Every now and then we are so very fortunate to meet someone who we connect with so closely and the mutual respect is truly a God given gift. Such is the case with bro. Mark Tambatamba, from Zambia. Recently we were shocked to learn that he was found dead in his home city. There are suspicious circumstances of foul play and the investgation isn’t completed yet.
The Lord told us through our prophetess — “The battle cry is sounding along the line. Let every soldier of the cross push to the front, not in self-sufficiency, but in meekness and lowliness, and with firm faith in God. Your work, my work, will not cease with this life. For a little while we may rest in the grave, but, when the call comes, we shall, in the kingdom of God, take up our work once more.” (Testimonies vol. 7, p.17)
Brother Mark joined our Facebook group called Truth Tellers many years ago and was an active participant in our studies and especially our bi-annual questions and answers test. He showed a good knowledge of the message he loved so much — the Lord’s final message of Elijah (aka the Shepherd’s Rod message).
We often spoke by chat message on FB and never once did we have anything but friendly and supportive communication. When the news hit this week, I immediately felt a large hole in my being. We have done much active work during the last 10 years or so, and I have felt such great reward in knowing that our group and ministry helped motivate our brother to love the Lord through His sealing message.
God’s Word says —
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
We often don’t understand the reasons why we lose someone so close, especially one who by all accounts was so faithful to the Lord. Yet we know that His Word tells us that they will be raised up soon to either “take up the work once more” or “rest in the time of trouble”. One way or another it will be great joy to see him again in the kingdom of God.
Our prophetess showed that in a vision from the Lord, that some may rest during the time of trouble —
“God gave me a vision last Sabbath night which I will write, I saw that she (Mrs. Hastings) was sealed and would come up at the voice of God and stand upon the earth, and would be with the 144,000. I saw we need not mourn for her; she would rest in the time of trouble, and all that we could mourn for was our loss in being deprived of her company. I saw her death would result in good.” ( 2 SLM p. 263)
So obviously we don’t know which time the Lord would raise the faithful but we can count on one or the other. One thing to consider is unlike Mrs. Hastings for example, bro. Mark does know about the message that is to join the third angel’s message to give it power and glory. So if we are logical thinkers and close reasoners, we would say the Lord may raise him up to take up his work once more. But regardless, there will be a resurrection indeed for the faithful!
“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” ( John 11:25-26)
The Lord gives us hope for the faithful —
“It was at midnight that God chose to deliver His people. As the wicked were mocking around them, suddenly the sun appeared, shining in his strength, and the moon stood still. The wicked looked upon the scene with amazement, while the saints beheld with solemn joy the tokens of their deliverance. Signs and wonders followed in quick succession. Everything seemed turned out of it’s natural course. The streams ceased to flow. Dark, heavy clouds came up and clashed against each other. But there was one clear place of settled glory, whence came the voice of God like many waters, shaking the heavens and the earth. There was a mighty earthquake.The graves were opened, and those who had died in faith under the third angel’s message, keeping the Sabbath, came forth from their dusty beds, glorified, to hear the covenant of peace that God was to make with those who had kept His law.” (EW, p.285)
From a personal point of view, brother Mark was one of our best members who always showed a keen interest in the message. We sent him many “present truth packages” as they are known, complete with Tracts, TG’s, Charts, CD’s and DVD’s. His dedication was quite extraordinary.
From what we heard from brethren in the area, he was a team leader, guiding, encouraging and studying with many brethren. His work had a good influence on many. He will be so very missed!
Nevertheless, despite what we as humans see as a loss, it is no doubt a perfect God inspired plan for our brother.
The Lord said we shall know them by their fruit (Matt. 7:16) and from what we saw the Lord’s promise as spoken in Psalms 37:28-29 seems very befitting our beloved brother —
“For the LORD loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. Wrongdoers will be completely destroyed; the offspring of the wicked will perish. The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.”
Rest in peace our brother as we shall joyfully see you in the kingdom soon–Lord willing.
“And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.” (Rev. 7:1-4)
We know as present truth believers that the sealing of the 144,000 is taking place now. That soon the SDA church judgment will come and the final members of the 144,000 will be sealed during the half hour silence , spoken of in Rev. 8:1.
We also know that they are termed “virgins” (Rev. 14:4). Granted it speaks of men, but of course we know that the 144,000 will consist of both men and women. Inspiration describes what “virgin” means in that Scripture context —
“They are called virgins because they profess a pure faith.” (COL, p.406)
This week a most wonderful thing occured which we knew that we should praise the Lord and tell about it. About 13 years ago, yours truly met his wife through a online site. She is from a former USSR country. But as the Lord provided, that religion restricted country now called the “Russian federation”, broke it’s chains back in 1989-92. Religion was soon less restricted and former agnostics and non-believers embraced Christianity.
