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# The Book of Joel and The Laodicean Seventh-day Adventist Church - Number Forty-Three

Number Forty-Three

Author

Jeff Pippenger

Published

February 9, 2026

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Key Takeaways

- The number eighty-one symbolizes the eighty human priests combined with the Divine High Priest and corresponds with the silence in heaven when the seventh seal is opened in Revelation 8:1 and Habakkuk 2:20.
- December 31, 2023 marks the close of the three and a half prophetic days from July 18, 2020 and begins the measuring of the temple in Revelation 11:1–2, leaving off the courtyard given to the Gentiles.
- The period from December 31, 2023 to the Sunday law is presented as the Pentecostal season of Leviticus 23, representing the temple of the one hundred and forty-four thousand.
- Thirty days of special instruction symbolize Christ teaching and sealing a priesthood, paralleling His post-resurrection ministry and the forty-six years from 1798 to 1844.
- Three sequential tests—foundation, temple, and litmus—culminate in the threefold waymark of trumpet, ascension, and judgment, five days before the Sunday law.
- The foundational test in 2024 centers on accepting the message and messenger, typified by historical rebellions such as Korah, 1888, and the rejection of Miller’s identification of Rome in Daniel 11:14.
- The temple test involves measuring the temple, aligning prophetic lines through the methodology of line upon line, and discerning the true and counterfeit jewels in Miller’s dream.

A symbol of the eighty human priests combined with the Divine High Priest is the number “81,” which is where we find Miller’s Dream in the book Early Writings. In Revelation “81” we find that when the very last seal is removed, there is silence in heaven for half an hour. Habakkuk 2:20 says that all the earth should keep quiet when the Lord is in His holy temple.

> And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. Revelation 8:1.

The removing of the seventh seal takes place in the thirty days, for it is the final seal. On December 31, 2023, Ezekiel’s bones began the resurrection process. Christ then began to teach for forty days. That date marked the end of the 1,260 days since the disappointment of July 18, 2020, and John informs us in Revelation eleven that we are to measure the temple, but leave off the courtyard. The courtyard ends at the end of the scattering, for John informs us 1,260 is given to the Gentiles who are the courtyard. When measuring, that history is to be left off.

When Miller awakens and sees the dirt brush man, the room is empty, and as he raises his voice, Miller is still in the wilderness. From the history of the resurrection until just before the Sunday law, Christ is raising the temple of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, as He did in the forty-six years from 1798 unto 1844.

When He begins to teach, He is working in His temple, especially during the thirty days. The angels then keep silent for thirty minutes, while He teaches His priests of three hundred Millerite preachers, or His army of Gideon’s three hundred, or while He publishes the three hundred 1843 charts; and He does all this during the thirty days from the end of the unleavened bread, unto the message of the trumpets. He is sweeping the floor of Miller’s room, but it is His floor, so Miller’s room is His temple. He is finishing the work of blotting out either the sins or the names of those who were called as candidates to be among the one hundred and forty-four thousand.

The trumpet message that comes five days before the ascension and ten days before judgment is the litmus test. What happens in the thirty minutes that heaven is quiet, or the thirty days of Christ teaching the priests has already produced two classes when the seal is impressed during the three steps of the trumpet, ascension and judgment. It is simple to see.

If you come to the point where you are to sound the message of the trumpet, and refuse to sound the message—you fail.

The three steps of ‘trumpet, ascension and judgment’ are one waymark in three steps, just as in the beginning of the history where one waymark was represented with the ‘death, burial and resurrection.’ The three step test at the end is the litmus test that precedes by five days the Pentecostal Sunday law.

Five days after the resurrection the end of the feast of unleavened bread arrives, and that holy convocation marks the first and foundational test of 2024. Are you going to eat the Bread of Heaven or the bread of human reasoning? That test arrived in 2024, and it had been typified by the foundational rebellion of Adam and Eve, Nimrod, Aaron, Jeroboam, Korah and his rebels, the Protestants of Millerite history, the alpha rebellion of John Harvey Kellogg, the rebellion of 1888 and of course the rebellion of 9/11. The foundational rebellion of Cain, conveys the issue of jealousy against your brother, all down the line of foundational rebellions.

