The Book of Daniel - Number Seventy-Eight

The history of the Amorites is employed to illustrate the time when God’s wrath is executed against Laodicean Adventism. Sister White identifies that God’s timing for executing His punishment is the same in the last days when the one hundred and forty-four thousand are sealed, as it was when God brought his wrath upon the Amorites. She states, “Although” the nation of the Amorites “was conspicuous because of its idolatry and corruption, it had not yet filled up the cup of its iniquity . . . The compassionate Creator was willing to bear with their iniquity until the fourth generation. Then, if no change was seen for the better, His judgments were to fall upon them. With unerring accuracy the Infinite One still keeps an account with all nations. While His mercy is tendered with calls to repentance, this account will remain open; but when the figures reach a certain amount which God has fixed, the ministry of His wrath commences. The account is closed. Divine patience ceases.”

Sister White clearly associates the ministry of God’s wrath against Laodicean Adventism during Ezekiel’s illustration of the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, as commencing when their cup of iniquity is filled, and the cup reaches its fulness in the fourth generation. All of this information is set forth in the context of the vision that began in chapter eight, which illustrates four escalating abominations.

After Ezekiel was shown the first abomination of the setting up of the image of jealousy at the entry of the gate of the altar, he is informed that he will be shown even greater abominations than the image of jealousy. The second abomination is represented by the secret chambers, where the leadership, represented as the ancient men, are offering prayer, represented by incense, and proclaiming that the Lord has forsaken the earth and does not see them. But Ezekiel is informed that he will see even greater abominations than these.

The third abomination is represented by “women weeping for Tammuz,” but there is still a greater abomination than that, for the fourth abomination identifies a leadership of twenty-five men worshipping the sun, with the backs toward the temple.

In the fourth abomination the pronouncement is made that “the ancient men,” “have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.” The “day of provocation” is the day when God’s ministry of wrath begins, as it did with ancient Israel when they rejected the message of Joshua and Caleb concerning the Promised Land. The rejection of the sealing message marks when the cup of iniquity is full for Jerusalem. Joshua and Caleb represent the little company, who are the faithful few that are sighing and crying for the abominations in the church and in the land.

The “provocation” that was brought about by the rebels in Numbers, and also in Ezekiel is based upon the rebel’s refusal to acknowledge the “signs” that have been manifested. The “signs” that were rejected in the time of Moses, were the “signs” that typified the manifestation of the power of God in the history of the Millerites. Ancient Israel provoked God by rejecting the “signs” of the manifestation of his power in their foundational history. In the sealing time of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, modern Israel also rejects (turns its back against) the very foundational history that was to be the “sign,” that would allow them to “recognize” the repetition of the history of the Midnight Cry which is repeated in the last days.

God allows the rebels to see the repetition of the manifestation of the power of God, for it was the repetition of the manifestation of the power of God that was not only the latter rain, but the truth that would have saved them if they would have been among those who loved the truth.

The identification of the four abominations of Ezekiel eight as symbols of the four generations of Laodicean Adventism is part of the message that is unsealed by the Lion of the tribe of Judah in the last days. The first generation began at the rebellion of 1863, and twenty-five years later in 1888, the rebellion that marked the beginning of the second generation with the symbol of secret chambers arrived. Thirty-one years later, in 1919, the publication of the book by W. W. Prescott titled, The Doctrine of Christ, marked the beginning of the third generation, which Ezekiel had represented as women weeping for Tammuz. Thirty-eight years after that, in 1957, with the publication of the book, Questions on Doctrine, the fourth generation arrived that identifies the time when the rebels will turn against the sealing message that arises from the east, and worship the sun.

We will begin to consider the second generation of Laodicean Adventism’s rebellion that arrived at the Minneapolis General Conference in 1888. It is important to remember that all four of Ezekiel’s abominations occur in Jerusalem, though they represent a progressive history of rebellion, it is always addressing the rebellion that occurs within the city that represents Laodicean Adventism in the last days.

