"Have you followed Him in the Garden of Gethsemane?"

"Without faith, it is impossible to please God". (Heb 11:6) Faith is trusting God's word as if our life depends on it, relying on the fact that the Father desperately wants to save each of us and has given the life of His greatest love to purchase us back from hell.

  

  Each lesson in faith tests our resolve to believe God's word. For example; by faithfully believing in the seven days of creation, by accepting His Sabbath as detailed in Genesis, we are given recreation with Him and receive the promised blessing "for God blessed the Sabbath Day and Hallowed it". But without this faith men limit the power of the words of God to be fulfilled in their lives thus losing the promised Sabbath blessing. Satan has done all he can in different churches to corrupt the truth through false doctrines so it is imperative in these last days to be corrected of our errors in order to restore faith. 

 We are commissioned to use God's righteous imagination as detailed in the Two Testaments to bring us closer to Him in truth so we can gain the greatest benefit from His promises. The clearer our understanding as He would have us see in perfect truth, the closer we are to seeing the Father through His Son's perfect faith. Any false doctrine inhibits the power of faith.

  Today when we buy an item that comes disassembled, the necessity of a universal language causes the manufacturers to use pictographs to show how to assemble the product. God used symbols in a similarly universal way. The ceremonial law uses symbols to show men in every language what is needed in true worship. 

  The Father has a temple in heaven, and the earthly temple, the meeting place of God with men on earth, was a model of the heavenly. Written allegorically and seen through ceremonies- laws- feasts- and prophecies, it is written just how God wants us to be reconciled with Him through the lessons of the Temple. The Temple was all fulfilled through the life of Christ, who teaches people how to commune with His Father through the temple of His body. The death and resurrection of Jesus literally opened the gates of heaven for us to commune with the Father through Him.

  Jesus wants to prepare us to meet with the Father by connecting our imagination to His. He painted a picture for us to imagine coming boldly before the throne of grace through His merit so our prayers can be heard by the Father. He taught us to pray "Our Father who art in heaven"... does anyone think for one minute that the Father does not know He's in heaven, or that you might mean another Omnipotent God? Jesus was not saying for us to include that as our prayer for God's hearing, it is meant to point our thoughts to the dwelling place of the Father in heaven; then to say "hallowed be thy name" not as flattery for the Father, but to lead us to think on the Holiness of God before approaching Him in prayer. Just as entering the court of a modern-day Monarch has its protocol, this is a pattern of humility and contrition to put us in the right frame of mind to be prepared to meet with God.


When we humbly follow God's protocols we are entering a higher sphere of faith. Just as Baptism by immersion is one of those protocols so is everyday prayer. All these righteous protocols are meant to lead our minds to the commitment of faith in Christ's death and resurrection.

About this level of prayer, Mrs. White, the servant of the Lord was inspired to write;

"The prayer of the contrite heart unlocks the treasure house of supplies and lays hold of omnipotent power. This kind of prayer enables the suppliant to understand what it means to lay hold of the strength of God and to make peace with him... It is our privilege and duty to bring the efficacy of the name of Christ into our petitions and use the very arguments that Christ has used on our behalf. Our prayers will then be in complete harmony with the will of God. Then it is that Christ clothes the contrite suppliant with his own priestly vestments, and the human petitioner approaches the altar holding the holy censer, from which ascends the incense of the fragrance of the merit of Christ’s righteousness." {ST June 18, 1896, par. 8}

  The biblical constant of typical symbols being anti-typically fulfilled is the greatest source of inspiration in how to interpret scripture. The Old Testament writers wrote what God had shown them prophetically, and the New Testament writers show how our Lord Jesus fulfilled the prophetic language. Thus we receive the primer to the code for use in other prophecies with the same symbolic language leading to a clearer understanding of the character of Jesus through His sacrifice, the fulfillment of the word.

  The biblical record precisely attests to all levels of this mystery. The way the Father gave the designs for the earthly temple, and scripture, written through men, the heavenly images, and language He used is the proof of His divine guidance for all who come after. His signature is on the pattern of the temple service, sacrifices, and the words of the prophets just as plainly as the tablets of stone for the Ten Commandments.

Jesus after his resurrection appeared to the two disheartened disciples on the road to Emmaus and said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? ”And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." (Luke 24; 25-27) He showed them how to decipher His written word by sharing with them that the primer to the code is Himself. As soon as they figured it out, He physically disappeared yet remained with them to tell the story and give evidence of the truth. The light was turned on and these receivers of the message ran back to the brethren to open the gate for them to see Jesus.

  Out of all of the symbolic ceremonies and prophetic language in scripture, there have remained few 'types' left for believers to attain the meaning of. For example, scripture proclaims in plain language that Jesus is the "lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world", and when proclaimed by John the Baptist this pointed to Jesus satisfying the selection of the 'Passover Lamb' without spot or blemish. On the evening of Passover three and a half years later as all the lambs were slain in the temple and the blood flowed to the Brook Kidron to the east, Jesus fulfilled that sacrifice while exiting the doorway to the upper room, saying "Now is the hour of the power of darkness", then knowing full well what was ahead He willingly walked into that darkness to save us. He exited the eastern gate of Eden to come to save Adam from the second death.

 Here is the lamb that was foreshadowed since the fall of Adam; slain. Here is the lamb whose blood was applied to the doorway of every accepting home in Egypt so the angel of death could pass over without killing them.

Jesus is the 'first fruit' of those from the dead. He went through it first so we don't have to. He's the 'unleavened bread' or manna from heaven. He is the chief cornerstone of the temple, the rock of our salvation: he is the High Priest, and all sacrifice points to Him. I hope you see where this is going.

 But there stands one sacrificial offering that till recently has had no great light given how it was fulfilled in the life of Christ. That image, that special sacrifice is the most mysterious in all of the scripture, its meaning, even its existence eluding the minds of most men for thousands of years.

  I will prayerfully attempt to show that Jesus not only fulfilled the sacrifice of the Red Heifer, but it happened at the exact spot on earth that was prophesied through the symbol of the Red Heifer. Also, Jesus not only died the physical death on the cross but He died the death that we all deserve, the one after the judgment; the second death, while anti-typically fulfilling the Red Heifer sacrifice in Gethsemane. The purpose of this blog is to explain in detail how the spiritual death of Jesus in Gethsemane fulfilled the sacrifice of the Red Heifer, and how we are to experience the anti-typical death of that sacrifice to cleanse us for the atonement. There is a hidden power in seeing the fulfillment of this sacrifice in the propitiation that has gone unnoticed even by the majority of scholars of the life of Christ.

  Though this writing is for all believers in Christ I will be using both scripture and the inspired words from our last-day prophet Mrs. Ellen G. White to illustrate what our Father showed me in a vision. May the Father of creation bless those who read this with a willing heart, in the name of Jesus, Amen.

“Have you followed him in the garden of Gethsemane? Have you seen the bloody sweat bedew the ground?”

 {RH July 12, 1892, par. 6}

 My name is James Tierney, a member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, and a brother in Christ. The evening of August 12th, 2009 was a beautiful night here in Elk River MN. There's this special place next to the lake I live near that I love to go to pray and think of the closing hours of Christ’s life. Over the years I've had wonderfully insightful and peaceful experiences there, prompting me to go more and more until it was a habit. But this was a special night. I felt a peace like no other surrounding me, and the tokens of forgiveness were so strong I couldn't resist so I took a deep breath and bowed to pray.

 The words of scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy help me to envision the scenes while in prayer seeking the truth. 

 In my meditation that evening I imagined Jesus coming into the Garden of Eden saying “Adam where are you” after Adam had betrayed Him and was hiding. Then after the pronouncement of the curse, the angels revealed to Adam the plan of salvation and encouraged him to participate so he wouldn't have to die eternally, as commanded, “In the day you eat of it you shall surely die”. 

Then I imagined Holy angels leading Adam out of the gate east of Eden, directing him to erect an altar and offer sacrifice, showing him what he had done to His creator as a result of his great sin. 

I also imagined Adam's sacrifice, accepted by fire coming down from heaven to devour it. 

"While man lived near God, the altars were lighted by fire from heaven... each brought an offering to the gate of the garden...  The lamb was laid upon the altar, and fire flashed from the shining sword of the cherubim guarding the way to the Tree of Life, and the sacrifice was consumed." {SDP 136.2}

 I was next impressed to imagine Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane east of Jerusalem as He "realized His separation from His Father in consequence of bearing man's sin” {2T 206.1}, another theme my mind had recently been drawn to prior to that night. Adam and Jesus were both outside the Eastern Gate that leads to the Tree of Life in the Garden. Adam had been expelled, and Jesus had literally left the heavenly gate to fulfill the promise to come down from heaven to save him.

Both Gardens were next to the EASTERN GATE, the earthly Garden of Gethsemane on this side, and the heavenly Garden of Eden on the other.

Adam could see the glory of heaven spilling through the gate that was right in front of him with the angel posted to keep him from entering. Jesus was looking up to the symbolic Eastern Gate of Jerusalem which is a model of the city in heaven, but the gates of heaven were closed to Him. The heavenly plan was fully in play, and all the ceremonial law was about to be fulfilled, with Jesus kneeling to pray to His Father for strength to endure the trial and test before Him.

While thinking on these things the Holy Spirit attested to and I fully realized at that moment that the angels that day had led Adam to have a 'Garden of Gethsemane experience' at the first altar ever erected outside of the Eastern Gate of Eden. Adam was to see what he had done to his creator and his posterity in detail by having an experience that would leave a lasting impression on him. 

“To Adam were revealed future important events, from his expulsion from Eden to the Flood, and onward to the first advent of Christ upon the earth.” {SR 48.2} 

 Adam experienced the propitiation in defined glory. He began hating himself, weeping bitterly for what he made the son of God go through. But after receiving the pronouncement of mercy the result was righteousness for Adam, his fig leaves and self-righteousness taken away, covered in the blood, made righteous, and given a new covering made of skin. Jesus had forgiven them and this made Adam hate sin. Adam was redeemed by faith in the Redeemer to come which led to his conforming to God's requirements. Since our future depends on our acknowledging and repenting of our past sins, doesn't it make sense to commune with God, having made all the preparations He asks for?

 
 Adam saw what he did to Jesus in his mind. Through Christ's word, given directly and through the Heavenly angels, Adam was shown the mind of Christ, seeing the pain he caused Jesus and his own earthly descendants through the righteous mind who would receive those sins upon His head. Adam was shown that Jesus would walk in his shoes before the wrath of the Father so he could be forgiven and go back to heaven through the gate he was escorted out of, the Eastern Gate of Eden.

