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Where’s the Beef?

January 25, 2020

Image result for Clara Peller where's the beef

As many of us remember, there was an all-time 1984 classic commercial that aired around the country from Wendy’s fast food chain. Clara Peller was shocked and amazed that what she ordered, what she wanted, was not there except a tiny portion. 

Much like Clara’s amazement and disappointment, we as truth-seekers, often come away from our Sabbath sermons asking the same question –where’s the beef? How come I don’t feel fed? In other words, where’s the thought-provoking, heart-stirring, even solemn messages from our pulpits today?

To be clear, SOP states–

“There are many precious truths contained in the Word of God, but it is “present truth” that the flock needs now.” (EW, p.63)

So let us look into our present leaders, our shepherds as it were, and what they are really doing from the pulpit.

In order to relate to our subject, let me tell of my personal history as a preacher from the pulpit.

When I first came into the Sabbath truth, naturally I was led to the SDA church. Slowly but surely I developed friends within it and soon the pastor took me under his wings, so to speak. God, of course, was directing all this, the great All-Seeing One.

I told the  pastor of how I became an Adventist, the sign given me that first Sabbath, and he became excited and said, “Brother Rob, how about you going up in front of the church and telling your story?”

Of course, I accepted as my excitement was still very fresh and I wanted my new church family to know what great things God has done. Taken me, a heathen through and through, into His marvelous light!

So a couple weeks later I was asked to speak during the sermon address. The pastor began his sermon and soon led it into introducing me to share my story. Not really experienced in public speaking, I went up in full faith that I could do it and bring glory to God. Yes, I was nervous, rarely looking straight into the crowd, but the Spirit led and the story was well-received.

But little did I know God was getting me ready for much more public speaking and presentations on a yet to be created, the worldwide viewing platform called YouTube.

The first “sermon” had been a success, and soon the head elder asked me to go up and give the short “pre-Sabbath School” talk. This was exciting and I enjoyed it, particularly because it was my chance to expound upon the Scriptures.

This worked out very well for a few months. But around this time, on that fateful day May 21, 2011, I discovered the life-changing Elijah message of the Lord. So naturally, I embarked on a new direction, Scripture that was only dark sentences to me such as —

“In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say,“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”(Isaiah 2:2-3)

Now became clear and understandable. The “when and how”  now was seen. So towards the end of my short lived SDA public speaking career, I started to speak of “present truth”. I was careful not to mention “The Rod” or “Shepherd’s Rod” as I learned that this would be rejected by the leaders and labeled “heresy” “false doctrine”, etc. putting my position as an SDA in “good standing” in jeopardy.

But the last day I spoke in the pre-Sabbath School talk, I was led to be particularly straight and solemn. I don’t remember all that I said but I do remember the following Scripture spoken —

“You will leave your name for my chosen ones to use in their curses; the Sovereign LORD will put you to death, but to his servants he will give another name.” (Isaiah 65:15)

This no doubt shook up some in attendance that day. But let us remember the words of the prophetess –

“There is nothing in the popular ministry that stirs the wrath of Satan, makes the sinner tremble, or applies to the heart and conscience, the fearful realities of a judgment soon to come.” (EW, p.273)

But after this last presentation, the head elder later told me “Brother Rob, we were very blessed by your speech today, we need to get you up there again next week.”

But Satan’s workers were there that day and they “trembled” at the straight solid testimonies. A certain woman came up after the talk and asked “what is your name?” I told her and she walked away in a huff. No doubt to inform the Pastor of the straight testimony.

Sure enough later that week I get a call from the Pastor asking me to come into his office before Sabbath service starts the next Sabbath. Long story short they inquired if I was a “Shepherd’s Rod” believer. “Of course” I responded, “why aren’t you guys?” The Pastor had tricked me into thinking it would be a one to one talk, but instead, he had invited the head Deacon and one of the Elders into his office to “warn” me as well.

Sad to say, the spiritual “food” the Spirit was leading me to give the members, many who outright showed much appreciation, was to no longer be dispensed from the pulpit anymore. For Satan had once again blocked the way for  God’s people to be fed!

The SOP again gives us great counsel —

“Ministers who are preaching present truth should not neglect the solemn message to the Laodiceans. The testimony of the True Witness is not a smooth message. The Lord does not say to them, You are about right; you have borne chastisement and reproof that you never deserved; you have been unnecessarily discouraged by severity; you are not guilty of the wrongs and sins for which you have been reproved.” (Testimonies, vol. 3, p.257)

“…books and papers that contain little of present truth are exalted and men are becoming too wise to follow a ‘Thus saith the Lord.’…many of the watchmen are asleep. They are as the blind leading the bind. Yet the day of the Lord is right upon us. As a thief it is coming with stealthy tread, and it will take unawares all who are not watching. Who among our teachers are awake, and as faithful stewards of the grace of God are giving the trumpet a certain sound?” — (Testimonies, Vol. 6, p. 166)

“What greater deception can come upon human minds than a confidence that they are right, when they are all wrong! The message of the True Witness finds the people of God is a sad deception, yet honest in that deception. They know not that their condition is deplorable in the sight of God. While those addressed are flattering themselves that they are in an exalted spiritual condition, the True Witness breaks their security by the startling denunciation of their true condition of spiritual blindness, poverty, and wretchedness. The testimony, so cutting and severe, cannot be a mistake, for it is the True Witness who speaks, and his testimony must be correct.” — (Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 252, 253.)

The Lord’s Rod also has great counsel —

“Unquestionably the time has come for all church members to realize that they are now passing from Christian childhood into Christian maturity, and should, therefore, no longer try to reach the stature of the full grown by continuing to feed on the food of babes.  Hence each one, even the younger members (the born after the flesh), can now be enabled to recognize their spiritual parents, so as intelligently to say, “my Father and my Mother”: for to know their God aright through the Son, and to know their church aright through timely Truth, is what brings life eternal.  And as each assimilates the “strong meat,” he will thereby become wise and strong “to refuse the evil and choose the good.”

Of necessity, therefore, the “special work” for  the church, predicted in The Great Controversy, page 425, has been ordained to bring every honest member to Christian maturity.

Accordingly, also the two foods which Immanuel was to eat in order to “refuse the evil, and choose the good” must be symbolical; for butter and honey in themselves possess no virtue or efficacy to transmit moral discernment, vitalize the will, and purify the heart. 

Besides, He ate of all lawful foods in general (Matt. 11:19).  These two points therefore witness that the “butter and honey”, are symbolical of the Scriptures unfolded — “meat in due season,” — the only food that gives one the knowledge and the will to do right instead of wrong.  Thus Christ said: “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.” John 4:32.  Hence, the Christian who would truly know his God and his church in order to be emptied of evil and be filled with the good, must now feed on Present Truth, — the progressive Truth of the living Word revealed through Inspiration. (For the interpretation of the remainder of Isaiah seven, see our Tract No. 6.)” (Tract 14, p.38-39)

The Scriptures as well —

“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” ( 2 Tim. 4:3-4)

In closing, is it no wonder that many SDA church members are lethargic and lazy in their spiritual lives? Their food each week, instead of being nourishing, is causing them spiritual degeneration. The real truth seekers want more.

Let us be now firmly aware  –there is a reason you are reading a blog like this, or watching a YouTube video. You want “real food” that satisfies your soul and the Lord is now working through these channels and we praise His name!

They no longer have to say “Where’s the Beef?”

One of our Videos —

 

Posted in Present Truth, Proper teachings, The Spirit of truth, Truth telling vs. lying, Warning our brethren | Leave a Comment »

Angels = God’s Swift Messengers

February 9, 2019

Image result for picture three angels flying in heaven

Through out the Scriptures we see that the Lord has used angels often for  either communications,  good deeds or swift retributions. They are indeed active in the great redemption plan of God. This week we’ll look at some of their actions in the past and make a greater point as to how some of God’s S.D.A leaders are  mincing, chopping and trying to make of no effect a plain “Thus sayeth the Lord” Word.

SOP counsels us ––

“False teachers may appear to be very zealous for the work of God, and may expend means to bring their theories before the world and the church; but as they mingle error with truth, their message is one of deception, and will lead souls into false paths. They are to be met and opposed, not because they are bad men, but because they are teachers of falsehood and are endeavoring to put upon falsehood the stamp of truth.” (Testimonies to Ministers, p.55)

Angels, as mentioned have produced some memorable acts in Scripture, for instance who can forget the great story of the angel, Gabriel in swiftly coming to answer Daniel’s prayer —

“Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding….And, behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands. And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling. 

Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.” (Daniel 9:21-22, 10:12-14)

But there are other acts which have shown the great and powerful swift justice of God upon man. He has used angels for these solemn occurrences —

“And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD  went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand:  and when they arose early  in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.”(2 Kings, 19:35)

One would think that the above is clear , to the point and not at all misunderstood, right? Not so fast. Recently we were involved in a Facebook public chat with brother H, (alias). The subject came about because another brother made a post asking for any help in receiving a report on the church history of abominations. In other words, he wanted to know what past historical acts of church leadership was known as truly wrong in God’s eyes by Scriptural standards.

We responded that we had a phone conference study directly dealing with that subject and we posted the link. Anyway later in the chat , the subject came up about how God uses angels for swift executors of judgments in times past. Well brother H expressed his strong opinion on the subject, basically telling this author that I was all wrong and misunderstood how God uses angels. 2 Kings 19:35 was posted asking how he could deny such obvious acts of angels upon God’s command. To this he said —

“it is highly conflated Hebraic prose representing the principle of Divine Recession. That was a pestilence that came upon them, which was allowed by God through the withdrawal of angel protection. I have  also a paper on this event. Remember:

“Angels are sent from the heavenly courts, NOT TO DESTROY, but to watch over imperiled souls, to save the lost, to bring the straying ones back to the fold. ‘ I came not to condemn, but to save.’ Christ declared (RH May 10, 1906, par.15)  See also GC 36.1.

Huh?? This seemed much gobble gook and I knew we’d have to look into this further to decipher his meaning, which the Spirit told me was very misconstrued. Now, it would be one thing if there were not many other brethren following this conversation, such as a one on one email chat or study. I would not have had such desire to help him see his error due to the fact that he is the author of three books on the “Three Angels’ messages.” In other words his is full of himself and has no need of any contrary points of view, but because there may be others who can benefit from this conversation, I took upon it a more serious attitude.

