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The Wilderness
Tabernacle at Sunset
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used by permission by Pat Marvenko Smith, copyright 1992.
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The Wilderness Sanctuary:
How God speaks to the Saints at the Time of the End
By Robert D. Mock
February 26, 2005
A lecture given to the Northwest Houston Seventh-day Adventist Church as they began preparation to host the Messiah’s Mansion, a full scale model of the Wilderness Sanctuary built by Moses that will be open for public tours in the metropolitan Houston area on April 16-25, 2005.
Topics
The Great Awakening and “The Time of Judgment has Come”
The Wilderness and the Heavenly Sanctuary – how to Ascend to the Throne of God
The Calendar of the Lord – How to “Watch and be Ready”
Ellen G. White on the Sanctuary, Israel and the Hebrew Israeli Economy
Preparing for the Coming of the Moshiach of Yisra’el (Messiah of Israel)
The Great Awakening and “The Time of Judgment has Come”
This afternoon I want to welcome all of you to a moment of time to reflect upon these perilous times, as we anticipate the coming of the Messiah of Israel. We know Him today as the Jewish rabbi, Rabboni as they called Him, Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus the Nazarene. They called Him Yahshua haNotzri (Jesus the Nazarene) or Yahshua haMoschiach (Jesus the Messiah). Finally we must learn one more name in Aramaic and/or Hebrew of Jesus: Yahshua ben Yosef ben David (Jesus son of Joseph son of David)
For fifteen seconds I left most of your brains in a cloud of dust. It only portrays also how little we are in touch with our ancestral forefathers, the guardians of the Torah, the personal recipients of listening and observing Jesus teach them how to live a “Torah driven life”. Notice I didn’t say a “Purpose driven life”. Jesus did not come to this earth to establish a feel good church. He did not come to teach us how greet people with a smile, or to be an efficient administrative elder in the church, or to motivate us to establish a small group to find our common bond in a religious Christian culture. Jesus came to this earth to be a reflection of only one thing, His Father in heaven. Jesus did have a purpose driven life. He claimed that He was sent for one purpose:
Matthew 15:24 – “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Throughout this talk this afternoon we will begin to capture again the life of Jesus the Jewish rabbi. We capture a glimpse of the purpose that Yahshua, as the Lord of hosts, came down on Mount Sinai and gave Moses a blueprint of the Wilderness Sanctuary. This tabernacle was called by the Hebrews, the Mishkhan.
Every time this afternoon I say the name Yahshua, I want you to know that we are talking about the man called orthodox Christians call today, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus’ followers did not speak English. That is a given but we fail to sink it into our psychic. They spoke Aramaic and Hebrew. They spoke not as dumbed down peasants and poor people but as educated Jewish citizens trained by the Jewish rabbinic scholars of their day. Of course, they had a Galilean accent but that did not make them stupid. Listen to the eloquence of Peter at the day of Pentecost and realize that this bumbling fisherman that modern Christians like to evoke was rather a skilled orator. He was worshipping in the temple of the Lord and was participating in the Jewish festival called Pentecost as did every Torah observing Jew. The Apostle Peter was a Seventh-day Shabbat keeper, which we call Sabbath. He believed in the Jewish festivals of the Lord, believed in following all the 613 Torah commandments given to the Israelites on Sinai, went three times a year to the temple of Herod and worshipped as every authentic Jewish male did in their covenant keeping life in Judea and Galilee. He followed the Sabbatical years of the Lord and left his business every seven years and studied under a rabbinic scholar. Peter was a businessman, whose had a fleet of boats in Galilee in his profession as a fisherman. His business continued to prosper even as he walked the hills of Galilee with his Lord and Master, Jesus the Messiah (Yahshua haMoschiach). Peter was married to a wife who was a member of the Herodian family. They lived in a prosperous neighborhood about one block away from the local synagogue in Capernaum. Both of those dwelling have been excavated today. Here is the life of the disciples and apostles of Jesus.
One thousand eight hundred years later we focus our thoughts on another group of disciples of Jesus who felt they needed to return and capture the life, essence and history of their religious forefathers, the Hebrews and the Jews. So in 1840, William Miller, Joseph Bates, James White, Ellen White, Josiah Litch, Uriah Smith and dozens of other Christians from many different denominational backgrounds looked over their religious landscape and what did they see.
They were only 68 years after the Signing of the Declaration of Independence (1776), 61 years after the end of American Revolution with Great Britain (1783). Americans were still in a turmoil over the French Revolutionary War fought from 1792 to 1802 and the Napoleonic Wars that raged over Europe from 1803 to 1815. All of these geo-political events significantly affected Americans, especially those with families on the continent of Europe.
October 22, 1844 was only 29 years after the completion of the War of 1812 in which the winds of war and foreign oppression affected Americans especially along the Canadian border, the Chesapeake Bay region and along the Gulf of Mexico. The British just were not willing to get off of our land, meddling in our relationship with the French speaking Canadians, inciting the native Indian populations to not support the American government and their unwillingness to sign commercial agreements favorable to the United States. This sounds like new.
Last October 22, 2004, the descendants of the believers in the Great Advent Movement in 1844 marked their 160th anniversary. There was scarcely a whimper was heard around the world.
That day, so long ago, was a revolutionary mark in the history of Christianity. As our religious forefathers looked over the landscape of religious life in America and around the world (we were a global nation) there was no one, no religious denomination not even the Jews who believed in the literal return of the Moshiach of Yisra’el (Messiah of Israel). The Jews have had over 50 (false) messiahs since the day of Jesus’ death.
Hebrew was virtually a dead language. In 1840 there were only 15,000 Jews in the United States. What about Jerusalem? This city of such fame and legendary importance in the ancient world was but a desert wasteland with a trash heap of ancient ruins. In the year 1840, there were only about 5,000 Jews in Jerusalem. This was a huge population because the British were making great effort to import Jewish people into the land over the prior 12 years when there were only 550 Jews living in the city.
