The Book of Daniel - Number Eighty-Four

Truth is established upon the testimony of two or three, and the application of the four abominations of Ezekiel chapter eight, as the four generations of Laodicean Adventism, has several witnesses. In earlier articles it was identified that the seven churches of Revelation chapters two and three not only represented the history of modern Israel from the time of the apostles unto the end of the world, but also that those seven churches represented the history of ancient Israel from the time of Moses unto the time of Christ.

The church of Ephesus represented both the early Christian church, and also ancient Israel from Moses unto the time of the Judges. The church of Smyrna represented the period of persecution from the time of the disciples, unto the Roman emperor Constantine, and also the period of the Judges, when every man did what was right in his own eyes. The church of Pergamos represented the period of compromise from Constantine unto the papacy in 538, but also the period when ancient Israel rejected God and chose a king, and continually compromised with the pagan kingdoms they were surrounded by. The fourth church of Thyatira represented by Jezebel, is the period of papal rule from the year 538 unto 1798, and also the seventy-year captivity of ancient Israel in Babylon.

Those four churches also represent the four generations of Adventism, and provide a witness to applying Ezekiel’s four abominations to the four generations. The rebellion of 1863, was represented by the first generation of ancient Israel as illustrated by the rebellion of Aaron’s golden calf. The first generation includes the counsel given to the church of Ephesus, which identifies that God’s people had left their first love, and needed to repent and return to their first love. In 1863, the first love, as represented by William Miller’s jewels (the foundational truths, especially the “seven times”), were set aside, and God’s people were counselled to return.

The Millerites had struggled with apostate Protestantism, who Jeremiah called the “assembly of mockers,” and waited patiently for the vision to arrive, for when it did arrive it would not lie. The “assembly of mockers” were represented by the old prophet that lied to the prophet of Judah, who had presented the rebuke upon Jeroboam’s counterfeit worship.

The second church of Smyrna represented the period of persecution in the early Christian church, that consisted of genuine martyrs and some who brought persecution upon themselves for less than holy motivations. It also represented the time of the Judges when every man in ancient Israel did whatever seemed right in his own eyes. The generation of rebellion that began in 1888, identified a period of persecution against the Spirit of Prophecy, the chosen messengers of the hour, and the Holy Spirit. It introduced a period when the ancient men of Laodicean Adventism chose to do whatever seemed right in their own eyes, as witnessed by men such as Kellogg, Prescott and Daniells.

The faithful few in that time were to be in mortal spiritual combat with a class that claimed to be Jews, but were not. Despite the positions of leadership, they were of the synagogue of Satan, as testified to by Sister White identifying that some were being directed “by angels that had been expelled from heaven.” They claimed to be wise, but were foolish. There was no condemnation placed upon the wise in that period of time, but an encouragement to be faithful unto death. In 1915, the last words Sister White ever spoke was, “I know in whom I have believed,” for she had been faithful unto death.

The church of Pergamos represented the compromise between truth and error, between paganism and Christianity, in the time of the emperor Constantine, and also the compromise of ancient Israel that occurred during the history of the kings. It represented the mixture of truth and error, which can only produce error. It was represented by the 1919 Bible conference where the publication of the book, “The Doctrine of Christ”, was brought about in order to create an Adventist message that more closely represented the false gospel of apostate Protestantism. It was in the third generation of Adventism where the great compromises of truth occurred.

It was in that generation, beginning in 1919, that the church began the compromise that produced the Church Manual. It was in that generation, beginning in 1919, that the church began the compromise that required accreditation in both the schools of health and religion. It was in that generation that the move to the modern Catholic-based Bibles was initiated. It was in that history that the willingness of the leadership to establish relationships with regimes that were openly anti-Christian occurred.

The practice had been born into infancy in the Civil War, when the Laodicean leadership formed a legal relationship with the government of the United States, in order to have a better outcome for the young men in the church that were to be drafted into the deadliest war in American history, was repeated at the outset of the First World War when the General Conference president, A. G. Daniells, interacted with the German government, giving his approval for Germany to draft and force young men to serve in the military, and to bear arms, and to disregard the Sabbath. That action by Daniells brought about a separation that produced the various splinters of the Seventh-day Adventist Reform movement that exist to this very day.

That compromise continued with Hitler’s Nazi Germany, and thereafter with the nations that made up the Soviet Union, and it is still upheld today in regimes such as China. The compromise of the third generation in its relation to statecraft had been typified by the compromise of the ancient kings of Israel and Constantine as symbolized in the church of Pergamos. That period also represented the compromise of its churchcraft with the false gospel of peace and safety represented by Prescott’s “The Doctrine of Christ”.

The fornication identifies the work of the General Conference in aligning themselves with nations such as Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union under the pretext of maintaining necessary working relationships with the corrupt governments, while disregarding the faithful in those nations that suffered persecution from the various regimes they had joined with. The food sacrificed to idols represented the false methodology of apostate Protestantism and Catholicism that was then firmly established in universities of Laodicean Adventism, that had agreed to be governed by the guidelines of apostate methodologies, both in religion and health.

