Spiritually Poor, Blind and Naked.

Times of the Gentiles Prophecy fulfilled in 1980… where does that leave us in the time stream of prophetic history?

JERUSALEM IN BIBLE PROPHECY

Roy F. Cottrell  1947

Continued…and Concluded.

The parallel between the fulfillment of the times of the 12 nations (Gentiles) and our own church history is remarkable and dare not be overlooked. We need to recognize that we cannot divorce ourselves from the fact that the Three Angels' Messages which was committed to the Church in sacred trust involves the nations. The very prelude to these messages reads:

And I saw another angel fly 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, . . . (Rev. 14:6)

When the times allotted to the nations is fulfilled, the giving of 'the everlasting gospel" to the nations is also affected. The two cannot be divorced.

Furthermore, we are told:

In the balances of the sanctuary the Seventh-day Adventist church is to be weighed. She will be judged by the privileges and advantages that she has had. If her spiritual experience does not correspond to the advantages that Christ, at infinite cost, has bestowed on her, if the blessings conferred have not qualified her to do the work entrusted to her on her will be pronounced the sentence, "Found wanting. " By the light bestowed, the opportunities given, will she be judged. (Testimonies for the Church Vol. 8, p. 247)

As Ellen G. White was writing this intent of God following the 1903 General Conference Session, she noted the only condition where-by the judgment of "found wanting" could be averted. It reads:

Unless the church, which is now [1903] being leavened with her own backsliding, shall repent and be converted, she will eat the fruit of her own doing, until she shall abhor herself. (Ibid., p. 250)

This is not a call to individual repentance but to corporate repentance. In the light radiating from the agenda of the sanctuary as revealed in the type with the fulfilling of the time of the Gentiles - nations as corporate bodies - we should now understand the weighing of the Church in the same balance, and the decision that was rendered. Follow closely now the parallel as diagramed. (pp. 14-15)

In the left hand column, we have the significant dates in the history of the State of Israel. Let us review them.

In 1948, the State of Israel was re-established. The event itself did not fulfill any prophecy. However, coming events were casting their shadows before. Jerusalem still remained in Jordanian control, trodden down of the Gentiles.

In 1967. in the Six-Day War (June 5-10), Jerusalem was captured, and a government under the control of Israel was set up. It was the beginning of the end. It constituted a warning to the Church of the corporate judgment she faced.

In 1980, the entire government of Israel was transferred from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The prophecy of Jesus had reached complete fulfillment. This was done on July 30 of 1980.

In the righthand column is a review of our own Church history in parallel with the events which fulfilled the prophecy of Jesus.

In 1949, Bible Readings for the Home Circle was revised. In the study on "The Sinless Life," the paragraphs defining the human nature Christ took upon Himself were altered.

In 1950, Elders Wieland and Short presented a restudy of 1888 to the leadership of the Church and called for a "denominational repentance" corporate repentance. While these young men did not perceive the connection of the message of 1888 with the General Conference session in 1903 - and still do not understand it -they did answer the call of God in giving to the Church, the only remedy which could avert it being "spewed out" by Christ. (See Rev. 3:16)

In 1952, a Bible Conference in the Sligo Park Church called the ministry's attention to the prophecy of Jesus in Luke 21 :24, noting "that we should all be watching [it] with special care."

Then came the SDA-Evangelical Conferences of 1955-56, in which we compromised our basic teachings on the incarnation and the atonement. Instead of repentance, we were continuing to betray the sacred trust making it virtually impossible to give the "ever-lasting gospel" message in its purity.

Then came the fateful year- 1967. In the very month that Jerusalem was retaken, a committee appointed by the General Conference rejected Wieland and Short's call for denominational repentance for the third and final time.

In July, Dr. Earle Hilgert then of Andrews University took his place as a voted member on the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches. In October, the Annual Council gave its approval to the Association of Adventist Forums from whose podium at PUC in 1979, Dr. Desmond Ford was to attack the sanctuary doctrine of the Church.

Between 1967 and 1980, in 1977, Dr. B. B. Beach would place in the hands of the reigning pope, Paul VI, "a gold-covered symbol of the Seventh-day Adventist Church." (Review & Herald, August 11, 1977, p. 23)

Then came 1980. At the General Conference session in Dallas, Texas, the Church voted a new Statement of Beliefs, and included in them language from the Constitution of the World Council of Churches, and confirmed the compromises on the atonement and incarnation made at the SDA-Evangelical Conferences of 1955-56.

