God's Church
Prophecy in Motion
by C. Elden McNabb
Seventy Years of Desolations
The first seventy years of the operation of God's Church in this century are prophesied of in Daniel chapter nine. He said, "I Daniel understood by books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem" (Dan. 9:2,24-27). That is to say, hidden in the revelation of the "seventy weeks," is a revelation also of another work of "seventy years." As Isaiah said about God's knowledge and doctrine, "Precept must be upon precept."
The reference to seventy years, in this passage, is not merely to inform Daniel of when to anticipate the restoration of Jerusalem. Instead, it is also a prophecy of the first seventy years of the "Heavenly Jerusalem," in the twentieth century. Paul stated clearly, in his epistle to the Hebrews, that the "Heavenly Jerusalem" is the Church of the Firstborn.
Some of the book of Daniel began to come to pass in his lifetime. For instance, the fall of Babylon: the "head of gold." However, some of the things which were "determined" could not have happened in that four hundred and eighty-three years, or so, to the ascension of our Savior. Jesus' ministry did not put an end to sinning, nor was the vision sealed.
I really don't believe that sins against God will be finished before the end of the seventh millennium. If they were finished, it would be impossible to fulfill the prophecy of Gog and Magog in Revelation 20. However if we look at the things mentioned in Daniel 9:24 as something which must be fulfilled in a seventy year period, we can begin to understand it. Paul explained the parallel existing between the Jews and the Gentile Christians, saying that what happened to the one happened also to the other (Romans 2).
Seventy weeks were determined upon Daniel's people and upon his holy city, “to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to seal up the vision and prophecy (the prophet). When we apply this to seventy years beginning June 13, 1903, we see that by June of 1973, the following things must have occurred. 1) Some transgressions must have been finished. 2) Some sins which are prophesied to take place in The Church must have come to an end. 3) The vision must have been sealed up, and that prophet, with the volume of prophecy which God would give to him for His people, for that time, must have been appointed (Rev. 10:7).
The seventy years are broken up into divisions of seven years, threescore and two years, and one year. The Churches of God have clearly fulfilled this. Brother A.J. Tomlinson announced the rise of The Church in 1903. After seven years, in 1910, the office of the General Moderator was established. Later, the title of the office was changed to General Overseer, and again to Chief Bishop.
In the next sixty two years from the time that office was established, until 1972, that office was challenged again and again. In 1972, at the end of that sixty-two year period, Brother Hall was cast out, because of his sins. At about the same time, God led me out of that organization. Then was fulfilled that prophecy, "For that (well) they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth. And he went up from thence to Beersheba." We have now come to the “Well of the Covenant.”
Today, as far as I know, all three of those organizations have rejected there being an Anointed of God. As it is written, "Offenses must come." Thus were some of the transgressions finished, and the desolations accomplished. Then, in the seventieth year, on Passover morning, 1973, God "sealed up the prophet," by giving me His covenant.
Let's look at Daniel's prophecy, together with the allegories mentioned previously. There were some things to be accomplished during what He called "desolations." In Ezek. 21:27, He referred to these desolations as three “overturnings.”
We can easily see that Isaac walked away from the first three wells which he dug. If we apply that to the three organizations which I have mentioned, the parallel is easily seen. They are desolate, as pertains to "the Revelation of the Mystery," because they have broken their covenant with God. The Churches of God of which I have spoken are the three measures of meal in Jesus' parable, all three of which became contaminated by that woman's leaven.
Likewise, Job's latter experiences prophesy of the restoration of God's Church, in this century. Those three daughters reveal that it was Isaac's first three wells which foreshadow "The Church." And Isaac's fourth well, at Beersheba, is "The Well of the Covenant." All three of the Churches of God, which I have mentioned, had a covenant membership, but they were what Paul called “A man’s covenant.” Those covenants were good, and were justified according to Gal. 3:15. He said, "Though it be a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto." However, it is the Holy Nation of Matthew 21:43, which has begun to rise under the guidance of the messenger of God's covenant. By the grace, when Jesus returns, His throne will be ready.
The well at Beersheba is an allegory of the group of people who will work together with the Messenger of the Covenant, right at the end of the Grace Age. That messenger is the fulfillment of Noah, the tenth from Adam, to whom God gave His eternal covenant. For Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the son of man" (Luke 17:26).
That fourth well is a prophecy of an organization which is the beginning of something new. It is a nation which is prophesied to come forth after the ten toes of the image are identified. And they have been identified! I first knew of them when "Group of Ten" wealthiest non-Communist nations went to Rome, in November 1971, to revamp the "World Monetary Fund." The "woman" and the "scarlet coloured beast," of Revelation 17, had already been identified in about 1966. The Woman got on "the beast," when the encyclical of the Pope of Rome was read before the United Nations, that year.
