Conclusiones del capítulo

That our Pastor was uncertain, on the matter of sprinkling the blood of the Lord's antitypical Goat before the dealing with Azazel's antitypical Goat would begin, and suggested that certainty could be reached only when the fulfilled facts were before the brethren, appears from the following quotations from the book, What Pastor Russell Said, under the last questions on pp. 289 and 689. We give the former reference first. It begins with the 12th line of page 290: "Then in Leviticus it shows us the place where the Scapegoat is dealt with, after the Lord's goat has been

dealt with, but that is not proof positive [italics ours] that it will be entirely after [italics ours] the Lord's Goat has been slain, and after its blood has been offered, because these types could not all take place at the same time, and there would naturally be an order for it, this first and that second, and so on; but the fact that the bullock is dealt with first, and that the Lord's goat is dealt with second, and then the Scapegoat is dealt with third, seems to imply that the tribulation of this class will come more especially at the end of the Gospel age, after all of the elect shall have gone in [to the spirit-begotten condition at least];

notwithstanding, we think there is room in the Scriptures to suppose that there have been some of this Great Tribulation class all through the age, while the great mass of them probably belong in this end, because of the peculiar circumstances now prevailing." So far the first reference.

The second begins in the 7th line of page 690, reading as follows: "It would seem to be after the satisfaction of justice in respect to all of these [the Church], the full offering of the Lord's merit, and the full acceptance of the whole matter, that then the dealing would take place with the live goat. The teaching of the type would seem to be that the tribulation that will come upon the Great Company will not come upon them in this official manner until after this dealing with [the imputation of the merit for and to] the Little Flock is finished. While the Great Company may be sharing in the tribulation of the past, yet this special dealing at the end of this age would seem to be after the Church had gone beyond the veil. Yet we must say this, dear friends—that every feature of this type and prophecy belong to the future and is more or less uncertain until it is fulfilled. [Italics ours.] In other words, God did not give prophecy and type in advance for us to speculate upon, but so that when due we might know it. Just as our Lord said of Himself at the First Advent, that when they would see certain things fulfilled then they would know they were the fulfilment of the things written. So as we come down to the beginning of the Time of Trouble [italics ours], those who would then be living and witness the dealings of the Lord with the Great Company class would see in it something which would be helpful

to them perhaps more than you and I see now." [Italics ours.] So far the quotation.

What do the fulfilled facts prove? That Azazel's Goat is dealt with before the last member of the Priest's Body leaves the world, and thus before the blood of the Lord's Goat is antitypically sprinkled. We believe that our Pastor's uncertainty on the subject was due to the fact that the priest was in sacrificial robes while dealing with Azazel's goat.

We do not recall a clear expression from him on this point.

But certainly our thought on it is implied in his teachings in re three things: (1) in his thought that the sacrificial robes represent the Church's condition during her sacrificing time (Z '10, 136); (2) in his thought that the blood of the antitypical Bullock is continued on the antitypical Mercy Seat for atonement purposes until the last of the Great Company leaves the earth (Z '10, 201, col. 2, pars. 1-3; Z '15, 103, par. 5); and (3) in his reason for proving that the Great Company will precede the Ancient Worthies in the resurrection, because the former are granted the covering of the antitypical Bullock's blood until death, while the latter are later, as the first ones so favored, granted the benefit of the antitypical Goat's blood, each use of the merit guaranteeing the resurrection of the pertinent class. (Z '16, 312, col. 2, pars. 1, 2; "What Pastor Russell Said," p. 15, ques. 3; p. 3, ques. 1.) Hence the blood of the antitypical Lord's Goat is not applied until after the Great Company leaves the earth and the Little Flock is yet in the flesh during the dealing with Azazel's Goat.

Doubtless, as in the case of the time parenthesis in re antitypical Elijah's and Elisha's separation and the former's ascent to heaven, the Lord did not allow our Pastor to see clearly on this matter, because such clearness would have hindered the sole trial that He wished His people to undergo in connection with the separation (P, Nos. 6 and 165); so for the same reason the Lord did not allow him to see clearly the time-relation between the Little Flock's going beyond the veil and the dealing with Azazel's Goat and the sprinkling of the blood of the antitypical Goat and the dealing with Azazel's Goat. Nevertheless the extracts from and references to his writings just given demonstrate

that his doctrinal, typical and prophetical views in re these matters logically force us to the conclusion that the Little Flock must be in the flesh during the World's High Priest's dealing with Azazel's Goat. This is another instance proving that prophecies and types connected with a trial of character cannot clearly be understood until the trial is met by the Faithful.