The Mark of the Righteous and the Mark of the Beast

Before we begin I strongly feel to say the following: We as believers need to come to a firm realization of what bible that Christ and the Apostles used to preach and teach from.  As discussed elsewhere on this website, in the book of Acts when Paul the Apostle arrived in Thessalonica he came in upon a group of Jews called “The Bereans” and Luke tells us that they were more honorable than anyone else that Paul had come in contact with in that when Paul preached They searched the scriptures daily to see if the things were so.  In other words these Jews did not accept on face value anything that the Apostle told them and if anything Paul preached was not found in the Law and the Prophets they promptly rejected that item that Paul had preached until a proper clarification or rebuttal with Scripture was made. And Paul marveled at this and called this behavior: “more honorable.”  He praised these people for doing such and implied that all believers should follow their example of searching the Law and the prophets daily to see if what is being preached taught is so.

What preacher today would take a challenge to back up their teachings and doctrines using only the Law and the Prophets? And yet Christ did, the twelve Apostles did, and Paul the Apostle did.  The Church of today suffers from a series of terrible spiritual maladies primarily because they have utterly rejected the Old Testament as being  “Old Covenant” which has been taught no longer applies the to church or believers, or they call it in prejudicial terms “The Jewish Bible” meaning that this is for the Jews only, when nothing could be farther from the truth. Christ himself tells us that the foundation of the entire everything he did and said aka the Gospels and New Testament is the Old Testament – the Law and the prophets.  The New Testament needs to be viewed as being synoptic and containing the names, addresses, and phone numbers, for many of the spiritual truths located in the Law and the Prophets.

Paul and Peter called the Gospels and their Epistles “milk” and say they are “for babes,” in Christ. Paul also refers to “strong meat” for the mature. and for “those that are of full age”. and for “those who can spiritually discern it.” – Where is that meat that must be spiritually discerned? It is hidden in the bible that Paul the Apostle and Christ read, the Law and the Prophets. It is the corner stone that Church builders have rejected since the year 330 AD and replaced with their own man made traditions and doctrines.

Case and Point 

1 Peter 4:17-18  “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”
In the early Church meetings were held from dawn until dusk. We see evidence of this in the Book of Acts, and in other sources on this website under ancient articles. The point that is that the early believers were immersed in the Law and the Prophets so that virtually anyone in that day reading the Gospels and Epistles would have been able to speak out from memory the scriptures Christ and the Apostles were quoting, from the parables of Christ to the Epistles of the Apostles and the book of Revelation, but most of this is completely lost upon the believers of this day as few with any regularity read even the New Testament instead accept the regurgitated teachings and interpretations of others  in Church, books, and videos,  this careless ease concerning the word of truth has brought about spiritual leanness in the soul of the church, it has brought about in current a flood of supposed biblical knowledge a famine for hearing the word of God.

How indeed shall the Holy Spirit . . .bring all things in scripture to your remembrance, if you have never read God’s word from cover to cover and meditated thereon? 

So when Peter wrote Judgment must begin at the House of God virtually any reader of his words in the first century and midway through second century would have instantly known Peter was speaking of a passage near the beginning of Ezekiel the prophet, and probably could have quoted it verbatim as well. 

So what does Peter say of this quote from Ezekiel:9 Judgment must begin at the House of God? Peter says: “The time is come . . . and it shall first begin at us.
This may come as a shock to some – Peter is speaking here of the Great Tribulation. And where does Peter say it will begin? At us! Peter is plainly saying that the judgment of God in the great tribulation was coming at him and the other Apostles, and at the Church that they had built.  Christ spoke of this in the Parable of the house built on the Rock and the house built on the sand. Paul spoke of all that he had built on the foundation of Christ being tried in a judgment of fire.  In Matthew 24 Jesus identified that flood of evil and iniquity coming over the entire earth as the great tribulation.  And in it all churches and believers that are founded on the sand of human reason and the doctrines and teaching of men shall be swept away. And anything left standing of the church will be utterly purged of everything that is unclean. Christ spoke that before the great and terrible day of the Lord – the tares will be removed first, that it would be as the days of Noah when all unrighteousness would be swept away.  Realize that Peter is not spaking this in and of himself, – he had heard all of this first from Christ as it is recorded in the Gospels over and over again.

