Home/Chat /Discussion /Links /Search /Resources /Order Form /SHRod /Audio /Contact us/ Espanol
Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, Nos. 15, 16
THE ONLY PEACE OF MIND
Volume
1
Numbers
15, 16
Copyright,
1953 Reprint
All
rights reserved
V.T.
HOUTEFF
The
Jews and The Christians’ Faith in the Prophets
The
Exodus of Today
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
1
I shall read from The Mount of Blessing, page 168, beginning where we
left off last Sabbath.
"The one thing essential for us in order that we may receive and impart the forgiving love of God is to know and believe the love that He has to us. Satan is working by every deception he can command, in order that we may not discern that love. He will lead us to think that our mistakes and transgressions have been so grievous that the Lord will not have respect unto our prayers, and will not bless and save us. In ourselves we can see nothing but weakness, nothing to recommend us to God, and Satan tells us that it is of no use; we can not remedy our defects of character. When we try to come to God, the enemy will whisper It is of no use for you to pray; did not you do that evil thing? Have you not sinned against God, and violated your own conscience? But we may tell the enemy that 'the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.' When we feel that we have sinned and can not pray, it is then the time to pray. Ashamed we may be, and deeply humbled; but we must pray and believe...."
Here is seen that it is Satan's studied purpose to discourage us, to
make us think that God does not love us, and that He cannot save us from our
sins. We are therefore to resist
the whisperings of the Enemy. When
we see ourselves as sinners, then is the very time for us to come to God, and
to accept His love and to fully believe in Him.
We should now pray for an absolute realization that God is in business
to save sinners, of whom we are chief. That
it matters not how deep in sin we may be, if we but depart from evil and
choose to do good He will gladly grant us forgiveness.
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
2
THE
JEWS AND THE CHRISTIANS' FAITH IN THE PROPHETS
TEXT
OF ADDRESS BY V.T. HOUTEFF,
MINISTER
OF DAVIDIAN 7TH-DAY ADVENTISTS
SABBATH,
NOVEMBER 16, 1946
MT.
CARMEL CHAPEL
WACO,
TEXAS
Let us turn to the writings of the gospel prophet whom the Jews so
maliciously sawed asunder.
Isa.
1:18, 19 -- "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red
like crimson, they shall be as wool. If
ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land."
With this Divine recommendation for God's professed people, the gospel
prophet was instructed to introduce his book. And now that we are living in
the present-day application of his prophecies, we dare not neglect to comply
with Inspiration's sound and fair recommendation.
Our first step shall be to honestly and unbiasedly consider the
successes and the failures of those who have gone before us.
Let us beforehand refresh our minds with the Jews' attitude toward the
prophets: Rather than going with the purpose of learning and reasoning, the
Jews went to the prophets with prejudiced minds, with malice, with hatred in
their hearts, and with instruments of cruelty.
(We must not.) This evil
spirit was prevalent among the Jews throughout their history.
It was manifested even against Moses although for forty
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
3
years
he led the Hebrew host with Divine signs and wonders all the way from the
brickyards of Egypt to the borders of the promised land.
The remnant finally crossed the Jordan only because they
whole-heartedly believed that Moses was God's mouth piece, and because they
ceased murmuring, took and obeyed orders.
The Hebrews ever after deeply cherished his writings, and this reverent
regard for the Pentateuch continued among the Jews even to the days of Christ.
As a man of God and as the nation's emancipator and founder of its
sacred ceremonies, Moses was highly esteemed by all.
Ironically, though the prophets that followed after Moses were rejected
by the Jewish nation as a whole. Those
who survived in the Babylonian captivity did accept the prophets Haggai and
Zechariah only because they were the founders of the movement then on foot as
was Moses in his day.
The Jews, according to their own way of reasoning, were honest, though
blind, in concluding that they had no need of prophets, because as they saw
it, Moses' writings were complete, there was nothing lacking in them: They
contained both the civil and religious laws.
They, therefore, saw no need for greater light and no need of another
prophet. Through their unbelief
in the prophets, they failed to see that their kingdom was only a type of a
greater one to come, they failed to see that God's Truth is progressive and
ever unfolding, that each generation has to have added Truth especially
adapted to meet their particular needs. Their
blindness to this was their basic sin that led them on to ruin.
