Copyright 1934, 1942
All Rights Reserved
V.T. Houteff
This tract is distributed
free of charge in the interest of reaching every truth-seeking mind that
desires to escape the path that leads to destruction of both body and soul.
TRACT NO. 3
Third Edition
The Universal Publishing
Assn.
Mt. Carmel Center
Waco, Texas
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
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Confused Because Essential
Though it
is the crowning work of our salvation and of the setting up of the kingdom of
Christ upon earth, yet the "investigative judgment" is one of the
least understood and most mystified and confused Bible subjects of the age.
Were it not essential to our salvation, the enemy would not have expended every
possible effort to envelop it in darkness. Imperative, then, is the unremitting
need to search the Scriptures "as for hidden treasure," and to
beseech God for the guidance of His Spirit in order rightly to understand this
all-important subject. In vain though, any search for truth unless the motive
be to learn and to do the will of God. Hence, "if any man," says
Jesus, "will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of
God." John
Since the
subject of the judgment is taught in types and in parables, and since the Lord
explains that His teaching parabolically is so that only His disciples may know
the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 13:11), obviously, therefore,
None But His Followers Can Understand the Whole
Truth.
"The
kingdom of heaven," He says, "is like unto treasure hid in a field;
the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and
selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Again, the
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kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man,
seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went
and sold all that he had, and bought it." Matt. 13:44-46.
In these
parables, Christ clearly sets forth present truth as the indispensable
condition to the establishing of His kingdom, and supreme effort as the
indispensable condition to entering into it. Thus "none," declares
the Spirit of Prophecy, "but those who have fortified the mind with the
truths of the Bible will stand through the last great conflict. To every soul
will come the searching test, Shall I obey God rather than men? The decisive
hour is even now at hand. Are our feet planted on the rock of God's immutable
Word?" -- The Great Controversy, pp. 593, 594.
Let us come
out of the stupor of presuming on God's grace, yet regarding Him responsible
for any consequent issue of our life. He has perfectly done His part in fully
charting the narrow path to the kingdom; now let us do our honest best to
follow therein to the end of the way, for the joy that awaits us there! But
never shall we do so save in returning to the old landmarks by forsaking the
Devil, who has turned God's people from "the Way, the Truth, and the
life" (John 14:6), into "a way which seemeth right unto a man,"
but the end of which "are the ways of death." Prov.
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THE JUDGMENT
AND THE HARVEST IN TESTIMONY, PARABLE, CEREMONY, and Number
_______________
In the Light of
the Testimonies of the Prophets
Since by
some the position is stoutly maintained that this all-important truth cannot be
established by the Scriptures alone, let the reader therefore give attention to
what the Bible says
"I
beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, Whose
garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: His
throne was like the fiery flame and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream
issued and came forth from before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him,
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him the judgment was set, and
the books were opened." Dan. 7:9, 10.
In this
scripture are set forth four pertinent facts: (1) the thrones were not present
prior to the opening of the scene envisioned; (2) the Ancient of days came and
did sit when the thrones were set up; (3) then the books were opened; (4) all
of
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which
(thrones, Ancient of days, and books) reveal a judgment scene. And since the
books are obviously the focal point in the scene, the question naturally
arises,
What
Is The Reason For Books?
Fundamental
to a correct concept of the judgment, is a correct understanding of the nature
of it and of the reason for the books. As to the latter John the Revelator
says:
"And I saw the dead, small and great
stand be fore God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened,
which is the Book of Life: and the dead were judged out of those things which
were written in the books." Rev
Unquestionably, therefore, the books contain
both the names and the records of all who are to be judged. And naturally these
names and record were entered while each person was living "Thine
eyes," says the Psalmist, "did see my substance, yet being unperfect;
and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were
fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." Ps. 139:16. "The Lord
shall count, when He writeth up the people, that this man was born there."
Ps. 87:6.
Thus does Inspiration reveal that each one's
deeds are chronicled with terrible exactness in the books of heaven, and that
in the reason for the books inheres the
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Reason For The Judgment.
That not every name that has been entered in
the Lamb's books will be retained there, is born out with sad conclusiveness by
the following scriptures:
"And the Lord said unto Moses,
Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book." Ex. 32:33.
"And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this
prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the
holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." Rev.
Accordingly, the books contain the names of
a mixed multitude, -- both those who stood firmly in the faith and continued
patiently to the end, and those who did not. Said Christ: "He that shall
endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." Matt. 24:13. But those who
do not endure shall be lost.
"And these are they likewise which are
sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the Word, immediately receive
it with gladness; and have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time:
afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the Word's sake,
immediately they are offended." Mark
"O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that
forsake Thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from Me shall be written in
the
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earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the
fountain of living waters." Jer.
So, there
must come a day of reckoning, a day when the names of those who are found
unworthy of eternal life will be blotted out of the Lamb's Book of Life -- a
proceeding for which the only correct term can be, "investigative
judgment."
And now
that the "time is come that judgment must begin at the house of
God...," "thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus
Christ" (2 Tim. 2:3), for "if it [the judgment] first begin at us,
what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" 1 Pet.
Since,
therefore, in the fullness of time, the judgment will begin in the house of
God, the church, each one is confronted with the imperative need to know
How Names Are Retained In The
Book.
At the
moment we accept Christ as our personal Saviour through the Word of Truth, --
at that supreme moment God forgives us our sins, and the hands bloodstained by
Calvary inscribe our names in the Lamb's Book of Life. Then simultaneously the
pen of angels begins in the heavenly ledger the life or death chronicle of our
Christian experience separate from our past. Even "the very hairs of your
head are all numbered." Matt.
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the angel, that it was an error." Eccles. 5:6.
For in the investigative judgment the books are opened and the deeds done in
the flesh are brought to light for a final reckoning before the Ancient of
days. All who have stood fast to the end will then forever have their sins
blotted from the books and their names retained therein; while all who are not
overcomers will then forever have their sins retained in the books and their
names blotted therefrom.
Always
man's greatest test, and one which has ever involved almost an instantaneous
decision, has been in the unrolling of the scroll -- in the eclipse of a past
message by a new one, -- present truth. On every such occasion each one has had
to decide: Shall I heed the new and unpopular truth and walk in its light,
joining with those who are despised by nearly every religious leader in the
land? or shall I allow myself to be deterred by the decision and counsel of the
ministry in my church?
When the
judgment begins and the books open and the cases of each generation pass in
succession in review before the judicial tribunal, some generations suffer an
almost wholesale blotting out of names instead of sins. When the generation of
Christ's first advent is weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, a whole
nation will be found wanting and their names will be wiped from the book. And
so in varying degree it has been at the introduction of
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every message in every age. "Different periods
in the history of the church have each been marked by the development of some
special truth, adapted to the necessities of God's people at that time. Every
new truth has made its way against hatred and opposition; those who were
blessed with its light were tempted and tried." -- The Great Controversy,
p. 609.
Accordingly, "when a message comes in the name of the Lord to His
people, no one may excuse himself from an investigation of its claims." --
Testimonies on Sabbath-School Work, p. 65. Lay aside all prejudices,
self-opinions, and ideas of men who bear not the mark of Inspiration, and who
say in effect by their actions: "I am rich, and increased with goods, and
have need of nothing" (truth or prophets). Rev.
The Bible
can be rightly explained only by the Spirit Who dictated it. He "will guide
you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall
hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come" that ye
may "be established in the present truth." And
"whosoever...blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost [speaketh evil against the
message] it shall not be forgiven" him: for it is the only means whereby
we may be saved (John
Consequently, the greatest danger of the people has not been their
listening to error
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but rather their rejecting present truth. "If a
message comes," saith the Lord, "that you do not understand, take
pains that you may hear the reasons the messenger may give,...then produce your
strong reasons; for your position will not be shaken by coming in contact with
error." -- Testimonies on Sabbath-School Work, pp. 65, 66. "Wherefore
let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." 1 Cor.
Clearly,
therefore, any attitude which disposes one not to make a candid investigation
of any message that purports to be additional truth, must inevitably bring ruin
upon oneself. While on the other hand he who accepts the truth but fails
faithfully to live and to proclaim it, thereby brings upon himself ruin also --
that against which Ezekiel warns: "When a righteous man doth turn from his
righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block [a message]
before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die
in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered;
but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless if thou warn the
righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely
live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul." Ezek.
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Thus
solidly established, the foregoing position on the investigative judgment makes
all opposing positions
Unfounded Conclusions.
Because of their erroneous belief that God's
throne has always been in the sanctuary and that Christ after ascending on high
sat there at the right hand of His Father, men have put forth every effort
possible to prove that Christ entered "within the veil" immediately
after He left His disciples. But as all such efforts, albeit ever so
well-meaning in the interest of truth, are put forth by minds inspired, not by
the Spirit of Truth, but rather by preconception, we must therefore diligently
entreat the Lord for the promised Comforter to lead us into all truth, and to
save us from being presumptuous and from blindly taking things for granted and
forming conclusions without digging beneath the surface.
"We
have also a more sure word of prophecy" says the apostle Peter;
"whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a
dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: knowing
this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Pet. 1:19-21.
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The wise
reader, therefore, will henceforth cease giving place to human theories and
speculations which tempt him to the uttermost to make flesh his arm. He will
instead attend diligently to Bible prophecy and to inspired interpretations and
will learn therefrom that the sanctuary is
God's Temporary Throne Room.
Since
earthly beings, themselves having never been in heaven, are naturally strangers
to heaven's realities (1 Cor. 2:9), then in order for God to make heavenly
truth known unto them, He must reveal it by means of earthly realities with
which they are familiar. Hence through the sanctuary work on earth is seen the
sanctuary work in heaven (Heb. 9:1-9). Indeed, the sanctuary above being the
pattern of the one below the services of the former are therefore definitely
revealed in the services of the latter. And the fact that the earthly sanctuary
was appointed as a place for confession and for forgiveness of sins, shows that
the throne-room in the heavenly sanctuary is only temporary. From it, while sin
exists, the Lord carries on the work of removing from the universe sin and
sinners. And this light in turn clearly shows that not until after sin came
into the universe could the sanctuary congruously have existed in heaven.
"I
looked," exclaimed the Revelator about
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door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which
I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up
hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.
"And
immediately I was in the Spirit, and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and
One sat on the throne. And He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a
sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like
unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and
upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment;
and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne preceded
lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire
burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. And before the
throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the
throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and
behind."
"And I
beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the
midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and
seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the
earth....And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the
throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand
times ten thousand,
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and thousands of thousands." Rev. 4:1-6; 5:6,
Here is
brought to view a twofold scene. On the
one hand, before the throne are the "seven lamps burning" and the
"Lamb as it had been slain," showing that the throne was
"set" there to serve in time of probation. The light from the
candlestick represents the light of truth in the church while the blood of the
Lamb is atoning for sinful beings. On the other hand, upon the throne sits the
Ancient of days, the Judge, surrounded by the jury of twenty-four elders plus
the angelic witnesses, "ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of
thousands" of them, plus the four beasts (who, being "redeemed"
"out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation" -- Rev.
5:8, 9, -- are therefore symbolical of the saints,-- all those whose sins will
be blotted from the books of records, -- just as the beasts of Daniel 7 are
symbolical of all the kingdoms which will perish in their sins), with the Lamb,
our Advocate, in the midst. All this shows a combined mediatorial-judicial
work.
Now so far,
we see that when John in vision beheld the door -- the veil -- as it opened to
the Most Holy apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, he was permitted to look
within, and that the things which he saw, were to take place
"hereafter" from his time; showing thereby that at the time of his
vision (about
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Holy apartment was closed. In addition to this, we
shall now see from Daniel's prophecy that the judgment throne was set up in the
Most Holy apartment of the heavenly sanctuary after the "little horn"
of Daniel 7 came up.
"I
considered the horns," says the seer, "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. I beheld till the thrones were cast
down, and the Ancient of days did sit Whose garment was white as snow, and the
hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and
His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before
Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him and ten thousand times ten thousand
stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened." Dan.
7:8-10.
These
verses reveal that after "the judgment was set, and the books were
opened," "the Son of man," Christ, was then "brought"
to a position, not at "the right hand of God," "the Ancient of
days," but "near before" Him (Dan. 7:8-10, 13).
Both John's
and Daniel's visions reveal that the throne in the sanctuary was not there from
the beginning of the creation of God; or from the days of Moses; or yet from
the hour that Christ ascended on
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high; or even from the days of pagan Rome; that,
indeed, it was not "set up" until after the fall of pagan Rome, when
the "little horn" of the non-descript beast came up -- in the days of
Ecclesiastical Rome (Dan. 7:7-12, 21, 22). Elsewhere than in the sanctuary,
therefore, is
God's Eternal Throne Room.
Because the
sanctuary throne was not in existence in the days of the early Christian
church, therefore the throne upon which Stephen saw Christ at the "right
hand of God" (Acts 7:56) could not have been in the sanctuary, wherein is
the "sea of glass," but rather in Paradise, whence flows the
"river of water of life," and on either side of which is "the
tree of life." Rev. 22:1, 2. Very obviously, therefore, the throne which
Stephen saw is "the throne of God and of the Lamb," the throne
permanent and eternal. Round about this glory-seat are no beasts, no witnesses,
no jury, and before it is "no candle," and no blood to be offered. In
short, it stands, not in the sin-laden sanctuary, but in Paradise. It is the
sovereign administrative throne, from which the Infinite eternally governs His
immortal sinless beings!
To this
throne, then, which is from everlasting to everlasting, Christ ascended and
thereat sat down at the right hand of His Father until the time came when, in
fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy and of John's revelation, sometime after the
little-horn
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power came into existence, both He and His Father
moved to the sanctuary throne. Upon the latter He does not sit as a king at the
right hand of God; but rather before it does He stand both as a sacrificial
lamb (Rev. 5:6), and as an intercessor (Dan. 7:13) pleading for sinful human
beings. Hence, His mediatorial work began
First In The Holy,
Then In The Most Holy.
In the
earthly sanctuary the high priest (typifying Christ) officiated first in the
holy apartment throughout the year, then upon the day of Atonement, the day of
cleansing the sanctuary and judging the people, he officiated in the Most Holy
for one day only. This twofold service signifies that in the heavenly
sanctuary, the High priest, Christ, must necessarily first officiate in the
holy apartment up to the antitypical day of Atonement, then during that day, He
must officiate in the Most Holy apartment, before the throne. Thus the earthly
services, too, repudiate the idea that Christ entered the Most Holy apartment
of the heavenly sanctuary immediately after His ascension.
Very
plainly, then, the ceremonial system reveals that from the time Christ
"sat on the right hand of God" (Mark 16:19), where the "river of
water of life" is, to the time that He and the Father moved to the throne
in the sanctuary, where "the sea of glass" is (Dan. 7:9, 10; Rev.
4.6), He
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officiated in our behalf as a high priest in
"the holy place" (Heb. 9:12); and that at the same time, conjointly
with the Father, on the eternal sovereign throne ("the throne of God and
of the Lamb"), He ruled the sinless universe.
From the
foregoing facts, clear and distinct, the only tenable conclusion to be drawn is
that Christ, immediately after His ascension, rather that entering within the
veil in the sanctuary, sat down at the right hand of His Father, in Paradise
and from there carried on His work in the holy apartment of the sanctuary.
How clear,
already, the light of truth at last shining forth on this all-important subject
of salvation so long shrouded in the dense fog of human theories and
speculations! And how solid the resultant vindication of the Spirit of
Prophecy's reaffirmation of its position on the subject: "that the
sanctuary question stands in righteousness and truth, just as we have held it
for so many years." -- Gospel Workers, p. 303.
