Sixth Trumpet & Plague
As a studied out summary statement on the Series of Sixths in Revelation discussed throughout this section, it is in this age that God aims to have a perfected Church/People, and that in order to next have, in the Series of Sevenths, a perfect, and thus secure, everlasting Kingdom, especially as this Seventh stage Kingdom will be most abundantly (materially) blessed. (Cf. 2SAT 294.3)
Internal State of Church: (Sixth Church - Rev 3:7-13 [1790's-1847 A.D.]) - So after God having tried to do a work of reform with the catholic Church replacing Protestant movement in the Fifth Church Age, but not being able to due to their choice to be and remain deficient in their Christian Doctrines and Experience/Practices (Rev 3:1-2), God now will do a work with/through any willing person who is aiming to know and pursue Truth, to fully re-establish the Apostolic Church (Jude 1:3), through a faithful Remnant (Rev 12:17; 14:12).
holy and true - the significance of the mention of these two terms is quite straightforward in themselves, however, as with all other such introductory qualities being emphasized at the start of a message to a Church Age, it can be seen that God was here seeking a Church/People that would also have these characteristics/qualities of being ‘sanctified’ and, as a “true” person is one who is imbued with Truth, -a People who are anchor in all of God Truth. Indeed as seen throughout these discussions on these Series of Sixth in Revelation, it is at this Sixth Stage, and not actually the 7th Stage, that God is expecting for His People to be perfect, indeed so that they can:
[2] ‘remain most faithful for/during this an of God’s restoration/ recreation’ (=7th Church [Rev :14-22]);
[3] ‘be ready for translation’ (=7th Seal [Rev 8:1]);
[4] ‘perfectly minister before God’ (=7th Thunder [Ezek 43-46; cf. Rev 7:15]);
[5] ‘rule over the Earth’ (=7th Trumpet [Rev 11:15-19]);
[6] ‘avert the apex of the wrath of God’ (=7th Plague [Rev 16:17-21]);
and actually substantively applicable here,
[7] ‘enter into God’s Jubilee, being also just in judging duties’ (=7th Millennium [EW 35.1|286.1, Rev 20]).
Indeed, just like the weekly 7th Day Sabbath is best enjoyed when it has been prepared for in advanced, even throughout the preceding six days, but especially on or by the Sixth, “Preparation” Day, the preparations for these Series of Sevenths in Revelation will have to indeed be done/completed on or by these Series of Sixth.
And so to round out this manifest, deliberate implementation of 7 Series to representatively, perfectly resolve this GC, since it was revealed to EGW that: ‘if the true Sabbath had been kept, there would never have been an infidel or an atheist and the world would have been preserved from idolatry.’ LS 96.1, it is theologically manifest that the Series of seven days to commemorate God’s Creative work and also accurately reckon its Sabbath Memorial, fits in as the arch of these GC Series, i.e., in the, deliberately left open [1] position in the listing above, namely:
[1] ‘always Believe in and be obedient to, and thus Worship, the/their Creator’ (=7th Day Sabbath [Exod 20:8-11|Rev 4:11; 14:7]).[38]
In fact, if Satan, while an unfallen Angel in Heaven, had just given due deference to God for being the Creator of all things, he also would have similarly avoid his rebellion against God. However, as discussed in here, manifestly all of the angels, including “Lucifer” (probably then actually called “Rameel” (see in this post)), had to accept that prior Creation of God by Faith, and moreover, that it was their angelic “peer” Michael (=Jesus) who had done all of this creating and so must thus be worshipped, and that is something that “Lucifer” who was next in rank to Michael, just would, pridefully, not, and vexatiously never, accept.
Rev 3:7 "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this:
The “key of David” - This mention of the “key of David” is more cryptic, however, as normative with the imagery and symbols of Revelation, when its OT and/or NT background & context is taken into full and proper consideration, we can arrive at the reason for its allusional prophetic use/mention.
Rev 3:7 "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this:
The “key of David” - This mention of the “key of David” is more cryptic, however, as normative with the imagery and symbols of Revelation, when its OT and/or NT background & context is taken into full and proper consideration, we can arrive at the reason for its allusional prophetic use/mention.
The OT background of the “key of David” and the other two phrases accompanying it is Isa 22:22, indeed almost verbatim. The context of that statement is God acting to effectuate a change in the royal household of David. A certain Shebna, who was the steward/treasurer of King Hezekiah (Isa 22:15) and one of the king’s trustees as seen in him being part of the delegation that was to negotiate peace terms with the besieging Assyrian armies (2 Kgs 18:7), however, as deduced by the SDABC (PDF p.2981), during these times of crisis, -(of which it was actually within God’s adjudging will for Assyria to also, at least partly, punish or merely plunder wayward and rebellious Judah (see Isa 8:7-8; 10:5-7), on the heels of them having routed the 10 northern tribes of Israel (2 Kgs 18:11-12)), Shebna seemed to be more concerned about making a name/memorial for himself rather busying himself with looking out for the good of the nation. (Cf. the fervency of Hezekiah and Isaiah in entreating God to graciously overturn this pending destruction, pointedly as it not being good for His name/glory (2 Kgs 19:1-2ff; PK 354.1-361.1; cf. Exod 32:11-14; Num 14:13-19). As the SDABC states on Shebna here:
“Isaiah [actually God prophetically speaking through Isaiah Isa 22:15a] was roused to indignation by the arrogance of Shebna. He seems to have newly risen to power and affluence, and to have had no family tomb where his fathers would have been interred. Accordingly, he determined to construct a new and stately tomb to honor him in his position of importance and to ensure him a place in the memory of future generations. Instead of devoting his efforts to the saving of the nation in this time of peril, his chief aim was to promote his personal interests.” SDABC 4:191
Given that it was indeed going to take a miracle for Judah to be delivered from the siege and threat of these 185,000 Assyrians (PK 360.3; 2 Kgs 19:35|Isa 37:36), and given God indeed could not find any worthy reason in Judah/Jerusalem itself to defend/deliver it, (and that irrespective of their entrenched lofty, nominative claim/belief that ‘God-Was-With-Them’ (Isa 8:8b)), only resorting to doing so in order to: “'save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.” (2 Kgs 19:34|Isa 37:35)[39] it can be indeed deduced that it was in such circumstances, and probably from upon his return from the rejected peace seeking meeting with the Assyrian leaders (2 Kgs 18:37), that Shebna began to make such actions to, egoistically, preserve a name for himself. In essence he was implicitly claiming/saying that: ‘he (i.e., his (“great”) name) was deserving of being remembered after this looming destruction and sure, utter defeat. And so, and indeed quite arrogantly, as he was conceding death with the rest of the people, yet was aiming to have his name and “legacy” endure, he bought such a memorial, as is provided by these rock hewn tombs, which as e.g., seen in the case of Joseph of Arimathea who was similarly trying to ‘preserve and honor’ the ‘name and legacy’ of Jesus, who he not only had (secretly) believed in, but still continued to expect the coming of the Kingdom of God that Jesus had preached, he, also being a wealthy and prominent person, had such a privileged (and brand new) rock hewn tomb. (Matt 27:57, 60; Mark 15:43, 46; Luke 23:51, 53; John 19:38, 41-42) And to testify to the alluring viability of such a plan the SDABC cites a claim that this very tomb of Shebna is still found and explicitly identified
Prof. N. Avigad has identified this tomb of Shebna with one on the slopes of the Mount of Olives discovered many years ago, and from which an inscription was taken to the British Museum. This inscription, which defied decipherment for many years, reads: “This is [the sepulcher of Sheban]yahu, who is over the house. There is no silver or gold here, but [his bones] and the bones of his slave-wife with him. Cursed be the man who will open this!” (Brackets indicate a conjectural restoration of broken and illegible portions of the inscription in its present state.) SDABC 4:191
So the great indignation of God/Isaiah here can be understood. Though a leader with great, also spiritual responsibilities in God’s Israel, indeed despite being a steward/treasurer, and also a scribe (2 Kgs 18:37), he was rather more concerned, in the light of the looming doom, to ‘look out for himself and for his name’. On the other hand, that did not seem to be the case with Hezekiah’s “Chief of Staff” Eliakim (cf. 2 Kgs 18:18). And so, as a punishment to Shebna, the rule/authority that he had was taken away from him and addedly given to his superior Eliakim. (Isa 22:19-21). And it is really thus, i.e., with him having all of the directorial authority in the royal household of Hezekiah, David’s (royal) descendant, that Eliakim came to have the “key of the house of David on his shoulders” and ‘whatever he opened or shut’ within his present functions as chief of staff of Hezekiah’s administration could not, respectively, ‘be closed, nor opened’. (~Rev 11:6)
This Divine action and theme is reflected in Christ’s similar end time pronouncements in regards to, similarly, ‘a faithless slave who neglects to faithful administer and care for his master’s household’ (Matt 24:45-51) and an also faithless slave who fails to improve upon his assigned talents (Matt 25:24-30). And in a similar way, through his explained teachings during His ministry, to pointedly His own disciples, Jesus had given to them ‘the mysteries (i.e., ‘hidden truths’ = “keys” as they “unlock” sealed/locked Bible Truth/Life Issues (cf. COL 133.1)) of kingdom’ (Matt 13:10-16; 16:19), -which temporally was the true continuance of the Davidic kingdom.
And, as next stated in Isa 22:23, God had yet still greater plans for this empowered Eliakim. He was to honorarily ascend to Davidic royal line throne, manifestly to be next in line to Hezekiah, and with the attacks on Judah by Assyria starting in 701 B.C. (2 Kgs 18:13|Isa 36:1) and with the subsequent siege upon Jerusalem manifestly lasting 3 years (2 Kgs 19:29|Isa 37:30), thus until ca. 698 B.C. and with his son Manasseh begin to co-reign with him (at one of the youngest age of Israel and Judah kings of 12 (cf. here), for the next 10 years in 697 B.C. (Thiele, 217; cf. SDABD 703), then it chronologically works out that Manasseh was born in 709 B.C. and thus was 8 years old when Assyria began overrunning Judah, an age which itself was considered actually old enough to become king (as it had previously been “extremely” done amongst the kings of Judah with 7-year old Joash (2 Kgs 11:3-4); and later with 8-year old Josiah (2 Kgs 22:1)), in emergency circumstances of an early vacancy on the throne, it seems that it was very soon after the miraculous defeat of the Assyrians in ca. 698 B.C., indeed “in those days” (Isa 38:1) that Hezekiah, then only 44 years old, became mortally ill, and God, being the All-Seeing (=Omniscient) Master Physician that He is, manifestly had diagnosed this mortal sickness a while before that. And probably seeing, in line with the truth of Pro 20:11, that the, by 698 B.C., 11 year old Manasseh was a most corrupt lad, perhaps having rebelliously become so by knowing of the recent complete eradication of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 723 B.C., and now seeing similar increasing ravages done against Judah, and that despite his father Hezekiah having rarely been a most zealous and faithful, and correspondingly, Divinely-approved king (cf. 2 Kgs 18:4-8), he was nonetheless still then being threatened with utter destruction, and probably had resolved in during these times to not follow in the righteous ways of his father, perhaps even taking telling concrete actions towards this end. (Indeed it is quite telling that even after having seen the miraculous deliverance of God vs. the 185,000 and even the miraculous healing of his father Hezekiah, Manasseh still went on to undo all of the reforms that his father had done. (2 Kgs 21:3ff). He had manifestly long resolved that it was not worth it to serve, and be “so devoted to”, God as his father had been). And so God then seeing the inceptive budding of this rebellious character and most threatening development, especially knowing that soon a developing mortal sickness was going to fully manifest itself upon Hezekiah, thus opted to make such regnal promises to faithful Chief of Staff Eliakim, and would have indeed, “out of line”, installed him upon Judah’s throne, as he had done with David replacement of Saul, in order to help preserve Judah from further degradation. (As seen in this charting of Israel and Judah kings, such ‘out of line’ successions [=horizontally (hashed) pointing arrows] occurred many times, however these were mostly done by murderous coups). However those Divine succession plans, which no doubt were made known by Isaiah to Hezekiah, were not followed as Manasseh was instead made co-regent, and thus successor, manifestly, immediately upon the outbreak of Hezekiah’s illness. And so God let them follow their “monarchial policy” instead of His Spiritual/Divine one, and, not surprisingly, Manasseh went on to become the very worst, (and moreover, longest reigning), king of Judah and, even did worse than certain surrounding pagan kings (2 Kgs 21:2-11), and probably worse than any king of Israel.
Then in Isa 22:24 God goes on to indicate that eventually this establish regnal line through Eliakim will be fully recognized and highly honored by Israel and they will indeed acknowledge that he (as well as his offspring) is the rightful inheritor of his “father” Hezekiah’s household blessings, and they will be turned over to him/them. And as it was through the strict Davidic line that God had planned to send the Messiah, yet as He was here intending to switch this line, for the survival good of Judah, indeed to give them a better chance to survive until that Messianic age, -(a switch that if they had followed would have averted the Babylonian Deportation and Captivity, especially as the reinstated sin institutions by Manasseh would have been greatly delayed or probably never reestablished), in Isa 22:25, God took the opportunity to also here warningly make the same warning statement later made through Daniel, that ‘the Righteous Messiah would have to be cut off, for, if not, as most likely, the murderous rejection of the people then (Dan 9:26 & 27), then as due, for the imputed sins of the world. And so it was, indeed Messianicly, being said in Isa 22:25 (accurately translated) that: In that [coming] day, when, as stated in Isa 22:24, the people will (finally) have duly honorarily turned over all of the regnal authority and glory over to that firmly driven peg, recognizing that this regnal switch was the doing of God Himself, that peg will then not only ‘naturally move/“give way”’, but it will then/therefore be hewn off by others (i.e., opposers seizing this opportunity of assumed “viability weakness”), and this, then being attacked, peg will most naturally fall, and the load which had been placed on it will also be cut off. As this is indeed a Messianic statement indicating what would occur with the Messiah, it is best summarized in the statement by the disciples on the road to Emmaus to the then resurrected Jesus that:
“The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.” (Luke 24:19-21a)
No doubt in the ensuing Messianic Statements/Prophecies that followed (Luke 24:25-27), Jesus made expounding mention of Isa 22:22-25 (cf. the implication towards Rev 1:18). This Messianic prediction was indeed pointedly fulfilled in the developments of the Triumphal entry, summarily stated here (however to read the Bible and SOP (DA 569.1ff) accounts), Jesus then, for the first time in His ministry, assumed His right to the throne of David that was indeed rightfully His over those occupying it then (namely Herod), and also those which effectively comprised its protecting household (namely the various groups of Jewish leaders -Pharisees, Priests, Scribes). So radical was this move of Christ, that when the people did indeed fully approve of it, the Jewish leaders tried to get Jesus to put an end to these royal acclamations. The Jewish leaders then began trying to paint Jesus as one who was rebellious to Roman rule and its achieved “Pax” and was here leading a revolt that would erect a “wall” of opposition in Judah/Jerusalem to Rome. (DA 580.3)[40] This was a most serious charge as if that had been Christ intent, such a successful uprising, if then replicated by other kingdom within the Roman realm would lead to mass geo-political disturbances and probably spell the end of the Roman Empire. Yet however, the Roman guard themselves saw through these charges, reading indeed the loving and benevolent intents of Christ, despite this, clearly, Royal Procession, and took Jesus at His word that He was not trying to start a revolt against those who had (been given) formal authority over God Israel (DA 581.1). Yet when Jesus later stopped the advance of the procession Himself as He wept over the unworthy and non-ready state of Israel then, seeing that this final appeal had not brought about the needed, deep-seated, fruits of repentance, but merely more self-seeking acclamations from the People and jealous hatred by the (threatened) Jewish leaders, He then saw that the, priorly realized, end of the, most testing, for both Him and the People, even His faithful disciples, Cross, was the only viable option left.
And so, by having inexplicably, wept and ended procession as the Jewish leaders were seeking to pit him against the Roman rulers, Jesus, that firmly placed peg, began to “give way” to this persisting rebellion. Then when He was later begun to be hewn out of its firm place by first being arrested, and offering no resistance, His disciples themselves abandoned ‘this detaching peg’. The later unopposed trial and false accusation convictions involving chiefly the spiritually false charges of wanting to destroy the Jewish Religion (i.e., misconstruedly understood then, its physical Temple), and trying to set up a rule in opposition to Rome, the rest of the people who had placed their faith in Him also fell. And with this Capital Death on a Cross, many of even those who had believed in Jesus beyond his immediate circle of disciples and friends who personally knew him, probably could not help but assume that He was being rejected by God.
And what made this worst as this “peg” continued to give way as it was continuing to be hewn out of its place was the event that transpired as God was placing all of the sins and guilt of sinners upon Christ at the Cross. This transaction momentarily caused God to completely separate Himself from Jesus, and, as discussed here, the resulting effect of that unavoidable consequence during this appeasing outpouring of God’s Wrath on the Sinner and Sin, being entirely substituted for by Jesus on the Cross, was that God had manifestly purposefully not indicated this to Jesus here, and that sudden sense of being abandoned led Jesus to cry out, in a loud voice: ‘GOD!! GOD!!! Why have You forsaken Me??!’ A most shrilling, loud shout that probably cause many then to completely lose any remaining/little faith in Jesus that they had, and led His bitter enemies to exult in triumph, for this self-confession manifestly proved them to have been in the right all along. Indeed to Jesus, as it had typologically been the case with Jacob, ‘God Himself had here seemed to become an avenging enemy.’ (ST, November 27, 1879 par. 11ff).
And so, by causing Jesus to be put to death, indeed even if done by the secular State, the Jewish nation had come sealed the fact that they were to be cut off as God’s People. They had failed their most candid testing, which God had deliberately strewn with such stumbling blocks (see Jer 6:21; Matt 26:31 - Gr. “scandalized”) in order to verify, and have confirmed what the true intents of the heart of all in this nation which professed to be His faithful people (cf. e.g., 1 Pet 2:6-8), and even, yet not necessarily, most faithful, but surely most favored generation, i.e., in term of them being the one who will be ushering in the advent of the Messiah.
Of course, as with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, they had not counted on the fact that God would miraculously intervene and bring Jesus back to life (cf. Rev 11:11; cf. this post), yet that is what God did upon completing the most purposeful and necessary sifting events. And as it was discussed in this post, the death of Christ which pointedly provided atonement for sin, was distinct from the suffering that Jesus also had to enduring as the wrath of God was pour out on Him. So if Christ had just suffered the wrath of God, but not then not died, an atonement would not have been made and all sinners would still die for their sins, yet most peacefully, i.e., without encountering the wrath of God, as that had been endured by Jesus on their behalf. For this, it can be understood the prophetic statement in Isa 22:14 which is in relation to the key of David. It is here indicating that those sinners in Judah then would still pay the penalty of death for their sins, however not “wrathfully”, i.e., through conflict, strife and destruction, by the hands of the Assyrians. Indeed God miraculously intervened to spare them, and that merely for the honor of His name and His Greater Messianic cause. And so those sinners in Judah then “peacefully” just lived out their lives then, however, as seen by refusing God’s royal line switching to Eliakim, which He said absolutely nothing to reprove/correct them, they had set themselves on the course that would end up in their utter demise as God’s People.
It is most pivotal to note that the “great scandal” of this typological “peg” is all caused by the ‘wounds which he had received in the house of his supposed “friends”’ (Zech 13:1-6; cf. Isa 63.1-6). It is the sinfulness of these “scandalized ones” which had dislocated this peg by them, through their indifferent attitude towards their own responsibilities, at the very least effectively, having hung all of the duties that they could/should have themselves supported, upon that single peg. This is all similar to the fact that the Earthly Sanctuary was probably a place which most of the time reeked with the stench of dried blood as the blood of the sin offerings was continually being sprinkled all about it throughout the year until this was all cleaned on the Day of Atonement. This scandalous imagery/reality reflects the similarly scandalous fact that the sins of the world are stocked up in God’s very throne room until the very end (see TM 157.2). So it is because God’s peg here has to tangibly deal with the sins of the rest of these lackadaisical and indifferent people that a “scandal” actually comes to transpire with that peg.
Ironically enough, the Jewish leaders in Christ’s day became “most scandalized” at Jesus when He went on to expressedly claim that He was indeed the Son of God and would not recant. (Matt 26:59-68). They then summarily ignored all of his good works (cf. John 10:25, 31-39; 14:11; 15:22-25) which they had actually been merely seeing as a national threat to them, and thus their (private/spurious) Messianic expectations (John 11:47-53; 12:9-11).
The only chance for the rest of the people to not be scandalized here by what is actually made to be a necessary/inevitable event is to, as the thief of the cross, recognize that this peg is paying their own penalty and sacrificing himself for them, and to resolute believe the concrete truth despite the seemingly repelling appearances. Indeed in the “fruit testing” of a prophet, it is not actually applicable to merely/solely weigh “what fruits have been produced”, as this depends on how many people have come to believe and heed the message of this prophet, (several OT prophetic ministries, as well as Church History episodes, show that God’s messenger typically usually virtually stand alone), but to more substantively weigh ‘what fruits would be produced if the message of that prophet was heeded.’ Thus, as Jesus taught in Matt 7:15-20|Luke 6:43-45: ‘of what condition/quality is the fruit tree itself is.’ (cf. Matt 12:31-33) (In the case of the Christ-opposing Pharisees, their fruit tree was rotten to the core. (Matt 3:8-10|Luke 3:9-10)). Indeed Truth is never determined by popular gauging and clamors, but by what it substantively, Biblically is in itself. And as the 05-28-11 sermon here on Matt 12:33-35 (“The Good Tree”) (mp4), by Jonathan Henderson there rightly brought out, the “Good Tree” is actually, only, Jesus Christ. And so all who will be bearing “good fruit” will only be doing so because they are ‘branches which are rightly grafted in this Good Tree/Vine’ (=John 15:4-5; see this post). Thus, ‘those who are actually building upon the “rock solid” foundation of Christ’s teachings.’ (Luke 6:46-49; cf. Matt 7:21-23).
And so in order to not stumble on God’s purposeful stumbling block/peg here is for these people to also ‘makes justice measuring line and righteousness the level’ (Isa 28:16-17) most pertinently by stop trusting in those who trust in oppression, robbery and riches to get/be ahead. (Psa 62:10). God indeed uses this stumbling block/peg test to ascertain if actual/true repentance/ penitence, faith and righteousness is found in the hearts of those who are professing these claims. (cf. Gen 22:12; Deut 8:2; cf. Exod 15:25; 16:4; 2 Chr 32:31)
And so, applying this prophetic background in the Eschatological Sixth Church Era here, thus in regards now to the SDA Church, though God Himself may not reprove the obstinately unbiblical ways of the Church, particularly past this “key of David” junction, they will “peacefully” continue about their oblivious way, until they end up, (even if not in this present generation which will, like those in Judah during Hezekiah’s, just “peacefully” continue going to their individual graves), striking the inevitable “wall” that they are “headlong” striving towards -(Isa 22:17). Indeed like Shebna, in such pivotal times when the Church, quite logically realizes that, if they keep having conventions and seasons of prayers in order to have the latter Rain poured out upon them and absolutely nothing of the “Latter Rain” type occurs, but, at best, merely a recall of the many Early Rain Reforms/Preparations and Works that still need to be done, many leaders in the Church then are knowingly/calculatingly preferring not to “stir the boat” in order to radically effectuate the necessary changes in the Church to stop hindering the Latter Rain.
key of the house of David - The slight different rendering of this statement in Isa 22:22 vs. Rev 3:7 where the OT phrase “of the house” is not significant, but given the fact that it is pointedly the OT Hebrew that is being quoted here and not the LXX reading (which quite differentially says: ‘And I will give him the rule of David; and he will rule and no one will oppose him’), further shows that something deliberate was done here by leaving it out. By the statement in Revelation referring more pointedly to “David” and not merely his “house/household” as done when Eliakim, ‘who was over (=“Chief of Staff” -[cf. Andrews Study Bible on Rev 3:7]) over that house’ in Hezekiah’s time (2 Kgs 18:18), was the object of this regnal power switch, shows that the prophecy here is envisioning a more direct return to a “David” himself. This harmonizes with, as discussed in this post, the planned eschatological re-emergence of the Davidic Rule (Isa 11:1-10). And with Jesus having been the direct (Luke 3:31), and also royal (Matt 1:1; 6) “son of David” (Matt 9:27; 12:23; 15:22; 21:9; 15; 22:42; Rev 22:16), and thus rightful heir and “continuer” of this throne and royal line; and which is now, in the New Covenant Era, passed on to any believer in Christ.
So with this regnal authority being given out in Rev 3:7 being more directly associated with David rather than his house, implies that such a royal household here needs to be upbuilt again here. So God is here looking more for a prophetic David(s) in order to spiritually reestablish household which will, like King David, be ‘a people after His own heart’, (which, as indicated by the name of this Sixth Church, is to also be filled with ‘brotherly love’ (cf. Matt 22:39-40), and, will, indeed in this Shaking time, ‘do and dare’ (5T 81.2) to establish the envisioned glorious temporal Rule of God’s Enduring Israel, i.e., now, His Church Triumphant.
key ‘on the shoulder’ - As made evident from the exposition above, the comparative identification between Isa 22:22 and Isa 9:6 this “key of David”, by being laid ‘upon the shoulders of the recipient, is identified as being a rule/government. SO these were to be charged with leading in a governmental office withing God’s People, and in the days of Israel, this was done in the tribe of Judah (Gen 49:9, 10; cf. 2 Sam 2:1, 4).
key ‘on the shoulder’ - As made evident from the exposition above, the comparative identification between Isa 22:22 and Isa 9:6 this “key of David”, by being laid ‘upon the shoulders of the recipient, is identified as being a rule/government. SO these were to be charged with leading in a governmental office withing God’s People, and in the days of Israel, this was done in the tribe of Judah (Gen 49:9, 10; cf. 2 Sam 2:1, 4).
And so, as it applicationally has come to prophetically be, the later organized SDA Church (=Rev 7:4a ‘tribe of Judah’) had led in an (13-Division (and Israel itself did have 13 tribes, i.e., with the tribe of Levi included)) ecclesiastical ‘governmental entity’ within God’s then reforming Israel, which is to be expanded when the remnant of all of the 11 other tribes in Rev 7:4-8 are brought in to fully re-form God’s True/Faithful/Remnant, and now also Triumphant Kingdom, Israel.
Rev 3:8 - 'I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an opened door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.
Behold, an Opened Door - Since God ‘sees with perception and understanding’ (as He typically does, either way, (e.g,, Rev 2:2, 9, 13, 19; 3:1, 15) for God does not judge according to appearances, but looks much deeper, such as in one’s mind/heart (1 Sam 16:7; cf. Heb 4:12)) the deeds of His faithful ones here who have kept His word, and not denied His name (= His Character), and that despite their little power, He has therefore, and that long before, “marvellously” (=“behold”) set before them an opened door which no one has the power to shut. As discussed in this post, this open door is the Third, and pre-Final [i.e., pre the 4th GC Close of Probation] Prophetic Sanctuary Door (=EW 42.2) which opens up the way into the Most Holy Place (=Throne Room) of God where His Law and His Sabbath are seen and understood (cf. Rev 11:19), and that, gradually, to its fullest light. This door is the same as the Rev 4:1 door which is opens up into God throne room, and as discussed in the second part of this post, and as first substantiated here, this Fuller understanding of God’s Sabbath as also God’s Socio-Economic Rest Ideal leads into an entire new, and most Biblical, Theological understanding of, pointedly Bible prophecies, as demonstrated throughout this blog, including this present post.
Rev 3:9 - Behold, that I may give from the assembly of Satan, --the ones who are saying about themselves that they are being Jews [=Judeans -cf. 1 Thess 2:14] and are not, but just make themselves lie-- [Indeed] Behold I will act so that they will come, and will worship before your feet; -and so that they may know that I love you.
Behold, that I may give from the assembly of Satan - God is here about to state what “marvellous” actions He will take so that He could be able to draw some people out from their “assembly of Satan” (=EW 54.2-56.1; e.g. from here) into His, small and seemingly powerless, yet righteous Sixth Church.
This group is spiritually similar to the “bought out” and world-siding one in the Second Church (Rev 2:9) who, as with the Jews in Christ’s day, acted a part in delivering the faithful ones in the Christian Church to the persecuting State.
are being Jews/Judeans - These ones in the assembly of Satan were merely saying of themselves that they were of the righteous, remnant tribe/kingdom of Judah, but since their actions showed otherwise, they were just making themselves lie, both to themselves, and, evangelistically, to others.
[Indeed] Behold I will act - After defining what the assembly of Satan is, and why, God now resumes stating the “marvellous” action that He will be taking in regards to this small group of faithful believers.
come and worship before... - The entire purpose of God’s action here, is so that those in the assembly of Satan that He may be able to draw out of their darkness/error and into His actual Truth, and that by these coming and, not merely falling before His Righteous ones, but actually worshipping before their feet, which are indeed two distinct actions (cf. Rev 4:10; 5:14).
And this fulfills the far-reaching prophetic dream that EGW relates in EW 78.3-79.3 (also in e.g. LS 33.1-34.2; 1T 27.1-4), discussed here, which involved the symbolic: “as if slain”, “little lamb” figure.
...your feet - With the “feet” symbolically being ‘the means of going places and/or being established’, and with, as discussed here, and also above in the present post, this Davidic Kingdom will be marshalling towards the Biblical and tangibly necessary establishment of the ‘Temporal Little Lamb Kingdom of God’, and that “in the midst of the seas” (Dan 11:45 = Rev 14:1; 15:2), then those who potentially would then have come out from amongst the ‘tare-filled Church’ which is the assembly of Satan, will also be fully acknowledging and understanding that this Full Gospel ministry and its needed temporal realm establishment, ‘the place of God’s own feet’ (=Isa 60:13b-14; Ezek 43:7) is indeed the Biblical will of God for this Prolonged, ‘due-to-judgement’, Time. (=15MR 292.3-4; cf. this post).
And this fulfills the far-reaching prophetic dream that EGW relates in EW 78.3-79.3 (also in e.g. LS 33.1-34.2; 1T 27.1-4), discussed here, which involved the symbolic: “as if slain”, “little lamb” figure.
...your feet - With the “feet” symbolically being ‘the means of going places and/or being established’, and with, as discussed here, and also above in the present post, this Davidic Kingdom will be marshalling towards the Biblical and tangibly necessary establishment of the ‘Temporal Little Lamb Kingdom of God’, and that “in the midst of the seas” (Dan 11:45 = Rev 14:1; 15:2), then those who potentially would then have come out from amongst the ‘tare-filled Church’ which is the assembly of Satan, will also be fully acknowledging and understanding that this Full Gospel ministry and its needed temporal realm establishment, ‘the place of God’s own feet’ (=Isa 60:13b-14; Ezek 43:7) is indeed the Biblical will of God for this Prolonged, ‘due-to-judgement’, Time. (=15MR 292.3-4; cf. this post).
So, as stated earlier, it is indeed God’s endeavor in this Sixth Era of Revelation to (finally) have fully established, and given, the testimony to the world of His Truth (=Matt 24:14) through His multi-faceted Israel, wherein, as Righteousness and Justice (See in/from here an “Almightily” (=Rev 19:15b) applicable depiction of the conquesting event towards this establishment in Rev 19:11b; cf 6:2) will reign there (Psa 89:14; 97:2; cf. 2 Pet 3:13), He will therefore finally be able to (re-)establish (Ezek 43:1-3ff; cf. Ezek 1 & 10) by tangible extension (Isa 33:5), His Throne and manifest Presence. As Ezek 48:35b declaratively, punctuatedly states of this achieved Ecclesiastical (=Temple/Church) and Temporal/Civil (=City/Nation) standard: Jerushamah: “Yahweh is there”
And as relatedly stated in EW 15.1, in regards to the reaction of the assembly of Satan to the (Rev 14:1 & 15:2) 144,000 here, they saw that this Church/Kingdom, whose members/citizen “could wash one another's feet” and “salute the brethren with a holy kiss”; thus were marked by ‘a true spirit of humility and service, to even/especially one another (John 13:12-17), and loyalty (John 13:10-11, 18-20), towards one another’ as they did have ‘genuine brotherly love’ (e.g., Rom 16:16; 1 Cor 16:20; 2 Cor 13:12; 1 Thess 5:26), were indeed God’s True Movement.
Rev 3:10 - Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about, of itself, to come upon the whole (inhabited) world, in order to test those who dwell on the earth.
I will keep you from - As God’s faithful ones will remain loyal to God Full Truths then, God will actively act to make sure that they have insight into the testing/tempting issues in this hour of judging. (Lam 2:9; Ezek 7:26) And that will have been done by their Biblical knowledge having been increase as they have ‘sought to advance’ God’s cause. (Dan 12:3-4, 10b) And God does this “keeping” through the ‘proper and diligent parental upbringing’ (Psa 94:12-15; Heb 12:5-11) of those who actually are His sons (Rev 21:7) so that they can overcome, triumph and prosper (Pro 3)
the word of my perseverance - This refers to God’s encouragement and expectation to His faithful ones to remain faithful to His Truth and Cause to the end, even in the face of death (cf. Rev 1:9; 2:2-3; 2:19). This is a major key to being triumphant in the final, Mark of the Beast test (Rev 13:10; 14:12).
hour of testing - This is a Divinely allowed ‘judging hour’ involving most enticing things (=2 Thess 2:11-12) during which it will be determined who is aiming to do, and doing, God’s will and who is not, despite grandiose professions. (=Luke 22:31-34) Indeed, as with Peter and the other disciples of Christ, the least objective of this “hour of testing” is to serve as a jolting reality check for those who up to then had believed themselves to be righteous. (=DA 673.2-3) See in this post on the prophetical application of this deliberate and purposeful “wheat shaking/sifting” (i.e., as discussed later, in order to now remove the chaff that is still clinging to the good wheat grain) testing of Christ’s disciples.
Christ’s statement in Matt 26:40-41 made in relation to His Garden of Gethsemane experience, which His disciples should have also benefitingly “watchfully and prayerfully” participated in is foundational to the similar eschatological “hour of testing” which precedes the sealing and the outpouring of the Latter Rain. (Cf. the Holy Spirit initiated/based and (according to my substantive/exegetical examination/reviewing, much more than less, application-wise) guided exposition of James Tierney in this blog post) And, as discussed in this post, it is through God’s purposeful and fast-tracked, orchestration in allowing Revelation’s Babylon to be established, which today, through Capitalism, is in its fullest, socio-economic phase, and moreover by having allowed His People to be taken captive in it, (indeed just as Jerusalem was under the power of Rome (the burgeoning spiritual “Babylon” then = 1 Pet 5:13)), that this global hour of testing is conducted, when now the existential choice for everyone, both in the secular world and, especially the religious world, is whether they will continue to live according to their selfish, individualistic and ‘fend/look out for yourself (first/only)’, particularly in these days of (actually artificially) limited resources, or if they will instead heed the Full Gospel Mandate of Christ and, actually duty-boundly, variously, even if quasi-self-sacrificially, look out for their brother as their need is. Those who come to pass this “final test” (~5T 81.1[LDE 173, 174] - see about those in the SDA Church who will fail it, starting from the Shaking, here) will then be fully sealed with God’s Full Sabbath Seal and will thus receive the (Real/Full) Latter Rain. (=Rev 18:1-5ff)
Christ’s statement in Matt 26:40-41 made in relation to His Garden of Gethsemane experience, which His disciples should have also benefitingly “watchfully and prayerfully” participated in is foundational to the similar eschatological “hour of testing” which precedes the sealing and the outpouring of the Latter Rain. (Cf. the Holy Spirit initiated/based and (according to my substantive/exegetical examination/reviewing, much more than less, application-wise) guided exposition of James Tierney in this blog post) And, as discussed in this post, it is through God’s purposeful and fast-tracked, orchestration in allowing Revelation’s Babylon to be established, which today, through Capitalism, is in its fullest, socio-economic phase, and moreover by having allowed His People to be taken captive in it, (indeed just as Jerusalem was under the power of Rome (the burgeoning spiritual “Babylon” then = 1 Pet 5:13)), that this global hour of testing is conducted, when now the existential choice for everyone, both in the secular world and, especially the religious world, is whether they will continue to live according to their selfish, individualistic and ‘fend/look out for yourself (first/only)’, particularly in these days of (actually artificially) limited resources, or if they will instead heed the Full Gospel Mandate of Christ and, actually duty-boundly, variously, even if quasi-self-sacrificially, look out for their brother as their need is. Those who come to pass this “final test” (~5T 81.1[LDE 173, 174] - see about those in the SDA Church who will fail it, starting from the Shaking, here) will then be fully sealed with God’s Full Sabbath Seal and will thus receive the (Real/Full) Latter Rain. (=Rev 18:1-5ff)
which is about, of itself, to come - While the voice of God does cause the powers of the earth to tremble, this permitted “hour of testing” upon the entire world (=Rev 18:6-24) is actually self brought about by the pursuit of false and spurious ideas. And so it is from their presently pursued conduct that will originate this test. I.e., (for the non-Christian/Secular World): ‘you want to have a livelihood through Capitalism???’; (for Babylon [=Israel]): ‘you want to want to be genuine Christians will espousing Capitalism???’; (for the SDA Church [=Judah]): ‘you want to “Finish the Work” through Capitalistic measures and policies???’ - then prove it through the testing and temptations to resort to the base and sinful ways that this system inevitably corners one’s into doing. (Cf. 4T 489.2ff). Therein is the genesis of the crystalizing of the ‘test that will come to every soul’; -the “Mark of the Beast” (5T 81.1).
Rev 3:11 - 'I come rapidly; hold fast what you have, so that no one may take your crown.
come rapidly - As relatedly discussed here, this repeated statement in Revelation (Rev 2:16; 22:7, 12, 20), which is actually said by one of the Last Plague Angels in Rev 22:7, is not necessarily saying that “the second Coming is soon” (which is then understood to involve a concretely set time), but that the wrapping of the Great Controversy and the End can be effectuated “rapidly”, i.e., at any point if it should ever become necessary. (cf. here) So this phrase is indeed an encouragement to God’s faithful ones to remain strong through persecution, adversity and opposition because the end, or even “merely” Glorious, overturning, Divine Intervention, can be made to “come rapidly” to rescue them. (=SOP ‘time of need = God is closest’; cf. this discussion post).
Rev 3:12 - 'To the overcoming one, I will make him a pillar in the sanctuary of My God, and so that he would not go out from it anymore; and I will even write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, the one coming down out of heaven from My God, and My name, the new one.
To the overcoming one - As with the other mentions of this phrase in the book of Revelation, it refers to an achieved present state of individuals and not to merely a future achievement. In other words the one who will overcome will be in the present time working on those qualities/characteristics and actions that will make him/her overcome, and not be suddenly transform into that state by a decision at the end.
a pillar in the sanctuary of My God... - The overcomers are promised here to become as intrinsic and important to God’s Temple as pillars. While the rest of this phrase, i.e., “so that he would not go out from it anymore’, may seem to be God forcing the overcomers here to remain in His temple, as the similarly angels of heaven would testify, it is actually an utmost honor to be in such close service to God. EGW’s vision in EW 18.2 shows that it is the 144,000 (Rev 7:4-8), which are given this honor and combined with Rev 7:15's similar statement, it is further seen that the result of the Evangelistic work of the 144,000, the Great Multitudes, also are a part of this group. So it is the (“final”) generation, the one which will establish God’s Church Triumphant on Earth, which will lead into the wider ‘Little Lamb’s temporal kingdom’ (= the NJK Project), who will be given this lasting sanctuary honor, and this is only during the Millennial Age, as afterwards, there is no longer a need for this type of object-lesson sanctifying procedure of the Sanctuary (Rev 21:3, 22). As there will be billions of redeemed people who did not get to fully develop and perfect Christian Character, pointedly amongst those who did not live through the final events, wherein God’s will, knowledge and glory were then fully revealed, yet for various reasons deemed most worthy by God, they had been saved, that Millennial Sanctuary administered by the Fuller group of the 144,000 (i.e., with the Great Multitude) will assist them in achieve this needed Character advancement, which can indeed only be naturally done, (i.e., God cannot brainwash these people, or anyone, into having a full, Godly Character.
This special honoring of the overcoming 144,000 group mirrors the special priestly honor that was perpetually given to the sons of Levi for having singularly repented of their Golden Calf sin and take a thus effectively “overcoming” stand for God, while the rest of Israel did not want/bother to. (Exod 32:25-29; Num 3:5-12, 45). And most commendably, the sons of Levi had resolutely done this while it was their effective tribal leader Aaron who was the permissive ring leader in this debacle; which shows, as also seen in the days of Christ, that just following and remaining with one’s Church leader and/or pastor into a wrong course (as indifferently e.g., being done by most SDA, sheepishly-following, Church members, cf. this post), will not be a disculpating excuse, and that for natural reasons, in a “Shaking” judgement. (Ezek 9:5-8; Exod 32:33-35; Ezek 18:20).
The way in which the statement being discussed here is fully expressed shows that God is going to make this 144,000 group these unremovable pillars in His sanctuary by literally steeling their minds by writing the next discussed three “names” upon them. With that special “sealing” these will only find it natural to be these leaders in, and ministering agents of, God’s Millennial sanctifying work.
Three Written/Given Names - With a name in Bible days understandings being representative of “one purposed/expected/desired (Matt 1:21; cf. Exod 2:10), or even readily manifested (e.g., Gen 25:26), character”, it is therefore seen that the three names being dubbingly written upon/given to the ones who are overcoming in this Sixth Era, is because they are manifesting or so that they will continue to go on to manifest, the same character/characteristics as: God the Father, God’s New Jerusalem, and Jesus’ New Name. As revealed in EW 15.1, this, actually ‘forehead sealing action’ (=intellectual and spiritual understanding), will be done to the 144,000 of God’s Israel who will be sealed during this time (Rev 7:1-8). These sealing qualities, character and spiritual/intellectual understandings are:
(1) My God = Love (1 John 4:7-8, 16) - These ones will come to truly have this same fundamental Character of Love of God, which, as stated in 1 John 4:9, is manifested by sacrificing the very best that we have to provide both temporal and eternal life for others (cf. DA 825.4). And so the overcomers here will be doing all that they can to fully come to the aid those in vital and/or spiritual need, and will not be making the sanctimonious excuses and bankrupt rationalizations as presently, commonly being done, in pointedly the SDA Church, to avoid this Full Gospel mandate. If anyone had a sanctimonious excuse to avoid giving of anything that would be costly to Him, it was indeed God, who could have just re-started Creation from scratch when Adam and Eve sinned instead of letting things play out and necessitate the sending of Jesus, which He was indeed most reluctant to do. (EW 149-153)
Indeed, as also seen in the Bible, both OT and NT, being, as here, resultingly “called by God’s name’ is from a person/group having had fully/truly aligned themselves with the character of God, by those, even “Gentiles”, having been heedingly/obediently responsive to God’s voice. (See e.g., Isa 43:5-7; Amos 9:11-12|DA 668.2 = Acts 15:16-18; James 2:7). And as being involved here in this Sixth Church Era, this is fulfilled in the calling/gathering of the 144,000, with as discussed in this post, the applicable Amos 9:11-12ff here gathering occurring after the Shaking (Amos 9:8-10; cf. LDE 180.1-5), just as it applicably had in the Apostolic Era (Acts 15:16-18) after their own Shaking (Matt 3:11-12|Luke 3:16-17).