The secret chambers are a symbol of spiritualism, and the second abomination of Ezekiel chapter eight, takes place within the temple, where earthly images had been secretly hung upon the walls.

Ezekiel sees “the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the walls” of the sanctuary, but he is plainly told that this rebellion is also occurring within each of the ancient men’s “chambers of imagery.” The rebellion within the literal temple identifies the rebellion within the human temple.

The second abomination represented a manifestation of wickedness both within the church, and the minds of the elders that were to be the church’s guardians. The wickedness there manifested is the wickedness of spiritualism. In the days of Noah, when every imagination of men’s hearts were wicked, the antediluvians had filled up their cup of iniquity.

The second generation identifies when spiritualism entered into both the leaders of Jerusalem, and also into the corporate structure of Laodicean Adventism. What “the ancients of the house of Israel” did “in the dark,” “in” their “chambers of” “imagery,” identifies “that every imagination of the thoughts of” their hearts “was only evil.” Sister White is clear that the destruction of Jerusalem represents the end of the world, and the testimony of the flood in Noah’s age also represents the end of the world. In the last days those who refuse to be sanctified by the truth are overtaken by spiritualism, as represented by the second abomination of Ezekiel chapter eight.

The second abomination of Ezekiel represents the rebellion that arrived in 1888, and becomes the symbol of the second generation, but more than this, 1888, and all that it represents or is represented by, was repeated on September 11, 2001. Sister White specifically identifies that in 1888, the mighty angel of Revelation eighteen descended, and therefore the history represents the time when the great buildings of New York City were to be thrown down by a touch from God, and Revelation eighteen, verses one through three were to be fulfilled.

The history of 1888, provided the example of the rejection of the message of the latter rain that arrived on September 11, 2001. 1888 is a symbol of the second generation of Laodicean Adventism, that is represented by Ezekiel’s second abomination, and the history therein identifies a rebellion that was typified by the seventy elders in Ezekiel. Their rebellion represented spiritualism, and paralleled the cup of probationary time being fulfilled in the time of Noah. The rejection of the message illustrated the rejection by the leadership of the message of the latter rain, which was to identify the arrival of the third Woe of Islam.

The leadership that in 1888 rejected the message, typified the rejection of the message of Islam on September 11, 2001, but God intends to produce a manifestation of power that those leaders will witness as part of his judgment upon them. The manifestation of the power of the latter rain occurs at the end of the period of the sealing. It began on September 11, 2001, but it reaches its climax at the end of the three-and-a-half days of Revelation eleven, when the “great earthquake” arrives.

The message of 1888, was the Laodicean message, the last call for a former chosen people who were then in the process of being passed by.

The message of 1888, represented the message that identified that when the great buildings of New York City were thrown down on September 11, 2001, the straight testimony to the Laodicean church was to be given, and the straight testimony is the message of Islam of the third Woe that, when breathed upon a backslidden people, has the power to bring them to life as a mighty army.

1888 marks the beginning of the second generation of Adventism, but it also provides a line of prophecy that aligns with the last days. On September 11, 2001 God led the people who chose to accept that the attack of Islam upon the earth beast was a fulfillment of prophecy back to the old paths. God’s people needed to return to the jewels of William Miller and become educated upon the foundational truths that included the fulfillment of the first and second Woes, that in turn established the arrival of the third Woe at that time. Once those people returned to those old paths they were led to see the sacredness of Habakkuk’s two tables.

The rebellion of 1863 against Habakkuk’s two tables, which are Miller’s jewels and also the foundations of Adventism, typified a rebellion that was repeated on September 11, 2001; for once again the leadership of Laodicean Adventism was given opportunity to uphold the jewels of Miller, or reject them. All four generations of Adventism that are represented in Ezekiel eight, are also representing the rebellion of Laodicean Adventism on September 11, 2001.

We will continue to identify the second generation of Laodicean Adventism in the next article.