"Cast
not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompense of reward. For
ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might
receive the promise. For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come,
and will not tarry." Heb. 10:35-37.
"Now
of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an
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high priest, Who is set on the right hand of the
throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the
true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man." Heb. 8:1
"For
Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the
figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of
God for us." Heb.
Plainly,
therefore, the judgment is to begin and the sanctuary to be cleansed, not
before, but after the fulfillment of the period for those appointed to die. The
judging being consistent with the records found in the books of heaven, the
names, therefore, of those who are found unworthy, without the "wedding
garment" on, are blotted from the books. Thus is the sanctuary cleansed.
Speaking of the commencement of this work of judging and cleansing, the angel
said unto Daniel: "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall
the sanctuary be cleansed." Dan.
Since the
cleansing, accordingly takes place at the termination of the 2,300 days and
since it is, as we have seen, the judgment,
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which takes place "in the end of the
world" (Heb. 9:26), consequently the termination of the days, and the
beginning of the mediatorial judicial work of Christ are, upon the authority of
Inspiration Itself, timed to the end of the world. Hence, conclusively, the
2,300 days do not end in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, as some teach they
do. This untenable position on the subject, along with other similarly
unsupportable views on it, therefore makes necessary, in order to establish the
very date of the cleansing, our first
Dispelling The Confusion Concerning The 2,300 Days.
Those who
are in opposition to the doctrine that the 2,300 days find their terminus in
the end of the world, are, among themselves, at strong variance over when the
days do, supposedly, end, just as they are over the truth of a multitude of
other doctrines. Fully evident therefore is the fact that none of them have the
truth on the subject. And yet in spite of this fact, they fail to see that the
spirit which has led them into their present state of schism, doctrinal
difference, strife, and confusion, unparalleled in history, cannot possibly be
the Spirit of Truth, Who alone can lead them into the truth of the 2,300-day
prophecy. Thus they continue darkening Christendom with what they imagine and
proclaim to be light on it.
In the
effort to support their position,
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they bring in the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and the English
Revised Version. These in the order named variously render the number in Daniel
Nevertheless, even these renderings as they stand, lend such feeble
plausibility to the theories held in opposition to the doctrine that the 2,300
days terminate in the end of the world, as to compel the theorizers to read
into Daniel
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Very
plainly, therefore, the numbers 2,400 and 2,200 and the interpolation of the
word "sacrifices," are the vain results of false interpretation of
Daniel's prophecies. The discrepancy between the two figures is due to the
difference in the dates necessary to work out the different ideas on the text.
Exposing both the ambition and the fate of those responsible for this vain
attempt to place the fulfillment of the prophecy, the Lord declared unto
Daniel: "Also the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to
establish the vision; but they shall fall." Dan.
Though the
endeavor of these robbers of God's people to make the vision fit their ideas is
doomed to failure, yet in their blind self-confidence they still try their best
to establish it, even going so far in the effort as to make the writings of
Josephus seem to speak as sacred history in support of their theory.
"And
indeed it so came to pass," says the Jewish historian, in a passage which
they most commonly use, "that our nation suffered these things under
Antiochus Epiphanes, according to Daniel's vision and what he wrote years
before they came to pass" -- Antiquities, Book 12, Chapter 5.
Though
Josephus does not even remotely allude to the number of days mentioned in
Daniel
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they in effect take him as a prophet inspired to
interpret the Scriptures! Being merely a historian, though, and not a prophet,
he accordingly, in writing the history of the Jews, made only a historical
application of the similarity which he saw between Daniel's prediction and
Antiochus' work. And such was well within his province as a historian. But his
not having the gift of prophecy forbids God's people from accepting his
applications of the Scriptures as authoritative and dependable.
From this
sort of wresting, juggling, rationalizing, and explaining away of simple facts,
the candid reader will see to what lengths men are going in order to dodge
revealed truths which they do not like, and to lock arms with private theories
to their liking. True indeed is the saying, "give a man a theory and the
facts will come trooping after! "
With the
mists of error now dispelled, our way is clear to proceed in ascertaining
When The 2,300 Days Begin And End.
From Daniel
7 it was seen that the throne of judgment or of cleansing was not to be set up
until sometime after the little-horn power came into existence, while from Heb.
9:24-27 it was seen to be set up sometime before "the end of the
world." Now to throw into full focus the light on the facts already
brought forth, we must go to Daniel 8 and 11, to the express prophecy of the
subject -- the 2300 days.
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Dan.
"Yea,
he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, and by him the daily
sacrifice was taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down. And an host was given him against the daily
sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground;
and it practiced, and prospered."
Dan.
"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."
From this
juxtaposition of Daniel 8:11, 12, and Daniel 11:31, the reader will observe
that both scriptures are speaking of the same power. And Christ, predicting the
signs of the end of the world, as He looked forward along the stream of time,
declared: "When ye [His followers who were to be living at the time that
this horn-power was at work against God, His truth, and His people] therefore
shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand
in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) then let them which be
in Judaea flee into the mountains." Matt. 24:15, 16. These clear words of
Christ Himself, place the work of this power in the future from His time.
Here Christ
plainly states that at His time the abomination of desolation had not yet stood
up "in the holy place," but that
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sometime in the Christian dispensation it would be
seen to stand there. Still further, the angel instructed Daniel that at the
time of the end shall be the vision (Dan. 8:13, 17). These two facts carry sweeping proof that the
2300-day period could not terminate until, following Christ's time, the daily
be cast out and the abomination set up: for both of these events were to take
place within the 2300 days.
This
desolating power was, according to Daniel, to pollute by transgression the
earthly sanctuary, or church. This was to be accomplished by casting down the
Truth to the ground, by taking away the daily, and by bringing into the holy
place "the abomination that maketh desolate," all of which was to be,
said the angel, "unto two thousand and three hundred days;" and
"then shall the sanctuary be cleansed."
From the
weighty evidences here amassed, there is manifestly but one conclusion
possible: the polluting of the holy place, the terminating of the 2300 days,
and the cleansing of the sanctuary could not have taken place before Christ's
time.
Facing the
resounding finality of this threefold conclusion, the numerous voices which
insistently localize within the Old Testament period the events bound up with
the 2300 days, ought now to silence themselves completely and forever. But if
they
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do not, then God, only, knows what they may next
proclaim!
You cannot
afford, brethren, now that the light is come, to let slip from you the
opportunity of breaking away from the theories of men herein discredited by the
"Spirit of Truth," and of placing your feet firmly on the solid
foundation here established in their place by the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Upon this
solid rock the structure of truth now in building will, as the reader can
already see, withstand the most severe storm of both "wind" and
"rain." So let us, in
proceeding to erect its superstructure, liberally utilize, without the slightest
fear of the coming storm (which will demolish and sweep away everything
standing on a sandy foundation), the material so freely given:
To cleanse
the earthly sanctuary, the abomination which the wicked power here under
discussion, brought in, must necessarily be cast out, and then "the
truth," also "the daily," which the same power trod down and
cast out, must be restored. Very obviously, therefore, there is not the
slightest room for doubt as to either the way in which the sanctuary was
polluted or the way in which it must be cleansed.
The eighth
chapter of the book of Daniel contains a vivid prophetic symbolism of two
beasts (a ram and a he goat), concerning
- 27 -
which the angel explained: "The ram which thou
sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough goat
is the king of Grecia." Dan. 8:20, 21.
"...the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great
horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of
heaven. And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding
great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant
land." Dan. 8:8, 9. "...the great horn that is between his
eyes," explained the angel, "is the first king" -- Alexander.
"Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall
stand up out of the nation, but not in his power" -- not in Alexander's
power; that is, not "to his posterity." Dan. 8:21, 22; 11:4.
"And
in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors [the Jews] are come
to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,
shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power [for
"arms shall stand on his part" (Dan. 11:31) -- the armies of the
civil powers]: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and
practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people." Dan. 8:23,
24.
Obviously,
then, Daniel 8:22-24 is parallel with Daniel 7:25: "And he shall
- 28 -
speak great words against the Most High, and shall
wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and
they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of
time."
- 29 -
Daniel had
the vision in Babylon, northeast of "the pleasant land" -- Palestine.
From Babylon the exceeding great horn went first "south," next
"east," then north in order to make the turn westward -- "toward
the pleasant land." Thus it went in all four directions, denoting that it
became a world power. Moreover, also the "brass" of the great image
of Daniel 2, which Daniel explains is to "bear rule over all the
earth," represents Grecia. However, as neither the goat's first horn nor
his subsequent four horns bore universal rule, then to fulfill the prophecy of
the brass kingdom, his exceeding great horn must be the one to "bear rule
over all the earth." Dan. 2:39.
Though the
fourth beast of Daniel 7 shows that this desolating power is descended from
Rome, the symbolism of the he goat goes further back to show that this world
power originally descended from one of the Grecian divisions (Dan. 11:5), and
later put on the garb of Christianity -- the religion of "a god whom his
fathers knew not." Dan. 11:38.
Gradually
assuming the ornaments of the sanctuary, he before long magnified himself
against the Prince (Christ) of the host (the Christians). And disregarding "the god of his
fathers," he ostensibly became Christianized, but at what cost to Christianity!
-- Not only was the "daily" "taken away," but also
"the place of His
- 30 -
sanctuary was cast down." In other words, he
"cast down" the Lord's "place" and there set up his own --
elevated himself to Christ's place.
The word
"sacrifice" being supplied in connection with the word
"daily," it manifestly does not belong to the text. Since, however, the English language does not
have an exact equivalent of the Hebrew word "daily," which is
variously rendered" continual ," "perpetual ,"
"everlasting, " and since none of these terms are synonymous, but
carry individual connotations, it is consequently imperative to take them all
together as a compound word, so as to arrive at the exact truth. In view,
therefore, of this fact, also the fact that the Sabbath doctrine is the only
Bible doctrine in the Christian era that can possibly be designated as
"daily" (pertaining to worship in respect to a day), as well as
"continual," "perpetual," and "everlasting," --
from time immemorial to time eternal, -- it is hence evident that all these
various renderings can apply to no other doctrine than the Sabbath -- the
eternal rest day. And in divine certification of its perpetuity, ring on
through the centuries from Sinai the immutable words:
"Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe
the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a
sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord
made heaven and earth, and
- 31 -
on the seventh day He rested, and was
refreshed." Ex. 31:16, 17.
The horn's
taking away the "daily," was therefore nothing other than his taking
away from the Christian church the Lord's Sabbath and putting in its place
Sunday worship, a pagan sabbath, -- "abomination that maketh
desolate," -- a desecration which grieved away God's presence from the
church.
The ram and
the he goat were shown to Daniel in vision "in the third year of the reign
of king Belshazzar." Dan. 8:1. Daniel was "astonished at the vision,
but none understood it." Dan. 8:27. The time, moreover, had elapsed, and
Jerusalem was still a waste. So later "in the first year of Darius,"
who "was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans" (Dan. 9:1),
Daniel was shown "by books the number of the years, whereof the word of
the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years
in the desolations of Jerusalem." Dan. 9:2. Jerusalem, however, was still
a desolation, though the time of the people's captivity according to prophecy
was fulfilled and the vision was still "none [not] understood,' as is
clearly seen from Daniel's prayer:
"...I
set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with
fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: and I prayed unto the Lord my God....O Lord,
- 32 -
according to all Thy righteousness, I beseech Thee,
let Thine anger and Thy fury be turned away from Thy city Jerusalem, Thy holy
mountain: because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem
and Thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us Now therefore, O our
God, hear the prayer of Thy servant, and his supplications, and cause Thy face
to shine upon Thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake....
"Yea,
whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the
vision at the beginning [in the eighth chapter], being caused to fly swiftly,
touched me about the time of the evening oblation...and said,...Seventy weeks
are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the
transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for
iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision
and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.
"Know
therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to
restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks
and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again and the wall,
even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be
cut off, but not for Himself: and the people of the prince that shall come
shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall
- 33 -
be with a flood, and unto the end of the war
desolations are determined. And He shall confirm the covenant with many for one
week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the
oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations He shall make it
desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon
the desolate." Dan. 9:3-27.
The angel
apportioned the seventy weeks into three periods: "seven weeks, and
three-score and two weeks," and "one week." And though in his
words to Daniel, quoted above, he explained the time prophesied, yet Daniel
still did not fully understand the vision. As he did certainly, however,
understand the angel's interpretation of the "ram" and of the
"goat'' to be symbolical of "Persia" and "Grecia"
respectively, the work of "the exceeding great horn" was therefore
what he did not understand And so it was that later "in those days,"
he was again "mourning;" this time, "three full weeks.'
Whereupon he says:
I saw
"a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of
Uphaz....Then said he unto me,...Now I am come to make thee understand what
shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many
days." "For at the time of the end shall be the vision." Dan.
10:5, 12, 14; 8:17.
- 34 -
That
chapters 11 and 1 2 contain the explanation of the vision promised by the angel
in chapter 10, can be readily recognized not only from the continuity of the
angel's speech but also from the fact that these chapters are the explanation
of the vision in the eighth chapter. For the reader's convenience, we quote the
last two verses of chapter 10, and a part of the angel's explanation recorded
in chapter 11:
"Then
said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to
fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of
Grecia shall come. But I will shew thee that which is noted in the Scripture of
Truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your
Prince."
"Also
I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to confirm and to
strengthen him. And now will I shew thee the truth. Behold there shall stand up
yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all:
and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm
of Grecia. And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great
dominion, and do according to his will. And when he shall stand up, his kingdom
shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not
to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled:
- 35 -
for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others
beside those." Dan. 10:20, 21 ; 11 : 1-4.
It is
evident that in this chapter the angel is explaining in detail "the
vision" which was shown to Daniel in the eighth chapter, and that Daniel 8
:11, 12 is parallel in time with Daniel 11:31. A comparison of both scriptures,
as found on page 25, makes clear that the eleventh chapter is an explanation in
particular of the power that is projected by the exceeding great horn of the
eighth chapter.
Also it
makes clear that the sanctuary spoken of in Daniel 8:11 cannot be any other
than God's sanctuary: for on the one hand a heathen structure can never be of
strength or on the other hand be polluted when it has never been clean. And,
moreover, never does the Bible call it a sanctuary.
And,
finally, the very fact that the sanctuary in Jerusalem was neither polluted nor
cleansed in the manner described by the angel, but was left desolate and was
ultimately destroyed (Dan. 9:26), puts the riveting evidence to the proof that neither
the polluting nor the cleansing took place in the Old Testament era.
This solid
conclusion is made doubly fast by virtue of Christ's statement (page 25),
placing the work of the desolating power in the Christian dispensation.
- 36 -
There is no
time other than the "two thousand and three hundred days" (Dan. 8:14)
and the "seventy weeks" (Dan. 9:24),
- 37 -
to which can apply the statement, "the time
appointed was long." Dan. 10:1. But seeing that the former period was too
long for restoring and cleansing the sanctuary in Jerusalem, and that the
latter period was too long for the rebuilding of the city (for the seventy
years spoken of by Jeremiah were already fulfilled), Daniel was prompted to cry
out to the Lord for understanding.
"Then," he says, in continuing,
"I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain
saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily..., and
the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be
trodden under foot? And he said unto me, unto two thousand and three hundred
days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." Dan. 8:13, 14.
Expressed
in modem speech, the angel's answer to Daniel's question would be that 2300
days would be required for "both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden
under foot," also for the daily to be cast down and for the transgression
of desolation to be set up, and that afterwards shall the sanctuary be
cleansed.
