Archive for the ‘Elijah Interpretations’ Category

« Older Entries

The Parable of Mattew 20:1-7 (Part 1 of 2)

June 3, 2023

“For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into His vineyard. And when He had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, He sent them into His vineyard. And He went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said undo them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Again He went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour He went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto Him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.” Matt. 20:1 -7.

How can we know for a certainty in which hour we find ourselves, and if our own call to service has come? We can know only by establishing the time in which the last parabolic hour expires. And to do this we must first establish the time of the first call for servants, then in turn the time of each successive call, culminating with the last. First, though, pursuant to this end, we must bring into focus the parable’s significant points:

(1) The “Householder,” as every Bible student knows, is the Lord Himself. (2) The Laborers are His servants. (3) The penny is their reward. (4) His vineyard is the place where they are to labor. (5) The day is parabolical — representing a period of time which is illuminated by some great light. (6) The period of labor is both preceded

The White-House Recruiter, page 13

and succeeded by a night — else there could be no “early” and no “late” part of the day. (7) The Householder hires laborers at five different times. (8) There are four three-hour periods. (9) In each of the first three periods, only one group is hired. (10) In the fourth and last period of three hours, two groups are hired. (11) The agreement for a penny a day is made only with the first group. (12) The other groups are to receive “whatsoever is right.” (13) At the day’s end all are given the same pay — a penny, even through the last worked only an hour. (14) The first were paid last; the last, first.

Now to find out in which hour we are told, “Go ye also,” we must here at the outset of this go-to-work study, determine where in time the parable begins and where it ends. To gain this vital knowledge is simply to reckon with the sequentially amplifying facts that the parabolical night which preceded the parabolical day must necessarily be the period before the spiritual “Light of the world,” the Bible, came up — before the light of the Scriptures, the written Word of God, began to shine forth into the hearts of men. For back there, it must be remembered, the will of God was transmitted, not by the Bible, but orally from father to son, just as the light of the sun at night is transmitted to the earth by the moon, rather than directly by the sun itself. For this reason it has come to be regarded as the time of oral tradition.

But the day of labor obviously represents the period in which “the Light of the world,” the Bible Itself, lightens man’s path. Thus it is that in His parable, the Master, the Lord of the vineyard, regards the Old and New Testament dispensations as the only day period of all probationary time, in which He goes to the market-place at

The White- House Recruiter 14

five consecutive times to hire servants to work in His vineyard.

Finally, the night following the day can only represent the period after the gospel work is finished, after probation for man’s salvation is closed. Then, as the “Light of the world” (the Word of God) sinks beyond the horizon of the day, darkness covers “the earth, and gross darkness the people.” Isa. 60:2. It is the time which finds the destiny of every being forever fixed. Then follows the Lord’s irrevocable finality:

“He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” Rev. 22:1 1.

It is the time when men “shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord, and shall not find It” (Amos 8:12); the time when the unmindful of the Master’s call, and the impenitent of sin realize and cry out in frenzied and agonized despair: “The harvest is past, and the summer is ended, and we are not saved”! Jer. 8:20.

The truth is now become clear that the parable divides the time of salvation into two equal parts of twelve symbolical hours each — the period before the Bible (the night), and the period during the Bible (the day). Lending additional force to the fact that the parable thus divides time, Jesus declares:

“Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the Light of this world.” John 11:9.

The White-House Recruiter, page 15

Proceeding now, we come to another point of special significance: the first four groups were hired at consecutive intervals three parabolical hours apart; whereas the fifth, the last group, the one hired at the eleventh hour, came only two, instead of three, hours later than the fourth group, and thus only one parabolical hour before the day’s end — shortly before probation closes.

This two-hour period, from the ninth hour to the eleventh hour, is a singularity which comes as a climactic exception to the master pattern of sequential and regular three-hour intervals between calls. It obviously reveals that the last call comes unexpectedly and surprisingly within the period of the ninth-hour group. Hence there are only two parabolical hours for the one group, and only one parabolical hour for the other group.

To determine the identity of the laborers participating in each of the five different calls, we necessarily begin our quest with THE SERVANTS OF THE FIRST CALL:

We have already seen that it is the Bible, the spiritual “Light of the world,” that makes the parabolical day. We all know, moreover, that the Bible arrived with the Exodus movement also the since the arrival, the Lord never bargained, as it were with another people, and that they were the only ones to whom He ever committed the ceremonial covenants and all their rewards and promises. Inescapably, therefore, the first group of the parable, those who went to labor “early in the morning,” at the rising of the spiritual light, the Bible, and with whom the bargain was made to receive a penny a day, were ancient Israel as they were going out of Egypt, the time of which

The White-House Recruiter, page 16

was early in the parabolical day. In concord the Spirit of Prophecy declares:

“The Jews had been first called into the Lord’s vineyard….” -Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 400.

At that early hour, as God began to indite the Scriptures (as the Light that lightens the hearts of men began to rise), “He…remembered His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant He made with Abraham, and His oath unto Isaac, and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant.” Ps. 105:8-10.

Having thus by the first call for servants solidly established the time in which the parabolical go-to-work calls started, we are now to ascertain the call-time and work-period of THE SERVANTS OF THE SECOND CALL:

The second group, those sent at the third parabolical hour, must necessarily be the ones who were called to the work next. And they were, of course, the early Christians. Significantly enough, too, the Lord was crucified at the third hour of the day (Mark 15:25), and likewise Pentecost came at the third hour of the day (Acts 2:15).

Another point of significance of which we should take note is the fact that the messages borne by these first two groups, by ancient Israel and by the early Christians, were not of a reformatory nature; they were not old, forgotten truths in process of revival and restoration; rather each was a new revelation, “meat in due season” — present Truth especially adapted fully to meet the needs of the people in their respective times. The former group

The White-House Recruiter, page 17

were inspired and commissioned to teach and practice the truths of salvation as embodied in the ceremonial system, the latter group were inspired and commissioned to teach and practice the same immutable truths in their advanced light-advanced from typical to antitypical representation, from the ministration in the earthly tabernacle to the ministration in the heavenly one; that is, from the sacrifice of a lamb of the flock to the sacrifice of Christ Himself, the Lamb of God. Thus the latter group taught the old truths in a new and original light, in the light of the gospel — that Christ was crucified for the remission of sin, resurrected in triumph over sin and death, and ascended to make atonement and reconciliation for the penitent sinner, not in an earthly, but in an heavenly, tabernacle.

Since the messages of the first two groups (the one carried by the Exodus Movement, and the other carried by the Christians) were each in their respective times fresh from glory, that fact logically establishes itself as Divine precedent and pattern for all the messages of the parable. Accordingly, each of the three remaining groups must likewise be entrusted with a message of new and distinctive revelation, of “meat in due season” — truth adapted especially and fully to meet the needs of God’s people at the time then present. Therefore we need only to trace down through the annals of church history the unfolding of the scroll, till we come upon a newly and originally revealed and proclaimed truth subsequent to the message of the first advent of Christ It must point out THE SERVANTS OF THE THIRD CALL:

The Protestant Reformation, being purely an endeavor to restore old, down-trodden truths, and not to reveal new, advanced ones, had no new message of its own – nothing

The White-House Recruiter, page 18

that had not already been taught in times past. It therefore follows that the third group and message must be sought during the years following the Reformation.

The only revelation of new prophetic truth, subsequent to the Reformation, is the announcement of the year in which was to begin the work of cleansing the sanctuary, primarily in behalf of the dead (based on Daniel 8:14, but not then fully understood). As its announcement was made by the First-day Adventists, it necessarily follows that they were the third group of servants with a new and distinctive message. And as is well known, they started proclaiming it in the year 1833, announcing that the cleansing of the sanctuary was to commence in the year 1844. Thus in 1833 the clock of parabolic time struck the hour of six.

The statement, “Again He went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise,” in speaking of the two calls, not singly, as in the cases of the two preceding calls, but conjointly, shows that the “sixth hour” message and servants were to be closely related to and associated with the message and with THE SERVANTS OF THE FOURTH CALL:

So it was that the sixth-hour group and message, that of the First-day Adventists, and the ninth-hour group and message, that of the Seventh-day Adventists, fused into one because the message of the former was in itself Divinely designed to bring the message of the latter to light. Moreover, as soon as the terminus of the prophetic “2300 days” (Daniel 8:14) was reached in October, 1844, just then Daniel 8:14; Daniel 7:9, 10; Daniel 12:10-12, along with Revelation 14:6, 7 (the First Angel’s Message

The White-House Recruiter, page 19

in its primary phase), were first proclaimed by the Seventh-day Adventists’ “saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Rev. 14:7.

Thus the Seventh-day Adventists in 1844 began to proclaim what they termed “the investigative judgment of the dead,” which in Scriptural terms is the casting out of those who have not the wedding garment on (Matt. 22:11 – 13), the shutting out of the five foolish virgins (Matt. 25:10), the dividing of the sheep and goats (Matt. 25:32, 33), the separating of the bad “fish” from the good “fish” (Matt. 13:48) — each of these among the dead. Synonymously, they rightly understood it to be “the antitypical day of atonement” — the day in which are removed from the Books in Heaven the names of those who in closing their life’s career failed to attain eligibility to come up in the first resurrection, in the resurrection of the holy ones (Rev. 20:5, 6), All these aspects are comprehended in the words: “Then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed.” Dan. 8:14.

Posted in Elijah Interpretations, Parable studies | Leave a Comment »

Elijah Video

February 18, 2023

The Bible says —

“Then saith He unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.” (Matt. 9:37-38)


In our work in His vineyard occasionally we come across a true gem of a blessing. Such is the case in the following video. Brother Jimmy Kakouri was used of the Lord to bring forth a truly powerful and inspiring video. If you want to know more about this Elijah (Mal. 4:5) and his work, please take an hour out of your schedule to watch. 

By the way, we sent this to a sister and she responded — “I don’t believe that man (Jimmy) is the Elijah prophesied.” That is NOT what is presented here, brother Kakouri never says anything to point to himself as Elijah, so be aware in case the evil one tricks you into thinking that. Be blessed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3hCX2vq46A

Posted in Elijah, Elijah Interpretations | Leave a Comment »

Establishing a Firm Foundation for the Elijah Prophet

September 26, 2020

A firm foundation… – First Pres Joliet

Ok so you have accepted the final message of Elijah from the Lord. You want to share it with other fellow SDA, how do you establish the fact that a real live male prophet came to our church and fulfilled this extremely important prophetic role? Follow with us as we build a good strong foundation to establish this Word of the Lord.

Let’s face it, we as Adventists are already at a BIG disadvantage because Satan has, for the most part, made the Lord’s Rod message a mess! Our SDA leaders have slandered and tore asunder His message. But can we expect anything else? Let us read —

“I would remind you, Brethren, that no prophet of God has ever been welcomed by the church. On the contrary, each in his time was rejected, abused, and most of them were martyred by the ones to whom they were sent — the very ones who were supposed to be serving God! Indeed, the Lord Himself paid the same price. For this very reason we must remember that when the last prophet comes he will have the greatest opposition to meet, for Satan well knows that if he loses now, he loses forever.

What makes Elijah’s work especially hard is that Christendom has long been drilled in the idea that no prophet is to come, that there is no necessity for one, that it has enough revealed Truth to carry it inside the Pearly Gates. It is therefore only to be expected that the predicted Elijah will be denounced as a false prophet, perhaps even as the anti-Christ, offshoot, or what not.

Moreover, the old Devil has already put all his forces to work, piping pleasing tunes to lure Truth seekers to climb aboard his golden bandwagon. Its glittering tinsel of truth is already beguiling many with his wares while his captains and generals are to the top of their voices shouting their “Hallelujahs,” “Holy Ghost,” “gift of healing,” “gift of tongues,” “gift of miracles,” and all the rest, although the entire fanfare is devoid even of a spark of life.

