Chapter 23

describes the church‐state unions of the Roman Catholic church, pictured as an unchaste woman, Aholah, and of the Protestant church, her unchaste sister, Aholibah, and the destruction of both in the Time of Trouble by the nations with which they have made unions.—Jer. 3:6‐10.

23:3. And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.—Both of these churches have always catered to worldly ideas and people, and even in their youth were guilty of unions of church with state.

23:4. And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were Mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.—Their names are significant. Aholah means “her own tent.” God is not in Romanist ecclesiasticism at all; it has its own tabernacle, called (Acts 7:43) “the tabernacle of Moloch.” Satan himself dwells in and actuates the Papal system. Aholibah means “My tent is in her.” God’s Tabernacle, the true Church, has been among the Protestants chiefly. In this picture, an unchaste Protestant ecclesiasticism is designated “Jerusalem.” They both have sons—prominent ones—and daughters—sectarian churches.

23:5. And Aholah played the harlot when she was Mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors.—The Romish church dates back to apostolic days, when she was God’s Church [Mine]; but she fell in love with her neighbors, the rulers of that brutal age, and sought temporal power.

23:6. Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.—The leaders and rulers in worldly affairs were apparently faithful (clothed in blue, typical of faithfulness), and seemed desirable and attractive to be associated with. They were men of thought and men of action, riding hobbies of vain philosophies.

23:7. Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.—The Church associated with them for gain of worldly power, set her affections on them, instead of on things Above, and defiled herself with their pagan ideas.

23:8. Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her.—Nor did she give up her worldliness when she took up oriental asceticism.

23:9, 10. Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted. These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.—The rulers discovered the naked, unprotected condition of Romanism; and by hundreds of thousands poured in from the East, literal Tartars, Vandals, Huns and Turks, and the pagan ideas from the same sources, and slew the sons and daughters of Romanism with the literal sword, as well as her children spiritually. Among the Pagan religions (women) Romanist “Christianity” became a name and a byword; for the invaders had executed the judgment of God upon her.

23:11. And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms.—Protestantism began in comparative purity, but later on developed an inordinate love for temporal power. Even more than Papacy she tried in every nation to “run things.”

23:12. She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.—She, too, set her affections on popularity with earth’s rulers, great and small, conservative, radical and revolutionary.

23:13‐17. Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way. And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity: and as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea. And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them.—God saw that both churches, Romish and Protestant, were of like tendency to church‐state union, especially Protestantism; for she never saw or heard of a great worldly man, even down to the local leaders of the smallest rural communities, that she did not desire their influence and help—particularly their money—and systematically invited them to connect themselves with a church, quite regardless of whether or not they remained worldly. So much did the prominent people in every place crowd into the Protestant churches and try to “boss” things, that the rank and file even of ecclesiastics and of the less prominent supporters of ecclesiasticism grew sick of them.

23:18. So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then My mind was alienated from her, like as My mind was alienated from her sister.—The newspaper writers, Socialists, anarchists and muck‐rakers, exposed the worldliness of the Protestant churches; and God Himself, from 1878 on, has been alienated from them.

23:19‐21. Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt. For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth.—Protestant ecclesiasticism multiplied her worldly alliances; and the prominent and wealthy, “of the earth, earthy,” filled the churches with tares, worldlings, desirous of profiting by association with prominent people.

23:22. Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side.—Therefore, O Protestantism, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will raise up, in warfare and revolution, the worldly people in you, of whom you are already sick, and bring them against you on every side.

23:23. The Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them; all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses.—The worldly, the worldly‐wise (Chaldeans), the officers (Pekod), princes (Shoa), and rulers (Koa), and all the discontented and anarchistic with them shall come against you, riding hobbies destructive to you.

23:24. And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, which shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet round about: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments.—They shall war against thy welfare with organizations of their own (chariots), with leaders (riders, mistranslated wagons), with a systematic plan of operation (wheels), and with a great following of revolutionists; and they shall condemn thee by their own perverted ideas of justice.

23:25. And I will set My jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy remnant shall fall by the sword; they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire.—Unknown to Protestantism, God’s jealousy has been excited by her worldliness; and He will permit the masses to deal with her in fury; they will destroy her spirituality, taking away her ability to discern spiritual things (nose), and to hear (ear) the Word of God. They will force Protestantism’s sons and daughters into service in war and revolution; and the remnant will be destroyed in the ensuing anarchy.

23:26. They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels.—Protestantism shall be stripped of her robes of self‐ righteousness and of her imitation jewels—those not truly Christianized; for they will cast off all pretense of religion.

