SECTION III
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SECTION III
Many brethren today are confused about Ezekiel 34 and Jeremiah 23 ALL. These chapters describe “shepherds” who are “scattering” certain “sheep.” Who is this talking about? Do these chapters speak of physical or spiritual Israel? How can you know? What has the Church always taught? These chapters are easy to understand—if one allows the Bible to interpret the Bible!
As we have seen, many of God’s people are now drowning in an ocean of prophetic junk and widespread scriptural error. Confused, deceived and spiritually battered, they have been conditioned to accept false prophetic ideas—things that are nothing more than doctrinal heresy packaged, disguised and labeled as “deeper understanding,” “new revelations” and “growth.”
Many brethren have allowed themselves to be doctrinally poisoned by certain splinter leaders. They have been unwittingly spoon-fed by brutal dictators who cloak their deceit and biblical misunderstanding under the guise of honoring Herbert W. Armstrong and holding to his sound teachings. But we saw that many come to view prophecies about physical Israel as though they were directed to God’s Church—spiritual Israel (Rom. 2:29).
Could this be you?
Exactly as the Protestants have done with other plain teachings of God’s Word, scores, if not hundreds, of passages applying to physical Israel are being “spiritualized away.” (Of course, we have seen that PCG has taught people to do this almost routinely with prophecy throughout the Bible.) This deceitful practice has resulted in terrible confusion and misunderstanding of what to do in the wake of the apostasy. Hundreds of passages about prophecy are now being misapplied to the Church.
Perhaps no single case is as misunderstood, misused—and misapplied!—as Ezekiel 34 ALL!
Let’s understand. While this chapter can have some application to the Church, in principle, and this is true ofvarious prophetic conditions regarding modern Israelite nations (and Mr. Armstrong long understood this), it has nothing to do with Laodicea, Philadelphia or any other people supposedly connected to God’s Church. It is addressed entirely to physical Israel. Chapter 33 makes this clear, as does the end of chapter 34. (Remember, the Bible was originally written without chapter divisions. Men added these later. This means that these two chapters work together. What God wrote as a connected prophecy cannot be separated by men.)
Ezekiel 34 ALLL cannot be properly understood without recognizing the entire context. As long as we allow the Bible to interpret itself, this chapter becomes most easy to understand!
Mr. Armstrong spoke and wrote many times about chapter 33. When referring to what is called “The Ezekiel Warning,” he almost invariably turned to this chapter of Ezekiel’s book.
Ezekiel 33:7 describes God’s “watchman”—Mr. Armstrong for 52 years—warning the HOUSE OF ISRAEL (one other would follow). Notice: “So you, O son of man, I have set you a watchman unto the HOUSE OF ISRAEL; therefore you shall hear the word at My mouth, and warn them from Me.” Ezekiel 33:11 again repeats the term “house of Israel.”
The context never changes all the way through chapters 33 and 34. How do we know this? Notice this description concluding chapter 34 and this part of Ezekiel’s overall prophecy: “Thus shall they know that I theLORD their God am with them, and that they, even the HOUSE OF ISRAEL, are My people…and you My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men” (Ezekiel 34:30-31).
In Scripture, the term “house of Israel” always refers to NATIONAL ISRAEL, never to the Church. This is part of the most basic understanding known to all the millions who have read The United States and Britain in Prophecy, among other books and booklets that Mr. Armstrong wrote.
If Ezekiel 33 and 34 ALL were a warning to Laodicea, Mr. Armstrong spent 52 years warning an era that had not yet arrived—and further, he did not know he was doing this! If these chapters address the Church in any way—Philadelphia or Laodicea—his entire foundation for understanding prophecy was wrong. The Church has always correctly understood that Ezekiel’s warning is a message for physical, NATIONAL Israel. Understand. Mr. Armstrong was not confused about his responsibility to warn the modern descendants of Israel—the HOUSE OF ISRAEL!
Ezekiel 33:30-31 above obviously speak of the Millennium. Again, how do we know this? Even a cursory glance at today’s world reveals that God is not yet, as these verses foretell, “with them [the house of Israel].” And since those whom God IS calling today—who are being led by His Spirit within them today—will be Spirit-composed members of the God Family during the Millennium, those who are described in Ezekiel 33:30 and 31 would not be referred to as “men” or “people” (Ezekiel 33:31). So this is obviously talking about physical Israelites alive DURING THE MILLENNIUM.