Every wind of doctrine will be blowing, false revivals and reformations will be at their peak. Everything that can be done will be done to distort the Truth and thus distract and dishearten believers and draw their attention to something other than the message of Elijah.” (General Conference Special, page 6-7)

Wow! This is exactly what has, for the most part, taken place! Doubt, unbelief, slander, false revivals, and a whole myriad of false accusations again the Truth!

But God still has His hands out ready to welcome! Ok so let go through some steps we can follow to maybe make our fellow brethren “see the light”.

1 —  Show them the Lord’s promise of a prophet to come.

“Behold  I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” (Mal. 4:5)

Then point them to what the Lord promises —

“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”(Isa. 55:11)

Show them what SOP says —

The truths most plainly revealed in the Bible have been involved in doubt and darkness by learned men, who, with a pretense of great wisdom, teach that the Scriptures have a mystical, a secret, spiritual meaning not apparent in the language employed. These men are false teachers. It was to such a class that Jesus declared: “Ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God.” Mark 12:24.

The language of the Bible should be explained according to its obvious meaning, unless a symbol or figure is employed. Christ has given the promise: “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine.” John 7:17. If men would but take the Bible as it reads, if there were no false teachers to mislead and confuse their minds, a work would be accomplished that would make angels glad and that would bring into the fold of Christ thousands upon thousands who are now wandering in error. (GC, p.598-599)

The Lord has said from His Word–a male prophet “Elijah” will be sent by Him in the last days.

2 — Show them that SOP has given us several clues to identify this prophet.

“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.” (TM. p.475) (Note: This is the original reference (1890) and not the added to version by the SDA leaders many years ago.)

A. Somebody is to come after EGW.
B. The message will be rejected for the most part
C. The Elijah prophet will be known as an interpretive prophet 
D. The false teachers shall discount his message as error and try to substitute their false message

Establish that EGW said a “he” would come, a male prophet as Elijah. Further, the Lord has never called a male prophet by a female name and view versa.

Show them that this message is prophesied to be rejected for the most part —

“There is to be in the churches a wonderful manifestation of the power of God, but it will not move upon those who have not humbled themselves before the Lord, and opened the door of the heart by confession and repentance. In the manifestation of that power which lightens the earth with the glory of God, they will see only something which in their blindness they think dangerous, something which will arouse their fears, and they will brace themselves to resist it.

Because the Lord does not work according to their ideas and expectations, they will oppose the work. “Why,” they say, “should not we know the Spirit of God, when we have been in the work so many years?”—Because they did not respond to the warnings, the entreaties of the messages of God, but persistently said, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.”(Review and Herald, Dec. 23, 1890)

We see that the angel’s message that is to lighten the earth will first be rejected as “dangerous” by our people. Exactly what has happened with the Lord’s Rod message! The Shepherd’s Rod has indeed been proclaimed –dangerous. Satan would have it no other way right. Just like he did with the movement called “the way” with Christ’s original followers. “Kick em out a bunch of heretics!” the Jewish leaders proclaimed. Nothing new under the sun as Solomon said.

Next point out that there has been only one man throughout our church history that has gained great  notoriety for his interpretations–Victor T. Houteff. The Tracts, the Symbolic newsletters, the Charts, the books (volumes) were filled with end time prophetic interpretations! No other has done this in our church to this worldwide degree.

3 – Open up to them the end time prophecies beginning with the church purification. SOP has a tremendous amount to say about that and you can copy this report or share the link —

https://godsloveandlaw.com/2015/01/31/qualifying-for-the-loud-cry-part-1-of-2/

Then explain why the necessity for the Elijah message to come to the church. The Loud Cry must be proclaimed by a pure church. That the seal in our foreheads MUST be seen by the angels of God as they go through our church. The following post is helpful.

https://godsloveandlaw.com/2014/12/27/a-requirement-for-entrance-to-the-upcoming-kingdom/

The above are good solid steps to take in showing the reason the Lord has an Elijah message to our church. Let us not be shy or negligent and proclaim this message before it’s too late! In closing our Lord spoke through His Elijah  and gave this solemn and helpful council —

“The Responsibility of Those Who Bear the Message.

Since Ezekiel represents those whose hearts the message has reached, then to them the Lord is speaking when He says: “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at My mouth, and give them warning from Me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

“Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.” Ezek. 3 :17-21.

Because of the unfaithfulness of the former watchmen, the Lord makes the antitypical Ezekiel — he and she who “sigh and cry for the abominations that be done in the midst thereof” (the church) — a “watchman” (Ezek. 3:17) in their stead. Be careful, therefore, Brother, Sister, lest you also betray your trust and find yourself thrust out. “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” 1 Cor. 10:12. Only those who thus humble themselves now, will the Lord exalt in due time to be

His Faithful Watchmen to Stand Before the Unfaithful.” (Tract 1, p.41-42)

Posted in Elijah, Elijah Interpretations, Present Truth, Victor T. Houteff, Warning our brethren, Witnessing | Leave a Comment »

THE END OF YOUR LONG AND TRYING JOURNEY

September 5, 2020

TEXT OF ADDRESS BY V.T. HOUTEFF,
MINISTER OF DAVIDIAN 7TH-DAY ADVENTISTS
SABBATH, APRIL 19, 1947
MT. CARMEL CHAPEL
WACO, TEXAS

Our subject for this afternoon is found in the fifty-first chapter of Isaiah, beginning with the first verse.

“Hearken to Me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you….” Isa. 51:1, 2.

In this chapter God is speaking to the descendants of Abraham, to a generation that is following after righteousness. We now need to find in the stream of time the exact generation which Inspiration here addresses.

Is it the people of Moses’ time? of Isaiah’s time? of the Apostles’ time? of our time? or of some other time? If the chapter is addressed to us, then our need of studying it, and our interest in it, will be infinitely greater than it would be otherwise. The information we are seeking is found in verse seventeen–

“Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.” Isa. 51:17.

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 37, page 9

This verse reveals that God is speaking to a people who have gone through all the trials — hardships, captivity and persecution allotted them to go through for their sin and disobedience — they have drunk of the dregs of the cup of trembling and even wrung them out. At long last there are no more dregs left in the cup. This, of course, could not be said to the people in Moses’ time, nor in Isaiah’s time, nor even in the Apostles’ time.

It could not be said to any people at any time but to those who have come to the time of their liberation from want, fear, and insecurity which they have created through their sin and rebellion. Their Divine calling to awake, however, reveals that though the time of deliverance has come, yet they are in deep spiritual sleep — ignorant of these good tidings.

“Thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of His people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of My fury; thou shalt no more drink it again.” Isa. 51:22.

God, you see, positively addresses a people who have already taken all the punishment they are to take, and at long last He is pleading their cause. This cannot be said at any time to any people heretofore. How do we know that the time is here and that the Lord is now speaking to us? We know it from the fact that these long concealed prophecies on the subject are now for the first time unfolded and brought to attention. We are now ready to study the chapter verse by verse.

Isa. 51:1, 2 — “Hearken to Me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 37, page 10

alone, and blessed him, and increased him.”

God advises His people of today to hearken unto Him. They are those who are endeavoring to obtain righteousness, those who are seeking the Lord, and who are anxious to have a revival and reformation among them. They are now urged to look to the rock whence they are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence they are digged.

We are not to conclude that the Jews are the only descendants of Abraham. Those who are fortunate enough to have this revelation brought to them, are the people. There is no other safe conclusion if God causes the prophecies to be written, sealed, and then unsealed at His will and at the time appointed. The Jews, therefore, are not the only descendants of Abraham.

To find who these seekers of righteousness really are, there are several genealogical facts to consider:

(1) Only the citizens of the kingdom of Judah (the two-tribe kingdom, Judah and Benjamin) received the title Jews.

(2) Those of the ten-tribe kingdom (the kingdom of Israel) were scattered among the nations, and there they completely lost their identity.

(3) The Christian church herself is an upshoot of the Jewish church and nation — the Apostles and her followers, up to about 35 A.D. were all Jews. Then it was that again a multitude of Jews lost their identity by calling themselves “Christians.” Comparatively speaking, only a few Jews, from the Kingdom of Judah, have preserved their national title, Jews.

The descendants of the early Christian Jews and the descendants of the ten tribes, down the stream of time must have increased to a great innumerable multitude, for Abraham’s seed was to be as the sand

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 37, page 11

of the sea for multitude. It is, therefore, obvious that the few identified Jews of today are not the only descendants of Abraham’s, but that many of the Gentiles must be of Abraham. Since this mixed up situation exists, hardly any one can really say for sure that he is not one of Abraham’s children. Perhaps many of the nations whom the world calls Gentiles are the children of Abraham. We do not know for sure who is who.

God, however, has kept a perfect genealogical record, for He says: “I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know Me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there. And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the Highest Himself shall establish her. The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah.” Psa. 87:4-6.

Furthermore, though one be of Gentile blood, if he truly accepts Christ he by his spiritual birth becomes of the seed of Abraham for says Inspiration, “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gal. 3:29. The children of Abraham here addressed, therefore, are not to be sought among the identified unbelieving Jews, but among the Christians.

They are admonished to look to Abraham and Sarah, and to consider that when God called Abraham, though he was alone, he nevertheless obeyed and God blessed him; that in spite of all the apparent impossibilities with both him and Sarah, He increased him. What if you personally and alone were called by His word, as was Abraham, to stand alone for Truth and righteousness, would you be a hero for God as was Abraham, or would you do as did backsliding Judas Iscariot?

If we were not privileged to choose as was Abraham,

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 37, page 12

God would not have reminded us of Abraham’s experience. We are plainly told not to lose courage, but to have faith in God, for He intends to bless and increase us, as He blessed and increased our ancestors, Abraham and Sarah. The reason He gives for blessing us as He blessed them, is this:

Isa. 51:3 — “For the Lord shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.”

The focal point of the Scriptures is the rebuilding of Zion, and that is our charge.

Isa. 51:4, 5 — “Hearken unto Me, My people; and give ear unto Me, O My nation: for a law shall proceed from Me, and I will make My judgment to rest for a light of the people. My righteousness is near; My salvation is gone forth, and Mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon Me, and on Mine arm shall they trust.”

We are asked to hearken to the Lord because a law and a judgment are to proceed from Him. These are to be “a light to the people.” Again, says the Lord: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations,

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 37, page 13

and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Isa. 2:2-4.

The law is to go forth when the mountain (Kingdom) of the Lord’s house is established on the top of the mountains (kingdoms), and when It is exalted above the hills. Then the “light” shall cause the rebuked nations to flow to the mountain of the Lord. And, too, instead of beating their plowshares into swords, and their pruninghooks into spears (Joel 3:10), they will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Isa. 2:4.

To say, “My righteousness is near,” and “My salvation is gone forth,” is to say that salvation has been here, but righteousness is about to come. And how true!

What is the Lord’s “arm” that judges the people? This we shall see as we read–

Isa. 51:9-10 — “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?”

How illogical it would be for God to be trying to awake Himself, as though He, or His own arm, is asleep! This verse shows that He calls the Exodus

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 37, page 14

Movement His arm. Rightly so, because God does His work with His servants. His servants, therefore, are His arm, and they shall judge (rule) the people, and the people shall trust on them.

Isa. 51:6 — “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but My salvation shall be for ever, and My righteousness shall not be abolished.”

We are necessarily reminded that all else shall perish, but those who obtain God’s salvation and His righteousness shall stand forever.

Isa. 51:7 — “Hearken unto Me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is My law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.”

