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

Number Forty-Five

Author

Jeff Pippenger

Published

February 12, 2026

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Key Takeaways

- Leviticus 23 is presented as outlining three tests within the Pentecostal season through two three-step waymarks followed by five days, separated by thirty days.
- Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection form the first three-step waymark, aligned with the day of first fruits and followed by five days to the close of unleavened bread.
- The feast of trumpets, the ascension, and the day of Atonement form the final three-step waymark, followed by five days to Pentecost.
- The first waymark represents the first angel, the thirty-day period represents the second angel, and the final waymark represents the third angel.
- Trumpets align with the warning to fear God, the ascension aligns with giving Him glory, and the day of Atonement aligns with the announcement that the hour of His judgment is come.
- The structure identifies the sealing and lifting up of the one hundred and forty-four thousand just prior to the Sunday law crisis.
- The third test, associated with trumpets, ascension, and judgment, is presented as the litmus test where character is revealed.

## Review

Leviticus twenty-three identifies three tests within the Pentecostal season of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. Aligning the first day of the feast of Tabernacles with the day of Pentecost, and then aligning the forty days that Christ taught the disciples face to face before His ascension with the day of first fruits creates an overall structure that represents the three angel’s messages.

When the “death, burial and resurrection” is applied as a single prophetic waymark that has three steps; as it is represented by Christ’s baptism, we find that five days after the resurrection on the day of first fruits, the end of the seven day feast of unleavened bread arrives as a holy convocation. Thus, at Christ’s resurrection, which aligns with the first fruit offering, there follows a five-day period.

At the end of the structure which is created by aligning the first day of the feast of Tabernacles with the day of Pentecost, there is another waymark with three steps, also followed by five days that reaches unto Pentecost.

Between those two ‘three-step waymarks followed by five days,’ is a period of thirty days. When we align the first day of the feast of Tabernacles with the day of Pentecost, we understand that five days before the feast of Tabernacles was the Day of Atonement. Ten days before the day of Atonement was the feast of Trumpets. The forty days of Christ teaching face to face after His resurrection on the day of first fruits, aligns five days after the feast of Trumpets, and five days before the day of atonement.

The three-step waymark of His ‘death, burial and resurrection,’ followed by five days unto the end of the feast of unleavened bread is then repeated thirty days later when the three-step waymark of ‘trumpets, ascension, and judgment,’ that are then followed by five days unto Pentecost. The beginning three-step waymark is easily defined as one waymark with three steps, for it is directly identified as such with Christ’s baptism, that symbolizes His ‘death, burial and resurrection.’ The baptism was the alpha to the sacred 1,260-day period that culminated at His ‘death, burial and resurrection’ which was the omega to the 1,260 days.

The three-step waymark at the end of the Pentecostal season must be recognized through prophetic application. In the fifty days of the Pentecostal season the same structure is found at the beginning and the ending. Based upon the principle that Christ always illustrates the end with the beginning we can identify the feast of trumpets, followed by the ascension, followed by the day of Atonement, followed by five days as one ‘three-step waymark followed by five days.’

We also test the proposed three steps with the biblical guidelines of the characteristics of each of the three steps. Those three steps are represented repeatedly in God’s Word. They are the three angels; they are the courtyard, holy place and Most Holy Place; they are the work of the Holy Spirit in convicting of sin, righteousness and judgment. Identifying the feast of trumpets, the ascension and the day of Atonement as those three steps requires that each of the steps aligns with the established biblical testimony.

Trumpets are a warning message and it is associated with the first angel who cries out “fear God.” The ascension of Christ is a symbol of the glory of His Second Coming, for the second expression of the first angel is “give Him glory.” The day of Atonement is the symbol of judgment, and the third expression of the first angel is “the hour of His judgment is come.” There are several ways to identify that the prophetic characteristics of the three steps in the waymark at the end of the Pentecostal season represent the three steps of the everlasting gospel, where many are “purified, made white and tried.”

