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"Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, the Spirit of the LORD spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain" (2 Sam. 23:1-4).
The Apostle Paul revealed to us, in 2 Thess. 2:7, that the "Mystery of Iniquity" had already began to make inroads among the followers of Jesus. Then Jude, the third from the "Second Adam," said that, during his administration, ungodly men had come into the Church undetected, and had begun to corrupt the very essence of God's Church. And at about the end of the first century a.d., the light of the Church had gone into eclipse, when God "took away their candlestick" (Rev. 1:20 - 2:5). Thus was fulfilled the allegory of Judah being carried away captive into Babylon. About 212 years later, in a.d. 312, Constantine the Great became the sole Emperor of the Roman Empire, and the West, and Christianity. He also automatically became the Pontifex Maximus of the religions of Rome (one of the official offices of the Emperor from 12 b.c.). Yes, the Church continued, but it was in the sense of Isaiah 1:21-27. He said, "How is the faithful city become an harlot! It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them."
So much reproach had been heaped upon the seat of "God's Anointed" during the 2nd through the 15th centuries a.d. that, when the reformation began, most of the "reformed" saints not only rejected the "Pope of Rome," but the very idea of a divinely appointed leader, as well. And the largest portion of Protestants have functioned under that false premise unto this day. They reject any resemblance of an Aaron figure or a King David figure, but have no trouble with the idea of electing a CEO, and appointing a committee or two. But they could have done nothing else, for the Lord prophesied twice, in the days of the Judges, concerning this time, and these things, saying, "In those days there was no king (Anointed) in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6 and 21:25). However, we rejoice in the promise of God in Ezekiel 37:24, of a man who is "spiritually called" David, who God shall anoint over us, to guide us in "present truth," and, as in the time of King David in the O.T., and James, the Lord's brother in the N.T., we shall again have "one shepherd."
All through the history of the first four thousand and one hundred years from Adam, God showed special favor to certain people, and He apparently did so, because of some merit of righteousness and conscience. Once past the matter of Cain and Abel, God bypassed all of the multitude of the living descendants of Adam, and gave Adam and Eve another son, in the words of Eve, "instead of Abel." From there, God "chose" a succession of direct descendants of Adam, through Seth. The generations were: Adam through Noah (10), Shem through Abraham (10), and Isaac through Joshua.
(God did something with the judges, between Joshua and David, which showed how it would be from the demise of the Jewish Church unto the restoration of the Church among the Gentiles at this end of the Grace Age. From the end of the first century a.d. to the beginning of the twentieth century, there was no chosen lineage of "Anointed" leaders, and it was necessary for God to choose someone, somewhere, sometime, to raise up a people to fulfill the remaining prophecies; the fulfillment of which must preclude the second coming of Jesus. Peter, in Acts 3:21, and Paul, in Hebrews 11:39,40, do an excellent job of making that point. They said, "He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive (retain) until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." - "And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.")
When God chose David according to His plan which He had already fixed when Israel came out of Egypt (Psalm 114:1,2), God began another, and this time, "anointed lineage." So we had a direct lineage, with about a 400 year gap, of Anointed men of Judah, from David to Jude. (Jesus, James and Jude, though successively occupying the "Seat of Moses," were of the same generation.) After Jude, the lineage of anointed descent ceased, and "the scepter departed from Judah." The promised deliverer, of Genesis 3:15, had come, and the promise to David had been assured. We now await the conclusion of the Gospel Age, with confidence in the words of God, "I am the Lord, I change not."
The natural "Throne of David" which was established by that son of Jesse, no longer exists, but must be raised up again, by a Gentile Christian man who fills that O.T. allegory in Ezekiel 34:19-24. James, the chief Apostle in Acts 15, quoted Amos 9:11, saying, "After this I will return, and will build again the Tabernacle of David which is fallen down; and will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom My name is called, saith the Lord." We must go to Isaiah 15:5, the mate of Amos 9:11, to get the full impact of James' statement, where the Lord said, "In mercy shall the throne be established: and He shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, Judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness." According to these passages, and Daniel 2:43,44. That throne will surely be established before the Grace Age is over.
God has committed Himself to raise up a man to build that kingdom. However, the man who god anoints to raise it up is but the last one in a new line of anointed men, who must first raise up God's Church, and fulfill the volume of prophecy which describes it. The Gentile Church must fulfill such prophesies as the three wells which Isaac dug, and of the second three daughters of Job. It must regrow Samson's "seven locks," and bring forth Job's second "seven sons." There can be no "God's Church" without a prophetic identity; any more than Jesus could have come without a prophetic identity.
In the history of the Churches of God, from 1903 to 1980, A. J. Tomlinson (spiritually called Moses, in Num. 13:3 - 14:29.) began to ordain his twelve on February 13, 1917, and, in 1922, 10 of them betrayed him. In 1958, Grady R. Kent (spiritually called Nahor, in Gen. 22.) began to ordain his 12, and concluded that effort in 1963. (In Rev. 11:8, God used the term "Spiritually called" to show that what was happening was the fulfillment of an O. T. Allegory.)
In fulfillment of the allegory of Nahor's son, Bethuel: the father of Rebecca, the wife of Isaac, one of Brother Kent's twelve must bring forth a "woman:" a bride for the "Lamb." I know the time is short unto the coming of the Bridegroom, and we are almost to the end of the sixth millennial day from the creation. Yet we know that it was the very last thing on God's agenda for the sixth day, to create Adam's bride. In a very short time, the cry shall go forth, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready."