“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 (p.599) 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)

It was clear that this gobble gook was a disguise of the plain simple “thus sayeth the Lord”. Yet even though I knew this, others were watching and should be shown the false path of interpretation this brother was trying to lead them, in a comprehensive way because we are dealing with a self proclaimed scholar.

Our proof case would be 2 Kings 19:35. Before we go into it, we want to explain that the reason this exposure of false teaching is important is because he really is attempting to deny the Lord’s power and His rightful execution of judgments. After all these are for our admonition , our benefit in knowing we serve a loving yet honest and holy God. His will and judgments are RIGHT even when some call them “uncalled for, extreme, just for the Old Testament,  etc.” Or in the case of brother H –substitution of meaning and not employed by the plain word of God.

Brother H sent us a report showing that God NEVER has angels do any destroying, rather it is the evil angels who do the killing or hurting, upon God’s withdrawal of protective angels. He used several SOP quotes and sounds all nice and cozy but is it true, does God allow Satan and his angels to do His justice and retributions? Sounds quite far fetched even at first glance!

“Remember that the destroyer is Satan. NEVER in Scriptures is the destroyer anything but Satan or wicked forces. In Revelation 9:11 the “angel of the bottomless pit” is called the Destroyer in two languages.”

Here we see that brother H wrongly attributes the Destroyer of Rev. 9:11 to Satan, as even most protestants do.

We did a post on this subject for those who wish to know the truth about Rev. 9:11 —

https://godsloveandlaw.com/2016/11/19/who-is-abaddon-and-apollyon-satan-or-christ/

Ok let’s examine our test case.

 “And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD  went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand:  and when they arose early  in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.”(2 Kings, 19:35)

As we have many times reminded our readers, the Bible site called E-Sword is very helpful in knowing the Hebrew and Greek translations of all the words. Each word in the Old Testament is given an H then a number, for instance  the verse breaks down as follows —

“And it came to pass (H1961)  that (H1931)  night,(H3915) that the angel  (H4397) of the LORD (H3068) went out, (H3318) and smote (H5221) in the camp (H4264) of the Assyrians (H804) an hundred (H3967) fourscore (H8084) and five (H2568) thousand: (H505) and when they arose early (H7925) in the morning, (H1242) behold, (H2009) they were all (H3605) dead (H4191) corpses.”

So we want to zero in on “angel”, what does H4397 mean in Scripture? A literal angel, or a figurative one? A heavenly messenger of God? Just what is that meaning?

Now we can go to another great site that helps us see all the meanings of the Hebrew/Greek words of the Bible, it’s called blueletterbible.org. When we search that word there we find the following —

H4397 — mal-awk’; from an unused root meaning to dispatch as a deputy; a messenger; specifically, of God, i.e. an angel (also a prophet, priest or teacher):—ambassador, angel, king, messenger.

Then we can next see the places in Scripture it is used and how it is used —

The KJV translates Strong’s H4397 in the following manner:angel (111x), messenger (98x), ambassadors (4x),

variant (1x).

Link for all the info on H4397 —
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?t=kjv&strongs=h4397

So adding it all up we see that H4397 does indeed mean literal angel (111 times). We see that it could be a messenger (98 times) (ie. King, prophet, etc.) but in this case no one human could go through an army in one night and kill 185,000 men! Logical deduction proves it an angel of God.

Next we want to see “smote” H5221.  Could that be a pestilence as brother H says? 

H5221 — naw-kaw’; a primitive root; to strike (lightly or severely, literally or figuratively):—beat, cast forth, clap, give (wounds), × go forward, × indeed, kill, make (slaughter), murderer, punish, slaughter, slay(-er, -ing), smite(-r, -ing), strike, be stricken, (give) stripes, × surely, wound.

The KJV translates Strong’s H5221 in the following manner:smite (348x), slay (92x), kill (20x), beat (9x), 

slaughter (5x), stricken (3x), given (3x), wounded (3x), 

strike (2x), stripes (2x), miscellaneous (13x).

In looking at the vast amount of times H5221 is used either to smite or slay, it is clear that because the army men were struck by the angel H4397, they were killed directly by that angel.

To wind it up H4191 confirms being dead.

The KJV translates Strong’s H4191 in the following manner:die (424x), dead (130x), slay (100x), death (83x),

surely (50x),

kill (31x), dead man (3x), dead body (2x), in no wise (2x), miscellaneous (10x).

We have solid proof that the words of 2 Kings 19:35 can mean only what they literally say. This is God’s intent that we trust and believe the clear “thus sayeth the Lord” , not thus sayeth man who uses vain imaginations to thwart God’s word.

So to use brother H’s reasoning we must cross out H4397 (angel) insert one of “variant” meaning, which is only used 4 times in Scripture versus 111 times for literal angels. Then we must cross out H5221 (smite-kill used 440 times) for the use of “pestilence” which isn’t even listed as a meaning of that word. Lastly to confirm the Lord’s plain Scripture  and His angel’s faithful obedience the word “dead” is confirmed (H4191).

Further, context is always a must , we need to know the meaning of verses correctly and in their proper perspective. The Lord was not about to give up His beloved city to the Assyrians , for we read in the prior verse in 2 Kings 19:34 —

“For I will defend this city, to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.”

By way of disclosure this brother knows about the Lord’s Rod and flatly rejects it. Is there any more evidence needed to see that the Spirit of Truth is NOT leading? Sadly this kind of falsifying God’s word is rampant through out our people, it’s time to wake up and know His word properly and clearly –as it reads. Time is short and we must be on guard for all of Satan’s trickery. God DOES use angels both for uplifting man and for swift retribution. May His will be done and His kingdom come. And when it is time for that kingdom, there shall indeed be very active work done by His angels, both uplifting and swift retribution.

“These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.” (1 Cor. 10:11)

Posted in Delusion, Proper teachings, The Spirit of truth, Truth telling vs. lying | 1 Comment »

Follow the Guide

December 15, 2018

Image result for picutre of the Spirit of Truth

AS we read the above very important Word of God, we would like to sink the shaft of Truth into the mine of God. This one reference is so profound and deep that we truly are blessed to know even part of the ramifications.

Many of us have been to the Zoo, wild animal park, museum or such, where we are escorted around and guided into new things we are not likely to know about. This experience enriches our lives and gives us lasting pleasant memories. In this same vein we know that our Almighty King has promised us a “guide”, a most wonderful Spirit, whose job it is to enlighten and uplift us in His Word. Let us look into this deep subject.

We know that every single promise spoken of by our King will not go undone. As such , the promise given in the above Scripture is a “real thing” to those who believe it and are blessed to have it working in their lives. The Elijah message expounds upon it’s importance.

“Different periods in the history of the church have each been marked by the development of some special truth, adapted to the necessities of God’s people at that time. Every new truth has made its way against hatred and opposition; those who were blessed with its light were tempted and tried.” — The Great Controversy, p. 609.

   Accordingly, “when a message comes in the name of the Lord to His people, no one may excuse himself from an investigation of its claims.” — Testimonies on Sabbath-School Work, p. 65. Lay aside all prejudices, self-opinions, and ideas of men who bear not the mark of Inspiration, and who say in effect by their actions: “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing” (truth or prophets). Rev. 3:17.

   The Bible can be rightly explained only by the Spirit Who dictated it. He “will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come” that ye may “be established in the present truth.” And “whosoever…blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost [speaketh evil against the message] it shall not be forgiven” him: for it is the only means whereby we may be saved (John 16:13; 2 Pet. 1:12; Luke 12:10). (Tract 3, p.10)

 

“And “when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come,” says Christ, in broader statement of this same truth, “He will guide you into all truth.” John 16:13.

   Having been put forth prematurely and without the prompting of the Spirit of Truth, human efforts have accordingly failed to discover and explain the truth of “the trumpets.”  And no scripture ever being unfolded without Inspiration, the expositions of uninspired minds are hence of private interpretation, in forewarning of which the Bible says: “….no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” 2 Pet. 1:20.

   So 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.” (Tract 5, p.5-6)

So why is it that some have this Spirit working in their lives and some don’t? Again Christ has not left us without an answer, let us read–

“If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself.” (John 7:17)

 Powerful! Ah, so those who are NOT doing God’s will aren’t being led of the Spirit to know God’s true doctrine.This is far reaching!

Allow us to give an specific example. Brother P, is a very well studied student of the Scripture, in fact he is often asked to lead out in the local Sabbath School lessons.When asked about the S.D.A Sanctuary truth, or the “Leopard like Beast” his quick to flip the Bible pages and start his discourse. I have personally sat down with him and went over the Scriptures together.

Yet of many years of occasional studies (usually around the dinner table during Sabbath lunch) I became dumbfounded  how he could not see a plain “Thus sayth the Lord”. In other words, how can the following be mis-interpreted?

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

This was not all, the Scriptures like the following as well —

“It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”(Isaiah 2:2-3)

To his credit, at least he did not fight the clear texts as to the meaning, rather he looked bewildered and simply acknowledged his incomplete understanding of it.

But where is the “Guide”?That Spirit of Truth who was promised those who “do His will”? He has been an Adventist for over 20 years and studied quite a bit. We  don’t know, but somewhere somehow It’s not guiding him.

Now, for us Adventists where do you think the Spirit of Truth is guiding us today? We just read it- Mal. 4:5. There is a FINAL message to be given us from the Lord’s last prophet to His S.D.A church –“Elijah”.

This obviously is SO IMPORTANT because it’s “before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” The message explains more —

 

“Behold,” says the Word, “I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”  To him shalt thou hearken.  “And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter,  when the towers fall.”  “Behold, the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with His anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: His lips are full of indignation, and His tongue as a devouring fire: and His breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err,” “because  they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” Mal. 4:5; Isa. 30:25, 27, 28; 2 Thess. 2:10.

   Here it is seen that the prophecies and the correct interpretations thereof are “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect.” 2 Tim. 3:16, 17.

