A while back I was speaking with a dear sister in the faith (we’ll call her sister V) , and we were talking about all the winds of doctrine flying around today. So many “rabbit trails” as she called it, of false ideas and deceptive paths, that there can only be one master planner behind all this–our arch-enemy– Satan.
“The enemy is preparing for his last campaign against the church. He has so concealed himself from view that many can hardly believe that he exists, much less can they be convinced of his amazing activity and power. They have to a great extent forgotten his past record; and when he makes another advance move, they will not recognize him as their enemy, that old serpent, but they will consider him a friend, one who is doing a good work.
Boasting of their independence they will, under his specious, bewitching influence, obey the worst impulses of the human heart and yet believe that God is leading them. Could their eyes be opened to distinguish their captain, they would see that they are not serving God, but the enemy of all righteousness. They would see that their boasted independence is one of the heaviest fetters Satan can rivet on unbalanced minds.
.. Man is Satan’s captive and is naturally inclined to follow his suggestions and do his bidding. He has in himself no power to oppose effectual resistance to evil. It is only as Christ abides in him by living faith, influencing his desires and strengthening him with strength from above, that man may venture to face so terrible a foe.
Every other means of defense is utterly vain. It is only through Christ that Satan’s power is limited. This is a momentous truth that all should understand. Satan is busy every moment, going to and fro, walking up and down in the earth, seeking whom he may devour. But the earnest prayer of faith will baffle his strongest efforts. Then take “the shield of faith,” brethren, “wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” (Testimonies, vol.5, p.294)
Here we see that our enemy is “busy every moment” and seeks to “devour” us. And just how does he do this? Yes, rabbit trails are one of his most useful ploys! From the part-time believer to the advanced Elijah messenger, it’s makes no difference to him. If he can get us to go down one of his trails, he has us in his clutches. Let us look at two of Satan’s popular rabbit trails today.
Just recently, and the motivation for this post, a sister whom I had thought was learning the Lord final message of Elijah quite well emailed me with a curve ball (let’s call her sister C). She basically said that we must start obeying the Sabbath according to the Scriptural Sabbath and not according to the Roman calendar (our current calendar).
In other words we are not truly fulfilling God’s will because we are obeying the wrong day! As I read this my mind went back to what the aforementioned sister said –rabbit trails. I truly shook my head and said to myself “Satan! he is at it again!”
You see this sister has went on a few sites that are proclaiming this new idea of obeying a different Sabbath and has bought it hook line and sinker. But let us look at how people who take up these strange new ideas are setting themselves up for failure just as Korah and his men of renown did.
We as present truth believers know that the Lord had to keep His word and sent a “restorer” of all things prior to His coming–
“And He answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things..” (Matt. 17:11)
So logically if the Sabbath day (our current calendar of Saturday) is not correct and we should obey another day as the correct Sabbath, would not God have told His Elijah prophet to “restore” this? Absolutely. But did He?
WHICH IS THE SABBATH CALENDAR?
Question No. 242:
In keeping the Sabbath, are we to go by the present calendar?
Answer:
As the Sabbath is a weekly, not a monthly, holy day, and as only the seven-day cycle remains intact from creation, it is the only time cycle in modern use that can be followed in the observance of the Sabbath or of any other of the Bible weekly holy days.(Sym. Code, vol. 7, no.7-12, p.20)
Here we see that our seven-day cycle has not changed since creation. Further, the Jews of old (Moses’time) keep a certain 7th day religiously. They were consistent even to Christ’s time, and thereafter the Apostles and their followers as well. All the way down to our time. So we see that this rabbit trail really goes nowhere good!
You see brethren the message shows that this trick will lead all into “perdition”. This sister C has decided to travel this rabbit trail and when she does, her trail builder may get her to break the real 7th day, for a false 7th day. Exactly what he hoped to do!
All the while she thinks she is enlightened just like Korah did. For he thought he was walking with God and did not have need of obeying God’s chosen prophet.
“Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men; And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown: And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD?” (Numbers 16:1-3)
After reading the above, what makes us think we are any different from what Korah was? Can we tell God’s prophet that he missed something and we know better what to do? Is this not an insult to our ALL-SEEING AND KNOWING GOD?