 It also dawned on my heart that longing sympathy for Adam and his family is why Jesus loved to go as His custom was to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus wanted to rescue His friend Adam so badly, but first He had to atone for his resurrection. Jesus loved to commune with His Father at the same place that Adam honored his love for the Father in the name of the Son outside the Eastern "most glorious" Gate. This is why Jerusalem was ordained to be where it resided, to honor that place of worship, the gate to heaven.

 So many threads of thought came flooding my mind with perfect truth that night, like finding a piece of the puzzle that ties other large segments together. I had no idea what else there was to learn from these images from scripture, but I could sense the still small voice urging me on in this line of thought, to go further in this mental picture.

 A year after receiving this upcoming vision that led to this subsequent study I found this quote which totally supports the divine inspiration that leads to this conclusion. 

“The garden of Eden with its foul blot of disobedience is to be carefully studied and compared with the garden of Gethsemane where the world’s Redeemer suffered superhuman agony when the sins of the whole world were rolled upon Him.” {Ms 1, 1892}

 I had never read that quote before but felt drawn to these two subjects that night in 2009 as if lured in righteousness to find a deeper comprehension. A year later I found that perfect command by our prophet to prove that it is God's will that we compare these two events. I can tell you that finding this quote made me so excited.

 While envisioning these two premises; Adam outside of Eden’s Eastern Gate and Jesus in Gethsemane outside Jerusalem’s Eastern Gate in the same proximity as Adam's antediluvian altar, I was impressed that God wanted me to go further in this mental picture so I responded by praying in my heart “Please Father, show me more” and Immediately I had a vision.

 I was shown Jesus on His hands and knees in the Garden of Gethsemane covered from head to toe in bloody sweat, and simultaneously saw an all-Red Heifer superimposed over Him. I was privileged to be shown by our Father that Jesus fulfilled the mysterious Red Heifer sacrifice in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of His betrayal leading to the cross.

 Every one of the commanded sacrificial offerings such as the Passover lamb and the Atonement’s ‘goat for the Lord’ has major significance in the life and ministry of Christ. What a wonderful experience to be shown a forgotten sacrifice that illuminates an added dimension to the complete knowledge of the plan of salvation. 

 Untainted by the influence of men, God shows me things. I was led to the Sabbath, S.D.A. Church, and Spirit of Prophecy after being led by the Spirit, no man taught me, only God.

 "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness..." 2 Timothy 3:16

 Since ALL scripture is for our admonition and strength, shame on anyone trying to say this discovery is worthless, especially the leaders of our church. That would be like saying the discovery of what the Paschal lamb represented is worthless. Such ignorance would be laughed to scorn by the learned, but I am the receiver of their incredulous looks now. I pray for and praise God for the strength to endure.

 In the vision, Jesus was in a deep ravine, an immense pit, on His hands and knees looking up and west towards Jerusalem’s Eastern Gate as if looking to heaven, in the same proximity as the first altar erected by Adam outside of Eden’s eastern gate. “Large blood drops were forced from his pores moistening the sods of Gethsemane” and there was no immediate reply from the Father in answer to His prayers. The gates of heaven were closed to Him. He had left the heavenly city’s glorious Eastern Gate to cross into the darkness of Hades, the place of the spiritually dead, to save me from the sins of my past and to help me escape my sinful nature. He wants to motivate us to stop sinning in the future by conforming to and dwelling in His righteousness today. Jesus was taking my part in the second death, with evil angels pressing the guilt of all my sins upon Him as if He was resurrected after the Millenial Judgment in my place, with no help from the Father Holy Spirit, or heavenly angels. This was the longest, darkest watch; this is His glory, the Desire of Nations.

The glory of that moment cannot be expressed, the golden perfection radiating through Him covered in blood and the miracle birth all Red Heifer, the same. He did this for us down here in the pit, "cut off" from the Father. Try to imagine what it would be like to be resurrected without Christ, the mental anguish of seeing the glory through the walls of the New Jerusalem, cut off, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, then you begin to see what He went through.

 This vision was so perfectly clear I literally ran home to go online to see everything I could about the Red Heifer in both Scriptures and the Spirit of Prophecy. I knew nothing on this subject except the name which I had read in passing, with no comprehension of its fulfilled meaning.

 When I got home, while my computer was warming up I turned on my TV to what I thought was the Seventh Day Adventist TV channel ‘3 ABN’ but it turned out to be another Christian cable station. To my total astonishment, they were talking about the Red Heifer in the middle of a segment on rebuilding the temple in old Jerusalem! I had never even heard a sermon about it before and had never put any thought into the significance of this guilt offering/cleansing ceremony, but all of a sudden I was surrounded by the Red Heifer image. It was so imposing and so significant.

 The program that day was from a Judeo-Christian organization, and although they helped in my knowledge historically, in my heart God immediately showed me they are wrong about their interpretation of the prophetic future. The Earthly Temple in Jerusalem does not need to be rebuilt and they do not need to find another Red Heifer because it’s already been sacrificed in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is so shameful for the nominal Christian churches today, even of Hebrew origin, to contemplate rebuilding the Earthly Temple again, shame on them. The United States has been electing officials who both support Israel and structure US Policies with this false prophetic mindset! Scary! This idea is totally based off of superfluous prophetic interpretations from men who have no clue what it all means. False prophets.

 All I had been groomed for in my walk of faith was coming to a climax, warning and guiding my thoughts, leading me to perfect truth in answer to the inspired prayer of faith.

 The scriptures at first glance have very little to say about the Red Heifer but the Spirit of Prophecy shows where this message is hidden throughout scripture, expounding upon it and having a lot to say about her. This also fits with the ‘present truth’ element of this most mysterious of all the sacrificial offerings. Combined, there is less than half a page in scattered Scriptures about her but several chapters dedicated mainly to it in the Spirit of Prophecy.

“Some may look upon this slaying of the (Red) heifer as a meaningless ceremony, but it was done by the command of God and bears a deep significance that has not lost its application to the present time.” {4T 122.1}

 We will not only be comparing every major prophetically accepted writing on the subjects of Jesus in Gethsemane and the Red Heifer to show the parallels and similarities but also every biblical story proven associated with its allegorical images. It has been extremely satisfying in the Spirit to have an event of this magnitude guide me to and through the deepest mysteries that I could not comprehend before.

 You will see that many of the great biblical images are sewn in Gethsemane and very few have been there.

“On that very spot!”

 In the Red Heifer vision I received in 2009, Jesus was completely covered in Blood from His head to His toes, just as every hair on the Red Heifer was to be red, there was not one spot on Jesus not covered in His bloody sweat. I saw the Red Heifer in the same spot simultaneously inhabiting the same real estate. There was no room for misunderstanding. The message was clear that Jesus fulfilled the Red Heifer type in Gethsemane.

 The renowned Baptist reformer C.H. Spurgeon who was called the “Prince of Preachers” and quoted from many times by Mrs. Ellen White, wrote six in-depth sermons on the subject of the Garden of Gethsemane which I had never read until two years after the vision. Here is a sample of Elder Spurgeon’s sermon called 'Gethsemane'...

 “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). “We believe, then, that Christ did really sweat blood…If you will notice, he not only sweats blood, but it was in great drops; the blood coagulated and formed large masses. I cannot better express what is meant than by the word ‘gouts’ – big, heavy drops…when it is said ‘falling to the ground’ – it shows their copiousness so that they not only stood upon the surface and were sucked up by his garments till he became like the red heifer which was slaughtered on that very spot, but the drops fell to the ground. Here he stands unrivaled. He was a man in good health, only about thirty years of age…but the mental pressure…so forced his frame to an unnatural excitement that his pores sent forth great drops of blood which fell to the ground”.

 {The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, number 493, 1879.}

 Pastor Spurgeon here related the connection between the Red Heifer and Gethsemane. I would love to know how he knew this great truth. To have access to his library! God gave me the information directly to my mind for asking in His will, then sent me on a journey of discovery. Imagine what He wants to tell you.

 This sermon was wonderful to discover two years into my studies; it solidly proved to my heart that the vision was of no private interpretation. The fact that he said Jesus became “like the Red Heifer which was slaughtered on that very spot” while He was sweating blood, was total vindication against those who deny the vision.

 “This heifer was to be red, without spot, which was a symbol of blood… He chose to exchange all the riches, honor, and glory of Heaven for the poverty of humanity, and his station of high command for the horrors of Gethsemane… He became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, that by his baptism of suffering and blood, he might purify and redeem a guilty world.” {RH, January 9, 1883 par. 4}

At the Olive Press; Gethsemane

"In the Garden of Gethsemane Christ suffered in man’s stead, and the human nature of the Son of God staggered under the terrible horror of the guilt of sin until from His pale and quivering lips was forced the agonizing cry, “O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me”.... Human nature would then and there have died under the horror of the sense of sin, had not an angel from heaven strengthened Him to bear the agony... Christ was suffering the death that was pronounced upon the transgressors of God’s law. {AG 168.2}

 This scene caused me so much pain and shame, my immediate response was to hide in my heart in disgust with self-loathing. I cried and wanted to die to self completely. I was having a Garden of Gethsemane experience, and like Adam in his realization of being cast out of Eden by what He did to the Lord, It made me want to call on the rocks to fall on me and hide me from the shame. 

But even in His torment, while cut off from communion with the Father and covered in blood, Jesus came to my side and comforted me with an overwhelming peace just as he would have for the disciples had they been awake to understand. He took my shame and gave me His mercy so I could one day physically enter through the Eastern Gate of the New Jerusalem.

“For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a (Red) heifer sprinkling the unclean, 

sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” 

Hebrews 9:13, 14. 

 Then and there in the Garden, my sins were placed on Him and His righteousness on me by His touch. He held on to me with a righteous purpose; to transfer my sins on His head in mercy.

 Jesus did not encourage me to remain in perpetual self-loathing, He offered forgiveness for what I had done, and when I would not immediately accept, He rebuked me for holding onto the shame. He showed me the reason He chose to accept being cut off from the Father; it was so we, His people, could be with Him, so why would He not accept my repentance? He showed me the sympathy He has for me by letting me see myself through His eyes. He anxiously waits for us to come here to receive this cleansing so we can receive the release from sin. 

