The Hidden History of Verse Forty - Number Nineteen

The books of Daniel and Revelation complement each other, meaning together they are perfected.

The kingdoms of Bible prophecy are to be the student of prophecy’s focus, for it is there that the external history of the latter days is primarily set forth.

Sacred histories—whether the “great reformatory movements” or the “rise and fall of kingdoms”—are a life-or-death proposition in God’s Word. Paul recorded in 2 Thessalonians chapter two that those who do not love the truth and who thereafter receive strong delusion do so because they chose to reject the message Paul identified in the passage. The passage identifies the relationship of pagan Rome with papal Rome, which is also the relationship of Pergamos and Thyatira and is also the relationship of iron and clay, as well as the relationship of the dragon with the beast. The rise of papal Rome, represented by Thyatira, and the fall of pagan Rome, represented by Pergamos, constitute a truth that those who receive strong delusion hate.

In the Millerite history the argument between the Millerites and the Protestants that made its way onto the 1843 pioneer chart was over what historical power was represented as the “robbers of thy people” in verse fourteen of Daniel eleven. Were the robbers the rising of pagan Rome as the Millerites contended, or was it the fall of the Seleucids as the Protestants claimed?

Biblical history is the vision that Solomon identified as essential when he declared that without vision, the people perish. The Millerites recognized and proclaimed the one hundred and fifty years represented as “five months” in Revelation chapter nine, verses five and ten, but they did not dredge deeply into the history represented in chapter nine of Revelation. They correctly identified verse ten’s five months, but evidently thought that because verses five and ten both contain the expression “five months,” it simply represented an emphasis upon the prophecy of torment represented in both verses. It is now easily demonstrated that when verse five represents “five months,” it represents one hundred and fifty years that began at the death of Mohammed in 632 and ended in 782 with the humiliation of Empress Irene of the Byzantine, or eastern Roman empire.

The pioneers were correct in their application of verse ten, identifying the battle of Nicomedia on July 27, 1299, as the start of one hundred and fifty years that concluded with the humiliation of the last Constantine to reign in Constantinople on July 27, 1449. Line upon line, a period of one hundred and fifty years identifies worldwide Islam, as represented by both the first woe of Islam of Arabia and the second woe of Islam of Turkey. The Islam that humiliated both the emperor and the empress together identifies worldwide Islam conquering a kingdom that consists of a woman, represented by Irene, and a man represented by Constantine the last.

In the one hundred and fifty years that end with the humiliation of Irene, Islam of Arabia takes control of the area or territory of the Byzantine Empire, leaving Irene in such a humiliated position that she was forced to pay tribute for three years, among other exactions. When the humiliation of Constantine the last took place, it marked the beginning of a four-year period that ends with a siege and the overthrow of the capital of eastern Rome. In both cases it was Islam, Arabian Islam for Irene and Turkish Islam for Constantine the last. In the latter days, worldwide Islam as represented by the two witnesses of Arabian and Turkish Islam set forth in the first and second woes will first take the territory, and then the capital. The latter-day political entity represented by eastern Rome’s Constantine is symbolically married to the latter-day religious entity represented by eastern Rome’s Irene. I use the term political and religious entity to address the fact that the symbol of the image of the beast occurs first in the United States and then in the world. The image of the beast is the symbolic marriage of Constantine and Irene, who are both humiliated by losing their territory and capital to Islam.

Their marriage is identified by aligning the two histories, and it was typified by the marriage between Constantia and Licinius in 313 when the Edict of Milan was put in place, and the symbolic church of Smyrna ended and the symbolic church of Pergamos began. Those whom Paul identifies as receiving strong delusion refuse to see Paul’s warning message that includes a falling away before the man of sin is revealed. The falling away takes place in the history of Pergamos, and the man of sin was revealed in 538, when the church of Thyatira began.

The history of eastern Rome provides two witnesses to the prophetic truth that is also represented in the symbolic relationship of eastern Rome with western Rome. In that relationship, western Rome is the church and eastern Rome is the state. Rome is a combination of church and state as represented by iron and clay in Daniel chapter two.

A reason that it can be seen convincingly that in the latter days worldwide Islam comes against a power represented as a combination of church and state, taking its territory and capital, is sustained by two other witnesses from the sacred history of Revelation nine. Osman conquered the territory of Nicomedia on July 27, 1299, and he then conquered the territory of Nicaea two years later in 1301. His son conquered the capital city of Nicaea in 1331, and the same son conquered the capital city of Nicomedia in a four-year siege that ended in 1337. The pioneers marked July 27, 1299, with Osman, but never looked at the next battle, the battle of Nicaea, as the historical second step to establishing the Ottoman Empire. July 27, 1299, was the first step of several steps to reach the Sunday law. The first two steps of Turkish Islam identified the beginning of a prophecy that ended in 1449, then again in 1840, then again at 9/11 and then again on December 31, 2023.