While the Jews boasted of their faith in Moses'
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
4
writings,
Jesus reprehended them by saying: "...had ye believed Moses, ye would
have believed Me: for he wrote of Me." John 5:46.
He had reference to--
Deut.
18:15 --"The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the
midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him ye shall hearken."
Of the coming Messiah Zechariah also wrote:
Zech.
9:9 -- "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of
Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having
salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an
ass."
Though they professed to believe in both Moses and Zechariah yet they
gave no heed to any of these passages, and ever since a curse has rested upon
them.
In rejecting the prophets the Jews thought they were surely keeping out
of deception, and thought that they were thus actually loyal to Moses'
writings and consequently to God. This
they believed as much in Jesus' day as Israel believed in Elijah's day.
Let us now note that they fell into ruin only because they refused to
give heed to the prophets who were sent to reform their ways, to correct their
erroneous interpretations of Moses's writings and to lighten the path of their
feet the rest of the way -- clear to Paradise.
Having deprived themselves of the gift of the Spirit of Prophecy by
doing away with the prophets, they completely cut off Heaven's communication
line and were thus left in gross darkness and led into error, fanaticism, and
crime. They became
self-sufficient, proud, boastful, and high minded.
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
5
They
felt rich and increased with goods, in need of nothing more.
Thus it was that their perversions of the Scriptures by their
uninspired interpretations of them caused them to lose the way, and finally to
reject and even to crucify their own long-expected Redeemer.
Of Moses's writings the Jews made a mighty weapon against Christ and
the prophets of that day. They
were, however, at one time or another forced to acknowledge that their dead
fathers were guilty of the blood of the prophets.
The same is true today. Many
admit that sectarianism is thriving on uninspired interpretations of the
Scriptures, yet they expect no inspired interpreters for this day.
They thus reject the antitypical prophet Elijah even before his
appearance though the Scriptures definitely predict his coming before the
great and dreadful day of the Lord, before the Judgment of the Living
commences.
If we accept Inspiration's counsel and come and reason together while
we are examining our own standing with the prophets, then an excellent place
to begin is
Gen.
49:10 -- "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the
people be."
Here Moses wrote that the gathering of the people shall be unto Judah,
and that when Shiloh comes, Judah shall have a king and a lawgiver of her own.
Do we as Seventh-day Adventists believe in this particular part of
Moses' writings? If not, then we
have no better standing with Moses than did the Jews.
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
6
To examine our standing with the rest of the prophets, we need not
depart from the subject which Moses has introduced in the scripture just
quoted. Mark that between the
writings of Moses and of Isaiah, the Bible contains the records of history,
the judges and the kings. Isaiah,
then, is the next prophet after Moses that we shall go to.
Isa.
2:1, 2 -- "The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and
Jerusalem. And it shall come to
pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be
established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills;
and all nations shall flow unto it."
Not to Takoma Park, not to Mt. Carmel Center, not to some other place,
but to house of Judah and Jerusalem shall the final converts from all nations
flow. Isaiah you plainly see
absolutely confirms that the gathering of the people shall be unto Judah.
Do you?
Jeremiah being the next prophet to Isaiah, we shall read
Jer.
31:6 -- "For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount
Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our
God."
"Mount Ephraim," you know, is the location of the ancient
ten-tribe kingdom, Israel. According
to this scripture, the kingdom of Israel, which is still lost among the
nations, shall some day emerge from the four corners of the earth and gladly
join the kingdom of Judah. So
shall the gathering of the people be.
Jer.
31:7, 8 -- "For thus saith the Lord; Sing with gladness
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
7
for
Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and
say, O Lord, save Thy people, the remnant of Israel.
Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from
the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with
child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall
return thither."
Jeremiah discloses that the gathering unto Judah shall be from the four
corners of the earth. Indeed,
Jeremiah, Moses and Isaiah, all three, speak alike on the subject.
The question is, Do you believe what they say?
If not, are you then better than were the Jews?
Next we are to test our standing with the prophet Ezekiel.
Ezek.
