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

In Isaiah twenty-eight the “scornful men which rule” “Jerusalem” are represented as the “drunkards of Ephraim,” and as the “crown of pride.” “Crown” represents leadership and “pride” represents a satanic character.

The drunkards are contrasted with the remnant (“residue”) who become God’s “crown” of glory, for during the latter rain the Lord sets up His “kingdom of glory” as typified by Him setting up the “kingdom of grace” at the cross. The kingdom of grace at the cross typifies the kingdom of glory at the Sunday law. The latter rain began on 9/11 when the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand and the judgment of the living began.

The four winds of Revelation are also represented by Isaiah as a rough wind that had been stayed during the day of the east wind, as are Revelation’s four winds of strife held in check by the four angels. The four winds are identified as an “angry horse seeking to break loose” bringing “death and destruction” by Sister White. The four winds are progressively released, beginning at 9/11 then greatly amplified at the Sunday law, and then fully loosed when human probation closes.

The seventh trumpet, which is also the third woe, which announces the finishing of the mystery of God was prophetically sounded at 9/11 when Islam was released and then prophetically restrained by George W. Bush post-911. The mother of Islam, Hagar, Ishmael’s mother is a symbol of restraint and release. She was released by Sarah to procreate with Abraham by Sarah, then because of jealousy she was restrained by Sarah, causing Hagar to run away, until the angel restrained Hagar from running and told her to return. After the birth of Isaac, the strife of Hagar and Sarah continued until Abraham cast out the bondwoman, thus placing another restraint upon her.

The four angels of Islam were released at the beginning of the three hundred and ninety-one year and fifteen-day prophecy of Revelation chapter nine verse fifteen and they were then restrained on August 11, 1840.

After Islam of the third woe was released to attack at 9/11, George W. Bush initiated his worldwide war on terrorism and put a restraint on Islam. The first mention of Ishmael, the symbol of Islam identifies that Ishmael descendants would be against every man and every man would be against them.

Islam is the power at the end of the world that “every man’s hand” will be against, and Islam will be against every man, just as it is being perfectly fulfilled today. The particular work of Islam as a symbol of prophecy is to bring about a world war. This subject is confirmed by the story of Elijah, John the Baptist and is represented as “the angering of the nations” in the book of Revelation.

In the “days” when the latter rain is falling, Christ sets up His kingdom of glory as represented in the book of Daniel.

In the “days” when Christ sets up His kingdom of glory, those who are Christ’s “crown” of glory are contrasted with the drunkards who wear the “crown” of pride. Habakkuk’s “vision” that was to be written and made plain upon “tables” graphically illustrates the historical witness of the foundational truths of Adventism. In Habakkuk’s testimony Joel’s two classes of either “pride” or “glory” are represented as a class who are—justified by faith or who are—lifted up in pride. Verse four of chapter two addresses the two classes and they parallel the classic illustration of the Pharisee and the Publican. The Publican went home justified and the Pharisee’s “soul” is “not upright” for it is “lifted up.”

In the next verse Habakkuk identifies the class whose hearts are lifted up in pride as drunk, thus connecting Isaiah’s and Habakkuk’s drunks with “pride.”

It is worth remembering that these verses in Habakkuk were not only fulfilled in Millerite history, but their fulfillment was a common subject of both Ellen White and the early pioneers of Adventism. Those who were justified by the faith represented in verse four of Millerite history were those who endured the crisis of the first disappointment, which marked both the tarrying time and the arrival of the second angel’s message announcing the fall of Babylon. The Millerites understood within that testing history that the former covenant people, who had been historically Protestants had become the daughters of Babylon. Those Protestants were Protestants represented by the church of Sardis, representing a covenant people, for they had a “name”, symbol of both character and covenant relationship, but they were dead.

In the testing process of 1844 that began on April 19 and thereafter ended on October 22—those who failed the testing process were lifted up in pride, and if we would but read the verses that follow verse five, the characteristic of human pride is there exemplified with an illustration of papal arrogance and self-exaltation. It ends in verse twenty where it is pronounced that the Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silent.

Verse two of Habakkuk chapter two identifies the first disappointment of April 19, 1844 and the chapter ends in verse twenty, which clearly marks October 22, 1844 when the Lord came suddenly to His temple.

Verses three and four identify the two classes which are produced in the testing process of verse two through to verse twenty, the testing process of April 19, 1844 unto October 22, 1844. Verse four through nineteen are addressing the papal power with the exception of verse fourteen which addresses the history that follows the descent of the angel of Revelation chapter eighteen at 9/11.