Those who know His righteousness, the people to whom this Truth is revealed, and who have His law in their heart, obviously will suffer from reproach and revilings of men, but they are admonished not to fear. And what shall be the end of their adversaries? — Here is the answer:

Isa. 51:8 — “For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but My righteousness shall be for ever, and My salvation from generation to generation.”

Painfully we pity our Laodicean brethren who are so angrily, but blindly, against us.

Isa. 51:9, 10 — “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 37, page 15

of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?”

If His people were not asleep, then what need would there be for calling them to awaken? We are glad that God Himself is arousing us and plainly telling us that as our forefathers did great things, we, too, as the Lord’s “arm,” can and shall do even greater things than they.

Isa. 51:11 — “Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.”

Thanks be to God that He is not only to awaken His people and to cause them to sing while marching into Zion, but is also able to remove their sorrows and their mourning forever. He is well able to put everlasting joy upon their heads.

Isa. 51:12 — “I, even I, am He that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass.”

In an endeavor to show us how absurd it is to fear men that shall die as does grass under foot, Inspiration in this verse emphasizes the promised comforts of Isa. 51:11. It must be that with some the fear of men is great. Now that we have God’s Word and comfort let us fear Him Who only is to be feared.

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 37, page 16

Isa. 51:13 — “And forgettest the Lord thy Maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?”

When we begin to fear man, just that moment we forget God. The question, “Where is the fury of the oppressor?” implies that in reality there is not any, that it is only a bluff.

Isa. 51:14, 15 — “The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. But I am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The Lord of hosts is His name.”

Yes, the captives hope for their release, but God does not hope for the sea itself to divide, He divides it at will and causes His people to go through on dry ground.

Isa. 51:16 — “And I have put My words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of Mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art My people.”

Here we have God’s own statement that the words we speak are the words of Truth direct from Him. Moreover, He assures us that His hand, His care and keeping, are around us; that by this means He may plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, “Thou art My people.”

Isa. 51:17 — “Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 37, page 17

trembling, and wrung them out.”

Awake, awake, my friend to the fact that our captivity, our sorrow and our mourning are about over; we are never again to go through them. He Who divides the sea can indeed make us free.

Isa. 51:18 — “There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up.”

Zion’s past and even present condition is now brought to view for our consideration. What a desolation! What a terrible state for a church to be in after having brought forth many converts! There is not a one to give her a helping hand!

Here we are told that the laity in Laodicea are not of any spiritual help to the mother (the ministry) — no, not even one endeavors to lift his hand to help the ministering brethren, — they are all more or less in agreement to stay “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Rev. 3:17.

Isa. 51:19 — “These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee?”

David of old was given to choose one of three things: “…So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days’ pestilence in thy land?…” 2 Sam. 24:10-13. Now, in like manner God’s people are asked

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 37, page 18

to choose either desolation and destruction, or famine and the sword. Then unlike in David’s day, He Himself solves our problem if we let Him.

These are some of the things which God’s people have gone through, even how some of these things still surround them. Our hope, nevertheless, is in God’s deliverance.

Isa. 51:20-22 — “Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of thy God. Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: Thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of His people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of My fury; thou shalt no more drink it again.”

Shall we not be thankful to know that everyone whose name is found in the book shall be delivered even from the time of trouble into which we are soon to enter? — Michael shall stand up for His people (Dan. 12:1)? Once He gathers us, he shall never again scatter us.

Isa. 51:23 — “But I will put it [the cup of His fury] into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.”

The tables are turned: What God’s people once had to take from their enemies, their enemies must soon take from them. Let us therefore not neglect to take advantage of God’s plea of deliverance.

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 37, page 19

Yes, my friends, since our long and trying journey is at an end let us as God’s “arm” give earnest heed to His awakening call. Now at the end of our long and trying journey, let us allow nothing to hold us back from obtaining the two things that are to make us stand forever — God’s salvation and His righteousness.

We are now asked to choose either to stand on God’s side or on the side of His adversaries (those whom we fear); those who are doing everything to close our eyes to God’s Truth for this time — either to choose God, His Spirit and His revealed Truth, or to choose men, desolation and destruction, the famine and the sword.

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 37, page 20

Posted in Elijah Interpretations | Leave a Comment »

“Elijah truly shall first come, and restore all things.” (Part 1 of 2)

August 8, 2020

Looking for Elijah - The Association of the Covenant People

What did it mean when our King said “Elijah truly shall first come, and restore all things.” (Matt. 17:11) ?

The word restore, according to our English language dictionary means —

“to bring back into existence, use, or the like; reestablish:to restore order. to bring back to a former, original, or normal condition, as a building, statue, or painting.” (Dictionary.com)

So once we know the meaning of restore we can see that the final prophet to God’s people “Elijah” will be instrumental in doing restoration or reestablishment of God’s way on earth. “All things” will revert back to how God intended them to be. Let’s look at some of those restored things as said in His word.

1) Marriage

As we are aware, marriage is indeed the first “covenant” God made with mankind –the marriage covenant. No doubt this covenant is VERY important. We read in Mal 2:16 —

“For the LORD God of Israel says that He hates divorce, For it covers one’s garment with violence,” Says the LORD of hosts. “Therefore take heed to your spirit, That you do not deal treacherously.”

Therefore the Elijah message deals with this topic, and it sets up the soon to be restoration of the perfect fulfillment, let us read —

“Like every other one of God’s good gifts intrusted to the keeping of humanity, marriage has been perverted by sin, but it is the purpose of the gospel to restore its purity and beauty.—“Mount of Blessings,” p. 100.

Inspiration further says: “And He answered and told them, Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things.” (Mk. 9:12.) “In the time of the end, every divine institution is to be restored.”—“Prophets and Kings,” p. 678.

The foregoing passages make clear at least three main facts; namely:

1. That the first institution which God ordained and established on earth was that of marriage; and that the second was that of the Sabbath.

2. That God intended that both of these institutions should endure intact, but that Satan has perverted and corrupted them, until today they retain but little of their pristine purity.

3. That consequently, in the time of the end, God will send Elijah the prophet to restore not only both of these, but also all other desecrated, divine institutions.

Hence, as all things must be restored, and as Elijah must effect their restoration, it follows that, as the joint institutions of marriage and the Sabbath were the first to be instituted, and the first to be profaned and debased, they must, therefore, be the first to be restored.

Moreover, as there is no truth where there is no type, the working out of divine design, in ordaining and establishing, on Friday, the sixth day of creation, the marriage institution, and on the seventh day, the Sabbath, thus gave type both to the reestablishing of these institutions, and to the restoring of them to the sanctity and beauty of their first estate. And as we must observe the Sabbath on the seventh day, likewise we ought to solemnize marriage on Friday, the sixth day of the week.

Furthermore, as God foresaw that in the closing hours of probation, the order of events would be singularly anomalous and preternatural, He mercifully thus forewarned us in the following familiar statements:

“Let me tell you that the Lord will work in this last work in a manner very much out of the common order of things, and in a way that will be contrary to any human planning.”—“Testimonies to Ministers,” p. 300. Therefore, with the one who is to come in the spirit, and power of Elijah, men will find fault and say, “‘You are too earnest, you do not interpret the Scriptures in the proper way. Let me tell you how to teach your message.’”—Id., pp. 475, 476.

Nevertheless, as representatives of the Elijah message, we are called to lead out by precept and example in the restoration of all things, especially the marriage and the Sabbath institutions, for the one represents the home, and the other the memorial of its creation. Therefore, before “we go forth to proclaim the Sabbath more fully,” we must lift up marriage, the first institution, from the sordid depths to which Satan has plunged it.” (SC, vol. 3, no.2, p.8)

Marriage indeed restored! Right now it appears we are lackadaisical in marriage in timing the day of this holy bond. Friday is the day for the marriage covenant.  And as the kingdom restored will soon take place in the Holy Land, it is to be expected that God will bless and sanction many marriages there.

2) Sabbath

We don’t need to get into too much explanation on this. As present truth believers, we well know that this issue will be the final test for mankind. Just as it was the very first trouble/dispute in worship (Cain slaying Abel over proper worship) so too the end-time issue of worship shall determine one is with God or one is not. Sunday worship will be the “mark of the beast” confirmation. For more information on the Sabbath test see our video —

3) Animal instincts

Elijah pointed us to Isaiah 11:6-9 as part of the restoration in God’s pre-millennial kingdom in Israel, and we read —

 

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”

What a breathtaking sight! A large lion sitting next to a baby sheep. A poisonous snake being handled by a baby. All this will be viewed, in the very soon to come kingdom. TV, reports, films, videos, you name it, all will broadcast this future amazing sight. God’s word says it, we believe it. The only question is –when does this beautiful sight take place?

Well if you are a typical SDA, and swallowed what the pastor or teacher teaches, you’d say it’s the time of the “new earth”. Wrong.

Here is a video showing why it cannot be at that time but much before it —

Next week we’ll conclude with more examples of the restoration that mankind needs and what the Lord will deliver as promised.

Posted in Elijah, Elijah Interpretations, Our Lord's kingdom | Leave a Comment »

THE JEWS AND THE CHRISTIANS’ FAITH IN THE PROPHETS

June 27, 2020


The following is a sermon address given by brother Victor Houteff on November 16, 1946. This is perhaps one of the most enlightening and powerful of all the sermon addresses that VTH gave (known as the Timely Greetings publications). Pray beforehand that the Spirit of truth shall guide you as promised (John 16:13).

TEXT OF ADDRESS BY V.T. HOUTEFF,
MINISTER OF DAVIDIAN 7TH-DAY ADVENTISTS
SABBATH, NOVEMBER 16, 1946
MT. CARMEL CHAPEL
WACO, TEXAS

A THOUGHT FOR PRAYER

I shall read from The Mount of Blessing, page 168, beginning where we left off last Sabbath.

“The one thing essential for us in order that we may receive and impart the forgiving love of God is to know and believe the love that He has to us. Satan is working by every deception he can command, in order that we may not discern that love. He will lead us to think that our mistakes and transgressions have been so grievous that the Lord will not have respect unto our prayers, and will not bless and save us. In ourselves we can see nothing but weakness, nothing to recommend us to God, and Satan tells us that it is of no use; we can not remedy our defects of character.

When we try to come to God, the enemy will whisper It is of no use for you to pray; did not you do that evil thing? Have you not sinned against God, and violated your own conscience? But we may tell the enemy that ‘the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.’ When we feel that we have sinned and can not pray, it is then the time to pray. Ashamed we may be, and deeply humbled; but we must pray and believe….”

Here is seen that it is Satan’s studied purpose to discourage us, to make us think that God does not love us, and that He cannot save us from our sins. We are therefore to resist the whisperings of the Enemy. When we see ourselves as sinners, then is the very time for us to come to God, and to accept His love and to fully believe in Him.

We should now pray for an absolute realization that God is in business to save sinners, of whom we are chief. That it matters not how deep in sin we may be, if we but depart from evil and choose to do good He will gladly grant us forgiveness.

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 2

THE JEWS AND THE CHRISTIANS’ FAITH IN THE PROPHETS

Let us turn to the writings of the gospel prophet whom the Jews so maliciously sawed asunder.

Isa. 1:18, 19 — “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.”

With this Divine recommendation for God’s professed people, the gospel prophet was instructed to introduce his book. And now that we are living in the present-day application of his prophecies, we dare not neglect to comply with Inspiration’s sound and fair recommendation. Our first step shall be to honestly and unbiasedly consider the successes and the failures of those who have gone before us.