 There is a great need for seeing the nakedness of our shame until the cleansing, but after receiving forgiveness, to retain the shame is to deny the gift as if it were never received in the first place. That is what the cleansing is for, to remove the nakedness of our shame. First, we must be forgiven, and then we must forgive ourselves and walk in that light. Remembering the pain we caused Him so we don't hurt Him again, does motivate us to not want to go through sinning again, and this motivation grows, strengthened by the liberty of His forgiveness.

 Preparing to come to Gethsemane to drink the cup Jesus had said;

 “Fire I came to cast to the earth, and what will I if already it was kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I pressed till it may be completed!”

(Luke 12: 49-50, Young’s Literal Translation)

 The word ‘Gethsemane’ literally means ‘Olive Press’, the place where the olives were "beaten" for the oil, representing the Holy Spirit, that fueled the 7 lamps in the Holy Place, the light of which represents the testimony of the church after Christ.

 The only time the human nature of Jesus looked for sympathy was in Gethsemane. We are led to see how much He deserved sympathy, and this motivation brings us to the Garden if we are led. But when we get there, after seeing the pain we caused Him, He shows us that He came here for the express purpose of giving us His sympathy and to forgive us with complete empathy. He shows us how willing He is to forgive, willing to take the wrath that would have been ours upon Himself. He wanted me to feel the mercy He has for me. He led me to empathize with myself and others through Him. He says "Weep not for me... but for those who will not hear". 

 He doesn't want us to sympathize with Him like He is still in the Garden, (though His thoughts for us keep Him there in a sense) He has made it through that hell and come out victorious from the grave and this knowledge is to strengthen our faith in the promises of God, but He does want us to see what He accomplished for us because of His heavenly sympathy for us, nothing hidden.  

 After His hour of torment in Gethsemane, after the angel was sent to strengthen Him, when Jesus was following the cross still cut off from the Father heading to Golgotha out of the Sheep Gate He told the women gathered there not to lament for Him but for themselves and their children. But He added an end-time prophecy to His response as if seeing the future.

 "But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.  For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” Luke 23: 28-31

 Where else does it say in scripture that people will call for the rocks to fall on them and hide them from the wrath of the lamb? At the second coming, those who did not accept the Heavenly Sympathy of Christ to be cleansed in the blood will call on the rocks to hide them, but death will not be on their terms because the heavenly court has convened and the reward is with Him. 

 Mrs. White was shown that In the Garden of Gethsemane while carrying the weight of our sins when Jesus came to the disciples and found them sleeping it would have comforted Him if he knew they were praying for the strength to overcome sin. That is powerful. He wasn't selfishly saying "Hey, don't you care what I'm going through?" He wanted to know they appreciated what He was giving up for us so they would realize His wonderful condescension, to lead them to their shame and be broken in Spirit, then they could be completely forgiven for their own sake.

  This faith is the key to what we need to receive the answer to prayers in strength. It strengthens Jesus for us to be praying for the strength to overcome sin; do you see? Jesus is the head, and we the body. If Christ on earth can be strengthened by our prayers to overcome sin, then it behooves us to start praying don't you think? The strength comes in faith, which is our dependence upon the word of God to be accomplished. If faith is the substance of things hoped for then we better be grounded in the truth to know what to hope for before the test of our faith comes. 

 Jesus was terrified for the family of Adam more than for Himself. This is the true fear OF the Lord which motivated Him to go forward when all was darkness ahead. He did it for you.

 The emblem of seeing the nicest man who ever lived receiving my sins, the perfect love of the Father shining through, did have the effect of sympathizing for Him, but He turned it around and showed me how much He sympathizes for me, all filtered through His perspective. 

 Jesus asks "Do you know why I was forsaken?"

 Spiritually from that place, my heart enters through the gate now. When our prayers are in complete harmony with the will of God, "then it is that Christ clothes the contrite suppliant with his own priestly vestments, and the human petitioner approaches the altar holding the holy censer, from which ascends the incense of the fragrance of the merit of Christ's righteousness.” {ST, June 18, 1896, par. 8}

 In the vision, I was permitted to see exactly what the disciples had slept through during His night of torment in Gethsemane. Because the Apostles were sleeping they would have had nothing to later record of the event in scripture if God hadn't shown it to them when they were ready. By seeing it from His mind through the Holy Spirit God showed me what the disciples had slept through that Thursday night, what Mrs. White recorded clues in how to find in her writings.

 That spot was the first place Peter went after He denied His Master three times. He went and laid on the bloody ground in the garden and cried bitterly.

 "With blinding tears, he makes his way to the solitudes of the garden of Gethsemane, and there prostrates himself where he saw his Savior’s prostrate form when the bloody sweat was forced from his pores by his great agony. Peter remembers with remorse that he was asleep when Jesus prayed during those fearful hours. His proud heart breaks, and penitential tears moisten the sods so recently stained with the bloody sweat-drops of God’s dear Son. He left that garden a converted man. He was ready then to pity the tempted. He was humbled and could sympathize with the weak and erring. He could caution and warn the presumptuous, and was fully fitted to strengthen his brethren."—Testimonies for the Church 3:416. {GW92 401.1}

 The mind, faith & will of Jesus became connected to my mind for that moment and I could ask anything of Him right then. This has happened several times, and every time the prayers I am motivated to ask in the name of Jesus are always answered very powerfully. He was encouraging me to see how willing the Father is to answer prayers asked in His will, in His name. He wants these things for us, so we are to have faith that they will be answered. But very few have faith that He will answer, which means very few have His faith. The unadulterated simplistic truth of scripture sets the stage, and our realization of His presence brings us to appreciate this place. I realized I had to continually go there to confess every sin, to pray for Him to endure the holding of the Four Winds and help us to wake up; to ask for the things promised and be sprinkled with His bloody sweat as it were. To be forgiven for, and to hide from sin.

 ‘The psalmist, in his prayer, refers to this symbolic (red Heifer) ceremony when he says, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." The blood of Christ is efficacious but needs continually to be applied. If any have become selfish, and are withholding from the Lord that which they should cheerfully give to his service, then they need the blood of sprinkling thoroughly applied, consecrating them and all their possessions to God.’ 

{RH, January 9, 1883}

 But how do we acquire and apply it? Do you go to the store and buy it and sprinkle it upon yourself? Or do you go to where the blood was pressed out of Him in the Garden, where the disciples were asked to watch His torment unto prayer? Ask the Father to send a clean man to take a pinch of the ashes from the hell Jesus endured and mix it in the clean water.

Sprinkled with Clean Water

 “For I will take you out of the nations… I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." Ezekiel 36:24-27 

 Imagine back to the days of Jesus. If you came in contact with a dead human body you were immediately considered ceremonially unclean and could not partake in the Atonement or any other of the required ceremonies until the cleansing had taken place. It required that you pack your belongings and live in a tent 'outside the camp' of Jerusalem (or any town or village with a synagogue) and it was forbidden for you to re-enter until the cleansing. The ceremony to cleanse you and your family and all of your belongings took seven days. On the third and seventh day, a 'clean man' would, with the ashes of the burned Red Heifer mixed with pure water, cleanse all connected with you. After the cleansing, you were permitted back into the city!

“The body of the heifer was burned to ashes (Including the blood and stool) which signified a whole and ample sacrifice. The ashes were then gathered up by a person uncontaminated by contact with the dead and placed in a vessel containing water from a running stream (clean water). This clean and pure person then took a cedar stick with scarlet cloth and a bunch of hyssop and sprinkled the contents of the vessel upon the tent and the people assembled. This ceremony was repeated several times in order to be thorough and was done as purification from sin.” {4T 121.3}

 One of the greatest benefits of the Spirit of Prophecy is the historical accuracy of her writings. The above quote from 'Testimonies for the church; volume four' has the most amazing historically validated accounts of the Red Heifer ever recorded.

  I learn from scripture when I compare "line upon line, precept upon precept" [Isaiah 28: 10-13]. Similarly, I learn from the Spirit of Prophecy, God's inspired words through Ellen White, by comparing everything she wrote on the same subject. I pay particular attention to the bible quotes used in each lesson and when she says "God showed me" or Thus saith the Lord. Since "The Spirit of Prophecy is the testimony of Jesus" (Rev 19: 10) I look at the particulars of what God inspired Sister White to write with the same nuance and code as scriptures. I believe in the inspired words of Mrs. White because she harmonizes with scripture, amplifying, and never contradicting what we KNOW God wrote. Let the Bible be our guide.

 So as an example, look at this quote from The Desire of Ages. Notice the context is Jesus in Gethsemane. Then look at the biblical texts that she uses to make the inspired point.

 When Jesus came to them (In Gethsemane), He found them still sleeping. Again He had felt a longing for companionship, for some words from His disciples which would bring relief, and break the spell of darkness that well-nigh overpowered Him. But their eyes were heavy; “neither knew they what to answer Him.” His presence aroused them. They saw His face marked with the bloody sweat of agony and they were filled with fear. His anguish of mind they could not understand. “His visage was so marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men.” Isaiah 52:14. 

{DA 690.1}

 Notice that the Spirit of Prophecy is here equating this messianic prophecy of Isaiah, foretelling of the face and body of Jesus being contorted in agony not by the terrible scourging of the Romans, nor by the torment of the cross, but with what He went through in Gethsemane.

 Now read on from that prophecy she was inspired to quote in Isaiah. The very next verse says “So shall he sprinkle many nations”. The sprinkling of clean water we so desperately need to cleanse us from sin begins in the Garden of Gethsemane.

 This is how to be taught by the Spirit of God, "here a little, there a little".

 Now look at all of Isaiah 51 & 52 which amplifies this Gethsemane fulfillment by quotes such as Isaiah 51:3, “For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places, and he will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD…”. This shows us the place of meeting; the Garden of Gethsemane, where the altar of self-sacrifice is, is the gate to the Garden of Eden.

 Continuing Isaiah, 51:17 says “Awake, awake (sleeping disciples), stand up, O Jerusalem, which has drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling and wrung them out”. In fulfillment, Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 20:23 “Ye shall drink indeed of My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with”. This is speaking of the cup of the new and everlasting covenant, symbolically offered to the disciples in the upper room before He entered the Garden to drink it and seal the covenant.

 Over and over Isaiah talks of drinking the cup, first by Christ, then His people, then finally there in Isaiah 51: 22-23 it is taken out of the hand of God’s people and given to “them that afflict thee” unmixed with mercy.

The ‘Sign of Jonah’ mystery explained!

 “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”-Matthew 12:40.

 With all of the controversy circling the interpretation of Matthew 12 it would be appropriate that we first see what the founders of our faith believed on this subject to help discern the truth. 

