Traveling on the Sabbath

December 29, 2012

In today’s hustle and bustle world, many of us  are often found traveling. As Sabbath keepers we should always be prepared at home and away. Let’s look at ways which we can guard the Sabbath, to help us keep it “holy” while on the road.

In the fourth Commandment, it begins, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy… (Exodus 20:8). This keeping it holy applies each and every Sabbath, whether we are at home or traveling. In (Isaiah 58:13) we read, “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Also, “Thus says the Lord: “Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.”(Jer.17: 21-22)

 The above is packed with nuggets of gold (Truth). We see that our focus should be to guard against the ever tempting carnal nature of doing “our pleasure” on His holy day. This can be a big problem in situations where one is traveling and away from their routine and customs of the home life. However, as always the Lord has made a way out for us. It’s called preparation.

As  many of us Adventists know , we regard Friday as our “preparation day”. And rightly so. This day is obviously the day before His holy day, so we basically have this day to get things prepared and ready. So let’s look at some areas where we can prepare in traveling.

1) Meals.

This probably is one of the most troubling areas of trying to keep the Sabbath holy when we travel. Obviously we can’t cook most of the time, so we cut corners and eat out. But there again the preparations should be made. Almost every area we travel in, there is a market where we can buy food and snacks. So we can load up on the goodies to eat and drink on the next day -the holy Sabbath.

Sadly some fall into the devil’s trap and succumb to eating in a restaurant. This is  a real  “breaking” of the Sabbath. The most obvious reason is the buying and selling on the Sabbath. We are also encouraging and helping others to break it as well, though they may not be aware of it. In the 13th chapter of Nehemiah we can find specific warnings against buying and selling on the Sabbath.

We need only look back to the story in (Numbers 15:32-41). There you’ll recall the Lord ordered a man stoned for picking up sticks on the Sabbath. How do you think our Lord looks upon us, as we are profaning  His holy Sabbath much more? We should not dare trespass in this way.

2) Planned travel.

Here is another area where we must put the Lord first. When we are to plan our travel, we should be most careful to arrange our flights, so as to not travel on the Sabbath. Long car traveling, which can be laborious should also be avoided also . Yes,  this could cause a delay or interruption, but are we going to risk breaking and trampling His Sabbath in this way? Again our planning and preparation is a must, in order to keep His holy day–holy.

A while back I was in church, in the restroom, and I overheard a conversation. One man was explaining how he was going out-of-town next “Saturday” and flying out. I was amazed!  This I’m afraid, is much more common than we want to believe. The lazy and careless approach to Sabbath keeping will one day cost us if we keep it up. If the Lord stoned that man in the Numbers story, and saves us, as we do much greater  willful transgressions on the Sabbath, will He not have to apologize to that man and his family? Let’s think that through. What makes  us think we now have more rights and liberty to transgress today?

Our two great duties are —Fear God, and keep His Commandments. ( Ecc.  12:13-14).

3) Buying and selling.

Here again is a great temptation. We find ourselves wanting to buy gas, food, general necessities. We rationalize,  “We’re on the road, the Lord understands the circumstances.” Again, Friday is the preparation day when we should get the gas and buy the goodies, etc. With careful planning and thought, we can load all we need by Friday sunset and be good to go for the Sabbath.

4) Places of worship

Sometimes  in our travels there are no close Sabbath churches around. What to do? In the book of Acts there is the example of Paul finding a “riverside” to go to, to pray and have fellowship (Acts 16:13). He was apparently not near a temple and found a quiet place by a river.  So we can also go to a quiet mountain area, beach, or other remote quiet area to pray and read the Scriptures and fellowship. Contemplate the beauty of our Lord’s  creation. We shouldn’t watch worldly TV in our hotel room, or be part of any other worldly endeavor that might keep us from keeping the Sabbath holy.If we know we’ll be staying in the room for the Sabbath, we can take those long overdue naps, or pray, study, or listen to beautiful Christian music. When we indulge in knowing and listening to the things of the Lord, time goes by much too fast!

Our Lord and His word will not change.  “Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:4). The continual willful sinning in transgressing His Sabbath will, according to His word, cost us a price–our life.

In closing let us be good preparers and planners, thinking of honoring our Lord on His holy Sabbath even while traveling. Traveling will bring us challenges, but we can view them as stepping-stones, to exercise our devotion to the Lord.  Our Lord said the following  “Whoever is faithful in very little, is faithful also in much..” (Luke 16:10).

Posted in Christian walk, Sabbath | 8 Comments »

An Inspiring Life

December 22, 2012

We are often inspired when reading of a man or woman who has lived a Godly life. Examples such as Apostle Paul and his complete turnaround. Job’s perseverance. Noah’s steadfastness and faith amid scorn and mocking.  In this post I would like to introduce a man who I have come to know and received true inspiration. Hopefully after reading about his life, you will as well.

Born in Bulgaria on March 2, 1885,  he and his brothers migrated to the US in 1907.  Arriving penniless, he sound found work as hotelier and grocer in the state of Illinois . While in the hotel business in 1919, he became “intensely interested in religion”.This led him to become a member of the Seventh Day Adventist church.

The church that he had become affiliated with was,  as he put it  “not too attractive for a church”. It was a rented hall that they had used for a church. He was , like many of us in those roaring youthful twenties, aspiring to become wealthy instead of poor. But  as time went on the Truth became dearer and dearer to his heart, steadily replacing those “get rich” aspirations, all too common among us mortals.

Soon he left for California but when he got there he became sick, an illness which required medical attention. His savings was not well either. The stay at the local sanitarium drained his account even more, so much so that the thought of “going broke and staying poor grew larger and larger.” But thankfully he did recover his health.

But after this episode, with no job prospects looming, he became worried for his financial future, yet remained upbeat about his faith in God. But during his California stay, he remembered that he had not paid his tithes or offerings to his church in the mid west, which he was still a part of. The amount  he reasoned was 75.00 due in back tithes. He was quoted as saying  “I thought then that if I should fail to pay this debt now while I had enough to pay it, I could never again get that much money together and it would have to stay unpaid forever. Better get broke now, and be free of debt, than to get broke later and be a debtor forever.”

” My account, I figured, was just a little over my debt. When I wrote a check for the whole balance, and sent it to the church in the middle west, I was left with 3.50 in my pocket.”

So we see from this example that this man went out on a limp, as they say, and gave nearly all he had, to get square with God. That leap of faithfulness got quickly rewarded. Shortly after paying almost all he had, he received a check from his bank that he had ordered closed. To his amazement a check for 350.00 was made out to him, as his final balance!

Things started to rebound, he found a good paying  job at a young fledgling company called Maytag. An old stock investment, that he thought was worthless, doubled in price from his purchase price. So the Lord was fulfilling His part of the promise –Mal. 3:10.

All the while during this time he faithfully did not work on the Sabbath. His manager at Maytag told him one day ” it must be wonderful to believe as you do, but you know I could never be a Seventh Day Adventist.” He responded back why not? “Because if I begin to keep the Sabbath as you do, I will lose my job.”

The man responded “Better to lose your job than to lose your life.” The sales manager should have taken the advice, he died very shortly after this conversation. Around that same time,  the bookkeeper discussed religion with the man, and also said that he could not keep the Sabbath and keep his job also. The man again said “Better to lose your job than to lose your life.” unbelievably, the bookkeeper died very shortly thereafter also.

Later on a Wednesday afternoon, he was walking in a business section of Los Angeles and happened to be in the middle of the road, when all of a sudden a woman came straight at him and hit him square on. Did he get run over? Splattered on the front end? No he didn’t , he explains ” No, this did not happen because something greater took place. An unseen hand carried me on ahead of the car, lightly sliding my feet on the pavement with my right side ahead, and my left side against the car’s radiator! After having made about half the distance before the car stopped, something seated me on the bumper of the car, and I put my left arm around the car’s left headlight….when she stopped, I put my feet on the ground and stepped away from the car.”

“.. by that time the car and I were surrounded by people, and three policemen looking for the man who got run over. But as they found no one lying on the street, or pinned under the car, I told them it was I who had been run over! They wanted to take me to the hospital, and when I told them I wasn’t hurt, I heard one say, “He must be hurt but is too excited and does not know his condition.”

Then they made me raise my legs and arms up and down, several times, after which one shouted , “He is made out of rubber!”

So miraculously the “rubber” man walked away from the head on impact,  3 blocks to his car that day, and proceeded to drive to a prayer  meeting and spoke about the incident to the amazement of the crowd.

In 1923 the man became a member of a Los Angeles area SDA church, and then later became one of the Sabbath school teachers in 1928-29. He became popular and his classes were growing larger and larger as word spread that his teachings were quite different from some of the standard taught teachings yet revealing to many. As the classes left many wanting more, he was requested to have afternoon classes as well.

However, soon the church leaders weren’t accommodating on the afternoon church classes. One of the members, who lived across the street, offered her home as a place for the studies. They remained popular  with some standing outside listening through the windows. But as the classes became the talk of the church, the leaders began to degrade both the teacher and the teachings.

He explained “Next, they forbade us to attend their church services, and they began to ex-communicate those who still wanted to attend our meetings. They tried to deport me too, but failed. Then they endeavoured to get a court order against any of us going to church on Sabbath, but lost out. Once they called the police to have me arrested on false charges that I was disturbing the meetings, but after the officers in the police station heard my story and the deacon’s charge against me, he commanded the two policeman who brought us to the station to put us in their car again, and to take us right back to the church where they picked me up.”

Despite the actions against him, he remained a member of the church. However the later actions were more abusive. He was to get “savagely kicked, knocked down in the rain and mud, jerked, bodily dragged, plumped in a heap on the outer sidewalk.” One thing we should note is that at no time did the man ever file charges against the abuse, he turned the other cheek.

Soon, the uproar came to a head, with the church disfellowshipping him. In a nutshell, the case against him was in effect-insubordination. In other words, who are you to teach the people new truths? There is no one to come after our prophetess Ellen White. The leaders would have nothing to do with this “new light” the man promoted. Many of the members were a different story.

In 1935, he moved to Waco, Texas and started a “training center” from which to publish and send to the SDA members around the world, his findings of some new prophetic interpretations. Most dealing with last day events.

On the large grounds, he oversaw a growing ministry worldwide. Soon up to 125 people resided on the roughly 389 acres. It published and dispensed millions of pieces of literature. While there,  some divine occurences worth sharing we share. The following  is told by an older woman who is still alive and was a member of the ministry and witness of them.

Miracle of the Kitchen

The Lord preserved this shack by a miracle one early morning.  Some dish towels that had been left hanging over the stove the night before to dry caught fire when the wood stove was started for the cook to prepare breakfast.   

The roof had been repaired many times with tar so it quickly became one big blaze. (The camp had just bought a 6 door refrigerator and a Holbert bread mixer, they had saved for years to be able to buy these.)  A bucket brigade was begun but it was quickly realized that there was nothing that man could do to stop the fire from burning.  So he* (Name removed for now) said, “Let us kneel down on these rocks and ask God to save our kitchen.”  When we open our eye after the prayer the fire was out, there was nothing left but smoke.  That was just one of our miracles.