And yet, the early Millerites, named after William Miller, had the audacity to race up and down the border of the eastern coast of the United States, (that is all that there was) in a wave of religious fervor and preach the message that Jesus was coming back to this earth. He was coming literally, every eye would see it. Redemption was to be a physical event. Wow! What a revolutionary idea! For 1800 hundred years Christians had learned to believe that Jesus had already come. He was living in our hearts. We were in the millennial kingdom and human life was getting better and better. Give them a break, this was evidence based Christianity. The kingdom of heaven was becoming a virtual reality on earth. The city of God was not Jerusalem, but the glorious city of Rome. All major denominations had an apostolic succession imbedded in their denominations for this is what made a denomination important.
Let us listen to William Miller has he pounded the pulpits of New England. Sixteen lectures on Biblical prophecy. Three hundred pages of sermon texts in two weeks. Joshua V. Himes left us this passage on apostolic succession in his book, The Brief History of William Miller (1853).
Do we get the picture? All Christianity was stuck in a self-absorbing time tunnel. The “fullness of the gentiles” was about to be over. Noah was given 120 years to warn this planet earth. We have been given an additional 40 years, the same as the unbelieving Israelites were given before they could cross into the Promised Land.
In the mid-1830 to the mid 1840’s, the Millerites went from town to town proclaiming three messages. The first message”
Revelation 1:7 – “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him...”
That was the literal message. The spiritual textual exegesis finished the text; “even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.
The second message went out:
Revelation 18:4 – “And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people…
This was a literal message and the literal exegesis finished the text; “lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.
The third message that the Millerites cried out was:
Revelation 14:7 – “Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth – to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people – saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of God’s judgment is come.”
Behold He is coming with clouds and every eye will see him, Come out of her My people and The hour of God’s judgment is come.” This was the Great Awakening.
For 160 years we have been preaching these messages. Do we know any more today than we did back then? We hear a sermon on the return of Jesus and most of the congregation yawns. The evangelical Christians, the Messianic Christians, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and many other denominations of Christendom are followers of the early Adventists and are looking for the literal return of Jesus. Seventh-day Adventists no longer have sacred rights to these message?
Some call it “the Parousia”, which to them actually means a ‘Secret Rapture’ rather than a visible literal coming but the intent of the meaning is still the same. The massive religious movement in the 1830s to 1845 was called the “Great Awakening” affected all the mainline churches of Christendom in America. Towards the end, close to 50,000 followers were believers in the prophetic chronologies as outlined by William Miller in the decade between 1830s and the 1840s? .
And so today, what have we learned out of the Great Awakening? One thing we learned that we thought Jesus would come, but He didn’t. For many it was a failed prophecy and as such has affected the psychic of every spiritual descendant of the Millerites. Rather it was a failed interpretation of a prophecy. The prophecy is still true. The real important issue was that it was literal. Replacement Theology had consumed apostate Christianity who thought that they had replaced the Hebrew remnant called the Jews.
That is why pogroms and anti-Semitism against the Jews is so easy. If the Jews were so irrelevant then why are they so annoying to the nations of all ages? It was the Catholic Polish Christians who gave us the Jewish pogroms in the mid-1700s. It was the Russian Orthodox Christians who gave us the pogroms of the mid-1800s. It was the German Lutheran Christians who gave us the Holocaust in the mid-1900s. It was the American Christians who refused to open her doors to German Jews and millions needlessly died. No Christian Church spoke out against the Holocaust during World War II except the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Not even the Seventh-day Adventists.
What the early Adventist failed to understand was that the “hour of Judgment “had come and it was occurring to the Jews. The Christians had the spiritual idea but the Jewish people would have to reenact it in literal reality. When we live a “spiritual Israel” life in the keeping of the Seventh-day Sabbath, we will be counted with the Jews. Our fate and destiny with be along with them.
And then it happened. It was February, 1840 in Damascus Syria. A Capuchin friar and his servant were killed in the city of Damascus and that day burned in the hearts of Jews around the world and became one of the most pivotal days in Jewish history called the “Damascus Affair”.
Immediately and abruptly the medieval blood libel was resurrected. The local Jews were charged with the murder of the friar so that the Jews could use his blood in the preparation of their Passover Seders.
The Turkish Christian community was swift and brutal in their investigation. The Jewish males were rounded up and tortured until a Jewish barber, Solomon Negrin under torture confessed and named others, who confessed and named other and on and on and on. Sixty three Jewish children “held as hostages until their mothers revealed the hiding-place of the blood.” (Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews, p. 322) The Jewish mind was never the same after that. “The Time of their Judgment had come”
After 1840, the call to return to the land of Israel kept getting louder and louder until out of the ashes of the Holocaust they finally listened to their God. After 1840, the call to return back to the Torah given to their fathers kept getting louder and louder until the authentic orthodox follower of the God of Israel became a forceful entity in the life of the Jewish people. They were needed to pave the pathway for the coming of the messiah. The “Land” must be ready. Jerusalem and Zion must be ready. They would be a beacon, a lighthouse near the stormy sea, for the gentiles and their lost brethren, the “Lost Tribes of the House of Israel.” “The Time of their Judgment had come.”
I struggled with this phrase for many years until I began to study the history of the Jewish people. I then realized, the “hour of God’s judgment” was spiritually on the Christians but it was literally on the Jewish people.
It was the 1840s and Judaism began making its first inroads into American social life. Remember there were only 15,000 Jews in the United States. Reform Judaism spread rapidly under the influence of progressive rabbis. Redemption was the road of spreading ethical monotheism around the world. The first English Jewish translation of the Bible was made. The Sephardi and Ashkenazi prayer books were printed in English.
This was the progressive enlightenment (1820-1840) in Germany and in America. The Jews were ashamed of their traditional services and wanted to be fashionable and genteel. The liturgical habits were eliminated. To entertain the age-old discussion of the return of the messiah was abandoned. They no longer wanted to return to the Holy Land. Reformation to them was becoming a secular man and being accepted in secular society. Jewish historian, Paul Johnson called it “social tidy-ness” (Ibid 333) The rabbis began to preach sermons like Christians and the power of German Protestant organ music became fashionable in the Jewish synagogue.
