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# The Book of Daniel - Number Eighty-Six

The Prophetic Unveiling: Understanding the Increase of Knowledge and the Midnight Cry Message

Author

Jeff Pippenger

Published

February 19, 2024

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Key Takeaways

- The article delves into the symbolic interpretation of the “increase of knowledge” from the book of Daniel.
- It suggests that this increase of knowledge represents a progression of truth that reaches its climax with the latter rain message, known as the Midnight Cry.
- The contrast is made between two classes of people: the wise, who embrace the latter rain message, and the wicked, who fail to recognize it.
- It highlights the significance of September 11, 2001, as the beginning of the latter rain, suggesting that the nations’ anger on that day marked a pivotal moment.
- The article references passages from the Bible, such as Daniel 12:9, 10 and Isaiah 28:14, 15, to support its interpretations.
- It discusses how the leadership of Laodicean Adventism is represented in Ezekiel chapters eight and nine and Isaiah chapter twenty-eight.
- The ancient men of Jerusalem in the last days are portrayed as failing the test of “the rest and refreshing,” which relates to the latter rain message.

We are dealing with the parallel between the movements of the first and third angels, in order to better understand what the increase of knowledge represents symbolically when it is unsealed at the time of the end. We are attempting to demonstrate that it represents an escalation of truth that ultimately climaxes as the latter rain, which is the message of the Midnight Cry. As a symbol, the “increase of knowledge” is derived from the book of Daniel, and it is there identified as the prophetic knowledge that tests and produces two classes of worshippers.

> And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. Daniel 12:9, 10.

In 1989 an “increase of knowledge” was unsealed that will ultimately demonstrate two classes of worshippers. Those two classes are illustrated in the context of how they relate to the message of the latter rain. The wicked do not recognize or receive the latter rain, and the wise do. The wicked therefore do not see when the latter rain begins to fall, and it began to fall when the nations were angered on September 11, 2001. We have been addressing the leadership of Laodicean Adventism as represented in Ezekiel chapters eight and nine, and also in Isaiah chapter twenty-eight. In Isaiah the “scornful men” “made lies” their “refuge” and “hid” themselves “under falsehood.”

> Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. Isaiah 28:14, 15.

The ancient men of Jerusalem of the last days fail the test of “the rest and refreshing” that is represented by the methodology of “line upon line,” which allows the wise to recognize the latter rain of the last days, through the historical illustration of the latter rain in the Millerite history. The prophetic characteristic of “the scornful men” that Isaiah emphasizes in the passage, is the lies and falsehood that they hid under and made their refuge. Therefore, in connection with the test of the latter rain message (the rest and refreshing that they would not hear), the ancient men of Jerusalem have accepted a lie.

The latter rain message arrives with a debate, as represented in Habakkuk chapter two, when the watchman there asks God what he should answer in the “debate” of his history, for the word “reproved” in verse one of chapter two means “argued with”.

> I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. Habakkuk 2:1.

The wise during the debate of the latter rain, present the truths represented as Miller’s jewels, which are also the foundational truths identified, established and presented by the Millerites. Those truths are represented as Christ, the Rock of Ages.

> “Let those who stand as God’s watchmen on the walls of Zion be men who can see the dangers before the people,—men who can distinguish between truth and error, righteousness and unrighteousness.

> “The warning has come: Nothing is to be allowed to come in that will disturb the foundation of the faith upon which we have been building ever since the message came in 1842, 1843, and 1844. I was in this message, and ever since I have been standing before the world, true to the light that God has given us. We do not propose to take our feet off the platform on which they were placed as day by day we sought the Lord with earnest prayer, seeking for light. Do you think that I could give up the light that God has given me? It is to be as the Rock of Ages. It has been guiding me ever since it was given.” Review and Herald, April 14, 1903.

The ancient men present a false latter rain message that is represented by Isaiah as a “lie” and a falsehood. In Ezekiel chapter eight, the history that identifies when the ancient men of Jerusalem are bowing to the sun, and are contrasted with those who receive the seal of God in the next chapter. The third abomination (generation), represents a false latter rain message, as represented by the “weeping for Tammuz.” In the third generation of Adventism, which began in 1919, a “lie” was introduced in connection with the false gospel publicly presented by W. W. Prescott at the 1919 Bible Conference. That “lie” is a specific subject of the third generation, and the “lie” is the false foundation of the false latter rain message, represented by the “weeping for Tammuz.”

