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An Amendment of Grace to the Repertoire of Damnation

Fourthly, and unexpectantly, an amendment was added to the  
repertoire of damnation constituted for the Evil Figs.

Shockingly, in this series of prophecies the very first allowance of mercy was granted to select individual persons from the doomed population of Evil Figs (formerly dubbed, the hopeless). The amendment is intentionally inserted into the Divine Protocol because some Evil Figs will be made good after all – literally, AFTER ALL! Even in the ferocity of these judgments upon Evil Figs, the LORD promised that a “remnant” would live to tell the story (Ezek. 6:8-10). The story needed to be told. This is an unprecedented announcement and certainly contradictory to the former plan of total annihilation (Evil Figs: Jer. 24:8-10, 29:16-19), therefore it is understood to be an amendment. Graciously, and for the LORD’s names sake (to tell the story!), repentance would be wrought in the hearts of a small number and, thus, vindicatory praises would be heard on their lips as they are driven on from country to country! Be amazed at the ingenuity of God, my reader! The LORD said,

Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries. And they that escape of you shall remember Me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from Me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations. And they shall know that I am the LORD, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them.” – Ezek. 6:8-10

Can you imagine it? To be one of those few men and women who escaped the inescapable judgment of God! You – passing through great tribulation – hand-selected by God to be a voice which gives testimony to the truth and vindicates God’s righteous judgments! Oh, but this confession was the final product of the fires, not the beginning product! Tribulation would eventually birth this kind of repentance, in the latter end! As of yet, none were repenting! Even at the prophetic delivery of this foreboding disaster, none repented! The Evil Figs were very E-V-I-L. So, because none were repenting, God Almighty was smiting with His hands and stamping with His feet while uttering judgments and furious rebukes! Fearfully, it was written,

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my fury upon them. Then shall ye know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols. So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all their habitations: and they shall know that I am the LORD.” – Ezek. 6:11-14

After thus and thus was spoken, what more could be said? My reader, the people of Judah were still deluded to think that they were the privileged escapees, though impenitent they be! Or, worse, they thought that the judgment of God would not come upon all the Land (“the four corners of the Land” – Ezek. 7:2) and all the people (“the whole multitude” – Ezek. 7:13). Ah, these fanciful escapees were in fact inescapably targeted by unfailing Omnipotence! The LORD was careful to verbally correct these odious imaginations, addressing each: “O thou that dwellest in the Land” (Ezek. 7:7), “all the multitude thereof” (Ezek. 7:12), “the whole multitude” (Ezek. 7:13), those that are “without” and “within”, those “in the field”, those “in the City” (Ezek. 7:15), and those “that escape of them” on “the Mountains” and “the Valleys” (Ezek. 7:16). The LORD was careful to specify, “all of them” and “every one” (Ezek. 7:16), “all hands”, “all knees”, “all faces”, and “all their heads” (Ezek. 7:17-18)! What? God said, “they shall seek peace and there shall be none” (Ezek. 7:25). This is DREADFUL.

What peace would they seek, you wonder? This unpeaceful people will be seeking the peace erroneously offered to them by lying prophets! Namely, “a vision of the Prophet”, “the law” from “the Priest”, and the “counsel from the Ancients” (Ezek. 7:26)! …those are the soul-murdering Peace-Preachers! The vision, law, and counsel of these men do amount to a false peace! And, what of the rest of the so-called rulers? What shall become of them? The King’s happiness would be turned to mourning, the Prince’s riches into desolation (Ezek. 7:27), and as for all the nominal people, God said, “none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs” (Ezek. 7:11)! The people were brought to nothing so that in the midst of it all, and afterwards, God said: “ye shall know that I am the LORD that smiteth” (Ezek. 7:9)! How fearful! Read it and weep, my reader…

the vision is touching the whole multitude thereof, which shall not return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life. They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goeth to the battle: for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof. The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him. But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity. All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water. They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads.” – Ezek. 7:13-18

“Destruction cometh” (Ezek. 7:25), the LORD said! He meant it. These are words of truth and soberness (“he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come” – Acts 24:25). Even so, the Prophet Ezekiel, far North from the Prophet Jeremiah, joined the battle for truth and withstood the rebellious multitudes who were only and always enamored with deception. God help such men prosper in this our day! Oh, that the 21st century rebels would bemoan themselves like in Jeremiah and Ezekiel’s day, “all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity” (Ezek. 7:16). This was a glorious work and a good one, effectually wrought upon an otherwise good-less and evil people.

Take careful note, my reader. The progress of Tribulatory Judgment in correlation with newfound or future repentances in the Good or Evil Figs is the focal point of our study. Upon understanding this, the ingenious method of redemption via the Tribulation is clarified; and upon see this, all men are rightly taught to Embrace Tribulation and vindicate God’s judgment. Remember, “judgment must begin at the House of God” (1 Pet. 4:17-18). In this series of Ezekiel’s prophesying we observe the result of God’s handiwork in judgment against great resistance. Resistance proves futile while embracement proves invaluable. In review, we can see that neither the Jews in Babylon nor the Jews in the Land of Judah knew that the God of Jeremiah and Ezekiel was the LORD, but they would be made to know it (Ezekiel 5:13, 6:10, 13, 14, 7:4, 9, 27)! The convincing proof that persuades all is conveyed in the main thrust of the prophetic messages. God said that the whole remnant and the entirety of the Land of Judah would become desolate and without inhabitant, warning that it was impossible to hide. So, when it all comes true…

