The Day of Jehovah, Part 2 - 2 Nephi 19-24

In this week's review of the Book of Mormon, we’ll continue with our discussion on the Day of Jehovah that includes chapters 19 to 24 of 2 Nephi, which covers chapters 9 to 14 of Isaiah. The big question here is whom does God preserve that pass into the Millennium.  We can answer this question by looking at Isaiah’s Spiritual Categories of Humanity, which Isaiah sets out in a Hebrew Gospel.  Moreover, for those unfamiliar with Isaiah’s Hebrew Gospel might want to read Dr. Gileadi’s book – Isaiah Decoded.

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The Spiritual Categories of Humanity
Isaiah, according to Dr. Gileadi, sets out six spiritual categories of humanity that include Perdition, Babylon, Jacob/Israel, Zion/Jerusalem, Son/Daughters (Elect) and Seraphim(angelic messengers/Joint Heirs).  In my review of the whole of the Bible, I have added two additional categories that include Mahan and Sodom/Gomorrah.  So this scheme looks like this.

SPIRITUAL CATEGORIES OF HUMANITY

Descending to Death and Misery ​(The Unjust) ↓	Descending  Ascending ↓  ↑	Ascending to Life and Peace ​(The Just) ↑
		​SERAPHIM (Holy/Power) Davidide Law Redeemed / Sanctified / Exalted
		​SONS/DAUGHTERS (Holy) Davidide Law Redeemed / Sanctified / Exalted
		ZION/JERUSALEM (Pure) Sinaide Law Redeemed / Sanctified
	​JACOB/ISRAEL
BABYLON Succumbs to Worldly Temptations
​SODOM/GOMORRAH Sins by doing that which is unnatural
​MAHAN Murders for Gain
​PERDITION Rejects the Father and the Son

Separating the Just from the Unjust
When we look at Endtime events as they apply to separating the Righteous/Just from the Unrighteous/Unjust, we see three general aspects – the spiritual category of Jacob/Israel or a decision category, a spiritual separation through three Endtime tests, and then a physical separation with the arrival of God’s Servant.


Jacob/Israel
Jacob/Israel is a decision category for Endtime Believers.  They will either descend toward Bablyon and be draw-in by worldly idolatry and sensually or ascend to Zion/Jerusalem.  Dr. Gileadi –
 
Jacob/Israel is the most basic of all levels on the ladder to heaven. It consists of believers in the God of Israel, or the God who created the heavens and the earth. But it is made up of more than just Jews, Christians or Moslems. It embodies all those whom God has created to be his people, whom he asks to be loyal to him and to know who he is. It includes God’s people who, over many centuries, assimilated into the nations of the world, who lost their identity as Israelites, yet have maintained a belief in God. ....Jacob/Israel comprises people of all nations whom God seeks to reclaim. As mentioned, Jacbob/Israel is a key pivotal category of God’s people: from there, they either go up or down the ladder. At the end of the world, many ascend to Zion/Jerusalem, while many more descend to Babylon – Isaiah Decoded, pg 109.
 
Additionally, Jacob/Israel includes Believers who have accepted Yeshua (Jesus) as the Savior of Humanity, who are honest people and who live God’s basic seven laws (Noahide) but who have not made the greater commitment to be His Covenant People – Zion/Jerusalem.  Today, these comprise the vast majority of Biblical Believers.
 
It is during Endtime events that Jacob/Israel will be forced into ascending to God and live His Sinaide Laws and become Pure or to descend into Babylon and death.

BABYLON

<  JACOB/ISRAEL  >

ZION/JERUSALEM

The Endtime events that Isaiah sets out which forces Jacob/Israel into making a choice include Three Endtime Tests and the arrival of God’s Endtime Servant.  So during Endtime events the Jacob/Israel category disappears and there is a complete separation of the Righteous/Just and the Unrighteous/Unjust.  Moreover, those of Babylon and Sodom/Gommorah can repent and return to God.


A Spiritual Separation
Embedded in Isaiah Endtime prophecy is a spiritual separation that is comprised of three Endtime tests. Dr. Gileadi sets out these three tests at page 150 in his book Isaiah Decoded.
 
1.  The king of Assyria/Bablyon represents a [worldwide] political dictatorship that pressures people, under pain of death to submit to its control. – the Mark of the Beast.  (I think we can see how this can happen today with the whole Covid virus situation.)
 
2.  Idolaters seduce people by selling them Babylon’s standard of total materialism and sensual gratification.
 
3.  False brethren abuse their ecclesiastical authority and in God’s name ostracize people who don’t adopt their current religious point of view – blacklisting and excommunicating those whom they cannot bear.


A Physical Separation
Our last aspect of this Endtime separation is a physical division with the arrival of God’s Endtime Servant, who like Moses gathers the remnants of Israel, who flee into the wilderness and escape the destruction of the Unjust.  Many Believers anticipate a "pre-tribulation rapture" and cite Matt. 24:38-41.  But this scripture in Matt 24 refers to this event after the tribulations and before the destruction of the Unjust when the righteous flee into the wilderness.

Dr. Gileadi,
 
Many people seem to imagine Jehovah’s coming to reign on the earth (or Jesus’ Second Coming in New Testament prophecy) as a single earth-shaking event. In reality, however—as Isaiah and the prophets predict—Jehovah’s coming consists of an entire series of earth-shaking events that prepare the world in general, and God’s people in particular, to receive him. In that end-time scenario, God’s servant functions as a forerunner to restore God’s covenant people and prepare them to meet God. Isaiah calls the remnant of God’s people whom the servant restores Zion or Jerusalem, denoting a higher spiritual category than the one called Jacob or Israel.

God’s servant further acts as antidote to an end-time king of Assyria/Babylon—an Antichrist who commits mass genocide of the earth’s population. That tyrant’s destruction, too, forms an integral part of Jehovah’s coming as he is God’s instrument to cleanse the earth of its unrepentant inhabitants. Those portentous events will test the loyalties of all peoples, producing the effect of turning some into angels and others into devils. The times will be such that all middle ground vanishes and people must choose one side or the other. Jehovah’s coming “to avenge and to reward” (Isaiah 35:4; 62:11) thus consists not of one event but of a succession of events.

Destruction of the Unjust
In preparation for the Millennial reign of Jehovah/Yeshua, the earth is cleansed from all unrighteousness, which include the following categories of the Unrighteous/Unjust.

THE UNJUST

​BABYLON Succumbs to Worldly Temptations

SODOM/GOMORRAH Sins by doing that which is unnatural

​MAHAN Murders for Gain

​PERDITION Rejects the Father and the Son

God’s People
In the end, we are left with three categories of the Righteous/Just that pass into the Millennium.

THE JUST

SERAPHIM (Holy/Power) Davidide Law Redeemed / Sanctified / Exalted

​SONS/DAUGHTERS (Holy) Davidide Law Redeemed / Sanctified / Exalted

ZION/JERUSALEM (Pure) Sinaide Law Redeemed / Sanctified