Article

# The Book of Daniel - Number One-Hundred and Seventy-Seven

The Sealing of the 144,000: Insights from Daniel’s Vision and Prophetic Symbolism

Author

Jeff Pippenger

Published

April 7, 2024

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Key Takeaways

- Daniel’s three touches in chapter ten symbolize the spiritual awakening and purification of God’s last-day people, paralleling the experiences of Isaiah and Ezekiel.
- The middle touch by Christ signifies a deep realization of personal corruption, akin to Isaiah’s purification and Ezekiel’s vision of reviving dry bones.
- The resurrection of the two witnesses in Revelation 11 in 2023, aligns with Daniel’s experience, emphasizing a message of revival and empowerment.
- The “Spirit of life from God” entering the two witnesses signifies the infusion of divine power, paralleling the breath of life in Ezekiel’s vision that animates the dry bones into a mighty army.
- Daniel’s empowerment to proclaim God’s message to a rebellious house mirrors Ezekiel’s mission, highlighting the resistance from the existing religious community.
- The article connects these biblical themes to recent events within the religious community, suggesting a contemporary fulfillment of these prophetic awakenings.
- The sealing of the 144,000 involves a combination of divinity with humanity, marked by the reception of God’s word and the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

Daniel was touched three times in chapter ten, the first and last time by Gabriel and the middle touch was by Christ. It was the middle touch where Daniel most keenly felt his corruption, for the middle waymark of truth represents rebellion. It was Michael who touched Daniel the second time, for He had descended at the end of twenty-one days.

At the end of three and a half symbolic days, in which the two witnesses of Revelation chapter eleven lie dead in the street, a voice resurrects the two witnesses. It is the voice of the archangel that resurrects. The descent of Michael in Daniel chapter ten, at the twenty-second day aligns with the resurrection of the two witnesses in 2023. While the two witnesses were dead in the street, Ezekiel was shown their scattered bones and asked if he thought those dead dry bones in the valley could be resurrected, and all Ezekiel would answer is, “Lord thou knowest.”

Ezekiel was then told to prophesy to the bones, which he did, and when he did, they were formed together, but were still not alive. Ezekiel’s first prophecy was gathering the bones together, but it would require a second prophecy to resurrect the bones as an army. The second prophecy of Ezekiel was the prophecy of the third woe, as represented by the four winds that brought the bones to life. The first Adam was created perfect, but afterwards sinned and passed death on to all his posterity. The resurrection of Ezekiel’s dead bones parallels the creation of Adam in his perfection, for Adam was first formed, and then the Lord breathed into him the breath of life.

This is not to say that the two witnesses receive glorified bodies when they are brought back to life, for that doesn’t occur until the second coming, but their resurrection parallel’s Daniel’s vision of the causative “marah” vision, when they are changed into the image they then behold. Line upon line, the process of the sealing is very carefully laid out by the prophetic testimony.

In Revelation chapter eleven, “after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered” into the two witnesses, “and they” then “stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them,” and there was then “a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.”

First, the Spirit entered into them, then they stood upon their feet, and when they stood, fear fell upon their enemies who had previously rejoiced over their deaths. Then a voice calls them up, and their enemies witness the event. With Ezekiel, they are first identified as scattered and dead in the valley, then a prophecy is proclaimed that gathers them together, then the second prophecy causes them to stand up as a mighty army. With Daniel, he first sees the great vision that produces a separation of two classes, and he is then touched three times.

The first time he was touched he had no strength, he was in a deep sleep, and his face was towards the ground. Sleep represents death. Yet he heard the words spoken.

> Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice. John 5:28.

Gabriel then brought Daniel to his hands and knees, and then commanded him to stand, which he did, though he was trembling. He then heard the words of Gabriel, but he was left dumb. Ezekiel had also seen the vision of Christ and it produced a similar sequence of events.

> And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it. And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake. And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me. Ezekiel 1:26–2:2.

The vision caused both Ezekiel and Daniel to be humbled into dust, where they were prostrated upon the ground. In that condition they both still heard the word of the Lord, and they were both brought to a standing condition to hear the words that were spoken to them, and when they heard the words “the Spirit entered into” them. The combination of divinity is accomplished by the reception of the Word of God that is conveyed by the Holy Spirit. The “Word” is what transmits divinity into humanity. This truth must be recognized in order to understand the seriousness and significance of the prophetic history which Gabriel provides Daniel with in chapter eleven. The prophetic history represented in chapter eleven, is the conduit by which holy oil is conveyed to the wise virgins.

With Ezekiel, he is immediately instructed that he is to present a message to Laodicean Adventism, though Ezekiel is informed from the outset that Laodicean Adventism will not hear his words, for they are a rebellious house. Ezekiel’s experience is Isaiah’s experience in chapter six, and therefore upon two witnesses when God awakens Daniel from sleep, which is a symbol of death, Daniel is given a message for the rebellious house of Laodicean Adventism, but they will not hear.