 About Matthew 12, the heavenly ordained Elder James White said;

“The ‘earth’ in this case must mean the powers of earth, or the power and control of wicked men, and the Devil… Thus, Jesus was in the heart of the earth, or controlled and held by the powers of earth and hell, from the time that he was betrayed into the hands of sinners, until he arose from the dead, in triumph and victory. Jesus was as much in the heart of the earth when before Pilate, and on the cross, as he was while in Joseph’s tomb. With this view, all the Scripture testimony will harmonize.” {PTJW December, 1849, Art. 5, p. 39.5}

 On the evening of His last supper, Jesus left the Eastern Gate and crossed the Brook Kidron beginning the three days and three nights ‘sign of Jonah’. This view gives a perfect comprehension of the spiritual and physical death that Jesus suffered. Only when counting the days from the time Jesus entered the Garden on Thursday evening does His hell come fully to three days and three nights. Perfectly fulfilled, this is the true understanding of the Sign of Jonah. It is a sign that would be rediscovered in the last days, showing the people who discover it and the world, it is from God.

Thursday Evening (Last supper/ Gethsemane) ~ Friday Morning; (judgment hall) the first day.

Friday Evening (The Cross) ~ Saturday Morning; (the tomb) the Second day.

Saturday Evening (the tomb) ~ Sunday Morning; (resurrection) the third day.

 In the vision, I could see Jesus willingly accept my sins and they were what was causing His shame. So innocent, He was being pressed by immense pressure like Jonah in the belly of the great fish at the bottom of the deepest ocean and I was permitted to view this. The pressure was so immense that it forced “great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Luke 22:44)

 When I later heard a sermon and learned that the name ‘Jonah’ is translated as ‘Dove’, the Spirit of remembrance led my mind immediately to the Great Controversy where it is said that in the Garden of Gethsemane after the Messiah’s hour of torment after the angel strengthened Him, “a dove-like form overshadowed Him” {DA 694.5} just as it did at his baptism of water in the Jordan! I knew then by the light of the Holy Spirit that God had proven to me this great truth. Jesus had His baptism of blood/ fire in the Garden of Gethsemane and this begins the 3 days and nights sign of Jonah.

Two Baptisms

 Just before Jesus was baptized by water in the Jordan, John the Baptist said "I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I... He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" {Matthew 3:11}. Then Jesus reveals Himself to the people, and after He came out of His watery mock grave "the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove upon Him, and a voice came out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee, I am well pleased." {Luke 3:22}

Three and a half years later, Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane...

 “The words fall tremblingly from the pale lips of Jesus, "O My Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, Thy will be done." He accepts His baptism of blood that through Him perishing millions may gain everlasting life. He has left the courts of heaven, where all is purity, happiness, and glory, to save the one lost sheep, the one world that has fallen by transgression. And He will not turn from His mission. He will become the propitiation of a race that has willed to sin. The Majesty of heaven was as one bewildered with agony. No human being could endure such suffering, but Christ had contemplated the struggle. He had said to His disciples, "I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it is accomplished!" Now is the "hour, and the power of darkness.” Manuscript 42, 1897.

  At the end of this prophetic writing, Mrs. White was inspired to quote the end of Luke 12:49. But look at that whole verse including before what is here quoted, it amplifies even more of what is being said. Jesus said "I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!” Doesn't this imply that the baptism Jesus first had to go through in Gethsemane has something to do with the cleansing “FIRE” or the second baptism that every true believer and Adventist Pastor has been praying for?

 Remember; when the law was spoken by God at Sinai tongues of fire wrote the words on stone, then at Pentecost, the disciples had tongues of fire on their foreheads. These images are very important.

  There were two silver basins in the inner court of the temple for ‘the Feast of Tabernacles. A silver basin for water, and one for wine, and they joined through a silver pipe. The wine and water mingled together in that pipe that flowed to the Kidron on the east. These both represent the two baptisms of Jesus; His baptism of water at the Jordan, and His baptism of blood in Gethsemane.

 "This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one." {1 John 5: 6-8}

 It's simple really, the Church cannot be Baptized with the 2nd baptism, the baptism of fire/ Holy Spirit, without the Baptism of blood Jesus went through in The Garden.

 In the Service of the Red Heifer, they cut the throat first then flung some of the blood directly from the wound towards the temple to the west seven times, then lit the fire, then collected the ashes to be mixed with clean water and applied to the people for cleansing.

 Jesus had His baptism of blood in the Garden looking to heaven, begging for support but instead received the wrath of God that would have destroyed every single person who ever lived at the second resurrection. So many bible symbols come together here. The Baptism of fire that John said Jesus would give us is His baptism of blood in the Garden, literally just down the hill below where the Red Heifer was burned blood and all. Imagine some of the ashes of His hell mingled with pure water to sprinkle you and your family. It's a powerful metaphor for use in Prayerful righteous imagination. God doesn't mind small particulars of your imagination being off as long as you are willing to grow and learn not holding on to anything more than His word.

 In perfect contrast to His first baptism, after Jesus was baptized in the Garden...

 "No traces of His recent agony were visible as Jesus stepped forth to meet His betrayer. Standing in advance of His disciples He said, “Who seek ye?” They answered, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus replied, “I am He.” As these words were spoken, the angel who had lately ministered to Jesus moved between Him and the mob. A divine light illuminated the Saviour’s face, and a dove-like form overshadowed Him. In the presence of this divine glory, the murderous throng could not stand for a moment. They staggered back. Priests, elders, soldiers, and even Judas, fell as dead men to the ground. {DA 694.5}

 In case you didn't catch it, here is the established pattern...

 At Jesus' baptism of water, John tells the thousands of his followers looking for the Messiah that he baptizes with water, but the greater one will baptize with "The Holy Spirit and Fire". Jesus then reveals Himself and John verifies that Jesus is the Sacrifice of God, then after coming out of His watery mock grave, the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus in the form of a dove, and the Father's voice is heard "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased".

 At His baptism of blood in the garden, no one else is there. Every one of His friends is nodding off or sleeping, He's alone until the angel is sent. There is wrath instead of peace and it looks as if He is forsaken. Then the sign of the dove appears as a token of His accepted sacrifice when the mob comes to take Him away, but the Father's voice is not heard. Silence from heaven.

 There are very few people who will completely conform to the will of God and find this place. The 144,000 will as will be shown later. They will live and testify in the darkest moment of earth's existence then they will stand before the wrath of the Father without an intercessor at the close of probation. This is synonymous with Jesus in the Garden. This is how they drink the cup and receive the baptism of blood to learn the song of the Lamb.

Hades: our second death

“Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin, bringing the Father’s wrath upon Him as man’s substitute that made the cup He drank so bitter, and broke the heart of the Son of God." {DA 753.2}

 The second death that Jesus suffered doesn't mean Jesus died twice, He died the death that we will if resurrected outside of the Holy City after the thousand years of judgment. It would have been our second death if Jesus didn't do it for us. Just recently I found the perfect sermon that illustrates this from Joe Crews the founder of Amazing Facts. From his sermon and booklet;

"The High Cost of the Cross".

 "The question is; how does Christ's death make it possible for Him to forgive sin? This brings us to the crux of all we have learned so far. It was necessary for Jesus to suffer the second death in order to acquire the power to forgive. The germ of all forgiveness is rooted in an act of substitution. Whoever forgives another person must actually substitute himself for the one he forgives, and be willing to suffer the consequences of the wrong done... This illustration brings us very close to the heart of the atonement.

 The punishment for sin is not the first death, but the second death. That is why the protracted agony of Jesus on the cross was totally unlike any other death. Thousands of criminals were crucified in the same physical way that Christ was nailed to the cross, but they suffered only the bodily pain of the first death. He experienced the awful condemnation and separation from God that the vilest of sinners will feel in the lake of fire. His sensitive nature was traumatized by sharing vicariously the guilt of foul rapes, murders, and atrocities. He became sin in order to allow the full wrath of the law to fall upon Him in exactly the same way it would fall upon the lost.

 In no other way can we explain the mysterious anguish of spirit which surrounded our Savior in His closing hours of life. From the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus bore the accumulated sins of mankind on His breaking heart. Not one ray of light was permitted to penetrate the blanket of total alienation from His Father in heaven. In order to take the place of guilty sinners and to provide forgiveness, there could be no difference in their penalty and His penalty.

 Let no one suggest that the Father did not suffer equally with His Son. The divine forbearance of God in allowing wicked men to torture His Son to death is the ultimate proof that He loves us with the same love that He loved Jesus."

 Regarding this second death that Christ suffered for us, Acts 2: 29; 35 says… “Brethren, concerning the patriarch David… he spoke concerning the rising again of the Christ, that his soul was not left to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption." This sermon of Peters was just seconds after the early rain outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, which in itself is proof that it is a revelation of present truth. Peter was speaking with the same voice that the Holy Spirit originally prophesied through David and Joel.

 Notice that the soul of Jesus “was not left to Hades, NOR did His flesh see corruption”, this signifies two distinctly different elements of His death.

 Taken directly from Strong’s concordance we find; Hadēs; OUTLINE OF BIBLICAL USAGE; 1) name Hades or Pluto, the god of the lower regions 2) Orcus, the nether world, the realm of the dead. 3) Later use of this word: the grave, death, hell.

 According to Strong’s concordance, the word Hades was not used for the word grave until after the bible was written! So “left to Hades” here must represent Christ before he went to the grave, being tormented by the god of this world Satan, in the realm of the dead fallen earth.

 Jesus was suffering the Second death, cut off from communion with His Father with the sins of the world upon His head. Imagine the wrath of Satan after He's been imprisoned by darkness and cold for a thousand years and see why Jesus fears for those who will be lost to the second resurrection. This is the real fear OF the Lord because He proved that He didn't fear for Himself but for us.

 The very next sentence in Acts, “NOR did His flesh see corruption”, is the next phase in the Death of Christ. "Corruption in the New Testament; that destruction which is affected by the decay of the body after death..."

 What Peter and David are prophesying here is that God the Father would not leave Jesus the Son outside of the Heavenly City suffering our second death in the land of the dead without communication with Him forever, nor would He let His Son's body see decay or corruption during His stay in the grave, His body did not begin to stink.

 Why was Peter prompted by the Holy Spirit to quote this prophecy at the exact moment Jesus was ordained as High Priest in heaven by the hand of the Father on Pentecost? Why did these words come flowing from his mouth the very instant the Holy Spirit was poured out in strength and the tongues of fire wrote the law upon their hearts? It is because the fulfillment of these prophecies is part of the Sign of Jonah which leads to a more perfect understanding of the love of Christ and His Father for us. It shows us the path to heaven where He is even now.

