Prophetic Unfolding’s: Christ’s Second Gathering and the Eschatological Role of Islam in Revelation’s Narrative
Key Takeaways
The article explores a significant prophetic interpretation focusing on the second gathering of God’s people by Christ, which began in July 2023, and its connection to the broader historical and eschatological context influenced by Islam. It discusses how the Millerite history and the message of the Midnight Cry, alongside the unfolding events of the Third Woe in Revelation, serve as typological foundations for understanding these end-time events. The imagery and prophetic symbolism from both the Bible and Ellen G. White’s visions, particularly from “Early Writings,” highlight the recurring theme of God’s intervention through celestial signs and earthly upheavals, marking significant epochs in the divine plan. The narrative underscores the strategic role of Islam as a catalyst in the prophetic landscape, shaking the nations and serving as a conduit for the broader dissemination of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, positioning it within a framework of divine judgment and the ultimate gathering of the faithful.
- Second Gathering Initiated: Christ began the prophetic second gathering of His people in July 2023, as part of a divine pattern established in Millerite history.
- Role of Islam: The article highlights Islam’s instrumental role in the backdrop of prophetic events, particularly how it stirs nations and fulfills aspects of the Third Woe in Revelation.
- Symbolism of the Midnight Cry: This message, pivotal in the 1844 movement, represents the comprehensive prophetic message of Revelation, carried within the context of Islam’s influence on global affairs.
- Celestial and Earthly Signs: Descriptions from Ellen G. White about the shaking of the “powers of the heavens” and the earth, symbolize significant prophetic movements and divine interventions.
- Prophetic Alignments: The work of gathering is intricately linked with biblical prophecies, including those in Genesis regarding Judah, and John’s depiction of Christ’s sacrificial role in gathering humanity.
- Eschatological Context: The unfolding events are set against the approaching crisis of the Sunday law, emphasizing the urgency and critical nature of current prophetic fulfillments.
- Controversies and Betrayals: The narrative discusses the conflict between true believers and nominal believers (in both Adventism and broader Protestantism), drawing parallels with historical betrayals like that of Judas.
- Final Gatherings and Divine Judgments: The article concludes with a reflection on the final acts of gathering by Christ, set against the prophetic backdrop of end-time judgments and the establishment of a divine ensign, as foreseen in prophecies from Isaiah and Ezekiel.
We are now identifying that one of the events represented by the Seven Thunders is the work of Christ gathering His people a second time, which He began to do in July 2023. Millerite history identifies that this work is accomplished with the warfare of Islam as the backdrop of the message.
The message is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which is unsealed just before probation closes, but that message is carried by (placed within the context of) the message of the Third Woe. At the very time the Lord was stretching His hand a second time in 1849, Sister White was commenting upon the shaking of the angry nations, which is a symbol of Islam.
“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, Mark, and Luke, He meant heaven, and when He said ‘earth’ 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.
“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.” Early Writings, 41.
The historians confirm that what was shaking the nations of Europe in 1848, was the activities of the armies of Islam, for prophetically they are symbolized as the power that angers the nations. In the first witness to the Lord stretching out His hand a second time in the history of 1840 to 1844, the message of the Midnight Cry arrived at the Exeter camp meeting. From there unto October 22, 1844 the message swept across the eastern seaboard of the United States like a tidal wave. That movement had been typified by Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and it was an ass that carried Christ into Jerusalem.
The message of the Midnight Cry represents the entire prophetic message of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, but that Revelation is placed within the context of Islam of the Third Woe angering the nations, for it is Islam that carries the message that is the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and He is bound to the message of the “ass.”
Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. Genesis 49:8–12.
It is through Judah that “the gathering of the people” is accomplished. Christ, as Judah, is also the “Vine,” and the “choice vine,” is bound to the “ass’s colt.” His “garments” are washed in “wine,” which was “the blood of grapes.” Christ began shedding His blood in Gethsemane, when He sweat blood, and Gethsemane means the “olive press.” From Gethsemane to the cross He shed His precious blood to gather all men unto Himself.
Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die. John 12:31–33.
Christ’s work of drawing all men unto Himself is a twostep process, for He first gathers the “outcasts of Israel,” and then uses them as an ensign to draw His other flock.
I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. John 10:14–16.