(2) New Jerusalem Holy City = Perfected, Righteous Church (Rev 21:1-3; 2 Pet 3:13; cf. Isa 33:5) - As when God will recreated all things at the end of this GC, and the state of things will tangibly be righteousness (2 Pet 3:13; Matt 6:10), i.e., people always doing what is right, then is will also be the state of things in God’s Capital City then, the New Jerusalem will also be Righteousness. And with the New Jerusalem being the state of Christ’s bride (Rev 21:2), the Church, when it will have been perfected, the writing of its name upon the overcomers in the Sixth Church Age will have been from them having achieved this Character of Justice and Righteous (cf. Isa 33:5) then. They will therefore come to have known and understand what is to be the Character of those who will constitute the Church Triumphant, (indeed as it is being done through the NJK’s Holy City Project) which will be a post-Shaking and pre-Second Coming tangible Entity. And these “ready” faithful ones will have formally joined themselves to their husband Christ even prior to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb Celebration (Rev 19:5-9).[41]
EGW commenting in GC 426.2, with rare italic emphasizing, says, while commenting on the Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matt 25:1-13): ‘the guests at the wedding supper (=the Ten Virgins, which represent the Church) is not also be the bride (=the New Jerusalem, the capital and representative of Christ’s Kingdom)’. So then, will Jesus become a polygamist and have two brides, the Church (2 Cor 11:2; Eph 5:25-32) and the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:2, 9)? The spiritual/symbolic fact of the matter is that Jesus expects, especially by today, that both the ‘Church of God’ and the ‘Kingdom of God’ to be so much alike, with the Church Spiritually and Practically perfectly emulating the “Kingdom” which He had gone to prepare for it (John 14:1-3; Dan 7:14), by “truly and fully practising what it preaches”, having become the Church Triumphant (LDE 61.2-62.2), a ‘conquering army with many banners’ (RH, October 31, 1893 par. 4 ~ RH, January 9, 1900 par. 2-4 ~ 13MR 301.4 ~ EW 270.4 ~ 52.1-2a ~ PK 725.1), that the two would actually become one and the same entity. That is why the ‘ecclesiastical overcomers’ here in Rev 3:12 are also given the name of this New Jerusalem, as their character has now come to perfectly reproduce the one of ‘God’s Kingdom representative entity’. And so, unlike the glib popular belief today, actually borne out of selfish indifference, the Church and the Kingdom are to be, and that by actual/inherent tangible necessity, a synonymous entity. For when the Church truly will do the works of Christ in the world, i.e., ‘going about doing good in, now, Latter Rain power’ (Acts 10:38; John 14:12; 7:39), and that by having shed all of the “capitalistically” artificial limitations and restrainings of such man-made, idolatrous systems, then it will most naturally have to facilitatingly become organized as a tangible Kingdom, which is indeed how the NJK Project developed (see here at 11{b}).
And the ‘place prepared for them’ stated in John 14:3 is being done, not, as commonly thought, merely as a physical reward, but in expecting reflection of what Jesus sees would best fit the spiritual attainment/development/achievement of His People. I.e., as there is no present kingdom on Earth that harmonizes/concurs/supports with the perfect Christlike character of these righteous ones, then Jesus went on ahead to prepare a kingdom for them which will. (Psa 11:3, cf. here)
So during that time of waiting for that end, which is a time of investigative judgement, the Church is to keep its ‘white robe of righteous acts’ (Rev 19:7-8) spotless (=EW 55.1), by, obviously, continuing to do righteous acts, -which certainly is not ignoring the plight of anyone who is poor and needy (Matt 25:45; DA 825.4). And so it will only be those in the Church who have been diligent to both, have this white wedding garment (Matt 22:1-14), and spotlessly maintain it, by doing, in resolute faith (cf. Luke 22:28-30), the Full Gospel works of Christ (Matt 25:31-46), who will be permitted to remain in that marriage supper celebration (Rev 19:9) where the objective of God’s Israel will finally be realized (cf. Matt 8:10-12). And if anyone can give the Church today an indication of what it will take to be acceptable/accepted in that Kingdom, it is the ‘concretely testifying ones who love God even more than their very life’ (Rev 12:11), the variously martyred, for, as presented here, they are rewarded for this dedication by getting to partake of, and enjoy in person, the reward of the saints before others who will be redeemed (EW 18.2), but who, at their own eternal life risk/peril, did not strive to also have this same sacrificial level of dedication. (Matt 10:34-37|Luke 9:23-26; 17:32-33; John 12:24-26; 16MR 34.1; EW 50.3; 2SG 265.1-270.1; Ev 706.3; (cf. here), -with all of the Apostles also suffering a martyr’s death).
(3) Jesus’ New Name = Glorious Star = Mighty Angel - As discussed in sufficient detail starting from this discussion post, the “new name” of Jesus, which manifestly now is what warrants Him to be worshipped by all under God, has resulted from the experience that He had gone through in His incarnation. So with Jesus here promising to give the faithful ones, the 144,000 His New Name, He is thus promising, along what is pertinently revealed on this issue in Heb 1:3-6 to give those who have similarly also perfectly manifested the ‘Character of the Nature of Love’ of God (cf. COL 69.1; 415.3; cf. John 12:23-29) -‘loving righteousness and hating lawlessness’ (Heb 1:9), and that by having perfectly/fully ‘accepted Christ’s character, manifested His spirit, and worked His works’ (John 14:13|DA 668.2), that they too will be rewarded with a similar honor. With Christ this was an honor which had priorly been rooted in the fact that the ‘Firstly Incarnated God’ then, as the Son, Michael the Mighty/Archangel (with, as presented here from the SOP, there actually being more than one “archangel” positions in Heaven (perhaps the position name for each leader of an angelic division 1SP 22.1)), had been (1) given the privilege to create all things, and then (2) to make a purification of sins (Heb 1:2-3), (see these comments on that First Incarnation of God (“the Son”)) and then, upon His post-Incarnation Ascension to Heaven, (3) a place at the Right Hand of God, where He will eventually (4) be seated on God’s throne (Rev 3:21) and, (5) through His newly, commemorating and honoring “name above all other names” receive the worship of even those who may then be in a physical form/position greater than Him with His retained, post-incarnation Human Nature, which is manifestly now without His, ransomly lost/sacrificed, Divine Nature. This will correspondingly, and even typologically, temporally, all be done for the 144,000 by them (1) being privileged to be the ones through which God’s healing glory will fill the Earth through the work of this Church Triumphant (= e.g., Ezek 47:1-12; Isa 60); (2) being the only ones in Heaven permitted to officiate in the Temple of God (EW 18.2; Rev 7:15ff); (3) being most favorably placed at Christ’s Right Hand (Matt 25:33-34ff); (4) like the symbolically underlying 12 apostles, a place of authority upon thrones (Luke 22:28-31; Rev 3:21); before, and to whom, (5) those in the ‘Assembly of Satan’, (=‘the hateful, Gospel of Christ snubbing ones, then shaken out of God’s Zion’), will bow down, worshipping at their feet (Rev 3:9|EW 15.1).
In short, those who are given Jesus’ new name will likewise be substantively worthy of what was entitled to the victorious Jesus, including the accompanying, inherit, glorious global influence (John 12:32; cf. Rev 18:1ff).
So, recapping here, the 144,000 group are “sealed to do God’s Millennial Temple Sanctifying work by being led to understand and have impressed on them (1) God’s True Character (of Love, which jointly mixes Justice and Mercy); (2) The Little Lamb Kingdom’s , New Jerusalem ministry work; and (3) an experience and triumph similar to that of Jesus (see EW 14.1-15.1; 269-273), and thus warranting a similar kingly reward and honor which the human Jesus Himself received. (Phil 2:5-11; Heb 1:3-6). All of these are ‘regnal commendations’ which will be tangibly obtainable and bindingly applicable for those who will establish the NJK Project and, over time, be key in maintaining its founding purposes/objectives, (see in here), with that New Country having a restored Davidic Monarchial Power (cf. here & here) (=Rev 3:12's implicated promise).
However, when the people in this sealed group of the 144,000 are at a later instance prophetically depicted, in Rev 14:1-5, they are introduced as having only “cognitively”, (i.e., in their forehead), received, manifestly in a particular order, the #3 aspect of this (Shaking-triumphing, Sabbatical) seal (of God): “his (i.e., Jesus’ new) name”; and the #2 aspect: “the name of his (Christ’s) father”, with “name” here being of course reflective/representative of character. So, based on the understandings of these ‘Church Triumphant seal aspects’ discussed above it can be seen and understood that the 144,000 will first have been sealed by having reflected the ‘character of (optimal/ultimate) right-doing (i.e., Righteousness (cf. Isa 45:19b [N/KJV]; COL 312.2; SJ 61.1))’ of Christ, as it was most prominently demonstrated with Him resolutely (Matt 26:36-46) sacrificing all of Himself, -all that He has ever been, indeed way beyond His Physical Life and Human Nature (=John 15:12-13's (unstained/sinless) “psyche”, cf. Matt 10:28), to also His Divine Nature, at the Cross. These 144,000 will then have come to enter into the equally loving Character of God the Father (cf. John 3:16; Rom 5:8; Eph 2:4; 1 John 4:9-10, etc). So the only aspect which they will not have yet been sealed with is that of God’s New Jerusalem and this they’ll be gradually learning as the ‘follow the (little) Lamb wherever He goes’ (Rev 14:4)
Interestingly enough, that Spiritual Sabbatical sealing contains the similar three main elements in God’s Letter Sabbath Seal
Elements Presidential Seals Literal Sabbath Spiritual Sabbath
Name: (Personal Name) Yahweh My God (=Christlike Sacrificing (16MR 34.1-2; EW 47.2) -see here)
Function: President Creator Jesus’ New Name (Character) (Phil 2:9|Heb 1:4)
Jurisdiction: Country Heaven and Earth New Jerusalem
See more Biblical details/information on this tri-element seal in this discussion: starting: here, here and here.
So, this overcoming 144,000 group, after they are fully, and thus also ‘intellectually immovably’ (LDE 219.4) sealed (cf. EW 15.1ff) with all of these three key and distinct aspects of God’s seal, become so interwoven in God’s New Jerusalem plans and key in establishing them, is the “bride of Christ” (Rev 19:7-8; 21:9-11ff) and Jesus Himself will cater to them (EW 19.1a) as He thus jointly physically rewards and spiritually readies them for their Sanctuary Service Ministry. Interestingly enough, in EW 16.2 & 18.2 this priestly 144,000 group is said to be given ‘mantles that reach to their feet’, and as this is for their inaugural convening and as they are to serve as both ministering and judging priests, then, based on what was Biblically discovered here, this is manifestly echoing the inauguration/consecration service of priests mentioned in Lev 8 where they symbolically wear both their blue daily service robe and their all-white covering tunic. (=Lev 8:7, 13)
Most spiritually interestingly enough, the two key notions here for this pivotal Sixth Church of Sanctuary Servicing (= pillar) as well as being a Stumbling Block/Peg (= key of David) is jointly stated in Isa 8:14-15, and also most interesting, this is found in a context where God Himself has explicitly gave instructions to His prophet so that he would come to not ‘fear/heed conspiracy theories as the rest of the people are doing’ (see Isa 8:11-12); -as also currently common with SDA’s and their claims that: ‘the end is soon because of various (Religious, “Natural”, Geo-Political and especially Economic) “conspiracies” which will fulfill Final Events’ (see, prominently/emblematically, David Gates’ many spurious, wild and all unfulfilled claims; cf. starting here (=Isa 8:10)), but instead to fear God Almighty Himself, and only consider Him as holy (i.e., determinative), and thus seek instead to fully be in harmony with His will, which, in regards to this Mark of the Beast issue, is only perceivable and achievable in His Full Gospel/Sabbatical Will (Isa 58|Matt 25:31-46). And it is these warned and rightly minded ones (Isa 8:16-17, 20) who will pass this time of testing and form God’s Zion Remnant (Isa 8:18), while the rest will have, by having ignored God’s Law and the ongoing Testimony of Jesus (Isa 8:20), entered on a course of “spiritism” and due doom (Isa 8:19, 21-22), as indeed later seen in this Sixth Era in Rev 9:20-21; 16:13-14 (=Rev 18:2-3).
Rev 3:13 - 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'
This often repeated, seemingly obvious and thus also trite statement, punctuatedly said at
the end of each message to one of the Seven Churches (Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22), and also, similarly, elsewhere by Christ (Matt 11:15; 13:9, 43; Mar 4:23; (7:16); Luke 8:8; 14:35; cf. Rev 13:9) is actually indicative of Jesus deliberately and explicitly expressed expectation that simply earing the message, presumably once, should be enough to impel the actually righteous/faithful hearer into conforming with it. However, as seen in e.g., Ezek 8:18 & Dan 9:18; (cf. Isa 22:14), the Godhead knows firsthand that when one does not want to do something, simply hearing a plea otherwise do not guarantee compliance.
State of the Church in the World: (Sixth Seal - Rev 6:12-17) - Within the unfolding of this Sixth Church Era, God will finally have, quite tangibly, “a spiritual army” of people who know and understand His Truth and a resolutely set to carry out His will (cf. Matt 6:10), and that most naturally pits them against the rest of the world, including/jointly, especially in those times, also in the religious world, even former Church brethren prior to this ongoing ‘Amos Socio-Economic Sabbatical Shaking’ events during the late Fifth (= here) and early Sixth Era (= here) which came to separate the Wheat from the Tares in even, and pointedly, the (former) Remnant Movement/Church Organization, which are: in Historical times, the Protestant Church, and in Eschatological times, the SDA Church. (Cf. the chart in this post.)
It is interestingly, spiritually quite fitting to see that many of the OT “Day of the Lord” oracles and implicatedly, ‘a day of judgement upon God’s people’ (cf. Zeph 1; 3:1-11) by prophets such as Joel, Haggai, Zechariah, Nahum, Jeremiah, Isaiah(s), Hosea, Ezekiel, Malachi, (and, as discussed here, all reflected in the Sixth (GC and Church Civil War) Scroll of the prophet Daniel, Ch. 10-12, which corresponds to this Sixth Seal), are alluded to in the various developments of this Sixth Seal; and all of this is because God has been having in mind here to ‘take vengeance for, and thus establish, His long delayed and downtrodden Zion’ (Joel 3:16; Isa 34:8; cf. Micah 4; Zeph 3:12-20). I.e.:
Rev 6:12 (Mar 13:24; cf. Micah 3:5-7)
Isa 13:10 = Isa 13:1-5, 6-16 = Isa 11-12
Joel 2:2a, 10, 30-31 = Joel 2:1-17, 32 = Joel 2:18-29
Joel 3:14-15 = Joel 3:1-17 (God’s “Valley of Decision”) = Joel 3:18-21
Zech 14:6-7 = Zech 14:1-8 = Zech 13; 14:9-21
Amos 8:8-11 = Amos 8:1-9:8a = Amos 8:7; 9:8b-15
Rev 6:13 (Mar 13:25)
Isa 34:4 = Isa 34 = Isa 33 & Isa 35
=Rev 6:12 & 13 = Shaking of powers of Heaven
Hag 2:6; Matt 24:29; Heb 12:26 (=EW 41.1-2) = Hag 2:1-5 = Hag 2:7-9, 10-19, 20-23
Rev 6:14 (cf. Isa 54 (vs. 10) =Rev 20:8-9)
Isa 34:4 = Isa 34 = Isa 33 & Isa 35
Jer 4:23-24 = Jer 4-6 = Jer 5:18-19
Ezek 38:18-20ff = Ezek 38 & Ezek 39 = Ezek 39:25-29
Rev 6:15 (cf. Rev 19:17-21)
Isa 2:19-21 = Isa 2:12-22 = Isa 2:1-11
Isa 24:21-23 = Isa 24 = Isa 24:15-16a, 23b
Rev 6:16 (Luke 23:30)
Hos 10:8 = <Hos 10> = Hos 14
Rev 6:17 (cf. Joel 2:11) [=16MR 171.1-172.2]
Isa 63:4 = Isa 63:1-6 = Isa 62
Mal 3:2 = Mal 3:1-15; 4:1-6 = Mal 3:16-18
Nah 1:5-9 = Nah 1:1-14 = Nah 1:15
This all shows that God has planned to have the state of unrighteousness in both the world and His Church in the world be resolved and overturned in this Sixth Era, and that, before the heightening events which are to transpire under the Seventh Era. In other word, by the Sixth Era, God will, even “marvellously”, act to have His word bring about the desired effects that He had intended (Isa 55:10-11), and even if that requires prolonging the Sixth Era and postponing the Seventh, as it has been quite noticeably seen in the halting of fulfillments in this Sixth Seal after the 19th century, Rev 6:13 events.
Relatedly, and also significant here is that: a copiously attested fundamental Theological view/understanding in this blog is that there are two ways in which God could wrap up this GC. The first was a “fast track” one which straightforwardly capped the prior historicist developments. This is what is literalistically set out in the visions given in the SOP and a spiritual fulfilment of OT prophecies concerning God’s Israel as a (possible) plan of God. The Second, which actually is God’s Plan A, is the exact converse, as it goes back on those suspended OT, Israel prophecies and quasi-literalistically, spiritually temporally fulfills them in the context of God’s New Covenant, but also comes to involve a spiritual fulfilment of SOP prophecies. In the OT prophecies, God, given how things were seen to be possible to turn out with His Israel, had similarly laid the foundation for either a temporal, Earthly, (facially) naturalistic Zion triumph and accomplishment (e.g., Joel 2 & 3) or a Spiritual, Heavenly, more Supernatural one; with this latter scenario being really God’s last resort, “escape/rescue plan” (e.g., Zech 14:1-8ff). In fact it can be seen that in making His John 14:1-3ff; Jesus, now concretely seeing that an Earthly Zion Triumph through this generation of Israel and the standing Jerusalem had become entirely out of the question, introduced the more Supernatural one which includes the Glorious, pre-Millennium Second Coming events. Yet there is still in God’s planning, as seen in the possible Spiritual application of prophecies in Revelation and the SOP, an, at least, first wave opportunity now for this evangelistically-beneficial temporal, Earthly Triumph of Zion, ushering in a period of a Jubilee from the time of the hearing of the Voice of God which delivers the Everlasting Covenant of Peace with His faithful people. (=EW 285.2-286.1). And so it is in this Sixth Era that God’s army takes the field towards going forth to conquer for God. (= Joel 2:1-11ff)
Rev 6:12 - I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood;
great earthquake - Of course, Historicistly, this “great earthquake” has been seen to be the Great Lisbon Earthquake (and ensuing Tsunami) of 1755. (Cf. GC 304.2-305.2). However, by indeed being at the start of the Sixth Seal’s events, this is not the final ‘greatest and mightiest earthquake ever’ that will occur at the Second Coming (Rev 16:18; GC 636.3; 657.2; = the Ezek 38:19 earthquake). It is however in an Eschatological understanding of these prophecies, where the Spiritual application of this prophetic statement is seen, that its meaning is understood. Summarily-stated, this early, Sixth Seal Earthquake, which naturally occurs to an already present fault line which here shifts/give way, is the same ‘seismic’/shaking event as the one of Rev 11:13, discussed here, where the names of the 7000 unfaithful leaders in Israel fall; and which also produces the Ezek 37:7 revival (see here), which could potentially have had a start with the stand spoken about here, but will not be if that supposedly started movement there prefers to have incomplete works by not seeking to help ‘the least of these’ as Christ expects. (Matt 25:45). And so, not surprisingly, this ‘seismic’/shaking event does revolve around Fully following God’s Sabbatical Socio-Economic principles, as discussed here which indeed is “The Biblical Shaking”.
Sun became black as sackcloth made of hair - As seen throughout the Bible, “sackcloth” is the choice “garb” for expressing great penitence/sadness/repentance (Gen 37:34; 2 Sam 3:31; 1 Kgs 20:27; Est 4:1; Amos 8:10; Jer 6:26; Matt 11:21; cf. Rev 11:3), all reflective of a great destitution (Jos 9:4). As seen in Isa 50:3; God has the power to forcefully bring about such “penitence/repentance” in the heavens when He indeed wants His people to realize the errors of their ways, pointedly here, in trusting in other, created things instead of their God. And so, strictly Eschatologically speaking here, with the Sun being a symbol of Righteousness in the Religious realm and the Economy in the temporal realm, the transpire of this event will occur when it will be seen in the Religious realm that the pursued Righteousness which is avoiding doing the Full Benevolent works of Christ is actually catastrophically deficient (see this post), and, in the temporal realm, the worshipful trusting in the Economy, and thus obeying of it, instead of God is also most abhorring, leading to having the Mark of the Beast. (Cf. this post). And so, it will actually be “Righteousness” and the “Economy” themselves which will be pleading for penitence and repentance.
Both of these aspects pointedly, jointly apply to the SDA Church whose pursuit of righteousness has been through the exclusion of Full Benevolent works, and that because they have allowed the Economy to dictate what Gospel works they would selectively and/or partially engage in, and to what extent.
It is also applicable that the prior darkening of the Sun by what God had allowed to transpire in the Fifth Era, namely in the Rise and Warring of Militant Islam punitively against those who did not have the Seal of God, and which came to have both (1) great Economic Impact as well as (2) cast down Righteousness, as seen today in the sudden further moral/ethical downfall of both Catholic Church in History and then the United States in reaction to these Islamic opposition, that it is these effects which are here self-leading to a call to repentance and abandoning of these detrimental ways.
the whole moon became like blood - Since the moon merely reflects the light of the Sun, it should be that if the Sun Light’s is darkened, then the moon would merely not have any light. However with this notion of ‘the Moon becoming like blood also/instead, something more is being inferred here. This statement is understood by the fact that the moon becomes red in color during the natural phenomena of a Lunar Eclipse, and notably a lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes behind the Earth so that the Earth blocks the Sun's rays from striking the Moon. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. And so, on top of the Sun being darkened in itself, a Lunar eclipse is moreoverly occurring here to further characterize this darkness.
With the Moon being symbolic of the Religious Economy which is to reflect Righteousness, it is thus Spiritually/applicably seen that it is the Earth, i.e., its inhabitants, which are pointedly causing this “Lunar Eclipse”, i.e., Religious Economy darkening by squarely standing in the way of this Sun. In other words, even if the Sun was shining in its brightness, there would still be a Lunar Eclipse because of this interference by the Earth. However in this case, the Sun’s light is not present thus doubly complicating matters here.
And since a lunar eclipse can only occur the night of a full moon, this is further symbolic of the fact that despite the “Religious Economy” being (relatively) full here, by the darkening of the Sun here and also interference of the Earth, it still cannot provide any light.
And so this is all representative of a Church which neither has the needed Righteousness or even Economic resources to have any light, and which is moreover being affected by the interference of Earth dwellers. Thus the Church is here shown in its true light, which here darkness and more accurately blood, which in itself is symbolic of death (cf. E.g., Gen 9:4; Lev 17:11, 14; Deut 12:23; Ezek 33:5; John 6:53-54).
OT Background Contribution - By darkening (rendering useless/void) the Sun (= Temporal Economy) and the Moon (= and Religious Economy) of the congealed Apostate system then, which by this Sixth Era includes, at least ideologically, i.e., even if still physically/corporately distinct, those from the SDA Church who have (naturally) sided with the Antichrist power and preferred to go along with the Mark of the Beast (=anti- Full Sabbath of God Capitalism) as they were always accustomed to doing before (=5T 81.1, 561.2-563.1; LDE 116.1-117.2), God will thus ‘punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and also put an end to the arrogance of the proud, and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless’ (Isa 13:11).
God’s established ‘Great and Mighty Army’ (=Ezek 37:10 = Rev 19:14) from Mount Zion (=Joel 2:1-10 & Rev 14:1) which, as discussed earlier, had started to be formed under the Fourth & Fifth Trumpet (Rev 8:12-13) by the first raising its Chief banner, and then all of its banners, against that of the antiChrist opposition, will by then have taken the field. God will then deludingly act to summons all of the nation to fight against His faithful ones so that He can enter into judgement against them in the “Valley of (Judicial) Decision” (Joel 3:1-12). And then will transpire the Second Harvest of the world (Joel 3:13-17 = Rev 14:17-20), coming to the aid of the Majestic figure in Isa 63:1-6 (cf. Isa 34:4-6[42]) which had attempted to do this wrathful world “clusters gathering” alone. (cf. DA 693.1) This, indeed “gathering for the press”, follows a previous “harvest” of the world’s righteous ones under an antitypical “one like unto a Son of Man” (Rev 14:14-16) and both events are actually to occur before the still to come Day of the Lord (see e.g., Joel 2:1b; 3:14).
The only hope for any then against God’s Mighty People will be to have wholeheartedly heeded the “Last (Loud Cry) Call” of the voice of God and obey His Sabbatical Truth (=Rev 14:6-11 = 18:1-4), in order to thus have found refuge in His Zion. (Joel 2:32). And as confirmingly showed in EW 278.2 which concludes a direct revelation on the Loud Cry, Rev 14:12 is then heard being stated at the conclusion of the Loud Cry Message which implies that the restatement of the fullest understanding of the Three Angels Message is indeed the framework and message outline of the Rev 18:1-4 Loud Cry Message. (Cf. Mar 173.5-6; 1888 804.3; 17MR 236.1-2)
And in the possible case that the nations of the Earth then, or actually anytime after that, choose to act outside of any existing valid/righteous law, God will then implement His Overwhelming and Supernatural Plan and step in to fight for His People in what can potentially then be, as the need is, be the Glorious Second Coming (Zech 14:1-8). However the more unlawful and wicked the opposition, the more these unrighteous people will lessen their chance for any survival (cf. Zech 14:9-15), and thus any opportunity to have life and time to witness God’s righteous ways through His People in Zion and be saved if they repent (Zech 14:16-22).
The SDA Church Shaking - All of these above observations are neatly brought together in a related pointed that God will be first executing upon His People. As discussed in detail in this post Amos, who was from a small wilderness town in Judah (Tekoa), is “the Shaking” prophet. As abundantly spoken of in the SOP (e.g., EW 269-273; 5T 79.4-83.2) this is a major, prophetically applicable, “ordeal” (LDE 180.5) that must, and is to, fully transpire in the SDA Church. (However as discussed starting here, many spuriously assume that being Shaking out of the Church is synonymous with leaving the present formal organization of God Remnant Church, when, as seen throughout Church History, starting with the New Covenant Church that Christ established, it is usually/normatively/“naturally” (1 Cor 2:14) the majority body that is “shaken out” of God’s Zion Remnant.[43]*
And so, in Amos’ time (ca. 757ff B.C.) God had a major issue with His Israel then, and most pointedly in regards to the 10 Northern tribes. They were revelling in economically oppressing the poor/needy and profiteering from the humble (Amos 8:4), to the point that they even greatly loathed God’s Sabbatical rests because it prevented them from continuing in their base selfish, covetous and greedy ways (Amos 8:5-6). And so God swore that these evil deeds will not be forgotten, and thus not be forgiven (Amos 8:7, as in Isa 22:14). Yet, being a God of Justice, God did not here also, work to punish any righteous with the wicked (cf. Gen 18:23-26ff) and so set out to “sift” Israel to find out who was truly righteous. As it turned out, with the total destruction of Israel that occurred in some ca. 34 years later in 723 B.C., only the 2-Tribe Southern Kingdom of Judah survived that Shaking, yet they were also to be duly “re-shaken” as seen in Ezekiel’s time (e.g., Ezek 8 & 9).
In Amos 8:8-11, God sets forth the template of how this Sifting/Shaking Ordeal will be:
Amos 8:8 - First of all God “shakes the powers of the earth” by sending an “earthquake”, which is probably the one that occurred only 2 years after Amos had expressed his prophecies (Amos 1:1; Zech 14:5). This earthquake should have served as a most striking warning that God was going to carry out His ‘thorough floor purging’ (Amos 9:8-10). And just as, as discussed here on the “Amos Shaking”, God’s pointed concern was in regards to socio-economic injustices, as stated in Psa 82, this is indeed what causes a major ‘“fault line” in the foundations of the earth’ (Psa 82:2-5). And so in this “shaking of the powers of the earth”, God is here just merely ‘pushing’ this already present “button” to ‘topple the lofty abodes and refuges of the rich/wealthy, and thus powerful, in order to, socio-economically wise, “level the playing field” for all, -that is, all the actually righteous. (Psa 11:3)
Next God correspondingly Shakes the powers of the Heaven, which as discussed above, are the controlling ideological powers upon which people worshipfully look to and rely upon to justify their course. These include Economical, Religious and various Leadership ideologies and entities.
Amos 8:9 - Here the power of the Sun (=Economy & Righteousness) is made to go dark, and that, quite deliberately and meaningfully so, arrestingly, at the very time of the day when it should have been the brightest. And then, no longer is, in the Temporal realm, the Economy, seen as being as reliable and viable as before, and, in the Spiritual realm, and most pointedly in regards to expected, derived righteous/good Socio-Economic works/deeds/actions (=Matt 5:14-16; cf. LDE 173.4), what had previously considered to be Righteousness[44], is then exposed as the “filthy rags” that they deficiently/corruptedly/ruinedly really are in the sight of a Holy God, who now is turning ‘His Face’ from His professed people, causing this key and dangerous “Religious Darkness” among them (Isa 64:5-7).
Amos 8:10 - Then God pointedly acts to ruin the periodic grand, celebratory, Religious festivals/convocations (=Moon cf. Psa 81:1-5; Isa 66:23) of Israel, thus forcefully/inevitably turning them instead into times of mourning and lament.
Amos 8:11 - The figurative statement of ‘sending a famine of the word of the Lord in the land of Israel’ has a Spiritual connection with the also figurative fact that it is “Israel’s shepherds” who are to lead their sheep (the (lay) people) to places where they may graze, and healthily so (see e.g., Ezek 34:1-21 = EW 36.2). And so, with “stars” being symbolic of “leadership”, here in Israel, then this famine will be cause by them not properly “feeding” God’s people from/with His Word. In fact, as relatedly stated in Zech 14:12, and as also discussed next on Rev 6:13, these, deficient/incompetent/spurious leaders, who then will effectively qualify and be a tier part of the Mark of the Beast camp which opposes God’s Zion, its Holy City Jerusalem, will literally, seamlessly spiritually ‘rot (i.e., become fallen) while standing/preaching in/from their pulpits/platforms.’ (=Isa 29:10-14 = 5T 81.1; cf. Ezek 13:1-16).
The Ongoing Shaking - An elucidating significant point here is that the SOP has confused many SDA’s with statement that authoritatively claimed that the looked for Shaking had already begun in her day (See e.g., RH, April 1, 1850 par. 8|EW 50.3; RH, January 19, 1864 par. 9 & 6T 332 (1900); [and yet, also during these times, she also spoke if it in terms of it ‘still to come’ (e.g., 1T 251.1 (1857); RH, January 11, 1887 par. 3|5T 79.4].
This apparent discrepancy is jointly resolved in two ways. First of all, as tangibly seen in the Shaking/Sifting of wheat, there manifestly is a difference between the two key actions therein of “shaking” the wheat in order to dislodge it from the chaff, and the “winnowing” action which serve to separate/remove the chaff away, falling back to the floor (cf. 5T 81.1)*, while the wheat is gradually separately bundled up and stashed away. (COL 75.1; EW 88.3; 118.1; cf. KC 34.4) It is in the time of the harvest, which actually pivotally involves the Church’s due work of reaping the world’s harvest (Matt 24:14; cf. John 4:31-38 [=Amos 9:13] = Rev 14:14-15; cf. 1T 183.1), that the wheat will be separated from the tares as people’s true characters will then openly manifest themselves. Those who fully obey the Gospel of Christ will indeed be endeavoring and doing all that is required to accomplish it, shining forth as the sun (cf. Dan 12:4), and thus will be the wheat, while those who instead have allowed worldly ambition, demands, policies, customs of selfish/self-serving/profiteering/covetous enterprising ‘interfere with their due, whole service to the Lord of heaven’ will then be clearly seen as having be the tares, having their own form of Righteousness (i.e., what they claim are righteous acts (Rev 19:8); cf. 5T 227.2; MR926 22.6, and not Christ’s. (=RH, January 10, 1893 par. 16; 1T 199.2; 5T 81.1; EW 266-269).
The second way in which the SOP Shaking Time statements are reconciled is that the pivotal substantive message of the Shaking, which indeed is, as seen in the message of Amos, is the Divine, Sabbatical socio-economic requirement taking care of all those in need, were already quite clearly and unequivocally given by EGW in her commenting on passages such Isa 58 and Matt 25:31-46 (see e.g., TM 399.2; WM 28-65ff). That has always been the pivotal message of the True Witness to Laodicea (1T 181.1-2). So the SDA Church has always had that key message to heed.
And so the Shaking’s ending Sifting event was always to fully transpire at some point in the end, as the Mark of the Beast test is urged upon the Church (5T 81.1), which, since, as clearly stated in Isa 58, God’s Sabbath Truth involves much more than just observing the correct, in the “proper” way, but taking care of the needy, to the very least of them, and since it is the Devil’s engineered Economic System of Capitalism (cf. EW 266-269) which is presently, squarely standing in the way of this Gospel mandate being accomplished, then the Church is already, and for quite a while now, having this Fuller Sabbath Mark of the Beast test urged upon them. And it is the Third Mighty Sealing Angel Gabriel which will Seal God’s faithful ones with this Full Sabbath truth and thus spare them from taking this, actually not so subtle, but still deceptive for the “base/naturally-minded”. And then will the Sifting aspect of the Shaking, as depicted in Ezek 9, transpire. (LDE 219.4).
* Shaken back onto threshing floor - This involved imagery in the Shaking/Sifting process where the chaff is actually first made to fall back onto the floor from where it had been and mixed with the wheat, while the wheat is kept separate in the sieve and then stashed separately, is quite crucial for those who think that merely remain put in the physical SDA Church and its organization constitutes ‘not being shaken out’. When it comes to the actually Sealing and Shaking message of the full Sabbath, the SOP revelations fully expect that most will reject it. And thus these are the then openly manifest chaff/tares which fall back unto the threshing floor. And so, even though God is to “thoroughly purge his floor (=the present Church Organization)” (5T 79.4, 81.1, 82.1), He will, as in the winnowing process, be taking the wheat away from that floor. One once all of the wheat has thus been separated from the floor to be stored in His “heavenly garner”, then will the tares and chaff strewn about the floor be also piles up and actually burned up. And just as it is then not done, even after this burning, that the separated wheat is then spread about on this threshing floor, God will also be instead putting His harvested wheat to a different place and use. The Church Militant will indeed not be the Church Triumphant (LDE 61.2-62.2), both spiritually and physically, but will, by tangible functional and operational necessity (cf. here) be a complete distinct establishment; and namely here: the NJK Project’s establishments.
Chaff vs. Tares - It can even be further that there is significance in the fact that chaff is not necessarily the same thing as a tare, although both are unwanted products in regards to a wheat a harvest. A tare (= “darnel”) is actually a weed plant, while chaff is “material consisting of seed coverings and small pieces of stem or leaves that have been separated from the seeds”. And so wheat chaff is even more closely tied up with the wheat, actually covering up the choice harvest product. And so tares/darnel growth can be more pointedly as outrightly, variously sinful people who are nonetheless in the Church. While chaff on the other hand is what is preventing some wheat from being fully ready to be harvest (= be sealed with the Seal of God). These still have quite subtle hampering idols that they are clinging onto the choice wheat part. (UL 356.6; cf. 16MR 34.3).
And just as it is easy, through a closer inspection then, to spot a darnel and taken them out in advance while collected in the sieve, even before the winnowing action begins, it is easy to spot and readily have removed those in the Church who are such clear weed plants. It is however those potential wheat plants who still have chaff clinging to them who are harder to “shake”, i.e., shake off this chaff from them. Yet that is thoroughly done by the winnowing process (1T 99.3), however through much more effort. And those who are inwardly, objectively, truly wheat in the Church will eventually allow themselves to have their chaff separated from them and God will also not allow them, once purged, fall back unto the floor. (Amos 9:9; cf. 1T 431.2)
Rev 6:13 - and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.
the stars of the sky fell to the earth - With these stars being “Suns” in themselves and thus supposed to also have a light of Righteousness, these falling stars are representative of various Religious/Church leaders falling/shifting from their previous/fixed “enlightening position”. (= 5T 81.1)
However with “shooting stars” actually being meteoroid which are noting more than a sand- to boulder-sized particle of debris in the Solar System (and if it reaches the ground and survives impact, then it is called a meteorite), then it is seen here that they assumed/supposed “stars” were actually never stars/suns, but mere space debris only being made to look like “stars” when the shifted around from their fixed position. It is therefore fully seen how this symbology was understood by the SOP 5T 81.1 to be synonymous with ‘chaff seeming to be rich wheat’, which is, as depicted in Rev 6;’13, is also borne away by wind. Indeed: “all who assume the ornaments of the sanctuary, but are not clothed with Christ's righteousness, will appear in the shame of their own nakedness.” So the “fake stars” will then be seen to have never have been wearing the righteousness of Christ, and that because they believed and practised, and misled others, to disdain the True Righteousness of Christ, to instead pursue their man made (worldly) one, which substitutionarily is the worshipful reverence and obedience of the World’s Economy, namely Capitalism.
As relatedly spoken of in this SOP prophecy, it is at this time that other, actual “stars” will shine forth and take the place of the previous, deceptively spurious ones. (5T 81.2 = Dan 12:3) even standing forth in times of opposition (5T 82.1 = Dan 11:33).
as a fig tree casts its unripe figs - This statement readily recalls the quite clear object-lesson episode of Christ’s cursing of the fig tree because, though having great leaves which was supposed to mean that it had fruit, it actually did not. (Matt 21:18-22; cf. DA 580-588). That tree was not at all producing the fruit that it was advertising to have produced. Most strikingly here, while Jesus had not found any figs at all in that fig tree, this prophetic fig tree does have figs. The only problem is that they are not mature/ripe. So its fruit, though “partially” present, was not fit for consumption as it was not yet fully developed.
As keyly stated in the capital observances made here in regards to the SDA Church, much of its crucial problem is that it still has not developed/matured/ripened to the point that it should long have had. The SDA Church is indeed not ‘judged by what it is but by ‘what it should be’ had it remained true to its calling’. (15MR 292.3-4). It is therefore most fitting that in the Historical unravelling of this Sixth Seal came to a drastic halting right at this “falling star” event. As discussed here, as the people of God then proved to be unfaithful, then unravelling Final Events were duly halted by the Almighty God and time was prolonged with events jumping to the Rev 7 Sealing Interlude, as it is entrenchedly stated in that 15MR 292.3-4 SOP statement. A similar occurrence of that time prolonging event has since been force to be done starting in 1996 due to the standing and entrenched abominations in the Church (chiefly stated in here) which ushered in an Eschatological Age with the Full Sabbath Message being then presented during this Fuller Sabbatical Sealing.
when shaken by a great wind - Despite being unripe figs, these do not normatively/naturally fall from its tree. So it will take a “great wind” which is symbolic of strife, especially, i.e., stemming from ideological differences, it will here take a blowing wind to expose and detach these worthless figs. And so it is fittingly in the Sixth Seal’s era of the Dan 10-12 pivotal Civil War that these ‘worthless stars and preachers of non-righteousness’ will be engaged and defeated.
OT Background Contribution - By having destroyed all of the hosts of Heaven (i.e., the Sun, Moon and Stars, even, next, the very heavens (Rev 6:14)) = Isa 34:4, God will have thus successfully acted to most vitally affect life as it has customarily been on Earth (=Isa 34:1-3). All this is in vengeance for those in His Zion who have stood stiffly for His Truth despite the onslaught of the unrighteous peoples surrounding them (Isa 34:8). And so, Spiritually Speaking, after God’s act of life destructions in Edom (=Prophetic Babylon) (Isa 34:1-3, 5-7), He will then, in order not to jeopardize healthful/viable living on the rest of the Earth, purifyingly act, through an unquenchable burning, to purge all nefarious residues of the fallout of that judgement (Isa 34:9-10 = Rev 18:9, 18 (see commentary in here)), thus rendering this once powerful and massedly populated Babylonian power a, at least relatively, most “bare bone” desolation (Isa 34:11-15 = Rev 18:21ff (see commentary in here)).
Shaking of powers of Heaven - The targeted affectation of the Sun Moon and Stars in Rev 6:12-13 come to quite come to most specifically/pointedly fulfill the theme of the “Shaking of the Powers of Heaven” found throughout the Bible and SOP. In the Bible it is first mentioned in Hag 2:6, in the wider context of God seeking to encourage a group of returnees from the Babylonian Captivity who are endeavoring to rebuild the Temple. These people are mostly discouraged because it is quite obvious to them, that given the smallness of their number and the limitedness of their resources, their task of having to rebuild the Temple from literally ruins will surely result in it not even coming close to what the Glorious Temple of Solomon was (Hag 2:1-3). But God’s message to them through the prophet Haggai, after his earlier ministry and messages had managed to rally them to engage in this Temple rebuilding work (Hag 1), is to take courage for, as with the first generation of Israelites coming out of their also purposeful Captivity (in Egypt), God would also be with this “Second Exodus” group (Hag 2:4-5).
It is significant to note that God was earlier deliberately acting to withhold blessings from this group because they had neglected the work of rebuilding His Temple (Hag 1:5-6, 9-11), while quite lavishly expending wealth and resources on their own habitations (Hag 1:4). Today a similar judgement action of God is being done to the SDA Church, as readily recognized, for though great effort is made to, e.g., have major sowing and reaping campaign bring in a great harvest (cf. Hag 1:9a) or have the Latter Rain pour out (cf. Hag 1:10-11), the actual result come well short of those expectation. Clearly God is not answering those prayers, and the reason is similar to that of Haggai’s day: the work of Building up the Temple of God is being neglected. Of course, the knee-jerk retort will claim that this is absolutely not true given the great expenses that is made in physically building SDA Institutions (such as Churches, Schools, Hospitals, Conference Buildings, etc), however there is a much more crucial building work that is being neglected, and that is the Spiritual work of fully establishing and operating these institution on purely Biblical principles instead of the current mixing in of worldly, Capitalistic customs and policies. (=1T 199.2) However the many applicable, socio-economic principles in the Bible, and as fleshed out in the SOP, are selectively and indifferent ignored, out of a deemed paramount “need” to first make these institutions solvent and even profitable, in order to meet worldly/capitalistic dictates.
So just as God told the people in Haggai’s day that He was going to shake the order of all things, namely in Heaven and on Earth (i.e., the Sea and Dry Land), in Rev 6:12-13 God is now to first shake the powers of the Heaven. As revealed to EGW in EW 41.1-2, the powers of the Heavens and the Power of the Earth are quite distinct and pointed. Full revelation:
“December 16, 1848, the Lord gave me a view of the shaking of the powers of the heavens. I saw that when the Lord said "heaven," in giving the signs recorded by Matthew [24:29], Mark [13:24], and Luke [21:25a], He meant heaven, and when He said "earth" [=Luke 21:25b-26] He meant earth. The powers of heaven are the sun, moon, and stars. They rule in the heavens. The powers of earth are those that rule on the earth. The powers of heaven will be shaken at the voice of God. Then the sun, moon, and stars will be moved out of their places. They will not pass away, but be shaken by the voice of God. {EW 41.1}
(Dark, heavy clouds came up and clashed against each other. The atmosphere parted and rolled back; then we could look up through the open space in Orion, whence came the voice of God. The Holy City will come down through that open space. I saw that the powers of earth are now being shaken and that events come in order. War, and rumors of war, sword, famine, and pestilence are first to shake the powers of earth, then the voice of God will shake the sun, moon, and stars, and this earth also. I saw that the shaking of the powers in Europe is not, as some teach, the shaking of the powers of heaven, but it is the shaking of the angry nations. {EW 41.2})
It turns out upon deeper pondering here that the “powers of Heaven” comprising the Sun Moon and Stars (= other Suns), represent “ideological powers”. The Sun represents a quasi-religious economic ideology, which is indeed reflected in/by the prominently Religious ideology which is the Moon. Indeed the Sun’s symbolizing of Righteousness is what sets the light of the Religious world. This associating is most clearly seen in the Economic System of Capitalism as, from its modern inception by Protestants, it has been considered to be a mandatory Religious obligation, to directly oppose Socialism (which is the Biblical/Righteous model). Stars, as other suns, are representative of various figures which seek to lead/guide other to what they consider to be righteous ways. And so some stars in the Political or Religious world will lead others, who are actually trusting in their night lighting capacities, to what they themselves consider to be right ways. Therefore, among other things, a, e.g., “Conservative” politician will generally aim to lead his constituents into espousing Capitalistic ways instead of Socialistic ones, and e.g., a Church Pastor who (rightly) believes that God/the Bible espouses just and righteous socialistic ways, will aim to lead his congregation into fully doing righteous humanitarian works, and vice versa, i.e., a Socialistic politician; and a wealth/prosperity gospel preacher. In God’s Eyes/View, the only validation of anyone who claims to be a star (= also a ‘someone with a message from God’ Rev 1:20) is whether or not their “(visually lesser) light” leads to the Greater (Sun)Light of the Righteousness (Dan 12:3) which has been revealed by Christ (Mal 4:2) in His Gospel; and nothing else/less, as the Devil is currently, usurpingly, actively endeavoring to do (Gal 1:8-9).
So God shaking the powers of Heaven involves Him directly affecting those “leading” ideologies. Thus He will chiefly endeavor to set aright and calibrate the “light” of the Sun(s) (i.e., including “stars”) and thus will also be setting aright what the light of the moon should/will be. And God does this by allowing, even setting up, various events to expose these ideologies as being, relatedly, Physically and Spiritually deficient & completely bankrupt (Isa 28:15-22); redundantly futile (Isa 28:23-29) and as commendable/“valuable” as “filthy rags” (Isa 64:5-7).