To summarize our story, I had become an SDA in the beginning of 2009, after a classic life of the prodigal son. My life was one of money and pleasures, but praise the Lord , He never stopped looking out the window, awaiting my arrival home! I came home indeed!
Soon after that I met my wife. She was a Sunday keeping Christian at that time. After some studies and long discussion (she was not willing at first) she finally “saw the light” on the keeping of the Sabbath. She soon found a “Jewish-Christian” church in her area and started going to Sabbath services each Saturday.
Thus we became of one faith and our relationship grew. After 8 long years, she finally made it here to USA and we got married. Both of us attending the local SDA churches.
But unbeknowest to us, the Lord was using us to influence another greatly, it was her sister, sister E. As time went by sister E was most likely hearing the voice of the Lord in regards to what my wife and I were practicing –Sabbath keeping.
Sister E is in her early 40’s and she is one of the rarest of humans — a literal virgin. She is soft spoken and very attractive. She became a Christian in 2005. Of course being in a former USSR country her church taught very basic Christianity and of course Sunday as the day of worship.
Fast forward to about 4 weeks ago. My wife and her talk frequently by whatsapp. Sister E mentioned that she had watched a “great video” on YouTube about the Sabbath from a woman who was a Seventh-day Adventist. My wife told me about it and I said “praise the Lord”.
This week were heard from her that she had made the decision for keeping the Sabbath, as she was convicted of this Commandment. we were so happy! Here we have a dedicated woman who has remained pure all her life and now she has found the “day of the Lord”!
The Scriptures tell us how the Lord SAID He wants us to show we love Him —
“If you love Me, keep My Commandments.” (John 14:15)
Now sister E is following the Lord in the real sense, not only that, but proving she “loves” Him as He said! Words can’t describe our joy. Could she be found among that number? We don’t know but surely she has been blessed with dedication and purity that few have ever experienced. Please pray for sister E as she takes up her new walk with our King. Amen!
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor. 5:17)
TEXT OF ADDRESS BY V.T. HOUTEFF, MINISTER OF DAVIDIAN 7TH-DAY ADVENTISTS SABBATH, JANUARY 11, 1947 MT. CARMEL CHAPEL WACO, TEXAS
THOUGHT FOR MEDITATION AND PRAYER
We shall read from “The Mount of Blessing,” page 180, paragraph one. The reading is based on the scripture which says, “Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye?”
M.B., pg. 180 — “Even the sentence, ‘Thou that judgest doest the same things,’ does not reach the magnitude of his sin who presumes to criticize and condemn his brother…. When he thinks he has detected a flaw in the character or the life, he is exceedingly zealous in trying to point it out; but Jesus declares that the very trait of character developed in doing this un-Christlike work, is, in comparison with the fault criticized, as a beam in proportion to a mote. It is one’s own lack of the spirit of forbearance and love that leads him to make a world of an atom…. According to the figure that our Saviour uses, he who indulges a censorious spirit is guilty of greater sin than is the one he accuses; for he not only commits the same sin, but adds to it conceit and censoriousness.”
Satan is doing his level best to make us transgress in this respect so that we lose out eternally. God has delegated no one to be policing another. Only God through His prophets is to reprove sin, but never to use force of any kind.
Shall we kneel now, and pray for a realization that our duty is not to criticize others or to magnify their faults, but to speak and practice the Truth? Further than that, Brother, Sister, we need not go. The rest is up to our audiences and associates. Let them decide for themselves what is best for both soul and body. Truth need not be poked down the throat.
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THE FATE OF ASSYRIA, AND THE TRIUMPH OF THE CHURCH
Let us turn to Zephaniah 3, and begin with the first verse.
Zeph. 3:1 — “Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city!”
The antecedent of the pronoun “her” is found in the thirteenth verse of the preceding chapter. In it is seen that the “city” here pointed out is Nineveh, the capital city of ancient Assyria. Now to ascertain whether this Nineveh is actually the capital city of ancient Assyria or of some other Assyria, we shall study the remaining verses of the chapter.
Zeph. 3:2 — “She obeyed not the Voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the Lord; she drew not near to her God.”
This verse points out the fact that the city and nation here mentioned had the privilege of hearing the voice of Inspiration, of knowing God’s Truth, but has failed to take heed — received not correction, trusted not in the Lord, drew not near to her God.
Zeph. 3:3 — “Her princes within her are roaring lions;
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her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow.”
Her princes, being like roaring lions, must be frightful persons who evidently think “might makes right.” Her judges are, as it were, evening wolves; that is, they are in business, not to execute judgment, justice, and righteousness, but to catch and tear, to fill their den with prey although they may have more than they know what to do with. “They gnaw not the bones till the morrow.”
Zeph. 3:4 — “Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.”
In the language of today this verse would read, “Her teachers are light-hearted, not serious and sober-minded; they are trifling; they are of no account; they are treacherous persons. Her ministers, rather than having kept the church clean, have polluted it, and have done violence to the law” (have declared It void).