 Since this was one of the first prophetic texts quoted by the Holy Spirit in the early rain message does it not make sense that it would be connected to the latter rain message?

The Valley of Jehoshaphat

 Therein Acts chapter 2 Peter also quotes an end-time prophecy from the Old Testament book of Joel which states “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit…before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.” Joel 2: 28-29

 Peter, empowered by God, quoted this much of Joel 2 on the day of Pentecost, but continue on. The next verse in Joel 3:1-2 says "for behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel…”

  Since there obviously is no need for pleading after probation closes, and since the main context of the second and third chapters of Joel is about the second coming of the Lord, this must refer to the time of the end just before probation closes.

 “The Valley of Jehoshaphat” here described is the deep valley next to Jerusalem’s Eastern Gate. It was also called the Kidron Valley or Valley of the Shadow of Death. There was a bridge called the ‘bridge of the Red Heifer’ which crossed that valley from Jerusalem's Eastern Gate to the top of Mount of Olives. The Bridge crossed the brook Kidron which flowed from north of Jerusalem around to the east and down that deep abyss called the Valley of Jehoshaphat all the way south to the “Dead Sea”. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on Earth where Sodom and Gomorrah had been destroyed. In the valley under that bridge was the terraced garden called Gethsemane.

 1 Kings 2: 37, “The day you leave and cross the Kidron Valley, you can be sure you will die; your blood will be on your own head."

 This is an allegorical prophecy. It was symbolically fulfilled three years later against the one forgiven for treason, Shimei. He left the security of the city after being commanded not to by God through King Solomon. This was also fulfilled in Judas who didn't come from the "Eastern Gate" with the other apostles; he crossed the valley with the mob to arrest Jesus. One of the main attributes of the second death is your blood being on your own head, sweating blood. So this allegory applies to every reprobate.

 The Holy Spirit wants us to see how important what happened in that valley was, over that brook, under that bridge, in that terraced garden, In the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

Jeremiah 31:40, “The whole valley where dead bodies and ashes are thrown, and all the terraces out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the corner of the Horse Gate, will be holy to the LORD. The city will never again be uprooted or demolished”.

 To the right of the picture above, look at the foot of the bridge on the terrace. The Garden of Gethsemane and the area outside of this most glorious gate of Jerusalem on the east is the holiest spot on earth and will remain when the earth is made new. It will remain forever!

Jesus had to cross that Valley and the Brook Kidron, meaning the place of separation or darkness, to get to Gethsemane. This brook is the place of propitiation where Jesus had made up His mind to carry the weight of the world’s sins. He left the upper room after His last supper and said “Now is the hour of the power of darkness” and then He crossed the brook called 'darkness' by His own decision. When next He came back to Jerusalem it was at the hands of sinners.

 No claim has been made that this gathering in the “valley of Jehoshaphat” of Joel 2 has been ultimately fulfilled because the “great” day of the Lord has not come yet. There was a fulfillment in the time of Joel and it was fulfilled when Jesus was in Gethsemane, but the greatest part of that prophecy is attributed to His people in the last days.

 This is the message for the wicked and adulterous generation, the sign of Jonah. He is pleading for us, this wicked generation, and He says if we will not gather with Him in the garden to place our sins upon His head, then we will literally stand in the valley of the shadow of death at the second resurrection with our own sins upon our own heads. That those in the second resurrection, where there are weeping and gnashing of teeth, will sweat blood themselves when God frowns on them, then finally fire from heaven will mercifully consume them after the set time, extinguishing the pain of their shame and renewing the earth.

 We go there in prayer, imagining the event with everything we have been given so far, prayerfully asking the Father to have mercy on us for what we did to the heart of Christ and realize the anguish He still feels for us.

 “The day of the Lord” is an expression used by Joel as a time of divine retribution, imminent and present in his own day. But his prophetic eye also took in that “great day of the Lord” when the nations of the earth are to assemble in “the valley of Jehoshaphat,” and where they will be destroyed by God's “mighty ones.” This is not the literal valley next to earthly Jerusalem but worldwide spiritually speaking. For these awful times, the assurance is granted that “the Lord will be the hope of His people.” Joel 3:16.

 This prophecy closes with a picture of the peaceful scenes of the new earth, when God's people, cleansed and purified, shall “dwell forever … from generation to generation.”

The Bridge of the Red Heifer: The Stairway to heaven

 In Mrs. White’s very first vision she wrote;

“While I was praying at the family altar, the Holy Ghost fell upon me, and I seemed to be rising higher and higher, far above the dark world. I turned to look for the Advent people in the world, but could not find them, when a voice said to me, "Look again and look a little higher." At this, I raised my eyes and saw a straight and narrow path, cast up high above the world. On this path, the Advent people were traveling to the city, which was at the farther end of the path. They had a bright light set up behind them at the beginning of the path, which an angel told me was the "midnight cry." [See illustration below: notice the fire of the Miphkad altar, where the bright light emanates at the beginning of the path] This light shone all along the path, and gave light for their feet; so that they might not stumble…They heard the voice of God tell them the day and the hour… The living saints, 144,000 in number, knew and understood the voice, while the wicked thought it was thunder and an earthquake. When God spoke the time, He poured upon us the Holy Ghost, and our faces began to light up and shine with the glory of God, as Moses did when he came down from Mount Sinai.” {EW 14.1}

 Notice how the 144,000 are introduced at the end of this emblem of the path high and lifted up heading to the city at the end of the path, and also how this message is connected to the loud cry? Please always remember that the Altar of the Red Heifer was called the Miphkad altar, meaning “the place of numbering”.

 The path that is ‘cast high above the world” is the Bridge of the Red Heifer which was destroyed by Rome in 70 AD. It's the path that the 144,000 will follow with the heavenly city at its end. This message is “the repairing of the breach”.

  At the ‘foundation' of the bridge of the Red Heifer on the east side of the Brook Kedron is the Garden of Gethsemane where our LORD was “cut off, but not for Himself” {Daniel 9:26}. There He died the second death for us. The valley that the bridge crossed is called The Kidron, Kedron, or Cedron Valley, also known as the ‘valley of the Shadow of Death’ and the ‘Valley of Jehoshaphat’.

The ashes of the sacrifices that were burned at the brazen altar in the court of the temple were thrown into the valley of the bones. The reason for the bridge in the first place was so no defilement would occur while administering the Red Heifer service. If the priest or clean man touched a bone during the service the offering would not be accepted.

 This was the same bridge that the Scapegoat was led by the ‘strong man’ to the wilderness of forgetfulness. The strong man represents the 144,000 during the last days empowered by the latter rain and filled with the mystery of Godliness, Christ in us the hope of glory.

 But it is not only the Bridge that is significant in this discovery. At the end of the Bridge of the Red Heifer was an altar and a laver. Located “Outside the camp” to the east, the Miphkad altar on top of Mt Olives was the only altar outside of the Holy Precinct used in any part of the temple service. 

 Since the Laver in the Temple Court is generally recognized by every Adventist Scholar as symbolizing Christ's earthly baptism with water which symbolizes His resurrection, then having another Laver at the Miphkad altar above Gethsemane, to cleanse the priest after he flung the blood towards the temple seven times, is an obvious reference to the second baptism.

 Next to this altar on the top of Mt. Olives is where Jesus cried as He came to Jerusalem on the donkey’s colt during His triumphal entry, but most importantly it is also where He ascended to heaven. The ascension of Jesus is the bridge of the Red Heifer reaching from Earth's Mt. Olives to Heaven's Eastern Gate.

“We have an altar… outside the camp”

 

Hebrews 13:10-13 “We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. The high priest carries the blood… into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.”

 The Miphkad altar on Mount Olives (see illustration) was the only Altar outside the “gate” of Jerusalem used for any part of the temple service. Not only is it where the Red Heifer was sacrificed, it was where the body of the 'goat for the Lord' in the atonement and all unburned sacrifices from the temple were burned.

 This altar is also in the same spot as the gate to the Garden of Gethsemane which was just down the hill from the altar. When the priest flung the blood of the Red Heifer in the direction of the temple seven times, the blood would land on Gethsemane, just as Jesus’ blood landed there that night in 31 AD.

 Some Jewish scholars state that this sacrifice occurred seven times after Ezra, ten times since Moses, the last time being in 70 AD just before the Romans destroyed both the Earthly Temple and the Bridge of the Red Heifer. This can’t be a coincidence. The priest flung the blood seven times towards the temple, equivocally there were seven times that the sacrifice took place since the return from Babylonian captivity and the rebuilding of the Temple!

 The last time the Red Heifer was sacrificed by the Temple priests in 70 AD didn't count because the literal Red Heifer was Jesus in the Garden 39 years earlier in 31 AD. He was the seventh and perfect Red Heifer sacrifice. When the priests continued the sacrificial system after the veil was torn the last straw was that mock Red Heifer sacrifice.

Other scholars do not count the sacrifice in 70 AD and claim the tenth Red Heifer will usher in the "messianic era". If they only knew how right they are, but only that He has already come.

God put an end to the whole economy by letting Rome horribly destroy their system of worship days later. This is why I warn those who want to find a Red Heifer today. Repent for your own good.

 “Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.” This is what I experienced. I met with Jesus in the Garden to witness what the disciples slumbered or slept through. I witnessed my sins being transferred to the mind of Christ and His righteousness transferred to me. I experienced the Propitiation. Then He took my sins to the cross to die with them. We get sprinkled all along the path of the Red Heifer.

 Why would Paul say to go to Him outside the camp and bear His disgrace after He had already ascended to heaven? It's not literally to earthly Gethsemane that we go to be cleansed; it is imagining the hell Jesus went through in Gethsemane that cleanses us.

"At the altar of self-sacrifice, the appointed place of meeting between God and the soul, we receive from the hand of God the celestial torch which searches the heart, revealing the need of an abiding Christ". {Review and Herald, Jan. 31, 1907}. 

 The Miphkad Altar is His "altar of self-sacrifice", where Jesus took our sins upon Himself. He became sin by entering into our hearts in the Garden.

 “…Separation from His Father, the punishment for transgression and sin, was to fall upon Him in order to magnify God's law and testify to its immutability. And this was to settle forever the controversy between the Prince of God and Satan in regard to the changeless character of that law”.