36:17-27 -- "Son of man,
when the house of Israel dwelt in their own
land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings:
their way was before Me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.
Wherefore I poured My fury upon them for the blood that they had shed
upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it: and
I scattered them among the heathen,
and they were dispersed through
the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged
them. And when they entered
unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned My holy name, when they
said to them, These are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of
His land. But I had
pity for Mine holy name, which the
house of Israel
had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.
"Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God;
I do not this for your sakes, O house of
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
8
Israel,
but for Mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen,
whither ye went. And I will
sanctify My great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have
profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord,
saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all
countries, and will bring you into your own land.
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from
all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within
you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give
you an heart of flesh. And I will
put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall
keep My judgments, and do them."
What more could Inspiration say to make the subject clearer?
God plainly and solemnly promised to recreate and to rebuild the
ancient kingdom, to set it up in its own land.
This He is to do after Judah and Israel are scattered among the Gentile
nations, and assimilated by them -- after they have lost their racial identity
-- then as Christians, not as Jews, He is to gather them from the four corners
of the earth and to bring them to their own land.
(And moreover, the Scriptures teach that they are as the sand of the
sea for multitude.) This He is to
do, you note, not because they are worthy, not because they had been good
before or during their dispersion among the Gentiles, but because He is
anxious to sanctify His Own name among the heathen.
Still further, after He gathers them from all countries and brings them
into their own land, then it is that He promises to cleanse them eternally
from
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
9
their
filthiness and from their idolatry -- to remove all the defects that sin has
wrought upon them. Then it is
that He gives them a new heart, puts His Spirit upon them and enables them to
unavoidably keep His judgments. Mark
carefully that regardless of our ideas and opinions all these things take
place after God's people return to their father's land.
The 144,000 descendants of Jacob, whose fathers were assimilated by the
Gentile nations and who thus down through the centuries lost their racial
identity, are the first fruits, the first to be gathered unto Judah.
They are those who stand on "Mount Zion with the Lamb." Rev.
14:1. The faithful descendants of
the Jews who composed the early Christian church, and who also lost their
national identity by naming themselves Christians (Acts 11:26), are also to be
gathered from everywhere and brought unto Judah.
Finally, if these prophecies are not to be fulfilled, as the angel of
the Laodicean church supposes, and if God's people are not to return to their
homeland, then how will they ever be cleansed from their filthiness since the
cleansing is to be done there only? How
will they ever have their hearts changed?
And what is to make them keep His statutes and judgments unless, as
promised, beforehand receive His Spirit in the Promised Land?
Indeed, if these prophecies fail, then how will God's people ever be
able to stand before a pure and holy God?
And how will they ever obtain immortality and be on schedule for
translation if they do not comply with the prophecies, with His expressed will
and plan for His people? And if
they ignore these prophecies, the fulfillment of which is during the Judgment
for the Living, the harvest, the gathering time, what chance do they then
stand to survive that great and dreadful day of the Lord?
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
10
To be more specific, if the denomination fails to recognize and accept
these promises, then where are the laity to be led from here on?
Certainly not to the Kingdom if their leaders do not believe in It.
Do you now believe in Moses, in Isaiah, and Ezekiel?
Or do you rather still believe in fables devised by men?
Next to Ezekiel is the prophet Daniel.
Incidentally, let us remind ourselves that to begin with, Daniel did
not prophesy to the Jews, but to the Chaldeans and to the Medes and Persians.
The Jews accepted him as God's servant only as they saw his prophecies
fulfilled. The great question
before us, however, is, Do we fully believe in the prophet Daniel's writings?
Let us see.
Dan.
2:44, 45 -- "And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set
up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be
left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these
kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch
as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and
that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the
gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass
hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof
sure."
On Daniel's own word, the stone is symbolical, not of something else,
but of the Kingdom, the which in the parable of the wheat and tares Jesus
calls "barn," the place into which He is to put the wheat (saints)
after it is separated from the tares (Matt. 13:30).
Now mark carefully that according to Daniel's interpretation the stone
depicts the Kingdom, the which God shall set up not after the days of these
kings, but in their days, and that the stone Kingdom Itself, not
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
11
something
else, shall break the great image. If
our interpretation of the stone contradicts Daniel's interpretation of it,
then we do not only reject Daniel's inspiration, but even misconstrue the Word
of God! We better not.
