God
Says: For “OUT OF JERUSALEM” Shall go Forth a Remnant!
Click to go to our Home PageDear Reader, I received the following question from a person for
whom I have answered the question many times on SDAIssues forum. I responded
to the same issue when it was recently raised by Ulicia Unruh. She said
essentially the same thing; that one must remain in Jerusalem to receive the
mark of the man in Linen, Ezekiel 9. I just treated that issue in the last week and the
following individual raises the question again. I am treating this issue as a
singular issue in the short document because it is a question that many
surface readers seem to get hung up on. Here is his email to me on SDAIssues
forum: 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. (Ezekiel 9:4 KJV).
Ron responds: The Holy Spirit never has to “wiggle”
out of anything and that is the source of my message and my answers. Isaiah
prophesied what took place in the prefigure of the
two calls to Jerusalem in Matthew 22. Jerusalem rejected the two calls and
the third call went out of Jerusalem to the then known world. Jesus went
elsewhere as well. He went DEPARTED from Jerusalem. No Christian was sealed
at the apostate church in Jerusalem. When the disciples received the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, they were in the upper room of Peter’s
father’s house hiding from the apostate Jews. Recall that Ellen White said that all the ancient
prophets wrote more for us than the Jews of old. "The Bible for Our Time.--Never are we absent from the
mind of God. God is our joy and our salvation. Each of the ancient prophets
spoke less for their own time than for ours, so that their prophesying is in
force for us. 'Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and
they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are
come' (1 Cor. 10:11). 'Not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the
things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel
unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven which things the angels
desire to look into' (1 Peter 1:12).'" E.G. White, Selected
Messages, Bk. 3, p. 338.
Prophets Wrote for Their Own and Our
Day.—“The last books of the Old Testament show us workers taken from
the laborers in the field. Others were men of high ability and extensive
learning, but the Lord gave them visions and messages. These men of the Old
Testament spoke of things transpiring in their day, and Daniel, Isaiah, and
Ezekiel not only spoke of things that concerned them as present truth, but their
sights reached down to the future, and to what should occur in these last
days.”--Letter 132, 1898. {3SM 419.5, 420} Thus, the
following occurrence in the “prefigure” of A.D. 27-70, will be fulfilled
again because “Jerusalem,” the apostate church will reject both calls and
will be pronounced unworthy, Matthew 22:8. The only “remnant” that was saved
in the “prefigure,” was those who were “gathered out” by Christ and His
disciples. All the remainder in Jerusalem were
destroyed. Isa 37:31 And the remnant that is escaped
of the house of Judah shall
again take root downward, and bear fruit upward: Isa 37:32 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out
of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this. To the non-adept surface readers, the following
texts will make Isaiah “appear” to contradict chapter 37:31, 32 (above), but
nothing contradicts to those with discernment to Isa 4:1 ¶ And in that day
seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread,
and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our
reproach. Isa 4:2 ¶ In that day shall
the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth
[shall be] excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. Isa 4:3 And it shall
come to pass, [that he that is] left in Zion, and [he that] remaineth in
Jerusalem, shall be called holy, [even] every one that is written among the
living in Jerusalem: Isa 4:4 When the Lord
shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have
purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of
judgment, and by the spirit of burning. Isaiah is referring to the New Jerusalem, the New
Heaven and the New Earth. Jerusalem also symbolizes the world (Great Controversy, chapter 1). The
Lord washes away the filth of the daughters of Zion just the same way He did
it in Ezekiel 17-31, an Ezekiel 9 slaughter beginning at His Sanctuary, the
House of Jacob, and the House of Judah. "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. Consider the issue from
this facet friend: After the two calls to the Jews in Matthew 22 and they
were found not worthy, verse 8, the call of the disciples went to the then
known world. Where were their converts sealed? Was it in the apostate Jewish
church at Jerusalem, or the church of Christ, which had headquarters in
Jerusalem as well? Also, consider that the
first Christian church became apostate and many left that fold, that
“Jerusalem.” The formally organized church became Roman Catholic Babylon. The
true reformers of the Dark Ages left that “Jerusalem,” and tens of thousands
of them were martyred. Was that all in vain because they did not remain in
the apostate “Jerusalem” of the day? And what about the Protestant
Reformation which abandoned apostate “Jerusalem,” Roman Catholicism Babylon?
Then what about Adventists who abandoned apostate “once Jerusalem” mainline
Protestantism? What about all the true reformers of every generation who left
the “Jerusalem” of their fathers? Where were they sealed? I pray you get the
picture. True Jerusalem is those who love God and keep His commandments. That
is Zion. That will constitute the New Jerusalem. And yet from another
facet, consider that in the prefigure of Israel, the dross (tares) was
gathered into the midst’s of
Jerusalem for slaughter, burning and melting. Ezekiel 22:17-31. No
sealing going on there except being sealed for eternal doom. So Ulicia Unruh and
others are saying that we must remain in Jerusalem to be sealed, while God
says: For OUT OF JERUSALEM shall go forth a remnant. I pray I have made the issue
clear this time around. It is so crucial to realize and remember that the
only ones who were saved in the “prefigure” of the calls of Matthew 22 to
Jerusalem, were those who WENT OUT OF JERUSALEM, and that included Christ and
His disciples. So it will be in the next literal fulfillment of Ezekiel 9 and
Matthew 22. Ron |