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

When “the light for that time is given” it is either “received” or “rejected.” The separation that is accomplished when the light is introduced is the work of the everlasting gospel, which includes not only the sealing of God’s people, but the separation of the wheat and the tares. The final testing and separation process began at 9/11, when the prophetic question asks, “how long?” and the prophetic answer is, “until the Sunday law.” The last mention of the symbol of “how long” is found in the fifth seal in the book of Revelation.

Inspiration places the answer to the question of “how long” asked by the “souls of them that were slain” in future, when a second group of papal martyrs is made up. That begins at the Sunday law, and for this reason Sister White identifies Revelation chapter eighteen as the fulfilment of the second group of martyrs. There are two “voices” in the first five verses; the first voice marks 9/11 and the second voice calls men and women out of Babylon at the Sunday law. Sister White identifies the symbol of “how long” in the fifth seal with the first five verses of Revelation eighteen to outline 9/11 to the Sunday law. The focus is not on separation and sealing God’s people, but on the judgment of the papacy for murdering the martyrs of past history and those martyrs during the Sunday law crisis that make up the second group of papal martyrs.

In the other passage where she identifies the martyrs of the fifth seal and the future and second group of martyrs who are made up in the Sunday law crisis, she says those scenes “would be in a period of time in the future.” The two voices of Revelation eighteen represent the “period of time in the future.” The first voice in the beginning at 9/11 and the second voice at the Sunday law

Sister White associates the fulfillment of the formation of the second group of martyrs in the future and in the other passage she quotes Revelation 18:1–5, which identifies a voice in the first three verses and another voice in verses four and five. The first voice marks 9/11 when the great buildings of New York came down and the second voice is the Sunday law when God’s other flock is called out of Babylon. In the second passage she refers to Revelation chapter eight and the first four verses which identify the opening of the seventh seal, when coals from off the altar are cast to the earth which aligns with Pentecost, when fire came from heaven and illuminated the disciples, just as Elijah’s twelve stones were illuminated and as represented by tongues of fire upon the disciples.

How long is a prophetic symbol of the period of time from 9/11 unto the Sunday law which has been typified in the story of Mount Carmel, the history of the Millerites from 1840 to 1844, the history of Moses’ from the eighth to tenth plague, the witness of the martyrs of the fifth seal and in Zechariah the question is asked “how long” would it be until God had mercy upon Jerusalem that had been in Babylon for seventy years.

Sister White directly aligns Zechariah’s “threescore and ten years” (seventy years) that literal ancient Israel was in bondage to literal Babylon with the twelve hundred and sixty years from 538 unto 1798 that spiritual Israel (Christians) were in bondage to spiritual Babylon (Roman Catholicism).

In 1798, at the end of the twelve hundred and sixty years the first of three messages represented as angels in Revelation fourteen arrived. The second arrived on April 19, 1844 and the third on October 22, 1844. The history symbolized by the question, “how long” is from 9/11 unto the Sunday law, and that period of time was typified in the beginning of Adventism in the Millerite movement of August 11, 1840 unto October 22, 1844. That period is symbolically illustrated by John the Revelator in chapter ten when John eats the little book that was sweet in his mouth, but became bitter in his stomach.

The history John is illustrating is represented by the book that was eaten, for the eating represented the Millerites coming to understand the message and their experience in proclaiming that message. So, when John is told immediately after that history is set forth that John must prophesy again, the prophesying that is being identified is the history of 1840 to 1844. John is told that the Millerite history from 1840 to 1844 is repeated in the history of the end of Adventism. As soon as John is told that he must prophesy again he is told to measure the temple.

The work given to Adventism post-October 22, 1844 was represented by John as measuring or building the temple, in agreement with the promise set forth in Zechariah that “a line would be stretched forth upon Jerusalem” again—for the Lord would “yet choose Jerusalem.” The history represented at the beginning of Adventism with the Philadelphian movement of Millerite Adventism is repeated at the ending of Adventism with the Philadelphian movement of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. At the great disappointment of October 22, 1844, a period of time, represented as “the days of the voice of the seventh angel” began.