This being so, you then may see that in the first waymark of three steps the barley first fruit offering is given, and in the last waymark of the three steps the wheat first fruit offering is given. You then might see that the alpha three steps of the Pentecostal season identify unleavened bread, but the omega waymark of three steps identify leavened bread. You then could even see that in the three-step waymark in the beginning is where Christ was lifted up to draw all men, and in the ending three-step waymark the ensign of the one hundred and forty-four thousand is lifted up to draw the Gentiles.

The first and third angels are the same angel at the prophetic level, for the first is the beginning—and the third is the ending. The alpha first angel announces the opening of judgment and the omega last angel announces the close of judgment. The first angel’s message was empowered by the fulfillment of Islam on August 11, 1840, and the third angel was empowered by a fulfillment of Islam on 9/11. Sister White informs us that the mission of both the first and the third angel was to lighten the earth with its glory. Other witnesses are abundant, and they provide ample support for identifying the structure of the Pentecostal season as set forth in the fifty days from Christ’s resurrection unto Pentecost, with the first twenty-two verses of Leviticus twenty-three and the last twenty-two verses of Leviticus twenty-three. Between the two waymarks that are a waymark of three steps followed by five days is a thirty-day period that represents the second angel.

The first waymark of ‘three steps followed by five’ days is the first angel, the thirty days is the second angel and the second waymark of ‘three steps followed by five’ days is the third angel. These three steps cover the entire Pentecostal season up to Pentecost, which then marks the beginning of the seven days of the feast of Tabernacles that represents the outpouring of the latter rain during the Sunday law crisis beginning at the Sunday law in the United States and continuing until Michael stands up and human probation closes. The structure is divine, but it produces some serious considerations.

## Serious Considerations

It is evident that the waymark represented by the ‘trumpets, ascension and judgment’ is the litmus and third test. The third test is always the litmus test, where character is manifested, but never developed.

> “Character is revealed by a crisis. When the earnest voice proclaimed at midnight, ‘Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him,’ the sleeping virgins roused from their slumbers, and it was seen who had made preparation for the event. Both parties were taken unawares, but one was prepared for the emergency, and the other was found without preparation. Character is revealed by circumstances. Emergencies bring out the true metal of character. Some sudden and unlooked-for calamity, bereavement, or crisis, some unexpected sickness or anguish, something that brings the soul face to face with death, will bring out the true inwardness of the character. It will be made manifest whether or not there is any real faith in the promises of the word of God. It will be made manifest whether or not the soul is sustained by grace, whether there is oil in the vessel with the lamp.

> “Testing times come to all. How do we conduct ourselves under the test and proving of God? Do our lamps go out? or do we still keep them burning? Are we prepared for every emergency by our connection with Him who is full of grace and truth? The five wise virgins could not impart their character to the five foolish virgins. Character must be formed by us as individuals.” Review and Herald, October 17, 1895.

When the feast of trumpets waymark arrives, your character is forever sealed, you are lifted up as an ensign and your sins are forever blotted out. The three steps represent three aspects of the sealing. The arrival of the message of the Midnight Cry manifests those who have oil and who are lifted up as an ensign as their sins are removed. The message, the work and the seal are all one waymark. It is a waymark “that brings the soul face to face with death” because of an “unlooked for calamity.” The trumpet of Islam represents that “unlooked for calamity.” At that point the message, “Behold the Bridegroom cometh,” is proclaimed five days in advance of the Sunday law, where the message changes unto the loud cry of the third angel.

The three steps of the waymark are identifying elements of the sealing of and the lifting up of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, just before the Sunday law. It is clear that the litmus test of ‘trumpets, ascension and judgment’ has been represented by the Exeter camp meeting. The five days between the day of Atonement and Pentecost, represents the sixty-six days between the end of the Exeter camp meeting on August 17 unto October 22, 1844, when the door closed. Those sixty-six days of Millerite history are illustrating the latter days, and in this regard, they are illustrating the proclamation of the message of the Midnight Cry by the one hundred and forty-four thousand.

