The Fate of Aholibah

any times in the prophetic books of the Old Testament, a prophet will come forth and speak a judgment against Israel or Judah. On most occasions, there was a warning offered, and an invitation to return to the faith, in order to avoid the destruction that was predicted to come upon them.

There comes a point, however, when the corruption has gone so far that there are none within the kingdom who are spiritually aware enough to earnestly seek repentance, either for himself or for his fellows, (Dan 9:4, 5) and at that point Yah declares, “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith Adonai Yahweh.” (Ezekiel 22:30, 31)

I have written several essays about the Trademark Law formed by the General Conference Corporation of Seventh Day Adventists with the United States government. In many of these I point out that one of the signposts for the point of no return is when a Church forms a legal union with a civil power for the purpose of protecting or enforcing its religious principles and teachings. Even if an organization’s doctrines are correct for all intents and purposes, by joining itself to the world the Bible declares that both the hierarchy AND its membership will fall (Hosea 7:11, Deu 17:16, Psa 146:3, Deu 24:1-4, Isa 9:16, large passages of Jeremiah) and “It has ever been true that a backslidden body, one that has turned from God’s word to men, from God’s power to the state, was never reformed in itself. Invariably God’s message has called out those from the fallen church who would do His will and preach His gospel.” [1896 Sabbath School Quarterly, First Quarter, Lesson X, March 7, 1896, pp. 35, 36]

One of the symptoms of such a fall is that the irredeemable organization will inevitably begin to persecute those who have gone out of her for the purpose of remaining faithful to Christ. This has happened every time there was a calling-out by the Father into the faithful Body (Acts 2:37-40, 14:2) and in the last days we who are alive and remain have discovered that the principle still holds true. Ellen White once wrote “Force is the last resort of every false religion.” [The Signs of the Times, May 6, 1897, paragraph 16] and we who remain a part of the Body of Christ, despite its few numbers and the fact that we are “an obscure people” [Spalding and Magan Collection, page 1, paragraph 5] solemnly concur.

Another symptom of the fall of an apostate organization is that they will walk in the irreligious ways of those groups who have gone and failed before them. “But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols.” (Ezek 20:18) As I pointed out in my article Fill Up The Measure, Christ had great and terrible things to say about those who have failed to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors, particularly when it comes to being involved religious persecution. Over 100 years ago, Adventist writer Ellen White predicted that if matters such as sexual sin were not firmly dealt with within the organization of Seventh Day Adventists, they were “in danger of becoming a sister to fallen Babylon.” [Manuscript Releases Volume Twenty-one, page 380, paragraph 1; Testimonies on Sexual Behavior, page 188, paragraph 3] As anyone who has followed the course of the Trademark law knows, this is precisely what has occurred.

We know from Scripture (and our Church’s writings agree) that Babylon is composed of apostate religious bodies who are joined to the world in opposition to the Law of Heaven. (2Th 2:3, Dan 7:25, Rev 13:12) [The Great Controversy, page 445, paragraph 2] A sister to fallen Babylon would therefore be an organization that is separate from most of corrupt Protestantism, but nevertheless fallen due to walking in the ways of her “older sister.” Like the Protestant groups that came before, she had once been called to righteousness, but because she went to the nations round about for intimacy, rather than seeking the protection of Christ (who has always been the Head of the true Church), she inherits not only the guilt of this transgression, but the guilt of all those who came before from whose example she has failed to learn! (Mat 23:29-35)

What, then, does the Almighty have to say to those who have gained such an inheritance as this? Many messengers have been sent to the General Conference of Adventists. Many have urged them to repent before it was too late. But now it is too late: “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” (Pro 29:1) Now all that remains is that we must flee into the wilderness. We are still the Church, we are still the group of faithful believers raised up to carry the message of mercy and warning to the world, but it is written of the corrupt organization which still bears our name: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” (1John 2:19)

While the Conference will (and has) made it appear as if the Creation Seventh Day Adventist Church is an offshoot of the true Adventist faith by virtue of their greater numbers and control over the resources which they are stealing from Heaven for the sake of building an earthly kingdom, (John 18:36) paying lawyers, (1Ch 6:1-8) and imprisoning the saints, (Acts 8:3) they are the ones who “went out from us.”

What then does the Father of these saints have to say to this younger sister of Babylon? Adventists know that the Church will never be Babylon, however no organization that has joined itself to the civil government is considered by Heaven to be a “Church.” It is nothing but a beast, and forms an image to the first beast (the papacy) by its policy and its Satanic spirit. These are the words of the prophet Ezekiel:

“The word of Yahweh came again unto me, saying, ‘Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity. And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.’

‘And Aholah [Catholicism & Protestantism] played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours, which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses. Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.’

‘Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her. Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted. These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.’

‘And when her sister Aholibah [apostate Adventism] saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms. She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men. Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way, and that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity.’

‘And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea [lawyers and policy makers to the world’s princes]. And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them. So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister. Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt; for she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.’

‘Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth. Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith Adonai Yahweh; Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side; the Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them: all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses. And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, which shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet round about: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments. And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire.’

‘They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels. Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more. For thus saith Adonai Yahweh; Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated: And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare (Revelation 17:16): and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.’

‘I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols. Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand. (Rev 17:4) Thus saith Adonai Yahweh; Thou shalt drink of thy sister’s cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much. (Rev 14:9, 10) Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria. Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith Adonai Yahweh.’

‘Therefore thus saith Adonai Yahweh; Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms. Yahweh said moreover unto me; Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? Yea, declare unto them their abominations (Isa 58:1, Ezek 9:4, Rev 18:1-8); that they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them.’

‘Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths.* For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine house. And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments, And satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine oil. And a voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with the men of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness, which put bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns upon their heads.’

‘Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them? Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that playeth the harlot: so went they in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women. And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands. For thus saith Adonai Yahewh; I will bring up a company upon them, and will give them to be removed and spoiled.’

‘And the company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire. Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness. And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols: and ye shall know that I am Adonai Yahweh.” (Eze 23:1-49)

This is where the chapter ends, and the prophet moves on to a new topic. Behold, there was “no remedy.” (2Ch 36:16)

May Yahweh bless the remnant that joins itself unto the Israel of Promise.

David.

* “I repeat therefore, that upon the principles which govern kingdoms and governments, the very principle of the law in heaven, or law in earth, a Christian cannot start any procedure in connection with civil government. And of all Christians, Seventh-Day Adventists cannot do it. The very keeping of the Sabbath forbids it.” [A. T. Jones, 1895 General Conference Bulletin, page 28]