Let us beforehand refresh our minds with the Jews’ attitude toward the prophets: Rather than going with the purpose of learning and reasoning, the Jews went to the prophets with prejudiced minds, with malice, with hatred in their hearts, and with instruments of cruelty. (We must not.) This evil spirit was prevalent among the Jews throughout their history. It was manifested even against Moses although for forty

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 3

years he led the Hebrew host with Divine signs and wonders all the way from the brickyards of Egypt to the borders of the promised land.

The remnant finally crossed the Jordan only because they whole-heartedly believed that Moses was God’s mouth piece, and because they ceased murmuring, took and obeyed orders. The Hebrews ever after deeply cherished his writings, and this reverent regard for the Pentateuch continued among the Jews even to the days of Christ. As a man of God and as the nation’s emancipator and founder of its sacred ceremonies, Moses was highly esteemed by all.

Ironically, though the prophets that followed after Moses were rejected by the Jewish nation as a whole. Those who survived in the Babylonian captivity did accept the prophets Haggai and Zechariah only because they were the founders of the movement then on foot as was Moses in his day.

The Jews, according to their own way of reasoning, were honest, though blind, in concluding that they had no need of prophets, because as they saw it, Moses’ writings were complete, there was nothing lacking in them: They contained both the civil and religious laws. They, therefore, saw no need for greater light and no need of another prophet. Through their unbelief in the prophets, they failed to see that their kingdom was only a type of a greater one to come, they failed to see that God’s Truth is progressive and ever unfolding, that each generation has to have added Truth especially adapted to meet their particular needs. Their blindness to this was their basic sin that led them on to ruin.

While the Jews boasted of their faith in Moses’

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 4

writings, Jesus reprehended them by saying: “…had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me.” John 5:46. He had reference to–

Deut. 18:15 –“The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him ye shall hearken.”

Of the coming Messiah Zechariah also wrote:

Zech. 9:9 — “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.”

Though they professed to believe in both Moses and Zechariah yet they gave no heed to any of these passages, and ever since a curse has rested upon them.

In rejecting the prophets the Jews thought they were surely keeping out of deception, and thought that they were thus actually loyal to Moses’ writings and consequently to God. This they believed as much in Jesus’ day as Israel believed in Elijah’s day.

Let us now note that they fell into ruin only because they refused to give heed to the prophets who were sent to reform their ways, to correct their erroneous interpretations of Moses’s writings and to lighten the path of their feet the rest of the way — clear to Paradise. Having deprived themselves of the gift of the Spirit of Prophecy by doing away with the prophets, they completely cut off Heaven’s communication line and were thus left in gross darkness and led into error, fanaticism, and crime. They became self-sufficient, proud, boastful, and high minded.

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 5

They felt rich and increased with goods, in need of nothing more. Thus it was that their perversions of the Scriptures by their uninspired interpretations of them caused them to lose the way, and finally to reject and even to crucify their own long-expected Redeemer.

Of Moses’s writings the Jews made a mighty weapon against Christ and the prophets of that day. They were, however, at one time or another forced to acknowledge that their dead fathers were guilty of the blood of the prophets. The same is true today. Many admit that sectarianism is thriving on uninspired interpretations of the Scriptures, yet they expect no inspired interpreters for this day. They thus reject the antitypical prophet Elijah even before his appearance though the Scriptures definitely predict his coming before the great and dreadful day of the Lord, before the Judgment of the Living commences.

If we accept Inspiration’s counsel and come and reason together while we are examining our own standing with the prophets, then an excellent place to begin is

Gen. 49:10 — “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”

Here Moses wrote that the gathering of the people shall be unto Judah, and that when Shiloh comes, Judah shall have a king and a lawgiver of her own. Do we as Seventh-day Adventists believe in this particular part of Moses’ writings? If not, then we have no better standing with Moses than did the Jews.

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 6

To examine our standing with the rest of the prophets, we need not depart from the subject which Moses has introduced in the scripture just quoted. Mark that between the writings of Moses and of Isaiah, the Bible contains the records of history, the judges and the kings. Isaiah, then, is the next prophet after Moses that we shall go to.

Isa. 2:1, 2 — “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.”

Not to Takoma Park, not to Mt. Carmel Center, not to some other place, but to house of Judah and Jerusalem shall the final converts from all nations flow. Isaiah you plainly see absolutely confirms that the gathering of the people shall be unto Judah. Do you?

Jeremiah being the next prophet to Isaiah, we shall read

Jer. 31:6 — “For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God.”

“Mount Ephraim,” you know, is the location of the ancient ten-tribe kingdom, Israel. According to this scripture, the kingdom of Israel, which is still lost among the nations, shall some day emerge from the four corners of the earth and gladly join the kingdom of Judah. So shall the gathering of the people be.

Jer. 31:7, 8 — “For thus saith the Lord; Sing with gladness

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 7

for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save Thy people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither.”

Jeremiah discloses that the gathering unto Judah shall be from the four corners of the earth. Indeed, Jeremiah, Moses and Isaiah, all three, speak alike on the subject. The question is, Do you believe what they say? If not, are you then better than were the Jews?

Next we are to test our standing with the prophet Ezekiel.

Ezek. 36:17-27 — “Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before Me as the uncleanness of a removed woman. Wherefore I poured My fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it: and I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.

And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned My holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of His land. But I had pity for Mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.

“Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 8

Israel, but for Mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. And I will sanctify My great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them.”

What more could Inspiration say to make the subject clearer? God plainly and solemnly promised to recreate and to rebuild the ancient kingdom, to set it up in its own land. This He is to do after Judah and Israel are scattered among the Gentile nations, and assimilated by them — after they have lost their racial identity — then as Christians, not as Jews, He is to gather them from the four corners of the earth and to bring them to their own land. (And moreover, the Scriptures teach that they are as the sand of the sea for multitude.) This He is to do, you note, not because they are worthy, not because they had been good before or during their dispersion among the Gentiles, but because He is anxious to sanctify His Own name among the heathen.

Still further, after He gathers them from all countries and brings them into their own land, then it is that He promises to cleanse them eternally from

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 9

their filthiness and from their idolatry — to remove all the defects that sin has wrought upon them. Then it is that He gives them a new heart, puts His Spirit upon them and enables them to unavoidably keep His judgments. Mark carefully that regardless of our ideas and opinions all these things take place after God’s people return to their father’s land.

The 144,000 descendants of Jacob, whose fathers were assimilated by the Gentile nations and who thus down through the centuries lost their racial identity, are the first fruits, the first to be gathered unto Judah. They are those who stand on “Mount Zion with the Lamb.” Rev. 14:1. The faithful descendants of the Jews who composed the early Christian church, and who also lost their national identity by naming themselves Christians (Acts 11:26), are also to be gathered from everywhere and brought unto Judah.

Finally, if these prophecies are not to be fulfilled, as the angel of the Laodicean church supposes, and if God’s people are not to return to their homeland, then how will they ever be cleansed from their filthiness since the cleansing is to be done there only? How will they ever have their hearts changed? And what is to make them keep His statutes and judgments unless, as promised, beforehand receive His Spirit in the Promised Land? Indeed, if these prophecies fail, then how will God’s people ever be able to stand before a pure and holy God?

And how will they ever obtain immortality and be on schedule for translation if they do not comply with the prophecies, with His expressed will and plan for His people? And if they ignore these prophecies, the fulfillment of which is during the Judgment for the Living, the harvest, the gathering time, what chance do they then stand to survive that great and dreadful day of the Lord?

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 10

To be more specific, if the denomination fails to recognize and accept these promises, then where are the laity to be led from here on? Certainly not to the Kingdom if their leaders do not believe in It. Do you now believe in Moses, in Isaiah, and Ezekiel? Or do you rather still believe in fables devised by men?

Next to Ezekiel is the prophet Daniel. Incidentally, let us remind ourselves that to begin with, Daniel did not prophesy to the Jews, but to the Chaldeans and to the Medes and Persians. The Jews accepted him as God’s servant only as they saw his prophecies fulfilled. The great question before us, however, is, Do we fully believe in the prophet Daniel’s writings? Let us see.

Dan. 2:44, 45 — “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.”

On Daniel’s own word, the stone is symbolical, not of something else, but of the Kingdom, the which in the parable of the wheat and tares Jesus calls “barn,” the place into which He is to put the wheat (saints) after it is separated from the tares (Matt. 13:30). Now mark carefully that according to Daniel’s interpretation the stone depicts the Kingdom, the which God shall set up not after the days of these kings, but in their days, and that the stone Kingdom Itself, not

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 11

something else, shall break the great image. If our interpretation of the stone contradicts Daniel’s interpretation of it, then we do not only reject Daniel’s inspiration, but even misconstrue the Word of God! We better not. We now come to the prophet Hosea.

Hosea 1:11; 3:5 — “Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel…. Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.”

Can one believe Hosea on the subject of the Kingdom if he does not believe in the former prophets who taught exactly as he? — Of course not.

We are now at Joel’s prophecies.

Joel 3:1, 2 — “For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for My people and for My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted My land.”

When God frees the antitypical children of Judah and of Jerusalem, the church of today, and takes them back to their own land, then it is, you note, that He gathers all nations into the valley of Jehoshaphat. There He is to judge them — to separate the good from the bad, (Matt. 13:47, 48), the sheep from the goats (Matt. 25:32). And this work you must know is the work of the Judgment for all the living. Are we to

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 12

reject Joel along with the prophets before him, and consequently the message of the Judgment for the Living after having for over a century preached the Judgment for the Dead? Ponder over what the Scriptures say and thus make up your mind to forsake all other voices. And what about your belief in the prophet Amos? Let us read

Amos 9:9-15 — “For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us. In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by My name, saith the Lord that doeth this.

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of My people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God.”

Since Amos with even greater emphasis bears the same testimony as all the prophets before him, and since the language on the subject is crystal clear as is the language of all the prophets before him, so much so that it needs no comments, what shall we do with him? We are now to read

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 13

Obad. 1:15-18 — “For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head. For as ye have drunk upon My holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been. But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the Lord hath spoken it.”

In harmony with all the prophets before him, and in perfect clarity, Obadiah, too, relates that in the day the Lord destroys the heathen, in the day of harvest, or judgment, otherwise called the cleansing of the Sanctuary (Dan. 8:14) and the purification of the church (Mal. 3:1-3), and also the great and dreadful day of the Lord, there shall be deliverance upon Mount Zion, and the house of Jacob shall possess the wealth of the heathen. Do you now believe in the testimony of Jesus through His prophets? If not, then how can you say that you speak according to the “law and to the testimony” (Isa. 8:20)? Ever remember that the law and the testimony always go hand in hand.

The prophet Jonah is next in line, but we shall consider his prophecies when we come to the prophet Nahum.

We shall now see what is to be done with the prophet Micah.

Micah 3:12; 4:1, 2 — “Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 14

heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest:… But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

As emphatically as all the prophets before him, Micah declares that after the destruction of the Lord’s ancient “mountain,” (the kingdom), comes the reestablishment of it in the last days, and that peoples and nations shall flow unto it because the Law and the Word of the Lord shall go forth from Zion and from Jerusalem. Shall you now close your ears and eyes against this promise? or do you as servants of God intend to get there with the first fruits? I hope it is the latter. We now come to the prophecy of Nahum:

Nah. 1:12, 13, 15 — “…Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more. For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder…. Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.”

Nahum’s burden is concerning the restoration, and the fall of Assyria, the powers which rule them in the day He restores the latter-day Kingdom of Judah; in the day He breaks the Assyrian yoke, in the day He bursts asunder the bands that bind His people. In that

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 15

day He sends His messenger to bear good tidings to His people, tidings of peace while the world is upset with wars. Through His messenger He is urging His people to perform their vows, for He is to take away the wicked from among them. Assyria is to vacate and give room to Judah. “For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.” Isa. 30:31. Now He pleads:

“Turn ye unto Him from Whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted. For in that day [in the day Assyria falls] every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin. Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited. And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the Lord, Whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem.” Isa. 31:6-9.

