How would you answer that?

First-- when a writer makes several CLEAR statements concerning an event, it should be obvious that a vague statement should never be interpreted in a way that contradicts the clear statements.

D.A. page 830 does NOT say this is the second coming, nor does it say it is the third coming, it simply says "upon its summit His feet will rest when He shall come again".

Therefore if she consistently describes the second coming as "meeting Him in the air", we should NOT take a statement that doesn't identify which coming she is speaking of and make it contradict her many other statements.

Acts of Apostles 33
AA 258
Early Writings 108-109
Great Controversy 548
My Life Today 349
Sons and Daughters of God 360
The Day Star, Jan. 24, 1846

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Now in regard to the coming of the Son of man. This will not take place until after the mighty earthquake shakes the earth. After the people have heard the voice of God they are in despair and trouble such as never was since there was a nation, and in this the people of God will suffer affliction. The clouds of heaven will clash, and there will be darkness. Then that voice comes from heaven and the clouds begin to roll back like a scroll, and there is the bright, clear sign of the Son of man. The children of God know what that cloud means.
The sound of music is heard, and as it nears, the graves are opened and the dead are raised and there are thousands of thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand of angels that compose that glory, and encircle the Son of man. Those who have acted the most prominent part in the rejection and crucifixion of Christ come forth to see Him as he is, and those who have rejected Christ come up and see the saints glorified, and it is at that time that the saints are changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and are caught up to meet their Lord in the air. The very ones who placed upon Him the purple robe, and put the crown of thorns upon His brow, and those who put the nails through His hands and feet, look upon Him and bewail. And this is the very sign of the coming of the Son of man. . . . {9MR 251-252}

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Consistently the second coming is thus described.

It is no trival matter to understand this, for Satan will impersonate Christ's second coming and the whole world will be deceived.

It is at the THIRD coming when Christ will descend upon the Mt. of Olives.

Again we see this as the consistent view in Ellen Whites writings.

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At the close of the one thousand years, Jesus, with the angels and all the saints, leaves the Holy City, and while He is descending to the earth with them, the wicked dead are raised, and then the very men that "pierced Him," being raised, will see Him afar off in all His glory, the angels and saints with Him, and will wail because of Him. They will see the prints of the nails in His hands and in His feet, and where they thrust the spear into His side. The prints of the nails and the spear will then be His glory. It is at the close of the one thousand years that Jesus stands upon the Mount of Olives, and the mount parts asunder and becomes a mighty plain. Those who flee at that time are the wicked, who have just been raised. Then the Holy City comes down and settles on the plain.

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Notice several points--
1. The saints descend with Jesus BEFORE the city comes down.
Thus yes, the righteous "flee" into the Holy City and the doors are shut as the raised wicked come as the sand of sea to attack the city.

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We gathered about Jesus, and just as He closed the gates of the city, the curse was pronounced upon the wicked. The gates were shut. EW 53

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2. As to Jews and Gentiles-- that is a non-issue. Christ broke down the wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles at the cross (see Ephesians 2) that both may rejoice together around His throne -- whether at the second coming, in heaven, at the third coming, or throughout eternity.

Again, I do not think this is a "trivial matter", the focus on the coming of Christ to be on the earth-- in OLD Jerusalem area, is being pushed very strongly from many angles in preparation for the biggest deception this earth has ever known.

I find that these two quotes from a prior contributor in the thread above, kind of go together! The first is doing what the second says should not be done.

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If Abadon and Appolon is their King then It must be Christ and the meaning of those words describe his Work.

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The congregational prayer when the everyone kneeled, the opening words in cluded "others worship you under the name of Shiva, Allah," and the name of another pagan god was mentioned. Yahweh says,

Isaiah 42:8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.

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Revelation 9: 11
"They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon."

Christ IS NOT THE KING FROM THE BOTTOMLESS PIT!!!

Who is Apollyon?

His name is THE GREEK Apollon. APOLLON was a famous Greek god, indeed a god of all the gods in their culture, which writers such as Swinburne, who loved to contrast Hellenism with Christianity, would use to draw a sharp antithesis between him and Christ.