In this
light it is seen that the 2300-day period must terminate after "the
daily" has been taken away and "the transgression of desolation"
has been accomplished. Thus the taking away of "the daily" and the
bringing in of "the abomination that
- 38 -
maketh desolate" by the transgression of
desolation, will "give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under
foot."
The
treading of the host is the massacring of the Christians who would not worship
according to the dictates of the horn-power. The treading down of the
sanctuary, the church, gave rise to the establishing of an earthly priesthood
in the place of Christ, Who ministers from within the heavenly sanctuary.
And as the
great horn of the he goat is symbolical of the Roman (iron -- Dan. 2:40) world
in its three periods, -- pagan, ecclesiastical, and protestant, -- also as in
its second period, it trod the truth and the "host" under foot and
polluted the sanctuary by bringing in the abominations while "it
practiced, and prospered" (Dan. 8:12), the 2300-day period, accordingly,
extends beyond the fall of Ecclesiastical Rome and reaches into the Protestant
period.
As
furthermore, the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem went forth in 457 B.C. (Ezra
7:21- 27), the starting point of the seventy weeks proves to be one with that
of the 2300 days.
And
localizing Christ's ministry within this period, the angel said: "...He
[Christ] shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of
the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease." Dan. 9:27.
- 39 -
Since the
confirming of the covenant with the many (the Jews) was accomplished during the
seven years from the beginning of Christ's ministry, the time of His baptism,
to the time Peter was commissioned to take the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 10:28;
read entire chapter), and since in the midst of this period Christ was
crucified, "the week" proves to be seven literal years, and reveals
that the 2300-day period must be computed by the rule of Ezekiel 4, reckoning a
day for a year, thuswise:
"...from the going forth of the commandment [found in Ezra 7:21-27]
to restore and to build Jerusalem [the beginning of the 2300 days], unto the
Messiah the Prince [to Christ at His baptism], shall be seven weeks [49 years],
and three-score and two weeks [434 years]," totaling 483 years in all,
with the first seven weeks or forty-nine years, being for the rebuilding of the
city.
Then after
"seven weeks" plus "threescore and two weeks [483 years] shall
Messiah be cut off,...and the people of the prince [the Romans] that shall come
shall destroy the city and the sanctuary [fulfilled by Titus about 70 A.D.];
and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war
desolations are determined. And He [Christ] shall confirm the covenant with
many for one week [seven years, beginning at His baptism]:
- 40 -
and in the midst of the week [in the midst of the
seven years] He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease [by the
sacrifice of Himself and by its transfer to the heavenly sanctuary: His
sacrifice taking the place of the earthly sacrifice, and thus the heavenly
sanctuary taking the place of the earthly sanctuary, with Christ Himself being
the high priest], and for the overspreading of abominations He shall make it
[the temple in Jerusalem] desolate [His presence completely removed], even
until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the
desolate." Dan. 9:25-27.
The
remainder of the 2300 days, or years, reach to the time of the cleansing of the
sanctuary. (See illustration on page 37.)
Counting
forward 2300 years from October 457 B.C., the terminus is October, 1844 A.D.
And as the angel said, "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then
shall the sanctuary be cleansed," the cleansing must thence have commenced
in 1844, the very year in which, for the first time in history, the first
angel's message rang forth the proclamation: "Fear God, and give glory to
Him; for the hour of His judgment is come" (Rev. 14:7; Dan. 7:9, 10) --
the time that the Great Judge and the heavenly tribunal sit in judgment to
separate the bad from the good; that is, to blot from the Book of Life the
names of
- 41 -
those who have entered the service of Christ but
have not endured to the end.
Since this
fearsome truth, as here revealed, finds its counterpart in Christ's parable of
the wheat and the tares, the parables must necessarily therefore teach the
investigative
Judgment Among the Living.
"Let
both grow together," commands Christ, in regard to the commingling of the
wheat and tares, "until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say
to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to
burn them: but gather the wheat into My barn." Matt. 13:30.
Here the
Lord is parabolically teaching that a time of investigation will come, and that
then the angels will remove the sinners from "the congregation of the
righteous." Ps. 1:5
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast
into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to
shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.
So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever
the wicked from among the just." Matt. 13:47-49.
In both of
these parables, Christ is sounding the forewarning that the investigative
- 42 -
judgment will take place in the time called
"harvest," which is the end of the world -- the time in which the
2300 days culminate, just as the angel declared: "Understand, O son of
man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision." Dan. 8:17.
"...shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days." Dan. 8:26.
"...for yet the vision is for many days." Dan. 10:14.
Pointing
directly to the time that the investigative judgment shall take place among the
living, Malachi parallels both parables in his prophecy:
"...the Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His
temple,...But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He
appeareth? for He is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's sope: and He shall
sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi,
and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an
offering in righteousness." Mal. 3:1-3.
As the
cleansings called for in the parables and in Malachi's prophecy have never
taken place, the investigative judgment of the living is obviously, then, yet
future. This investigative work is therefore occasioned by the work of
separation in the earthly sanctuary (church), as brought to view also in
Ezekiel 9:
- 43 -
"And,
behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the
north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was
clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and
stood beside the brasen altar. And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up
from the cherub, whereupon He was, to the threshold of the house. And He called
to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side; and
the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of
Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry
for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
"And
to the others He said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and
smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: slay utterly old and
young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man
upon whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary. Then they began at the
ancient men which were before the house." Ezek. 9:2-6.
Here the
people are shown to be in a mixed state (tares and wheat commingled), with the
time just ahead of them when on the one hand those who have sighed and cried for
the abominations in their midst shall receive the mark of deliverance, while on
the other hand those who have
- 44 -
not sighed and cried shall be left without the mark,
to perish (in their sins) under the angels' slaughter weapons.
From this
separation -- the one in the church -- come forth the first fruits.
Then
follows the separation from among the nations, as seen in the parable of
Matthew 25, prophetically describing Christ's coming, though not the one viewed
in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17, for at the time of the latter, "the dead in
Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air"; whereas at
the time of the former, "when the Son of man shall come in His glory, and
all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory
[the kingdom-church, which up to this point consists only of the first fruits].
"And
before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from
another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and He shall set the
sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say
unto them on His right hand [these being the second fruits], Come, ye blessed
of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world....Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye
cursed, into
- 45 -
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his
angels." Matt. 25:31-34, 41.
From this
separation -- the one among the nations -- come forth the second fruits.
The angels
who are round about the throne in the heavenly sanctuary during the judgment of
Daniel 7:9, 10 and of Revelation 5:11 shall, as the parables explain, descend
with "the Son of man" when He comes "to His temple" (His
church) to separate by judgment "the wicked from among the just," and
to purge as gold and silver those "who may abide the day of His
coming...that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness."
Mal. 3:2, 3.
In graphic
demonstration that He will come to earth with all His angels to execute
judgment upon the living, the Lord revealed Himself prophetically to Ezekiel as
being brought enthroned to earth by four living creatures just before the
slaughter of the hypocrites in the church takes place. And as each of the
living creatures has the face of a lion, the face of a calf, the face of a man,
and the face of an eagle (Ezek. 1:10), -- the same judicial insignia as have
the beasts who are before the throne in the heavenly sanctuary (Rev. 4:7) in
the time of the judgment of the dead, -- and as they descend to earth, they
thereby symbolically show that the work of the mediatorial-judicial throne
which convenes and
- 46 -
presides over the judgment of the dead is extended
to earth.
This
extension, so far as we are able to know now, must take place at the opening of
the seventh seal (Rev. 8:1), for at that time the celestial voices, which
opened the judgment of the dead, cease in the heavenly sanctuary and begin,
after the half hour's silence, to sound on earth. In other words, just as in
heaven at the opening of the judgment of the dead, there were "lightnings
and thunderings and voices" (Rev. 4:5), likewise on earth at the opening
of the "judgment of the living," there are "voices, and
thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake." Rev. 8:5.
With the
judgment of the dead, however, the work of separation takes place in the books
in the heavenly sanctuary; whereas with the judgment of the living, the
separation takes place among the people in the church as well as among their
names in the books in the heavenly sanctuary, thus showing that both
sanctuaries will finally be cleansed.
Inescapably, therefore, the Lord's coming to His temple (Mal. 3:1-3),
His coming with all His angels (Matt. 25), and His coming enthroned above the
living creatures (Ezek. 1), -- all three representing the same event as has
been shown, -- take place at the beginning of the judgment of the living: the
time in which the judicial activities of the heavenly sanctuary
- 47 -
extend to the earthly sanctuary -- the church.
"And I
looked, and behold a white cloud," exclaimed John the Revelator,
envisaging the same coming variously described by Malachi, Matthew, and
Ezekiel, "and upon the cloud One sat like unto the Son of man, having on
His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came
out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud,
Thrust in Thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the
harvest of the earth is ripe. And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle
on the earth; and the earth was reaped." Rev. 14:14-16.
This coming
of the Son of man is plainly, therefore, not when the resurrected and the
living righteous are caught up together to meet Him in the air: for verses
17-20, following the ones quoted in the paragraph above, reveal that after He
came and reaped the earth, "another angel...having a sharp sickle"
came and reaped a second harvest before the wrath of God -- the seven last
plagues (Rev. 15:1) -- was poured out upon the wicked.
Thus again
and for the fourth time it is seen that there are two different comings of the
Son of man: the one to "sever the wicked from among the just" in the
church (Matt. 13:49), and then immediately to call the just from among the
wicked in
-48 -
Babylon (Rev. 18:4); the other to take the saints,
both the resurrected and the living, to the mansions which He has prepared for
them (1 Thess. 4:16; John 14:1-3).
At the
former coming of the Son of man, the stone which smote the great image was cut
out without hands (without man's aid, and by the Lord Himself) because, as the
Lord says, "there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to
uphold: therefore Mine own arm brought salvation unto Me; and My fury, it
upheld Me. And I will tread down the people in Mine anger, and make them drunk
in My fury and I will bring down their strength to the earth." Isa. 63:5,
6.
This work
of separation, or cleansing, brought to view in the parable of Matthew 13:30
and again in that of Matthew 13:47-49, also in the prophecy of Malachi 3:1-3
and in that of Ezekiel 9, as well as in Revelation 14, is directly applicable
to the judgment day for the living; but the cleansing of the sanctuary at the
end of the 2300 days according to Daniel 8:14 and Daniel 7:9, 10 applies
directly to the
Judgment Among The Dead.
Though the
cleansing of the sanctuary, as has already been seen from Daniel's prophecies
was to take place after 1844 A.D., yet since the living righteous are still
commingled with the sinners in the church, and since Daniel saw the Ancient
- 49 -
of days sit in judgment, not to slay those who had
"the mark," but to judge from "the books" which "were
opened," obviously his vision of the judgment is in respect to the dead.
As to the
cleansing of the church on earth, it is to be accomplished first by casting out
the abomination, second by restoring the truth, and third by taking away the
tares. But as to the cleansing of the sanctuary above, it is now being
accomplished by removing from the Book of Life the names of those who are found
wanting; then by placing them in the book which contains the names of those who
are to come up in the resurrection of the wicked after the thousand years (Rev.
20:5); thereby leaving in the Book of Life the names only of those who have
gained the victory over sin, and who thus are waiting to come up in the
resurrection of the just (Rev. 20:6). John, accordingly, "saw the dead,
small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book
was opened, which is the Book of Life: and the dead were judged out of those
things which were written in the books, according to their works." Rev. 20:12.
Beyond the
reasons already adduced, there are still
Further Reasons For Both
Judgments.
As the
cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary is a work of cleansing the books by
- 50 -
blotting from them the names of both the backsliders
and the tares, and as at the "time of trouble, such as never was since
there was a nation," the only ones who "shall be delivered" are
those whose names are found written in the book, the cleansing of the books,
therefore, obviously takes place before the resurrection, and before the time
of trouble such as never was. Thus the unfaithful dead will be left in their
graves at the first resurrection, and the unfaithful living will be left
without deliverance from the coming trouble. But were their names allowed to
remain in the books, then according to the records either the wicked dead would
have to be resurrected with the righteous, and the living wicked delivered with
the living righteous or else both the righteous dead and the righteous living
would have to be forsaken with them -- alternatives both of which, of course,
are impossible; thus again making mandatory an absolute separation, as
instanced in type in Joshua's time:
"There is an accursed thing," said the Lord, "in the
midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye
take away the accursed thing from among you....And Joshua and all Israel with
him, took Achan...and all that he had:...and all Israel stoned him." Josh.
7:13, 24, 25.
From this
bulwark of evidence in proof of the cleansing of the church on earth
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and of the books in heaven, towers forth the
impregnable truth that the living who, continuing faithful to the end, retain
their names in the Book of Life, shall, in this time of separation, receive
God's mark, or seal, of deliverance, while those who do not shall be left
without it, to perish in their sins. And, correspondingly, the dead whose names
are retained after the judgment, in the book of the dead, shall come forth in
the first resurrection (Rev. 20:6), while those who were unfaithful in life
wait until after the thousand years, to come forth with all the wicked in the
second resurrection (verse 5) .
So while it
is necessary in the congregation of the dead to separate the wicked from the
righteous now awaiting the resurrection morning, it is just as necessary in the
congregation of the living to separate the wicked from the righteous now
preparing for deliverance from the coming trouble, and awaiting the second
coming of Christ -- His visible coming to wake the dead saints and to take up
both them and the living.
There are
therefore two separations, one among the righteous dead and the other among the
righteous living, the dead being appointed to resurrection and the living to
translation.
Those, on
the other hand, whose names shall be blotted out of the books are those who
shall have failed to put on the "wedding
- 52 -
garment." Matt. 22:11. At the Master's command
(Matt. 22:13), they shall be cast out, never more to be among the wedding
guests.
This cleansing
of the Book of Life is further seen to be necessary in order to enable the
angels rightly to select the saints, for when the Son of man comes with all His
angels, He shall send them "with a great sound of a trumpet, and they
shall gather together His elect [the resurrected] from the four winds, from one
end of heaven to the other" (Matt. 24:31), and take them to join the
living.
The
concentrated light now shining forth from the prophecies herein viewed in their
correlative connection, shows that both the sanctuary in heaven and the one on
earth were polluted, not by the political and military conquests of heathen
powers, but rather, first, by some of its converts' not enduring (Matt. 10:22);
second by Satan's bringing in the tares while men slept (Matt. 13:25); and
third, by the exceeding great horn's casting out the "daily,"
treading down the truth, and bringing in the abomination that maketh desolate:
thus involving both the earthly and the heavenly sanctuaries.
This
startling revelation shows conclusively that the cleansing according to Daniel 8:14
is first of the sanctuary in heaven, and second of the sanctuary on earth.
- 53 -
Important
as it is, any who would fail to make a diligent and careful study of the nature
and significance of this great work of God's investigating the guests who have
come in for the wedding are simply indifferent to the prospects of eternal life
-- "so great salvation." For when a person's judgment is pending, and
he is unaware of the fact, he will be unprepared and unable to stand when his
case is investigated. To this all-important subject "therefore we ought to
give the more earnest heed." Heb. 2:1. And in doing this, we must approach
the judgment
In The Light Of The Parables.
The
seed-sower, the seed, the field, the season of cultivation and growing, and the
season of harvest must together be perfectly calculated to illustrate the
spiritual kingdom; otherwise the representation can only lead into error
instead of into truth.
The four
seasons of the year all being required in completing the process of planting,
raising, and harvesting the year's crops, and Autumn being the beginning of the
agricultural year (just as the close of the summer season is "the feast of
ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy
labours out of the field -- Ex. 23:16), this parable therefore illustrates by
the twelve months of the year a period of gospel history, in the closing of
which the kingdom of Christ is to be set up, and the beginning of which is
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The Seed-sowing Time.