Miracle of the dam

In April of 1943 the dam almost broke.  The City of Waco sent out 300 CC men to sandbag the breaking area.  They would not go out on the dam because of the danger.  So we fed them and sent them back.  

After they were gone, he* called all the heads of families to gather by the dam. They knelt in the mud to ask God’s protection while they sandbagged the breaking area. 

When the prayer was over he* said the  
dam would not break, that it was safe to sandbag the area.  They did so for about 36 hours without stopping. Our Miracle!! 

The Hill that Answered Their PrayersThey were looking at three sites in the state of Texas, the last one they went to was Waco. Brother Houteff, Elder E.T. Wilson, and M.L. Deiter were looking for the property.  When they got to Waco and were looking at the property they did not like it. It was much to rocky.

When they saw the woman who was selling the property she did not want to sell this particular hill, she wanted it to build her own home on. This was not acceptable because that would mean breaking up the property.  So they went back to the motel to petition the Lord for guidance, it was decided that if the woman would sell, without them asking her, the entire property for $8 dollars per acre, the amount she had originally asked for, that the Lord wanted them to buy this piece of land.

They met with her the next morning, before they were able to say anything she said, “Oh, I decided to sell the hill for the same price as the rest of the property.”  So they new that hill was their answer, that they should buy the Waco property.

The man we’re discussing is likened to a male version of Ellen White. He had a 4th grade education (EGW had a third grade). He published consistently for about 25 years up until he died, Feb. 5, 1955. At one time it was estimated that close 100,000 SDA people around the world were receiving his literature. This was at a time when the membership numbered about 800,000.

The man was known for his unique ability to interpret Scripture, with many believing it was a gift of God. However only those who have read his works can attest to it. For the SDA church leaders have figuratively condemned this man to this day, with nearly each and every one never reading his works.

Either God brought a most gifted man to fulfill a purpose,  to live with us for about 70 years, or he brought a deceived “offshoot” of a man, to cause trouble and confusion among the SDA church. Only you can decide. And that decision you make, will either lead you to study his message, or ignore it.

His name, as no doubt many of you guessed, was Victor T. Houteff.

“Prophecy must be fulfilled. The Lord says, “Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”  Somebody is to come in the spirit and power of Elijah, and when he appears, men may say: You are too earnest, you do not interpret the Scriptures in the proper way. Let me tell you how to teach your message.” ( 1 Selected Messages. p.412)

Victor Houteff lived up to the revival and health, diet,dress, and life reform he taught. He practiced what he preached. Each of the 10 Commandments were his golden rules to live by. He was indeed — sold out to the Lord.

Notes- The older woman’s name is Bonnie Smith (approx. 84 yrs), who currently lives in South Carolina. Much of the brother Houteff’s history is in the Timely Greetings writings he did. Also here is a short description of his life as well  http://shepherdsroddavidian.org/history.html

Photo Album  (At bottom of page, click right arrow to see more photo’s) http://www.shepherds-rod.org/photo/index.html

Posted in Davidian Seventh Day Adventists, Victor T. Houteff | 1 Comment »

United We Stand, Divided We Fall

December 15, 2012

 Many of us have been sport fans during our lives. And often we have heard the interviews of the winning team’s members. One of the most relied statements has always been something like this,  “Well we won because we are very united, we stick together as a close team. Our teamwork is superb”. It’s no different in the Lord’s work, let us explain.

A while back we did a post called “Sowing Unity or Discord”, where we pointed out that a brother let his idea of the way another brother should proclaim the Elijah message, offend him and bring him to post against the other brother in public. We showed that such selfish actions really did nothing but hinder the message, and unfortunately sowed discord instead of unity.

But let us look at how the real culprit, pride, can cause us to lose track of the ultimate goal–win souls for Christ as we proclaim His last sealing message to His church. We’ll look at 4  important areas in relating to our brethren. 1) Respecting other views on non-salvational issues 2) Respecting different approaches and ideas in going about the Lord’s work  3) Reviewing how pride can cause us to be blinded and possibility a sower of discord 4) How humility and respect brings unity.

In Tract 10 called  “The Sign of Jonah”  http://www.shepherds-rod.org/Tracts/trac010.html, brother Houteff dealt with the mysterious 3 days and 3 nights in the heart of the earth issue. Many have diverse views on it. Did Jesus die on Weds. night, Thurs. night, Fri. night, or what? How could He have been in “the heart of the earth” for 3 days and nights if He died on Friday afternoon? And so on. Anyway,  as only he could do, he cleared the issue and explained the final days of Jesus’ life and how he fulfilled His promise to give the Jews the “sign of Jonah” and what “in the heart of the earth” really meant. (Matt. 12:39-41).

But I caught a real jewel of truth in this tract. In page 20  bro. Houteff writes,  “After one acquires all the knowledge necessary pertaining to the sign of Jonah, he is neither better nor worse off so far as his Christianity is concerned, without taking into effect the time wasted if his conclusions on the subject be wrong.

But what is still worse, should a group of people who are rightly proclaiming all the revealed doctrines, disagree with these zealous preachers of the sign of Jonah, as to what “the heart of the earth” may mean, the latter will in most instances not only forsake fellowshipping with their brethren, and cease helping to proclaim more important doctrines, but will also become so obsessed with their pet idea that their minds cannot comprehend much else.” (Tract 10, p. 20-21)

That is one packed statement! Let’s recap this. First we see that bro. Houteff is counselling us that certain non-salvational issues are just that -non-salvational issues. But when we differ  with someone else concerning these issues, we should let it go for the sake of unity. But as we read, the most often  case is that our pride of knowledge gets in the way and we cloud our true perspective and purpose! The unity fails due to the pride of one or both of the brothers, or sisters.

A while back we did the 2 part post on the “Special Resurrection” and I was careful to point out that there are many diverse views on this issue. But I also pointed out that this is what is termed “extra” knowledge, and specifically a non-salvational issue. But unfortunately, in times past,  even that issue has caused some to argue and break away from the fellowship and pridefully hold on to a “pet idea”.

In (1 Peter 5:5) we read”..God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  One of the prime reasons for a unrepetant heart is pride. We just don’t like to admit we are wrong many times. But this is where the “rubber meets the road” as they say. The essence of our Christian life is to show humility and love and understanding to our brothers and sisters. But that is hard to do in many cases if we have pride and  a uncompromising spirit. A “real” man or woman is one that can say ” Sorry bro (or sis) I was wrong about this, thanks for pointing that out to me”.

“If you listen to constructive criticism, you will abide among the wise, if you reject instruction, you only harm yourself; but if you listen to correction, you grow in understanding.Fear of the Lord teaches wisdom, humility precedes honor.” (Proverbs 15:31-33).

Ellen White explains “There were others who had received the truth from Christ’s teachings…but who had lost their first love, and were without spiritual strength..they quibbled about matters of no special importance which were not given by the Lord as tests, and dwelt upon their differences of opinion, these differences became mountains, separating them from Christ and from one another, destroying unity and love.” (1888 Materials, p.1795)

The fact that a brother or sister sees things somewhat different from what we do on non-salvational issues should never cause us to abandon that person.

We need to point out that some may ask–How do we know what is salvational and what is not? The questions has many variables but it all comes down to this. If we have converted our lives to Christ and walking daily in His Commandments and obeying His last message and will  in order so we can be sealed and to stand when His church judgment comes – we will have the Spirit of Truth within us and He will guide us into ALL truth (John 16:13).

Ellen White expounds on this beautifully “God never honors unbelief and questioning and doubt. When He speaks, His word is to be recognized, and carried out in the daily actions. And if the heart of man is in living connection with God, the voice that cometh from above will be recognized….Those that do the will of God shall know of what doctrine whether it be of God, for no deception will cloud their minds.” (Test. on Sabbath School Work, p. 64,65).

So the short answer is that we will know if a doctrine is vital for our salvation or is extra learning (as in the case of the Jonah example). And the ONLY place we can safely go –is to His word as said by HIS prophets. And we are counselled by bro. Houteff to “Hold not to what fabricated ideas seem to make Scriptures say, but grip tenaciously to what the Word, in simplicity, plainly says.” (Tract 10, p.13)

As we pointed out in our post on sowing unity or discord, a brother accused another of posting brother Houteff’s writings and hiding the author’s name. But let us look at what transpired back in bro. Houteff’s day, and which was published by bro. Houteff.

In Symbolic Code News, January 15, 1935, a Mr. and Mrs. C.E. Wessel wrote “After hearing the tirade against the SRod at the Carolina Camp meeting last June, we returned home determined to fight it, and a little while later were glad to have the opportunity of voting to have 13 members disfellowshipped from the Charleston church. But now we can better appreciate their position, as we ourselves with another were cast out Dec. 19.

A short time ago we received from one of the SRod believers a letter containing many quotations from the Spirit of Prophecy which we never dreamed were there. They put us to studying and we soon clearly saw how unfair the denomination has dealt with the SRod teachings.

We thank God that He mercifully gave us willingness and courage to read and investigate for ourselves after we had set our hearts against the message. Praises be to Him for His goodness and for present truth. We expect to put ourselves and our all into this work.”   Signed– Mr. & Mrs. C.E. Wessel, Charleston, S. Carolina

In the above we notice how that certain brother reached out to the objectors, yet with tact and wisdom (they emphasised that which would not prejudice them -Ellen White writings). Look at the results. They won them to the Lord’s cause! Truth was revealed to them on  a basis of which they could relate to.  As bro. Houteff has pointed out, the Elijah message is largely based on Scripture and EGW.

So we see  two important areas that we should take close heed in relating to our brothers and sisters. Watch that we don’t get hung up on our “pet idea”, a doctrine or teaching that is non-salvational. And be careful and tactful in approaching a fellow bro or sis, that has a different, yet possibly successful way of  reaching out to the brethren. Unity should always be a foremost thought in our minds.

Ofcourse we can’t be so accommodating with salvational issues, such as keeping and waking daily in His Commandments (ie. compromise with Sunday keepers doctrine. Or debating whether the Lord’s last message of Elijah is important and needed (ie. SDA who claim no Elijah message is needed)

The  ultimate important focus should be that we want to stay united and that we want to win souls for Christ. With Satan and his devils fighting our Lord’s last message and messengers, can we afford to bicker and fight amongst ourselves?

If we take the counsel given from Paul we would solve many of our disagreements over the non essential issues. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” (Phil. 2:3).

“Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you are doing. And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves.” (2 Thes. 5:11-13)

What work would that be? It cannot be the worldly work, so it is those who are active in the Lord’s work. Teaching, admonishing, spreading the Lord’s word and plans. So we must think very highly of each of our co-workers, minor disagreements and all.

We should point out that a good and in-depth discussion of certain non-salvational issues can be rewarding and be part of our “studying to show yourselves approved” (2 Tim. 2:15). However we must guard the ever tempting behavior to start lambasting the other one’s views as wrong or inferior to ours.

What I have found as a good way to gently leave the issue, if I  find that my view is not understood or coming across as I  intended, and is at odds with their different view,   is to say something like, “That’s an interesting view you have, we’ll just have to agree to disagree brother” (or sister). This way you let them know that their view is not “wrong” per se, but “interesting”. Who knows, they may have done lots of research to come to that view.