The purification (Judgment), here you see, is conducted from Zion and Jerusalem. And through Malachi asks the Spirit, “But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ sope: and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi [the ministry], and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” Mal. 3:2, 3. Do you accept Nahum? And since Jonah’s prophecy is a counterpart of Nahum’s, then if you reject Nahum, you automatically reject Jonah, too.

The prophet Habakkuk was told to “write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run who

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 16

readeth it.”

Hab. 2:3 — “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”

Then Habakkuk prayed, saying,

Hab. 3:12, 13 — “Thou didst march through the land in indignation, Thou didst thresh the heathen in anger. Thou wentest forth for the salvation of Thy people, even for salvation with Thine anointed; Thou woundest the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah.”

Can we in faith pray for the same thing Habakkuk prayed? — That the Lord go forth for the salvation of His people, that the vision be fulfilled without delay, and that we run to proclaim the good tidings? If not, then truly we spurn Habakkuk also.

Let us see what Zephaniah has to say concerning the latter day house of Judah — the mountain of the Lord.

Zeph. 2:5-7 — “Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites! the word of the Lord is against you; O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant. And the sea coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks. And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed thereupon: in the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening: for the Lord their God shall visit them, and turn away their captivity.”

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 17

Since Zephaniah’s prophecy is also definite that the Lord is to re-establish the kingdom of Judah, and since it, too, needs no comment, we shall quickly pass to Zechariah’s prophecy.

Zech. 1:20, 21 — “And the Lord shewed me four carpenters. Then said I, What come these to do? And He spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.”

Once God raised “horns,” nations, to scatter His people throughout the Gentile nations, but those “horns” in the restoration of “all things,” are seen to become “carpenters,” so that while they as horns at long last cast the Gentiles out from the promised land, they are as carpenters to build for Judah. Thus Zechariah, as do all the prophets before him, prophesies of the restoration of the kingdom of Judah. Now we shall read from Malachi, the last of the Old Testament prophets.

Mal. 3:1-3 — “Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ sope: and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.”

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 18

If, in the face of the plain and unquestionable teachings of all the prophets, we as Seventh-day Adventists fail to give heed to the truth of the Purification of the church (the Kingdom here dealt with), the message of the Judgment for the Living and of the restoration of the kingdom of Judah — the sanctuary for the purified ones, — then certainly others will have to take our places in proclaiming it.

Then along with the Jews we will have to bear the guilt of rejecting all the prophets since the world began. Why? — Because unless we actually believe all that they have written, our merely pretending to believe in them means as much to Heaven as the faith of the Jews in the writings of Moses meant to the Lord. What! Preaching the gospel of the Kingdom but denying the Kingdom Itself!

In closing I shall read from Early Writings, in the chapter entitled “The Loud Cry.”

“This message [that is the message that makes the Loud Cry] seemed to be an addition to the third message, joining it as the midnight cry joined the second angel’s message in 1844.” — Early Writings, pg. 277. And on page 118 we read: — “I then saw the third angel. Said my accompanying angel, ‘Fearful is his work. Awful is his mission. He is the angel that is to select the wheat from the tares, and seal, or bind, the wheat for the heavenly garner. These things should engross the whole mind, the whole attention.'”

The author of these statements makes clear that the Loud Cry is not made by a lot of noise, but by an additional message, and that the third angel’s message in the end of the world, not the end itself, selects the wheat from the tares. Who among you would be foolish

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 19

enough to close his eyes and ears to the testimony of the prophets, and at last in consternation cry out, “The harvest is passed, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” Jer. 8:20.

Now, if we as a church do not even so much as expect an additional message, besides rejecting the former prophets, then how much better is our attitude toward God and His prophets of today as well as of yesterday?

The Jews wanted a kingdom of their own, a kingdom of this world (saint and sinner in it). Yes, they wanted a kingdom on earth, but none in Heaven. What is more, they wanted it two thousand years ahead of schedule. Now, ironically, in the time of the restoration of the Kingdom, the Denomination takes an opposite attitude: It wants a kingdom in Heaven, but none on earth. Indeed, it wants to board the “chariot” from Takoma Park. And besides while the Lord says He is to save nations, the Denomination says “He is to save only 144,000 living sons of Jacob,” and consequently none of the sons of other nations!

The Jews wanted nothing but what they wanted, and nothing is just what they got. So it will be with the Denomination if this clear cut and extra Biblical Truth, and the example of the Jews does not help her see that she has drifted “to sea without chart or compass.” — Christ Our Righteousness, pg. 37 (1941 edition). If she continues to want nothing but what she wants, it is certain that nothing is what she can expect.

Pray tell, what more should one expect to get from partial belief in the prophets, from private human interpretation of the Scriptures, from a system

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 20

of explaining away the Scriptures, of making mysteries of simple passages by the use of unknown manuscripts and sectarian translations? Let us hold to “the book of the Lord” which His mouth hath commanded, and which manuscripts His “Spirit…hath gathered….” Isa. 34:16.

Say anything you wish against the Jews, but my study tells me that we as Seventh-day Adventists are outdoing them in mischief.

Moreover, it is now seen that our study of this afternoon is a summary of the message to the Laodiceans, who think that they are rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing more, though they have need of everything. They had better awake to their poverty.

To be sure, the present state of affairs does appear gloomy. Yet seeing that this dark and cloudy day holds forth a future of unsurpassing glory, let us with the prophet Habakkuk say: “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” Hab. 3:17, 18. Thus, just as the apostles defeated the enemy of the church in their day, likewise shall we defeat him in our day.

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15, page 21

Posted in Elijah Interpretations, Proper teachings, Prophecy study | Leave a Comment »

BRIGHT CLOUDS BRING GENTLE RAIN

February 29, 2020

TEXT OF ADDRESS BY V.T. HOUTEFF,
MINISTER OF DAVIDIAN 7TH-DAY ADVENTISTS
SABBATH, NOVEMBER 30, 1946
MT. CARMEL CHAPEL
WACO, TEXAS

THOUGHT FOR MEDITATION AND PRAYER

I shall read from “The Mount Of Blessing,” beginning with the first paragraph on page 170. This page is based on the scripture. “Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil one.” — R.V.

M.B., pg. 170 — “Temptation is enticement to sin, and this does not proceed from God, but from Satan, and from the evil of our own hearts. ‘God can not be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempteth no man.’

“Satan seeks to bring us into temptation, that the evil of our character may be revealed before men and angels, that he may claim us as his own…. The enemy leads us into sin, and then he accuses us before the heavenly universe as unworthy of the love of God….”

Every temptation resisted, every trial bravely borne, gives us a new experience in character building. The soul that resists temptation through Divine power reveals to the world and to the universe the efficiency of the grace of Christ.

Here is seen that Satan is the great tempter of our souls, that he constantly seeks to make us fall. But he cannot do anything against us if our hearts be right with God, and if we stay within the hedge He has built around us. He can succeed only if we ourselves make it possible. If we willingly yield to sin, we thus voluntarily surrender to Satan. Let us not forget that no one can keep on going his own way and at the same time pray the Lord’s prayer without making a liar of himself. But those who wholeheartedly take the Lord at His word and allow Him to direct their steps, they never go wrong. We should pray to be among this latter class.

BRIGHT CLOUDS BRING GENTLE RAIN

This afternoon we are to study the tenth chapter of Zechariah. To find the time of the fulfillent of its prophecy and of the promises it contains, we need look no further than the first verse of the chapter.

Zech. 10:1 — “Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.”

These figures of speech, you know, are not used by Inspiration promiscuously, the term “latter rain” must have its special and accurate significance. Inspiration chose to use the term “rain”, because rain makes things grow and brings abundant harvest. The term “latter” denotes the last rain before the harvest, the rain that completes maturity and that ripens the grain.

The latter rain of Truth, therefore, is the very last, the one that is to develop the people of God for the harvest, for the time in which God separates the wheat from the tares (Matt. 13:30), the wise virgins from the foolish ones (Matt. 25:1-12), the good fish from the bad (Matt. 13:47, 48),and the sheep from the goats (Matt. 25:32, 33). In short, the harvest is the day of cleansing, the day of Judgment, the antitypical

Day of Atonement, the day in which the sinners are cut off. This spiritual latter rain is, therefore, to do to the church just what the natural latter rain does to the field. Without this latter rain the saints could not develop for the heavenly garner, neither could the tares for the fire. By the “latter rain,” therefore, is illustrated the last shower of Truth. And, too, this last portion of Truth must come as freely to every member of the church who lives just prior to the harvest time as does the rain come to every grass in the field.

Just as soon as this final touch of development is accomplished, the sickle is to be put to the precious golden grain. But let us remember that it is not left in the field to rot, it is put into the “barn,” (Kingdom) while the tares are burned, so says the Lord (Matt. 13:30). What is symbolized by the “latter rain? Is it miracle-working Truth, or is it miracle-working power? — The prophet Joel explains that the miracle-working power comes after both the “former and the latter rain.” Says he:

“And it shall come to pass afterward [after the former and the latter rain — Joel 2:23], that I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit.” Joel 2:28, 29.

Plainly, then, the “latter rain” is miracle-working Truth that causes the saints to mature for the harvest of which the 144,000 are the first fruits (Rev. 14:4). Then, in order to quickly gather the second fruits, God pours His Spirit upon every first fruit saint, (upon “every one grass”) old or young, boy or girl — not upon one here and upon another there.

Obviously “bright clouds” represent agencies conveying Truth which they scatter everywhere in the Lord’s vineyard — over every church member — “every one grass,” wheat or tare.

Literally speaking, dark clouds suggest a very heavy and damaging rain that frightens the beholders. Conversely, bright clouds suggest a gentle rain, the kind that descends in such a way so that the ground can absorb all of it. It does not waste itself.

Spiritually speaking, dark clouds would, therefore, represent a source of dangerous reading matter and too voluminous for one to welcome or to comprehend. But bright clouds stand for a  source of small, easily comprehended Truth-laden publications packed with “meat in due season, “Truth that comes in portions easy to take in, easy to assimilate all of It, and thus to develop the recipient of It for the “master’s” use and for His service.

Then, too, spiritual “latter rain” must fall as freely and without cost to the recipients as does literal rain. Thus it is that never before has the world witnessed so much absolutely free literature scattered away as this literature is. Millions! So it is that these small comprehensive publications, the bright clouds, laden with present Truth, are now being scattered as leaves of autumn throughout Laodicea to every church member, “to every one grass” in the vineyard of the Lord.

The final results? “More than one thousand,” attests Inspiration, “will soon be converted in one day, most of whom will trace their first convictions to the reading of our publications.” — “Review and Herald,” Nov. 10, 1885. Accordingly, along with the world’s dark clouds that now hover over those who are pessimistic about the promises of God, there are these bright clouds that hover over the faithful believing and trusting children of God.

 

 

 

 

And so, Brother, Sister, you need not listen to the voices that urge you to shut yourself in from this gentle rain, or to tuck in under someone’s umbrella. Come out and avail yourself of this much needed shower. It is sent to give you the development which you need, and to enable you to survive the great and dreadful day of the Lord, the Judgment for the Living. Delay no longer, get out in the open and let the precious rain fall upon you, let it soak in through and through lest the angels find you unfit for the “barn” and they cast you into the fire along with the tares. Inspiration makes it as clear as can be made that not a soul (not one blade of grass), can be fit for the Kingdom (“barn”) if it fails to absorb this rain of Truth.

How important then that you should avail yourselves of it. No, you cannot afford to stand dry under the umbrellas of Truth-haters. Get out from under their devilish umbrellas lest you lose out eternally, lest you hopelessly cry out, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” Jer. 8:20.

