FM543
EZEKIEL 36

CHRISTENDOM'S
EARLY RESTORATION
Ezekiel 36:1. Also, thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the Word of the Lord. – In Chapter 6 is described the iniquities of the nations of Christendom and their doom. Chapter 36 describes the rejoicing of the non-Christian elements over her fall, and God's jealous anger against them. It foretells the early re-peopling of the nations of Christendom, their conversion to true Christianity, and the reason for God's action in behalf of the nations just previously destroyed. Taken literally, it foretells the same good future for His chosen but long-chastised people, the Jews. This is the message to the nations (mountains) of Christendom, as the Word of Jehovah concerning them.

Ezekiel 36:2. Thus saith the Lord God; Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession. – Because the revolutionists, who shall overthrow the nations of Christendom, shall say against them, "Aha, even the oldest and greatest nations of Christendom are under the control of us revolutionists, Socialists and laborites."

Ezekiel 36:3. Therefore prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people. – Thus saith Jehovah God to the nations of Christendom: Because the revolutionists shall have justly made you desolate and overrun you in every direction, so that you might be ruled over by pagan, fleshly-minded, infidel, revolutionary rulers, and because you shall be the subject of flippant discussion among the revolutionaries, and through your fall become infamous among all the heathen peoples of the world, in Europe, America and elsewhere. – Lam. 2:15, 16.

Ezekiel 36:4. Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the Word of the Lord God; Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are round about. – Therefore, ye nations of Christendom, thus saith Jehovah to the nations, great and FM544 small, to the religious denominations, to the lowly members of society, to the masses wasted and desolated by war and revolution, to the governments, local and national, that shall be abandoned, which shall become the victims of the Socialists, laborites and other revolutionists, who shall hold you in derision for your fall from eminence to desolation.

Ezekiel 36:5. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Surely in the fire of My jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed My land into their possessions with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey. – Therefor, saith God, surely I am jealous over the reflections they cast upon Me, and at the mouths of many prophets have I foretold the destruction by anarchy of the rest of those who falsely profess My name and then help to desolate Christendom – the "Christian" infidels and all the former fleshly-minded Christians (Idumeans) who shall have presumed, with malicious joy, to overthrow the order of things which bears My name – Christendom!

Ezekiel 36:6. Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I have spoken in My jealousy and in My fury, because ye have borne the shame of the heathen. – O nations of fallen Christendom, My people, because you shall have borne shame and reproach from the ungodly revolutionists, I will bring My jealous fury to bear upon your destroyers.

Ezekiel 36:7. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; I have lifted up Mine hand, Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame. – Jehovah has sworn (lifted the hand) that the Socialists, laborites, etc., shall bear a similar shame and reproach, when their short-lived order or things has in turn been desolated by the anarchists.

Ezekiel 36:8. But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to My people of Israel; for they are at hand to come. – A branch signifies a person born from another; as, Christ was a Branch of David. Here the branches shooting forth from the mountains are the people of Christendom, slain in revolutions and anarchy, springing forth, rising from the dead, to people Christendom again. But you, O nations, of Christendom, your dead shall rise up from their sleep in the dust of the earth, to the earthly, restitution – resurrection; you shall yield proper fruitage as the truly Christian people of Christendom; for they are close at hand to come back in the dust of the earth, in the mire of trenches, fortresses and battle fields. They sleep in death, ready to come, for "All that are in FM545 their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come forth" to resurrection. – John 5:28, 29.

Ezekiel 36:9. For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown. – Now that the Times of Restitution are at the door, God will be for them and will turn his favor unto them, and they shall be cultivated by truly Christian preachers commissioned by the resurrected Ancient Worthies at Jerusalem, and sown with the seed of the true Gospel of the Kingdom of restitution and blessing for all people.

Ezekiel 36:10. And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded. – The dead, fallen by the sword of war, revolution and anarchy, shall come forth from their graves to inhabit the earth. – Thus, as they multiplied the dead, will God multiply the living, to the number of all the dead of Christendom, even every one of them; they shall become in His sight, not dead in trespasses and sins, but living, true-blue, manly men for the Christ of divine love. The governments (cities) shall be reestablished; and commerce, transportation, industry and art, wasted by the Time of Trouble, shall be built up again, upon the foundation of the wholly righteous principles of the New Era.