We now come to the prophet Hosea.
Hosea
1:11; 3:5 -- "Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel
be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up
out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.... Afterward shall the
children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king;
and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days."
Can one believe Hosea on the subject of the Kingdom if he does not
believe in the former prophets who taught exactly as he? -- Of course not.
We are now at Joel's prophecies.
Joel
3:1, 2 -- "For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall
bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all
nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will
plead with them there for My people and for My heritage Israel, whom they have
scattered among the nations, and parted My land."
When God frees the antitypical children of Judah and of Jerusalem, the
church of today, and takes them back to their own land, then it is, you note,
that He gathers all nations into the valley of Jehoshaphat.
There He is to judge them -- to separate the good from the bad, (Matt.
13:47, 48), the sheep from the goats (Matt. 25:32).
And this work you must know is the work of the Judgment for all the
living. Are we to
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
12
reject
Joel along with the prophets before him, and consequently the message of the
Judgment for the Living after having for over a century preached the Judgment
for the Dead? Ponder over what
the Scriptures say and thus make up your mind to forsake all other voices.
And what about your belief in the prophet Amos?
Let us read
Amos
9:9-15 -- "For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel
among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least
grain fall upon the earth. All
the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not
overtake nor prevent us. In that
day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the
breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the
days of old: that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the
heathen, which are called by My name, saith the Lord that doeth this.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake
the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains
shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
And I will bring again the captivity of My people of Israel, and they
shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant
vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat
the fruit of them. And I will
plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their
land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God."
Since Amos with even greater emphasis bears the same testimony as all
the prophets before him, and since the language on the subject is crystal
clear as is the language of all the prophets before him, so much so that it
needs no comments, what shall we do with him?
We are now to read
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
13
Obad.
1:15-18 -- "For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen: as thou
hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own
head. For as ye have drunk upon
My holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall
drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not
been. But upon Mount Zion shall
be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall
possess their possessions. And
the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the
house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and
there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the Lord hath
spoken it."
In harmony with all the prophets before him, and in perfect clarity,
Obadiah, too, relates that in the day the Lord destroys the heathen, in the
day of harvest, or judgment, otherwise called the cleansing of the Sanctuary
(Dan. 8:14) and the purification of the church (Mal. 3:1-3), and also the
great and dreadful day of the Lord, there shall be deliverance upon Mount
Zion, and the house of Jacob shall possess the wealth of the heathen.
Do you now believe in the testimony of Jesus through His prophets?
If not, then how can you say that you speak according to the "law
and to the testimony" (Isa. 8:20)? Ever
remember that the law and the testimony always go hand in hand.
The prophet Jonah is next in line, but we shall consider his prophecies
when we come to the prophet Nahum.
We shall now see what is to be done with the prophet Micah.
Micah
3:12; 4:1, 2 -- "Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field,
and Jerusalem shall become
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
14
heaps,
and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest:... But in the
last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted
above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.
And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach
us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for the law shall go forth of
Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem."
As emphatically as all the prophets before him, Micah declares that
after the destruction of the Lord's ancient "mountain," (the
kingdom), comes the reestablishment of it in the last days, and that peoples
and nations shall flow unto it because the Law and the Word of the Lord shall
go forth from Zion and from Jerusalem. Shall
you now close your ears and eyes against this promise?
or do you as servants of God intend to get there with the first fruits?
I hope it is the latter. We
now come to the prophecy of Nahum:
Nah.
1:12, 13, 15 -- "...Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no
more. For now will I break his
yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder.... Behold upon the
mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace!
O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall
no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off."