23:27. Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more.—Being no longer attractive or useful to the ruling powers, she will perforce cease her advances toward the grasping of worldly power.

23:28. For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated.—All law‐abiding people, and especially Protestant ecclesiasticism, hate and fear the lawless forces destructive of society; but into the cruel hands of such shall they be delivered.

23:29. And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare; and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.—These evil forces shall deal hatefully with Protestantism, take away all the results of her work, and strip her completely, because of the ultimate evils wrought by union of church and state.

23:30. I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols.—God will do this because Protestantism has sought and made church‐state unions, and has been polluted with worldly ideas and practices.

23:31. Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore, will I give her cup into thine hand.—She has walked in the way of Papacy; therefore will God give to her also Papacy’s cup of tribulation.—Jer. 25:15.

23:32. Thus saith the Lord God: Thou shalt drink of thy sister’s cup deep and large; thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much.—Protestantism shall drink deep and large the measure of Romanism’s cup of trouble; it contains much. As a result of wars and devastation brought on by worldliness, in the face of boasted godliness, Protestantism shall be scorned and derided by the whole world.—Rev. 9.

23:33. Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.—Protestantism shall be intoxicated with the war spirit (Jer. 13:13), and later stupefied with amazement at the ruinous results of her own course, ending in the same cup of trouble, utter ruin, as confronts her sister‐church, Catholicism.

23:34. Thou Shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.—Protestantism shall drain the cup of desolation and sorrow and shall suck out the very dregs. (Isa. 30:14.) It shall be broken up in anarchy, and shall lose all the features that made it attractive to this world’s governments for purposes of union of church and state.

23:35. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because thou hast forgotten Me, and cast Me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.—Because she has forgotten the Lord and cast Him out of her mind, Protestantism shall endure unaided by Him the results of her own evil course.

23:36. The Lord said moreover unto me: Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Ahollbah? yes, declare unto them their abominations.—In Verses 36 to 49 Romanism and Protestantism are together jointly condemned.

23:37. That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their Idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them.—They have both effected church‐state unions. They have blood guilt, for wars, and for causing the spiritual death of multitudes. They have given their hearts to idol doctrines. They have caused God’s children to endure fiery troubles, and have scorched, scarred and burned their religious lives with the eternal torment theory.

23:38. Moreover this they have done unto Me; they have defiled My Sanctuary In the same day, and have profaned My sabbaths.—They have defiled God’s Sanctuary, the Church, with soul‐destroying doctrines in the same Day, the Gospel Age. They have derided the Millennium, and have substituted works for the rest of faith, as the basis of justification before God.

23:39. For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day Into My Sanctuary to profane it; and lo, thus have they done in the midst of Mine house.—They would slay their people in war and the same day go to worship God, even in the midst of God’s Sanctuary, the Little Flock of the true Church.

23:40. And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came; for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments.—They sought for union with and sent preachers to prominent men, at heart in a condition far from God; for them they “whitewashed” themselves, made their wisdom (eyes) attractive with worldly philosophies, and adorned themselves with the imitation jewels of courtesy, tact and politeness.

23:41. And satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set Mine Incense and Mine oil.—They took their seat upon a stately creed‐bed, adapted to worldly, regal purposes, with a table of religious food, teachings, philosophies, not of God, where they gave their hearts’ best endeavor and prostituted what measure of the Holy Spirit they had to worldly ends.

23:42. And a voice of a multitude being at ease was with her; and with the men of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness, which put bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns upon their heads.—With the ecclesiasticism of Papacy and Protestantism was the voice of a multitude of worldly church members, thoroughly at ease in apostate Zion. (Amos 6:1.) Among the church members were men of the blackest character (Sabeans, descendants of Ham, disfavored of God), who belonged outside the pale of religion, who adorned themselves with seeming character jewels and crowns of inherent immortality, not of God, but of Plato.

23:43. Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them?—It seemed impossible that the churches should unite with such evil men, to gain influence and power.

23:44. Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that playeth the harlot: so went they in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women.—Nevertheless, both Romish and Protestant ecclesiasticism did so.

23:45. And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.—But men with a sense of decency, justice and the fitness of things will condemn both churches, Romish and Protestant, as adulteresses were judged among the Hebrews—stone them to death with hard facts, and by the ravages of revolution and anarchy.

23:46. For thus saith the Lord God, I will bring up a company upon them, and will give them to be removed and spoiled.—God will bring up against them a great rabble of people with a keen sense of outraged justice—Socialists, trades‐union men, laborites, social democrats, nihilists and anarchists. Also a multitude of God’s children, begotten of the Holy Spirit, will rise up against these apostacies.