There being
a period of church history illustrated by this twelve month harvest
- 55 -
period, we must therefore find the time of its
beginning -- the time of seed-sowing, and the time of its closing -- the time
of reaping.
"He
that soweth the good seed," says Christ, "is the Son of man,"
and the enemy that sowed the tares "is the devil." Matt. 13:37, 39.
"The
Son of man," He who "soweth the good seed," is of course none
other than Christ. But as He could not be called the "Son of man"
before being born of a woman, He accordingly could not have sowed "the
good seed" of the spiritual harvest until after His birth in Bethlehem,
Judea.
As His
ministry -- His sowing of "the good seed," the truth -- began right
after His baptism (Matt. 4:17), therefore to establish the beginning of the
parabolic harvest period, we must ascertain the date He was baptized.
"And
after threescore and two weeks," prophesied Daniel, concerning Christ's
ministry and His death, "shall Messiah be cut off, but not for
Himself:...and He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the
midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease."
Dan. 9:26, 27.
That this
is prophetic time, reckoned by the year-day rule of Ezekiel 4:6, is seen from
the fact that there were seven years
- 56 -
from the time Christ was baptized to the time the
apostles were permitted to take the gospel to the Gentiles. During this period,
Christ confirmed or fulfilled the covenant. "In the midst of the
week," or at the end of three and one half years, He was to be crucified,
thus causing the earthly sacrifice to cease.
The fact
having been established (see illustration in The Shepherds Rod, Vol. 2,
22) that the three and one half years of
Christ's ministry terminated on the 16th day of the first month then counting
three and one half years (follow the illustration on page 55), we find that His
baptism took place on the 16th day of the seventh month which was in the Week
of Tabernacles, and the celebration of which was the end of the agricultural
year, the close of the harvest (Lev. 23:39).
Thus we see
that the parable is in perfect fidelity to nature, and that "the Son of
man" commenced sowing the spiritual seed right on time -- in the end of
the old and in the beginning of the new year's harvest -- in precisely the
right season of the year. With the sowing of the seed beginning with Christ's
baptism and the harvest coming at the "end of the world," the period
of the parable obviously embraces the entire gospel dispensation -- from the
beginning of Christ's ministry to the close of probationary time. Between the two is the
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Wheat-growing Time.
The three
and one half years from the beginning of Christ's ministry to His crucifixion
being the sowing time, and the harvest time being the end of the world, then
the intervening period is the time for the growing and ripening of the grain,
also the
Tare-sowing Time.
Upon
finishing His sowing of the good seed, "the Son of man...left His house,
and gave authority to His servants, and to every man his work, and commanded
the porter to watch." Mark 13:34. But with Him gone, "men
slept," as men are given to do when their employer is away. Thus, sometime
after Christ ascended on high "His enemy came and sowed tares among the
wheat, and went his way." Matt. 13:25.
But His servants, sleeping, knew it not!
What a tragically ironic picture! Zion's watchmen fallen asleep on her
very walls, while the enemy slips over unseen and unopposed! O what a fearful guilt of gross dereliction
of duty lies upon the watchmen since apostolic days!
Denouncing
those today responsible for this failure to protect the church from
fellowshipping virtually anyone who professes an interest and shows a desire to
be fellowshipped, though such a one neither be grounded in the truth nor
bringing forth "fruits meet for repentance," the
- 58 -
Spirit of Prophecy declares: "Too much hasty
work is done in adding names to the church roll. Serious defects are seen in
the characters of some who join the church. Those who admit them say, We will
first get them into the church, and then reform them. But this is a mistake.
The very first work to be done is the work of reform....Do not allow them to
unite with God's people in church relationship until they have decided
evidences that the Spirit of God is working upon their hearts. Many whose names
are registered on the church books are not Christians." -- The Review and
Herald, May 21, 1901.
What stronger evidence is needed to convince
oneself that the watchmen have lost the spiritual eyesight which John the
Baptist and the apostles had? Tragically true indeed the sharp indictment:
"Sleeping preachers preaching to a sleeping people." -- Testimonies,
Vol. 2, p. 337.
Discerning
"when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his
baptism," that they would later crucify his Lord John said to them,
"O generation of vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to
come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance." Matt. 3 :7, 8.
Thus he exposed and thwarted the devil's move to bring in the tares at that
time. For well did he know that if the tares once got in and then he try to
weed them out, he would uproot the wheat with them.
- 59 -
And then
during the time of the apostles, Peter, as a faithful watchman of the church,
detecting the devil's essaying again to come in with his bad seed, said to the
guilty: "Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy
Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?...And Ananias hearing
these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them
that heard these things....And it was about the space of three hours after,
when his wife,...came in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold
the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much....Then fell she down
straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost." Acts 5:3, 5, 7, 8, 10.
The fact
that the congregation, too, has failed to discern the devil's sowing his seed
among them, twice over vindicates the indictment: "Sleeping preachers,
preaching to a sleeping people" (Testimonies, Vol. 2, p. 337), and proves
that the entire church, both the ministry and the laity, is sound asleep, in fulfillment
of the words of Christ: "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto
ten virgins,...and five of them were wise, and five were foolish....But...while
the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept." Matt. 25:1-5.
The evil of
allowing the devil freely to sow the tares among the wheat, has existed in the
Christian church since the passing of the apostles, with the result that
whenever
- 60 -
the Lord has sent a message to His people, the tares
amongst them have straightway (at the instructions of the leaders) raised their
hands and voted out whoever would listen to the messenger and obey the message.
Thus time and again selling their birthright for less than a mess of pottage,
the professed people of God have lost out, and still the church has never
learned the tragic lesson!
"O ye
house of Israel," warns the Lord, "let it suffice you of all your
abominations, in that ye have brought into My sanctuary strangers,
uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary, to
pollute it, even My house." Ezek. 44:6, 7.
But ever to
the faithful, as the tares have crowded them out of their midst, the Lord's
comforting assurance has been: "Blessed are ye when men shall hate you,
and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you,
and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice ye in that
day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the
like manner did their fathers unto the prophets." Luke 6:22, 23.
As the
period since the passing of the apostles has been the wheat and tare-growing
time, and as, moreover, the Laodicean church is the last of the seven sections
of the Christian church in which are commingled the wheat and the tares we must
learn the answer to the question:
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Which Is The Laodicean Church?
With
Christendom become a veritable forest for the number of its denominations,
sects, and cults, hence only by the omniscient Word of God can we pick out of
it the Laodicean Church.
The
names of the seven churches" (represent the successive sections of the
Christian church, of which the Laodicean is the last) are not "just names."
Take as a familiar example the name of the sixth,
"Philadelphia." Its meaning, "brotherly love," being a
misnomer of the spiritual condition of any other church organization in the
entire Christian era, implicitly fits, however, the state of charity common and
singular to the sixth---the Millerite church.
When the
proclamation of the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14 sounded to the churches Prior to
1844, they arbitrarily denied their members the right of religious freedom, by
forbidding them even to attend Miller's preaching, and by casting out those who accepted the
message. Then after 1844 these same religious bodies opposed the preaching of
the Three Angels' Messages (Rev. 14:6-11), again taking the same tyrannical
actions against their free--minded brethren. The Millerite church by its
actions in contrast to theirs, sad, "Let every man be fully persuaded in
his own mind' (Rom. 14:5) , and let us not interpose between God and His
people by mak-
- 62 -
ing religious laws or by prohibiting the free
exercise of any man's conscience.
Being the
one shining example of a church never guilty of thwarting or trying to thwart
in any way her members in their exercise of their inalienable right to
investigate and to accept for themselves whatever their conscience bid them
investigate and accept, she alone contributed nothing to the grievous condition
calling forth the scripture: "Hear the Word of the Lord, ye that tremble
at His word; your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for My name's
sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified: but He shall appear to your joy, and
they shall be ashamed" (Isa. 66:5) in the
Separation Of The Tares
From Among the Wheat.
The end of
the period in which the wheat and the tares are commingled is the time of the
closing work for the Laodicean church (the last of the seven churches). This
work is identified by the church's founder as the marking in Ezekiel 9, the
sealing of spiritual Israel, the 144,000. (See Testimonies to Ministers, p. 445
and Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 266; Vol. 5, p. 211.) And this identification is
conclusively substantiated by the fact, as herein seen, that Ezekiel's prophecy
is a separation of two classes -- those who "sigh and cry for all the
abominations that be done in the midst thereof" (the church) and those who
- 63 -
do not. And as the former are delivered while the
latter fall under the slaughter weapons of the angels, there is clearly seen a
complete separation of the tares from among the wheat in the
Time Of Harvest.
Though the
true meaning and time of the harvest is greatly confused by some and confusing
to many, a close study of the Word will clear it in just as simple manner as it
cleared both the time of the seed-sowing and the period of the wheat and the
tares.
With His
eye piercing the mists of the ages, Christ foresaw the negligence of His
watchmen and the evil which was to spring up in His church. Nevertheless, after
being asked by His servants, "Didst not Thou sow good seed in Thy field?
from whence then hath it tares?...Wilt Thou then that we go and gather them
up?...He said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the
wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of
harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind
them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into My barn." Matt.
13:27-30.
A harvest
means the "result of effort," of toil, "the gathering of a
crop" -- reaping the result of labor and filling up the barns with grain.
So rather than the year's toil
- 64 -
being finished at the beginning of the harvest, the
heaviest labor of the year just then begins. And though harvest time is the
shortest of all the periods of the harvest year, the work of reaping is not
done in a moment; it takes time. The yield is not garnered by turning the field
right into the barn; no, that would be a conglomerate mass instead of a
harvest. First the sickle is put to the grain, and next the grain is bound into
sheaves, then threshed, after which it is put into the barn; and thereafter the
chaff and the tares are destroyed. This work being completed during the autumn,
it shows that the harvest is a season of time after "the summer is
past," and that it is followed by the fruitless winter period.
So it must
be with the spiritual harvest which otherwise could not be illustrated by the
literal. Do not regard lightly the wisdom of God: His illustrations are
perfect.
Consider,
now, with what exact fidelity to the natural harvest the Master has stated the
truths of the spiritual harvest: "Let both grow together until the
harvest," He says: "and in the time of harvest I will say to the
reapers, Gather ye together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn
them: but gather the wheat into My barn." Matt. 13:30.
In these
parabolic words Christ has made the spiritual method of harvesting
- 65 -
analogous to the natural method. Were the one not
precisely like the other, He would have distinguished the difference. Be
admonished, therefore, not to let vain imaginings come into the mind, but stand
squarely on the Scriptures, for they are full of meaning of illimitable value
-- are, indeed, your very life.
As the word
"until" means "up to," the tares are therefore to be
gathered out, not before or after the harvest, but at the beginning of it. And
"the time of harvest" being "the end of probationary time"
(Christ's Object Lessons, p. 72), then the harvesting itself necessarily
precedes the close of probation -- the fruitless winter season. Consequently,
the tares are separated from among the wheat before, not after, the end of
probationary time.
The wheat,
"the children of the kingdom" (Matt. 13:38), are gathered into the
barn, the kingdom; the tares, "the children of the wicked one" (verse
38) -- mere professors, those who are not doers of the Word, and who were
granted membership "while men slept" -- "are gathered and burned
in the fire" (Matt. 13:40), after the wheat is bound into sheaves. But
Who Are The Reapers?
"The
reapers are the angels" who "shall come forth, and sever the wicked
from among the just." Matt. 13:39, 49. These angels are not those who
shall "come"
- 66 -
with Christ at His second coming, but rather those
whom He "shall send forth.'' They are like the three angels of Revelation
14:6-11. Indeed, the third angel "is to select the wheat from the tares
and seal, or bind, the wheat for the heavenly garner." -- Early Writings,
p. 118. Therefore the angels, the reapers, whom Christ sends forth, include
both him who does the sealing, or binding, and those who follow on to do the
destroying (Ezek. 9:2, 5 6), first in the church, then in the world. Thus is
the
Separation In Two Sections.
The
command, "Gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which
do iniquity," does not mean to gather His saints from the earth into
heaven; neither does it mean to destroy the wicked from the earth; for the
former are to be gathered, not directly to heaven, but first into "the
barn," the kingdom on earth; and the latter are not to be destroyed
immediately "in the time of harvest," but first are to be gathered
into bundles, and then destroyed, as is further illustrated in the parable of
the net:
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast
into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to
shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad
away." Matt. 13:47, 48.
- 67 -
This
parable also shows the separation of the wicked from among God's people in the
church ("the net"), this being the first section of the work of
separation, the beginning of the harvest. The subsequent section follows in the
world, as the earth is lightened with the glory of the "Loud Cry"
angel, and as "another voice from heaven," says: "Come out of
her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of
her plagues." Rev. 18:4.
Note that
in the first section of the separation the one in the church, the wicked are
taken away from among the just, whereas in the second, the one in Babylon, the
just are called from among the wicked.
As the
field is "the world" (Matt. 13:38), the parable of the wheat and the
tares necessarily comprehends both sections of the harvest. As, by contrast,
the "net" hauls in the "fish," the converts made by the
gospel church, the parable of the net therefore is limited to the separation in
the church. Together they distinguish the
Relation Of First Fruits To Second.
Isaiah also
was given a view of this two-fold harvest. "For by fire and by His
sword," he prophesies, "will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the
slain of the Lord shall be many. They that sanctify themselves, and purify
themselves in the
- 68 -
gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's
flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith
the Lord. " Isa. 66:16, 17.
The slain
of the Lord, in this scripture are those who profess to be in the faith, who
claim sanctification and purification, but who do so on the merits of their own
righteousness, -- of "themselves," -- not on the merits of Christ's
righteousness. They walk, that is, in their own ways, not in obedience to the
truth. Wrapped about with these spurious habiliments of sanctification and
purification, they pose as reformers, yet all the while indulging in the
abominations of the heathen; doing so in secret -- "behind one tree,"
or, as the margin says, following in the lead "one after another."
And the food (swine's flesh, the mouse, and the abomination, -- whatever that
may be wherever these paganistic Christians may be, -- foods used respectively
only in certain parts of the world, among different classes and races) with
which they are gratifying their appetites, shows that the consequent
destruction among these self-sanctified and self-purified ones is in the church
world-wide.
That it was
not among the Gentiles, who knew not of the truth of God and of His great power
is clearly shown by the Lord's words: "I will send those that escape of
them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal,
and
- 69 -
Javan [the Gentile nations today as called by their
ancient names], to the isles afar off, that have not heard My fame, neither
have seen My glory; and they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles."
Isa. 66:19.
Since these
escaped ones (the first fruits, the 144,000 servants of God -- Rev. 7:3)
"shall bring all your brethren" (the second fruits the great
multitude -- Rev. 7:9) "for an offering...out of all nations" (Isa.
66:20, first part), this great ingathering necessarily therefore, is the
closing work of the gospel -- the second section of the harvest.
And since,
furthermore, these escaped ones are to bring all their brethren "to My
holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord," "in a clean vessel into the
house of the Lord" (Isa. 66:20, last part), the fact is fully evident that
the destruction of the wicked results in the purification of the church. The
"clean vessel" is therefore the purified church, composed of the
escaped ones the first fruits, the 144,000 -- who, free from the wicked (the
tares) shall then, as "the servants of our God," bring in the second
fruits, the great multitude which no man can number, out of all nations.
The second
section of the separation thus being completed, Probationary time is closed.
Whereupon from the wicked will be heard the horrible wail of doom: "The
harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." Jer. 8:20.
