PURPOSE FOR THIS STUDY
To reveal the history of Revival and Reformation and that it is to continue up to the end of the time
INTRODUCTION
GC 606, 609 “In every generation God has sent his servants to rebuke sin, both in the world and 0in the church. But the people desire smooth things spoken to them, and the pure, unvarnished truth is not acceptable….Thus the message of the third angel will be proclaimed. As the time comes for it to be given with greatest power, the Lord will work through humble instruments… The labourers will be qualified rather by the unction of his Spirit than by the training of literary institutions…Different periods in the history of the church have each been marked by the development of some special truth, adapted to the necessities of God’s people at that time. Every new truth has made its way against hatred and opposition; those who were blessed with its light were tempted and tried. The Lord gives a special truth for the people in an emergency who dare refuse to publish it?”
RIGHTEOUSNESS BY GRACE, BY FAITH, OF CHRIST
We have heard much about these. Let’s have a summary illustration about each:
By Grace: Rom 11:6 – when one is served by grace, he/she has done nothing to prepare for it – he/she is given salvation free of charge. All he / she needs is to extend the hand to the offer and pick it up. Therefore it doesn’t count any works done before. Nor how evil or sinful one was before: Rom 5:20 says where sin is too much, grace multiplies itself to suit the situation. Examples: In Noah’s Ark – no matter what one was so long he / she walked into the ark (without any works), was saved. All those who followed Moses to the Red sea all crossed it. All who followed Abram when he was called out of Ur, was accounted righteous…..But grace is not the last step of salvation, it is the beginning. It transfers one to:
Righteous by Faith: Hebrew 11:1- The just shall live – unlike the unjust who can only need grace to start them in gear 1 on the Salvation Road. To live buy by faith, one has to follow instructions, keep thecommandments to be worthy, he now knows the Way – no longer a baby. Therefore when one is in righteous by faith, should he/she be careless, he faces punishment and even loses the foundation of grace which he had, he is lost, unless one repents and get the favor with God in his / her probationary time. Heb. 4:1-2 / Heb. 10:38. By faith, we should hope for things not seen – trust in God and His promises, whether they appear as things impossible in man eyes!
When one is living and justified by faith he/she finally gets to maturity – Righteousness of Christ – The cover or seal of Christ – saved!
The Jewish church failed to live by faith and all but two died in the desert. Those who reached also failed to obey God’s commandments and they were captured by Assyria and Babylon. Though they came back after 70yrs in Babylon, they murdered their Redeemer as they did to the prophets sent to warn them. They were rejected as a nation, only those Christian Jews were in favour with God. Still, the Christian church lowered its standards and a pagan flood allowed into it (GC 384 – 385). Then it was under papal bondage 538 – 1798. During this time of the Dark Ages – it could only be rescued by a miraculous Grace – the one recorded in Ezekiel 4.
THE WAR OF REFORMATION EZEK 4:1-3
“Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it the city, [even] Jerusalem: And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set [battering] rams against it round about. Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it [for] a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This [shall be] a sign to the house of Israel.”
Though literal to the Jews under Babylonian captivity, the fulfillment of this battle is in the Christian era: In symbolic language, Ezekiel, a Jew is told to capture Jerusalem – the capital city of the Jews. It is because, the city is in the hands of the enemy. City, Jerusalem – Isa 33:20-24 = The Christian church, Ezek. 4:13 – The Christian church during the time it is in the wilderness or Gentiledom. The war to capture the church from the “enemy” was fulfilled from the Dark Ages onwards (See GC 54 – 55).
GC 120 “Foremost among those who were called to lead the church from the darkness of popery into the light of a purer faith, stood Martin Luther. Zealous, ardent and acknowledging no foundation for religious faith – but the Holy Scriptures, Luther was the man for his time; through him, God accomplished a great work for the reformation of the church.”
GC 78 “Thus the Waldenses witnessed for God, centuries before the birth of Luther….they planted the seeds of the Reformation that begun in the time of Wycliffe, grew broad and deep in the days of Luther, and is to be carried forward to the close of time by those who also are willing to suffer all things for ” the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus.”
GC 148 “The Reformation did not as many suppose, end with Luther. It is to be continued to the close of this world’s history. Luther had a great work….yet he did not receive all the light which was to be given to the world. From that time to this, new light has been continually shining upon the scriptures and new truths have been constantly unfolding.”
Luther’s Reformation was a sign to the “house of Israel”, the Christian church, to move out from the bondage of popery. Wall of iron = the barrier of hatred and separation of Luther by the papacy.
THE ANTITYPICAL 430 YEARS IN REFORMATION
Ezek. 4:4-5 “Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: [according] to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity. For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.”
The 390 days was the time of grace given to the House of Israel to make good of the reformation – to see and step into it.
Ezek. 4:6 “And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.”
After 390 days of grace to Israel (10 tribes), grace shifted to Judah (2 tribes) for 40 days. That these days should be counted as years. Therefore 390 years + 40 years = 430 years of grace to all Antitypical 12 tribes of Israel = whole Christendom or Protestants.
Verse 7, 8 “Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm [shall be] uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it. And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.”
