Article

# The Revelation of Jesus Christ - Number Six

The Resurrection of the Sleeping Dead

Author

Jeff Pippenger

Published

October 27, 2023

Formats

PDF
Word

Key Takeaways

- Prophetic Alignment: Current events align with biblical prophecies, especially from Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Revelation, emphasizing the unfolding of new truths before the close of human probation.
- The Role of Tradition: Traditional Seventh-day Adventist interpretations of Revelation are accurate but may become a source of blindness if not allowed to develop over time, as truth is ever-unfolding.
- Resurrection Symbolism: The death and resurrection of the two witnesses in Revelation symbolizes larger prophetic events, including the end-time revival of the papacy and the institution of the Sunday law.
- Christ vs. Antichrist: The timeline of Christ’s ministry mirrors that of the antichrist (the papacy), which prepares for 30 years, followed by 1,260 prophetic days of influence and eventual resurrection.
- Ellen White’s Teachings: The article highlights Ellen White’s concept that old truths continue to reveal new layers of understanding and application for each generation.
- Final Crisis: The article warns of the final crisis, where global powers, led by the United States and the papacy, will unite to enforce the mark of the beast, opposing God’s faithful.
- Three Angels’ Message: The warning of the three angels is emphasized as vital in the end times, calling people to remain faithful to God and reject the traditions promoted by the antichrist.

We have been building upon Isaiah’s final prophecy that begins in chapter forty with the identification of the tarrying time that was initiated with the disappointment of July 18, 2020. We have been aligning the death of the two witnesses of Revelation with those that are dead in Ezekiel’s valley of dead dry bones in chapter thirty-seven. We are seeking through repetition to establish the very specific sequence of events associated with the resurrection of those that were murdered in the street by the beast that ascended from the bottomless pit.

As we align these prophetic passages, we are unsealing portions of Revelation that have heretofore never been recognized, for this message is the unsealing of the Revelation of Jesus Christ that occurs just before the close of human probation. We are doing this work, for “the time is at hand.” In unsealing truths in Revelation that are now in the process of fulfillment, we are accomplishing the very work that was defined as John’s work in the Revelation. He was told to write the things he had seen, which were things that then existed and in recording those things John would simultaneously be writing the things that will be.

> Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. Revelation 1:19.

A logical stumbling block for Seventh-day Adventists, may very well be their traditional understanding of the book of Revelation. When a person accepts an established truth, but fails to see that the established truth was designed to develop over time, their initial correct understanding of truth can become a tradition or custom. The truth that has transformed into a tradition may very well produce the blindness represented in the message to Laodicea. The original truth is still truth, but the inability to see that truth is developed over time produces blindness. The truth is not the cause of their blindness, the blindness is simply a symptom of the cause. The cause is the ears that will not hear, the eyes that will not see and the heart that will not be converted in those who are self-satisfied with the comfort of tradition and custom.

> “Christ in His teaching presented old truths of which He Himself was the originator, truths which He had spoken through patriarchs and prophets; but He now shed upon them a new light. How different appeared their meaning! A flood of light and spirituality was brought in by His explanation. And He promised that the Holy Spirit should enlighten the disciples, that the word of God should be ever unfolding to them. They would be able to present its truths in new beauty.

> “Ever since the first promise of redemption was spoken in Eden, the life, the character, and the mediatorial work of Christ have been the study of human minds. Yet every mind through whom the Holy Spirit has worked has presented these themes in a light that is fresh and new. The truths of redemption are capable of constant development and expansion. Though old, they are ever new, constantly revealing to the seeker for truth a greater glory and a mightier power.

> “In every age there is a new development of truth, a message of God to the people of that generation. The old truths are all essential; new truth is not independent of the old, but an unfolding of it. It is only as the old truths are understood that we can comprehend the new. When Christ desired to open to His disciples the truth of His resurrection, He began ‘at Moses and all the prophets’ and ‘expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.’ Luke 24:27. But it is the light which shines in the fresh unfolding of truth that glorifies the old. He who rejects or neglects the new does not really possess the old. For him it loses its vital power and becomes but a lifeless form.

> “There are those who profess to believe and to teach the truths of the Old Testament, while they reject the New. But in refusing to receive the teachings of Christ, they show that they do not believe that which patriarchs and prophets have spoken. ‘Had ye believed Moses,’ Christ said, ‘ye would have believed Me; for he wrote of Me.’ John 5:46. Hence there is no real power in their teaching of even the Old Testament.

> “Many who claim to believe and to teach the gospel are in a similar error. They set aside the Old Testament Scriptures, of which Christ declared, ‘They are they which testify of Me.’ John 5:39. In rejecting the Old, they virtually reject the New; for both are parts of an inseparable whole. No man can rightly present the law of God without the gospel, or the gospel without the law. The law is the gospel embodied, and the gospel is the law unfolded. The law is the root, the gospel is the fragrant blossom and fruit which it bears.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 127.

Those that claim to believe the old, but reject the new applies with even more force upon Seventh-day Adventists who claim to believe the Bible in its entirety, but reject the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy. In the Revelation John is a symbol of God’s people in the last days who are being persecuted for accepting both the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy.

> I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Revelation 1:9.

If a person accepts the testimony of Jesus, which is the Spirit of Prophecy, which is the writings of Ellen White then the previous passage from her writings identifies the issue I am addressing. She wrote that the “truths of redemption are capable of constant development and expansion. Though old, they are ever new, constantly revealing to the seeker for truth a greater glory and a mightier power,” and that in “every age there is a new development of truth, a message of God to the people of that generation.”