We have now established the context leading into chapter 34. Remember again, the chapter break does not mean the subject has changed. The end of chapter 34 makes this absolutely clear.
Notice how many times the terms “flock,” “sheep” and “shepherds” are found in chapter 34. Take some time to read the entire chapter, highlighting these words as you see them.
The context of Ezekiel 33 ALL, leading into the statements, and the latter part of chapter 34, closing them out, is entirely about conditions in modern Israel, leading up to King David coming to rule them as their shepherd in the Millennium.
On a side note, these two chapters are completely different from the scattering referred to in Daniel 12:7, whichdoes talk about God’s spiritual flock—the “power of the holy people”—being scattered. Take a moment to prove this by reading Daniel 11:32-35, which sets up 12:7. This verse is explained in other literature, so we will not go into detail here. But 12:7 is also an example of a verse used by many to justify not seeking out the one true Church, because God supposedly now desires His people to be scattered.
Ezekiel 34 ALL is a classic example of a prophecy pertaining to physical Israel being misapplied to spiritual Israel—the Church. Again, and tragically, certain splinters have conditioned—actually trained—their members to think this way—to routinely substitute the Church for national Israel.
Now carefully read Ezekiel 34:23-24 “And 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. And I the LORD will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it.”
These verses reveal that as God regathers Israel in the wake of the Great Tribulation, He will raise up David to lead them. David will obviously not be resurrected (mysteriously “reincarnated”) in this age to rule overspiritual Israel, the Church. Certainly none are expecting that to happen.
Therefore, this is a reference to physical human beings who are part of the literal physical twelve tribes receiving their opportunity for salvation DURING THE MILLENNIUM.
The “flock” of chapter 34 are scattered surviving Israelite sheep gathering under David, obviously occurring afterhis resurrection into the kingdom of God, and after these “sheep” have come out of captivity. It cannot be talking about scattered brethren. It has nothing to do with Philadelphia or Laodicea, as others so falsely—and conveniently—teach. Recall that the twelve apostles will rule the twelve tribes of Israel in the Millennium (Matt. 19:28), under David!
Could anyone who understands how God used Mr. Armstrong seriously believe that he never understood his commission? That he was (as must be supposed) unconsciously warning an era that had not yet arrived?
Few conclusions could be more ridiculous—and more dangerous!
Many believe that all of God’s SPIRITUAL sheep are now permanently scattered, thus fulfilling the prophecy in Ezekiel 34 ALL and Jeremiah 23 ALL. This thinking stems from frustration with organizations, most professing to be led by Christ and/or His government.
Their misuse of these prophecies flows from whether the scattered sheep referenced here are Laodiceans, Philadelphians or both. The misunderstanding begins with Ezekiel 34 ALL but proceeds to Jeremiah 23 and chapters such as Zechariah 11 ALL.
Notice Jeremiah 23:2: “Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed My people; you have scattered My flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, says the LORD.”
Jeremiah 23:6 continues by stating, “In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
These verses obviously reference physical Israel, including the tribe of Judah. The following could not be talking about God’s people: “For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourns; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right” (Jeremiah 23:10).
This is talking about physical conditions on earth. Notice: “Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways…for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation” (Jeremiah 23:12). This is describing the time of God’s Wrath—the DAY OF THE LORD, the punishing of all the inhabitants of earth. Remember, Laodicea is punished in the Great Tribulation.
This is certainly not new understanding! It is basic to what most brethren probably learned (or should have) in the first year of their calling—yet, tragically, have now forgotten!
None of these prophecies can possibly be talking specifically about spiritual Israel. Though Daniel 12:7 could also have some application to the physical house of Israel and though, as previously mentioned, there are, conversely, principles in chapters such as Ezekiel 34 ALL and Jeremiah 23 ALL that Mr. Armstrong recognized asPARALLELING in certain ways some conditions in the Church at the end of the age (because LAODICEA is divided on doctrine and scattered as a result)—they cannot possibly be talking directly about Philadelphia or Laodicea. (It is absolutely impossible that any parallel exists with unified Philadelphia—those who are able to walk together in ONE ORGANIZATION because all of them are in agreement.)
Also notice the mentioning of “prophets” and “priests.” This is a reference to the hundreds of thousands of false ministers of this world who have misled hundreds of millions or even billions of the lost sheep of the house of Israel for millennia.