Within three months God permitted Jesus' prophecy to reach its complete fulfillment. Corporate judgment was then completed in the Heavenly Sanctuary.

A FINAL PROPHECY

There is one final prophecy concerning Jerusalem in Daniel. Turn in your Bibles to Daniel 11:45. This prophecy in Daniel is a literal prophecy and can no more be spiritualized away than can the prophecy Jesus gave concerning Jerusalem. Daniel I I reads:

And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him.

Daniel understood well what 'the glorious holy mountain" was, for he had prayed - "0 Lord... let... Thy fury be turned away from Thy city Jerusalem, Thy holy mountain." (9:16) This "he" of the prophecy will "plant" the "tents" of his abode in Jerusalem. This "he" is the "the king" of Daniel 1 1 :36, or the Papacy. He will welcome the personified Christ to "the throne of his father, David. " But what then? The next verse reads: "And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people. " (Dan. 12:1) lt will be the end -the close of all human probation. Every individual will have made his decision.

We have been given foreknowledge:

Fallen angels upon earth form confederations with evil men. In this age antichrist will appear as the true Christ, and then the law of God will be fully made void in the nations of our world against God's holy law will be fully ripe. But the true leader of all this rebellion is Satan clothed as an angel of light. Men will be deceived and will exalt him to the place of God, and deify him. But Omnipotence will interpose, and to the apostate churches that unite in the exaltation of Satan, the sentence will go forth, "Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her." CM, p. 62)

All that Jesus prophesied about Jerusalem as signs to God's people has taken place. The shadow of coming events was cast in 1948; the first warning came in 1967; the final warning in 1980. We are living between a fulfilled Luke 21 :24, and yet to be fulfilled Daniel 11:45. We are at the end! "Heir of the kingdom, why dost thou slumber? ...Wake thee, arouse thee. " "Lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." "When ye see these things come to pass, then KNOW that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand...This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled."

CONCLUDED.

********

We have been blessed with prophecies as for thousands of years God's people have been blessed. We were told that comprehension would come as the days of earth's current sin ridden history were winding down. For thousands of years we've existed in a state of fulfilling prophecy. 1260 years was one prophecy and during that time many generations of people lived and died as it was unfolding. Just as then it is now. Generation after generation lives as the prophecies come to pass. We've been blessed with the knowledge that in 1980 - a mere 39 years ago a prophecy came to pass pointing to the very last Jerusalem related prophecy- noting that the particular prophecy would take place within the generation of 1980.

Remember how those Christ followers in Jerusalem were warned that Jerusalem would be surrounded by armies and when it was they were to flee Jerusalem? They were to uproot their entire lives as soon as they saw this prophetic sign come to pass. They were to flee when it happened.  Can you imagine if people today were as close to God living in the light of His truth, paying attention to His prophetic signs, watching for the fulfillment of foretold events. Scoffing is the accepted reaction to prophecy today. Scoffing, dismissing, ridiculing, these are how many professed Christ followers treat prophecies. They don't realize that if our passed is filled with FULFILLED prophetic predictions, then our future holds the fulfilling of prophecies for our times.

1980 39 years until 2019… how many more years until the last Jerusalem related sign meets its fulfillment?  Corporate probation is over, the judging of all individual dead is over, the judging of the individual living is ALMOST over and when it is… the only thing left is for sentencing to be carried out. The guilty as well as those secure in the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ will meet their just reward.

We are living in the most spiritually FEARFUL years mankind can live in, and the world around us goes on as if believing this truth is some twisted fantasy of unreality that only the very intellectually and spiritually deceived dare believe.

People are so caught up in the deception of Satan, that they go to heaven upon their deaths to be with their loved ones who have gone on before them, that they don't need to concern themselves with whether or not they live under a probationary time which is running out. Why bother with that, when all people go to heaven? Truly this generation has fulfilled and is fulfilling the Laodicean prophecy of lukewarmness and will be spewed out of the Savior's salvation. They think they are RICH, they think they can SEE, they think they are CLOTHED, but the reality, the truth is they are POOR, BLIND, and NAKED spiritually! 

Please Father! Please help us to be YOURS, we would know the signs of our own times, we would buy of YOU the gold tried in fire, we would seek only You and Your truth not lull ourselves into false complacency under Satan's deceptions that WILL deceive ALL but the very elect! Please Father, we would be among Your very elect all by the GRACE, the MERCY, the FORGIVENESS, through the LOVE of YOUR SON, JESUS CHRIST, now and forever!!!!!!!