23:47. And the company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.—This multitude will down ecclesiasticism with hard facts, and destroy her with material weapons and with the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. The anarchists will literally slay church members by millions; and the sons of God will by His Holy Word cause them to cease their pretense of being Christians.

23:48. Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.—Thus will the Lord cause the desire for the union of churches with worldly power to cease out of human society, that all religious bodies may learn forever to avoid this abominable practice.

23:49. And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols: and ye shall know that I am the Lord God.—Thus shall ecclesiasticism’s faithless apostasy be recompensed upon her when she suffers the results of the sinfulness of loving other mighty ones than Jehovah, and thus shall she learn the supremacy of God in the affairs of men.

Ezekiel 24—The Boiling Caldron

24:1, 2. Again in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, write thee the name of the day, even of this same day: the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day.—It was in the fall of 1916—a year and seven months before the city was to be smitten in the spring of 1918—that the forces of laborism, revolution and anarchy, began to assert themselves against the established order of things in Christendom—the siege of the city began.

24:3. And utter a parable unto the rebellious house, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God: Set on a pot, set it on, and also pour water into it.—Jerusalem is likened to a boiling caldron from which meat is taken; then it is set empty on the fire and the rust burned out. Ezekiel’s wife dies; but he suppresses his feelings, and, after the ordinance for a priest, makes no mourning for the dead—a picture of the dumb sorrow of the Hebrews on the destruction of Jerusalem. The prophecy of this chapter was uttered on the same day that the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, “came, he and all his host, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about; and the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.” (2 Kings 25:1, 2.) Its antitype is that on or about November 1, 1916, the date of Pastor Russell’s death, ecclesiasticism began to enter upon its life‐and‐death struggle, materially, with the forces of laborism and anarchy, and religiously with the consecrated children of God, whose work from then on was increasingly to bear witness to the apostasy and imminent destruction of churchianity. Ecclesiasticism, rebellious against her God, is as an organization, like a caldron of brass (copper), typing that many of its members believe the Word of God. It is set amid the fiery troubles of revolution and anarchy. There is water in it, symbolic of what Truth there is in ecclesiasticism.—Jer. 1:13.

24:4. Gather the pieces thereof into it, even every good piece, the thigh, and the shoulders: fill it with the choice bones.—In it are gathered the great and prominent (good pieces), and also the strong ones (bones) of her flock.

24:5. Take the choice of the flock, and burn also the bones under it, and make it boil well, and let them seethe the bones of it therein.—The social elements will grow hot in the Time of Trouble until the truths in ecclesiasticism make it exceedingly warm for her members. Then the heated, excited, troublous condition will be transmitted, and as the truths warm up, will get all the church members into exceedingly hot water, even the strongest ones.

24:6. Wherefore thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the bloody city, to the plot whose scum is therein, and whose scum is not gone out of it! bring it out piece by piece; let no lot fall upon it.—Woe to Christendom, ecclesiasticism, bloody in the blood of soldiers, peasants, workingmen, martyrs and saints, by the millions, and blood guilty for the spiritual hopes of millions, extinguished by her false doctrines. Her rust (R. V.) is in her. Bring out her leading members, one by one, indiscriminately, into captivity to the forces of revolution.

24:7. For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the top of a rock; the poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust;—Her infamy of blood is in her very substance. She has not been able to conceal it, but it is exposed to full view in “the top of her rock,” in the kings and the kaisers, her heads in church‐state union.

24:8. That it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance; I have set her blood upon the top of a rock, that it should not be covered.—The fury of a revolted soldiery and populace will rise up against the heads of the governments, who are also heads of the churches, to take vengeance upon ecclesiasticism’s sins.

24:9. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Woe to the bloody city! I will even make the pile for fire great.—Innumerable will be the opponents of churchianity, and blazing hot their wrath.

24:10. Heap on the wood, kindle the fire, consume the flesh, and spice it well, and let the bones be burned.—Heap up the fires of discontent and anarchy, consume the tares in Christendom, as tares. Thicken the broth (R. V.), boil it down until the very bones, the strong church members, cease to be such.

24:11. Then set it empty upon the coals thereof, that the brass of it may be hot, and may burn, and that the filthiness of it may be molten in it, that the scum of it may be consumed.—Then ecclesiasticism, the clergy class, with emptied pews, shall sit amid the fiery trouble and be consumed, that their corruption may be done away.

24:12. She hath wearied herself with lies, and her great scum went not forth out of her: her scum shall be in the fire.—She has wearied even the preachers with the dishonesty of preaching things not believed in, and yet they did not cast out her doctrinal corruption, which shall be fuel for the fire of anarchy.

