Thursday, January 23, 2014

An Hour and An End - Pt. 11 (Prophetic Signs)

History and prophecy go hand in hand.

Continuing with our study from 'An Hour and An End' by William Grotheer.  May God bless us and open our heart and minds to Him and His truth!

May we find the truth and only the truth.

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p 40 -- CHAPTER XII -- Lesson From the Jewish Church for Today

God in His foreknowledge had determined the time to be allotted to the Jewish Church and its holy city.

To Daniel was revealed that "seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city." (9:24) Yet in the close of the probation of the Jewish Church, the time varied for various segments of that Church.

A careful study of the book of Acts reveals the hierarchy of the Jewish Church passed the point of no return prior to the time that probation closed for the Jewish Church as a corporate body. Observe closely, with your Bible open, the following points:

1)  On the Day of Pentecost (A.D. 31), Peter preached to "devout" Jews (2:5) and called them to repentance. (2:38) The hierarchy were busy at the Temple with the festivities of that day.

Act 2:5  And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
Act 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

2)  Shortly after the Day of Pentecost, but prior to A.D. 34, Peter again called the laity, who had gathered in the Temple courts for the hour of prayer, to repent. (3:1, 19)

Act 3:1  Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.
Act 3:19  Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord

3)  While speaking to the people, Peter and John were arrested by the Temple police, and on the following day were arraigned before Annas, Caiaphas, and other of the kindred of the high priest. (4:6-7) Peter boldly charged these top leaders of the Jewish Church with the crucifixion of Jesus (4:10); but at no point did Peter call them to repent.

Act 4:6  And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.
Act 4:7  And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?

Act 4:10  Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.

The leadership of the Jewish Church had passed their day of probation prior to the time allotted to the Jewish nation as a corporate body.

In A. D. 34, Stephen standing before the supreme "council" of the Jewish Church arraigned them in judgment before God as the "betrayers and murderers" of "the Just One." (6:15; 7:52) There was no call to repentance, for the hour of the end of the "seventy weeks" had arrived. In the execution of the judgment of the high council of the Jewish Church upon Stephen, probation closed for that Church as a corporate body. Yet for another 36 years, the forms and ceremonies of the Jewish religion would continue to be practiced in the Temple before the "curtains" fell on that Temple and the "holy city." Why was time extended?

In the decision of the Jewish hierarchy to kill Jesus, the laity of the Jewish Church were not involved, although as a part of "the house of Israel," they shared accountability. (Acts 2:36) When Stephen was stoned, the decision was made by the Jewish "council."

 Again the laity were not involved, but as a part of the corporate body shared in that guilt.

God, being a God of justice and mercy, granted time so that the individual member of the Jewish Church might decide whether the decisions of the Jewish leadership were correct, or whether the testimony of the apostles of Jesus was true.

This necessitated not only that the Jewish laity in Jerusalem receive a call to repentance, as on the Day of Pentecost; but also that the same laity scattered in the synagogues of the Diaspora be given the same opportunity.

This is what the major part of the book of Acts is all about. Not only does Paul carry the gospel to the Gentiles, but he enters the synagogues and tells the individual members what their hierarchy did at Jerusalem. (Acts 13:27-29)

Act 13:27  For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.
Act 13:28  And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain.
Act 13:29  And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre.

 The book of Acts closes with a confrontation of Paul with the local leadership in Rome. (28:17, 23-29)

Act 28:17  And it came to pass, that after three days Paul called the chief of the Jews together: and when they were come together, he said unto them, Men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans.

Act 28:23  And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening.
Act 28:24  And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not.
Act 28:25  And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers,
Act 28:26  Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:
Act 28:27  For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

This final picture of the book of Acts takes place within the shadow of the time when the "sign" Jesus gave marking the hour for the destruction of the city of Jerusalem
p 41 -- occurred - A.D. 66. The end of all things for the Jewish Church was at hand - its ritual and its temple services in A.D. 70.

This history can be diagramed and its significance -visualized as follows:

The
Cross------------- --AD 34 -------------------------------------------AD 66-------AD 70 ---------
___|___________|__________________________________|_______|____

--(1)--------------- (2)------------------------------------------------------------(3)


(1)   A.D. 31 - Close of Probation for the Jewish hierarchy in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

(2)   A.D. 34 - Close of Probation for the Jewish Church as a corporate body.

(3)                  - Decision time for the laity of the Jewish Church.

