The Prophet Lied
We ended the last article with a passage that addresses “a lying spirit.” The following is one of the paragraphs from that passage.
“Unsanctified ministers are arraying themselves against God. They are praising Christ and the God of this world in the same breath. While professedly they receive Christ, they embrace Barabbas, and by their actions say, ‘Not this Man, but Barabbas.’ Let all who read these lines, take heed. Satan has made his boast of what he can do. He thinks to dissolve the unity which Christ prayed might exist in His church. He says, ‘I will go forth and be a lying spirit to deceive those that I can, to criticize, and condemn, and falsify.’ Let the son of deceit and false witness be entertained by a church that has had great light, great evidence, and that church will discard the message the Lord has sent, and receive the most unreasonable assertions and false suppositions and false theories. Satan laughs at their folly, for he knows what truth is.” Testimonies to Ministers, 409.
“Let the son of deceit and false witness be entertained by a church that has had great light, great evidence, and that church will discard the message the Lord has sent, and receive the most unreasonable assertions and false suppositions and false theories.” In 1863, Millerite Adventism ‘returned’ to the unreasonable and false methodology employed by apostate Protestantism and rejected William Miller’s identification of the seven times of Leviticus twenty-six. The subject of ‘returning’ was represented by the rebels in Numbers fourteen, when they determined to select a captain and return to Egypt.
And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. Numbers 14:4.
The subject of ‘returning’ to apostate Protestantism was also represented by Jeremiah, when in chapter fifteen, he was told that the fallen Protestants could return to him, but he was not to “return” unto them.
I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation. Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail? Therefore thus saith the Lord, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them. And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Jeremiah 15:17–20.
Perhaps the clearest prophetic illustration of the principle of not returning to apostate Protestantism is found in the story of the disobedient prophet, who delivered a message of rebuke to Jeroboam, the northern ten tribe’s first king.
And the king said unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward. And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place: For so was it charged me by the word of the Lord, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest. So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel. 1 Kings 13:7–10.
The disobedient prophet had been told of God not to return the way he came. Millerite Adventism had come out of Protestantism represented by Sardis, and they were not to return. Though the disobedient prophet knew full well not to return the way he came, a false prophet of Jeroboam’s kingdom, told him that God had said that the disobedient prophet should return to the false prophet’s home and eat with him. In spite of God’s direction, he did that very thing. Once he had begun to eat the false prophet’s food, the Bible plainly states the prophet of Samaria had lied.
Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel: the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father. And their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah. And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass: and he rode thereon, And went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak: and he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that camest from Judah? And he said, I am. Then he said unto him, Come home with me, and eat bread. And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place: For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest. He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him. So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water. 1 Kings 13:11–19.
The disobedient prophet ate and drank with the lying prophet of Samaria, meaning he accepted the message of an apostate prophet, and rejected the message of the Lord. The message he had faithfully delivered the same day. He knew full well he was not to return, but he did it anyway. Sister White informs us that if the “son of deceit and false witness be entertained by a church that has had great light, great evidence, and that church will discard the message the Lord has sent.” In Millerite history the first angel had lightened the earth with its glory. In 1840, the first angel’s message was carried to every mission station in the world.
“The tidings of the Lord’s soon coming in power and great glory to our world is truth, and in 1840 many voices were raised in its proclamation.” Manuscript Releases, volume 9, 134.
Shortly thereafter Millerite Adventism returned to “the lie” of apostate Protestantism’s methodology, and discarded “the message the Lord” which God had sent through William Miller. They discarded the message of Moses as presented by Elijah, and the “lie” received at the beginning in Millerite history, represents the “lie” that is believed at the end; the “lie” which brings strong delusion upon Laodicean Adventism.
And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2:10–12.
We are attempting to demonstrate the role of Elijah as a symbol in connection with the parallel histories of the horn of Protestantism and the horn of Republicanism during the period that the sixth kingdom of Bible prophecy reigns. The difficulty in bringing all the issues of 1863 together prophetically, at least for me, is the various interrelated lines that border on the concept of ‘circuitous logic.’ A straight forward logic is always the best approach, but identifying divine truths and the relationships of those truths to each other is a difficult work, for they are placed in the Bible in what the fashion of the Bible says is “here a little and there a little.”
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little. Isaiah 28:9, 10.
It is also a difficult work when your target audience consists of those that are familiar with the primary truths you are addressing, but others are new to it all. Virtually all the truths I intend to give an overview of in this article, can be found in Habakkuk’s Tables. For fear of sounding as if I am using ‘circuitous logic’, I am going to tell you where we are going, in advance of actually going there.