All the illustrations of foundational rebellion are rebellion against God, but some; such as the rebels of 1888, and the rebels of Korah, include the fact that the chosen messenger is part of the test. The rejection of Miller’s identification that it is Rome that establishes the vision in Daniel 11:14, is a rejection of both the message and the messenger. The test is foundational for not only did Father Miller identify the robbers of verse fourteen as Rome, but also Miller’s son.

Five days after the resurrection of December 31, 2023, Miller’s preparatory teaching ministry was taken over by the One who followed after John. For thirty days special instruction to the worshippers in the temple would be given “face to face” by Christ. That preparation was to prepare a priesthood of 80, to proclaim the warning message of the feast of trumpets.

That preparation of thirty days consists of a foundational first test in the beginning and a second temple test at the ending. The second temple test is finished before the trumpets are blown, and this detail is therefore represented in Miller’s dream when Christ cast the jewels into the casket. It is after He does this, that He invites Miller to “come and see.” It is from the trumpet warning, to the ascension unto judgment that the ensign is lifted up in advance of the Sunday law. The jewels are all in the temple, before Miller is called to “come and see,” and it is when the two witnesses are lifted up in the clouds, that their enemies behold them.

Their prediction of an attack from Islam that failed in 2020, is to be repeated after it is corrected, as was the true Midnight Cry of Snow. Miller had an understanding that he identified as the Midnight Cry, but Samuel Snow corrected Miller’s Midnight Cry message, and for this reason, Snow’s Midnight Cry message is called the “true” Midnight Cry message in Millerite history. The message of the Midnight Cry is a message that has been corrected, and empowered by the correction.

> “The disappointed ones saw from the Scriptures that they were in the tarrying time, and that they must patiently wait the fulfillment of the vision. The same evidence which led them to look for their Lord in 1843, led them to expect Him in 1844.” Early Writings, 247.

The phenomenon occurred at the end of the period of 1840 to 1844, and it also occurred at the beginning. Josiah Litch predicted a fulfillment of Islam in 1840. He put his prediction into the public record in 1838, and then corrected it ten days before August 11, 1840. The corrected prediction fulfillment empowered the first angel’s message. The second message was empowered by the corrected message of the Midnight Cry. Two witnesses from one history that are an alpha witness and an omega witness. Together they identify the empowerment of a message based upon the correction of a previous message.

The alpha identifies a prophecy of Islam and the omega identifies a prophecy of a shut door. Line upon line, Islam in 1840 and the shut door in 1844, identifies Islam and a shut door as the message of the Midnight Cry. At the beginning of the message Islam is loosed, as in Christ’s triumphal entry. At that point the door is closed in the parable of the ten virgins, as the door is closed upon the judgment of the house of God. At the conclusion of the message, Islam strikes again as the door is closed upon the United States.

It is important to see that the line produced by Leviticus twenty-three identifies the three steps of Passover at the beginning and the three steps of the priests at the end. The priests are lifted up as an offering at the Sunday law, but they are purified before that event. When they are lifted up, they are the ensign, and when Christ was lifted up in the three steps at the beginning of the line, He drew all the world unto Himself. The lifting up of the one hundred and forty-four thousand is the end of the line that began with the lifting up of Christ. In both the beginning and ending one waymark of three steps are identified.

Three steps at the beginning that are followed by five days, and three steps at the ending that are followed by five days. From that point on, the story is about the great multitude, for the priesthood has been established as the ensign of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. The seven days of Tabernacles is a period for the Gentiles. If we leave off the time of the Gentiles that begins at the Sunday law, and leave off the three and a half days that ended in 2023, we have the temple of the one hundred and forty-four thousand represented within the fifty days of the Pentecostal season from December 31, 2023 unto the soon-coming Sunday law.