Another rabbit trail is the issue of –calling God’s name properly. In other words some think they find out the”correct” way of calling Him, instead of saying “God” or even “Jesus”. When they find this out they then are led to believe that this issue is so important that if you do not address His name properly your salvation is in jeopardy.
The same friend, sister V, told me about a time recently where she was on a phone conference call with some present truth believers. She relayed that in the call a woman spoke up and said she has now learned God’s “real” name and that they all should learn it, and if they don’t she feels like she should not even speak to others who “degrade” His name!
Sister V was flabbergasted. This seemed like a Pharisee rule of long ago. Remember when they would actually measure the distance away from the synagogue and you could not walk one foot more than that to it? Well this is about the same!
So again let us see what God’s restorer said about this. The following was so important an issue that the prophet spoke about it in a Tract called “God’s Titles Not Restricted To One Language.”
Question:
” Is it not a fact that the Bible translators changed the Creator’s original Hebrew names (Elohim, Jehovah, El, Elahh, Elowahh, Bethel, and Tsur) to the names of Baal (God, Lord, etc.)? And if the Creator’s names actually are Elohim, Yahovah, et al., and if God, Lord, etc., are the names of the pagan gods, why, then, do we call Him by the latter?
Answer:
For the sake of correct and consistent understanding in referring to the words under discussion, we call the reader’s attention to the self-evident fact that the various Hebrew words termed by the questioner as “the Creator’s original names,” all being designative of some aspect or attribute of Divine nature or character, are therefore not names, but titles, of the Creator. Only the name Jehovah appears to be His Proper Name; therefore we shall herein treat it separately from the titles.” (Teact 11, p.2)
Idols, Named With The Divine Titles.
“Rather than give the idols names originated specifically for them, the makers honored them with the Divine titles in order to make it appear that the idols were the figures of God, a fabrication which is conclusively borne out by such manifest evidences as that the word, Elah, a Hebrew title of the Deity, is used by the Turks for the name of their god; that the word, Tsur, another Hebrew title of the Deity, is used by the Russo-Slavic peoples as the title of their kings; and that “Elohim is used in many cases of the gods of the heathen, who included in the same title the God of the Hebrews, and denoted generally the Deity when spoken of (sic) a supernatural being.” – Dictionary of the Bible, Smith, definition “Jehovah.”
From these evidences, we see clearly that the names of the idols are, in fact, not the names of the idols, themselves, but the titles of God. Therefore, to restrict our address of Him to one language – the Hebrew – just because His titles in other tongues were once used in honor of idols, forces the conclusion that the idol-gods of the heathen have defeated God the Creator by robbing Him of His titles! What a forbidding thought!
Hence, if we must attach more sacredness to letters expressing Deity in any one language more than in another, it should be Only In The Language of Eden, or In All Alike.
If from the beginning till today “the whole earth was of one speech” (Gen. 11:1), and had the day never dawned when “the Lord did confound the language of all the earth” (Gen. 1 1 :9), then only could God’s worshipers address Him in the language of Eden. But in view of the fact that from that hour to this, diversity and confusion of tongues have been the linguistic lot of the human race, the Lord has never restricted His word to one universal medium of expression, but rather has accommodated it to all “the peoples and multitudes and nations, and tongues” of earth, thus accounting for The Different Titles of the Deity. “ (Tract 11, p.3-5)
Irreverently Using the Lord’s Proper Name.
“If God’s proper name is Jehovah, then dare we His created beings, be so disrespectfully familiar as to address Him by His Proper Name, rather than by one of His titles, God, Lord, Father, Creator, Saviour, etc., when we would not think of indulging the less disrespectful familiarity of addressing our earthly parents by their given names – John, George, Bill, Dorothy, Ruth, Mary, etc., – in place of their parental titles Father and Mother?
Such irreverence practiced by the heathen might be excusable because of their ignorance, but practiced by enlightened Christians, who ought to know better, it is inexcusable. We may with reverence use the word,Jehovah, only if a heathen should ask us, Who is your God? Then we could with solemn propriety answer Jehovah, the only true and living God. Never, though, when addressing God, can we reverentially use His Proper Name.