It is important to spend time pinpointing the “lie” in prophecy, for the “lie” is the major reason Laodicean Adventism cannot see the increase of knowledge in 1989. The “lie” is that “the daily” in the book of Daniel represents Christ’s sanctuary ministry. Applying “the daily” prophetically as Christ’s sanctuary ministry is a false and incorrect prophetic application, but the “lie” is not simply identifying the false identification of “the daily” as a prophetic symbol, it also represents a “lie” that claims that Sister White agreed with the false application, and then using that falsehood to then establish the incorrect application as established truth.

The correct understanding of the last six verses of Daniel eleven, have been typified by verses thirty to thirty-six, and when Sister White identifies the complete fulfillment of Daniel chapter eleven, she states that “scenes similar to those described” in verses thirty to thirty-six “will be repeated.”

Employing the false definition of “the daily,” produces a false historical structure. The history represented in Daniel chapter eleven, verses thirty to thirty-six, includes the taking away of “the daily.” “The daily” is either the Millerite application, or application of Prescott and Daniells. Depending on which application is chosen, two different historical structures will be produced.

> And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. Daniel 11:31.

According to inspiration the prophetic history represented in this verse, and including verse thirty, and verses thirty-two through thirty-six is to be repeated in verses forty through forty-five of Daniel eleven.

> “The prophecy in the eleventh of Daniel has nearly reached its complete fulfillment. Much of the history that has taken place in fulfillment of this prophecy will be repeated. In the thirtieth verse a power is spoken of that ‘shall be grieved, [Daniel 11:30–36 quoted.]

> “Scenes similar to those described in these words will take place.” Manuscript Releases, number 13, 394.

The verse where we find “the daily,” is verse thirty-one.

> And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. Daniel 11:31.

The “arms” in the verse stand up on “his part.” The “arms” are a power, as is the one they “stand up” for. It is the “arms” in the verse that “stand on his part,” and the “arms” that “pollute the sanctuary of strength,” and the “arms” “take away the daily” and it is also the “arms” that “place the abomination that maketh desolate.” In Revelation chapter thirteen, the dragon, which is pagan Rome provides three things for the papacy.

> And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. Revelation 13:2.

The leopard-like beast is identified by Sister White as the papacy, and in chapter twelve Sister White identifies that the dragon is both Satan, and also pagan Rome.

> “Thus while the dragon, primarily, represents Satan, it is, in a secondary sense, a symbol of pagan Rome.” The Great Controversy, 439.

In verse two, of Revelation chapter thirteen, pagan Rome gave its military power, its “arms”, unto the papacy, beginning with Clovis king of the Franks (France), in the year 496. Pagan Rome gave papal Rome its seat of authority in the year 330, when the emperor Constantine vacated the city of Rome and moved the capitol of imperial Rome to the city of Constantinople. Pagan Rome gave the civil authority to the papacy in the year 533, when Justinian issued a decree identifying the papacy as the head of all the churches, and the corrector of heretics.

In verse thirty-one the “arms” that stand up, are the military forces of pagan Rome, that stood up for the papacy beginning with Clovis in the year 496. For this act the papacy identifies France as the “first born of the Catholic church,” and sometimes as “the eldest daughter of the Catholic church.” In verse thirty-one, after Constantine passed a Sunday law in the year 321, and then moved the capital from the city of Rome unto the city of Constantinople in the year 330, the formerly invincible empire began to crumble, as the first four Trumpet powers of Revelation chapter eight began an ongoing warfare against the Roman empire. The focus of the attacks carried out by the Barbarians and Genseric were directed against the city of Rome, which before the year 330, had been the “sanctuary of strength” for the Roman empire. From the year 330 and onward invading barbarian warfare was to “pollute the sanctuary of strength,” until the “arms” of pagan Rome were to stand up for the papacy, beginning in the year 496.

Not only did pagan Rome provide three things for the papal power, by giving it the military power, the civil authority and the seat of the city of Rome, but it also removed three horns for papal Rome.

> I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. Daniel 7:8.

The three horns that were to be “plucked up” in Daniel chapter seven, represented three primary powers that were resisting the rise of the papacy to power. The last of those three horns was removed when the Goths were driven from the city of Rome in the year 538. They were driven out of the city by the “arms” of pagan Rome, for those “arms” were to place the papacy (the abomination of desolation), on the throne of the then-known world in the year 538.

Verse thirty-one of Daniel eleven, identifies four things the “arms” (pagan Rome), were going to do. They were to “stand up” for the papacy, as they did in the year 496. They were to pollute the “sanctuary of strength” as represented by the military struggles that were carried out upon the city of Rome for roughly two centuries. They were to “place” the papacy on the throne of the earth in the year 538, and they were also to “take away the daily.”