Therefore with (1) the Sun (Economy) not giving its life sustaining light, (2) the dependent moonlight (Religious World) not only also being dark, but also becoming of death, for, in democratic societies, as either religiously believe the Church, as in such a case of the absence of moonlight, not believe the People, so goes the (representative) Nation. And with Stars being moved out of their place, therefore no longer guiding to the fixed, (righteous) points that they were affixed to lead to, and moreover proving themselves to really be nothing more than space debris, the world, with absolutely no valid or worthwhile ideology to go by and follow, is thus really left into a state of complete darkness and instability.
And so this is how the powers of the Earth also come to be shaken, for these signs in the heavens do indeed have repercussions upon the Earth, -in both the Sea (i.e., Political/Geo-Political World) and on Dry Land (i.e., where the masses of people live) (=Hag 2:6). So, by priorly having allowed the powers of the Heavens to be shaken, God had set in motion what would later transpire and “shake the powers of the earth”, i.e., “make the earth tremble” (Isa 2:19, 21b; = Rev 6:14b). And as Divinely stipulated in EW 41.1, the shaken powers of heaven will then not be made to pass away, but will simply be moved out of their places. And that is all so as to not “force” man into choosing God’s ways. In other words, they will most clearly witness the futility of them having made idols out of the powers of heaven, but God will allow these idolize systems to remain, albeit in the world at large, but not in his reestablished and purged community of Israel. And so, to the very end of time, man will always have this free choice to live by their man-made ways or by God’s.
This entire sequential notion revealed in EW 41.1-2 of shaking the powers of: earth-(Voice of God)-heaven|earth was begun to be seen in the Historical development of prophecy during Church History. The ‘war, and rumors of war, sword [i.e., persecutions Matt 10:34-39/Rev 6:4 = Matt 24:9-10], famine, and pestilence which are first to shake the powers of earth’ was seen in the events of Church History from the end of the first century on. Then came the ‘great signs in the heavens’ (Luke 21:11b) in shaking of the powers in the 18th and 19th astronomical phenomenas which were to be the Historical fulfilment of Rev 6:12-13. These darkening of the Sun and the ensuing reddish moon of 1750, and then the meteorite shower of 1833, set off in motion in the Religious world, a radical change of views in regards to the end. For those manifestations which were seen to fulfill Christ’s Olivet Discourse predictions (Matt 24:29; cf. Acts 2:20), served to anchor a new wave of Eschatological studies which were galvanized by the assumedly related precise time studies of William Miller. However the fact of the matter is that, as stated before, there has been a screeching halting of those begun to be Historically fulfilled final events after the Rev 6:13 statements and, with the Heavens being rolled up as a scroll (Rev 6:14a), thus allowing God’s faithful people to peer into heaven and view/perceive the concrete validation of their faith, Historically transpiring in the establishment of the Remnant Church anchored by the (7th Day) Sabbath Truth (cf. Rev 11:19), then, as EGW expected there was to be a refulfillment of these powers shaking. Thus the various global commotions of her time was being seen as the shaking of the powers of the earth, with the troubles in Europe fitting into this as the ‘shaking of the angry nations’ (cf. Rev 11:18). This was to be the ‘“yet once more” (re-)shaking of the powers of the earth and then of the heavens|earth’ (Heb 12:26-27) so that what cannot be shaken (i.e., what has not been spuriously/unbiblically made/done on earth) will remain. And so EGW was expecting to continue to see this ‘re-shaking of the powers of the earth’, being the “birthpangs” get worst developing into the Time of Trouble against the Remnant. And then, as detailed in GC, in the midst of that time of trouble would come the voice of God which would deliver the everlasting covenant of peace to God’s people, turning their captivity and overturning the events here, arresting the wicked in their murderous advances and that would be followed by the shaking of the powers of Heaven, which would have direct repercussions in the powers that rule the earth (EW 285.1-286.1; EW 272.3a). And therein would be resumed the prophetic developments of the Sixth Seal, picking up where it had left off with Rev 6:14. However, as the state of the Remnant Church then did not mature to what God expected, even needed it to be, in order to fully finish the Gospel Work, that paused development has been on pause for at least 103 years (i.e., as discussed here, since the 1908 ‘last chance’).
And so after God having managed to ‘shake things up’ a bit with the 18th and 19th century powers of heaven shaking serving to ultimately establish the Remnant Church, which, as fully seen by today, came to rival the former Universal|Catholic Church which had ruled for most of Church History until 1798, indeed with, today, the SDA Church being the only other truly/fully global (single) denomination than the Roman Catholic Church, that “shaking” had more than less accomplished its Ecclesiastical objective. However God had plans to also shaking things up temporally, establishing His long down trodden ‘Zion of Israel’ as a national testimony to all nations (cf. EW 52.1 = Ezek 37:10). And, as pointedly mention in Heb 12:28, that is the object of the ‘second powers shaking’ of God. For then, after this most significant shaking up, only the kingdom of God, which is the ‘7 Horn Little Lamb Kingdom’ will stand firm.
The prophetically related scenario detailed in Heb 12:18-29 points out that the first shaking of things had been produced by the instructive, new covenant words which God had then spoken on earth through Jesus (Heb 12:25; cf. John 5:11, 30, 6:38; 8:26-28; 12:49; 14:10), unlike with the first covenant when He spoke the stipulations Himself. And so when Christians began to once again heed those words of the New Covenant it led to the shaking of the powers of earth and then, by God’s oversight, the powers of heaven, leading ultimately to a new Era, the Remnant Movement Era. So for these powers to be shaking again, and that in order to remove/knock down all of the various idolatrous abominations that have been erected in God’s Church since then, even in the Remnant (= Ezek 8; cf. here), God will then once again, as He did at Sinai when delivering the Ten Commandments speak from Heaven. And in a fulfilling way, He has already spoken towards this fulfilment, through the Three Angels Messages (Rev 14:6-11), and then the light given through the Spirit of Prophecy/Testimony of Jesus. And as His voice which delivers the Everlasting Covenant of Peace to His Israel (=Isa 54:10; Ezek 34:25; 37:26) is to be “as the sound of many waters” which aims to fill His then rebuilt temple with repentant “peoples” (Ezek 43:1-5ff) who will then be duly, fully/detailedly instructed in ‘the law of this house’ Ezek 43:10-12).
Voice of God
Two-fold Voicing - An, albeit succinct/summary study of the topic of “the Voice of God” is in order at this point of this study as it is indeed what pivotally sets off the powers of heaven and earth shaking. As already stated, the shaking of the powers of Heaven involves an ideological shifting which restores the Theological Views of God on key Biblical Issues. This shaking then inevitably has directly related tangible, temporal affectations. It is most significant to note through a study of the “voice of God” topic in the SOP it is also two fold there (a concept that EGW did not understand, and therefore did not expound on in her writings). A First voicing which shakes the Heavens occurs during the Sixth Plague. (during Rev 16:12-13 = EW 36.2; 272.3a = EW 41.1). It too has its derived ‘earth shaking’ effect, but there is then a more direct Second Voicing in regards to the shaking of the powers of the Earth, which is naturally accompanied by signs in the Heavens which occurs under the Seventh Plague (Rev 16:17 = GC 636.2 = EW 41.2). So, as discussed next, while the shaking of both the heavens and the Earth occurs during each of those two voicings, under first the Sixth and then the Seventh Eras, (thus e.g., resulting in EW 41.1-2 having a full application under the Sixth Era and then in the Seventh Era), their pointed purpose/emphasis is made to be distinct. In fact what is allowed to transpire under the Sixth Era shakings is actually to serve as a last gasp final warning to the Mark of the Beast Camp.
While both of these voicing produce similar effects, they are however different in what they are targeting to overturn. In the First Voicing, -impliedly, but indeed inherently, also during this Sixth Seal, the (concealed) object is the Sealing and Shaking of Israel in order to form the 144,000. And so the Christian World, starting with the Remnant (SDA) Church is first engaged then. In the Second Voicing, the object is to establish these sealed 144,000 who are assembled upon Mount Zion (=Rev 14:1-5), in their temporal kingdom (previewed in Rev 19:1-9; =1SG 205.3-206.1||GC 640.2), upon the “Sea of Glass” (=Rev 15:2-4), with these 144,000 then engaging in evangelising the world in order to, in turn, produce the “Great Multitude” that will populate that Kingdom of God (Rev 14:6-12, 13||Rev 14:14-16||Rev 14:17-20). And so the opposing world who will be seeking to prevent this will then be engaged, then, and through the outpouring of the Seven Plagues, culminating in the Seventh, punctuating one, will be most tangibly, utterly, physically/temporally affected and thus held off. (Rev 16:17-21).[45]
This two-fold understanding is seen the Ezek 43:2 which indicates that this voice of God event had the same effect as the approaching of the Throne of God in judgement in the First part of the book. This First Part of Ezekiel’s book (Ezek 1-39 = Rev 10 (-with Rev 11, part of the interlude between the 6th and 7th Trumpet)) which recursively focuses on the Destruction of an apostatised and rebellious Jerusalem and Judah, focally through first “Sealing” the faithful ones therein and then the waste-laying “Shaking” of it (see e.g., Ezek 33:21-33). The Second Part of the book (Ezek 40-48 = Rev 11) focuses on reestablishing both the Temple and the Nation, and that even more gloriously, even in a Messianic/New Covenant context, following that Judgement.
Why Voice = “sound of many waters” - Quite significant in the “voice of God” understanding is that, it is consistently symbolized as being ‘like the sound of many waters’ and is also linked with His glory (Hab 2:14; Psa 29:1-6; cf. Ezek 43:2; GC 640.2; EW 14.1; 36.2; 272.3a; 285.2 = Rev 18:1; cf. Num 14:21) because: ‘for God’s “(inherently covenantal) voice” to truly and clearly be “heard/understood” on earth, the obedience of it by people on Earth is pivotally required (see e.g., Exod 19:5-6; 8-9; 24:3, 7; cf. 19:19; 20:1ff, 18a). And the more obedient ones there are, the better indeed. And so, with people symbolized by “waters” (Rev 17:15), and the “sound” of this body being pointedly indicative here, so is reflected “God’s voice” through ‘the sounding voice of His obeying, and thus naturally reproclaiming, people.’ (cf. Rev 19:6) And moreover, this is symbolize with an element which can have both constructive (i.e., Life giving = e.g., Ezek 47:8-12) as well as destructive (i.e., divine judgment) power (Gen 9:11), a dual implication that is foundationally reflected in the end time establishment of this “covenant of peace” with Zion (Isa 54:9).
Voice of God and God’s Glory - With, as referenced above, the voice of God reproducing the glory of God upon those who hear and heed, and thus fully comprehend and understand, it, Just as it had occurred with Moses, as this involves fully understanding the Gospel of God as involved in His Law (cf. PP 329.5-330.3), as discussed here, only those who are doing the unselfish works of practical benevolence of the Law will ever attain to this bright Righteousness of Christ. (Cf. LDE 218.3-219.1)[46]
Fear-Producing Voice - Interestingly enough, the understanding that God could and can have a exceedingly numerous group of people who will fully impart His glory on the earth, if they are obedient to Him, (see Hab 2:14; cf. Num 14:21), is awesome in itself to produce that “fear” of God that is typically felt when the voice of God is heard (Exod 20:18-21). Indeed, and especially in the days of small beginnings, when God makes such an awesome promise despite the present meagre appearances, the truly honest receiver of such a promise, cannot but be filled with “healthy” fear, indeed to not sin against God so as to not frustrate this promise and plan of an Almighty God.
Relation to the Seven Thunders - Succinctly said here, with the voice of God being “naturistically” (=1 Cor 2:12-16) heard by the unrighteous/unconverted as merely “thunder” -i.e., ‘(merely) sounds of judgements, thus not/without their tangible dangerous/destructive/deadly effects’ (EW 14.1; 285.2; GC 640.2; cf. Exod 19:19), and with the two distinct voicings being seen in the two parts of the book of Ezekiel, they therefore are the message of the Seven Thunders as, as discussed here, these cover the same grounds of the entire book of Ezekiel.
Rev 6:14 - The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up - God manifestly intends to have a fresh canvas in His judgement actions here, and so, surfacely/most tangibly, even the sky itself (and not actually the (third) “heavens” where God dwells) is also affected/taken away, thus providing a new/true (i.e., Divine) “view” of things.
As also revealed in the SOP in 21MR 326.2, in a vision (21MR 325.3-327.7) that pointedly depicts these events to transpire in this Sixth Era, the ‘parting of the heavens as a scroll when it is rolled together’ also allows God’s loyal and true people to, like Stephen (Acts 7:54-57; see also GC 636.1), look into the heavens where God dwells and see and understand the approval of God. And all of this allows them to discern, and defeatingly withstand, the various snares being set before them by the unrighteous mob around them who are spuriously trying to pit these who are upholding the Law of God, (here in regards to Divinely Legislated Law Enforcement) as being either ‘against God’ and [as they assume that there is absolutely no way out of this accusation] ‘against the State.’ However by having given them a most clear revelation and sign of His approval, God has come to concretely make these righteous ones to be ‘Sealed in His Sabbatical truth so that they cannot be moved’ by any such schemes and snares (=LDE 219.4)), and so this is how they have come to be “as those who heard them not” = John 8:6 KJV (=DA 455-462).
And with this intertwined ‘scroll and heaven’ notion being thus allusive to Zechariah’s Flying Scroll (Zech 5:1), which, as discussed above and here, is the background of the Third Seal when the foundation for the AntiChrist power was laid through its dual corruption of Truth in the Religious and, derivedly, Socio-Economic realms, and with the Scroll here being said to be “rolled up” indicating a scroll that has finished being read, thus its content is by then fully known/understood, it is manifest here that as this antichrist power, which indeed does not merely corrupt Biblical truth, all culminating in the usurping of God’s Sabbath, but has also paved the way for an economic power which usurps the Socio-economic aspects also in God’s Sabbath, has by this Sixth Seal/Era fully flourished into what God knew would be its end, Full Babylonian Power, result. And so the various curses stated in that Flying Scroll of Zechariah (Zech 5:3) are now, in this Sixth Seal/Era to go forth to punish those who are violating all of God commandments by here, adhering to the (at this stage, Capitalistic) Babylonian System.
Jesus is still seated - While Stephen had seen Jesus standing at the right hand of God when he was permitted to peered into the heavens (and also saw the “glory of God”) (Acts 7:55-56), a posture that, as seen in Dan 12:1, is indicative that a judgement session is over and a probation has ended, in this allusive peering into Heaven by God’s People when the sky has parted, they instead see that Jesus is still seated (GC 636.1; cf. 21MR 326.4). This key detail allows for the understanding that these prophecies can indeed be fulfilled towards a temporal application of them, and thus without an “utter” end implication. In other words, these fulfilling prophecies are to establish the Zion Little Lamb Kingdom of God on earth, in order to usher in a period of Jubilee during which, however long it will last, God’s people will provide the rest of the world with the clearest testimony of God’s Truth. And so final probation of the world is not transpiring then, during those fulfillments. As stated before, this “Zion/Jubilee” development was Biblically always the Plan A of God through His Israel, however that Plan was repeatedly frustrated by the waywardness of His People, and so, as mused here, a pre Zionistic Establishment Second Coming was manifestly conjured up by Jesus a plan of escape/rescue should the ruthless lawlessness of the world in the light of the faithfulness of God’s people, necessitate such a emergency ending.
Orion and Holy City - In EW 41.2 EGW was shown that the voice of God would come through the open space in Orion which the people of God would look up and see when ‘the atmosphere parted and rolled back’. This is echoing the ‘rolling up of the sky’ in here in Rev 6:14 which in turn is echoed in EGW’s revelation of ‘Stephen’s looking into the opened Heavens’ in 21MR 326.2. The many key, interlinked, associative understandings here are that:
-Stephen then saw the “glory of God” which tangibly involves as an guide, having a better understanding of God’s character
-the thundering voice of God is also heard through that opening which states the day and hour of Jesus’ return which Spiritually, vs. literally (i.e., September 3 of (that year) at 2:00 PM) can involve: an understanding into the repeatedly and repletely stated theme of the ‘day of the Lord’ as well as, as relatedly discussed in this post for Rev 17:12; 18:10, 17, 19, what is to transpire during the ‘hour of that judgement’, which is also the Rev 3:10 Sixth Era’s ‘global hour of testing/temptation’, against the enemies of God and His True Israel; with the chief/fundamental issue being about God True and Full Sabbath -Rev 14:6-7.
-God’s Davidic Covenant of Peace with His Israel (Isa 54:10; Ezek 34:25; 37:26) is also made known and established then (EW 281.1; cf. GC 10MR 158.1; 4aSG 112.2; Mar 245.3).
-The Latter Rain will then be poured out (EW 14.1)
-It was revealed to EGW that it will be through this ‘opening in Orion’ that the Holy City will descend. As the Orion constellation is in the Northern Sky, and not in the Eastern Sky, from which the first sign of the Son of Man (Matt 24:30) and His Second Coming, (which actually first manifests itself during the Sixth Era of Revelations Prophecies), will be seen (e.g., Matt 24:27; EW 15.2|GC 640.3), then this ‘Orion revelation’ which is associated with the New Jerusalem Holy City then priorly given to the saints during that voice of God experience is a distinct from that of sign of the Second Coming.
Therefore, summarily and succinctly, pointed, all of these Theological/exegetical pointers reveal that this Voice of God Experience which involves: best understanding the Law and Glory of God; a thundering message (book of Ezekiel); a precise revelation in regards to the Day of the Lord and the details of God’s pending Sabbatical judgement; the Covenant of Peace with Israel; the Latter Rain outpouring; and the Holy City are all fulfilled in the NJK Project Plans which are to, at this Sixth Era time, implement the Little Lamb Kingdom of God, during this time of delaying (15MR 292.4)
Resuming of Final Events - As previously stated and discussed from what has transpired in recent Church History, there has been a halting of Final events after the ‘star falling’ prediction of Rev 6:13 and the ‘heavens unrolling as a scroll’ stated next in Rev 6:14. And this is because, with this inserted Scroll being Zechariah’s Flying Scroll which pointedly deals socio-economic mandate in God’s Law, Prophetic Events could not continue to be fulfilled until God’s People had come to see and understand this implication, and thus be (fully) Sealed with God’s Sabbath (=EW 36.2-38.2). And with EGW having made ample calls for the Church in her time to engage in exhaustive benevolent works in fulfilment of Isa 58 and Matt 25:31-46 (see e.g, WM 28-65ff; cf. LDE 218.3-219.1), then the Church could have easily understood this Fuller Sabbath of God message had then set out to obey the Full Gospel Mandate here.
Relatedly, as revealed in EW 14.1-15.1, it is after the sounding of the voice of God, after it has produced its effect in gathering, sealing, equipping and organizing the 144,000 that those then still in the Sixth Era’s ‘assembly of Satan’ persecutive re-manifestation (cf. Rev 2:9), who had thought that this claimed “voice of God” was merely/naturalistically: ‘thunder and an earthquake’ -thus neither a ‘judgement’, nor the “Shaking”, and certainly not “from God”, then acknowledgingly worshipped at the saints feet. (Rev 3:9; cf. 19:10).
every mountain and island were moved out of their places - The voice of God does not merely shake the powers of Heaven here, but also collaterally results in shaking the powers of the earth, through an mountain-shaking and island-moving earthquake, and this Sixth Seal event is slightly less in effected scope than what much more fully will occur during the Seventh Plague, discussed later (Rev 16:18b, 20). And with mountains being seen as a place of security and refuge on land, and islands, being surrounded by not readily traversable waters, similarly seen as safe places off land, God is here warningly indicating that any deemed place of refuge will not be able to provide this protection/defense against His all-reaching judgements, with themselves here being seen to be quite shaking and unstable. And all while this, actually purposed summit conflict for judgement, is going on, God’s People, even if threatened or attacked by their enemies (Isa 54:15), will have been led to a natural, harboring refuge (=Isa 26:20-21), and when necessary, direct, angelic protection and sustenance from the Lord (Mar 270.1-6; Isa 54:10, 16-17; Rev 3:10; cf. Rev 20:8-9). And in regards to the people of God nonetheless, albeit mental, sufferings/anguish then, “the time of trouble is the crucible that is to bring out Christlike characters. It is designed to lead the people of God to renounce Satan and his temptations.” (Mar 273.5). It is indeed upon God’s Judging, Mount Zion experience that ‘the spirits of the righteous will be made perfect/complete’ (Heb 12:23 = Rev 14:1-5).
Light at the end of the journey - It is significant, as seen from Mar 270.4 to note that God will, through a messenger from Him, lead the households of His faithful ones to this ‘Time of Trouble refuge’ through what will, until the arrival at its ending destination, only seem like a pointless and dangerous expedition as it will be “down a dark passage, through a forest, then through the clefts of mountains”. But the end goal of God through and after this climatic judgement period is to give His people ‘strength/might’ (a fortress and a stronghold) and bless them peace’ (=His Covenant of Peace) (Psa 29:11).
Dark Passage - Straightly said, this dark passage can be understood as the purposeful great darkness (EW 269.2) that will initially, and not totally, surround and affect the faithful and true ones who have overcome Satan specially crafted and targeted ‘Snare of Covetousness’ (EW 266.1-268.2), during their ensuing ordeal of the Shaking of the SDA Church (= EW 269.1-272.3), which indeed also transpires during this Sixth Era, just before the Sealing of the 144,000 (EW 270.4-271.1 = Rev 14:1ff; cf. EW 18.1).
Cedars of Lebanon - As the themes of a forest and the clefts of mountains serving as a fortress/stronghold place of refuge resulting in peace are associated with the voice of God in Psa 29:1-6ff wherein that choice forest is said to be a forest of the “Cedars of Lebanon”; which is symbolically associated with: a proper understanding of the Gospel (PP 450.1), (and that actually in a context of a fullest understanding of God’s Sabbath (Psa 92:12)); producing a Genuine Christian (SpM 229.1-2|OHC 331.2-3) who, in the sight of God is “of higher rank than kings or princes” (ST, December 16, 1880 par. 3-4); an Spiritual attainment that is yet all under the ‘all-shaking’ authority of God which is to be submitted to only by heeding His voice (Psa 29:5).
And so, the safety and survival of God’s people then, will not be in trusting in their previous Christian experience and attainments (=Isa 2:12-13a's group next revealed in Rev 6:15), but in heeding the voice of God which, as shown in Mar 270.4 is communicated through a messenger sent from Him who will guide them to the place prepared by God where they will survive this “hour of testing/temptation”. (Rev 3:10).
Cleft of mountains (a.k.a. caves) - The citing of the ‘cleft of mountains’, being synonymous with “cleft of rocks” (Isa 2:21), and which involves a sort of fissure/opening in the mountain/rock as with caves/caverns, readily recalls the time when God had hidden Moses in the ‘cleft of rock on the mount Horeb’ so that He may shield him from seeing His full glory, yet do see the back side of that glory as Moses had asked in order to best know how to rightly lead the People and Movement of God, and that because of their unbelief and faithlessness (PP 327.3-328.4; LLM 347.5; cf. 6T 47.4). So in that place God gave Moses a most clarifying, Full Gospel revelation that help him to full grasp God’s will and ways. A similar “cleft of the rock” experience in these times will serve to truly/fully convert the Christian (1SAT 212.1) and prepare them for the Spiritual warfare of this final conflict (1SAT 212.2).
And so those who then will have gone through this formative experience with God will have come to Fully understand the Law of God and the Gospel, manifested in the glorious shining of their face (=the “face like the Sun” [=Righteous and an Economy] symbol of the Rev 10:1 angel (explained in this post), and that will be tangibly demonstrated/manifested in the ‘Righteous and Beneficial’ works of Practical Benevolence which “will give spiritual life to thousands of nominal professors of the truth who now mourn over their darkness.” and “will transform them from selfish, [‘idolatrous’]/covetous worshippers of mammon to earnest, faithful co-workers with Christ in the salvation of sinners. (3T 387.2; LDE 218.3-4).
Contributive Insight into the Omega Apostasy - Interestingly enough, in 2MR 320.3 EGW, in rebuking John Harvey Kellogg in manifestly his advanced, “Alpha of the Omega” (11MR 211.1) apostasy, pantheistic views, which were trying to say ‘where God is, or what He is’, EGW, (most likely through a direct inspiration of God, as she and Heavenly Messengers speaking to her often do), combined Psa 29:5 (voice of God uprooting Lebanon’s cedars) with Hab 2:20 (God being in His Holy Temple requiring the most attentive, deferential ‘silencing’ of people on Earth) comes to thus jointly, symbolically reveal, in the light of what has been learned above about the elements in those passages, that the Omega apostasy, will come to be involved in: not heeding the voice of God, which also reveals where exactly God then is, in His Temple (Rev 16:17 = EW 54.2-56.1 = a “Door Shutting” closing of probation) and all that it reveals due to a trusting instead in one’s Righteous and Christian Experience instead of being “hid in Christ” which leads to beholding and understanding God’s love (MB 25.1-26.2) and having and keeping on His Rev 19:8 Robe of Righteousness. And so, following the “Golden Chain” which is indeed found throughout Scripture by the leading of God’s Spirit, it is seen that, with the Hab 2:20 citation being related to the Hab 2:14 revelation, which as discussed earlier is spiritually associated with ‘voice of God & New Temple’ event the Ezek 43:1-3ff; which is all the result of the prior destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in the first part of the book of Ezekiel, the only hope of God’s People to be involved in that Church Triumphant message is to heed that Thundering Voice of God (discussed above) which will lead them to their ‘Time of Jacob’s Trouble’ place of refuge.
OT Background Contribution - As discussed above on the alluded to Isa 34:4, God will be effectuating a most thorough, overturning judgement upon the earth and even the sky, it is in this sense that a typological, temporal establishing of, symbolically, ‘a new heavens and a new earth’ in regards to His Jerusalem in Zion will transpire here (Isa 65:17-24; cf. Rev 21:1-2). The prior idolatrously polluted heavens and its host, which was quite tangibly blocking the view of God’s People into seeing/perceiving their God and His Truth. God will also be executing a simultaneously similar judgement upon His Apostate Judah at that time (= the SDA Church) = Jer 4:19-23ff). And more widely, as seen next, therein will be the initial assembly and attempted invasion of ‘Gog of the land of Magog’ (Ezek 38:18-20ff). And after having been utterly defeated then, they will not be able to muster and manifest itself against God’s Jerusalem/Israel for quite a while after that. (Rev 20:7-9). But as their ways of evil will by then have been completely proven to be utterly spurious and outrightly evil, God will then inflict upon them an utter judgement, as it was previously done with the beast power and false prophet had long been (Rev 20:11; 19:17-21) after having had been defeated by this here ‘Great and Mighty Army of God’ (Rev 19:11-16ff).
In general summary on all that has been stated thus far in this section is can be seen and stated that the “First Voicing” of the Voice of God serves to lead and gather God’s faithful ones to the Mount of Zion where they can there have their minds sealed with the Truth of God and enter into a Covenant of Peace with Him. As that First Voicing focuses on Shaking the powers of Heaven, which is manifested in various chief/ruling ideologies, that call and assembly is therefore to help purge God’s people of those various wrong ideologies in the Economic World (Sun), Religious World, i.e., in the Church (Moon) and various leaders (Stars). God does this by imparting new and/or deeper Theological Views which also have tangible/practical implications. Then a Second Part of that Voicing comes to shake the powers of the Earth and under its sounding the captivity of God people is turned and they then set out to leave this place of refuge, now organized into a mighty army, in order to conquer, and that mainly through their benevolent works, the land that God had promised them wherein he will establish His Temporal kingdom (cf. Heb 12:28). And so just like God first call Israel out of Egypt and into the wilderness to enter into a Covenant with them at Sinai, and then they were supposed to soon set out from there and conquer the Promise Land, the same two-fold advance is seen in God’s leading of His Church Triumphant in these present times.
It is also significant to note that, as seen in Heb 12:18-29 “Voice of God” episode which is indeed prophetically applicable to Eschatological Events, with it foundationally involving the giving of the covenant at Sinai, it is likewise an apostasy similar to the Golden Calf incident at the “Idolatry at Sinai” (PP 315-330), which was all borne out of a baseless lack of faith in God in the light of His amply demonstrated power and provision up to then, that will be reproduced by those in, pointedly here, the SDA Church, who come to trust more in (either/both) Babylons and their “easier” anti-true-resting (contra Matt 11:28-30) ways rather than in God, as they increasingly ly allowed themselves to do, that will result in them readily accepting the Mark of The Beast here (LDE 173.6) rather than go to this ‘obscure, surfacely foreboding and perilous’ place of refuge of God. (Mar 270.4 = the NJK Project).
And as most strikingly done with Moses upon this Golden Calf idolatry, God made it clearly and unequivocally known that His presence had left the idolatrous camp (cf. Ezek 11:14ff; 21-23ff) as, through special instruction given to Moses, He moved to separate him far away from the rest of the camp (see Exod 33:7ff; PP 327.2), forming a ‘camp of one’ to which the penitent ones form Israel would have to go out to get the Message from God there given “face to face” (i.e., with clearest and fullest revelation) to Moses (Exod 33:8-11).
Rev 6:15 - Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains;
Specific Class of Peoples - It is quite noteworthy to see that it is specific classes of people who are here said to be going to hid in caves and among the rocks of mountains. The text could have instead simply said ‘all the wicked men of the earth...’. However specific classes are instead given as, (contemporarily expressed): political leaders (kings), highly influential people/celebrities (great men); commanders (executive/business leaders (e.g., CEO’s)); the wealthy (rich); the self-sufficiently capable (strong/mighty); the deeply indebted ones (slaves); financially stable/solvent (free man). In our day and age each of these classes are set by how high on the socio-economical ladder they have managed to climb. And so the emphasis here is showing how economic will play a major role in forming the camp of the wicked.
However out of all of these classes, there is really only one group that may not necessarily want to be in that ‘Babylonian “rat race”’. These are the group of “slaves”. And so it is no surprised that the SOP specially names slaves, and actually the “pious” ones from this group, that will be most benefited by the Deliverance and Triumph of God’s People (EW 278.2; 286.1), for it manifestly had been their owners/masters which had prevented them from hearing or heeding the saving Seal of God Truth and instead forced them to operate under the Capitalistic policies of the Mark of the Beast (=Rev 13:16-17). Under this newly ushered in era of God’s newly establish Jubilee, Zion of Israel, Little Lamb Kingdom of God, these economic slaves are then most mercifully given a new slate to freely pursue the Truth and Righteousness that they previously were being barred to do. (EW 276.1)
Hiding in the Caves and among rocks - The OT background of this passage in Isa 2:12-22. Evidently those people, which are spoken of in the specific groupings above (except for (pious) slaves) had become “lofty, proud and lifted up” through the power, prestige, riches/wealth and freedom obtained their self-made idolatrous (Capitalistic) economic system (Isa 2:20). However being now faced with the approaching glory of God and in the midst of a “seismic” activity from God (=Isa 2:19b; 21b) -and not a “naturally” occurring one, but rather through, as understood in Ed 179.5<180.1>180.3 ‘the threatened unravelling of the world’s various, Capitalistically-overseen/controlled, thus spurious and deficient, ordering and/or coping systems’) as He is thus shaking the powers of the Earth, these unrighteous ones are seized with a panic that suddenly leads them to no longer see a worth in their previous idols or even personal prestige, and they too endeavor to seek refuge in the caves and mountain, manifestly knowingly trying to mimic what the faithful ones of God had done and was quite obviously most beneficial to them as they were going through this period in security and strength. So these unrighteous ones will indeed seek to now instead emulate the methods and principles of the Mount Zion assembled 144,000 righteous in order to cope with the various looming “crises” from their various systems that God will unravelling, here merely threaten, (i.e., Sun, Moon and Stars do not then passed away, but are merely moved EW. 41.1b) to precipitate upon them in order to bring about the Seventh [Trumpet] Era, Rev 11:18 fulfilment (=EW 41.2b; cf. Psa 46; and for that “wrath”: e.g., Rev 6:16b-17; 14:10, 19; 16:19; 19:15; cf. 2:25-27)). However, as revealed in Mar 290.1-5 God’s people then, having had their captivity turned by this Earth Shaking voice of God, are now emerging from their caves. And as stated in Mar290.3: “From the dens and the caves of the earth, that have been the secret hiding places of God's people, they are called forth as His witnesses, true and faithful.” These now have the characteristic of those who have been triumphant from Laodicea (=Rev 3:14), and are now poised to form the Seventh Church Era as the “Righteous People” (=“Lao-dicea”) of God.
So the question then becomes, if these unrighteous ones are now doing the exact same thing as the righteous had done ‘to be able to stand on that day’ then why is this not working out for them. Why are they not hidden in the cleft of the rock as were the Righteous ‘and shielded from the consuming glory of God’ (=the conclusion stated in Heb 12:29). Even more spiritually speaking: Why is their manifest attempt, through this willful idols shedding (=Exod 33:4-6) upon having learned that God was not on their side (Exod 33:3); and then their manufactured ‘cleft of the Rock Hiding’ experience (cf. Exod 33:12-23) in order to have God’s glory be shown to them and be reflected upon them, as the righteous ones now are, and thus also have saving insight into the Law and Gospel of God? The answer is quite simply seen from the story of Moses. Unlike Moses who had asked for that revelation in order to be assured of God’s pardoning favor and in order to be able to properly lead the People of God in their formidable mission (see PP 273.3-328.3}), these people are here doing all of this merely to save themselves from the recently observed/understood approaching destruction for having worship their “Golden Calf.”
And to accurately contextualize this, (for their indeed is ‘nothing new under the sun, but just a neo-form of a past sin’ Eccl 1:9-10), as shown in this post, in the section expounding on Ezek 1:7's ‘burnished bronze calf’s soles of feet’, this episode of the Golden Calf came to be most foundationally incorporated in what will provide the successful establishment of the four-faceted throne of God on the Earth through Israel. And with that ‘burnished bronze” symbolism being re-echoed in the symbolism, and at various stages thereof, in (1) the present and dispersed Judgement to take place in Dan 10:6 (‘arms and area of the feet of burnished bronze’); (2) in the just completed, but merely established, pastoral/priestly ministry of Rev 1:15 (‘feet of burnished bronze made to glow in a furnace’); and (3) with the similar figure in Rev 10:1 being shown to be in the process of re-forming these feet of burnished bronze through ‘furnace-less’, thus open-air pillars of fire, which as discussed in this post, involves a deeper understanding of, and establishment upon, God’s Sabbatical Truth, then it is seen that the Golden Calf incident, which fundamentally implicated faith in the leading and provision of God, is indeed most foundational to the establishment of God’s Israel Kingdom. So the unrighteous ones in the end who are indeed guilty of the same type of idolatrous sin which leads them to worship the image of the Beast by having chosen to be ‘educated and trained in’ (Mar 290.5}) and worshipfully adhering to, their spurious, unbiblical and antiSabbatical Economic system of Capitalism.
So although these unrighteous people will here be going through the pious motions of seeking to know God’s will and do it, their controlling motive is actually self-serving and merely just to be able to escape this understood, soon approaching (Rev 6:16-17; cf. EW 14.1-15.2) “judgement day” (=Matt 25:31-46) which will only result in the pouring of the “wrath of the Lamb” upon those who had no works of (also), exhaustive practical benevolence (LDE 218.3-219.1; DA 825.3-4) judgement.
The Present Day, SDA Church, Application - Upon the studying out of the above involvement in the action of the unrighteous ones to try to do like the righteous ones in order to escape the understood approaching judgement which will involve them and which they now also see are on course to fail, I have come to find the Biblical prophetic context of what I had observed occurring during GYC 2011, namely in regards to the objectively perceivable, base spirit in the Devotional series preached by Kameron DeVasher in an effort to get people to engage in works of benevolence. I had commented on that series here, in regards to its deficiency and short coming by only seeking to merely do readily achievable task vs. setting out, through the resources of the Global SDA Church, to help people around the world who are in vital need, including being aborted infants. The crux of the problem in that call was that ‘actually trying to help people in need’ was not the real objective of this endeavor, but rather, as repeatedly and copiously expounded upon by DeVasher in those sermons, ‘seeking to develop characters that will make them “fit” to survive the Second Coming, (thus this wrathful approach of the Lamb),’ was their real and paramount purpose. And therein is a difference that is effectively as opposite to each other as is evil and righteousness. As stated in LDE 219.2-3 ‘one’s motives in doing good works are most vital to whether or not they will be credited to them as righteousness’:
“In the day of judgment some will plead this good deed and that as a reason why they should receive consideration. They will say, "I set up young men in business. I gave money to found hospitals. I relieved the necessities of widows, and took the poor into my home." Yes, but your motives were so defiled by selfishness that the deed was not acceptable in the sight of the Lord. In all that you did, self was brought prominently to view.--Ms 53, 1906. {LDE 219.2} It is the motive that gives character to our acts, stamping them with ignominy [being dishonorable] or with high moral worth.--DA 615 (1898). {LDE 219.3}
And so, with the focus being prominently on merely ‘developing a good character so that you will not merely get in, but be able to “fit in” in heaven’, with the Biblical fact being, from the Parable of the Wedding Garment in Matt 22:1-14|COL 307-319, that this is representative of the Pre-Advent Investigative Judgement (COL 310.2), where the hidden motives of the heart will indeed be pivotally considered then (COL 316.1-2), is the “Marriage Supper of the Little Lamb” of Rev 19:7-9 (COL 311.2), during which this Little Lamb is to celebrate his already performed marriage to his bride/wife (cf. COL 405.1-406.1; just as today, Religious marriages are officially done during the Church ceremony and thus before the Reception banquet celebration that follows), -the New Jerusalem Holy City (Rev 21:9-11). And as what is ultimately depicted in Rev 19:11-16 (cf. here) the (Glorious) Second Coming follows that Marriage Supper Gathering in Rev 19:7-9, then it is seen that no one will be even permitted into Heaven without the proper wedding garment (= 1SM 109.1-111.3 - which indeed, as seen in the related Parable of the 10 virgins (Matt 25:1-13|COL 405-421) involves having amply stocked up on (actually, the Early Rain of) Holy Spirit). And so the work of investigation that is done in the Wedding Garment parable, is one that is done upon the believers while they are still on Earth and in the Community of God’s Church. (Cf. also this post on this topic).[47]
So this manifested and fostered base and self-serving/selfish motive/spirit for engaging in works of benevolence will not produce the aim for “glorious/acceptable Christlike character”. Those in various, including vital need are to be “disinterestedly” ministered to and certainly not in any “Gospel merchandising” way (i.e., ‘you must promise, and better listen to, my Gospel proclamation afterwards or else...’). Jesus knowingly did benevolent works for many people who He could tell (cf. John 2:23-25; 6:64) were not really interested in obeyingly following Him (cf. John 6:26). The Gospel blessing is to be freely given to all. So such base works are as dishonorable as the selfish and self-serving acts of righteousness done by the Pharisees (cf. Matt 5:20, 43-48 = Isa 64:6).[48] And, as it was stated here, it is those preferentially “incomplete” “unrighteous acts” (=Rev 3:1-5) which are the breaking point of the, however grandiose, Sixth Era’s, Mark of the Beast, “day of God”, H/Ar-Mageddon assembly (Rev 16:14b & 16), as it will leave those who are trusting in them ‘naked before God’ (=Rev 16:15). And as relatedly (i.e., the cited “coming as a thief” allusion) revealed in Mar 270.4, only who have heeded the Mount Zion assembling in the First Voicing of the Voice of God will be able to be properly educated and trained into what will place them on the right side here. For it is only a genuine and unshakeable faith that God will provide all of the needs of those who will, self-sacrificially, be doing all that they can to fully obey His command|mandate to meet the need of the “least of these” will bring the victory in this time (=CS 224.4). As ensuingly stated in Mar 270.6 God will then be revealed as “the God of gods” “able to save to the uttermost those who have put their trust in Him” for, as defined in Deut 10:17-19 He will indeed do whatever is necessary to protect and provide for those who like Him are, without any sort of “partiality” (cf. Jam 2:8-9ff; 13-117ff) are seeking to effect ‘social aid and justice’ for all those in existent need.
And so any present “Revival” movement to even seek to do benevolent works, but as manifested in the GYC 2011 call and response, is actually merely self-seeking/serving, will only act the prophetic part of being that “False Revival & Reformation Movement” prophesied in e.g, GC 464.1-465.1 & EW 260.1-261.1 which preferentially comes short of ‘True Apostolic Primitive Godliness’ as demonstrated in e.g., Acts 2:44-45; 4:32-37; 2 Cor 8:7-15. And through all this, as commented on in this post under Rev 18:2, will be fulfilled the specially “crafted”, SDA-targeted, Covetousness ensnaring, Gen 3:4 reformulatedly-echoing, Master Deception of Satan (=EW 266-269 - cf. here), which leads them to similarly, falsely believe that ‘they will still inherit eternal life even if they are not fully/exhaustively obeying the Gospel mandate of Jesus Christ as set forth in Matt 25:31-46, for God knows that only need be tokenly done because they do need to have/earn a living for themselves.’ Good Luck with that False Belief!! As commented upon here from the SOP (RH, August 17, 1897 par. 14), Satan purpose is to ‘so well counterfeit righteousness in order to deceive/seduce the elect/choice ones.’ (-Matt 24:24|Mar 13:22).
And all of this is in explicit fulfilment of the ‘Satan taking over the work of God’ revelation in EW 54.2-56.1, as, while there may have been much ‘logical “light” and “widely broadcasted, major convention/denominational “power” as well as, through artificial/selective/favoring extent limitations, (indeed as Capitalistically, dogmatically mandated), ‘personally attained feelings of favor and satisfaction’ in, pointedly that GYC 2011 rally for ‘character-fitting benevolent works’, there really is no “sweet love, joy, and peace” for/towards those who will continue to be indifferently left alone to die from preventable, curable and intentional causes. (cf. John 15:10-11). And, conversely, as they say: “Ignorance is bliss”... and, contrively, so is “indifference”, which in fact gradually leads to this “ignorance”. And so despite/notwithstanding the habitual paramountly, sentimentally/sensorially-controlled/derived shallow, mindless and vacuous claims of many who attended/watched that GYC conference, the only “Spirit” that was imparted/“poured out” there was the calculatively ensnaring unholy influence of Satan’ whose only object is ‘to keep, here, SDA’s deceived as to what actually is the Truth of God’s Will, and to draw back (i.e., from what God actually, fully expects/requires of them). (=EW 56.1)!!
And, from what has been pertinently discovered earlier, and as prophetically usual/normative, (and as also done/seen with the visions of Revelation (cf. here)), it is of no triviality, inconsequential dictum or mere coincidence, that this SOP revelation was preluded/introduced with a Exod 33:12-23 echoing/alluding visionary exchange in which EGW wanted to see the very form (= face) of God, and also that the vision went on to involve the theme of “how to properly conduct God’s work”, which indeed was the burden and crux of Moses’ similar request (see PP 327.3ff). Similarly, as with Moses on the mount getting deep instruction into God’s Law and Sabbath, the end result of this ‘glory of God light imparting through Jesus’ experience is ‘the countenance of “the most of those” who had not resisted that light, and then remained under it, shining forth’ (EW 54.2).
And those are the explicit Spiritual details of how a Conference (a.k.a. Convocation/Congress/Summit) of “Jews” SDA’s suddenly morphs into actually “the Assembly of Satan” (=Rev 3:9), and just that seamlessly and quickly, indeed within the same worship session!! (=EW 54.2-56.1) I.e., When you knowingly and indifferently curtail, and that self-seekingly so, God’s Truth, in mid sermon. (Cf. 1T 181.1-2) And as pointedly explained in COL 414.2 in regards to the above discussed pertinent intertwined themes of: -the Parable of the Ten Virgins; -The Marriage Supper Celebration of the Lamb; -the pre-requisite Infilling of the (Early Rain of the) Holy Spirit; -‘Lighting up (=Evangelising) the world; - The Holy City of God; -having Christlike Character; the actual transformative agent/force is the Word of God when/as, through God’s Spirit, its principles are implanted in the heart of the receiver. This is the only way that “attributes of God” can be developed in men and then, and only then will His glory, (visibly representative of His character) will shine forth in His followers.
Relatedly, there is no point of “go-ing” anywhere, as now popularly being glibly encouraged in SDA circles, especially amongst the youth (see e.g., here and here), if the actual “vital needs” mission mandate is either: “moronically” not known, indifferently not understood or rebelliously ignored. It is actually not surprising for people who glibly believe that “God’s glory is His Character” to usurptively seek to merely also have this glory while ignoring God’s actual Character. Non-coincidentally, that is exactly the type of usurpation what the Devil had sought to do in Heaven, and, as depicted in the above cited EW 54.2-56.1 vision, he is indeed trying to recreate this deception in all, even/especially, in the SDA Church, who will subscribe to it. And so, in SDA circles, it is perfectly acceptable for them to merely be surfacely “seen” as doing good, rather than actually doing good. And so. e.g., “freely planting trees for the state along a highway” is confused as being humanitarian mission work, and not planting crops to help feed people who will die of hunger! And that is what pointedly underlies the “moronic” action of the 5 virgins who do not end up having a proper infilling of the Holy Spirit. They make their decisions based solely on the surface, cosmetic and “cotton-candy” insubstantive rather than upon deeply-rooted, and exegetically sound truths. And so, case in point, in regards to, e.g., the exegetically unsound, claimed “Isa 6:8-9a” call here, the destruction context of that call to Isaiah is entirely ignored for an instead, fanciful application of that passage. That call to Isaiah was solely being inquired upon by God, i.e., “Who will go for us?” because it was a most unpleasant, judgement/destruction mission (Isa 6:9-13). Nothing short of God’s actual Full Gospel Commission will actually accomplish God’s mandated Full Gospel Commission!! Anything else is not “Mission Work” but merely “Moron Works”.