Daniel is then touched a second time, by Christ Himself, who touches Daniel’s lips, just as he had touched Isaiah’s lips with a coal from the altar. Then Daniel could speak, but he was still without strength, and still had no breath. According to Ezekiel the breath comes with the message of the “four winds”, which was Ezekiel’s second prophecy. Ezekiel’s prophecy of the four winds aligns with Daniel’s third touch, for it is then that breath comes into the bones and they stand as a mighty army. It is in Daniel’s third touch that he is strengthened.

On July 18, 2020, God’s last-day people were scattered and entered into the tarrying time of the parable. The history of the sealing was illustrated in the history of October 22, 1844, unto the rebellion of 1863. The line of history there represented overlays with September 11, 2001, unto the Sunday law, but it also overlays with the history of July 18, 2020, unto the Sunday law. This prophetic phenomenon is based upon the fact that symbols have more than one meaning, and the meaning is to be determined by the context where they are applied.

When we consider the arrival and work of any of the three angels they are governed by the same sequence of events. They arrive at the point when the prediction associated with them is unsealed. That prediction is structured upon three steps. Its arrival, its empowerment and the closed door at its end. There are other waymarks within the history, but the three testing waymarks of the arrival of any of the three angels is the first waymark where a prophecy is unsealed. The message that is unsealed is empowered through a confirmation, and that confirmation and empowerment then tests the men and women of that history. The conclusion of the history produces a litmus test which demonstrates whether those standing at the third test are wise or foolish.

Within the history of September 11, 2001 unto the Sunday law you can identify three angels. The first arrived on September 11, 2001, the second arrived on July 18, 2020, and the third arrives at the soon coming Sunday law (the litmus test). October 22, 1844 aligns with September 11, 2001, and 1856 aligns with July 18, 2020, and 1863 aligns with the Sunday law. That being said, October 22, 1844 to 1863 also aligns with July 18, 2020, unto the Sunday law, for July 18 was the arrival of the second angel of the history of the sealing. The following history is still correctly identified as simply the waymarks of any angel.

On July 18, 2020, there was a truth unsealed that was to test that generation. The second step in that history is when the two witnesses are resurrected. They are then tested as to whether they will accept the light then revealed, which is going on now. Then at the Sunday law (the litmus test), it will be revealed who is and who isn’t a wise virgin. When we consider the history as simply the structure of a singular angel and then lay October 22, 1844, through to the rebellion of 1863, over the history of July 18, 2020 unto the Sunday law, we find that in 1849, Sister White identified that the Lord had stretched forth His hand again to gather the remnant of His people.

From October 22, 1844 to 1849, God’s people had been scattered. In 1850 they produced the second of the two tables of Habakkuk. In January of 1851 they were advertising the new chart in the Review. God’s people were scattered, and the third angel arrived with light. Then God began to gather them again, and He then provided a visual representation of the message they were to proclaim, as He had done in 1842. The light that arrived on October 22, 1844 was an increase of knowledge and it continued, under His direction to develop, and in 1856 the capstone of that light was introduced. That light was upon the “seven times,” which was the first light recognized by William Miller, and which was represented as one of the prophecies that was fulfilled on October 22, 1844.

The light of the “seven times,” in 1856, was both the ending of the increase of knowledge given to Miller, the messenger of the first angel, but it was also the ending light of the third angel that was given on October 22, 1844. The rejection of the light in 1856, was both a rejection of the increase of knowledge that was unsealed in 1798, but also the increase of knowledge that was unsealed on October 22, 1844, and it was rejected by those who then and there transitioned from the experience of Philadelphia unto the experience of Laodicea. The rebellion of 1863, was the third, and litmus test, which was demonstrated by a counterfeit chart that removed the light of the “seven times.”

The first disappointment of April 19, 1844, was brought upon the Philadelphian movement of the first angel by God holding His hand over a mistake in some of the figures on the 1843 pioneer chart. The first disappointment of July 18, 2020, was brought upon the Laodicean movement of the third angel by men disregarding that on October 22, 1844, Christ had lifted up His hand to heaven and swore that time should be no longer. On July 18, 2020, a message was unsealed that was to test this generation of virgins. As in 1850, the Lord in 2023, stretched out His hand a second time to gather together Ezekiel’s dead bones that had been dead in the street since July 18, 2020. By 1851, there was a new visual representation of the message that was a fulfillment of the prophecy of Habakkuk chapter two, thus identifying that after 2023, the Lord will have a new living ensign to lift up that is typified by Habakkuk’s two tables.

Habakkuk’s two tables were typified by the two tables of the Ten Commandments and also by the two wave loaves in the feast of Pentecost. The one hundred and forty-four thousand are identified as a first-fruit offering, and they are those in Malachi that represent the offering as “in days of old, as in former years.” They are lifted up as a wave offering that all the world will see.

The awakening of the one hundred and forty-four thousand begins with the gathering together, and that gathering is accomplished by the Word of God, for Ezekiel’s dead bones are gathered by hearing the Word of God, while they are still dead. Ezekiel represents the human instrument that proclaims the message that gathers the bones, when the Lord stretches forth His hand a second time to gather His remnant. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, John and Ezekiel all identify the human element that conveys the divine message to the dead dry bones.