That fourth well is also the "stone cut out of the mountain." In Daniel chapter two, we are told that the "Stone" will emerge as a nation "In the days of these kings (toes)." Therefore, sometime after November, 1971, a new organization must come forth to be the "kingdom" which "shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and shall stand forever" (Dan. 2:44).
In the Spring of 1972, while The Mountain still stood, God took a small group of saints out of The Church of God. About the same time, God called me out as well, and gave that small group of faithful saints to me. As we went, we took with us the Seven Spirits of God, which were revealed by Bishop Kent while he was the Chief Bishop.
Shortly thereafter, I began to sound the seventh trumpet in fulfillment of Rev. 10:7. As it is written, "The mystery of God" was finished; the "great mystery, which is Christ and the Church." The work is not all done, but we now understand what it is all about. That mystery was revealed to me, by the allegory of the generations of Adam to Enoch, on July 19, 1972. Thereby, the prophecy of Rev. 1:16-17 was fulfilled in me. Jesus, in a figure, laid his right hand upon me. He gave me the revelation of those seven stars in his right hand, which "Are the angels (Messengers) of the seven churches."
At Pentecost, 1973, I declared, among The Church of God, the word which God had given me. Also in attendance at that Feast of Pentecost was a group from "The Church of God, New Testament Judaism." Its founder, Earl S. Steward (Today, he sometimes goes by the name David Steward), and about twenty five of his people were there. Mr. Steward and his people were honored, and He was given space to preach. I, on the other hand, was reproached and vilified by Robert S. Somerville and the other leaders of The Church of God. Thus was fulfilled Isa. 8:6-8, "This people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Resin (Steward), and Remaliah's son (Somerville)."
Within the next two years, the influence of Earl Steward had defiled the whole church. As He said in Isa. 8:8, "He shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel." The Church of God adopted the name of Earl Steward's Church and the use of wings on their motorcycles, as Mr. Steward had on his.
From 1973, until now, the voice of an Anointed has not been prominent in the land, but the time has come for me to sound. We must come in the unity of the faith, and build an organization which will save us from the "flood" which the enemy shall pour out of his mouth against us in the near future (Obadiah 1:21).
The time has come for the words of Jesus, in John 10:16, to begin to be fulfilled. He said, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." Jesus was, no doubt, referring to Ezek. 34:21-25. Quote, "I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd." This David cannot be Jesus, because He is already the shepherd of all Christianity. And there is certainly not only "one fold" of God's people today.
God is using David, here, to prophesy of the man who "will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; will build again the ruins thereof, and set it up" (Acts 15:16,17 and Amos 9:11,12). Isaiah said, in Isa. 16:5, "In mercy shall the throne be established: and He shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David." The "Tabernacle of David" has fallen down. Therefore, it must be built again, because that is where the Throne of David must be established, whereon our Lord shall sit to rule (Isa. 9:7).
Isaiah prophesied that the Son of God shall rule "upon the throne of David." There has been no throne of King David for many centuries. The present day Government of Israel surely is not it. King David prepared a throne for Solomon, and Solomon brought peace to the land. Those things are written to prophesy of two other men. Solomon is a shadow of Christ. David foreshadows the man who will make the final preparations for His return. He is that David in Ruth 4:18-22, the tenth generation.
God said to Daniel, "The vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days." The vision of the evening and the morning is the revelation of the work of God in the first century A. D. and in the twentieth century A.D. That "vision of all" is now known, and our Lord will come soon. Therefore, His throne must soon be made ready for Him.
The preparation for the return or our Lord is our responsibility. Let us put our shoulder to the work so that, when the moment comes, we will hear the words, "Well done." Let us diligently take heed to these prophecies, so we can recognize the prophet of God as he fulfills the volume of the book that is written of him. Not only so, but also fulfill it with him (Col. 1:25; 2 Peter 1:19).
I challenge you to look back on all of these things, and say with the Apostle Peter, and with me, "These things are the fulfillment of that which was spoken by the prophets." It is high time for us to wake out of sleep and "come in the unity of the faith." Then shall we be able to say with the Psalmist,
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
for brethren to dwell together in unity!
It is like the precious ointment upon the head,
that ran down upon the beard,
Even Aaron's beard:
that went down to the skirts of his garments;
As the dew of Hermon,
and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion:
For there the Lord commanded the blessing,
even life for evermore."
Psalm 133
"Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses (prophecies), let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith" (Heb. 12:1,2).
AMEN
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