The Jericho Code review

This book, originally written in Spanish, deserves at least a “A” for content, but the very poor English precludes it from being recommended more highly. Read with a heart to know truth, it would cause us to have an “entirely different religious experience”.

The purpose of this book is to help especially Seventh-day Adventists understand more about Revelation, showing specifically that the 7 Trumpets have a final fulfillment in the future. This is something i have believed for many years too, and am fascinated to see others coming to the same conclusion from different angles, with additional insights.

The main focus is on the 7 Trumpets, so the author looks to the Bible itself to see if there are any other references to 7 trumpets. The connection with the fall of Jericho, and the trumpets, and the 7 times around the city is brought forth forcefully. Actually, the author makes an intriguing observation by writing “7+7=13”. Yes, the Israelites walked around Jericho 7 days, and 7 times on the last day, and yet, if you count up all the times together, there are 13. A re-reading of Joshua chapter 6 would be helpful in understanding this book. Just as the 7 trumpets in Joshua’s day immediately preceded the destruction of Jericho, so the 7 trumpets at the end time will immediately precede the destruction of the world.

He agrees, like i do, that: “The historical interpretation of the 7 Trumpets is correct”. He says he is trying to give a “second interpretation”, that i usually refer to as “final fulfillment”. Either way, the historical interpretation that the 7 Trumpets represents the Vandals and Goths and Muslims etc. is seen as God’s leading for the people in the 1844 movement, but with the increased light today, we see that not everything written concerning the trumpets has been fulfilled yet, here in 2010.

The book in Rev. 5 is shown to be the “Book of Life”, and he says the Book of Life is used to judge (Rev. 20:12), showing that we have been in the judging process since 1844 (See Dan. 7).

The first 4 of the 7 Seals are shown to be specifically for the people of God. A convincing case is made for this, as the words “sword, hunger, and death (sword, famine, and pestilence)” are said to occur in Scripture 25 times, and ALL 25 times refer to punishment for the people of God! So we see that AFTER the start of the Investigative Judgment in 1844, the Seals are broken, and we see the judgments on the people of God first. The 2nd seal’s parallel is found in Rev 12:17, the balance of the 3rd seal with Rev. 13:17, and the death of the 4th seal with Rev. 13:15. The 5th seal shows that the dead in Christ have been forgiven of their sins because of the Investigative Judgment.

What happens after the righteous dead are judged? The righteous living are judged – Rev. 7:1-3. Rev. 6:11 and 7:14 are compared, showing how the dead group is “given”, and the living group washes, and is “made”. This amazing connection, and in order as written, is explained in a beautiful way to make one praise God for making it so clear, and also making one scratch their head wondering why we SDAs have been so dull to comprehend this truth!

The 6th seal describes the lost, and the 7th seal describes the saved. Rev. 6:17 asks who will stand? and then Rev. 7 shows who will stand – the 144,000.

What happens between the prohibition to harm the trees and then allowing the trees to be harmed? – the sealing of the servants of God. This unequivocally places the 7 trumpets in the future. The first 6 trumpets will come, and then during the 7th, the 7 vials of the 7 last plagues will be poured out. Leviticus 16:12-13 is shown to correlate with Rev. 8:3-5, showing that this is Most Holy Place symbolic language, inferring the judgment of the living righteous in the Day of Atonement. The fire from the altar in Rev. 8 and from under the cherubim in Ezekiel 10 represents forgiveness and sanctification. Eze. 9 and Rev. 7 show the sealing, then Eze. 10 and Rev. 8 show the purification!

A very interesting journey is taken showing that there are 10 plagues in Revelation. Yes, there are 3 under the 6th trumpet, so added to 7 = …… 10. This is reinforced by the 7 being called “7 LAST plagues”, denoting that there were earlier ones. The 7th trumpet of Rev. 11:19 describes the same scene as the 7th vial of Rev. 16:18-21.