Once the bones are gathered the Lord reveals the increase of knowledge that is unsealed just before probation closes, and that knowledge is represented by “that portion of the prophecy of Daniel relating to the last days.” In Ezekiel’s second prophecy, the light that is unsealed is the third woe, which is the message of the east wind that breathes life into the bones and causatively causes them to stand as a mighty army. The light that is revealed to Daniel is the light represented by the king of the north in chapter eleven. Together Ezekiel and Daniel represent “that portion of the prophecy of Daniel relating to the last days,” which is the tidings of the (east) wind and king of the (north).

> But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. Daniel 11:44.

In 1856, the Lord purposed to finish His work of sealing his people, but they rebelled. The message He intended to employ to bring them out of their Laodicean condition was the “seven times” of Leviticus twenty-six. When the Lord began to gather His people in July, 2023, He presented them once again with the message of the “seven times,” and among other things, identified that on the antitypical Day of Atonement the Jubilee trumpet was to sound, which is also when the seventh trumpet was also to sound. The Jubilee trumpet is a symbol of the “seven times,” and the seventh trumpet is the third woe. When Michael descended in Daniel chapter ten. Daniel represented those who obtain the experience of those who pray the prayer of Leviticus twenty-six, and those who seek to understand the prophetic secret of Daniel chapter two.

Daniel represents those who have been gathered by the voice of God, and then stand upon their feet strengthened to proclaim the message of the east and the north. They proclaim that message until the soon coming Sunday law. The process of raising up that army is a very detailed subject of prophecy, and the point when Divinity begins to be combined with humanity in fulfillment with the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand began in the history that is represented in verse eleven of Daniel eleven. The history represented from verse one of Daniel eleven until verse sixteen fills up the hidden history of verse forty, that is “that portion of the prophecy of Daniel relating to the last days.”

As we begin to consider verses thirteen to fifteen of Daniel eleven, that was first fulfilled at the Battle of Panium in 200 BC, it is essential to understand the significance of these verses. Panium is the third of three proxy wars. The first battle concluded with victory for the papacy and its proxy army the United States in 1989. The next battle, represented by verses eleven and twelve, which was fulfilled by the Battle of Raphia, the king of the south (Russia), will defeat the king of the north and its proxy army in the Ukraine. The third battle will be as the first with the papacy (the king of the north) prevailing over Communism (the United Nations), with its proxy army (the United States). But the third proxy war which is the Battle of Panium, will also initiate World War III.

We will continue this study in the next article.

> “As the wheel like complications were under the guidance of the hand beneath the wings of the cherubim, so the complicated play of human events is under divine control. Amidst the strife and tumult of nations, He that sitteth above the cherubim still guides the affairs of the earth.

> “The history of nations that one after another have occupied their allotted time and place, unconsciously witnessing to the truth of which they themselves knew not the meaning, speaks to us. To every nation and to every individual of today God has assigned a place in His great plan. Today men and nations are being measured by the plummet in the hand of Him who makes no mistake. All are by their own choice deciding their destiny, and God is overruling all for the accomplishment of His purposes.

> “The history which the great I AM has marked out in His word, uniting link after link in the prophetic chain, from eternity in the past to eternity in the future, tells us where we are today in the procession of the ages, and what may be expected in the time to come. All that prophecy has foretold as coming to pass, until the present time, has been traced on the pages of history, and we may be assured that all which is yet to come will be fulfilled in its order.

> “The final overthrow of all earthly dominions is plainly foretold in the word of truth. In the prophecy uttered when sentence from God was pronounced upon the last king of Israel is given the message:

> “‘Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: … exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him.’ Ezekiel 21:26, 27.

> “The crown removed from Israel passed successively to the kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. God says, ‘It shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him.’

> “That time is at hand. Today the signs of the times declare that we are standing on the threshold of great and solemn events. Everything in our world is in agitation. Before our eyes is fulfilling the Saviour’s prophecy of the events to precede His coming: ‘Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars…. Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.’ Matthew 24:6, 7.

> “The present is a time of overwhelming interest to all living. Rulers and statesmen, men who occupy positions of trust and authority, thinking men and women of all classes, have their attention fixed upon the events taking place about us. They are watching the strained, restless relations that exist among the nations. They observe the intensity that is taking possession of every earthly element, and they recognize that something great and decisive is about to take place—that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis.

> “Angels are now restraining the winds of strife, that they may not blow until the world shall be warned of its coming doom; but a storm is gathering, ready to burst upon the earth; and when God shall bid His angels loose the winds, there will be such a scene of strife as no pen can picture.

> “The Bible, and the Bible only, gives a correct view of these things. Here are revealed the great final scenes in the history of our world, events that already are casting their shadows before, the sound of their approach causing the earth to tremble and men’s hearts to fail them for fear.

> “‘“Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof…. They have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate…. The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.’ Isaiah 24:1–18.

> “‘“Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come…. The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.’ ‘The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.’ Joel 1:15–18, 12.

> “‘I am pained at my very heart; … I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled.’

> “‘I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down.’ Jeremiah 4:19, 20, 23–26.

> “‘Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.’ Jeremiah 30:7.” Education, 178–181.

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