Dear Patrons of Omega Ministries' WebSite,
Robert Parker made the following assertion. I quote him in full:
"There is no way that Matthew 24:21 or the fleeing of the disciples from Jerusalem in AD 70 can be used as a type of true Christians separating from the SDA Church as you have implied elsewhere. Ellen White distinctly indicates that the fleeing of Christians from Jerusalem in AD 70 to escape the coming destruction of the city will have its counterpart in faithful SDA's leaving the LARGE CITIES when the Sunday laws are passed and enforced (see 5 Testimonies pages 464, 465).
EGW equates Jerusalem with the WORLD and not with the CHURCH in its application to the end of time. She equates the SANCTUARY that was IN Jerusalem with the CHURCH at the end of the world, and says that the punishment on the world will begin with the SANCTUARY, that is the professing Christian world. If you study her writings more carefully you will see that she is not speaking of the SDA Church specifically, but of all those supposedly Christian ministers who have misled the flock by presenting fables in the place of truth (see Great Controversy pages 653-656). This destruction upon the false prophets includes apostate SDA leaders who have deceived the church members. Ellen White says that SDA's, because of their unfaithfulness and false teachings, have come to view things in very much the same light as the fallen Churches of Babylon; and because of this, they will accept the Sunday Mark of the Beast when it is enforced. Unfaithful ministers in the SDA Church will then urge members to accept Sunday worship (see Testimonies to Ministers, pages 472-475 etc.)"
Critical Examination of Robert Parker's Above Statement
Ellen White said that Ezekiel 9 would have another literal fulfillment. Here is that statement:
"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.
Note that Ellen White is speaking expressly, specifically and directly to Seventh-day Adventists, namely the churches in Oakland and Berkeley, California. She says on page 25 of The Great Controversy, that the AD 70 Destruction of Jerusalem, was a PREFIGURE. That means TYPE. What entity was destroyed in TYPE? The Sanctuary Temple (Church) of the chosen people of God. Not Babylon! That destruction did prefigure the destruction of the world at the end-time, but judgment begins at the house of God, say Scripture, and the TYPE of AD 70 involved God's chosen people and their Sanctuary. Ellen White says that the counterpart to this Sanctuary will be destroyed at the end-time, p. 211, Testimonies, vol. 5. But the real clincher that this destruction will involve the professing apostate SDA Church first, and then the world, is Ezekiel 5:1-3. In verse 3, the words"Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts..." signifies a small remnant that escape, and then three thirds, the remainder of the church is destroyed or scattered.
Ezekiel 5 is another take on Ezekiel 9. Proof absolute that this chapter applies first to the professing "chosen people" church at the end-time, is because it applied to such in the AD 70 PREFIGURE TYPE. But another proof is found in verses 7, 8. These verses prove that a church has not "...done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you." In verse 8, God executes judgments in the midst of thee (Jerusalem--the church) "...in the sight of the nations." So this does not apply to the world, as the church is judged in the sight of the nations of the world. In verses 14, 15, the church is made a waste, a reproach, a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about her when judgments are executed in furious rebukes against her (the church). Remember, that in order for AD 70 to be a prefigure, we must find an end-time counterpart to the chosen people back then, and that counterpart is the professing Seventh-day Adventist apostate church. A faithful remnant will be taken in His skirts and saved, while the remaining three-thirds or whole church will be destroyed. The church will be made an example of, and then the destruction will spread to the entire world. An extremely important fact is that the destruction of AD 70, according to Josephus, began at the TEMPLE, THE SANCTUARY, and then spread to the CITY, JERUSALEM. Thus it will be in the antitypical fulfillment or the next literal fulfillment of Ezekiel 5 and 9, which are different descriptions of the same event.