Ezekiel 36:11. And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit; and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the Lord. – God will multiply useful workers in industries, and the invention of labor-saving machinery – the beasts of burden and of the productive arts and trades. They shall increase in numbers and in service to mankind, and shall multiply the productivity of the workers, bringing forth with the busy, happy hum of industry, plenty for all, fruitage abundant for the needs of humanity, God will settle them, establish them in permanent conditions, and will do for them far better than He could do in the former days of Christendom, when the operation of His Spirit energizing mind and spirit in invention, art, industry, commerce and religion, was hindered by apostasy of clergy and rulers. Men shall learn by happy experience how good is Jehovah and how truly He is love, and not the fire-god, eternal-torment Molech, whom they ignorantly worshipped, thinking they did Jehovah service.

Ezekiel 36:12. Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even My people Israel: and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of men. – God will cause men, perfected by FM546 processes of restitution and resurrection, to live In the nations of resurrected Christendom. Men of this highly exalted type shall possess Christendom, when Christ's Kingdom shall be inherited by the kingly men for whom it was prepared from the foundations of the earth. Never more shall the nations of Christendom bereave themselves of men, as they have done in centuries of oppression, misrule and persecution, and especially in the Time of Trouble.

Ezekiel 36:13. Thus saith the Lord God; Because they say unto you, Thou land devourest up men, and hast bereaved thy nations. – Because the infidel revolutionists will throw at Christendom the taunt, "Your social order, economic, political and religious, eats up, destroys men, in industry, persecution, war, and revolution, and bereaves the nations of their best men."

Ezekiel 36:14. Therefore thou shalt devour men no more, neither bereave thy nations any more, saith the Lord God. – Never shall this be any more, says God.

Ezekiel 36:15. Neither will I cause men to hear in thee the shame of the heathen any more, neither shalt thou bear the reproach of the people any more, neither shalt thou cause thy nations to fall any more, saith the Lord God. – Neither will God permit men to hear the infidel peoples put Christendom to shame, nor to heap reproach upon her; for Christendom shall be no more a reproach among the heathen, nor shall she cause its nations to fall again.

Ezekiel 36:16, 17. Moreover the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before Me as the uncleanness of a removed woman. – While ecclesiasticism and its adherents control Christendom, they defile it spiritually by their traditions, doctrines and actions. Their spiritual condition is before God as a church polluted, unclean spiritually, unfit to touch, which ought to be "cut off from social privileges and her citizenship among God's people put in abeyance," as long as the spiritually unclean condition lasts, an uncleanness which may be removed only by a liberal application of "the waters of separation" (Lev. 15:19-31) – the cleansing reformation of the pure, unadulterated, fearlessly preached and applied Word of God, "the water or the Word." – Eph. 5:26.

Ezekiel 36:18. Wherefore I poured My fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it. – The penalty for wilful violation of the Hebraic precepts regarding uncleanness was the final cutting off of the culprit from the Lord's eople. Wherefore God shall pour out upon ecclesiasticism FM547 His fury in war, revolution, and anarchy, for the lives – physical and religious – taken throughout the lengths and breadths of human society, and for the idolatrous worship of Molech, the eternal-torment God, and of Baal, the god of adulterous church-state union, wherewith she has polluted Christendom.

Ezekiel 36:19. And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them. – God will scatter the church adherents among the revolutionists, and disperse them throughout a variety of infidel, Socialistic, laborite and other like conditions, judging the ecclesiastics according to their apostasy.

Ezekiel 36:20. And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned My holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of His land. – Wherever these fleshly-minded Christians shall be scattered, they will blaspheme God's holy name, with the reproach that though they had claimed to be Jehovah's people, God had been unable to safeguard them and they had abandoned all pretense of being Christians.

WHY GOD WILL RESTORE CHRISTENDOM

Ezekiel 36:21. But I had pity for Mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. – But God will have regard for the prestige of His reputation for justice, power, love and wisdom, which the apostate of Christendom shall impugn during the revolutionary order of things.

Ezekiel 36:22. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for Mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. – Therefore Jehovah says that what He is about to do, He will not do for their sakes, for they deserve nothing at His hand but the judgments justly visited upon them; but that He will do it for His holy name's reputation, which they have persistently misrepresented and blasphemed.

Ezekiel 36:23. And I will sanctify My great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. – God will make His name sacred, and forever hallowed, among the pagan peoples, the name which apostate Christians have profaned and defamed among them; and God will make the infidel peoples to FM548 know of a certainty that He is the all-wise, just, loving and almighty Jehovah, when He finally converts all such to true Christianity.

Ezekiel 36:24. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. – God will save His professed people from the faithless, unbelieving condition of the revolutionists and the professedly pagan peoples, and will gather them out of all the evil conditions into which they shall fall, into a condition of genuine conversion and consecration to Himself. How much like God! all will exclaim, who know Jehovah. What an example does the Father set to His children, the sons of God! – Eph. 5:1; Z.'92- 63.