The first of those two steps marked not only the beginning of one hundred and fifty years, but also it marked the beginning of thirty-eight years. It began with Osman taking the territory of Nicomedia, and it ended thirty-eight years later when Osman’s son took the capital city of Nicomedia at the end of a four-year siege in 1337. The number thirty-eight represents “rising up,” and the initial step of Osman taking the territory marked the rising up of Turkish Islam. In that first step of thirty-eight years, a “four-year” siege marks the conclusion. At the last step of the one hundred and fifty years, the humiliation is delivered, and four years later in 1453, the capital of eastern Rome is taken.

Whether it was the Ottoman Turks in 1453, or Osman’s son taking both Nicomedia in 1337 and Nicaea in 1331, in all three instances, each capital city had served at some point in history as the capital of eastern Rome. All three lines are identifying the conquering of eastern Rome. Each of those three lines identifies Islam conquering first the territory and thereafter the capital of eastern Rome. The name of all three capitals is the same as the name of the territory. Each of the three lines has distinct alpha and omega historical figures. While identifying a church-state relationship with the humiliation by Islam of both emperor and empress, the prophetic humiliation ties their lines together with western Rome, which was also humiliated by Constantine the Great when he chose Constantinople over the city of Rome in 330. Western Rome’s final humiliation came in 476 with the final emperor, and continued to decline rapidly from there on.

Western Rome in relation to eastern Rome was the church; the east was the state. Humiliation at the beginning in 330, then humiliation in 476, and then in 782 and then again in 1449. A line of humiliation beginning with the division of a kingdom, followed in 476 by the humiliation of losing the emperor, and therefore empire, only to be followed by Islam bringing humiliation first to the territory of the east in 782 and then to the capital of the east in 1453.

Islam of Bible prophecy brings to light the line of both eastern and western Rome, and the light that Islam is producing today is in agreement with, but far beyond what the foundational light of Islam was for the Millerite pioneers. The testing time that began in 2024 with who is ‘the robbers of thy people who establish the vision’ was the alpha of the testing period, and now at the end of the testing period light from the subject of Islam of Revelation chapter nine adds witnesses of western and eastern Rome that were never evaluated until these current latter days.

The prophetic lines of Islam represented in chapters nine through eleven bring together the lines of history located in verses ten through sixteen of Daniel eleven by providing testimonies which connect with lines already under discussion in these articles. But within the prophetic illustration of the rise of Islam is the rise of both the movement of the Millerites and the movement of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. Two four-year periods placed firmly within and as part of the time prophecies of Revelation nine provide witness to the four years of 1840 unto 1844. In 1844 prophetic time is no longer, so the symbolic four-year period is defined by its prophetic characteristics, not time. The first four-year period identifies Islam conquering Nicomedia, the former eastern Roman capital, in 1337, thirty-eight years after his father conquered the territory. The second four years identifies the humiliation of eastern Rome’s political and religious rulers in 1449, brought about by Islam, and the third four years identifies a glorious manifestation of the power of God when the angel who lightened the earth with his glory descended on August 11, 1840.

The Millerite history of the first and second angels aligns with the history of the third angel during the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. That final sealing work is the blotting out of sin; it is the combination of Divinity with humanity, and it takes place during a warfare that is being brought by Islam.

The perfect fulfillment of every prophecy is in the last days, so this passage is identifying the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. The prophecy of Islam in Revelation nine provides the historical key to bring the most complete illustration of the power that establishes the vision together in the history that culminated on August 11, 1840, when Islam was restrained. From that point the testimony of Revelation nine extended into chapter ten and the history of the first and second angels. Then in chapter eleven the third woe arrives suddenly at the Sunday law, which is when the loud cry of the third angel begins. Chapter nine is the key of Islam in organizing the rise and fall of kingdoms set forth in Daniel and the Revelation. Chapters ten and eleven identify the experience of the one hundred and forty-four thousand wise virgins. Chapter nine identifies the symbol that establishes the external vision and chapters ten and eleven identify the internal vision associated with following the Lamb into the Most Holy Place.

