Our Lord said this —
“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elijah truly shall first come, and restore all things.”(Matt.17:11)
The Elijah to come is to “restore all things” and this most especially includes Truth restoration. What do we mean by that? This post will delve into that to show a couple clear examples of restoration.
As we have pointed out several times, the scroll unrolls and with it our “present truth” appears for our day. SOP explains —
“In every age there is a new development of truth, a message of God to the people of that generation. The old truths are all essential; new truth is not independent of the old, but an unfolding of it.” (COL, p.127)
Now our truth may not be their truth. For example when the people of God were found to be in adultery in the Old Testament times, they were to be stoned to death. Yet that truth was changed when Jesus came. For the “new” truth was forgiveness and repentance (See John 8:1-11).
When we don’t understand this changing of truth we can get mixed up and God forbid–a false and confused teacher. Let us look at a recent example.
Brother E is a “present truth” teacher. At least he thinks of himself that way. He makes lots of videos, even has a website with the Rod lessons and literature. Recently we visited one of his YouTube videos and noticed the following.
He proclaimed that the term “confederacy” as used in Isaiah chapter 8 was, among other things, a warning not to confederate or be a part of trade unions. He listed this as the number 1 confederacy among us S.D.A. He is attempting to teach this as our present truth. He used the following SOP as references–
“The trades unions and confederacies of the world are a snare. Keep out of them, and away from them, brethren. Have nothing to do with them.” (Country Living, p.10)
“We are now to use all our entrusted capabilities in giving the last warning message to the world. In this work we are to preserve our individuality. We are not to unite with secret societies or with trades unions.” (CL, p.11)
“Those who claim to be the children of God are in no case to bind up with the labor unions that are formed or that shall be formed.” (CL, p.12)
Ok fair enough, this seems quite clear and to the point. Not much to misunderstand here. However, this part of the scroll was to make a turn when the Lord’s Elijah prophet appeared and “restored” this issue to our current time. Let us read–
SHOULD A CHRISTIAN JOIN LABOR UNIONS?
Question No. 139:
What should be our position as to Labor Unions?
Answer:
Though in their formative years Unions neither had the power nor exercised the pressure which they do now, yet even then men were arduously at work to make them what they now are. So to safeguard the true believer from becoming compromised by their dictates and thus involved in their strikes and picketings (not to restrain him from paying to them a part of his wages if they compel him to), the Testimonies forbid his taking part in furthering their unchristian purpose. (See Testimonies, Vol. 7, p. 84).
In persecuting Jesus and His followers, the Roman and the Jewish governments were doing a thing even more unrighteous than the Unions are doing today in coercing labor into their ranks, yet Jesus directed His followers then to pay tax to Caesar. So we must conclude that if one is required to pay a fee while working at a trade which permits no “open shop,” he therefore has no alternative to meeting this necessity as one of the shop’s requirements, regardless whether the Union be a good or a bad organization.
Thus, though in order to hold his job in support of himself and his family, he may pay the fee which the Unions exact for the opportunity to labor, yet he should not participate in any of their activities and functions–political, social, or otherwise. In short, he will not have any fraternal connection whatsoever with them.
Under such circumstances, there is no difference in paying Union dues, state tax, or some other necessary expense, fee, or cost in order to keep at work. In view of this, those who follow in the light will pay Union dues only as they have to, and will discontinue paying them as soon as possible. (Answerer, vol. 5, p.64-65)
So we see that even though SOP was counselling the people of that day to “keep out of them”, brother Houteff was giving the green light as long as certain conditions were met. This is a restoration issue for sure.
It is clear that we when take up the Lord’s final message of Elijah we make sure to look at what the prophet says FIRST before we attempt to teach or report on the message. If we don’t do that we run the risk of exposing ourselves as private interpreters going against God’s prophets (See 2 Peter 1:20).
Therefore there is NO confederacy issue with joining trade unions today “in order to keep at work” to“support himself and his family”. Apparently the Lord saw down the stream of time that our economy would be vastly powered by the trade unions (even as it is today) and in order to deal with that the Elijah prophet made the statement.
Another truth restoration, which we have dealt with before is the taking of communion. Jesus told the apostles to “do this in memory of Me.”(Luke 22:19)
Yet our present truth is different , let us read —
WHAT ABOUT COMMUNION SERVICE?
Question No. 120:
Should believers who are well established in the message, celebrate the communion service when they meet together?
Answer:
As to authorizing the communion service in our own midst, we believe that since we all, as Seventh-day Adventists, have defiled ourselves as did the Jews at Christ’s first appearing (The Desire of Ages, p. 104) and since this sacred service works damnation to those who unworthily receive it (1 Cor. 11: 29), therefore we dare not now, as Davidians, take unto ourselves its hallowed privilege until as a people our lives bear convincing evidence of our repentance from the Laodicean condition.