Zech. 10:2 — “For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd.”

Here is conveyed the thought that this character-building and wisdom and light-importing “rain” that fits one for the society of Heaven, finds the waiting ones listening to idols speaking “vanity”and to diviners telling false dreams, in vain trying to comfort. Will you not heed Inspiration’s Voice and turn away from listening to idols?

Who could they be if not vain self-important Truth-hating ministers that are idolized by the laity, false preachers trying to comfort by preaching falsehood.

Revival and reformation therefore must do their work among both ministers and laity. Indeed the sheep are troubled because there is no real shepherd anywhere, they all have gone their own way!

Zech. 10:3 — “Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats: for theLord of hosts hath visited His flock the house of Judah, and hath made them as His goodly horse in the battle.”

This verse discloses that the Lord has visited His people with revealed Truth preparatory to separating the goats from the sheep whereupon He is to reward the sheep and punish the goats — the work of the Judgment for the Living. His visit makes His servants as goodly horses in His vineyard.

Zech. 10:4 — “Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together.”

The Lord Himself chooses from Judah the “corner” stone (founder), the “nail” (organizer), the “bow” (the Truth, or instrument by which to gain the victory over the Enemy), and every “oppressor” (ruler). With these He builds the house of Judah.

Zech 10:5 — “And they shall be as mighty men, which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle: and they shall fight, because the Lord is with them, and the riders on horses shall be confounded.”

The victory shall be so complete that even the demons who lead our enemies in the conflict, will themselves be confounded.

Zech. 10:6 — “And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the Lord their God, and will hear them.”

The statements, “I will strengthen,” instead of save, “the house of Judah,” and “I will save”instead of strengthen “the house of Joseph,” imply that the house of Judah is saved before the house of Joseph is, and to save the house of Joseph He strengthens the house of Judah. The page second fruits need to be saved, whereas the first fruits need to be fitted for service. Both are gathered into one place, (the “barn,” the Kingdom). The Lord extends this favor to both of them because He has mercy upon them and will treat them as though they had never caused Him to cast them out.

Zech. 10:7 — “And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the Lord.”

The fathers shall rejoice and the children shall see it. He shall thus “turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers….” Mal. 4:6.

Zech. 10:8 — “I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased.”

“They shall increase,” that is, the second fruits are to be added to the “firstfruits.” (Rev. 7:4, 9).

Zech 10:9 — “And I will sow [multiply] them among the people: and they shall remember Me in far countries; and they shall live with their children, and turn again [to their homeland].”

Zech. 10:10 — “I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them.”

The elect shall be gathered from everywhere, and shall spread as far as the land of Gilead and Lebanon. But even then, the place shall be too small for them.

Zech. 10:11, 12 — “And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down,and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away. And I will strengthen them in the Lord; and they shall walk up and down in His name, saith the Lord.”

That is to say, the gathering of the people is to be unobstructed. Every hindrance is to be, page removed. The reign of sin is to be brought to an end. The nations who have enslaved God’s page people are to be humbled, and their scepters (thrones) are to be no more.

Be strong in the Lord, walk up and down happy and without fear, saith the Lord.

The work that God has begun in the human heart by Divine light and knowledge, must continually go forward. “…Every individual must realize his own necessity. The heart must be emptied of every defilement, and cleansed for the indwelling of the Spirit. It was by the confession and forsaking of sin, by earnest prayer and consecration of page themselves to God, that the early disciples prepared for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the page day of Pentecost.

The same work, only in greater degree, must be done now. Then the human agent had only to ask for the blessing, and wait for the Lord to perfect the work concerning him. It is God who began the work, and He will finish His work, making man complete in Jesus Christ. But there must be no neglect of the grace represented by the former rain.

“Only those who are living up to the light they have, will receive greater light. Unless we are daily advancing in the exemplification of the active Christian virtues, we shall not recognize the page manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain. It may be falling on hearts all around us, but we shall not discern or receive it. — “Testimonies to Ministers,” p. 507.

Since this Truth is so vitally important do not let any enemy against revealed Truth confuse you. If he tries to convince you against this Truth, you take him to task — make him give a more page Biblical interpretation of these scriptures. If he cannot give you something better or as good, then tell him to mind his own business and you will mind yours.

Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 17, p.1 – 11

 

Posted in Elijah Interpretations, Present Truth | Leave a Comment »

CHILDREN BORN TO A LEWD MOTHER BRING PEACE AND HAPPINESS IN THE HOME

February 8, 2020

TEXT OF ADDRESS BY V.T. HOUTEFF,
MINISTER OF DAVIDIAN 7TH-DAY ADVENTISTS
SABBATH, JANUARY 3, 1948
MT. CARMEL CHAPEL
WACO, TEXAS

TEXT FOR PRAYER

Outwit Satan In His Game For Souls

I shall read from “Christ’s Object Lessons,” page 55, beginning with paragraph two:

“Cares riches, pleasures, all are used by Satan in playing the game of life for the human soul. The warning is given, ‘Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him…’ He who reads the hearts of men as an open book says, ‘Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life.’ And the apostle Paul by the Holy Spirit writes, ‘They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil; which, while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.'”

We are to pray for to overcome the love of the world and to remember that Satan is playing the game of life for the souls of God’s people; to be given grace to work and pray as never before; to overcome the wiles of the Devil; to know that he is no foe to be trifled with, and that Jesus is the Captain Who never lost a battle; that if we enlist His help He will see us through.

Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 21, page 2

CHILDREN BORN TO A LEWD MOTHER BRING PEACE AND HAPPINESS IN THE HOME

Our subject for today is found in Hosea, chapters one and two. The first and most important thing to ascertain about these chapters is the time in which their prophetic import unfolds. To find this out, we shall read:

Hos. 2:18 — “And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.”

Up to this very day God’s people have never as yet experienced such a complete and absolute security and freedom as set forth in this verse of Scripture. It is, therefore, quickly seen that the subject of the chapter reaches even beyond our time. As we study the chapters verse by verse, the time element will appear still brighter and brighter.

Hos. 1:1,2 — “The Word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jereboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. The beginning of the Word of the Lord by Hosea.

Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 21, page 3

And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord.”

The prophet Hosea was commanded to take a wife of whoredoms for no other reason than to portray the sad and abominable condition which then obtained in Israel.

This marriage is, of course, only visionary just as is the prophet Ezekiel’s lying 40 days on one side, and 390 days on the other side (Ezek. 4:4-6).

Hos. 1:3-5 — “So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son. And the Lord said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel, in the valley of Jezreel.”

The first-born son of the prophet’s visionary marriage, you see, was named Jezreel in order to foreshadow that which was to befall the nation — predicting not only the termination of the kingdom, but also the very place in which its army was to be defeated — in the valley of Jezreel. And this destructive evil was to have come upon them for shedding the blood of Jezreel, but obviously not the Jezreel that had just been born and named. Who the slain Jezreel is, we shall see later in the study.

Hos. 1:6, 7 — “And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.

Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 21, page 4

But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.”

The ten-tribe kingdom, Israel, was spared until the birth of Lo-ruhamah, but the name of this second child certified that God was to have no more mercy upon the house of Israel, that its end had already come. However, He was to have mercy upon the house of Judah, the two-tribe kingdom, and was to deliver it by a miracle. And that is what happened: an angel slew 185,000 of the assyrian army, and thus God spared the house of Judah (2 Kings 19:35).

Hos. 1:8, 9 — “Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son. Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi: for ye are not My people, and I will not be your God.”

The third child was named Lo-ammi to show that God’s mercies were to depart even from the house of Judah. But rather than to let them be subjugated as His people, He first rejected them, whereupon they were no longer His people. The Apostle Peter cites this verse of Scripture as referring to the unbelieving Jews; as a nation they were rejected after the crucifixion of Christ, and were thus no longer His people (1 Peter 2:9, 10). The individuals, though, who did believe in the Lord were reaccepted, and they became “the children of the Living God.” (See Rom. 9:26.)

Now note that this symbolism has thus far taken us prophetically and historically from the days of the house of Israel to the Christian era.

Hos. 1:10 — “Yet the number of the children of Israel

Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 21, page 5

shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.”

“Yet,” that is, in spite of the fact that the children of Israel were to be scattered throughout the nations, and rejected, be no longer God’s people, yet in spite of all these, both the descendants of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah (all the children of Jacob) were to be multiplied as the sand of the sea by the time they are reaccepted and thus become the sons of the living God through the Saviour, Jesus Christ.

From this scripture you note that this multitude of sons of Jacob are not the identified Jews of today, but rather the lost descendants of Judah and Israel, of those who were assimilated by the Gentile nations and by the early Christian church by taking upon themselves the title “Christians,” of those who thus lost their racial and national identity. From all these, after having been scattered throughout the Gentile nations, and after having lost their identity, are to come the sons of God that are projected in this allegorical prophecy. Thus many of us who suppose to be of the Gentile nations may at long last discover that we are of the lost tribes of Judah and Israel, and of the apostolic Christian Jews. Though none of us really know our genealogy very far back, yet God Who knows even the number of hairs on one’s head has kept an accurate genealogical record of each of us. So He says: “I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know Me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was orn there. And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and

Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 21, page 6

the highest Himself shall establish her. The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah.” Psa. 87:4-6.

Hos. 1:11 — “Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.”

Here we are definitely told that in the latter days, God’s saints, without a sinner among them, are to be gathered together from the four corners of the earth, and be organized into a Theocratic government, of which antitypical David is to be the king. Thus it is that “…in the days of these kings [not after their days] shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people, but It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and It shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.” Dan. 2:44, 45.

In another allegorical prophecy, in connection with this one, we are again told:

Hos. 3:4, 5 — “For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.”

Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 21, page 7

Here again the promises are as plain as words can make them that after the dispersion and captivity, the “many days,” God’s scattered people are then to return to their homeland, and are then to seek the Lord their God, and David their king. Hence, these sons of God are not the identified and unbelieving Jews of today who are trying to make a permanent national home in the Promised Land.

Christians have for centuries preached the Kingdom of God, but it is not as yet clear to most of them whether It is to be as tangible as the earth itself, or whether It is to be something foamy, something floating in space, or what? Inspiration, however, clearly declares that the Kingdom of Christ (the church purified — cleansed, Dan. 8:14) is to be as real as any of the kingdoms of earth.

Now we shall continue our study through Hosea chapter two, because, as I said before, its contents are the continuation of those in chapter one.

Hos. 2:1-3 — “Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not My wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.”

Let us remember that the first chapter brought us down through the stream of time, down to the Christian era. Now, in chapter two our attention is again directed to Hosea’s visionary children, but the prefix “Lo” has been omitted from the names Loruhamah and Loammi so as to change the meaning from no mercy, and not My people, to “mercy,” and “My people.”

Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 21, page 8

Here in this unique symbolism, fashioned years before the Christian dispensation, Inspiration foreshadowed the grace that was to be given to the people in the Christian era, and that rather than continue to be called Jews, they were to be called by another title — Christians: Mercy, and My people.

The command, “Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah,” in itself explains that God is speaking to Jezreel, (Ammi’s and Ruhamah’s brother), and that Jezreel in turn is to speak to Ammi and to Ruhamah. And the fact that God calls Hosea’s visionary wife His Own wife, the subject becomes still clearer: Hosea, you see, represents God, and Hosea’s wife represents God’s church; Jezreel, the one God speaks to, represents His mouth piece, a prophet, and Jezreel’s brethren, Ammi and Ruhamah, represent the members of the church, both male and female. Now, as Ammi and Ruhamah represent the laity, it is obvious that the mother represents the ministry, those who bring forth converts into the church. Here we have a complete representation of the household of God.