The one hundred and forty-four thousand are the “sheep” who know Him. The “other sheep” are His flock that come out of Babylon when they see and hear the ensign. Before He lifts up His ensign, which are His sheep, He first gathers them a second time. That line of sacred history aligns with verses thirteen through fifteen of Daniel chapter eleven, and is therefore aligned with the hidden history of verse forty. It represents the line of the true Protestant horn which runs within the history of the apostate Protestant horn, the apostate Republican horn and the arrival of the whore of Tyre, just before the Sunday law of verse forty-one. The line of the true Protestant horn represents both the history and also the message where the one hundred and forty-four thousand are sealed.
The “outcasts of Israel” represent a line in contrast with the “assembly of mockers”, as Jeremiah identifies them, or as the “synagogue of Satan” as John identifies them in Revelation chapters two and three where the church of Smyrna and Philadelphia are addressed. The Philadelphians represent the “one hundred and forty-four thousand” of Revelation chapter seven, and Smyrna is “the great multitude” of the same chapter, who cannot be numbered. The two classes of redeemed in the last days are in controversy with those who lie, and who are in the synagogue of Satan, and claim they are God’s people, for they say they are Jews.
The line of the true Protestant horn consists of the controversy that exists between themselves and the former covenant people who are then being passed by. In the same history the faithful are also in controversy with the line of apostate Protestantism and Catholicism. Those three religious entities represent the dragon, the beast and the false prophet at the micro level within the line of the true Protestant horn.
“I saw the nominal church and nominal Adventists, like Judas, would betray us to the Catholics to obtain their influence to come against the truth. The saints then will be an obscure people, little known to the Catholics; but the churches and nominal Adventists who know of our faith and customs (for they hated us on account of the Sabbath, for they could not refute it) will betray the saints and report them to the Catholics as those who disregard the institutions of the people; that is, that they keep the Sabbath and disregard Sunday.” Spalding and Magan, 1, 2.
We have dealt with this passage before, and in so doing identified that the expression “nominal church” and the expression “nominal Adventist” would have had a different meaning and application when Sister White penned the words. Yet the prophets spoke more for the last days than they did for their own history, so in this passage the nominal church in the last days would be apostate Protestantism. The word “nominal” means “in name only”.
The so-called Protestant church ceased to protest Rome in 1844, when they rebelled against entering into the Most Holy Place by faith, where they could have recognized the seventh-day Sabbath is the correct day of worship. Instead, they retained the worship of the sun, which is the mark of Catholicism. It is impossible to “protest” Rome, which is the only definition of the word “Protestant,” if you have accepted her symbol of authority, which the Roman church has repeatedly identified as her authority to change the day of worship in the Bible from the seventh-day Sabbath unto Sunday.
“Nominal Adventists” are those who profess to be Seventh-day Adventists, but they are also identified as Judas, who is the symbol of a disciple that has betrayed his profession. The nominal Seventh-day Adventist church will hate the “saints” and those saints “will” then “be an obscure people.” They hate the obscure saints, “on account of the Sabbath,” truth they cannot “refute.” The Sabbath truth in Sister White’s history was the seventh-day Sabbath, but it typifies the Sabbath truth of the last days, which cannot be refuted, and that is the doctrine that was first rejected by Laodicean Seventh-day Adventism in their rebellion in 1863. That doctrine was the first foundational truth discovered by William Miller, and it represents the foundational truths of Adventism that the nominal Adventists refuse to walk in, as represented by Jeremiah’s old paths. That Sabbath truth is the “seven times,” of Leviticus twenty-six.
The line of true Protestantism that is made up of Philadelphia and Smyrna are betrayed by those represented as Judas. Judas covenanted to betray Jesus three times, thus identifying a progressive betrayal that preceded and concluded at the cross. Verse sixteen of Daniel eleven represents the Sunday law, which was typified by the cross. Therefore, in the verses leading to the Sunday law of verse sixteen, which is also the Sunday law of verse forty-one, a three-step betrayal is brought upon the saints of the last days. The betrayal occurs during the period when the Lord is gathering His last-day ensign a second time.
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. Isaiah 11:10–14.
Isaiah identifies the historical setting for this passage in verse ten, with the expression “in that day.” That “day” has therefore been identified in the verses that preceded verse ten. When we trace this particular prophetic narrative back to a reference that allows us to identify when “that day” is, we come to verse one, of chapter ten.
Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed. Isaiah 10:1.
