The Ten Tribes of Israel had fallen away from the true way and pure worship of God.
The original Jezebel was a heathen sun-worshipping woman who through marrying King Ahab came into the kingdom of Israel.
She soon dominated the king and ruled in the kingdom. And when the evil that she would do was more than the king could have the heart to compass, she would do it herself in the king's name and by the power of the kingdom and would be merry in it all. 1 Kings 21:5-16.
She would make her religion to be the religion of the kingdom and of every soul in the kingdom. She brought with her eight hundred and fifty "prophets" of her religion. She was the personal patron of them all. They all "ate at Jezebel's table." 1 Kings 18:19.
She deliberately set herself to abolish all the religion and all the worship of God, and to establish solely her own in all the kingdom. She systematically broke down all the altars of the worship of God in the land. She compelled all to conform to her form of sun-worship. 1 Kings 19:10, 14.
And whosoever would not do this in some way--by sacrificing, by bowing the knee in a genuflection, or by kissing the hand to throw a kiss to Baal--was outlawed and had to find refuge in dens and holes and caves of the earth. 1 Kings 18:4, 13.
So thorough-going was she in this that though there were seven thousand persons who would worship God only and serve Him alone, they were so scattered and hunted that each one thought that he was the only one left.
Even Elijah was sure that he only was left. And they sought his life to take it away. And he was delivered from the wrath of Jezebel by being translated from the world. "There appeared horses of fire and chariots of fire, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." 1 Kings 16:30 to 19:21; 2 Kings 2:1-11.
In the Scriptures there is another Jezebel. She is described in the Book of Revelation. Her career is in Christian times. Rev. 2:20-29.
Among the people of Christ who had left their first love and had fallen away from the true Way and pure worship of God, there came in heathen sun-worshipers bringing with them all their native characters and dispositions and ways.
There were so many of these that they became a heathen sun-worshipping church professing the Christian name. This sun-worshipping church secured an alliance with the imperial Roman State.
She dominated the imperial power and ruled in the empire and all the kingdoms of Europe. To please her all emperors and kings had to be worse than they otherwise would have been.
She would make her heathen naturalistic religion to be the religion of every kingdom and of everybody in all the kingdoms. She set herself against all the true worship of God. She compelled all to conform to her worship, which was but a form of heathen sun-worship with the Sun day the grand token as "queen and chief of all the days."
Whosoever would not conform to this worship in some way was outlawed and hunted and persecuted, and had to find refuge in dens and holes and caves of the earth.
In The Reformation and its splendid fruit in the establishing of the American Nation with perfect Religious Liberty, God sent to mankind deliverance from this Jezebel.
Yet the world is not done with "that woman Jezebel." She still lived, and with the same determination to rule mankind. Since The Reformation by this New Nation had delivered the world from her rule, she would defeat The Reformation and regain a wider influence and rule by drawing into her toils the New Nation.
To her aid in this, more than all else in the world, has come the Federal Council of Churches embodying her vital principles and repudiating The Reformation. Thus will the power and working of "that woman Jezebel" be restored.
National, international, and world, federation of papal and false Protestant will elevate her again to the place and position where she can congratulate herself, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow." Rev. 18:7.
And again she will reign and rage, only more widely and more fiercely. Again all must conform to the worship dictated by her. Under the alternative of a general and universal boycott, and at last even death, as in the time of Elijah, all must worship as she dictates. Rev. 13:14-17.
And all that dwell upon the earth shall so worship, whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Rev. 13:8; 17:12, 13, 17.
And here, by "that woman Jezebel," "the beast," the ultimate Antichrist accomplishes the crowning work of iniquity. This is brought about in the following way:
It is "to the people of God" that there remains the "keeping of a Sabbath." It was made for "the man" of God's eternal purpose. And none but those who are "the people of God" in this purpose can possibly keep the Sabbath.
One who is not of the people of God could not keep the Sabbath, even if he were to try. Such persons may do no work on the seventh day of the week, or on the first day of the week, or on both of them together; they may find their own or somebody else's rest on either or both of these days, they may do this all their lives, and yet never keep the Sabbath.
