1. Summary of Prophecies of Light In A Dark Place
By John Thiel, Prophetic Sketches of the Remnant Church Seminar, Study 1, mp3
Scripture Reading: Genesis 3:13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What [is] this [that] thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou [art] cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
This scripture reading has so many segments that unless we are in tune with it, we will not be fitted for the terrible scenes and experiences that are coming and are already upon us. We will look at the selected points it is trying to portray.
Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
This is a prophetic sketch in brief of everything that would take place right through to the second coming of Jesus Christ. It sheds light from the fall of man to the final victory.
The prediction given in Eden refers in a special manner to Christ, and to all who accept and confess Him as the only begotten Son of God. Christ has pledged Himself to engage in the conflict with the prince and power of darkness and bruise the serpent’s head, and all who are the sons of God are His chosen ones, His soldiers, to war against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. It is an unwearied conflict of which there is to be no end, until Christ shall come the second time without sin unto salvation to destroy him who has destroyed so many souls through his masterly deceiving power. {9MR 108.2}
The war and enmity between the woman and her seed and Satan and his seed. People will enter with Christ in this conflict from Adam and Eve to the coming of Jesus., the final bruising of Satan’s head.
Romans 16:20 And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with you. Amen.
What did Apostle Paul speak of? The prophecy. The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet; the soldiers of Christ so that they become amalgamated with Him.
Seed Singular
Seed meaning one, Jesus His body, His remnant church.
Ezekiel 28:17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. 18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
Here is the climax of the bruising of Satan’s head which is an ongoing conflict. I will lay thee before kings. The bruising of Satan’s head took place at the cross but it wasn’t completed. Through Christ and his followers Satan will become so enraged that a fire will come up from within him and will consume him. How will God make it happen?
The Grand Finale
Malachi 4:1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. 3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do [this], saith the LORD of hosts. 4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, [with] the statutes and judgments.
Apostle Paul wrote we will crush Satan and all his seed under our feet.
The Woman’s Seed Through to Revelation
Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
We are coming through to the last moment when the remnant of the woman’s seed stands. Satan wants to wipe the remnant off the earth. We are to ensure that we are going to be among the remnant of her seed.
Isaiah 60:2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
Gross darkness is now. We have become conditions so that we don’t see it as darkness anymore. The general Christian of today does not understand the gross darkness they are in. They are waiting for a future time of gross darkness when we are in it already. The only way to tell is if you are spiritually awake. In this gross darkness it is said the Lord shall arise upon thee. What is that light that is risen upon thee?
2 Peter 1:19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
It one thing to hear the report of another man’s experience with Jesus and it’s still another experience to have Him as your own. The only way in which you can have Him as your own in the dark place, is to have Him as He is revealed in prophecy. This is a more sure word because it’s an experience as you take hold the prophecy that you will make. It is the day star arising in our hearts. This is the gross darkness in which we live in today. The Spirit of Prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. It is Jesus actually speaking which is so needful. What is written about the importance of the testimony of Christ, the Spirit of Prophecy? Why is it so important for us just now?
1 Corinthians 1:4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; 5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and [in] all knowledge; 6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: 7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: 8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, [that ye may be] blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The testimony of Christ is the Spirit of Prophecy. It shall arise in your heart. Are you seriously expecting Jesus to come very soon? What must happen? The testimony of Christ must be confirmed in you. Prophecy is that which the testimony of Jesus is. It is the daystar arising in your hearts confirming you unto the end. This is such a comforting reality that prophecy does this for you. Are we here today in a certain sense of distress in reference to our relationship to the church militant? Darkness surrounds us. Lord how do you want us to keep walking in the light of our experience? We need to understand it. Prophecy illuminates it.
Through centuries of persecution, conflict, and darkness, God has sustained His church. Not one cloud has fallen upon it that He has not prepared for; not one opposing force has risen to counterwork His work, that He has not foreseen. All has taken place as He predicted. He has not left His church forsaken, but has traced in prophetic declarations what would occur, and that which His Spirit inspired the prophets to foretell has been brought about. All His purposes will be fulfilled. His law is linked with His throne, and no power of evil can destroy it. Truth is inspired and guarded by God; and it will triumph over all opposition. {AA 11.3}
If you are very upset with circumstances, look at prophecy. There is something in prophecy that what has happened to you is in prophecy with what God has predicted. It has been shown in prophecy how you can find your way through it. He has not left His church forsaken. There is the light, there is the day’s experience and the very living experience of your time, the testimony of Jesus is showing you the way. He is speaking to us personally in prophecy. It is a light that shines in this darkness. The prophetic sketches that have illuminated the past, we can also view in living fulfilment and thus prophecy in its fulfilment was written for us now.
As you look at prophetic sketches at the experience of God’s people and agree that was prophecy and the experience of God’s people, as you go through to our point in time, you see how it has been fulfilled and you discover what you read, you are enlightened for that time.