The Hebrew word translated as “take away” in the verse (sur), means “to remove”. By the year 508, the resistance from paganism that existed in the Roman empire, that had been working to prevent the rise of the papacy to power, had been fully brought into subjection or eliminated.

To identify “the daily,” as Christ’s sanctuary ministry is a false application, but the actual work that was accomplished in Laodicean Adventist history that identified the false application as the truth, was based upon a specific “lie” that was accomplished in the third generation of Adventism. Sister White’s direction that the history of verses thirty to thirty-six will be repeated in the final fulfillment of Daniel eleven, made it impossible for “the scornful men” that rule Jerusalem to place an interpretation upon verse thirty-one without simultaneously rejecting the Spirit of Prophecy.

The “scornful men” teach that the papacy took away the true understanding of Christ’s sanctuary ministry, by the introduction of the papal mass, which is a counterfeit of Christ’s work in the heavenly sanctuary. If this were the actual meaning of “the daily,” then the “arms” that stood up in verse thirty-one would be the papacy, for the grammatical structure of the verse demands that the “arms” are the power that takes away “the daily.”

In order to uphold their dish of fables, they argue that the papacy (arms) polluted Christ’s heavenly sanctuary. The Hebrew word translated as “sanctuary (miqdash) of strength” is either a pagan sanctuary or God’s sanctuary. If Daniel wanted to convey that God’s sanctuary was to be polluted by the papacy, he would have employed the Hebrew word “qodesh”, which can only represent God’s sanctuary. So where is it recorded in the Bible or the Spirit of Prophecy that the heavenly sanctuary ever was or ever will be, polluted by the papacy?

Certainly, the sins of Christians are registered in the books of the heavenly sanctuary, but that representation does not mean God’s sanctuary was polluted. The cleansing of the sanctuary represented the cleansing of the record books that are located in the sanctuary. Furthermore, the papal power has never been Christian, so it has never been entered into the books of the investigative judgment. The only judgment identified for the papacy is the executive judgment of God’s wrath.

The “arms” also were to “place the abomination that maketh desolate,” which would be what power? What power did the papacy place? And what power is it, in the very opening of verse thirty-one that the papacy stood up for?

The unlearned in Laodicean Adventism who have placed their eternal life into the hands of men who have been identified as being unable to read the book that is sealed, may be comfortable having their itching ears soothed with that type of corrupted biblical application, but it is even more absurd to try and take the history they must identify to uphold their error, and align it with the last six verses of Daniel eleven.

In the history leading up to the collapse of the Soviet Union, which can be shown to be represented as the King of the South in verse forty of Daniel eleven, the military strength of the United States stood up for the papacy, as Ronald Reagan formed a secret alliance with the antichrist of Bible prophecy. In so doing, it signaled that any Protestant resistance to the rise of the papacy had been subdued in the United States, as typified by the removal of the resistance of paganism in the year 508. The King of the North (the papacy) in the passage first swept away the Soviet Union in 1989, and did so in partnership with “chariots” and “horseman,” representing the military strength of the United States, and also with the economic strength of the United States as represented by the “ships.”

The United States was the “arms” that stood up for the papacy. Protestantism was taken away, just as the resistance of paganism was subdued by the year 508. In verse forty-one the United States will be conquered by the papacy, and the Constitution of the United States, which is the “sanctuary of strength” of the United States will be overturned as the United States places the King of the North (the papacy), upon the throne of the earth, as did pagan Rome in 538. If you are reading the articles on this website, then you can download The Time of the End magazine, and read a more thorough presentation of the last six verses of Daniel eleven, but we are now simply identifying that the identification of “the daily,” as Christ’s sanctuary ministry is a false application of the symbol. We are doing this in order to show that the false application was brought upon Laodicean Adventism by a purposeful lie.

We will continue to consider the prophetic lie in the next article.

> “We have no time to lose. Troublous times are before us. The world is stirred with the spirit of war. Soon the scenes of trouble spoken of in the prophecies will take place. The prophecy in the eleventh of Daniel has nearly reached its complete fulfillment. Much of the history that has taken place in fulfillment of this prophecy will be repeated.

> “In the thirtieth verse a power is spoken of that ‘shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant. And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed. And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.’ Daniel 11:30–36.

> “Scenes similar to those described in these words will take place. We see evidence that Satan is fast obtaining the control of human minds who have not the fear of God before them. Let all read and understand the prophecies of this book, for we are now entering upon the time of trouble spoken of:

> “‘And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.’ Daniel 12:1–4.” Manuscript Releases, number 13, 394.

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