Revelation chapter ten opens with Christ as the mighty angel that descends with a little book open. That event was fulfilled on August 11, 1840, at the conclusion of the prophecy of Revelation nine that identifies three hundred and ninety-one years and fifteen days. Revelation ten identifies the history onward until the message became bitter in John’s stomach on October 22, 1844. The four years of 1840 to 1844 begin with the arrival of the first angel and end with the arrival of the third angel. Those four years that followed after the fulfillment of August 11, 1840, were typified by four years from July 27, 1449, unto 1453 at the beginning of the three hundred and ninety-one years and fifteen days. Both those four-year periods align with the four years of the siege of Nicomedia from 1333 unto 1337. Symbolically, eastern Rome was conquered by Islam three times. First was at the siege of Nicaea in 1331, then the four-year siege of Nicomedia in 1337 and then the siege of Constantinople in 1453.

Diocletian legally divided Rome into east and west in 293, and Constantine prophetically divided Rome into east and west in 330. In 395, upon the death of the emperor Theodosius I, the empire was formally and permanently divided as he bequeathed the east and the west to his two sons. The Catholic church divided into east and west in 1054 at the “great schism.” The division was gradual, as was the demise that followed. The division remains to this very day. Within fifty years from that date, the western church in Rome began roughly two hundred years of crusades against Islam. Western Rome fell when it lost its last emperor in 476. Eastern Rome fell in 1453. Papal Rome fell in 1798. Pagan Rome divided into east and west in 293, 330 and 395. Papal Rome divided into east and west in 1054. Sister White identifies the rise and fall of kingdoms as a primary point of reference in the study of God’s Word.

The kingdoms that are brought out into the light of history from chapter nine of Revelation strengthen the argument that it is Rome that establishes the vision. The prophetic connection between Islam and the one hundred and forty-four thousand is evidence that the message of the midnight cry, which was typified by Christ riding into Jerusalem on an ass, is represented by a time prophecy that began in the time of the first woe, continued on in the second part of the prophecy in the second woe, and reached its fulfillment in the four-year history where the Millerite movement of the first and second angels began with the fulfillment of that very prophecy. The prophecy began with the symbol of “thirty-eight and two years” (1299 and 1301) marking the rise of Islam, and it concluded with the symbol of “thirty-eight and two years” (1838 and 1840) marking the rise of the Millerites.

In 1844, at the conclusion of the Millerites’ four-year period that had been typified by the siege of 1333 unto 1337 and 1449 unto the siege of 1453, prophetic time was no longer to be applied. The lifting up of the ensign of the one hundred and forty-four thousand is directly connected with the prophecy where Islam is lifted up.

The one hundred and forty-four thousand perfectly reflect the character of Christ, and Christ is, among other symbolic representations, “the choice vine.” Ishmael is identified as a “wild” man in Genesis 16:12.

The word translated as “wild” is the wild Arabian ass. Christ’s representatives in the latter days ride upon the message of the wild Arabian ass, the ass that Christ rode into Jerusalem, the ass that finally spoke after Balaam struck him the third time. The messengers that proclaimed the message that empowered the first angel’s message in 1840 did not see a relevant and important one-hundred-and-fifty-year prophecy in the very prophetic history where the message that empowered the movement was located. They did not see two four-year periods in that very same time prophecy that typified the history of 1840 unto 1844. The Lion of the tribe of Judah is now opening up light from the “old paths” that has never been seen before, and it is light that is in agreement with that light that has been opening up since December 31, 2023. It removes any doubts on whether it is Islam that strikes Nashville. The light illuminates the symbol of Rome, thus becoming an omega statement to the alpha controversy in 2024 about the robbers of thy people, and it is also the omega symbol of the argument over the very same symbol in Millerite history. It identifies that Islam of the time prophecies of Revelation nine is the external message during the internal history of the sealing time of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. We have been teaching this fact for some time, but it can now be demonstrated upon one line that begins in Revelation nine and ends in Revelation eleven. The third four-year period connected with Islam’s time prophecy that was fulfilled in 1840 unto 1844 illustrates the sealing time of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. By the great earthquake of Revelation eleven, the one hundred and forty-four thousand are lifted up as an ensign.

In Ezekiel thirty-seven the raising up of God’s people as an army is a two-step process that had been typified by the creation of Adam. First Adam was formed of the clay; then Christ breathed into him the breath of life. In Ezekiel the first prophecy forms the dead bodies, but they are still dead. Then the four winds are breathed upon the bodies and they rise up as a mighty army. The numbers thirty-eight and forty represent those two steps.

We will continue these things in the next article.