Thus far is seen that the Assyria of this chapter represents a people who have been well instructed in the things of God, the law and the sanctuary. But instead of obeying the Lord and ruling justly and righteously, they have greatly transgressed, have gone down into sin as deep as any people can possibly go.
Zeph. 3:5 — “The just Lord is in the midst thereof; He will not do iniquity: every morning doth He bring His judgment to light, He faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame.”
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In view of the fact that God is in the midst of them, they must be well informed in the things of God, well aware that in due season He makes known to them His judgment. In view of all these, the only possible conclusion one can come to, is that God’s church must be in their midst.
Zeph. 3:6-8 — “I have cut off the nations: their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, that none passeth by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant. I said, Surely thou wilt fear Me, thou wilt receive instruction; so their dwelling should not be cut off, howsoever I punished them: but they rose early, and corrupted all their doings. Therefore wait ye upon Me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them Mine indignation, even all My fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy.”
The Lord Himself warns that He has cut off nations, that He has made their towers desolate and their streets waste, that He has destroyed their cities and has left no inhabitants in them. He points out that all this He did as an object lesson for future good, so that they as a nation might fear Him and receive instruction, that their dwellings not be cut off. But in spite of these examples, they rise early and corrupt all their doings. So it is that at long last the Lord arises to the prey, gathers the nations, assembles the kingdoms, and Assyria gets her punishment.
From this we see that the Assyria under discussion exists in the time of the end, the time in which the
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great and dreadful day of the Lord takes place. This Assyria, therefore, is an antitype of ancient Assyria just as the Babylon of Revelation 17 and 18 is an antitype of ancient Babylon.
Assyria, charges Inspiration, is a rejoicing city that dwells carelessly, that says in her heart, “I am, and there is none beside me.” Zeph. 2:15.
At this point let us pause a moment and summarize the characteristics by which this modern Assyria is to be identified. (1) As man looks at things, she is so great that there is none like her. She is well instructed in the things of God. (2) She is oppressive, a hard ruling nation. (3) She has polluted the sanctuary and has declared the law of God void. (4) She has piled up wealth by going after it as an evening wolfe goes after its prey. (5) She harbors the church of God. (6) She exists in the time the Lord is to manifest His power and destroy all the wicked nations. (7) She is an Assyria-like nation, widespread, a nation of conquests.
There is but one people under the sun that answers to all these descriptions, and that people is, of course, the English-speaking people, in whose midst is the church, and from whose midst the Gospel and the Bible flow out to all nations. As clear as language can make it, the burden of the prophet Zephaniah is for the English-speaking Christian world.
God is now saying to Assyria’s capital city, “Indeed, you are doing all these abominations, but you will not thus continue long. The time is at hand.” Put a stop to your absurdities.
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Zeph. 3:9 — “For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent.”
Inspiration for certainty declares that after Assyria receives her punishment, and after the wicked are taken out of his church, then will the Gospel be proclaimed in a pure language (in pure Gospel Truth) that whosoever will, may call upon the name of the Lord, “to serve Him” with heart and soul. Then it is that “only those who have withstood temptation in the strength of the Mighty One will have a right to proclaim it [Third Angel’s Message] when it shall have swelled into the Loud Cry.” — “Review and Herald,” Nov. 19, 1908.
Zeph. 3:10, 11 — “From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia My suppliants, even the daughter of My dispersed, shall bring Mine offering. In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against Me: for then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of My holy mountain.”
When the Gospel is proclaimed in “a pure language,” then even from the ends of the earth God’s people will come with an offering to the Lord.
Having removed all who rejoice in her pride the church shall be haughty no more.
Zeph. 3:12 — “I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord.”
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The fact that He leaves in their midst poor and afflicted people is sufficient evidence in itself that the purification of the church takes place before the Millennium, before Isaiah 33:24 is fulfilled and before He sets up the kingdom mentioned therein.
Zeph. 3:13 — “The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.”
The remnant, those that are left after the purification takes place, shall sin no more. They shall forever thereafter stand without guile in their mouths.
Zeph. 3:14 — “Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.”
A great day is coming for the righteous, a dreadful one for the wicked. We, therefore, as children of Zion, are encouraged to sing and shout for joy because we have finally come to the time of God’s great deliverance.
Zeph. 3:15 — “The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, He hath cast out thine enemy: the King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more.”
Surely these revelations of prophecy should encourage every believer to shout with joy as he realizes that the day in which he shall no more see evil is right at hand, that the Lord is to be his only king.
Zeph. 3:16-20 — “In that day it shall be said to Jeruusalem,
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Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing. I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden. Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee: and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame. At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord.”
The Lord wants us to know that when He turns away our captivity He will also make us a name and a praise among all the people of the earth. This kingdom of Judah (the church purified and set apart), is therefore, not only pre-millennial, but also probationary. And how glad we ought to be for the privilege to be among the first of the first fruits.
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