Five days from the resurrection for the virgins, thirty days that follow for the priests. Then five days of a trumpet message from the virgins, ending with their ascension when the forty days concludes, followed by five days unto judgment, followed by five days to the Sunday law. As a symbol of the virgins, the number “5” sets forth the footsteps of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, who are virgins and who are also priests.

During the thirty days of teaching, the final and seventh seal is removed, and it is in that period that Miller sees the jewels being restored. “Come and see” is a symbol based upon the first four seals, so when the seventh seal was opened, Miller was told to “come and see,” but the angels in heaven all just watch on in silence. Miller’s dream is identifying the sealing of the jewels who are the one hundred and forty-four thousand, while also identifying the jewels that are the message of the Midnight Cry. That message conveys the power to the virgins that accomplishes the sealing, and the dirt brush man identifies the One who controls both the messengers and the message.

2024 represents the foundational test, and now in 2026 the temple test has arrived. We are now in the thirty-day period where Christ is teaching, and to not recognize this fact is fatal.

Recognizing the message and the messenger was an element of the foundational test represented by Rome establishing the vision, and is an element of the story of Elijah and Ahab.

> And in the thirty and eighth year of Asa king of Judah began Ahab the son of Omri to reign over Israel: and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty and two years. And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him. In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun. And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. 1 Kings 16:29–17:1.

The numbers associated with Ahab add to the context of the passage. “Thirty-eight” represents a “rising up.” Israel was commanded to “rise up” and enter the Promised Land in the thirty-eighth year.

> Now rise up, said I, and get you over the brook Zered. And we went over the brook Zered. And the space in which we came from Kadeshbarnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the Lord sware unto them. Deuteronomy 2:13, 14.

Jesus healed the crippled man who was thirty-eight years old when He told him to “rise.”

> And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath. John 5:5–9.

Josiah Litch made a prediction in 1838, that he fine-tuned in 1840. The thirty-eighth year Moses references in Deuteronomy, was also the fortieth year. Josiah Litch’s two-step process paralleled the two-step revival of his namesake, king Josiah. The numbers of 38 and 40 in relation to one another, represent a rising up, which is what happens to the two witnesses when they are lifted up into the clouds.

With Litch, the lifting up was accomplished by the message of Islam of the second woe. The lifting up that is marked by Christ’s ascension, comes after the trumpet message of Islam. Those first two steps of the waymark of trumpet, ascension and judgment was typified by Litch, whose two steps were typified by king Josiah’s two step revival and reformation. In Deuteronomy the command was to rise up and go into the Promised Land, and the lifting up of the ensign at the Sunday law is the identical promise.

Ahab reigned twenty-two years, thus he reigns during the period when Divinity is combined with humanity, which is the period of thirty days that precedes the trumpet message. Ahab is Trump, who will marry Jezebel in the very near future. In the period of Trump, only Elijah has a message of rain. This fact is foundational, for the movement of the one hundred and forty-four thousand is the movement of the methodology of line upon line; and that methodology is based upon the foundational truth that the reform movement of the one hundred and forty-four thousand has been typified by every reform movement of sacred history. In each of those movements the leaders were part of the testing process. Every time.

Ahab is the seventh king from Jeroboam, and we have repeatedly shown how Ahab is the state during the Sunday law crisis. We have shown how the Laodicean Seventh-day Adventist church rebuilt Jericho in 1863, costing the Whites their oldest and youngest sons, and typifying Jericho at the Sunday law. 1863 typifies the Sunday law.

The passage is full of symbolism identifying the period as the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, and in that time period to reject Miller’s understanding of a truth that was placed upon Habakkuk’s 1843 table is foundational rebellion, that includes a disregard for God’s chosen messenger under the same pretext as Korah’s rebels and the rebels of 1888, who claimed that all the congregation is holy.