In the testing process of the second angel in Millerite history two classes of worshippers were developed and thereafter manifested at the crisis of October 22, 1844. The character of the wicked in the passage is the character of the papacy, and in that testing period the faithful Millerites came to proclaim in agreement with the message of the second angel that the Protestant church had become the daughters of Rome through their rejection of the Millerite message. The controversy that unfolded between the starting at April 19 and the ending on October 22 is where character either as a proud drinker of Babylon’s wine as was Belshazzar or as someone who like Daniel before Belshazzar was justified by his faith. That controversy is where the drama unfolds that awakens the world to the eternal realities associated with the third angel’s message. The backdrop of the drunk verses the justified is placed within the context of the argument being how the world is enlightened to the issues, “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” That enlightening began at 9/11.

At the conclusion of the history represented in Habakkuk chapter two the Lord suddenly came to His temple on October 22, 1844. He did so in fulfillment of the prophecy that He set forth as Palmoni in verse fourteen of Daniel eight.

On the tenth day of the seventh month of the biblical calendar, which in 1844 fell upon the twenty-second day of the tenth month, Habakkuk 2:20 was fulfilled, and the symbolical number “220” can be seen in the ‘chapter and verse’ which identifies a dispensational change in the work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary. A prophetic characteristic of the one hundred and forty-four thousand is that they are those who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. To follow Christ means to follow Him in His Word.

In His Word, the number “220” symbolically represents the combination of divinity and humanity, and the very work Christ began on that date was the work of combining His divinity with humanity. In 1844 on the twenty-second day of the tenth month, or symbolically twenty-two times ten equaling “220” (22 X 10 = 220) or you might say, on the very date that equates symbolically to “220,” Habakkuk “2:20” was fulfilled as Christ moved from the holy place to the Most Holy Place to begin the investigative judgment.

Palmoni, the Wonderful Number stands within the ‘question and answer’ that is the central pillar of Adventism and most Adventists are fully unaware of that truth.

Daniel chapter eight verses thirteen and fourteen represent a question in verse thirteen that is followed by an answer in verse fourteen. The Hebrew word Palmoni is translated as “that certain saint” in verse thirteen, and that particular name of Christ means the Wonderful Numberer or the Numberer of Secrets.

When Ellen White identifies that verse fourteen is the central pillar and foundation of Adventism, she places the divine emphasis upon the question and answer of these two verses which demands that Christ as the Wonderful Numberer must be the primary point of reference. Sister White repeatedly emphasized the importance of viewing Christ as the central truth of any passage, and in verses thirteen and fourteen there is a direct appearance of Christ—“that certain saint,”—who is Palmoni.

When Adventism rejected the “seven times” of Leviticus twenty-six in 1863, they closed their eyes to Palmoni, for the prophetic structure of the question and answer is based upon the relationship of Moses’ “seven times” and Daniel’s “twenty-three hundred days.” Moses’ “seven times” or twenty-five hundred and twenty years and Daniel’s “twenty-three hundred evenings and mornings” or twenty-three hundred years prophetic relationship is established by time, which is represented by numbers, and the Wonderful Numberer is right in the center of the question and answer that are the central pillar of Adventism. Those who may have read the writings of Josephus might remember his logical arguments identifying two special things created by God. One was the Hebrew language and the other was measurable time, which in turns requires mathematics.

Verse thirteen asks “How long?” The verse does not ask “when,” it asks “how long?” If the question is about duration (how long?) or if the question is about a point in time (when?) is essential to correctly understand. The answer to the question in verse fourteen is either identifying a point in time, or a period of time and possibly both, but whatever the answer may be it must be set within the context of the question of verse thirteen. To rightly divide the word, or that is to say to rightly understand the answer of verse fourteen requires a correct understanding of the context of the question. Is it “when” or “then?”

The drunkards of Ephraim vaguely teach that verse fourteen is identifying a point in time, which they identify as October 22, 1844, and when they do so they may very well refer to the passage we just cited from The Great Controversy, but God’s Word never changes and it never fails. The question of “how long” is identifying duration, not a point in time. October 22, 1844 began the period of the investigative judgment and the truths associated with that work represent the everlasting gospel and are much more important than simply the date it started.

The Hebrew grammar is clear, and that identical meaning was translated into the King James Version. Not only is the grammar clearly placing the question in the context of duration, but the question “how long” is a symbol of biblical prophecy. It can be demonstrated upon several witnesses that the question “how long” as a symbol represents the history of 9/11 unto the Sunday law. We will first consider the symbol of “how long” before we return to Palmoni and Joel.