The lesson in not authorizing this blessed service in our midst at this time, is inversely parallel to that which John the Baptist taught in ordaining and insisting upon the baptismal service then; that is, John’s instituting the baptismal service then, showed that the Jews were not ready to meet their King, and the Rod’s not instituting the communion service now, shows that neither are we ready to meet our King, and that we must therefore quickly repent from our lukewarmness, buy the “eyesalve,” and anoint our eyes. Then we shall gloriously celebrate the communion service, and the shame of our nakedness will not appear (Rev. 3:18).
Those who do not sense this great need are yet blind to the church’s undone condition, and to the Lord’s holiness. Just a firm outward faith in the message is not enough; its inward work in our lives is the all-essential and supreme work that must take place in the lives of all of us before we can conscientiously and profitably celebrate the Lord’s supper. Let us hasten that glad day. (Answerer, vol. 5, p.39-40)
Striking isn’t it? One must be advancing in the Lord’s scroll of Truth to truly appreciate those powerful and clear words of timely significance. So today we should not accept the communion as we are not worthy of it “as a people”.
So what do we have here? We basically have the anti-type test of how we respond to the advancing scroll and it’s Truth restoration. The Jews refused to advance in their understanding of Truth, as Christ clearly exposed. We as S.D.A may be looking at EGW first and foremost when faced with brother Victor Houteff’s statements. In other words we say as the Jews did, “We have Moses that is enough.” Ellen White becomes our Moses.
In closing brethren, right now we are experiencing our present truth and our instructions FOR TODAY. We must advance with the scroll, accepting Truth that may not necessarily be the same as days gone by. We must not be found with out that “extra oil” because our King said we must have this oil (our present truth) to get to the kingdom.
Godsloveandlaw's Blog 
January 2, 2019 at 12:31 pm |
Apostles were neither perfect when they did their first communion, so why would we be restricted to do that, especially if we understand our lukewarm condition and do something about it. Plus, if we can’t partake in it now because of our imperfect condition, then we will ever partake in it again? Since we can’t judge ourselves perfect at any time in our lives, like Paul (even though he was almost like Christ) did not judge himself perfect. This causes the rise of pride in our hearts. I am new to this message and it is truly shocking to see such a statement. I would appreciate some more clarity on this one. Thank you. And God bless you in your ministry. I enjoy reading your blog.
January 2, 2019 at 4:35 pm |
Hi Vera, oh yes we WILL partake of it in the upcoming Kingdom. Do you know about that pre-millennial Kingdom? There is soon to come a time when after the Lord’s purifies His church (Mal 3:1-5, Ezek.9) that we shall by God’s grace set up the Loud Cry headquarters in Israel. At which time the Lord’s supper shall be observed WHEN we as a corporate body will be truly worthy to partake.
We must remember that at the original setting of the Lord’s supper , you are right, the Apostles were not all together as true Christians at that time. However the Lord did go ahead with the meal regardless. The example had to be given obviously because that was a very important “present truth” lesson that the scroll was unrolling.
The present truth is , we must remember the ever unrolling of the scroll and as such at different times and ages, that truth for that time may indeed be not our truth. For instance you remember that the present truth for the Jews from the Lord, was that anyone caught in adultery was to be stoned to death. This was in Moses time. But that is not our truth for today right? Same principal as to the instructions for the Passover observance.
Lastly, these are not my ideas rather they are from the Lord’s last prophet to come to our SDA chutch, the “Elijah” with his message to us. We’d do well to obey, even when we don’t fully understand the counsel.
Just so you know I, too, had initial difficulty in understanding this instruction, until I began to see the more advanced reasoning and light of the message. Glad you are learning more and more of the PRECIOUS message!
January 7, 2019 at 4:58 am |
Yes, I am learning about the pre-millenium kingdom now and actually I need to learn a lot – there seems to be a ton of things not taught by the official church, so need to catch up on this. I pray daily that God will persuade me more whether this message is of him, so I would have not doubts, just like he did with assuring me that EGW was his prophet. I was wondering if you have any basic Bible studies that I could do with my friend who is not an SDA yet, but she’d like to study with me. I don’t want it to be too difficult for her, but at the same time to contain some “meat”. A lot of SDA studies would obviously not be suitable for instructing in truth, as it might contain a few erroneous things like the once exposed by the Rod. Plus, I don’t want to give only doctrinal stuff, but study something for the character building and some things for reflection.
January 8, 2019 at 6:46 am |
It’s amazing how our Lord guides us. You are doing the EXACT same thing I did when I first learned of this message (inquiring of the Lord) . But I knew He would not let us down if we truly hungered for truth and righteousness. After a few weeks there was confirmation after confirmation reaching me personally confirming that His Rod message was very real and was THE MESSAGE of the hour. Now, I am joyously carrying forward proclaiming it “from the hill tops” whenever I can 🙂
As far as your friend, do you think she needs milk at this time (basic things) such has how to keep the Sabbath? If so scroll over our Sabbath posts for some good studies.Also the posts listed under “Commandments’ are good basics as well. I agree with you beginners must be brought along slowly to insure we don’t blind them from too much light.