Let us now examine the main text in Ezekiel knowing now that it is in fact speaking of the purging a sinful and corrupt Church.
Ezekiel 9:1-11 He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.
To begin with an angry God calls in an angelic force that has been given charge to protect the people of God.

Matthew 21:33-41 Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.
The early Church lost the rights to the vineyard – the Glory of the Lord lifted up and vacated the vineyard, and the glory and power of God was given to others. And of these servants that which called itself the church in utter contempt and jealousy beat them, killed them, stoned them, burnt them at the stake, and tortured them in every manner . . . The grievous sins that our father’s have committed against God in not vacating the vineyard and persecuting those whom He sent did not and will not simply go away  . . .  

In Revelation we read of an angry Christ who calls for the destruction and blotting out of more than one church.

In Hebrews we are given the sternest warnings,
Hebrews 2:1-3 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

Hebrews 10:26-28 For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

Hebrews 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Ezekiel 9:2 And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brazen altar.
So God’s anointed vessels of destruction now appear as men brandish their weapons and a man clothed in white linen – not a priest with a writers inkhorn appears with them at the empty altar of God where cleansing was to be performed.

Ezekiel 9:3 And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house.
And the Manifest Presence of God departs from the holy of Holies to outside the threshold of the door of the temple. This is as if to say God turns his back on the church as he did to Israel.

 

Ezekiel 9:3-4 And He called (From out of the Shekina) to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side; And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
So God sets a mark upon “His” people. Is this a unilateral marking of all that call upon his name? No it is not.

Matthew 7:21-23 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
The mark is not given for works, it is not given for knowing or confessing his name. It is given to those who not only are hearers of His words, but doers.  And in this passage in Ezekiel 9 we see that these doers: sigh and cry about all the abominations that are done in the midst of the church. It doesn’t matter whether the sin was a Catholic sin or a Lutheran sin a Baptist sin or a sin in your church and congregation you sigh and cry because Christ’s name was defamed, when one member is debased all members are debased. 

Ezekiel 9:5 And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:  ⁶Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary.
They are told to have no pity to thoroughly purge this cancer in the church no matter who it is on – In revelation we see that they are slaying all those who have the mark of the beast in order to conduct trade and pay their tithes and offerings. But in Ezekiel we only see those who have the Mark of the Lord upon them. And the Lord says: “Begin at the house of the Lord” Which Peter tells us begins at him and the other Apostles and at the Church that they have built.

Ezekiel 9:6 And then they began at the ancient men which were before the house (of the Lord).
They then begin their slaughter with the oldest and most revered of men of early Church.  When we read the history of the early church we see that the Roman Empire the forerunner of the forth beast of Daniel slaughtered all of the elders and leaders of the movement, stripping away from the early church it’s most knowledgeable and able teachers and leaving the reigns of the church in the hands of novices who led the church of their day into greater and greater darkness,

What God revealed to me it that there is a connection between this passage, the book of revelation and the vision of Daniel concerning the 4^th beast.  So that these men of Ezekiel 9: are in fact the great and terrible fourth beast with Iron teeth that shall stamp out the RESIDUE.  And it is when these passages in Daniel and Ezekiel are combined that we see that these men shall begin their murderous onslaught with not the oldest and most revered men in the Church but with the oldest and most revered denomination of the Church “The Roman Catholic Church and the fourth beast shall bring an end to their false oblation and shall utterly plunder and destroy with fire the Vatican.  As an interesting aside Roman Catholics Prophets have prophesied of this coming demise of their church since the Middle Ages. 

But any squeals of delight among Protestants of the Church of Rome’s demise will end swiftly when they realize that the slaughtering beast will not stop there. Because the beast and the Anti-Christ are programmed to destroy all antichrists so they will move to the eastern orthodox, the remnants of the Coptic Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Lutherans, the reformed church of John Calvin the Mennonites, the Baptists the Pentecostals and they shall stamp all them to powder and shall pity none, not children, no women, not the elderly, all shall be blotted out – the only ones they shall not be able to touch are the eklektos those who walk in the light as He is in the light. Those shall be persecuted and killed by the Church. 