Rev. 10:7 and Rev. 15:1 are shown to me to be definitely linked for the first time in my studies by showing that the KJV “finished” and “filled up” are the same Greek word “teleo”, meaning “completed”. This gives his proof for explaining that the 7th trumpet is like the 7th day around Jericho – 7 inside of one, thus the formula 7+7=13. Why are there 3 “woes”? Because the first 4 trumpets hurt nature, but the last 3 hurt humans. The 5th hurts humans for 5 months, the 6 kills 1/3 of all humans, and then the 7th is the 7 Last Plagues.

“During the trumpets, nobody repents. Mercy has ended.” I don’t see that, as Rev. 11:13 shows some of them giving glory to God.

To make a unified structure to the 7 churches, seals, trumpets, and vials is perhaps the biggest aim of the author. He achieves that with a pyramid structure, with the 7 churches and seals going up on the left side, and the 7 trumpets and vials going down on the right side. The left side pertains to the righteous, the right side to the wicked. The capstone of the pyramid is the sealing itself. The dividing line is the close of probation, which is the sealing. He makes the case for 2 pyramid structures in Revelation – Rev. 1-16 that shows the whole story of Christianity, and then Rev. 17-22 that “describes God’s last payment to the lost and the saved and their eternal consequences.” There are 3 “blocks” that describe things about to take place, as it is clear that there are “expectation scenes” just before the seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven vials.

In answering 4 common objections: the 7 trumpets do not HAVE to be seen in the Sanctuary service; the 7th trumpet itself is NOT the second coming of Christ – as a close reading of Rev. 11:15-19 shows, the 6th seal admittedly DOES show the reward of the wicked at the second coming, but continues on with explaining up to Rev. 8:5 what happens to the righteous also, with the hinging text being Rev. 6:17, and the series of 7 ARE very important in Revelation.

More clues are pointed out in the Bible regarding these 7 trumpets: The phrase “seven trumpets” is found 6 times in the Bible, and the 6 refers to the opening of the 7th with its 7 – showing the same pattern of 7+7=13. The 7 seals follow the same pattern. Joshua 6:1 shows us a “shut door”, and the sealing described in Rev. 7 shows the end of probation – in essence, a shut door. Then there are 7 trumpets and the people march around Jericho 7 days, corresponding to the 7 trumpet, then on the 7th day they march around 7 times, corresponding to the 7 last plagues. Then the wicked city is destroyed and the righteous inherit the kingdom.

I definitely believe that the words in the Bible are all from God, and that they should be read and understood as literally as possible. This author, while not addressing the inspiration of the words in the Bible, has explained a very difficult part of Revelation in a manner that adheres to the words themselves. Quoting a long section: “The main result of this second interpretation is the joy of reading and accepting Revelation just as it is written, without doing a lot of imagining looking for acrobatic explanations. For example:
1. When 4:1 says “things which must be hereafter” we are going to accept that they will happen after the story of the churches.
2. When 9:4 says that the fifth trumpet hurts “only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads” we are going to accept that the saved already have the seal of God in their foreheads.
3. When 9:18 says that “By these three was the third part of men killed” we can believe that the third part of men will die.
4. When 9:20 says “by these plagues,” we can accept that they are plagues.
5. When 9:20, in the sixth trumpet, says “yet they,” we can accept that in that time there is no longer any repentance.

But the author makes a “sleepy” statement: “Of course Rev. 12 & 13 must follow the classic protestant interpretation, describing the whole history of Christianity, and pointing to the Papacy as God’s enemy.” Actually, a close reading of the texts will reveal much more for us in the last days, just as this close reading of chapters 6-11 have shown new insights into the 7 seals and 7 trumpets.

“…our first objective now must be the sealing because without it there is no hope. Our highest priority today is complete sanctification in order to receive the seal of the living God.”

Jericho and Babylon are contrasted, instead of showing the similarities, which i believe is unfortunate, as there are undoubtedly great lessons there waiting to be uncovered by the careful miner of the word of truth. He says that the testimony of God’s people at the end “will be rejected by all”, which is very strange, and gives me the greatest doctrinal pause to the whole book – that he believes none of the wicked will repent after the 7 trumpets start sounding.