Relatedly, there is no point of “go-ing” anywhere, as now popularly being glibly encouraged in SDA circles, especially amongst the youth (see e.g., here and here), if the actual “vital needs” mission mandate is either: “moronically” not known, indifferently not understood or rebelliously ignored. It is actually not surprising for people who glibly believe that “God’s glory is His Character” to usurptively seek to merely also have this glory while ignoring God’s actual Character. Non-coincidentally, that is exactly the type of usurpation what the Devil had sought to do in Heaven, and, as depicted in the above cited EW 54.2-56.1 vision, he is indeed trying to recreate this deception in all, even/especially, in the SDA Church, who will subscribe to it. And so, in SDA circles, it is perfectly acceptable for them to merely be surfacely “seen” as doing good, rather than actually doing good. And so. e.g., “freely planting trees for the state along a highway” is confused as being humanitarian mission work, and not planting crops to help feed people who will die of hunger! And that is what pointedly underlies the “moronic” action of the 5 virgins who do not end up having a proper infilling of the Holy Spirit. They make their decisions based solely on the surface, cosmetic and “cotton-candy” insubstantive rather than upon deeply-rooted, and exegetically sound truths. And so, case in point, in regards to, e.g., the exegetically unsound, claimed “Isa 6:8-9a” call here, the destruction context of that call to Isaiah is entirely ignored for an instead, fanciful application of that passage. That call to Isaiah was solely being inquired upon by God, i.e., “Who will go for us?” because it was a most unpleasant, judgement/destruction mission (Isa 6:9-13). Nothing short of God’s actual Full Gospel Commission will actually accomplish God’s mandated Full Gospel Commission!! Anything else is not “Mission Work” but merely “Moron Works”.
The Larger MOB Camp - And on a parallel wider scale, beyond the ones on the verge of being shaken out of the present organization of the Remnant (SDA) Church, to now include the entire Mark of the Beast camp, a similar sanctimonious curtailing of Christ's Exhaustive Gospel mandate is being made resulting in their "Golden Calf" also continuing to be worshipped. And so there too the Gospel mandate is only to be done ‘as the (artificially limiting and whimsically spurious) Capitalistic Economy allows’. And so, as prophetic expounded upon in this post on this Eschatological Babylonian Power, the human baseness coping scheme of Philanthrocapitalism (cf. this site) is being advanced as the optimal way to help those in need, eventhough it is willfully still letting ca. 250,000 people per day die of preventable, curable and intentional causes, so that, e.g., a rich person in a First World country can save up enough money to buy the latest iPod|iPhone|iPad.
OT Background Contribution - The clear allusion to the Isa 2:19-21 events of Rev 6:15 has been expounded upon above, but it is also seen that the statements in Isa 24:21-23 which focus on the transpiring ‘exchange’ of locations/positions/circumstances as God then comes to judge the Earth (Isa 24:1ff), lastingly “shaking” it, thus to its very (spurious) foundations (Isa 24:18b; 19b-20) in order to restore the fortunes of His People and Zion (Isa 24:15-16a, 23b), do also transpire in this Rev 6:15 overturning development. And just as it is understood about Rev 20:1-3 that Satan will then be bound and confined in the abyss through a figurative “chain of circumstances”, in a quite similar “circumstantial” way, God’s faithful people in the end (see e.g., Mar 270.4-6; EW 282-285), and then the unrighteous ones (see Isa 24:22), as “exchangingly” (=Mar 290.1-5) being depicted here in Rev 6:15, will be confined and imprisoned by, not necessarily in/by ‘physical detention facilities’, but fulfillingly by the circumstances being majoritarily/pervasively imposed against them. And so, in the case of the unrighteous being imprisoned then, this will be in the face/light of the now Triumphantly conquering (= RH, July 1, 1915 par. 7-8) and globally establishing/propagating/“freely sharing” the quite influential Zion of God. (=E.g. Ezek 47:5-12 = Rev 21:6-7; 22:17; cf. Rev 7:13-17).
Rev 6:16 - and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;
mountains - As stated on the prior verse, a mountain is symbolic of a choice place of refuge, which in our day and age are the bastions of security provided by economic finances. In fact, there is a direct correlation between even a country’s military might and its economic wealth and strength, and with the United States currently having the wealthiest single country economy, in terms of the combination of total productivity (GDP) and affected population (GDP/capita), it is therefore no surprise that it presently has the world’s most overall powerful military. To keep pace, other countries, willfully playing by the same unwritten Capitalistic rules, have to make significant cuts in their national budget and/or increase their tax revenue.
And so this ‘running to the mountains’ is symbolically seen here to be pointedly, a running to, despite having cast away their idols, their root source of strength which is not God and His Truth, as for the Righteous (Psa 46:1-3 -pertinently enough, the Scriptural basis of the Martin Luther’s 1529 or 1531 ‘Battle Hymn of the Reformation’ [=Fifth Era]; cf. Psa 62:7), but the Capitalistic Economy, -which is also the quasi-tacit “foundational refuge” of the SDA Church.
rocks - “Rock” (Gr. Petra), thus most-hard, and thus foundational substance, by being a feasibly movable, or even readily projectible article, in comparison with the also hard/foundational “mountain”. This notion is the fact that Jesus Christ Himself, and the Truths He taught, was consistently seen as God’s Foundational Cornerstone (Matt 16:18; 1 Pet 2:8; Eph 2:20-22; cf. 1 Cor 10:4|Exod 17:6; Num 20:8, 10; Deut 8:15; (Neh 9:15; Psa 77:16; Isa 48:21)). Opting to not build upon Him and His Teachings was thus seen as ultimately futile and thus most foolish (Luke 6:46-49; cf. GC 640.1), and even if another supposedly “rock solid foundation” is claimed to have been fun, as it is claimed of the Capitalistic Economy, this spurious, usurpative substituting will only prove to be a place where Christ Gospel Truth cannot take root and blossom to bring any harvest. (Luke 8:13).
Interestingly, and corroboratingly, enough, in the prophetically directly related “Voice Earth Shaking” passage of Heb 12:18-29, is seen the dual facet that the Godhead used in an attempt to firmly establish Israel. In the First Covenant attempt God addressed the Nation from the stationary place of a Mountain (=Heb 12:18-21). And from this memorialized Mount Sinai|Horeb He spoke the word of that covenant (Exod 19:18-20:18; cf. Psa 111:10; Pro 9:10). However when even that awesome demonstration failed to circumcise the hearts of Israel then (Exod 20:19-21) God, through the Incarnation of Christ, used a peripherally different “approach” (=Heb 12:18a, 24), but which was substantively the exact same thing (=Heb 12:25; cf. Deut 10:12-13, 16) when He endeavored to establish a Second Covenant with Israel by now trying to first reach their hearts (Heb 8:6-13) and thus seeking to most prominently also (Deut 10:17-19) make them natural lovers of social justice as is the crux of Christ’s Gospel (Matt 25:31-46).
And so, in summary, a (‘petra’) rock comes to symbolically represent a sort of “satellite” (i.e., ideologically reflective) implement of protection, refuge and defense (cf. Isa 33:16; Jer 4:29) which can be used to build a most reliable and strong, remote/removed, fortress to weather adversity. And this is interpretively, applicably seen in those unrighteous ones trusting on economically derived and “defensively” projectible implements for their security, which, as stated above under “mountains” can be any stronghold that is derived from, and is largely dependent upon, and thus “reflective of”, the Economy. So these now globally found unrighteous ones will indifferently be allowing their various strongholds, even the military (i.e., economic based warfare), destroy themselves (=Jer 46:10; GC 655.4; cf. Isa 34:1-8), rather than to either give in to the approaching wrathful Lamb by obeying His Gospel Mandate (=Isa 28:16). And so they would have refused to ascribe to the Divine Canon of “Justice and Righteousness” (Isa 28:5-6; 17a; cf. Psa 89:14; 97:2; Ezek 33:10-20) but instead still trusting in oppression, robbery and riches to live and get/be ahead (Psa 62:10; Rev 9:20; cf. 16:21). Yet despite this preferred, “Covenant with Death”, self-inflicted bloodshedding, it will still be objectively clear, and that readily so to the soberminded ones then (cf. Jer 13:12-14; 50:39; cf. Isa 28:1-3, 7-8; Luke 21:34-36. (See also in this post on Rev 18:8; cf. Rom 1:18-25ff), that it was God’s own destroying actions, through, firstly (an actually earlier, First Series Era, fallen) “hail” (=Rev 8:7-8); -being, as discussed before, God’s choice implement for the economic damaging of concrete/hard/‘functional’ assets (Exod 9:18-26); -with Locusts taking care of more intangible/living/‘vital’ resources Exod 10:4-6, 12-15), which has weakened and made vulnerable their “refuge” of ‘futilely plastering, religious-based/validating, lies’ (Ezek 13:10-16; Isa 28:17b-19a; cf. Jer 50:14-15), and thus brought about their demise (Rev 16:21; GC 636.3); when God secondly made these powers of the earth to violently tremble in this great earthquake. Therefore there had come to be absolutely no shelter, i.e., refuge, for these mountains and caverns hiding ones, from the, ironically enough, now falling mountainous debris. Indeed, as alluded to from the chief contributing OT background of Hos 10:8 to this prophecy [cf. Luke 23:30], it is pointedly when these unrighteous ones will have their quasi-religious (as tangibly (i.e., ideologically) is Capitalism) and idolized “high places and altars” be destroyed that they will seek to have the mountains and the rocks fall on them. (=EW 57.1) And through all of this, these rebellious ones will have most clearly understood that it was their acts of outright (religious) unrighteousness, and actually then, limitedly partial righteousness which vitally still amounts to unrighteousness, is what has brought about their doom. (Isa 28:19b-22).
It is also most foundational to understand that these rebellious factions resolutely, distinctly have come to resort to having their refuge of mountains and rocks ‘fall on them and kill them,’ instead of the Lamb, when they have aghastly come to realize that the enraged/wrathful Lamb, who then, by His Perfect Law & Gospel countenance is, even more terrorizing to them than the Shaking Earth, is reflecting the impurities-consuming glory of God (=Heb 12:29; cf. Mal 3:1-5), as they have no crediting righteous works (=Heb 12:28; cf. EW 15.2, will not forgiven them (=Isa 2:9-11; 22:14; Ezek 9:10-11[49] even if they should then (being now too late) confess their error by begging for mercy (Ezek 8:18; cf. Isa 1:15; Jer 11:11; Micah 3:4 - all part of the ), just as they had been doing to God when He was striving with them to repent (Zech 7:13) and in order to have cease their sanctimoniously, religiously-draped, active and passive, violent and deathly, “Live and Let Die”, works (Ezek 8:17; 9:9; Rev 9:20b; 18:24-see in this post). So they then prefer to have their now knowingly fatal belief and systems “judge them”. (=the Dan 11 North vs. South opposition mindset of 1 Kgs 12:16-17 (see this post); cf. 2 Sam 19:43-20:1-2). All part of the ‘key of David’ implication in this Sixth Series (Isa 22:22|Rev 3:7)
Rev 6:17 - for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"
The Wrath of the Lamb & God - This topic of the Wrath of the Lamb, and some of its peripheral issues as presented in SOP visions (e.g, EW 15.2), have been discussed in significant detail in this post, however it is important to note that this wrath here is jointly from God and the Little Lamb. And so what the more proximate Lamb goes on to do here, which is foundationally based on the specific issues of ‘selfish and indifferent Evangelistic and Humanitarian neglect, (DA 825.3-4) is in full harmony here with God’s will, being even God’s own directives, and thus is in fulfilment of the wrathful judgement of God on the then ‘Babylonian World’ (Rev 11:18; Rev 14:10; 16:19; 19:15).
An interesting parallelism is found in the comments of the World biblical Commentary in regards to the Greek of Rev 6:16 and its OT Greek/LXX basis in Isa 2:19. By being almost identical word for word, certainly in thought, they are indeed directly linked, however it is the slight differences between those two passages which come to shed some light on the joint but distinct ‘Wrath of (a) the Lamb and (b) God the Father, or even likely the Godhead in general, acting together (cf. Gen 1:26), with actually Michael/Jesus being the active agent in these works (John 1:3; Col 1:16; Heb 1:2)’ here.
Isaiah 2:19a - from the presence of
Rev 6:16a - from the presence of
-[No differences here]
Isaiah 2:19b - the fear of the Lord
Rev 6:16b - the One seated on the throne
-The “One Seated on the Throne”, which then is still in Heaven, is understood to be God the Father, as, as detailedly explained in this post, the Little Lamb is not said in the book of Revelation to sit on this throne until Rev 20:4ff, during the era of the Millennium. The Little Lamb will have only begun to take this seat on this Royal throne at the end of the Investigative Judgment, just before the plagues are poured out (GC )
-In the Sixth Seal’s depictions, this Rev 6:16 statement is not saying that this throne has yet to make a tangible appearance on/near Earth, as seen in Rev 14:14ff. The men of the Earth in the Sixth Seal’s Era are seized with terror and panic merely at their understanding of the surety of this Glorious Coming Little Lamb, and that wrathfully so against them. And so this is how they are affected by the mere “presence of the fear of the Lord”, as this is what the One seated on the Throne is projectingly conveying.
Isaiah 2:19c - and from the glory
Rev 6:16c - and from the wrath
Here the Theological themes of God’s glory and God’s wrath are shown to be synonymous. This is indeed a comparison that is common in the Bible, and also SOP (See Heb 12:29; DA 764.1; GC 673.3-674.1; cf. this discussion post). As God’s glory is indeed a “consuming fire” (however only when God, “wrathfully” (i.e., then without any mercy (cf. Rev 14:10); cf. this discussion post) allows it to be unattenuated), for those who are still cling to unrighteousness and not willing to align themselves with the (Full, Everlasting Gospel/Righteousness (cf. Dan 9:24)) Light of this, His, glory, then it is indeed only in/through wrath that God’s glory is permitted to become a destroying agent. (Cf. Joel 2:10-11)
Isaiah 2:19d - of his might.
Rev 6:16d - of the Lamb.
Here God’s might is tangibly exerted by the Little Lamb. As such it will be manifested in the Mighty Action that the Little Lamb will upon arriving on this seen. And, as discussed in this post, the temporal Little Lamb is the same as the Gabriel = ‘Mighty Man of God’ figure depicted in Rev 10. And so it is through this figure that this (fearful, wrathful) might will be revealed.
Summary on Isa 2:19 & Rev 6:16
So it is seen that in the “literal Israel, Zionistic context of this Isa 2:19 passage, the focus is squarely on God, however for a New Covenant context, in Revelation, this prophetic passage has been tweaked and modified to be fulfilled through the “Little Lamb” (cf. John 5:22-23, 27)
As also seen earlier on the Third Seal’s “weight measures”, this brief comparative exposition of an OT LXX passage being used in the book of Revelation, and here tweaked is most significant, because the communicating Angel Gabriel, (and not John, as many commonly believe/state, see here), at the instructions of Jesus, pointedly did this special tweaking for his “signifying” of the prophetic revelations, again to conceal the meaning of the key prophecies so that only God’s faithful people will understand them.[50]
Rev 6:16-17 & The Two (Symbolic) “Rhodes” Figures (PM 175.3-4 (cf. PM 31.2|CW 26.1))
On August 22, 1850 EGW was giving a dream, (recorded in 16MR 171-172), which involved the statement in Rev 6:17 then pronounced by angels “marching through the air” towards the “saints” in the Church, including Ellen White herself, saying/“singing [=knowledge clearly based on ‘their prior, also assistive, experiences’ into the manifestation of God’s Just wrath (e.g, Ezek 7:5-9; 9:1-11; Matt 22:7|GC 21.1-2ff {GC 28.1})] with solemn, clear voices”: "For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" An indepth study of that dream has revealed that it has many key contributions to the pivotal event of Rev 6:17, indeed even upon the Church itself. First of all a couple of general/controlling pointers here. (1) Several purposeful allusions are made to Biblical statements and thus also their contextual episode. (2) Just as, as seen earlier, the mention/involvement of specific figures from the OT in a prophecy is quite meaningful (e.g., Rev 2:14, 20). And so here, also based on other similar applications, the figure of:
(1) Ellen White, as she was key in Theologically/Spiritually guiding the Remnant Church is representing the “Ecclesiastical/Liturgical/Beliefs” aspects of the Remnant Church;
(2) James White, who was spearheadingly, and quasi-indispensably key in rightly establishing the various Church-work supporting institutions of the Church (cf. 1T 106.3), thus forming a formidable duo with Ellen White, is representing these “Institutional” aspects of the Church.
(3) A new figure here is that of Samuel W. Rhodes. Summarily, succinctly said here, with some more pertinent details given later, he is representing Christians who have ceased their advancing in God’s Light of Truth to within the First Prophetic Door, which is the door to the Courtyard of the Sanctuary complex, where the Lamb was to be Sacrificed, and was “Shut” during the Second Advent movement. As also fully explained here, those who remained behind that Shut Door were the various Christians who had outrightly rejected the Second Advent Message of William Miller. However, from those who had accepted that message, of which S.W. Rhodes was one of them, when the “passing of the time” occurred on October 22, 1844, there were many who then refused to go through the then opened Second Prophetic Door, which opened the way into the clarifying, Heavenly Sanctuary Message. Brother Rhodes, a man of means, and having been one of the most faithful and self-sacrificing proclaimers of the 1843 & 1844 Second Advent Message, ‘entirely exhausting all of his means in the cause’, was one of those gravely “humiliated”, being also offended by others causing him to become even more saddened and discouraged, and thus bitterly disappointed persons, and recalcitrantly refused to accept the Sanctuary Message, secluding himself in a forest “wilderness” area in the heart of New York State, however through three persistent, diligent distinct and efforts of Hiram Edson; which was explicitly Spirit-led in the third, including the confirming manifestation of the gift of tongues upon one in his ‘rescue party’, as well as a couple of prior dreams about this meeting, one, given to Hiram Edson, being over 2 years before, Rhodes, who had had the other dream, having been quite awed by all of this expended Divine actions to find him, came to see that it was a Biblical, Present Truth and joined the group of now also Seventh Day Sabbath observing Adventists (See 1 BIO 196.2-199.1/RH, December 1, 1849 pages 2-4), and became, as Ellen White saw and declared of him, to be once again made a “mighty” worker in word and deed (RH, December 1, 1849 par. 1; 15MR 212.5) in the proclamation of the Third Angel’s Message. (August 5, 1851 JWe, ARSH 7.16ff; cf. 6MR 252.1). An example of this “might” was seen in an incident in the spring of 1850, during a meeting in which he quite literally dragged outside from a meeting unto the lawn, two female members of an “extreme sanctification”, mesmerism-practicing, 4-people opposition party, while they were still sitting in their chair. (CET 136.3-139.1ff)
So Rhodes recursively, prophetically represents today the class of Christians today who have yet to see and understand either the Sanctuary or Sabbath Truth; but when they will, as prophetically expected, will become the foremost and mighty proclaimers of its message (e.g., LDE 211.3-5). For them, the probationary Second Prophetic Door, has not yet been shut as they have not had a valid opportunity to know this Truth.
It is spiritually significant to note that, as recounted by Hiram Edson in pages 3&4 of RH, December 1, 1849, EGW was at first opposed to, especially the third effort being made to reach out to Brother Rhodes. She thought that ‘Edson’s feelings for Rhodes were mere sympathy.’ In fact, as Hiram Edson had dreamed some 8 days before meeting with Ellen White and others on this case. He saw that Ellen White was standing next to a shut door and was preventing him from opening it. He patiently waited for her to move out of the way and when she eventually did, he opened the door and went into the room and saw a number of people bowed down to the floor. Then one of those persons arose and putting his arms around the neck of Hiram Edson, cried out: “Oh! Bro. Edson. I am in the dark. I am in the dark!” When the meeting with James and Ellen White and others later occurred EGW, being indeed opposed to those efforts towards rescuing Brother Rhodes, was given a vision recorded in RH, December 1, 1849 par. 1-2 which convinced her that this effort was in the will of God.
This episode spiritually involved a “Shut Door” then, in which it was being believed that a “scattered person” like Brother Rhodes was beyond reach of the Truth, and was to remain “in the dark” behind that ‘First Sanctuary Apartment’ Shut Door. However God was leading Hiram Edson otherwise. (cf. Ezek 11:14-17ff). Not coincidentally, as discussed here, Hiram Edson was the person who God had pointedly inspired with the clarifying Light of the Heavenly Sanctuary Message.
(4) A Fourth figure in this dream is EGW’s then 13-month old Second son James Edson. As the son of James and Ellen, Edson represents the product that should be brought forth by the harmonious working together of the Church and its Institutions. It is thus that the ‘continuance’ of God’s Cause is assured. (Cf. Rev 12:4b-5a). Ellen White was shown that, in an attempt to try to discourage her from her work, Satan would variously try to severely affect her son Edson. (15MR 207.3-208.1; 2SG 132.1; LS88 272.2-273.1; 7MR 318.1; CET 133.5-136.1a). Significantly enough, Ellen White was not as worried and anguished over her first born son John Hebert who was over two years old then, who she also had to leave behind during her many arduous travels then, as he was not in the crucial years of life as was the younger Edson. And so Satan targeted and attacked this more vulnerable infant.
So with the symbolism of these 4 key figures in this dream explained, and with a background context also given, the prophetic meaning in that SOP revelation [given in the red inline comment] is best understood.
A dream the Lord gave me August 22 [1850]. I dreamed of being in a wagon with Brother Rhodes and James [with these three key figures present, all major aspects of the Church were present on this journey], and we were to pass a bridge covered with water [represents crossing the Jordan River to Promise Land through a naturally present path that was however still impeded by opposing people]. As we passed over the bridge I was much frightened, for the water came into the body of the wagon and it seemed that we were sinking. [opposition of these people increased] I had my babe with me [2nd son James Edson, then 13 months old - represents the due/natural “future”, advancement and continuance of the Cause] and I was so frightened I almost let him fall into the water. [give in to the opposition] Brother Rhodes assured me a number of times that there was no danger and that we must necessarily pass through the water over the bridge. [=Isa 43:2 - safety despite going through the people of the world. Cf. 15MR 212.1; October 7, 1851 JWe, ARSH 40.2; June 24, 1852 JWe, ARSH 31.11]
After we had passed safely through the water, my eyes were attracted to something strange in the air. I saw angels marching through the air singing with solemn, clear voices, "For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" [Rev 6:17] Their voices rang through the air. Upon their shoulders they had mantles that reached to their feet [= a merging of, as discussed here, the Dan 10:5 all-white linen tunic/cloak (= for Day of Atonement Judgement) and the Rev 1:13 Figure’s Priestly Ministry robe[51]]. Brother Rhodes began to shout with a loud voice and said, "And shall I see Him whom my soul loveth?" [Breaks into a ‘song’ Sol 3:1-4= About to be completed Marriage Supper of Lamb of God’s Triumphant Church. “Soul” involves ‘truly Loving God with all psyche’ (John 15:12-14 = 1 John 4:12 & 20's abiding). Rhodes was not afraid of the manifestation.]
James was counting the angels [reckoning their strength in numbers vs. Church’s Institutions], and I stood trembling with fear. My life came up before [me] and looked so full of wrongs I could not see how I should be able to stand. [cf. EW 15.2; manifestly EGW, (=the Church Proper) was afraid if she had properly done her Spiritual Work] Just then Satan came where I was and said to me, "You are lost; you are now my property [and] will go with me to the dark regions." My feelings I cannot describe. To be separated from the Jesus I had loved and to take up my abode with those that I abhorred looked dreadful to me. At the same time, I felt unworthy to be with the lovely Jesus. [Zech 3's Investigative Judgement scene. Transpires in the measuring of the Temple itself in Rev 11:1ff. “Church” itself keyly did not have expected “good works”. Only Rhodes (newly converted ones) felt blameless here; while James White (Institutions) was also innocently, tepidly/obliviously just ‘measuring the (physical) strength’ (=“counting” (cf. 1 Chr 21:1)) of these manifested confronting, judgement angels]
While in this dreadful perplexity one of the angels came where I was and said to Satan, "She is not your property, for she has been redeemed unto God [172] by the precious blood of Jesus. She is the purchase of His blood." Satan fled. [cf. PK 582-592] My feelings changed. My soul was overflowing with gratitude and thankfulness to God. I saw the saints as there fell and was reflected from the face of Jesus, light. [=impartation of the Full Gospel Message] Their faces would light up as they rose to meet the angels. [engage these ministering/judging Angels]
Many I saw sleeping. I said as I saw those poor souls, "They have heard of Jesus' coming and that great day of God's wrath just upon them, but as time went on a little longer than they expected it would, they have lost their interest. Stupidity has crept over them, and now they slumber never to awake. [As with 5 foolish virgins, they had no reserves to stand. They dumb down the Message and slothfully refused to “advance” (=Dan 12:4) in the Truth] They ought to have watched [= Matt 26:38-40ff|DA 686.1-2ff; see in this post], and then they would have seen [i.e., perceive] the [judgement/Shaking] angels." [= did not even see, thus not understand the transpired Rev 6:17 judgement, and granted Second chance here. Not among those who sigh and cry and thus not sealed to escape this judgement (=Ezek 9 Shaking)]
This dream has made quite an impression upon my mind.--Ms 6, 1850.
So, to recap and expound upon, as EGW had seen in her first vision soon after the October 22, 1844 disappointment, there also came to be a tense moment revolving around this Rev 6:16-17 of “Who shall be able to stand?” (EW 15.2). As the wrath of the Lamb is directly linked to the indifferent neglect of those in Spiritual and vital/humanitarian needs by the Church (DA 825.4), then this ‘robe spotlessness examination’ to see who will be able to stand is Jesus’ final judgement (Matt 25:31-46) to see who has done these ‘righteous works acts’ (Rev 19:8) which demonstrates one’s faith (James 2:14-26) and are thus credited towards one’s righteousness (see this post), permitting these also invited ones to be part of the Marriage celebration Supper of the Lamb (Rev 19:6-9). What is significant in those two Rev 6:16-17 depictions pivotally used in those SOP revelations, is that they occur at a point when it seems that ‘the coast is clear’.
In EW 14.1-15.2, it occurs at the literally final stage of Final Events, when Jesus has appeared on His “Sign of the Son of Man’ Cloud, and is ready to resurrect the dead saints in order to take them back to Heaven with the living Saints, the 144,000. However He comes to have a major problem with the readiness of the Living Saints. As discussed earlier, in the curtailed SOP roadmap of Final Events, it was shown through EGW that these Living Saints would be granted grace to make up for these righteousness crediting works which they should have done. Such a roadmap as given in that 1844 First Vision was for a fulfilment as depicted around 1850.However by then, the group of also Sabbath keeping Adventists, out of a belief that “time was short’ were not at all engaged in much evangelistic, nor humanitarian works. Their effort was concentrated more towards reaching to fellow Millerites and presenting them with their newly discovered distinctive “Present Truths” of the: Sanctuary, Sabbath, Spirit of Prophecy, Second Coming and State of the Dead. However it turned out in reality, as revealed to EGW in the January 5, 1849 vision recorded in EW 36.1-37.1 (discussed in this post) that when Jesus was about to set in motion Final Events then, that this group of Adventists had not fully/properly accomplished their mission and thus many believers who could be sealed in those testing truths were not. With Samuel Rhodes being successfully reached by November 23, 1849, he would have been one of those believers who would not have been sealed. And so, for the sake of such unreached ones, to the fault of the group of believers basking in the sealing truths, time was prolonged then.
In the second use of the Rev 6:16-17 incident, it is manifest that its intrinsic judicial, ‘robe spotlessness examination’ takes place at a much earlier stage than at the manifestation of the ‘sign of the Son of Man’, yet still in an apparent ‘coast is clear’ setting. As stated earlier, the crossing of the washed out bridge can be Spiritually compared to a crossing of the Jordan (through natural means (i.e., the present bridge = the facilitating Ark of the Covenant (Jos 3:6-17) = the 1847 EW 32.1-33.1ff Sabbath Revelation) and setting up camp in the territory of the Promise Land with the first city to be conquered, Jericho, now in sight (cf. Jos 3:16b). This can be seen to have an application in the expansive work that the Remnant Church was to now undertake following the 1849 Final Events halting. With now many former Adventist believers such as Samuel Rhodes, who was shown to be quite key in restoring the health, and thus saving the life of EGW’s son Edson (7MR 318.1), this group of Adventist was to engage in advanced temporal work during that prolonged time. And thus began the era of the establishment of SDA Institutions, starting with James White publication of the “Present Truth” in July of 1849 later to become the Adventist Review. However, what the August 22, 1850 vision involving the Rev 6:16-17 examination revealed at that point was that there was much work still do be done during that prolonged time, and of all of the various factions in the Church then (i.e., Spiritual Leadership (represented in the vision by EGW), Institutional work/ers (James White) and the Believing, working People (=S. Rhodes); God had a pointed issue with the “Spiritual leadership”, here being Ellen White, (a reprimanding that Satan tried to pounce upon to futilely bring EGW to despair), and so it was EGW who felt the greatest concern about the manifestation of those judgement angels.
With the Rev 6:16-17 episode resulting in a delaying of the unsealing of the Seventh Seal, which when is then unsealed in Rev 8:1, leads into the manifestation of 7 Mighty Angels having the Seven Trumpets (Rev 8:2ff), which were discussed earlier, it appears that these judgement angels (with judgement being also a function of trumpets) which James White is worry-freely counting, are those manifested 7 Mighty Angels bearing Trumpets of Rev 8:2ff. The full Spiritual implication of that vision therefore is that, the successful crossing of the river through a bridge covered by water, which was indeed tangibly done by EGW and others as they set out starting in the spring of 1850 to visit the scattered flock, during which times EGW had to leave her sickly little one James Edson behind, was just a beginning of the work that was now to be done by the Remnant group during this prolonged time. Although now beyond the Jordan River, having accomplished their scattered flock visitations and strengthenings, they still had a “Jericho” to conquer. As with the purpose of the Seven Trumpets, God was now going to act to give this group of Advent believers a tangible, temporal establishment in the world so as to advance His redemptive works. That was a mission that this group of believers greatly shunned, thinking it to be a betraying of their faith in a soon coming of Christ. In fact, for such reasons, they did not even want to formally organize into a Denomination, which they did not until 1863. But now, the instruction of God during this prolonged time was for them to establish Church-work supporting Institutions, and guided by a now understanding and thus encouraging Spiritual leadership in EGW, this is a task that James White chiefly set out to do. And so the “Seven Trumpets” Era of the SDA Church itself began then, however never really getting past the setting up prelude of Rev 8:2-6. The various institutions of Schools (later also Universities), Publishing (now also Media); Hospitals, Missionary Organizations, etcs, were to serve as the basis to, especially by today further advance the temporal cause of God on earth, and when time was for a third time prolonged in 1996, that advanced era was then begun, with the blowing of the Seven Trumpets, as discussed above, soon to follow.
So this August 22, 1850 vision of those (Seven Trumpets) Angels pointedly entering into judgement with the Spiritual/Priestly (as with Joshua the High Priest) faction of the Church then, was to remind the Church that they still had much more work to do in regards to advancing the cause of God during the post-1849 prolonged time, as they had not been found then to be ready for the Second Coming of Christ, as their robes of righteousness was neither spotless, nor, due to a false (First Apartment) Shut Door belief towards former Millerites, spearheaded by the beliefs of EGW, capable of being sealed. Shut Door History has continued to be repeated on similar pivotal points of Spiritual and also socio-economic neglect.
It is significant to note that although Samuel Rhodes was shown to be representing a key figure to the success of the cause, as well as being a beneficial and reassuring instrument of God in regards to the health of EGW’s second son Edson as they were arduously and self-sacrificially working to strengthen the scattered flock, he was not beyond reproach. Most pointedly, in August of 1850, he was greatly praised for a prophetic chart that he had drawn up (15MR 207.2); however in shortly after in 1853 he was being quite sharply, explicitly Divinely reprimanded through the SOP for spearheading a “chart-making business” that was not in accordance with God’s will, as the depictions in those charts were misrepresenting Divine things. (13MR 359.1-360.1) (~Ezek 11:14-22). Manifestly Samuel Rhodes remained, at least inwardly, rebellious to this reproof for several years after that, and it was not until 1862, that he confessed this hatred of these reproofs to James and Ellen White (May 6, 1862 JWe, ARSH 182.28-32). However he recognized that this was indeed necessary to ‘fully refine him in God’s furnace during their pilgrimage’. (And just a year later, in May, 1863, he was again sharply reprimanded by SOP (as well as other SDA workers then for various other reasons) in regards to the unbiblical methods utilized in his work (21MR 260.3-4ff)
A Second Rhodes
Now it may be of no coincidence, as is the power of God’s Almighty, quasi-sovereign, power to do things, that another individual named Rhodes, came to be a most pivotal effecting contributor to the cause of the Remnant Church. This second Rhodes was born on July 5, 1853 in Bishop's Stortford, England, where his father was a pastor. He was the fifth of 9 children born to his parents. In 1870, at the age of 16, he developed a tubercular lung condition and doctors advised his parents to send him to a hot/drier and thus healthier climate for him. As his eldest sibling by 8 years, his brother Herbert, had recently moved to South Africa to attempt to establish a cotton farm, he was sent there to live with him. However, by the time he arrived after a 72-day sailing journey, his brother failed to meet because he had a month before joined a group of English adventurers and had headed for newly found diamond fields. About a month later, the two brothers met up and after some time and effort in working on the cotton farm together, Herbert first decided to return to diamond prospecting ventures, and about month later, in October of 1871, his younger joined him, both never to return to cotton farming. This younger brother was Cecil John Rhodes, (cf. family tree here and history, e.g., here and here, also from several other websites (do a Google search)) who soon after that founded the De Beers Consolidated Mines, and in ca. 1888, through his advantage gaining innovative mining techniques, managed to have a 90% monopoly of the diamond production industry, an industry dominance that continues to exist today with this renown DeBeers Diamond Company. (Cecil Rhodes is also the founder of the quite prestigious Rhodes Scholar/ship Award.)
The intersection with, and contribution to, the Seventh-Day Adventist cause by this (Cecil) Rhodes occurred in 1895, in, as recounted in Light Bearers to the Remnant, p. 225-226, a meeting by SDA official with then Premier Cecil Rhodes, to try to obtain land for a mission station among the natives in the Rhodes’ territory of Cape Colony, he granted them the right to acquire all of the land they could use. They requested 12,000 acres and it was indeed granted to them for the quite nominal price of $60 per year in land tax. The only problem was that the General Conference did not approve of this ‘quasi-gift’ from a civil authority to the Church as they saw it as a violation of the principles of the Separation of Church and State. And so the following formal GC resolutions were passed during the 1895 General Conference Session against this, and any other such “civil gifts”:
" That we ought not as a denomination either to seek or to accept from any civil government, chief, ruler, or royal chartered company, supreme, local, or otherwise, any gift, or donation, concession, grant, either of land, money, credit, special privilege, or other thing of value, to which we are not in common with all others justly entitled as men without any reference to our religious profession or religious work."
and
"That in harmony with this resolution that the General Conference Association be instructed to pay an appropriate amount for all government land that may be secured in Africa or elsewhere."-- General Conference Bulletin, Feb. 21, 1895, p. 283
Then specifically in relation to what was to be done with the Cape Colony grant, the foreign mission board, ratifying the GC’s actions above, stated that:
"The lands secured from the government shall be purchased and not received as a grant."
However before this action could be implemented, on January 30, 1895, Ellen White, then unofficially “banished” in supposedly far away Australia, wrote a communication from there in which she indicated:
"With respect to the propriety of receiving gifts from gentiles or the heathen," "what they would give, we should be privileged to receive." (See SpTA03 29.1-30.2)
The next day, Jan 31, 1895, she wrote an article in the context of the ‘solemn and serious
times upon them’, and pointing out that certain “leading men” were not “wise” and had “false ideas” and ‘incorrect principles’ which had led them to ‘take extreme positions in regards to religious liberty which had been “woven with suggestions that do not come from the Holy Spirit.”’ She also cited the Biblical examples of Nehemiah as well as King Cyrus’ contribution to the rebuilding of the Temple in Judah as calibrating cases. (SpTA03 32.1-34.1; cf. the White Estate’s Contextualizing Comments in RH, March 23, 1911 par. 1-4)
In the light of EGW’s Biblical condemnation of the GC resolution, it was never implemented. That 12,000 acre quasi-gift went on to become the Solusi Mission, the first one operated by the denomination among non-Christian peoples, and is currently still the site of the SDA Church’s Solusi University, which was actually named after Chief Soluswe, the leader whose lands had actually been violently taken by Cecil Rhodes.
It is most significant that EGW saw the whole genesis of this unwarranted/wrong course of thinking by the General Conference to be their lack of knowledge/understanding of the ‘“on the ground” “necessities”’. She says in fuller context and details:
“The truth is to have a standing-place, and the standard of truth is to be uplifted in many places in regions beyond. Be sure that God has not laid upon those who remain away from these foreign fields of labor, the burden of criticising the ones on the ground where the work is being done. Those who are not put on the ground know nothing about the necessities of the situation, and if they cannot say anything to help those who are on the ground, let them not hinder, but show their wisdom by the eloquence of silence, and attend to the work that is close at hand. I protest against the zeal that they manifest that is not according to knowledge, when they ventilate their ideas about foreign fields of labor.”
Succinctly said here, this second Rhodes figure, which I prophetically believe that God guided from his birth in 1853, (perhaps non-coincidentally, in the year in which the first Rhodes, Samuel Rhodes, began to, even if momentarily, quite crucially, veer off course with his detrimental chart-making, -to the point where God Himself had to intervene through the SOP), to be in the position of wealth and power that he came to be in by 1895, where he could make such a pivotal grant to the SDA Church as they then engaged on establishing foreign Missions among non-Christians. As with Cyrus in the Bible, who, as discussed starting here, God also manifestly guided from his birth to the throne of Medo-Persia and in the world hegemony replacement of Babylon some sixty years later (as Cyrus himself came to understand; see Ezra 1:2ff; cf. Josephus, Antiquities 11:1.2 [#5-#7]), he came to be a guided and reserved instrument & asset which God could “summon” at the opportune time to advance His prophetic plans (=Isa 46:11). And so, this manifestly deliberately, long-ago, chosen, guided, enriched and empowered second Rhodes figure (~Isa 45:1-4), came to help chart a new, Biblical course for the SDA Church which served to expand the kingdom of God throughout the world and facilitate their witness to every nation, tongue, tribe and people in the world. And so, as with the still due conquering of Canaan beyond Jericho following the Jordan Crossing (cf. PP 487.1-3ff), was expanded the temporal, territorial standing that God wanted His Church to have in the world.
However, recursively today, the same ‘false ideas and ‘unwise and incorrect principles in regards to Religious Liberty’‘, are similarly being held and expressed by the Church today, against, pointedly, the furthering, necessity based, plans of the NJK Project. As it is objectively clear and self-evident, a project like the NJK Project which aims to fully accomplish Christ’s Gospel mandate by reaching out to ‘the least of these’, which will result, in its abortion adoptions ministry in up to 65,000,000 new infants to have to, sustainably and adequately, provide a livelihood for, then the work of establishing cities and also an independent country where such a ministry can be most feasibly and easily done, is indeed a most basic necessity. However the common spiritually-shallow and knee-jerk dismissive reaction of SDA’s is that such an enterprise is not in the will off God (with them sanctimoniously outrightly and indifferently ignoring its life-saving reason) and also, as an independent country, against the principles of the Separation of Church and State (as if this formal organization was not also a most basic need, or that God never had an independent Israel nation). As later said by EGW in 1911, in enjoining relation to this whole land grant episode, it was indeed within God’s express will for such facilitating opportunities and gifts should be seized and received “by which the hungry might be supplied with food, the naked with clothing, the homeless with homes” (RH, March 23, 1911 par. 15)
And with the NJK Project also being commonly summarily dismissed as being ‘too ambitious’ (see e.g. here and in here), which is assumed to also be against the will of God, as stated in the response here, “ambitiously” doing all that is necessary to fully accomplish Christ’s Gospel mandate is never against the will of God. (See TMK 91.2-4|RH, October 25, 1881 par. 6-12) It is most telling of the reigning hypocrisy that many of those ‘ambition-disparaging’ people have absolutely no problem with them expending most of their time, money and effort in pursuing their various worldly ambitions. Yet they have a problem when this is done for the cause of God’s Kingdom. It is relatedly, ironically most interesting that EGW found fault with the leaders opposing the Rhodes land grant in their lack of ‘walking humbly with God’. (SpTA03 32.2) With that phrase being spiritually linked to the statement in Micah 6:8, and may have been impressed upon the mind of EGW then as she was writing this article, it was manifestly also a reproach to these leaders, as with SDA’s today, that they had come to the wrong understanding and conclusion in regards to this issue, because they fundamentally did not “practice justice”, nor love “loving-kindness/loyalty”, but merely had a spurious rote religious experience with God where they thought that all they needed to do to satisfy his requirement upon them was to offer animal sacrifices (Micah 6:6-8); or in today’s equivalence: pay their tithe. {Cf. here|here}. And so today, helping those in even vital needs, as also are being aborted infants, is sanctimoniously dismissed as not being required by God, to the point where the Church, having bought into the whole profits and money first Capitalistic mentality, also is variously acting in pursuit of those worldly ambitions to trample upon the poor, needy and dying. And Jesus is coming “soon” to, most approvingly, collectively, (for, as they are all in, and remain in, the SDA Church, they are not the ones being Shaken out), translate these hateful thieves and murderers to Heaven!??? Sure... not the God of the Bible I know. As depicted in the Rev 6:16-17 episode and its various SOP revelation implications and applications, that manifestation will only be an approaching judgement of God upon, pointedly, the membership of the “Church proper” itself.
Interestingly enough, gradually the Church took this counsel of EGW in receiving government grants and gift to effectuate the aberration of allowing themselves to become conformed to the world in order to have such gifts. EGW had however clearly counselled that: “we need not sacrifice one principle of truth while taking advantage of every opportunity to advance the cause of God.” (RH, March 23, 1911 par. 16). However today, in order to secure government recognition and thus grants and funding, SDA Institutions allow themselves to lower the standard of Truth and Righteousness and adopted operating policies which are no different than the God-despising world. And moreoverly, these accepted civil funds are not being used by SDA Institutions to fund works that will benefit the poor and needy, but, Capitalistically, to provide services to those who can afford to pay them back and/or to procure a secularly aimed career. And in fact, as also being levelled against the NJK Project, in regards to its endeavor to lawfully and feasibly separate itself from the influence and unbiblical authority of worldly governments, it is now seen as wrong to not go along with worldly policies.[52] And so, at either extreme is the due course of those who refuse, in whatever self justifying extreme, to do the Full Gospel Will of God. (Isa 5:20).
And so, in conclusion, for those object lesson purposes, even if solely to be fully perceived and understood by this present generation in the face of the more advance work that it now has to do during its also further prolonged time, God had effectively called this also key Second Rhodes figure by name, as he had done with Cyrus. Indeed the two underlying themes of these two Rhodes figures is quite applicable to the due work of the Church today, which is one of reclaiming those from the 10+ Lost Tribes of God’s Israel who currently do not understand the full Truths of the Bible, as they have yet to be either properly, harmoniously, nor loudly proclaimed by the Remnant Church, due to their various unbiblical ways and approaches to do this work, and also lead God’s People out of Babylon, which is simultaneously advancing them into their Promised Land beyond the initial city of Jericho, in order to secure all of the Blessing that God is wanting to give them so that they could fulfill the Israel Covenant and be the Final, Living Testimony Blessing to the World (=Matt 24:14) that God had foundationally desired (Gen 12:2), in order to provide the rest of the world, its best opportunity to being saved.