Nahum's burden is concerning the restoration, and the fall of Assyria,
the powers which rule them in the day He restores the latter-day Kingdom of
Judah; in the day He breaks the Assyrian yoke, in the day He bursts asunder
the bands that bind His people. In
that
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
15
day
He sends His messenger to bear good tidings to His people, tidings of peace
while the world is upset with wars. Through His messenger He is urging His
people to perform their vows, for He is to take away the wicked from among
them. Assyria is to vacate and
give room to Judah. "For
through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote
with a rod." Isa. 30:31. Now
He pleads:
"Turn ye unto Him from Whom the children of Israel have deeply
revolted. For in that day [in the
day Assyria falls] every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his
idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin. Then shall
the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a
mean man, shall devour him: but he shall flee from the sword, and his young
men shall be discomfited. And he
shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid
of the ensign, saith the Lord, Whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in
Jerusalem." Isa. 31:6-9.
The purification (Judgment), here you see, is conducted from Zion and
Jerusalem. And through Malachi
asks the Spirit, "But who may abide the day of his coming?
and who shall stand when he appeareth?
for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' sope: and he shall
sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi
[the ministry], and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto
the Lord an offering in righteousness." Mal. 3:2, 3.
Do you accept Nahum? And
since Jonah's prophecy is a counterpart of Nahum's, then if you reject Nahum,
you automatically reject Jonah, too.
The prophet Habakkuk was told to "write the vision, and make it
plain upon tables, that he may run who
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
16
readeth
it."
Hab.
2:3 -- "For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it
shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely
come, it will not tarry."
Then Habakkuk prayed, saying,
Hab.
3:12, 13 -- "Thou didst march through the land in indignation, Thou didst
thresh the heathen in anger. Thou
wentest forth for the salvation of Thy people, even for salvation with Thine
anointed; Thou woundest the head out of the house of the wicked, by
discovering the foundation unto the neck.
Selah."
Can we in faith pray for the same thing Habakkuk prayed? -- That the
Lord go forth for the salvation of His people, that the vision be fulfilled
without delay, and that we run to proclaim the good tidings?
If not, then truly we spurn Habakkuk also.
Let us see what Zephaniah has to say concerning the latter day house of
Judah -- the mountain of the Lord.
Zeph.
2:5-7 -- "Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the
Cherethites! the word of the Lord
is against you; O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy
thee, that there shall be no inhabitant.
And the sea coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and
folds for flocks. And the coast
shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed thereupon: in
the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening: for the Lord their
God shall visit them, and turn away their captivity."
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
17
Since Zephaniah's prophecy is also definite that the Lord is to
re-establish the kingdom of Judah, and since it, too, needs no comment, we
shall quickly pass to Zechariah's prophecy.
Zech.
1:20, 21 -- "And the Lord shewed me four carpenters. Then said I, What
come these to do? And He spake,
saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did
lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of
the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter
it."
Once God raised "horns," nations, to scatter His people
throughout the Gentile nations, but those "horns" in the restoration
of "all things," are seen to become "carpenters," so that
while they as horns at long last cast the Gentiles out from the promised land,
they are as carpenters to build for Judah.
Thus Zechariah, as do all the prophets before him, prophesies of the
restoration of the kingdom of Judah. Now
we shall read from Malachi, the last of the Old Testament prophets.
Mal.
3:1-3 -- "Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way
before Me: and the Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even
the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come,
saith the Lord of hosts. But who
may abide the day of his coming? and
who shall stand when he appeareth? for
he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' sope: and he shall sit as a
refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and
purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering
in righteousness."
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
18
If, in the face of the plain and unquestionable teachings of all the
prophets, we as Seventh-day Adventists fail to give heed to the truth of the
Purification of the church (the Kingdom here dealt with), the message of the
Judgment for the Living and of the restoration of the kingdom of Judah -- the
sanctuary for the purified ones, -- then certainly others will have to take
our places in proclaiming it. Then
along with the Jews we will have to bear the guilt of rejecting all the
prophets since the world began. Why?
-- Because unless we actually believe all that they have written, our merely
pretending to believe in them means as much to Heaven as the faith of the Jews
in the writings of Moses meant to the Lord.
What! Preaching the gospel
of the Kingdom but denying the Kingdom Itself!
In closing I shall read from Early Writings, in the chapter entitled
"The Loud Cry."
"This message [that is the message that makes the Loud Cry] seemed
to be an addition to the third message, joining it as the midnight cry joined
the second angel's message in 1844." -- Early Writings, pg. 277.
And on page 118 we read: -- "I then saw the third angel.