Ezekiel 9:7-8 And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city. And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?
Ezekiel cannot bear the sight of this. And he sighs and cries for the people being destroyed even though they are corrupt. There is a Baptist church that I have read of recently; Where they are rejoicing over the earthquakes, and tornados, and hurricanes.  These misguided believers parade around with signs about how good it is that there was death, injury, and people maimed. This pastor and his people speaking the words of the devil. God does not rejoice when a single man or woman perishes. The contagion of sin in some is so strong and so virulent that they must be destroyed to prevent the further contamination of others.  

Ezekiel 9:9 Then said He unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness:
I want to couple this verse with an earlier verse so that you can see another passage in the bible
set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. . . .
See the description that is highlighted in yellow? Where have you read something that is described as an abomination, filled with blood, and filled with sin perverseness or uncleaness?

Revelation 17:3-5 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: ⁵And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. ⁶And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus:
Now Peter never got to see the book of Revelation while he lived. It was written almost 30 years after Peter’s death. But had it been written while he yet lived instead of his saying The time is come he would have said The time will come because Peter would have then known that the Church would eventually kill its own saints and martyr it’s own people like the people in parable of the vineyard.

Ezekiel 9:9-11 For they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not. And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head. And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me.
The recompensing upon their head is either their having the “Mark of the Beast” or “The Mark of the Righteous.”

For a few moments we will now turn our focus on the Mark of the Beast.
All my life as a believer, it has been preached that the Mark of the Beast was a literal mark in the hand or on the forehead. – Since the 1970’s thousands of articles have been written on this subject and dozens of books written.  These have cited references as far back as far as 1967 in Business Week Magazine called “The Cashless Society” When Credit cards first came out Christians who taught about the Rapture and related doctrines declared they were the Mark of the Beast. (Yet there is hardly one of this group that does not have multiple credit cards today. When the electronic scanners first came out in supermarkets this same crowd declared it was the mark of the beast and at first they boycotted this technology yet today who of this crowd does not go through a checkout line with electronic scanners. Today’s populist take on the mark of the beast is they will be a biometric device inserted under the skin, a device that is a combination of a personal ID, medical history, and credit card.  And adding credence to this belief is the phrase in Revelation that without no man shall buy or sell with out the Mark

However can “The Mark of the Beast” as has been suggested for decades be created without the Beast?

Revelation 13:14 And (the false prophet) deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
The first point is that the beast and the false prophet are to be present. The beast is apparently slain by a sword that cut off his head. How do we know this?

Revelation 13:3 I saw one of his (the beast’s) heads as it were wounded to death.
The only society that uses swords for capital punishment is Muslimism, and in particular this is done to what they call infidels – those who depart from their fundamentalist beliefs.  And what fundamentalist Muslims do to infidels? They chop their heads off with a ceremonial sword. (Last summer the Lord revealed to me that the fourth beast of Daniel was Muslimism what God spoke to me regarding that vision of Daniel is on this website for your inspection) And what we now see now is in agreement with what God previously revealed. So by the Spirit I see that the Anti-Christ will be a Muslim, he will be part of a venerable ruling Muslim family, he will subdue three Muslim countries, but he will be a man of peace and speak of Christians and Hindus and Buddhists as all being brothers. During his rise in power he will be acclaimed as the friend of the church and the world, for he will appear as a greet light of hope and enlightenment in a world that us increasingly under the sword of Muslimism   Over the three horns that he shall subdue he will declare peace with Christians Hindus and Muslims. There shall be a coupe and he shall be taken and tried. During the televised trial he will eloquently defend the rights of Christianity and other faiths. The fundamentalists and given a sentence of death with all prejudice and execute him on television. But a miracle will occur and this accuses will fall back in fear and worship him and he will become the head of Muslimism and Christianity and when he come to Europe he will be hailed as the savior as he rolls back the forces that have destroyed the Vatican and all the denomination church and slain hundreds of thousands of nominal believers. And he shall set up a rule declaring peace and safety to all who follow him.  

And he (the false prophet) had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
So the false prophet prophesies for them to build a statue of the beast and this image is given life and all that will not worship this living and speaking image are slain seemingly by this image as well. And the False prophet will deceive the world to worship this image, the dragon and the beast.