1 Corinthians 10:11 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.
What were the stories and experience of God’s word written for? Examples. They were the fulfilment of the experience of those prophecies. As you study the prophecy for your experience, it is for your admonition. All that happened to people before us was spelt out in prophecy beforehand and brought to view on the surface as the knowledge of the remnant people of God. There is a generation by generation object lesson so by the time we come to this point in time, we have no reason to walk in darkness.
There is no new thing under the sun. What happened in the past is happening again for this generation. There is nothing new.
The prophecy of Genesis 3:15 came to fruition in the time of Christ. We know what happened to Christ and the disciples was prophesied that the woman’s seed would crush the serpent and the serpent would bruise the feet of the woman seed.
Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
If that prophecy would have been understood by the Pharisees and Jewish church at Christ’s time, they would have suddenly rallied. When you came face to face with certain people in the church and you point out to them their actual experience in the fulfilment of prophecy, they don’t want to know. This was a terrible indictment upon their position.
John 8:37 I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. John 8:38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. 8:39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. 40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. 8:41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, [even] God. 42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
See how they argue? No new thing under the sun.
John 8:43 Why do ye not understand my speech? [even] because ye cannot hear my word. 44 Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Here is a fulfilment of the prophecy of Genesis 3:15. Jesus laid out before their minds the exact line up for them to discover whose line they were replicating. It came to them in a shock. What? Can’t be true! But prophecy revealed that Israel would be like that. It’s written in Isaiah. People are in the dark because they are not equipped with prophecy which is the testimony of Jesus. How did they respond? With theological argumentation.
Isaiah 1:9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, [and] we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
What were the words that Jesus said at Capernaum?
Matthew 11:23 And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
If the things shown to the Jews were shown to Sodom, they would have been saved. What was he doing? He was referring to Isaiah 1: 9. Wake up, prophecy has said unless a remnant is left, you would be like Sodom and Gomorrah. Jerusalem got destroyed after all. Jerusalem got destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah because there was not a small remnant to protect them.
Isaiah 6:13 But yet in it [shall be] a tenth, and [it] shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance [is] in them, when they cast [their leaves: so] the holy seed [shall be] the substance thereof.
The church is God’s fortress, His city of refuge, which He holds in a revolted world. Any betrayal of the church is treachery to Him who has bought mankind with the blood of His only-begotten Son. From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth. In every age the Lord has had His watchmen, who have borne a faithful testimony to the generation in which they lived. These sentinels gave the message of warning; and when they were called to lay off their armor, others took up the work. God brought these witnesses into covenant relation with Himself, uniting the church on earth with the church in heaven. He has sent forth His angels to minister to His church, and the gates of hell have not been able to prevail against His people. {AA 11.2}
If You Are Faithful
Are you treacherous to God’s church? No. Those little remnant people are God’s church, the woman’s seed. Is this talking about the Reform church? It is not. It is not talking about the Reform, it is talking about no organisation here, it is talking about God’s faithful people who have gone down through the ages that.
Has the Seventh Day Adventist church been God’s church? Yes. Has it stood faithful? Have the gates of hell been able to prevail against it? Yes as all the churches before. The gates of hell have prevailed against the different organisations through the years. But has it prevailed against his people? No!
While a church organisation is faithful, that is God’s church. The faithful people have gone right through the ages. Has one organisation gone right through the ages? Not at all. The remnant church is God’s faithful people through all the generations. Israel came to its Sodom and Gomorrah stage when Jesus was on earth. Before that time, there was the ten tribes of Israel and then there were the two tribes that remained faithful for a while that became the serpents seed by killing Jesus. There were the ten tribes, the two tribes and the remnant.
Isaiah 8:13 Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and [let] him [be] your fear, and [let] him [be] your dread8:14 And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15 And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. 16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
Here you have a perfect prophetic sketch of both the houses of Israel. The ten tribes and both the houses of Israel. It happened already in the ten tribes when they became corrupt; it stayed in Samaria. The woman at the well thought it was in this mountain. Jesus said salvation is of the Jews but both the houses will reject him but with the disciples it will go on. Here is the prophetic sketch of the remnant.
Revelation 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;
Who is He writing to? The ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist church.
Revelation 3:14 These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
First He was talking to the leaders of the church but now any man.
Revelation 3:21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
Who is He talking to now? What three stages are we looking at? The ministry of the church, the any man and now the overcomer. Is that the same again? The woman, the seed, and the remnant of her seed.
Revelation 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive [his] mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Who were the ones that gave that addressed message? It wasn’t William Miller and his associates. The third angel were who? The Seventh Day Adventist church. Sr White identified them. Then we come to the fourth angel.
The Fourth Angel
Revelation 18:1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
Who were they? Waggoner and Jones that led into the SDA Reform Movement. You have the Seventh Day Adventist church and then the SDA Reform Movement and what follows after that?
Revelation 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
The overcomer that is to give the final loud cry? The Seventh Day Adventist church is third angel, the SDA Reform Movement is the fourth angel, and the overcomer is the remnant of her seed. Matthew 25 speaks of the story of the ten virgins. Five wise and five foolish and besides that you have another company.
Who Gives The Cry?