Said my accompanying angel, 'Fearful is his work.
Awful is his mission. He
is the angel that is to select the wheat from the tares, and seal, or bind,
the wheat for the heavenly garner. These
things should engross the whole mind, the whole attention.'"
The author of these statements makes clear that the Loud Cry is not
made by a lot of noise, but by an additional message, and that the third
angel's message in the end of the world, not the end itself, selects the wheat
from the tares. Who among you
would be foolish
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
19
enough
to close his eyes and ears to the testimony of the prophets, and at last in
consternation cry out, "The harvest is passed, the summer is ended, and
we are not saved." Jer. 8:20.
Now, if we as a church do not even so much as expect an additional
message, besides rejecting the former prophets, then how much better is our
attitude toward God and His prophets of today as well as of yesterday?
The Jews wanted a kingdom of their own, a kingdom of this world (saint
and sinner in it). Yes, they
wanted a kingdom on earth, but none in Heaven.
What is more, they wanted it two thousand years ahead of schedule.
Now, ironically, in the time of the restoration of the Kingdom, the
Denomination takes an opposite attitude: It wants a kingdom in Heaven, but
none on earth. Indeed, it wants
to board the "chariot" from Takoma Park.
And besides while the Lord says He is to save nations, the Denomination
says "He is to save only 144,000 living sons of Jacob," and
consequently none of the sons of other nations!
The Jews wanted nothing but what they wanted, and nothing is just what
they got. So it will be with the
Denomination if this clear cut and extra Biblical Truth, and the example of
the Jews does not help her see that she has drifted "to sea without chart
or compass." -- Christ Our Righteousness, pg. 37 (1941 edition).
If she continues to want nothing but what she wants, it is certain that
nothing is what she can expect.
Pray tell, what more should one expect to get from partial belief in
the prophets, from private human interpretation of the Scriptures, from a
system
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
20
of
explaining away the Scriptures, of making mysteries of simple passages by the
use of unknown manuscripts and sectarian translations?
Let us hold to "the book of the Lord" which His mouth hath
commanded, and which manuscripts His "Spirit...hath gathered...."
Isa. 34:16.
Say anything you wish against the Jews, but my study tells me that we
as Seventh-day Adventists are outdoing them in mischief.
Moreover, it is now seen that our study of this afternoon is a summary
of the message to the Laodiceans, who think that they are rich and increased
with goods, and have need of nothing more, though they have need of
everything. They had better awake
to their poverty.
To be sure, the present state of affairs does appear gloomy. Yet seeing
that this dark and cloudy day holds forth a future of unsurpassing glory, let
us with the prophet Habakkuk say: "Although the fig tree shall not
blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall
fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the
fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the
Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Hab. 3:17, 18.
Thus, just as the apostles defeated the enemy of the church in their
day, likewise shall we defeat him in our day.
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 15
21
THE
EXODUS OF TODAY
TEXT
OF ADDRESS BY V.T. HOUTEFF,
MINISTER
OF DAVIDIAN 7TH-DAY ADVENTISTS
SABBATH,
NOVEMBER 23, 1946
MT.
CARMEL CHAPEL
WACO,
TEXAS
This afternoon we shall study Zechariah 8. The first thing we need to know in the study of this chapter is whether its promises are made to the people of Zechariah's time or to the people of our time. To find this out, it is necessary for us to read a few scattered verses. We shall begin with
Zech.
8:7, 8 -- "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will save My people
from the east country, and from the west country; and I will bring them, and
they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be My people, and I
will be their God, in Truth and in righteousness."
In these verses we see that God is promising to save His people not
from the land of ancient Babylon, where Zechariah then was, but from the east
and from the west, and to bring them to Jerusalem.
They are to be His people, not by virtue of their ancestry, or by some
other, but in Truth and righteousness. Now,
since the promise in these verses did not meet its fulfillment in Zechariah's
day, nor at any time thereafter, it stands to reason that it must meet its
fulfillment sometime in the future. Let
us read--
Zech.
8:13 -- "And it shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse among the
heathen, O house of Judah, and
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 16
22
house
of Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: fear not, but let
your hands be strong."