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This being
the dreadful experience of the tares in Babylon, in the second section of the
harvest, there must, as a type, be a similar and precedent experience for the
tares in the Laodicean church, in the first section of the harvest, a parallel
which shows conclusively that
The Church Is Not Babylon.
The reason
that the church is figuratively not "Babylon" is that it is called
Jerusalem (Ezek. 9:4,8), and from among the good therein, the wicked (the
tares) are destroyed, taken out, by the six men with the slaughter weapons
(Ezek. 9:6-9), and then afterward the good (the wheat) are gathered in
"the barn;" while from among the wicked in Babylon, the just ("My
people") are called out and gathered into the barn, and then the seven
angels pour out the seven last plagues, and the remaining wicked are destroyed.
Thus in the
first section of the harvest, the separation in the church, the wicked are
destroyed by six men with slaughter weapons, before the good are taken out; and
in the second section, the separation among the churches in Babylon, the wicked
are destroyed by seven angels with the seven last plagues, after the good are
taken out. There are therefore two separations and two fruits: the former gives
the first fruits, the 144 000, who are not defiled with women (Rev. 14:4). That
is, they are those whom the sealing message finds
- 71 -
in the church of God, not in the heathen churches.
And the second gives the second fruits, the great multitude from all nations,
some of whom also may be undefiled with women -- heathen churches.
Having to
this point studied the judgment, the harvest, in the light of the testimonies
of the prophets and the parables of Christ, we shall now examine it
In The
Light Of The Ceremonial
Service.
Just as the
Spirit of Prophecy declares that "the whole system of types and symbols
was a compacted prophecy of the gospel, a presentation in which were bound up
the promises of redemption" (The Acts of the Apostles p. 14), just so the
plan of salvation is unfolded not only in the testimonies of the prophets and
in the parables of Christ but also in the types and symbols of the earthly
sanctuary. In addition to this, the experiences of the people in the typical
period "happened unto them," we are told, "for ensamples: and
they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are
come." 1 Cor. 10:11. So we are logically bound at the very outset to
attend to God's instruction to Moses:
"On
the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement:...make
an atonement for you before the
- 72 -
Lord your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall
not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among His
people." "Make an atonement for the children of Israel...once a
year." Lev. 23:27-29; 16:34.
When one is
"cut off from among his people" on account of sin, then his name must
also be "blotted out of the book of the living." Ps. 69:28. Consequently,
the day of atonement was a day of judgment, as it is still commonly called by
the Jews, and by that token it was founded as the type of the great antitypical
day of atonement (the investigative judgment) -- the day in which the Lord will
blot from His book the names of all sinners, and "cut off" from the
congregation of His people all whose names are not in the book.
Concerning
the typical day of atonement, the Lord's command through Moses was: "On
that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you
may be clean from all your sins before the Lord....and he shall make an
atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make an atonement for the
tabernacle of the congregation, and for the altar." Lev. 16:30, 33.
Being the
day of atonement in type for both the dead and the living, this service of the
earthly tabernacle therefore projects the day of atonement in its antitype the
cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven from
- 73 -
unworthy names in the books, and the cleansing of
the church on earth from its unconverted and unstable members, -- thus bringing
the time of clean books, clean church, and clean people.
Looking
forward to this day of purification, Zechariah prophesies: "In that day
shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the
pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every
pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts:...and
in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of
hosts." Zech. 14:20, 21.
Envisioning
the same scene, the prophet Isaiah declares: "And the Gentiles shall see
thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new
name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of
glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou
shalt no more be termed Forsaken;...thou shalt be called Hephzibah...The holy
people." Isa. 62:2-4, 12.
"But
ye...that forsake the Lord, that forget My holy mountain,...ye shall leave your
name for a curse unto My chosen: for the Lord God shall slay thee, and call His
servants by another name." Isa. 65:11, 15.
"The
people that doth not understand shall fall." Hos. 4:14. "Many shall
be
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purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked
shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall
understand." Dan. 12:10.
Those whose
vision is clear on the truth of the harvest as taught in the testimonies of the
prophets and in the parables will have a still clearer vision as we study the
significance of
The Wave-Sheaf, Wave-Loaves,
and the Feast of Tabernacles.
Illustrating our salvation in completeness, the harvest rites of the
ceremonial system must therefore corroborate both the testimonies of the
prophets and the parables concerning the harvest, for all are inextricably
bound up together. The ceremonies of the first and the second fruits of grain
must accordingly unfold the truth concerning the first and second fruits of
humanity. In the Levitical law we read:
"Ye
shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: and he
shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow
after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it....And ye shall eat neither bread,
nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought
an offering unto your God:...and ye shall count unto you from the morrow after
the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven
Sabbaths shall be complete:
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even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall
ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord. Ye
shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they
shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the first
fruits unto the Lord....Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye
have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven
days on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a
sabbath." Lev. 23:10,11, 14-17, 39.
Here we see
commanded the observance of three harvest rites: (1) the ceremony of the
wave-sheaf, at the beginning of the first harvest; (2) the ceremony of the
wave-loaves, at the close of the first harvest; and (3) the feast of
tabernacles at the close of the second harvest. Being typical, these two grain
harvests with their three literal sacraments, accordingly foreshadow two soul
harvests with three spiritual rites, the first of which is the
First Fruits with
Wave-Sheaf and
Wave-Loaves.
Being of
cut stalks of grain, the wave-sheaf signified fruits to be harvested. And as
the sheaf was to be offered before the sickle was put to the grain and gathered
into sheaves, it obviously pointed forward to a spiritual harvest of first
fruits to be gathered.
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On
Pentecost fifty days after the typical sheaf was offered, all Israel were to
offer "a new meat offering unto the Lord...
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[two wave-loaves "baken with leaven"] the
firstfruits unto the Lord." Lev. 23:16, 17.
Both the
wave-sheaf and the wave-loaves were thank offerings for the first fruits. One
was dedicated at the beginning of the harvest; the other at the completion of
it. In contrast to the wave-sheaf of cut stalks of grain, prefiguring fruits to
be gathered after the sheaf was offered, the wave-loaves, being a finished
product, signified fruits previously gathered. (The reader who would best
comprehend the significance of these three ceremonial celebrations
all-important to our salvation, will follow the chart of page 77, as we
proceed.)
It will be
observed that the command regarding observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, as
well as that regarding observance of the yearly ceremonial feasts, is recorded
in the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus, verse 3. Care, therefore, must be
exercised not to confuse the one truth with the other.
The
wave-sheaf was to be offered "on the morrow after the Sabbath" -- that
is, on the first day of the week, now commonly called Sunday. This offering was
to be presented, not on a special day of the month, but rather on a special day
of the week, before the sickle was put to the grain and gathered into sheaves
(Lev. 23:11, 14). Coming just at the right time, in the season of the first
fruits, the Passover
- 78 -
week was the period in which the wave-sheaf was
usually offered before the Lord, its ritual prophetically projecting
Christ, the Antitype Of the Wave-Sheaf.
For more
than a thousand years the annual waving of the sheaf pointed forward to its
antitypical event, the resurrection of Christ. And as Christ arose on the very
day that the wave-sheaf was to be offered, the day "after the
Sabbath," let no one attribute the singular concurrence of these two
events on that day to mere coincidence or to any cause other than divine
design. "He was the antitype of the wave-sheaf," declares the Spirit
of Prophecy, "and His resurrection took place on the very day when the
wave-sheaf was to be presented before the Lord." -- Desire of Ages, p.
785.
So Christ,
the first fruits, and those who with Him at His resurrection came forth from
the grave, raised to everlasting life, were the antitypical wave-sheaf of the
dead. And since the wave-sheaf of grain pointed forward to the ingathering of
the first fruits of the field, just so those who arose with Christ, being first
fruits of the dead, pointed forward to the ingathering of the gospel's first
fruits -- the 120 disciples. But as those who arose with Christ ascended with
Him as trophies of His victory over death and the grave, they thereby became a
living type, and thus
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The Wave-Sheaf Of The Living.
Just as
Christ arose on the very day the sheaf was to be offered, likewise the Holy
Spirit fell upon the 120 disciples on the very day the wave-loaves were to be
presented before the Lord. The apostolic Pentecost was accordingly the
prototype of the ceremonial Pentecost (the day the wave-loaves were offered).
And since the wave-sheaf was a figure of Christ and of those who arose with Him
as the first of the first fruits of the dead, hence the wave-loaves were a
figure on the 120 Spirit-filled disciples who were the full complement of first
fruits of the dead, and who were gathered in after the resurrection.
From these
facts it can more clearly be seen that those whom Christ took with Him were the
living wave-sheaf and the only one that has been offered in the heavenly
sanctuary; and that as ones raised from the dead, they are the first fruits of
the dead, whereas as ones everliving before the Father, they are the living
wave-sheaf of the first fruits of the living, the 144,000 servants of God, who
sequentially precede
The Second Fruits and the
Feast
Of Tabernacles.
The 120 disciples on the day of Pentecost being the
gospel's first fruits of the dead, it follows that the great multitude added to
the church daily thereafter, naturally were the gospel's second fruits of the
dead.
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"Also
in the fifteenth day of the seventh month," continues the Levitical record
of the Lord's commands concerning the harvest rites, "when ye have
gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven
days:...and ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees,
branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the
brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days....Ye shall
dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in
booths." Lev. 23:39, 40, 42.
As the
wave-sheaf and the wave-loaves are typical, then also the Feast of Tabernacles
must be typical. Otherwise the ceremony would not have been observed as a part
of the harvest rite. And as in the type the feast was to be celebrated at the close
of the final ingathering of the year's harvest, then correspondingly in the
antitype it must be celebrated at the close of the final ingathering of earth's
harvest, which is nearing its fulfillment. So the time consumed in producing
and in offering the wave-sheaf and the wave-loaves, also in observing the Feast
of Tabernacles, is representative of the entire spiritual harvest time of the
living and of the dead.
Bearing out
this fact the Spirit of Prophecy says:
"The
Feast of Tabernacles was not only commemorative, but typical....It celebrated
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the ingathering of the fruits of the earth, and
pointed forward to the great day of final ingathering, when the Lord of the
harvest shall send forth His reapers to gather the tares together in bundles
for the fire, and to gather the wheat into His garner. At that time the wicked
will all be destroyed." -- Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 541.
Plainly,
therefore, since the first and the second fruits of the literal harvest and its
attendant rites foreshadowed a spiritual harvest of first and second fruits,
they are to be climaxed by the antitypical Feast of Tabernacles.
"I saw
the saints," says the servant of the Lord in describing this celebration,
"leaving the cities and villages, and associating together in companies,
and living in the most solitary places. Angels provided them food and water,
while the wicked were suffering from hunger and thirst." -- Early
Writings, p. 282.
Thus
ancient Israel's dwelling in booths typifies modern Israel's eventually
dwelling in the woods. Irrefutably, therefore, the harvest of Matthew 13
precedes the close of probation, and is the time of the ingathering of the
first and second fruits -- the 144,000 and the "great multitude," --
all the saints who are to be translated.
As the
light focusing to this point clearly reveals that the Pentecost after the
resurrection
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was for the ingathering of those who were to die,
there must, correspondingly, be a Pentecost for the ingathering of those who
are to be translated. And by the same token of logic, the wave-sheaf and the
wave-loaves must have a double application, each to the dead and to the living,
together comprising the total fruits of the antitypical harvest.
The
apostolic Pentecost in providing the power for the ingathering of second fruits
up to the beginning of the judgment of those who are now dead, foretokened the
final Pentecost which is yet future, and which is to bring the. power for the
ingathering of the second fruits of the living, those who shall never die. In
other words, those who died prior to the final Pentecost are to be judged by
the light of truth reflected through the power of the apostolic Pentecost.
(From His
baptism to His ascension, Christ taught abroad the truth which was to prepare
those who accepted it, to impart it. Then on the day of Pentecost, He endued
them with His Spirit to proclaim it with power.)
Concerning
the judgment, the harvest, the servant of the Lord declares:
"I
then saw the third angel. Said my accompanying angel, 'Fearful is his work.
Awful is his mission. He is the angel that is to select the wheat from the
tares, and
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seal, or bind, the wheat for the heavenly garner.'
" -- Early Writings, p. 118.
"Now
therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard
from the Lord God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.
Give ye ear, and hear My voice; hearken, and hear My speech." Isa. 28:22,
23.
And now
that each one who honestly seeks to hear and to heed the voice of Truth may
have the clearest possible grasp of the several aspects of the subject of the
judgment, the harvest, they are hereat brought into consolidated focus:
The reader
will remember that those who arose with Christ on the eighteenth day of the
first month (follow the chart of page 55), were immortalized and received into
heaven as the antitypical sheaf, pointing to the ingathering of the fruits that
shall never die. Their resurrection from the dead signified the beginning of
the first-fruit harvest of the 120 disciples who were to die and be
resurrected. The fact that the followers of Christ were not of one accord
before the resurrection, is very positive testimony that the first fruits (the
120) of them that sleep did not ripen (become fully converted) until after the
resurrection.
The 40 days
of Christ's personal presence on earth after His resurrection was
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the time in which the first fruits were gathered in,
for after His ascension the Christians closeted themselves in the upper room
and did not emerge to preach the truth until the Pentecost. The 120 who
received the power of the Spirit on the very day the wave-loaves were offered,
were therefore the antitypical wave-loaves, signifying the completeness of the first-fruit
harvest. Subsequently came the second fruits of the dead, in the period of
which the tares were commingled with the wheat.
Wonderful
indeed is the way in which God has worked out the plan of salvation and
revealed it step by step as necessary. When in 1844 the investigative judgment
of the dead and the ingathering of the first fruits of the living began, He did
not leave His people in darkness concerning these events. The very first vision
which Sister White received in 1844 was of the 144,000 first fruits, the
"servants of our God," who shall never taste death. (See Early
Writings, pp. 13-15.)
Just as
Christ and those whom He raised and took with Him became the prototypical
sheaf, betokening the ingathering of the first fruits (the 120) of those who
are to be resurrected, so also when He entered upon His priestly ministration
in the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, and presented Himself and His
trophies before His Father, they became the antitypical sheaf, betokening the
ingathering
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of the first fruits of those who are to be
translated (the 144,000 living saints). In the light of this parallel, the
spiritual condition of the 120 before the apostolic Pentecost is clearly seen
to typify the spiritual condition of the 144,000 before the future Pentecost.
The 40 days
(Acts 1:3, 9) from the resurrection to the ascension are consequently typical
of the period from 1844 to the fulfillment of the marking and slaying as
recorded in Ezekiel 9 and Revelation 7:3-8; 14:1-5 respectively, and in
Testimonies to Ministers, p. 445, Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 266, also Early
Writings, pp. 270-273.
After the
first fruits are sealed and the tares are removed from among them, they then
being separate from the influence of the world,, as were the 120 on the day of
Pentecost, will receive the outpouring of "the Holy Spirit in as much
greater measure, as the increase of wickedness demands a more decided call to
repentance." -- Testimonies, Vol. 7, p. 33.
The first
fruits of the dead (120) being a numbered company, and the second fruits of the
dead (the multitudes gathered after Pentecost) being a unnumbered company, so
correspondingly must it be with the first and second fruits of the living.
Hence the sealing of the 144,000 first fruits; and hence "after
this," says John, "I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude,
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which no man could number, of all nations, and
kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the
Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands...and all the angels
stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts."
Rev. 7:9, 11.