We are now in the test of the temple when the windows of heaven are opened along with a dispensational door. The dispensational door marks the transition for the priests from Laodicea unto the priests of Philadelphia. It marks the separation of the counterfeit and true jewels of Miller’s dream. The windows identify a curse or a blessing. Malachi three, premises the test upon returning. Miller’s dream emphasizes the restoration of both the priesthood and the message. Revelation nineteen identifies the army of the Lord that is raised up when a prediction of a trumpet message of Islam is fulfilled.

The test that precedes the litmus test of the trumpet message is the second and it is the temple test. Miller’s dream produces a doubling, that is always associated with the second test, for Miller’s dream uses jewels as both the messages and the messengers. The temple test involves the application of the line upon line methodology of the latter rain. It requires the priests to see the temple in the various lines of prophecy in order to align the messages. The dirt brush man’s larger casket is the temple of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, and Malachi’s storehouse is the same. The heart of the temple furnishing is the ark of the covenant, which the covering cherubim’s continually look to, thus emphasizing the focus of all holy beings. The holy in this history need to look unto the temple and gaze into the ark.

The temple of the one hundred and forty-four thousand is the subject of Leviticus twenty-three and it presents a historical line that was fulfilled in the time of Christ with what Sister White calls “the Pentecostal season.” From the resurrection unto Pentecost, or from December 31, 2023 unto the Sunday law Leviticus twenty-three’s prophetic line represents the temple of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. That history begins with a waymark of three steps followed by five days and it ends with a waymark of three steps followed by five days. In the middle of the alpha and omega histories is the thirty days of sealing the priests. That overall line begins with the seventh-day Sabbath and ends with the seventh-year Sabbath. At this level the temple of the one hundred and forty-four thousand is the ark that will carry 8 souls to the earth made new, and it is also the ark of the covenant that is shadowed by two angels, just as the two Sabbaths shadow the temple of the priesthood of the one hundred and forty-four thousand represented with the Pentecostal season.

Leviticus twenty-three is about the priesthood of the one hundred and forty-four thousand during the final manifestation of the Pentecostal season that began at Christ’s resurrection and continued until fifty days later at the Day of Pentecost. The Pentecostal season is established when the first twenty-two verses of Leviticus twenty-three is aligned with the last twenty-two verses. William Miller’s dream identifies that the jewels of God’s word are both the message and the messengers.

> “I have had precious opportunities to obtain an experience. I have had an experience in the first, second, and third angels’ messages. The angels are represented as flying in the midst of heaven, proclaiming to the world a message of warning, and having a direct bearing upon the people living in the last days of this earth’s history. No one hears the voice of these angels, for they are a symbol to represent the people of God who are working in harmony with the universe of heaven. Men and women, enlightened by the Spirit of God, and sanctified through the truth, proclaim the three messages in their order.” Life Sketches, 429.

The angels are symbols of God’s people who proclaim the message represented by the angel.

> “Time is short. The first, second, and third angel’s messages are the messages to be given to the world. We hear not literally the voice of the three angels, but these angels in Revelation represent a people who will be upon the earth and give these messages.

> “John saw ‘Another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the whole earth was lightened with his glory.’ Revelation 18:1. That work is the voice of the people of God proclaiming a message of warning to the world.” The 1888 Materials, 926.

Angels represent the people who give the messages represented by the angels. William Miller is represented prophetically in a multitude of applications. One of those applications is that Miller is represented by the first and the last time prophecies he was led to proclaim. The seven times or 2,520 years that ended in 1798, was Miller’s alpha discovery and the cleansing of the sanctuary at the end of 2,300 evenings and mornings on October 22, 1844 was Miller’s omega discovery. Millerite history is represented from 1798 to 1844, and though it was the history of the first and second angels’ it is called by the name of the messenger of that history. Millerite history identifies that Miller was the “voice” proclaiming the first and second angels’ message, and the first angel announced the beginning of judgment on October 22, 1844, and the first angel arrived at the time of the end in 1798, at the conclusion of the “seven times” scattering of the kingdom of Israel. Miller is a symbol of both the 2,520-year prophecy and the 2,300-year prophecy.