The Ezekiel Warning has always been understood as directed to physical Israel. However, it could not somehow mean that the true watchman of modern national Israel would not also cry out to spiritual Israel, the Church—as the messenger of the seventh era. That is the purpose of our book “Anoint Your Eyes” – Christ’s Warning to His People. (This book and America and Britain in Prophecy serve as warnings to spiritual and physical Israel, respectively.)
Consider one other passage in Jeremiah 6:13, which is part of the setup to chapter 23: “For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely.” This cannot possibly be a reference to God’s Church, or ministers in it, but rather to national Israel. Remember, Christ states that even Laodiceans “keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 12:17). So Jeremiah 6 ALL and that book’s early chapters so obviously refer tophysical Israelites—and, again, set the stage for the rest of Jeremiah!
How do thinking people, empowered with God’s Holy Spirit, forget the very clearest teachings of Christ’s twentieth-century apostle—and the entire collective ministry under him—and come to believe such dangerous, unsound “prophetic” silliness?
This thinking is most apparent in those who have departed from the leader claiming to be, among numerous other divine titles, “That Prophet” of Deuteronomy 18:15. Mentioned previously in earlier sections, they saw their former leader “spiritualize” (read into) endless passages to promote himself by taking many titles belonging to God and Christ. Confused and wounded, these survivors, and certain brethren who have left other splinters, seize on the phrase “no shepherd in Israel” (Ezek. 34:4-5) to justify their rejection of ALL organized groups and leaders.
Ezekiel 34:4 of this passage describes the shepherds of Israel in the following way: “but with force and with crueltyhave you ruled them.” Those who followed the one claiming to be That Prophet were certainly ruled with “force and cruelty.” Seeing this, they were set up to seize on the phrase “no shepherd in Israel,” as a means—an excuse—to tell themselves that they should never again listen to another minister or organization.
Carefully consider what such people are actually doing: By rejecting all government over them, they have found a way to—at best—take their place in the Laodicean age, where “the people rule, judge and decide” all matters for themselves.
(Our book on THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD is extremely important, and introduces the subject that Mr. Armstrong described as “everything” in extraordinary detail.)
This man’s pattern of distorting plain prophecies began through his nonsensical misapplication of the entire book of Malachi. Like Ezekiel 34 ALL and Jeremiah 23 ALL, Malachi is written to national Israel, and the ministers of these nations, and of this world. Tragically, thousands, hungering for “prophetic understanding,” were taken in by what was nothing more than his wonderfully clever marketing ploy. Even more sad, many others remain trapped in his grasp by fear of entering the Tribulation if they leave him.
Although many have escaped PCG, many of these still “spiritualize away” these kinds of scriptures to justifystaying alone—not tithing, assembling together, seeking the true Church, doing the Work, yielding to God’s government, receiving correction, truly preparing for the Wedding Supper, etc. In other words, those who reject this man “throw the baby out with the bath water.” They escape him and escape his organization—but not hismode of thinking. And though they successfully break free from his group, they are still unwittingly enslaved within his ideas, because of the misguided way that he conditioned them to view all prophecy—including falling into the false belief that there is “no shepherd in Israel.”
I have likened this thinking to how so many throughout the splinters internalized a variety of the apostates’ false doctrines and general approach to Christianity, while thinking they escaped—that they left all of that behind. How wrong they have been. But so have been many who left the man described here. If this is you, ask God to return you to soundness of understanding.
Now that we have seen the overall fallacy of substituting God’s Church for national Israel in prophecy, we should examine other verses to make the point most clear.
Remember these things: (1) Laodiceans keep God’s commandments (Rev. 12:17), (2) Ezekiel 33 ALL cannot refer to Laodicea, and (3) the “Ezekiel Warning” chapters open and close with the term “house of Israel”—and are clearly a message to physical Israelites. As you read the following verses, ask how any of them could apply to God’s Church—spiritual Israel.
Ezekiel 33:25-26: “Wherefore say unto them, Thus says the Lord GOD; You eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood: and shall you possess the land? You stand upon your sword, you work abomination, and you defile every one his neighbor’s wife: and shall you possess the land?”
How could these extreme conditions possibly be referring to brethren in the Church?
Ezekiel 33:31 “And they come unto you as the people come, and they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their covetousness.”
Again, this is obviously speaking of physical Israelites sitting in the churches of the world as though they are before God—not of those sitting among His true people.
Chapter 34, Ezekiel 34:25 “And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.” No Church application fits this verse.
Ezekiel 34:26 “And I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.”
This speaks of physical water and physical blessings being showered on physical people—so obviously occurring in the Millennium!