In 1863, Laodicean Millerite Adventism set up an image of jealousy. The image of jealousy represents the first of Laodicean Adventism’s four generations.
Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry. Ezekiel 8:5.
The four generations of the Seventh-day Adventist church are represented in various passages of Scripture, but I employ Ezekiel eight as the primary point of reference. The reason for this is that chapter eight leads into chapter nine. In Ezekiel nine, the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand is illustrated, and in Testimonies, volume five, Sister White clearly identifies this fact. In Sister White’s comments she clearly addresses two classes of worshippers in Jerusalem when the sealing takes place. Ezekiel does the same thing, and the class that does not receive the seal are represented in chapter eight.
“The class who do not feel grieved over their own spiritual declension, nor mourn over the sins of others, will be left without the seal of God. The Lord commissions His messengers, the men with slaughtering weapons in their hands: ‘Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.’
“Here we see that the church—the Lord’s sanctuary—was the first to feel the stroke of the wrath of God. The ancient men, those to whom God had given great light and who had stood as guardians of the spiritual interests of the people, had betrayed their trust. They had taken the position that we need not look for miracles and the marked manifestation of God’s power as in former days. Times have changed. These words strengthen their unbelief, and they say: The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil. He is too merciful to visit His people in judgment. Thus ‘Peace and safety’ is the cry from men who will never again lift up their voice like a trumpet to show God’s people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins. These dumb dogs that would not bark are the ones who feel the just vengeance of an offended God. Men, maidens, and little children all perish together.” Testimonies, volume 5, 211.
Chapter eight is describing those in Jerusalem, “the church” that in the fourth of the four generations, represented in chapter eight are illustrated as bowing down to the sun.
And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east. Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them. Ezekiel 8:16–18.
Just as with the evil report of the ten spies, the twenty-five leaders of the rebellion that are worshipping the sun have “provoked” the Lord to anger. The Sunday law is the “day of provocation” which the prophets point forward to. Chapter nine describes those that receive the seal of God at the same point in time, for chapter nine is simply repeating and enlarging upon chapter eight.
“This sealing of the servants of God [Revelation seven] is the same that was shown to Ezekiel in vision.” Testimonies to Ministers, 445.
In 1863, the first generation of Laodicean Adventism began its wandering through the wilderness. The prophetic history that identifies the image of jealousy in 1863, was the golden calf of Aaron. The prophetic characteristics of the golden calf are that it was an image of a beast, and it was gold. Gold is the symbol of Babylon, so Aaron’s golden calf was the image of the beast of Babylon. The image of the beast is only defined as the combination of church and state with the church in control of the relationship.
“But what is the ‘image to the beast’? and how is it to be formed? The image is made by the two-horned beast, and is an image to the beast. It is also called an image of the beast. Then to learn what the image is like and how it is to be formed we must study the characteristics of the beast itself—the papacy.
“When the early church became corrupted by departing from the simplicity of the gospel and accepting heathen rites and customs, she lost the Spirit and power of God; and in order to control the consciences of the people, she sought the support of the secular power. The result was the papacy, a church that controlled the power of the state and employed it to further her own ends, especially for the punishment of ‘heresy.’ In order for the United States to form an image of the beast, the religious power must so control the civil government that the authority of the state will also be employed by the church to accomplish her own ends.” The Great Controversy, 443.
The calf built by Aaron, was built when Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments. The second commandment forbids the worship of idols, and includes a partial description of God’s character, when it identifies God as a jealous God.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Exodus 20:4–6.
Aaron’s image of the golden calf, being an idol, represents an image of jealousy, for it produced the righteous indignation that compelled Moses to throw down and break the first two tables of the Ten Commandments. We intend to show that the counterfeit chart of 1863, was represented by Aaron’s golden calf. God’s jealousy was manifested towards Aaron’s golden calf, for the golden calf represented a false god. The calf was the counterfeit representation of God. Aaron proclaimed that it represented the gods that had delivered them from Egyptian bondage. The two tables which Moses broke in that very history, were a “transcript” of the true God’s character, the God that had actually brought them out of Egypt. The counterfeit chart produced in 1863, is an image of jealousy, for it broke the two tables of Habakkuk chapter two by removing the seven times of Moses’ oath.
“I have seen that the 1843 chart was directed by the hand of the Lord, and that it should not be altered; that the figures were as He wanted them; that His hand was over and hid a mistake in some of the figures, so that none could see it, until His hand was removed.” Early Writings, 74–75.
Further Ellen White adds to the command not to altar the 1843 chart, with the qualifications of “except by inspiration.”