Besides promising to save His people from the east and from the west,
the Lord promises to save also the house of Judah and the house of Israel,
both of the scattered ancient kingdoms. You
are well acquainted with the fact that the ten-tribe kingdom constituted the
house of Israel. And since these
two kingdoms have never yet been united and brought back to Jerusalem, there
is but one logical conclusion to be reached: The promises of this chapter are
to be fulfilled in the time of the "gathering of the people" from
the four corners of the earth. In
view of this great and grand work the Lord expects our hands to be
"strong." Next we shall
read--
Zech.
8:20-22 -- "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; It shall yet come to pass, that
there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities: and the
inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to
pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts: I will go also.
Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of
hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord."
Since we know that no nation aside from the Jewish nation in
Zechariah's day went to seek the Lord and to pray before Him in Jerusalem,
there is no alternative but again to admit that the promises of Zechariah 8
belong to the people in the time of the final harvests, in the gathering time.
Having completed our analysis of the time this chapter meets its
fulfillment, we can, I am sure, now study the prophecy itself with much
greater interest than we could have otherwise.
Let us begin with
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 16
23
Zech.
8:1-3 -- "Again the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, Thus
saith the Lord of hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was
jealous for her with great fury. Thus
saith the Lord; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of
Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of
the Lord of hosts the holy mountain."
Yes, wonderful things are spoken of Zion and Jerusalem.
At one time the Lord forsook the city and scattered the people. But at
the time these scriptures are being revealed, He is to return, to gather His
elect, and to bring them to Zion and Jerusalem.
When this great work shall have been accomplished Jerusalem will then
be called "a city of Truth,...the holy mountain" -- a people well
versed in God's whole Truth and without a sinner in their midst.
This great wonder evidently takes place during the Judgment of the
Living, the righteous are taken there while the wicked are being bound in
bundles as it were for to be destroyed. And
while the Lord dwells in Zion, His Truth shall then emanate from Zion and
Jerusalem. Then it is that
"many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in
Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord."
Now is our greatest chance to work and pray "Thy Kingdom come, Thy
will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
Zech.
8:4, 5 -- "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; There shall yet old men and old
women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his
hand for very age. And the
streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets
thereof."
Jerusalem shall be a city of joy, too.
There shall
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 16
24
be
no fear or accident; even the children shall safely play in the streets.
There shall be no "long faces," and no worried looks.
So shall it be for both young and old.
Zech.
8:6 -- "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; If it be marvelous in the eyes of
the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvelous in Mine
eyes? saith the Lord of
hosts."
Just because the fulfillment of this prophecy might seem too marvelous
and impossible, must it necessarily seem impossible to the Lord, also? --
Indeed not.
Zech.
8:7, 8 -- "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will save My people
from the east country, and from the west country; and I will bring them, and
they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be My people, and I
will be their God, in Truth and in righteousness."
Zechariah predicts the gathering of the saints out of all nations into
God's purified and Truth-filled church, the Kingdom, just as the parable of
the harvest teaches, only the wheat is to be put into the barn, church.
There is to be no mixed company of saints and sinners in the "holy
mountain of the Lord."
Zech.
8:9 -- "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Let your hands be strong, ye that
hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, which were in the
day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that the
temple might be built."
God here counsels us to let our hands be strong, and stable.
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 16
25
We, too, should hear the words of the prophets and though we be not
building the temple which they were building, yet that is the only way that
our work can prosper. We cannot
afford to close our ears to what the prophets say, or to sit down in an
unconcerned attitude.
Zech.
8:10-12 -- "For before these days there was no hire for man, nor any hire
for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because
of the affliction: for I set all men every one against his neighbour.
But now I will not be unto the residue of this people as in the former
days, saith the Lord of hosts. For
the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground
shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will
cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things."
How thankful and glad we ought to be that the days of our affliction
are almost at the end, that now if we hear His prophets, and brace ourselves
for the work, the Lord assures us of peace and prosperity.
This may soon be ours if we but steadfastly cling to the Truth, and
thus to the Lord.
Zech.
8:13 -- "And it shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse among the
heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and ye
shall be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong."
Though we have been great sinners and a great curse among the heathen,
yet even far greater will our blessings be if we let Him give them to us.