The five days to Pentecost, aligns with the sixty-six days of the Millerites proclaiming the message of the Midnight Cry, which was also typified by Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The first of the three steps is the feast of trumpets, which is the seventh trumpet, or third woe, or Islam in the latter days, and Christ’s triumphal entry was preceded by the loosing of an ass.

Prophetically this identifies that the loosing of the ass marks the beginning of the triumphal entry, which is the Midnight Cry. Bible prophecy is to be applied in the latter days to the sixth kingdom of Bible prophecy—the earth beast, the United States. Islam will strike the United States, as it did at 9/11, thus marking the beginning of the proclamation of the Midnight Cry with a significant strike upon the United States by Islam, and the ending of the proclamation of the Midnight Cry with another significant strike upon the United States by Islam, for Jesus always illustrates the end of a thing with the beginning of a thing.

The message of Pentecost is the message of the loud cry, and the loud cry is simply an escalation of the message of the Midnight Cry. In Millerite history the Midnight Cry ended when the door was closed on October 22, 1844, and it ends when the door closes at the Sunday law in the latter days. At Pentecost Peter proclaimed the message of Joel, and Pentecost is the omega ending of the Midnight Cry, so the alpha beginning of the Midnight Cry Peter must of prophetic necessity also be presenting the message of Joel. At the Midnight Cry Peter is in Acts chapter two, in the upper room at the third hour, and then on the same day at the ninth hour he is in the temple proclaiming Joel’s message.

Peter is the symbol of the one hundred and forty-four thousand at Pentecost, which is the end of the Midnight Cry, and he is the symbol of the one hundred and forty-four thousand at the beginning of the Midnight Cry. The sealing and raising up of the one hundred and forty-four thousand begins with the loosing of the ass as Islam strikes. When the Millerites left the Exeter camp meeting they carried the message like a tidal wave, and symbolically typified the one hundred and forty-four thousand who repeat that experience.

This application becomes more serious when you recognize that Peter is representing those who proclaim the Midnight Cry message at the litmus and third test of the Pentecostal season. The third hour for Peter at Pentecost places him in the upper room, and the upper room is also the ten days before Pentecost. The second test of the Pentecostal season is the thirty-day temple test that follows the foundational test. The second test of the temple requires the faithful to enter by faith into the Most Holy Place where their sins are blotted out and where they are seated by faith with Christ in heavenly places. The book of Acts informs us that Peter began his sermon on the book of Joel at the third hour in the upper room, then at the ninth hour he was in the temple.

> But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. … Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. Acts 2:14–16; 3:1.

Christ was nailed to the cross at the third hour and He died at the ninth hour. His death, burial and resurrection are one waymark with three steps. The third step, the day of first fruits, begins the fifty days which conclude at Pentecost. In the alpha of the Pentecostal season the third and ninth hour represent a distinct contrast, for Christ was alive at the third hour and dead at the ninth. Peter was in the upper room at the third hour and in the temple at the ninth.

The Pentecostal season of fifty sacred days in the time of Christ was a sacred prophetic period directly connected to the prophecy of twenty-three hundred years. It was especially connected with the final week of the four hundred and ninety years for the Jewish nation in Daniel nine. That sacred week when Christ confirmed the covenant was divided into two equal periods of 1,260 prophetic days. The heart of that week was the cross. The cross identifies the third and ninth hour, and Peter at Pentecost does the same. In the year 34, the end of that same sacred week when Cornelius sent for Peter from Caesarea Maritima, it was the ninth hour.

> There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter. Acts 10:1–5.

The next day, Peter goes up on the roof to pray about the sixth hour.

> On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: Wherein were all manner of four footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven. Acts 10:9–16.

