1.986 Years Have Passed.

Ask yourselves this question…  After Jesus walked the earth, after His accession to begin His work as our High Priest, did those who cried out "crucify Him!" believe they'd done a good thing? They did, didn't they? The scribes, pharisees, the temple elders, the leaders, the laity of the Jewish religion in majority believed that silencing the rabble rousing, peace disturbing, troublemaking son of a carpenter- was a very good thing- except… for a very small sect that touted a lie about the dead man rising and commissioning His delusional followers not to give up on the things He'd taught them during His ministry.

Surely, it would have been much more effective for the truth to be known if the crucified and buried Jesus had rose and continued to live His miraculous life upon earth, presenting Himself to everyone as the miracle man. Hadn't he supposedly called forth Lazarus from the grave and allowed Lazarus to live among the people. Weren't their others He'd healed from death itself- the daughter, the centurion's servant, and many we probably were not even told about? These people came back from death's sleep, called from that darkness of peace where all their thoughts ceased, to live longer. So, why not Jesus Himself? Why did He have to go away if He were risen from the dead? Surely those people who were thrilled they'd manage to rid themselves of the blasphemous, commandment breaking, false Messiah were ecstatic to realize that the so called specter of a man wasn't hanging about trying to gain more followers to lead in His false religion. They weren't too concerned with the remaining followers of the dead man, they'd be stomped out all in due time. The Jewish church would remain intact, the hierarchy in control, the people soothed into their traditions once again.  It had been a good thing crucifying that person so that all His lies would die with Him. He'd foolishly said things like the temple being destroyed. He'd even gone so far as to say that the city of Jerusalem itself would be destroyed. God favored them, and gave them their city, there was no way God was going to take it from them.

We sit here now in 2019, knowing what befell Jerusalem, but back then before the armies surrounded the Holy City, before they left and then returned once again to raze the city of Jerusalem to the ground, scattering ALL the people as they wrested control and overtook the very temple that God ordained to be built. As Jerusalem was trodden down by the non-Jewish-  in fact by the gentiles- it was a horror of unbelief taking place for those who never imagined such a thing possible.

When year after year passed and Jerusalem remained unclaimed by its rightful, God directed owners- the people God had chosen to be His people- the Jewish people- what did those people think? They began to recite a rather well known phrase-- "Next year in Jerusalem".  They never gave up hope of reclaiming Jerusalem for God, never.  And over a thousand and a half years passed--1,897 years went by before the people of Israel, the Jewish people once again had Jerusalem in their control, 13 more years after they fought and won control from gentiles, they placed their capital once more there in Jerusalem.  The control of Jerusalem theirs to defend with weaponry, with laws, with their full government-  even as gentiles continued to try and reclaim it once more- over and over again.

The significance of the return of the Jewish people to Jerusalem in particular is significantly important to the people who STILL follow Christ and only Christ after all these years- 1,986 years since Jesus was crucified in the year 33.  Why? Because it is yet another end-time prophecy that Jesus, Himself spoke of  has come to pass- as we expectantly wait for our Savior to sound the last trump and call us to Him.

The Jewish people today still believe their messiah is to come, choosing to ignore the truth before them.

We sit back as Christ followers and shake our heads, unable to comprehend how they could be so blind. All the while among the many, many, yes… many Christ followers there are so very few who walk the narrow road necessary to walk upon, preferring their lives of deception.

May we NOT be among the deceived! May we truly belong to our Savior! Forgive us, Lord, forgive us sinners, forgive me- a sinner undeserving of Your love.  Now and forever, amen.

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(EXCERPT)

JUST SUPPOSE (Times of the Gentiles) -- Just suppose you had been living in the days of Jesus, and were a citizen of Jerusalem. You were well versed in the prophecies of the Old Testament. You were zealous for the religion of your fathers. You firmly believed in the triumph of Judaism over all of her enemies. You looked forward to the day when the mountain of the Lord's house would be established in the tops of the mountains and would be exalted above the hills, and all nations would come and bow down before the God of Israel.   1    But you were aware that there were some very disturbing prophecies which didn't bear out all of these expectations. How would you have related yourself to these prophecies? Let us note these seemingly contradictory prophecies:

Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and stars for a light by night. …If these ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me forever.   (2) Judah shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. (3) For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. ...For this is as the waters of Noah unto Me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.(4) * The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money; yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil shall come upon us. Therefore will Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.(5) The people of the prince shall come and destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(6)

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Having been conditioned by the religious hierarchy of Jerusalem to believe, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we"(7) Which set of the preceding predictions would you have believed were to be fulfilled?

Then you were listening one day to Jesus as He was telling the hierarchy whom you reverenced and respected a story about a vineyard. You heard Jesus say to them after He had finished the story - "I say to you, The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." (8) Would you have believed Jesus, or would you have been inclined to think that He was an impostor? Then before you could make a final judgment, you were hearing another story, and the words - "He sent forth His armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city."(9) - startled you, but looking around at the massive, and impressive edifice that was the very temple of God, you reasoned, this Man just can't be teaching the truth. He must be insane and hallucinating. So you decided then and there -this Man they call Jesus is not the Messiah.

Interestingly, the prophecy of Daniel(6) which foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, also contained the very time prophecy as to when the Messiah was to appear; but blind prejudice and selfish pride withheld from the laity that all-important truth because with that truth was a revelation which struck directly at the establishment and power of the hierarchy. This failure to let the light of truth reach the laity of Jerusalem caused them to unite their voices in the cry - "Crucify Him, Crucify Him."