The best of religious reformation in Judaism was Rabbi Abraham Geiger (1810-1874) whose movement was most popular in Breslau, Frankfurt and Berlin, Germany. This was the area of religious fervent in the 1660s where the followers of the false Jewish messianic prophet, Sabbatai Zevi and Jacob Frank had their greatest following between the years of 1666 and 1790. Now seen as a Sabbatean Jew, Rabbi Geiger attempted to abolish all institutions of Judaism, opposed prayer in Hebrew, wanted to abolish ‘circumcision’ as barbaric, allowed significant breeches of Sabbath worship and dropped all mention of returning to Zion.
While the Great Awakening was moving American Christianity closer to assimilating many ideas and concept of its Hebrew-Judaic roots, the rabbis of Europe and America were turning the European and American Jew into a liberated anti-Jew who did not believe in the God of Israel.
Yet according to Jewish historian Paul Johnson, “The Damascus blood libel of 1840 was an important milestone in the radicalization of the Jews” (Ibid 357)
The young secular Jew began to radically stand up in order to “combat injustice not just towards Jews but to mankind, and to take advantage of the growing political opportunities to end them for ever.” (Ibid 357) The Eternal One of Israel was changing the matrix of His both the “chosen ones of Israel”. In the time of the end, it will be Jerusalem and the Jews who will be surrounded by the nations of the world, not Washington, London or Rome. The last vestige of resistance to global oppression will be in Jerusalem. The last vestige of justice against global oppression will be in Jerusalem.
While the “spiritual saint” may give their lives in defense of keeping the Jewish Sabbath, it will be the “literal Jew” who will finally stand up to the command of their God given to their Jewish prophet, Zechariah:
Zechariah 7:98-10 – “Administer true justice, show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.”
Most of us will agree that “justice” is not a part of the nation of Israel today. They are teetering toward civil war, putting their own people under the gun, declaring martial law around the Gaza Strip. The Jewish protesters are put in prison and declared persona non grata as the ‘radical right’ for protesting the non-democratic process of the Sharon government appeasing the American Bush government while forcibly evicting 7000 Israelis from their own homeland. Out of the ashes a new Jew will arise who will be able to imprint the Torah within their own hearts. It will be this “re-new-ed Jew” of the re-New-ed Covenant whom the God of Israel will:
Zechariah 12:10 – “...pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they (the people of Jerusalem) will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.”
At that time the Jewish transformation will be complete. The time of God’s judgment will be over. The Moschiach of Yisra’el (Messiah of Israel) will have returned home.
The Wilderness and the Heavenly Sanctuary – how to Ascend to the Throne of God
How would you speak and communicate to humans who were created in your image if you were the Eternal One of Israel sitting on the throne as Isaiah described Him about 720 BCE?
Isaiah 6:1 – “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.”
Humans are like a kernel of sand on the seashore compared to Your majesty yet imbedded in their DNA is a channel for communication You have linked to the central throne of Your universal power. The glory of the Highest Intelligence is available at their calling. How do You get their attention?
The biggest challenge of people today is to be able to focus and concentrate. The biggest challenge of the Lord of hosts today is to get our attention. The biggest challenge for the saints at the time of the end will be the willingness to focus all your attention on the Lord of hosts. Life is so distracting. The choices to make are so endless. And the devil’s playground is just as simple and getting your focus off the Lord of lords.
The God of Israel is a God of order and rhythm. The harmonious synthesis of divine frequencies has been the study of students of the divine for centuries. The patterns of nature have a certain unifying wholeness. Throughout all nature the Creator of the universe can be sought and found. But finding the God of the Universe is different than learning how to communicate with Him.
So God set up patterns, types, shadow-pictures and symbols that would be a standard of how saints of all generations could come before the throne of the Lord to worship and talk with Him as their Creator.
This standard I believe is found in understanding, the studying and in the re-enactment of the Tabernacle of Moses at Mount Sinai. The Torah suggests that the Garden of Eden was the first sanctuary planted on the land of God’s creation was He called “good”.
What is of interest is that all the temples of the ancient world were built on a model that was reflective of the Garden of Eden. This pattern of sacred space was developed first in the Garden of Eden, then the Wilderness Sanctuary of Moses and finally in the Temple of Solomon.
How God defined sacred space was the same in all three. When the Lord of Creation laid out the perimeters of the Garden of Eden, there was a pattern. This is seen most clearly when Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden.
Genesis 3:24: “So He drove out the man (Adam and Eve); and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”
Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden to the east. To return back to the God of Creation, they had to travel west. Halfway between the residence of the God of Creation and the eastern gate were two trees, the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life.
When God gave the blueprint of the Wilderness Sanctuary to Moses, the only entrance to the sacred space of the sanctuary court was through the eastern gate. The priests had to travel west through two pillars, the Boaz and Joaquin before they could enter the temple of the house of the Lord. Inside only the high priest was allowed into the tabernacle of the “ark of the covenant”
In the most western part of the sanctuary where the presence of the Lord dwelt in the Shekinah glory. When the Israelite worshipper bowed down before His God, his back was to the rising sun.
One of the most ancient concepts found in the spiritual pathways of all cultures is: “As above, so below; as below, so above.” The Heavenly Tabernacle was a pattern above reflected by the Wilderness Sanctuary below on earth.
Ellen White fully enjoined this principle in her understanding of the earthly sanctuary and the heavenly sanctuary. The ancient Israelite in the sacred worship rituals at the tabernacle was able to envision the angelic hosts as they worshipped before the throne of God. Reverence and majesty were all apart of the temple worship highlighted by the call to worship before the throne of God with the shofar chorus. The Israelite was called over and over to “lift up” their minds to the Almighty. The Hebrew word for “lift up”, nacah (naw-saw) portrayed such images as exalt, magnify, raise up, stir up, and lofty. These visual images exalted the Israelite upwards to their God with these words, “I will lift up my hands in Thy name” (Psalms 63:4); “Oh Lord, do I lift up my soul…” (Psalms 25:1); “Lift up thy voice, Oh daughter of Zion.” (Isaiah 10:30), “Lift up your eyes to the hill from whence comes my help” (Psalms 121:1); “Lift up thy voice like a shofar.” (Isaiah 58:1).
The most revealing insight into the sanctum of the World of the Divine is found in the Book of Revelation. As the “doors of heaven” were opened to John the Revelator, he saw that there truly was in heaven a “temple of God” and a “temple of the tabernacle of the testimony”. As John watched in rapture, he beheld the sea of glass and a great multitude that had conquered the beast, the image, the mark and the number of his name.
Revelation 15:5 – “After these things I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened. And out of the temple came the seven angels having the seven plagues, clothed in pure bright linen, and having their chests girded with golden bands.”
The time of God’s wrath had come. Satan already had his time of wrath, it was called tribulation and the time of trouble. The six seals were to be given to Satan to create the final touches to the best kingdom on this earth that Satan had to offer. He sought to wipe off the face of the earth any visible presence of God’s people. The last piece of property on this planet that still was resisting the dragon and his antichrist rule were the citizens of Israel. The patience of the Almighty One was over and in His wrath against the demonic forces of evil. The earth trembled and groaned with the one “act of God” that Satan could not usurp, cometary impact. The forces of satanic control had taken over control of earth’s weather creating; hurricanes, typhoons, tornados and earthquakes. The seventh trumpet of the Lord shattered the heavens and resounded around the earth.
Revelation 11:19 – “Then the temple of God was (laid) opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail.
The heavenly tablets with the commandments of God are revealed to all the seventy nations of peoples and tongues on earth. The time of judgment was now over. The time of God’s justice to an unjust world was now here. In the final act before the great battle of Armageddon, the God of Israel will reveal his temple and throne in an act of divine transparency. The heavenly “ark of the covenant” with the “ten commandments” will displayed to with the sanctity of the 4th Seventh-day Shabbat to all people, both good and evil.
In the days before the literal coming of the Moshiach of Yisra’el (Messiah of Israel), you and I must learn how to communicate with God. This is especially critical for the remnant that is chosen to “walk through the valley of the shadow of death”. There will be no institutional walls to protect you. There will be no pastor to guide you. All visible forms of institutional religion will be under the control of the global apostate religious order. All the great monuments we have raised in service to our Lord will be usurped for the service of Satan.
Anticipating the time of the end is not for the faint hearted. For those of you making such preparations to live through tribulation must learn only one skill: how to focus and concentrate and become immersed in the God of Israel.
When the protective hand of the Lord is withdrawn from this planet earth and the archangels that have held back the “winds of strife” are commanded to release the angels that are holding back those winds, you and I will be enveloped with the powers of darkness like Jacob did when he was wrestling all night with the angel of Esau. In the moments of greatest darkness, when you are using every ounce of you mental capacity to keep focused on the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, you will remember these words:
Psalms 24:7-8:
“Lift up your heads, O you gates!
And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty
The Lord mighty in battle.
How the “saints” and the “chosen ones” live those last few months before the great day of the Lord will be centered around an understanding of the calendar of the God of Israel that was given to Moses and used in the festivals of the Lord.
The Calendar of the Lord of hosts
This week I was coming out of a grocery store and there in the heavens was a full moon. Ladies and Gentlemen, I no longer can look into the heavens and see a full moon without thinking about the God of Israel. In the fall and then in the spring of the year, it was on a full moon day that Yahshua (Jesus) was born at Succot. It was also a full moon day when Yahshua (Jesus) died for the sins of the world at Pesach (Passover).
Every time I take a drive at night and see the first sliver of the new moon I think of the Lord of hosts. The beginning of the spring festival calendar of the Lord of hosts starts with the sighting of the sliver of the first moon. Six months later, the beginning of the fall civil calendar of the Jews begins with the sighting of the sliver of the first moon.
Passover and the beginning of the festivals season cannot start until the moment the first sliver of the first moon is sighted over Jerusalem and ripened sheaves (Abib) of barley in the fields around Jerusalem found. Why? The festival of Passover and the Festival of the First Fruits are tied together side by side. If the barley is not ripened on the day the sliver of the new moon is sighted, the festivals of the Lord cannot start. In the year that the barley is not ripe, there will be added a thirteenth month to the end of the year. The Festival calendar year will not start for another month.
In the fall of the year I look for the sight of the first sliver of the new moon. Why? This is the traditional day that the Hebrews believed that the God of Creation created this planet earth. This is Rosh Hashanah and the celebration of the blowing of the shofar. Happy New Years Planet Earth!!
The city of Jerusalem resounds throughout all the evening in a symphony as hundreds yes thousands of shofars ricochet through the airways all the way to Jericho. This fact will someday be meaningful to every Jew and every saint earnestly looking for the coming of the Moshiach (messiah). The archangel of the Lord will sound the Great Trumpet and the Seventh and final Trumpet will blast. This will be a blast that will shatter the ionosphere and resound around the whole earth. The trumpet call of war of the shofar will herald the coming of the Moschiach of Yisra’el (Messiah of Israel).
October 22 is a strange date for the coming of the messiah. The fact that suggests that in the spring of 1844, the barley was not ripe in the fields surrounding Jerusalem. The festival season was delayed a full month. Normally Yom Kippur is celebrated in the month of September but in 1844, it was celebrated near the end of October. Is it not of interest that the early Adventists were so careful to try to understand the meaning of the festivals of the Lord. Why do we have no little concern today? How many of you have talked with a Karaite Jew? Your forefathers did. Jewish rabbis over the centuries have always anticipated the coming of the Moshiach of Israel to be at the time of Yom Kippur, the Great Day of Judgment. So did the early Advent believers.
Do you not believe that the saints with “spiritual eyes” will be watching for the first sliver of the moon in the seventh month of the Jewish festival calendar? I plan to. So you not believe that the Advent saints with “spiritual ears” will be listening for the sound of the Great Shofar as it shatters the tectonic plates on the continents of this planet earth and the rumble of the greatest earthquake that this earth has ever seek will begin its slow crescendo? I plan to. What a day that will be! The tectonic plates beneath this earth will begin to separate as the mountains around the earth will implode and collapse: the Himalayas, the Rockies, and the Andes. The islands in all the oceans and seas will disappear. That is the testimony of Revelation.
Ten days later during the Passover season after the first sliver of the new moon is sighted, the Lamb is in the temple complex and being examined for any imperfections. Ten days later the Lamb of God was in the outer courtyard of the temple in the greatest demonstration of what the kingdom of God was to be like, as he healed the sick and taught them about His Father in heaven. During that time Yahshua was investigated and interrogated for any theological imperfections against the Torah by the Pharisees and scribes of the School of Shammai. His enemies hate Him but they can find no flaws in His theology of Torah.
Six months after the first sliver of the first moon is sighted in the fall at Rosh HaShanah, the archangel with the great shofar will send forth its mighty blast. It will herald the coming of the Moshiach of Yisra’el (Messiah of Israel).
The ten days after Rosh HaShanah all the Israelites spent these days in full repentance and prayer. When the day of Judgment comes, they wanted to be prepared to be At-one-ment with their Lord, the God of Israel. So will the saints of the Lord.
The saints chosen by the Lord of hosts to endure to the end will be saints that will have gained a full appreciation of the complete meaning of their Hebraic-Jewish roots. Their “spiritual eyes” and “spiritual ears” will be focused and fully tuned to the Eternal One of Israel. They will be recipients of the Rauch HaKodesh (Holy Spirit). The Spirit of God will be dwelling within their hearts and surrounded by the angelic hosts of heaven, the “sealed ones” will be protected from every form of disaster and catastrophe that this earth will endure.
When the moment of the arrival of the messiah is immanent, the “remnant of the chosen ones of Israel” and the remnant “saints of the Most High God” will be transparent in life, deed, thought and action, that no power of the evil one can touch them. Selfishness, arrogance, pride, and conceit will have been carefully examined and cast out of their lives. The power of the Almighty One will reside within the testimony of their lives. It will be as a “fireball” in the midnight darkness of the forest.
Is an understanding of the calendar of the Lord critical for the saint who is living in the final days of the time of end? Absolutely! Where ever you are living, the calendar of the moon will be your guidepost marking off the days as the ‘great day of the Lord’ approaches.
Your will not need a radio. You will not need a T.V. or the internet. The Gregorian calendar will be of no use for the saint in those final days. The only unknown will be: befriend a Jew who has contacts with Israel and know when the barley sheaves are ripened. You think I’m joking but I’m not.
The believing saints in the Advent of the Messiah will be one with the Jews who also are awaiting the Moshiach of Yisra’el. To understand the calendar of the Lord, the festivals of the Lord, and the events that will occur in the “Year of the Messiah” begins with the understanding of the Wilderness Sanctuary of the Moses. Maybe that is why you are here today.
Ellen G. White on the Sanctuary, Israel and the Hebrew Israeli Economy
One of the tests of Adventism is their understanding of the role of Ellen G. White in the prophetic ministry of the Lord. She was extremely instrumental in my childhood as I, in my teens devoured about every one of her books. I have appreciated her as a woman who had “eyes that could see and ears that could hear”. She was blessed to see and hear the voices of the visitation of angels who gave her miniature vignettes of that future time of trouble and the glorious future beyond.
This reminds me of the following paragraph written in 1903 in which Ellen White proclaims:
Ellen G. White – “There will be many converted from among the Jews and these converts will aid in preparing the way of the Lord, and making straight in the desert a highway for our God. Converted Jews are to have an important part to act in the great preparations to be made in the future to receive Christ, our Prince. A nation shall be born in a day. How? By men whom God has appointed being converted to the truth. There will be seen “first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” The predictions of prophecy will be fulfilled. “ (Ellen G. White, Manuscript 75, 1903, quoted in Evangelism pg. 579)
Consider this manuscript from 1903.
Ellen G. White – “The slumbering faculties of the Jewish people are to be aroused. The Old Testament scriptures, blending with the new, will be to them as the dawning of a new creation, or as the resurrection of the soul. Memory will be awakened as Christ is seen portrayed in the pages of the Old Testament. Souls will be saved from the Jewish nation, as the doors of the New Testament are unlocked with the keys of the Old Testament. Christ will be recognized as the Savior of the world, as it is seen how clearly the New Testament explains the Old. Many of the Jewish people will by faith receive Christ as their Redeemer.” (Ellen G. White, Letter 47, 1903)
How did Ellen White know that in reference to the Jewish people that “a nation shall be born in a day? How was she so comfortable saying that “souls will be saved from the Jewish nation”, when the Jewish people were scattered around the world? In 1903, there was no Jewish nation on the historical horizon.
How was Ellen White so comfortable is stating the Jewish men “whom God has appointed” were used to give birth to the Jewish nation were “converted to the truth?” What truth was she talking about? The Sabbath truth? Hardly! We are indebted to the Jewish people for the Shabbat. The coming of the Messiah? Hardly! We are indebted to the Jews for an understanding of the literal coming of the Messiah. The return to the Land of Israel? Many Adventists do not believe that the literal return of the Jews is God ordained, but the prophets of the God of Israel said it would happen and secular Jewish men discovered that truth. The God of Israel was right!
The great debate in Christendom is whether the Apostle Paul taught that the Jewish economy, the feasts and the festivals ceased or were done away with at the crucifixion of Christ upon the tree. Ellen White speaks her peace.
Ellen G. White - "Nor does Paul proclaim to the Jews a Messiah whose work is to destroy the old dispensation, but a Messiah who came to develop the whole Jewish economy in accordance with the truth." (Ellen White, Evangelism, page 554.)
The belief of the Apostle Paul was that Jesus as the messiah’s mission was to develop the whole Jewish economy in accordance with the truth? Yes, the whole economy, not just bits and pieces, but the whole as proclaimed by the Lord of hosts to Moses in the Torah. A thorough study of the life of Rabbi Shaul suggests that he never did abandon the true Torah observances of his Hebrew faith. He did not seek to evangelize his own Jewish brethren to become gentile believers in faith with Jesus. Rather, Paul went back to worship with his own true Torah believing, Shabbat worshipping, Yahshua as the messiah believing Jewish members of the assembly of the Apostolic Nazarenes in Jerusalem during the festival season of the Passover (Pesach) and Pentecost (Shavuot)
Ellen G. White - "The most convincing proof was given [by Paul] that the gospel was but the development of the Hebrew faith. Christ was come for the special benefit of the nation that was looking for His coming as the consummation and glory of the Jewish system." (Ellen White, Sketches from the Life of Paul, page 104.)
I have total confidence that Ellen White would stand here today in our generation watching in awe as she watched the “dry bones of Israel” rise out of the ashes of the holocaust like Ezekiel saw in vision 1500 years ago. Did she not prophetically proclamation, “Shall a nation be born in a day.” And it did! On May 15, 1948, the nation of Israel was born.
Ellen White had the ‘spiritual vision’ to see that good rises out of evil, that God in His providence redeems His own people in His own way and in a way that they will know that He is their God.
Texts like this imply that Ellen White did not necessarily suggest that the Jewish people must be converted to Seventh-day Adventists on their path to salvation. She suggests that they will be converted to Yahshua who was actually their messiah.
Does this also suggest that we as Seventh-day Adventists might have one more step in the spiritual development of our church? Someday we might as a corporate body, fully accept our Hebrew-Judaic roots, affirm the Torah of the Hebrews, affirm the messianic shadow-pictures of Jesus in every passage in the TaNaKh (Old Testament) and affirm the Hebrew Nazarene Ecclesia, who we know as the Jerusalem Church in Acts. Maybe someday the authentic Jew and the authentic Adventist will meet in our spiritual pathways somewhere in between where we are now?
Ellen and James White were avid participants in these early studies into the Hebrew roots of the Christian Church. As such, they had a healthy respect and reverence for the Festivals and Convocations of the Jewish people.
Yes it was Ellen White’s conviction that keeping the ‘holy festivals’ was important to the ministry and lives of the early Advent believers.
Ellen White - "Shall we not keep holy festivals unto God?" (Ellen White, Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, page 371.)
Obviously James and Ellen White did not believe that the “Law” or the Torah as given to Moses (Moshe) on Mount Sinai, was “nailed to the cross.” (Col. 2: 14) As the years went by, it became apparent that they felt that the literal observance of the annual camp meetings of the Advent believers was a literal fulfillment of the Torah commands of celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles.
Listen to the words of James White as preached to the audience at the 1876 camp meeting.
James White (1876) - “This excellent meeting, with all its labor of preparation, anxiety, preaching, hearing, exhorting, confession of sins and want of Christ, its tears, deliverances, and joys, is now past…THESE ANNUAL FEASTS OF TABERNACLES ARE GATHERINGS OF THE GREATEST IMPORTANCE…” (James White, Signs of the Times, June 8,1876)
Where James White was specific in his reference to the Festival of Tabernacles as being celebrated in the annual camp meetings, his wife, Ellen White, alluded that all the festivals of the Lord, were to be observed as a commandment of the Lord by the non-Jewish saints in the end of times. She specifically pointed out the celebration of the festival of Passover as a present day requirement for the saints as required by the Lord of hosts. They were to be called ‘sacred migras’ or convocations. In the small book called “The Lonely Years 1876-1891, vol. 3, Ellen G. White made these quotes on page 38.
Ellen G. White (1891) - “.....what God appointed for Israel, even sacrifices and offerings.....continues to be required of God s people "in these last days… Besides these special religious feast days of gladness and rejoicing, the yearly Passover was to be commemorated by the Jewish nation. "God requires no less of His people in these last days, in sacrifices and offerings, than He did of the Jewish nation....Let all who possibly can, attend these yearly gatherings. All should feel that God requires this of them.” (Ellen White, Testimonies, vol.2, pages 573-576)
This must be clearly stated, Ellen White did not suggest that these holy convocations were meant to be rearranged for our pleasure and personal interest. We were not given sanction to appoint our own convocation or general meetings. The purpose of the Biblical holidays and convocations were to affirm and reacquaint the believers in the God of Israel in the form of a drama which commanded all the human senses: light, sound, dance, rhythm, aromas, tastes and smells, plus the agony and emotions of giving up one’s pet lamb or dove as an offering or sacrifice. Every image had a prophetic meaning woven in, out and around the concepts of the two Jewish messiahs, the Moschiach ben Joseph, the Suffering Servant and the Moschiach ben David, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
It is important to note that the idea of “Holy Convocation” is used only eighteen times in the Old Testament. It comes from the Hebrew word, migra, (mik-eaw - Strong’s’ 4744) meaning, a rehearsal, assembly, calling, convocation, or reading. In every text, it refers only to the Biblical Feasts of the Lord.
For what reason were they rehearsing in an assembly? This brings us back to the BibleSearchers belief that the “Calling” of the ‘Chosen Ones” of the Hebrew Israelites, was that they were chosen to be actors in a drama, now continuing for over 3,500 years. This was to depict how the Lord of hosts interacts and intervenes in the history of man.
This concept is very much Ellen White’s. For 1,500 years before the coming of Yahshua the Jewish people rehearsed the drama of the spring festivals. They literally watched the fulfillment of the Passover when Jesus became the Suffering Servant and the literal Passover (Pesach) Lamb of God.
Everything that Passover Lamb did for five days, Jesus was re-enacting and living in real life. On Calvary, Jesus fulfilled the coming of the first Jewish messiah, the Moshiach be Yosef (Messiah son of Joseph) that the Jewish Rababbim are still looking for today.
Yet the fall festivals also dramatized yearly the future role of the return of the Moschiach of Yisra’el (Messiah of Israel).
As they participated in Rosh Hashanah, the sound of the great shofar blast forth from the walls of the temple out over the Kidron Valley. They also knew that it would someday be the signal from the Lord of hosts when the archangels of the Most High would announce the arrival of the Moshiach of Yisra’el (Messiah of Israel). Let us understand clearly, John the Beloved as the writer of Revelation was a true authentic Torah observing Jew who knew how to “watch and be ready”.
Ten days after the sounding of the 7th and last shofar, the Jewish people knew that the literal coming of their Messiah was imminent. This was the Day of Judgment called Yom Kippur. The Great Shofar is the prophetic call of the 7th angel trumpet of Revelation.
It was the day that they would become at-one-ment with their God. At that time, according to the Rababbim, the Moschiach ben David (Messiah son of David) will come as King of kings and Lord of lords and establish his rulership and kingdom with a ‘rod of iron’.
The early Advent believer knew this typology. They had to. There is no way they could have come to the date of October 22, 1844 if they did not know how to calculate the festivals of the Lord according to the calendar of the Lord. The Advent history confirms such a fact.
Non other than Professor John Davidson in the Department of Old Testament at the Seventh-day Adventist seminary at Andrews University confirms that the early Millerites consulted with the Karaite Jews on how to properly use the ancient lunar calendar of the Jews to confirm the festival season celebrations. From this they established the date for Yom Kippur as October 22, 1844 as the final date for the coming of Jesus. There were only 15,000 Jews in the entire United States in the 1840’s. They had more respect of their Jewish brethren then than we do today. We don’t consult them. We expect them to consult us.
Then there was the Festival of Booths or the Festival of the Tabernacles. Yes, the future Moschiach ben David (Messiah son of David) will come to “tabernacle” or to dwell among His people in the coming messianic kingdom. That is the world of the prophets. Here, woven within the matrix of the spiritual and literal lives of the Israelites and later the Jews, were events occurring yearly within their lives to remind them of their future destiny, to welcome the arrival of the first messiah, the Moschiach ben Joseph, and await the coming in the future of the second messiah, the Moschiach ben David. The fact that they are both of the messiahs is the same person is a fact that we both will confirm.
The facts do exist that Yahshua was born in Bethlehem of Judea on the first day of the festival of Succot when He as the Son of the Living God came down to dwell or ‘tabernacle’ among men. What a beautiful picture it is! That pattern will be repeated again. Yahshua, after He leaves the Holy of Holiest in the heavenly temple, will emerge clothed as the King of kings and Lord of lords prepared to do battle at Armageddon against the nations that surround Israel.
Ten days after Yom Kippur was the Feast of Tabernacles. It was one of the most joyous festivals of the year for the Hebrews. It was a time of singing and celebration in reflection on their redemption from bondage in Egypt. The Feast of Tabernacles was a time of anticipation for the birth of the messiah who would come to dwell and tabernacle among them.
It was also a celebration of the final redemption, when their destiny would finally be fulfilled in the establishment of the literal Kingdom of God on this, a renewed earth like the Garden of Eden. This is the picture of the prophets of Israel and we cannot deny it.
Ellen White speaks eloquently of the Hebrews celebrating this joyous occasion.
Ellen G. White (1882) - "When Israel marched out of Egypt, they made their first encampment under the shelter of green boughs at Succoth. And for more than fifteen hundred years the Hebrew nation by the command of God left their houses, and dwelt one whole week in tabernacles of green boughs…., to commemorate the encampment of their fathers under the palm branches of Succoth. These seasons of sacred recreation were fraught with both physical and spiritual blessings to Israel.
God's people still need seasons of quiet and reflection--seasons in which the soul may undisturbed commune with its Maker. The great work which has been committed to our hands cannot be best carried forward in excitement and confusion. That calm deliberation so essential to sound judgment can often be best secured in some quiet retreat where the thoughtful mind and pure heart can be prompted by the still, small voice. These forest and mountain homes have great blessings for those who are wearied physically or mentally." (Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, February 2, 1882.)
"Well would it be for the people of God at the present time to have a Feast of Tabernacles -- a joyous commemoration of the blessings of God to them...." (Ellen White, Patriarchs and Prophets, page 540.)
So spoke Ellen White over one hundred twenty years ago. Have the Seventh-day Adventists to understand this revelation today?
Preparing for the Coming of the Moshiach of Yisra’el (Messiah of Israel)
I am going to make an admission that public speakers should never make from the platform. I apologize of trying to compact such a large volume of information into the relevancy of the Torah and prophet’s vision of the time of the end into one speaking lecture. If your head is swimming it should be. The escalation of world wide political events that relate to the Nation of Israel and the time of the end are now coming as an avalanche. I must ask with all seriousness, is anyone “watching and waiting.”
One thing that I will not apologize, I believe with all my heart that the coming of Jesus is near. All the players in the Drama of the Ages that has been enacted in mini-rehearsals over the ages will be resurrected to be prime actors on the stage of earth’s final history.
Most of the models that I grew up to believe as a fifth generation descendant of the believers in the Great Awakening have now been laid aside like most of Uriah Smith’s Daniel and Revelation was done many decades ago. I am content not to promote any prophetic model of the Christ’s coming except what the Lord of hosts has revealed in the sanctuary model. This I believe is Torah inspired. I am rather content to watch the finger of the Almighty One of Israel as He stirs up the nations of the world against the chosen ones of Israel. It is more fascinating to let God to unfold His Final Drama before my eyes.
Cast aside the geo-political drama as most international and military decisions today are made with the Nation of Israel at the center. We would not have gone to war in Afghanistan and Iraq if the Nation of Israel did not exist today. 911 would not have occurred if the Nation of Israel did not exist. Iran is seeking nuclear warheads because of Israel. Assad’s Syria supports every terrorist organization in the Middle East because of the Nation of Israel. Russia is selling the same missile defense system that it defends the city of Moscow to Syria because of Israel. Pakistan and Egypt are both seeking nuclear technology because of Israel. Why does the Unites States and Great Britain continue to support Israel and in turn become also the hated enemy of the rest of the world? Maybe we cannot.