Mark
carefully that this great multitude stood before the throne, not bodily, but
figuratively only, as viewed in Early Writings, p. 55, and as is evidenced by
the two-fold fact that (1) the angels "stood round about the throne and
about the elders and the four beasts," showing that the great multitude
was outside the angelic circle; and that (2) the presence of the angels, the
elders, and the four beasts about the throne shows that the judgment (Rev.
4:2-6) was still in session, and that therefore probation had not closed.
The palms
in the hands of the great multitude (Rev. 7:9, 11), and the "victor's
palm" placed "in every hand'' of "the unnumbered host of the
redeemed" (The Great Controversy, p. 646), betoken two entirely different
events: for the latter received both a "victor's palm and [a] shining
harp," whereas the former had no harps but only palms. "The unnumbered
host of the redeemed" received the palms and harps in heaven , upon
ascending in the "cloudy chariot," and just before entering the holy city.
The great multitude, though,
- 87 -
had their palms on earth, for, as we have seen, they
had them during the time of the investigative judgment in the heavenly
sanctuary---before the close of probation. (See Revelation 4 and 5; The
Shepherd's Rod, Vol. 2, pp. 194-197.)
Clearly,
then, while the palms and the harps of the redeemed hosts in heaven are actual
guerdons of victory, the palms of the great multitude on the earth are
figurative victory-palms.
Having thus
far studied the harvest in the light of the testimonies of the prophets, the
parables, and the ceremonies, we are now led to view it
In the Light of Number.
Though the wicked are swept along by a
current from which they can no more escape than they can stem or resist, yet
they can neither see it nor understand it, for the Word alone thus enlightens
and empowers the soul. Blessed indeed is the man who makes It a lamp to his
feet, and a light to his path (Ps. 119:105).
Brother, Sister, is It in dark parables to you? Your answer will tell
you whether you are of those who walk in the light or of those who stumble in
the darkness, and only a right relation to God can secure you to the one class
and keep you out of the other.
If you think
that Christ undesignedly remained 40 days after the resurrection, or
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that the Holy Ghost fell on the 120 just because
there happened to be that many; or that purely by chance 12,000 out of each
tribe are to be sealed; then you might just as well think that the fact that 12
times 12,000 equals 144,000 is a mathematical
accident! Just what you think will give you the measure of the light
there is in you.
"The
words that I speak unto you,
.. They are life." John 6:63.
"Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." Luke 4:4
As number is
the natural mode of time equations, the Scriptures often therefore employ it to
reveal the length of time from one Biblical event to another. Thus, time from
the waving of the sheaf of first fruits to the Pentecost is equated by
multiplying the number of days (7) allotted to the first of the harvest
ceremonies, the feast of unleavened bread, by the number of weeks (7) to the
Pentecost, which is 7x7, or 49 days. Similarly, the duration from one Jubilee
to another is found by multiplying the number of years making a sabbatical year
(7) by 7, sabbatical years, giving 7x7, or 49 years. Very obviously, then, the
Scriptures commonly employ the process of multiplication in Their revealing of
the truth.
Doubtless to
some, these numerical equations will seem strange---as strange as the thought
of the earth's revolving on its
- 89 -
axis was to the
world of the Dark Ages! It is the incredibilities of today, however,
that are the taken-for-granted realities of tomorrow. So, though
at present time little do we know of the many Bible numerics and their veiled code of truth, not so is it
always to be, for God has placed them along the Bible's highways and byways of Truth, as signposts
calculated to point and to illuminate the Royal Road to the Kingdom. So may
every traveler there on rejoice in deep gratitude for every ray of truth
lighting his way. May the Lord forbid that any take the least chance in the
darkness. And may each from unfeigning
lips cry unto heaven: O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy Holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles (Ps. 43:3), that I may "be
filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord" (Hab. 2:14), yea even to the knowledge of
The Number of the Saviour.
The fact
that Christ after the resurrection remained with His disciples just 40 days,
not more or less, is no mere happenstance lightly to be brushed aside.
Obviously an integral part of the over-all pattern of revealed truth, it is to
be reckoned with accordingly. And since its modality is numerical, the entire
subject involved must be explored in number, and the results equated in numerical
values.
The Lord
being the visible representa-
- 90 -
tive of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, then the
number of His personal office (3) and the number of days (40) of His personal supervision in the ingathering
of His people must, in right equation, reveal Him as a Saviour of His people in the Old Testament period as
well as in the New.
As the
ingathering (40) through His personal presence (3) resulted in the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit, the two must in right relation reveal
The Number of Saints on the
Pentecost.
The product
of Christ's ingathering through His personal presence being the first fruits up
to the Pentecost, then it follows as a logical sequence that the product of the
number of the gathering time (40) and the number of His person (3), must give
the actual number of saints there were on the day of Pentecost. The equation,
40x3, giving 120, exactly numbers the first fruits to receive the Holy Spirit
at that time!
Thus being
as they were the product of the omnipotent power of the three persons of the
Godhead (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost) at work for 40 days through
the personal ministry of their triune representative. Christ, this
preternatural little group consequently preserved and continued the line of the
church.
When reduced
to its primary signifi-
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cance, this succession of numerical facts leads to
the conclusion that 3, the number of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is
therefore numerically figurative of the Trinity, and that 120, the number of the Father, Son, Holy Ghost
times the number of the saints, is therefore numerically figurative of the
Pentecost---a basic factor in the equation of salvation, and one inseparably
linked to the relation of
Christ and the Bible.
It was to
Christ in both of His forms that John alluded in his declarations: "That
which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our
eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of
life." 1 John 1:1. And the Word
was made flesh," he further declares, "and dwelt among us, (and we
beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of
grace and truth." John 1:14.
Christ is
the Word incarnate; the Bible the Word written; or, put it still more
specifically, the Bible is Christ in the form of words, and Christ is the Bible
in the form of man. Hence it follows that as Christ in the flesh is identified
by a number, so must Christ in the Word. And therefore next to be ascertained
is the
Number of the Bible.
The parable
of the eleventh-hour call (Matthew 20) reveals that the Bible con-
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tains just 5 time-messages; the first "early in
the morning," the second at the "the third hour." The third at
the "the sixth and ninth hour," and the fifth at "the eleventh
hour; 5 in all. In these 5 parabolical calls are found all the time-messages
called for in the Bible from the time that it (the Light of the world) began to
come up (be written), early in the morning
of the parabolical period, to its end--- the twelfth hour. In other
words, when these 5 messages have been proclaimed to the world, the Bible will
then be an exhausted book so far as its offering any more salvation is
concerned. (For full treatment of Matthew 20, see The Shepherd's Rod, Vol.
2, pp
222-238.)
There being,
then, just 5 messages of salvation in
the Bible, the number of the Bible can only be 5, with the next step being to
find the
Number of Bible Ingathering Time.
Since this
number is to designate the time of ingathering of saints, therefore we must
multiply the number of the saints on the Pentecost (120) by the number of the
Bible (5), the product of which is 600.
Accordingly, 600 is the number of the Bibles ingathering time--- a
period which as a factor in our equation leads on sequentially to the
Number of Years Christ Is a
Saviour.
Let the
fact be kept well in mind that we
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are at present exploring number for the truth that
Christ is the Saviour of the world before and during Bible times. So obviously
our aim is to find, not the number
of the saints that Christ is to save,
but the number of years He will be a Saviour. Hence, we here remind the reader
that the parabolical calls, or messages, of Matthew 20 embrace only a part of
church history; specifically, that part from the time that Moses began to write
the Bible, from the time of the Exodus, to probations close. But as Christ
is the Redeemer of the world before as well as after the advent of the Bible,
the equation under discussion must consequently embrace the entire span of
probationary time since the day Adam sinned. This demands therefore that the
number of probationary time, 600, the multiplicand, be multiplied by a
multiplier having universal value, to show that Christ is the only Saviour in
all ages.
Number 10
is by universal admission that Biblical number of universal value. In the great
image of Daniel 2, the 10 toes symbolize the world at the second coming of
Christ. Then in the so-called non-descript-beast (Daniel 7), the leopard-like
beast (Rev. 13:1-10), and the scarlet-color beast (Rev. 17:1-3), the 10 horns
depict the worlds kingdoms at different times. While on the other side of the
picture, the 10 virgins represent the entire membership of the church
world-wide.
(For further treatment of these values, see
- 94 -
The Shepherds Rod, Vol. 2, pp. 84-125.)
Clearly,
therefore, the universal number by which we must multiply the number of
probationary time (600) is 10, and 600x10 gives 6,000. Here at long last is the
consummate vindication of the Christians belief that the years of human
probation are 6,000! Here, in other
words, is proof in the absolute that when the angel of mercy soon finally folds
here wings and takes her flight forever from this world of sin, earth and its beings under sin will have
been in existence for 6,000 years! Then comes the millennium, the 1,000 years
in which Satan is bound and the wicked are judged (Rev. 20:3, 12).
Thus in the
eternal drama, the strange interlude of sin and redemption runs for 7,000 years (perfect completeness), or but one
short week out of eternity, as it were
with the Lord, 1000 years being as a day with Him (2 Pet. 3:8). Strange interlude indeed! The Mystery of
Godliness in mysterious sufferance of the mystery of iniquity! Mystery of
mysteries! Wondrous, unfathomable love of God to man!
What awful
solemnity invests this momentous mathematical demonstration of the great gospel
truths! Revealing as it does that Christ is the only Redeemer of the world and
in all ages, its truth perfectly bears out the scripture: . . . there is none
other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
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Acts 4:12.
And at the same time it serves warning that we are living in the last
days of probation, the time of the
end, the time of the harvest.
Having
brought us to the time of the harvest of the living, to the last days of the
6,000 years of human probation, the equation must, to be complete, include the
number of
The Numbered Living Saints.
The
apostolic Pentecost, it is to be noted, did not completely fulfill the
prophetic Pentecost of Joel 2:28, 32, a prophecy specifically of the last days,
although Peter did refer to the scripture in his Pentecostal sermon (Acts
2:14-21). And surest evidence that the
prophecy is yet to be fulfilled is that the apostolic Pentecost is the
prototype of the latter day, the antitypical Pentecostthat which is just ahead
of us.
Since the
church on earth has had three dispensations, the Noatic, the Abrahamic, and the
Christian, and since both the Abrahamic and the Christian dispensations closed
with a Pentecost, as previously
mentioned, necessarily, then, so likewise must have closed the Noatic
dispensation. Otherwise, Noahs message would have lacked power and light to
show the Way of Life to that evil and adulterous generation, and as a
consequence God could justly have destroyed them by the flood.
Peter
himself understood that there was
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an antediluvian Pentecost. This he very definitely
testifies in the statement: For Christ
. . . being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit: by which
also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were
disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah,
while the ark was a preparing. 1 Pet. 3:18-20.
In Peters
statement, Inspiration records that the same Spirit Who quickened
Christ, preached to the antediluvians while they were in prisonin chains of
circumstance which in their wickedness and rejection of truth they blindly
forged and bound upon themselves, and from which they could find no escape save
through the ark that was a preparing. And the ark, they would not enter. Thus
they were left without hope and without an excuse.
Plainly,
then, there are three Pentecosts to be reckoned with in the equation of
salvation: two in the past and one in the future, the first being the type, the
second the prototype, the third the antitype. Or, in other words, the first
brought the earnest of the establishment of the church, the second the
foundation of the church (Rev. 21:14), and the third will bring its completion
and glorification. The second, the apostolic Pentecost, being the foundational
one, also the only one historically recorded, it is therefore the lightbearer
on the subject; showing that in order for
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the antediluvian world to be benefited by
redemption, the Noatic Pentecost was
indispensable and must therefore be accounted for in this numerical study.
The number
of the saints from the one on record being 120, it follows that the combined
number of the two must be 120 plus 120, or 240, as illustrated on page 77.
Remember
that these numbers do not determine how many are saved in each, but how many
receive the Pentecostal power.
There
remains now but to ascertain the number of saints to receive the third and last
Pentecost, and to do so the number of the two Pentecosts (240) need only be
multiplied by the number of the Bible ingathering time (600), making 600x240,
which gives 144,000, the very number prophesied!
Thus struck
in the rock of truth forever is the number of the recipients of the great
Pentecost just ahead of us, the number of the first fruits of those who are to
be translated, 144,000 guileless (Rev. 14:5), servants of our God. Rev. 7:3.
In the pure and full power of the Spirit, proclaiming the pure and full
gospel unto all nations, they go forth conquering and to conquer (Prophets
and Kings, p. 725), and bring all [their] brethren for an offering unto the
Lord out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon
mules, and upon swift beasts, to My holy mountain Jerusalem,
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saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an
offering in a clean vessel into house of the Lord. Isa. 66:20. And then shall
the end come. Matt. 24:14.
Thus
thrillingly unfolded in number, the absolute mode of truth, is the equation of salvation, out of
which, just briefly to recapitulate, emerges the number of Christ as
representatives of the Godhead on earth, 3; the number of the gathering time, 40; the number of the saints in the apostolic
Pentecost, 120; the combined number of the saints in the Noatic and the
apostolic Pentecost, 240; the number of
the Bible, 5; the number of the Bible ingathering time, 600; the number of
recipients of the final Pentecost, 144,000; the number of the entire
period of human probation, 6,000; and finally, the number of the overall time
of sin and redemption, 7,000. What priceless Gift
divine! And O may this realization stir the heart of every earnest reader, as
it did the heart of David, to give praise and thanksgiving to God for His
inexpressible love to man: O Lord, sings the prophet, Thou art my God: I
will exalt Thee, I will praise Thy name; for Thou has done wonderful things;
Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. Isa. 25:1.
So by
testimony of prophets, by parable, by ceremonial type, and by number, God has
wrought the towering structure of fact that (1) the judgment is the
harvest,--the
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separation of the tares from the wheatthe end of
the world; that (2) the judgment, the
harvest, embraces two phases, two periods; the former for the dead, the latter
for the living that (3) the one takes place according to the records in the
books in the heavenly sanctuary, whereas the other takes place simultaneously
in the church on earth and in the books in heaven; and that (4) the very fact
that the subject is now being revealed in its fullness testifies that we
are just on the verge of passing out of the former and into the latter phase
and period, and that we are therefore living in the last days of earths
history.
This
fourfold view of the judgment, the harvest, thus exalts the truth of it as a
pearl of great price, and reveals that the depths of Gods Word are
unfathomable; Its wisdom inscrutable and infinitewithout beginning and without
end; Its fund of knowledge a perpetual fountain of truth; Its presence ever abiding; and Its
beauty ineffable!
Now that
the reader may be strengthened to hold fast to this fundamental and
all-important truth, as well as to all other truths, we urge him to follow
God's method (Inspiration) in studying the Scriptures, that he may thereby
Avoid the Many Snares.
Perhaps
foremost among the multitudes who are snared while doing all they can
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to run away from inspired interpretation of the
Scriptures are the extremists, of whom there are at least two classes: one with
the tendency to literalize, the other with the tendency to spiritualize. These
two will go just as far in their opposite directions, in their understanding
and explaining the Scriptures, as their opposite temperaments impel them.
Take for
example the Revelator's statement: "...I saw under the altar the souls of
them that were slain for the Word of God,...and they cried with a loud voice,
saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our
blood?" Rev. 6:9, 10.
The
literalist on the one hand, would interpret this scripture to mean that the
souls were conscious and actually crying out, though the Bible is very explicit
that "the dead know not anything." Eccles. 9:5. And, too, were the
souls under the altar literally crying out for vengeance on their murderers,
then, to be consistent, the Lord's statement, "the voice of thy brother's
blood crieth unto Me from the ground" (Gen. 4:10), also the statement,
"all the trees of the field shall clap their hands" (Isa. 55:12),
likewise must be interpreted literally in spite of the fact that it is
impossible physically for blood to cry out and for trees to clap hands.