This "just suppose" situation which I have asked you to visualize was indeed a reality to many in the days of Jesus. We read: The Jews had misinterpreted God's promise of eternal favor to Israel: (Jer. 31:35-37 quoted) The Jews regarded their natural descent from Abraham as giving them a claim to this promise. But they overlooked the conditions which God had specified… To a people in whose hearts His law is written, the favor of God is assured. They are one with Him. But the Jews had separated themselves

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from God. Because of their sins they were suffering under His judgments. This was the cause of their bondage to a heathen nation. Their minds were darkened by transgression, and because in times past the Lord had shown them so great favor, they excused their sins. They flattered themselves that they were better than other men, and entitled to His blessings.

These things "are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come."(10)

Note carefully - the servant of the Lord quoting I Corinthians 10:11 indicates emphatically that this situation in Jerusalem in the days of Jesus is for us upon whom the ends of the world have come!

We, too, face two sets of statements. Let us line them up:

While there have been fierce contentions in the effort to maintain our distinctive character, yet we have as Bible Christians ever been on gaining ground. (11) I am instructed to say to Seventh-day Adventists the world over, God has called us as a people to be a peculiar treasure unto Himself. He has appointed that His church on earth shall stand perfectly united in the Spirit and counsel of the Lord of hosts to the end of time. (12) That which God purposed to do for the world through Israel, the chosen nation, He will finally accomplish through His church on earth today. (13) [The word "church" in these last quotes is interpreted by many to mean the corporate, institutionalized church.] * Spiritual death has come upon the people that should be manifesting life and zeal, purity and consecration, by the most earnest devotion to the cause of truth. The facts concerning the real condition of the professed people of God, speak more loudly than their profession, and make it evident that some power has cut the cable that anchored them to the Eternal Rock and that they are drifting away to sea, without chart or compass. (14) The church is like the unproductive tree which, receiving the dew and rain and the sunshine should have produced an abundance of fruit, but on which the Divine Searcher discovers nothing but leaves. Solemn thought for our churches! Solemn, indeed, for every individual! Marvelous is the patience and forbearance of God; but, "except thou repent;" it will be exhausted; the churches, our institutions, will go on from cold formality to deadness; while they are saying, "I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." (15)

These two sets of statements, while contradictory in import, do not make Ellen G. White a false prophet; but rather they point up the fact that stated by her in 1883 - "It should be remembered that the promises and threatenings of God are alike conditional."(16) Which then will be fulfilled? 

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Jesus gave a prophecy which stated that when a certain event should occur, "the times of the Gentiles"' would be fulfilled.(17) To the Seventh-day Adventist church as a corporate body was committed the trust of the unique message of Revelation 14:6-1l which was to go to every nation, tongue, and people. If then the times of the Gentiles are up -the prophecy of Jesus was fulfilled in 1967 - then the trust given by God has been withdrawn. It is just that simple, - a faith in the prophetic words of Jesus even as our spiritual fathers manifest a faith in what took place in Heaven in 1844 following the disappointment, though they could not see with the natural eyesight. Another prophecy indicates that God has arisen from the cherub whereupon He was, and has taken things into His own hands, ordering a sealing work to commence in Jerusalem, the church.(18) Again, this "mark of redemption' will not be visible to "human eyes."(19) This fact will not, however, alter the reality of the experience.

These very prophecies which would warn the laity and cause them to follow the leadings of the Lord for this time are discredited by the hierarchy because such prophecies strike directly at the establishment and their power over the laity. We are thus brought directly to the same situation -and decision -that the people of Jerusalem were brought in the days of Jesus as they evaluated the prophecies of the Old Testament in regard to their city and nation. To us the fateful words have been written -Their experience was "written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." (10)

(1) Micah 4: 1-2   

Mic 4:1  But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. 

Mic 4:2  And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 

(2) Jeremiah 31:35-36  

Jer 31:35  Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: 

Jer 31:36  If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. 

(3) Joel 3:20   

Joe 3:20  But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

(4) Isaiah 54:7, 9

Isa 54:7  For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. 

Isa 54:9  For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. 

(5) Micah 3:11-12   

Mic 3:11  The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us. 

Mic 3:12  Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. 

(6) Daniel 9:26  

Dan 9:26  And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. 

 (7) Jeremiah 7:4;

Jer 7:4  Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these. 

Ellen G. White, Fundamentals of Christian Education, pp. 397-398:- "The teachers of the Jewish nation professed to educate the youth to understand the purity and excellence of the laws of that kingdom which is to stand forever and ever, but they perverted truth and purity. Though they said of themselves, 'The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we,' yet they crucified the Originator of all the Jewish economy, Him to whom all their ordinances pointed." 

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(8) Matthew 21:43  

Mat 21:43  Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. 

 (9) Matthew 22:7  

Mat 22:7  But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 

 (10) Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 106   (11) Ellen G. White, letter 170, 1907 (12) Ellen G. White, letter 54, 1908   (13) Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings. pp. 713-714   (14) Ellen G. White. Review & Herald, July 24, 1886   (15) Ellen G. White, Review & Herald Extra, December 23, 1890 (16) Ellen G. White, Manuscript 4, 1883  

 (17) Luke 21:24

Luk 21:24  And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. 

  (18) Ezekiel 9:1-4;

Eze 9:1  He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand. 

Eze 9:2  And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar. 

Eze 9:3  And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side; 

Eze 9:4  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. 

Ellen G. White,Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 3, p. 267   (19) Ellen G. White, letter 126, 1898.

October 1975  -  "Watchman, What of the Night? " Thought Paper.  Adventist Laymen's Foundation.  (Excerpt)