Conversely, there will definitely be times when the salvational issues come into discussion and we must hold firm (yet respectful) and give them our best viewpoints. But after trying to show the points and they mock or deride us about the issue, we must move on and at that point it is most likely left to the Holy Spirit to work on their hearts. Or there may be a situation that another brother or sister can reach them more effectively than we can.

Another example of all of the above, is concerning a well-known brother who teaches present truth. Recently I got his report on “The 144,000 and those with”,   again it’s another non-salvational issue. I studied it and then got an opposing report from another brother. I compared them both, with the Spirit of Truth guiding me on the latter’s report as truth. But the first brother was basically saying in his report that if one doesn’t believe in this issue exactly like he says–they are lost!  What a  selfish travesty of the work for the Lord! We see a selfish view is promulgated on a point,  that as brother Houteff says ” he is neither better nor worse off as far as his Christianity is concerned.”

We read counsel from James ” Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned.Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!” (James 5:9). Is not what the brother , in the above example doing worse than grumbling? For he has mounted the judgment seat.

 Bro. Houteff  taught much about humility and that we should not seek to take credit for things we do for Christ. Speaking of those who desire the true Christian principles he states ” He is unselfish, he rejoices in the good fortune of others, and loves to have others receive credit for something he himself may have accomplished. He expects credit from the Lord only.”(Bro. Houteff’s Letter “To Any Seeking to be DSDA)

In closing, just as we made mention of what constitutes a winning team ,let us as team members of the Lord’s final team, also strive to be united. Let us not think of ways to divide but to unite. Yes, we must and will hold firm to the salvational issues, but the less important areas should not cause us to be a divided team.

In the 1970’s I remember a song that was famous around the country called “United We Stand”,  it had these words–  “For united we stand, divided we fall, and if our backs should ever be against the wall, we’ll be together, together, you and I”.(The Brotherhood of Man, 1970)

Questions and Answers:

I understand how the doctrine of the 10 Commandments can be a salvation issue, but how does the Elijah message fit into that catagory?

That really is a great and timely question. We as SDA and DSDA, certainly understand that one of the main doctrines we believe is that in 1844, Christ went into the most holy part of the sanctuary to begin the judgment of the dead. But soon this will pass unto the existing living. The prophesised Elijah to come (Mal.4:5), many believe is he who is to forewarn the next coming of the Lord. Just as John the Baptist warned his “own” people of the coming of the Lord, so too this anti-type Elijah is to warn our own people, in the church,  of the coming of the Lord( not to warn the world).

However this coming, as one truly studies Scripture, Spirit of Prophecy, and the Rod message, shows that it is the beginning judgment for the living and is to be in God’s house (His church–sanctuaries). (See Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p.209-220.  Same book, vol.3, p.266-267, 1 Peter 4:17, Mal 3:1-5, and our post “Ezekiel 9”) Consequently, the soon to come solemn judgment and execution of judgment starts first among us,upon our Lord’s next “invisable” coming. This is more fully explained in the above references.

So the Elijah message is the last message to us to reform our lives and do right before the Lord, and gives us instructions on how we can escape the dreadful judgment that will soon come upon us, his church. It warns us to reform, in our work, dress, diet, worship and so forth.It asks us to truly care about the sins in our lives and in the church, so much so that we “sigh and cry” for these abominations. For those who have taken our Lord’s counsel in Rev. 3:18, and searched Scripture and anointed their eyes with eyesalve, they have been led to understand this last message clearly. So obviously this is a very real salvational issue. And as such we cannot compromise the teaching/spreading of this truth.

Posted in Brotherly love, Humility, Proper teachings, Warning our brethren, Witnessing | 4 Comments »

A New Sanctuary Experience

December 8, 2012

Have you dreamed of walking into the sanctuary on the Sabbath and becoming a part of a new service? One that is alive and has the Lord’s Spirit upon it. The holy Presence is felt all around. Let us pretend for now what our service would be like if we went back to the basics of the early Christian church.

In (Jeremiah 51:1) we read ” We are ashamed because we have heard reproach. Shame has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of the Lord’s house.”  Here we see that from way back, our church (sanctuary) has had a  problem. We have allowed the unconverted (strangers) into the LORD’S SANCTUARY. Let me repeat whose sanctuary it is –the LORD’s SANCTUARY. That’s right, we’ve lost site of this fact. Our behavior and service has mostly become self satisfying.

As we’ve mentioned many times before, we are now called on to validate our walk with Him, by signing and crying. Here in the sanctuary, is where, if we are showing the Lord we truly care, we are sighing and crying. The things we see EVERY Sabbath, should make us shake our head and cry out to the Lord “When  will we clean His sanctuary from the worldly customs, pagan customs, irreverent behavior, cold formalism, and so forth.

Isaiah also cries out about the defiling of His sanctuary,  “..Our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary…Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That you would come down! That the mountains might shake at your presence.” (Isaiah 63:18, 64:1).

 How many of us today view the church sanctuary as –holy? Let’s think about that. When you walk into our Lord’s sanctuary, do you feel this holiness? If we are truly upfront and honest, we must say–no. Why is that? It can only be that we’ve stopped doing things that are pleasing to Him, both inside the sanctuary and out.

In many places throughout God’s word he makes references to the “shepherds”. We are well aware that this means God’s leaders, those who are in charge of the flock (church). The majority of the blame is placed upon them!”His watchmen are blind, they are all ignorant;they are all dumb dogs which never have enough. And they are shepherds who cannot understand;They all look to their own way, everyone for his own gain, from his own territory”(Isaiah 56:10).

“….Thus says the Lord GOD to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?” (Ezek.34:1)

It is indeed a solemn thing to be placed in the position of leadership, and of which being God’s watchmen for the people, is the most solemn. Let’s now look at a service that would be a changed one or new one, one that would be very conscientious of doing right within His house, careful in each and every matter.

It is early in the morning. The doors to the sanctuary have not yet opened. The first of the people to open up the building are arriving. The few people who open it up step into the foyer. Preparations are made. An Elder walks into the sanctuary to check that all is well and in order for the service (temperature, lighting etc.)

Just a few weeks ago the pastor had an epiphany at his home. He utterly broke down and prayed to our God, an all night session. He had seen that the Lord’s true plans are centered around the soon to come church purification among his own people, his church. He was convicted. He knew that his endless peace and safety messages from the pulpit was not the Lord’s will for him  today. His purpose was now changed. The seriousness of “sighing and crying” was upon him, and he knew much of these abominations were right in the church. And worse yet, he was the shepherd leading the people into it!

So for the last couple of weeks, he has told the straight testimony. He has warned the people to straighten up before God, honor Him truly, inside the sanctuary and out. So the people have been abuzz the last couple weeks. Had the pastor done a 180? This is not the same man as before they thought. They had now been counselled on how to behave in the sanctuary and how the service was changing.

The pastor knew well that his new-found faith and knowledge could very well head him into opposition from the luke warm head leaders, yet he knew that Christ was the one he must follow. As the shepherd of his flock, he was no longer to be “ignorant” or a “dumb dog”. He must be bold and not afraid to do the “right thing” before the Lord.

The people soon begin to file in and an elder greets them at the sanctuary door, and politely opens it for them. They begin to find their seats. As more and more come into the sanctuary, there is a quietness all around. No one is talking. You see one of the points that the pastor has made is that the sanctuary shall be a “house of prayer”.  “My house shall be called a house of prayer” (Matt.21:13). There has been clear instructions that prior to the service, the people may pray, meditate,or contemplate their past week with the Lord. But there is to be an honorable silence in His house, until the service starts.

The “Sabbath school lesson” has been moved to an adjacent building. Gone is the back and forth conversations of the people in His sanctuary.Also gone is the custom of swinging the sanctuary doors wide open to let all the foyer noise and distractions into the sanctuary, after the sanctuary Sabbath school class. Instead a beautiful silence is experienced, the Holy Spirit roams the place as silent thoughts and prayers go up before the Lord, who is in His sanctuary now.  “For where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them.” (Matt.18:20).

Also gone is all the cellphone ringing, handhelds on and being used. All the people have been instructed to dress as they would if they were going to have a private one on one meeting with the president of the USA. But in this case there is One much greater who they will stand before today. The women are counselled in modesty.

It is now close to the time of the church service, many have taken their seats. Yes amazingly there is a church wide silence. Gone is the laughter, loud speaking, and the standing in the isles idly chatting.  The Spirit of the Lord seems to be growing among the people. Some have been kneeling for quite a while, deep in thought and prayer, those prayers are indeed heard by the One who is in the sanctuary now.

The pastor enters the sanctuary and comes to the pulpit, he breaks the silence and says ” Greetings my beloved church members. Let us begin this service by kneeling and praying for the Lord’s guidance and Spirit to be upon us today.” So the whole congregation kneels in prayer, and it lasts a good 5 minutes. After prayer, he invites the congregation to sing a couple of songs of praise to the Lord. The people are joyous and the sound of all the voices is helped by some unseen Spirit, for it is now almost heavenly. The Lord has been pleased with the service so far and is blessing the people with the uncanny harmony and sounds.

After the singing, the head elder comes up and speaks a few words on the different church activities and prayer requests. The custom of the children’s story is next. However, the custom of having the little ones go around and take money is gone. You see  the pastor has decided to go back to the original early Christian and SDA church custom of collecting the tithes and money for the church on the “first day”  not Sabbath(1 Cor.16:2). He also is keenly aware that to handle money within the Lord’s sanctuary is truly an abomination. This custom was not practiced in the early SDA church. It crept in from the pagan church customs. (See our post https://godsloveandlaw.com/category/tithes-and-offerings/ )

So the children gather up front to hear a story of Jesus or some inspired Biblical story. After the story they head back to their seats but are counselled by their parents to keep quiet.

Now comes the part where the people become interactive in the service. The pastor announces that it is now time for the “personal testimonies” . He asks for the people to raise their hands if they have a personal testimony of what the Lord has done for them the past week. An elderly man raise his hand and tells of his dream he received of meeting an old school friend, and sure enough, he ran into him 2 days later in the supermarket! The people yell  ” Hallelujah!”  One man stands up and says “Praise the Lord!”

Next a young woman raises her hand and tells of  how her reading the Scriptures this week has brought her closer to God. And some yell  out–amen. You see in this part of the service the people enjoy listening to what the Lord and His Holy Spirit have done. For they have come to praise Him for not only what He has done do but what He is “doing”.The people see  that they are serving an alive and working Lord!  Many others tell of   “signs” they received of the Lord. This continues on for at least 15 to 20 minutes. It has become many of the church goers favorite part of the service. The testimonies speak volumes for the faith and confidence of the members.

Now it has come time for a couple more songs of praise. The people are loving it as they are inspired after hearing what the Lord has done this week among the members.

After the singing, the pastor is ready for the sermon. He has prepared a sermon concerning Revelation. He wants to enlighten his flock of some of the mysteries therein. The people are rapt in attention as  he devotes time about Rev. chapter 3, about his own Laodicean church. No more are the ones who are silently napping  or being distracted some way. The Spirit has awoken the church!  He speaks about how we are not to be lukewarm in our walk with the Lord, and if we do on a continual  basis, our Lord promises that He will “sprue us out”.

