The Book of Daniel – Number Sixty Eight

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Unveiling the Prophetic Message of Ezekiel Chapter Eight: The Sunday Law and the Last Days

 

Key Takeaways

The article explores the prophetic significance of Ezekiel chapter eight within the Scriptures. It highlights the chapter’s distinct starting and ending points, emphasizing its relevance to the Sunday law and the last days. The article delves into the vision presented in Ezekiel chapter eight, which is set on a date just a day before the symbolic “666.” It interprets this vision as being connected to the Sunday law, considered the mark of the beast, and the subsequent sealing of God’s faithful people in chapter nine. The article also discusses the importance of correctly understanding the symbols related to the papacy, the image of the beast, the mark of the beast, and the number “666” in the context of prophetic interpretation.

• Ezekiel chapter eight is a prophetic chapter with a distinct starting point and ending point.
• The vision in Ezekiel chapter eight is set on a date just before the symbolic “666,” and it relates to the Sunday law, seen as the mark of the beast.
• Getting the victory over “666” involves understanding the identity of the papacy as the beast and correctly interpreting related symbols.
• The image of the beast represents the combination of church and state, with the church in control.
• The mark of the beast signifies the forced observance of Sunday as God’s Sabbath.
• Understanding that Sunday worship is rooted in pagan Baal worship is crucial.
• The number “666” symbolically represents the papacy and its claim to divinity.
• The healing of the papacy’s deadly wound signifies the United States forming an image to the beast and compelling the world to do the same.
• The image of the beast involves a one-world government (the United Nations) aligning with the papacy.
• The threefold union of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet leads to Armageddon.
• Victory over the beast, image, mark, and number of the beast is crucial before the close of probation.
• Ezekiel chapters eight through eleven provide a prophetic insight into Adventism’s history leading to the Sunday law.
• The sealing in Ezekiel chapter nine parallels the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand in Revelation chapter seven.
• Two classes, representing the wise and foolish virgins, are identified within Jerusalem (Adventism) in this vision.
• The Sunday law separates the wicked from the wise within Adventism.
• Links Ezekiel’s vision to the unsealing of the Revelation of Jesus Christ before the close of probation.
• The sealing is connected to those who sigh and cry for the abominations within the church.
• Those who receive the pure mark of truth are in agony over sin and corruption.
• The general destruction of the wicked is described in Ezekiel’s vision, sparing only those with the mark of God’s sealing approval.

 

Ezekiel chapter eight is one of the easiest prophetic chapters in the Scriptures. The chapter has a distinct starting point.

And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me. Ezekiel 8:1.

 

The vision has a distinct ending in chapter eleven.

Afterwards the spirit took me up, and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me. Then I spake unto them of the captivity all the things that the Lord had showed me. Ezekiel 11:24, 25.

 

The vision of chapter eight begins on the fifth day, of the sixth month of the sixth year, just a day before the date aligns with “666,” and sure enough the vision is about the Sunday law, which is the mark of the beast, whose number is the number of the “man of sin,” and also the number of the eighth kingdom that is of the seven. Those that get the victory over the number “666,” receive the seal of God, and in chapter nine, the seal of God is being placed upon God’s faithful people of the last days.

And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true [are] thy ways, thou King of saints. Revelation 15:1–3.

 

Just before the close of probation (for the seven angels with the seven last plagues are going to pour out God’s wrath in the next chapter of Revelation), God’s last day people are identified. They have obtained the victory over four things. The word translated as victory means to conquer. The faithful have conquered the beast, the image of the beast, the mark of the beast and the number of his name. The victory includes the fact that they understand what the four symbols represent. It is only a very small percentage of people that know what those four prophetic symbols actually represent.

The world used to know the papacy was the whore of Babylon in chapter seventeen, but as God’s word identified, the understanding of the whore of Tyre who commits fornication with the kings of the earth is forgotten during the history of the United States. To get victory over the beast means to rightly divide the word of truth in ascertaining that the beast of Bible prophecy is the papacy. In the very next chapter, the dragon, the beast and the false prophet lead the world to Armageddon, and God’s faithful of the last days must know who those three powers are.

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. Revelation 16:12–16.

 

The victory over the beast is the victory of understanding correctly who the beast is. The passage just cited pronounces a blessing upon those that watch and keep their garments, yet by the sixth plague, probation has fully closed for all men. When Michael stands up, human probation closes and then the seven last plagues are poured out. There is no way to change garments after the close of probation, yet there is a warning associated with the sixth plague. That warning has to do with having the correct understanding of the beast before probation closes, and if you do not have that understanding, you will lose the garment of Christ’s righteousness before the close of probation.