In the fate of this once "holy city," we can see "a symbol of the world hardened in unbelief and rebellion, and hastening on to meet the retributive judgments of God." (Great Controversy, p. 22)

Also in this city, we see fulfilled events which Jesus connected with "the scenes which are to take place in the history of this world just prior to the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." (Counsels to Writers, pp. 23-24)

In these final events, it is not the probation of the Jewish Church which is involved, it is the probation of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, modern "spiritual Israel," to whom sacred trusts were committed as was to the ancient Jewish Church.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church cannot divorce itself from the fate of the nations.

To the Church was committed the trust of giving "the everlasting gospel... to every nation." (Rev. 14:6)

In a special sense to the Seventh-day Adventist Church was "entrusted the last warning for a perishing world." (9T:19)

Following the Great Disappointment in 1844, as the minds of a small group of disappointed ones were directed to the High Priestly ministry of Jesus, they perceived as "the closing work of the church" the giving "to the world the warning of the third angel of Revelation 14." (SP, IV, p. 272)

Jesus linked the fate and probation of the nations with events which were to take place in the history of Jerusalem.

He plainly foretold the destruction of the city, and gave the sign by which His followers would know that time was imminent. In the same prophecy, Jesus also set the boundary of the probation of the nations as corporate entities. Jesus declared that Jerusalem - the city, not the temple - was to be trodden underfoot by the nations "until the times of the nations be fulfilled." (Luke 21:24) [In the Greek, there is but one word for "nations" and "Gentiles"]

Inasmuch as the fate of the Church is linked to the fate of the nations because of the trust committed to the Church involving the final warning to the nations, this prophecy of Jesus becomes a major factor in understanding the true significance of the "now" time to which we have come.

Further, the fate of the Jewish Church and the fate of the Seventh-day Adventist Church was linked in a letter sent to Elders George I. Butler and S. N. Haskell in 1886. That letter read in part:  -       I think of His [Jesus,] great sorrow as He wept over Jerusalem, exclaiming, "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not" [Luke 13:34] God forbid that these words shall apply to those who have great light and blessings. In the rejecting of Jerusalem it was because great privileges were abused which brought the denunciation upon all who lightly regarded the great opportunities and precious light

p 42 -- that were entrusted to their keeping. Privileges do not commend us to God, but they commend God to us. No people are saved because they have great light and special advantages, for these high and heavenly favors only increase their responsibility. ...

When Jerusalem was divorced from God, it was because of her sins. ...

The depth of our ruin is measured by the exalted light to which God has raised us in His great goodness and unspeakable mercy. Oh, what privileges are granted to us as a people! And if God spared not His people that He loved because they refused to walk in the light, how can He spare the people whom He has blessed with the light of heaven in having opened to them the most exalted truth ever entrusted to mortal man to give to the world? (Letter 8-55-1886; emphasis supplied)

The parallel between the history of Jerusalem in the fulfillment of the prophecy of Jesus in Luke 21:24, and the history of the Church in its rejection of the truth entrusted to her is so related that it dare not be overlooked. (See Appendix D) This parallel and the message of the book of Acts tell us where we are in the stream of time as God's professed people today. Let us recapitulate the data and its significance:

 On June 21, 1948, Israel again became a nation.
 This did not fulfill a prophecy.
 Coming events were merely casting their shadows before. This event did, however, force the Seventh-day Adventist Church to review its prophetic interpretation concerning Israel as a nation. In 1944, the Pacific Press published a book - Palestine in Prophecy - which stated that "those who are holding the hope of national restoration for the Jews are following a theological will-o'-the-wisp." (p. 95) In 1947, the same press published another book - The Jews and Palestine - with the specific declaration that "careful study of both the Old and New Testament reveals that the literal descendants of Abraham, as a nation, will never be re-established in the Holy Land." (p. 61) Yet within a year, what we said could not, and would not be, did occur. We then backed up to the position Edson White had taken in his book - The Coming King - first published in 1898, which stated: -       We also read that "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Luke 21:24. Jerusalem has never again come into possession of the Jews, and will not until "the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." This will be when the work of the gospel is finished. (p. 98; See Exhibit #5)

We publicly proclaimed this position at the 1952 Bible Conference. Elder Arthur S. Maxwell in his presentation noted Luke 21:24 as one of the yet unfullfilled prophecies as of that date, stating that "Jerusalem is to remain trodden down of the Gentiles till probationary time of all Gentiles has run out." (Our Firm Foundation, Vol. 2, p. 231; See Exhibit #I) But today, Jerusalem is under Jewish control, and has become the capital of the nation. (See Exhibit #8) We are again faced with the fact that we still have not interpreted this prophecy accurately. We have failed to distinguish between "nations" as corporate entities, and "individuals." To face this distinction is not to our liking because the fate of the Church as a corporate entity is tied to the fate of the nations because of the message committed to the trust of the Church. In the fulfillment of Luke 21:24, God is trying to tell us something and we will not listen.

