Rome Establishes the Vision - Number Two

The correct identification of the power in the last days that is represented as Modern Rome, and therefore the power that “establishes the vision” is essential and salvational. It represents an element of the final testing process of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. The word “vision” in the verse is the same Hebrew word which Solomon chose when he identified why God’s people perish.

All the prophets are speaking more directly concerning the last days than any other period of sacred history, and Solomon’s warning about the need of possessing the “vision” is a life-or-death proposition. Truth always divides and produces two classes of worshippers. In the verse, there is a class that perishes and a class that happily keeps the law. It should be noted however, that Solomon’s counsel is placed in the context of a controversy over “truth.” It is also in the context of the parable of the ten virgins, for the parable of the ten virgins is a primary illustration of the experience of God’s people in the last days.

It is not my intent to point a finger at those that may hold to a different understanding of Modern Rome than I do. My intent is to illustrate that Solomon is addressing two classes of worshippers, which he identifies as a “wise man” and a “fool.” The “fool” is also identified as the “wicked.” The wise and foolish virgins of the parable are also identified in the prophetic line of Daniel chapter twelve as the wise and the wicked.

Solomon and Daniel agree with one another, for all the prophetic testimony aligns in the last days. The wise understand the “increase of knowledge.”

Verse ten identifies the three-step testing process that sifts the virgins, who are called to be among the one hundred and forty-four thousand. In both cases the sifting and testing process is based upon whether the virgins understand the increase of knowledge (the vision) that was unsealed at the time of the end in 1989.

“The time of the end” in the last days was 1989, when verses forty through forty-five of Daniel eleven were unsealed. It was then established that the subject of the verses was the final rise and fall of the king of the north. It was then established that the king of the north in the verses is the papal power of the last days. Inspiration never uses the expression “Modern Rome.” The expression was invented by me, to represent the papal power of the last days, for prophetically “modern” represents the last days. Ellen White never used the expression “Modern Rome.”

There are incorrect views of who the king of the north represents in the last six verses of Daniel eleven, but there is only one correct understanding. The understanding that the king of the north in the verses is the papal power was derived from many prophetic witnesses. Verse forty begins by identifying the papacy receiving a deadly wound in 1798, then verses forty-one through forty-three identify the dynamics involved with the healing of the deadly wound. Verse forty-four describes the message that enrages the papacy and leads into verse forty-five when the papal power comes to its final and complete end. The vision that was unsealed in 1989, is the vision of the final rise and fall of the papal power in the last days. That vision is the increase of knowledge that produces and manifests two classes of worshippers, based upon their acceptance or rejection of the knowledge located in those verses.

According to the very same chapter where the increase of knowledge was unsealed in 1989, the “robbers of thy people,” who “exalt themselves” and ultimately “fall” are the symbol that establishes the “vision.” In the final sifting, the first testing question is who is represented as the “robbers of thy people,” for they are the prophetic symbol that establishes the “vision.” Are the robbers the papal power or are they the United States?

The books of Daniel and Revelation are the same book, representing two witnesses of the same line of prophecy. Daniel is the beginning and Revelation is the ending, and together they represent two witnesses of the truth that is unsealed at the time of the end in 1989.

Daniel describes the purification process that was produced when the Lion of the tribe of Judah unsealed verses forty to forty-five in 1989. At that time a testing process began to determine and manifest who would be the “priests” that make up the covenant people who are the one hundred and forty-four thousand in the last days. Hosea contributes that those who reject the increase of knowledge of the last days will not become one of the priests who make up the one hundred and forty-four thousand.

The book of Revelation identifies that the knowledge that is unsealed and rejected by one class accomplishes their rejection just before probation closes.

The Millerite history illustrates the history of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, and together the Millerites and the one hundred and forty-four thousand represent the beginning and ending of the message and work of the three angels of Revelation chapter fourteen. The parallel histories identify the events connected with the close of probation. The work of both histories has been typified by Elijah and John the Baptist.

The Millerite message identified the “events” connected with the close of probation, as represented by both Elijah and John the Baptist.

In 1989, with the collapse of the Soviet Union the portion of the book of Daniel that related to the last days was unsealed and a testing process began. The test was based upon the ability or inability of God’s people to understand or reject the increase of knowledge that is represented in the last six verses of Daniel chapter eleven; verses that lead to the first verse of chapter twelve, which identifies the “close of probation.” The message of the “events connected with the close of probation” was then unsealed, and the work of those who were the candidates to be the “priests” of the one hundred and forty-four thousand began. Their work was to “understand” and proclaim the message represented in the passage. The message and the work of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, was to present the unsealed message in order to rouse men “to prepare for the solemn events connected with the close of probation.”

The history of John the Baptist and Christ, as well as the history of the Millerites illustrates the message and work of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. Both John and Christ understood their message as representing the close of probation.