God gave us the "generations" from Adam to Enoch, and Adam to Noah, and has already fulfilled most of those two allegories of "Precept upon precept." It was Jesus, James and Jude who fulfilled Adam, Seth, and Enos in the allegory of the seven generations (Isaiah 41:1-4) which prophesy of seven Anointed "Rulers over the household," during the Grace Age. Accordingly it was A. J. Tomlinson, Grady R. Kent, and Marion Hall who fulfilled the allegory of Cainan, Mahalaleel, and Jared. We have yet to hear that seventh Anointed of God, who is spiritually called Enoch, declare, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh with ten thousands of His saints." The cry, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet Him," must go forth first. They are not the same cry.
God began a new lineage when He chose A. J. Tomlinson, and anointed him to raise up the Church of God in these last days. He was the fulfillment of Cainan, the fourth of the seven generations from Adam to Enoch, and also Mahalaleel the fifth of the ten generations from Adam to Noah. Five other men would follow him, three of which would be "Anointed of God ." They would all be men who had become a part of A. J. Tolmlinson's extended "Church family." Bro. Tomlinson's disciple, Grady R. Kent was anointed of God to continue the work of God's House. Then, at the death of Bro. Kent, two of his disciples would consecutively fulfill the prophecies of the sixth and seventh Anointeds: Marion W. Hall and afterward "he who is able to reveal these things to you."
God anointed A. J. Tomlinson, in 1903, who ruled the Church of God for forty years. His natural son, Milton, assumed the office of "the Chief," in 1943, but he was not "God's Anointed," When he rejected the responsibility of the oversight of the Church, by relinquishing it to the General Assembly, God gave the office to Grady R. Kent, who had served under A. J. Tomlinson, and Milton, from about 1932 until 1957. Brother Kent, as the fifth of "the Seven," fulfilled such scriptures as "A bird of the air shall carry the voice." He developed an evangelical air force of about 200 pilots and 100 airplanes, and was well known as "the flying prophet." He was also the fifth of the seven voices of the Lord in Psalm 29.
When Bro. Kent died, in 1964, Bro. Marion W. Hall inherited the office of God's Anointed, starting well, then falling from grace, in the fulfillment of the allegory of Jared, the sixth from Adam, whose name means "descending." Bro. Hall's life and ministry fulfilled the prophecy of "that man of sin," in 2 Thess. 2, and whose iniquity was the abomination which brought the last of the "desolations of Jerusalem:" The Church of God which Paul called "The Temple" (Rev. 21:9, Daniel 9:2 and Eph. 2:19-22). During most of the eight years in which he sat as Chief in The Church of God, Br. Hall exalted himself as "Emanuel." (We Christians mistakenly tend to believe "the abomination which maketh desolate" to be a vile pagan, but God always punished his people because of the abominations which they committed.)
The fall of Marion Hall was also the fulfillment of the "profane wicked prince" of Ezekiel 21:24-27. He said, "Thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it; and it shall be no more until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him." This passage must have been fulfilled before "That Man of Sin" could be revealed. Meanwhile, we have patiently waited in obedience to Paul's admonition in Hebrews 10:36,37.
The Church was overturned in 1923, in 1957, and in 1972, at the fall of Marion W. Hall, just a few days before the end of the 69th anniversary of the rise of the Church of God. After which, Robert S. Somerville, who was not one of the "Seven," became the Chief, and served the Church until "the spirit of the Church" (Eph. 4:1-6 and 1 Cor. 5:5) departed from it, in 1980.
God led me out of the Church of God just a few days before Bro. Hall's exposure and fall. And when Robert Somerville inherited the office of "the Chief," in 1972, he began the fulfillment of Lamech, the ninth of the ten generations from Adam to Noah. Almost immediately, the Spirit of the Lord revealed to me the allegory which prophesied of his tenure in that office. I prophesied, at that time, that he would fall out of that office in 1980, and reminded my people of it many times in the ensuing eight years, and they often reminded me of it. On Dec. 8, 1980, as we continued to await the news, Bro. Somerville was taken out of that office, and we heard thereof on Dec. 14, 1980.
At the advent of the fall of Marion W. Hall, the third overturning took place, because the day had come when iniquity in God's Church had to end. "That man of sin, the son of perdition," with his crown, diadem, and load of sin, has been revealed. Now God is ready to finish the work of His "elect," in preparation for the coming of the Bridegroom. All of the prophetic transgressions have been finished, and those prophetic sins have come to an end. Reconciliation for iniquity has been made (Ezekiel 4:4-7), and God is ready, now, to bring in everlasting righteousness.
I believe it is now time for those of us who are hungry and thirsty for God's righteousness, to come together in the unity of the faith, and begin to search out what it is that we must do to help to bring about the glorious conclusion of the Grace Age.
God will finish His work, but it will all be done in the fulfillment of prophecy. Now that the son of perdition has been revealed, we might begin to ask the Lord who that man is in Nahum 2:1-4, who makes the preparation for the coming of Jesus during the time of automobiles.
The great "Day of the Lord:" the day of God's wrath upon disobedient, idolatrous, and adulterous Gentile Christianity, is very near, even the voice of the day of the Lord. It is urgent that we make haste to gather ourselves together in the unity of the faith; "before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger come upon you. Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth. Which have wrought His judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger" (Zeph. 1:14 - 2:3).