In 1950, God sent to the Church two "messengers" even as He did in 1888.

Elders R. J. Wieland and D. K. Short called for denominational repentance, the only solution to the problem and need of the Church. The Church was soon to face its moment of truth in the soon fulfillment of Luke 21:24, resultant from the establishment of the Jewish State in 1948. In other words, the call of these two "messengers" was a message from God on time.

While Elders Wieland and Short did not correctly interpret the nature of the repentance called for, and have since wandered off course as did Waggoner and Jones, the fact that God called for a denominational repentance, - this was clearly presented in 1950.

But what was the reaction? In the first response of the General Conference in 1951, the hierarchy rejected their manuscript - 1888 Re-Examined - as too "critical." Another evaluation in 1958 also rejected it.

p 43 -- Between 1950 and 1958, a major event occurred within the Church.

The SDA-Evangelical Conferences were held and the resultant book - Questions on Doctrine - denied the sacred trust committed to the Church.

Then in 1967 (June 5-10) came fhe Six-Day War, and Jerusalem was once again in Jewish hands after 1900 years. This was the beginning of the final period of the "times of the nations" (Gentiles). Within days another series of events began to unfold: -

1)   June 27-29 -  A committee of the General Conference met in Washington and after hearing Elder R. J. Wieland in person, again rejected his and Short's manuscript because "its fruitage is evil." [Wieland and Short's revised edition of 1888 ReExamined does not give the true picture. It has been altered. But the manuscript A Warning and Its Reception - gives the complete data.]

2)   July 30 - August 8 -   . The triennial meeting of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches met in Bristol, England. For the first time, a representative of the Seventh-day Adventist theological viewpoint sat in session as a voted member by the Central Committee of the WCC. He was Dr. Earle Hilgert, then of Andrews University. Now Dr. Roaul Dederen also of Andrews University has taken Hilgert's place.

3)   October 17-24 -   The Annual Council of the Church gave recognition to the Association of Adventist Forums. It was from the podium of this organization that Dr. Desmond Ford launched his attack on the Sanctuary truth in 1979.

4)   December 15 -   The first issue of "Watchman, What of the Night?' was mailed to a small list of names. For 23 years now this publication has been calling the attention of the Church to the apostasy both in doctrine and deed which has engulfed it.

Prior to 1967, another series of events began to unfold which reached their fruition in 1980.

At the final session of Vatican II, an observer of the SDA Church and a member of the WCC Secretariat made arrangements for private dialogue. The first unofficial meeting took place in 1965. (So Much in Common, p. 98) Also in 1965, Dr. Bernard Seton wrote from Switzerland to the General Conference of the need for a revised Statement of Beliefs. This beginning, though at first rejected by the General Conference, ultimately led to the 27 Fundamental Statements of Belief voted at Dallas on April 25, 1980.

In 1967, when Israel took Jerusalem, the capital remained at Tel Aviv. However, on July 30, 1980, the Knesset (Parliament) of Israel made Jerusalem "the capital of Israel" and "the seat" of all government of the nation. Thus was completed the fulfillment of Luke 21:24. What does this mean?, We are now living in the time which would be parallel with the end times of the Jewish Church and nation - A.D. 34 - A.D. 70 - when the Jewish laity had to make a decision regarding the actions of the Jewish hierarchy.

For the Seventh-day Adventist Church today, all the actions of the leadership of the Church since 1950 onward focus in one document - the 27 Fundamental Statements of Belief. The compromise with the Evangelicals which denied the sacred trust committed to the Advent Movement is transcribed into the Statement. The requirement for membership in the World Council of Churches as written in the Constitution of the WCC is verbally written into the Statements of Belief. For six months the Sabbath School lessons were devoted to these Fundamentals. A new book - Seventhday Adventists Believe... - details chapter by chapter each of the Statements. At the Centennial Celebration of 1888, these 27 Statements were proclaimed as the acceptance of the 1888 Message. It is now before each individual member of the Church as to which road he will take - the Way of the Sacred Trust, or the denial of that Trust over the past four decades by the hierarchy.

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The individual must decide for the truth and nothing but the truth. If they turn a blind eye to the FACTS they'll be accountable for that.

We have to have our eyes and ears opened!

When we close ourselves to the truth because we want to remain comfortable where we are, we condemn ourselves to darkness.

Jesus is the TRUTH.

We MUST live the TRUTH!

Please LORD help us know and live Your TRUTH always!


All by Your grace, Your love!

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