As the sermon goes on, a man stands up and says ” I have just received a vision!”  The pastor calms the congregation down and tells the man “Speak my brother, speak”. The man begins to tell it. ‘The Lord has shown me that some in our church are buying and selling on this , His holy Sabbath day. This is not right before the Lord, please stop it!” and then he sits down. The pastor immediately goes to Nehemiah chapter 13 and reads the whole chapter. For he knows that this was a direct sign from the Lord, and that some are in need of hearing this today.

So the people are witnessing the direct hand of God in moving the hearts of the people through the sermon. Our Lord has been pleased because He has witnessed the people’s honor and reverence to Him. The sermon finishes strongly as the people yell out “amen” after he is done. He reminds them that the church building will be open tomorrow for tithe donations, or if they prefer they can get an mailing envelope in the foyer and mail it in.

As he closes the service He once again asks the congregation to kneel and pray. He requests that the Lord watch over each and every member. He asks that the ones who are buying and selling come to repentance this week. The prayer finishes and he walks out of the sanctuary. The people silently get up and leave as well.

Outside there are people glowing with an inner contentment because they have just been a part of a holy affair. The Lord was in His sanctuary! It has affected them. They discuss how the pastor has really guided the church in the right way. They shake their heads as they talk about the prior days where nothing of the sort was experienced at all! This experience has motivated them to walk closer to the Lord this coming week.

My beloved brothers and sisters, what we have read here will very soon come, something very similar, after the Lord’s time for revival and reformation has come. This experience is not my idea  rather it is  guidance from the Lord to show that His sanctuary will indeed  once again  be  –holy. Let us get a jump-start by spreading this post to  your friends and relatives if you have been blessed. That they may see that there is indeed a better way to honor Him on His Sabbath. And it will lead to —  A New Sanctuary Experience.  Praise the Lord!

Note- For more reading on the “Behavior in the House of God” see Testimonies for the Church, Vol.5, p.491-501

Posted in Church, Loving the Lord, Sabbath | 6 Comments »

A Heavenly Place For You

December 1, 2012

Some of us have made  big sacrifices  in our lives, we have greatly diminished our television watching or cut it out altogether, shunned worldly music listening, eliminated our prior daily cherished carnal sins, and just plain overcome the many snares, with the power of the Holy Spirit. But sometimes we get the urge to once again return to the “vomit”. “As a dog returnth to it’s vomit, so a fool returnth to his folly (Proverbs 26:11). But let’s keep a cheerful heart and remain steadfast in our walk for “great” is our reward(Matt.5:12).

Our Lord says in (John 14:2) ” In My Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.” It is quite fitting that for the much of  His time spent on this earth, our Lord was a creator and builder(carpenter). We can only imagine the people in awe and wonderment as they beheld the fine craftsmanship that He showed in His work. His careful eye measuring exactly on each detail.

With no less perfection we can trust that He has built for each of us,  a place that will fit us in comfort and style and bliss. I mean even the street  will be breath-taking, as we step upon it, seeing gold as shiny as glass. “The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass” (Rev 21:21).Then how about those gorgeous ripe fruits! One bite and we will melt in joy and refreshment. And drinking the pure life-giving water!

 Before I became a Sabbath keeper, I  had seldom noticed the real beauty of His work. I mean the colorful flowers didn’t stand out to me, the clouds formed were not meaningful, the hummingbird or butterfly was a mere curiosity.  Instead there is now a  loving appreciation or even an understanding of a direct sign given from Him. In short His creation is now indeed –alive.

As I become more and more aware of where I am heading to, it makes me think of the following logic. While on this earth for such a short time , can we truly comprehend that a life here of pleasures and sin, is an equal and balanced trade-off against an eternal bliss with our Lord? Is a moment in time worth throwing away an everlasting  joyful and exciting existence , full of life and beauty? Ponder this carefully, think of the rewards and your future place in heaven. A never  ending existence with One who will forever be our joy.

But let us not deceive ourselves, our Lord has sent His last message to us that requires us to obey Him and follow His last instructions. He is throwing us His life jacket (His Elijah message), will we grab it and hold on? To sum it up, our life must be in compliance with daily obedience of His 10 Commandments, and we must sigh and cry for the abominations we see in our life and that of the church (Ezekiel 9). This is all backed up by Ellen White as well (Testimonies for the Church, Vol 3, p266-267).We must hear His messenger (Elijah) and follow His message sent through Him. As I have said many times, I for one, will not ignore His last messenger, will you?

 We will and do slip occasionally but as Scripture says “A righteous man falls seven times, he rises again..” (Proverbs 24:16). The key is to never stay down, but get up, continue on the straight and narrow.

We are told in (Ezekiel 18:32 ) “For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live! ”  We have a Lord who loves us greatly and wants us to “come home”, the real home built by Him. Let us determine to do what is required of us and then there will soon come a time when the Lord’s words will be fulfilled  “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come you who are blessed of My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world” (Matt.5:34).

In order to gain this great paradise, we are counselled to “lose” our earthly carnal life . “For whoever wants to save his life, will lose it, but whoever loses His life for Me and the gospel will save it” (Mark 8:35).

In closing, once we truly convert and become born again, all things become new(2 Cor. 5:17). We see sin for what it is –a terrible separation from our Lord. We can overcome only when we trust in His word and His/our Helper, the Holy Spirit.

Though you may sacrifice now, may you dwell on what will soon be ” A  Heavenly Place For You”.

Posted in Christian walk, Heaven, Obedience | 1 Comment »

Each Must Personally Investigate

November 24, 2012

(Note: we are going to be making youtube videos of  certain posts. When a particular post will be made available in video, we’ll put the link below the post. The first video can be seen in last week’s post called “Original Davidians are Not Branch Davidians”)

 Many of us remember when we were kids in elementary school, we played the “pass the rumor down the line experiment”. A row of chairs(20 or 30) would be set up and the teacher would whisper in the ear of the first student a certain phrase or sentence. Then it would pass along the chain, from one student to the next  until it reached the last student,  who would often hear a completely different phrase or sentence.

The purpose of this , as we know, was to show that us humans can’t be counted on to pass our thoughts and ideas to further people, unlike God. We most likely will get the whole story incorrect. What we hear is not necessarily what was told.

 That is exactly what transpired with the leaders in our church passing on their ideas and thoughts to the church members, down through the years, of what was thought of the Elijah messenger and his message. Soon the story morphed into “We have thoroughly investigated brother Houteff’s message  and have found it in error”. Oh really?  How about the facts? (The infamous  7 day “thorough” investigation of brother Houteff’s teachings by the Conference leaders that was aborted in 1 day).http://www.shepherds-rod.org/Tracts/trac007.html

The reason I bring this up is because we had a church meeting this last week and what I heard was just amazing. With a straight face, one of our church leaders got up before the group and said, “I want you to know that the Shepherd’s Rod teachings have been found to be in error by the General Conference leaders..” How did he know that? He believed the rumor and false written reports that has been told down through the years! Certainly he did not investigate the matter from both sides.

Let’s stop for a moment and truly comprehend what this “leader” was saying.  Did he not remember that we,  as Seventh day Adventists,  broke away from the Protestant churches, because we did not believe in  what their leaders professed as truth? We would have never become SDA people had we taken this man’s counsel and trusted in what the leaders said! Or how about the Protestant movement inself? Did not the Protestants object to the Catholic popes and leaders dicating what was truth and what wasn’t? Truth seekers began to investigate for themselves.

Let us look at inspired counsel on how we are to investigate for ourselves the Scriptures and inspired writings and not lean on the “arm of flesh”(Testimonies to Ministers, p. 106).

Today is a  serious time for us as members of our beloved SDA church. Many of us stand at a crossroad.One direction says to go this way, a straight and narrow road, the other a wide and easy road.  We as His people are either obeying or discarding His counsel specifically to us, the Laodicean Church.

The specific counsel we are told is found in (Rev. 3:17) “Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’–and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor , blind and naked–“I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garment, that you may be clothed, that your shame of your nakedness may not be revealed;and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.”

Here our Lord counsels us about who we are, and what we can do about it. We, as members of our Laodicean church are instructed to do something. We are not to have the mindset that we can keep the status quo, the all-prevailing lukewarm mindset. In effect, by  lukewarm sermons of peace and safety weekly, we get into a feeling of comfort. “I am safe, I don’t need more truth, or to search for His present truth message. The Lord understands my lukewarmness.” Yes, He does all too clearly understand this, but will He accept it?– No He won’t.

When we read that He will vomit us out, that is a striking rebuke to us! Let us understand that our Lord means what He says. So what should we do? What can be the beginning of our stepping onto the straight and narrow? Well, as always our loving Savior tells us. He says we are to “buy” from Him gold refined in the fire.

Now to understand this we need only go to the next verse “..That you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed..” Here we see that gold refined in the fire is showing His pure Word and counsel. And that when we “buy”, which really indicates to read and study and obey His word, we can then be clothed in “white” garments. White would indicate purity, and the clothing would indicate our walk (righteousness) before Him. Adam and Eve were not naked as long as they walked upright before Him, but as soon as they sinned , their nakedness appeared before Him and themselves.

 We are in a spiritual war right now and our Lord is the General, giving the commands. He sends different instructions (messages) down the chain of command, as the war goes on and there are new messages sent,  mankind’s time marches to its fulfillment of time. Now, we are near the end of this war and He has sent His last message to us through His last messenger Elijah. Here is the message that our Lord counsels us to “buy”.

But the enemy knows this because he has got a copy of the war plan (Bible). So he has been on look out for this messenger. The enemy has told his troops to go out and destroy the message as best as possible, for this is the beginning of the last battle waged, and as such, he must defeat it (which is only delaying) at all costs.

So as this last spiritual battle is waged our Lord counsels us to study and learn it. But how do we do that? —by personal investigation. Do we think that one morning the Lord’s Elijah message is just going to come to us magically?   Of course not, we must make the effort to learn it –“be Zealous”, He says.

Ellen White knew that this battle of learning the message would be waged. ” 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.”(Test. to Ministers, p.105-106)

  Today’s real message bearers are those who arouse  opposition from some in our own church. EGW again explains “Now as in former times, the presentation of a truth that reproves sins and errors of the times will excite opposition. ..Elijah was declared a troubler in Israel, Jeremiah a traitor, Paul a polluter of the temple. From that day to this, those who would be loyal to truth have been denounced as seditious, heretical, or schismatic.” (Great Controversy, p.458)

 Notice that the above examples of the ‘troublers” were those righteous men who had direct opposition  from their own people!You see when we stand forth with our Lord’s true last message, it will excite opposition. Remember that the evil ones care not about lukewarmness, in fact that is their wish. It is only when we take to the battlefield, as it were, that they get riled up and fire up the unconverted and worse against those who step forward.

 From a personal point of view I see this, and many other brothers and sisters also experience this when they step forward to bear the straight testimony. But as we’ve read,  this has been the case through out our church history.

In speaking to the opposition that arose against bro. Houteff, when he began to proclaim the Elijah message we read in the Tract entitled “Pre-“Eleventh Hour” Extra (Tract #1)  ” Your attitude, my brethren, toward the glorious light now shining upon the “Three Angels Messages,” is but a fulfillment of prophecy: “because thou sayst, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing”, truth or prophets,–you refuse to be interested in investigating the cry of the Angel whose glory is to “lighten the earth.”