In Isaiah chapter six verse three the angels identify that the earth is full of God’s glory.

Sister White connects the descent of the angel of Revelation eighteen with the angels if verse three.

Isaiah is at 9/11 and he asks “how long” he must present the message of 9/11 to a Laodicean people who do not wish to see or hear. He is told he must persevere until the cities are broken down, and the destruction of the cities, which begins at the Sunday law when national apostasy is followed by national ruin.

At 9/11, when the earth was lightened with God’s glory Isaiah is anointed to present the latter rain message and he asks “how long” does he need to present the message of 9/11 to people whose hearts are fat? The answer is “until” the Sunday law, when there will be “a great forsaking in the midst of the land.” The “great forsaking” is accomplished by Laodicean Adventism who Isaiah in chapter twenty-two, represents as Shebna.

Laodicean Adventism forsake the truth at the Sunday law and are there “overthrown” as represented in Daniel chapter eleven verse forty-one.

When Isaiah asks “how long,” he is told to present the message to Adventism right up to the Sunday law when the “many” of Daniel eleven verse forty-one will be “overthrown,” when they forsake the Sabbath and God. They will then be spewed out of the mouth of the Lord as represented in the book of Revelation, where all the books of the Bible meet and end, and where Isaiah twenty-two Shebna being “violently” tossed “like a ball into a large country” as they are “removed” “far away.”

In that time period the remnant, represented as a “tenth” (which is a tithe) “return”; who in the passage are compared to trees which have “substance” that remains when the leaves are cast off. “Leaves” represent profession in prophetic symbolism. When Adventism comes to the Sunday law and accepts the first day of the week in place of God’s Sabbath, they will cast off their leaves of “profession” and no longer claim to uphold God’s seventh-day Sabbath.

At the Sunday law Laodicean Adventism’s profession of being God’s covenant people is gone as they accept the mark of the covenant of death and reject the seal of the covenant of life. They then cast off their leaves of profession and what is brought to view is a remnant represented by Isaiah, who at 9/11 “returned” to the old paths, were then humbled into the dust when they (Isaiah) realized his corrupted experience, and was thereafter purified with a coal from off the altar. Sister White informs us the coal from the altar represents purification, but purification is simply what is accomplished by the coal touching Isaiah’s lips.

The “coal” from the altar that are cast to earth in the last days are the coals cast to earth when the seventh and final seal is opened in the first five verses of Revelation chapter eight. Isaiah, and therefore the one hundred and forty-four thousand are purified by the coal touching their lips, but the “coal” is a message. It touches their lips when they take the book out of the angel’s hand and eat.

Those who “return” and become the remnant (residue) are represented as being the oak and teal trees, and just as Christ had “invested the tree with moral qualities, and made it the expositor of divine truth” Isaiah’s trees have the “moral quality” within them as represented by the “substance.” The substance remains with the trees, even when those who were only leaves of profession are cast off. The “holy seed” is the “substance” and Christ is the “holy seed” of prophecy. Those trees who are represented as the remnant and by Isaiah himself in chapter six represents men and therefore humanity and the holy seed represent divinity. Thus, Isaiah six identifies the purification of Adventism from 9/11 unto the Sunday law, and the details which Isaiah contributes to that prophetic history are all represented by his question of “how long”. For Isaiah the answer to “how long” was from 9/11 unto the Sunday law.

August 11, 1840 typified 9/11 and with the prophetic history of August 11, 1840 unto October 22, 1844 the battle of Mount Carmel between Elijah and Jezebel’s prophets took place. Ultimately the prophets of Baal were demonstrated to be false prophets and executed by Elijah, but at the very outset of the confrontation Elijah asked the question, “how long” halt you between two opinions.

Elijah is at August 11, 1840; asking that generation whether the Millerite message is true or is it false? It is another message to Laodicea, as was Isaiah six.

In the testing history of 1840 to 1844 the Protestants who rejected the message of Elijah became the daughters of Rome and surrendered the mantle of Protestantism unto Millerite Adventism. With Isaiah and Elijah, we have two witnesses which testify to the fact that the question “how long” is a symbol of the history that begins at 9/11 and ends at the Sunday law. In the Millerite history August 11, 1840 aligns with 9/11, and October 22, 1844 aligns with the Sunday law. When fire came down out of heaven and consumed Elijah’s offering the twelve stones were all illuminated with the offering, thus marking the one hundred and forty-four thousand as an ensign represented as illuminated stones. The false prophets were then slain by Elijah just as the United States, the false prophet is slain as the sixth kingdom at the Sunday law.