   Therefore, brethren, settle it once and forever, that with the Lord’s help you will no longer be carried away by winds of doctrine that are created and driven by the spirit of error, not by the Spirit of Truth, but that you will always look for, and stand by, the Inspired Word of God — “the testimony of Jesus,” delivered to you by “the Spirit of Prophecy” (Rev. 12:17; 19:10);  that you will “hear the rod, and Who hath appointed it.” Micah 6:9.(Tract 6, p.79-80)

“Because in that day the Lord is both to shepherd the faithful and to punish the unfaithful, the message which announces this “great and dreadful  day” (Mal. 4:5), is titled, The Shepherd’s Rod.  “The Lord’s voice,” therefore, “crieth unto the city,…

“Hear Ye the Rod, and Who Hath Appointed it.“Micah 6:9.   Sunken in Laodicean slumber and sleep, “the city,” the church, in God’s merciful effort to prepare it against this day of trouble, is to be startled to life by His urgent cry:

   “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.”  Isa. 52:1.

   “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.  For, behold the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall rise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee.  And the Gentiles shall come to the light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” Isa. 60:1-3.

   The church of the Laodiceans, being the last of the seven churches, is the last sectionnof the Christian church in which the wheat and the tares are commingled.  The overcomers, the marked ones, from it, those who hear the Rod, begin the eighth section of the church — the one symbolized by the “barn” (Matt. 13:30)  and by the “vessels” (Matt. 13:48), also by the “golden candlestick” of Zechariah 4.  Of her the Lord says: “…the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.  Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.” Isa. 62:2, 3.

   Among the Laodiceans, however, those who refuse to arouse and take in the situation, who will not “sigh and…cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof” (Ezek. 9:4) will be left without the mark, and will consequently fall under the slaughter weapons of the angels (Ezek. 9), while those who receive the mark will escape them and be shielded from the trouble, the shield’s being symbolized by the barn and the vessels.” (Matt. 13:30, 48). (Track 9, p.61-62)

 Allow me to briefly explain my views on this “guiding”.  It was only when I began to “sigh and cry” for the sins of the church, was my eyes opened. As we know , our current truth message of Elijah  tells us to sigh and cry for all the abominations done in the church (Testimonies, vol, 3, p.266-267, vol. 5, p.221-212). And Ezekiel 9. This is now what gets us sealed, along of course with keeping of the Sabbath and His other Commandments.

So if one is not truly validating his walk with Christ, obeying His final message of Elijah, then it would seem that the Spirit of Truth is stymied, stuck. This may be why some cannot see what is there in the Scriptures. I am speaking solely concerning Seventh-day Adventists of course. Those without are being addressed in a wholly separate way and according to Scripture await, in most cases, the work of God through His final servants the 144,000. This is known as the Great Multitude of Rev. 7:9.

“But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2)

In closing, let us know that God is able to give us that precious guide, the Spirit of Truth. But we must do our part to humbly ask for It and be willing to advance so that it will be said of us —

“These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb.” (Rev. 14:4)

“Wonderful possibilities are open to those who lay hold of the divine assurances of God’s word. There are glorious truths to come before the people of God. Privileges and duties which they do not even suspect to be in the Bible will be laid open before them. As they follow on in the path of humble obedience, doing His will, they will know more and more of the oracles of God.” (Testimonies for the Church , Vol. 8, P.322)

Posted in Christian walk, Holy Spirit, Obedience, The Spirit of truth | 1 Comment »

Winning the Struggle

August 18, 2018

Image result for picture of a woman in prayer

In Early Writings, page 269-270 we read —

“I saw some, with strong faith and agonizing cries, pleading with God. Their countenances were pale and marked with deep anxiety, expressive of their internal struggle. Firmness and great earnestness was expressed in their countenances; large drops of perspiration fell from their foreheads. Now and then their faces would light up with the marks of God’s approbation, and again the same solemn, earnest, anxious look would settle upon them.

Evil angels crowded around, pressing darkness upon them to shut out Jesus from their view, that their eyes might be drawn to the darkness that surrounded them, and thus they be led to distrust God and murmur against Him. Their only safety was in keeping their eyes directed upward. Angels of God had charge over His people, and as the poisonous atmosphere of evil angels was pressed around these anxious ones, the heavenly angels were continually wafting their wings over them to scatter the thick darkness.

As the praying ones continued their earnest cries, at times a ray of light from Jesus came to them, to encourage their hearts and light up their countenances. Some, I saw, did not participate in this work of agonizing and pleading. They seemed indifferent and careless. They were not resisting the darkness around them, and it shut them in like a thick cloud.

The angels of God left these and went to the aid of the earnest, praying ones. I saw angels of God hasten to the assistance of all who were struggling with all their power to resist the evil angels and trying to help themselves by calling upon God with perseverance. But His angels left those who made no effort to help themselves, and I lost sight of them.

I asked the meaning of the shaking I had seen and was shown that it would be caused by the straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans. This will have its effect upon the heart of the receiver, and will lead him to exalt the standard and pour forth the straight truth. Some will not bear this straight testimony. They will rise up against it, and this is what will cause a shaking among God’s people.

I saw that the testimony of the True Witness has not been half heeded. The solemn testimony upon which the destiny of the church hangs has been lightly esteemed, if not entirely disregarded. This testimony must work deep repentance; all who truly receive it will obey it and be purified.”

There is absolutely no doubt about it, those who take the battle field (spiritually) are to be engaged in a true struggle, a battle, at times “struggling with all their power to resist the evil angels and trying to help themselves by calling upon God with perseverance..”

Yet how few of us S.D.A engage in this battle! Let us look at a beautiful example of someone who went through the struggle and is pulling out ahead.

Sister M has been an Adventist for many years. We became friends several years ago and we even did a post about her circumstances here–

A Deadly Rumor

But things have changed and we have great joy in updating the situation.

The Lord says that His people shall be gathered “one by one”. 

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.”(Isaiah 27:12)

And He further  expressed more light in this hard and tough struggle to get His people to come aboard His last message of truth —

“There shall not come hither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle.” Isa. 7:25, last part.

   The vineyard’s being digged with the mattock signifies that the beginning of the work of reformation will progress slowly and that it will require hard labor, but that each “hill” or church locality being digged will become a place “for the sending forth of oxen.”  In brief, at this particular time He will be sending missionaries into His neglected vineyard (church) instead of into the Gentile world.

   Though the work, moreover is to have a small hard, mattock-like beginning it will gain speed and will emerge from the mattock stage into the ox-plow stage — the stage which will see all the believers of Present Truth (except the “lesser cattle”) unitedly go forth to dig or plow other “hills” until all the thorns and briers shall be uprooted  throughout the land, the ground broken up, and the vineyard restored even beyond its original excellency.” (Tract 6, p.39)

Thus right now as workers we know very well, its TOUGH to be involved in this work. Not only are we pressed from “dark forces” but from our own! A double whammy at times!

But in our case, sister M did not give up despite being surrounded by evil forces to discourage her to quit studying, to ignore the Truth, she preserved until this week we heard from her and our joy was great.

No longer was she doubtful or wallowing. She confessed that she had “seen the light” which can only be the Spirit of Truth ” leading her (John 16:13).

To expound on her story a little more. She first learned of the Rod message by way of a DVD we handed about Daniel 2. She came over to our house and we watched it together. She was quite impressed, asking good solid questions like “Why are we not told of these truths in our SDA church?”

Then as our prior post showed the evil ones went on full mode attack, knocking her down (spiritually). So much so that she soon looked at me very suspiciously. But she continued to want to know the truth. To her credit she did not stop studying and wanting to know Truth.

Later we began to talk more and I mentioned that there was an older man, brother L, who was 86 and still believing the Lord’s Rod message, I put them in contact via phone. Over a period of weeks the two of them had several conversations and she began to slowly come out of her paranoia. She’d call and tell us that she was quite interested in knowing more. Well, as providence would have it soon her sister became ill in New York.

She mentioned to me that she was going to New York for a few weeks to help her sister out. I asked exactly where? The location was only about 1 hour from one of the headquarters of the SRod message — Mountain Dale , New York. I made arrangements to get one of the leaders there, brother J, to contact her when she arrived.

This was God moving in her life! The two hit it off and had numerous studies of the present truth message. Soon sister M was calling and telling me she was beginning to see the true light of the Lord’s Shepherd’s Rod (Micah 6:9 and 7:14).

Then after she moved back, sister M was no longer doubtful but quite interested in knowing more. The Lord’s Spirit of Truth guiding indeed!

“Do not sit down in Satan’s easy-chair of do-little, but arise, and aim at the elevated standard which it is your privilege to attain.” (Testimonies , vol.1. p.241)

You see brethren we all play a role in helping others to come into His light. Yours truly led off and then the baton was handed off to other brothers. Her struggle did not end with her “leaning on flesh” (listening to the time-worn standard SDA nay saying against the Lord’s Rod) a thing condemned by Scriptures (Jer. 17:5).  Rather it evolved into her seeing the light! She stayed in the fight!

Our Lord said —

“And he that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations..” (Rev. 2:26)

Posted in Christian faith, The Spirit of truth, Truth telling vs. lying, Witnessing | 1 Comment »

The Great Separation

May 6, 2017

Image result for broken truth sign picture

In John 14:6 we read —

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.”

Such powerful truth indeed! But there is a concern today from one who is active in His vineyard, the middle description that our Lord gave “Truth” is often separated from Jesus. In other words some who claim to be Christian are trying to do what we call–the great separation.

But can we actually say we know Jesus yet not want or desire truth? Scripture warns us of the consequences if we do not “love and accept” the truth(Jesus) —

“He will use every kind of evil deception to fool those on their way to destruction, because they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them.” (2 Thes. 2:10)

Recently an experience occurred that provoked thoughts for this post. Allow me to describe.

At one of our local SDA churches that we frequent, we have come to know 3 Elders there. They all appear good men, showing a Sabbath dedication to making our services pleasing to the Lord. But as I always try to do, let the Lord guide in outreach to our members with His final message of truth. I was led to get all three of these guys email addresses. My goal was to send them a couple of present truth studies each month.