Christ presented the destruction of Jerusalem, the same destruction which John had warned the quibbling Jews about, as approaching. Jesus employed the destruction as a symbol of the “wrath” that begins when He, as Michael, stands up in Daniel chapter twelve, verse one.

The warning message proclaimed by John the Baptist and also by Christ was the same warning message, just as the warning message of the Millerites was the same message identifying the events connected with the close of probation as the one hundred and forty-four thousand will proclaim. Three witnesses; John the Baptist, Christ and the Millerites testifying that the work and message of the one hundred and forty-four thousand is a life-or-death testing process accomplished by the increase of knowledge that was unsealed in 1989. The message unsealed at that time is the last day vision that must be understood by the wise if they are to be the “priests” that make up the one hundred and forty-four thousand. If those candidates do not understand that vision, they are identified as wicked, or as fools, and they perish. They and their children are rejected in agreement with their rejection of the vision that is the increase of knowledge.

God’s Word identifies that Rome is the power that exalts itself, robs God’s people, and then falls and establishes the vision. The question of whether Modern Rome is the papal power or the United States is the test that identifies that those candidates are either wise or foolish virgins. The test is a prophetic test derived from the book of Daniel, that is thereafter confirmed and brought to perfection in the book of Revelation. The subject of Modern Rome is not simply a choice between the papal power or the United States, it is the final test for the one hundred and forty-four thousand. It is a prophetic test, and correctly understood it encompasses every representation of the final testing process that is set forth within God’s sanctified prophetic testimony.

The testing process of the time of John the Baptist and Christ was derived from the book of Daniel, as was the testing process in the time of the Millerites. As a prophetic test, the methodology of how truth is established is as essential for those candidates to correctly apply, as is simply holding to the correct view of who is Modern Rome. Whether the correct identification of Modern Rome, or the application of the correct methodology is considered, both elements of the test are couched in the book of Daniel. In Daniel chapter one, Daniel navigated through a three-step testing process beginning with diet, then a visual test, followed by a test accomplished by Nebuchadnezzar, a biblical symbol of the King of the North, the papal power of the last days.

“At the end of the days,” which is prophetically the last days when the one hundred and forty-four thousand are tested, Daniel and the three worthies were found “ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm,” and Daniel had “understanding in all visions and dreams.” Daniel represents the one hundred and forty four thousand, who in the last days understand the increase of knowledge that arrived when Christ, as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, unsealed “that portion of the book of Daniel that related to the last days,” in 1989.

Daniel did not simply understand more than others concerning dreams and visions, he had “understanding in all visions and dreams.” He represents those who employ the methodology of line upon line, for that methodology brings “all visions and dreams” together into one cohesive message. The message that brings together all dreams and visions into one prophetic line identifies the “events connected with the close of probation.” That message is established by the prophetic symbol that is Modern Rome, the power who exalts itself, robs God’s people, and falls.

That power can only be established by applying the correct methodology. Most who profess to study the Bible reject the methodology of line upon line, and some who profess to employ it, misapply the rules that make up the methodology of line upon line. Those rules were first put into the public record by the Millerites, and God’s last day people have been forewarned that those who are actually the messengers of the third angel will be using William Miller’s rules of prophetic interpretation.

William Miller represented the beginning of the three angels of Revelation fourteen, and he was typified by John the Baptist, who was the beginning of the message of which Christ was the ending. Sister White directly aligns the testing process of John the Baptist to Christ with the testing process of the three angels. John began the message, and it was not until just before the cross, when Christ had taken His disciples to Caesarea Philippi, that Jesus then added the details of the message that John had begun. The first truth John identified when He saw Christ, was identifying Christ as the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world.

Then began the three-and-a-half-year period of testing that ended at the cross. After John was murdered just before the cross, Jesus then began to explain that very first statement of John.

Caesarea Philippi is the name of Panium in the time of Christ, and Panium is identified in the verse which follows verse fourteen of Daniel eleven, where the robbers of thy people, who exalt themselves, but fall, are introduced. The message of John the Baptist, inspired and perfect, was the message at the beginning that represented the Millerite message, that had been established upon Miller’s rules. Christ’s message at the ending, built upon and expanded John’s message, and it typified the message at the ending of the three angels, that is based upon Miller’s rules and the details that are added to Miller’s message when the methodology of line upon line arrives at the ending.

To arrive at an incorrect understanding of the symbol that establishes the vision with the symbol of Modern Rome parallels those in the history of Christ that rejected the message of the cross. We are informed that the Jews who rejected the message of John the Baptist could not be benefitted by the teachings of Jesus, and that the history of those Jews that did that very thing represents those who rejected the first angel’s message. The Millerites identified the robbers of thy people, which I later coined with the words, “Modern Rome,” as the papal power.

We will continue these considerations in the next article.