OT Background Contribution - The crux of the Rev 6:17 questioning statement is “Who will be able to stand in the approaching day of the wrath of the Lamb?” With (1) this wrath being spelled out in DA 825.4 to be because of neglect of, pointedly here, believers towards those in Spiritual and Vital/Humanitarian need, (2) with Rev 14:9-11 synonymously showing that it is poured against those who have ascribed to the Mark of the Beast which leads these, by disobeying the Sabbatical Laws of God which have Religious and Socio-economic implications and application, to completely make void the law of God, -i.e., through adherence to Sunday Sacredness and/or Capitalism (see here), and (3) with EW 15.2 showing that those who can even most mercifully stand on that day needing to be able to be covered with the Righteousness of Christ by ‘having clean hands and a pure heart’, thus not people who knowingly are not doing anything to help those in Spiritual and/or Humanitarian need, even if the common excuse of
‘a very soon Second Coming’ is claimed (= ‘treading upon God’s Sabbath’ EW 36.2; Isa 58:13); and with that EW 15.2 episode mirroring the Sheep/Goats separation of Matt 25:31-46; (manifestly at a precursory Wheat/Tares, SDA Church Separation Shaking) wherein those who are accepted there, whose face had become pale with fright, are surprised that they do have ‘clean hands and a pure heart’ (=Matt 25:37); then, from all of these consistent and common themes in the Bible, it is seen that those who will be able to stand on that day are those who are selflessly doing the very best that they can to meet the (a) Vital/Humanitarian and/or (b) Spiritual needs of others. They would thus be fully reflecting the Great Ordeal and Sacrifice that Christ underwent to, Himself (a) Temporally, extend the life and time for this entire planet that all may have a fair, potential chance at Salvation (Luke 12:49-50; cf. 2 Pet 3:9) and (b) Spiritually, make a way for any believer to be saved from their sins (John 1:29; 3:16-21).
So with now the way to not be subject to the wrath of the Lamb on that day having shown to be unequivocally and clearly revealed in the Bible and SOP, it is interesting to see the various citings of that day of wrath (=day of the Lord) throughout the Bible.
Joel 2:11 - Here God’s post-Shaking ‘great and mighty army with many banner’ (EW 270.4), His Church Triumphant Forces, then having had its deserted ranks filled in by those who have come out of the Babylonian System (EW 271.1; LDE 211.2-4), has taken the field, and their main empowering feature is that they have set out to ‘carry out the word of God’s which He has just clearly uttered’. Evidently this is the “Voice of God” expression (EW 52.1; 272.3a) which seals their Full Gospel Biblical understandings (=EW 34.1) and producing the Latter Rain upon them (EW 14.1) and impels them then in a gathering work (LDE 211.5; EW 52.1; 286.1)
Mal 3:2 - It is ironic to see in that passage that the appointed priesthood of Israel (= “the sons of Levi” Mal 3:3) is, no doubt “cheerleadingly”, clamoring for the Coming of the Lord to establish a covenant with them (Mal 3:1), however God clearly warns them that that day will not be a day of rejoicing for them. At best it will be a day when they will be placed in the furnace of God’s refining to see it they could be purified to the pure gold and silver standard that God expects of them so that their offerings may be righteous. (Mal 3:3-4). The lay people under this corrupt priesthood, who had been setting forth an unrighteous example for them will however be most mercifully spared (Mal 3:16-4:3; cf. Rev 11:13).
A template typological fulfilment of this was done in the pre-Messiah ministry of John the Baptist (Mal 3:4; 4:5-6; Matt 11:9-15 cf. this post for the present day, fullest eschatological application of this prophecy) against most sternly, the corrupt leadership of Judah/Israel. (Matt 3:7-12)
Nah 1:6 - In this background passage, God has arisen to take vengeance of His defying enemies (Nah 1:1-3). Those who are attempting to fight against God here are devising plans to try to weather this wrathful, Earth and mountain shaking manifestation of God (Nah 1:5), with plans to maintain and reestablish their rebellious ways after all this passes by. But God warns them that their now proven to be bankrupt ways will not be allowed to take a foothold again on the earth. This is fulfilled, as discussed here, ( see e.g., on Rev 17: & 18:), by the Eighth/final form of the Babylonian system seeking to maintain its Capitalistic Socio-Economic Ways by spuriously seeking to whitewash them with a purported Biblical morality. But God will not let these still deadly ways stand.
Isa 63:3-6 - That great day of wrath and vengeance of God is most graphically delineated in Isa 63:1-6. This is an imagery that is most explicitly restated in Rev 14:17-20. Jesus made reference to it in His Ministry Closing Instructions in Luke 21:22 with the wider context being that this was the deliberately left out portion of His Ministry Opening Address from Isa 61:1-2ff in Luke 4:16-21ff; cf. DA 237.3ff; 239.2-4ff; 240.4ff). What is key here is that Isa 63:3 reveals both the why and how that wrathful vengeance is kindled and executed. It is because ‘from those who should, and could, have helped, no on came to join this lone, “self-Majestically clothed”, saving righteousness-speaking, figure seemingly not even from God’s Israel, but from the capital city of the rejected (cf. Mal 1:2-5), non-covenant Edomite people. (Isa 63:1; cf. John 1:46; 7:41, 52). And so it is indeed as stated in the SOP references above on Luke 4:22-30, because the pride of those people in Judah then was cut by the higher righteousness preaching of this lone figure claiming that they themselves needed to be saved and reformed that they completely ignored whatever He was preaching in connection with that overarching “higher standard of righteousness” theme (=Matt 5:17, 20); which was virtually all of this figure’s teaching. And so this ostracized lone figure wrathfully let these opposing leaders follow the natural path and course of their wrong ways until it led them to the utter physical destruction that it was always sure to end up in. (=Matt 13:10-17 = Isa 6:9-13). These leaders should have joined this figure in speaking and acting against the things that God abhorred, but instead they were indifferently and knowingly, sanctimoniously in full support of these things. They permitted, and that through a claimed staunch zeal for (the letter of) the Law of God, especially the Sabbath, all heightened by a soon Messianic advent, as specifically prophesied in Dan 9:24-27), unrighteousness, oppression and injustice to reign supreme and go on unhindered, thus actively contravening the Sabbatical release that God was then endeavoring to defeat (Isa 61), resulting in the Glorious Triumph of God’s Jerusalem/Zion (Isa 62). But these people, misguided by their corrupt leaders, just would not have anything to do with that standard of righteousness, and so, they were left to reap the natural fruit of their down (Matt 23:37-24:2ff; cf. Luke 19:41-44; DA 569-580). The robe of this figure were blamingly pointed out to be stained in red by those who should have been acting their part in trampling the world’s unrighteous fruit into the wine that with which this usurping, great enemy of God, Babylonian system would be drunken with, so that they would, most fairly, bring about their own fall and utter end. (=Isa 63:3-6|Rev 14:17-22 - See in this post on Rev 18:8). For as seen here, the “wrath of God” occurs when He no longer allows His gracious mercy to cover up the danger consequences of those, then knowingly and indifferently clinging to sinful way, as He then pursue an unhindered/unbothered, singular “passionate” course for Truth, Justice and Righteousness.
The same circumstances are being jointly reproduced in the SDA and Christian Church and, as well as the rest of the World (= the three parts of Babylon - Rev 16:19) today. The SDA Church refuses to rise up to the higher level of righteousness called forth by their True and Faithful Witness, preferring to continue to adhere to its unrighteous and unjust, even Spiritually and Physically murderous, pervasive Capitalistic customs/ways/policies. Like those in Christ days, they prefer to continue to sip from the wine of that Babylonian System (=LDE 174.2), rather than take their resolute stand against it and join with Christ in endeavoring to bring about its self-inflicted end. Yet this is the pointed condition upon which the whole destiny of the Church hangs. (1T 181.2). Nonetheless, that message will produce the Shaking of the SDA Church (1T 181.1) with those who want to raise themselves to that highest standard separating themselves from those, (and that, a vast majority, likely at a ‘95%, 19 in 20’, rate (=LDE 172.1), who are preferring to docilely go along with those Spiritually and Temporally unrighteous, Capitalistic ways. And so they will share in the judgement that will be poured out upon Babylon, and that as an intrinsic tier, third-part of that Apostate System. (LDE 172.2)
Sixth Trumpet
Rev 9:13 - Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard one voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
one voice from... - As seen above in the discussion on Rev 8:2-6, since there are actually 8 Mighty Angels in that scene, and all but one have a trumpet, which is shown there to be the, now again Mighty Angel, Jesus, then it appears that this voice is that of Jesus who is then still officiating at that golden altar.
four horns of the golden altar - The four horns of this altar are quite deliberately being pointedly, and thus significantly/purposefully being emphatically cited here. This voice could easily have come merely from that golden altar, but instead it is coming from its for horns. The pointed meaning here is seen in the fact that the Altar of Incense, quite strikingly when compared with the Altar of Burnt Offerings, was given 4 horns which were moreover of one piece with the altar. (Exod 37:25-26) With horns being a symbol of (monarchial) ruling power (Dan 7:24; 8:20-22; Rev 17:12; cf. 1 Sam 2:10), with a horn also being used to anointed kings (1 Sam 16:1; 1 Kgs 1:39); and with Israel having from its start the rulings powers of priests and judges, but not yet kings although that was always in the plans of God for them but only when they have become (fully) established in their Promised Land (Deut 17:14-20; cf. PP 603.2), which due to their own non diligence had not yet come to fully be, i.e., to the territorial (see e.g., Gen 15;18; Jos 1:4), and relatedly, Spiritual, extent that God wanted (Jos 13:1ff, 13, Judges 2:1-3; cf. Jos 23:11-13), not even by the time when they asked for a king (1 Sam 8:4-9ff), it seems that these 4 horns on this piece of Sanctuary furniture intrinsically linked to prayer, and which was the last entity before the Throne Room of God, was representative of the temporal, monarchial ruling power that God always expected His Nation to have, however only when their will had become in perfect harmony with His own, by themselves having been thoroughly sanctified by His (Holy Place) Sanctuary Provisions. The ministry of Christ at that Altar is all aimed towards preparing God’s faithful people symbolically gathered there and praying, for that (Full Law) Atoning Judgement and then Kingdom Era.
So a ‘voice being pointedly heard from the 4 horns of that golden altar which is before God’ is indicative that a pivotal transition was about to occur here, with the prayer imploration ministration at Altar of Incense, which was inherently directed towards the full rulership blessing of God for His People (cf. Matt 6:10), about to be wrapped up and a move into the Most Holy Place, where jointly Judgement and Rulership (cf. Dan 7:22, 26-27) was about to be initiated. But, once again, the progression towards this full blessing, was upon the strict condition that the Israel territory upon which this judging/ruling kingship (cf. 1 Sam 8:5b), which, as discussed in this post, were actually not meant to be within the same power in God Israel, first be entirely free of any wayward and sinful thing.
Rev 9:14 - [] saying to the sixth angel, the one who has the trumpet, "Release the four angels who have been bound because of the great river Euphrates."
saying to the sixth angel - For the first time in the sounding of the trumpets (see Rev 8:7, 8, 10, 12, 9:1), a trumpet is sounded and instead of something, as if, preset then transpiring, a voice is heard dictating what is to take place under the sounding of that Trumpet. This manifestly seems like an injunctive command from that authoritative voice which is shown above to be that of Jesus Himself.
Release the four angels... - The pivotal word in this statement is the Greek term translated here as “because of”. It is from the Greek dative of the word epi. As seen in Wallace, GGBTB 376, the Greek preposition “epi”, being in the dative case can either have the basic Spatial meaning of: on, upon, against, at, near; or the Temporal meaning of: at, at the time of, during; or the Causal meaning of: on the basis of. As the River Euphrates is a place, the Spatial meanings of: on, upon, at, or near, would straightforwardly seem to be applicable, but the question then is, why and when were these angels “bound” there (by God), with the implied punishment notion inherently involved here? However, when the greater context of the book of Revelation is taken into consideration, there comes to be revealed a much more significant and theologically sound meaning.
The last mention of a group of Four Angels was within the context of the preceding Series of Seals, with Four Angels being commanded by an Angel arising from the East (cf. this post), to ‘Hold the four Winds until the servants of God are sealed in their forehead’ (Rev 7:1-3). With the “Seal of God” being directly opposite to the Mark of the Beast, it thus is sequiturly seen that it is the Babylonian power which is successfully hindering this Sealing by having extended and maintain a stronghold upon God’s Israel in Babylon. Then, as later seen in the corresponding Sixth Plague (Rev 16:12-16), discussed next, the pivotal action that defeats the power of Babylon is the drying up of its supplying Euphrates River. And so, putting the two pertinent sets of imagery together here, it is manifest that the Four Angels have been “bound” by/because of this Euphrates River. In other words, that still lively and flowing river is, as in the OT Historical event upon which it is based, preventing the affectation of leadership which is to lead to the end of Israel’s Babylonian Captivity and their coming out of there to Return and upbuild their own land. In Rev 7 this transpires by the 144,000 first being sealed, leading to the rescuing of the Great Multitude. And so it is the Causal meaning that exegetically, including Theologically, applies here in Rev 9:14, with the Greek dative here being syntactically a dative of cause, which indeed has the basic meaning of “because of” (see Wallace, GGBTB, 167), indicating ‘why the angels had been “bound” here’.
As seen in the SOP’s corresponding revelation on Rev 7 in EW 36.2-38.2, (discussed in detail in this post), as it is the halting pleas of Holy Place ministering Jesus which leads to dispatching the Angel Gabriel from the presence of the “Most Excellent Glory” (i.e., God’s Throne Room in the Most Holy Place) to those Four Angels to communicate that injunctive message (cf. Matt 18:18), then it is no surprise that it is also here, the voice of Jesus Himself, here shown as a Mighty Angel still ministering in that Holy Place, which initiates the releasing of those Four Angels in this Sixth Trumpet Era, and that with a corresponding releasing command that here is, thus inherently, also injunctive.
It is significant to note that right from the start of the blowing of the Trumpets, they affect the areas that were supposed to be off limits to the Four Winds Angels of Rev 7:1-3. Namely, the very First Trumpet (Rev 8:7) affects, in one swoop, the Earth, Trees and Grass; and then the next Trumpet (Rev 8:8) affects the Seas. -Albeit all in a still limited way, only affecting one third of them, except for the Grass which is entirely burned up.[53] And so it can be seen that in the unfolding of the Trumpets, all of the Earth has by now been most detrimentally affected, yet there is still one bastion that is defiantly standing up to these actions and judgements of God, and that is the Babylonian power. And so, in order to compete these judgements it must at all cost be now utterly brought down and enduringly laid waste. The whole Militant effort thus far would come to nought is this is not done, just like Israel conquering of Jericho who not have succeeded if they had stopped marching after 5 days.
So, in a more focused sense, each sounding trumpet is contributing towards the ultimate Sealing of God’s Israel, with each successive radical judgement/victory in each trumpet blast serving, or at least should serve, to convince God’s Israel to take their side on God’s side, just as each solemn, resolute and orderly march of Israel around Jericho, who had just renownly miraculously crossed the Jordan River (cf. 16 MR 171.2), should have warningly convicted the inhabitants there to peacefully surrender, but instead the counterintuitive silence, and lack of physical affectation thus far only served to embolden them in their scoffing contempt, the first Five Trumpets indeed has advanced the Military Cause of God in establishing a territorial stronghold for His Israel, and not the only impeding obstacle, is the one which is keeping His possibly faithful bond-servants under the power of Babylon. And that is the River of Babylon (=the (spurious) Religious aspects/grouping of this Babylonian power) which is the foundational life and supply line of this Great Apostate City, and thus is covering up its most crucial point. So these Four Angels are bound because of that flowing River and it thus needs to be dried up in order to make way for the kings from the East which results in the fall of that City and would, even if merely potentially (i.e., Rev 22:11 -see here), serve to release of all of God’s Servants, including pointedly those in the tribe of Judah, who actually want/wanted leave Babylon to return to their own land...but, in an ultimate end sense, the prophetic call out of Babylon (Rev 14:8; 18:1-5ff) actually is given before that final physical/observable judgement fall (Rev 18:6-24) occurs, and it is that call which is to be heeded in faith by God’s people in Babylon.[54]
It is also significant to note that Israel’s Promised Territory was to extend all the way North/East to the Euphrates River; -from Egypt’s Red in the West/South; (see Gen 15:18; Exod 23:31; Deut 1:6-8; 11:24; Josh 1:4; cf. 1 Chr 18:3; 2 Chr 9:26); and that is the territory that God’s Israel is to fully take possession of when it finally attains it Triumphant Stage when God then also calls out His scattered Children from where they had been purposefully scattered, as God has always promised. (1 Kgs 14:15; Micah 7:10-13; Isa 27:12-13 || Ezek 11:17; 20:41-42; 28:25; 36:23-24; Isa 11:11; Jer 3:18). So with God endeavoring to ultimately make Babylon a desolation upon the face of the Earth (Jer 25:9; 51:37, 62), He was not calling his people to take over the vanquished territory of Babylon, which He easily could have. Instead He is calling them to return to their own promised territory.
Rev 9:15 - And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they may kill the third of mankind.
prepared for the hour and day and month and year - There has been much discussion as to what this expression means and, in Historical times, how it was to be chronologically interpreted. (See Maxwell, God Cares 2:255-256, 262-263). However an exegetical answer to that dilemma seems to straightforwardly be that this particular Greek construction having a single article before a listing of words conjoined by “and” (Gr. kai) is some occurrence in relation to the Granville Sharp Rule (see a fuller discussion in Wallace, GGBTB, 270-290), thus showing that this listing forms a single unit, as each of those terms, while quantitatively different/distinct all refer to “time”. So this here would be a reference to a “unit of specific time” and that, ‘down to the hour’. However, while those for terms are indeed quantitatively distinct, they, as having inherent and definite can also be joined into a single time figure by adding them together.
And so under the first possibility, this would be a reference to a specific time with the very “hour” given and under the second “joinable” possibility, adding those figures together would produce a total figure. Given the already attested applicability of the day-year principle for that joined time figure, it is seen that it totals and prophetically equates a period of 391 years and 15 days.
As it interpretationally turns out both possible understandings point to a similar notion of fulfilment. The mention of an “hour”, which in Revelation is explicitly or implicitly, consistently associated with a type of (decision-making) “judgement” (see Rev 14:7, 18:10, 17, 19; cf. Rev 3:3, 10; 11:13; 14:15; 17:12), can thus be understood in Rev 9:15 to be referring to a ‘judgement hour’. Indeed that is what is implied in the Four Angels having been prepared for that specific time, when moreoverly ‘the third of mankind is then to be killed’ through this executed action. As it will be later seen, from attested Historical Application, that period of time was rightly applied to, actually both the beginning and the end of the Second Advent Awakenings “Judgement Hour” messages starting around 1839 through its full fulfilment in 1844, when the Judgement prophecy of the 2300 days (Dan 8:14) ended.
four angels released - Earlier it was shown that these Four Angels are most likely the same who were to hold the Four Winds until God’s bond-servants were sealed. It was also shown that these Four Angels had, with the sounding of the very First Trumpet, which, as shown at the beginning of this post, do coincide with the Seven Plagues, begun to increasingly release these Four Winds (cf. EW 36.2a). However here, they are themselves to be “released”, after having been “bound” at the Great River Euphrates, and by/because of that Great River itself. And their action to overcome that obstacle is to dry up that River, and this is done, as seen in the next verse, by them assembling a mighty army of 200,0000,000 horse-mounted soldiers.
As also priorly discussed, each of these Four Angels control/affect a message that relates to each of the Four Living Creatures. And so this “releasing” of them which produces that great army, is manifestly done by them widely proclaiming their Four joint Messages on the implications of these Four Living Creatures, which namely deal with the Four Chief Aspects of Earthly Life which need to be constantly worshipping the Creator God, (and not man-made usurping systems and ideologies, cf. here), so that, as depicted in Ezek 1, the Throne of God can be welcome and abide, at least amongst His Professed People. Indeed, as discussed here, that was the variously attempted objective of God with His still existing, and thus still applicable, Israel.
kill the third of mankind - It must firstly, be importantly exegetically pointed out that while the express intention here is to ‘kill the third of mankind’, the fact that this is expressed in the Greek subjunctive mood, thus as merely a “probability”, and not a “certainty” (=indicative mood), this is merely stating that these actions are being done in the hope that ‘this third of mankind would be killed.’ So it is really if this “third” manages to find a way to survive, will they be able to avert these Divine intentions, and really it is only if God chooses to be merciful that such a intended fate can be averted. (cf. Rev 18:8b). And then again, they could actually avert all of this by merely heeding this most solemn Divine warning and repenting (=Ezek 33:10-11, 12-20; cf. Rev 16:15)
And with this action focusing mainly on Christianity and not yet the entire world, it is actually quite Biblical fair that God begins His judgement against those who have had the greatest light and opportunity to know, do and model the Truth to others (1 Pet 4:17; cf. Ezek 9:5-6, 10), (which this Babylonian power, Religious nucleus has not done), an opening, targeted judgement action which should prove to be demonstratively more than enough to convince others to abandon her inebriating ways and fully/lastingly repent (see in here on Rev 18:9, 18), however, as discussed later: Rev 9:20-21.
As it was explained before in regards to the use of the term “the third” in the First to Fourth Trumpets (Rev 8:7-12), this pointedly refers to the chiefest part of something. Priorly these had been various non-human living, and vital life-conducive symbolic ecological entities on/for this planet, but now, God is more pointedly targeting the leaders in this grand rebellion against God which are humans themselves. And in turn, in the (Full, i.e., OT & NT) Biblical World view, within this category of humans, this chiefest: ‘“the third” of them’ refers to the grouping of people who call/consider themselves to be Christians. It is quite noteworthy that today, and for quite a while now, exactly one third of the world is of the Christian Faith. It is also most intrinsically related that the world is socio-economically divided into Three Groupings of a “First”, ‘Second’ and “Third” world, with significantly enough, ca. 81% of those in the ‘ring-leading’ “First World” considering themselves to be Christian.
And so these angels are pointedly being sent to deal with this actually mostly apostate group now forming, except for a small few, the Prophetic Babylonian System. It is also significant to see that it was one third of the angels in Heaven who rebelled (Rev 12:4). And so this quantitative, and also qualitatively, numerical expression may also emblematically derive its notion of ‘an apostate group that needs to be pointed judged’ from that, relatedly enough, Great Controversy beginning group of apostatised and warring-against-God, fallen angelic group.
So in summary of this verse, it is here being said that: God’s army, assembled by the inherent message of the Four Winds Angels, is now to take the field to, actually proactingly, marshal against the Babylonian power, which as subsequently seen during the corresponding Sixth Plague, assemble themselves to resist this challenge.[55]
Rev 9:16 - The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.
army of horsemen - In Revelation a warring Horseman has been seen to be, as earlier discussed in the First Four Seal, a depiction of God’s Church on the move. Priorly in the Zech 1:7-11, precursor background for Revelation’s imagery, these horsemen were merely on a patrolling mission throughout the Earth were it was wrongly the case that all was peaceful and quiet while God’s Zion was languishing. And so God promised to radically overturn this state of affairs (Zech 1:12-17), taking pointed vengeance on the powers which had ruined His Zion (Zech 1:18-21). Then in Zech 6, those horsemen are now sent forth from between two bronze mountains (Zech 6:1 =the best and most strong, though not yet externally/visually non-lackluster, way in which God has managed to establish, as discussed before, His (1) Religious Mount Zion as well as (2) its territorial habitations. (=Dan 11:45). These horsemen are now sent out being more formidably pulled in the greater war implement of chariots, which allows for a greater offensive weapon wielding and manoeuverability, in order to appease God’s wrath in the earth. (Zech 6:8). This is manifestly related to EGW vision in (GW 136.1-139.2) which speaks of doing much greater reaping works than what is currently normative and accepted in terms of reaping in various most difficult patches. It is also apparent that it is after these action that this cause comes to be able to obtain/procure gold and silver as they then undertake much more tangible building works of God’s Kingdom (see Zech 6:9-11ff).
This imagery of horsemen, and that as an ‘army of horsemen’, is relatedly brought forth again in Rev 19:11-21 (fully discussed here) which was been partially, and somewhat parsimoniously, albeit, pertinently discussed throughout this point. And so it is indeed prophetically understood that these are two depictions of the same event. And as that Rev 19:14 full army is said to then be on (white) horses (=Rev 6:2's might multiplied), and not, in chariots, as prophetically depicted in Zech 6, which actually speaks of teams of two horses pulling those chariots, it is seen that this army of horsemen, is at this point merely in a prior stage of militancy, where they are not yet capable of incorporating the more formidable implements of chariots. However they probably still had the “sound of many horse-drawn chariots rushing to battle” as their “prior-part” had during the Fifth Trumpet Era”. (Rev 9:9) And yet it is at this stage that this Seal of God Army set forth to literally run to the battle against a then, smugly not expecting nor suspecting Mark of the Beast camp.
I heard the number of them - Without going into much detail here, it is consistent in the visions of John in Revelation that when he “hears” something, or about something, including a specific number, it never turns out to be what he expected it to be when he then is permitted to see it. (See e.g., Rev 1:10-12ff; 5:5-6; 7:4, 9). And also when he hears something symbolic, it turns out to be something more literal, and vice versa. So in keeping with this pattern, it is expected here that when he will see this number of 200,000,000 horsemen which he had heard about, that it will instead be something symbolic, including in its number, which will also surely be, as with the 144,000, much greater than what he had definitely heard. Indeed that is what turns out to be the “switcheroo” case with this army of horsemen as he explains next in Rev 9:17-19.
_____________
Fifth vs. Sixth Armies - As briefly seen above on the applicable ‘sound of horse-drawn chariots’ segment, it is quite clear that the present Sixth Trumpet army is another form of the army of locusts that had appeared under the Fifth Trumpet Era. And so a comparison/contrast between their two forms and descriptions is clarifyingly quite beneficial here and will be made in the subsequent discussions of the Sixth Trumpet Era Army. For now some prior points from the already above discussed verses are stated here:
-The Fifth Army is headed by the fallen angel Satan who has been given a “Destroyers” authority who draws his implements from the shaft of the abyss, while the Sixth Army is headed by the Four Winds Mighty Angels commanded by another Mighty Angel from the Four Horns ((directly=Gabriel (cf. Rev 7:1-3; EW 37.1); hierarchally, ultimately=Jesus Christ (cf. EW 38.1))) of the Golden Altar before God, who manifestly draw their implement from the Four Horns of Power.
-The action of the leader of the Fifth Army brings about locust upon the Earth who merely “look like horses” while those of the 4 leaders of the Sixth Army bring about an actual army of 200,000,000 horsemen.
-The Fifth Army is mandated to merely torture the men of the Earth, the ones who do not have the Seal of God, and that for 5 months, the Sixth Army is mandated to kill (off) that same “third” group of men.
Rev 9:17 - And this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who were seating themselves upon them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone.
breastplate - In the Fifth Era Army, the men-looking, women-hair donning, locusts had breastplates of iron (Rev 9:9). With iron being the strongest man-wrought material, and with breastplates being symbolic of righteousness (Isa 59:17; Eph 6:14) involving the mixture of “faith and love” (1 Thess 5:8; -as discussed earlier, the key “mixture” that Laodicea chiefly needs, and which the Sixth Church of Philadelphia has (cf. Rev 3:10; 14:12)), this was therefore symbolic of the best/highest level of righteousness that this army could attain/produce. However now the comparative breastplates in the Sixth Army have the colors of (as the next three terms are indeed terms indicating the color of those elements, and not the elements themselves), fire, hyacinth and brimstone.
color of fire - With the riders here only have “breastplates” and not also a shield, but with a shield also involving the component of faith (see 1 Thess 5:8 & Eph 6:16), it appears that it has now become the color of fiery by having withstood a barrage of “flaming arrows” from the enemy. (Cf. Eph 6:16) Therefore the breastplate has proven itself capable of, and also sufficient for, resisting such fiery attacks. And really, just as fire can be used to defeat fire, and fire hardened/purified substances are most performant/valuable, it is only by having been refined in the Full Gospel’s Fire (Luke 3:16), through the infilling of His Holy Spirit, in Latter Rain power (cf. Acts 2:2-4a), that one will be able to discerningly see through, and thus withstand all of the attacks of the Devil. Indeed those in, pointedly the SDA Church, who are not Sealed with God’s Full Sabbath, most manifest Present Truth for today (=Isa 58), cannot begin to see the Mark of the Beast implications in Capitalism, and thus quite willingly ‘going along with it’, thus wholly falling for this specially-crafted cunning snare of Satan (=EW 266-269).
color of hyacinth - The color inherently associated with Hyacinth is a purplish one. For this reason this word is often used to speak of the porpoise skin that was to be used in Israel’s sanctuary (see e.g., LXX of Exod 25:5; 26:14; 39:34; Num 4:6; Ezek 23:6), (it is also used for the color blue (Exod 26:4; 28:31; Num 15:38)) as the skin color of porpoise mammals (a.k.a. dolphins) is of a purplish shade.
As discussed in this post at Rev 17:4 , purple is actually an emblematic color of wealth, as well as sin, and its ample use in the Sanctuary Service was manifestly to inculcate in Israel that God was not against wealth (indeed look at the “Divine-like characteristic” description of the reward of the saints, the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:11-21), but only that it should not lead to sin (which inherently destroys any Individualistic/Capitalistic concept as equally distributed social/common wealth will then be solely pursued instead.)
color of brimstone - As brimstone are essentially ‘rock balls of fire’, their color is also of the fiery kind. With brimstone being the chief implement to produce great physical destruction combining great impacting/penetrating force with consuming fire, it is often mentioned in the destruction of physical establishments. (Cf. Gen 19:24-25; SOP: 11MR 361-362; 9T 28-29; cf. 9T 11-17 which includes the pertinently related 9/11 prophecy) And so the breastplate is manifestly here so colored by brimstones by having had also withstood the fiery and physically impactful attacks of the enemy.
heads of horses like heads of lions - With a horse being symbolic of a Church Militant, a lion being symbolic of a kingly power and a head being symbolic of a ‘controlling way of thinking’, the horses of these horsemen having ‘heads like those of lions’ is representative of a Church Militant having a controlling kingdom mentality. And so their Military expedition here, now as the Church Triumphant, is to bring about this most necessary temporal, Geo-Political, establishment, which is the reinstituted Davidic Kingdom.
out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone - While the breastplate had been a purely defensive implement for the horsemen, the offensive power of these riders is in their horses, and here in the mouth of their horses. Like what was being withstood by the breast plate of the horsemen, what offensively proceeds out of the mouth of these horses are quite similar implements also involving ‘fire and brimstone’, (thus two implements capable of producing great physical destruction), however instead of “hyacinth”, i.e., wealth and/or sin which their enemies (unsuccessfully) uses against them, they instead belch out ‘smoke’.
Fire - The ‘fire coming out of the mouth of these horses’ is also synonymous with what parallely/underlyingly takes place in Rev 11:5 within the Era of the present “Second Woe” which is this Sixth Trumpet (see Rev 9:12 & 11:14). And what was shown in that corresponding Rev 11:5 mention was that God’s Two Witness forces then are to ‘harm their enemy in the same way as these enemies are endeavoring to harm them’, therefore essentially “fighting fire with fire”.
smoke - Since it is very difficult to breath in smoke (cf. what resulted from its release in Rev 9:2 under the Fifth Army), thus resulting in anyone presence in an area filled with smoke quickly leaving it and/or not daring to enter it, (which manifestly seems why God fills up the Temple with smoke when He no longer wants intercession to continue to be made in it (see e.g., Isa 6:4; Rev 15:8) (something which the ministering High Priest Jesus who is functionally still fully in his human form, (though in the appearance form of a Mighty Angel, or perhaps just merely considered to be in a Mighty Angel’s form while still having maintain his incarnate Human one), may not be capable of physically withstanding), it seems that the use of smoke here is also to most vitally make it difficult for their enemies’s to breathe as well as obstruct their view. Indeed even if one is able to momentarily breathe while in smoke by e.g., placing a wet cloth over their nose and mouth, or even in our modern age, using a breathing tank, as firefighters do, their really is not much that can be made to see through dense smoke.
And with the enemy camp being actually taken by surprise in this Righteousness advance (=Rev 19:11, 15), hence their formal coalition for war at the end of the Sixth Plague to try to stand against this offensive (Rev 16:16; cf. EW 36.1-2a), it would also be a key advantage for this army of 200,000,000 to veil/cloud its true numbers from their enemies in such a smokescreen, so that they would not hesitate to inadequately engage them, only to find out that this army of the righteous is are much more numerous, and thus more powerful than what they had thought, and which John had only heard to be 200,000,000, but is most likely to end up being much, much more.
brimstone - Brimstone is readily associated with destroying physical establishment, and is closely referenced in the emblematic destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. (Luke 17:28-30) These were destroyed because of their sexual perversion (Jude 1:7; 2 Pet 2:6-8) as well as their social economic injustice (which Israel actually exceeded in this latter aspect) (Ezek 16:48-50; Amos 4:11). And so this is all to be a major reason why such symbolic, yet most effective, implements are to be wielded against the enemies of God in these end times (=Ezek 38:22; Rev 20:8-10) which had just earlierly succeed in so oppressing them (see Rev 11:8), all to bring about Hell Fire Judgement (Rev 19:20) during which they will be constrained into acknowledging the Superiority of Truth. (Cf. Rev 14:9-11; Rev 21:8; [2 Thess 2:8 = Isa 30:33])
Rev 9:18 - From these three plagues was killed the third of mankind; by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths.
three plagues = As stated at the very beginning of this post, the Greek word for “plague” is actually referring to an injuring “blow/wound”. And so it is here being stated that this “third” of mankind are to be killed off by those three wounds, probably by the combination of the three.
fire, smoke and brimstone - As noted above, those implements are the three that are to be used on the Mark of the Beast camp (see Rev 14:9; 19:20 (20:10; 21:8). Manifestly, and symbolically speaking. the “fire”, as discussed here, is to effectuate “torture/torment”; the “brimstones”, which are manifestly in relation to the “balls of fire” vision given to EGW (11MR 361-362; 9T 28-29) are to effectuate ‘most impactful and consuming physical destruction’; and the “smoke”, which results from all of the various “burnings” involved here, and which also has the spiritual connotation of “ceased intercession/mercy”, is to make it most difficult to easily/normatively breathe, and thus live.
And so these judgement are to reduce the Mark of the Beast camp to a ‘barely surviving entity’, manifestly along the lines of the just, retaliatory economic affectations prophetically ‘pronounced/adjudged’, i.e., ‘(expectantly) planned’ (=Isa 46:10's: “declaring”, cf. here) in Rev 18:9-20 as discussed in here.
proceeded out of the horses’ mouths - It is significant to note that this battle will be waged not by this army by physical warring implements, (except for actual defensive/protection needs), but more from what will be effectively “proclaimed” by this Triumphant Church Militant (= “horses”). So it is to be the “concerted voice of individual churches/congregation, i.e., whatever portion of it actually survives the Shaking (cf. this depiction in this post -a Church there = each table of 24), each represented here as a “horse”, with the “horsemen” being representative of each individual member, being then as ‘David imitators’ in themselves (=5T 81.2a), which are to constitute this Church Triumphant Army which is to be “fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners” (5T 81.2b).
The ‘verbal-implement’ imagery here is a consistent theme in regards to how God’s army is to wage its wars (Rev 2:12, 16; 19:15, 21; cf. Heb 4:11-12; -also all thematically in keeping with the main, Spiritual implement in the sacking of Jericho background theme of these 7 Trumpets, as introductorily discussed). It is interesting to note, as discussed in the Sixth Plague, that the Mark of the Beast camp “responds” to this “verbal offensive” with verbally proceeding, then quite formidable, as they are of a direct diabolic source, implements of its own. (Rev 16:13-14).
Rev 9:19 - For the authority of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do wrong/harm/injury/unrighteousness.
authority not power - It is again significant, as it was for a similar mention in Rev 9:10, that it si the ‘right to do something’ (=“authority”) vs. the ‘“power” to do this thing’ that is being emphasized here. And so here, it is the right/“authority” of this army to inflict these warring implements that is being stressed here, and that right/authority is in what they variously pronounce as proclamations, policies, principles, even laws, towards this end.
in their mouths and in their tails - Whereas the Fifth Era constituency of this Army, which has been earlier shown to be Historically, as well as in a Secular Eschatological application: Militant Islam, pointedly in its actions towards the then (Catholic) Religious, and now (Protestant) Capitalistic, “West”, had its authority in its ‘“disciplining” and torturing’ scorpion-like tails (Rev 9:10), meaning that, like an iceberg, its most damaging impact came to be, almost unforeseenly encountered, in what trailed its initial confrontation, this Sixth Army has its authority in both its mouth and its tail. In other words, much like in today’s economic world, a simple announcement, news, rumor, can send world financial markets into a tailspin, the simple, various pronouncements of this Sixth Army is “potent” enough to also have a most severe and tangible impact, in whatever area where they speak forth their implements of ‘fire, smoke and brimstone’.
Relatedly, in the War in Heaven, Satan is said in Rev 12:1-4's account to have swept away a third of the Stars in Heaven in the context of Jesus’ birth because it is right then that he unleashed his 4000-year pent up, jealousy-based fury against Jesus, by inspiring Herod to ruthlessly seek to take the Child’s life (=Matt 2:16, at any detriment to the posterity of God’s Israel (= Matt 2:17-18|Jer 31:15), and it was most likely then, a probably a specially called meeting of the fallen host (cf. EW 266-267ff) to plan what was to be done to the newly born incarnate Jesus, that the then long-ago-fallen angels began to realize for the first time, as the Unfallen Angels similarly later did at the Cross (see DA 761.1-2) that all along, Satan, ‘whose “disguise” was at the Cross’ events torn away by his then more direct ‘imbuing/filling/inspiring’’, actually had a personal/private agenda against Christ Himself, and was not primarily interested in proving his Great Controversy point (which was that: ‘the Law of God was arbitrary and thus not required/necessary to be followed by His Created Beings’, ‘nor that it actually, truly freely, be lovingly/voluntarily obeyed’ and also that: ‘given a Free Choice between obeying it or not, most, if not all, would much prefer not to’ (cf. DA 761.4). In fact it is quite striking that the SOP says in DA 65.1 that: ‘Satan used “his utmost cunning to try to destroy Jesus’ then, at that early days stage, which manifestly is what inspired Herod own ‘craftiness’ (DA 65.3). Why not an open, all out attack?? If Herod’s actions could have killed Christ, then why not a direct attack upon the Christ Child by Satan himself. (In a similar way, as it was discussed above, how he was shown to be trying to cause the death of EGW’s son James Edson, in an effort to discourage her from her work.) Probably because an open attack on the Christ Child would have completely exposed His +4000-year carefully concealed, murderous intentions to all. So he instead worked through a personally disculpating guise of a ‘successfully tempted’, ambitious and selfish, and thus alarmed Herod. (=As notoriously suspected, and many times proven, in recent, modern Geo-Political History: “Why send in the uniformed, and country-flagged military in another country to effectuate a regime change, when the desired effect can be accomplished through infiltrated black ops agents spreading ideas of revolution, and even assassination to dissent group within the citizenry of that country!!”
And you (i.e., the unfallen angels), really have to be most completely deceived to continue to converse with Satan at Heaven’s gate right until the events of the Cross transpired. In fact, when Jesus received a vision of this casting out in Luke 10:18, just as His sent out 70 disciples were returning from their unsuccessful attempt to raise up a sufficient Faithful Remnant generation in Israel then in order for Jesus to establish, as quite possible, (cf. in this post), God’s Temporal Zion/Kingdom of God then (cf. Mark 1:14-15), it may have been based on a beginning of an actual changing of attitudes towards Satan of those Unfallen Angels, as they then began to realize, as Jesus also did then, as discussed here, that, through most likely, the zealous, temptations-effectuated, hardening efforts Satan on this “laity” of Israel during the 70's evangelistic outing, that Satan was, pun intended, most “hell-bent”, on making Jesus cruelly suffer and die, and probably through now this ordeal (versus the Wilderness’ Temptations), “hopefully”, in some impeaching way, sin.
And what probably sealed that change of sympathy of the unfallen angels was most likely the way in which Satan did “hellishly” go about this at the Cross, evidently then, and for the first time ever, most openly, manifesting through these direct fiendish efforts, his frenzied zeal to see that Jesus suffer & die or even sin, and thus die eternally. So the angels then realized that Satan would not be merely satisfied, as he manifestly had been purporting, to see his “valid” GC view freely have many adherents in, pointed this lone fallen world, but most ruthlessly, that Jesus, at the very least, most cruelly suffer, and even cease to exist for ever.
All this deceptive fronting would be e.g., like a controversial world Superpower like the United States (A) losing much of the approval/support it had from many countries in embarking in 2002 on its “War on Terror” by targeting Afghanistan, which had clear and present links to/of State-supported/facilitated terrorism, when it then claimed that Iraq needed to be invaded and its government changed, when in reality it was a personal vendetta against its leader then, and all in regards to a desire to secure economical access to Iraq’s oil resource, [cf. here], and then (B) losing all of this remaining approval/support, and any credit, when it then engages in a deadly war against any government, and even people, who are of the Muslim Faith, not hesitating to even use weapons of mass destruction on these populations, and moreoverly, with it also being shockingly unveiled then that, all the while, i.e., since before the start of the 2002 war in Afghanistan, or even long before the catalyst 9/11 events, that on the fews days after the inauguration of that U.S. Government Administration in late January of 2001, it had tabled concrete plans its Intelligence and Military Brass to wage a “Religious Crusade” against government/countries/people which were of the Muslim Faith, and most flabbergastingly of all, knowingly permit/allow/“facilitate”, and/or themselves orchestrate and execute, -whichever would be more readily and effectively feasible, the recently learned of plans for a major terrorist attack on U.S. soil; -all, self-justifying, in that administrations ambition to establish an American/Western New World Order.
So all this to explain how the Fallen Angels from Heaven were manifestly, as Rev 12:4 symbolically depicts, literally “blind-sided” by Satan’s actual motivation for his Great Controversy stance. All the while, they would have not suspected that it was all, and quite irrelevantly, derived from a murderous Jealousy towards Michael/Jesus, and the Law of God issues, were really just a misdirecting distraction. And so, while that had been cast out thousand of years ago, this “tail” of the of the now beginning-to-be-seen, clearly murderously enraged “Dragon” i.e., no longer deceptively concealed/disguised as a cunning and crafty Serpent. (cf. Rev 12:9).
This understanding of the “tail”, “serpent” symbolism here, contributes to the understanding of Rev 9:19's next, seemingly counterintuitive to the “Army of God Himself” identifying theme of this indeed distinct “Sixth Era Army”.
their tails are like serpents and have heads - A serpent is, especially Spiritually, definitely not the most commendable creature with which to be compared (see e.g., Gen 3:1-5, John 8:44); however, as seen in e.g., King Jehu dealing with a still-entrenched priesthood of Baal in God Israel (2 Kgs 10:18-28 = 1 Kgs 19:16a, 17; cf. Gen 20; 1 Kgs 22:19-23; Isa 6:9-13|Matt 13:10-17; [1 Sam 21:10-22:1]), at times in war, an exempting, “self-defence” license in regards to the stipulation of the Ninth Commandment (Exod 20:16), has to be utilized, and that in whatever method or degree for it to be “most effectively”, and that all to keyly, timely/pressingly effectuate God’s always-life-saving adjudged judgements (cf. Gen 49:16-17). Manifestly this is all in the category of giving people what they indifferently want, and in this case, as seen in those Biblical examples [with probably not that of David] what is now clearly known to be lies. (Cf. 2 Thess 2:10b-12).[56]
And so, getting right to the, by now quite self-evident/straightforward symbolic point here, with the combined elements here of “unforeseen consequences” = tail; the cunning, craftiness, and even “murderously” lying/false prophesying deception (=Isa 9:15; Deut 18:22; cf. Gen 3:4) of “serpents”, (indeed instead of the less deceptive, merely disciplinary scorpions of the Fifth Army, (-which apparently is why it was the serpents of the wilderness, and not the scorpions, that God sent to judge Israel (Num 21:6ff; cf. more discussion on this starting in here), and moreoverly with this ‘trailing implement’ having the means and capability to think these deceptions through by also having “heads”, this Sixth Army, like a Superpower Nation having a formidable Military (e.g., notoriously, the USA’s DOD/Pentagon) and also a powerful covert Intelligence/Paramilitary Force (e.g., also notoriously, the USA’s CIA), will, similarly, not merely be inflicting great damage to its enemies through forthcoming confrontations (= its mouth), but also through cleverly insidious and concealed, underground affectations (= its serpents-tail-with-heads). And so with this formidable dual-ends way, their enemies will not be able to safely “get around them”. And in keeping with God’s past doings in this regard, the “deceptive/concealed/covert” end here will do its work by merely feeding the enemies of this Sixth Army with the various lies that they love to hear, [sort of God’s “MI-7”, which of course ‘no longer exists’], (i.e., e.g., that their Capitalistic ways are “A-Okay” and/or “solid fundamentals”), as these spurious system are actually capable in themselves to bring about their own drastic downfall, for in these pervasive Capitalistic system, it is the one that can lawfully achieve the most Capital-obtaining/controlling/producing power that legally wins. (Hint: e.g., Deut 15:1-11 & Acts 2:43-45; 4:32-35; 2 Cor 8:7-15's socio-economic principles combined with God’s Special Latter Rain enlightening; cf. Deut 8:11-20; 1 Kgs 3:5-15a; 4:20-34).