The revelator makes a clear connection with THE GREEK when speaking of the name-- this term does not come from the Hebrew, but from the GREEK. Apollyon is no doubt the correct reading. But the name Apollon was often linked in ancient Greek writings with the verb apollymi or apollyo, "destroy." "Apollyon" has often been taken here to be a play on the name Apollo which is the Roman spelling of the Greek god "Apollon". Apollon's identification as the sun-god is universal among later writers...

Apollon is also pictured as a very "beautiful" yet manly god, a master of music! Apollon, is acclaimed by ancient and modern worshippers as the god whose light is the very light of civilization.

The comparisons between this "Apollon" and "Lucifer" [light bearer] are striking! (See Is. 14:12 and Ez. 28:13,17) Pictures of Apollon usually have him holding a lyre, and leaning on a pillar with a snake engraved upon it.

There is only one person who can be described as the angel and king of the abyss and that is Satan himself. His name, Satan, means Adversary.

He was given liberty to release his demons to show the universe the nature of his "kingship". But in the end the keys are taken from him and he is confined for 1000 years.

John's post of 2004-01-28 10:22pm shows clearly the problem with DA830. The original thing that Ellen White wrote was written correctly and in context, but when edited later and put into books, sometimes things got well.....a bit confused.

Since DA829-830 left out the part about after "the 1,000 years", it introduces problems that were not in the original.

Get 100 people who are NOT Adventist to read DA 829-830, and probably every one of them will say it refers to the 2nd Coming (if they know of the 2nd Coming at all).

As an aside, when Jesus' feet touch the mountain it will part asunder instantly. How can there be any hallelujahs then while Jesus "stand(s) upon Olivet"?

I went to the website and read "The Three Angels Herald" articles carefully most all of Sabbath yesterday. My problem with it is that the author believes he has the right and authority to claim that the promises God made to the Children of Israel are not conditional. He is so sure that the saints will all go over to Jerusalem and be protected by God as a kind of megacity (my word) while the plagues, war, and devastation occur everywhere else in the world at the endtime. He seems to base this on the many promises he quotes in both Old and New Testament that God/Christ made to the Jews, even though they defied Him. Adventists have always approached these promises to the jews as conditional upon their acceptance and loyalty. So, I get concerned when the author of Three Angels Herald presumes that he can say with absolute authority that all those promises are NOT conditional after all.Just to read some of god's promises out of context, they do sound very beautiful and certain. But, we all know we must read scriptures in context with the whole. Yet, the Three Angels author is asking everyone to accept his authority on his own merit as equal to a prophet such as EGW with the "new light" he claims to have.

Restin,

The "Three Angels HERALD" is not a seventh-day Adventist site. From what I've read there it is presenting Shepherd Rod's -- the Davidian Seventh-day Adventists -- ideas.
Their understanding of prophecy is quite different from our understanding. Even though they use EGW profusely, I have repeatedly seen them cut and paste her words to make Ellen White say things she never said when one reads her words in context.

According to them
Ezekiel nine will happen before the "loud cry" which is the last call to the world to go forth. According to them most Seventh-day Adventists will be slaughtered--killed-- and only 144,000 true believers will be spared.
These 144,000 will then set out to establish a kingdom on earth, situated in Palestine, in which they are protected from the plagues and from which they go forth to convert a great multitude. Thus they believe the kingdom of God's glory has an intermediate phase which will be established here on earth.

Somehow they miss the fact that EGW puts Ezekiel nine at a totally different time. See GC 656.

They then take EGW's comments on the "great shaking" that will occur in the church and apply them to Ezekiel nine (which EGW does not do) EGW makes it plain that many of those shaken out will NOT BE SLAIN at all, but will be very much alive and leaders in persecuting.

However, if we get into discussing the problems our Davidian friends' doctrine possesses, we may need to do that on a different thread?

If you decide to create a new thread on what they believe, you could do that in the What Others Believe forum.