The first waymark of 1798 announced that the judgment would begin when the 2,300-years ended on October 22, 1844. Then the Lord opened up the light of the seventh-day Sabbath, and it was His intent to finish the work, so He attempted to open up further light upon the seven times in 1856, but rebellion was manifested, instead of faith. The seven times is the alpha of Millerite history and the 2,300 is the omega.

The seven times is represented by the seventh-year Sabbath and the 2,300 is represented by the seventh-day Sabbath. Millerite history is represented by 1798 and 1844, and 1798 represents the seven times and 1844 represents the 2,300 years. Those two Sabbaths are the bookends to the history represented in Leviticus twenty-three. Those two Sabbaths represent two messages, that make one message. Those two messages represent the Millerites, for the people that proclaim the messages represent the angels that symbolize the message. 1798 the first angel arrived and in 1844 the third angel arrived.

Leviticus twenty-three has seven feasts and seven holy convocations, though every feast is not a holy convocation and vise versa. The feasts all fall between the first and the last holy convocation, which is the seventh-day Sabbath in the beginning and the seventh-year Sabbath at the end. The history of the feasts is bookended with the two Sabbaths that represent William Miller and the Millerites.

When the first twenty-two verses and the last twenty-two verses are combined in Leviticus twenty-three the Pentecostal season is identified. The structure that is established by bringing the lines together is absolutely divine. The Pentecostal season of the structure clearly illustrates the three steps of the three angels. It bears the signature of “Truth.” It bears the signature of Alpha and Omega. It bears the signature of Palmoni. It leads a student to the very heart of the Most Holy Place. It identifies the temple of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. It extends all the way to the earth made new.

This truth of Leviticus twenty-three is now being unsealed in connection with the temple test that precedes the litmus and third test. The third angel arrived in 1844, and then again at 9/11 and then again in 2023. When the third angel arrived in 1844 the faithful were to by faith follow Christ into the Most Holy Place. Leviticus twenty-three is the path into the Most Holy Place and represents an element of the temple test. John was told to measure the temple and also the worshippers therein.

Miller’s casket is the temple and the jewels are the worshippers therein. Malachi’s storehouse is the temple and the tithes are the worshippers therein. The Pentecostal season, as represented in the line upon line application of Leviticus twenty-three represents the temple of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. More directly it illustrates the ark of the covenant, with the covering cherubs looking at the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s rod that budded and the golden pot of manna.

The covering cherubs are angels, and angels represent a message and the messenger. The message that is the alpha message of Leviticus twenty-three is the seventh-day Sabbath, and the omega message is the seventh-year Sabbath. Both are messages, and they are also the alpha and omega messages of William Miller and the Millerites, with the fulfillment of the “seven times,” in 1798, a symbol of the seventh-year Sabbath, and in 1844, God led His people into the Most Holy Place, where they discovered the seventh-day Sabbath. Those two Sabbaths are the first and last holy convocations in Leviticus twenty-three, and the Pentecostal season is positioned between them both, just as the ark was positioned between the two covering cherubs.

The temple is to be measured, and it includes leaving off the courtyard that is given to the Gentiles. At the Sunday law judgment for the house of God ends, and the judgment of the Gentiles begins. The times of the Gentiles ended in 1798, at the end of 1,260 years, and at the end of three and a half days, (a symbol of 1,260) John was to leave off the courtyard.

> And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. Revelation 11:1, 2.

The court was to be left off, for it was given to the Gentiles, who trod it under foot for three and a half days, or forty-two months.

> And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Luke 21:24.

The times of the Gentiles was fulfilled in 1798, when the book of Daniel was unsealed.

