144,000 and the Message is the antitypical Joshua: Question No. 52: If The Shepherds Rod is correct that where there is no type, there is no truth, then where, may one ask, is the type of the work of the Rod, itself? Answer: In the Old Testament is brought to view a religious Movement which is an ensample, or type, of a counterpart in the New Testament. And just as God yesterday organized and led the one to emancipate His people from a cruel bondage to heathen masters, so also will He do with the other today. Likewise as He instructed the one, so will He instruct the other as to how to expect to be liberated and established in the land of their inheritance, the kingdom of freedom, peace, and plenty. In assurance of this, He declares: Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 1 Cor. 10:11. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria, Like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. Isa. 11:16. These scriptures plainly show that the Exodus Movement of old led by Moses through his shepherds rod, from Egypt to Answerer Book 3 19 Canaan, points forward in type to the final deliverance of Gods people from their long servitude to the kingdom of this world, to freedom in the kingdom of God. Accordingly this final and latter day Exodus Movement is to be led by the antitypical Shepherds Rod, and liberated from all earthly bonds--from sin and from sinners. But let it be remembered that the Exodus Movement, the type, was in two sections, the first section being led by Moses, and the second by Joshua, and that it was the last, the purified, section (that which grew up after the forty years wilderness wandering, and after all but two who were over twenty years of age when they left Egypt, had died) that possessed the land. The Movement led by the Rod today is the only Movement in Christendom fitting the type--the Israel of Joshuas day: like it, drawing its followers only from the parent Movement, and having as its threefold objective the deliverance of Gods people from bondage, the possession of the land and the establishment of the kingdom. And just as the purified Israel of Joshuas day, the generation which survived the forty-year wilderness wanderings, inherited first the final leadership of the typical Exodus Movement, and then the land of promise, so the purified Israel today (the 144,000), the ones who survive the forty-year period of wandering from 1890-1930, and who escape the slaughter of Ezekiel 9, are to be Answerer Book 3 20 promoted to the final leadership of the antitypical Exodus Movement, then to inherit the promised land, and to be citizens in the everlasting Kingdom. Thus we see that it was not until after the murmurers were eliminated, in the ensample, that Joshua took over, and led the Exodus Movement in the land of Canaan. Accordingly, in the antitype the period before the Rod came the Laodicean period, is the one in which are to be found the typical wanderings, doubtings, and murmurings, both against the founder and the dietetic principles (health reform) of the Movement, and the consequent curses and slaughter. The immediate result of these murmurings complainings, and doubtings today has been to blind the eyes of many in the Advent Movement, causing them to turn back from following Christ their Leader, and steadily to retreat toward Egypt.--Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 217. Consequently, in another tragic parallel, just as Moses wrote the sad experience of the type so the founder of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination wrote the even sadder experience of the antitype, declaring as far back as 1888: Many had lost sight of Jesus; and Doubt and even disbelief of the testimonies of the Spirit of God, is leavening our churches everywhere.--Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 217. In other words, just as unbelief on the Answerer Book 3 21 part of ancient Israel sent them back to wander in the desert until all the guilty had perished so in like manner unbelief in the message of Righteousness by Faith proclaimed at the Minneapolis Conference sent the Seventh-day Adventist denomination into a forty-year wilderness wandering, until 1930, with the arrival of the message, at the voice of which each must either do Gods bidding or die as did Achan and his household. May God grant that the Israel of today, the children of those who have repeated the history of Israel of old Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 160), be admonished by the mistakes of their fathers, and heed the call of the Eleventh Hour. This solemn typology reveals yet other significant parallels: just as the Exodus Movement was bereft of their visible leader a short time before it entered the land of Canaan, so also was the Advent Movement bereft of its visible leader as it neared the borders of the Kingdom; and just as Joshua was called then to guide the feet of Gods weary pilgrims to their homeland, just so must another arise at this time in fulfillment of the type, to lead home the feet of Gods saints today. By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved. Hos. 12:13. Somebody is to come in the spirit and power of Elijah, and when he appears, Answerer Book 3 22 men may say: ...you do not interpret the Scriptures in the proper way.--Testimonies to Ministers, pp. 475, 476. In all the annals of church history since the Exodus Movement, the Rod message is the only one which calls for just such a Movement, and which exactly fits the type. (See Tract No. 8, Mount Sion at the Eleventh Hour, and Tract No. 9, Behold I Create All Things New). Unmistakably, therefore, the clear light shedding forth from type, from testimonies of the prophets, and from history, identify the message of the Rod as the only one ordained to lead the latter day church, freed from sin and sinners, into the land of promise, when the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Luke 21:24. In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed. Dan. 2:44. That day has come, and the Rod of God is here to effect that great reformatory movement among Gods people- -(Testimonies, Vol. 9, p. 126), to give power and force to the Third Angels Message-- (Early Writings, p. 277), so that, clad in the armor of Christs righteousness, the church ...fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners, may go forth into all the world, conquering and to conquer.--Prophets and Kings, p. 725. Hear ye the Rod, and Who hath appointed it. Mic. 6:9. Answerer Book 3 23
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 15:18:57 +0000
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