Sinners
are Shaken Out of Zion, the Church Triumphant
"Characteristics of True Reformers.--Here
are given the characteristics of those who shall be reformers, who will bear
the banner of the third angel's message, those who avow themselves God's commandment-keeping
people, and who honor God, and are earnestly engaged, in the sight of all the
universe, in building up the old waste places. Who is it that calls them,
The repairers of the breach, The restorers of paths to dwell in? It is
God. Their names are registered [written--Heb. 12:22, 23] in heaven as
reformers, restorers, as raising the foundations of many generations." E.
G. White, SDA
Bible Commentary,
Vol. 4, 1151. |
Let's
us consider all the qualifying statements concerning the church that appears to
fall but does not. I will highlight them in red or blue. This statement is
obviously speaking of the church triumphant, for the church that does not fall IS
THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT, ZION.
Upon this rock I will
build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matt.
16:18.
Those who keep the
commandments of God and the faith of Jesus will feel the ire of the dragon and his
hosts. Satan numbers the world as his subjects, he has gained control of the
apostate churches; but here is a
little company that are resisting his supremacy. If he could blot them from the earth, his triumph would
be complete. As he influenced the heathen nations to destroy Israel, so in the
near future he will stir up the wicked powers of earth to destroy the people of God. . . . Their only hope is in the mercy of God; their only
defense will be prayer. {Mar
32.1}
The trying experiences that came to God's people in the
days of Esther were not peculiar to that age alone. The revelator, looking down
the ages to the close of time, has declared, "The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to
make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and
have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Rev. 12:17. Some who today
are living on the earth will see these words fulfilled. {Mar 32.2}
The wrath of Satan increases as his time grows short, and his work of deceit
and destruction will reach its culmination in the time of trouble. {Mar 32.3}
Satan will work his miracles to deceive; he will set up his power as supreme.
The church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains, while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out--the chaff separated from the precious
wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but nevertheless it must take place. None but
those who have been overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their
testimony will be found with the loyal and true, without spot or stain of sin,
without guile in their mouths. {Mar 32.4}
God declares that even a mother may forget her child, "yet will I not
forget thee." . . . God thinks of His children with the tenderest
solicitude and keeps a book of remembrance before Him, that He may never forget
the children of His care. {Mar
32.5}
Conclusions:
·
Those
who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus are the church
triumphant, Zion.
·
Zion
is the married bride of Christ, Isaiah 62:1-5.
· Zion has sons and daughters who are the
people in the church militant, the 10 virgins. Isaiah 62.
·
Zion
is the true reformers awakened by God and then they awaken the 10 sleeping
virgins, the people of the church militants and all apostate fallen churches.
COL, 405-406.
· Zion is the 144,000 bride who awakens the
ten virgins and gives the Loud Cry to them, Isaiah 62:11 and Christ's Object Lessons, 405-406.
· Zion is the true reformers awakened by
God, COL, 405-406.
· The bride cannot be the guests and the
guest cannot be the bride at the wedding banquet. The Great Controversy, pp.
426, 427.
· The guests are the 10 virgin
bridesmaidens. A bridesmaiden is not the bride.
·
The
bride awakens all ten sleeping virgins. They all slumbered and slept, Matthew
25; COL, 405-406.
·
Sinners
are shaken out of Zion by Zion, and not the church militant to leave it purged
and purified.
·
Sinners
were shaken out of Zion by the disciples of Christ. Zion was their church. The
disciples are called the bride of Christ in Desire of Ages, 179.
· So whenever Ellen White mentions some
going "out from us," just as the Bible does, she means they leave
Zion, the bride, they are shaken out of the kingdom of God by Zion, the church
triumphant.
· Zion, the church triumphant, appears as
about to fall when Satan amasses all his forces and attempts to rid the earth
of her at the very end of time IN ONE NIGHT. But Christ intervenes and she does
not fall for she is the bride of Jesus Christ.
· The apostate new movement SDA church
teaches that the bad are shaken from it, the church militant, to leave it
purged and purified. That is an abominable lie. And because of that lie, many
foolish virgins will remain in that church thinking the bad will be shaken out
of it when the Sunday law comes. That is a lie. Ellen White says the church
leaders will instruct the people to keep Sunday sacred.
· God’s Word says that the dross is shaken
into the midst’s of Jerusalem, the church militant, for burning, Ezekiel
22:17-31. That is what occurred in the last literal fulfillment of Ezekiel 9,
so in order for the next fulfillment to be literal, as Ellen White says it is,
the same thing will have to occur at the end-time literal fulfillment of
Ezekiel 9.
· A.D. 27-70 was the last literal
fulfillment of Ezekiel 9 destruction. That destruction was prefaced by a
sealing and the sealing could not occur before A.D. 34, at which time Daniel’s
490 year prophecy was fulfilled commensurate with the stoning of Stephen.
· Ellen White said that the A.D. 70
destruction was a PREFIGURE (TYPE), p. 25, The
Great Controversy. Then she said that Ezekiel 9 will be literally fulfilled
at the end-time. So since the type was LITERAL, all we have to do to know what
will occur in the literal antitype is to look at what occurred in the literal
prefigure type. Antitype must equal Type.
· So this truth is as solid as
TYPE/ANTITYPE. It cannot be gainsaid.
· Will the watchmen of Isaiah 56:10-12 teach
this truth to the laity and the ministerial students? Never,
see 5T 211.
· Why
will the watchmen not teach these truths to the laity and the ministerial
students in SDA Seminaries around the world? Because the logical conclusion of
the entire matter is that there is another going out of Jerusalem of a faithful
remnant, Isaiah 37:31, 32, which Ellen White says was written more for us than
the Jews of old.
·
It is another going out that is necessary
to avoid the Ezekiel 9 slaughter and burning that BEGINS AT HIS SANCTUARY,
Testimonies, Vol. 5, 211, as was the case in the TYPICAL fulfillment of Ezekiel
9.
The above facts are indisputable.
Where do those go who heed the call out of apostate Jerusalem?
They form home churches just like the disciples did in the type:
Scripture on Home Churches
Act 16:32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that
were in his house.
Act 16:34 And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat
before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.
Act 16:40 And they went out of the prison, and entered into [the house
of] Lydia: and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and
departed.
Act 18:7 And he departed thence, and entered into a certain [man's]
house, named Justus, [one] that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the
synagogue.
Rom 16:5 Likewise [greet] the church that is in their house. Salute my
well beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.
1Cr 1:11 For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them
[which are of the house] of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
1Cr 16:15 I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas,
that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and [that] they have addicted themselves
to the ministry of the saints,)
1Cr 16:19 The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute
you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.
—rwb