“I saw that the old chart was directed by the Lord, and that not a figure of it should be altered except by inspiration. I saw that the figures of the chart were as God would have them, and that His hand was over and hid a mistake in some of the figures, so that none should see it till His hand was removed.” Spalding and Magan, 2.
James and Ellen White were living with Otis Nichol’s family, when Nichol’s prepared and produced the 1850 chart. The only thing that was “altered” with the 1850 chart, was that the year ‘1844’ was used to replace the year ‘1843,’ that had been represented upon the 1843 chart. The only thing “altered” was a correction of the “mistake” that God had held His hand over. The inspiration of the prophetess was in the very home where the 1843 chart was “altered” into the 1850 chart, and the seven times of Leviticus twenty-six remained enshrined upon that chart, as it had been on the 1843 chart.
The second commandment includes another piece of this prophetic puzzle, for it identifies that God counts the generations until He visits the iniquity that occurs. 1863, began the first of four generations of the Seventh-day Adventist church, for the Millerite movement ended at that point.
The two tables of the Ten Commandments typify the two tables of Habakkuk, but they also typify the two wave loaves of Pentecost, which were the only offering in the sanctuary service that included sin. The manifestation of God’s power in the giving of the Ten Commandments, the manifestation of God’s power at the Pentecostal outpouring and the manifestation of God’s power in the history of the two charts of the Millerites, all typify the final manifestation of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain. The two wave loaves of Pentecost represent the one hundred and forty-four thousand who are lifted up as an ensign during the latter rain.
The Pentecostal wave loaves were to be prepared with ‘leaven’, which represents sin, but the leaven was destroyed by the process of baking.
In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Luke 12:1.
The wave loaves were a first fruit offering.
Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the Lord. Leviticus 23:17.
The one hundred and forty-four thousand are the first fruit offering in the last days.
And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God. Revelation 14:1–5.
The class of worshippers in the last days who never die, represented by Elijah will have fully overcome sin, for the fire of purification that is brought upon them by the Messenger of the Covenant, thoroughly bakes out and removes the leaven, from the sons of Levi.
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years. Malachi 3:1–4.
The offering that is “as the days of old” is the Pentecostal wave offering of two loaves. It was lifted up as an offering, identifying the two prophets that were slain in the streets, and who are then lifted up to heaven as an ensign, at the beginning of the Sunday law crisis.
When Aaron produced his golden calf, he pronounced that the calf was the gods that had brought them out of Egypt, and then proclaimed a feast to the Lord.
And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. Exodus 32:4, 5.
When the northern kingdom of Israel broke away from the southern kingdom of Judah, Jeroboam, the first king of Israel purposely introduced a counterfeit worship service in two cities, made the same pronouncement as Aaron, claiming his two golden calves were the gods that brought them out of Egypt, and ordained a counterfeit feast as had Aaron.
And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense. 1 Kings 12:26–33.
Dan means judgment, and represents a state; Bethel means the house of God. With Aaron’s rebellion as with king Jeroboam’s the symbols identify the combination of church and state that ultimately takes place at the Sunday law in the United States.
The Sunday law occurs at the end of Adventism and in the beginning of Adventism, the movement, which had been identified as the Protestant horn in the summer of 1844, came together legally with the Republican horn. Thus, Aaron and Jeroboam’s rebellion represents both 1863, and the soon-coming Sunday law.
The reason that the messenger of the covenant purifies the “sons of Levi” and not any other of the tribes, is because at the rebellion of Aaron’s golden calf, it was the Levites that stood with Moses. For their faithfulness, they were then made the tribe that represented the priesthood, an honor which had been previously designed to consist of the firstborn of each of the tribes. This is why Jeroboam made sure that his counterfeit priesthood was not of the sons of Levi, and instead made his priesthood “of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.”
The sons of Levi are those that are purified by fire as an ensign, or wave offering during the Sunday law crisis. The history of the Sunday law crisis in the last days, was typified by the crisis of 1863, when the newly identified Protestant horn became legally attached to the Republican horn. We have one more line of history to address before we begin to work through the passages we have just referenced. That line is the year 1856, and we will address that in our next article.
“The coming of Christ as our high priest to the most holy place, for the cleansing of the sanctuary, brought to view in Daniel 8:14; the coming of the Son of man to the Ancient of Days, as presented in Daniel 7:13; and the coming of the Lord to His temple, foretold by Malachi, are descriptions of the same event; and this is also represented by the coming of the bridegroom to the marriage, described by Christ in the parable of the ten virgins, of Matthew 25.” The Great Controversy, 426.
The 1863 chart is indeed a “golden calf” to Adventism.
How sad that Adventism is, as the disobedient prophet was, soon to be slain between the lion and the ass.