Jesus illustrated the end of the third generation as he did with the beginning, for He marked the arrival of the fourth generation with the publication of the book, Questions on Doctrine published in 1957, which fully rejected the primary salvation distinction that exists between truth and the erroneous ideas of apostate Protestantism and Catholicism. The book of course has several erroneous teachings, but essentially it teaches that it is impossible to live victorious in Christ, until after a person is miraculously changed at the Second Coming. The book marked the beginning of the generation where the twenty-five ancient men were to bow down to the sun. The political and religious elements necessary to allow the Laodicean Adventist church to accept the worship of Sunday at the soon coming Sunday law had arrived.

The fourth abomination of Ezekiel occurs when the faithful few in chapter nine are receiving a seal upon their foreheads, just before the destroying angels begin their work. The vision begins in verse one, of chapter eight on the fifth day, of the sixth month, of the sixth year. The vision begins the day before the execution of the judgment upon those who bow down to the sun, which is the mark of papal authority, and the number of his name is “666.”

The work of the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand began on September 11, 2001 with the attack upon the earth beast carried out by the third woe of Islam. That attack made the nations angry, and marked the arrival of the latter rain. But the latter rain would only be recognized by those who would be led back to the foundations of Adventism to see that the three Woes of Islam are a foundational truth. At that point in time, those who were led back to the old paths that Jeremiah identifies as “the rest” (which is the latter rain), would either become watchmen that blew the trumpet of the third Woe, or they would be those who refused to hearken to the sound of the trumpet, and thus refusing to walk in the old paths.

They were then tested by the sin of their father’s rebellion of 1863. At the very same point in time, a message arrived of the righteousness of Christ, which is “justification by faith in verity”. It was the Laodicean message of Jones and Waggoner, and it was the message of Ezekiel to the dead dry bones that came from the “four winds”, which are a symbol of Islam of the third woe (the “angry horse” seeking to break loose). Those faithful few were then tested by the sin of their father’s rebellion of 1888, as the mighty angel of Revelation eighteen descended when the great buildings of New York City were thrown down, and Revelation chapter eighteen, verses one through three was fulfilled.

They were then tested by the identification of the message of the latter rain. Was the latter rain a manifestation of the power of God as in past ages, or were the manifestations of God’s power only in the past? The faithful few were then tested by the rebellion of their father’s rebellion in 1919. How the faithful few navigate through those three tests determines whether they will receive the seal of God in their foreheads, or find themselves bowing down to the sun with the twenty-five elders of Laodicean Adventism.

All the rebellions of the four generations of Laodicean Adventism find their counterpart in September 11, 2001. That date, which Isaiah identified as the “day of the east wind,” marks the beginning of the sealing time of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, and the sealing time is a period of time. The ending of the period has been illustrated by the beginning, for Jesus always illustrates the end of a thing with the beginning of a thing. In the final movements of the sealing process the tests that were represented at the beginning of the period are once again repeated.

On September 11, 2001, the tests which were failed by the rebels of Laodicean Adventism as represented by the four abominations of Ezekiel, and by the first four churches of Revelation chapters two and three, arrived, marking the beginning of a testing process that leads either to the mark of the beast, or the seal of God, for those who profess to be Seventh-day Adventists.

The leadership of Laodicean Adventism has been trapped by the cords of their own deceits, and it is virtually impossible for them to “recognize” a repetition of the manifestation of the power of God as represented by previous reformatory movements, including the reform movement that brought Adventism into existence. The ancient men scattered and covered up the doctrines that are represented by Miller’s jewels with counterfeit coins and jewels. The casket of the King James Bible has been relegated to the times of archaic language and replaced with modern language Bibles that are expressed in the terminology of the man of sin.

Were any of the ancient men willing to consider the possibility that the latter rain message is not a peace and safety message, it would be virtually impossible for them to recognize that the manifestations of the power of God in past sacred histories are what specifically identify the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. More difficult yet for them to recognize is that the sacred histories that most directly identify the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand are the sacred histories that fulfill Malachi chapter three, for Malachi chapter three establishes that there is always a messenger who prepares the way for the sudden arrival of the Messenger of the Covenant. That messenger was represented by the prophet Elijah who boldly proclaimed that there would be no rain in his history, except if it comes through his ministry.

Ezekiel’s seventy elders would find it ridiculous to accept that their claim to be the temple of the Lord, was unfounded, and actually represented the claim of a people who were being passed by, just as the vineyard was given to those who bear the fruits worthy of the vineyard. The message of the third Woe, the messenger that prepares the way, the song of the vineyard, all testify against the traditions and customs which they had placed their confidence in, and represents an almost insurmountable obstacle to recognizing the latter rain.

The conclusion of the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand manifests the same tests for those who have claimed to “recognize” the role of Islam of the third Woe. The “increase of knowledge” which launched the movement of the Millerites began at the end of “seven times” in 1798. The “increase of knowledge” which launched the movement of the one hundred and forty-four thousand began at the end of a symbolic “seven times” (one hundred and twenty-six years) in 1989. During those one hundred and twenty-six years of escalating apostasy, Laodicean Adventism has reached its fourth and final generation.

It is the third and fourth generation that a nation or people fill their cup of probationary time, and that time has now arrived. The “increase of knowledge” from the book of Daniel that is represented by the Hiddekel River is also the knowledge that is increased, when the Revelation of Jesus Christ is unsealed just before probation closes.

We will take up the last three chapters of the book of Daniel in the next article.