How Ellen White Knew That Ezekiel 9 Would Have Another Literal Fulfillment
Ezekiel 5:9, alludes to the worst thing God ever does, past, present or ever--future. If that occurred in 70 AD at that destruction of Jerusalem, then that would have been the worst thing God ever does. That is not the case. Matthew 24:21 describes the greatest tribulation that ever shall be, and that tribulation is at the end-time destruction of Jerusalem, beginning at the professing SDA Sanctuary, then progressing to the other fallen churches, and then progressing to include the entire world. This is the order of progression because judgment begins at the House of God. Ellen White said that the PREFIGURE (TYPE) destruction of Jerusalem, was but a faint shadow of the one to come at the end-time, BEGINNING AT HIS SANCTUARY, and continuing to finally engulf the entire world.
"The prophecy which He uttered was TWOFOLD in its meaning; while foreshadowing the destruction of Jerusalem, it PREFIGURED also the terrors of the last great day." E.G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 25.
"The Saviour's prophecy concerning the visitation of judgments upon Jerusalem is to have another fulfillment, of which that terrible desolation was by A FAINT SHADOW. In the fate of the chosen city we may behold the doom of a world [and a professing Sanctuary Church] that has rejected God's mercy and trampled upon His law." E.G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 36.
Remember, in Testimonies, vol. 5, Ellen White says that it BEGINS AT HIS SANCTUARY, THE HOUSE OF JACOB, and the world IS NOT HIS SANCTUARY, AND IS NOT THE HOUSE OF JACOB. Neither are the other fallen churches. In AD 70, the destruction began at A SANCTUARY, THE TEMPLE, and later spread to the city of Jerusalem. That was a TYPE OR PREFIGURE of the next fulfillment of Ezekiel 5 and 9.
In AD 70, every true Christian had fled the Temple Sanctuary, and the city of Jerusalem, when in the spring and autumn of AD 66, there was a respite after the Romans planted their banner on Jewish soil. Then, every true Christian took that opportunity to flee to the mountains of Pella, SDA Bible Commentary, 74-77. According to Ellen White, the counterpart sign for us to flee to the mountains, and the last time for folk to flee the SDA apostate church, will be at the time of the first inception of the National Sunday Law, which Ellen White equates with the erection of the Roman Banner on Jewish soil, Testimonies, vol. 5, 451, 464, 465.
A small escaped remnant will effect a primitive revival and be saved. Proof absolute that the professing SDA Church does not engage any primitive revival is the following statement:
"The things you have described as taking place in Indiana, the Lord has shown me would take place just before the close of probation. Every uncouth thing will be demonstrated. There will be shouting, with drums, music, and dancing. The senses of rational beings will become so confused that they cannot be trusted to make right decisions. And this is called the moving of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit never reveals itself in such methods, in such a bedlam of noise. This is an invention of Satan to cover up his ingenious methods for making of none effect the pure, sincere, elevating, ennobling, sanctifying truth for this time. Better never have the worship of God blended with music, than to use musical instruments to do the work which last January was represented to me would be brought into our camp meetings. The truth for this time needs nothing of this kind in its work of converting souls. A bedlam of noise shocks the senses and perverts that which if conducted aright might be a blessing. The powers of satanic agencies blend with the din and noise, to have a carnival, and this is termed the Holy Spirit's working." E. G. White, Selected Messages, Vol. 2, 36.
It is critical that you never forget the words "JUST BEFORE THE CLOSE OF PROBATION" in the above statement. If the church is so engaged at such a critical time, she will not be in any state of primitive revival! This scenario is according to PREFIGURE TYPE. All we have to know is what happened in AD 70, as that was a microcosm of what will occur in the church, THE HOUSE OF JACOB, BEGINNING AT HIS SANCTUARY, at the end-time, Testimonies, vol. 5, 211.
After judgment begins as the apostate professing SDA church, it will then come upon the other fallen churches, and then the entire world. The entire world then becomes like the city Jerusalem, because it will have heard the Everlasting Gospel by that stage of developments. There you have the next destruction of Jerusalem in type and antitype.