Ezekiel 34:27 “And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them.”
Do any think that this passage is referencing spiritual trees, spiritual fruit and spiritual safety?
Now again notice Ezekiel 34:31, remembering that it is part of the Ezekiel Warning context: “And you My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men, and I am your God, says the Lord GOD.” Since we established that David will rule all Israel in the Millennium, this passage cannot possibly be a reference to the Church in the end time. Obviously, David has not yet been resurrected and, also obviously, those mentioned here “are men”—physical human beings.
Chapter 37 removes all doubt about who David (Ezekiel 37:21-25) will rule. This chapter was referenced throughout all WCG Feast sites in practically every Last Great Day sermon for decades, and was once well-known to the whole Church! It speaks of hundreds of millions, or probably billions, of Israelites being resurrected back to human life in the “valley of dry bones” during the Great White Throne Judgment.
This marvelous prophecy culminates at the end of 1,000 years of David leading the twelve tribes of Israel back to national prominence, readying the world for this great SECOND RESURRECTION event.
Why would anyone allow himself to reduce such an awesome, inspiring prophecy—heralding marvelous news for vast numbers—into a hodgepodge of ideas pointing to a lot of scattered, divided, doctrinally unsound “brethren” who will no longer follow even the basics of true Christianity?
Now notice John 7:35. It refers to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” as the “dispersed among the gentiles.” In John 10:16, Christ spoke of “other sheep [the house of Israel] not of this fold [the Palestinian Jews that He was speaking to]” who would one day be gathered into “one fold” under “one shepherd”—DAVID!
Finally, take a moment to read Matthew 10:6 and remove all lingering doubt about who are the sheep in Ezekiel 34 ALL and Jeremiah 23 ALL. Here is Christ’s commission to His disciples: “These twelve Jesus sent forth…saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles…But go rather to the lost sheep of the HOUSE OF ISRAEL” (Matt. 10:5-6).
There it is. The Bible has interpreted the Bible—and Ezekiel 34 ALL. Once again, what has been written here is far from new, unless it is new to your remembrance, since the entire Church once thoroughly understood these things.
Before concluding, consider this single statement from Mr. Armstrong to see exactly what he taught about who Ezekiel’s prophecy was describing (italics mine):
“Ezekiel’s message is for our day—a prophetic warning for America and Britain, now!”
“Always the true prophets and ministers of God have stood almost alone, and opposed by the overwhelming majority in Israel. That is Israel’s history of old. It is true today.”
“Ezekiel catalogs our sins—our customs and ways which seem right in our eyes but which are contrary to God’s laws and an abomination in HIS sight.”
“Our people today can’t see where these things make any difference! But Ezekiel says the preachers have deceived the people, and led them astray. They have condoned all these things, until the people have lost God’s pure TRUTH!”
“In the meantime, our job is to WARN America and Britain of what lies ahead! To shout the warning to come out of BABYLON (Rev. 18:4)—that those who heed may find God now—may come under His divine protection (Psalm 91 ALL), and by a true Spirit-filled life obedient to GOD’S WAYS and laws, be prepared to become a ruler or a teacher in Christ’s soon-coming glorious Kingdom!”
“Will Russia Invade America?”, PT, Nov. 1948
Again, we must ask, how could so many brethren have forgotten such basic—and enormous—prophecies, thinking themselves to be holding fast? How could so many go off into such completely ridiculous theories and twisted ideas, under the guise of “new understanding”?
Determine to keep it simple—and for the rest of the age! Do not allow the growing number of end-timeSEDUCERS (II Tim. 3:1, 13) to spiritualize away scriptures in the same way that Protestants do with so many of the Bible’s plain words and doctrines—the Sabbath, heaven, hell, baptism, unclean meats, Holy Day observance, commandment-keeping, when one is born again, and much more!
Do not allow false or lukewarm ministers and brethren to reduce great millennial prophecies abouttomorrow—describing God dealing with and healing vast millions of the lost sheep of the house of Israel—into messages supposedly about the Church today!
So many now twist Scripture to serve their own agenda and promote a following for themselves. Seeking additional tithes to elevate themselves and expand their influence, these men truly “make merchandise of the brethren.” Will you allow them to steal your crown—to move you around as so much merchandise on a shelf—convincing you to accept their prophetic “interpretations,” to abandon continuing God’s Work, to ignore Sabbath assembly, to steal God’s tithes and rebel against His government?
What path will YOU choose?
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