According to the Scriptures, God will deliver his people out of the time
of trouble that is now flying from the coasts of the earth, and to all
appearances forming a junction in this retributive land of blood and
slavery; by his VOICE _from heaven_, when he has sealed them, and Christ
has made the atonement and fitted the mansions in the New Jerusalem, then
they will be his chosen ones to execute the “judgment written.” After
this, in the order of events, the Lord Jesus “will descend from heaven
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God,”
&c. When God speaks from Jerusalem, then, I believe the “wise will
understand” how long it will be before Jesus comes. “The times and seasons
are with the Father.” I believe that the Scriptures most clearly teach
Christ’s second coming at the feast of Tabernacles, and no where else; and
that our history, in the fulfillment of prophecy, has been imperceptibly
tending us there. Here is the chain in the types: “THREE _times a year
shall_ ALL _thy males appear before the Lord thy God_.” These three feasts
are typical of three of the most important events since the birth of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and every advent believer should have a clear
understanding of them. 1st, The feast of the Passover; 2d, Feast of Weeks;
3d, Feast of Tabernacles.
_First feast_ was the crucifixion of our Lord at the Passover, on the 14th
day of the first month, at 3 o’clock P. M.; the very day and hour the lamb
was offered in the type for sixteen hundred and seventy years.
_Second feast_—the day of Pentecost, 1670 years from the time that the
commandments were uttered by the voice of God, in the morning.—Exo. xix:
16; see Acts ii: 15, undoubtedly at the same hour. Now as these two feasts
are perfectly fulfilled, we have nothing further to do with them here;
only to say, that God never taught any other way to find the fulfillment
of these two most important events, than by their typical observance.
_Third feast_—on the 15th of the seventh month; the feast of the
Tabernacles. This undoubtedly represents the gathering of all Israel at
the coming of Christ; the ingathering of the harvest; the end of the 6000
years: the end of the world. I see no other point of time for Christ to
come than at the feast; see Deut. xvi: 1-16: Lev. xxiii; Num. xxviii, and
xxix. It cannot be possible that God has been so exact in the fulfillment
of the first two, to the very hour of the day, and then left the other
without _order or time_! No, no! Here is the gathering of all Israel; see
Lev. xxiii: 39-44. Now, this being true, all of the other events which
precede this in this chapter, must, to harmonize with the types, be
fulfilled first. Now there are three types in this feast; their harmony
and order are as follows: First,—24th verse is the memorial of trumpets.
This is the type of the sounding of the seventh trumpet; there is nothing
else for an anti-type—try and see. Than it is fulfilled, by Rev. x: 7—“In
the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound,
the Mystery of God should be finished.” &c. This then, we have shown,
sounded on the first day of the seventh month, 1844. Here the virgins were
divided, and the wise ones got ready for the coming of the Bridegroom to
the marriage. See _Way Marks_, 35 to 37th pages.
_Second type_—27th verse—“Also on the 10th day of the seventh month, there
shall be a day of atonement,—ye shall afflict your souls, for whatsoever
soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut
off from among his people.” This, of course, was artificial; but it was a
type to represent the tried state which the virgins in the parable entered
into on the tenth day of this seventh month, 1844, when they see their
Lord did not come. Here is where the atonement commenced with the
affliction, and as they ended together in the type, so we believe they
will in the anti-type, when God speaks from Zion.—Joel iii: 16, 17; see
_Way Marks_, pp. 58, 59. Now it is certainly evident that God’s people are
in this very state. This, then, according to the type, proves the
Bridegroom as High Priest, officiating in the Sanctuary, making the
atonement for this same people.
_The third type_ in order, and the last in this feast, is the feast of
Tabernacles, 34-39-44th verses. This is yet to come—the true point of our
deliverance. What a harmonious perfect chain is here. Just see first day
of seventh month, 1844; the seventh trumpet sounds, and the Mystery of God
is finished; third wo come; virgins divide; on the tenth day of the same
month, Bridegroom comes to the wedding; marriage takes place; door shut;
Jubilee trumpet sounds to prepare for the Jubilee and Supper in the
kingdom of heaven; cleansing of the Sanctuary commenced; the virgins on
their trial; the appointed time, the 2300 days ended, and a cry at
midnight, with all its messages. If the seventh trumpet has began to
sound, then the rest have followed. If the saints are now in their trial,
then, the seventh trumpet must have sounded first, or confusion would
follow in the types. Destroy one link, and the chain is broke. Take it in
all its parts, it is perfect, harmonious, and complete. Here, too, I
understand, ends all the days of Daniel. The chart is perfect, and has
answered its end. The world here also received their last warning. The
Gospel age ends; the message is, “comfort ye, comfort ye _my_ people.” If
this was not all done before Christ should come, the scriptures would be
broken. It is perfect nonsense to talk of having these things done at his
coming, or after he comes. Tell me, if you can, how Christ can atone for
his people in the Holiest of Holies, at his coming? And then tell me where
the saints are to be on their trial, if they wait his coming first? Tell
me, if you can, where you will place the third wo, which brings in the
time of trouble, of which the saints are to be delivered? Tell me, if you
can, how, and for what purpose the seventh messenger will begin to sound
his trumpet, while Jesus is sounding the trump of God, and shouting for
his saints to leave the earth in a moment? And as the seventh messenger is
some of the living saints, tell me, if you can, how they will have time
even to turn and say the Mystery of God is finished? Tell me, if you can,
why God is going to have every thing in confusion at that day, when he has
always had perfect order in heaven and earth, ever since the creation? Two
things to be kept in remembrance:
FIRST—The 11th chapter of Revelations does not teach the coming of Christ
in the spring, nor at any other point.
SECOND—The ingathering of _all_ Israel _after the Voice of God_ is most
clearly taught to be at the feast of Tabernacles, the last type in the
feast, yet unfulfilled. All the others that have been, and are _now_
fulfilling in these feasts of the Lord, have been tested to the day, and
even to the hour of the day.