“The light which will lighten the earth with its glory will be called a false light, by those who refuse to walk in its advancing glory” (Review and Herald, May 27, 1890).

Again brother Houteff advises ” As you will find yourself under severe trial if your obey your inner convictions and take hold of the truth, you must therefore let the Lord alone be your guide, and Inspiration your only teacher. Do not value your salvation so little as to trust the wisdom of another. Be wise: obey the word of the Lord, investigate for yourself, and do not delay, for you know not the narrow margin between you and heaven! “Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.” (Micah 7:5).

In (Rev. 21:8) our Lord describes those who will not make it to heaven. What has always perplexed me is the very first description-cowardly. What did the Lord mean by that? But as I become more and more familiar with the Lord’s last straight testimony (Elijah message) I see that it does indeed take courage . At times one feels alone and frustrated because the  majority refuse to listen. Yet I know that to shrink back from duty now, would be waving the white flag on the battleground. This we know,  as Elijah message bearers cannot happen.

 Let us read one more  counsel from the prophetess.

“..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.” (Testimonies to Ministers, p.105-107)

So we can become enlightened if we investigate. Just like Mr. E. T. Wilson , a General Conference leader during bro. Houteff’s day, who ignored the general belief  among the leaders that the Elijah message was false. Instead he believed the Lord’s promise that he would be led into all truth (John 16:13). He prayed and cried to the Lord to “reveal truth and unmask error” and it was granted unto him. Look forward to seeing you Mr. Wilson in the premillennial kingdom.

Copy of E.T. Wilson letter to Victor Houteff. He was the Carolina conference leader in 1933.

My Dear Brother Houteff:

   I wish to thank you most heartily for calling my attention, as a minister of the gospel, to the precious truths of the Bible, and the gems of the Spirit of Prophecy, which are so abundant throughout the two little volumes of the “Shepherd’s Rod,” so kindly sent me, either by yourself, or at your request, no doubt.

   For many years I have been deeply interested in what the Spirit of Prophecy tells us should take place in our midst by way of “revival and reformation,” and have therefore watched with deep interest  every attempt to launch such a “reformatory movement,” but have been disappointed in all of them, for they never seemed to materialize, so when your little booklets came along they found me really hungry for just such a revival of “true godliness” in my own heart.

   I might say that when I first looked at the “Shepherd’s  Rod,” the very name seemed to prejudice me, and I came near tearing it up several times before I really read it, but each time, when I was about to destroy the book, the thought would come to me that this is against my principle, and I would lay the book away again.  When I finally did read it, I was startled, and many times I would cry out to God to forgive me for my sins as a minister, if He were really speaking to me through this little volume, and when I finished it, I was convinced that I had read no ordinary book, but being very cautious about accepting error, I began the second reading, making comparison with the Bible and the Testimonies to be sure they were in harmony but before each reading, I would cry to God to “reveal truth and unmask error,” according to His promise. T.M. 107.

   When I had finished the second reading of the book, I was afraid it was true, for I knew full well, if it were true, I, as a minister, would be held accountable to God for my attitude toward the abundance of light that He had called my attention to that I had never seen before.  Of course I naturally wondered from whence came such knowledge, and decided to re-read the book to make sure that I had not overlooked anything in the way of specious error and when I had finished it the third time, although I did not understand everything in the book, yet I was convinced of one thing, and that is, I could not refute anything in it, for it harmonized with the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy.

   And now after nearly three years of watching the result the reading of the “Shepherd’s Rod” has upon both minister and laity, I find that, almost without exception, the ministers reject the message of the book, either blindly or for fear of their superiors, and the laity, almost without exception, receive its message of reproof and warning with joy and gladness, and seek to correct their lives accordingly, and the spiritual tone of said persons is much higher than ever before for they love the message of the Third Angel more, and they love the brethren better than before.

   In closing this letter I wish to say to you that I believe the Lord has used you to bring to our people as important a message as the one that came to the S.D.A. church while assembled in conference at Minneapolis, and I think I am correctly informed, being a minister in this denomination for many years, and having labored both in the United States and in foreign fields.  We have seemingly rejected the message of reform set forth in “The Shepherd’s Rod” as completely as our brethren rejected the one in 1888.

   May the Lord richly bless you in everything you undertake in His name is the prayer of your brother in Christ. (The Great Controversy over theShepherd’s Rod, p.9, Tract #7)

E. T. Wilson

Posted in Proper teachings, The spirit of predjudice, The Spirit of truth | 2 Comments »

Original Davidians are not Branch Davidians

November 17, 2012

(Note- We’ve just passed our 3 year anniversary mark, with over 16,200 all-time visitors/viewership–may we continue to do the Lord’s will. Please remember to spread the word if you are being blessed. Thank you!)

Recently personal events have transpired within my church that has made it very obvious there is much ignorance and misconception about the afore-mentioned groups. Certainly this is not a local problem, but seemingly a global problem. It seems the master deceiver has done a magnificent job in blurring the lines between the two, hence the great confusion. Let us clearly set the record straight and remove the error and misconception.

We all remember the horrible events that took place in Waco, Texas, in 1993. The people who were involved were known as “Branch” Davidians, led by their leader, a man called David Koresh.But this story goes back much further, and has it’s roots from the mid 1950’s. We’ll now go back in time to get some foundation.

In about the years 1928-1929, a man named Victor T. Houteff, was a member of a Los Angeles SDA church. He began teaching the Sabbath school lessons. He was well received until he began to teach some things that weren’t widely known (at that time). He began to speak of interpretations , which  were very clear to him. Most concerned end time prophecies and the soon “surprise” invisible coming of our Lord.

To make the long story short, there were quite a few who embraced his new teaching, as they humbly searched it out and found no error. Soon word spread of his new found interpretations throughout the country. An uproar of sorts began. But the leaders were a whole different story. They chose to reject him and his teaching (just as prophesied by EGW, Test. to Ministers, p.475, Vol.1 Selected message, p.412) He soon was disfellowshipped, along with some others.

It is very important to note right here and now, that not once in any of his voluminous writings** did he ever advocate any violence , despite being even occasionally forcibly removed from  church services (he was beaten and struck several times as well). He never promoted  “fighting” but  proclaimed  his message  in peace and that is what he did. Not a single report of violence was recorded against him.

So in 1935, he moved to Waco, Texas. He built and started a church(Began the Davidian Seventh Day Adventists) and school and other important community projects (such as a contemporary printing shop) on their large property. He began publishing his writings and sent them worldwide ( but within the SDA church)  as his saw his mission was to “prepare” the people for this next coming of the Lord. This post won’t go into all the reasons for his work now, rather we need to lay this foundation so that we can see the birth of the “Branch” Davidian group.

In the early 1950’s a man by the name “Ben Roden” and his wife “Lois” were students of brother Houteff. Many would come to the church services and bible studies on the large grounds in Waco. Being Jewish they were quite interested in VTH’s teachings about the premillennial kingdom, old testament prophecies and such. So for several years they actively studied under brother Houteff. It seemed the more the church leaders fought the message, the more curiosity arose. Many began to ask –“Why did the church leaders disfellowship this man, when his message was one of revival and reformation?”  Some began to “investigate” for themselves, such was the case of the Rodens.

However, the first glimpse we find of the Rodens having a different spirit is the church door episode. This story is told in Don Adair’s book called “A Davidian Testimony”(page 17-18). Quite a good read for the historical facts behind the Waco disaster. The story goes as follows.

The GC leaders in the early 50’s had rejected the message of brother Houteff (They had rejected it as far back as the early 30’s), and as such let the leaders of the country’s individual churches know that Davidians (especially active and vocal ones) were not welcomed to promote their message of revival and reformation. How dare they awake the people from their Laodicean slumber! And the Rodens were active in their new found beliefs. Soon they were not allowed to attend services at their local church one weekend. Soon, they were barred from entry at a service, so they had to stand outside to hear the sermon that day.

Later on after this, on another Sabbath, Lois Roden pushed her way into the church early one Sabbath and refused to leave and remained there steadfast. So upset was Lois, that instead of going home that Sabbath, she remained in the church for a whole week! Her family had to bring her food and drink that week into the church. The next Sabbath she let her whole family in and they attended services.

Then after that service, after everyone had gone home, Ben Roden decided to remove the two front church doors off the hinges and had his son call the local newsmen to report it, with him standing in the doorway holding one of the doors. It was to be a protest of sorts.  And an article followed after in the newspaper.

Later bro. Houteff heard about this episode, very concerned, he  called Ben Roden into his office and let him know in no uncertain terms, that what he did was wrong and not the way to witness to those in the SDA church. As Davidians they were to be light bearers, not trouble makers. So here was the first sign of something amiss from the Rodens. It was to get only worse from there.

Once the devils get a small crack in one’s walk it can snow ball from there, such was this case. “Be sober, be vigilant; because the devil walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, knowing that the sufferings (such as in this case-disfellowship) are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” (1 Peter 5:8-9). “Do not repay evil for evil, or insult for insult, but with blessings, because to this you were called so that you will inherit a blessing.” ( 1 Peter 3:9)

Instead of humbly taking bro. Houteff’s advice ( and Scriptures!)  and changing course as to how to respect others and to present this most important message, apparently they heeded not  the wise councel. Ben Roden began to think of himself in an exalted light. He searched studiously and began to believe he had found truths that bro. Houteff did not have or teach. In other words, seeds of a self- styled prophet started to grow within him.

In 1955, bro. Houteff unexpectedly died, and there was a struggle of the leadership position. As we are well aware and have mentioned many times the devils, led by Satan, are hovering around any who boldly profess the Elijah message and it certainly was the case with the man himself, who started the Elijah message,  and his followers.  Almost immediately after bro. Houteff’s death things started to transpire that caused division and strife among some of the members.

His own wife, who ultimately became a disruption to the cause, and as far as we last knew, went apostate and denied both her late husband’s and even Ellen White’s teachings. We all know that just because someone is in the “inner circle”  of  prophets or even our Lord Himself , like Judas was, doesn’t mean they are guaranteed to be saved and converted. The devil can attack anyone at anytime and whatever position they may be in. This is why we are told to be “sober and vigilant”.

Anyway she became the new “leader” of the ministry. Some objected, particularly those who supported the man who many thought should have taken over, a man named  E.T. Wilson, former conference leader and close confidant who  converted to bro. Houteff’s Elijah message. This was quite a story as many of the conference leaders capitulated to the others who followed like blind sheep on what the GC leaders said. Not so with brother Wilson.

So it was that a problem arose within the Davidian Seventh Day Adventists. As reported by the afore-mentioned book by Adair “a scattering” occurred led by sister Houteff and Ben Roden(p.179). What is amazing is that bro. Houteff himself knew that usurpers would try to take over in the future. ( See Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 14, p.20-22).

Ben Roden then appeared to promote himself as the successor and had the audacity to proclaim that as the Elijah successor (another Elijah), he would never die (unlike bro. Houteff). So after the death of bro. Houteff the Rodens became vocal among the Davidians that they were the new divine leaders. Shortly after Ben Roden attracted quite a few members of the original Davidians to his cause. Many of the original Davidians scattered around the country after the early 1960’s, most going to California, New York and North Carolina. But later in the early 1990’s,  many coming back to Waco again (but not connected to the Branch SDA).