“Those who become confused in their understanding of the word, who fail to see the meaning of antichrist, will surely place themselves on the side of antichrist. There is no time now for us to assimilate with the world. Daniel is standing in his lot and in his place. The prophecies of Daniel and of John are to be understood. They interpret each other. They give to the world truths which everyone should understand. These prophecies are to be witness in the world. By their fulfillment in these last days, they will explain themselves.” Kress Collection, 105.

 

If a person does not understand that the antichrist is the papacy, they will end up on the side of the papacy, or as John wrote, they will walk naked and manifest their shame. To get the victory over the beast is to understand that the beast is the papal power, and all that is revealed of the papal power. Those who get the victory and understand that the papacy is the man of sin, will need to understand that the image of the papacy represents the principle of the combination of church and state, with the church in control of the relationship.

In the book of Daniel, the structure of the beast, which is the combination of church and state, is represented as the transgression of desolation. Transgression is sin, and the sin that forms the papal beast is when kings surrender their power unto the papal authority. In doing this they commit spiritual fornication, which is Daniel’s transgression of desolation, and John’s image to the beast.

To get victory over the papal image is to understand through God’s word that the United States first forms this relationship, and ratifies it at the soon-coming Sunday law, and then forces the entire world to accept the same relationship.

The church and state relationship that will be forced upon the earth by the United States consists of the one-world government (the United Nations), coming into an alliance with the papacy as the controlling power in the arrangements. Getting the victory over the image of the beast, is to understand by God’s prophetic word that the image of the beast represents these very things.

Getting the victory over the beast and the image of the beast includes getting the understanding of the beast’s (the papacy’s) mark of authority.

The mark of the beast is the forced observance of Sunday as God’s Sabbath. To get victory over the mark requires understanding that Sunday worship is the worship of the sun, and that it is nothing less than pagan Baal worship. The victory includes the truth that no one receives the mark of the beast until it is forced upon men.

“But Christians of past generations observed the Sunday, supposing that in so doing they were keeping the Bible Sabbath; and there are now true Christians in every church, not excepting the Roman Catholic communion, who honestly believe that Sunday is the Sabbath of divine appointment. God accepts their sincerity of purpose and their integrity before Him. But when Sunday observance shall be enforced by law, and the world shall be enlightened concerning the obligation of the true Sabbath, then whoever shall transgress the command of God, to obey a precept which has no higher authority than that of Rome, will thereby honor popery above God. He is paying homage to Rome and to the power which enforces the institution ordained by Rome. He is worshiping the beast and his image. As men then reject the institution which God has declared to be the sign of His authority, and honor in its stead that which Rome has chosen as the token of her supremacy, they will thereby accept the sign of allegiance to Rome—‘the mark of the beast.’ And it is not until the issue is thus plainly set before the people, and they are brought to choose between the commandments of God and the commandments of men, that those who continue in transgression will receive ‘the mark of the beast.’” The Great Controversy, 449.

 

Those who obtain the victory over the beast, the image of the beast and the mark of the beast must also obtain the victory over the number of his name. In the period of history when the whore of Tyre was not forgotten, the Protestant world knew the papacy was the antichrist. They knew that Paul had identified the papacy as “that wicked,” “the man of sin,” “the mystery of iniquity” and “the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” But now the great whore of Tyre has been forgotten.

In ages past there were various isopsephy, or gematria, applications that demonstrated that the number “666” symbolically represented the papacy. A classic example of this is that on the pope’s miter the words Vicarius Filii Dei are written. Vicarius Filii Dei, which means the “Vicegerent of the Son of God”, and therefore addresses his claim of being seated in God’s temple, claiming to be God. The Latin letters of Vicarius Filii Dei equate to the number six hundred and sixty-six.

The beast, which is the papal power, is identified by his number and his number is “666,” but the man of sin received a deadly wound in 1798, and has been forgotten. In the last days the deadly wound is to be healed, and the healing of the deadly wound identifies that the United States first forms an image to the beast in its own nation, and then forces the world to do the same.

The world image of the beast is both twofold and threefold. It is prophetically twofold for it is made up of a combination of church and state, but it is threefold in that it is made up of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet. When the threefold union of the very powers that will lead the world to Armageddon is established, they will be the beast that is the eighth kingdom that is of the seven, and it will also be the threefold union of the sixth kingdom. The number of the beast’s name in the last days is again “666,” for it represents three kingdoms that are each part of the sixth kingdom.