They seemed interested in knowing more, so soon I sent the first study. It was concerning the subject of Rev. 17, the harlot woman and how she cannot be solely the Roman Catholic Church. As we posted a while back, we showed beyond doubt that the woman must symbolize the world’s false religions from Cain. So I felt this was a good starter as all of these guys most likely would be surprised to learn this as the vast majority of our leaders in the church believe the woman is the Catholic Church.

The emails were sent and I looked forward to the responses. I was ready for anything–good bad or inquisitive. One week went by, two weeks went by, then one month went by and–nothing! I was amazed. Here I was sending new truth, new revealing eye-opening truth yet not one of them were interested!

Ok, maybe they all were out or something so let’s try again. One month later I send them a new study, this time on Rev. chapter 3. About our Lord’s counsel on us, Laodicea. Again ,nothing, nada, zip.

The Spirit led me to shake my head in sad disbelief.  The message warns us not to reject even a part of truth.

“Even as it is a blessed thing to accept the truth, so it is a fearful thing to reject it.  And rejection need not include all truth.  To reject a part may be just as fatal as to reject the whole.  So all should beware.” (SRod, vol. 1, p.160)

You see brethren, the Truth is Jesus and if Jesus’s Truth comes to us, in any form, are we showing “love” for it by ignoring it or wholeheartedly welcoming with joy in our hearts? Let us use an analogy.

A gal is a member of “I love Elvis” club. Someone reaches out to her and say’s “hey I just got a new song from Elvis, want to hear it”? She’s in love with Elvis, does she ignore that offer? Turn and walk away without saying anything? Of course not! She LOVES Elvis, she is a member of the club and would not for the life of her, turn down any new song from Elvis.

Yet some of us as symbolical Jesus fan club members think nothing of walking away from a new song (new truth) from Jesus! Do we really love Him (truth)? Our actions  speak volumes!

Tomorrow is not guaranteed and should God call us to rest the next day, what more opportunities to learn His new truths then? The Lord sends messengers into our lives, yet we often don’t know the time of our visitation. These three men, have willfully chosen to ignore Truth sent them.

The Spirit of Prophecy  says we are asleep and it’s not funny–

“Study the 9th chapter of Ezekiel. These words will be literally fulfilled; yet the time is passing, and the people are asleep. They refuse to humble their souls and to be converted. Not a great while longer will the Lord bear with the people who have such great and important truths revealed to them, but who refuse to bring these truths into their individual experience. The time is short. God is calling; will you hear? Will you receive His message? Will you be converted before it is too late? Soon, very soon, every case will be decided for eternity.” (Manuscript Releases, vol. 1, p.260)

Yet these same three men can be found each Sabbath singing “Oh Lord come soon , we need you…” Really? You love the Lord yet could care less about His Truth? This is the great attempt at separation we all too often see today among us Seventh-day Adventists!

So why do we need to worry about the aforementioned brethren? SOP answers us.

“New light will ever be revealed on the word of God to him who is in living connection with the Sun of Righteousness. Let no one come to the conclusion that there is no more truth to be revealed. The diligent, prayerful seeker for truth will find precious rays of light yet to shine forth from the word of God. Many gems are yet scattered that are to be gathered together to become the property of the remnant people of God. (Counsels on Sabbath School Work, 34 (1892). CW 35.1)

These brethren are indifferent on “new light”. The studies we provided showed new light and as such should have struck a “truth chord” within, but sadly did not move them. “Gems” as Inspiration calls them are to become our property, within our knowledge.

We have pointed this out before, these final truths from the Lord gets the seal in our forehead . They give light to our final journey home, complete with today’s instructions for obedience He requires. Specifically to “sigh and cry for all the abominations done in the church” (Testimonies vol. 5, p.211).

We cannot separate Jesus from His Truth (Word). To love one without the other is to attempt– The Great Separation– which cannot be done. God is noticing whether we respond to His Truth or whether we could “take or leave it”.

“There is no excuse for anyone in taking the position that there is no more truth to be revealed, and that all our expositions of Scripture are without an error. The fact that certain doctrines have been held as truth for many years by our people, is not a proof that our ideas are infallible. Age will not make error into truth, and truth can afford to be fair. No true doctrine will lose anything by close investigation.”(CW p.35)
“The Lord designs that our opinions shall be put to the test, that we may see the necessity of closely examining the living oracles to see whether or not we are in the faith. Many who claim to believe the truth have settled down at their ease, saying, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” (The Review and Herald, December 20, 1892.)

“There is no Bible sanctification for those who cast a part of the truth behind them” (“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. 1, p. 338), for “this work cannot go on in the heart while the light on any part of the truth is rejected or neglected. The sanctified soul will not be content to remain in ignorance, but will desire to walk in the light and to seek for. greater light. As a miner digs for gold and silver, so the follower of Christ will press from light to greater light, ever increasing in knowledge. He will continually grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.” (R. &, H., June 17, 1890.)

As The Lord promised in Mal. 4:5 there would be a final message given us. Are we welcoming it with all ears or throwing it aside cause we “love Jesus”.

Posted in Loving the Lord, The Spirit of truth | Leave a Comment »

He that Swears to His Own Hurt and Changes Not (Psalms 15:4)

February 25, 2017

psalms-quote

In the Word of God there is a most profound truth and glorious reward to all those who follow it, let us read–

“.. He honors them that fear the Lord; He that swears to his own hurt and does changes not.” (Psalms 15:4)

I don’t about you but I get goose bumps just reading this. This, my brethren, is quite an inspiring counsel from our Lord!

We would like to begin our post by giving you a little history from my own experience for a perspective. As some know I’ve been a service repairman for over 22 years and also did many sales in my line of work.

More than on one occasion, I would have a product for sale and would advertise it for a certain price, let’s say 150.00. Soon I would start to get calls and I recall receiving a call that would go like this–

“I am calling about your product, I really need it , would you take 120.00 cash if I came over within the hour?”  Depending on my current circumstances (such as certain bills piling up) I would likely say , “Sure, come over.”

Then maybe 15 minutes later another call would come and the guy would say, “I see your product for sale, we really need it, I have the 150.00 cash, can I come now? I can be there in 15 minutes.”

Now, what do you think the old man, the one who was not yet converted, would do? Your right–I’d say. “Yes come over but do so quickly as I have to go”. Meaning “hurry and beat the other guy here.”

Sure enough the second guy would arrive and I’d take the money and off he’d go with the product. Then maybe 20 or 30 minutes later the first guy would show up and ring the door bell. I’d answer and sheepishly say, “Sorry, my wife accidentally sold it to another guy, I’m really sorry.” He hung his head and disappointedly walk away. Sometimes they’d raise a little cain, and looking back–rightly so!

Obviously this conduct was the opposite of the Lord’s way, I was swearing to someone but to that guy’s hurt, not mine.

Today of course I would keep my word and tell the second guy, “sorry but I had a guy call before you and if he doesn’t show in 1 hour I’ll call you back.” Now this is relatively small potatoes in the world’s financial dealings but the moral steadfastness is what counts.  Can we imagine keeping our word when thousands and even hundreds of thousands are at stake? This is an example of what Psalms 15:4 is all about. Putting our committed word before the possible detriment to ourselves.

“For He said, ‘Surely they are My people, children that will not lie: so He was their Saviour.” (Isaiah 63.8)

As we have posted many times before, our word should be our bond. When we promise something or even commit to someone, we should at all costs do that thing that we said we would. If we don’t we truly take the chance of offending our King.

“It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it.” (Ecc.5:5)

Verses that show how important keeping our word is–

“But whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him:” (1 John 2:5)

“You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.” (Deut. 23:23)

“Build cities for your little ones and folds for your sheep, and do what you have promised.”(Number 32:24)

Sometimes in our travels through life , it may be easy to say to ourselves “It’s no big deal that I did not do what I committed to do with brother Jim or sister Sally, God will understand.” No! This leads to a harmful habit that may lead us to spiritually damage ourselves, let us be careful here.

Our King is a Word Keeper and as His sons and daughters, let us try to do as our Master and King does–keep our word, even if it’s to our own “hurt”.
“God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Numbers 23:19)

“I will not violate My covenant or alter the Word that went forth from My lips.”(Psalms 89:34)

Posted in The Spirit of truth, Truth telling vs. lying | Leave a Comment »

Milk or Meat?

July 9, 2016

Milk and meat

As many of us Bible students know the Bible is full of symbolic terms and ideas. One of those is the describing of God’s word as either milk or meat. This is significant because both of these terms are specific and should be understood in their intended meaning.

When we were babies, was any of us provided a steak dinner? Of course not. Our food for the first few months was largely milk. This provided just what we needed and could handle, we were way too underdeveloped for the stronger foods such as meat. But in the spiritual realm there is an important distinction between these two symbolic meanings–Milk and Meat. Let us look at this important understanding.

In Isaiah we read —

“Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine?Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.”? (Isa.28:9-10)

As a baby we have to grow and as such there comes a time when we have to be weaned off milk. Milk no longer provides all the essentials we need, like more iron and other minerals and especially protein. All this can be correlated to God’s word.

Inspiration addresses the above quote–

“The obvious lesson is that at the time one is converted (born again) to Christ, he is but a babe in the Christian life, and needs for the time being to be fed, as a new born babe, on the “sincere milk of the Word,” that he “may grow thereby.” 1 Pet. 2:2.

   Through the apostle Paul, Inspiration interprets this milk to be “the first principles of the oracles of God.” Heb. 5:12.  And through Isaiah, It asks: “Whom shall He teach knowledge?  and whom shall He make to understand doctrine?”  Then, answering Its own questions, It declares: “Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.” Isa. 28:9.(Tract 14, p.36-37)

This is something we can all relate to. From a personal testimony I remember when I first came into the truth of God’s word, particularly the Sabbath truth, that is all I wanted and desired. The holy 10 Commandments and the Sabbath truth was such an all-consuming subject that I desired little else such as the deeper prophecies.In fact, during the first couple of years during my walk, I actually was a little turned off by those who propounded the prophecies primarily. I thought they were just not that important. But I was a babe, looking back, and the meat was viewed as too much, or not needed.