The call for Peter to come to Caesarea is at the ninth hour, when an angel arrives to address Cornelius. Cornelius represents God’s other children who are called out of Babylon at the Sunday law. The angel who arrives at the Sunday law is the second voice of Revelation eighteen, who calls to those still in Babylon to flee. Peter is the one hundred and forty-four thousand and Cornelius is the eleventh-hour workers, who are represented to Peter as unclean animals. The relation of Peter and Cornelius is the relation of Revelation seven, where the one hundred and forty-four thousand are identified in association with the great multitude. Peter was commanded three times to rise, kill and eat. As the one hundred and forty-four thousand the call from Cornelius is where the ensign is commanded to rise.

Cornelius is in Caesarea Maritima, sometimes called Caesarea by the sea. Revelation seventeen informs us that “the waters” “are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” The waters are those outside of God’s church and in Revelation as well as with Peter’s vision of the unclean beasts, the number four represents the entire world. Four various beasts are in Peter’s vision, and they descend in a sheet which is held at its four corners. The relation of Peter to Cornelius is also represented by Noah and the beasts that got on the ark.

Peter was in Joppa, which means “bright and beautiful,” for as a symbol of the one hundred and forty-four thousand Peter is the bright and beautiful ensign to the Gentiles. The ninth hour, the Gentiles awaken to the ensign which Sister White identifies as the Sabbath, the law of God, the third angel’s message and the missionaries around the world that carry the message of the latter days. Cornelius was awakened to the ensign when the angel arrived at the ninth hour in Caesarea by the sea. The message at the Pentecostal Sunday law then goes to the world—the sea.

The lifting up of the ensign is also represented as the Lord’s house being lifted up above the mountains, and Peter was praying on the rooftop of the beautiful bright city of Joppa, in the sixth hour, just before the Sunday law of the ninth hour. When the one hundred and forty-four thousand are sealed, the circumstances of the crisis within the world will draw God’s other children who are still in Babylon to seek for light. They are led to find Peter on the top of the house in Joppa.

Peter was also in Caesarea Philippi in Matthew sixteen. Caesarea Philippi at the base of Mount Hermon had the same name as Caesarea by the sea, but it had a distinct contrast as one city was upon the land and the other on the sea. Christ’s crucifixion at the third hour and His death at the ninth, identify a distinct contrast of life and death. Peter at Pentecost’s third and ninth hour identifies a distinct contrast from the upper room unto the temple. Caesarea on the land or Caesarea on the sea represents the necessary prophetic contrast of the third and ninth hour, but there is no direct reference to the third hour when Peter was in Caesarea Philippi. Upon the testimony of two or three a thing is established and with the third and ninth hour of the cross and also on the day of Pentecost both illustrations are represented by a single person, whether Christ alive or in the tomb, or Peter in the upper room or the temple.

The third testimony of a third and ninth hour at the two Caesarea’s identifies Peter as the primary character in both instances, as was Christ in the beginning of the Pentecostal season and Peter at the end of that same season. The alpha character of the third hour is the same as the omega character of the ninth hour, providing one witness that Caesarea Philippi is the alpha of the two Caesarea’s. The second witness is that the name of both cities is the same, so the name of the main character and the name of the city are the same. A third witness is the contrast of land and sea. When Peter was at Caesarea Philippi, it was the third hour. This is where the message becomes even more serious.

It is correct to align two cities with the same name, which is what we are doing, but we are also incorporating the third and ninth hour into the application based upon the witness of Christ at the cross and Peter at Pentecost. By bringing the three lines together; Christ’s third and ninth hour, Peter at Pentecost’s third and ninth hour—we establish the third hour at Caesarea Philippi. The very same prophetic logic is to be applied to Cornelius at the ninth hour, Peter at the sixth hour and then Peter at Caesarea Philippi at the third hour.