Isaiah six is emphasizing a testing, purging and purification process among God’s people from 9/11 unto the Sunday law. Elijah is addressing the Laodicean attitude of God’s people, but also providing evidence between a true and false prophet and in turn a true or false message. Thus, beginning from August 11, 1840 and ending on October 22, 1844 a prophetic test was brought upon the Protestants of the period of Sardis, and just as the fire at Mount Carmel produced a division into two classes, two classes were manifested in 1844. One class in the testing process was the soon-to-be “former” covenant people, and the other class was Millerite Adventism that God would enter into covenant with on October 22, 1844. The period of testing and division is the story of the vineyard as Millerite Adventism was shown to be the true prophet at the same point that Sardian Protestantism began to fulfill its role as apostate Protestantism. Just as the prophets of Baal were exposed as false, so to was the former covenant people exposed and then identified by the Millerites as a daughter of Rome. The story of Mount Carmel and also the fulfillment of that history in the time of the Millerites provides a second witness to Isaiah six’s that the question, “how long” is a symbol of the period of time from 9/11 unto the Sunday law.

The first time the symbolic question, “how long” is raised in the prophetic Word is in the eighth plague upon the Egyptians in the time of Moses. The eighth plague is “locusts” (a symbol of Islam) that are brought by an “east wind” (a symbol of Islam).

First “the Lord God of the Hebrews” asks, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me?” and then Pharaoh’s servants thereafter asked Pharaoh again, “How long shall this man be a snare unto us?” The question is asked during the eighth plague, which aligns with 9/11 for several reasons. The tenth plague is the slaying of the first born, which aligns with the cross and is followed by the disappointment by the Red Sea, which inspiration aligns with the disappointment of the disciples at the cross, which aligns with the great disappointment of the Millerites in 1844. Those three witnesses all align with the Sunday law. The tenth plague is the Sunday law and two plagues earlier the eighth plague brought the “locusts” upon an “east wind.” The “locusts” filled the entire earth, just as Islam is shaking the entire world today as it has spread its darkness through forced immigration. The “desert locust’s” Latin name is “locusta migratoria,” representing the spread of Islam through immigration that is typified in the natural world as migration.

The ninth plague was a darkness that could be felt.

In the symbolism of “how long” represented by Mount Carmel and Elijah there is a distinction manifested when the fire comes down out of heaven. Elijah’s God did what Baal cannot do. In Millerite history the distinction was made between fallen Sardian Protestantism and Millerite Adventism. With Moses the distinction was darkness or light. There was light in the Hebrew homes. Isaiah further informs us that those who have no light in Moses line, who are also those destroyed by Elijah, and those who lose the mantle of Protestantism in the Millerite time period are a “people” who “hear” “indeed, but understand not; and see” “indeed, but perceive not.” Then a pronouncement is made of these people which states, “Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.”

Willing to do the work, but overwhelmed with the assignment to preach to those who will not listen Isaiah “then said,” “Lord, how long?”

The last three of Egypt’s ten plagues provide a witness of the three steps from 9/11 unto the Sunday law. On August 11, 1840 the first angel’s message was empowered, and on April 19, 1844 the second angel arrived and was empowered at the Exeter Camp Meeting August 12–17, and the third angel arrived on October 22, 1844. The third angel aligns with the Sunday law, and therefore identifies a three-step process for you cannot have a third, without a first and a second.

The tenth plague of Egypt has been aligned by inspiration with the cross and the following disappointment associated with it. The tenth plague is therefore the third message, which of prophetic necessity must be preceded by a first and second message. At 9/11 the Lord asked Pharaoh, “how long” and immediately thereafter Pharaoh’s servants also asked, “how long.” After Moses delivered God’s question of “how long” to Pharaoh, and just before the servants repeat the question of Moses to Pharaoh, Moses marks a turning point as, “he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh.” Exodus 10:6.

9/11 was a prophetic turning point, that was typified when Moses delivered the plague of locusts that came on the east wind.

The next plague produced darkness or light depending on which class you were in. 9/11 was a “turning point in the history of nations and of the church.” At that point God’s people were called to return and walk in the old paths, but they refused to walk therein and hearkened not to the sound of the trumpet. A separation between darkness and light was accomplished after Elijah, and Moses asked, “how long?” She further states in the passage:

We will continue the subject of “how long” in the next article.