But as I continued to study, the Great Guider the Spirit of Truth, began to show me the deeper things of the word. This can be pictured as a stair step. We all need to start on the bottom step and walk up one step at a time. But we do need to advance, lest we become stagnate!

Those that stay on a certain step can be likened  to continuing to want to drink milk. This can lead to deficiencies, spiritually speaking of God’s word–His meat.

You see brethren the deeper things, the Lord’s prophecies, are what we as grown ups must have spiritually to grow. Yet what are we given each quarter for our Sabbath school studies?  Mostly milk in the form of our quarterly lesson books. Take a close look at them.

For example the current SDA Adult Sabbath School Bible study guide has lessons such as —

— Justice and mercy in the Old Testament

— Loving your neighbor

— Jesus showed sympathy

Now, these are truths that give us encouragement and good solid lessons, but these are continual to the point of over feeding us milk. We all should know these things because they are foundational and help us to know the basic love of God and of one to another, but there are truths such as prophecies that expound the deep lessons of God’s love in such a way to truly make us awestruck and enlightened with His last day moves to save His church from Satan, who is now in control.

If you don’t think this true, just read Rev. 12 and what Satan has done since the days of Constantine. A worldly flood has nearly overcome the church! See our post here –https://godsloveandlaw.com/2015/03/21/the-church-and-the-dragon/

Only those who are still feeding on milk would not know that Satan has taken over ALL churches , including our own beloved SDA church.

One other note we’d like to point out is that if our study guides do contain mention of some prophecies, they are likely to be interpreted incorrectly or incompletely. Such is the case with our latest quarterly study guide in regards to Ezek. 37 and 47. But there is no reason for such oversight or mistakes. Our Lord provided His messenger with the correct interpretation, if we’ll only seek it out and  prayerfully read it!

“And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.” (Isa. 4:1)

Isaiah clearly shows us that in our last days all “seven” women, meaning churches,  universally and completely, are eating their own bread ( a man-made mixture of true and false doctrines and prophecies) yet claiming to be walking as a true Christian. Our SDA church is not excluded.

Satan knows  that if he can lull us to sleep with milk feeding, and hold back the prophecies and their correct interpretations, the people will not know the Lord’s next moves neither his own devious plans.

For instance, nearly all us SDA have been fooled into thinking that the next big move upon the world is the Sunday Law. But those who study the prophecies know well that this cannot be so. So he is playing with us much as a cat plays with a mouse. He’s got all those who fall for his tricks by refusing to want God’s meat, His prophetic words and instructions therein.

Why is this important? Because if we believe that the next move by the Lord is the setting up of the Sunday law,  we then will not expect Him when He “suddenly” comes to His temple (church)(Mal. 3:1-5).

“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.” (Mal.3:1)

The word “suddenly” denotes a surprise, an unexpected coming.

Last week we ended our two-part post of Hosea. This is a classic example of what “meat” is. These deep prophetic lessons show us what God has done and will do very shortly to reclaim His church.

Another example is a personal one I’d like to relate. For a good two years now I have attended our local church’s at home studies. Each week we hold a weekly study on God’s word at different homes of our members. But there has been almost a total neglect of prophecies in the studies. Milk is given over and over again. God cannot be pleased about this.

How many of us would want to see our children stay stunted for years and years, even well into the later years of life? Or see our older children still reading comic books and watching cartoons regularly?

The Spirit of Prophecy sheds light on how we must advance and keep pace with the Truth.

“The sanctified soul will not be content to remain in ignorance, but will desire to walk in the light and to seek for greater light. As a miner digs for gold and silver, so the follower of Christ will seek for truth as for hidden treasures, and will press from light to a greater light, ever increasing in knowledge. He will continually grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.” (Review and Herald, June 17, 1890)

Apostle Paul, speaking the words of the Lord said-

“Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy..” (1 Cor. 14:39)

The final words of our Lord bring home the great important  of prophecy–

“And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (Rev. 19:10)

To be sure Satan knows that prophecies are very important to God’s people. Therefore, to those who do attempt to begin to eat meat, they must be on guard as this area has been tampered with by the great deceiver as well.He knows that the superficial students can buy seemingly plausible ideas yet when looked closely they crumble like a sandy foundation.

“No one is lost for believing a false interpretation of a prophecy before the truth of it is revealed, provided the false interpretation does not draw him away from some other truth.  Such individuals, however, are in great danger because, as history reveals, very few who become thus involved in error are willing to humble themselves by renouncing their errors and accepting the truth when it is made known.  They are consequently in constant peril of sinning against the Holy Ghost.  And being acutely aware of this, Satan misinterprets the prophecies before they are divinely revealed.” (Tract 5, p.7)

The above message is packed with divine instructions. For example, we as SDA members have been led to believe the misinterpreted prophecy of Daniel 2 that claims that the rock that comes from the mountain is Christ. However, the Lord’s final messenger has soundly corrected that false idea. Instead of it being a narrow vision of simply Christ coming on the last day to destroy the world, it is instead a enthralling story of how Christ uses his final army of servants (the rock) to destroy the world’s kingdom symbolically and become a “great mountain” during the Loud Cry.

The prophet also exposed another example of how we can be hood winked into believing false prophecy if we are not serious students.

“..the reader’s attention is called to Elder Uriah Smith’s book, originally entitled Thoughts on Daniel and The Revelation, and later Daniel and The Revelation, in which is explained, among other subjects, the subject of “the seven trumpets.”  Here one will notice that Elder Smith is not the original author of the exposition of the trumpets.  The originators were Messrs. Keith, Clark, Barnes, et al.  “Thus far,” says Elder Smith, “Keith has furnished us with illustrations of the sounding of the first five trumpets.” — Daniel and The Revelation, p. 506.

   Then further in the same chapter, and in explanation of Revelation 9:17, we read: “As the Turks discharged their firearms on horseback, it would appear to the distant beholder, that the fire, smoke and brimstone issued out of the horses’ mouths, as illustrated by the accompanying plate.” — Id., p.510.  “Barnes thinks this was the case,” remarks Elder Smith; “and a statement from Gibbon confirms this view.” — ld., p. 510, footnote.

   Thus, plainly, the interpretation of the seven trumpets, as it is found in Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation, was not originated by the Seventh-day Adventist denomination.  But their placing upon it their endorsement makes it appear as Seventh-day Adventist doctrine.  In other words, the theories of uninspired men having the S.D.A. stamp of approval, are made to appear to the S.D.A. laity as genuine S.D.A. Bible doctrines. 

This goes to show that the majority of Seventh-day Adventists, right along with others, do not ask, “Is it true, — in harmony with God’s word? but, By whom is it advocated?” — Testimonies to Ministers, p.106.  And if the theory comes through a popular channel, they as a rule unquestionably accept it! (Tract 5, p.7-9)

In the book of Hebrews we find further light on our subject and Paul rebukes those who fail to advance from milk to meat —

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. Everyone who lives on milk is still an infant, inexperienced in the message of righteousness. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” (Heb. 5:12-14)

Wow, strong meat helps us to know good from evil! Sounds like just what the Doctor ordered. Imagine sitting down to a most delicious feast, enjoying all the satisfying nourishment our bodies can take. This is what it feels like to those of us who have tasted His “meat” and found ourselves very satisfied!

In closing my beloved, we should not remain babies and subside on milk only, but get our nourishment from the deep truths of God–the meat of His word. In this way we advance with His truth and spiritually grow up.

 

Posted in Present Truth, Proper teachings, The Spirit of truth | Leave a Comment »

A Requirement For Entrance to the Upcoming Kingdom

December 27, 2014

seal in forehead

Last week, we concluded our post series on the half hour silence. But in order for those of us who wish to remain standing in that day, we must come to grips with reality. The Lord’s word says we must have the all important seal in our foreheads.Today we are faced with the supreme challenge– to get that seal in our foreheads. Satan and his minions are pulling at all stops to prevent God’s people from accepting His truth for us today, thereby getting our seal. Let us look at this most important subject. The Spirit of prophecy says –

“Just as soon as the people of God are sealed in their foreheads–it is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so they cannot be moved–(MS, no.173, 1902)

This is very clear. We are told we must have a solid foundation in the Truth “both intellectually and spiritually.” Once we have this, we cannot be moved. Wow! This is quite a deep and powerful statement. Let’s expand upon this a little more. How do we get “settled” into the Truth? Well, we must look to the Holy Scriptures, first and foremost.

Let us follow It’s simple plan.

First, we must “know” Him first to know His Truth. Can we agree with this? How do we get to know Him?

“And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his Commandments.” (1 John 2:3)

There it is. IF and I repeat IF we keep them we will know Him. If we carelessly keep some of them and continue to break others, can we expect to know Him?

“He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his Commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”(1 John 2:4)

Second, we cannot fool God, He knows whether we are coveting, stealing, bearing false witness against our neighbor, carelessly keeping the Sabbath, etc.

Again, the Spirit of prophecy gives counsel—

“When one Commandment of the Decalogue is broken, the downward steps are almost certain.” (AH, p.58)

But once we truly give our best efforts to keep them each day of our life, we are then promised a spectacular promise. One that should make us leap for true joy and happiness.

“When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak whatever He hears. He will also declare to you what is to come.” (John 16:13)

Wow again! Do we understand this? It promises us to be guided into “all truth”! Did it say part truth? Of course not. That means that the Lord’s Spirit shall be a sort of “truth detector” in our lives. Now we ask, why is it important to know truth from error? Scripture is clear as well as the Rod message.

“He will use every kind of evil deception to fool those on their way to destruction, because they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them.” ( 2 Thes. 2:10)

We see that our adversary is the counter truth (deception), and will snare us if we don’t know and keep His truth. Brother Houteff explains –

“Even as it is a blessed thing to accept the truth, so it is a fearful thing to reject it.  And rejection need not include all truth.  To reject a part may be just as fatal as to reject the whole.  So all should beware.”  (SRod, vol. 1, p.160)

There are other aspects we need to know and obey.

Satan’s often successful trick is to have us teach and spread the Lord’s present truth , yet we ourselves are tripping up in our daily walk.

