The Book of Daniel - Number One-Hundred and Nineteen

The one-hundred and forty-four thousand are represented as those who are purified by the Messenger of the Covenant, and the great multitude are represented by the white robes of martyrdom. The first of the two sacred periods of the last days identifies the work of the messenger who prepares the way for the Messenger of the Covenant, and the second period represents the work of Elijah. The first period represents the investigative judgment of the living of Laodicean Adventism and the second period represents the executive judgment of modern Rome.

The “sign” to flee the cities in the last days has been misunderstood by Laodicean Adventism. Sister White informs us the destruction of Jerusalem from 66 to 70 AD provides an illustration of the warning sign for God’s people in the last days.

The siege of Jerusalem which was the sign to flee was the first siege brought by Cestius. Cestius therefore represented a threat that was temporarily removed, for once he set the siege, he then withdrew mysteriously, and historians have never been able to determine his logic for doing so.

In the 1880’s and 1890’s Senator Henry W. Blair from New Hampshire introduced a series of bills in Congress to designate Sunday as the National Day of Rest. These bills were commonly referred to as “Blair Sunday Bills.” Senator Blair was a strong advocate for observing Sunday as a day of rest and religious observance. He believed that a uniform day of rest would have positive moral and social effects on American society. While his efforts gained some support, especially from religious groups, they also faced opposition, including concerns about the separation of church and state.

This was the first attempt to pass Sunday legislation in the history of the earth beast that was destined to speak as a dragon when it ultimately will pass a Sunday law. It was these series of Blair bills that A. T. Jones, one of the messengers of the 1888 General Conference session, went into the halls of Congress and so eloquently opposed. After a few attempts Senator Blair lost the momentum for his push for a National Day of Rest. In direct connection with that history, and the implications of a National Day of Rest (Sunday), the historical record of the counsel of Ellen White can be reviewed.

What is found in the review of her warnings of the Sunday law, is serious and widely misunderstood in Laodicean Adventism. In the context of needing to be out of the cities, which in the passage just cited, she wrote that, “it will then be time to leave the large cities, preparatory to leaving the smaller ones for retired homes in secluded places among the mountains.” She repeatedly taught that God’s people needed to live in the country, but her counsels on the subject of country living before 1888 places her direction to leave the cities in the context that in the near future God’s people would need to leave the cities. After 1888, in her written direction concerning country living, she never deviated from the counsel that we should already be out of the cities.

The Blair National Day of Rest bills that arrived in history were the “sign” to leave the cities, and though the Blair bills lost the momentum necessary to accomplish the task, and withdrew into the darkness of history, the “sign” to flee had been given. It had been given at the historical waymark of the first siege, that was brought by Cestius. The soon-coming Sunday law is represented by the siege of Titus, and if any Laodicean Adventists are still in the cities when that siege arrives, they will die with the wicked.

There are two prophetic periods in the last days. They are separated by the soon-coming Sunday law. The first period is the investigative judgment of the living in Laodicean Adventism, and the second period is the executive judgment of the whore of Rome. Those two periods are repeatedly illustrated, for it is in those two periods that the parable of the ten virgins is fulfilled to the very letter, as it was in Millerite history. The tarrying time in the parable is the tarrying time of Habakkuk chapter two, so the two periods we are considering were also illustrated by Habakkuk chapter two. The parable of the ten virgins, and Habakkuk chapter two, were fulfilled to the very letter in Millerite history, and when they were, Ezekiel chapter twelve, verses twenty-one to twenty-eight was also fulfilled.

The last eight verses from Ezekiel chapter twelve, identify a time when the “effect of every vision” will be fulfilled, at a time when God would “no longer prolong” His visions. The two periods of history that are repeated so often and identify the investigative judgment of the living in Laodicean Adventism, and the executive judgment of the whore of Tyre, is the prophetic period where every vision within the Bible reaches its perfect and final fulfillment. In that period the one hundred and forty-four thousand are established, and they represent the class that does not die, and live until Christ returns. In Luke chapter twenty-one Christ identifies a “sign” that identifies when that generation has arrived.

In the two histories represented by the “sign” to flee, as set forth by Christ in connection with the abomination of desolation, two periods are marked, and their beginning and endings have a “sign” at the beginning of the period and “signs” at the ending. The “sign” that Christ identified as representing the final generation who would live until He came in the clouds is the evidence that we are now in the final generation of earth’s history.

In Luke chapter twenty-one, Jesus identifies the history from the three and a half years trampling down and destruction of literal Jerusalem from the year 66 unto the year 70, unto the end of the three and a half years of trampling down of spiritual Jerusalem that began in 538 and ended in 1798.