The message was sweet to the Millerites when the Islamic time prophecy of the second woe was fulfilled just as the Millerites had predicted in advance of August 11, 1840. The message turned bitter in the stomach at the great disappointment of October 22, 1844. As soon as John finishes illustrating the history of 1840 to 1844, he is informed that he must do the very same thing (prophesy) again. Then he is told to measure Jerusalem, and when he does so he is aligning with Zechariah’s prophecy of the Lord choosing Jerusalem. From October 22, 1844 onward prophetic history is represented as the “days of the voice of the seventh angel.” The “days” of the message (voice) of the seventh angel (third woe) represent a period of time when the divinity of Christ would be permanently combined with humanity who were to be the one hundred and forty-four thousand. That work was delayed by the rebellion of 1863, and on 9/11 the sounding of the seventh angel (third woe) once again began to sound.

In sacred history the Lord chose Jerusalem to place His name there, and his “name” is His character. Jerusalem and Zion are referenced by Zechariah when he states, “I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy” and thereafter with, “the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.” Zion is comforted when it receives the Holy Spirit who is the “Comforter.” The comforting of the Holy Spirit began at 9/11 in agreement with Christ breathing on the disciples after His descent from meeting with the Father after His resurrection. The manifestation of the Holy Spirit was greatly increased at Pentecost. That season began with the first fruit offering being resurrected and it ended with the first fruit offering of Pentecost, when the entire world then heard the message.

The one hundred and forty-four thousand are sealed when “their iniquity is pardoned.” This occurs just before the Sunday law as they are lifted up as the Pentecostal first fruit offering while receiving the outpouring of the Holy Spirit without measure as the disciples typified at Pentecost. The sprinkling of rain that began at 9/11 becomes a full outpouring at the Sunday law. In the history the first fruit offering of 9/11 unto the first fruit offering at the Sunday law when the one hundred and forty-four thousand are sealed and prepared as an offering to be lifted up as an ensign from the Sunday law until the close of probation. That history is represented by the first three verses of Revelation eighteen announcing the fall of Babylon, which is the biblical symbol that represents a ‘doubling.’

Throughout the Scriptures a doubling of phrases or words represents the perfect fulfillment of the fall of Babylon in the last days. It is the signature of Alpha and Omega who always illustrates the end of a thing with the beginning of a thing. Babylon’s two falls are represented as Nimrod and Belshazzar. Nimrod was the beginning of Babylon, when it was simply Babel. Nimrod’s fall represented Belshazzar’s fall and the message of the second angel and the angel of Revelation eighteen is that the fall of Nimrod at the beginning of Babylon represented the fall of Belshazzar at the end, for Alpha and Omega always illustrates the end of a thing with the beginning of a thing

Nimrod’s tower was brought down as a symbol of his fall and he typified the fall of the Twin Towers on 9/11. Belshazzar’s fall was the writing on the wall, marking the end of Babylon’s seventy-year reign as the first kingdom of Bible prophecy, and thus typifying the fall of the United States at the end of Isaiah twenty-three’s symbolic “seventy years, according to the days of one king” representing the history of the United States from 1798 unto the Sunday law. Belshazzar’s writing on the wall, represents when the wall of separation of church and state falls at the Sunday law, which is the very point where the sixth kingdom of Bible prophecy ends, just as Belshazzar was slain on that very night. The handwriting on the wall is the law that is written that overturns the wall of separation of church and state in the Constitution.

The ‘history’ represented from 9/11 unto the Sunday law and thereafter to the close of human probation and the seven last plagues is the historical period that is symbolized within God’s word by a doubling of phrases or words. In that period the Holy Spirit is poured out, beginning with a sprinkling from 9/11 unto the Sunday law and thereafter the full outpouring. The Holy Spirit has been represented by Christ as the “Comforter” who, when he came would show God’s people all things.

The Holy Spirit is conveyed to the one hundred and forty-four thousand through the “golden oil,” which is also the “rain,” and is also the “Comforter.” When represented as the “Comforter” the Holy Spirit is identifying a special manifestation of the Holy Spirit.

God’s people have always possessed the Holy Spirit when they have met the requirements of the gospel, but the times of genuine sacred revival, “as in former years,” when a special manifestation of the Holy Spirit for a corporate body, the Holy Spirit is represented as the Comforter. More importantly the corporate body are having their memories’ exercised by the Comforter as he “brings all things to their “remembrance.” This confirms that those people participating in the manifestation have the genuine experience, for the Holy Spirit is participating in the activities of their minds, for he is influencing the thinking process as he brings “all things to your remembrance.”