EGW (2nd death)

The secret spring of the water of life

 Mrs. White had a dream about a secret spring of water that flowed from the bottom of a stream that was crossed by a bridge. She doesn't mention where this bridge is or even give it a name, as if it is supposed to be discovered by inspired believers who, like her, would be led to it. This spring had “Living Water” that flowed from it, as she entitled the dream…

"Living Water"; “…as we walked on, we came to a bridge over a stream of water when he abruptly left me and plunged out of sight into the water. I was frightened; but he soon arose, holding in his hand a glass of sparkling water. He drank it, saying, "This water cures all manner of diseases." He plunged in again out of sight, brought up another glass of clear water, and as he held it up repeated the same words. I felt sad that he did not offer me some of the water. He said: "There is a secret spring in the bottom of this river which cures all manner of diseases, all who obtain it must plunge at a venture, no one can obtain it for another, each must plunge for it himself." As he drank the glass of water, I looked at his countenance. His complexion was fair and natural. He seemed to possess health and vigor. When I awoke, all my fears were dispelled…” CET Pg. 125

 Well, friends if this water is so important why would she not tell us where it is, or even the name of the bridge or stream? It is obvious that a very important message is connected to this overlooked dream of hers and I know without a shadow of a doubt I have been led to discover it “…for the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water…" Revelation 7:17.

 The Prophets Jeremiah and Zechariah both prophesied about the ‘Living Water’ is the word of the LORD, but there are only TWO places in scripture that Jesus spoke directly about the living water. The first was when He was talking to the Samaritan woman at the well and the last time was at the Feast of Tabernacles in His last year of earthly ministry. This quote from the Spirit of Prophecy mentions both of these incidents AND talks about the brook where the spring of healing water is. It’s in the chapter called…

‘The Feast of Tabernacles’…

“The feast lasted one week, and during all that time the temple was a festal scene of great rejoicing. There was the pomp of the sacrificial ceremonies; and the sound of music, mingled with hosannas, made the place jubilant. At the first dawn of day, the priests sounded a long, shrill blast upon their silver trumpets; and the answering trumpets, and the glad shouts of the people from their booths, echoing over hill and valley, welcomed the festal day. Then the priest dipped from the flowing waters of the Kedron a flagon of water, and, lifting it on high, while the trumpets were sounding, he ascended the broad steps of the temple, keeping time with the music with slow and measured tread, chanting meanwhile: "Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem!" He bore the flagon to the altar which occupied a central position in the temple court. Here were two silver basins, with a priest standing at each one. The flagon of water was poured into one basin, and a flagon of wine into the other, and the contents of both flowed into a pipe that communicated with the Kedron, and was conducted to the Dead Sea. This display of the consecrated water represented the fountain that flowed from the rock to refresh the Hebrews in the wilderness. Then the jubilant strains rang forth: "The Lord Jehovah is my strength and song;" "Therefore with joy shall we draw water out of the wells of salvation!"…

...The feast was drawing to a close. The morning of the last, crowning day found the people wearied from the long season of festivity. Suddenly Jesus lifted up his voice in tones that rang through the courts of the temple: "If any man thirst let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." The condition of the people made this appeal very forcible. They had been engaged in a continued scene of pomp and festivity, their eyes had been dazzled with light and color, and their ears regaled with the richest music; but there had been nothing to meet the wants of the spirit, nothing to satisfy the thirst of the soul for that which perishes not. Jesus invited them to come and drink of the fountain of life, of that which should be in them a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” The priest had that morning performed the imposing ceremony which represented the smiting of the rock in the wilderness and the issuing therefrom of the water. That rock was a figure of Christ. His words were the water of life. As Jesus spoke thus to the people, their hearts thrilled with a strange awe, and many were ready to exclaim, with the woman of Samaria, "Give me of this water, that I thirst not."

{Spirit of Prophecy Vol. 2 345-6}

 The Brook Kedron is where the waters were taken from and mingled with the wine through the silver pipe, and then re-deposited. The priest had to exit and enter the Eastern Gate of Jerusalem to get to the place where the water was taken from the Brook. This place where the water was taken is the exact same spot Jesus crossed the Brook Kedron to enter into the Garden of Gethsemane immediately beneath ‘the Bridge of the Red Heifer’.

 The bridge Mrs. White had the dream about where the spring of living water flowed is the Bridge of the Red Heifer. We need to see the messages connected to Gethsemane and the Red Heifer to discover the spring of "living water". Then we can sing "The Lord Jehovah is my strength and song; therefore with joy shall we draw water out of the wells of salvation!" Just as they did at the feast of Tabernacles.

“Jesus with his disciples now left the upper chamber and crossed the brook Kedron. Sorrow and anguish again pressed heavily upon his heart…It was not dread of the physical suffering he was soon to endure that brought this agony upon the Son of God. He was enduring the penalty of man's transgression and shuddering beneath the Father's frown. He must not call his divinity to his aid, but as a man, he must bear the consequences of man's sin and the Creator's displeasure toward his disobedient subjects. As he felt his unity with the Father broken up, he feared that his human nature would be unable to endure the coming conflict with the prince of the power of darkness; and in that case, the human race would be irrecoverably lost, Satan would be victor, and the earth would be his kingdom. The sins of the world weighed heavily upon the Savior, and bowed him to the earth, and the Father's anger in consequence of that sin seemed crushing out his life… Having made the decision and reached the final crisis, he fell in a dying condition to the earth from which he had partially risen. Where now were his disciples, to place their hands tenderly beneath the head of their fainting Master, and bathe that brow, marred indeed more than the sons of men? The Savior trod the winepress alone, and of all the people there was none with him. And yet he was not alone. He had said, "I and my Father are one." God suffered with his Son. Man cannot comprehend the sacrifice made by the infinite God in giving up his Son to reproach, agony, and death. This is the evidence of the Father's boundless love to man…The angels who did Christ's will in Heaven were anxious to comfort him, but it was beyond their power to alleviate his sorrow. They had never felt the sins of a ruined world, and they beheld with astonishment the object of their adoration subject to grief beyond all expression. Though the disciples had failed to sympathize with their Lord in the trying hour of his conflict, all of Heaven was full of sympathy and waiting for the result with painful interest. When it was finally determined, an angel was sent from the throne of God to minister unto the stricken Redeemer… The disciples were suddenly aroused from their slumber by a bright light shining upon and around the Son of God. They started up in amazement and beheld a heavenly being, clothed in garments of light, bending over their prostrate Master. With his right hand, he lifted the head of the divine sufferer upon his bosom, and with his left hand, he pointed toward Heaven. His voice was like the sweetest music, as he uttered soothing words presenting to the mind of Christ the grand results of the victory he had gained over the strong and wily foe. Christ was victor over Satan; and, as the result of his triumph, millions were to be victors with him in his glorified kingdom.

{5Red 21.1}

 Wait a minute? It was in Gethsemane that Jesus won the battle against Satan? Praise God. The Spirit of Prophecy says Jesus “accepted His baptism of Blood” in Gethsemane and, the sign of the Dove overshadowed Him immediately after that terrible hour just as it had at His Baptism of water in the Jordan.

 Dear Brothers and Sisters, there is one thing that sets my hair on end in this discovery. The Brook Kidron where the spring of living water is, the brook called darkness that Jesus crossed as He was giving Himself over to endure hell for us, would have been flowing with blood that Passover evening as the Lambs were slain in the temple and their blood was conducted to the Kidron through the silver pipes. That blood gushed out like wine from the wine vat into the brook, causing its banks to overflow.

 Imagine diving to the bottom of that stream filled with blood and coming up with a glass of sparkling clear living water! All of these prophecies are special images from God to see what Jesus endured for us.

What is the ‘Garden of Gethsemane Experience’?

 "It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confidence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued with His spirit."

{DA 83.4}

 The Temple could not be rebuilt unless God gave the sign of the birth of an all-red heifer. This is why those who want to rebuild the earthly Jerusalem temple are looking for an all-red heifer as a sign to rebuild it. The people could then be cleansed and begin the construction. We are now being rebuilt into the temple of God. 1 Peter 2:5 “ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

 This Red Heifer message gives us the sanctifying influence that will bring the true remnant together. It points us to the water of life. It is the Baptism of blood, the cup of the new and everlasting covenant.

 This propitiation is exactly like the Old Testament sacrificial system. First, you would bring the sacrifice to the eastern vale of the temple place your hands on the head of the sacrifice and confess your sins; which is the garden, THEN you cut the throat; which is His death on the cross.

 I pray that others will experience seeing Jesus die the second death for their sins in the Garden. To “watch” His suffering like He’s right there and your confessed sins are placed on His head. He did it willingly even though He could not see past it. It is then that He carries the sins to the cross and dies with them.

“Could mortals have viewed the amazement of the angelic host as in silent grief they watched the Father separating His beams of light, love, and glory from His beloved Son, they would better understand how offensive in His sight sin is”.

{DA 693.2}

“It is a fearful thing for the unrepentant sinner to fall into the hands of the living God. This is proved by the history of the destruction of the old world by a flood, and by the record of the fire which fell from heaven and destroyed the inhabitants of Sodom. But never was this proved to so great an extent as in the agony of Christ, the Son of the infinite God, when He bore the wrath of God for a sinful world. It was in consequence of sin, the transgression of God's law, that the Garden of Gethsemane has become preeminently the place of suffering in a sinful world. No sorrow, no agony, can measure with that which was endured by the Son of God.”

{Gethsemane}

“Terrible was the temptation to let the human race bear the consequences of its own guilt, while He stood innocent before God. If He could only know that His disciples understood and appreciated this, He would be strengthened.

{DA 687.3}

 Can anyone remember the last time someone told you to pray for the pain Jesus feels because of the ugliness of this world right now? He FEELS our pain because He dwells IN us when we accept Him. He wants us to go to the Garden so He can show us His mercy.

 If as stated above, understanding and appreciating Christ’s temptation to let the human race bear the consequences of its own guilt while He stood completely innocent was the longing of His soul that night, it was His desire, why would it not be now? He wants us to see how much He relinquished and went through for us so we can see how willingly He wanted to save us. This brings us to His heart. It's His love song for us.

 Christ in the Garden of Affliction in His hour of darkness was the spark plug of Christianity; it’s what turned Jesus into the serpent that was raised on the pole in the wilderness. It’s the moment, the point of propitiation, the transference of our sins upon His head. It’s where Christ walks in our shoes before the wrath of God as if resurrected in the second resurrection in our place, and He did it willingly.