“There are many even among those who teach the truth to others who will not receive the seal of God in their foreheads. They had the light of truth, they knew their Master’s will, they understood every point of our faith, but they had not corresponding works. These who were so familiar with prophecy and the treasures of divine wisdom should have acted their faith. They should have commanded their households after them, that by a well-ordered family they might present to the world the influence of the truth upon the human heart.” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p.213)

So as we see, our daily walk must be the prior prerequisite to our ability to teach and proclaim His Truth. Additionally, we as present truth believers, know that the message is clear. We must sigh and cry for our own sins and those of the church. Both are required.

Question No. 21:

What is the seal of God upon the foreheads of the 144,000 (Rev. 7:3)? Is it the Sabbath seal or something else?

Answer:

Being sealed in Christ “with that Holy Spirit of promise,” after having “heard the word of truth” (Eph. 1:13- 4:30), the saints are consequently sealed by Present Truth—the truth preached in their own day.

“The seal of the living God,” the Truth, by which the 144,000 are sealed (Rev. 7:2), is a special seal, being the same as “the mark” of Ezekiel 9. (See Testimonies to Ministers, p. 445; Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 267; Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 211).

It demands one’s sighing and crying over the abominations which defile him, and which desecrate both the Sabbath and the house of God, especially against selling literature and raising goals during Sabbath services. As the saints have this seal or mark on their foreheads, the angels will pass over them, not slay them.

It is equivalent to the blood on the door post on the night of the Passover in Egypt. The angel is to place a mark upon the foreheads of all who by sighing over their own sins, and over the sins in the house of God, show fidelity to the Truth.

Then the destroying angels will follow, to slay utterly both old and young who have failed to receive the seal. (See Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 505)

So, the former seal enables the receiver to rise from the dead in the resurrection of the just, while the latter seal enables the sighing-crying one to escape death and forever to live for God. (Answerer, vol. 2, Q-21)

Let me give you two examples of brethren who, even unbeknowest to themselves, are showing the Lord they are not sealed in the forehead with His present truth requirements.

1) A brother after being showed that the Elijah message condemns unholy dressing (specifically worldly short shirts) in the Lord’s sanctuary, says to the sister who warns him, “Sister we must have the Lord’s love and patience. Let them be, they will learn to do the right thing in time, the Lord will work on their heart.”

While this is true it is not complete truth. It smacks the face of Inspired counsel. The brother is guilty of the following–

I have been shown that God here illustrates how He regards sin among those who profess to be His commandment-keeping people. Those whom He has specially honored with witnessing the remarkable exhibitions of His power, as did ancient Israel, and who will even then venture to disregard His express directions, will be subjects of His wrath. He would teach His people that disobedience and sin are exceedingly offensive to Him and are not to be lightly regarded.

He shows us that when His people are found in sin they should at once take decided measures to put that sin from them, that His frown may not rest upon them all. But if the sins of the people are passed over by those in responsible positions, His frown will be upon them, and the people of God, as a body, will be held responsible for those sins. (Test. for the Church,vol. 3, p.265)

2) A brother , after being shown that the Elijah message condemns plate passing(bag) in His holy sanctuary during Sabbath services, justifies his dis-obedience because a few passages from Spirit of Prophecy seem to show it’s practice back in Ellen White’s day. The message clearly tells us that the Lord accepts only “free-will” offerings. A deposit box somewhere in the church property is to be where the people “freely” give their Tithes and offerings. Today, each and every Sabbath we see someone do the song and dance up there from the podium, basically begging for money. Then doing the “Roman” custom of putting the bag in our face to compulse us to give.

The Lord said of Elijah–

 “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.” (Matt 17:11)

In case any have their doubts on what the Elijah message tells us about Plate passing (today it’s the bag) in His sanctuary , let us read–

Look and see what a difference there is between God’s method for supporting His work, and the Roman system that is now carried on by the church: plate-passing, high-powered speeches, Big Day, Book Day, high pressuring, campaigning, selling, auctioneering, Harvest Ingathering, birthday offerings, Christmas-tree hangings, baby weighings, Dorcas sales, investment funds, and what not!  As none of these squeezings are Biblical, and as all of them are Pagan in origin and condemned by the Scriptures, they could not possibly be considered freewill offerings. Search and see.

   Instead of Sabbath-keeping the day is devoted to money raising, and instead of a house of worship, the church is turned into a den of thieves — disgusting to observers, and most discouraging for a member to invite a friend or a neighbor to a church service.  Is there any wonder that God does not now bring many into the church? (“Testimonies,” Vol. 6, p. 371)(Jezreel Letter, no. 9, p.8)

Do we not believe that the Lord knew what we needed to be instructed on and His requirements of us prior to His church judgment? Truly the message of Elijah is our “test”, our final decision on what side we stand! Belief or Doubt,sealed in the forehead or left without.

The message–

“Who are standing in the counsel of God at this time? Is it those who virtually excuse wrongs among the professed people of God and who murmur in their hearts, if not openly, against those who would reprove sin? Is it those who take their stand against them and sympathize with those who commit wrong? No, indeed! Unless they repent, and leave the work of Satan in oppressing those who have the burden of the work and in holding up the hands of sinners in Zion, they will never receive the mark of God’s sealing approval.” (Test. for the Church, vol. 3, p.267)

In closing, we cannot afford to be careless on obtaining this seal in our forehead in these last hours. Let us know and keep each of His Commandments and sigh and cry for the sins in our life and in the church. As we do this, His promised Spirit of Truth will lead us to know His Elijah message and it’s prophecies. Once we learn it and the powerful truths, we can’t help but spread it to our lukewarm brethren. Like the ol commercial used to say, “try it, you’ll like it”.

Posted in God's sealings, Present Truth, The Spirit of truth | 3 Comments »

Will the Jews of Old’s Mistakes be Ours?

October 25, 2014

Jesus and Pharisees

About a year ago, I discovered an SDA online discussion site known as “Maritime Second Advent Believers Online”. The Spirit had me looking for more avenues to proclaim His current pleading message of Elijah. What I found was both good and bad.

Good,  because in rather quick fashion I was called out as a “Shepherd’s Rod” believer and certain ones commented how I was teaching falsehood and such. But unlike other SDA online sites, which usually boot people out who stand up for His Elijah message, the site stuck with me. And we’ve been able to receive some good and encouraging comments. Many reports have enlightened some on this site.

But the bad, is what this post will deal with. The experiences up to this point, on this Maritime site, have led me to notice a glaring HUGE mistake that is certainly widespread throughout the Seventh-day Adventist community. It’s an ancient mistake that we are told not to repeat.

In an article written by Stephen E. Robinson called “The Law after Christ” he wrote, “Among the Jews of Jesus’ day, esteem for the Law was so great that some even refused to accept anything but the five books of Moses as scripture. The Samaritans also rejected the idea of any scripture beyond the Law. Moreover, centuries of reverence for the Law as the revelation of God to Moses had created an almost fanatical devotion to its precepts in the hearts and minds of most Jews.

Thus, the Law of Moses was no longer perceived in Jesus’ day as an expression of God’s will; rather, for Jews the Law of Moses had gradually become identified as the divine will itself—perfect, absolute, forever unchanging and unchangeable. The Law was thought of as the will of God exactly, precisely expressed; therefore, any deviation at all from the letter of the Law of Moses was also deviation from God. There was no room for flexibility or “extenuating circumstances.”

Most of us would agree with that assessment. The underlying fact being that “Moses” was the end all for their guidance and even salvation. In other words, no matter how clear and truthful Christ’s teachings were, they could not be relied on because God had spoken through Moses, and that concluded all that was needed by the Jews!

How then does this serious mistake and spiritual blind spot apply to us today as SDA?

Many of us believe that Ellen White as founding prophetess of our church is a type of “end all”. Just as the Jews thought Moses was! What she says is all-encompassing, there is no more truth needed by our church.

“We know that God spake unto Moses:as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.”(John 9:29)

Are we today saying this exact sentiment to those who bring up the true end time spokesman for the Lord–Victor T.Houteff? “We know Ellen White but we don’t know this Victor Houteff “, many say.

On the SDA maritime website, I have seen several comments to this effect. No matter how much truth is revealed in Victor’s words, they bypass it as if to say “We are rich, and don’t need anything more, we have Ellen White and Scripture.”

How little do they realize that their own prophetess, they dearly hold on to,  said the following–

“Those who allow prejudice to bar the mind against the reception of truth cannot receive the divine enlightenment. Yet, when a view of Scripture is presented,many do not ask, Is it true–in harmony with God’s word? but, By whom is it advocated? and unless it comes through the very channel that pleases them, they do not accept it. So thoroughly satisfied are they with their own ideas that they will not examine the Scripture evidence with a desire to learn, but refuse to be interested, merely because of their prejudices.”(Testimonies to Ministers, p.106-107)

“Truth is eternal, and conflict with error will only make manifest its strength. We should never refuse to examine the Scriptures with those who, we have reason to believe, desire to know what is truth. Suppose a brother held a view that differed from yours, and he should come to you, proposing that you sit down with him and make an investigation of that point in the Scriptures; should you rise up, filled with prejudice, and condemn his ideas, while refusing to give him a candid hearing?

The only right way would be to sit down as Christians and investigate the position presented in the light of God’s word, which will reveal truth and unmask error. To ridicule his ideas would not weaken his position in the least if it were false, or strengthen your position if it were true. If the pillars of our faith will not stand the test of investigation,it is time that we knew it. There must be no spirit of Pharisaism cherished among us.”(Ibid, p.108)

“When a message comes in the name of the Lord to His people, no one may excuse himself from an investigation of its claims. No one can afford to stand back in an attitude of indifference and self-confidence, and say: “I know what is truth. I am satisfied with my position. I have set my stakes, and I will not be moved away from my position, whatever may come. I will not listen to the message of this messenger; for I know that it can not be truth.” It was from pursuing this very course that the popular churches were left in partial darkness, and that is why the messages of heaven have not reached them.” (Testimonies on Sabbath School work, p.65)

The course of the Jews, at the leadership of the Pharisees, was to condemn the beautiful and powerful “new truths” that Jesus revealed to them. Only the few had the moral courage and deep love to listen hard and “investigate” the matter.

It is no different today. Christ, who promised us the “Elijah” to come (Mal. 4;5), is going up against His people , through His spokesman the Elijah,  all over again. Except the names have changed, it’s Ellen White instead of Moses this time.