Human memory combines to make up the higher nature of man with the other components such as judgment, intelligence, reason and conscience, which the apostle Paul labels as “the mind.” The higher nature is either the carnal mind or it’s the mind of Christ.

The lower nature, or flesh is made up of the nervous, emotional, and hormonal systems associated with the senses which are the “avenues of the soul.” The higher nature is designed to rule over the lower and as such is represented as the fortress, and the fortress is constantly under attack from the senses (the lower nature), and the attacks are made against the fortress through the avenues that lead into the fortress. Within the fortress of the higher nature there is a command center, or what Sister White calls the citadel. The citadel is the Most Holy Place in the sanctuary, which is divided into two basic divisions. The courtyard is the flesh, or lower nature, and to come into the courtyard or also to transfer the blood into the holy place required passing through a curtain or veil. The courtyard is bookended by the veils.

The sanctuary is divided into two parts; the courtyard and sanctuary. The sanctuary in turn is divided into two parts as is the higher nature. The higher nature breaks down into two areas. One of those areas is represented as the holy place and the other the Most Holy Place. The holy place represents the mental activities necessary for humanity to function, but the Most Holy Place is the area where God and Man meet. The Most Holy Place is the throne room of God, and those who are converted are seated in heavenly places with Christ.

The verse is taken from a passage where several verses prior, but absolutely in the same flow of thought, Jesus is seated in heavenly places, just as are His people.

Christ and His people are seated together in the Most Holy Place. Christ was resurrected and then sat down in heavenly places and His people are raised up and seated in the throne room of the Most Holy Place. Paul identifies that those who are raised in verse six have been resurrected from sin in the previous verse.

The perfect fulfillment of the passage from Ephesians are the two witnesses of Revelation eleven, eleven who are resurrected and then taken up into heaven as an ensign—but also to be seated in heavenly places. In the Most Holy Place the two witnesses are representing humanity in the very presence of God, and their justification for being seated there is the badge which they each possess. That badge is the seal of God, and the seal of God represents that the human has become one with the divine, and that seal is represented by the fact that the Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit is abiding within the Most Holy Place of ‘their’ higher nature. The Most Holy Place is the throne room of God where divine and human are combined, and it represents the human temple whose higher nature includes a Most Holy Place where both divinity and humanity are seated together.

The outpouring of the “Comforter” is the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand and it marks a change in salvational history, for at that time, the church changes from the church militant to the church triumphant. At that time, it changes from the Laodicean movement of the one hundred and forty-four thousand unto the Philadelphian movement of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. At that time, it changes from the experience of the seventh church unto the experience of the sixth church and the sixth church was the Millerites. A prophetic characteristic of the sixth church of Philadelphia as it was fulfilled by the Millerite movement, is that it was never a church. It was only a movement all the way to 1856 when both of the Whites identified the movement as Laodicean. Seven years later the legal church was formed.

The salvational change at the Sunday law was typified by the salvational change at Pentecost which marked the inauguration of Christ as High Priest.

When the latter rain is poured out without measure upon the one hundred and forty-four thousand at the Sunday law it will be “Heaven’s communication” that the church militant has ended and the church triumphant has arrived. The inauguration of Christ at Pentecost in the sanctuary above, typifies the anointing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand at the Sunday law.

The “Pentecostal” outpouring identifying that Christ was the Anointed One represented His anointing in the inaugural ceremony in heaven, but He had also been anointed at His baptism. His baptism (9/11) unto Pentecost (the Sunday law) is also represented again three and a half years after His baptism by His actual death, burial and resurrection (feast of first fruits). 9/11 is therefore represented at His baptism and also at His resurrection. His symbolic resurrection and his literal resurrection mark the beginning of two prophetic lines that each end at Pentecost. Both histories begin with the resurrection of the first fruit offering.

Christ is the first fruit offering at His resurrection marking the beginning of the “Pentecostal season” which ends with the first fruit offering of Pentecost. Christ’s resurrection is barley and the wheat are those who “afterward” “are Christ’s at his coming.” Those who are “afterward” of Christ’s resurrection are “they that are Christ’s at his coming,” thus representing the final ingathering of faithful souls at the end of the world, as represented by those three thousand souls that were gathered at Pentecost.

The verse also addresses the resurrection in terms of death. Death began with Adam and passes upon all men, but it does so “in” “order.” In the book of Acts Peter records that when the book of Joel was then being fulfilled, men were to send their sins beforehand to judgment that they might be blotted out, when the times of refreshing came from the presence of the Comforter. Christ was not looking at the books of judgment to blot out sin at that time, for judgment was over eighteen hundred years in the future.