Peter is at all three waymarks, Cornelius is at the sixth and ninth hour with Peter, but not at the third in Caesarea Philippi. The line is tied together for each step is either the third, sixth and ninth hour respectively from Caesarea Philippi, to Joppa to Caesarea Maritima. Both Caesarea’s had their cultural roots attached to both Greece and Rome, but Caesarea Philippi’s distinction was the embodiment of remote, mystical paganism, and Caesarea by the sea was a commercial and administrative hub, blending Greek culture with Roman governance. Caesarea Philippi was a symbol of churchcraft and Caesarea Maritima of statecraft.

In the line of Caesarea to Caesarea, Joppa is the middle step of three steps. The three steps are represented by the third, sixth and ninth hours. Caesarea by the sea at the ninth hour is the Sunday law when the gospel goes to the Gentiles. Three hours before, at the sixth hour Peter is in Joppa, the bright and shining city. Three hours before that Peter is at the feast of Trumpets in the third hour. Caesarea to Caesarea is the period of the Midnight Cry. Peter represents those who proclaim the Midnight Cry at the beginning all the way to the ending, for Jesus always aligns the beginning with the ending. The Midnight Cry begins with the ass being loosed at the feast of trumpets waymark, where Peter is proclaiming the message of Joel.

Peter is at the three-step waymark of the feast of trumpets, the ascension, followed by judgment. At that waymark in Matthew sixteen the issue is raised about who Christ was. Peter’s name is changed and it is stated by Christ that it would be upon this Rock that He builds His church. The Rock which the temple is built upon is the foundation, and Peter at Caesarea Philippi is the first angel’s message, which is the foundational message. When Peter gets to the next step, at Joppa, he ascends as did Christ at the end of the forty days of face-to-face teaching. The ascension is also a parallel to the cross, the primary ensign of salvational history; and the cross is divided into two parts, with the two thieves, the tearing of the veil into the Most Holy Place and the darkness and the hours.

> Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Matthew 27:45, 46.

At Joppa, at the sixth hour Peter is at a prophetic point of division, between the lost and saved, between light and darkness and between the beginning of and ending of the Midnight Cry. That break is emphasizing the transition of the Laodicean movement of the one hundred and forty-four thousand unto the Philadelphian movement of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. It is marking the full rejection of the Laodicean Seventh-day Adventist church. That closed door of judgment represented by the day of Atonement comes five days before the Pentecostal Sunday law. That judgment is preceded by the ascension, and before that, the trumpet message. Those three steps represent the waymark where the seal of God is impressed, and the message of the Midnight Cry is proclaimed by the church triumphant to those represented by Cornelius.

Peter proclaims the message at Pentecost, and Pentecost marks the end of the message of the Midnight Cry. It is of prophetic necessity therefore that Peter also proclaims the message at the beginning of the period of the Midnight Cry. The beginning always illustrates the end. Peter’s Midnight Cry message is empowered when the ass of Islam is loosed, and attacks the United States, as it does again at the Sunday law. Peter proclaiming the message at the third and ninth hour of Pentecost identifies the beginning and ending of the Midnight Cry.

In the line we are considering, the forty days that ends at Christ’s ascension, also begins the ten days in the upper room. Five days into the ten days, the day of atonement identifies that the sins of Israel have been blotted out and the church has made herself ready. It was in the third hour that Peter was in the upper room at Pentecost. At the ninth hour of the Sunday law, the message changes from the midnight unto the loud cry.

The proclamation of the message of the Midnight Cry by Peter occurs when he is in the third hour. That message is marked by the feast of trumpets, when the ass is loosed, and by Caesarea Philippi, and Caesarea Philippi is also Panium. Panium is represented in verses thirteen through fifteen of Daniel eleven. Peter is identifying not only an Islamic strike upon the United States when the ass is loosed at the outset of the proclamation of the Midnight Cry, but Peter is simultaneously at the battle of Panium that leads to the Sunday law. The battle of Panium is a parallel event to the Islamic strike upon the United States.

We will continue these things in the next article.

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