Ezekiel 36:25. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. – Then will Jehovah wash His apostate people with the pure, unpolluted water of the Word of Truth; and from all their filthiness of flesh and spirit, of life and of doctrine, and from their idolatry of Molech and of Baal, will He cleanse them; and they shall be clean. – A333; Z.'92-64.

Ezekiel 36:26. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. – God judges the thoughts and iintents of the heart, and He will give His professed people a pure heart to serve Him and to love Him with fullness of consecration. He will take away from them the stony heart (Jer. 31:33), wherewith for sake of earthly emoluments and honor of men, they have resisted Him and hardened their consciences against His Truth. He will put within them a new spirit which they have not known – the spirit of willing service and obedience to Jehovah, the spirit of the truth, the spirit of wisdom, of courage, of a sound mind, and of Divine love. – 2 Tim. 1:7; Z.'99-187; A310; Z.'03-171.

Ezekiel 36:27. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them. – God will give them His Holy Spirit and cause them to walk in His "royal law of love" (Jas. 2:8), so that they shall keep that law and do it. – Z.'99-188.

Ezekiel 36:28. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God. – And they shall abide in the condition of Divine favor that the fathers walked in, and truly be God's people; and Jehovah, the God of love – not Molech, nor Baal – shall be their God.

Ezekiel 36:29. I will also save you from all your ncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay FM549 no famine upon you. – God will save the people now constituting His professed, but apostate church, from all their spiritual and fleshly uncleanness. He will call for the wheat, the bread of life, the Word of God, and will give them to feed on this good Word, and will permit no more famine of the Word of God among them.

Ezekiel 36:30. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. – God will multiply the fruits of righteousness, and cause the new social order to increase its character fruitage, so that Christians shall receive no more from the heathen the reproach that there is among them a famine of God's Word, and that they fail to practise what they profess. – Amos. 8:11.

Ezekiel 36:31. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. – Then, in the abundance of the wonderful and undeserved goodness and love of God, God's professed people shall remember their former evil doctrines, that misrepresented His holy character, and their doings that were not good, especially their grasping for world power and their persecution of the sons of God. Then they shall loathe themselves for their iniquitous doctrines and for their sectarian abominations.

Ezekiel 36:32. Not for your own sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. – Be it known, in advance, that Jehovah will do these good things, not for their sakes in any sense; for they merit far different treatment at His hands. They shall be ashamed and utterly confounded at His goodness. Thus, with goodness and with love overflowing will God recompense the evil they have done Him and His true children.

Ezekiel 36:33. Thus saith the Lord God; in the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. – In the l,000-year day, the Millennium, the "Times of Restitution of all things" (Acts 3:19-21), when God shall have cleansed those who are now His professed people from their iniquities, He will cause them to abide in new governments of the nations and cities of Christendom (Luke 19:17), whose wasted arts, manufactures, industries, transportation and commerce shall be built up again.

Ezekiel 36:34. And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. – Christendom, utterly desolated in war, revolution and anarchy, and lying desolate in the sight of the whole world, shall be cultivated FM550 in the arts, sciences, trades and professions, and especially with the true Gospel of the Kingdom.

Ezekiel 36:35. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited. – And the infidel peoples shall exclaim, "Christendom that was utterly desolated, has become like the Garden of Eden!" For governments, national, city, and local, which were wasted, desolated and ruined, have been replaced by better and permanent (fenced) arrangements brought about by the mighty power of Jehovah's Love.

Ezekiel 36:36. Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that was desolate: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it. – Then the unbelieving peoples will come to the realization that the One that shall rebuild ruined Christendom and plant the desolate people with the seed of the glad gospel of the Kingdom is Jehovah. Jehovah has spoken it, and will bring it to pass.

Ezekiel 36:37. Thus smith the Lord God; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock. – God will yet be supplicated by desolated Christendom to do this for them. Then, in answer to their prayers, He will, by awakenings from the dead, increase their numbers with men in multitudes.

Ezekiel 36:38. As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the Lord. – Like as vast flocks of sheep and cattle were gathered for sacrifice at the annual feasts at Jerusalem, so shall the devastated nations of Christendom be filled with great crowds of consecrated, holy men, each devoted as a willing thank offering forever to live for God. And they shall know, when God has brought them back from the dead, that He is Jehovah, a God of infinite Justice, Power, Love and Wisdom.



Hail to the brightness of Zion's glad morning!
Joy to the lands that in darkness have lain!
Hushed be the accents of sorrow and mourning!
Zion, in triumph, begins her glad reign.
See the dead risen from land and from ocean;
Praise to Jehovah ascending on High;
Fall'n are the engines of war and commotion;
Shouts of salvation are rending the sky.