> “In the temple at Jerusalem a low wall separated the outer court from all other portions of the sacred building. Upon this wall were inscriptions in different languages, stating that none but Jews were allowed to pass this boundary. Had a Gentile presumed to enter the inner enclosure, he would have desecrated the temple, and would have paid the penalty with his life. But Jesus, the originator of the temple and its service, drew the Gentiles to Him by the tie of human sympathy, while His divine grace brought to them the salvation which the Jews rejected.” The Desire of Ages, 194.

December 31, 2023 ended the three and a half prophetic days from the disappointment of July 18, 2020. That three and a half years identifies that a prophetic message would then be unsealed, and that the times of the Gentiles was fulfilled, and left off of the measuring of the temple and the worshippers therein. At the Sunday law, which in the Pentecostal season was the Day of Pentecost, judgment passes unto the Gentiles. When we leave off the times of the Gentiles when measuring the temple of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, we find that December 31, 2023 unto the Sunday law is the temple.

The witness of the temple is that it is raised up in two steps; first the foundation, then the temple is identified as finished when the foundation stone that was rejected, marvelously becomes the head of the corner. The foundation was laid when ancient Israel came out of Babylon in the history of the first decree, and the temple was finished in the history of the second decree, but before the third decree. The foundational test occurred in 2024 and we are now in the temple test. That temple test ends at the third and litmus test, and the temple test requires God’s people to measure the temple.

The temple in Leviticus twenty-three is raised up from December 31, 2023 unto the Sunday law, and within that prophetic history the three tests that always occur when a prophecy is unsealed are represented. The last of the three is the litmus test, that was represented by the Exeter camp meeting. At that meeting you either attended the meetings in the tent where Elder Snow twice presented his message of the true Midnight Cry, or you attended the emotional and unbalanced meetings over at the Watertown tent. When the meetings ended the message of the true Midnight Cry went like a tidal wave. Exeter was the litmus test, and the litmus test represents the sealing.

The Exeter camp meeting was typified by Christ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and Lazarus led the ass Jesus rode upon. Lazarus death was the disappointment of July 18, 2020, but he was also Christ’s crowning miracle and the “seal” of His divinity.

> “Had Christ been in the sickroom, Lazarus would not have died; for Satan would have had no power over him. Death could not have aimed his dart at Lazarus in the presence of the Life-giver. Therefore Christ remained away. He suffered the enemy to exercise his power, that He might drive him back, a conquered foe. He permitted Lazarus to pass under the dominion of death; and the suffering sisters saw their brother laid in the grave. Christ knew that as they looked on the dead face of their brother their faith in their Redeemer would be severely tried. But He knew that because of the struggle through which they were now passing their faith would shine forth with far greater power. He suffered every pang of sorrow that they endured. He loved them no less because He tarried; but He knew that for them, for Lazarus, for Himself, and for His disciples, a victory was to be gained.

> “‘For your sakes,’ ‘to the intent ye may believe.’ To all who are reaching out to feel the guiding hand of God, the moment of greatest discouragement is the time when divine help is nearest. They will look back with thankfulness upon the darkest part of their way. ‘The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly,’ 2 Peter 2:9. From every temptation and every trial He will bring them forth with firmer faith and a richer experience.

> “In delaying to come to Lazarus, Christ had a purpose of mercy toward those who had not received Him. He tarried, that by raising Lazarus from the dead He might give to His stubborn, unbelieving people another evidence that He was indeed ‘the resurrection, and the life.’ He was loath to give up all hope of the people, the poor, wandering sheep of the house of Israel. His heart was breaking because of their impenitence. In His mercy He purposed to give them one more evidence that He was the Restorer, the One who alone could bring life and immortality to light. This was to be an evidence that the priests could not misinterpret. This was the reason of His delay in going to Bethany. This crowning miracle, the raising of Lazarus, was to set the seal of God on His work and on His claim to divinity.” The Desire of Ages, 528, 529.

The triumphal entry began with the loosing of an ass for Christ to ride upon.

> And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them. Matthew 21:1–6.