Matthew 24:45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? 46 Blessed [is] that servant, whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
Ten virgins. Five wise and five foolish but who gave the message behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him? Meat in due season? It’s the wise servant. Five wise and five foolish and the five wise join up with the bridal party.
Matthew 24:48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming; 49 And shall begin to smite [his] fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; 50 The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for [him], and in an hour that he is not aware of, 51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint [him] his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
These are prophecies that delineate events that will take place just in the darkness in which we live in right now.
Let every one who is seeking to live a Christian life, remember that the church militant is not the church triumphant. Those who are carnally minded will be found in the church. They are to be pitied more than blamed. The church is not to be judged as sustaining these characters, though they be found within her borders. {FE 294.2}
God’s church triumphant is in the church militant but what will the corrupt ones in the church militant do? This is the testimony of Jesus to us. What is transpiring and what we are to expect.
The work is soon to close. The members of the church militant who have proved faithful will become the church triumphant.– Letter 32, 1892. {Ev 707.1}
The church militant gives way to the church triumphant. Just like in all history the church militant has always done what? It has always disowned the woman’s seed.
The life of Christ was a life charged with a divine message of the love of God, and He longed intensely to impart this love to others in rich measure. Compassion beamed from His countenance, and His conduct was characterized by grace, humility, truth, and love. Every member of His church militant must manifest the same qualities, if He would join the church triumphant. {FE 179.3}
Those who are members of the church militant who are not the church triumphant will ultimately stand as the church triumphant, while the church militant is not the church triumphant.
Clearly then the experience of God’s people, the experience of His remnant emerging from the organisation of which they have been members, is a repeated experience right through to the end. Under the third angels message it is substantiated that other movements take over.
The Faithful People
This is what is to be expected according to prophecy. With the prophecy illuminating us, we are not in the dark.
Isaiah 66:5 Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.
Who hated you? The world? Your brethren! What time of earth’s history is this pointing to? The appearing of the Lord. What do you expect according to prophecy just imminently prior to the coming of Jesus?
The opposition which Christ received came from his own nation, who would have been greatly blessed had they accepted him. In like manner the remnant church receive opposition from those who profess to be their brethren. {RH, August 28, 1883 par. 13}
The remnant church exists within the church militant. They will say get out of here, we don’t want you just like they didn’t want Jesus. It is their own brethren which will remove them from amongst themselves. This is prophecy. If you have not been disfellowshipped from the church, how should you relate to those that have been?
As the light and life of men was rejected by the ecclesiastical authorities in the days of Christ, so it has been rejected in every succeeding generation. Again and again the history of Christ’s withdrawal from Judea has been repeated. When the Reformers preached the word of God, they had no thought of separating themselves from the established church; but the religious leaders would not tolerate the light, and those that bore it were forced to seek another class, who were longing for the truth. In our day few of the professed followers of the Reformers are actuated by their spirit. Few are listening for the voice of God, and ready to accept truth in whatever guise it may be presented. Often those who follow in the steps of the Reformers are forced to turn away from the churches they love, in order to declare the plain teaching of the word of God. And many times those who are seeking for light are by the same teaching obliged to leave the church of their fathers, that they may render obedience. {DA 232.2}
Is this last generation going to be saved from that picture? You don’t have to be disfellowshipped but if you see those who have been disfellowshipped, you will be where the light is if you are going to be a reformer. They will render obedience by being under the light.
The Lord Jesus will always have a chosen people to serve Him. When the Jewish people rejected Christ, the Prince of life, He took from them the kingdom of God and gave it unto the Gentiles. God will continue to work on this principle with every branch of His work. When a church proves unfaithful to the word of the Lord, whatever their position may be, however high and sacred their calling, the Lord can no longer work with them. Others are then chosen to bear important responsibilities. But, if these in turn do not purify their lives from every wrong action, if they do not establish pure and holy principles in all their borders, then the Lord will grievously afflict and humble them and, unless they repent, will remove them from their place and make them a reproach. . . . {UL 131.3}
Is there any stopping along the way that all of a sudden God is going to work on a different program? Not at all. No matter how many churches have come from Adventism according to the branching of the work, the same principle goes that it will only be a faithful company that will be continued to be recognised as His people. Each successive company that has once been there, has been removed when it became unfaithful on any parts of God’s word. Therefore in this introductory message, let us travel together through the successive generations and see if this is not really the case all the way through from the time of the fall so we can equip ourselves with understanding so we can see the remnant people. To identify the remnant people that we want to be part of. Their nature and action with the church militant and the parallel situations they bore.
The prediction given in Eden refers in a special manner to Christ, and to all who accept and confess Him as the only begotten Son of God. Christ has pledged Himself to engage in the conflict with the prince and power of darkness and bruise the serpent’s head, and all who are the sons of God are His chosen ones, His soldiers, to war against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. It is an unwearied conflict of which there is to be no end, until Christ shall come the second time without sin unto salvation to destroy him who has destroyed so many souls through his masterly deceiving power. {9MR 108.2}
Posted on 24/10/2009, in Prophetic Sketches of the Remnant Church (Seminar) and tagged light. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.
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