Not thematically surprising, the most deceptive ‘serpent-tail “thinking”’ was all seen in the temptation which was presented to Eve, as it: seemed innocuous enough up front; told Eve of things she wanted to obtain/know of; yet had a most deadly end consequence, even if it tangibly, fully was ca. 900 years later.
Interestingly enough, as those who espouse and profess Capitalism, though they all clearly know by now that it can always only profit, even vitally so a quite literal handful, especially as the population continues to increase and non-renewable resources are diminishing, then the uses of craftiness, cunning and deception to cause the death of the Babylon/Mark of the Beast camp, falls in line with the provision in Rev 11:5 that: ‘God’s (Living Testimony-initiating) Two Witnesses are to, actually kill, i.e., finish off, their enemy in the exact same way/manner, in which these unscrupulous opponents had firstly endeavored to (manifestly, vitally) harm them.’
Rev 9:20 - The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not even repent of the works of their hands, so as not to go on to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which neither have the power to see nor hear nor walk;
rest who were not killed - It is most significant that a Greek indicative mood (=certainty) is used here to make this statement instead of a possible subjunctive mood (= probability), or even an optative mood (= possibility). As stated earlier in Rev 9:15 in regards to the slaying of that “third of mankind”, the subjunctive mood was used to say this indicating that this was the intended and “probable”, end, therefore a certain resolution had to be involved so that this desired end would come about. As seen in Rev 19:21 which relates what this Sixth Army of horsemen emerging from ‘the kingdom of God on earth’ (= “heaven” Matt 6:10), the sword that comes out of the mouth of the main rider is what kills of those who had not yet been slain by the fire, smoke and brimstone (cf. Rev 19:19-20) onslaught of this Sixth Army. So with Rev 9:20 here saying that there would be people (the “66.7% mankind” = mainly non-Christians) who would not be killed by this threefold plague (Rev 9:18) judgment on the Beast power, its leaders and its “forehead” worshippers/adherents (Rev 13:16) (= ‘spiritually convinced converts’, thus apostate Christian Churches cf. Rev 17:5), -which probably be the specific group will chiefly conscribe themselves to constitute Babylon’s army, while the rest of mankind would be standing on the sidelines and/or be seated in the stand, having been cheeringly supporting this Babylonian power due to the economic prosperity that it was promising and purporting through its system, it is synonymously depicting the various political and economical/business factions in Rev 18:9-11, 15, 17b, who had previously joined this Babylonian camp. (See more on this in the comments on these verses in this post.)
It is pertinently significant here to note that (Protestant) Capitalism, which is the dogma of that Eschatological Babylonian power, seeks to convince everyone in the world that “Capitalism” is good because ‘that is how the United States of America has come to amass its great prosperity, resulting in it become the world’s foremost Superpower.’ Indeed, as prominently seen in the current Republican vs. Democrat Economic standoff in the United States, the common war-call of the more Capitalist Republican side is that ‘Capitalism must be continued to be staunchly followed no matter what or who falls by the way side.’ At the foundation of that believed assertion is that ‘since men are naturally greedy, covetous, selfish and a ‘partisan of the least effort’, it is only the pain and pleasure reward and threat inherent in Capitalism that can make them enter into collective partnerships (i.e., stocks and shares) and make innovative and advancing efforts. So lost and left out of this dogma by supposedly Christians, including by SDA’s (see the comments in this blog post), is the Christian ideal that people are not to be motivated or actuated by these base and ungodly traits (e.g., Luke 12:15; Col 3:5-7; Eph 5:3; 1 Tim 6:6-10), but by principles borne out of tangible love for others, particularly those who are in need. And so, as discussed in this page of the NJK Project, much more can actually be done without Capitalism’s revered models of competition, individualism and profiteering, but instead through collaboration, sharing and social support.
And so this patent rallying cry of Protestant Capitalists to try to get others to worship this “image to the first beast of, similarly, supposed ‘Christianity-derived great wealth and formidable power’” (=Rev 13:14-15), is all based on a philosophy that is completely devoid of any Christian morals or ideals. Yet, at first, the non-Christian, 66.7% of mankind will allow themselves to follow that spurious geo-political and socio-economic model.
So, again, in Rev 19:21, it is specifically those specifically in the Babylonian camp, the “registered members” vs. the general, worldwide, followers (who merely had taken the Mark of the Beast in their hand), who had managed to not be killed during the inflictions of the three plagues, who are killed off by the sword that comes out of the mouth of the main rider on a White Horse.
did not even repent of... - While this 66.7% of mankind did stand afar off when they see here that Babylon is being judged (Rev 18:9-20), they did not even learn their lesson then. As stated in Rev 18:21-24, Babylon is deliberately sacked and “sunk” with great violence so that it would (hopefully) never be re-established again in the world. However this 66.7% group still continue to practice the same evils which Babylon had be doing, and that, deceptively so, under a garb of Christian endorsement and approval, which was all because these ways were most conducive to the wealth and power which they were also lusting after.
And so, as expressed in terms that are deliberately allusive to what had sealed the Fall of the Historic Babylon in Dan 5:4, 23, these remaining ones on the Earth continue unabated in the sins of Babylon during this prolonged time that God has given them to learn of, and convert to, His truth, being now that this will be a time without the religio-deceptive influence of the now destroyed Babylon. However, like Belshazzar, these prefer to continue in sinful ways despite now concretely and clearly knowing the Truth, thus in sufficient Light. (Cf. Dan 5:21-23).
go on to worship demons - This is manifestly done not by them continuing to follow the claimed, yet now debunked in the fall of Babylon (Rev 18:1-4; cf. Isa 47), “demonic/Satanic” teaching instilled from Eden that: ‘a person can live outside of God’s will and still live’.
and idols... - Also, as with Babylon, they continue to “most foolishly” give over their very life and well-being to inanimate things that they themselves have shaped into useful products. (Cf. Rom 1:22-23; Psa 106:19-21; Jer 2:11-13; Acts 17:29-30) Interestingly enough the idolaters in Babylon who had so wholeheartedly trusted in their idols, utter the same typical taunting words stated in Psa 115:2, 4-8 = EW 283.2. God’s faithful ones instead know that God is in full control and will work things out however He sees it will be most glorious (Psa 115:1-3), and in this case, it is so that no other false god, including, as Elijah preemptively made sure against in his thematically related Mount Carmel showdown (1 Kgs 18:32b, 34-35), from nature, (i.e., the “natural causes” rationalization) will take credit for what He will Supernaturally realize through His People (Isa 42:8; 48:11)
Rev 9:21 - and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their fornication/immorality nor of their thefts.
(naturally) did not repent... - As a result of “not even repenting” of the demonic adherence and idolatry, this group now most naturally also did not repent of what inevitably results from following those Satanic ideas, which are not surprisingly all similar sins of Babylon. These are namely:
-murders - cf. Rev 18:24 (includes the murder of infants who are manifestly equally considered as ‘having been martyrs’ by God, and thus similarly rewarded. (See in this post). Cf. the above discussed quite symbolism-wise related (i.e., in regards to: water, voice from altar, killing (=blood-shedding)) response in the Third Plague on the “waters” in Rev 16:5-7, with the pointed object of this Sixth Trumpet (Rev 9:13-15ff))
-sorceries - i.e., a quite literal, mind-altered psyche/thinking - Rev 18:23 = Isa 47:9-12ff; cf. Rom 1:18ff, 21-31. In this case, similar to Babylon’s mentality of living sensuously and immorally as a harlot (cf. Jer 3:3), thus contrary to God’s Law, with these secular ones here claiming to still be “good/Godly”.
-fornication/immorality - Illicit actions stemming from the (Babylonian) “mind-altered” lawless mentality above (=Rev 14:8; 18:3; 19:2; cf. 17:2, 4), and which are being justified as not sinful since they are only “partial” (cf. 1 Cor 7:1-2).
-theft - = In Capitalism, theft has been “self-sanctioned” through the condoning rules and base principles of that system of covetous (cf. 1 Cor 6:10a; Eph 5:3, 5; Col 3:5b). And so just like a thief robber is someone who can manage to fight off and/or get around the securing protection/defenses of something in order to freely help themselves with that other person’s possession, in Capitalism, the most basic law is: “if you are strong/smart/ambitious” enough to get to something before others then you have the right to freely exploit, and profit from, it at will”, all clearly contrary to God’s socio-economic principles (e.g., 2 Cor 8:7-15; Num 26:51-56; cf. Deut 15:7-11). And with this practice fundamentally, inherently delving into the default “commonwealth” of resources of a country, and also the entire world, this effective thievery of resources and potential wealth of others, even resulting in the annual needless death of millions, is indeed an intrinsic part and end product of these Babylonian ways.
Indeed, as those who practice these things/sins will obviously, definitely, not be permitted into the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:8; 22:15; cf. Eph 5:5) but the fact that it is these sins that God has chosen to highlight here, and in Revelation, in the context of the final conflict, versus literally a possible oodle of other “deed of the flesh” (cf. e.g, Gal 5:19-21; 1 Cor 6:8-10), reveals that these are the pointed sins in which this Babylon assembly of predominantly Christians will be “spiritually”, i.e, as Jesus taught, ‘against the Spirit of God’s Law’ (Matt 5:17-20ff), prominently engaging in.
As can be seen in all of the above discussed Revelation Series Eras, (i.e., the First, Second, Third, etc., Eras), in this Sixth Era, there is a linear progression from the Sixth Church through the Sixth Plague. In general this ‘Linear Progression’ and their main ‘Bible Motif’ basis, is as follows:
General Revelation Series Progression
7 Churches - (Individual Believers) - God endeavors to raise up a faithful people
7 Seals - (OT Israel History) - God “sealingly” reveals the historical path and great experience that this faithful people will go through.
7 Trumpets - (Israel’s Battles and Wars) God’s rallying call to those who have survived the historical ordeal to close up the ranks and advance through the final conflict.
7 Thunders - (Voice/Instruction of God) - God’s key final instructions to win this final conflict
7 Plagues - (Defeat of Egypt) The final action to forever destroy the specific confronting enemy of God’s faithful people.
And so, along these general lines, a similar progression is seen here in the Sixth Era:
Progression in Sixth Era
Sixth Church - The 144,000 are raised Up
Sixth Seal - The Faith of the 144,000 is confirmed and they are temporally secured during the great experience that they are now to go through (cf. Mar 270.1-6). It is during this period that the 144,000 are now sealed and the SDA Church’s Shaking transpires.
Sixth Trumpet - God organizes those who have survived the Shaking into a mighty army and sends them on to engage Apostate Babylon in order to uproot it.
Sixth Thunder - God reveals final instructions to win this Final Conflict. The Loud Cry fully occurs then and God’s faithful ones who had still been lingering in Babylon up to then, now flee from it and thus avoid the next poured out Sixth plague. (Rev 18:4).
Sixth Plague - God aids His faithful people in resolving the conflict against Babylon by pouring out this Sixth plague which, as with Cyrus historical conquest, begins the physical Fall of the Babylonian’s Empire’s Capital City.
Sixth Trumpet Historical (Church) Application:
In virtually all SDA interpretations of the Sixth Trumpet, which is usually according to the Historicist method, the Sixth Army is said to be a continuation of the 5th Army. So e.g., as emblematically seen in Maxwell, God Cares, 2:259 where he summarizes his previous expositions, the Fifth and Sixth Trumpet are joined together in effective one trumpet, with the Sixth Trumpet having interpretations such as:
-The four angels: Islamic leaders, or perhaps, “demon princes”
-The Euphrates: General geographic term for Mesopotamia, the area immediately east and southeast of Asia Minor.
-The 200,000,000 horsemen: The later Islamic armies, dominated by the Turks and especially by the Ottoman Turks.
-Fire, smoke, and sulphur [=brimstone]: The use of gunpowder weapons by the Ottoman Turks
-A third of mankind: The eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, or the Eastern Orthodox Church, and its capital city, Constantinople, which fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453
-An hour, and a day, and a month, and a year: A period of 391 years separating (1) a series of events clustering around the fall of Constantinople in 1453 from (2) another, opposite series clustering around 1844, the close of the 2300 year-days.
As God’s Bible prophecies are designed to possibly have, through the sovereign and All Mighty, influence and power of God, an applicable fulfilment in virtually any Christian generation, those common historicist interpretation were actually correct for that time. The general idea/theme in the Sixth Trumpet was that God needed an army to, then no longer “torment” the then nascent Mark of the Beast camp, but now, in this Sixth Trumpet “finish them off”. However, as seen in history, the Ottoman Empire did not succeed in doing so with the Western Church, but instead most peacefully capitulated on August 11, 1840, fulfilling, to the day, an application of the time period in Rev 9:15, as early Millerites understood it (see WAP: 1905 JNL, GSAM 128.3-132.4). However as it did considerably weaken it, allowing for Protestantism to take root and flourish virtually untouched during these times, as discussed earlier, that manifestly was the only applicable mandate that God had for it. And so only a few symbolic elements are seen to have applied from the Sixth Trumpet onto the applicable Ottoman Empire fulfilment.
Stating things rather summarily here, while the 391 years and 15 days were orchestrated by God to have a precise fulfilment on August 11, 1840 in order to galvanized the Second Advent Movement as it gave concrete validity to the day-year principle for interpreting prophetic periods, its actual/full fulfilment was in its pointing to the “judgement hour” which would come at the end of the 2300 day prophecy, with the remaining portion of that time statement, thus 391 years, having transpired in the years from the fall of Constantinople in 1453, to the end of the 2300 days in 1844. That is an understanding that is better seen in retrospect analysis of those prophetic events, however, with the Second Coming being capable of having been done soon after the 1844 events, if there had been a much wider and genuine acceptance of it, the 1840 fulfilment would then have been the sole application of it, as it would then, in 1840 have marshalled the spiritual Sixth Army that God was needing to bring about the total and physical Fall of Babylon. However, the relatively tepid response to the Second Advent movement, resulted, as with the failure of the NT Church by 70 A.D., for time to be prolonged after. And so the time in Rev 9:15 came to find a less concrete fulfilment, now focusing on the judgement hour that would begin to transpire in Heaven in 1844. Under the 1840 fulfilment, it very could have been that the sanctuary in Heaven would have been cleansed (Dan 8:14), by/immediately around 1844.
The spiritually glib, common understanding of SDA’s in regards to Bible prophecy is that God only has one application for then, and that in a straightforward and linear way, but the complex, yet structure of the book of Revelation is proof in itself that God can have, several spiritually applicable fulfillments of His prophecies, which is seen as people simply are faithful in doing His will. He then leads them to keyly, realizingly fulfill these prophecies.
God’s Intended Sixth Army - Under the Historical Sixth Trumpet Era, which started in 1844, God had needed a army led by Him instead of the Fallen, Destroyer Angel of the Fifth Trumpet (Rev 9:1, 11), to engage, and through His guidance and strength, completely defeat the Mark of the Beast camp. However the fact of the matter is that that formidable Sixth Army, ‘a mighty army with many banners’, has haltingly, never come to materialize in the SDA Church due to the Church’s preference to not fully align itself with God’s will. This was chiefly done by pervasively allowing the policies and ways of the world to dictate how God’s work is to be done and advance and today this is most prominently being done by espousing much more than before capitalistic principles.[57]
And so the Sixth Era of Revelation’s prophecies has long ago come to a screeching halt in the SDA Church due to its persisted wayward course. This is radical interruption is seen in the Sixth Part of Each Prophetic Series. As seen by the many allusions to the Sixth Church’s characteristic in the SOP, the 144,000 were to be sealed in the Sixth Church Era; the Sixth Seal’s unfolding stopped at Rev 6:13, and, at best, the Sixth Trumpet fulfilment did not extend beyond the fulfillments of its Rev 9:15a time element in 1840/1844. It can even be seen/understood that it was those then released Four Angels who were soon after called back by Gabriel (=Rev 7:1-3), first in ca. 1849, as shown to EGW in EW 36.1-38.2 (see more on this in this post). Of course the Sixth Plague, and its War of H/Ar-Mageddon Assembly has, because of these haltings, never been permitted by God to materialize. As it is gradually being understood by some in the SDA Church, the “key” to unravelling final events does not depend on a set time of God, but on their own initiating action. If it was up to the Devil he would rather that everything continue to proceed at the current 15 mph cruise control pace, but if the Church should ever begin to drastically, and ever increasingly augment that pace, he then would have to, and that “fairly” in this GC, in order to offset the Latter Rain outpouring that God would have correspondingly rewarded those greater efforts and works with, with the most deceiving supernatural influencing that is to occur under the Sixth Plague (Rev 16:13-14).
As discussed in this post, with the Four (Mighty) Angels of the Sixth Trumpet being the same Four Winds Angels, they then are indeed the Messengers of the Four Chief Messages on the tangible application of the Four Living Creatures, preparing the way for their implementation, and, as depicted in Ezek 1:4ff, it is the ever approaching “actions” of those foundations of God’s Throne in His Israel kingdom, indeed seeking to become established on Earth, that produce the perfect “windstorm” confluence. (=Matt 24:14) Indeed, as seen in the sequence of the Sixth Plague, it is the firstly done, successful drying up of the River Euphrates that sends the Mark of the Beast camp, including Satan and his demons, into an assembling frenzy, for, as it was in History, that action signals the sure Fall of Babylon. And so, in Ezek 1:4, the first wind to blow on the Earth is the one from the North, which is the location where the Lost 10 Northern Tribes are, and further North, the passable route to Babylon (cf. e.g, Jer 25:9; 50:9; 51:48; Ezek 26:7), which, on top of being where the people of the tribe of Judah themselves were in exiled then, was also the capital city of the then ruling World Empire.
So it is only when the work in this multi-extent “Northern” region will be successfully done (cf. this post) that those “waters” (=Rev 17:1, 15) will have become “dried up”, and then the Evil forces will seek to keyly reestablish the flow of these dually ‘supplying and defending’ “waters” by then using Supernatural means.
Sixth Trumpet Temporal (Kingdom) Application:
It is in the now Eschatological fulfilment of the Sixth Trumpet that God will finally be able to have the Ecclesiastical “army with many banners”, = the Church Triumphant, that He has been striving to get all along, particularly since the Historical start of the Prophetic Sixth Era. And the purpose/mandate of this army is to take on and defeat the now globally spread and entrenched, particularly economically, i.e., in Capitalism, Babylonian “wine” (Rev 17:2). The effect of the developments under this marshalling of the Sixth Army can readily be discerned from the above general discussion on Rev 9:13-21, and so those points won’t be restated here however some not yet mentioned specific Eschatological points/applications will be made here.
Rev 9:13-15 - Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard one voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
[] saying to the sixth angel, the one who has the trumpet, "Release the four angels who have been bound because of the great river Euphrates."
And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they may kill the third of mankind.
Four Angels released - After having long been hindered by Babylon’s pervasive influence over people, particularly Christians, with now the Sabbatical Sealing message finally having taken root, and the 144,000 sealed (=Rev 7:1-8) the Four Angels are now released, with their various influencing message, to lead out in this work of tangibly finishing off this recalcitrant Babylonian power. In fact, these Four Angels had been halted at the Euphrates River since, as discussed here, the first halting of Final Events in ca. 1849, as it was then revealed to EGW. And so with finally the Full Sabbath of God Sealing message having by now been discovered, proclaimed (Rev 18:1-5), and been widely accepted by God’s true bond-servants, in both, first the Southern Kingdom of Judah, the SDA Church, and then in the Northern Kingdom, the wider Christian Church, thus throughout God’s Israel, then these in God’s Israel who have rejected all of the teachings of Babylon, including its spurious, and actually Devil-crafted, socio-economic teachings as found in Capitalism, to actually follower the (Gospel of the) Lamb wherever He/it goes (Rev 14:4), come to form God’s Sixth Era army which will undertake to bring about the Fall of Babylon, to indeed ‘doubly pay it back for all of her sins’. (Rev 18:6-8; cf. 21-24; discussed here)
Indeed, and counterintuitively enough, since, naturalistically, a river flows into the sea, it would make sense that it cannot be dried by drying up the, moreover larger, sea. In fact, in keeping with that natural and normative ‘flow of things’, the river (which in mainly replenished from rainfall) would be working to prevent to keep the sea from being dried up. However, prophetically relatedly in Isa 44:27, God states that He is going to dry up the River Euphrates for His ‘militarily summoned’ (cf. Isa 46:11) “Shepherd” (Isa 44:28) and “Anointed One” (Isa 45:1) Cyrus by merely saying to the ‘depth of the sea’ (= (Babylon’s political entity): “Be dried up” and this will make the river (=the Euphrates and thus Babylon’s religious entities) to become dry’. Indeed God will not even naturalistically acts to dry up this River by withholding rain, as spiritually seen in the fact that a False Latter Rain will be permitted to Fall on this Babylonian entity, including upon SDA who are then still insistent on living in Babylon (i.e., by maintaining its various and pervasive worldly, capitalistic policies).
So God will actually reversedly act, by actually taking on the larger, stronger, more abundant/potent body of the sea in order to dry up the river and thus cause the fall of Babylon. In other words, in conducting and executing this Sixth Era conflict, God will focus His assault of Babylon on the geo-political portion of its entity that it also has, and through this, the discerning faithful ones in Babylon will come to see that what they had been (unwittingly) considering as the outworked bastion of their “Babylonian” Religion/System (i.e., Capitalism) is not only spurious, but, intrinsically related, so is their religious basis. And from, and for, those observations, many will leave this Babylon, naturally exposing its defense weakness, which can, and will, cause its subsequent fall, despite a valiant “supernatural” (i.e., spiritually, indifferently resilient) effort to try to avert this looming end.
Rev 9:16 - The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.
200,000,000 Horsemen - From the start of the planning of the NJK Project, it was understood from merely a cursory reading and studying of the Sixth Trumpet that the army of 200,000,000 horsemen was indeed representative of God’s Church Triumphant army. And so, as seen here, the plannings of NJK were made around that concrete number. However, along the lines of the above-discussed ‘what John hears is usually much smaller than what he later sees’, while the 200,000,000 figure was used as the NJK’s base/planning population, it can easily be seen that with the also planned Aborting-Abortion ministry of the NJK, that population total can, just through the fruit of this ministry, potentially increase by up to 65,000,000 per year. So that initial figure of 200,000,000 will, yet still sustainably, be much higher once the NJK Project gets off the ground.
Yet with “horses” being symbolic of ‘the “vehicle” of a Church Militant (i.e., a Church on the move through Evangelism and Ministry), this total of 200,000,000 can also be representative of a grouping of members within those “churches” and not solely a single individual, with the horsemen being the (pastoral) leader/leadership of that Church. And so a much larger population can be included over time with this exegetically applicable/accurate “200,000,000 Church groups” understanding.
Rev 9:17 - And this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who were seating themselves upon them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone.
horses head of lions - The chief mentality/thinking of these “Church groups”, led by their leaders/pastors (= “the horsemen/riders”), is similarly, to see ‘God’s will be done in earth as it is in Heaven’ (Matt 6:10). Their desire is also to fulfill Christ Full Gospel mandate and so these Militant Churches who also have this “kingdom” mentality have joined themselves to this Sixth Army (SOP -ranks).
Fire and smoke and brimstone - The spiritual implications of these symbols were discussed earlier, but here it is re-emphasized as also mentioned before, that this symbolisms is more tangibly fulfilled, albeit in a spiritual manner, in the more concrete “physically destructive balls of fire visions of EGW”.
SOP’s “Balls of Fire” visions - As hinted above, it is really no accident that what has come to be the 9/11 Event prophecy in 9T 11-17[58] is couched in judgements for socio-economic injustices. Similarly in the Balls of Fire vision in 11MR 361-362; which is the same as the one introductorily mentioned in 9T 28-29, the this pointed judgement issue is highlighted. This is most strikingly seen in 11MR 361.2 where the communicating angel quoted Isa 29:19-24. That passage which relates the various groups who will be benefited by these judgements should have started at Isa 29:17-18, but instead it pointed started with the “suffering/afflicted/humbled/poor” (cf. Psa 22:26; Pro 14:21; Isa 11:4; 61:1; Gr. ptochos =Matt 11:4; Luke 6:20; 2 Cor 6:10) and the “needy” of Isa 29:19.
In both the 11MR 361-362 & 9T 28-29 representations these Balls of Fire events are to serve as a solemn warning to the SDA Church (=Isa 29:1-16; cf. this post) to stop trusting in, and adhering to, the people, and their principles, who are despising the principles and Law of God by practising these socio-economic injustices, as it is being variously reflected in the ways of the Church, and which will be most severely “Shakingly” judged by God, and that before the Second Coming end. As it was Divinely stated: “to cease from putting their trust in men who are not obedient to my warnings and who despise My reproof, for the day of the Lord is right upon the world when evidence shall be made sure”. Many in even the SDA Church see nothing wrong with Capitalism because it supplies their needs and wants, yet God is clearly opposed to such a system which is based on evil principles, causes oppression to the vast majority of people who cannot accede to it limited, top tier, benefiting level, and even directly or indirectly causes the annual death of millions of these. God has indeed given ample warnings that this injustice will not go unpunished, but may, including SDA’s prefer to ignore those warnings, even claiming a ‘soon Second Coming’ as the reason, all the while trampling upon God’s Sabbath (=EW 36.2) And so, as subsequently shown in 9T 29.1-3, God fully expects, as usual, that those who are then involved in these Second Coming hindering practices will prefer to continue to pursue these selfish and unloving ambitions, and thus, as also shown to EGW in vision (see here), their light and the light of the Church in the world will surely, and that self-inflictedly so, go out. The SDA Church itself may then yet exist in some tangible form then, even as it is “physically existing” today, yet its churches, various institutions and membership will not be the ‘darkness-expelling light in world’ that it was supposed to have been (Matt 5:14-16[59]), but just another “blacklight”, as is the rest of the world to which they have conformed themselves.
Rev 9:18 - From these three plagues was killed the third of mankind; by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths.
Again this will not needingly be a physical slaying of people here, but those upon which those ‘plagues of judgement’ are falling (=9T 11.1), will think and claim that it is the socio-economic actions of God’s righteous ones which are causing these difficulties of their and so desperate decided/strong-arm efforts will be taken to have everyone go along with their Capitalistic ways. And so, as a result, physical attacks may have to be defended and countered by corresponding tangible and/or physical measures.
Rev 9:19 - For the authority of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do wrong/harm/injury/unrighteousness.
As the wrong/harm/injury/unrighteousness will be done by the tails of this Sixth Army, it would behoove those in the opposition to heed those trailing destructive end results and repent from the present ways which will first be adjudged, but as typical in Capitalism, people will then only be looking, and that either way, at the immediate benefits to themselves and not at any adverse future consequence/result. And so this trailing destructive judgement will be inevitable.
Rev 9:20-21 - The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not even repent of the works of their hands, so as not to go on to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which neither have the power to see nor hear nor walk;
and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their fornication/immorality nor of their thefts.
Surprisingly enough, the world will not repent from what will warningly transpire upon Babylon, however, although they will continue in those same ways, this then will be with a Christianity claiming Superpower country deceiving them to believe that these ways are Biblical. Instead the rest of the world will be individual pursuing a similar course, but purely out of their own secular interests. And their own judgement will come at some later time. In fact they may eventually even attempt to rebuild Babylon, thus bringing about the utter end.
SDA Church Specific Application - The application and implication of the Sixth Trumpet has been stated throughout the above discussion of it, but it will merely be re-stated here for emphasis that the Historical, as well as the Eschatological switching from the Fifth to the Sixth Trumpet transpired in the “End of the 2300 Days” vision given in the SOP (EW 54.2-56.2). At a sudden and imperceived point the professed believers who were bowed before that throne went from an Intercession stage to a Judgement, and right their ended the SDA Church probation’s, with the only chance of being saved after that being in those who would maintained the righteous acts, tangibly seen in socio-economic benevolence, right to the most pressing and urgent vital needs, that God expects His Law and Sabbatical Religion to effectuate in His professed people.
Sixth Plague
Rev 16:12 - The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east.
poured out on River Euphrates... - In this sixth plague, the life source and protection of the Babylonian power is directly attacked. As a “river”, this is focusing on the religious undercurrent of this power which cause many to believe that this Babylonian system is God’s will. With that false believe here being completely debunked, those in Babylon will now begin to clearly see that they had been following error all along.
water was dried up - It may also be seen that with the main physical implements of the Sixth Trumpets army being fire, smoke and brimstone, it can be seen that the wielding of them upon this river can also bring about this drying up effect. Throwing enough brimstones into a river as well as raging fire can cause a physical ‘stopping up’ (=sulphur stone) and ‘evaporating’ (=fire) in “smoke” of the waters of this River. It would take much “ammunition” here to do this to the powerful ‘Great River Euphrates’ but it does not seems that God is about to run out of this “wounding”, plague implements. (Cf. Rev 18:6).
...kings from the east - This is also a cryptic statement in Revelation, but by looking through Biblical precedence, an understanding of its meaning can be arrived at. In history Babylon fell when its waters were dried up by the Medo-Persian King Cyrus and his invading armies (Isa 44:27-45:3; =Battle of Opis) and then it was most easy for them to enter Babylon and overtake it, having timed that attack with a major celebration in Babylon (=Dan 5). It was by earlier having lost a soldier trying to cross this river that this idea of diverting the Euphrates’ intake had be borne with Cyrus; and it also was the arrogance of the Babylonians which resulted in their downfall as, As Greek historian Herodotus says (Histories 1.191) had the suspected that Cyrus was, on top of his siege of Babylon, also working on diverting the river further upstream out of site from the city, they would not have merely remained enclosed in their supposed fully-secure city, but would have gone out to engage the Persian armies surrounding them.
Now from, first, the Geographical fact that those who dwelt “East” of Babylon were the Medo-Persian peoples, and also, in instead applicable, those who were understood as directly “east” by Israelites were the Arab people living in the Arabian desert, and then, from the Bible/SOP fact that “the last plagues will not be universal” (LDE 246.1), as they will indeed only squarely fall on the Mark of the Beast Camp (Rev 16:2ff), and then also given that the “kings from the east” contribute, as in History, to the downfall of Babylon; and, as already discussed during the Fifth Trumpet (Rev 9:4), God had used Militant Islam to inflict great “tormentative” harm and damage to the then Historical Babylon, the Roman Catholic Empire, it would seem that in this Sixth Plague effectuation, history will repeat itself, this time focusing on the Eschatological Babylon, the U.S.-led Capitalistic West.
Interestingly enough, as already discussed in the Fifth Trumpet, while the 9/11 attacks did not end the National or Imperial Reign of the United States in the world, those attacks resulted in the U.S. suddenly going into great debt, by the trillions of dollars, simply to try to deal with it from military defence, intelligence surveillance and institutional and governmental securing and “bulking up”. In fact, and it indeed is a fact, with all of these increases of defenses, the U.S. has by now literally become the least free democratic society in the world. So, as it is said: “the terrorist have indeed won”, and that “win” is key to this Sixth Plague development. Conversely to the 9/11 attacks when, as in History, “Babylon” allowed its enemies to camp right around them, not suspecting that they would use their own vital “supplies” (=River’s Waters), all based on the then quasi-religious dogma of the U.S. in the sanctity of the “freedoms of people”, indeed with those 9/11 hijacking group having left enough glaring indications of what they were up to, by this Sixth Plague stage, such “U.S. freedoms” have increasingly “dried up”, which would seem to thus make Babylon most secure, but it actually is not. Just like the loss of one soldier to the Euphrates led Cyrus to conceive this plan to penetrate the defences of Babylon, the several foiled terrorist attacks by the U.S./West since 9/11, (and including how Osama Bin Laden was located through simply one phrase in one phone call by his courier), most publicly attributed to the increased surveillance then, has actually only made these paramilitary enemies of the U.S. that much careful, and probably much more than U.S. intelligence can know....unless it plans to mount up a literal or virtual surveillance team which tails every single U.S. citizen 24/7, or even simply people thought to be sympathetic to, or tangibly aspirational of, terrorist activity. -And the quite noticeably resulting: “mixing/conflating of characters” that has naturally transpired here in this prophetic application to the post 9/11 U.S. circumstances is tellingly perfectly reflective of how it is indeed the US itself, i.e., its head/government, which is doing this “drying up” damage to its, at the very least, ideological, self, through indeed its various implemented, Constitutional bypassing, circumventing and/or outright ignoring, default, wholesale, intrusive domestic mass hyper-surveillance programs. In many ways, the U.S. is indeed its own worst enemy.
So the “kings from the East” would, “again”, be a more formal form of the tormenting Religio-Militant “scorpion locusts” of the Fifth Trumpet (Rev 9:7-10), also keeping in mind, as a possible extent of resulting confrontation, that Persia is the specific historical ancestor of present-day Iran, but could easily be representative of all of the Islamic world, (cf. in this 2006 sermon series by Dwight Nelson where, if I recall correctly, a similar “controversial” Islam identification/notion in regards to pointedly the “East” was also made/involved). Indeed, as already stated during the Fifth Trumpet discussion, the economic costs and military entanglements of the U.S. due to the 9/11 attacks has made it most reluctant to engage in a conflict which would be even more variously involved. And so during this time, they, nor their dependent state of Israel, have not been able to halt their perceived WMD threat from Iran, and North Korea has also during that time, by now become a capable Nuclear WMD power.
So while, like Historical Babylon, the U.S. may now be thinking itself to be secure, thinking that any terrorist activity will surely be caught especially by their hyper electronic/digital surveillance apparatus,...or ‘not’..., that 9/11-initiated, sweeping “people’s freedom drying up” approach would only have paved the way for a future successful attack on the scale of 9/11. And it is such an attack, which, as presented from here, and in this dedicate post, is seen to indeed be also Divinely in order before the end of the Sixth Series’ Sixth Trumpet era (=Rev 11:12-15), which would literally impel the Mark of the Beast camp into its most heightened, actual opposition to, but most subtly so, God’s will and ways, as seen in the next statements of this Sixth Plague. And may very well/indeed be the fact that then God will involve much more “angelic/supernatural assistance” in the 9/11 II effectuation, which will indeed totally baffle and confuse human defenders, that the “gauntlet” will be laid for Satan, literally, in fairness, providing him a green light to himself then also involve “demonic supernatural power”, with him then really trying to keep his Mark of the Beast camp together. Indeed in the light of what God will do then to inflict harm on Babylon....people will suddenly turn to religion by the droves...just as they did in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.
Rev 16:13 - And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs;
In the line of the SDA Historical & merely literal Sabbath (vs. Eschatological and Full Sabbath) view of Final Events, Ron Clouzet, apparently reading from a chapter entitled “Babylon Rising” in his new book on the Holy Spirit, presented in this GYC 2011 presentation [01:06:25-01:17:16] what the symbols stated in this verse could imply. To just state his conclusion here, he sees that what will bring these three powers of the dragon (Satan), beast (Catholicism); and False Prophet (Protestantism) together is a false manifestation of tongues. While that conclusion, being properly exegetically derived, would have applied to a Historical fulfilment of Final Events, they also have a deeper, more spiritual fulfilment in the present Eschatological Wave. So while many of the underlying exegetical basis in this deeper application are similar to what Clouzet brought out for his view, they do not end up at the same final interpretational points.
mouth of dragon; beast; false prophet - In the course of history the opposition to God’s cause has chiefly used its mouth to try to bring an end to God’s faithful ones.
-Thus, the dragon, through pagan/paganized leaders and entities, tried to physically devour the newly born and birth New Covenant/Israel Cause and Church (Rev 12:4b, 15).
-Similarly the more tangibly establish of kingdom of the First Beast (Rev 13:1-10), then assuming a temporal, kingly authority (Rev 13:1), through which it made kingly pronouncements (Rev 13:2's ‘mouth of a lion’) mixed in with blasphemous religious statements (Rev 13:5-6), also attempted to stamp out God’s Gospel Truth which was being upheld by Biblical Christians.
-Then when the power of that First Beast was overcomed by the power of the more Biblical Protestant message, because this Reformation Cause knowingly did not make the full effort to align all of its teachings with the Bible, most notably in regards to the Fourth Commandment, they then effectively became a spokesperson, i.e., a (False) Prophet of first Beast. Through this outright disregard for God’s Sabbath, it never began to delve into its full Biblical meaning and implication, and thus this Second Beast immediately championed the also Sabbath-opposing system of Capitalism, through which it came to form an image to the First Beast. Through its laws echoing this chief Capitalistic thinking, it came to speak like a dragon.
The Full Circle - It is significant to see that while the opposition to God’s Cause became more and more subtle as this effort progressed through those 3 manifestations of Satan’s opposition, in the end, first the False Prophet, Second Beast Power speaking as a dragon, this Opposing Cause has come full circle around to end up being what it was from the beginning, a direct projection of the dragon’s rage against the True Cause of Christ. (Rev 12:3-4 = Rev 13:11).
This progressive, but circular course is seen through the intrinsic relation through all of those seemingly distinct but related powers of opposition. Namely: When the dragon could not devour God’s Faithful ones, it went on to pour out a river against them from its mouth (Rev 12:4, 15). That flooding river was also unsuccessful when the earth opened up its mouth and swallowed up that river. That was tangibly done and maintained in this new earth by the rising beast from it (Rev 13:11a) enacting its nation establishing Constitutional Laws which guaranteed freedom of Religion. Thus this “flooding river” was guaranteed to never resurface on this land. Yet that same, derived “mouth of that new earth” would later make Legislative Pronouncements which would most formidably accomplish the initial intents of the dragon, which was to physical devour the Righteous Cause of God. (Rev 13:15-17).
And the most deceptive thing in all of this is that each ensuing movement is deemed to be much better than its predecessor, which it potentially could have been, i.e., (1) the river/First Beast is better than the dragon (i.e., a Christian Kingdom vs. a pagan one), and then (2) the earth/Second Beast than the river/First (i.e., a non-Christian/Religious State vs. one that is), but fundamentally, through commonly adhered to unbiblical teachings, they all end up being equally dangerous, with, in the case of the Second Beast, True Christian principles being taken out of their socio-economic life, which the First Beast, of course opposes.
As exposed in EW 266-269, what is most deceptive in that final opposition manifestation is that will deceive even those (i.e., SDA’s) who think to know everything about its deadly Mark. However the fact of the matter is that by refusing to accept the Full meaning and implication of God’s Sabbath, which is found in its socio-economic implications (Isa 58), they are presently found amongst those who are espousing the present contra Seal of God/Mark of the Beast development instilled by Capitalism.
unclean - The use of the term “unclean” recalls the prohibition by God to eat certain meats which are said to be “unclean” Deut 14:12; cf. Acts 10:14; 11:8. With meat eating not being permitted until after the flood when the overturned condition of the earth made it a vital necessity, as God expected it, yet with certain unclean meats being off limits even then (cf. Gen 7:2-3, 8-9; 8:20), as evidently this permitted meat eating was to have a detrimental/decreasing effect on the lifespan of man (Gen 9:3-5a), (with the life of a man taken through murder to be most immediately required from the perpetrator (Gen 9:5b-6)), that was not God’s ideal for man, but then a permitted, but adversially consequential necessity, and all in order to prevent conditions becoming such that another Flood destruction would be needed.
And so it can be applicably seen that, as discussed in this post, while God had allowed the formation and implementation of prophetic Babylon, including its now dominant socio-economic aberration in Capitalism, this, like permitted meat-eating after the flood, was in order to come to demonstrate once and for all, the utter futility and spuriousness of this socio-economic approach, which indeed most clearly proved itself to be non-viable by the severe economic Depression of the 1930's. Only the “mixing in” of Socialistic principles, which inherent are Biblical, managed to “breath life” into Capitalism, causing most to continue to worship it as some sort of infallible god. And so with the symbolic object here being said to be “unclean”, it comes to be at a drastic, detestable and most abominable, step lower than what even God may purposely permit, and that solely in order to achieve a pointed objective that will vindicate Him and His original plan over even that permitted Plan B. (cf. Ezek 11:14-21) And so it is a both “unpermitted” and “abominable” influence/ideology that is now being proposed here by the leaders of the Babylonian power.
spirits - The Greek word for “spirit” pneuma means both “breath” in a literal context, and a ‘spiritual influence’ in a figurative one.
By extension, in addition to what has been said above about the “worst level” which is something “unclean”, from three states of:
(1) vegetarian diet (God’s ideal);
(2) clean meat diet (risky/costly);
(3) unclean meat diet (an abomination);
there are similarly three states of spirit that a person can be in. From best to worst there is:
(1) the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit (e.g., John 3:5-8) - (God’s ideal);
(2) the neutrally “natural” spirit of man (cf. 1 Cor 2:13-15) - (at your own risk);
(3) outright “demon possession” which is known as ‘one having an “unclean spirit”’ (e.g., Matt 10:1; 12:43; Mar 1:26-27; 3:11, 30; 5:2, 8, 13; Acts 5:16; 8:7) - (an abomination).
So what takes place here with these “spirits” is on a level beyond the ‘natural/base enmity of man towards God’s will’, being mind-overpowering demon possession.
like frogs - It may be glibly expedient to see here, as the SDABC does (7:844; PDF p.6660) that the mention of “frogs” here is merely for as a trite/vacuous adjectival emphasis of the just mentioned “unclean spirits”, but as normative in the prophecies of Revelation this mention here is also not a idle one, but a most ‘significantly “loaded”’ term.
For starters, the mention of “frogs” in the context of “plagues”, as with these 7 Last Plagues, makes the Historical appearance of these in Egypt’s Second Plague (Exod 8:1-15) as the direct background of this prophetic passage. What was interesting about that Second Plague is that it was the last plague that the Magicians, and Satan, through his aid, could imitate (#3 Exod 8:18-19; 1T 292.1; cf. #6 Exod 9:11).
At a subsequent level, this producing of “frogs” at this point in the decisive Sixth Era of the Great Controversy War occurs when the “Great River Euphrates waters” of this Babylonian power have been dried up (Rev 16:12) and the kings/army from the East/Sun’s Rising are coming. (=the Sixth Army of Rev 9:15-17). And so with the symbolisms here meaning that ‘the Fundamental “Populous Religious” basis which “supplied and protected” the Babylonian Empire’s headquarter City against invasion and defeat no longer present, through all of the claimed religious justifications for, Eschatologically, ‘Capitalism being Biblical and God’s will’, having been soundly and roundly debunked, the ‘Dragon, Beast and False Prophet’ leadership of the Babylonian power then, concertedly, now try to conjure up a rallying and binding “new ideology and religion” in order to provide the necessary underlying justifying “spirit” by which they can guilt-freely continue to convince people to adhere to their now clearly known to be condemned, futile and detrimental ways. And so they turn to the pagan religion of Egypt, who chief tenet, as seen in its pyramids, is endeavoring to ensure the survival of the soul after death, for this validation and support, which ironically enough, was a pagan religious system that thrived until the Christianity had stamped it out in the first centuries A.D. (cf. here). And so here comes Egypt’s Frog deity. And because Egypt’s deities had a “cultus history” of their own, the understanding of that symbol also does not end with what is found in the Bible about it.
As normative with Pagan religions, as those systems tried to find a god to which their prosperity and well-being could be secured, yet as it was inevitable that adverse conditions and events would come, even according to a set and consistent pattern/schedule (such as winter, drought, storms etc, each year), then a specific god was conjured up for each of those good or bad affectations as well as a plausible back story as to why, e.g., there was a drought, e.g., the god of the sun got upset at the god of rain for, e.g., seducing his wife and got in a quarrel with him and murdered him. Then of course, when the drought (season) ends with torrential rains coming, then it was because another god had managed to resurrect the god of rain. And, fancifully, so on. It is most interesting to see that in the Bible, God, actually the Godhead, is repeatedly shown to be in total/ultimate control of both the blessings and the curses/calamities (e.g, Isa 45:7 cf. midway in this discussion post; cf. here) Deut 30:15-20).