And now we come to the Mark of the beast And He (the false prophet) shall cause all great and small to receive the mark of the beast on their right hand or forehead – and concerning buying and selling there is the mark itself, there is the name of the beast and there is the number of the beast 666. I see that this name, mark, and number, will be advertised as an act of benevolence that the beast will offer from the oil revenues of the countries he has power over the allow all the poor food and basic needs via the mark his name or his number.  

This is actually the devil offering the church at large the offer he made to Christ in the third temptation. And many shall be deceived even some of the very elect.

Daniel 8:23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full.
Jesus called this the fullness of the gentiles – This has to do with the Church utterly rejecting Christ and those whom he has sent.

Dainel 8:24-25 A king of fierce countenance (the antichrist) , and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: (His power is from the dragon) and he shall destroy (Greek Sept: Corrupt) wonderfully,(Greek Sept: shall have the power) and shall prosper, and practice, (Greek Sept: devote himself to) and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft (work) to prosper in his hand; (There will be great prosperity) and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many:               

With that said we will turn our attention once more to the image, the mark, the name, and the number.

The false prophet is empowered and possessed by Apollyon The Beast is empowered and possessed by the dragon.  Those who receive the mark of the righteous (the 144,000) receive an impartation of the Christ of Christ as the 70 elders did of Moses as the 120 received of Christ on the day of Pentecost. So also those who receive the mark of the best shall receive an impartation of the spirit of the beast – that is to say that they shall also become possessed and shall be taken with madness to worship the beast and the make war with and utterly slay the elect believing they are doing service for God.

As the mark of the Righteous is the impartation of the Spirit of Christ to the ek-lektos so the mark of the beast is the impartation of the spirit of the satan to the klesia and the world.

1 Peter 4:17-18  “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”

Now when we look back at the words of Peter we now see a detail that was not in Ezekiel but was taught by Christ:
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father.
Peter then tells echo’s the word’s of Christ: “that in the last days if it were possible that the very elect would be deceived” or that the righteous (those of the Klesia that have been made Ek-lektos) are scarcely saved. What (then) will become of ungodly and sinful believers?  This is a rhetorical question that he has already answered with his quite of Ezekiel 9:1-11

I will now speak in the plainest terms of what God has revealed to me concerning the 144,000

We have seen who among believers the mark given to in Ezekiel 9. In the passage below we will see what the mark is. And once we know what is it, then we will discus why those who are marked, have received the mark – that is what these 144,000 marked believers are to accomplished

Revelation 7:1-4 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
As I mentioned these 144,000 are the Ek-lektos of God.  The “Ek Out-shining Lektos sunbeams of God” (You can read the word-study on this site about Ek-Lektos) And these 144,000 are to be sealed with the seal or mark of the Living God  -- This is no less than the full restoration of the all the gifts and operations as they were demonstrated by Christ and the Apostles. These 144,000 are the overcomers that were spoken of to the seven churches. These 144,000 are the manifested sons of God that Paul the Apostle spoke of. 

Note that the mark is placed on the 144,000 before the angels are sent forth with everyone a destroying weapon in their hand.  So that when the great destruction – ie the great tribulation begins it will not come neigh those that are marked or those that are in their charge.

Many who read this passage are just are overwhelmed with the great number of this party of overcomers that receive “The Mark of the Living God.”  But in the day in which we live 144,000 does not represent the many (the Klesia) 144,000 people are the few (The Ek-klesia or the Ek-lektos.)  As we will see 144,000 in the body of Christ are not even a minority they are a rarity.  And that makes them precious, more precious than gold of silver.

Exodus 19:5-6 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.
This is the central issue of the Gospel – the word that proceedeth from the mouth of the Father – can you hear it and if you can indeed hear it – do you revel in hearing, do you proclaim it to others and revel in that or do you hear it and do (obey) what He says? 

The hearing of My voice implies that the person is  “a prophet” in the full sense of the word.

In Numbers 11:11-16 we have a prayer of Moses, in which he tells God this people is too much for him -- has comes before God and prays: I can no longer by myself do as you commanded to “Carry them in my bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers?”

Numbers 11:16-17 And the LORD said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee. And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone.
This is the day of Pentecost where God took of the Spirit that was upon Christ and laid it upon the 120 that were gathered in one place. And the purpose of Pentecost is given here are well “They shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it alone not they self.  I an not into teach the significance of numbers in scripture but I will point out that 120 is a factor of 144,000. 

