Article

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

Number Twelve

Author

Jeff Pippenger

Published

December 17, 2025

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Key Takeaways

- Latter Rain = Message of “Rest”
- Internal/External Testing Pattern
- Threefold Test Embedded in Manna
- Eating as Alpha Symbol
- Ten Tests Begin After Baptism
- Golden Calf = Two-Stage Image-of-the-Beast Type
- Kadesh = Omega “Rest” Test

My desire is to set forth the prophetic testimony of Joel in such a fashion that Joel’s testimony can be recognized in what Peter was saying and doing at Pentecost. I am certain the Bible is clear about what Peter was doing and saying at Pentecost, but I am seeking to understand what Peter was prophetically typifying in the history of the latter rain, when he placed the message of Pentecost in the terms of a fulfillment of the book of Joel.

Peter is a symbol of the remnant people of God, and is not only illustrated at Pentecost, but also at Caesarea Philippi in Matthew 16. Caesarea Philippi is located in verses thirteen through fifteen of Daniel eleven, three verses which set forth a battle that was first fulfilled during the historical period when Caesarea Philippi was named Panium. Verses thirteen through fifteen precede verse sixteen, which identifies the Sunday law in the United States. Verse ten identifies the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. Verses ten to sixteen of Daniel eleven represent 1989 unto the Sunday law, and that period is the “hidden history” of verse forty of the same chapter.

## The Hidden History in BOLDFACE

## 1798

> And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him:

## 1989

> But his sons shall be stirred up, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. and one shall certainly come, and overflow, and pass through: then shall he return, and be stirred up, even to his fortress.

## 2014 the battle of Raphia

> And the king of the south shall be moved with choler, and shall come forth and fight with him, even with the king of the north: and he shall set forth a great multitude; but the multitude shall be given into his hand. And when he hath taken away the multitude, his heart shall be lifted up; and he shall cast down many ten thousands: but he shall not be strengthened by it.

## The battle of Panium (Caesarea Philippi)

> For the king of the north shall return, and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain years with a great army and with much riches.

> And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south: also the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall.

> So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the most fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to withstand.

## The Sunday law in the USA

> But he that cometh against him shall do according to his own will, and “none shall stand” before him: and “he shall stand” in the glorious land, which by his hand shall be consumed. He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. Daniel 11:40, 10–16, 41, 42.

When Peter is prophetically at Caesarea Philippi (Panium), and Pentecost it is the time of the latter rain, which locates him in the ‘hidden history’ of verse forty. I intend to address the current Ukrainian War represented in verse eleven of chapter eleven and the coming war of Panium of verses thirteen to fifteen that leads to the Third World War which are the external events between 1989 and the Sunday law, but we are currently identifying the history of the third angel from October 22, 1844 unto the formation of a legal church in 1863.

The line illustrates the arrival of the third angel on 9/11 (1844) unto the Sunday law (1863). The Sunday law was typified by the Emancipation Proclamation announcing freedom, thus typifying the Sunday law where freedom is removed. Freedom proclaimed by the first Republican president, typifying the freedom removed by the last Republican president—who is prophetically destined to become a dictator at the Sunday law.

> “When our nation shall so abjure the principles of its government as to enact a Sunday law, Protestantism will in this act join hands with popery; it will be nothing else than giving life to the tyranny which has long been eagerly watching its opportunity to spring again into active despotism.” Testimonies, volume 5, 711.

742 BC was the alpha history that began the time prophecies of Isaiah seven verse eight, that reached the omega fulfillment in 1863. In 742 Ahaz, king of the southern kingdom of Judah was entering a Civil War against the ten northern tribes who made up the northern kingdom. The history of 742 BC was illustrated in Judah, the literal glorious land of Scriptures, that was populated by literal Jews and represented in the passage by the wicked and foolish king Ahaz—thus typifying the omega history of 1863. The omega history of 1863 is fulfilled within the period the United States reigns as the earth beast, the sixth kingdom of Bible prophecy. The United States is the spiritual glorious land, made up of Protestant Christianity who are biblically spiritual Jews. The Civil War between north and south in 742 BC at the alpha history illustrated the Civil War between north and south in the omega history of 1863. Together those two witnesses illustrate the external history leading up to the Sunday law where the spiritual glorious land will once again be divided into two classes.