The appearance of “frogs” in the context of Egypt’s belief system and its pantheon of gods, immediately recalled their goddess Heqet which was responsible for life and fertility since this god was derived from the fact that millions of frogs were born after the annual inundation of the Nile, which itself brought fertility to the otherwise barren lands of Egypt. And so here Babylon is hoping to substitute the dried up Euphrates River by this chief religious ideology of fertility all in order to prevent what it sees and understands to be key to its survival, namely children who will continue her reign (Isa 47:8-9|Rev 18:7). And the implicated symbolism did not end with the frog/frog-goddess. Most interestingly enough, it is said here of Heqet that she became a symbol of “resurrection”:
“When the Legend of Osiris and Isis developed, it was said that it was Heqet who breathed life into the new body of Horus at birth, as she was the goddess of the last moments of birth. As the birth of Horus became more intimately associated with the resurrection of Osiris, so Heqet's role became one more closely associated with resurrection. Eventually, this association led to her amulets gaining the phrase I am the resurrection, and consequently the amulets were used by early Christians.”
By following the familial mythology of related/associated Egyptian gods (cf. family tree of these deities here) such as: Osiris, Isis, Seth, Horus, Ra, Atum/Atum-Ra, Geb, Nut, Khnum, among others, stories and details which will not be expansively stated here, but which can be read and understood by clicking on the linked information for each of these Egyptians deities, it becomes clear that an entire new system of religious belief was being endeavored to be established by Babylon, with pointed focuses on:
-having a Creator of the Earth and Heavens god (the Geb and Nut married couple =anti-Creation and Sabbath cf. Rev 14:7);
-a god that looked after the poor and needy as well as rich and powerful (Isis = the justifying of a mixed-economy capitalistic system);
-a god that looked after fertility, life, and the unborn (Heqet presenting her son Khnum as proof = supposedly contra abortion);
-a god to provide safety and security against war (Horus = a viable New World Order)
-a god who had power over death (Isis = source of perpetual life)
-a god of the afterlife and death, and a firstfruit of resurrection (Osiris = proof of perpetual life)
-and keyly, not to be left out, a usurping villain is set up as a god named, interestingly enough, Seth, who is the god of all that is bad and threatening to the prosperity of Egypt, namely the desert, storms, foreigners, darkness and chaos, and is desperately, in a sort of major ‘Great Controversy’ War, seeking to kill his brother Osiris, and then Osiris’s son Horus. (replace the Righteous, and world redeeming, Messianic line of the “Sons of God” (cf. Gen 6:1-2ff; Rev 21:7) which in the Bible are through Seth (see Luke 3:38)).
With, as seen in the Biblical account (cf. 1T 292.1) Satan manifestly being the inspirational source of the Ancient Egyptian Religion, it is thus not surprising that many of the claims, themes and teachings made and found in the Bible, and its Great Controversy context, are here substituted and perverted. And that is the religious ideology that Satan now tries to establish with Babylon since its prior unifying and validating Christian ideology has been proven to be actually unBiblical. And so a more “worldly/secular” ideology is sought to be instilled here, as permitted by God. And this is all how Babylon has come to “doubly fall” as pointed stated in a Loud Voice in Rev 18:2. I.e., it is no longer even under a semblance of Christianity, but now under a paganistic/atheistic/secular “spirit”. And these ways are being plausibly advanced as the best way to order the world, thus no longer under the “God wants you to be wealthy and make money at any cost” dogma of Protestant Capitalism, but rather a more humanistic and ecological model which thus makes man and nature the dictating gods of what is good or bad. Indeed anything but what the Creator God has set forth.
And, as variously ascertained, the chief validating ideology of this now Purely Paganistic “Egyptian” religion pouring forth as these frogs is, as in the beginning (Gen 3:1-6), that ‘life and fertility’ will be the gain of anyone who chooses to live outside of God’s will, -thus: ‘the sinner will not surely die.’ And, along the lines of what is depicted in the SOP in EW 263-269, the 66.7% of the world (=Rev 9:20-21), as well as those from the 33.3% who had remained in Babylon (Rev 9:15ff), as well as SDA’s who had made it the norm to go along with those Babylonian and worldly policies and customs (LDE 116.2; 141.2-142.1; 228.1; 1T 199.2; 5T 81.1), will rally around this new “spirit” in order to fight a last struggle against God’s Righteous Ones.
It is, as basely typical, in order to assure what is considered to be paramount, i.e., ‘life and future survival’, that people will readily ascribe to this new “frogs spirits” ideology, yet with it comes a whole paganistic system which deliberately and systematically completely obliterates the True Religion of the Creator God. And the whole world will be taken up in this snare proposed in supposed ‘life-or-death’ context. (EW 36.2a)
And since “murders” will continue unabated then, as before under the Babylonian influence (Rev 9:21), with the large part then continuing to be abortion, under the continued belief that ‘this is good for the economy’, this will reflect what God had manifestly tried to demonstrate in the plague of the frogs in Egypt infesting the ‘homes, bedrooms, beds, the servants houses, the people, ovens and kneading bowls of Egypt’ (Exod 8:3-4, 11), thus, not only actually directly preventing the fertility of Egypt, indeed probably resulting in a period of no births at all in Egypt some nine months later, for a corresponding period of time during which this all-pervasive plague lasted, but also bringing the entire Egyptian economy to a grinding halt, with even many Egyptians then going hungry, or, at best, scrounging for uncooked/raw food to eat.
In a similar way, it is today, not a growing population that is the ‘plague of the world’, and certainly not abortion that is the worthy solution, it is rather the artificially, financially limiting dogmas of Capitalism that is variously preventing and delaying the quite abundant resources of the earth to be properly and safely developed in order to meet the needs of all.
Three Tier Babylon - The Final Endtime Babylon is made up of three seemingly distinct, but actually, even if not explicitly so, -that is to their knowledge, unified entities. The “dragon” tier is that of Satan. The “beast” entity is that of the First Beast of Revelation 13, the Catholic Church which held prominent sway in the Mark of the Beast movement for most of Church History. The “False Prophet” entity is that of a power, namely the United States of America, which does not claim, as with the (first) beast, to forcefully impose its religious will upon people, as it fundamentally has a religious liberty safeguarding ‘Separation of Church and State’, however it does not at all shy away from making religious claims from its State/Political platforms, also “falsely” claiming, under a Christian guise, that its ways are God’s express will for (Protestant) Christians. And through its anti-Gospel and anti-Sabbatarian, Capitalistic socio-economic ways, it ends up only furthering, and that most deceptively so (Rev 13:14a), the purposes of its two predecessors, -the dragon and the first beast, by ending up ‘making an “image” to the first beast’ (Rev 13:14b-15), and ‘speaking like the dragon’ (Rev 13:11b).
SDA & False Prophet Tier - The SDA participation in this Mark of the Beast Camp coalition is that, while they are preaching against the inroads of the first beast, through their refusal to advance in the full light of God’s Sabbath, as warningly depicted in EW 54.2-56.2; cf. 36.2, they are actually going along in lockstep with the actual (Fuller) Mark of the Beast agenda of the Second Beast, and all in the name of supposed “Freedom”, which is actually disguised greed, self-interest and covetousness. And so by not advancing in the Full Light of God’s Truth, becoming a victim of their own revered waywardness and deficiency, the most part of the SDA Church will be shut, and left, in the “perfect darkness” here (EW 14.1; 55.1; 270.1).
Rev 16:14 - for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which themselves go out to the kings of the whole (inhabited) world, in order to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.
spirits of demons - As seen in Rev 18:2, at this point, Satan has managed to take control of a Babylon that then no longer has any Christianity credit left, as it most clearly knows that many of the teachings and practises that it had believed were Biblical, are most definitely not. And so Satan and his fallen angels, (=demons) have by now taken over, but of course under a garb of Christianity so as to continue to deceive those still in this Babylonian camp. And, as seen above, the main tenet of this now demonic camp is that people can live outside of God’s will and not merely live, but thrive.
performing signs - In order to confirm the deceptive belief that the Babylonian Camp is God’s cause, those demons will perform signs/miracles (cf. Rev 13:14). While in a literalistic sense, this would be acts like directly, physically healing people having authority over certain conditions, and even natural elements, in an eschatological context where the Capitalistic economy is now the protagonist, these “signs/miracles” will be manifested through an approach which makes Capitalism contribute more to alleviating suffering and preventing death of particularly lesser opportuned people, unlike what it normatively, indifferently allowed before. As discussed in this post on Rev 17:13, 16; 18:1, Philanthrocapitalism, which the Catholic Church readily endorses, will be the main framework of that final deception. Even the SDA Church readily endorses such still selfish, token approaches, for, as shown e.g., here, they also do not take Christ’s indication in Matt 25:31-46 to be truly serious about its extent or its implications.
which themselves go out... - More than actual proclamation, it is those performed demonic signs in themselves which will go out to all of the kings throughout the inhabited world, and that in order to assemble them together under one banner, to fight against God’s formidable Sixth Army, which they see as a threat to world stability and prosperity. Those “confirming” demonic signs, probably all self-induced and healed, just like it is Capitalism which causes the various needful conditions of the world, so is it actually a “miracle” if a move, even when here token one, towards a more socialistic approach, as done in Mixed Economies, ends up beginning to resolve those problems. Contrary to what will be claimed then, as seen in today’s societies, it will not be “Capitalism that works” then, but purely Socialistic measures. But, incomprehensibly enough, through its mind-altering sorceries and inebriations, Capitalists will continue to dupe the world into thinking that this is all the “blessed fruit” of Capitalism.
False Latter Rain - So, in a much wider prophetic context, what will transpire under these new Spiritualistic manifestations, is a “False Latter Rain” event, indeed to directly counter, and in a GC context permissively so, the Real Latter Rain that God will pour out on His sealed, faithful people, and which will help them to do what they otherwise could not do, even if through the Supernatural aid/guidance of God.
the war of the great day of God - It is here that the many “day of the Lord” confrontation/battle/scenarios spoken of throughout the Bible will transpire. These were thoroughly discussed under the corresponding Sixth Seal unveiling above.
the Almighty - Like every pivotal, graciously-obtainable thing in this Great Controversy, this Final Conflict will still fundamentally require faith in God. And so victory in this final conflict will depend on the Righteous’s faith that God can, and will, deliver on His Promises (cf. EW 272.1). As intrinsically involved in God’s tangible “Almighty” title, see here, the Righteous will have to trust in the “Supreme Power of God”, despite quite daunting appearances, to overcome any and all odds that a not yet existing Future may bring. And it is that resolute faith in God which will rewardingly provide them both saving righteousness, and the final victory through the realization of all of God’s Promises.
H/Ar-Mageddon Gathering
Rev 16:15 - ("Behold, I myself come as a thief. Blessed is the one who is keeping watch/staying awake and is keeping his garments, so that he would not walk about naked and others would not see his “nakedness” [=unseemingly/shameful/dishonoring/disgraceful deeds].")
This really seemingly quite anti-climatic statement here by God in the midst of the Great Final Conflict narrative indeed seems to be a nonchalant understating of the most trying warring circumstances in which the Righteous will then be fully plunged in. However, as it was begun to be seen in its allusive citing in the Fifth Church’s Reformation Era (Rev 3:1-6), discussed in great detail above, it is providing the key two instructions to being victorious through this war.
myself coming as a thief - The day of the lord will indeed come as a thief to those who are spiritually unprepared (1 Thess 5:4-9), however now Jesus is indicating to his righteous ones that He himself will make things to be that He also comes as a thief. And the only way in which these righteous ones can avoid being adversely surprised here is to be (1) keeping watch/staying awake and (2) keeping their garments on.
keeping watch/staying awake - The call to stay awake calls back to two prominently significant incident where this should have been the attitude and action of Christ’s followers. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciples of Christ allowed themselves to fall asleep and thus were addedly caused to abandon Jesus when suddenly to them, though already warned of before, the manifested arresting opposition, led by a former disciple who they had looked up to, completely shattered their faith in Jesus. (Matt 26:36-46|DA 686.1-694.4). It is spiritually significant that the final conflict of the righteous will mirror Christ’s anguish and struggle in Gethsemane.
In the Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matt 25:1-13), “staying awake” is also shown to be a beneficial advantage, however will both the wise and the foolish virgins fell asleep then, the wise were able to virtually not miss a beat when they were suddenly awaken because, unlike the disciples in Gethsemane, they had made the necessary spiritual preparations in advance. However with Jesus saying in the Rev 16:15 event that He will then Himself come as a thief, if those in the end are not also awake, on top of being properly prepared in advance, they will then, as a thief burglarizing an occupied house at night, actually miss with Jesus will silently come, and go.
This imagery and theme is depicted in EW 54.2-56.2 which speaks of the close of probation on, first, the SDA Church, just as the “uninterested and careless” there did not notice that Jesus had left the Fifth Era’s Intercessory Throne, and that Satan was now usurpingly acting like Christ and was trying to carry out God’s work, but under his deceptive evil influence, the Church today, by not advancing through the ‘Opened Third Prophetic Door (=Rev 4:1ff)’, revealing God’s Full Sabbath Truth, they have not noticed the kingdom advancing work of God from that time on. In fact, they will then quite literally see that any movement which is seeking to temporally implement God’s Zion and Kingdom of God, (which is being done to provide the world with the best global testimony of the full spectrum of God’s Truth), and that while operating outside of the spurious (unwritten) “law” of Capitalism, is a dangerous “thief”. And so the cause of Christ, indeed even Christ’s True Gospel instead, will, as copiously, knee-jerkedly, typically, but most spuriously, seen in Capitalism-staunchly-espousing SDA Circles, that this Movement, as implemented in the NJK Project, is a system of “thievery” with patent, false chief accusation of ‘eating while not working’, unlawful political establishment, and stealing natural resources. Most deceivedly blinded and inebriated by the (socio-economic) vapors of the wine of Babylon, they do not see that it is it is the customary actions of Capitalism which are unlawful and illegal (cf. this sermon [14:38-30:03]) when it, e.g., in the name of profit and individualism, prevents willing and able people from being able to contribute to society and work and launches land and resource coveting and controlling or outright stealing wars. But so is the plight of those who are totally deceived (Isa 5:20). =GC 608.2.
keeping his garments - At the foundational root of the symbolic meaning of ‘a “garment/robe” as righteousness’ (cf. Isa 61:10; Job 29:14) and “nakedness” being symbolic of what is unseemingly, shameful, dishonoring and disgraceful, is not, as the “naturist” [the other, also, even when non-spousally, “familial/relatival” (=Lev 18:6-18), insidious perversion extreme of God’s perfect framework/context for human intimate relations] would faultingly have others believe, a shallow/surface ‘“embarrassment” about the physical human body’, but rather is undivorceably rooted in what took place in Eden at the beginning of this World’s Age. (Gen 2:25; 3:7-11) When Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit and ‘their eyes were opened and they saw that they were naked’ it manifestly was, as seen with a growing baby, that it was a sudden loss of innocence which God had up to then been spiritually and physically shelteringly providing them with which caused their sudden embarrassment then. They then began to understand the adverse potential of the various good things that they had then. And that was most prominently seen in their nakedness. And so, with their physically shielding robe of light gone then, they tried to now take it upon themselves to restore that beneficial shielding by sowing fig leafs together for clothing. But, just as attempts today to, pertinently here, produce a naturally artificial and jaded view of, and reaction to, the human body, (something that God actually never, at all, intended, -indeed with moreover man and woman never intended to diminish from their optimal physical stature), man’s effort to now, effectively, protect himself from his “natural” self would ever be futile and ineffective. Only God’s original plan was both most effective while also being most delightful, for all. So any such “efforts of man” to try to do what God’s way was able to do is forever linked to a notion of being grossly inadequate, and ultimately all points back to the shameful, disgraceful and disappointing way in which this state of affairs had originally come about.
And so this concrete concept of garments/robes and one’s nakedness similarly applies in Rev 16:15, as “righteous acts” (Rev 19:8) are based in an unswerving and wholly trusting obedience to God, as Adam and Eve should have done. And it is only that obedient way which will ever accomplish God’s glorious will here. And so any other way other than what Jesus has instructed (Matt 25:31-46), will at the very best, be as condemning as filthy rags (Isa 64:6), being neither what was needed nor what is acceptable. (cf. Matt 22:1-14).
And so it is along these understandings that, as shown also in EW 55.1, Jesus instructs his faithful followers who are then already clothed in white garments, to ‘keep those garments spotless’, i.e., keep obediently doing righteous acts (=Rev 19:8), and ‘in a little while He will return from the wedding [to His then readied bride, the New Jerusalem Rev 19:7] and receive them unto Himself’ (John 14:3) for the Celebratory, Reception Supper (Rev 19:6-9).
As Rev 19:11-21 linearly indicates that it is then, i.e., after this marriage, that the saints, organized in the (prolonged time, prophetically paralleled) Sixth Army, then war against the assembled Mark of the Beast camp spoken on in Rev 16:16, it is apparent that the instruction of Jesus here is indeed parenthetical, as indicated in e.g., the NASB, and is generally speaking of what the actions of the righteous should be throughout this Sixth Era in order to continue on through, unshaken until the final victory. As revealed in Matt 25:31-46 it is only good works of righteousness which will provide the only way of escape in these “testing” times. (Rev 3:10)
And so this statement in Rev 16:15 is not really, as surfacely assumed by many, a ‘comforting statement about the Second Coming’, but substantively, rather a most solemn warning and encouragement to God’s enduring faithful ones here, as it was in its allusion to in Rev 3:1-6, to: ‘maintain the present course in the final stretch, lest they come up short while oh so very close to the end.’
Rev 16:16 - And they [the signs/miracles] gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon.
signs/miracles gathered them - Under the overmastering delusion of those false signs, wonders and miracles, the rebellious people of the earth are naturally gathered into the opposing camp to God’s Truth here. With those signs being in what the ‘First Beast-mirroring’ and ‘dragon-speaking’ Second Beast is able to do to signify the ‘approval of God’, as did Elijah (Rev 13:13-15|1 Kgs 18:38), it is indeed the Second Beast which is the ring leader in this deception.
the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon - The explanation in this presentation #3 of Net 2011 (cf. here) [01:14:29-01:16:41] where it was shown that this “Hebraized” term Har-Mageddon [indeed the LXX translation of "Megiddo" is the exact same spelling as here in Revelation] is referring to ‘the Mountain of the Valley of Megiddo’, which is Mount Carmel, where the Elijah vs. Baal showdown took place (1 Kgs 18), is Biblically/exegetically sound, and thus contributive towards understanding this cryptic location. Indeed this understanding harmonizes with the above-mentioned Elijah’s sign implication (=Rev 13:13-14; 16:13-16). (As I stated here, that Mountain may very well have been (also) known as a ‘mountain for appointments’ (=Har Mo’ed understanding), thus where Israel’s mass/nation-wide congregating would take place. Perhaps the mountain itself actually served as the necessary elevated platform/pulpit for such assemblies (cf. Neh 8:4-5) in order to be visible by all else.) And so, as prophesied in Mal 4:6, it is then that God’s end time Elijah will either ‘restore all that is restorable, or not, or else the earth will be struck with a curse.’ But as Rev 9:20-21 shows that not “all things” will be restored then, but only Babylon will be taken out of the equation then, the world will then embark on a course which will eventually lead it to an extreme limit at some time in the future when then nothing less that physical destructions from God, on then the entire world, will be inevitable.
The Valley/Plain of Megiddo (eventually a.k.a. “Valley of Jezreel” -e.g., Jos 17:16; Jdg 6:33; Hos 1:5) was also the place where many significant wars of Israel took place and with the location here not merely identified as: “Mount Carmel”, as it easily could have, but dually as: “the Mountain of Megiddo”, and actually not even as: “the mountain of the Valley of Megiddo”, but in a compounded title, it does seems that the “Valley/Plain of Megiddo” itself is contributively significant here. Most notably it is the place where King Josiah loss his life (2 Kgs 23:29; cf. Zech 12:11) for not listening to the, even if seemingly counterintuitive instruction of God (2 Chr 35:20-22ff), and abruptly ending his great and ‘unmatched’ reform and ruling work in Judah (2 Kgs 23:25), which by then had, pertinently enough, such to a sinful depth which involved spiritualism (2 Kgs 23:24).
And so the dual meaning here with the Elijah and Josiah here is to show that in both religious and temporal affairs, only the strict obedience to God’s word will bring about victory (cf. Matt 4:4).
= the “Valley of Decision” - And what is sealing most interesting here is that this final day of the lord war against all of the assembled nations of the earth is discussed in Joel 3 where is it said to take place in a location dubbed as “the Valley of Jehoshaphat”, the ‘valley of God’s verdict/decision’ (Joel 3:14) which He will duly pronounce to all of these nations. (Joel 3:9-17 = (typologically) Rev 14:17-20 (cf. 1 Kgs 18:40)) as He also defends, avenges and restores Judah and Jerusalem. (Joel 3:1ff, 16-21). And with a similar global judgement imagery depicted by Jesus in Matt 25:31-46, and with the verdict of God their shown to be solely base on how those in those nations treated the poor and needy, that is indeed what that great Final War will revolve around. (cf. LDE 218-219). And the ‘faith, endurance and perseverance’ of God’s people then (Rev 14:12; cf. 13:10) will mostly be tested in regards to whether they should continue in obeying God and doing all they can and is necessary to help all those in need, especially vital need, or surrender and align themselves with the Mark of the Beast policies (Rev 13:16-17). But as seen in the episode to which this surnamed “Valley of Jehoshaphat” final struggle is pointing to in 2 Chr 20:1-25, God will defend His trusting outnumbered people by causing their enemies to destroy themselves (2 Chr 20:22-23) and God’s people took possession of the left behind abundant and valuable spoils that, oddly enough, this gathered throng had brought along to this battlefield (2 Chr 20:24-26; cf. Ezek 39:9-10).
Sixth Thunder - New Remnant Church’s Spiritual/Ecclesiastical Work
Eze 33:21ff - The Fall of Jerusalem
Eze 33:23ff - The Survivors in Judah
Eze 34:1ff - Israel's False Shepherds
Eze 34:11ff - God, the True Shepherd
Eze 35:1ff - Judgment on Mount Seir
Eze 36:1ff - Blessing on Israel
Eze 36:16ff - The Renewal of Israel
Eze 37:1ff - The Valley of Dry Bones
Eze 37:15ff - The Two Sticks
Eze 38:1ff - Invasion by Gog
Eze 38:17ff - Judgment on Gog
Eze 39:1ff - Gog's Armies Destroyed
Eze 39:11ff - The Burial of Gog
Eze 39:21ff - Israel Restored to the Land
_____________________
Prophetic Interludes
With now the Series of Sevens in Revelation having reached their objective there is placed an overviewing interlude (i.e., really gradually developing over all of the Seven Events in those Series) between the Sixth and the Seventh Series, as explicitly seen in the Seals and the Trumpets, during which the tangible actions of the Sixth Church/Army will transpire. These interludes are namely:
-The Sealing of the 144,000 and the gathering of the Great Multitude (Rev 7) discussed here.
-The Ministry of Proclamation, Judgement and Rebuilding of Church Reformers/Two Witnesses (Rev 10-11), “chronologically”, (i.e., in the applicable Eschatological (“reverse”) Rev 11 and then Rev 10 sequence from the Historical Fulfillement of Rev 10 in the 1840's), discussed here and then here, who ‘God has called forth from the dens of the caves to be, from then on, (i.e., into, and through, the Seventh Era, His witnesses, true and faithful’ (Mar 290.3 = Rev 3:14).
Seven Thunders Interlude - Now New Israel’s Nation Rebuilding Work
Eze 40:1ff - The Vision of the New Temple
Eze 40:48ff - The Temple
Eze 42:1ff - The Holy Chambers and the Outer Wall
_____________________
Seventh Trumpet & Plague
It is in Revelation’s Seventh Series that “evidence is made sure” (=11MR 361.2a-362.2).
The only problem is that when this is done it then cannot be used as saving/convincing knowledge for those who had preferred to resist, and act faithlessly towards, the Truth. As Heb 11:1-2ff states, that has always been God’s norm, -‘Faith (in God’s Word/Promises) is the Substance/Evidence’. So these concrete manifestations here will then instead only prove to be the condemning evidence against these, including those in the SDA Church.
Internal State of Church: (Seventh Church - Rev 3:14-22 [1847-1996 A.D.]) -
With the pathetic state of the Laodicean having long been seen to apply to the SDA Church, even since 1851, its odd presence after the supposed triumph of God’s People in the Sixth Era can only be understood as how it can to be fulfilled with the SDA Church. As discussed earlier, the Series of Six events were drastically halted partway into their fulfilling (e.g., Rev 6:13), with the Sixth Trumpet never beginning to unravel, releasing the held back Four Angels, and, of course the Sixth Plague not yet being poured out. As seen in the outline of the Seven Thunders, this Sixth Era is to be the Loud Cry Event, which occurs under the Latter Rain power, following the Sealing and Shaking, and those prophetic events have yet to occur, at least as “grandiosely/overtly” expected in the Church. However since ‘Jesus does come as a thief in this Sixth Era’ it is most likely that many will indeed miss the actual, spiritual fulfilment of those events as they were, as the First Century Jews, shallowly/glibly looking at mere appearances to recognize it, rather than at the Substantive Truth.
And so, with the word “Lao-dicea” meaning ‘a righteous people’, the Seventh Church message, which is discussed in detail here,[60] serves as a lasting warning to even those who have made it through the Sixth Era: -a warning to remain righteous by constantly, “preventively” making use of the remedies which God has provided in Rev 3:18, namely: faith & love (=refined gold), righteousness (white garments) and spiritual (vs. “natural”) discernment (eye salve).
State of the Church in the World: (Seventh Seal - Rev 8:1) -
As this event led into the Series of the 7 Trumpets due to the halting of the Seven Seals,
its application was discussed at the beginning of this post, in the introduction of the now Eschatological Seven Trumpets
Seventh Trumpet
With now the Formative, (as in Creation’s Week) Six prophetic periods having been completed, the 6000 year GC has now reached a Seventh Era in which there will be a global Sabbath rest. (Cf. EW 286.1). An tangential Kingdom of God option, i.e., God’s Zion, has finally been established on Earth so that all who want to live Godly and partake of, and benefit from, His Full Sabbatical Rest, will not have any tripping up/“excusing” stumbling blocks in their path. (Isa 2:1-4; Micah 4:1-8). As in the Weeks of Seven Days, all of the lessons that have been experienced and learned over the first 6000 years of this GC will contribute to the appreciation of this ushered in rest. And all that has been beneficially produced by man during those past eras will be applied to almost effortlessly meet the needs of this seventh millennial era. In this granted period where the whole world will have a fair chance to learn what God’s Truth and Will is, that is without the drunkening influence of Babylon who had been claiming to be God’s Cause, and had actually caused many to either plunge into idolatrous and confused and/or selfish/covetous ways, and outrightly reject the True Religion of the Creator God, while the needs of the world will still have to be dealt with, and finally squarely so, instead of the past “live and let die” approach under Babylon’s Capitalistic sway, there will now be a God-like, “Prince With God” (=”Israel”), Kingdom on Earth through which such “healing” and restoring works can be done. (=Ezek 47:8-12). As its most central location in the linear flow of Revelation indicates, the transpiring of this Seventh Trumpet is pointedly a “turning point” in this Great Controversy, but, as with the Seventh day’s trumpet blasts in Jericho, it produced a most signal, faith concretizing victory for God’s people. Yet there was still a whole land of Canaan left to conquer, which could only be done it the entire camp remained faithful and obedient to God’s mandate here, as indeed immediately learned in the (covetousness) sin of Achan episode, and the resulting defeat at Ai (see esp. PP 487-498)
Rev 11:15 - Then the seventh angel sounded; and there came to be loud voices in heaven, saying, "It has (of itself) come to be the kingdom of the world, of our Lord, and of His anointed; and [] will reign into the ages of the ages."
It has (of itself) come to be - a middle voice is used here to indicate that this accomplishment of reigning comes to be effectuated by itself (=Dan 11:45; Isa 63:5) and even in the face of decided opposition (=Psa 2:2ff; cf. Acts 4:26)
kingdom of the world, of our Lord - It is first indicated here that ‘this is a (single) kingdom of (merely locationally) the, i.e., this, planet (thus not (ideologically) of this world’s system). Then it is indicated that this earthly kingdom actually is that of “our (=John’s and other present+future believer’s) Lord”. This is all a realized converse of John 18:36.
Lord vs. His anointed one|Christ - There is here a distinct identity of actually two figures: the Lord and His Anointed One (a.k.a. His Christ). It potentially could be seen, from Rev 11:17 below, that the title “Lord” is referring to “God, the Almighty”, -the one who the 24 elders had worshipped in vs. 16, but as this title “Lord”, especially by itself (i.e., instead of the combined “Lord God” = God the Father) also is patently used to speak of Jesus Christ, then this unique expression “of His Christ” here must straightly, “loadedly”, yet still merely technically (cf. 1 Sam 2:10; 12:3; Psa 27:8, be referring to ‘an anointed one from Jesus Christ (himself)’ (comp. Rev 12:10)
Lord vs. His anointed one|Christ - There is here a distinct identity of actually two figures: the Lord and His Anointed One (a.k.a. His Christ). It potentially could be seen, from Rev 11:17 below, that the title “Lord” is referring to “God, the Almighty”, -the one who the 24 elders had worshipped in vs. 16, but as this title “Lord”, especially by itself (i.e., instead of the combined “Lord God” = God the Father) also is patently used to speak of Jesus Christ, then this unique expression “of His Christ” here must straightly, “loadedly”, yet still merely technically (cf. 1 Sam 2:10; 12:3; Psa 27:8, be referring to ‘an anointed one from Jesus Christ (himself)’ (comp. Rev 12:10)
Rev 11:16 - And the twenty-four elders, the ones before God who seat themselves on their thrones, fell on their faces and worshiped God,
worshiped God - This distinct (full) worship of pointedly God here is similar to what had occurred in Rev 5:8-14, which is discussed here.
Rev 11:17 - saying, "We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign.
Lord God, the Almighty - As keyly seen here from the climatic H/Ar-Mageddon War, it is indeed the “Almighty” power of God which has brought about this great victory. (Cf. Rev 16:5-7; 1:4, 8; 4:8).
who are and who were - A notable difference in this phrase, which, as normative in Revelation, is not mere prophetic dicta, is that there is a notable difference in the sequence and content in which it is gradually stated in the book:
Rev 1:4, 8 = who is and who was and who is coming
Rev 4:8 = who was and who is and who is coming
Rev 11:17 = who was and who is ---------------------
Rev 16:5 = who was and who is ---------------------
What can be most readily spiritually inferred from these notable nuances is that the dropping of the “who is coming” statement in the Seventh Trumpet and at a pivotal point in the Plague, when in the Third Plague, God effectuated the vengeance of those who had been martyred, indicates that He has now managed to effectuate a typological/applicable “coming” of His at those points. (Cf. here) And that is with the establishment of His Temporal Triumphant Kingdom in the events of the Seventh Trumpet, which indeed go on to show that the blood that had been shed by those who were endeavoring to have this done, was not wasted or in vain.
Rev 11:18 - "And the nations were made to be angry, and Your anger came, and the set time came for the dead to be judged, in order to give the reward/wages to Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who are fearing Your name, the small and the great; and in order to destroy the destroyers/corrupters/spoilers of the earth."
angry nations - Of course those who would prefer to have things remain as is were made to be angry by this sudden change of events, for, as with Egypt, under this global reaching, socio-economic justice (=Isa 11:4; Rev 21:6; 22:17), they no longer have a suppressed population to oppress, profit from and take advantage of. (Cf. EW 276.1; 278.1; 35.1|286.1. As discussed here, all slavery stems from socio-economics (cf. Pro 22:7), and so this “slavery” notion is still applicable today.).
judge the dead... - This notion ‘beginning to judge the dead, and that at a set time’ harmonizes with how the Investigative Judgement transpires. With its start at the “end of the 2300 days” (=EW 54.2-56.2), those who have already sealed their fate because of their death, here spiritual death, are readily judged according to what their works had been. Those who are still in the balances here, will then be “investigated” to determine what their work actually is, and also (1) God’s ‘bond-servants the prophets’, the ones who have been holding fast to the (even injunctive, if necessary = Rev 7:1-3ff) Testimony of Jesus (see Rev 12:17; 19:10; 22:8-9) = the 144,0000; (2) those who are found to be holy (= the Great Multitude cf. Rev 7:9ff, 13-17); and (3) those, manifestly in the rest of the world, who have “wisen up” and now taken a most commendable (first) step by ‘fearing the name of God’ (cf. Psa 111:10; Mich 6:8-9; Isa 11:12-13), whether they are, social status-wise, “small or great (individuals)”.
Rev 11:19 - And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.
Opening of God’s Temple - As it was first done to the SDA Church starting in October 22, 1844, the temple of God in Heaven will be opened to the rest of the world, as they now fully learn about His Law, particularly His Full Sabbath Law. And so while this development here signals an ending of Judgment for those who had had this light for years before, namely SDA’s, it is a beginning of the judgement of the rest of the world under the Seventh Trumpet Era.
And with the “lightning and thunders” being reversed from how they were cited at the beginning of the Trumpets series in the abrupt Rev 8:5 censer service ending, this signals that ‘more direct judgements’ will first be, normatively/naturally manifested now, however without the prior “thunder warnings” as before. With such a drastic increase in the widespread knowledge of God in the world (cf. Hab 2:14; Num 14:21; [Isa 11:9b]), it is naturally only fitting that His judgements would be, as with an “out of the blue” lightning flash, normatively travelling faster than its sound, more immediately and strikingly effectuated. And this in large part will be done by the tangible temporal power that can be wielded by God’s reestablished Israel, who indeed cause the ensuing “earthquake” and “great hailstorm”. (=Rev 16:18-21).
Seventh Trumpet Historical (Church) Application
Seventh Trumpet Temporal (Kingdom) Application
SDA Church Specific Application
With the Seventh Trumpet occurring only in an Eschatological context, these above three
applicational area were incorporated in the above General discussion on Rev 11:15-19.
Seventh Plague
Rev 16:17 - Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, "It has become."
It has become - This rendering here is from the Greek perfect active tense of the verb “to become” (Gr. ginomai - Strongs #1096). That word has the pointed meaning of: ‘to come into being, to happen, to become’ and so rendering it as “done”, but actually encroaches on the Greek term for “doing/making” something’ (Gr. poieo - Strongs #4160), is more out of declarative understanding. However the pointed/precise and full meaning of “It has become”, is understood in the light of what has been discovered here about the endtime Babylon. All of this time, just as what the Historical Babylon was to do for Ancient Israel, the end time Babylon really has been God’s fast tracking, as “fast as possible/necessary”, of this course which seeks to sensuously live outside of God’s will while claiming to be followers of God. Just like it was Elijah who, at God’s approval, precipitated the punishment of Israel and the Mount Carmel showdown, it has been God who has been precipitating this Prophetic Babylon aberration, in the sole hope that His genuine followers will most convincing realize that their form of Christianity, in both its Religious application (i.e., Catholicism and Protestantism) as well as its socio-economic extension (i.e., here, Capitalism) is “Babylon” and not God’s will/ideal for His People. And so He precipitatingly orchestrates things to unravel to their only possible outcome, which is the direct spiritistic takeover by Satan himself. (See 2 Thess 2:9-12; Rev 18:1-5).
And so when Satan has indeed, under the Sixth Plague, as discussed above, unleashed his supernatural power to then try to fasten those in the then ideologically crumbling Babylon in those unbiblical teachings and deceptions of his, then this Babylon will indeed have come to a point where: “It has become”, i.e.: ‘It [and of itself = Greek active voice] has become the complete aberration towards which, ultimately, God Himself was, both steering it, or allowing it, -when naturally the possible circumstance, to.’
So that “It has become” expression is not actually an expression of ‘time has run out’ which is manifestly at the root of the “It is done” rendering and understanding, but rather that things on Earth with this Babylon have finally reached its most aberrant/abominable stage where it is now beyond salvaging, and so all that is left it to pour out this final judgement of it. And in a sense, the description of the Babylon Judgement which is next stated in Rev 17 & 18, as discussed in full in this post, may pointedly be an expanded exposition on this Seventh Plague. (Cf. below in Rev 16:19).
Rev 21:6 mention - Interestingly enough, the expression “...has become” occurs in Rev 21:6, which is after a new heaven and earth has been created and the New Jerusalem has been established on this New Earth. What is interesting here is that at worst, that expression should have been translated as “They are done” because it is in the plural form. And at best it is accurately translated as “They, [of themselves] have become”, with the plural “they” here manifestly referring to the New Heavens and New Earth and New Jerusalem events. (Cf. Isa 65:17-23; 66:22-23). And in a validly applicable way, this New Earth, New Heaven, New Jerusalem transpiring will be typologically done in the tangible, globally spreading/benefiting righteousness which God’s Temporal Zion will then effectuate. (=Rev 22:17 = Isa 55*) And as such, this “most blessed end”, in direct opposition to the detrimentalness of Babylon, “will have come to be”, thus allowing for God’s ‘healing springs of waters’ to be freely accessible to all who want of it (Rev 21:6b = Ezek 47:1-12), while those who persist in rebellion (Rev 9:20-21; 21:8) will only have part in the “torment” which God, through His righteous people, has naturally meted out for them (= Isa 66:14b-19ff, 24).
*Isa 55, to which Rev 21:6 & 22:17 are drawing allusion to speak of the establishment of the Davidic Kingdom, and that Isa 55 chapter is the final prophecy of Deutero-Isaiah, the prophet of Isa 40-55; who early and/or shortly prior to during the 70 years of Babylonian Capitivity (606-536 B.C.), and who in this final prophecy was inspired by a prescient God, probably upon seeing the already established defeatist and settle attitude of those deported to Babylon, to make an appeal to the Israelites in Babylon that God, as He had promised earlier on, had much better, and “free”, things in mind for them, Jerusalem and Israel than what Babylon had to offer, -thus encouraging them to return to their own land and restablished God’s Israel towards, hopefully the establishing of Zion. (A topic that Trito-Isaiah (Isa 56-66), writing sometime after the Restoration was inspired to needfully address.
Rev 16:18 - And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and a great earthquake came to be, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so exceedingly great an earthquake was it, and so mighty.
See in comments above on Rev 11:19.
not been since - This seismic activity spiritually represents a “shaking” of things so that only what cannot be shaken will remain (cf. Heb 12:27), and there indeed will not have been a earthshaking event as this one in the (GC) history of this world, for on the other side of this “exceedingly great earthquake”, God’s National Witness will finally reign supreme on the earth with its chief hindrance/opposition, namely Babylon, completely flattened by this development.
Rev 16:19 - The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered before God, in order to give her the cup of the wine of the passion of His anger.
The great city - As seen in Rev 17:18; 18:10, 16, 18, 19, 21, the “Great City” here is a reference to Babylon. By this point, as stated in Rev 17:18, it has become the geo-political headquarters of the world, all united in this spurious Babylonian, Religious and Socio-Economical adventure. In fact the “great city”which is referred to in Rev 11:8 is this Babylon as it now has the aberration characteristics of Babylon which are (1) Sodom’s Natural/Lawlessness (Jude 1:7; 2 Pet 2:6-8) and Socio-Economic (Ezek 16:48-50) perversions/aberrations/abominations, and (2) Egypt’s, ‘God-opposing Religious System’ (discussed above in Sixth Plague - Rev 16:13-14), which both have always sought to kill God’s corresponding ‘Testifying Two Witnesses.
Incidentally, but pertinently here, this “Babylon aberration” form is the “beast from the abyss” (Rev 11:7; 17:8). I.e., the Satan-controlled worldly power, deceived and deceiving through Divinely-permitted, released, most deluding demonic power (cf. Luke 8:31; Rev 20:3).
Three parts - This is manifestly related to the targeted “one third (of mankind)” which is spoken of in Rev 9:15, 18, as well as the segments targeted for destruction in the Trumpets (Rev 8:7-12). And so here only this “foremost part”, which is the leading Religious Babylon segment, is singled out for utter judgement, while the 66.7% in the rest of the “blindly following” world (Rev 9:20) are graciously spared.
Cities of the nations fell - This is manifestly done by the great hailstone outpouring discussed below in Rev 16:21. As it was confirmingly revealed in a Vision, #51 on February 21, 2012, right upon my having completed the first draft of these studies and writings for this post, the key to defeating this tri-part Babylonian power, is to defeat the ideology of its third part (=’cutting of its third head’), namely that of the False Prophet which is Protestant Capitalism. Without that support, the Beast and the Dragon will have a much tougher time to have their, respectively, purely Religious and outright Evil/Demonic ways to be significantly established in the world, i.e., in a tangible way which affects the lives of people and seriously hampers them from learning of God’s ways. In terms of “confusion”, the “False Prophet”, as its misleading name pointedly indicates, was the most successful in deceiving people, whether Christian or non-Christian into believing that the things that they were doing were good/right, indeed much more than the Catholic Church itself. It actually even gave a platform, under its guise of spurious ‘God-granted liberty’, but actually because of the great wealth that was being produced, for those who, albeit indirectly, were devoting their life to doing evil things, i.e., in various “entertainment” industries and culture, to thrive and be the largest exporter of this filth in the world. And so “cutting of this Third head, the one of this False Prophet” is, as seen in Rev 18, the key to dealing a serious hampering blow to this Babylon Trinity.
the passion of His anger - See in this discussion post.
Rev 16:20 - And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Manifestly this plague is drastically reshaping/reorganizing the earth. Spiritually speaking, it is here indication that no political (=islands) nor economic (=mountains) refuge will be found by those who are trying to avoid the effects of this judgement. Babylon will then indeed be, albeit mainly out of “pain or pleasure” sheer fear, fully rejected by all others, i.e., the 66.7% (=Rev 16:12; 18:9-10ff). Yet these now “outliers” will turn to a purely non-religious, secular, i.e., Humanistic, version of it. (Rev 9:20-21), where they now are the “god(s)”.
Rev 16:21 - And huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, came down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague was extremely severe.
Plague of the hail - The War and Judgement of Babylon is bookended by this “plague of hail” (First Trumpet) Rev 8:7 and this final statement in the Seventh Plague. With those 100-pound hailstones being “mixed with fire”, they would qualify as the SOP’s “Balls of Fire” visions (11MR 361-362 & 9T 28-29) which produces great destruction on physical structures in cities, as indeed 100 pound hailstones can easily do.
The “blood” that is also mixed in these hailstones (Rev 8:7) is manifestly due to the fact that this “balls of fire” judgement will also ‘come upon men’, thus not merely falling upon physical structures, but also, and perhaps merely “collaterally”, human life as well. (Cf. Exod 9:22)....And yet, all Divine-Justly (cf. Rev 16:5-7) as the avenging of the blood that, (as had slavery-oppressing Egypt of old), Babylon has wantonly “collaterally” poured out throughout its history during its various selfishness pursuits (e.g. here).
As it was discussed earlier on Rev 8:7, this all alludes to the type of hail that fell on Egypt in its, significantly enough “Seventh Plague”, and literally destroyed its ‘economic production foundations’ (Exod 9:18-30). After that Seventh Plague, which was most severe enough in itself, Pharaoh should have had a “representationally perfect” indication that things would only get much worst if he continued to refuse to obey God, but, actually God, made him to refuse to obey until a “complete” Ten Plagues were poured out in order to justly, fully exact His vengeance on Egypt for all of the harm it had done to Israel (cf. Gen 15:14; Exod 4:23).[61]
With those “balls of fire” actually being hailstones, they in themselves contain the dousing element to prevent a fiery inferno. This was tangibly done in Egypt’s plague as those hailstones falling on vegetation and fields, did not erupt in a brush/forest fire. Manifestly the hail help to quench the fire. And so God’s judgement here is inherently mixed with mercy here, for those who want to seize this opportunity.
had been coming down - It is the “unorthodox” use of a present tense verb here which produces this translation and meaning. As seen in GGBTB pp. 513-539, that Present Tense could be functioning as anyone of several attested syntactical categories. All Spiritual, Prophetic and transpired things considered, it is determined here that this present is functioning as a “Extending -from-Past Present (a.k.a.: Present of Past Action Still in Progress)” -see pp. 519-520 which is “used to describe an action which, begun in the past, continues in the present. It is best translationally expressed as a Perfect tense would. The Present tense itself emphasizes the present time, and is as different from a Perfect as that tense speaks only about the results existing in the present time.
So, as discussed above, it is that outpouring of those “hail and fire” hailstones of the First Trumpet (Rev 8:7), which as discussed in this post, parallelled the enduring/open “9/11” wounding of the Mark of the Beast Camp during the First Plague (Rev 16:2). So it is really only know that it is (“vividly”) seen and understood how that initial blow had indeed been the first(=last) “woe-ful” downfall blow against this Babylon.