The fact that Jezreel is to urge his brethren, the laity, to plead with the mother (with the ministry, to those who bring forth converts), that she put away her whoredom, the truth clearly stands out that this revival and reformation does not come to the laity through the ministry, but to the ministry through the laity.

The laity is to explain that if the ministers fail to reform, God is to strip them naked — as naked as in the day they were born.

Hos. 2:4, 5 — “And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms. For

Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 21, page 9

their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.”

These verses set forth God’s meaning of grace: that if the “mother” fails to reform, fails to cease from her whoredoms with the world and its practices, then not only the mother but also her sympathizing children will forever fall from grace.

The mother, here we are told, imagines that her unlawful lovers are the ones who supply her with the temporal things of life, and it is her excuse for having anything to do with them.

Moreover, we are again told that while she is thus playing the harlot, she is bringing forth illegitimate children, untrue converts. Here is a warning which in no uncertain terms demands a reformation or else the whole church family, except for those who reform, will be destroyed as completely as ancient Jerusalem was destroyed some years after the crucifixion of Christ.

Hos. 2:6-13 — “Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now. For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Therefore will I return, and take away My corn in the time thereof, and My wine in the season thereof, and will

Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 21, page 10

recover My wool and My flax given to cover her nakedness. And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of Mine hand. I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat Me, saith the Lord.”

These verses explain God’s way and power to save: Before He calls for reformation He prepares the way: He brings His church to trying and perplexing circumstances from which she can not easily disengage herself. He brings her to a situation similar to which He brought the prodigal. He does this in order that she might be brought to realize where her support in reality comes from, to know for certain that it does not come from her lovers. Then, and then only, may she do the very thing the prodigal did when he came to himself.

In fulfillment of the prophecy contained in verse eleven, God permitted the little horn of Daniel seven to change times and laws, and permitted the saints of the Most High to be in his hand until “a time and times and the dividing of time.” Dan. 7:25.

Hos. 2:14, 15 — “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of

Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 21, page 11

hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.”

Having brought her into as strait and embarrassing circumstances as one can be in, God promises to allure her, and to bring her into the wilderness, there to speak comfortably to her. Specifically speaking, having emerged from the “great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world” (Matt. 24:21), God brings her, not into her vineyard, not in the Promised Land, but into the “wilderness” (into the lands of the Gentiles), there to speak comfortably to her, and to help her reform. After this comforting meeting takes place she is to have her vineyards from thence, and the Valley of Achor for a door of hope; there she is to sing and rejoice as in the days of her youth, and as in the day she came out of Egypt.

The Valley of Achor, you note, is her door of hope — it is the only way out of her predicament. The valley has but one significance: it stands for a thorough purging, for destroying the sinners that are in her midst before possessing the land — her only hope of becoming a decent, respectable wife of God.

It was in the Valley of Achor that Joshua stoned the last of the sinners in Israel — Achan and his household. Then it was that the Israelite nation was permitted to take the promised land, the vineyard. Just such a purging as this is the church’s only “door of hope,” says Inspiration, her only escape from her present plight. Then she is to return to her former position and grace. Then she is to receive the promised blessing as verily as ancient Israel received hers. That remarkable incident in the Valley of Achor is now seen to typify the purging for the repossession of the promised land — typifying the Judgment for the Living,

Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 21, page 12

the gathering of the saints, and the destruction of the sinners — the separation of the wheat from the tares, the goats from the sheep, the good fish from the bad fish. The “barn” (Matt. 13:30), connotes the Kingdom here projected as does the Lord’s right, and as do the vessels.

Hos. 2:16 — “And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call Me Ishi; and shalt call Me no more Baali.”

Yes, rather than be her lord, God is indeed to be her husband, for one can have lords many, but only one husband.

Hos. 2:17 — “For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.”

The names of Baalim are significant of persons possessing selfish characters such as Balaam’s — teachers of religion, prophets who would rather curse Israel than lose the opportunity of monetary gain, or of some other foolish, selfish promotion that exalts and flatters. Such shall then no longer be known by their lordly, high and exalted titles.

When the Church is thus purged of all her idols, then will she find eternal peace.

Hos. 2:18-22 — “And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely. And I will betroth thee unto Me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfullness:

Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 21, page 13

and thou shalt know the Lord. And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.”

These verses plainly show that God’s presence will in that day be in His church, that even the heavens will be listening to God’s voice while He speaks to His people here on earth. The earth shall also hear the “corn, and the wine, and the oil”; that is, the earth shall hear the Truth — Truth that satisfies the soul as does wholesome, and nourishing food. Moreover, not only the corn, the wine, and the oil — the whole Truth — but Jezreel, too, shall the earth hear. Plainly, all these promises are to be fulfilled during probationary time, for they cannot do the earth any good after probationary time is exhausted.

The Jezreel of whose blood ancient Israel was charged guilty, you see, was figurative of the prophets whom Israel rejected and killed. Thus it is that the prophet-hating house of Israel met defeat in the Valley of Jezreel, which by interpretation is the valley of the slain prophets.

Hos. 2:23 — “And I will sow her unto Me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not My people, Thou art My people; and they shall say, Thou art My God.”

To “sow her unto Me in the earth,” means to multiply her children in God’s order after she receives all these promised blessings. Then she will truly have God’s mercy, such great mercy as she has never before obtained. So to those to whom it was said, “Ye are not My people,” it shall then, in grand

Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 21, page 14

reality, be said, “Ye are the sons of the living God.”

Now that the whole truth of these chapters is disclosed for the first time since the prophet wrote them, and since no prophecy of the Scriptures is of any private interpretation, not by the will of man, but by the will of the Spirit (2 Pet. 1:20, 21), the fact is that God had us in mind (us to whom these chapters are unfolded) when he caused these things to be written. Moreover, since the first verses of the second chapter bring us down to the time of a revival and reformation taking place in our own time, sponsored by God Himself and brought to light through Jezreel, then carried to the church by the laity, is a work that fulfills itself only in this layman’s movement that is now sweeping throughout the Seventh-day Adventist world. This Truth, therefore, stands as high as a mountain that God is now at work, that things are to move according to His Divine purpose. So it is that “they shall hear Jezreel,” and that God Himself shall say to them, “Thou art My people,” and they, too, shall say, “Thou art our God.”

Inspiration thus shows that our efforts with this message are absolutely certain to effect the greatest reformation of all time; that the children’s rebuke to the mother is surely to bring peace and happiness to the household of God. We, therefore, have every reason to be as positive of winning and as anxious to work, as was ancient David when he faced the giant Goliath. Clear it is that children (laity) born to a lewd woman (church) bring peace and happiness in the family of God. You must, therefore, not fail to whole-heartedly and actually join this mighty layman’s movement for revival and reformation throughout Laodicea and to finish the gospel work with a church, “‘…Fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.’ she is to go forth into all the world, conquering and to conquer.” — “Prophets and Kings,” p. 725. You cannot afford to lose out.

Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 21, page 15

Posted in Elijah Interpretations, Present Truth, Victor T. Houteff | Leave a Comment »

Giving a Present Truth Study/Report (Part 2 of 2)

December 28, 2019

Image result for picture of a puzzle on table

5. Putting the pieces together

Ok, so now you have a subject you’d like to present. As mentioned in part one, the very first endeavor is to get all the “pieces” together. In other words, go through the index and research all the references that speak of your subject. Let us break this down.

You decide that your subject is the “Mark of the Beast”.  We know that in Rev. 13:14-17 it speaks about this. We find that the Index has 37 places in the Lord’s final message about this subject. Not all are speaking of verses 14 through 17 but may be speaking solely of verse 15 for example. But you still need that as a piece of the truth puzzle you are putting together. You may not need to put each reference in your report.

Often you will find that the references support or repeat each other, or there may be contradictions. We shall deal with that in point 6.

“No one by beginning to study a subject from the middle, backward or forward, can learn its continuity and know what it is all about. If one is to learn the full truth of a subject, he must study it in its entirety.” (TG, vol. 1, no. 5, p.3)

Once all the pieces are gathered, you are now ready to study them very closely!

At this point, it is good to insert a couple of warnings to those who wish to report on the message of the hour. There are two specific counsels that the Elijah message shows us that certainly apply to this endeavor.

“Teach the message as it is—add nothing to it, neither take anything from it.” (SC, vol.1, no.4, p.1)

“Be absolutely certain that you are teaching according to that which is written, and not according to that which you may think should be or will some day be written.

Failure to comply with this requirement will disqualify anyone as a worker in this cause.” (SC, vol. 3, no.5-6, p.14)

Straight clear and unmistakable,  and failure to do this disqualifies us! That is why we are expounding on the point of gathering all that is written, in order to correctly have your sound doctrinal basis.


6. Examine each and every word closely

Image result for magnifying glass

Ok you have gathered all the references that are written on your subject. Note: We are NOT saying the Index is infallible, so there may be occasionally other references existing in the message not listed. But our experience shows that at least 90% plus of the necessary references are listed.

One other tool that is also very helpful are computer searches via a Rod website. The one we find handy is the following site —

http://www.shepherds-rod-message.org/tracts/tracts.html

You will notice the top right hand of the page is listed a “search this site” box. Entering a keyword , for example, “Mark of the Beast”or another reference here can help in your further gathering.

The message here also gives us great counsel on understanding God’s message through understanding His words —

”  ..when we take into consideration the meaning of each word instead of making thoughtless and hasty conclusions, the Scriptures prove to be not only most perfect and wonderful and yet simple, but also inspiring, making wise the humble—and lightening the path of him who as did Christ, delights to do the will of God.” (SC, vol. 2, no.2, p.3)

“Those who do not accept the Word of God just as it reads, will be snared in his trap.” (2 SLM, p.52)

Let us give you an example of how Satan traps many by encouraging them to ignore the above counsel.

As many of you are aware we have worked in His vineyard for a long time now, trying to show our SDA brethren the Lord’s final message of Elijah. We often show them the plain clear promise of Mal. 4:5.

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD”.

To this Word, we have seen countless times they say “Oh that is the members of the church who gives the Elijah message, not a specific prophet.” Here is a CLASSIC example of spiritualizing away God’s Word. In other words, crossing out the promise of “Elijah” for “Elijahs”!

This counsel will tremendously help you in putting together a report because you study and believe the message AS IT READS, not as you want it to read, or sidestep it for a pre-conceived idea.

7. Putting it all together

Ok now that some of the basics are established, you are ready for your careful review of all that is written on your subject. Once again we like to use the picture puzzle as our analogy. Your references (pieces of the puzzle) are all laid out on your table (written or copied as to what each reference says).

You now read them all one by one. Carefully comprehending what they say. Personally, I often have to read them 3 or even 4 times each to get a good picture of what they say.

Once you have looked them all over, the promised Spirit of Truth, then helps you start to get the “big picture” of your subject and the lesson you want to present. Remember we are promised, “HE WILL GUIDE YOU INTO ALL TRUTH”. Trust and believe that!

As mentioned, you will likely see repetitions of the same wording or meaning in some ref’s. But you will also experience, especially if you are a seasoned present truth reporter, some areas of the message that seem hard to reconcile, or even occasionally –contradictory. Not to worry!

Even the Scriptures have this issue. But in this case, the preponderance of the evidence, or weight of evidence is what we are counseled to believe in. This “weight” arrives in two ways– the amount of references saying a certain thing and also — the clarity of references. 

“The weight of evidence” is the only fair and final criterion worthy of a  Christian who must ever make an investigation for himself concerning purported  truth.”(Answerer, vol. 1, Q-6)

For example one of the most controversial subjects of the message is the 144,000 and “those with”. Once a study is delved into on this, you will find a dozen or so references that “seem” to indicate that more than 144,000 will be sealed from the Ezek. 9 SDA church judgment from the living. These of course are often misinterpreted. But there are about 50 references that show “only” 144,000 are to be sealed and escape. 

