Questions About Ezekiel Chapter 9: During the 7 Last Plagues or Before?

The Seventh-day Adventist Church does not want to deal with the soon coming reality of the judgment of the living which first begins at the church as vividly described in the ninth chapter of Ezekiel. In an effort to distance themselves from this dramatic act of God they often resort to a passage from the writings of Ellen White (Great Controversy, p. 656) to argue that this event takes places during the time of the 7 last plagues. However, they fail to recognize that this act of divine judgment first begins at the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17) and then progresses out into the realm of Babylon during the Loud Cry and culminates in the 7 last plagues which comes after the general close of probation of the world. Below are several passages from the original Shepherd’s Rod message that prove without contest that the primary manifestation of the slaughter of Ezekiel 9 begins with leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and then moves out to the laity and then eventually to the world. Please prayerfully and carefully read them as the soul salvation of every Seventh-day Adventist is at stake. “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Tim. 2:15). For copies of any of the original SRod tract literature cited in this post, please contact us and we will be happy to send them your way.

“The slaughter of Ezekiel 9 is positively not the same as the seven last plagues (Rev. 16), because the plagues fall on Babylon, but the slaughter, on Judah and Jerusalem. Moreover, the angels of Ezekiel 9 slay every one who does not have the mark, but the plagues do not slay anyone. By wresting Moses’ writings, the Jews tried to refute Christ’s teachings and it is certain that if the Laodiceans continue to wrest Sister White’s writings in trying to refute the message for today, then their end shall be even more mournful than was the Jews’. Concerning what she says about Ezekiel 9 read Testimonies, Vol. 3, pg. 267; Id., Vol. 5, pg. 211; also The Great Controversy, pp. 656, 657. Ezekiel nine pictures the Judgment of the Living in the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17) — the sealing of the saints and the destruction of the wicked in the church.”– Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 3, p. 12

“Question: “5 T 212, bottom of page, seems to teach that the destroying weapons are the seven last plagues. The SRod teaches that Ezek. 9 is the purification of the church. Please explain the apparent contradiction.”

Answer: Relative to 5 T 212, let us first observe a parallel, in certain respects, from pre-Noatic times. Jude proves that Enoch was a messenger of God, and yet that he warned his generation of the destruction of the world by the second advent of Christ when, in fact, the flood was the event which was to and subsequently did destroy the world of Enoch’s time! Enoch simply was not shown the truth of the flood. Therefore, he preached the destruction then in terms of the coming of the Lord.

So it was with Sr. White. As no one had light on the destruction of Ezekiel 9 she made the comparison with it to the seven last plagues with which they were more conversant. Nevertheless, later on in 3 T 266, 267; 5 T 210-212; TM 431, etc. she applied Ezekiel Nine to a time before the seven last plagues. Thus, Ezekiel Nine is applicable at two different times — first, at the time of the separating of the firstfruits, the 144,000; and second, at the time of the separation of the second fruits, the great multitude of Rev. 7:9.” — Symbolic Code Vol. 1, No. 10, pg. 9

Question No. 25:

“The Shepherd’s Rod” teaches that the slaughter of Ezekiel 9 is literal. Could it not be a destruction such as is caused by so-called “acts of God”–earthquakes, famines, pestilences, the seven last plagues, or the like?

Answer:

The five agents that destroy the wicked in the church are not forces of nature but men with slaughter weapons in their hands. They are supernatural beings, not natural elements. Hence they cannot fittingly represent earthquakes, famines, or the like.

Neither can they be the seven angels with the seven last plagues, for these angels are seven in number, not five. Furthermore, they do not have “slaughter weapons” in their hands, but vials. Still further, the plagues fall in Babylon (Rev. 18:4), whereas the slaughter of Ezekiel 9 takes place in Judah and Israel (Ezek. 9:9).

Ezekiel 9, whether literal or figurative, effects a separation between the good and the bad, the tares and the wheat, in the church (Judah and Israel), just as the plagues finally do in Babylon (Rev. 18:4). And as the plagues are literal, then how can the slaughter be any less literal?

The angel with the writer’s inkhorn is to place a mark upon the foreheads of all who sigh and cry for the abominations, then the destroying angels are to slay both old and young (Ezek. 9:4-6).

“The church–the Lord’s sanctuary,” is “the first to feel the stoke of the wrath of God. The ancient men, those to whom God had given great light, and who had stood as guardians, of the spiritual interests of the people, had betrayed their trust. They had taken the position that we need not look for miracles and the marked manifestations of God’s power as in former days. Times have changed. These words strengthen their unbelief and they say, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil. He is too merciful to visit his people in judgment. Thus peace and safety is the cry from men who will never again lift up their voice like a trumpet to show God’s people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins. These dumb dogs, that would not bark, are the ones who feel the just vengeance of an offended God. Men, maidens, and little children, all perish together.”–Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 211.

As in The Great Controversy, p. 656, only an indirect parallel can be drawn between the slaughter of Ezekiel 9 and the falling of the plagues, because a common end (death) befalls both the wicked in the church of Laodicean and the wicked in the churches of Babylon. And only those who say, “We need not look for miracles and the marked manifestation of God’s power as in former days,” think the slaughter is not literal.” — Answerer Book 2, pp. 42, 43

Question No. 57:

Is not the slaughter of Ezekiel 9 to be fulfilled by the seven last plagues?

Answer:

The slaughter as described in Ezekiel’s prophecy takes the lives of only those wicked who are in “the house of Israel and Judah” (Ezek. 9:9)–the church; whereas the destruction of the plagues falls upon all who are found in “Babylon” (Rev. 18:4) after the Lord has proclaimed “Come out of her, My people,” and after they have responded and thus separated themselves from those in Babylon. The destruction of Ezekiel 9, therefore, can apply to her communicants only as an ensample or forerunner of the seven last plagues.

Moreover, His people, the ones who are marked by the angel according to Ezekiel’s prophecy, are not called out, but rather are left in.” — Answerer Book 3, p.43

” After the purification of the church and the sealing of the servants of God, then the message in the 18th chapter of Revelation shall culminate in a “loud cry:” “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” (Rev. 18:4.) As the saints hear the voice of the good Shepherd in the gospel message, they separate themselves from the world and join the 144,000. While this sifting process in the fallen churches is in progress, the man with the writer’s inkhorn seals those who come out. When all the saints shall come out of Babylon into the church, then the work of the man with the writer’s inkhorn shall cease and probation will close. (See “Early Writings,” p. 279.) Therefore, the activity of the five men with the slaughter weapons shall continue and their work will cease when Christ comes to take His saints for it is they who have charge of the city — church. (See Ezek. 9:1; “The Great Controversy,” p. 656.) Then the present world will come to an end and the millennium of desolation commence; during which time the saints shall judge the wicked.” – Shepherd’s Rod book, Vol. 2, p. 169

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