The Midnight Cry message joined the message of the second angel that had arrived at the first disappointment. In the time of Christ that disappointment was the death of Lazarus, and for the Millerites it was the failed prediction of 1843, that arrived on April 19, 1844. Both those disappointments represent July 18, 2020.

In the Pentecostal season represented by Leviticus twenty-three the litmus test is represented by the threefold waymark of the feast of trumpets, Christ’s ascension and the Day of Atonement. Those three steps represent the litmus test in relation to the first two tests of the foundation and the temple. Those three steps come five days before the Sunday law of Pentecost and represent a lifting up of the one hundred and forty-four thousand as the ensign. If they pass the litmus test, they are lifted up, if they don’t, they are blown out of the windows of Miller’s dream.

The third step of the sealing is the Day of Atonement and it represents the blotting out of sin. The second step is the lifting up of Malachi’s offering of Levites and the first step is the message of the trumpets. Since 1844 mankind has been living in the history of the sounding of the seventh trumpet. The external message of the seventh trumpet is the message of the third woe of Islam and the internal message of the seventh trumpet is Christ’s work of combining His Divinity with the humanity of the one hundred and forty-four thousand.

We will continue in the next article.

> “In the writings of the prophets are portrayed scenes that, although hoary with age, appear to us in the freshness and power of new revelations. Through faith we understand that these records of God’s dealings with his people in past ages have been preserved in order that we may discern the lessons God desires to teach us by present-day experiences.

> “Living, as we are, in no less momentous a period than that just prior to Christ’s second advent, we need to be especially careful to avoid making mistakes similar to those made by the Jews living in the time of Christ’s first advent.

> “Like the Jewish leaders, who gradually devised a formal system of worship, in which the importance of unessential matters was greatly magnified, some men are now in danger of losing sight of the important truths applicable to this generation, and of seeking for those things that are new, strange, entrancing.

> “There is need of cherishing elevated principles. Those who search after and advocate fanciful ideas need to be taught what is truth before they attempt to teach others. Man-made theories and suppositions are not to be sought after as truth.

> “There are many who are as true as steel to principle, and these will be helped and blessed; for they are weeping between the porch and the altar, saying, ‘Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach.’ We must let the foundation principles of the third angel’s message stand out clear and distinct. The great pillars of our faith will hold all the weight that can be placed upon them.

> “In this age of error, of day-dreaming and reverie, we need to learn the first principles of the doctrine of Christ. Let us strive to be able to say with the apostle, ‘We have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ The Lord calls upon us to follow high and noble principles.

> “Truth, present truth, is all that the word of God represents it to be. The Lord would have his people keep themselves from all superfluities, from all that tends to mysticism. Let those who are tempted to indulge in fanciful, imaginary doctrines sink the shaft deep into the quarries of heavenly truth, and secure the treasure that means life eternal to the receiver. In the word there are the most precious truths. These will be found by those who study with earnestness; for heavenly angels will direct the search.

> “Referring to those who are now living upon the earth, Paul declared: ‘The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.’

> “How significant, how soul-stirring, is the charge Paul gave at the time he prophesied concerning those who would not endure sound doctrine: ‘I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom: Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.’

> “Those who commune with God walk in the light of the Sun of Righteousness. They do not dishonor their Redeemer by corrupting their way before God. Heavenly light shines upon them. As they near the close of this earth’s history, their knowledge of Christ, and of the prophecies relating to him, greatly increases. They are of infinite worth in God’s sight; for they are in unity with his Son. To them the word of God is of surpassing beauty and loveliness. They see its importance. Truth is unfolded to them. The doctrine of the incarnation is invested with a soft radiance. They see that the Scripture is the key that unlocks all mysteries and solves all difficulties. Those who have been unwilling to receive the light and walk in the light will be unable to understand the mystery of godliness, but those who have not hesitated to take up the cross and follow Jesus, will see light in God’s light.” The Southern Watchman, April 4, 1905.

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