EZEKIEL 31

CHRISTENDOM NOT TO ENDURE

31:1, 2. And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, that the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness?-Chapter 31 represents Christendom as a cedar tree which is cut down. It opens with a message respecting Satan (Pharaoh, the sungod) king of worldly Christendom (Egypt) and her multitudes. What comparison could be made of her greatness!

31:3. Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of a high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.-Behold, Satan and his counterfeit Christian system (tree; "Assyrian" should probably read "teashur," a box-tree), thought of as never to end (cedar, type of man with eternal life), and as a righteous kingdom (Lebanon, a mountain, white, snowy), having as members (branches, like the branches of Christendom) the great, the evil and the good, worldly people, with protecting power (shadowing shroud) and very prominent, with the greatest people at the very top. 31:4. The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field.The peoples and the secular truth (waters) made Satan's system great; the great nations and the apparently profound truths of liberty, fraternity and equality, made it prominent, with its roots (plantings) nourished by nations and sects (rivers) and sending out national and denominational influences throughout all the systems of the world. 31:5. Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth.-Therefore Christendom's prominence was exalted above everything like it in the world; and its mighty members were increased in number and made of far reaching influence, because of the multitude of their people and of their teachings.

31:6. All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt

all great nations.-All the jail-birds (fowls) of the powers of spiritual control, made their church organizations (nests) among its members; and under the power of its membership (branches) did all of the governments (beasts) of this world (field) bring forth their progeny; and under its defense (shadow) dwelt all nations.

31:7. Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root 'was by great waters.-Thus was it magnificent in its greatness, and in the extent of its ramifications; for it was rooted in great peoples and in great secular truths.

31:8. The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like his branches; not any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.—In Christendom's egotism there was nothing equal to her in this age or the next.

31:9. I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches; so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.-Christendom felt itself the envy of everything, present and to come.

31:10. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height. Because of Christendom's self-exaltation and pride.

31:11. I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness.-God will deliver Christendom into the power of the god (el, mighty one) of the heathen, the Devil himself; He shall surely deal vengeance to her; He will drive her out of existence. 31:12. And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him. The anarchists, the terror of the nations, will lay her low; upon the kingdoms (mountains), and among the people (valleys) her members (branches) will fall, and be broken off by her seceding denominations; all the people of this order of things will leave her protection, and aban don her.

31:13. Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches. The jail-birds of ecclesiasticism, and all the revolutionary governments of this state of affairs, shall profit by her ruin and through her members (branches).

31:14. To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water; for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.-No other earthly system may follow her proud example; for all of them are delivered, as systems, into death, to a dishonored place among the lowest in society. 31:15. Thus saith the Lord God; In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him. -In the year 1918, when Christendom shall go down as a system to oblivion, (Sheol) to be succeeded by revolutionary republics, God will cause mourning. He will restrain and defer for a brief period the threatening waves of anarchy. He will cause the nations to mourn for Christendom, and all the man-made systems (trees) of the world (field) to become weak on account of her fall.-E392, 372.

31:16. I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell (Sheol) with them that descend to the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.-God will cause the nations to shake with gigantic revolutions, when He shall cast worldly Christendom, as an organized system, down to oblivion (as He did the Jews in the Dives parable). 31:17. They also went down into hell (Sheol) with him, unto them that be slain with the sword; and they that were in his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen. But they also shall go down to oblivion (Sheol) (E392, 372), with Christendom, as well as those that were her power, that dwelt under her defense among the people. 31:18. To whom art thou thus like in glory in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet thou shalt be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth; thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord God.-Though worldly Christendom is unsurpassed in glory and in greatness among other systems, yet shall she be brought down to be one of the most disesteemed grades of the social order; she shalt be counted as one of the ungodly. The Egyptians practiced circumcision, typical of worldly Christendom's counterfeit ease of conscience through belief in error. This is said of Satan, the god of Christendom and all his multitude.

EZEKIEL 32

CHRISTENDOM'S UTTER DOWNFALL

32:1, 2. And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers. In Chapter 32 Christendom's destruction is depicted in several ways: as the catching of a sea monster (32:1-6); as the putting out of her light (32:7-8); also, in addition the downfall of her systems (32:9-10) as a worldly system destroyed by anarchy (32:11-16); as the going down of worldly Christendom to oblivion (32:17-21); as the fall into oblivion of the anarchists (32:22-23); of the Eastern mysticism in Christendom (32:24-25); of her worst classes (32:26-28); of the worldly religious people (32:29); of the church organization of ecclesiasticism (32:30), and of Christendom's king, Satan, and all his multitudes. (32:31-32.) The message begins with a lamentation over Satan (Pharaoh), king of worldly Christendom (Egypt), and his visible representatives, the apostate clergy. Among the nations they are as a lion in power and ferocity (lion also symbolizes the Devil); and as a monstrous power (whale) among the peoples (seas); they came with their sects (rivers), and muddied the Truth (waters) with their earthly-minded members, the clergy (feet), and filled their churches (rivers) with worldliness.

32:3. Thus saith the Lord God; I will therefore spread out My net over thee with a company of many people; and they shall bring thee up in My net.-God will gradually bring the Time of Trouble upon Christendom like a snare, as a movement toward liberty for the people, through a multitude of progressives, radicals, revolutionists and anarchists; and these shall ensnare her unknowingly in the great tribulation, and bring her up out of favor with the people (out of the sea.)

32:4. Then will I leave thee upon the land, I will cast thee forth upon the open field, and will cause all the fowls of the heaven to remain upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee. Then God will leave her

defenseless against the whole world, and will cause the worst classes (birds) of an apostate Christianity (heavens) to feed upon her, and will cause the evil revolutionary governments (beasts) of the whole earth to fill themselves up with her former members.

32:5. And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with thy height.-And her prominent members shall die, and of her lesser people a great number.

32:6. I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of thee.-The loss of life shall extend to her highest government officials and rulers (mountain); and the churches shall be full of her dead.

32:7, 8. And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord God.When God shall put out Christendom's light in 1918, He will blind the minds of ecclesiasticism (heaven) (A318), and deprive their pulpit stars of wisdom from the true apostolic stars, the Apostles. (D591). He will darken the understanding of the Gospel (sun) of Jesus Christ (D590) with the cloud of the Time of Trouble; and the light (truth) of the Mosaic Law shall not shine forth in her.

32:9. I will also vex the hearts of many people, when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations, into the countries which thou hast not known.-God will also trouble the hearts of many other peoples, when He shall visit the same Time of Trouble upon other nations, where the clergy had no sway.

32:10. Yea, I will make many people amazed at the,, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee, when I shall brandish My Sword before them; and they shull tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of thy fall.-Yea, He will make many nation to marvel at Christendom's fall; and their rulers shall fear and quake on account of her destruction, when they are threatened with destruction by anarchy. Every moment shall every man of them tremble for his life.

32:11. For thus saith the Lord God; The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee.-The destructive weapons of the Devil, the King of Confusion (Babylon), of Anarchy, shall be turned against worldly Christendom.

32:12. By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude to fall, the terrible of the nations, all of them: and they shall spoil the pomp of Egypt, and all the multitude thereof shall be destroyed.-By the weapons of a