In both the number of references and also to the clarity it shows the latter as being the more weightful position, and one we must believe in. To do otherwise is to show we have a private agenda and private ideas we want to promote. The preponderance of the evidence, in this case, is swept under the rug and self-delusion and truth twisting is the ultimate result.

After you have all the references then you can then start to put it out as a study or report, careful to keep the main lesson in mind. Most of the time the report will be only a few pages, but occasionally and due to the many references on the subject, it may require several pages.

Dissemination is important and can be one of many avenues. Blogs, FaceBook, Typed or printed out reports for live in-person studies, YouTube, Live phone conferences, etc.

In giving the presentation and particularly if it is a live presentation or study, bringing the SRod Index can be a big help. There may be questions on a certain reference you didn’t have in the study and you can quickly see if the message has anything to say about it. Preparation will always reward you :-).

ALWAYS begin your study in prayer, asking the Lord for the Spirit of Truth (Holy Spirit). This way you’re off to a great start!

Summary —

As mentioned presenting a present truth study can be tremendously rewarding. But as we have shown, proper preparation should be done. These steps are a great help to getting it right and keeping from the all too often blunder of “private interpretation” that we have witnessed many times before. Learn the Zech 4 lesson very closely and you will know the Lord’s method of knowing Truth/Prophecies. When we get all the pieces together, we can stand back and see the beautiful “big picture”.

May God bless you in your endeavors to spread His final message! Here is a great video on Zech. 4–enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkjCpTRnNag&list=PLLd9ht6R3H1vYLClVLCzGbxuGxBRE4n2l

Posted in Elijah Interpretations, Proper teachings, Prophecy study, Truth telling vs. lying, Witnessing | Leave a Comment »

Giving a Present Truth Study/Report (Part 1 of 2)

December 21, 2019

Pandemic Altered U.S. Churchgoers' Discipleship Practices - Lifeway Research

Recently in our part of the Lord’s vineyard, our Facebook ministry called Truth Tellers, a sister inquired on how to put a present truth study together to share with others. Frankly, this was a GREAT question and we supped with the Lord and knew it would be helpful to put a report out on this very basic yet important topic.

In 2 Tim. 2:15 we read —

“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

Speaking from a personal point of view, perhaps there is no greater joy than knowing that we have helped someone learn the Word of the Lord, be it prophecies or enlightening and uplifting lessons. The Spirit of Prophecy says —

“You must dig deep in the mine of truth if you would find its richest treasures. Comparing scripture with scripture, you may find the true meaning of the text; but if you do not make the sacred teachings of God’s Word the rule and guide of your life, the truth will be nothing to you.” (The Youth Instructor, July 28, 1892)

There is no doubt that study and the spreading of His truth is richly rewarding in our lives. If we want to “follow the Lamb where ever He goes” (Rev. 14:4) we must indeed be dedicated to God’s holy Word!

Let us breakdown this most rewarding endeavor. 

1 — Prayer

When we come to study we should remember that it is the Great giver of Truth we should seek first. We should claim the promise for John 16:13 —

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.”

2 — Admit your need of His help

Self-sufficiency is indeed a woeful thing! You NEED to request the Spirit of Truth in your prayer. We may think we know but we so often don’t. The message expounds upon this —

“..before a person can climb the ladder of Truth, he must first of all free himself from erroneous theories, which keep him bound in darkness. And to loose himself from such weights of error so as to reach the top step of the ladder of Truth, he must carefully investigate and “prove all things” in

Open-Mindedness.

“Do not read the Word in the light of former opinions; but, with a mind free from prejudice, search it carefully and prayerfully. If, as you read conviction comes, and you see that your cherished opinions are not in harmony with the Word, do not try to make the Word fit these opinions. Make your opinions fit the Word. Do not allow what you have believed or practiced in the past to control your understanding.” — Messages to Young People, p. 260.

This prime necessity urgently confronts those who have been disposed to accept, as unquestionable Bible truths, theories which are the results of

Adding To and Taking From the Scriptures.

Any explanation of a prophecy which adds to or takes from any part of relevant scripture in order to harmonize the interpretation, can only be false. When the Spirit of God interprets the Scriptures, He does not in any way need to alter any part of Them in order to make the explanation fit that which is being unfolded. When, moreover, the true interpretation of a prophecy is made, it always contains a lesson of present truth “adapted to the necessities of God’s people” (The Great Controversy, p. 609) at the time the scripture is revealed.” (Tract 5, p.6-7)

Thus we see that in order to do a report or prepare for a study, we need His guidance and it is given us if we prayerfully and honestly request it! God will help us to put the pieces together of the puzzle of truth we are endeavoring to make. Many times we come to do a report with pre-conceived ideas but if we let His word speak to us as it is, we’ll be on the right track.

3 — Focus on a main topic

If we do a study or report we should focus on a clear specific topic (ie. four winds, mark of the beast, special resurrection, etc.). Unfortunately, some present truth studies try to cover too many topics. This causes the report to lose the objective–to convey the main point or lesson. 

4 — Once a topic is chosen, pull out the SRod index

This is SO IMPORTANT! Why? Because it helps us not be private interpreters! We can’t tell you how many times we have read and reviewed countless reports and studies where the presenter has ignored, side-stepped, added to,  or subtracted from the actual INSPIRED words said about a topic or lesson! In other words, as revealed in the Zech. 4  lesson –inserted their own pipe into the trees and pulled out their own interpretations (oil)!

This #4 area we will have to delve into due to its extreme importance! First, God through His Elijah prophet revealed to us a most important lesson about how His truth is communicated from Him down to the church. That lesson is Zechariah 4. The message gave us a beautiful pictorial vision —

Here we see from one of the original Tracts that brother Victor Houteff made — the lesson in picture form of Zech. 4. The Lord’s brilliant truth conveying system is portrayed here, as the message explains —

“Summary of Zechariah Four.

This symbolic unit, having demonstrated that the Bible can be rightly interpreted only by the Spirit that dictated It, shows that the church can be led into all Truth only by this Spirit-controlled method: through the interpreters (the two golden pipes), who alone are qualified and inabled to bring forth meat in due season (golden oil) from the Scriptures (olive trees) into the storehouse (golden bowl) of Present Truth; and in turn through the ministers (seven tubes), who alone are to pass on from the bowl the oil to the church (candlestick), that it might illumine with the light of life this dark and dying world of ours.

Here in pictorial lesson God is unmistakably teaching that He controls the Scriptures and that He reveals them when a need arises, just as Joseph controlled all the grain in the storehouses of ancient Egypt, to hand it out in the time of famine. And as only through him could the Israelites, as well as the Egyptians, obtain grain in time of want, so likewise only from Christ, the King, through His Spirit-filled instrumentalities — Josephs (His specially appointed interpreters of the dreams and the visions which the Bible contains, whether they be to rebuke and enlighten the church or to forewarn the Gentiles) — can we obtain the “oil” which God has placed in the Bible.

In revealing through Zechariah’s symbolism the inspired method of interpretation of the Scriptures, God has graphically prescribed, for the present-day multifarious religious ills,

Heaven’s Specific Remedy.

The many grievous spiritual epidemics now afflicting the Christian church, are caused in large part by Christians unwittingly wresting, garbling, and perverting the Scriptures. This practice, the Devil has spawned and nurtured in order to head off Present Truth, destroy faith in the Scriptures, deceive souls, and increase infidelity, hoping thereby to cut off the human race from the knowledge of the only true and living God, and thus finally from the face of the earth.” (Tract 6, p.24-26)

A wonderful plan! Here we see that we “private” individuals can know His prophetic truth today ONLY through searching and studying “our” SDA prophets –sister White and brother Houteff. These are the TWO PIPES  that take the Inspired Word (the Scriptures) and interpret them and place them into the Golden Bowl of Truth –for us to draw out of and know through his ministers. Thus we have the SOP writings and the Rod writings that make it clear and understandable to us!

This prophecy is known by us, present truth believers, members of the SDA church, but soon as the Loud Cry comes to the world many shall know of it as well! This is the time described of in Rev. 7:9.

Let us give a good example of this truth conveying method helping to guide us and keep us from following a private interpreter’s ideas via a study or report.

Recently we were invited to brother G’s online study. It was to be about the “anti-typical king David” spoken of in Scripture (Ezek. 34:23,24). This study is a more advanced study for present truth believers, but those who have looked at ALL the references from the message on this topic, usually come to the clear decision that this king is someone Christ our King sets up to manage the pre-millennial kingdom–known as the anti-typical king David. But brother G has his own ideas. He tries to teach that Christ Himself physically (and visually) will sit upon the throne in the pre-millennial kingdom! A truly PRIVATE INTERPRETATION.

In the study, he took numerous Bible passages and interpreted them to make his point that Christ would be this anti-typical king. But by doing this he places his own “pipe” into the trees and pulls out his own oil (his ideas) and makes a study! But how do we know? Because we check the index! We carefully take note of the passages he reveals and his meaning of them  THEN we search the index. The message DOES NOT interpret the Scriptures as he interprets! In fact, in the study he presented the message is either silent on the passages he quotes or interprets them differently. This is a classic example of bypassing God’s truth conveying method for –private interpretation, condemned by the Lord’s word.

“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” (2 Peter 1:20)

Take a look at one example of what someone would find if they check out the Index and look up the relevant references the message has on this topic —

Ezek. 34:23, 24 — “And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even My servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.  And I the Lord will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it.”

The self-centered shepherds against whom the prophet is told to write, are to be replaced by one shepherd, David.  When this takes place God’s people will then have but one shepherd.  This, of course, cannot be Christ Himself, for Inspiration never calls Him David, but rather It calls Him the Son of David. 

Since God’s people have always had, and still do have many shepherds, the truth stands out as clear as crystal that the David of verses 23 and 24 is yet to come, and that the shepherds whom Inspiration addresses are in particular those whom David is to succeed.

   Ezekiel, then, was not given a vision of the shepherds in his day, nor of those before his day, but of the shepherds after his day — the day in which God raises up this antitypical David to feed His hungry and neglected flock. 

God’s people shall then no longer serve strangers, “But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.” Jer. 30:9.  Here we see that not only Ezekiel, but Jeremiah also was given a vision of this same truth.  Yes, all the prophets.”( 2 TG, no. 2, p.14-15)

Thus the Lord’s Elijah message says the anti-typical king David “cannot be Christ Himself” but a private interpreter says it’s Christ–who are you going to believe? But you are strong and solid, you’ve read the Index and KNOW what the Lord’s message says!

In an attempt to exalt and honor our King–Christ, brother G ultimately does the opposite by denying our King’s prophetic word! Oh my, what snares befall those who do not properly study! A CLASSIC example of why the Lord sent us the Zech. 4 lesson!

The best SRod Index we suggest is the following, published by the Salem organization. However we do need to caution you, they have the “new codes” in them as well and many of us (yours included) don’t subscribe to them as they were published by brother Houteff’s wife and not authorized by VTH while he was alive. But the main portion of the Index is very complete and has many Rod, Scripture and SOP references, enough to help gather all the particular references for your study. Here is a picture of the book (184 pages) —

This concludes part one, next week God willing we’ll finish with part 2. Contact us at  palmguy@dc.rr.com if you would like more information on the Index.

Color code — Orange the Lord speaking, Blue is Scripture or SOP speaking, Brown is the Elijah message/Rod message as brought by Victor Houteff

Posted in Elijah Interpretations, Proper teachings, Prophecy study, Truth telling vs. lying, Witnessing | Leave a Comment »

« Older Entries
%d bloggers like this: