John's visions of the Millennium Kingdom of Israel were portrayed in Old Testament symbols that remain meaningful to the Christian dispensation. Ezekiel recorded his vision of the Kingdom in symbols that would remain familiar to those of the Hebrew dispensation from his day to their fulfillment following Daniel's Seventieth Week.
Ezekiel 40:1-2, "In the twentieth-fifth year of our Babylonian captivity, in the beginning of the year 574BC, in the tenth day of the month Nisan, in the fourteenth year after Jerusalem was taken, in the same day the hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought me in visions of God into the land of Israel, and set me down upon a very high mountain, on the south of which was a city".
Ezekiel sees Israel restored to the Promised Land. Not from their captivity in Babylon but from captivity to sin. This is the 144,000 in the millennium. The "very high mountain" is Zion; the city on its southern aspect is New Jerusalem, the Bride of David's greater Son.
Isaiah 2:2-4, "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's House shall be higher than all mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all peoples shall stream to it. And they will encourage one another to walk thither and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the House of the God of Jacob; and He will instruct us in His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Ezekiel 17:23; 20:40; 37:22; Isaiah 2:2-3; Amos 9:11; Zechariah 14:10). And He shall judge between nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more".
Psalm 48:1-3, "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the City of our God in His holy mountain. Beautiful for situation, the joy of all the earth is Mount Zion, the City of David. On its northern side are Mount Moriah and the Millennium Temple. God is known in her palaces as her sure defence" (Matthew 5:35).
When John first saw the vision in Revelation 1 New Jerusalem was signified by the golden lamp stands that stood before God in the southern side of the sanctuary. Ezekiel saw the vision after the Gentile dispensation was complete and the sanctuary transformed into the "very high mountain" like Mount Sinai wherein no profane thing might touch its border (Exodus 19:12-13; Revelation 21:27; 22:14-15). Solomon's Temple signified the fifteen hundred-mile high pyramid-shaped holy mountain of God's dwelling place on earth; the golden lamagsand that stood in the south is transformed into the City of God or Bride of Christ on the southern side of the mountain, while the table of showbread that stood on the north side of the sanctuary represents Israel on the northern side of the same mountain or Kingdom.
God manifested His Presence in the Pillar of Fire and Cloud in the Holy of Holies of Solomon's Temple on Mount Moriah. His Presence led the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan (Exodus 13:21-22), covering them from the heat of day as it will cover New Jerusalem throughout eternity (Psalm 105:39; Isaiah 4:5). It became a fire by night, giving light to the Israelites but "was a cloud and darkness" to the pursuing Egyptians. In the vision of Ezekiel 10:4 and 11:23 the Presence departed the Temple at the commencement of the "times of the Gentiles" and was absent from the temple restored by Zerubbabel and the temple beautified by King Herod. Throughout this period the temple suffered frequent desecration by the heathen and a corrupt priesthood with the climax to come in Daniel's Seventieth Week when Satan, incarnate in "that man of sin," will exalt himself in a new temple atheist David Ben Gurion called "a shrine of the prophets [Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed] to serve the federated union of all continents . . . the seat of the supreme court of Mankind, and Jesus' new "the abomination of desolation" (Isaiah 14:13; Daniel 9:26-27; II Thessalonians 2:1-4).
When Israel's millennium temple is reinstructed and built without hands in one day Satan will ensure "there shall not be left here one of those 144,000 fleshy tables of stone upon another that is not thrown down" in martyrdom (Ezekiel 43:2; Revelation 6:11; 14:1-5, 1-13; 15:2-4). But they will return glorified, their joy will anoint the Most Holy Place; the Shekinah will return and not just the temple precinct but the whole of the "very high mountain" of Zion shall be sacrosanct (Isaiah 11:6-9; 65:21-25; Matthew 19:28-30).
Israel's deliverance and glorification will consummate the deepest humiliation (Zechariah 12:1 – 14:9): "And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day He will be the only Lord, and His Name the only one (Isaiah 21-24). All the land shall be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: but Jerusalem will rise on its site from Benjamin's Gate as far as the place of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the tower of Hananeel to the king's winepresses. And men will live in it, and there shall be no more curse for Jerusalem will dwell securely" (Zechariah 14:9-11). "The Most Holy always represented the Church, the Tabernacle. And the last thing was to be done was to anoint the Most Holy; that's the Millennial Tabernacle that He'll live in during the millennial, that we'll live in" (61-0806, The Seventieth Week of Daniel, par 48).
Nebuchadnezzar "saw a [pyramid-shaped] stone cut out of the mountain without human hands. It smote the image of his dream on its feet of iron and clay and broke them into pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so no trace of them could be found: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain that filled the whole earth." In revealing the interpretation of the king's dream through His prophet Daniel, God said: "When Papal Rome rules Satan's New World Order, the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed: nor shall its sovereignty be left to other people, but it shall break and crush and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever" (Daniel 2:34-35, 44; I Peter 2:4-8). So what is this holy mountain? It is the spoken Word of God made manifest by the virgin birth through which God had the pre-eminence of one Man to declare Him and redeem an election from Adam's race. As they come under Christ's Headship, they reflect His glory by manifesting the Word for their age, and are changed into the same image from glory to glory, in proportion to the measure of Spirit revealed to their day (II Corinthians 3:18). Once Christ's end-time Bride comes into the unity of the faith and is under His pre-eminence He will manifest the fullness of the Godhead through her in the manifestation of the Sons of God and impart grace for translation faith: then He will take us Home. After the Wedding Supper, we shall return to earth as that City descending from God out of heaven and after the millennium when earth is restored to Edenic perfection we will live and reign upon that great mountain. This is God's threefold purpose of Colossians 1:15-29.
One of the seven angels that had the Seven Vials of wrath to pour upon the nominal church carried John, who represents us, Christ's end-time Bride, in the Spirit to that "great and high mountain" as the Spirit of the Lord transported Ezekiel in his vision (Ezekiel 40:2). This angel was William Branham (1909-1965) who showed John a preview of our return to earth as "the City of the Great King" (Malachi 4:5-6; Revelation 10:7; 17:1; 21:9-10).
God brought Ezekiel to the City, New Jerusalem, by vision. In the flesh the prophet was in Babylon, on Nisan 25, 574BC but he was caught up into the Spirit in the Lord's Day to a time approaching the midst of Daniel's Seventieth Week just as Christ's Bride was caught up into the Spirit in the Lord's Day after the Laodicean Church Age ended in March, 1963 (Revelation 4).
Ezekiel 40:3-4, "The Lord brought Ezekiel to the City of God, and there was a Man, whose appearance was like brass (Daniel 10:5-6; Revelation 1:15), with a line of flax in his hand (for long measures), and a reed (for short lengths), standing in the gate (Revelation 10:4 – 11:1). And He said, Son of man, look with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart on all that I shall show you; for you are brought here to see these things, then declare to the house of Israel all that you see."
The identity of this Man interests us because Brother Branham's ministry "revealed the Son of man" (Luke 17:28-30; Hebrews 4:12; 13:8), by discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart. When John saw "one like the Son of Man . . . in the midst of the saints drawn out from all seven Church Ages he fainted: Jesus laid His right hand on him, identified Himself and said, Fear not; I am the first and the last" (Revelation 1:13-15). John represents Christ's end-time Bride, after two years he saw and heard Brother Branham display the Messianic sign in the vision of Revelation 21:8-15 revealing "Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever," he fell at his feet, but Brother Branham said "Don't do that! I am a prophet like you, worship God".
When God expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden He set cherubim and a flaming sword at the East Gate. It was via the Eastern Gate that Ezekiel saw the Spirit of the Lord depart Solomon's temple, and by this Gate He sees Him enter His new temple for the millennium, a temple not made with hands. Christ's Bride stands in the gate of the City wherein ancient times judgments were made, for God will judge the world by Christ and His Bride (Matthew 19:28; John 5:27; Acts 17:31; I Corinthians 6:2; Revelation 21:12).
Judgment is signified in Revelation 1:13-16, Ezekiel 40:3-4 and Ephesians 6:14 where the Bride is girt about the breast with Truth. In Revelation 11:1-2, "A reed as a measuring rod [of the Absolute of the open Book of Revelation 10] is given to John [who represents the end-time Bride]: and Christ said, Rise, and measure the temple of God and the altar of incense, and all [the sanctified blood Israelites] who worship inside. But omit the outer court, and measure it not; for it is given over to the Gentiles: and they shall tread the holy City under foot forty-two months." That is, for the first three-and-a-half years of Daniel's Seventieth Week in which God's Covenant in Christ is reconfirmed to Israel (Daniel 12:6-7; Revelation 12:14; 13:5).
God's standard is incarnate in Christ's end-time Word-Bride against whom He is measuring or judging the faith and character of 144,000 Israelites who will constitute His millennial temple by the unbending reed of THUS SAITH THE LORD of the fullness of His Word by which she was called and chosen—without a Mediator.
Let's confirm the identity of this symbolic Man in Daniel 10:4-6. "In the twenty-fourth day of Nisan, as I was by the side of the great river Hiddekel, which is the Tigris; I lifted up my eyes, and looked, and saw a Man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with pure gold of Uphaz: His body also was a golden lustre like yellow serpentine, His face looked like lightning, His eyes were like flaming torches, His arms and His feet shone like polished brass, and the sound of His Words was like the voice of a multitude".
This is the same Being we saw at an earlier stage in the development of this prophecy. It is the heavenly Bridegroom of the future Bride of Christ afterwards revealed to John and Ezekiel as New Jerusalem, the dwelling-place of God. As Brother Branham said, this symbolic man of brass was so "like unto the Son of Man" that through the invisible marriage union the two have become one as Jesus prayed in John 17:21-26.
Revelation 21:9-10, 15, "One of the seven angels who had the Seven Vials full of the seven last plagues, came and spoke with me, saying, Come with me! I will show you the Bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. [This is the same vision as Ezekiel 40:2 only the focus of that vision was on the 144,000 Israelites in the restored theocracy of the millennium]. And he who spoke with me had a golden reed to measure the City, and its gates and its wall." The golden reed is the Absolute of God's unchanging Word and signifies the eternal quality of God's elect.
The angel with the Vial was Brother Branham who announced Jesus' condemnation (Revelation 3:15-16). Only His ministry that restored the apostolic faith and finished the mystery of God could define the City which is the Bride of all Ages, the Lamb's Wife (Malachi 4:5-6; Revelation 10:7). He preached the same revelation as Paul by which God will judge the world by Jesus Christ—"the full measure of the stature of the perfect Man" (Acts 17:31; Romans 16:25; Ephesians 4:13). When he was translated beyond the curtain of time, and met some of his Laodicean converts, he declared, "Everything Paul preached, I preached exactly the same." And they replied, "We're resting on that".
Measuring the City defines the harmony of Word on Word in perfecting the saints and building the Body as the revelation of Christ was delivered through the Church Ages, "here a little and there a little, that speaking the Truth in love we may grow up into Him in all things, who is Christ the Head, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of each individual, causes the growth of the Body for the building up of itself in love" (Ephesians 4:15-16). This diagram lays out God's ground plan for building His New Jerusalem, the Body of Christ or stature of the perfect Man revealed in Revelation 1 – 3 showing the Word or measure of Spirit by which God called and manifested "lively stones" ordained for each division of the City. From "An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages" and "The Revelation of the Seven Seals" we can discern who was accounted worthy to pass judgment and enter through its gates and foundation stones which bear the names of Israel's patriarchs, and the twelve apostles on whose doctrine it is built. In the renewed heavens and renewed earth the patriarchal and apostolic fathers will sit in the City gates to judge and receive tithes from the "saved" dwelling around the circumference of earth (Matthew 19:28; Revelation 21:24-26). Brother Branham defined the proportions of the City wall which signify 144,000 elect Israelites (Revelation 21:14-20). Like ourselves they will be built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). This is our Absolute, the golden reed of the fullness of the Word possessed by His Bride (Revelation 11:1-2).
The Vials pour out a temporary judgment by the angel's Message to try nominal believers and sift the un-believers of the Message to their Age from the foolish virgin who are justified and sanctified yet dilatory or never heard the revelation of the "present Truth" that alone can quicken a soul to new birth. We know from Revelation 1:1 and 10:1-4 that the revelation of Jesus Christ was given by God to Jesus after His ascension, and that He revealed it to only one man—William Branham—the angel to the seventh or Laodicean Church Age. This Man in Ezekiel 40:2-4 was Jesus Christ Who explained to Ezekiel that the showbread in the north of the sanctuary represented the 144,000 elect Israelites signified as the millennium temple and that the holy City, New Jerusalem south in the sanctuary symbolized the Bride of Christ.
When John, who represents YOU and ME personally, saw Christ's parousia in the revelation of the Seven Seals (after the close of mediation in Revelation 3:22) he was about to write the hidden mystery when a Voice from heaven commanded: "Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not . . . but in the days of the voice of the prophet-messenger to the Laodicean Church Age, the mystery of God should be finished" (Revelation 10:7). ". . . at the end of the third chapter of the Book of Revelations the Church is taken from the earth up into glory (Revelation 4:1). And I have [been] trying with all my heart to get this to the people that they are expecting something to happen that they see wrote in the Book of Revelation [chapters 6:1 – 19:21] when it was not applied in the Church Age. And we're nearer the end than you think" (61-0806m, The Seventieth Week of Daniel, par. 31). If YOU are in Christ's end-time Bride YOU were in glory at the close of Laodicea on about March 8, 1963, and present in theophany along with the Church Age saints when Jesus claimed the Book and loosed its Seals, commencing with the unwritten Seventh Seal. You must understand this because from that instant redemption was over: Christ's end-time Bride and the 144,000 elect Israelites were fully redeemed in Jesus on Calvary.
Revelation 5:1-14, "And . . . . (insert your name) . . . saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a Book written within and on the backside, sealed with Seven Seals. And . . . . (insert your name) . . . saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the Book, and to loose the Seals thereof? And no man in heaven, or in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the Book, neither to look thereon. And . . . . (insert your name) . . . wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the Book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders said unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the Book, and to loose the Seven Seals thereof."
"And . . . . (insert your name) . . . beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And He came and took the Book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne. And when He had taken the Book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four and elders fell down before the Lamb, every one of them having harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song saying, You are worthy to take the Book, and to open the Seals thereof: for You were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every kindred and tongue and people, and nation [of Adam's race]; and have made us kings and priests unto our God: and we shall reign on the earth. And . . . . (insert your name) . . . saw, and . . . . (insert your name) . . . heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the living creatures and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands [and I recognized you, (young, and not one hair out of place); saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard me, (you, too), saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be to Him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever. And the four living creatures said, Amen. And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshipped Him that lives forever and ever".
Can you remember that?
The angel to Laodicea and the one man to whom Jesus revealed the Seven Seals was William Branham, he led John throughout the Book of Revelation. Like Ezekiel, John was caught up in the Spirit into the Lord's Day while in the flesh he was on Patmos Island. In the Spirit John saw visions of the future and heard Brother Branham teach "those things which the seven thunders uttered" (Daniel 12:4, 9).
Like Daniel, John could not comprehend everything signified by Old Testament symbols, and was forbidden to transcribe the words of the voices of the seven thunders (which are the mysteries hidden under the Seven Seals), he recorded the symbols he saw and the words of the angel, William Branham, "to show to God's servants things that must shortly come to pass" (Revelation 1:1).
God always foretells things before they occur and believers through the ages, unable to grasp the full significance of the symbols nonetheless held them to be true. In this last day, "time [or delay occasioned by Christ's mediation while the Book was sealed] is no longer" as the saints predestinated to the PART-Word Body of the seven Church Ages have all been baptized into their places in the Body.
Since the mystery of God is finished the end-time Bride with the fullness of the Word is without a Mediator yet she has no excuse for ignorance for she establishes her place in the Word and her position in the body by applying the mystery of the seven thunders to the symbols in the Book and fulfilled history. Hereby we identify which Scriptures and therefore which divisions of the Body are already fulfilled, and recognize our day and its Message. And since Israel is God's timepiece we can measure the lateness of the hour, the nearness of the first resurrection and Daniel's Seventieth Week.
Ezekiel 40:5 – 42:20 is God's instruction to Ezekiel for building the millennium temple. The temple is where God revealed His glory to Israel and dwelt in their midst. He now wishes to reveal His glory in the Temple of Christ and His Bride to Israel's elect 144,000, making them His millennium temple where we can dwell in love once their stony hearts have been converted into hearts of flesh. The Bride is already manifested Word and in Revelation 11:1-2 we apply the Absolute of the revealed Word to measure and choose the 144,000 who will be our personal servants.
Ezekiel's instructions show Israel that the way into the Presence where the likeness of the glory of God is revealed is by a total separation from all uncleanliness. His Book shows the Presence of the Spirit of the Lord departing Solomon's temple prior to its destruction by His servant, Nebuchadnezzar, and the commencement of "the times of the Gentiles." These chapters prophesy how His Presence will return to Israel in their revelation of the 'parousia' Coming of their King and High Priest Jesus Christ with His Queen to restore the kingdom to Israel after the "Gentile dispensation." They explain how Christ's Bride is the "lively" stones from which the temple was built in seven stages signified by the seven rests or sabbaths of seven Church Ages that are the antitype of Israel's Pentecostal feast (Matthew 3:9). Individually each member of the Bride entered into the Holy of Holies through the riven veil of Christ's Body by three successive stages of grace during Israel's blindness (Ezekiel 40:24-37), and the Shekinah took its abode in each one of us as signified at the inauguration of Christ's mystic Body on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). Revelation 11:2 demonstrates conclusively that once the Gentile dispensation has ended there will be no further opportunity for nominal or false Christians, or Gentiles of any station, including so-called Jews, to pass beyond the outer court; under the Old Testament they would have been killed by the temple guards (Genesis 3:24).
On the northern side of the sanctuary were tables for slaying and dividing sacrificial beasts (Ezekiel 40:39-43). Like the bodies of those beasts that were flayed and inspected for imperfections before acceptance, Israel will be sifted, purged in the fire of afflictions as silver and gold are refined, and crushed like grapes (Amos 9:9-10; Malachi 3:2-6; Revelation 14:12-20). This signifies Israel will enter the Presence through the Great Tribulation. The Temple itself stood on the east of Mount Moriah, and when Titus destroyed Jerusalem, judgment began at the sanctuary of the Temple (Ezekiel 9:6; I Peter 4:17).
During the tribulation, the beast will establish his headquarters in Jerusalem and profane the new "shrine of the prophets" built on Mount Moriah (Daniel 11:45; Isaiah 14:13). His judgment and the slaughter at Armageddon will also come from the north, the side of the sanctuary that held the table of showbread that represents Israel. Under the Sixth Seal it will come upon the Christ-rejecting world in general; under the Seventh Trumpet it will afflict Israelites and Israel, while the curse of the Seventh Vial will be poured on the Vatican and (once) Protestant United States by God's servant Gog the self-styled Jews' colony of Russia, and on self-styled Christians to separate the foolish virgin from the denominational harlots (Revelation 7:1-3; 17:1 – 18:20).
As John represents Christ's end-time Bride throughout the Book of Revelation, Ezekiel represents an election of the whole nation of Israel throughout his Book. In chapter 4:4-6 he lay on his left side three hundred and ninety-days representing Israel, and on his right side forty days to represent Judah. In chapter 42:20, the angel instructs Ezekiel as Israel's proxy into the revelation of the Glory. Commanded to define the sanctuary and its 144,000 worshipers, he measures a thick wall surrounding and separating the sanctuary from the profane place (Ezekiel 41:9), which in John's symbolical temple is to be given over to the heathen, for in the holy City, New Jerusalem, nothing unclean can approach the Presence (Zechariah 14:4; Matthew 24:30-31; Revelation 21:27; 22:14-15).
The plan for Ezekiel's temple requires an area far greater than Mount Moriah where the temples of Solomon, Zerubbabel and Herod once stood. Ezekiel is translated in the Spirit by a vision into the Lord's Day where his Angel guide, Jesus Christ (Ezekiel 40:1-4; Revelation 10:1, 9-10; 11:1-2)—meets him and measures the Temple. At the climax of his tour of instruction, which in reality is the revelation of the Feast of Trumpets to Israel by the two Hebrew Prophets of Zechariah 4, Matthew 24:31 and Revelation 11, Ezekiel sees the Shekinah returning by the gate whence it departed (Revelation 7:1-2).
The Babylonian Empire was identified as the head of gold in "My servant" Nebuchadnezzar's dream. God called him to sanctify Israel (Jeremiah 27:6). The seven judgment angels of Ezekiel 9 are the seven-fold Spirit of God that destroyed the temple under "the legs of iron." God's Roman servant, Titus, and her globalist allies are portrayed as the feet of iron and clay under the incarnate Beast. The judgments under Rome were signified to John in Revelation 8:1 – 11:15 as the Seven Trumpet angels who pronounce judgments upon Israel for rejecting the Gospel trumpets sounded by seven earthly angels to the Church Ages through the Pentecostal feast.
Revelation 8:5, "And the angel took the censor, and filled it with fire of the altar (as in Ezekiel 10:7), and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake."
These coals from the altar of incense in the heavenly Sanctuary had sanctified and offered back to God the revelation of His Word made flesh in the Bride of each age. The evening service of the Pentecostal feast being ended, the cinders are cast down to earth, cleansing the heavenly Sanctuary of their dross, and the Gentiles having shut their ears to "sound doctrine" have rejected His 'parousia' Coming (II Timothy 4:3-4; Hebrews 6:4-8; Revelation 3:20) and will soon unite with the State to force Rome's mark of the beast. The fire cast down upon earth signifies judgment that will commence with the earthquake at the close of grace.
Ezekiel 9 and 10:2 prophesy the first of Seven Trumpet judgments on Israel under the New Testament dispensation. Jesus came to His own and His own received Him not. The First Trumpet judgment came upon Israel a generation after they rejected Calvary in AD30, Pentecost and Paul's Message to the Ephesian Church Age. Jesus foretold this destruction in the parable of the marriage of the king's son (Matthew 22:7). Notice how the six destroying angels were preceded and controlled by the Writer with the ink horn, the sealing Angel or Holy Ghost. When Titus scattered the coals over Jerusalem in AD70 all that heeded Jesus' warning and were sealed with the Holy Ghost escaped (Matthew 24:15-21; Ezekiel 9:4).
Israel thought God was inexorably bound to the city and temple. However God doesn't dwell in buildings made with hands, but in the spoken Word Body of Christ and His Bride. Ezekiel 9 portrayed Him in the midst of the destroying angels. God was able to destroy both the city and its temple and depart. Very soon He will depart from the Gentiles, taking His Bride Home to the Wedding Supper while two Hebrew prophets will "set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people" (Isaiah 11:11).
Ezekiel 10:18-19, "Then the Glory of the Lord departed from above the entrance of the temple, and stood over the cherubim. And they lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in Ezekiel's sight when they went out with the wheels beside them, and stood at the entrance of the East Gate of the outer court that opened into the city; and the Glory of the God of Israel was over them".
Ezekiel, 11:22-23, "Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, with the wheels beside them; and the Glory of the God of Israel was over them. And the Shekinah rose up from over the midst of the city, and stood over the Mount of Olives to the east of the city".
The departure of the Glory from the Temple to the Mount of Olives symbolized the Lord's abandonment of His Temple and His people to their foes and ultimate destruction. The Shekinah was never again seen in the temple but six hundred years later took residence in the Temple of Jesus Christ. When John baptized Him in the River Jordan He became the Temple in which the Glory of God is revealed. Since Pentecost, we too are the Temple of the Holy Spirit by the baptism with the Holy Ghost, for God and the soul that is joined together with God is one Spirit (I Corinthians 6:17-19).
Luke 19:37-44, "As Jesus approached Jerusalem [the city of peace] at the descent of the Mount of Olives, a whole multitude of disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen; saying, Blessed be the King Who comes in the Name of the Lord: there is peace in heaven from the misery of sin; glory in the highest heaven!"
"Some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said, Master, rebuke your disciples. But He answered; I tell you that if they should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out".
"And when He was close, He saw the city, and wept loudly over it, saying, If only you had recognized your day and it's Message which was to reconcile you to peace with God! But now it is hid from your eyes. For the day is coming when your enemies shall erect a palisade and surround you, shut you in on every side (Josephus V. vi.2; xii.2), level Jerusalem to the earth, dash her children to the ground; and leave not one stone upon another [that's why in verse 40 He said "the stones will cry out"]—all because you failed to recognize the time of God's visitation in your Messiah."
Thus Jesus foretold the coming destruction of Jerusalem under Titus, and those who became Christians remembered His Words:
Luke 21:20-28, "When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, understand that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let those who are inside the city get out; and let not those who are in the country enter into the City. For these are the days of God's vengeance upon the enemies in His own house, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe to those who are pregnant, and to them that nurse, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and retribution upon this people."