If all,
however, are obliged to admit that Abel's blood could not literally cry out,
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and that trees can only figuratively clap hands,
then, again to be consistent, the person given to extreme literalizing should
easily take hold of the actuality that "the dead know not anything,"
and that they are "asleep" -- unconscious. He ought easily, too, to
perceive that the souls of the martyrs crying for vengeance on their murderers,
and that the blood of Abel crying for vengeance on his murderer, are cases
virtually identical in circumstance and condition. Both of these find pointed
illustration in the poetic utterance: "I hear a voice crying out, the
voice of the withering field: O, Lord, pity Thou me. Let showers fall from
heaven. Quench Thou my burning soul."
For one's
soul to be imprisoned consciously under something for hundreds of years, with
nothing to do but groaningly to languish in waiting for the resurrection
morning, the while crying out for vengeance on them that spilled one's blood,
-- what an inexpressibly unbearable state for one's soul to be in!
The
doctrine, though, of the unconscious state of the dead not only puts at peace
the worried human mind but also ascribes to God mercy and love toward helpless
human beings, thus being the only position on the subject that can lead the
sinner rationally to love God and to trust in Him.
To the one
who on the other hand is inclined oppositely, to spiritualize the
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souls, the slaughter, the heavens, the new earth,
etc., -- to him these have neither individuality nor reality. And when
concerning the doctrine of the slaughter he is asked the simple question, What
kind of slaughter would a spiritual one be? he is at a loss to answer!
For all,
there exists in this connection one great need: the Spirit of Truth, Whose
right alone it is to interpret the Scriptures.
The most
common cause of doctrinal confusion among Bible students lies in their so very
frequently failing to view a subject in full perspective from the writer's
point of view, -- a failing which results in their seeing it from some foreign
standpoint so narrowing their view that instead of gaining the writer's idea on
the subject, they gain a false idea on it. And if the idea be to their liking,
they magnify and zealously promote it as truth, whereas if it be not to their
liking, they vigorously oppose it, and then lay it to the responsibility of the
writer!
To
illustrate thus getting a wrong idea of a thing from a wrong view of it: a
child who accompanies his mother to a zoo, and who has never seen a peacock,
suddenly comes upon one in full tail-spread going away from him, and creating
to his uninitiated eyes the illusion of a large walking fan!
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Thrilled
with the illusory wonder before him he excitedly exclaims the sight, only to
have his mother disenchant him with the disillusioning assurance that it is
only a peacock! On another occasion, however, when accompanying his father to
the zoo, the child again sees a peacock, but this time in full front view
presenting a sight apparently entirely new and different. Quickly he turns with
excited questions to his father, who tells him that it is a peacock!
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Whereupon
the argument begins, with the son protesting that the peacock which he and his
mother had seen, looked nothing like this one. And unable to reconcile, as
simply major and minor aspects of the same thing, that which he now sees from
the front, or main point of view, and that which he before saw from the rear,
or foreign point of view, his mind gropes in confusion wondering whether to
believe Father or Mother.
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So it is
with the Bible when one looks at a subject from a standpoint foreign to the
author's. He finds discrepancies in the position held by the one who sees the
subject through the author's eyes. In order consequently, to maintain the false
idea resulting from his foreign point of view, he is led to resort to outside
sources: to one commentator or the other; to this version or to that; to
technicalities and inferences of language: in the Greek, in the Hebrew, in
this, in that, or in the other (languages, none of which it is likely he
himself either reads or writes); or to referring to this or that so-called
original manuscript (which in all probability he has never seen).
At the end
of this long winding road, he has succeeded only in magnifying from a mole hill
to a mountain one passage of scripture, and in reducing from a mountain to a
mole hill, or entirely setting aside, another passage of scripture, all because
the Bible, which the Lord has placed in his hands, does not support his idea.
These pretentious procedures are calculated to demonstrate his scholarly
attainments in the hope of lending to his false idea such an appearance of
authority as to compel their acceptance by all who come in contact with his
theory.
Concretely:
It is never fair when treating of the subject of the judgment, to give first
and foremost consideration to any writing which deals directly with the subject
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of salvation, while only incidentally referring to
the subject of the judgment. Take for example Paul's statement:
"Which
hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast, and which
entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered,
even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec."
Heb. 6:19, 20 .
Instead of
viewing the content of these verses in the light of all that is revealed on the
subject, a procedure which would insure the verses' reflecting the author's
thought, some Bible students, losing sight of Paul's point of view, magnify out
of all due proportion the importance of these verses' statement, thus placing
upon it constructions which, though perhaps plausible enough when taken alone
are manifestly strained, warped, and untenable when viewed in the light of all
other scriptures bearing on the subject. Such wresting, needless to say, is
unfair to the author, perilous to the one affected, and criminal of the
wrester.
To
illustrate the matter still further and more extensively: Surrounding a table
are six Bible students and an infidel. On one side are Peter James, and John;
on the other, Black Brown, and Green; while at one end is the infidel. He
listens attentively to the six discussing Christ's ministry
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after His ascension, in the light of Hebrews 6:19
20;9:12,26 --
"Which
hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which
entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered,
even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." Heb. 6:19, 20 "Neither by the blood of His own blood
He entered in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for
us." Heb. 9:12.
"For
then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now
once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself." Heb. 9:26.
Peter,
James, and John, sharing the author's perspective, are in full agreement that
one cannot, on a scripture treating of salvation, and only incidentally
referring to Christ's ministry, build up a correct basic understanding of that
ministry, but rather that one must take the writings of the prophets which deal
directly with the sanctuary and its service, and then harmonize Paul's writings
with the prophets', not the prophets' with Paul's.
So far as
Peter, James, and John are concerned the discussion results in their
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arriving at the conclusion that Paul, in order to be
in agreement with both himself and the prophets, must be understood in Hebrews 6:19
to be speaking in prophetic past (that is, future in fact, though present or
past in tense), and that therefore he is pointing to the time that his converts
are, with Christ, "once in the end of the world" (Heb. 9:26), to
enter "within the veil," "whither the forerunner [Christ] is for
us entered." Heb. 6:20. When? -- not in Paul's time but now, "in the
end of the world," His having first "entered in once into the holy
place." Heb. 9:12.
Black,
Brown, and Green, however, from their foreign points of view on these verses,
are in disagreement even among themselves: Black stressing Hebrews 6:19, 20, is
convinced that Paul teaches that Christ entered the Most Holy apartment
immediately after His ascension; Brown, holding to Hebrews 9:12, is positive
that Christ entered, not the Most Holy, but the holy apartment; and Green, on
the weight of verse 26, insists that Christ is to enter the sanctuary
"once in the end of the world," after His second coming.
Still seeing
from their foreign points of view, Black further argues that by the term,
"the holy," Paul means the "Holiest of all," while Brown
contends that if Paul loosely uses the term "holy" for the
"Holiest of all," then how can one possibly know that when he says
the "Holiest of all," he does not mean the "holy"?
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Then on the
strength of Moses' statement "Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come
not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat,
which is upon the ark" (Lev. 16:2), Black furthermore holds that Paul, in
the words, "But by His own blood He entered...into the holy place"
(Heb. 9:12), refers to "the Holiest of all" Heb. 9:3. But Peter
insists that to construe Paul's use of the term "holy place" to mean
the "Holiest of all," is both unreasonable and unfair, for no writer
in clear mind, speaking of both apartments, will indiscriminately interchange
the terms, and yet expect his readers accurately to comprehend the idea he is
putting forth. Black, however, retorts that Moses uses the term "holy
place" (Lev. 16:2) when speaking of the second apartment.
In reply to
this, Peter protests that Moses does so because whereas he calls the second
apartment "the holy place within the vail," he calls the first
apartment "the tabernacle of the congregation" (Lev. 16:16), while
Paul chooses to term the first apartment "the holy place," and the
second apartment, "the Holiest of all."
Again:
Peter insists that if, in Paul's writings, where both apartments are discussed,
one is justified in interpreting "the holy" to mean "Holiest of
all," then another, by the same token of logic, is equally justified in
interpreting the "Holiest of all" to mean the "holy."
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Though
Peter's clear-cut logic completely dissipates the force of Black's contention,
yet, because of the wide differences of opinion among a group of Christian
believers, the final result of the discussion is that what the harmony among
Peter, John, and James did toward converting the infidel to Christianity, Black's,
Brown's, and Green's disagreeing with one another, also Black's disagreeing
with Peter, counteracted. This discord confirmed the infidel in his infidelity,
leaving him fully persuaded that Christianity is but a stupendous bubble;
whereupon Satan, in diabolic glee, gives to Black, Brown, and Green, "his
seat, and great authority." And Christendom, already rife with doctrinal
confusion, continues to bristle with schismatic strife, nurturing infidels in
their hostility to Christianity, instead of converting them to it!
If Christ
pronounces a woe upon those who refuse to give a glass of cold water to the
least of His followers, what will be the condemnation and end of such as Black,
Brown, and Green, who, by their spirit of self-aggrandizement scatter from
Christ while professing to gather with Him!
Never is it
right to interpret any scripture isolated from its context, for to do so is
automatically to do violence to its meaning.
For
instance, the scripture, "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing,
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that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years
and a thousand years as one day" (2 Pet. 3:8) taken by itself, has
suffered various interpretations, only adding to the confusion and doubts
already permeating the Christian world. But only one interpretation will it
admit when taken with its context: "Knowing this first, that there shall
come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying,
Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all
things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." 2 Pet.
3:3, 4.
From this
contextual setting, we see that in the verse in point the apostle is
endeavoring by figurative language to show that the scoffers whom he saw would
arise in our day, though attempting to overthrow the faith of those believing
in Moses' account of the flood and awaiting the Lord's returning, are
unwittingly but scoffing at their own blindness. For they cannot see that that
which seems to them, by the gauge of their short-lived days, an ever-present
delay in the Lord's second coming, is to the Eternal One but a fleeting moment
of waiting, and that their finite wisdom is consequently but foolishness. And,
contrariwise, what they regard as time too short and worthless for practical
use, the Lord regards as very long and very precious in our short lives.
Clearly,
therefore, when this scripture is interpreted according to its context, human
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measurements of time are seen not to be God's
measurements, just as human thoughts are not His thoughts (Isa. 55:7, 8).
The light
of this example makes clear that just as a safety valve is necessary to keep a
boiler from exploding with excess pressure, so only a faithful regard to the
context of a scripture can keep its interpreter from exploding with theories
and ideas foreign to the Scriptures.
When those
who love the truth study any doctrinal subject, they never, in trying to
harmonize their private opinions with a scripture in point, leave the scripture
so interpreted as to contradict either other portions of the Bible or the
position of constituted authority, but rather they forsake their opinions.
Having
taken a wrong view on the subject of the judgment, some have though
unknowingly, tried in reality to change its correct time and true nature,
rather than to maintain them. This unwitting endeavor has in turn led them to
take wrong views on many other Bible truths. The fact, though, that this great
hub-doctrine still remains intact and solid, is unimpeachable evidence that
likewise do all its spoke-doctrines.
Those who
have undertaken to interpret the Scriptures independently of Inspiration, a
private exercise which is contrary
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to the injunction given in 2 Peter 1:20, 21, and
those who have accepted such views, will, unless they now forsake their errors
for the truth, one day find themselves the victims of the disastrous
circumstances with which they have bound themselves, and will be terribly
confounded as they hear the horrifying pronouncement: "I have not spoken
to them, yet they prophesied"; "depart from Me, ye that work
iniquity." Jer. 23:21; Matt. 7:23.
May they,
therefore, while probation still lingers and the blood of Christ is yet
available to atone for the sins of all, give the more earnest heed to the
solemn declaration of
The First Angels Message.
Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of his judgment is come. Rev. 14:7.
To clear the appointed time of this message, we must take into consideration that from the fourth to the twenty-second chapter of The Revelation, its theme is continuous. This is seen from the conjunction and, which, beginning each chapter, shows that all these revelations were given to John at the time that the Voice said to him: Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter (Rev. 4:1)things which were to come to pass sometime after he had the vision of them. And John having had this vision about 96
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A.D., the first angels message therefore could not possibly have been preached before that time, as some think it was; for, to repeat, he was not shown the things of the past, but the things of the future.
Again; the fact that he says, I saw another [the first] angel . . . having the everlasting gospel to preach, further shows that this angels message had not been preached before he had the vision, but that it was to be preached in the future from that time.
There is not, moreover, either scripture or church history to show that the judgment began in or before Johns time. And still further, as the first angels message was never preached before 1844, then when the judgment hour came, this angels message ----the message concerning the judgment ----went forth.
The investigative judgment being in two sections (the first, devoted to the dead; the second, to the living) , the fact is evidenced that though the first, the second, and the third angels messages (Rev. 14:6-12) apply directly to the period of the judgment of the living, they must also, though indirectly, apply to the period of the judgment of the dead. In this relation only, except as a warning of coming events, have they been preached since 1844. When, therefore, the judgment of the living commences and the image of the beast is fully made up, then these messages are, with a
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loud cry, to be repeated as present truth concerning the living instead of the dead.
Thus drawn into sharp focus, the facts concerning the eternal (the administrative) throne, the provisional (the mediatorial judicial) throne, and the judgment, conclusively vindicate the position established by the book which was used in the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels messages in their first application, and which in the voice of its writer declares:
I saw the Father rise from the throne and in a flaming chariot go into the holy of holies within the vail, and sit down. Then Jesus rose up from the throne, and the most of those who were bowed down arose with Him. I did not see one ray of light pass from Jesus to careless multitude after He arose, and they were left in perfect darkness. Those who arose when Jesus did, kept their eyes fixed on Him as He left the throne and led them out a little way. Then He raised His right arm, and we heard His lovely voice saying. Wait here; I am going to My Father to receive the kingdom; keep your garments spotless, and in a little while I will return from the wedding and receive you to myself. Then a cloudy chariot, with wheels like flaming fire, surrounded by angels, came to where Jesus was. He stepped into the chariot and was borne to the holiest, where the Father sat. There I beheld Jesus, a great High
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Priest, standing before the father.Early Writings, p. 55.
This transfer from the administrative throne to the mediatorial-judicial throne, being made to investigate those wedding guest who are now dead, leads to the following
Questions and Answers.
1.
Did Christ Preach to the Dead?
1 Pet. 3:18-20.
For Christ also, answers Peter in the same scripture giving rise to
this question, hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He
might bring us to God, being put to
death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit: by which also He went and
preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once
the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a
preparing, wherein few, that is, eight
souls were saved by water. 1 Pet. 3:18-20.
Obviously
enough, Peter is not here saying that Christ, while His body lay in the tomb,
preached to the spirits in prison, as is understood by some; but rather simply
that through the medium of the Spirit by Whom He was resurrected, He preached
to them in the days of Noah, while the
ark was a preparing. Nor does it say that Christ preached to the dead, but
rather
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unto the spirits in prison. The concern, therefore, as to whether the
spirits in prison mean the dead or the living, is a matter of interpretation,
and such an interpretation must come of divine authority.
When
speaking of the dead, the Bible never calls them spirits. It does, however, so designate the
living. It plainly says, moreover, that
the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory
of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now
perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is
done under the sun. Eccles. 9:5, 6.
Still
further, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the Lord make exceedingly
plain that after death the sinner has no chance at all for salvation; no, not
even for a drop of cold water on his tongue, as is memorably witnessed by the
rich mans being denied his pleas in death: Son, remember that thou in thy
lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now
he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so
that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to
us that would come from thence. Luke 16:25, 26.