The “times” of the Gentiles trampling down Jerusalem is in the plural, for it represents the trampling down of literal Jerusalem that ended in the year 70, and the trampling down of spiritual Jerusalem that ended in 1798. The Gentiles represent both paganism and papalism, and it is those two powers that are the subject of the vision in the question of Daniel chapter eight, that asks, “How long.”

The “times of the Gentiles” in Luke chapter twenty-one, is referring to the twenty-five hundred and twenty years of God’s vengeance upon the northern kingdom which began in 723 BC and concluded in 1798. The year 538 marks when the man of sin stood in the holy place and proclaimed that he was God, thus dividing the period into two equal periods of twelve hundred and sixty years. The second period of twelve hundred and sixty years is the same history that is marked as concluding in Luke chapter twenty-one, verse twenty-four, when the “times of the Gentiles” was fulfilled. In the historical narrative that Jesus is identifying for His disciples verse twenty-four brings the testimony given to the disciples to the “time of the end” in 1798. From there Jesus begins to identify the “signs” associated with the Millerite movement.

Jesus states that “there shall be signs,” and He identifies them as signs in the sun and moon, and in the stars, the distress of nations, the powers of heaven being shaken and then the Son of man comes in a cloud. All these “signs,” were fulfilled in the Millerite history.

The triple application of the three Rome’s identify that in the trampling down of Jerusalem by pagan Rome and then by papal Rome, the trampling down of the sanctuary and the host by modern Rome was represented by a period of either twelve hundred and sixty days (pagan Rome), or twelve hundred and sixty prophetic years (papal Rome). The symbolic twelve hundred and sixty days (forty-two months) identifying the period of modern Rome’s persecution of God’s faithful people will be each period with a singular “sign” that identifies the time of flight for the faithful of that period. Each of the three periods ends with a manifestation of several “signs,” not a singular “sign” as at the beginning of the period.

The period of the executive judgment upon the whore of Rome begins with the lifting up of the ensign that identifies that God’s other flock that is still in Babylon should flee. That period ends with “signs and wonders.” That period begins with the “second voice” of Revelation chapter eighteen, and it ends with the voice of God. Of course, the first and second voices of Revelation chapter eighteen is the voice of Christ. The first voice identifies the beginning of the investigative judgment of the living Laodicean Adventist church, and the second voice identifies the end of that period, but also marks the beginning of the executive judgment upon the whore of Rome.

The complete history is governed by the week in which Christ confirmed the covenant, and the soon-coming Sunday law is typified as the middle waymark as typified by the cross. Both histories possess the signature of Alpha and Omega, for the beginning and ending in either history is represented by God’s voice. They also represent the truth, for the middle waymark is the rebellion of the Sunday law, and the Hebrew word “truth” was created with the first, thirteenth and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The first voice of Revelation chapter eighteen is the voice of Christ, the last voice is the voice of God, and the voice in the middle, also being the voice of God, is also where the rebellion of the thirteenth letter is represented by the earth beast “speaking” as a dragon, as represented in Revelation chapter THIRTEEN.

The ensign at the soon-coming Sunday law represents the “sign” to flee for God’s faithful, but it also identifies that the beginning of the prophetic period that ends with the ensign being lifted up must also have a “sign.” That “sign” is what Jesus identifies as evidence that the last generation of planet earth has arrived. In Luke chapter twenty-one the disciples ask what Christ meant when He identified that the temple was going to be destroyed.

Jesus then begins to identify the history that leads to the year 70 when the temple and city would be destroyed, and continues on to verse twenty-four where He identifies when the “times” of the Gentiles would be fulfilled.

The idea that this verse is referring to literal Jerusalem is based upon the Catholic theological foolishness called futurism, that applies symbolic literally and places the fulfillment of the prophecies exclusively at the end of the world. The attack upon the correct application of this verse has been a major attack of Satan throughout the reading of the New Testament. Literal Jerusalem ceased to be the symbol of prophetic Jerusalem in the time of Christ, when literal prophecy changed the spiritual application. This revelation was a major teaching established by the apostle Paul. The trampling down of Jerusalem identifies the twelve hundred and sixty years of papal darkness from the year of 538 to 1798.

Jerusalem of prophecy ceased to be the symbol of the chosen city at the cross.

Once Jesus led the disciples to the time of the end in 1798 in verse twenty-four, He then introduced the Millerite time when the announcement of the first angel arrived into history.

The signs that introduced the Millerite history were fulfilled in agreement with the never-failing power of God’s Word.

We will continue Luke chapter twenty-one in the next article.