Let us step back for a moment for a refresher note. We read in ( Mal. 4:5) “Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.”  Now notice that it meant one person , right?  Did the Lord say “I will send you prophets and Elijahs ?” Ofcourse not. S0 we see that right there someone is lying. There is only one who was to come, and he is the last prophet to come to God’s people. Ben Roden is exposed yet he was blind and deceived to the fact.

Ben Roden then began to break away for the original Davidians and started what he called the “Branch Davidians”( in 1955).  He began to interpret Scripture his own way. He and his wife taught (contrary to bro. Houteff) that the feast days and the Lord’s supper were to be exactly observed. The Lord, according to him, had not done away with the feast days and the ceremonial laws. His blood didn’t cover that. There were other differences as well.

Let us fast  forward to 1978. Ben Roden died (his prediction was false) and his wife took over. She began to teach that the Holy Spirit was a feminine entity! I don’t  need to go much further with that. Then a man named David Koresh,  began to help her with auto mechanic work. He soon after studied with her and then he began to start his own  movement yet held on to the Branch Davidian name. So we see at this point that the Branch Davidians were a completely different group, from bro. Houteff’s original Davidian Seventh Day Adventists.

Let us step back for a moment and ask — “Can we not see the Satan movements in all this?” First we see  a self-styled “prophet” who comes up with his own teachings, which did not even come close to the inspired teachings of his mentor bro. Houteff, then secondly, we see his wife take over and bring further false teachings into the Branch Davidian movement! No wonder it lead to the Satanic result of the Waco massacre.

But let us look at this in truth. The workings of Satan have accomplished his desire. He has blurred and confused  the true original Davidians teachings. He has  made the broad label of Branch Davidians(ie. Waco massacre)  apply to our Lord’s real last day message of the original Davidians, led by the prophet himself, brother Houteff. Do we not know that he is the master deceiver?

In closing we would do well to remember that when we follow our Lord’s prophet’s words “Study yourselves to be approved” (1 Tim. 2:15) we will know the truth and the truth shall set us free.

Be sober and vigilant. The teachings of the “Branch” Davidians are not the teachings of the original Davidians.

**  15 Tracts (booklets), 8 Misc. Tracts, 5  Answerer Volumes, 2 Timely Greetings Volumes, 9  Jezreel Letters, 2  Shepherd’s Rod books (Vol.1 and 2), 10 Symbolic News code letters (originally published by bro. Houteff). 28 Symbolic Charts (mostly in color)

For a video presentation of this post, see this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUWIvBdV7bE

Posted in Davidian Seventh Day Adventists, Elijah, Proper teachings | 4 Comments »

Ezekiel 9 (Part 3 of 3)

November 10, 2012

Before we continue this last part of our study of Ezekiel 9, let’s review what we have learned.

1) That the sealings spoken of in Rev.7 are one and the same as Ezekiel 9, That the sealed ones will be 144,000 of the SDA church.

2)That the final sealings of God’s servants and the execution of judgment, per Ezekiel 9, happen before the Sunday law.

3) That the purpose of the church purification, is to finally fulfill the Lord’s prophesied and long-awaited righteous church and thereby receive His full power and Spirit. To go out and conquer the world, spiritually speaking, and bring in the great multitude.

With this firmly in our mind, let’s now look at Scripture and brother Houteff’s writings to solidify our understanding of Ezekiel 9, the beginning phase of the judgment of the living. While there is many other prophets in the Old testament that we could quote on our subject,due to space,  we will be showing the main ones of  Isaiah, Malachi, and Revelation.

In describing Isaiah 4:3, brother Houteff explains, ” In the light of the clear-cut facts before us, we see that the main object of the sealing or marking of the servants of God is to cleanse the church from sin and sinners, so that she may be able to stand strong against the image-beast in the time of trouble; and that when this purifying work is completed, “it shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.” Isa. 4:3 (Tract #8, P.25)

The above shows us clearly that those who “remain” will be called holy. Remain from what?  It can be none other than the Ezekiel 9 church judgment that is done “by the Spirit of judgment and the Spirit of burning.”, because the ones written among the living are those who are found worthy in the judgment.

This cannot be describing the Lord’s coming in the clouds judgment because we see  in verse 5, that after this judgment, the Lord creates above every dwelling place of “Mt.Zion” a cloud and smoke by day and a shining flame. Obviously this has never happened and is yet future. Isaiah’s time was well past Moses’ time in Exodus, where something similar happened with the cloud covering and fire at night. And Mt. Zion is here on earth not in heaven.

In perhaps the most startling and descriptive verses in Isaiah, concerning Ezek.9 we find in (Isaiah 63:1-4).

“Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, this one whom is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength?  I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”

A few important things to note from the above. The “dyed” garments are worn by someone whom is “mighty to save”. Who is the only mighty name under heaven which we may be saved?  Yes, it is describing our Lord!  And He is described as coming from Edom, “traveling* in the greatness of His strength” (This travelling was done upon His throne as per described in Ezekiel 1 vision –Wheel within a wheel, etc.) . More particularly what does  Edom and Bozrah mean? We find that in two places in Scripture.(  *Picture of that throne below)

 In (Isaiah 34:5) we read, “For My sword shall be bathed in heaven; Indeed it shall come down on Edom, and on the people of My curse, for judgment…for the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom“.  The land of “Edom” refers to the hebrew word Idumea. Which was referring to Esau’s land, the land of Edom(Per E-Sword).

As we know from our SDA teachings,  symbolically the two twins (Esau and Jacob) represent two different class of people. One was to become unrighteous(Esau),  the other righteous (Jacob). So when we read that our Lord say’s He has a great slaughter in the land of Edom, it means for the unrighteous people amongst us.

 We see that this slaughter and sacrifice is with Bozrah. To find the meaning of Bozrah we need to look to (Micah 2:12).  “I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob, I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together like sheep of Bozrah…”  Plain it is that Bozrah is describing God’s remnant people, His church. Therefore we see that the Lord has a sacrifice and slaughter in His church. But let us let the Scripture tell us more as we continue the above verse.

(Isaiah 63:2-4) “Why is your apparel red, and your garments like one who treads the winepress?(Remember Isaiah is speaking to the Lord).  I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the people no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, and trampled them in My fury; Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, and I have stained all My robes. For the day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed has come.”

There are many more Isaiah quotes we could show, but for the sake of space we shall go to the others. Also it is important to remember that this coming to the earth will not be a visable coming, as in the Lord coming in the clouds on the last day. Although we won’t see Him, we will see His great and dreadful work (sealing servants and Ezekiel solemn judgments through out His church world-wide).

As we have often mentioned, the book of Malachi is the last sign-off letter, and true to form we find a very specific quote concerning our subject.

“Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the LORD, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of hosts.”

Here brother Houteff explains the above verse–(Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 30 – 11-13) “Two persons are here disclosed to view, the messenger and the Lord.  The messenger is to precede the coming of the Lord.  He is to prepare the way, then the Lord is to appear.  And who could this messenger be if not the one whom the Lord names? — He declares, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Mal. 4:5.

   This messenger of the covenant (of the promise), antitypical Elijah the prophet shall prepare the way; he shall restore all things.  As he prepares the way, the Lord will suddenly come to His temple, to His church.  And what is His work to be?  To purify or cleanse His people by weeding the unrepented sinners from among them.  The question: “But who may abide the day of His coming?” solemnly declares that we had better now get busy and do what it takes to make us stand before the cleansing begins.

   Whom in particular will He purify? — Let us read–

Mal. 3:3 — “And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.”

   The Levites, you know, comprised the tribe from which came the priesthood, the ministers of the Lord.  And since this prophecy is to meet its complete fulfillment in our day, the figure is clear: The Levites, the ministers of the Lord in our day, are to be purified.  What then?

Mal. 3:4 — “Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years.”

   This verse implies that the offerings which we now bring to the Lord are not pleasing to Him, not pleasing as in times past.

   Here we have the glorious promise that not long hence there shall be a pure ministry, a pure people, — a people without guile in their mouths, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing (Eph. 5:27).  Those who do not measure to this standard will not “stand.”  Thereafter no sinner will stand in their midst, for “Henceforth,” says the Lord, “there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.” Isa. 52:1.

Our last quotes are primarily from Revelation. Brother Houteff ties in some Rev. quotes to help us understand the Ezekiel 9 judgment for the living.

“The angels who are round about the throne in the heavenly sanctuary during the judgment of Daniel 7:9, 10 and of Revelation 5:11 shall, as the parables explain, descend with “the Son of man” when He comes “to His temple” (His church) to separate by judgment “the wicked from among the just,” and to purge as gold and silver those “who may abide the day of His coming…that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” Mal. 3:2, 3.

   In graphic demonstration that He will come to earth with all His angels to execute judgment upon the living, the Lord revealed Himself prophetically to Ezekiel as being brought enthroned to earth by four living creatures just before the slaughter of the hypocrites in the church takes place. And as each of the living creatures has the face of a lion, the face of a calf, the face of a man, and the face of an eagle (Ezek. 1:10), — the same judicial insignia as have the beasts who are before the throne in the heavenly sanctuary (Rev. 4:7) in the time of the judgment of the dead, — and as they descend to earth, they thereby symbolically show that the work of the mediatorial-judicial throne which convenes and presides over the judgment of the dead is extended to earth.

   This extension, so far as we are able to know now, must take place at the opening of the seventh seal (Rev. 8:1), for at that time the celestial voices, which opened the judgment of the dead, cease in the heavenly sanctuary and begin, after the half hour’s silence, to sound on earth. In other words, just as in heaven at the opening of the judgment of the dead, there were “lightnings and thunderings and voices” (Rev. 4:5), likewise on earth at the opening of the “judgment of the living,” there are “voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.” Rev. 8:5.

   With the judgment of the dead, however, the work of separation takes place in the books in the heavenly sanctuary; whereas with the judgment of the living, the separation takes place among the people in the church as well as among their names in the books in the heavenly sanctuary, thus showing that both sanctuaries will finally be cleansed.

   Inescapably, therefore, the Lord’s coming to His temple (Mal. 3:1-3), His coming with all His angels (Matt. 25), and His coming enthroned above the living creatures (Ezek. 1), — all three representing the same event as has been shown, — take place at the beginning of the judgment of the living: the time in which the judicial activities of the heavenly sanctuary extend to the earthly sanctuary — the church.

   “And I looked, and behold a white cloud,” exclaimed John the Revelator, envisaging the same coming variously described by Malachi, Matthew, and Ezekiel, “and upon the cloud One sat like unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in Thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.” Rev. 14:14-16.

   This coming of the Son of man is plainly, therefore, not when the resurrected and the living righteous are caught up together to meet Him in the air: for verses 17-20, following the ones quoted in the paragraph above, reveal that after He came and reaped the earth, “another angel…having a sharp sickle” came and reaped a second harvest before the wrath of God — the seven last plagues (Rev. 15:1) — was poured out upon the wicked.”  (Tract #3, P.45-48)

In closing, I remember a documentary I watched as a young man. It was called “Scared Straight”. It was about how former prisoners would go to the prison and speak to young people about how life would be horrible if they continued on their destructive path. This is similar to us studying Ezekiel 9, it’s awakes us up to reality, the iceberg approaching as it were.