Here,
unforgettably, we are shown that the only way any of us can be saved from
hells torment is to hear . . . Moses and
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the prophets while we are yet alive, and that if we
hear them not, then the Lord cannot help us after death; also that if we are
not persuaded by them, neither will we be persuaded, though one rose from the
dead. Luke 16:29-31. There consequently
not being any chance for salvation after death, then if any, while living, have
failed to hear Moses and the
Prophets, why should Christ preach to
them after they have died? God is not
the God of the dead, but of the living.
Matt. 22:32.
The spirits
in prison cannot, accordingly, be any others than the antediluvians, to whom
Christ, in the person of His Spirit, Who raised Him, preached aforetime through
Noah, and to whom the Spirits warning was of no moment, with fearful result
that by their refusal to hear His pleadings, they became figuratively
imprisoned by the circumstances of the coming flood, from the certain
consequences of which they could not escape.
The
statement, moreover, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water,
further shows that it was by His Spirit in Noahs preaching that Christ before
the flood visited the spirits in prison and saved eight soulsNoah and his
family. Thus the Spirit of Christ which was in the prophets, also did signify, when It
testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should
follow. 1 Pet. 1:10, 11.
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But if it is
true, asks someone, that Christ did not preach to the dead, then what about
those dead who were
2. Left Without a Chance?
The law of death cannot be reversed by anyones ignorance of God. And, further more, When I say unto the wicked, says the Lord to His prophet, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Ezek. 3:18.
This scripture clearly teaches that those who
have died in their sins, because of the neglect of the watchman, cannot be
rescued, and that their blood shall be required at the hand of the watchman responsible
for their fate of being unsaved and left without a chance.
To be consistent, then, those who have died
in their sins through their own neglect, either ignorantly or willfully, as did
the antediluvian world, rather than through neglect of the watchmen, would be
even less excusable than the former class, and would have even less right than
they (who have no right at all) to be preached to after death, even were it
possible.
And those who have never had a chance to hear
the prophets, to them the heavens
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declare
the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto
night sheweth knowledge. There is no
speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Ps. 19:1-3.
All mankind are therefore to be judged
according to the measure of light which God has turned upon their way, and
according to their desire to walk in the light.
And those who unfortunately have failed to learn of him and to know the
exact truth, will not be condemned for having believed an error while they were
in the darkness, but this is the condemnation, says the Lord, that light is come into the
world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were
evil. John 3:19.
In the full light of the combined facts on
the subject, very obvious is the certainty that the Scriptures do not certify a
doctrine of a second chance. But in an
effort to prove that they do, those who advocate the doctrine challengingly
bring the apostles question: What shall they do which are
3. Baptized for the Dead?
1 Cor. 15:29
Speaking to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul makes plain that if there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither is there salvation in Christ:
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And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ: Whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christs at His coming. . . . Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead? 1 Cor. 15: 14-22, 29.
This scripture does not teach that the living must be baptized for the dead: for Paul is not calling into question the effect that baptism would have on the dead, but rather the effect it would have on the living: What, he asks, shall they [the living] do which are baptized for the dead? Not: what shall the dead do, for whom we, the living, have been baptized.
Consequently, the statement, baptized
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for the dead, teaches that baptism for the dead is for the benefit of those only who are themselves baptized while living. In other words, they are baptized, not in the hope of living until the Lord comes to take them to the everlasting mansions above, but in the hope of rising from the dead on the resurrection day. Hence the question: if the dead rise not at all . . . why are they then baptized?
From this elucidation of the subject, the saints who are baptized for the dead are clearly seen to be those who pass through the state of death. And, inferentially, those who shall be baptized about the time of Christs coming, to make up that immortal company of living saints who shall be awaiting His triumphal return, with all His angels, are seen, equally as clearly, to be baptized for the livingnever to pass through the state of death!
And finally, if the early Christians were to baptize themselves for others who had died without baptism, such a commandment would have been given in the Scriptures, and such baptismal services would have been recorded: the Bible, though, commands baptism only for the living, to whom it says: Repent, and be baptized. Acts 2:38.
That the sincere Bible student might know the saving truth for this time; that knowing it, he might follow it whithersoever it leads; that if he be baptized for the dead, he might be among the resur-
- 123 -
rected just, or if he be baptized for the living, he might be among the translated: in either case being changed in a moment, in twinkling of an eye (1 Cor. 15:52), forever to be among the redeemed immortals, delivered from pain and sorrow, having entered into life and joy everlasting, ---this, dear reader, is the sole object in publishing and getting into your hands this truth-laden booklet. If you are determined to enter into the glory it reveals, you will gratefully heed its clear-ringing lesson to
Let Your Faith Now Be Practi-
cal, Not Theoretical Only.
As a religion that leaves the dead without resurrection and the living without translation is as good as nothing, just so is the doctrine of the Bible when divorced from practice. Though theoretical discourses are essential, that all may know the form of doctrine, and see the chain of truth, link after link, uniting in a perfect whole. . . . no discourse should ever be delivered without presenting Christ and Him crucified as the foundation of the gospel, making a practical application on the truths set forth, and impressing upon the people the fact that the doctrine of Christ is not yea and nay, but yea and amen in Christ Jesus. Testimonies. Vol. 4. pp. 394, 395.
Satan offers to men the kingdoms of the world if they will yield to him the supremacy. Many do this, and sacrifice
- 124 -
Heaven. It is better to die than to sin; better to want than to defraud: better to hunger than to lie. Let all whom are tempted, meet Satan with these words: Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord, that walketh in His ways. For thou shalt meet the labor of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Here is a condition and a promise which will be unmistakably realized. Happiness and prosperity will be the result of serving the Lord. ---Testimonies Vol. 4, p. 495.
Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection: not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God (Heb. 6:1), or forgetting that all scripture is given by Inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. 2 Tim. 3:16, 17.
(All italics ours)
TOPICAL INDEX
THE JUDGMENT AND THE HARVEST
.........
COVER PAGE
CONFUSED BECAUSE ESSENTIAL ......3
None But His Followers Can Understand the
Whole Truth .............................................3-4
THE JUDGMENT AND THE HARVEST IN TESTIMONY,
PARABLE, CEREMONY, AND NUMBER .................5
IN THE LIGHT OF THE TESTIMONIES OF THE
PROPHETS ...........................5-54
What Is the Reason for Books?
.................6
Reason for the Judgment .......................7-
8
How Names Are Retained in the Book 8-12
Unfounded Conclusions
.....................12-13
Gods Temporary Throne Room ........13-17
Gods eternal Throne Room ...............17-18
- 125 -
TOPICAL INDEX
(Cont.)
First in the Holy. Then in the Most Holy ..17
Dispelling the Confusion Concerning the 2300
Days
.............................................21
When the 2300 Days Begin and End ......24
Judgment Among the Living ...................
42
Judgment Among the dead
........................49
Further reasons for Both Judgments .........50
IN THE LIGHT OF THE PARABLES ....54
The Seed Sowing Time
........................... 55
Wheat growing Time
................................58
Tare Sowing Time
.....................................58
Which is the Laodicean Church
................62
Separation of the Tares From Among the
Wheat.........................................................63
Time of Harvest
........................................64
Who Are the Repairs ?
..............................66
Separation in Two Sections
..................... 67
Relation
of First Fruits to Second ........... 68
The Church is not Babylon
.......................71
IN THE LIGTH OF THE CEREMONIAL
SERVICE...................................................72
The Wave Sheaf. Wave Loaves, and the
Feast of Tabernacles
.................................75
First Fruits with Wave-Sheaf and
Wave-Loaves........................................................76
Christ the Antitype of the Wave-Sheaf ...79
The Wave-Sheaf of the Living
..................80
The Second Fruits and the Feast of
Tabernacles................................................80
IN THE LITGH OF NUMBER ................88
The Number of the Saviour
.......................90
The Number of Saints on the Pentecost ....91
Christ and the Bible
................................. 92
Number of the Bible
..................................92
Number of Bible Ingathering Time ...........93
Number of years Christ Is a Saviour
..93
The Numbered Living Saints ...................
96
AVOID THE MANY SNARES .............100
THE FIRST ANGELS MESSAGE .....114
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ...........117
1.
Did Christ Preach to the Dead? 1 Pet.
3:18-20................................................. 117
2.
Left Without a Chance?........................120
3.
Baptized for the Dead?. 1 Cor. 15:29.121
LET YOUR FAITH NOW BE PRACTICAL. NOT
THEORETICAL ONLY ...................124
SCRIPTURAL INDEX
GENESIS: 23:16, 17.
...
78
1:5
.22 23:27-29
.....
73
4:10
.
.101 23:36
...
.57,76 EXODUS: 23:39,40,42 . 76,81
23:16
.
54 JOSHUA:
31:16. 17
..
32 7:13, 24, 25
.?
32:33
...7 EZRA:
7:21-27
......39
LEVITICUS: PSALMS:
16:2
..
...110 1:5
.
...42
16:16
...110 19:1-3
16:30,33
..
..73 43:3
...
.90
16:34
..
73 69:28
...
11,73
23:10,11
.....75 87:6
..
6
23:11,14
..
...78 119:105
..88
23:14-17
..
.75-76
139:16
...6
-
126 -
SCRIPTURAL
INDEX(Cont.)
PROVERBS:
14:12..........................................................4
ECCLESIASTES:
5:6
..
.8-9
9:5
..101
9:5,6
...118
ISAIAH:
25:1
..99
28:22
....84
55:12......................................................101
55:7,8.....................................................113
62:2-4,12..................................................74
63:5,6.......................................................49
65:11,15...................................................74
63:5,6.......................................................63
66:16,17..............................................68,69
66:19........................................................70
66:20...................................................70,99
JEREMIAH:
8:20..........................................................70
17:13.......................................................7,8
23:21......................................................114
EZEKIEL:
1................................................................47
1:10..........................................................46
3:18........................................................120
3:20..........................................................11
4:6............................................................56
9..........................................................49,86
SCRIPTURAL
INDEX(Cont.)
9:..............................................................67
9:4............................................................71
9:5............................................................67
9:6............................................................67
9:2-6....................................................43,44
9:8............................................................71
9:6-9.........................................................71
44:6,7.......................................................61
DANIEL:
1................................................................94
2:39..........................................................30
2:40..........................................................39
2
................................................15,24,30,94
7:7-12,21,22
........17
7:8-10.......................................................16
7:9,10
.... 18, 41, 46, 49
7:8-10, 13............................................16,18
7:21,
22....................................................17
7:8-10.......................................................16
7:9,10
...
......5, 18, 41, 46, 49
7:13....................................................16,
18
7:21,
22 ...................................................17
7:25
.........................................................28
8................................................................24
8:1............................................................32
8:11..........................................................36
8:11,
12 .............................................25, 36
8:12
.........................................................39
8:13,
14 .............................................26, 38
8:14
..........20, 22, 23, 37,
38, 49, 53, 62
8:17..............................................26,
34, 43
8:20,21
......28,127
8;21,
22
...............................................28
8:23,
24 ...................................................28
8:22-24.....................................................28
8:26..........................................................43
8:27..........................................................32
9:1............................................................32
9:2............................................................32
9:24..........................................................38
9:25-27................................................40-41
9:26..........................................................36
9:26,
27....................................................36
9:27..........................................................39
9:3-27..................................................32-34
10..............................................................35
10:1..........................................................38
10:5,
12, 14
..........................................34
10:14........................................................43
10:20,
21..................................................35
11........................................................24, 35
11:1-4.................................................35- 36
11:4..........................................................28
11:5..........................................................30
11:14........................................................33
11:31............................................25,
28, 36
11:38........................................................30
12:............................................................35
12:10........................................................75
20:5..........................................................50
20:6..........................................................50
20:12........................................................50
HOSEA:
4:14...........................................................74
JOEL:
2:28,
32
................96
HABAKKUK:
2:14..........................................................90
ZECHARIAH:
14:20,
21 .................................................74
MALACHI:
3:1-3
............................................43, 47, 49
3:2,3.........................................................46
MATTHEW:
3:7,
8........................................................59
4:17............................................................6
7:23........................................................114
10:30..........................................................8
13:............................................................82
13:11..........................................................3
13:27-30...................................................64
13:30............................................42,
49, 65
13:37........................................................56
13:38..................................................66,
68
13:39...................................................56,66
13:40........................................................66
13:44-46..................................................3,4
3:47-49...............................................42, 49
13:47,
48..................................................67
13:49..................................................48,
66
20........................................................92, 93
22:23......................................................119
24:1............................................................7
24:14........................................................99
24:15,
16..................................................25
24:31........................................................53
25........................................................45, 47
25:1-5.......................................................60
25:
...31, 34, 41...45-46
MARK:
4:16,
17
..................7
13:34........................................................58
LUKE:
4:4............................................................89
6:22,
23....................................................61
12:10........................................................10
16:25,
26................................................118
16:29-31.................................................119
JOHN:
1:14..........................................................92
3:19........................................................121
6:63..........................................................89
7:17............................................................3
14:1-3...................................................... 49
14:6............................................................4
16:11........................................................10
ACTS:
1:3,
9........................................................86
2:14-21....................................................96
2:38........................................................123
4:12..........................................................96
5:3,
5, 7, 8, 10
......60
7:56..........................................................17
10:28........................................................40
ROMANS:
14:5..........................................................62
1 CORINTHIANS:
2:9............................................................13
10:11..........................................................2
10:12........................................................11
15:14-22, 29..........................................122
15:29......................................................121
15:52......................................................124
1 TESSALONIANS:
4:16..........................................................49
4:16,
17....................................................45
2 TIMOTHY:
2:3..............................................................8
3:16,
17..................................................125
HEBREWS:
2:1............................................................54
6:1..........................................................125
6:19........................................................109
6:
.19, 20..107,108,109
6:20........................................................109
8:1,
2...................................................19-20
9:3..........................................................110
9:1-9.........................................................13
9:12
...19, 108, 109, 110
9:24..........................................................20
9:24-27.............................................24, 128
9:26..................................................21,
108
9:26,
27....................................................20
10:35-37 .................................................19
1 PETER:
1:10,
11 .................................................119
3:18-20 ............................................97, 117
4:17
...........................................................8
2 PETER:
1:12..........................................................10
1:19-21 ....................................................12
1:20-21 ..................................................114
3:3,
4......................................................112
3:8
...........................................................95
1 JOHN:
1:1
...........................................................92
REVELATION:
3:17
.........................................................10
4................................................................
4:1
.........................................................114
4:5............................................................47
4:1-6
........................................................13
4:2-6:........................................................87
4:6
............................................................
4:7 ...........................................................46
5
..............................
5:6
...........................................................15
5:8, 9
........................................................
5:11
...................................................15, 46
6:9,
10 ....................................................
7:3
...........................................................70
7:3-8
........................................................86
7:9
...........................................................70
7:9,
11......................................................87
8:1
...........................................................47
8:5
...........................................................47
10:22
.......................................................
13:1-10 ....................................................94
13:25
........................................................
14..............................................................49
14:4
.........................................................71
14:1-5
......................................................86
14:5
.........................................................62
14:6-11 ............................................. 62, 67
14:6-12 ..................................................115
14:7
.................................................41, 114
14:14-16 ..................................................48
14:17-20...................................................
15:1
.........................................................48
17:1-3
......................................................94
18:4
...................................................49, 68
20:3
.........................................................95
20:5
.........................................................50
20:6
.........................................................50
20:11
.......................................................
20:12
...................................................6, 95
21:14
.......................................................97
22:1,
2 .....................................................17
22:13
........................................................
22:19..........................................................7