24:13. In thy filthiness is lewdness: because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused My fury to rest upon thee.—Her corruption was in her desire to become prominent and powerful through the power of earth’s great ones. God purged her of these things to some extent through godly preachers and reformers; but she was not purged in heart and quickly reverted to the things Divinely proscribed. Since 1878 God has made no further attempt to reform ecclesiasticism; and she shall not be purged, but the fury of God’s jealousy shall rest upon her.

24:14. I the Lord have spoken it; it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to thy ways, and according to thy doings, shall they judge thee, saith the Lord God.—God Himself has spoken this and will do it. He will not go back, neither spare, nor change His Plan; but in just recompense for her doings shall the Socialists and anarchists condemn her.

24:15, 16. Also the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down.—God took away from Pastor Russell the desire of his eyes, her whom he loved, with a stroke, or “plague” of spiritual error, which completely separated them. By the Mosaic ordinance a priest on the death of father, mother, or wife, was to show no special sign of grief, but was to remain in the Tabernacle, or Temple, and attend as usual to the service of God. Pastor Russell, as a member of the great High Priest and as Christ’s representative in the world, the sole steward of the “meat in due season,” suffered deeply, but shed no tears.

24:17. Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men.—Rather, he made no mourning for her that was to him as dead, but continued in the work of the sacrificing priesthood. He was sustained in his affliction, not by human aid, but by the consolations of his Father’s Word.

24:18. So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.—He continued his addresses and writings to the Lord’s people; his wife became to him as one dead: and he continued uninterruptedly in the work of the ministry.

24:19. And the people said unto me, Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?—Why was Pastor Russell caused by his Father to endure the fiery trials and ecclesiastical falsehoods in connection with this incident of his life?

24:20, 21. Then I answered them, The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Speak unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will profane My Sanctuary, the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pitieth; and your sons and your daughters whom ye have left shall fall by the sword.—God gives the reason. It was as a picture or parable of what is to happen to Christendom. Until 1878 the nominal church had been in a sense God’s sanctuary or Temple; but He was from then on, culminating in 1918, to remove it with a stroke or plague of erroneous doctrines and deeds Divinely permitted. The Church was the strength of Christendom, that about which its life centered, and around which its institutions were built. It was the desire of the eyes of the people, that which all Christians loved. Nevertheless, God was to make manifest the profanation which ecclesiasticism had made of the Christian Church, and to cause the church organizations to become to Him as one dead, an unclean thing, not to be touched, or mourned. And the “children of the church” shall perish by the sword of war, revolution and anarchy, and by the Sword of the Spirit be made to see that they have lost their hope of life on the spirit plane—that “the door is shut.”

24:22. And ye shall do as I have done: ye shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.—So universal and dreadful will be the troubles that the dead will literally lie unburied and unwept. There can be no mourning for the dead in a period when the living are overwhelmed by troubles worse than death.

24:23. And your tires shall be upon your heads: and your shoes upon your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall pine away for your iniquities, and mourn one toward another.—The mourning will be an inner sorrow of a people stupefied by terrible experiences, who pine away and without outward expression sink together into the fellowship of helpless grief.

24:24. Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign: according to all that he hath done shall ye do: and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord God.—Thus the silent sorrow at Pastor Russell’s heart was to be a sign to Christendom. The sorrowful experiences of Pastor Russell in this connection shall later on be those of all Christendom; “and when this cometh” they shall know that Jehovah God is supreme, and back of all the judgments of the trouble time.

24:25, 26. Also, thou son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their minds, their sons and their daughters. That he that escapeth in that day shall come unto thee, to cause thee to hear it with thine ears?—Also, in the year 1918, when God destroys the churches wholesale and the church members by millions, it shall be that any that escape shall come to the works of Pastor Russell to learn the meaning of the downfall of “Christianity.”

24:27. In that day shall thy mouth be opened to him which is escaped, and thou shalt speak, and be no more dumb: and thou shalt be a sign unto them; and they shall know that I am the Lord.—Pastor Russell’s voice has been stilled in death; and his voice is, comparatively speaking, dumb to what it will be. In the time of revolution and anarchy he shall speak, and be no more dumb to those that escape the destruction of that day. Pastor Russell shall “be a sign unto them,” shall tell them the truth about the Divine appointment of the trouble, as they consult his books, scattered to the number of ten million throughout Christendom. His words shall be a sign of hope unto them, enabling them to see the bright side of the cloud and to look forward with anticipation to the glorious Kingdom of God to be established. Then “they shall know the Lord.”

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“Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea.”

Ezekiel 25—Recompense Upon The Tares

25:1, 2. The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against the Ammonites, and prophesy against them.—