This is another outpouring, a third outpouring that is beyond all others pervious in that the participants are gathered in one place this is an outpouring that will occur in every nation and tongue all at the once.

And what shall these people that have been imbued with the very spirit of Christ do? Shall they gather disciples unto themselves and build churches and denominations unto themselves as their perverse fathers have? No.

How can 144,000 be the few?

According to the World Christian Encyclopedia by David B. Barrett, George T. Kurian, and Todd M. Johnson (2001 edition). There are: "Over 33,000 protestant denominations in 238 countries.

If these 144,000 People were divided between these 33,000 denominations that would be: only about 4 people per denomination.    

That is telling us that in today’s corrupt Churches and denominations all most all that attend are Tares.

And the above statement further tells us of the corruption of the preachers and teachers of this day because from denomination to denomination the smallest have dozens and the largest have tens of thousands and virtually making all preachers and teachers tares also.

And the corrupt pastors, teachers preachers and evangelists of our day were prophesied of by Ezekiel

Ezekiel 34:1-10 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill (searching for spiritual sustenance where they have found little or none:) yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD; As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock; Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth (He is calling them wolves here – greivieous wolves), that they may not be meat for them.
God says that: He will cause these corrupt devouring shepherds m to cease from feeding the flock – how will God accomplish this when these guys earn their livelihood doing so not war not persecution nothing will cause them to cease them teaching and devouring this flock.— The answer is: The fourth beast of Daniel that shall utterly destroy every denomination and church. The fourth beast will clean out the vineyard. The forth beast is the great tribulation and the great tribulation is coming upon the corrupt Church and its corrupt ministry. 

And for those that have an ear to hear, Ezekiel in Chapter 34 verses 11-16 is prophesying of the 144,000 that have been imbued with the mark or seal of the Spirit that is in Christ going out to the mountains and the hills to preach salvation and the coming of the kingdom to the lost house of Christ that have been scattered among every nation and tongue in the world. And these are the works that the 144,000 shall perform

Ezekiel 34:11-16 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.

In Wikipedia under Christian denominations by membership they have a very incomplete and outdated listing of 1.75 billion church members.

Estimates from several sources put the number of Christians in Communist China over 82 million and 14 million Arab Christians in Arab countries that bumps up Wikipedia’s numbers to about 2 billion

 

That is to say that one out of every 13889 people who go currently to church will be one of the 144,000 – That is to say that 99.99 percent of all of those who call themselves believers are tares.

 

But Ezekiel does not cease at prophesying the coming judgment against the Church and its shepherds. In Ezekiel 34:17-22 Ezekiel prophesies now against the corrupt sheep in the flocks of the coming judgment as well.

 

Ezekiel 34:17-22 And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats. Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet? And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad; Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle.

This is the separation between the sheep and the goats; this is the separation between the wheat and the tares and this separation is unto utter destruction and will be accomplished by the fourth beast as well.

If this doesn’t tell you that the church at large is in crisis today and has lost its way nothing will.

Before we examine the remainder of this prophecy in Ezekiel 34, we need to pause for a moment and review what we have seen so far.  Ezekiel the prophet begins with the corrupt preachers and Church as an overall corrupt structure, He tells us that they do not what they have been charged to do and the shepherds are in fact greivieous wolves.  And that he will put a stop to them and their corrupt activates.

Ezekiel then prophesies of the equipping of the 144,000 walking in the full light and power of Christ and describes with some detail what they are going to do. And it appears that they will begin at all the most remote places and move in towards Jerusalem as Christ did in His ministry.

Ezekiel then prophesies of the dividing of the wheat from the tares and the sheep from the goats and tells the arrogant and haughty sheep all this will be brought to an end.

Here now is the final part of the prophecy many have read this as a reiteration of Ezekiel 34:11-16 but it is not this section is the Second Coming of Christ and His millennial reign.
Ezekiel 34:23-30 And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David;  he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; (This coming of David among them is the second coming of the Messiah) I the LORD have spoken it. And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: (The Lion shall lay with the Lamb) and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; (The millennium reign of Christ) and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them. And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord GOD.