Sister White identifies the “unrighteous decree” of this verse as the soon coming Sunday law:
“An idol sabbath has been set up, as the golden image was set up in the plains of Dura. And as Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, issued a decree that all who would not bow down and worship this image should be killed, so a proclamation will be made that all who will not reverence the Sunday institution will be punished with imprisonment and death. Thus the Sabbath of the Lord is trampled underfoot. But the Lord has declared, ‘Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and write grievousness which they have prescribed’ [Isaiah 10:1]. [Zephaniah 1:14–18]” Manuscript Releases, volume 14, 92.
The context of the Lord gathering His people a second time is placed in the history of the approaching Sunday law crisis, for in verse twelve of chapter ten, Isaiah speaks of the Lord finishing a work among His people before, He brings His Executive Judgment at the unrighteous decree, which is the Sunday law.
Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. Isaiah 10:12.
The “work upon Zion and on Jerusalem”, which the Lord “performs” before the punishment of the papacy begins at the Sunday law, is the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. In Ezekiel chapter nine, the man with the writer’s inkhorn goes through Jerusalem placing a mark upon those “that sigh and cry for the abominations done in the land” and in the church. That work includes the process of the Lord gathering together the outcasts of Israel a second time. He gathers them from the four corners of the earth, and the “four corners of earth” is represented by eight geographical areas. Eight is the symbol of the testing process of the image of the beast, thus identifying that the final gathering of those who would be the ensign takes place during the period when the image of the beast test is being accomplished in the earth.
The unity represented by “Ephraim” “not envying Judah, and Judah” “not vexing Ephraim,” occurs when the adversaries of Judah are cut off. Prophetically, the former covenant people, represented by Judas, or the synagogue of Satan, or the assembly of mockers, or the Protestants of Millerite history, or the Jews of Christ’s history are “cut off” at the first disappointment. When Jeremiah represents that very history, he was instructed that he could never return to the assembly of mockers, though they could return to him if they chose to repent.
From July 18, 2020 unto the Sunday law the Lord gathers His last-day people a second time. He gathers them from around the world, during a period when He is finishing His whole work on Judah and Jerusalem. In that sealing time, God’s last-day people will be obscure, but will never-the-less be confronted by a threefold union which opposes their work.
Catholicism is the beast of the threefold union, and one of her daughters is the class Sister White identifies as the nominal church. They represent the false prophet. The nominal Laodicean Adventists, represented by Judas, are the dragon in this representation. The rebellion of 1863 was typified by the rebellion of ancient Israel at the first Kadesh, when they chose to reject the message of Joshua and Caleb and return to Egypt. Egypt is a symbol of the dragon.
Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt: Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. Ezekiel 29:2, 3.
The rebellion at Kadesh represented the tenth test in a testing process that brought about the rejection and death of the chosen people who had been brought out of Egypt, and typified the final test of a testing process that was brought upon Philadelphian Millerite Adventism on October 22, 1844 and concluded with the rebellion of 1863. At the very end of ancient Israel’s history, the Jews “cried out, ‘Away with him, away with him, crucify him’. Pilate saith unto them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but Caesar.’” In the first rebellion and the last rebellion the former covenant people chose to identify a symbol of the dragon (Egypt and pagan Rome) as their king.
On July 18, 2020, the “adversaries of Judah” were “cut off,” and the temple of the one hundred and forty-four thousand was set up. All that was left was for the temple to be cleansed, in advance of the Messenger of the Covenant suddenly coming to His temple. The temple of Millerite history was erected in forty-six years from 1798 unto 1844. At the first disappointment of April 19, 1844 the Protestants were cut off and became part of the synagogue of Satan, the assembly of mockers, a daughter of Rome. From that point until October 22, 1844 a purification process occurred in advance of the faithful following Christ into the Most Holy Place, that He might accomplish the work of joining His divinity to their humanity.
The history of the true Protestant horn, that is gathered a second time just before the unrighteous decree, that they might be the ensign that God employs to call His other flock out of Babylon, occurs in the same period where the apostate Republican and Protestant horns are joining together, committing spiritual fornication, thus becoming one flesh, or one temple, which is the image of the beast. God’s temple is simultaneously forming the image of Christ.
We will continue this study in the next article.
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these. For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever. Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord.
But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim. Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee. Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? Jeremiah 7:1–17.