In 742 BC, the northern power represented an alliance between Israel’s ten northern tribes and Syria, thus typifying an alliance with an outside power, as was fulfilled when the support of the pro-slavery papacy was given to the pro-slavery southern states in the Civil War. The outside ally of Syria in 742 BC, and the outside ally of the papacy in the Civil War, identifies the alliance of the world-globalists with the globalist Democrats in their warfare against MAGA-ism, a warfare that began in 2015 when the fourth and richest president stood up, and in doing so stirred up the entire realm of Grecia according to Daniel eleven, verse two. That stirring is identifying the awakening of the heathen in the book of Joel. “Grecia” and “heathen” are symbols of the dragon power that leads the world to Armageddon in alliance with the beast and the false prophet.

In 2015 the heathen were awakened to the prophetic call to Joel’s valley of Jehosophat, that he also called the valley of judgment. In 2015 Donald Trump announced his presidential candidacy, thus stirring up the globalist empire represented as Grecia and the heathen began their march to Armageddon, and only one year after the beginning of the Ukrainian War in fulfillment of verse eleven of Daniel eleven.

The civil wars of 742 BC and 1863 identify the history of the Sunday law, which marks the end of the sixth kingdom of Bible prophecy. That sixth kingdom began with the Revolutionary War, so the end of the sixth kingdom at the Sunday law identifies the repetition of the Revolutionary War, at the very time that the Civil War is taking place. The definition of and the labelling of either a Civil or Revolutionary war is based upon perspective. What the Democrats are now doing through lawfare, embezzlement, fraud, illegal immigration and propaganda they call a color-revolution, but those souls opposed to their globalist maneuvers consider the very same activities as the instigation of ‘civil’ unrest. Is Antifa a criminal or a hero?

The two historical wars represent a single divisive war that takes place in the history of the last Republican president. As with the first Republican president the warfare will be won by the last Republican president, who was also typified by the first President, who was also the victor of the Revolutionary War. The MAGA revolution, according to the Democrats, is producing the current ‘civil unrest.’ Depending on your personal political persuasion, the current war is either a revolutionary war or a civil war. Prophetically it is both.

1863 represents the Sunday law and so does 1844, when the third angel arrived with the message of the Sunday law. The period of 1844 unto 1863 bears the signature of the Sunday law from beginning to end. In 1846 the marriage of the Whites, the observance of Sabbath and the name change from Harmen to White marked that the marriage that was entered into on October 22, 1844 had been consummated, and that consummation marked the beginning of the testing process of the third angel, just as the three-fold Sabbath test of manna marked the beginning of ten tests following the baptism of the Red Sea.

The manna was the first test and represented the tenth test at Kadesh for both represent the third angel’s message and therefore the Sunday law.

> “Every week during their long sojourn in the wilderness the Israelites witnessed a threefold miracle, designed to impress their minds with the sacredness of the Sabbath: a double quantity of manna fell on the sixth day, none on the seventh, and the portion needed for the Sabbath was preserved sweet and pure, when if any were kept over at any other time it became unfit for use.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 296.

The first of ten tests was the “manna” test representing the threefold message of the three angels of Revelation fourteen. As with the manna, the angels represent the threefold warning against worship upon the first day of the week. The threefold manna miracle was “designed to impress their minds with the sacredness of the Sabbath,” which is of course the design of the third angel. The first of the three miracles represented by the manna, involved “eating” the heavenly bread, and “eating” is an alpha symbol of the latter rain period. The second miracle, represents the second angel’s message where inspiration “doubles” words and phrases to mark the period represented by Babylon’s two falls, for Babylon is fallen, is fallen. The second miracle was the “doubling” of the amount of manna on the sixth day. The third miracle was the preservation of the bread of the seventh-day Sabbath.

As a type of the three angels, the manna is the first angel, and therefore must contain the entire story, which in Revelation fourteen is the story of all three angels. The first angel is a fractal of all three angels’ messages. A fractal is a complex geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is a reduced-size copy of the whole. This property is called self-similarity. Fractals often have intricate detail no matter how much you zoom in. Fractals occur in mathematics, biology, physics, geology, chemistry, astronomy, engineering and many other fields of understanding.

The “three-step structure” of the three angels in Revelation chapter fourteen is represented in the message of the first angel, thus making the first angel a “fractal” of the three angels. The first three chapters of the book of Daniel represent the first, second and third angels’ messages respectively, and Daniel chapter one contains the same “three-step structure” represented in the three chapters, and as in the three angels in relation to the first angel.

The threefold miracle of the manna was to be eaten and Daniel chapter one is about eating. Daniel passed the diet test by choosing pulse over the diet of Babylon. He was then tested for his appearance and his appearance produced a separation between his countenance and the countenance of those who ate Babylon’s food. The second angel’s message is the call to separate from Babylon during a separation history where two classes are developed and then manifested. That second test for Daniel led to the third test of Nebuchadnezzar, which was the third test in chapter one and typified the golden image test of chapter three, which Sister White repeatedly identifies as the Sunday law, which is the third angel’s message. Daniel chapter one is a fractal of the first three chapters of Daniel and those three chapters represent the three angels of Revelation fourteen, of which the first angel and chapter one of Daniel are both fractals of all three angels and all three chapters.

> “Every week during their long sojourn in the wilderness the Israelites witnessed a threefold miracle, designed to impress their minds with the sacredness of the Sabbath: a double quantity of manna fell on the sixth day, none on the seventh, and the portion needed for the Sabbath was preserved sweet and pure, when if any were kept over at any other time it became unfit for use.

> “In the circumstances connected with the giving of the manna, we have conclusive evidence that the Sabbath was not instituted, as many claim, when the law was given at Sinai. Before the Israelites came to Sinai they understood the Sabbath to be obligatory upon them. In being obliged to gather every Friday a double portion of manna in preparation for the Sabbath, when none would fall, the sacred nature of the day of rest was continually impressed upon them. And when some of the people went out on the Sabbath to gather manna, the Lord asked, ‘How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws?’” Patriarchs and Prophets, 296.

Gathering and eating the manna, is typifying John in chapter ten of Revelation taking (gathering) the little book out of the angel’s hand and then eating it.

> And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. Revelation 10:9.

John first had to go to the angel and ask, then he had to “take” the little book, and then he had to “eat” it. John is representing the three steps of the first angel by going to and asking the angel, followed by the second step of taking and the third of eating. Gathering and or eating, is the first of the three tests of the manna, but it contains a fractal of all three manna tests. Gathering and eating the manna, is typifying Jeremiah.

> Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16.

His “words were found” by Jeremiah seeking and then asking for the little book. His word was found when the manna was gathered. Gathering and eating the manna, is typifying Ezekiel who ate the book given to him and in doing so identifies that to refuse to eat the book was to be as the rebellious house.

> But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee. And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein; And he spread it before me; and it was written within and without: and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe. Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.

> So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll. And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness. Ezekiel 2:8–3:3.

If Ezekiel refused to eat the little book he would be in the rebellious house, and the “roll” of the “book” he was to eat was represented as “lamentations, and mourning, and woe,” representing a threefold message in the last days. The threefold message of the last days is the three angels messages of Revelation fourteen, and the context which Ezekiel presents those three messages, is the context of Islam and the third woe. The three messages possess an alpha and an omega, and the third is “woe,” a primary symbol of Islam, so the alpha must agree with the omega, therefore the “lamentations” represent the lamentations that began at 9/11 with the arrival of the seventh trumpet and third woe which would progressively escalate on into the seven last plagues. At the Sunday law “earthquake” of Revelation eleven, the third woe cometh quickly, and inspiration informs us that the unrighteous decree of Isaiah ten is that Sunday law. The verse begins by stating “woe” upon those who make unrighteous decrees.

Eating the manna was the first of three tests, the second was the “doubling” on the preparation day. And what were the preparing for? They were preparing for the Sabbath test, which is the third angel’s message.

That threefold miracle was also the first or alpha test of ten tests. God gave manna at the first step, then He gave a ‘double’ portion at the second step, but none at the third. The third test is different than the first two tests, for the third is the litmus test. Those three tests represent the alpha of a ten-step testing process that leads to the first Kadesh.

If you search the various theologians, you will find many lists of the ten tests that reach their conclusion at the first Kadesh. Almost all of them include the Red Sea as one of the ten tests, some include historical waymarks before the Red Sea during the plagues. They are all wrong.

The first test is the manna. Paul identifies that the Red Sea crossing was baptism.

> Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 1 Corinthians 10:1, 2.

Moses typifies Jesus, and Jesus’ baptism identifies a testing process, threefold in nature, beginning with and emphasizing the test of appetite. The cross was typified by the Passover in Egypt. When they came out on the other side of the Red Sea, Christ was resurrected as the first fruit offering. When He came out of the watery grave at the hands of John the Baptist, Christ (the first fruit offering) began a forty-day testing process. After He was resurrected as typified by His baptism, there were forty days that Christ interacted with the disciples’ face to face. The testing process begins after the Red Sea crossing, as certainly as Christ was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness as soon as He came out of the water.

The first test for Christ was appetite, for the Bread of Heaven took up His anointed work right where Adam had fallen. The first test after the Red Sea is the threefold manna test typifying the threefold test upon the Bread of Heaven. Christ’s testing began after He came out of the water, so the ten tests must also begin ‘after’ they came out of the water. Christ was then confronted with a threefold test, set within the context of appetite, as typified by the threefold test of the manna that began after the Spirit had driven ancient Israel out of Egypt and into the wilderness.

The other lists that conjecture about what rebellions are represented by the ten tests that culminate at Kadesh identify Aaron’s golden calf rebellion as one of those ten tests, but they are wrong.

The provocation of the golden calf represents two tests. It is an essential element of the golden calf’s symbolism. The idolatry manifested when the people thought God would not see, was followed by the return of Moses. Then the people made a choice to remain idolaters in full view of God, as represented by Moses.

In the twofold escalating rebellion, we see a prophetic division in the tribes, when the tribe of Levi became exclusively assigned to the sanctuary work, for until that rebellion, the sanctuary work was to be accomplished by the firstborn of every tribe. No longer would that be the case. Now the faithful tribe of Levi would maintain the temple. “Division” or separation into ‘two’ is an element of the prophetic characteristic of the golden calf.

Aaron’s rebellion typified the rebellion of Jeroboam, the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam ‘doubles’ the golden calves, placing one in Bethel and one in Dan. Aaron and Jeroboam are representing parallel histories, which is the history of the formation of the image of the beast. The history of the image of the beast is fulfilled in two periods, divided by the Sunday law in the United States. The image of the beast is a symbol of the combination of church and state which is set up first in the United States, and then in the world.

There is always a division associated with symbols of the image of the beast. With Aaron it was the separation of the Levites, with Jeroboam it was the separation of the twelve tribes into two southern and ten northern tribes.

The symbol of that relationship of church and state is called “the image of the beast” by John in the book of Revelation. Aaron and Jeroboams’ golden calves were images of a beast, and the beast they were images of is Babylon, for the first kingdom of Bible prophecy is represented by a head of “gold” in Daniel chapter two. The image of the beast represents two tests, for the test is first brought upon the earth beast—the United States, then in chapter thirteen of Revelation the United States forces the world to set up an image to the beast. The first test is the USA, then the world.

> “As America, the land of religious liberty, shall unite with the Papacy in forcing the conscience and compelling men to honor the false sabbath, the people of every country on the globe will be led to follow her example.” Testimonies, volume 6, 18.

> “Foreign nations will follow the example of the United States. Though she leads out, yet the same crisis will come upon our people in all parts of the world.” Testimonies, volume 6, 395.

The golden calf rebellion is twofold and marks two of the first nine tests which lead to the tenth and final test at the first Kadesh. When Aaron and Jeroboams’ rebellions are brought together “line upon line” you find Aaron, the high priest representing a church and Jeroboam, the king of Israel, representing the state. The two lines together are a symbol of a church state combination. Jeroboam’s two altars were set up in Bethel, (meaning church) and Dan (meaning judgment) and together representing the combination of church and state. With these points in place, we will begin to identify the ten tests.

The ten tests are set within the context of the Sabbath rest (Hebrews 3–4). They begin with the threefold miracle of the manna and its lesson upon the Sabbath and it ends at the tenth test, the first Kadesh. That first Kadesh is “the day of provocation in the Scriptures,” and Paul places the final rebellion in the context of the Sabbath test. The alpha test was the Sabbath, as symbolized by manna, and the tenth and omega test at the first Kadesh was also the Sabbath rest. Alpha and Omega always represents the end with the beginning.

> Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

> Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

> While it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

> Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

> For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.

> Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, Today, after so long a time; as it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

> For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.

> There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Hebrews 3:8–4:11.

At “the day of provocation” the message of Joshua and Caleb was rejected. The passage is based upon a class who will not enter in, because of unbelief in a message they have heard. The message is represented by “rest.”

> “Those who are unwilling to give the Lord faithful, earnest, loving service will not find spiritual rest in this life nor in the life to come. ‘There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. . . . Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fail after the same example of unbelief.’ The rest here spoken of is the rest of grace, obtained by following the prescription. ‘Labor diligently.’” Pacific Union Recorder, November 7, 1901.

The “rest” is a message represented by the message of Joshua and Caleb. Paul employs the truths associated with the seventh-day Sabbath as a symbol of the message of “rest” that was rejected by those who were destined to die in the wilderness.

The expression, “Today if ye will hear his voice” is the same as the book of Revelation’s emphasis upon any man who hears the voice of the Spirit, which is to hear the message of the Spirit, which is the message of the latter rain, which is the message of the “rest.” At Kadesh that voice sounded and the rebels selected a new leader to return them to Egypt. The history of this provocation is addressed in Psalm 95 and by Paul in Hebrews. The history identifies the failure of ancient Israel at their tenth test. The alpha test of the ten tests began with the threefold miracle of the manna representing the three angels’ messages, the Law of God, the Sabbath rest, the Bread of Heaven, obedience and judgment—and the last of the ten tests was the test of the “rest.” The “rest” of grace as Sister White states, is the symbol of the latter rain. Kadesh is a symbol of the test of either accepting or rejecting the message of the latter rain that is presented “line upon line.”

Line upon line the “rest” is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit represented as the latter rain. The “rest” is also the seventh-day Sabbath, the very seal that is placed upon the faithful during the latter rain period. The “rest” is the grace that represents the power imparted to the one hundred and forty-four thousand when their sins are forever blotted out. That grace is not alone the power that is imparted representing sanctification, but is also the grace that provides justification when Christ’s blood is used to remove the sins of the repentant soul. The “rest” of grace is the message of the righteousness of Christ, a righteousness that provides the grace (power) to live without sinning, and the grace that transforms a Laodicean unto a Philadelphian. Once transformed by the grace of justification, the former Laodicean, as a Philadelphian, through the power of grace, walks upon the sanctified pathway that leads to glorification. The “rest” is the message of the third angel, as represented as “justification by faith in verity.” This being the case, Kadesh pointed to 1888.

The first Kadesh identifies the message of “rest” that is the “gospel” message. The everlasting gospel is ‘the work of Christ in introducing a threefold testing process which develops and then manifests two classes of worshippers.’ The message of the everlasting gospel of “rest” at the first Kadesh represents the threefold message of the everlasting gospel that is governed by the threefold work of the Holy Spirit who convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment. Those three steps are the identical three testing steps in the test of the manna!

The ten tests begin with a threefold testing process, emphasizing the Law of God, the Sabbath and mankind’s responsibility to eat and digest God’s message. The first of the ten tests was threefold as was the tenth. The first test employs the manna, as a symbol of the Bread of Heaven exalting the seventh-day Sabbath. The last test employs “rest,” as the symbol of the final testing process of the latter rain which culminates at the Sunday law, where those who represent the Bread of Heaven are lifted up as an ensign of the Sabbath.

The beginning of the ten tests as with the ending of the ten tests emphasize the Sabbath, and the gospel message associated with the Sabbath, which is the everlasting gospel of the third angel. The first Kadesh is the omega of the ten tests, so the alpha of the ten tests must possess the same characteristics. Kadesh represented 1863, when the Lord had desired to finish His work and take His people home, but the entrance into the Promised Land was delayed.

> “By reading the following scriptures we shall see how God regarded ancient Israel:

> “‘For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto Himself, and Israel for His peculiar treasure.’ Psalm 135:4.

> “‘For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto Himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.’ Deuteronomy 14:2.

> “‘For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people.’ Deuteronomy 7:6, 7.

> “‘For wherein shall it be known here that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? is it not in that Thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.’ Exodus 33:16.

> “How frequently ancient Israel rebelled, and how often they were visited with judgments, and thousands slain, because they would not heed the commands of God who had chosen them! The Israel of God in these last days are in constant danger of mingling with the world and losing all signs of being the chosen people of God. Read again Titus 2:13–15. We are here brought down to the last days, when God is purifying unto Himself a peculiar people. Shall we provoke Him as did ancient Israel? Shall we bring His wrath upon us by departing from Him and mingling with the world, and following the abominations of the nations around us?” Testimonies, volume 1, 282, 283.

Sister White asks, “Shall we provoke Him as did ancient Israel?” We provoke him by mingling with the world, which is symbolized by Egypt, the very place that the rebels at Kadesh sought a leader to lead them back to. In 1863 the desire to return to Egypt and the selection of a new leader is represented by inspiration as desiring to be associated with the world.

The passage we are now considering was preceded by Sister White’s commentary of ancient Israel not entering into the rest. In the context of their continuous rebellion, she set forth the verses identifying how God wished to relate to His bride, but His bride refused. The following passage leads into what we just read.

In the passage she records, “God required His people to trust in Him alone. He did not wish them to receive help from those who did not serve Him.” In 1863, Laodicean Millerite Adventism formed an alliance with the government of the United States to help in their efforts to prevent their young men from being drafted into the deadliest war in American history.

> “We here read the warnings which God gave to ancient Israel. It was not His good pleasure that they should wander so long in the wilderness; He would have brought them immediately to the Promised Land had they submitted and loved to be led by Him; but because they so often grieved Him in the desert, He sware in His wrath that they should not enter into His rest, save two who wholly followed Him. God required His people to trust in Him alone. He did not wish them to receive help from those who did not serve Him.

> “Please read Ezra 4:1–5: ‘Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the Lord God of Israel; then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither. But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us. Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, and hired counselors against them, to frustrate their purpose.’

> “Ezra 8:21–23: ‘Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of Him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him; but His power and His wrath is against all them that forsake Him. So we fasted and besought our God for this: and He was entreated of us.’

> “The prophet and these fathers did not regard the people of the land as worshipers of the true God, and though these professed friendship and wished to help them, they dared not unite with them in anything relating to His worship. When going up to Jerusalem to build the temple of God and to restore His worship, they would not ask help of the king to assist them in the way, but by fasting and prayer sought the Lord for help. They believed that God would defend and prosper His servants in their efforts to serve Him. The Creator of all things needs not the help of His enemies to establish His worship. He asks not the sacrifice of wickedness, nor accepts the offerings of those who have other gods before the Lord.

> “We often hear the remark: ‘You are too exclusive.’ As a people we would make any sacrifice to save souls, or lead them to the truth. But to unite with them, to love the things that they love, and have friendship with the world, we dare not, for we should then be at enmity with God.” Testimonies, volume 1, 281, 282.

Sister White states, in conjunction with her commentary of the rebellion of Kadesh, “The Creator of all things needs not the help of His enemies to establish His worship. He asks not the sacrifice of wickedness, nor accepts the offerings of those who have other gods before the Lord.” In 1863, the movement of Laodicean Millerite Adventism became a church and formed an alliance with the power that would enforce Sunday worship upon the nation and thereafter the world.

In the next article, we will continue our considerations of the prophetic lines that contribute to 1863, which is the capstone of the prophetic period of 1844 unto 1863.

> The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him. That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past. Ecclesiastes 1:9, 10; 3:14, 15.

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