Inspiration has a few things to say about  following “man” or in this case “woman” to the neglect of advancing Truth.

“Every age has had its multitude who, instead of being baptized to follow Christ and His Truth, were baptized to follow man. They joined the multitude in the church instead of the multitude in heaven. Consequently, Christ is a stranger to them, and when truth unfolds, they call it error, then follow men and reject the truth. This folly has been repeated again and again, with the result that the few faithful ones who have followed Christ and His truth, have been cast out of the churches and compelled to start all over again.

So it is today. But to these outcasts of Zion, comes the solacing voice: “Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at His word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for My name’s sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified: but He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.” Isa. 66:5. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” Isa. 52:7.(Answerer, vol. 3, Q-55)

The following applicable Q and A should forever settle the question why we cannot expect our beloved prophetess to have spoken all the light that was to come to God’s people. While a bit long, it is well worth reading.

WILL THE KINGDOM BE SET UP BEFORE THE MILLENNIUM?

Question No. 42:

“The Great Controversy,” pp. 322, 323, teaches that “not until the personal advent of Christ can His people receive the kingdom….But when Jesus comes, He confers immortality upon His people; and then He calls them to inherit the kingdom of which they have hitherto been only heirs.” Will you please help harmonize the Bible and “The Shepherd’s Rod” with these and other passages in Sister White’s writings in regard to the setting up of the Kingdom?

Answer:

Although the doctrine of the Kingdom may not appear quite so complete under the lens of Sister White’s writings as under the lens of the Rod, one dare not thus superficially reject either, but must the more studiously compare both views of the doctrine under the super-lens of the Bible. He must keep in mind that we are not given license to harmonize the Bible with any other writings, but are charged to measure all others by It.

First of all, in order to do justice to the Scriptures, to Sister White’s writings, and to the Rod the position of each on the subject must be viewed in the light of the Scriptures, which incontrovertibly teach that the Promised Land will be reinhabited by the Lord’s own converted people. (See Isaiah 2; Micah 4, Ezekiel 36, 37 Jeremiah 3 1-33).

As to Sister White’s statement in The Great Controversy, she is there speaking of the Kingdom complete, after the dead are raised, at the time the saints receive it. This was the only phase of the subject–the consummate phase–that Providence had made known when she wrote. Now as the scroll of prophetic Truth has unrolled further since her day, the Kingdom in reality is seen to have an intermediate, Davidian phase, as well as the final one heretofore known.

Besides the prophecies relating to the literal–the Davidian–Kingdom, the Bible contains many other prophetic subjects which the writings of Sister White do not even mention, let alone treat of. And if the Lord does not now reveal them to the church to meet her need today she will not be prepared for their fulfillment but will be left to perish in her undone Laodicean condition. These prophecies must therefore be revealed in order to strengthen the church in her final warfare. Otherwise, for what purpose were they written?

No prophet of God has ever forged a complete prophetic chain of events, with no links missing. It has taken many inspired writers to complete the long chain of prophecy. The mind, therefore which takes the position that Sister White has done what no prophet in or out of the Bible has ever done, does so at the utter disregard of actual Biblical procedure and also of revealed Truth.

She herself says that “no man, however honored of Heaven, has ever attained to a full understanding of the great plan of redemption, or even to a perfect appreciation of the Divine purpose in the work for his own time. Men do not fully understand what God would accomplish by the work which He gives them to do; they do not comprehend, in all its bearings, the message which they utter in His name.”–The Great Controversy, p. 343.

Some persons, being of the parrot kind, utter parrot-like statements, never stopping to think what they say, and seemingly never caring whether their statements stand or fall. Such are they who say that no other event or events can come before, between, or after those set forth in Sister White’s writings.

Should one insist that the continuity of events recorded in Early Writings, pp. 15-17, must be taken as absolute, and that no other event or events can be sandwiched in, then he is getting himself into deep water, for the pages mentioned in no wise even intimate either the seven last plagues or the millennium!

Again: the Jews rejected the Lord because not all of what the prophets taught and wrote was found in the teachings of Moses. “We know,” they said, “that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence He is.” John 9:29.

As no prophet’s writings ever predicted the entire Truth needed by the church to carry her clear through to the Kingdom, and as other prophets followed, either enlarging upon or adding to the prophecies already recorded in the Scriptures, then for anyone to turn down the good tidings of the Kingdom on the grounds that this phase of the Kingdom is not found in Sister White’s writings is for him to take the same inexcusable and fatal stand as did the Jews. It is to say, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” Rev. 3:17. It is this attitude that compels God to spue out of His mouth the lukewarm, satisfied Laodiceans.

The eleventh-hour message has been timed and designed to reveal the Davidian Kingdom rising a new before the appearing of Christ in the clouds. Having no direct light, however, on this phase of the Kingdom, The Great Controversy could no more have expressed itself in the definite terms which the message today uses, than could William Miller have expressed himself on the subject of the cleansing of the sanctuary, in such terms as we read in The Great Controversy.

Of necessity, any statements relative to a subject which is still out of sight in the unfolding of the Scroll, are made only in incidental terms of truth as it is at the time seen or commonly understood. And if the common understanding of these incidental statements be wrong, the writer cannot be held responsible for that which he has borrowed from others or seen but very dimly and therefore expressed very indefinitely.

For example, in Christ’s day “the doctrine of a conscious state of existence between death and the resurrection was held by many of those who were listening to Christ’s words. The Saviour knew of their ideas, and He framed his parable so as to inculcate important truths through these preconceived opinions. He held up before His hearers a mirror wherein they might see themselves in their true relation to God. He used the prevailing opinion to convey the idea He wished to make prominent to all….”–Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 263.

This circumstance is natural and common to every writer treating of Present Truth, beginning with the Old Testament writers, and continuing ever since, and will thus be until every component part of the Truth is made known. This is borne out in the work of John the Baptist. He was to proclaim, not the setting up of the Kingdom, but the coming of the King.

But in announcing the one, he incidentally had to answer questions concerning the other. When speaking of the coming King, he expressed himself in terms of revealed Truth. But when circumstantially alluding to the coming Kingdom, on which there was no special light in his day, he necessarily expressed himself in terms of the doctrines as then commonly understood.

Nevertheless, when the further unrolling of the scroll revealed that the Kingdom was not to be set up at that time, then the honest, truth-seeking ones did not accuse either John or Christ, but joyously watched the scroll unfold, and jubilantly marched on with the Truth. Not so, though, with the vast majority of the Jews. Their pride of opinion, forbidding them to forgo their errors and to embrace advancing Truth, led them deeper into error.

“Thus it was,” says the Spirit of Prophecy, “that the Jews did in the days of Christ, and we are warned not to do as they did, and be led to choose darkness rather than light, because there was in them an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.”–Testimonies on Sabbath-School Work, p. 66; Counsels on Sabbath School Work, p. 30.

So The Great Controversy and Early Writings make the subject of the Kingdom just as clear as the partial unrolling of the scroll permitted the writer to view it, in only one of its phases, at the time she wrote both books.

While The Great Controversy may omit showing that the establishment of the Kingdom and the inheriting of it are two different events, elsewhere the Spirit of Prophecy does do so: While the apostles, it says, “were not to behold the coming of the kingdom in their day, the fact that Jesus bade them pray for it, is evidence that in God’s own time it will surely come.

“The Kingdom of God’s grace is now being established, as day by day hearts that have been full of sin and rebellion yield to the sovereignty of His love. But the full establishment of the kingdom of His glory will not take place until the second coming of Christ to this world. ‘The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven,’ is to be given to ‘the people of the saints of the Most High.'”-Mount of Blessing, p. 159.

Every Christian should remember that as the Truth is ever-advancing, It will not be found today where It was yesterday, and that therefore Christ’s followers must advance with It. They will not follow the examples of the Jews and the Romans.

When Moses wrote the first part of the Bible, he was not given all the light which God intended to reveal to His people through the ages. With each approaching hour for the Truth to advance, came first one prophet, then another, in a long succession ending with John the Baptist. Then came Christ, the apostles, the reformers, William Miller, and Sister White, each one in turn teaching truths which could not be borne out entirely by the writings of any one predecessor. To find all the Truth thus progressively revealed, the writings of all must be collaborated.

For instance, in setting forth the law of the Passover, and in commanding its observance Moses wrote: “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: and ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.” Ex. 12:5, 6.

The reason which Moses assigns for the Passover observance is that it is to commemorate Israel’s going out of Egypt (Deut. 16:1-3). John the Baptist, however, imputes its significance to the coming of Christ, “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29), while the apostles assign it to His crucifixion: “For even Christ our passover,” says Paul, “is sacrificed for us.” 1 Cor. 5:7. And the significance of keeping the Passover, he then attaches to the ordinance of the Lord’s supper (1 Cor. 11 :26).

Similarly, Moses did not explain that the Levitical priesthood in the earthly sanctuary (Ex. 40:15) was only a provisional and thus a temporary one, a figure of Christ’s priesthood in the heavenly sanctuary, as the apostles explained (Heb. 6:19, 20; 9:12, 26).

Failing to advance with the advancing Truth, each generation of Jews found fault with its respective prophets, culminating with the apostles and the very Son of God Himself. The Jews justified their criminal actions on the ground that the claims of their prophets, of Christ, and of the apostles, were not founded upon Moses’ writings. So while boasting of Moses’ writings, they denied and killed the prophets who came after him–a solemn warning to us, lest doing as they did, we meet their fate!

The main question therefore is not as to whether Sister White’s or Moses’ or this one’s or that one’s writings contain all the messages for this day, but rather simply as to whether they are found in, and supported by, the Bible.

The Rod consequently does not claim that its message is found in its entirety in the writings of any one particular prophet, but rather in the writings of all the prophets–“here a little, and there a little.” Isa. 28:13.