 He has connected Himself to us forever by taking on our fallen nature. Without the penalty of separation from the Father, it would have been impossible for Jesus to die because He had not sinned. He would have lived forever, taken to heaven in His translated physical body to leave us to our destruction. 

 I see things through His eyes now. I still sometimes fail but the process is definite and clearly definable. Every time I sin my mind is taken through the process of envisioning Jesus receiving and dying with my sins, from the garden to the cross. It makes you never want to sin again and empowers you to receive forgiveness very powerfully. It becomes more personal, and every experience can be measured by that one, every failure exposed and systematically atoned for. This is so important, it’s changing my life. He has connected Himself to us forever by taking on our fallen nature and by overcoming became our Redeemer.

 "What love! What amazing condescension! The King of Glory proposed to humble Himself to fallen humanity! He would place His feet in Adam’s steps. He would take man’s fallen nature, and engage to cope with the strong foe that triumphed over Adam. He would overcome Satan, and in thus doing He would open the way for redemption from the disgrace of Adam’s failure and fall, of all those who would believe in Him. "{Con 18.1}

 The lessons learned in Gethsemane were so important that just before He ascended to heaven He repeated them to His disciples as described here…

“They crossed the Kedron and approached Gethsemane. Here Jesus paused, that his disciples might call to mind the lessons he had given them while on his way to the garden on the night of his great agony… At length, the little company reaches the Mount of Olives. This place had been peculiarly hallowed by the presence of Jesus while he bore the nature of man. It was consecrated by his prayers and tears. When he had ridden into Jerusalem, just prior to his trial, the steeps of Olivet had echoed the joyous shouts of the triumphant multitude. On its sloping descent was Bethany, where he had often found repose at the house of Lazarus. At the foot of the mount was the garden of Gethsemane, where he had agonized alone, and moistened the sod with his blood. {3SP 250.3}

10 snoring virgins?

"The experience of the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane contains a lesson for the Lord’s people today... They did not realize the necessity of watchfulness and earnest prayer in order to withstand temptation. Many today are fast asleep, as were the disciples. They are not watching and praying lest they enter into temptation. Let us often read and give careful study to those portions of God’s Word that have special reference to these last days, pointing out the dangers that will threaten God’s people.—(In Heavenly Places, 97.) {Pr 18.1}

 Another mystery explained; the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:5 has been translated this way; “While the Bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept” and I have often wondered "why they are all depicted as sleeping but 5 of them awake with enough oil?" So I did a word study.

 The word used for ‘slumbered’ is nustazó. This word can also be translated as “got drowsy”. The word that is here translated as ‘and’ is the Greek word ‘kai’ which can also be translated as ‘also, both, but, even, for, if,' and 'so’, but it is also translated as ‘or’ 11 times in scripture.

The true translation of Matthew 25:5 should read “While the bridegroom tarried they all got drowsy or slept.”

 Now, look at this quote from Signs of the Times about the Garden of Gethsemane.

“In this fearful hour of trial, Christ's human nature longed even for the sympathy of his disciples. A second time he rose from the earth and went to them and found them sleeping. This was not a deep sleep. They were in a drowse. They had a limited sense of their Lord's suffering and anguish... In these sleeping disciples, he sees a representation of a sleeping church.”

{ST, August 14, 1879 par. 10}

 In this parable of the 10 virgins, the wise ones have an extra measure of oil when they come out of their slumber telling the foolish who slept to go buy for themselves. Where did they get the extra measure of oil or the Holy Spirit? In Gethsemane! They tell the foolish ones to go ‘buy for themselves which means it’s too late for them to prepare because the gate is shut and they have to pay for their own sins by their own blood at the second resurrection. The wise virgins have a limited sense of Jesus’ suffering and anguish, while the foolish ones are depicted here...

“They forget the Man of Sorrows, who was acquainted with grief. The sufferings of Jesus in Gethsemane, His sweating as it were great drops of blood in the garden, the platted crown of thorns that pierced His holy brow, do not move them. They have become benumbed. Their sensibilities are blunted, and they have lost all sense of the great sacrifice made for them. They can sit and listen to the story of the cross, hear how the cruel nails were driven through the hands and feet of the Son of God, and it does not stir the depths of the soul. Said the angel: "If such should be ushered into the city of God, and told that all its rich beauty and glory was theirs to enjoy eternally, they would have no sense of how dearly that inheritance was purchased for them. They would never realize the matchless depths of a Savior’s love. They have not drunk of the cup, nor been baptized with the baptism. Heaven would be marred if such should dwell there. Those only who have partaken of the sufferings of the Son of God, and have come up through great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, can enjoy the indescribable glory and unsurpassed beauty of heaven."

{1T 155.2}

What is it we are to be “watching”?

“When they should be watching, they are asleep. “Watch ye, therefore; for ye know not when the Master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning; lest coming suddenly he finds you sleeping." The church of God is required to fulfill her night-watch, however perilous, and whether long or short.”

{ST, August 14, 1879, par. 10}

 “Rising with painful effort, He staggered to the place where He had left His companions. But He "findeth them asleep." Had He found them praying, He would have been relieved. Had they been seeking refuge in God that satanic agencies might not prevail over them, He would have been comforted by their steadfast faith. But they had not heeded the repeated warning, "Watch and pray." At first, they had been much troubled to see their Master, usually so calm and dignified, wrestling with a sorrow that was beyond comprehension. They had prayed as they heard the strong cries of the sufferer. They did not intend to forsake their Lord, but they seemed paralyzed by a stupor that they might have shaken off if they had continued pleading with God. They did not realize the necessity of watchfulness and earnest prayer in order to withstand temptation.

{DA 688.1}

 Our Lord pleaded with the disciples to watch what was going to happen to Him in Gethsemane and He asked them to pray for Him as He had never done before and still they allowed themselves to be lulled into sleep. This next quote has information to prove everything I was shown by God, please pay attention...

“Christ has directed the church by his own example, to the source of their strength in times of need, distress, and peril. The attitude of watching is to designate the church as God's people indeed. By this sign the waiting ones are distinguished from the world and show that they are pilgrims and strangers upon the earth…This important night-watch should have been signalized by noble mental struggles and prayers which would have brought them strength to witness the terrible agony of the Son of God. It would have prepared them, as they should behold his sufferings upon the cross, to understand something of the nature of the overpowering anguish which he endured in the garden of Gethsemane…. He was bearing the griefs of others, for on him was laid the iniquities of us all. Through divine sympathy, he connects himself to man and submits as the representative of the race to be treated as a transgressor. He looks into the abyss of woe opened for us by our sins and proposes to bridge the gulf with his own person. Those who cannot see the force of the sacred claims of God's law cannot have a clear and definite understanding of the atonement.” 

{ST, August 14, 1879, par. 10}

 The great benefit for our souls in becoming ‘watchers’ is to be so immersed in God’s Holy word that He can speak to you through your heart. The watchers or watchmen have a special privilege in the last days. They get to open ‘the gate’ for the Sheppard.

John 10:1"I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. 3 The watchman opens the gate for Him and the sheep listen to His voice.

 We have been given the great privilege of the right to open the gate for Him! And almost everyone is asleep!

"I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me." The watchmen are to live very near to God, where they can hear his word and be impressed by his Spirit, which the people may not look to them in vain. "When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul."

{RH, April 15, 1902, par. 13}

 The Baptism of Blood that the foolish virgins have rejected is the “watching” or empathy for Christ and His Father that the disciples neglected in the Garden. The wise ones have to tell the foolish ones that they have to pay for their own sins at the second resurrection because they didn't go to the Olive Press Gethsemane to receive the extra measure of oil, and now the door is shut.

“The words fall tremblingly from the pale lips of Jesus, "O My Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me, except I drink it, thy will be done." He accepts His baptism of blood that through Him perishing millions may gain everlasting life. He has left the courts of heaven, where all is purity, happiness, and glory, to save the one lost sheep, the one world that has fallen by transgression. And He will not turn from His mission. He will become the propitiation of a race that has willed to sin. The Majesty of heaven was as one bewildered with agony. No human being could endure such suffering, but Christ had contemplated the struggle. He had said to His disciples, "I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it is accomplished!" Now is the "hour, and the power of darkness.”

Manuscript 42, 1897.

Drink the Cup

 The first miracle of Jesus was at the wedding feast at Cana when He turned water into wine and offered the cup to his new followers. Three and a half years later Jesus was offering the cup again in the upper room. Read the connection Mrs. White and I were shown by the Holy Spirit. God inspired me to look for this connection and I found this writing by Mrs. White in the Desire of Ages to prove the inspiration.

 "The gift of Christ to the marriage feast was a symbol. The water represented baptism into His death; the wine, the shedding of His blood for the sins of the world. The water to fill the jars was brought by human hands, but the word of Christ alone could impart to it life-giving virtue. So with the rites which point to the Saviour’s death. It is only by the power of Christ, working through faith, that they have the efficacy to nourish the soul. 

 The word of Christ supplied ample provision for the feast. So abundant is the provision of His grace to blot out the iniquities of men and to renew and sustain the soul. 

 At the first feast He attended with His disciples, Jesus gave them the cup that symbolized His work for their salvation. At the last supper, He gave it again, in the institution of that sacred rite by which His death was to be shown forth “till He comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:26. And the sorrow of the disciples at parting from their Lord was comforted with the promise of reunion, as He said, “I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” Matthew 26:29. {DA 149.2}

 We see the "water and the wine" connection throughout scripture. Jesus turned water into wine and gave it as a sign, offering it as a blessing at the beginning of His ministry, the word of Christ alone could impart to water to the water life-giving virtue. The Feast of Tabernacles had two basins, one for water, and one for wine, flowing into one pipe that flowed to the brook right next to the place Jesus sweat blood in Gethsemane. Then Jesus offered the cup in the Upper Room the night of His betrayal just before heading to Gethsemane to sweat blood. Every single person who loves the truth that is in Christ Jesus will have to drink the cup. "The word of Christ supplied ample provision for the feast. So abundant is the provision of His grace to blot out the iniquities of men, and to renew and sustain the soul."{DA 149.2}

 “Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" 39 And they said to him, "We are able." And Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.” Mark 10:38 (ESV)

 In this life, we MUST drink the cup and be baptized with the baptism that Jesus was baptized in Gethsemane. But the Holy Spirit totally agrees it is not the drinking of the cup unmixed with mercy as the wicked will drink (Rev 14:10). It is drinking the cup or witnessing the experience that Jesus endured, living in His life experience with His mercy. This is how we who embrace the message will drink the cup, not without mercy like those outside in Hades at the second resurrection will drink it. Do you see how to drink the cup?