To get victory over the beast, his image, his mark and the number of his name is to understand the riddle that “the eighth is of the seven”, which is the secret of Daniel two, which Daniel prayed to understand. It is an element of the Revelation of Jesus Christ that is unsealed just before probation closes, for as John said, the “time is at hand.” For this reason, those who get that victory are represented as being with the angels who pour out the plagues, for they get the victory, or the necessary prophetic understanding, just before probation closes.

Those who understand that the Revelation of Jesus Christ is unsealed just before the close of probation, and that the number “666,” is an element of that vision will not miss that the vision of Ezekiel chapter eight begins on the fifth day (which is the day before the sixth day), in the sixth month of the sixth year. By the end of chapter eight twenty-five men are bowing down to the sun, and chapter nine identifies those who receive the seal of God.

The context of the vision is the mark of the beast and the seal of God, and the vision is opened up just before probation closes at the Sunday law, as typified by the number “666.” But the close of probation that is identified as occurring at the Sunday law in the United States, it is not the close of human probation, it is the close of probation only for Seventh-day Adventists.

The vision is represented as taking place within Jerusalem, which is a symbol of the Seventh-day Adventist church. At the Sunday law in the United States, Seventh-day Adventists are the only class that is, there and then, held accountable to the light of the Sabbath.

“If the light of truth has been presented to you, revealing the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and showing that there is no foundation in the Word of God for Sunday observance, and yet you still cling to the false sabbath, refusing to keep holy the Sabbath which God calls ‘my holy day,’ you receive the mark of the beast. When does this take place?—When you obey the decree that commands you to cease from labor on Sunday and worship God, while you know that there is not a word in the Bible showing Sunday to be other than a common working-day, you consent to receive the mark of the beast, and refuse the seal of God. If we receive this mark in our foreheads or in our hands, the judgments pronounced against the disobedient must fall upon us. But the seal of the living God is placed upon those who conscientiously keep the Sabbath of the Lord.” Review and Herald, April 27, 1911.

 

The vision of Ezekiel chapter eight through chapter eleven, identifies the history leading up to the close of probation for Jerusalem. It is portrayed as taking place just a day before the number “666” arrives, and chapter eight identifies an escalating rebellion within Jerusalem that culminates with the leading men bowing to the sun, thus receiving the mark of the beast.

Chapter nine, represents an angel going through Jerusalem (thus identifying a progression), and placing a seal upon one class in advance of the destroying angels who thereafter slay all who do not have the seal. Both chapters represent a progressive history that leads to the Sunday law, where one class bows to the sun, and the other receives the seal of God. The wicked are then removed from Jerusalem, for the Sunday law separates the wicked and the wise.

The sealing that is represented in Ezekiel chapter nine is the same sealing that is represented in Revelation chapter seven.

“If such scenes as this are to come, such tremendous judgments on a guilty world, where will be the refuge for God’s people? How will they be sheltered until the indignation be overpast? John sees the elements of nature—earthquake, tempest, and political strife—represented as being held by four angels. These winds are under control until God gives the word to let them go. There is the safety of God’s church. The angels of God do His bidding, holding back the winds of the earth, that the winds should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree, until the servants of God should be sealed in their foreheads. The mighty angel is seen ascending from the east (or sunrising). This mightiest of angels has in his hand the seal of the living God, or of Him who alone can give life, who can inscribe upon the foreheads the mark or inscription, to whom shall be granted immortality, eternal life. It is the voice of this highest angel that had authority to command the four angels to keep in check the four winds until this work was performed, and until he should give the summons to let them loose.

“Those that overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil, will be the favored ones who shall receive the seal of the living God. Those whose hands are not clean, whose hearts are not pure, will not have the seal of the living God. Those who are planning sin and acting it will be passed by. Only those who, in their attitude before God, are filling the position of those who are repenting and confessing their sins in the great anti-typical Day of Atonement, will be recognized and marked as worthy of God’s protection. The names of those who are steadfastly looking and waiting and watching for the appearing of their Saviour—more earnestly and wishfully than they who wait for the morning—will be numbered with those who are sealed. Those who, while having all the light of truth flashing upon their souls, should have works corresponding to their avowed faith, but are allured by sin, setting up idols in their hearts, corrupting their souls before God, and polluting those who unite with them in sin, will have their names blotted out of the book of life, and be left in midnight darkness, having no oil in their vessels with their lamps. ‘Unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings.’