Let none, therefore, treacherously use Sister White’s writings, as the Jews used  Moses’ writings, against the advance of Truth, and to their own eternal hurt. From every angle approached, the Bible clears the subject of the Kingdom, making impossible one’s erring if he follows precisely what the Word says concerning it….”(Answerer, vol. 2, Q-42)

Let us ask ourselves the following soul searching questions:

1) Do we really believe that the Lord stopped His messages through prophets, with Ellen White? If so, then we must throw out the Lord’s promise to bring a prophet to us “before the great and dreadful day of the Lord”–the “Elijah”(Mal. 4:5-6).

2) If we throw out His promise, then can we be held guiltless for ignoring the message that was promised to come? Did the Lord ever hold blameless any of His people for rejecting His prophets of the past? The Lord does not change (Mal.3:6)

3) if the Jews were lost because of failing to advance with the Truth, are we then to be considered safe, if we do the same by ignoring or rejecting, the man who professed to bring the Elijah message to our church? Investigate my dear brethren–Investigate!

In closing, let us remember that the Jews of old made a fatal mistake–they trusted in their “man” Moses to the exclusion of God’s advanced Truth. Ellen White brought us tremendous beautiful truths, of which we are eternally thankful for. But she was not the “Elijah” that was to come and “restore all things”. She set the table for the Lord’s last prophet to speak the truth of His soon to come church judgment and His soon to come Kingdom. Let us be ever ready to listen and heed–advancing Truth.

Posted in Present Truth, Proper teachings, The spirit of predjudice, The Spirit of truth | 3 Comments »

Holy Spirit under Attack

March 15, 2014

Holy Spirit

In Luke 3:22, we read, “..and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”

We are well familiar with this passage. Here we see that the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove. But who really is the Holy Spirit? Does it have a gender? Or is it a kind of floating energy at the beck and call of God and His Son? Kind of like airwaves?We can’t see them but they exist and pickup/transmit information through great distances from the sender and receiver.

Most of Christian world, although amiss in much understanding of the true doctrine of Christ, do believe in the almighty Godhead. However there is a growing body of “believers”, claiming to be Seventh Day Adventists, or even Davidian SDA, who deny that there exists an actual “person” in the form of the Holy Spirit. They see “it” as a general God force instead. Some far-out sects even call the Holy Spirit a female being!

With this very important Biblical subject under attack, we thought it would be good to try to get to the “Thus saith the Lord” as spoken from His mouthpieces–the prophets. And amazingly when we take a clear and straight forward look at the evidence of the Holy Spirit, we cannot escape the solid conclusion.

I say amazingly because when something is so clear and plain yet people ignorantly close their eyes to the obvious, then we can be sure that the “Spirit of Truth” is not in them and they are indeed heading for disaster. To deny God’s word means to deny Him.

Recently I was informed by a so-called “Davidian brother” that I should take a serious look at the Holy Spirit and it’s “real” purpose and existence from a ‘Biblical” viewpoint. Right away giant red flags went up. Here was what I thought,  a brother in the faith,  who was basically telling me that I needed to re-learn who the Holy Spirit really was and if I didn’t come to a clear understanding of this, I would be in serious condition spiritually.

In other words he was trying to tell me that there exist only TWO supreme beings, the Father and the Son.

It would bad enough to hear this from a protestant( who generally has giant holes in their beliefs anyway), yet from a so-called Davidian, the highest light bearers in the world (most present truth known), this was really too much to take. And I did not mince words in my rebuttals. Not soft little words that would only slide off him like water off a ducks back.

Last week we posted about righteous discernment. This is a perfect example of using this discernment to warn and even admonish such disastrous and wayward thinking.

What I said , and this should be a main consideration to anyone presenting a belief that is divergent from our standard beliefs, is “Ok if you want to enter this study, please show me from the “restorer of all things”, the Elijah prophet where he said that our SDA understanding of the Trinity is incorrect.” In other words I highly doubted his conclusions and put the “proof” onto him.

Well after several run- around side tracking emails, he could not and did not provide any Elijah quotes. I let him know  that basically he was kidding himself if he thought he was a Davidian. Further I countered with solid evidence to the contrary of what he was trying to teach. Specifically that The Holy Spirit was not actually a person.

Let us look at some evidence from His inspired writings on the matter.

Before we do, we should read applicable counsel from the Spirit of Prophecy. “The language of the Bible should be explained according to it’s obvious meaning, unless a symbol or figure is employed.” (Great Controversy, p.598).

Obviously this applies as well to His inspired writings brought by Ellen White and Victor Houteff. Brother Houteff added further counsel in this regard, “Hold not to what fabricated ideas seem to make Scripture say, but grip tenaciously to what the Word, in simplicity , plainly says.” (Tract no.10, p.13)

“We need to realize that the Holy Spirit, who is as much a person as God is a person, is walking through these grounds. — Manuscript 66, 1899. (From a talk to the students at the Avondale School.) {Ev 616.5} The Holy Spirit is a person, for He beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. When this witness is borne, it carries with it its own evidence. At such times we believe and are sure that we are the children of God. .. . . {Ev 616.6} 

The Holy Spirit has a personality, else He could not bear witness to our spirits and with our spirits that we are the children of God. He must also be a divine person, else He could not search out the secrets which lie hidden in the mind of God. “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.”–Manuscript 20, 1906. {Ev 617.1}

“Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the Third Person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fullness of divine power. It is the Spirit that makes effectual what has been wrought out by the world’s Redeemer. It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature.” (Desire of Ages, p.671)

The above words are beyond obvious.  Do we not see that the prophetess says that a)the Holy Spirit is a person as God is a person b) has a personality. Does a “force” or an “energy” have a personality? If it does it can no longer be a force or energy but a being.

Additionally we know that the Holy Spirit has feelings. “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30)

The nature of the Holy Spirit is a mystery. Men cannot explain it, because the Lord has not revealed it to them. Men having fanciful views may bring together passages of Scripture and put a human construction on them, but the acceptance of these views will not strengthen the church. Regarding such mysteries, which are too deep for human understanding, silence is golden. {AA 52.1}

 What part of “silence is golden” do the anti- truth tale bearers not understand? They promote their false ideas that say “we need to re-think our Trinity understanding” . “We got this from the Catholic Church”, etc. etc. Unless Ellen White was a secret member of the Catholic church, they are really groping and reaching for straws on this issue.

You see this is what Satan and his angels do to the unsuspecting (non grounded)–they twist and side-step the straight word. That was Satan’s first deceptive practice – “Surely you shall not die..”(Gen. 3:4). God plainly  said “You shall surely die.”(Gen 2:17).

So who is it that leads men to say “The Holy Spirit is not a person”? You guessed it! There is nothing new under the sun(Ecc. 1:9). SOP says “Holy Spirit is a person” Devil says, “Holy Spirit is not a person.” This really is not complicated when we understand from whom these falsehoods come from. Just follow history my brethren.

SOP makes mention of praying with the Holy Spirit —

“We must not only pray in Christ’s name, but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This explains what is meant when it is said that the Spirit ‘maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.’ Such prayer God delights to answer. When with earnestness and intensity we breathe a prayer in the name of Christ, there is in that very intensity a pledge from God that He is about to answer our prayer ‘exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.”--Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 146.

We also must as brother Houteff said “grip tenaciously to what the Word, in simplicity, plainly says.” 

The Elijah prophet further confirmed that we are to believe in the Trinity as understood in our Seventh Day Adventist faith in his writings (Fundamental Beliefs and Directory, p.3-11) . Here is the exact wording of our original SDA faith and understanding of the Holy Spirit and Trinity.

Fundamental belief no.2 

” That the Godhead, or Trinity, consists of the Eternal Father, a personal, spiritual Being, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, infinite in wisdom and love; the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Eternal Father, through whom all things were created and through whom the salvation of the redeemed hosts will be accomplished; the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, the great regenerating power in the work of redemption. Matt. 28:19.

Brother Houteff was asked the following question in the Symbolic news codes.

Question 214:

Why are not the given names of the Trinity used in baptizing?

Answer:

As the Scriptures give several names for the Father and for the Son (and none for the Holy Ghost), and as we are not told which of these to use in baptizing, we must, therefore, take Him at His word and baptize in just the way He commands: “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”  Matt. 28:19.  Moreover the names given in the Scriptures are not absolute names, but rather titles–equivalent to the names Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Still further, even if the absolute names of the Trinity were known, their use would lead to irreverent address.  For example, suppose the Father’s name is George; the Son’s, Thomas; and the Holy Ghost’s, William.  Could any God-fearing human being even dare think of its being reverent to say, I now baptize you in the name of George, Thomas, and William!  Let us therefore comply with the Lord’s command: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of be Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”  Matt. 28:19. (For further light on this subject, study our Tract No. 11.) (Vol. 7   Symbolic Code   Nos. 1-6. page 13.)

Now that we see that the Holy Spirit is a person, a being, let’s look at Scripture that further identifies other characteristics of  “Him”.

Holy Spirit is a helper and teacher

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. (John 14:26)

Holy Spirit is God’s precious gift

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38)

Holy Spirit is our Comforter and companion for ever

..do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? (1 Cor.6:19)

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.. (John 14:16)

Holy Spirit is a power enabler

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witness in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.(Acts 1:18)

Holy Spirit is a discernment enabler

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment ; concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. (John 16:7-15)

Holy Spirit is miracle enabler

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:4)

Holy Spirit is a witness for us

And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him. (Acts 5:32)

Holy Spirit is a faithful servant of God, truth giver and prophesier 

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority , but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Holy Spirit is a joy giver

And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit.. (1 Thes. 1:6)

Holy Spirit is a communicator

The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.”(Acts 8:29)

While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you.” (Acts 10:19)

That is why the Holy Spirit says, “Today when you hear his voice,don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness…” (Hebrews 3:7-8)

Holy Spirit is a truth detector

Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself..” (Acts 5:3)

In closing, those who deny the “person” of the Holy Spirit must come clean. They should immediately renounce their Seventh Day Adventist membership and/or their Davidian SDA affiliation. With such powerful evidence as presented from the three divine sources, Scripture, SOP, and the Elijah message, there is no doubt that the Holy Spirit  is a real being, and part of the almighty Godhead.

Holy Spirit is a leader

The experience of apostolic days will come to us when we wholeheartedly accept God’s principle of benevolence–consent in all things to obey the leadings of His Holy Spirit.(Testimonies, vol.7, p.146)

 

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