I will leave you with the actual words of the Lord and what is to soon come upon us, His church, may we take heed and convert from a life of lukewarmness and cherished sins, to a zealous and active righteous life ,  spreading His final message to us — Be prepared He is coming!

“Then He called out in my hearing with a loud voice, saying, “Let those who have charge over the city draw near, each with a deadly weapon in his hand.” And suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate which faces the north, each with his battle-ax in his hand. One man among them was clothed with linen and had a writer’s inkhorn at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar.

Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And he called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn at his side;and the Lord said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”

To the others He said in my hearing, “Go after him through the city and kill; do not let your eye spare, nor have any pity. Utterly slay old and young men, maidens  and little children and women; But do not come near anyone on whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the temple.

Then He said to them, “Defile the temple, and fill the courts with the slain. Go Ye forth! And they went out and killed in the city. So it was, that while they were killing them, I was left alone; and I fell on my face and cried out, and said “Ah Lord God! Will you destroy all the remnant of  Israel in pouring out Your fury on Jerusalem?”

Then He said to me, “the iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of bloodshed, and the city full of perversity; for they say,’The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see!’  “And as for Me also, My eye will neither spare, nor will I have pity, but will recompense their deeds on their own head.” Just then, the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn at his side, reported back and said, ‘I have done as You commanded me.”  (Ezekiel 9:1-10)

http://shepherdsroddavidian.org/images/charts/ezekiel-1.jpg  (Picture of bro. Houteff chart of the travelling throne-Ezekiel 1) Click on it to enlarge.

Posted in End times, Ezekiel, Final Events | 2 Comments »

Ezekiel 9 (Part 2 of 3)

November 3, 2012

Note: Due to subject matter we need to expand it from a 2 part to a 3 part post. This 2nd part we’ll study Ellen White’s quotes in regard to Ezekiel 9. 

 Before we go further it would be helpful to clear up a basic  and often asked question from the SDA .   “Where does the idea that Ezekiel 9 happens before the plaques  and not in them,  come from?”

Many think that brother Houteff began this teaching, when infact it comes from our prophetess-Ellen White. In (Testimonies to Ministers, p.445) she says ” The sealing of the servants of God was the same that was shown Ezekiel in vision, John also had  been a witness of this most startling revelation.”

So we see that Ezekiel saw what happened to those not sealed (the execution of judgment), and John saw that as well, but wasn’t permitted to describe that part. He described how many were sealed(144K) , and when it was to occur (before the winds are let go). As John’s revelation (Rev.7) is the same as Ezekiel’s then we see that the sealing (Ezekiel 9) takes place before the winds are let loose per Rev.7. This is important to know to confirm the time setting of Ezekiel 9. Next we can find out what the “winds”  and  “Israel”  represent.

First on the winds. EGW says, “The time is coming when we cannot sell at any price. The decree will soon go forth prohibiting men to buy or sell of any man save him that have the mark of the beast. we came near having this realized in California a short time since; but this was only a threatening of the blowing of the four winds. As yet they are held by the four angels. We are not just ready. There is a work yet to be done, and then the angels will be bidden to let go, that the four winds may blow upon the earth. Tha will be a decisive time for God’s children, a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation. Now is our opportunity to work.” (Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, p.152)

So we see clearly that the four winds represent the Sunday law, the mark of the beast decreee. Obviously we know that the Sunday law comes before the plaques, thus the sealing of God’s servants (Rev.7, Ezekiel 9) is to occur before the decree is issued.

Next we need to see who “Israel” is that is mentioned in Rev. 7. Obvoiusly the 144,000 come from the tribes of Israel. This is also cleared up. EGW-  “In order to be purified and to remain pure, Seventh Day Adventists must have the Holy Spirit in their hearts and in their homes. The Lord has given me light that when the Israel of today humble themselves before Him, and cleanse the soul- temple of all defilement, He will hear their prayers in behalf of the sick and will bless in the use of His remedies for disease.” (Testimonies for the Church, Vol 9, P.164-65)

So the 144,000 servants of God come from the SDA church. Rev. 7’s sealing is  clear to us. Who it is that get’s sealed, when they are sealed, and what happens after.

Let’s go now to perhaps the most direct and startling statements concerning Ezekiel 9 from the pen of EGW. “The crisis is fast approaching. The rapidly swelling figures show that the time for God’s visitation has almost come. Although loathe to punish, nevetheless He will punish, and that speedily. Those who walk in the light will see signs of approaching peril; but they are not to sit in quiet, unconcerned expentancy of ruin, comforting themselves with the belief that God will shelter His people in the day of His visitation. Far from it. They should realize that it is their duty to labor diligently to save others, looking with strong faith to God for help. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

The leaven of godliness has not entirely lost its power. At the time when the danger and depression of the church are greatest, the little company who are standing in the light will be sighing and crying for the abominations that are done in the land. But more especially will their prayers arise in behalf of the church because its members are doing after the manner of the world. {5T 209.3}

The earnest prayers of this faithful few will not be in vain. When the Lord comes forth as an avenger, He will also come as a protector of all those who have preserved the faith in its purity and kept themselves unspotted from the world. It is at this time that God has promised to avenge His own elect which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them. {5T 210.1}

The command is: “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.” These sighing, crying ones had been holding forth the words of life; they had reproved, COUNSELLED, and entreated. Some who had been dishonouring God repented and humbled their hearts before Him. But the glory of the Lord had departed from Israel; although many still continued the forms of religion, His power and presence were lacking. {5T 210.2}

In the time when His wrath shall go forth in judgments, these humble, devoted followers of Christ will be distinguished from the rest of the world by their soul anguish, which is expressed in lamentation and weeping, reproofs and warnings. While others try to throw a cloak over the existing evil, and excuse the great wickedness everywhere prevalent, those who have a zeal for God’s honour and a love for souls will not hold their peace to obtain favour of any. Their righteous souls are vexed day by day with the unholy works and conversation of the unrighteous. They are powerless to stop the rushing torrent of iniquity, and hence they are filled with grief and alarm. 

They mourn before God to see religion despised in the very homes of those who have had great light. They lament and afflict their souls because pride, avarice, selfishness, and deception of almost every kind are in the church. The Spirit of God, which prompts to reproof, is trampled underfoot, while the servants of Satan triumph. God is dishonoured, the truth made of none effect. {5T 210.3}

The class who do not feel grieved over their own spiritual declension, nor mourn over the sins of others, will be left without the seal of God. The Lord commissions His messengers, the men with slaughtering weapons in their hands: “Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.” {5T 211.1}    (Author’s note- This is exact quote from Ezekiel chapter 9)

Here we see that the church–the Lord’s sanctuary–was the first to feel the stroke of the wrath of God.

The ancient men, those to whom God had given great light and who had stood as guardians of the spiritual interests of the people, had betrayed their trust. They had taken the position that we need not look for miracles and the marked manifestation of God’s power as in former days. Times have changed. These words strengthen their unbelief, and they say: The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil. He is too merciful to visit His people in judgment. Thus “Peace and safety” is the cry from men who will never again lift up their voice like a trumpet to show God’s people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins. These dumb dogs that would not bark are the ones who feel the just vengeance of an offended God. Men, maidens, and little children all perish together. {5T 211.2}

The abominations for which the faithful ones were sighing and crying were all that could be discerned by finite eyes, but by far the worst sins, those which provoked the jealousy of the pure and holy God, were unrevealed. The great Searcher of hearts knoweth every sin committed in secret by the workers of iniquity. These persons come to feel secure in their deceptions and, because of His long-suffering, say that the Lord seeth not, and then act as though He had forsaken the earth. But He will detect their hypocrisy and will open before others those sins which they were so careful to hide. {5T 211.3}

No superiority of rank, dignity, or worldly wisdom, no position in sacred office, will preserve men from sacrificing principle when left to their own deceitful hearts. Those who have been regarded as worthy and righteous prove to be ring-leaders in apostasy and examples in indifference and in the abuse of God’s mercies. Their wicked course He will tolerate no longer, and in His wrath He deals with them without mercy. {5T 212.1}

It is with reluctance that the Lord withdraws His presence from those who have been blessed with great light and who have felt the power of the word in ministering to others. They were once His faithful servants, favoured with His presence and guidance; but they departed from Him and led others into error, and therefore are brought under the divine displeasure. {5T 212.2}

The day of God’s vengeance is just upon us. The seal of God will be placed upon the foreheads of those only who sigh and cry for the abominations done in the land. Those who link in sympathy with the world are eating and drinking with the drunken and will surely be destroyed with the workers of iniquity. “The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.” {5T 212.3}

Our own course of action will determine whether we shall receive the seal of the living God or be cut down by the destroying weapons.”  (Testimonies for the Church,Vol. 5,  p. 209-212)

Where do we start? The above is so packed with straight testimony, we see that she indeed practices what she preaches “will not hold their peace to obtain favour from any”. Let’s clearly understand what was just said.

We know that there is specific instructions given to the marking angel (clothed in white linen) by our Lord. EGW shows us  that “only” those who sigh and cry for sins done by ourselves and the church, will get God’s seal, per Rev. 7- Ezekiel 9.

She also confirms our opening question –“When does Ezekiel 9 happen?”  You’ll notice that after quoting Ezekiel 9, shes say that the church was the first to feel God’s wrath. So if God begins His wrath judgments in our church first, it logically tells us the plaques come after.  And as we found earlier, the church judgments happen before the Sunday law.

“The purging and cleansing will surely pass through every church in our land that has had great opportunities and priveleges, and has passed them by unheeded.” (Testimonies for Ministers, p.414)

“The Lord will work to purify His church. I tell you in truth, the Lord is about to turn and overturn the institutions call by His name….Just how soon this refining process will begin, I can not say, but it will not be long deferred. He whose fan is in His hand will cleanse His temple of it’s moral defilement He will thoroughly purge His floor” (Testimonies for Ministers,  p. 373)

“When God shall work His strange work on the earth, when holy hands bear the ark no longer, woe will be upon the people. Oh, that thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace! Oh, that our people may, as did Nineveh, repent with all their might and believe with all their heart, that God may turn away His fierce anger from them. (Test. for the Church, Vol. 5, p.77)

We remember  that the plaques have 7 angels pouring out 7 vials of destruction. Ezekiel 9 has 6 angels, with each of them having slaughter weapons, not vials. And Ezekiel 9 takes place upon “Jerusalem” (God’s people(church)-Isreal) whereas the 7 last plaques come on Babylon (the heathen world). Totally different scenes and at different times. This is beyond dispute.

As we touched on in part 1, the purpose of our Lord’s executing judgment upon His house first, is to get the church in righteousness, with not even one Achan in it’s midst, so He can pour out His Spirit and power in full upon His church. Then, and only then will God’s mighty power go forth to conquer the world, spiritually speaking. They will call out the great multitude from the Sunday churchs and other religions. Signs and miracles will abound. This exactly why we don’t see much of them today–His Spirit is not poured out yet due to the mixed church.

Let’s look at another Ezekiel 9 reference. “While the investigative judgment is going forward in heaven, there is to be a special work of purification, of putting away of sin, among God’s people on earth.” ( Great Controversy p.425).