“Hear that agonized prayer of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane!”

{ST, December 2, 1897, par. 7}

 The Garden of Gethsemane experience is waking up and seeing the significance of Jesus being cut off from the Father because of our sins. This separation was and is ‘the fear OF the Lord’. He feared being cut off from the Father, but more so for the loss of our connection with the Father and life with Him. He wants us to live and has made the perfect path for us to follow for our salvation, we need to see this and follow. We need to envision and empathize with Jesus for the suffering He went through from the Garden all the way to the resurrection, comprehending His patience, realizing that He’s still pleading for us even today, offering us perfect acceptance right now no matter who we were.

"As we receive the bread and wine symbolizing Christ’s broken body and spilled blood, we in imagination join in the scene of Communion in the upper chamber. We seem to be passing through the GARDEN consecrated by the agony of Him who bore the sins of the world. We witness the struggle by which our reconciliation with God was obtained. Christ is set forth crucified among us. {CCh 301.6}

"We must not forget how keenly this very failure of his dearest and most reliable friends must have stung that anguished heart in this hour of its sorrows. Jesus had human sympathies. He chose these three friends and asked them to go with him because his heart was human and he felt the need of human sympathy and prayer. It is not given to us to analyze and fathom all the anguish of his soul in the garden of Gethsemane. It is, however, plain enough that the sum total of the agonies of his atoning sacrifice was present most vividly - as if its contents were compressed into one cup, and this cup was put to his lips in this anticipated hour. He saw it all. He saw it so that he felt its bitterest anguish. He saw what it must be to stand alone and bear in the sinner’s stead the manifested wrath of God against sin. Ah, he never had known before by experience the darkness and the horrors that come over the soul when God hides the light of his face. It seemed to him insupportable. We do not wonder he should have shrunk back, crying, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me!” Nor do we wonder that the thought came forcibly to his soul - O if I could only have the sympathy and the prayers of a few faithful friends! O, if Peter, James and John might only stand by me while I bear this fearful load, and while I drink this dreadful cup of sorrow! 

As we dwell on these aspects of the case it seems hard to forgive our three honored brethren for their sad, and failure to sympathize with Jesus in that hour of his extremest need. 

But as we have already intimated, there is in their failure a home lesson which it was not well for us to miss. May not Jesus be saying the same to us? May it not be that already he has ground for keener rebuke and more cutting reproof against us than against them? Have we “watched with him” at every call of his providence, or on every motion of his Spirit? When his cause has languished and seemed to be passing through some eventful crisis of its destiny, and he has most manifestly summoned us to watch with him one hour, has he not found us sleeping? Nay, have we not accounted it our fittest time to sleep, just when, on every side, the Saviour’s cause has been low, and few came to the solemn assemblies of Zion? Have we at all realized this fact - that seasons of declension in the churches are precisely the time of greatest trial and anguish to Jesus Christ, and that it is peculiarly afflictive to his heart that his most reliable Peters and Jameses and Johns should be found not watching and praying but sleeping then? O if our hearts were really in sympathy with Christ’s heart, we should surely think more of the anguish he feels over his church in her days of darkness and spiritual declension. We would rush to his side as we saw him enter the garden of Gethsemane, borne down with sorrow, and should deem it our princely privilege to watch with him one hour then." {ARSH December 18, 1860, p. 35.6}

The sealing

 In the service of the Red Heifer, which had to be endured if you had touched the dead otherwise, you couldn't take part in the Atonement, after the 7-day cleansing “a sign was put over your families tent which read ‘I am not my own, Lord I am thine’ {RH, January 9, 1883, par. 9}”. How perfect to illustrate that the Red Heifer cleansing has to be part of the sealing. 

 As in the cleansing service, a sign was applied above the dwelling place of the cleansed announcing atonement with God, we need to receive the seal of God in our foreheads—“it is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so we cannot be moved.” {Mar 200.1}

 Shouldn't we find out how this is to be done in our walk of faith? Obviously, we don’t look for a literal Red Heifer but instead, look to Jesus to see how it is to be fulfilled in our lives. As the Spirit of Prophecy states, “Some may look upon this slaying of the heifer as a meaningless ceremony, but it was done by the command of God and bears a deep significance that has not lost its application to the present time.” {4T 122.1} 

 Jesus was the Red Heifer in Gethsemane. This is a significant element of information that is essential to “settling into the truth”.

An angel ascending from the east with a loud cry

 In Revelation 7; 2 it is written; “And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice…” and then, the 144,000 are introduced.

 Angels coming from heaven descend to earth correct? The garden of Gethsemane was down a steep hill to the “east” of Jerusalem. This text is in reference to those who discover the Garden of Gethsemane experience, thus they ascend from the east and cry with a loud voice.

“All need to become more intelligent in regard to the work of the atonement, which is going on in the sanctuary above. When this grand truth is seen and understood, those who hold it will work in harmony with Christ to prepare a people to stand in the great day of God, and their efforts will be successful. By study, contemplation, and prayer God's people will be elevated above common, earthly thoughts and feelings, and will be brought into harmony with Christ and His great work of cleansing the sanctuary above from the sins of the people. Their faith will go with Him into the sanctuary, and the worshipers on earth will be carefully reviewing their lives and comparing their characters with the great standard of righteousness. They will see their own defects; they will also see that they must have the aid of the Spirit of God if they would become qualified for the great and solemn work for this time which is laid upon God's ambassadors.”

{5T 575.1}

The atonement is Christ in us; At-one-ment.

'The Serpent on a Pole' mystery explained’

 After receiving the vision, so many previously unanswered questions have been solved in my mind that I am in complete awe.

 I never knew why it was a serpent raised on the pole by Moses in the wilderness to save the people. Now I know it is because Jesus became ‘sin for us’ by taking on the sin of the world in Gethsemane. Then it was possible for Him to die on the cross because He could not have even been touched by the devices of evil men before taking on our sins. The wages of sin is death and He hadn't sinned so nothing could hurt Him.  After receiving our sins He then carried them to the cross; thus He was symbolized as a serpent "raised" on a pole in the wilderness.

 “We can have but faint conceptions of the inexpressible anguish of God's dear Son in Gethsemane, as He realized His separation from His Father in consequence of bearing man's sin He became sin for the fallen race. The sense of the withdrawal of His Father's love pressed from His anguished soul these mournful words: "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." "If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me." Then with entire submission to His Father's will, He adds: "Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt." {Testimonies for the Church Volume Two (1868-1871), page 206, paragraph 1}

Final thoughts

 In the end-times, which we are to endure shortly, the Spirit of Prophecy says that 'drinking the cup' is part of the end-time trials of those redeemed from the living;

"I saw them perplexed; next I heard them crying unto God earnestly. Day and night their cry ceased not: “Thy will, O God, be done! If it can glorify Thy name, make a way of escape for Thy people! Deliver us from the heathen round about us. They have appointed us unto death, but Thine arm can bring salvation...”  “Soon after they had commenced their earnest cry, the angels, in sympathy, desired to go to their deliverance. But a tall, commanding angel suffered them not. He said: “The will of God is not yet fulfilled. They must drink of the cup. They must be baptized with the baptism.” 

{CET 178.2}

 Then Jesus comes to save His people from their hell on earth. They have been redeemed from the torment of the wicked, and dwell in heaven for a thousand years with God, then...

"After the judgment of the wicked dead had been finished, at the end of the one thousand years, Jesus left the city, and the saints and a train of the angelic host followed Him. Jesus descended upon a great mountain (Mt Olives where He ascended to heaven), which as soon as His feet touched it, parted asunder and became a mighty plain. Then we looked up and saw the great and beautiful city... it came down in all its splendor and dazzling glory and settled in the mighty plain which Jesus had prepared for it... Then, in terrible, fearful majesty, Jesus called forth the wicked dead; and they came up with the same feeble, sickly bodies that went into the grave... Then Jesus and the holy angels, accompanied by all the saints, again go to the city, and the bitter lamentations and wailing of the doomed wicked fill the air." 

{EW 293.1}

 So let me illustrate; those who drank the cup in the name of Jesus survive the second coming and are taken to heaven, then after the thousand years of judgment are finished Jesus and company come down from heaven and land on the top of Mount Olives. The wicked are resurrected to witness Him and His saints enter the new Jerusalem through the Glorious Eastern Gate. In front of those who refused to spiritually enter before, the Gate is closed, and fire rains down out of heaven to destroy Satan and his followers, and the righteous live forever with Christ with the recreated Earth as the center of God's creation for eternity.

"Jesus speaks of His people as a brand plucked out of the fire, and Satan understands what this means. The infinite sufferings of the Son of God in Gethsemane and on Calvary were endured that He might rescue His people from the power of the evil one."  {YRP 359.2}

Peace brothers

 In hindsight, I can see small particulars of the issues I had before imagined not perfected in my mind, but since the vision, they are being corrected in perfect answer to the prayer “Father, please show me more”. Every day that I pursue the issue more insight and answers come, and in these issues, my Savior is teaching me through His Spirit.

 I prayed and tested every thought but instead of confusion and unsupported ideas, came deeper comprehension and truth. I have found so much in scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy in support of the vision that I cannot dispute what I went through to lead me to these conclusions. If in my personal life I seem unworthy of this great gift please forgive me and pray for me, but I have to share what I saw with as many who will listen.

 I give my word as a follower of Christ that everything written here is the truth. I was privileged to ‘watch’ what Jesus experienced in the Garden as a sign that His Spirit has come to cleans His church.

  I keep finding more and more information to amplify this message, someday it will be complete.

 Love and blessings from Brother James.

Please read my other blogs at:

http://whentheycrypeaceandsafety.blogspot.com/2011/12/i-dreamed-of-massive-wall.html

http://lastplaguedrops.blogspot.com/2012/01/revelation-1621-from-sky-huge.html

http://eighthking.blogspot.com/2011/12/whos-is-anti-christ-eighth-king-of-rev.html

http://godheldthefourwinds.blogspot.com/2011/12/911-god-held-four-wiinds.html

http://redheifersbloodysweat.blogspot.com/2011/12/red-heifer.html

http://eleventhhourlatterrain.blogspot.com/2014/04/we-are-fifth-generation-since-loud-cry.html

http://jesuitcorpse.blogspot.com/2015/06/where-corpse-is-there-eagles-will.html

https://allbeastslead2rome.blogspot.com/