The Uncovered arm shows the power of the Protestant reformation: GC 155, 162 / IT. 373 -it reduced the massacre of believers by the papacy, weakened the power of the Pope and inflicted a wound to his religious power, then it was very easy for the French Revolution (General Berthier) to finish off the Political power of the Pope in 1798. Bands on Ezekiel: Meaning he could not turn from his work of laying for Israel 390 years and Judah 40 years. It shows that the grace (laying = grace) to Israel and Judah was timed to 430 years. Therefore, even Ezekiel is a type, for, Ezekiel did not live 450 years! Ezekiel represents the Leaders of Protestant Reformation from Luther’s time to our time.
EZEK. 4:9-12 “Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, [according] to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof. And thy meat which thou shalt eat [shall be] by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it. Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink. And thou shalt eat it [as] barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.”
There are 6 grains for food given to Ezekiel during the 390 years, but no food in the 40 years. These foods represent spiritual foods = Bible Doctrines that made up the pillars of Protestant Reformation.
When did the 390 years start? Obviously, from the first reformer (see GC 120) = Martin Luther – 1500AD. Add 390 = 1890 AD. The Protestant Reformation received its spiritual food during this period 1500 to 1890. This prophetic year (1890) is the time of the 1st manifestation of the 4th Angel’s Message through Jones and Waggoner, which the SDA leadership rejected. E.G. White, who accepted that message, informed the Church that the Message was to pause for 40 years, to give more grace to the Church. 1890+40=1930, when prophecy is saying the Message came back, and is the one we blessed with today!
See the Chart below:
1. Wheat – GC 120, 143, 253 = Faith in Christ by Luther (Lutherans)
2. Barley – GC 250 , 251, 253 = Holy Spirit by Knox (Pentecostal)
3. Beans – GC 256 – 259 = Grace by Wesley (Methodist)
4. Lentils – GC 331, 332 = baptism by Immersion by Campbell
5. Millet – GC 356 – 357, 368 = 2300 years and Sanctuary by Miller (Millerite)
6. Fitches or Spelt – Rev 10:11/ EW 250 – 258 – Sabbath & Sanctuary Truth by E.G. White (SDA). Six is not a complete number, seven is. Therefore a 7th step in Reformation is needed, and the devil would not sit down but fight tooth and nail to confuse minds, and block the last step doctrine.
According to the pattern in Ezek 4, 1890 was the end of Righteousness by Grace to Protestants (Sunday churches), and grace was only given to Judah (SDA) during the additional 40 years. As seen above, 1500
+ 390 = 1890 AD, the time of the coming of the message of righteousness by Faith, Rev 18:1 Angel, i.e. 4th Angel’s Message by Jones and Waggoner (TM 79 – 91) but rejected, and message was withdrawn, to give the 40 years of Grace and wilderness wondering without food:
“……I also saw that if you had accepted their message, we would have been in the kingdom two years from that date, but now we have to go back into the wilderness and there stay forty years” EG White, GC Bulletin May 9, 1892.” …We would have been in the midst of the wonders of the Loud cry itself tonight” EG White, GC Bulletin 1893.
Note that E.G White is not saying these years are symbolic. They are very literal! Therefore, 40 years (1890 – 1930) were for extra time of grace to SDA.
What happened at the end of the 40 years or/and the entire 430 years?
Antitypical Ezekiel stood up – no more Righteousness by grace. The just should now live by Righteousness by faith.
The Righteousness by faith message came back, to end the 40 years of spiritual fasting. The 4th Angel’s message was re-manifested in California according to E.G. White prediction of 1914 (See Lesson 1(b). The main doctrine of the 7th Step is the 4th Angel’s message – the sealing of the 144 000, purification of the church and Loud Cry. The 7th Step of the Ladder of Reformation brings the church back to the Pentecostal state of purity and power.
These 6 grains are Spiritual foods of Heavenly origin, But: “And thou shalt eat it [as] barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight. And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.” V.12-13.
What is the meaning of the symbol of baking them with human dung ?
“Put them in one vessel” (Verse 9) God commanded that the Christian church should put all the grains in one vessel (the Bible) and teach them according to the Law and the Testimony. This could have maintained unity – but alas! Theories of men were exalted to divide the Christian church in ever increasing sects. The Laodicean (SDA) church is the only one putting all these grains in one vessel. This means it should appear the most mature and strong church of the age. But alas! The Word of God fearfully points out to the defilement of these God – given grains: Ezek. 4: 12- 13, 16 – 17 human feces – defiled by preparation, or human additions and subtractions – theories of men mixed into them!
Ezekiel’s refusal proves him to represent the reformers – that “little company, standing in the light ….sighing and crying…” (5T. 209). – Those having the 4th Angel’s message. Ezek. 4:14-15 – They are the only ones given the cow’s dung – a better fire to bake their food, i.e. Inspiration, and run away from the theories of men. They now teach to the Bible and to the Spirit of Prophecy only!
God is inviting you to be his watchman to stand in the stead of the unfaithful. Therefore, take heed, to pick up His divine offer to you, without any fear of men.
CONCLUSION
1.The Protestant Reformation was a sign to the whole Christendom to match out of the Roman Catholic Church and it’s theories (1500 to 1890). Grace was then still given only to SDAs 1890 – 1930, to wake up from Lukewarmness, and exercise maturity and personal investigation of truth.
2.Then the 4th Angel’s Message came in 1930, to end that grace period of spiritual fast. We are now responsible for our sins: Let us therefore accept this message, repent, live according to it and be sealed.
3. We are in the Righteousness by faith period and we must sigh and cry to get the seal (Righteousness of Christ) among the 144000.
END OF LESSON – MAY THE LORD GUIDE US!