Though the customary understanding of the book of Revelation that a typical Seventh-day Adventist might hold, is truth, the entire book of Revelation is a testimony of the last days. We are currently applying a truth that is now being unsealed, and that truth will not be recognized by those who are unwilling to accept that all the passages in the book of Revelation are part of the Revelation of Jesus Christ that is unsealed in the last days.

The understanding that Adventism has held concerning Revelation eleven, being a fulfillment of the French Revolution is correct, and Sister White upholds that correct view. Yet that truth was simply a history, that is recorded to illustrate the last days. All of the book of Revelation is governed by this prophetic phenomenon.

We are building upon the hidden history of the seven thunders as a guide to bring Ezekiel thirty-seven, Isaiah forty and Revelation eleven together with Matthew twenty-five’s parable of the ten virgins. Another prophetic line that upholds the application of the prophetic sequence of events we are addressing is found in the line of Christ, which also includes a secondary witness. Jesus was thirty years old when He was baptized and became Jesus Christ, for “Christ” in the Greek of the New Testament, or “Messiah” in the Hebrew of the Old Testament, means the anointed one.

> That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. Acts 10:37, 38.

For thirty years, Jesus prepared to be anointed, and once He was anointed at His baptism, He, as Christ presented His message for three and a half prophetic days. He was then slain, put in the grave, resurrected and then ascended to heaven. The beginning of his ministry of three and a half years of ministry was His baptism, that represents His death and resurrection, and at the end of his twelve hundred and sixty days of ministry He was crucified and then resurrected–for He is the beginning and ending. The event of His death and resurrection produced a mighty army that for another three and a half years took the gospel to the Jews, and thereafter to the world.

The Catholic church, that is the antichrist of Bible prophecy, was also thirty years in preparation, before it was anointed with power. In 508, “the daily” was removed. Sister White informs us directly that the Millerites had the correct understanding of “the daily” in the book of Daniel, in spite of the fact that the Laodicean Seventh-day Adventist church returned to apostate Protestantism’s Satanic view of “the daily” in the 1930’s.

> “Then I saw in relation to the ‘daily’ (Daniel 8:12) that the word ‘sacrifice’ was supplied by man’s wisdom, and does not belong to the text, and that the Lord gave the correct view of it to those who gave the judgment hour cry.” Early Writings, 74.

The “daily” represents paganism, and pagan Rome was the power that restrained and prevented the papacy from ascending to the throne of the earth. As predicted in the book of Daniel, and thereafter confirmed by history, and thereafter revealed by angels to William Miller and thereafter confirmed by Ellen White; in 508, the pagan restraint of the rise of the papacy was removed. As with Christ, for thirty years the antichrist prepared to be empowered in 538. Christ, and the antichrist were thirty years preparing to be empowered. Once the papacy was empowered in 538, it delivered its message of death for three and a half prophetic years, just as Christ had delivered His message of life, for three and a half years. The two witnesses of Revelation eleven, which in the history of the French Revolution represented the Old and New Testaments, were also given power to prophesy for three and a half prophetic days.

> And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. Revelation 11:3.

In 1798, after twelve hundred and sixty prophetic days, the antichrist received its deadly wound, just as Christ died on the cross after twelve hundred and sixty days, and just as the two witnesses, representing the Word of God were slain in the street after twelve hundred and sixty days.

On the third day Christ was resurrected, and one of the primary subjects of the antichrist in the book of Revelation is the healing of its deadly wound, or its resurrection. The resurrection of Christ occurred on the third day, and the resurrection of the two witnesses, occurred after three and a half days. The antichrist is resurrected symbolically on the third day, for on several prophetic witnesses, the third day is a symbol of the Sunday law. At the Sunday law, the sea beast of Revelation thirteen is resurrected, and the mark of the sea beast, becomes a test. Then the United Nations, the ten kings of Revelation seventeen, at the direction of the United States, who is the premier king of the ten kings, will lift the antichrist up as the head of the three-fold union, as the papacy ascends to the throne of the earth.

> “As we approach the last crisis, it is of vital moment that harmony and unity exist among the Lord’s instrumentalities. The world is filled with storm and war and variance. Yet under one head—the papal power—the people will unite to oppose God in the person of His witnesses. This union is cemented by the great apostate. While he seeks to unite his agents in warring against the truth he will work to divide and scatter its advocates. Jealousy, evil surmising, evilspeaking, are instigated by him to produce discord and dissension.” Testimonies, volume 7, 182.

When the antichrist is resurrected, it ascends to the throne of the earth and leads the three-fold union on its march to Armageddon as Jezebel led Ahab to mount Carmel. The Psalmist Asaph, identifies ten nations, representing the United Nations, as an evil confederacy of God’s enemies, who lift up their “head,” which is the “papal power.”

> A Song or Psalm of Asaph. Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee: The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah. Psalms 83:1–8.

The ensign of the three angels is then flying in the midst of heaven.

> And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. Revelation 14:6–12.

The ensign of the three angels will then be flying in the midst of heaven, but soon the antichrist will be lifted up to heaven by the ten kings of the United Nations. The ensign will then be proclaiming the message of “truth” and the antichrist will then be proclaiming the message of tradition and custom. The three angels are warning mankind to not accept the mark of the papacy, but the United States as the false prophet, will force the world to accept that very mark.

We will end here, and take it up in our next article.

Back to Articles