit to Caesarea-Philippi (Panium) and His trip to the Mount of Transfiguration. Two biblical authors record six days and one eight days.

The destruction of Jerusalem has a “more direct” application to the latter days, and that destruction is two witnesses represented by Babylon and Rome. The two witnesses align with one another but provide different and essential prophetic characteristics in order to amplify the truth. The siege by Rome (66 to 70) was four years that also represents three and a half years. The three and a half years connects with the trampling down of the sanctuary and host accomplished by both paganism and papalism. The trampling down by papalism was for three and a half symbolic years as typified by a literal three and a half years in the siege by Rome.

That four-year siege also connects with the four-year periods associated with the prophetic line that identifies the lifting up of Islam and thereafter the lifting up of the movement of both the first and second and then the third angels. Cestius to Titus intersects with the wheel of papal Rome and also the wheel of Islam. The wheel of Rome and the three and a half years of Cestius and Titus intersect with papal Rome’s three and a half symbolic years, thus identifying the two entities of pagan and papal Rome. The wheel of Islam is connected by the same history as understood as four years, but just as with the wheel of Rome in that history, Islam is associated with a second power subject to the wheel of Islam—that being Adventism. The period of three and a half years represents Rome in both its phases, and the four-year period represents Islam and Adventism. Pagan and papal Rome cannot be separated prophetically and neither can Islam and Adventism.

This demands prophetically that when we consider the siege of Babylon, two understandings of time should be seen in the illustration of the eighteen-month siege. Two representations of time in the siege brought by Rome prophetically demand two representations of time in the siege brought by Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of eighteen months also can be understood as a symbol of one and a half years. Eighteen months is one and a half years, and one and a half can be expressed as 1.5 years. The siege of Nebuchadnezzar was both eighteen months and one point five (1.5) years.

The eighteen months addresses the power that was to trample down Jerusalem and the 1.5 years addresses Islam. The prophetic wheel of reckoning that identifies eighteen months identifies Babylon and the other prophetic wheel of reckoning identifies Islam. We have not yet set forth an explanation of how we arrive at the application of the 1.5 years in connection with Islam, but it should be noted that the two reckonings of time in the destruction brought by Rome connected with the prophetic wheel of Rome (both pagan and papal), and the other reckoning connected with the prophetic wheel of Islam. These characteristics are found in both the alpha and omega destructions of Jerusalem.

The four-year siege of Jerusalem with Cestius and Titus represents the ending of a prophetic line that began with a thirty-eight-year period that concluded with a four-year siege symbolizing the lifting up of Islam, and the final four-year period in that very same line represents the lifting up of the ensign of the one hundred and forty-four thousand.

We will continue these things in the next article.