To keep the Sabbath, to celebrate the Sabbath, is to keep and celebrate God's rest, not our own nor that of somebody else. This rest is the gift of God in Christ. And it is received and kept and enjoyed only by the individual upon his own personal choice in personal faith. Rom. 14:5.
And the inevitable consequences and rewards of personal faith and true worship prevent its being in any sense a day of idleness, and cause it to be only a day of blessing and delight.
This truth exposes the awful iniquity of all church-rules and all State legislation compelling men to observe a day of rest. It forces irreligious and unchristian men into the form of a religion and of a rest that cannot possibly be had without personal faith in Christ and God; and thus forces them into only a day of idleness with its consequent mischiefs and iniquities.
And now in this time of the ultimate Antichrist he doubles up on his abominations by making both Sabbath
and Sunday to be days of enforced idleness and of consequent mischief and iniquity.
In this course of abomination there is yet another step to finish the mystery of iniquity. And it will be taken.
God can consistently and righteously require a day of rest from all temporal occupations; because, with the rest, He can supply the religion and the worship which alone can prevent its being a day of idleness and mischief. And only He can possibly do this. 2 Cor. 3:18.
That woman Jezebel undertakes to require her Sun day as a day of rest of all from all work and from every honest occupation, for worship. Through the power of the State she makes this compulsory upon all. But the State cannot supply the religion and the worship which alone can prevent this day of enforced idleness from being a day of mischief and iniquity.
Then and therefore the church which has caused the State to enforce that day of idleness, must also cause the State to enforce the religion and the worship which the church shall prescribe as the preventive of that day of idleness being only a day of iniquity.
But true religion and true worship cannot be enforced. This never can be a matter of law. So the church never can prescribe to the State, or in any connection with force or law, any religion or worship that is true. It is only false religion and false worship, it is only the form which is abomination, that can possibly be so prescribed or enforced.
Therefore the only religion and worship that can possibly be supplied and enforced to prevent this day of enforced idleness from being only a day of iniquity, is a religion and worship that is utterly false--an abomination--and so only deepens unto perfection the scheme of iniquity in the false worship of the beast and his image.
Thus by means of denominational, national, international, and world federation, with its "pressure" upon city, county, State and National authorities, enforcing a day of universal idleness as the means and necessity of enforcing the universal false religion and worship of the beast and his image, the ultimate Antichrist is enabled to bring all to the full reflection of his own image, and so to finish the mystery of iniquity.
For it is the sober truth, deliberately stated upon an analysis of more than a thousand cases, that "Nearly every prosecution under our Sunday laws is the result of petty spite, meanness and malice."
To save all from this crowning evil the Lord in mercy sends to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, His solemn warning against it all, and His gracious call away from it all unto the true worship of Him only, in the keeping of the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus.
Here is the warning: "If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; . . . and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name." Rev. 14:9-11.
Here is the call, by "the everlasting Gospel"; "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. . . . Here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus." Vs. 7, 12.
And in this is the finishing of God's work in effecting His eternal purpose in Creation, in Redemption, and in The Reformation, all summed up in the finishing of the Mystery of God according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Jesus Christ our Lord.
And of all this the Sabbath of the Lord in Spirit and in truth is the crown and seal as God's own divinely ordained sign of His own finished work.
In this final and finishing conflict again all who will be true to God, all who will worship Him only in the keeping of the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus, will be outlawed, hunted, and persecuted, and will have to find refuge where they may.
At first there will be "as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done"; "two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the out most fruitful branches thereof." "These shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord." Isa. 24:13, 14; 17:6.
But the pressure will be so persistent that at last there will not be even two or three here or four or five there. But again just as in Elijah's time these will be so scattered that one will not know that there is another. Again each one will think that he only is left. And he will know that they seek his life to take it away. Rev. 12:17; Micah 4:6, 7.
Yet each one where he is will be a true worshiper of God, and will have it settled that so long as he is in the world God shall have a worshiper who will worship Him only, and will serve Him alone: Jezebel or no Jezebel. Isa. 41:17; 33:16, 17.
And while these stand thus true and faithful to God, with "that woman Jezebel" venting all her wrath, "the great trumpet shall be blown," and "ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel." Isa. 27:12, 13.
"For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain, [as Elijah] shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thess. 4:16, 17.
"And I saw a sea of glass mingled with fire; and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass having the harps of God."