Jeremiah 31:33-35 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Revelation 21:3-4 Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

Looking once again at numbers previously presented of there being 33,000 Protestant denominations (as of 2001) and there being approximately 2 billion church attending believers (No date given.)  And if one were to divide these numbers by 144,000 that would leave just FOUR overcomers per denomination, and ONE overcomer for every 13,889 church going Christians.

2 Corinthians 3:14-16 But their minds were blinded: (The Jews) for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.
When the Church fell from grace somewhere around 200 AD that the veil that had been removed by Christ from the Apostles minds, and He had removed for all that would come unto Him – fell again once upon those (the entire leadership of the church in those days.) who despised the gift of salvation and the spiritual birthright of the Holy Ghost as Esau of old.  And according to the repeated testimony of the church fathers documented on this website the entire church had been overthrown and had gone astray.

Isaiah 60:1-3 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
Isaiah here is prophesying of  this veil of darkness coming over the entire body of Christ.  But he also prophesies that there will come a day that the Lord (Via the seal of the Living God) would arise upon the Ek-lektos or the 144,000. And His Glory would be visibly manifested upon these, and the gentiles or the klesia and their kings would be drawn to the 144,000’s light and the brightness of their rising. In the words of Christ about this unfaithful fruitless tree that we call the Church he will dig up the roots and fertilize it once more. Christ not satisfied with a 99.99% failure rate among those who are called by His name is going to give them one more shot at repentance. He will send in not 70 edlers imbued with His Spirit as in Moses Days, He will not send in 120 imbued with His Spirit as in the Day of Pentecost but He will send in 144,000 imbued with His Spirit. The Ek-Lektos of God, that are marked, empowered, and love NOT their lives, even unto death.

Christ also prophesied of this veil of darkness overtaking the Church.
John 12:35 Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.

John 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

The Book of Revelation then lists 12 tribes.
For those who do not know, this list of twelve tribes is different than the twelve tribes of Israel listed in the Old Testament.  I will let those who are curious compare the two lists of tribes on their own. 

Note -- In Revelation 7:9 among these people of every nation kindred and tongue.  These vast numbers of people are the fruits of the 144,000 as well as those of their number who have given up their lives for the Gospel’s sake.

Revelation 7:9-14 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; ¹⁰And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. ¹¹And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, ¹²Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. ¹³And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? ¹⁴And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Coming out of great tribulation means that once these believers were converted, in the same manner that the 11 disciples had been converted after Christ’s death -- that they staggered not at following in Christ’s footsteps not even when faced by torture and death. It means that the 144,000 shall have great success. Even in the face of the 4^th beast of Daniel, the great falling away, the antichrist, and the false prophet.

Revelation 9:4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
So here two chapters latter we see that those who have been sealed continue in their ministry but they are no longer called the 144,000 for their number is ever diminishing as they are tortured and killed for preaching the Gospel, healing the sick, casting out devils, and raising the dead, and performing other signs and wonders.

To further describe the ministry of the 144,000 we need only open the Gospels and read of Christ and the 12 disciples taking no money or script, and to accept no offerings. They traveled in small groups or two by two. They ate what was provided in a house that invited them in or what could be picked along the road or caught with a hook.  They began ministering in outlying towns and villages and as their ministry grew they headed to larger and larger cities. 

It will be as the days of Paul the Apostle one who was born out of due season when he arrived in a town Paul first went to the lost sheep of Israel that is local synagogue where he preached salvation at times he was successful and other times he was beaten, stoned or imprisoned – after he was rejected by the synagogues he would then preach to the gentiles. So the 144,000 will first go out to the lost sheep of Christ preaching in their Churches and Cathedrals salvation.

Revelation 14:1-7 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Zion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God. And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

For some time liberals have been creating concerning hate speech.  In Canada in 2003 they successfully passed some laws regarding the protection of abortion, and homosexuality. Since 2003 the bible has been declared hate literature, and the preaching against sin, in particular against Muslims and homosexuality has been declared a crime in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and most Muslim countries as well. This hate crime legislation shall be made the law in all the world and it shall become illegal to preach the gospel, and proselytize converts of other religions. In the past 10 years similar legislation has been introduced in the US senate and house no less than 4 times.   

Jeremiah 12:5 If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?