"And they shall fall by the edge of the sword; and shall be led away captive into all nations: (Josephus says 1,100,000 were slain and 97,000 taken prisoner to Egypt and the provinces), and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." [Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander, Titus, Chosroes, the Islam, the Crusaders, the Ashkenazim, Rome and her once Protestant image. Next Jesus describes events that will happen two thousand years in the future, at the end of the Gentile dispensation, just before God returns to Israel].
"And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations [bereft of resources, on account of treacherous IMF usury, and the interdependence caused by globalization which has bankrupted the nations, destroying their sovereignty, self-sufficiency and independent viability via trade agreements like LIMA, GATT, NAFTA, APEC, the EU and Maastricht; the depression is coming]; the ocean waves will be roaring, [following the earthquake that sinks Los Angeles], and men's hearts failing through apprehension," in anticipation of nuclear warfare before Russia invades America: for Satan will be cast out from heaven to earth.
"Then Israel shall see the sign of the Son of man [Christ's parousia] coming in a cloud with power and great Glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draws nigh".
This Sign of Christ's parousia to Israel will be seen over the Mount of Olives as described in Zechariah 14:4 and Revelation 7:2. Of course, this will be a symbol as was Acts 1:9-11, Revelation 1:7 and 10:1-4 to us Gentiles; Jesus' feet will not literally stand upon the mountain.
Luke 24:50-51, "He led them out of Jerusalem by the Mount of Olives toward Bethany, and lifted up His hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven" (Acts 1:7-12).
Jesus' departure from Jerusalem was typed by the departure of the Shekinah from the temple; It went east to the Mount of Olives which is higher than Jerusalem and affords a view over the whole city (Ezekiel 11:22). The Presence of the Glory was the sign of God's favour toward Israel, whilst its absence was the token of His extreme displeasure (Revelation 11:19; Deuteronomy 31:17-18; Hosea 9:12).
Christ's imminent parousia Coming to Israel will be announced by the Shekinah after the sinking of Los Angeles, returning from the east whence once it departed in the form of the Supernatural Cloud upon the Mount of Olives described in Zechariah 14:4. As for us Gentiles, its public manifestation appeared and was photographed above Arizona on February 28, 1963.
Ezekiel 11:8-16 foretells Israel's dispersion among the surrounding nations and God's blessing upon those of their number who receive correction through chastisement. It points principally to the Gentile dispensation when Israel is apostate, having rejected the Atonement. It also speaks of their gathering and of the regeneration of the 144,000 after the midst of Daniel's Seventieth Week, when the Glory anoints the Most Holy.
This is Revelation 14:1-5, "I looked, and, lo, the Lamb stood on the mount Zion, [the Presence returned], and with Him 144,000, [prior to martyrdom] having His Father's Name written in their foreheads (Revelation 7:1-8). And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures [God's throne guards which type the 144,000], and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the 144,000, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women [churches]; for they are virgins [typed as eunuchs for they are servants to Christ's Bride]. These follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They were redeemed from among men, as first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no lie: for they are without fault before the throne of God".
These are the 144,000 elect after they have been born-again, with the revelation that they were eternally a part of God, in which comfort they will lay down their lives in Judaeo-Roman Catholic martyrdom.
Ezekiel 43:1-2, "Afterward He brought me to the gate that looks toward the east." The measuring is finished in that the complete number of 144,000 elect Israelites have been gathered and sealed. Now Ezekiel is led back to the Eastern Gate so he may see the Glory returning to take its rest in His ancient people. "And, behold, the Glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and His Voice was like a noise of many waters and the earth shone with His Glory".
The return of "the Glory of the God of Israel" is revealed to the 144,000 as the Glory that has enlightened "the whole earth" drawing to their King "a Bride out of every kindred, tribe and tongue" of Adam's race. Ezekiel 47 and 48 signify their actual new birth and restoration in tribal order.
Isaiah 6:3, "And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His Glory" (see also Habakkuk 2:14).
Right now, the world is gathering to Armageddon, but "if God's rejection of the nation of Israel brought grace to the rest of Adam's race, what will Israel's acceptance of Christianity mean, but life from the dead? (Isaiah 66:8; Romans 11:15; Revelation 16:15-16). (bb971203.htm)
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