“This sealing of the servants of God is the same that was shown to Ezekiel in vision. John also had been a witness of this most startling revelation. He saw the sea and the waves roaring, and men’s hearts failing them for fear. He beheld the earth moved, and the mountains carried into the midst of the sea (which is literally taking place), the water thereof roaring and troubled, and the mountains shaking with the swelling thereof. He was shown plagues, pestilence, famine, and death performing their terrible mission.” Testimonies to Ministers, 445.

 

The sealing of the one hundred and forty four thousand in Revelation chapter seven is also represented in chapter nine of Ezekiel, and the sealing angel is the mightiest angel, who ascends from the east. Those who are lost, who have their names blotted out of the book of life, are represented as having “no oil in their vessels with their lamps.” The two classes in the vision of Ezekiel chapter eight through eleven, are the wise and foolish virgins of Matthew twenty-five, and they are therefore Adventists.

“The parable of the ten virgins of Matthew 25 also illustrates the experience of the Adventist people.” The Great Controversy, 393.

 

Sister White specifically identifies Jerusalem of Ezekiel’s vision as Adventism:

“The true people of God, who have the spirit of the work of the Lord and the salvation of souls at heart, will ever view sin in its real, sinful character. They will always be on the side of faithful and plain dealing with sins which easily beset the people of God. Especially in the closing work for the church, in the sealing time of the one hundred and forty-four thousand who are to stand without fault before the throne of God, will they feel most deeply the wrongs of God’s professed people. This is forcibly set forth by the prophet’s illustration of the last work under the figure of the men each having a slaughter weapon in his hand. One man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side. ‘And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.’” Testimonies, volume 3, 266.

 

The vision of Ezekiel chapters eight through eleven, is directly addressing the history of Adventism leading up to and at the Sunday law. It identifies the two classes of worshippers who are within Jerusalem (Adventism), and is prophetically associated with the Revelation of Jesus Christ that is unsealed just before the close of probation, for its first references is setting forth the number “666” in prophetic symbolism. In doing so it identifies one of four things the wise must get victory over in the last days, and those four things are part of the light of the eighth being “of the seven”. Revelation fifteen also identifies that those that get the victory over the four symbolic aspects of the papacy, sing the song of Moses and the Lamb.

In that day Isaiah, in chapter twenty-seven says that the righteous of the last days will sing the song of the vineyard, which is a song that the Lamb sang when he walked among men that identifies a chosen people who are being passed by as a new chosen people are being selected. That song is sung by “the wise” of the last days during the sealing of Ezekiel nine and Revelation seven. Ezekiel’s vision of chapters eight through eleven is part of that very song.

We will continue this study in the next article.

“The true people of God, who have the spirit of the work of the Lord and the salvation of souls at heart, will ever view sin in its real, sinful character. They will always be on the side of faithful and plain dealing with sins which easily beset the people of God. Especially in the closing work for the church, in the sealing time of the one hundred and forty-four thousand who are to stand without fault before the throne of God, will they feel most deeply the wrongs of God’s professed people. This is forcibly set forth by the prophet’s illustration of the last work under the figure of the men each having a slaughter weapon in his hand. One man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side. ‘And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.’

“Who are standing in the counsel of God at this time? Is it those who virtually excuse wrongs among the professed people of God and who murmur in their hearts, if not openly, against those who would reprove sin? Is it those who take their stand against them and sympathize with those who commit wrong? No, indeed! Unless they repent, and leave the work of Satan in oppressing those who have the burden of the work and in holding up the hands of sinners in Zion, they will never receive the mark of God’s sealing approval. They will fall in the general destruction of the wicked, represented by the work of the five men bearing slaughter weapons. Mark this point with care: Those who receive the pure mark of truth, wrought in them by the power of the Holy Ghost, represented by a mark by the man in linen, are those ‘that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done’ in the church. Their love for purity and the honor and glory of God is such, and they have so clear a view of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, that they are represented as being in agony, even sighing and crying. Read the ninth chapter of Ezekiel.

“But the general slaughter of all those who do not thus see the wide contrast between sin and righteousness, and do not feel as those do who stand in the counsel of God and receive the mark, is described in the order to the five men with slaughter weapons: ‘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.” Testimonies, volume 3, 266, 267.