Another Antitypical Fulfillment of Ezekiel 9 Beginning at "His Sanctuary"

"Study the 9th chapter of Ezekiel. These words will be literally fulfilled; yet the time is passing, and the people are asleep. They refuse to humble their souls and to be converted. Not a great while longer will the Lord bear with the people who have such great and important truths revealed to them, but who refuse to bring these truths into their individual experience. The time is short. God is calling; will YOU hear? Will YOU receive His message? Will YOU be converted before it is too late? Soon, very soon, every case will be decided for eternity. Letter 106, 1909, pp. 2, 3, 5, 7. (To "The churches in Oakland and Berkeley, September 26, 1909.)" E. G. White Manuscript Releases Volume One, p. 260.

"Here we see that the church [Jerusalem]--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, and 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." E. G. White, Testimonies, Vol. 5, 211.

"The prophecy which He [Christ] uttered was twofold in its meaning; while foreshadowing the destruction of Jerusalem, it PREFIGURED also the terrors of the last great day [BEGINNING AT HIS SANCTUARY]. The Great Controversy, 1911 Edition, p. 25.

The Time of The Ezekiel 9 Slaughter

The time of the Ezekiel 9 slaughter is after the close of probation because the destroying angel goes forth after there has been a separation from sin and sinners, and this does not occur completely until the close of probation. The following statements will confirm these facts:

"The angel with the writer's ink horn is to place a mark upon the foreheads of all who are separated from sin and sinners, and the destroying angel follows ths angel." E.G. White, SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 4, 1161, col. 2.

"The tares and the whea are to grow together until the harvest; and he harvest is the end of probaitonary time." E.G. White, Christ's Object Lessons, p. 72.

There was a tare in Jesus' church group of 13. His name was Judas. Tares are identified by Ellen White as insincere believers whose case we would have to judge in order to deal with them and remove them from the church. However, the case is very different with thorns, because they are the open sinners who teach a false gospel of "only believe," the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. We are told that it is impossible for the wheat to mature if thorns are permitted to take over the church.

The fact that the Ezekiel 9 slaughter does not begin until the close of probationary time does not preclude the possibility of internal dissensions to the point of blood-letting in the professing SDA church, even before the Ezekiel 9 slaughter. The hatred between the liberal and conservative factions is heating up daily, and when the liberals tell the conservatives to keep Sunday sacred, as Ellen White says they will, there could be some very serious in-fighting. When the Romans penetrated the gates of Jerusalem, in the typical manifestation of Ezekiel 9, they found the Jews spilling one another's blood:

"Unhappy Jerusalem!rent by internal dissensions, the blood of her children slain by one another's hands crimsoning her streets, while alien armies beat down her fortifictions and slew her men of war!" E.G. White, Great Controversy, p. 29, 1911 edition.

"The Sanhedrin had rejected Christ's message and was bent upon His death; therefore Jesus departed from Jerusalem, from the priests, the temple, the religious leaders, the people who had been instructed in the law, and turned to another class to proclaim His message, and to gather out those hwo should carry the gospel to all nations.
As the light and life of men was rejected by the ecclesiastical authorities in the days of Christ, so it has been rejected in every succeedng generation. Again and again the history of Christ's withdrawal from Judea has been repeated. When the Reformers preached the word of God, they had no thought of separating themselves from the established church; but the religious leaders would not tolerate the light, and those that bore it were forced to seek another class, who were longing for the truth. In our day few of the professed followers of the Reformers are actuated by their spirit. Few are listening for the voice of God, and ready to accept truth in whatever guise it may be presented. Often those who follow in the steps of the Reformers are forced to turn away from the churches they love, in order to declare the plain teaching of the word of God. And many times those hwo are seeking for light are by the same teaching obliged to leave the church of their fathers, that they may render obedience." E.G. White, Desire of Ages, 232.

The Different Factions

In the typical fulfillment of Ezekiel 9, those who remained at the temple instead of fleeing were the conservative Pharisee, and the Liberal Saduccee types. The so-called "ultra-consertive reformers" began to leave the apostate Jewish church in A.D. 27, at the inception of Christ's minstry when He began to "gather out those who would take the gospel to the world:"