“they shall know that I the LORD have spoken it in My zeal, when…” - Ezek. 5:13

“ye shall know that I am the LORD” - Ezek. 6:7

“they shall know that I am the LORD…” - Ezek. 6:10

“then shall ye know that I am the LORD, when…” - Ezek. 6:13

“they shall know that I am the LORD” - Ezek. 6:14

“ye shall know that I am the LORD” - Ezek. 7:4

“ye shall know that I am the LORD that smiteth” - Ezek. 7:9

“they shall know that I am the LORD” - Ezek. 7:27

Of course, the conversion of the Good Figs had been of utmost importance to God; and now we see the unlikely conversion of the Evil Figs as well! The elect escapees from Judah, the Evil Figs, scattered into the winds, were prophetically described thus: “they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations” (Ezek. 6:9), “all of them mourning every one for his iniquity” (Ezek. 7:16), and, furthermore, “neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life” (Ezek. 7:13), for, “they shall seek peace, and there shall be none…the Law shall perish from the Priest, and counsel from the Ancients” (Ezek. 7:25-27). “The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts” (Prov. 17:3). GOD KNOWS HOW TO PURIFY A HEART FROM CONTAMINATING EVILS.

God knows how to make an Evil Fig become good! And, thereby, God would make the presently evilGood Figs become good! They, the Evil Figs, didn’t believe in a total annihilation of the Land and Cities of Judah (because of Covenantal Idealism via misapplied promises; Ezek. 5:10-15), they certainly denied that they would eat their friends and family member’s flesh for food (because of self-righteous Phariseeism; Ezek. 5:9-10), they were depicted to be steadfast in impenitence even after judgment came upon the Cities of Judah (those who escaped to the Mountains, hills, rivers, and valleys thought they would inhabit the Land and reckon Covenantal Ideals; Ezek. 6:1-7), in such and such ways and more they would try to strengthen themselves in their iniquities as the judgments incrementally persisted… but they would fail to do so in the latter end (Ezek. 7:13-18, 25-27)! Therefore, at last, the devastated survivors of a radically decreased multitude will finally lose faith in idolatry and shun False Judaism! They will become repentant insomuch that when they are scattered into all nations, they are prophetically depicted as ones giving glory to God by vindicating divine justice (Ezek. 6:8-10)! Furthermore, because the Evil Figs were deceiving the Good Figs, Ezekiel was moved to prophesy of the progressive and eventually dismantled status of Covenantal Idealism and Unconditional Eternal Security, the erroneous faith of the Evil Figs. This would, in turn, redirect the eyes of the Good Figs away from the Evil Figs. This would, at last, turn their gaze upon the God of Israel! This was their only hope.

The precise determination of an All Israelite Manhunt would go unnoticed by those who have not been made to marvel at the difficulty (the generational controversy) of God dwelling among redeemed man in peace. When the rules whereby this friendship is secured are unlearned and unknown, the acts of divine enmity as a result of Church Impurity seem insignificant. Hence, the prophetic denouncements of the Major and Minor Prophets appear uncalculated, repetitive, and general. God defined justice by Law in the dominion of His Kingdom, the Church. Thereby, through the Law, we see that excommunication was an insufficient punishment for sinners in the Church (the Israelite Nation). According to God’s judgment this deserved death and within God’s domain of rule this judgment was inescapable. In ideal scenarios where the Law was upheld, God always did and always would hunt down everyone who was worthy of death. Therefore, to no surprise, God hunted every Israelite Backslider outside the borders of Israel during the Tribulation Period.

I repeat, even when the borders of the Israelite nation were dissolved and the sovereignty of the nation collapsed from a human perspective, God was still the Sovereign Exacter of justice in pursuit of unjust men. God hunted everyone down outside of the borders of Israel because He authored a Sinner-Killing & Sinner-Saving contraption of judgment that utilized the heathen as God’s weapons of destruction and chastisement. They, the heathen, became the means whereby God would accomplish the end goal of salvation via Church Purity with a stubbornly impure people. Through the Captivities, the Borders of Israel no longer represented the domain in which the righteous standards of justice and judgment were demanded and enforced. Despite the deportation, God had a case to settle with the lawless people and they couldn’t escape it. God abandoned the material government of the Church (the Glory of God departed) and dissolved the spiritual fortitude of the borders, and in so doing God drew out the people yonder to be engulfed by the divinely chosen purifying contraption, the Tribulation. Even though the Borders of Israel dissolved, the Israelite People were still targeted in every country whither they were carried captive… until, at last, Church Purity was restored. Whether in Israelite Land or beyond, if you were an Israelite in the Tribulation Period you needed to repent or else you would die. Period. No matter the country of one’s deportation, God enforced the constituted judgment of Israelite Law in preparation for the people’s regathering within the Land of Israel.

The promises of God are committed to the Church in good hopes by a Covenant-keeping God (Isa. 63:8). However, the promises of God must be reckoned by the Church amidst Church Purity. This is the reckoning of Covenantal Idealism by those who are Covenant-keepers. This is when the visible Church is the holy abode and spiritual dominion of the Invisible God. The Church Officers of the Tribulation Period commit the folly of reckoning the promises of God to the Church amidst Church Impurity! This is the reckoning of Covenantal Idealism by those who are Covenant Breakers. It is not that Covenantal Idealism is erroneous, rather it is idealistic! However, when the visible Church is abandoned by the Invisible God, the reckoning of Covenantal Idealism is shear godlessness (see Ezekiel 8:1-11:25).