Matthew 24:14, 15, thus have another literal fulfillment involving the apostate SDA Church, the "chosen" people Sanctuary church.
Oh yes! It does symbolize and prefigure the destruction of the world, but it BEGINS AT HIS SANCTUARY, THE HOUSE OF JACOB, Testimonies, vol. 5, 211, and THE HOUSE OF JACOB is not the Babylonian churches!
Why Did Ellen White Not Delineate This Scenario of Events as I Have?
God has shown me in no uncertain terms, that the reason He did not instruct Ellen White to make this as plain as I have, and as plain as Scripture really presents it, is because He was giving the professing SDA organization time to respond to its commission and allegiance to God. But since that organization has "removed God," Selected Messages, vol. 1, 205, that organization can no longer represent God's commission:
"The Lord Jesus will always have a chosen people to serve Him. When the Jewish people rejected Christ, the Prince of life. He took from them the kingdom of God and gave it unto the Gentiles. God will continue to work on this principle with every branch of His work. When a church proves unfaithful to the work of the Lord, whatever their position may be, however high and sacred their calling, the Lord can no longer work with them. Others are then chosen to bear important responsibilities. But, if these in turn do not purify their lives from every wrong action, if they do not establish pure and holy principles in all their borders, then the Lord will grievously afflict and humble them and, unless they repent, will remove them from their place and make them a reproach.
God is not 'worshipped with men's hands, as tough he needed any thing' (Acts 17:25). E. G. White, The Upward Look, 131.
"We must as a people arouse and cleanse the camp of Israel. Licentiousness, unlawful intimacy, and unholy practices are coming in among us in a large degree...We are in danger of becoming a sister to fallen Babylon, of allowing our churches to become corrupted and filled with every foul spirit, a cage for every unclean and hateful bird, and will we be clear unless we make decided movements to cure the existing evil? E. G. White, Manuscript Releases No. 449, pp. 17, 18.
"If we turn from the testimony of God's word, and accept false doctrines [Calvinism] because our fathers taught them, we fall under the condemnation pronounced upon Babylon; we are drinking of the wine of her abominations." E. G White, The 1884 Great Controversy entitled Spirit of Prophecy, Vol. 4, 347, not to be confused with Testimonies, Vol. 4. The four volume Spirit of Prophecy series, can still be special ordered through any Adventist Book Store.
The Prophesied Outcome of the Professing SDA Church
"Jesus sends HIS PEOPLE a message of warning to prepare them for his coming. To the prophet John was made known the closing work in the great plan of man's redemption. He beheld an angel flying 'in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his Judgment is come; and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters [Rev. 14:6, 7.].
The angel represented in prophecy as delivering this message, symbolizes a class of faithful men, who, obedient to the promptings of God's Spirit and the teachings of his word, proclaim this warning to the inhabitants of earth. This message was not to be committed to the religious leaders of the people. They had failed to preserve their connection with God, and had REFUSED THE LIGHT FROM HEAVEN; therefore they WERE NOT of the number described by the apostle Paul: 'But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day; we are not of the night nor of darkness [1 Thess. 5:4, 5].
The watchmen upon the walls of Zion should be the first to catch the tidings of the Saviour's advent, the first to lift their voices to proclaim him near, the first to warn the people to prepare for his coming. But they were at ease, dreaming of peace and safety, while the people were asleep in their sins. Jesus saw HIS CHURCH, like the barren fig-tree, covered with pretentious leaves, yet destitute of precious fruit. There was a boastful observance of the forms of religion, while the spirit of true humility, penitence and faith--which alone could render the service acceptable to God--was lacking. Instead of the graces of the Spirit, there were manifested pride, formalism, vainglory, selfishness, oppression. A BACKSLIDING CHURCH closed their eyes to the signs of the times. God did nor forsake them, or suffer his faithfulness to fail; but they departed from him, and SEPARATED THEMSELVES from his love. As they REFUSED TO COMPLY WITH THE CONDITIONS, his promises were NOT FULFILLED to them." E.G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, pp. 199-200 [The 1884 edition of The Great Controversy, NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH TESTIMONIES, VOL 4].