Indeed “all along”, i.e. from the First Trumpet|Plague to the Sevenths, Babylon had been suffering the effectively unseen downpour of hailstones on itself [=Hazon #23]
blasphemed God - Manifestly this hailstone judgement will be so severe that most will, ironically enough, refuse to accept that this is a judgement of God himself, and will rather, “slanderously” prefer to believe that this is all the base doing of God’s people, i.e., ‘God would never judge us this way.’ And so, having attributed ‘God’s just doings to merely man’s base-mindedness’ (cf. Mar 2:7; John 10:36), they will harden themselves in their unbelieving course. Refusing to see this as a Judgement, they will therefore naturally not see a valid reason to repent of their ungodly ways, and moreover turn to God’s ways, thus engaging in the path for committing the unpardonable sin (Luke 12:10).
Seventh Thunder - New Israel’s Church, Ministry, Culture & Kingdom Proper Organization
Eze 43:1ff - The Divine Glory Returns to the Temple
Eze 43:13ff - The Altar
Eze 44:1ff - The Closed Gate
Eze 44:4ff - Admission to the Temple
Eze 44:15ff - The Levitical Priests
Eze 45:1ff - The Holy District
Eze 45:10ff - Weights and Measures
Eze 45:13ff - Offerings
Eze 45:18ff - Festivals
Eze 46:1ff - Miscellaneous Regulations
_______________
“Eighth” Thunder(s) - Voice of God|Everlasting Covenant -Blessings of (New) Israel to the Whole World (Gen 12:2-3 = EW 285.1-286.1)
Eze 47:1ff - Water Flowing from the Temple
Eze 47:13ff - The New Boundaries of the Land
Eze 48:1ff - The Tribal Portions
Notes
[38] And as involved in the [8] Section (which technically actually is a return to ‘square [1]’) in the corresponding delineation chart in this post, once these 7 Series of Sevens have completed their redemptive purposes/work, there will the be a return to the original sinless state that once existed and an new age of the a “New Heaven and New Earth” and with the Heavenly New Jerusalem. (Rev 21:1-2ff; cf. Isa 65:17; 66:22)
[39] And with the Assyrians provably being not trustworthy not to overstepped their Divine granted punishment mandate (cf. Isa 10:5-7), indeed they did not even fear the name and power of God who they knew had granted them this authority over His People (2 Kgs 19:20-28), it would therefore likely anyway take a Divine/Miraculous intervention to avert an unintended utter destruction of Judah/Jerusalem here. So God, hearing the, then present as an option, most genuinely penitent appeals of the people led by Hezekiah and Isaiah, instead opted for that 2 Kgs 19:35|Isa 37:36 miraculous pre-emptive intervention.
[40] The Biblical template is that even New Jerusalem itself needs, and should have “high walls”, though its “gates” (=its access) will remain open in its perpetual daytime to any who is found worthy to enter in. (Rev 21:10-16ff; 24-27)
[41] To hone and relatedly apply here a sermonic quip of David Asscherick, the Church of Christ, His bride, through its history was: formed in Apostolic Times; then de-formed in Church History Apostasy; then, coming out of its ‘“wilderness” refuge’ (Rev 12:14ff; cf. Rev 17:3), and back into “mainline” prominence, was begun to be re-formed by Protestant Reformers; and when through its Remnant (Rev 12:17), it will have been perfected into this New Jerusalem state, it is because it will have been trans-formed from the Church Militant into this Church Triumphant (=Rev 21:9ff), and that, after its Shaking. (=EW 269.1-272.3; LDE 62.1-2)
[41] To hone and relatedly apply here a sermonic quip of David Asscherick, the Church of Christ, His bride, through its history was: formed in Apostolic Times; then de-formed in Church History Apostasy; then, coming out of its ‘“wilderness” refuge’ (Rev 12:14ff; cf. Rev 17:3), and back into “mainline” prominence, was begun to be re-formed by Protestant Reformers; and when through its Remnant (Rev 12:17), it will have been perfected into this New Jerusalem state, it is because it will have been trans-formed from the Church Militant into this Church Triumphant (=Rev 21:9ff), and that, after its Shaking. (=EW 269.1-272.3; LDE 62.1-2)
[42]
That dealing of God with “Israel/Judah’s brother” Edom thus became an iconic (eschatological) prophetic symbol of how God would deal with peoples who, as in the Jacob vs. Esau episode, were closely familiar with God’s will, but decided to neglect it, and then added sin to sin by being, moreover lawless and violent, opposition to God’s actual faithful people and remnant. And yet, before effectuating that avenging judgement, God would act, even as a “second time” to try to save people out of the doomed nation to be judged. (Isa 11:11, 14b) The arch example of this was seen when Jesus was to deal with those who had rejected then violently opposed the work of His Messiah (Isa 61:2b = Luke 21:20-22) during God’s time of attempted redemption (Isa 61:2a = Luke 4:16-19) (=Isa 63:4; cf. DA 240.4-241.1). Isa 63:1-6 speaks of this vengeance judgement after it has been executed and is the background of the wild grapes harvesting and pressing wrathful judgement depicted in Rev 14:17-20.
Spiritual Babylon, which in Church History, also was a judgement entity which God had allowed to befall on His wayward people, the Roman Catholic Church, (by the Fourth Series Era (Rev 2:18-23; 6:7-8; 8:12-13) was thus also a fraternal kinship to the Righteous “Judah” remnant that God would go on to produce, starting with the Protestant Reformation during the Fifth Series Era (Rev 3:1-6; 6:9-11; 9:1-12) and then the Sixth Series Remnant Church (Rev 12:17) Era -during its First (Rev 3:7-9; 6:12-13; 9:13-15) then Second halves (Rev 3:10-13; 6:14-17; 9:16-21) as God is then working to fully reconstitute His 12 tribe Israel (Rev 7:1-8ff) all for climatic Seventh Series Era accomplishments. (Rev 3:21-22; 8:1, 2-5; 11:15-18; 16:17-21). And yet God would dedicate two warning calls and tries to save His sincerely faithful people out of Spiritual Babylon (Rev 14:8; 18:1-5ff) before He visited it with His Mighty Judgments (Rev 18:6-24; =Mic 2:12-13; Dan 11:41). “Edom” thus here, is typological of those who have aligned themselves with, or joined, prophetic Babylon, and are concertedly acting to lawlessly harass and assault God’s Remnant Jacob.
Indeed like Esau, the typological group of “Edomites”, (a name that, interestingly enough, pointedly commemorates the base reason for the infamous selling of the birthright incident (see Gen 25:30-31)), are enraged that they have been irrecoverably bypassed for the Israel Blessing which instead has been given to their Second born, and seemingly unscrupulous, dishonest and cheating brother. However, as revealed in Mal 1:1-5; God is much more incensed by the fact that Esau (as with Saul vs. David later) did not really care for the Promise of the Covenant Blessings, nor for the Glory of God’s Israel, but instead cared more with his temporal wants/needs. And, most notably, God did not even care that Esau had done that transaction out of “supposed” need to first save his very life (Gen 25:32). He did not love God’s Truth/Promise over his own life, and so was not found worthy to obtain it. The only fault of Jacob in all of this was that he acted through deception to obtain the Blessing when the time came, rather than trusting in God, as God could have easily sent an angel to Isaac to tell him not to bless Esau but Jacob instead. In fact, if Jacob had simply told Isaac of the way Esau had despised the birthright and had actually swore it away to Jacob, Isaac, despite his great preference of Esau (Gen 25:28a), may himself have deemed Jacob to indeed be worthy of obtaining it.
Hence their effectuating of “the time of Jacob’s Trouble” through this oppositions to God’s True (i.e., actually Blessed for the Covenant) People (Israel) as is it done starting with the Shaking of God’s People (EW 269-273) when SDA’s will have coalitioned with Babylon (cf. John 19:15) in order to oppose to God’s Actual/True, New Remnant (of the Remnant) movement then. (“Luke 4:21”)
[43] And, by the way, for the popular: ‘the present Seventh-Day Adventist Church Organization will never pass away’ camp out there (isolatingly and, as discussed in this post, excisingly, citing e.g., HP 284.1-5{GCDB, February 27, 1893 par. 1-13}; LDE 51.1{<1SM 179.4>}), look throughout the Bible and Church History and see what God does to the: “apple of His Eye” (Deut 32:9-10, 11-14 & Zech 2:8 for post-exilic and NT Israel) when/whenever they deserve it (Deut 32:15-42 & Matt 22:7; Luke 21:20-22) = LDE 59-61; Deut 30:15-20; 32:45-47.
[44] E.g., for pointedly SDA’s - just citing the Matt 24:6-7, “Signs of the Time”, and even lamentingly so, however not really to seek to rally the Church or others to do all they can to end these indeed preventable, curable and intentional injustices, but, most flummoxingly, as done by John Bradshaw in his 2012 It Is Written Evangelistic Series presentation ([mp4] [31:29-33:56]), merely to effectively, indeed actually spinning his whole food-wastings “preambling” on its head [33:52ff], tacitly claim/show that this, even though it is quite readily fixable, and even by sacrificing SDA Church members and other willing/capable Christians/People, ‘is suppose to be so in order to fulfill Bible Prophecy. That is indeed the decried and condemned spurious, sanctimonious, and hypocritically so, so-called, “Righteousness” of the Jewish Leaders in Christ’s time (e.g., Matt 5:20; Luke 10:26ff, 29f, 31-32ff, 36-37) which Jesus most unequivocally stated will not stand in the final Judgement (Matt 25:31-46). As depicted and discussed in this post, that Matt 25 instruction of Christ comes, and within that same uninterrupted sermon, after, the stating of those signs of the times. Jesus intention is quite clearly to not only ‘re-cite the signs’, but actively do something towards countering them. And as clearly manifest in Bradshaw’s own “preambling”, it is not that the world today cannot quite readily do this work, but that, through chiefly selfishness, they, through the reverencing of their Capitalistic ideology and system, do not want to do it, and especially not through any discomfort, and surely not, sacrificing.
The similar mentality of personalizedly sanctimonious (i.e., SDA: ““Jesus” says/said...”; World: (“Capitalism says/requires”:)) indifference found amongst ‘signs-of-the-time-re-citing-SDA’s’ fulfills the EW 36.2 prophecy of ‘those who are zealous preaching the Second Coming, and are also actually trampling upon God (Full) Sabbath, and are thus not capable of being Seal with the Seal of God’ And thus inevitably are found to have the Mark of the Beast. (Isa 29:13-14)
[45] While at this point it may seem that these presentation of the prophecy of revelation are all over the place, this is all due to the exegetical fact that while there is a linear/chronological order to the prophecies of Revelation, God has also designed, and purposely so that the various segments in the prophecies can have a fulfilment whenever present Spiritual conditions permit them to do so. So while the linear order provides a logical/sequitur grand picture, the out-of-order applications of segments nonetheless contribute to completing that large picture. As an illustration is like completing a typical children’s puzzle of e.g., 30 large pieces and an outlined backboard, in a strict sequential order, or just placing any found pieces in its backboard location as they are picked up from the pile of 30 pieces. Or this is also illustrated by baking a cake. It can either be done by strictly sequentially pouring in its various ingredients listed in a recipe book, or without any detriment, pouring them in any order, as the whole batch will just be all mixed up together in the end to form the cake batter.
So while there is the benefit of ‘getting the large picture” by sequentially understanding the prophecies of Revelation, there is an even deeper, and thus concealed, Spiritual benefit to knowing and understand that its various segment will apply, and even reapply as, and whenever, they have the necessary opportunity to do so. In a way this is God’s way of always being able to defeat whichever attempt Satan conjures up to try to defeat the GC war plan of God. And much of these reoccurrences are due to the repeat frustration of the advancement of God’s cause by reoccurring rebellious generations of His professed People for then, quite literally and tangibly, God has to start things over again from square one, and that with a new generation, or Remnant grouping, of His People (=LDE 59.1|14MR 102.1)
[46] As it was pointed out in this discussion forum post, though it is common in the SOP to directly equates the character of God with His glory (e.g, 9MR 296.4; cf. the copious SOP substantiating in the GYC 2011 sermon by Kameron DeVasher [ca. 28:58-33:36]), however, as clearly stated in that commented on passage of Exod 33:18-23, Moses was not shown the face/front side of God, which is His glory, but instead: (1) verbal expressions of God’s Character of Goodness, Mercy and Justice (Exod 33:19) and (2) the back side of God’s glory. In other words, Moses was here given various clues and shadow that would help him to discern and understand what the glory of God was (cf. Psa 89:14), but He was not shown God’s glory itself (= His Face). God’s name and character traits are what can be, and is, understood about God’s glory, but it is not actually God’s glory itself. (Cf. Ezek 1:28). Seemingly, as discussed here, only a select grouping of angels/heavenly beings (i.e., Mighty Angels/Cherubim and wholly covered up Seraphim), can ever be permitted to enter within this glorious light “shell”/presence, with Mighty Angels being capable of freely standing in that presence, but perhaps then only the Chief of these Mighty Angels, here Michael, being capable of unhinderedly see God’s face, thus most clearly understand God.*
It can further be understood that this ‘face of God’s glory’ is the ‘distinct form’ (EW 54.2) of ‘His own image’ (cf. Col 1:15; 1 Cor 11:7) which inherently is indeed a unique, concrete identification. As Heb 1:3 dichotomically (literally) says:
‘Jesus is the radiance [=‘since daylight’ -Strong’s #541 cf. #575+#827] of God’s glory, and the exact representation [=“character” #5481; cf. #5480] of His (establishing) substance [#5287 cf.#5259+#2476]
which more widely implying involves that: just as only the back side of God’s glory could be looked upon, in Jesus this (frontal) Divine glory was most vitally veiled in Humanity; which allowed this “radiance” to be viewed, but on the other hand, Jesus managed to perfectly reproduced to men the ‘establishing substance’ of God in His Righteous Life. So in Jesus the glory of God itself was deliberately not visually revealed in the physical form of Jesus, and His Character was distinctly manifested only in/through the concrete righteous actions/works of Jesus.
Indeed just as the identity of a person is not readily known until their face is seen. (E.g,. a person’s passport identity cannot be readily confirmed at an airport security check if they show you their hands, arms, feet, hair, and/or back, nor even if they merely tell you what their name is, and even if the voice itself may sound familiar with the claimed person, but only when they unveil/reveal their face. Similarly, it is only when God’s face is seen that a person truly/fully knows who exactly they are/were dealing with. Other features such as one’s name, various body parts and even the voice, or character traits are quite helpful, but, full-knowledge-wise, not as conclusive as the face.
And the notion of freely seeing the back of God is indeed inconclusive, as commonly seen in someone mistakenly identifying another person from having seen them from behind, until they caught up with them and saw their face, the back side of God, while capable of given great clues as to the full (facial) identity of God, is indeed not as revealing as His Face, His [Full] Glory.
And on the flip side, though you may know face of a person, without knowing of any of these other contributive identification features, if you had never seen them before, they may pass you by complete unrecognized even if their face was uncovered. And so, faced with this dilemma of how to know God, with a face revelation then leading to the consequence that a person who then sins after such a full knowledge may then not be redeemable, God has opted to allow man to get to know Him instead by other less conclusive identifying indicators. And so, if they then should sinned, mercy was default available for them, if they wanted/sought for it.
So while it has been common, based on EGW’s understanding, to straightly say that ‘God’s character is His Glory’, the exegetically accurate Biblical Truth is that: the name that God has allowed Himself to be called/known by, (for God did indeed name Himself), and His various demonstrated character traits are merely/at the most just clues/indications of His Glory, i.e., what comes to make Him God, but not actually His deep essence/identity. And so, while through character perfection we too may come to glorious shine, similarly as God does, at least relatively speaking, as was the case with Moses coming down from Mount Sinai, we will then still not begin to be identically, tangibly resemble to God Himself, for our status as God’s Creation, even fallen and redeemed ones, will always result in us never exhaustively “understanding” God.
=The Experience of the Faithful, Final Generation - Interestingly enough, in the Bible Moses (Exod 33:11; Deu 5:4; 34:10) and Jacob (Gen 32:30) received such direct and concrete revelations and experience with God and/or Michael, the Chief of the Mighty Angels that they were said to have seen God “face to face” (cf. Jdg 6:22), and it is those two Bible figures, as well as those specific ‘God-seeing’ experiences that is to be the template for those who will Triumphantly go through the Great Time of (Jacob’s) Trouble. Like Moses, they will come out of this ordeal with their faces also glorious shining as they will then most fully understand, and thus know, their God. In 1 Cor 13:12-13, Paul echoes this Theological theme by stating that such a ‘face to face’ knowledge will transpire when, as with God, “love” is made the supreme and all-controlling character trait. And in order to ever be able to perfect this character of God, as stated in this post, they will have to stop building upon this “shallow foundation” of their spurious/false/non-genuine, opposing/rebelling, naturally, even conditioned (by e.g., Capitalism) to be fundamentally/foundationally, selfish character (= “faking it”; cf. 4T 386.1), and instead, by obeying Jesus (Luke 6:46-49), find, or if need be, first actively plant/establish in themselves a chief/inceptive experience of genuine, Divine-like love (Cf. MB 25.1) that will, when it is then increasingly, only, built upon, fully develop into the glory-reflecting perfection of God’s own character. (Cf. 6T 400.3-401.1)
Interestingly enough, as indeed discuss in that post, this Christlike perfect character will most tangibly be seen in a genuine and wholehearted love for fellow men, particular those in various vital, and also spiritual need, thus leading to various works to meet all of those needs, which God promises to aid through the “Latter Rain” infilling assistance of His Spirit (=EW 14.1). And then, and only then will the character traits of e.g., love, mercy, justice and goodness of God be truly/fully understood, and thus capable of being perfectly emulated (Matt 5:47-48|Luke 6:35-36; COL 69.1), and at the very least then, love, mercy, justice and goodness will be seen and understood to be demonstrated by seeking to help the very least of these (Matt 25:45); which in our day are the ca. 65,000,000 annually aborted infants. Sanctimoniously ignoring these, as also being done by SDA’s, by not doing what is actually quite readily capable to be done (and with God’s promised completing guidance and leading) to save these lives and provide them a normative, family living, is definitely not love, mercy, justice nor goodness. (Cf. MM 263.1-2) And so those who are thinking to be “hastening” the Second Coming by ignoring these will too late find out that they, through actually their revered individualistic selfishness and capitalistic idolatry were acting the part of those who have adhered to the Mark (Strong’s #5480 which actually is associated with a “character” #5481) of the Beast; which indeed is speaking of: ‘a deep-seated, and developed imprint of the Beast’s nature, through either deliberate mindfulness (=mark in the forehead) or by, through even their own mirroring works, having favorably gone along with it (=mark on the right (Rev 13:16) hand)’.
*Which would explain why there was obtainable mercy for the Mighty Angel Rameel|“Lucifer”, who was next in rank to Michael, after he initially sinned PP 39.1, yet not so if Jesus ever sinned during His human incarnation, and so by deduction similarly so in Heaven during His Incarnation then as a Mighty Angel, and by further deduction, surely when previously, tangibly and distinctly in the same form as God the Father.
[47] As discussed in this post, from what is involved in the Wedding Garment parable where the first invited choice ones did not pay attention nor respond (Matt 22:1-3; [Rev 19:7-8]), even after the details of all of the preparations that had been made was explicitly communicated to them in a second call (Matt 22:4-5 [Rev 19:9]); and instead violence constituting an act of war was done against the King by the mistreatment and slaying of his communicating slaves (Matt 22:6 [Rev 19:11, 19]); after dealing in judgement with those disdaining and ruthless ones (Matt 22:7; cf. Ezek 11:1-13 [Rev 19:12-16, 20-21a]); a most general invitation was then to whosoever wanted to heed it, “both evil and good” (Matt 22:8-10; cf. Ezek 11:14-25 [Rev 19:17]). As it is then possible that the ensuing investigation will yield very little, if any righteous ones, as ‘many had been called but the choice ones are few’ (Matt 22:14), that planned Marriage Celebration Supper may have been entirely substituted for the Birds Supper Feast called for by the “one angel standing in the sun”, which comes to pass upon the completion of that war [Rev 19:21b]! And that latter symbolism is understood as ‘“a single messenger” which is ‘Religiously, Full of Christ’s Righteousness and Temporally, Economically Most Wealthy’ and which “single-handedly” can defeated the entire armies of the Mark of the Beast camp through ‘(Religiously) the Spiritual Gifts’ and ‘(Temporally) Various Technologies’ that it has resource to and can acquire/produce. And, should the present indifference and ignorance of the NJK Project continue, so may be its notwithstanding “single-handed” path towards full and triumphant implementation.
[48] It is pervasively quite the norm in SDA Circles to have this self-serving and selfish view and approach of the Gospel work where, e.g., the Gospel is being preached merely ‘to tell everybody and thus Finish the Work so that they can go “home” (before they also die)’ and not to actually seek to provide people with the very best opportunity to truly and fully understand this message and be saved; and ‘the “Right Arm of the Gospel”, the Medical Work, is merely in order to have a wedge opportunity to evangelize those being aided,’ and not to seek to help every in need of it who cannot afford to obtain such vital services. And so, and actually quite indifferent of even a “wedge tactic”, 70% of this “Medical Ministry” work is done in the U.S. as this is where it is sure to be most solvent. So it is really quite in keeping with the SDA mentality to, as manifest during this GYC 2011 rallying to do benevolent works, to pervert it into a paramount, self-serving opportunity to ‘help oneself get a better character and thus bet “fit” to stay in Heaven.
And example of this spurious and hypocritical thinking was seen in regards to the NJK Project plans which is foundationally endeavoring to establish a “platform” from where such exhaustive, global vital, humanitarian and benevolent works can and will be done. Initially, from its launch the Project’s intro page deliberately merely read, as seen in the still available online quotings of it here and here as:
‘A Christian country under one central government where a foretaste of the 2 Peter 3:13 righteousness will dwell’
However as seen in the knee jerk reactions seen here and here and other SDA discussion linked on this page, reading the term central government, (which was indeed a deliberate allusion to communism as this involves an approach of default, needs based and abilities derived, resource sharing done in e.g., Acts 2:44-45; 4:32-37; 2 Cor 8:7-15, and, by quite explicitly being a Biblical Christian Country as stressed throughout the website, certainly not the recent history perversion and aberration of: Atheistic, Soviet-style Communism), send SDA’s into a haywire tizzy and the general reaction was to outrightly reject the idea/project. As this automatically meant to not do what is required and possible to come to the aid of all those in need, then the demonstrated real issue here was that these people did not care to help those people in such vital needs, and that because the ‘certainly did not want to be required to share’ as the act of joining the NJK Project which has this default resources sharing as one of it citizenship/residency requirements, constitutes, a quite Biblical (see Acts 5:3-4, 9) a binding promise to do this dually purposeful sharing. However, when sometime afterwards, the NJK Project intro page was amended to its present reading to not mention the selectively/preferentially, honingly quibbled at terminology “central government” and to also more explicitly expound on the always implicated, but deliberatedly concealed, issue of the personal spiritual benefits of doing such works, that is the current statement:
“In anticipation of, and in willful and due preparation and conformity for, the coming Heavenly Kingdom of God, it will be a place "in which righteousness dwells" (2 Pet. 3:13).”
Then, not surprisingly, the also knee-jerk, general SDA reaction was: ‘well if it had said this all along then I would have accepted it’, which also turned out to be mere hypocrisy as these people neither did join nor help promote the project. And so for SDA’s the selfish capitalistic mentality of ‘what’s in it for me’ and if this cannot be readily ascertained/determined and obtained then the prospective idea/project is deemed to not be worthwhile. And on a larger scale, that is the same mentality in regards to doing certain works today. For the same reason that the NJK Project was, and still is being reject, as it has made plans that would extend beyond the lifetime of anyone alive to take, (for the simple Biblical reason/principle of “counting the cost” (Luke 14:28-30) in order to sustainingly have a adequate and thriving home for the potential 65,000,000 annual new infants that it will be caring for for however long time will last after this), because such long term plannings, which are to actually be implemented as the actual, then present need is, implied the Second Coming not occurring within their lifetime, as they ‘adamantly believe’ (as if that mere professed “strong belief” made any Cosmic or Temporal difference), and thus them naturally dying, then there is no “capitalizing value” in such altruistic plans and efforts. And so they prefer to “live and let die” even if that means “eternally die”. And you wonder why Jesus will not let people with such a murderously unloving (= indeed “hateful” Matt 5:21-22a) mentality, who are, by adhering to, and worshipping their Golden Calf of Capitalism (cf. Rev 9:20-21) actually directly and indirectly responsible for those expedient and indifferent slayings (=Rev 18:24 see comments on this verse in this post), literally “darken” even the gates, let alone, atmosphere of heaven (Matt 25:45-46; Rev 21:8).
And all of this selfish, base and spiritually perverted thinking is inceptively borne out of the faulty theology of the SDA Church, mainly in regards to God and the Future, which God has permitted them to have in order to test whether or not they would have faith in, and obey, Him. And so the common derived theological belief today is: ‘if EGW was shown in vision that most of the world will reject the Gospel message, then what the use of self-sacrificing in order to seek to best, and most convincingly, present it to them, or help do benevolent works beyond a “token work” level’; which does not really require much sacrifice (i.e., not being something they cannot afford, especially if they, indeed as being depicted in Rev 6:15, ‘throw away some of their resource syphoning idols’.
[49] As seen in GC 656.2 the Ezek 9 Shaking destruction is, recursively, indeed applicable to this grand end time slaughter, having first been similarly done in the by then already judged/Shaken SDA Church (Ezek 9:6b|1 Pet 4:17) being merely the foremost tribe (‘Judah’) in God’s 12-tribe Israel (the entire Christian Religion) (=Rev 7:4-8ff).
[50] In the 05-09-2011 sermon on the Seven Thunders on this page [audio] [12:21-13:54], James Rafferty claims that: ‘God used symbols and imagery in Revelation in order to captivatingly appeal to people (today), and their curiosity, who have various movie genre preferences.’(???!) (Seems to me that most people are discouraged to read the book of Revelation because of its cryptic symbology). That is, most fancifully, the furthest thing from the Truth, all manifestly based on Rafferty’s also unbiblical view of the Character of God, (resembling the view of his ministry partner Ty Gibson. See in this post), where God is a ‘lovy-dubby’, hippy-like, big Panda figure who never gets upset [as the Bible, unequivocally, contrarily states and relates (e.g., Num 14:11-12; Deut 9:18; 10:10], nor takes any, various disciplining actions. God has done this concealing of His key prophetic message, so that, as stated in Dan 12:3, 10, only the “purged”, wise and righteous then will understand’, and, thankfully not, the unrighteous (=2 Thess 2:11-12), for, short of openly/gloriously/clearly manifesting Himself to most convictingly communicate His Will to sinful Man (vs. the basis of faith being used instead), and thus dooming everyone (Rom 3:23) to an instant, eternal death, this encryptioning is the only way in which God can provide a most detailed guidebook and map so that those who are most faithful and obedient to His will can precisely/fully know how to escape the snares and deceptions of the Devil.
[51] Indeed, as it was shown in that post, this “mantle” symbol which is the all-white “tunic” that Israel’s High Priest wore on the Day of Atonement, thus on Israel’s judgement day, do indeed patently recur in visions which involve a judgement. These are namely: (1) in 4T 384.1-387.2 (commented on in this post) where Jesus is shown to be involved in a pivotal judgement on the SDA Church, -the “Shutting” (cf. EW 55.1-56.1) of their probation just before the Shaking, at the very end of their granted Full Sabbath/Law-Sealing opportunity (EW 36.2 = 4T 386.3; cf. LDE 59.3; 5T 207.3-214.3); (2) in as seen in what the saints don once taken to heaven where they will be involved in a judgement of the dead during the Millennium period. (EW 16.2 = Eschatologically, Spiritually = Rev 14:1-5; 20:4-6)
Therefore these angels here who also have a mantle, and a blended on at that, are evidently depicting a judgement of those who have managed to cross over this threatening (Jordan-type) River, yet with also intercessory priestly service still available for them (=EW 36.2; 38.1-2).
[52] See in e.g., the experience of an SDA Hospital recounted by David Gates during Indonesia Youth for Christ (IYC) 2011 (051111 {=11-05-2011} - 1930) [video] [ca. 33:57-47:00].
[53] As discussed in this post in regards to the specific Earthly jurisdictional affections of each of these Four Angels, it can also be seen that their oversight of the Earth, Sea and Tree correspond to the matching Divine rulership entities discussed here of: the Ox (Cultural/Religious); Lion (Political) and Eagle (Facilitative/Productive), with the Fourth entity of a Man (vital Socio-Economics) corresponding to the Grass (the fuel for all Life). This also involves that by the Earth, Sea and Trees being just merely affected by a third, i.e., by only affecting ‘the third’, the grass is still wholly/entirely affected.
[54] A common interpretation/understanding in SDA Circles of the mention of these four angels in Rev 9:14, has been that it is the “binding” here is the one ‘judgement scroll binding’ mentioned in Jer 51:63, which is then thrown into the River Euphrates. (See James Rafferty in his FP1681 presentation [video] [09:28-12:02] However, on top of not being any lexical or thematic link between a scroll and angels, with the only relation being that an angel can carry a message scroll (Rev 10:2), yet it is the angels which are bound in Rev 9:14 and not a scroll, then that conclusion is not exegetically sound.
Rather the meaning of the action in Jer 51:63, which is actually defined in Jer 51:64 as being depictive of the way in which the calamities (Jer 51:60-62 = 51:1-59) to be inflicted upon Babylon will ‘sink it and never allow it to rise again’, as discussed in this post on Rev 18:21, straightforwardly involves that for these delineated calamities to be ever found again by an enemy of Babylon, with this scroll having been thrown and settled down somewhere in the middle of the Euphrates Rivers, then the River would first have to be dried up so that its bed could be searched for that Scroll. And so God was here, actually most tauntingly, precisely indicating just how He was going to physically cause the non-supernatural toppling of this fortifiedly seemingly impregnable city of Babylon, having long noticed that weak point, and no doubt did inspire Cyrus with this idea when the time later came (cf. Isa 44:27; 45:1, 5). So, as with the Prophetic Babylon, its fall will inevitably occur once its River is dried up.
Also, with God symbolically indicating in Micah 7:19 that he can ‘throw people’s (forgiven) sins away into the sea so that they will never be found, and thus not remembered (cf. Jer 31:34), the throwing of Babylon’s decreed calamities, due to its sins, in a much shallower and much more alterable body of water of a “river”, it was here also being indicated that this decree against Babylon, yet only if it did not repents (as did Nineveh before), could easily be retrieved and thus “remembered before God”, as it indeed is expected to transpire prophetically (Rev 18:5 = Jer 51:9; cf. Rev 16:19)
[55] See the long ago, then more spiritually than exegetically, inceptively, generally-perceived understanding of this Rev 16:16 H/Ar-Mageddon ‘God action - Babylon reaction’ development (pointed there is solely relation the Ox Face (=WBSC) message of those Four Angels expressed long ago in a October 2000 letter to the NAD in this document on page 79 at paragraph #4. (That proposed project in that letter was “moronically” responded to by the NAD in a letter posted on page 279 of that document).
And with the Battle of H/Ar-Mageddon probably being, as presented in this Net 2011 presentation #3 (cf. here) [01:14:29-01:17:43]*, (inclusively) allusive to the events of the Elijah showdown on the Mount Carmel which overlooks the Valley of Megiddo, in that event it was actually God’s side, through the prophet Elijah, which proposed/initiated the confrontation, i.e., to resolve the most determinatively resolve that major issue of Spiritual difference in God’s Israel.
* Relatedly enough, it was the comment in that Net 2011 presentation, at [54:38-55:31], which claimed that the Seven Last Plagues were to be most literal (‘except “clearly” for the last two’ (???)) which touched off, right then and there, this present blog post study, research and writing, which has now taken over 5 months of, on average, 6-8 hours per day to complete, as it was early on seen that all of the Series of Seven in the book of Revelation had to first be discussed in adequate detail to provide a indicative background and context that will lead to the proper understanding of what is to Spiritually take place, in the now applicable ‘interim Eschatological Fulfillment (cf. here) of this, and Revelation other, prophecies, which, when so accomplished now, will have the potential to be all that is necessary to completely wrap of this Great Controversy; -that is, if people will then heed its “Living Testimony”, Triumphant Message which is supposed to ‘restore all things’ (Mal 4:5-6).
[56] Relatedly, if Jacob had honestly and earnestly explain to Isaac, the Israel Promise miracle Child, that his favorite son Esau (Gen 25:28) had most basely and faithlessly “despised” the covenant promise, and that for a single meal (i.e, not even upon e.g., a 40th day of starvation) (Gen 25:29-34), Isaac would have probably, particularly by now given how Esau’s ways were “grieving him” (Gen 26:32; cf. 27:46), fully understood and heeded the already pronounced statement of God that it was Jacob, who God had probably “formed while in the womb” (cf. Jer 1:5) with a more tame = (lit.) “complete” character, vs. the apparently more wild (= ‘incomplete’), (natural?) one of his twin brother (Gen 25:27), and, interestingly enough, which Ishmael also had (Gen 16:12), with Esau and Ishmael’s descendants going on to jointly, through Esau’s marriage of a couple of his half cousins (Gen 28:9; 36:3) also greatly contribute to the Arab people (cf. here) who was to be given the Firstborn Covenant Promise (Gen 25:23).
-God may have made that specifying promise because the conception of twins boys here, had just, “out of the blue”, naturally occurred. (see Gen 25:21-24)
Incidently, it was because of this disdain despite great evidence of Esau towards God’s covenantal promise that God acted to keep Esau’s descendants in perpetual misery, while Israel was comparatively greatly blessed. (Mal 1:1-5; cf. in here).
[57] As a perfect case in point, in this January 27, 2012 sermon [25:09-26:42], the President of the Michigan Conference Jay Gallimore was giving an exhortation of how Church members should be trusting in God because He has most abundant riches. He then followed that with a depicted probable typical questioning of members who then would be asking: ‘why does God not then give them one billion dollars?’ His answer/rationalization was that this member would probably not use that money as he should. The actual fact of the matter is that, as in the Parable of the Talents (Matt 25:14-30), as depicted in this post, God has already given the Church, and thus also its members, all of the Foundational “Talents” and Resources for them to, if these are properly/Biblically used, managed and “invested”, produce whatever additional talent and resources they need to carry about and finish His work. It really all is as wildly and sensically non-sequitur/tangential as ‘a person stranded on a sand dune in the Sahara Desert, and dying of thirst, profusely tearily weeping because he no longer can keep accurate time [=the SDA’s variously legalistically comprehended understandings] because he does not have the needed precision tools to be able to pierce a hole at the top of his hourglass and funneledly, continually replenished it with the abundant sands all around him. Uhhhh no....what you actually, most crucially/pivotally need right now is a rain shower, or at the very least, drink, or better yet, conservingly make inherent use of the bodily fluid for your tears!!! (=John 7:37-39's post-ascension sin/sinfulness-discerning and ‘empowering’ ‘Early (cf. John 20:19-23) Rain’ (see here)).
Moreover, that achieved commonwealth, would produce a windfall of wealth for individual members. (=Luke 6:38) But because the default and entrenched course of the Church has pervasively, Capitalistically been an individualistic, selfish, competitive, dysfunctional, hateful, strifeful, slothful and “moronic” one, among other base traits, like the evil servant in that Talents parable, they have preferred to bury their talent and resources in a hole, and all through a gross misunderstanding of their master. And so it is today defaultly and solely thought/believed that the Church only needs more money to properly do its work, when in fact it needs to Biblically use and invest the great wealth that God has already given to it.
Moreover, that achieved commonwealth, would produce a windfall of wealth for individual members. (=Luke 6:38) But because the default and entrenched course of the Church has pervasively, Capitalistically been an individualistic, selfish, competitive, dysfunctional, hateful, strifeful, slothful and “moronic” one, among other base traits, like the evil servant in that Talents parable, they have preferred to bury their talent and resources in a hole, and all through a gross misunderstanding of their master. And so it is today defaultly and solely thought/believed that the Church only needs more money to properly do its work, when in fact it needs to Biblically use and invest the great wealth that God has already given to it.
[58] SDA’s have been mostly ambivalent in claiming/believing that this SOP vision recorded in 9T 12.1-13.2 was fulfilled in the 9/11 Events. (Though not all, at least initially; -e.g.: this 9-15-2001 sermon (mp3) by Dwight Nelson [06:27-07:57]). This is more out of an uncertainty rather than out of political correctness/caution. In fact any political correctness/caution stems from them being uncertain about it, and so they rather not take a firm and open stance on this. However the Theological Truth/Implication in all of this is that it is because of the SDA Theological deficiency in regards to understanding the Biblical Truth about “God and the Future” that they cannot see the vision of 9T 12.1-13.2 speaking of the 9/11 events. (see e.g., this refuting web page) The Theological Fact of the matter is that, that 1909 prophecy was actually to be capable of being fulfilled in the days of EGW. And so God stated it in terms fo how this destruction from/allowed by God would then be fulfilled. And that would indeed be through an unquenchable fire, just as those which He had ignited in similar economic judgement, in a couple of SDA Institutions. However as time was unnecessarily prolonged then due to the shortcoming of the SDA Church, that event, which would have galvanized final events if it had been made to occur then, particularly as people would be shown that the SDA Church had prophetic knowledge and insight about that most uncanny destruction, i.e., ‘fire engines not being able to operate’ (9T 13.1), was not then permitted to transpire.
As Biblically and Prophetically understood in this blog, another halting of final events came to occur in ca. 1996, again due to the persisted deficiency of the SDA Church. Yet that prophecy was actually allowed to be fulfilled in the September 11, 2001 events, and as this was not the intended initial fulfilment of it, its was a little less exactly fulfilled, yet the same socio-economic injustice reasons for that judgement, which had by then become much worse in now the Globally affected, even most vitally so, society, were involved then, as well as the ultimate end result, i.e., the complete destruction of those Capitalism emblematic “World Trade” skyscrapers. (As an Angel indicated to EGW in the related 11MR 361.1-362.2 (1906) through ‘imparted “light”/“special light” from the Lord’, God’s judgment on (global) socio-economic injustices and oppression, as prophesied in Isa 29:19-24, would be therewith fulfilled (cf. 9T 11.4 (1909)). Yet, as discussed here, these economic reasons were not at all the pointed motivations for Al-Quaeda’s targeting of the World Trade Center towers. But, as their personal reasons and plans vs. the U.S./Capitalistic West, ended up in the same result as God’s desired judgement for the damages of Capitalism they then qualified, as they had in History, as God’s Fifth Army. And God did nothing to hinder those 9/11 events.
So what was revealed in 9T 12.1-13.2 were finally, indeed fulfilled in 9/11 Events* and it can even be clearly seen that if the firefighters had been able to put out the fires raging on those top floors as they were arduously trying to, the building’s structures on these impacted floors, which were actually designed and fitted to be fireproof, would not have become weak and fail due to the continuously burning fire for ca. one hour. Indeed the World Trade Towers were not destroyed by the impact of the jet planes against them, actually more than performantly withstanding such an impact itself as they were designed and engineered to, but they were rather destroyed by those fires which the firefighters could not even begin to try to extinguish. Moreover, as one FDNY Battalion Fire Chief later put it (see here 22:24ff): ‘You are not even going to put out a fire that big (+/i.e.: ‘that fueled’), if it was in a corn field in the middle of Nebraska’ (-Indeed as see in the common ‘mostly-contained-and-let-it-burn-out’ method of dealing with brush/forest/wild fires...Obviously no one suspected/anticipated/expected the WTC burning fires would escalate into causing the total structural collapse of the towers.). Indeed/In fact the prophetic element/statement in 9T 13.1 that people said that “Men looked at the lofty and supposedly fire-proof buildings and said: "They are perfectly safe."” actually had a concrete fulfilment in this applicable 9/11 event as people who were trying to evacuate World Trade Center Tower 2 upon seeing the gaping hole and fiery blaze in WTC 1, with some having even reached the ground floor lobby, were (infamously) told that ‘they were safe and should, [and most did], go back up to their floors/offices. (video clip) See more related commenting and experiences on this SOP 9/11 prophecy here and here.
* But there is nothing spiritually, nor substantively significant, as some claim, that the publishing of this vision fell on 9T 11ff.
[59] Relatedly the United States has been claimed to be the Matt 5:14-16 ‘City on a Hill” to the world, through an underlying belief that it is a Christian Nation, however both its adhered to unbiblical beliefs as well as its resulting base and evil ideology and actions throughout the world has proven it to be the “City” of Babylon. (=Rev 11:8; 16:19; 17:18; 18:10, 16, 18, 21). Only an actually New Jerusalem-realizing city (=Rev 21:8; 22:14-15) is God’s “City on a Hill”.
[60] See the recent (December 2011) two part sermon series on the Seventh Prophetic Church/Era, Laodicea, by Doug Batchelor (Part 1 and Part 2), although it was quite oddly/perplexingly truncated in specific points. And, as typical with SDA expositions on Laodicea, they’ll generically tell you ‘the SDA Church has (remediable) problems,’ but they’ll shy away from pointing out what these (entrenched) problems (see here) are. (contra Isa 58:1ff; Ezek 33:1-5, 6). How then to begin to “remedy” them?? It’s like a physician telling you that you have a degeneratively-fatal-if-not-treated condition, but not actually telling you exactly what that condition is!! Perhaps they all ‘farsightedly just can’t see those, their, and that (pun intended) capitally abominable, problems’!?? (=Rev 3:17-18; Luke 6:39|Matt 15:14)... or they complacently just don’t want to fix them!! As the pop culture saying goes, in the light of what was expressed in that sermon in regards to ‘wanting to be told if something was wrong’: “You can’t handle the truth!!?”.
[60] See the recent (December 2011) two part sermon series on the Seventh Prophetic Church/Era, Laodicea, by Doug Batchelor (Part 1 and Part 2), although it was quite oddly/perplexingly truncated in specific points. And, as typical with SDA expositions on Laodicea, they’ll generically tell you ‘the SDA Church has (remediable) problems,’ but they’ll shy away from pointing out what these (entrenched) problems (see here) are. (contra Isa 58:1ff; Ezek 33:1-5, 6). How then to begin to “remedy” them?? It’s like a physician telling you that you have a degeneratively-fatal-if-not-treated condition, but not actually telling you exactly what that condition is!! Perhaps they all ‘farsightedly just can’t see those, their, and that (pun intended) capitally abominable, problems’!?? (=Rev 3:17-18; Luke 6:39|Matt 15:14)... or they complacently just don’t want to fix them!! As the pop culture saying goes, in the light of what was expressed in that sermon in regards to ‘wanting to be told if something was wrong’: “You can’t handle the truth!!?”.
[61] This ten (=“fully complete representation”) vs. seven (=“perfectly indicative representation”) symbological difference is seen in the fact that in Num 14:22, when God told Moses that He would no longer have mercy on the adult generation of Israel, He states that the Num 14:1-10 ‘Ten Spies Report’ rebellion was the “tenth” time when they had put Him to the test. With, as a study (namely, the John MacArthur NASB Study Bible) has shown, the other 9 times being literally:
(1) Exod 14:10-12 - Faithless crying out at the approach of the pursuing Egyptian Armies.
(2) Exod 15:22-24 - Grumblings at lack of freshwater
(3) Exod 16:1-3 - Grumblings for no food
(4) Exod 16:19-20 - Not following manna non-stashing command
(5) Exod 16:27-30 - Going out to gather manna on the Sabbath
(6) Exod 17:1-4 - Quarrelling with Moses for water during journeying
(7) Exod 32:1-35 - Making and Worshipping of a Golden Calf
(8) Num 11:1-3 - Complaining for encountered adversities
(9) Num 11:4-34 - Weeping for flesh meat to eat
(10) Num 14:3 - Lifting Up Voices/Crying/Weeping/Grumbling at the faithless report of 10 spies
it is most interestingly significant to see that the Seventh time was the Golden Calf Incident, and that was the other time when God had also suggested a complete destruction of Israel then to Moses (Exod 32:9-10), (yet with an implanted opportunity for mercy, -should Moses humbly choose to exploit it. See discussion comments on this point here, here, here, here and here.).
So this shows that by the Seventh time, God had seen that such an utter judgement was warranted given the then “perfect indication” of the rebellious bent of these people, and by the Tenth time, that prior “perfect indication” was “fully/completely” demonstrated. And thus the applicable wholesale judgement on the responsible adult generation was no longer put off.
No comments:
Post a Comment
This blog aims to be factual and, at the very least, implicitly documented. Therefore if applicable, any comment which contains unsubstantiated/unsupportable ideas will not be allowed to be published on this blog. Therefore make the effort to be Biblical, truthful and factual.
-It typically takes 1-2 days for an accepted submitted comment to be posted and/or responded to.
[If you leave an "anonymous" comment and, if applicable, would like to know why it may not have been published, resend the comment via email (see profile) to receive the response.]