As the God-fearing Jews anciently “regarded the Divine Name as too sacred for utterance,” so should enlightened Christians do today.
However, the most ancient and hallowed Hebrew name for God was not only never commonly pronounced, but was even so-spelled, in an abbreviated form, that it could not be pronounced; so much so that the original pronunciation is not known. All we know for sure is the Consonant Form, Yhwh, Yvh, or Yhv.
This abbreviated form of the name made it hard for the translators to spell out a pronounceable word. They, therefore, chose to supply what they thought were the missing vowels. The first syllabic term upon which there was general agreement was Jah. Other derivatives were supplied by different translators. Yahweh, Yahowah, or Yahovah were formulated to suit certain languages. The anglicized form evolved as Jehovah. Therefore, any improvised letters that go to make up the ineffable Name may not actually be the Hebrew word after all! (See Funk and Wagnall’s Standard Dictionary, definition “Jehovah.”)
If the original-name theory had proved correct, there is in the way Nothing to Prevent the Change.
As we want, more than anything else, to be right in all things, therefore were it a sin to address the Deity in any language other than the Hebrew, we would immediately and unhesitatingly change out verbal mode of addressing Him.
But as the matter now stands, we are not only unable to share any enthusiasm concerning such an original-name theory, and to accord it any of the truth and worth that some would lead us to believe that it assumes, but also we are more than ever before persuaded not to address the Lord by His proper name. In fact, every wide-awake Christian who sincerely serves the Lord, must plainly see that to conform to such a theory, is to cause the saints to insult their Creator by addressing Him by His Proper Name instead of by His title, and also to suffer the baleful results of becoming enthusiasts over some theory so appealing as virtually to exclude those truths vital to their salvation. Let us therefore
Admit:
These facts forever invalidate the movement that is now afoot to discard from the Christian use, the titles, God, Lord, Christ, etc.; for to give up addressing the Deity by the titles which He has originated in the various languages, would mean defeat for God, and victory for the idols! Such misguided movements should be A Lesson.” (Tract 11, p.9-12)
In closing we can see that we must very careful not to be led down one of Satan’s rabbit trails. They will lead to a place we don’t want to go.
Note: The color codes are as follows: Orange is the Lord’s Words Blue is the Scriptures and SOP brown is the Lord’s Elijah message as brought by Victor T. Houteff
Godsloveandlaw's Blog 
October 31, 2015 at 12:34 pm |
The question or comment from Sister V is similar to that voiced on my Bible conferrnce last week. My response was this: the holy name enthusiasts came to know YHWH and Y’shuah through the titles Lord, God and Jesus Christ. Now that they are more enlightened, they are also confident that to worship Jesus is not ascribing homage to a pagan deity. Further all the holy name proclaimers I’ve met hace taught many delusice errors while rehecting cardinal truths, such as the restoration of the premillennial kingdom of Christ on earth per Dan 2: 35&44.
While i acknowledge the Creator has a personal name, as a teacher of rightwousness I’m called to build a bridge to Him by teaching the uninformed in words and language they understand. There is a people who has “the Father’s name” in their knowkedge and follow the Lamb of God-144000.
Shalom in Messiah
October 31, 2015 at 3:11 pm |
Thanks for your comments brother. Inspiration clearly says that we must regard as “invalid” any movement which discards using titles as God, Lord, Christ, etc. If we do discard those titles when addressing Him–we defeat Him. let us obey divine instructions not our own ideas.
November 1, 2015 at 7:23 am |
Very true!”Rabbit trails”
What is most amazing is that members of our churches seem to assume that the only safe guard against the the enemy’s rabbit trails is making sure that they are trusting their leaders even without having to search the scriptures to confirm the leaders’ positions in respect to certain held teachings!they condemn what the leader condemn and accept what their leader accept all blindly!
Quite true
November 1, 2015 at 3:24 pm |
Amen brother, I could not have said that better! We as SDA must be very careful not to fall into the curse– “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.” (Jer. 17:5) Also see (TM p.476)
November 4, 2015 at 2:51 pm |
Amen brother. It is so interesting that people fall into this trap, I have a blood sister who is stuck in this snare. I have tried to reason with her, but to no avail, I am praying that one day she will be freed from this deception.