We see that “while” the investigative judgment is going on, not after it but during it, God’s people will be purified and sin will be “put away”.  This is exactly what the purpose of Ezekiel 9 is to accomplish. As we mentioned prior, our Lord cannot wait forever for us, His people, to right the ship. He must take the reins in His own hands (Testimonies to Ministers, P.300).

In another quote Ellen explains ” I saw angels hurrying to and fro in heaven, descending to earth, and again ascending to heaven, preparing for the fulfillment of some important event. Then I saw another mighty angel commissioned to descend to the earth, to unite his voice with the third angel, and give power and force to his message…with the additional message of the corruptions which have been entering the churches since 1844.”

Here we see that the important event was in a preparatory stage as the “other ” angel comes and unites his voice to the message. The  point in this is that the message of that other angel is about our own church corruption. This is exactly what the Elijah (Shepherd’s Rod) message is all about. Notice that this message cannot be a message where this other angel tells it to us to tell the world. That would be useless, for what use whould it be for the world to know about our corruptions? It has to be a message given to ourselves from the faithful true witnesses. Then we can see that as the “important event” is prepared, it awaits the work of the other angel message to have effect, to cause those who will, to repent and prepare. The important event is none other than Ezekiel 9.(Early Writings, p.277)

Let me go back to today’s real situation in His church and give an example of our leaders carelessly minding God’s house. Recently we had a monthly church lunch. The dining room happens to right off the Sanctuary. There is a large curtian that goes from one end of the dining room to the other, and when closed, effectively shuts out the Sanctuary and vice-versa (as we do while service in going on). A while back I went to the ex-pastor and elder and mentioned to them that instead of  leaving the curtian wide open while having the lunch, with all kinds of gossip and noise, going right into the Sanctuary, we should close the curtain during the lunches (it should be closed almost always anyway).

They agreed it was good to do this. The “first” lunch after was done as we agreed, the curtain closed. The next lunches therafter, nothing was done at all. My point in this is  — where are the leaders? The whole reverence behavior in God’s house means nothing!  This is a perfect example of the Lord observing carelessness and lack of reverence in His house. Do you see why He must take control?

Lastly, our prophetess describes how the church will be post Ezekiel 9. “Clad in the armor of Christ’s righteousness, the church is to enter upon her final conflict. “Fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners (Song of Solomon 6:10), she is to go forth into all the world, conquering and to conquer.” (Prophets and Kings, P. 725)

“An awakened church- when we have entire wholehearted consecration to the service of Christ, God will recognize the fact by an outpouring of His Spirit without measure: But this will not be while the largest portion of the church are not laborers together with God.” (Review and Herald, July 21, 1896).

This conquering will only be done with God’s full Spirit poured out. How often do we see on 3 abn or other SDA sites where “man” has a global plan now to win the multitudes. Sadly, these leaders do not believe in the above words of Ellen White. If  they did they would cease trying to save the world and do what is needed first–save ourselves (His church). EGW explains, “The Lord does not now work to bring many souls into the truth, because of the church members who have never been converted and those who were once converted but who have backslidden” (Testimonies for Church, Vol. 6, P.371)

The Lord’s eye is and has always been upon His church. And as we learned one coveting theif in the people’s multitude  upset the Lord and stopped Him completely.Can we continue to swell the numbers without regarding the importance of the existing members being truly converted?

But all is not lost, each and every one of us who now have opportunity to put away our cherished sins, can be among those who “survive” the beginning judgment for the living – Ezekiel 9.

Next week, we’ll look at the final part 3, where many Scriptures foretell Ezekiel 9. These were largely uncovered by our last prophet-Victor T. Houteff. Ellen White began the work of announcing the surprise coming of the Lord to His “temple” (Mal. 3:1), brother Houteff finishes it, as was his Elijah purpose (Mal 4:5).

Posted in End times, Ezekiel, Final Events | 4 Comments »

Ezekiel 9 (Part 1 of 3)

October 27, 2012

Note: This post is primarily for SDA and DSDA.

Many of us are familiar with the Titanic shipwreck and the great tragic event that occurred  close to 100 years ago on that dark night in the middle of the sea. That experience is an analogy of what Ezekiel 9 is about. Allow me to draw some comparisons to it.

The ship set sail with many very happy and excited passengers (our church started out strong in the beginning right after 1844).  The ship sailed among smooth waters into the deep ocean, for a short while. As the journey progressed much merry times were had and no worries existed. Then soon after on their journey,  one night while the people enjoyed much music , good food, and celebrations, a couple of men in the look out tower were startled. An approaching huge iceberg!  They immediately went to work warning the people. Time was closing quickly in, and the iceberg was but a few minutes away. Then disaster struck, and the majority perished.

The above short synopsis is an example of the church (ship)  quickly approaching a similar huge iceberg (Ezekiel 9) The watchmen are  at their posts and are scrambling , as God’s people, to warn that this iceberg is right ahead and that all on board must prepare (The people must do something per Ezekiel 9). Many of God’s leading watchman, the leaders in our church, are busy downstairs enjoying the music and food (satisfied in their lukewarmness, full and in need of nothing,). The job of warning(sighing) is left with but a few of us (the ones willing  to stand out in the cold, willing to be less than comfortable, in order to protect the church members). Nevertheless this warning is being sounded, the trumpet is being blown and thank God, more and more are coming to the forefront of our church to put this message out — prepare and be ready, the Lord is soon to appear!

Ezekiel 9 is a very solemn message to God’s people. From the beginning our Lord has had a good and righteous plan for us His people, but He has also set a plan in motion that will effectively let Him  take control of  His beloved church. As the great all-seeing Lord, He knew  well that , just as His people said to Him  in the old days, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do” (Exodus 19:8) and they miserably failed,  His people would continue to fail Him through out the ages following. His Spirit and power have been  stymied. What will He do? What can He do?

The book of Isaiah, is packed with references concerning the Lord’s plans in regards to the church purification. One of those describes why He must take the reins into His own hands. ” His watchmen are blind, they are all ignorant; They are dumb dogs, they cannot bark; Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. yes they are greedy dogs which never have enough. And they are shepherds who cannot understand; They all look to their own way, everyone for his own gain, from his own territory.” (Isaiah 56:10-11).

If our leadership would not be in the condition it is today, He would not need to bring upon His church His “strange act” (Isaiah 28:21).The Scriptural evidence is overwhelming concerning our Lord’s next coming.  The Lord said in (Amos 3:8) “Surely the LORD GOD does nothing, unless he reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.” 

Ezekiel 9 is revealed in many, many Scriptures, and as such we dare not look the other way at what the word of the Lord says. What we will do is present the soon to come “judgement for the living'” evidence. And specifically, the very act of the Lord that begins this judgement.

Let us begin with the Achan story. We remember  in  Joshua Chapter 7 ,  the people lost what should have been a certain and  easy victory with the Lord’s backing. But one man, just one man, in the whole camp had stolen what the Lord expressively said was not to be touched or taken. The Lord let Joshua know that it was this man, Achan, who had caused the people’s defeat and the Lord’s anger. Achan, along with his whole family, were stoned at the Lord’s direction.

Ellen White explains, ” .. if the presence of one Achan  was sufficient to weaken the whole camp of Israel, can we be surprised at the little success which attends our efforts when every church and almost every family has it’s Achan?” (Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, p.157).

“God’s displeasure is upon His people, and He will not manifest His power, in the midst of them while sins exist among them and are fostered by those in responsible positions.” (Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 3, p.270)

 The outpouring of the Lord’s Spirit cannot come while the church has a mixed group of converted and unconverted ones. Just look at the above example of Achan, we know the Lord is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He does not change (Mal.3:6). One Achan stopped His power. Those who think the Lord has done some kind of  strange metamorphic change since then, will be sadly mistaken.

Think of this for a moment. Let’s say for argument’s sake that the Lord does pour out His Spirit upon His current church, as  most of our SDA leaders teach. It would show that He accepts both converted and unconverted. His power would come upon His church despite its current condition.  A total change and departure from our Lord’s prior behavior through out the Scriptures.

 But we know that Achan was not converted, as he was a coveting thief. The Lord refused to accept him as such, as every one else obeyed the Lord. Then it would be apparent that the Lord would have to go back and apologize to Achan for having ordered his stoning. What folly! He would have to admit to Achan that He now allows disobedient thiefs and worse among our church today. How about Korah and all those who followed him? That large camp consisted of coverted and uncoverted, did the Lord accept it? Of course not, the earth swallowed up Korah and his followers.

Ellen White speaks of those who will be permitted to take part when the Lord’s Spirit is poured out. ” Only those who have withstood temptation in the strength of the Mighty One will be permitted to act a part in proclaiming it when it shall have swelled into the loud cry.”  (Review and Herald, Nov. 19, 1908)

We know that in the last days, our Lord will do His promised outpouring  upon mankind. “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh” (Joel 2:28) So what can the Lord do with this problem in His church today? Can He expect His people to right the ship and get their act  together?His answer is —  Ezekiel 9, the “great and dreadful day of the Lord.”

“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1 Peter4:17)

The founding leaders of our church knew that 1844 was the year that our Lord entered the most holy apartment of the sanctuary. And has revewied(judged) all those who professed to know the Lord starting with Adam. But very shortly He will pass to the living.”The cases of the righteous dead have been passing in review before God. When that work has been completed, judgment is pronounced upon the living.” (1 Selected Messages, P. 125)  “So in the day of final atonement and investigative judgment the only cases considered are those of the professed people of God.” (Great Controversy, P.480)

We currently have an SDA leadership who , for the most part, deny His very last message to us, the Elijah message. They ignore it or worse, they hinder it by saying those who promote it, as brought by the brother Houteff, aren’t teaching the message properly ( just as prophesied per EGW , Testimonies for the Church, p. 475). There has been only one man in our church history who has claimed to bring the Lord’s Elijah message, and interpreted Scripture to show us the prophecies concerning Ezekiel 9. This was Victor T. Houteff.

 The leaders have refused to accept that there is a last message needed or promised (Mal. 4:5). They proclaim “I am rich and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing” (Rev. 3:17). With this spiritual “wealth” they don’t see any reason to warn the church. Why should they? Many think that both sinners and the righteous are saved, why warn? Grace has ever expanded, conversion not needed.

 When we begin to understand the Lord’s plan, we see it all coming clearly into focus.It is only because His promised  “Spirit of Truth” guides us, that we know and understand His plans. All who have a “healthy fear”of the Lord will take heed now and convert. Ezekiel  Chapter 9 will happen whether will want it or not.

How important is it that we know and study Ezekiel 9? EGW explains,   “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 be converted. Not a while longer will the Lord bear with the people who have such great and important truths revealed to them, but refuse to bring these truths into their individual experiences.” ( Manuscript releases, Vol. 1, p.260)

 I don’t know about you but those words are serious instructions to get involved and study,  the next appearing of the Lord-Ezekiel 9!

Next week we’ll look at more direct Scripture of the Old Testament that point to the Lord’s special coming to the earth. Ellen White and Victor Houteff will also show some clear verses of the Lord’s surprise plan.  

Your servant, Rob

Posted in End times, Ezekiel, Final Events | 6 Comments »

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