SDA Corporate Church Brought Down to Hell! Is Such a Church THE CHURCH That the Gates of Hell Will not Prevail Against?
The following statement is presented just as it appears in its reference. All bracketed portions are just as Ellen White inserted them:
"And thou, Capernaum [Seventh-day Adventists, who have had great light], which art exalted unto heaven [in point of privilege], shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom IN THE DAY OF JUDGMENT, than for thee." E.G. White, Review and Herald Articles, vol. 3, p. 69, col. 3.
Such pronouncements have the ring of a true prophet! capernaum was a corporate city, and the SDA is Biblically represented as a corporate city, the corporate city of Jerusalem. It will be brought down to hell as a corporate city [church], except for a small remnant who escape, Ezekiel 5:1-5, as was the case with Israel in the 70 A.D. destruction of Jerusalem.
"They that forsake the law praise the wicked.' Proverbs 28:4. When those who are uniting with the world, yet claiming great purity, plead for union with those who have ever been the opposers of the cause of truth, we should them as decidedly as did Nehemiah. Such counsel is prompted b the enemy of all good. It is the speech of timeservers, and should be resisted as resolutely today as them. Whatever influence would tend to unsettle the faith of God's people in His guiding power, should be steadfastly withstood." E.G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 661.
"Those who are uniting with the world [and churches that cannot be distinguished from the world, Early Writings, 273] are receiving the worldly mold and preparing for the mark of the beast." Testimonies, vol. 5, 216."
"I then saw the THIRD ANGEL. Said my accompanying angel, 'Fearful is his work. Awful is his mission. He is the angel that is to select the wheat from the tares, and seal, or bind, the wheat for the heavenly garner." E.G. White, Early Writings, 118.
"The angel represented in prophecy as delivering this message, symbolizes a class of faithful men, who obedient to the promptings of God's Spirit and the teachings of his word, proclaim this warning to the inhabitants of earth. This message WAS NOT to be committed to the religious leaders of the people." E.. White, The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, 199, 200.
"The third angel's message will not be comprehended, the light which will lighten the earth with its glory will be called a false light, by those who refuse to walk in its advancing glory." E.G. White, Review and Herald, 5-27-1890, p. 321.
"Christ was a protestant...The Reformers date back to Christ and the apostles. They came out and separated themselves from a religion of forms and ceremonies. Luther and his followers did not invent the reformed religion. They simply accepted it as presented by Christ and the apostles." E.G. White, Review and Herald, vol. 2, 48, col. 2.
"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 who 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 succeeding 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 who 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.
God is adding nothing new to the equation, the PREFIGURE TYPE and its antityptical fulfillment, but is merely making it plainer. The facts are there IN SCRIPTURE and the Spirit of Prophecy, for the discerning spirit to discern. One merely needs to interpret the facts so that nothing contradicts and nothing is contrary to the PREFIGURE TYPE of AD 66-70.
Order of Fleeing the Apostate SDA Church
The bride will leave first because she is not defiled with woman, apostate churches, Jeremiah 11:15 and Revelation 14:1-4. Then, in the final call to the fallen churches, after the Sunday Law, all the finally faithful will leave all of the fallen churches, including the apostate SDA Church. Even though the bride flees first to keep from being defiled by ecumenical liaison, all who flee the church are not necessarily the bride, or even saved. But the bride will definitely not be so linked with the fallen churches of Babylon, when she discovers that the professing SDA Church is so linked. How do we know this? Jeremiah 11:15, and Revelation 14:1-4, emphatically state that the beloved, the bride, is not defiled with women (fallen churches).
God bless,
Ron Beaulieu