November 4, 2015 at 3:18 pm |
Yes brother, that is about all we can do. These clutches really grip them.
November 26, 2015 at 3:19 pm |
Read Houteff’s words “But as the matter now stands” As the matter now stands means that in the future when Inspiration reveals more truth,, then you must continue on in truth. For ” I am the Yah, I change not” Mal. 3:6 He will always reveal more truth. He will not leave us in darkness especially about his name.
Hosea 2:26,17 And it shall be at that day, saith the Yah, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali. For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.
You are teaching against latter day truth. The truth of the Name “Jesus” a Pagan name meaning son of Zeus! and yet you act like it is perfectly fine?! You teach error!
But as minds become narrow, they think they know it all, and set one stake after another in points of truths of which they have only a glimpse. People close their minds as though there were no more for them to learn, and should the Lord attempt to lead them on they would not take up with the increased light. They cling to the spot where they think they see a glimmer of light, when it is only a link in the living chain of truths and promises to be studied….
Christ Triumphant, p. 299.6
The development of truth will be the reward to the humble-hearted seeker who will fear God and walk with Him. The truth that the mind grasps as truth is capable of constant expansion and new development…. As the mind grasps it in its preciousness, it becomes elevated, ennobled, and sanctified.—Manuscript 143, 1897
You are advocating praying to Je ZEUS? and god? His children know his name.
study his name:
http://timesandlaws.com/mystery-in-parable-yah-and-yasha/
Yasharon Yilyashabah Amezquita
November 26, 2015 at 3:53 pm |
You sister Sharon,
say “Read Houteff’s words “But as the matter now stands” As the matter now stands means that in the future when Inspiration reveals more truth,, then you must continue on in truth.”
So we are to believe “your” interpretations “means that in the future…”? Obviously the whole message of our article escaped you. You quote Brother Houteff and SOP for your own gain and ideas.
SOP truly warned you and your like–
Prophecy must be fulfilled. The Lord says: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Somebody is to come in the spirit and power of Elijah,and when he appears, men may say: “You are too earnest, you do not interpret the Scriptures in the proper way. Let me tell you how to teach your message.”
If you continue on sister telling brother Houteff how to teach his message, your rabbit trail will end not as you like.
November 26, 2015 at 5:16 pm |
Brother Houteff is not here for anyone to tell him how to teach his message. You act as if he is still here.
Shintoism.
The matter no longer still stands. It is being revealed today what Yah’s name is, what is son’s name is,what the followers of Yasha’s name is.
“People close their minds as though there were no more for them to learn” Sis White.
The matter is open. For the Yah wants his people to keep learning of him.
“The rebuke of the Lord will rest upon those who would bar the way, that clearer light shall not come to the people. A great work is to be done, and God sees that our leading men have need of more light, that they may unite with the messengers whom He sends to accomplish the work that He designs shall be done. The Lord has raised up messengers, and endued them with His Spirit, and has said, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” [Isaiah 58:1
Let no one run the risk of interposing between the people and the message of Heaven. This message will go to the people; and if there were no voice among men to give it, the very stones would cry out. {GW 304.2
Do not interpose between the people and the message of Heaven.
June 21, 2019 at 9:38 pm |
My brother-in-law, an unconverted Christian, has found out this Lunar Sabbath thing and was emphasising it to my sister, who was new in the faith and believed the true Sabbath. The result: at first they kept the Lunar Sabbath togethee, then he is became an atheist, my sister stopped keeping any Sabbath. He started of like this: Pentecostal…into Adventism…into witchcraft, new age and Satanism…back into Christianity…into correct God’s name…into Lunar Sabbath…into doubting Jesus is the Messiah…into doubting Bible is the word of God…into evolution…into atheism…into meditation. Full circle. Please pray for him! Ultimately it affected my sister’s confidence in the true Sabbath, but he is not into it anymore at all. What a crafty plan.
June 23, 2019 at 3:09 am |
Oh wow! You have nailed the issue with your example! Yes, Satan is crafty and use such ploys to snare and trap so many. But thank God we have HIS WRITTEN WORD to go to time and again, where we gain strength. Yes would like to pray, what is her first name?
June 23, 2019 at 9:38 am |
Thank you so much, his name is Marius.