The reference to “every man in his order” begins with Adam, and thus identifies the judgment of the dead from Adam onward until the times of refreshing arrive. When the latter rain arrives, the judgment passes from the dead unto the living. In the period of time represented by the verse (from Christ’s resurrection unto Pentecost), from the barley first fruits until the first fruits of the wheat, the rain is falling during the judgment of the living and as the rain falls, the message represented by the rain is separating the wheat from the tares. At the Sunday law, which is Pentecost, the wheat no longer is mixed with tares and the first fruit wheat offering of two wave loaves is lifted up. The purification process from 9/11 unto the Sunday law is also represented in Malachi three when the Messenger of the Covenant purifies and also purges the Levites and He does so by “fire.” “Fire” is a symbol of a message as represented by tongues of fire at Pentecost. In the history under consideration the separation of the two classes which produces the one hundred and forty-four thousand who are the two wave loaves represented by the first fruits of Pentecost were to be thoroughly baked, for they were the only offering that included an emblem of sin.

Those two wave loaves were leavened, and leaven is a symbol of sin. That leaven was destroyed in the fire of the oven, as represented by the refiner’s fire of the Messenger of the Covenant. Isaiah in chapter twenty-seven identifies a debate that begins at 9/11, which he calls “the day of the east wind.” The passage teaches that it is through the debate that the sins of Israel are atoned for. The “debate” is between the true latter rain message and all the other false latter rain messages that exist. A message is “fire,” and “fire” is what the Messenger of the Covenant employs to purify and purge. The debate over the latter rain message removes the leaven from the Pentecostal first fruit wheat offering that is lifted up at the Sunday law. The one hundred and forty-four thousand are the Pentecostal first fruit wheat offering, who overcome by the justification of His blood and the sanctification of their testimony for even though it is the Word that sanctifies it only does so when the word is conveyed as a message. The presentation of the message allows the one hundred and forty-four thousand to live and the presentation of a false latter rain message produces death.

The one hundred and forty-four thousand follow Christ in overcoming as He overcame, for prophetically they follow Christ.

Here in verse four of Revelation fourteen the one hundred and forty-four thousand are identified as “first fruits.” They are also identified as “virgins” and inspiration has informed us that the parable of the ten virgins of Matthew twenty-five illustrates the experience of the Adventist people. Not only are they “virgins” they are not “defiled with woman,” for the testing and separation process that produced the one hundred and forty-four thousand produced a distinction between the one hundred and forty-four thousand and “all” the false religions. “These” follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth, and as first fruit offerings they must follow Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.

In Revelation chapter eleven, verse eleven the two witnesses that are to be lifted up as an ensign are first killed, then in three and a half days they are resurrected as a first fruit offering, as was Christ. The first fruit offering that was and is Christ, included the blood of the covenant being shed in order to redeem those who had been bankrupt with a Laodicean experience. In one verse, (verse four) all this brief summary of the various lines of prophetic light associated with the one hundred and forty-four thousand is set forth. And it is set forth in Revelation 144 by the hand of Palmoni, the wonderful numberer. A doubling in Scripture represents the history of the latter rain and the latter rain is where and when the Comforter is poured out upon God’s people.

Zion H6726 is the same as H6725 which means “the sense of conspicuousness; a monumental or guiding pillar: – sign, title, waymark.” Zion is a symbol of the ensign of the one hundred and forty-four thousand and in the passage they have already received the latter rain for they have already published and presented the good tidings of peace. Just as specific to that fact is that they see “eye to eye” which represents the disciples at Pentecost, for the ten days prior to Pentecost represents a period of unification. The Lord “hath,” (representing past tense) has already accomplished three things for those who bring good tidings. He hath “comforted his people,” “redeemed Jerusalem” and “made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations.”

He “comforted” His people at 9/11, marking the beginning of a testing process of Malachi chapter three that concludes at the Sunday law when He lifts up the ensign of the first fruit offerings as represented by making “bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations.” He comforts, redeems and lifts up the one hundred and forty-four thousand. At 9/11 He comforts and begins the purification process where He redeems His people and then lifts them up as an ensign, or as Malachi says “the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant” “as in days of old.”

We will bring our considerations of “how long” to a conclusion in the next article.