22:17, 18. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, the house of Israel is to Me become dross; all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst [pg 472]of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver.—Ecclesiasticism, clergy and laity alike, are to the just and holy God become as the refuse of the baser metals in a fiery furnace of affliction; they are the dross of the Great Company (silver). (Jer. 6:30.) The baser metals type degrees of earthly natures; brass (human perfection), tin (tares, begotten of error), iron (savage worldly power), and lead (sin, iniquity).
22:19. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.—God will gather the corrupt peoples and the nations of Christendom.
22:20. As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in Mine anger and in My fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you.—This great conglomeration of persons of all shades of baseness shall be gathered as into a blast furnace, where God will permit indescribable troubles to afflict them; and there He will leave them.
22:21. Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of My wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof.—They are to be melted in heart and spirit in the fiery afflictions of His wrath.
22:22. As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the Lord have poured out My fury upon you.—As the Great Company of God's spirit-begotten children have suffered by the millions, so shall it be with the clergy and laity, who profess Christianity without its spirit.
22:23, 24. And the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.—Christendom in this Time of Trouble is without the cleansing, refreshing showers of the water of God's Word.
22:25. There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.—Among the clergy there is a conspiracy against the Truth. The “Federation of the [so-called] Churches of Christ in America,” like a very devil (roaring lion), will yet tear to pieces the Present Truth people, will put many to death, and cause some weaker ones to lose their spiritual lives. They will take and destroy the literature containing the precious Bible truth. Literally the preachers by preaching the men into war have made widows by the millions.
22:26. Her priests have violated My law, and have profaned Mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.—The Roman Catholic priests—and the Protestant clergy—have violated the Law of Divine Love; have polluted God's truths with pagan teachings, have shown no difference between those cleansed by the blood of Christ and those still in their sins, have denied the Bible teaching of the Millennium (Rev. 20:2-7), have hidden the Sabbath rest of justification by faith, and have promoted a money-grabbing system of penances and masses for sin and of collections, which discredits and profanes God's name.
22:27. Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.—The ecclesiastics, “wolves in sheeps' clothing” (Matt. 7:15), tear their prey, the Body members of Christ, shed blood in persecution, and destroy spiritual life—all to acquire money to perpetuate their infamous, paganized religion.—Micah 2:9-11.
22:28. And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord hath not spoken.—The preachers of Protestantism have whitewashed the whole crowd of ecclesiastics, imagining empty doctrines of Evolution and Higher Criticism, and lying to the people by giving their own theories as God's Word.