Posted by Steven Benjamin on April 11, 2009, 6:21 pm, in reply to "Re: Shepherds Rod: TRACT No. 3 (pt 16)"
"I saw the saints," says the servant of the Lord in describing this celebration, "leaving the cities and villages, and associating together in companies, and living in the most solitary places. Angels provided them food and water, while the wicked were suffering from hunger and thirst. " -- Early Writings, p. 282.
Thus ancient Israel's dwelling in booths typifies modern Israel's eventually dwelling in the woods. Irrefutably, therefore, the harvest of Matthew 13 precedes the close of probation, and is the time of the ingathering of the first and second fruits -- the 144,000 and the "great multitude," -- all the saints who are to be translated.
As the light focusing to this point clearly reveals that the Pentecost after the resurrection was for the ingathering of those who were to die, there must, correspondingly, be a Pentecost for the ingathering of those who are to be translated. And by the same token of logic, the wave-sheaf and the wave-loaves must have a double application, each to the dead and to the living, together comprising the total fruits of the antitypical harvest.
The apostolic Pentecost in providing the power for the ingathering of second fruits up to the beginning of the judgment of those who are now dead, foretokened the final Pentecost which is yet future, and which is to bring the. power for the ingathering of the second fruits of the living, those who shall never die. In other words, those who died prior to the final Pentecost are to be judged by the light of truth reflected through the power of the apostolic Pentecost.
(From His baptism to His ascension, Christ taught abroad the truth which was to prepare those who accepted it, to impart it. Then on the day of Pentecost, He endued them with His Spirit to proclaim it with power. )
Concerning the judgment, the harvest, the servant of the Lord declares:
"I then saw the third angel. Said my accompanying angel, 'Fearful is his work. Awful is his mission. He is the angel that is to select the wheat from the tares, and seal, or bind, the wheat for the heavenly garner. ' " -- Early Writings, p. 118.
"Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth. Give ye ear, and hear My voice; hearken, and hear My speech. " Isa. 28:22, 23.
And now that each one who honestly seeks to hear and to heed the voice of Truth may have the clearest possible grasp of the several aspects of the subject of the judgment, the harvest, they are hereat brought into consolidated focus:
The reader will remember that those who arose with Christ on the eighteenth day of the first month (follow the chart of page 55), were immortalized and received into heaven as the antitypical sheaf, pointing to the ingathering of the fruits that shall never die. Their resurrection from the dead signified the beginning of the first-fruit harvest of the 120 disciples who were to die and be resurrected. The fact that the followers of Christ were not of one accord before the resurrection, is very positive testimony that the first fruits (the 120) of them that sleep did not ripen (become fully converted) until after the resurrection.
The 40 days of Christ's personal presence on earth after His resurrection was the time in which the first fruits were gathered in, for after His ascension the Christians closeted themselves in the upper room and did not emerge to preach the truth until the Pentecost. The 120 who received the power of the Spirit on the very day the wave-loaves were offered, were therefore the antitypical wave-loaves, signifying the completeness of the first-fruit harvest. Subsequently came the second fruits of the dead, in the period of which the tares were commingled with the wheat.
Wonderful indeed is the way in which God has worked out the plan of salvation and revealed it step by step as necessary. When in 1844 the investigative judgment of the dead and the ingathering of the first fruits of the living began, He did not leave His people in darkness concerning these events. The very first vision which Sister White received in 1844 was of the 144,000 first fruits, the "servants of our God," who shall never taste death. (See Early Writings, pp. 13-15. )
Just as Christ and those whom He raised and took with Him became the prototypical sheaf, betokening the ingathering of the first fruits (the 120) of those who are to be resurrected, so also when He entered upon His priestly ministration in the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, and presented Himself and His trophies before His Father, they became the antitypical sheaf, betokening the ingathering of the first fruits of those who are to be translated (the 144,000 living saints). In the light of this parallel, the spiritual condition of the 120 before the apostolic Pentecost is clearly seen to typify the spiritual condition of the 144,000 before the future Pentecost.
The 40 days (Acts 1:3, 9) from the resurrection to the ascension are consequently typical of the period from 1844 to the fulfillment of the marking and slaying as recorded in Ezekiel 9 and Revelation 7:3-8; 14:1-5 respectively, and in Testimonies to Ministers, p. 445, Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 266, also Early Writings, pp. 270-273.
After the first fruits are sealed and the tares are removed from among them, they then being separate from the influence of the world,, as were the 120 on the day of Pentecost, will receive the outpouring of "the Holy Spirit in as much greater measure, as the increase of wickedness demands a more decided call to repentance. " -- Testimonies, Vol. 7, p. 33.
The first fruits of the dead (120) being a numbered company, and the second fruits of the dead (the multitudes gathered after Pentecost) being a unnumbered company, so correspondingly must it be with the first and second fruits of the living. Hence the sealing of the 144,000 first fruits; and hence "after this," says John, "I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. . . and all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts. " Rev. 7:9, 11.
Mark carefully that this great multitude stood before the throne, not bodily, but figuratively only, as viewed in Early Writings, p. 55, and as is evidenced by the two-fold fact that (1) the angels "stood round about the throne and about the elders and the four beasts," showing that the great multitude was outside the angelic circle; and that (2) the presence of the angels, the elders, and the four beasts about the throne shows that the judgment (Rev. 4:2-6) was still in session, and that therefore probation had not closed.
The palms in the hands of the great multitude (Rev. 7:9, 11), and the "victor's palm" placed "in every hand'' of "the unnumbered host of the redeemed" (The Great Controversy, p. 646), betoken two entirely different events: for the latter received both a "victor's palm and [a] shining harp," whereas the former had no harps but only palms. Clearly, then, while the palms and the harps of the redeemed hosts in heaven are actual guerdons of victory, the palms of the great multitude on earth are figurative victory-palms.
(CONTD)
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