The centuries old documentation that the House of Joseph in the tribe of Manasseh and the tribe of Ephraim are imbedded primarily in the lands of the Unites States and Great Britain cannot be ignored. That America may fall, that Great Nation as the Land Beast of Revelation 13 and the red harlot beast of Revelation 17. Yet these events may not occur until the Lord of hosts redeems the House of Israel from within the soil of this land.
Advent prophecy is famous for watching for the “signs of Christ’s coming”. Where were the modern Advent watchers when the now recalculated 9.4 magnitude Asian earthquake and tsunami hit? It is now the second largest recorded earthquake in earth’s history and the second most devastating earthquake on this planet, with an estimated half a million dead since the Chinese earthquake in 1556. What about the hottest summer in France a year ago in over 500 years. The alarming increase in the activity of the 1500 active volcanoes around the world in recent weeks, and the concern for eruption of super volcanoes like the dormant Yellowstone cauldron that could wipe off millions from the face of this earth.
It was November 4, 2003, the second largest sun flare (X20+) in history pounded this earth. All the seismographs around the world shuttered as the earth went into a global earthquake. This was not the biggest. The greatest solar storm X45 flare on record occurred 144 years ago early in September 1859, when telegraph wires began to short and explode in America and Europe starting wildfires across the land as this planet’s magnetic field defenses were overwhelmed. Spectacular auroras were seen as far south as Hawaii and Rome. What is of interest is that seven major flares in October and November, 2003 went out through the solar system. A huge flare, larger that 1859’s flare, was facing away from the earth on that day. This would have been the “Mother of all flares. Was the Lord of hosts protecting our earth that day. Yet we are reminded that before the coming of the Lord, the sun shall be seven times hotter and the moon shall shine forth like the sun.`` ~
One apocalyptic Russian writer, Sorcha Faal, three weeks ago was led to write, “Today as we, and many other peoples of world, prepare for survival, the Western people really do not know what to do. Confronted with the enormity of world events pressing upon their lives they are not facing reality, but are instead hiding themselves behind false masks of bravery and their believed intellectual superiority over others. I do not understand them; I do not believe that they even understand themselves.”
Jerusalem was but a forgotten dusty city with a history in the misty centuries of time in 1844 but today, the city of Jerusalem is as rich a cosmopolitan city as any in Europe or America. Today, the number one city directly or indirectly in the news is the city of Jerusalem. Today, the geo-politics of the world revolves around the Middle East and the geo-politics of the Middle East revolves around the city of Jerusalem. Everybody wants a piece of that city.
As strange as it may seem, even though the nations of the earth are lining up to claim possession, Zion and the city of Jerusalem do not belong to anybody on this planet Earth. It does not belong to Islam, it does not belong to the United Nations, it does not belong to the Vatican, it does not belong to American and it does not belong to Israel. Zion and Jerusalem belong to the Lord of Hosts and He alone will decide who the inhabitants are who will dwell in His Holy Land.
The Land, the Land! Everything revolves around “The Land”. There is one place that the Lord of Hosts calls His capital in this universe and that is Jerusalem. This is the place where He chose to build His House. This is the one place where He chose to place His Shekinah Glory. It is not in London, New York City, Tokyo, Mexico City, or even Washington DC, only Jerusalem.
Isaiah 62:2 - For Zion's sake I will not be silent; for Jerusalem's sake I will not be still, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns.
I testify to you today, I am content to let the Lord of Israel have His own way. I seek not to manipulate the literal words of the Bible to match my own model on Gods’ final plans for this planet before He sends His son here. I am content to “watch and be ready.” Yet perseverance is more than endurance when it comes to one of God’s chosen who will enter through the “time of Jacob’s trouble.” Our endurance must be combined with absolute assurance that what we are looking for will happen. I am not here to testify that I am just hanging on. Perseverance will be our supreme effort to refuse that our hero is going to be conquered.
The Christian’s worst fear is not than we will be damned to
eternal death, but that somehow Jesus Christ will be defeated. Look into your own
souls, your fear is that the things that Yahshua stood for as His feet
walked the dusty trails of Galilee – justice, forgiveness loving kindness
and love towards all men, will not win out in the final battle between good and
evil. Your certainty will be demonstrated that you are not here to do
nothing but to hang on and hope. Your certainty will be demonstrated by your
certainty that God will never be defeated. Your faith will rest in the promise
of the Lord of Israel,
Revelation 3:10 – “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.”
Jesus as He spent His last few hours with His disciples He made this commandment to them.
John 13: 35-36 – “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, If you have love for one another.”
When the love of God has been poured into our hearts, we will identify only with the interests and purpose of Jesus our Messiah. You and I must not be guided by our own interests and desires. This church and congregation have no right to have any other interest than Jesus Christ. If we are to be a loving people then we must be of use to Jesus. We must be devoted to His cause and not ours. Our goal should not be spiritual freedom but to surrender to the Son of God who came to this planet to give His life for us.
Within months this church dwelling may no longer exist. The walls of this sanctuary will not carry your through the fires of tribulation. The Adventist rituals and Sabbath services will not carry us to the kingdom of God but Jesus the Messiah will. The doctrines of your church will not prepare you for tribulation but learning how to focus and listen to the still small voice of the God of Israel will.
God does not need you to be His providence for Him. He is quite capable of carrying the task. He wants you to be His vessel. He wants you to carry His Spirit to those living in your own personal culture.
The archangels will carry the three angel’s messages but your feet will be His hidden emissaries. The Church will go underground. If the winds of change continue the immanency of the coming of the Lord may be in months not years or decades.
Almost all the players are on the stage of the final act of the Drama of the Ages. That final act will be swift. The vortex of human events will sweep along all the mini-dramas that have been played out with God’s people over the centuries.
Are you prepared to be a vessel for the God of Israel?
Are you willing to let the love of Yahshua shine through your life to all around you?
Are you prepared to be a bondservant for Yahshua haMoschiach (Jesus Christ)?
Have you learned to listen to the still small voice of the Almighty God?
The Wilderness Sanctuary with all of its fullness of the shadow-pictures that are imbedded within its sacred culture was God’s way to communicate with His people. Maybe it is time to return to Torah and let this sacred culture be imbedded in our lives.