Our hands, should be strong to hasten that glad day.
Zech.
8:14, 15 -- "For thus saith the Lord of hosts; As I
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 16
26
thought
to punish you, when your fathers provoked Me to wrath, saith the Lord of
hosts, and I repented not: so again have I thought in these days to do well
unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah: fear ye not."
Again and again we are assured that as great as has been His people's
punishment, just that great shall be their joy and comfort now in the
gathering time.
Zech.
8:16 -- "These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the
Truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of Truth and peace in your
gates."
Everyone one of us is admonished to teach the Truth to his neighbour,
to do whatever he finds close to his hand.
We are to execute judgment of Truth rather than waste breath and time
talking about the sins of others lest we fail to see the knotty
"beam" in our own eye. Let
us, as this scripture instructs, speak the Truth, execute judgment and peace
in our homes and in our midst. Never
should we busy ourselves with other people's concerns.
We should do well if we manage our own.
Zech.
8:17 -- "And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his
neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith
the Lord."
Of all the things Christians need to learn, this one thing is most
urgent: That they be honest with themselves and with others, that they always
speak the truth, that they cease imagining evil against one another.
Remember, when you repeat hear-say you most likely are speaking
falsehood, either wholly or in part. This
you cannot afford to do, for "there shall in no wise enter [the city]
anything that...maketh a lie" Rev. 21:27.
Evil speaking and evil surmising
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 16
27
are
things which the Lord hates.
Zech.
8:18, 19 -- "And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me, saying, Thus
saith the Lord of hosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the
fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the
house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love the Truth
and peace."
These ancient and typical fasts shall turn to be antitypical feasts of
joy and gladness.
Zech.
8:22 -- "Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord
of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord."
It is interesting to envisage the expansion of God's Truth as outlined
in this chapter: First, one individual speaks the Truth to another individual.
Then one city communicates It to another city.
Finally, one strong nation invites another nation to join the Lord.
Thus will the harvest continue until the gospel work is finished, until
God's faithful people stand on the Lord's right side (in the Kingdom), and the
hypocrites with the heathen stand on His left side (in the condemned Gentile
world that is ready to perish).
Zech.
8:23 -- "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; In those days it shall come to
pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even
shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with
you: for we have heard that God is with you."
It is logical to conclude that the ten men who take hold of all the
languages of the nations in the time of this great ingathering are figurative
of a group of people (the church freed from tares in the harvest
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 16
28
time),
just as the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1) are figurative of the church while the
tares are still commingled with wheat. The
ten servants (Luke 19:13), and the ten horns (Rev. 12:3; 17:3) are numbers of
universality. These ten men will
speak all the languages as did the Apostles on the Pentecost.
Obviously, the "Jew" whose skirt the people will take hold of
must be the one through whom the Lord is working to reveal Himself and His
Truth to the people. Having
discovered this fact, naturally they will say, "We will go with you: for
we have heard that God is with you."
This particular Jew, of course, is not of the present-day identified
Jews, but most likely a descendant of the Christian Jews, -- perhaps of those
who in the apostolic age lost their identity by naming themselves Christians
(Acts 11:26). Again, he may be a
descendant of any of the Jews who were driven from their homeland, scattered
throughout the nations, and assimilated by them, then converted to
Christianity.
"And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand
for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall
be glorious. And it shall come to
pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to
recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from
Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and
from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the
outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four
corners of the earth.... And there shall be an highway for the remnant of His
people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day
that he came up out of the land of Egypt." Isa. 11:10-12,
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 16
29
Thus shall the gathering of the people be in the final exodus of today.
This ends the eighth chapter of Zechariah, and now we shall in a brief
summary consider some of the things which we have learned in this study:
First and most important of all, we have learned that the promises
contained in Zechariah's prophecy are to be fulfilled in our day, and that
very shortly wonderful things are to happen; that at one time the Lord had to
forsake Jerusalem and scatter His people throughout the world, but now He is
to return and gather His elect from the four corners of the earth; that
Jerusalem is to be called a city of Truth and of joy -- no fear, no accidents,
no sorrow there; that God's people are to enjoy peace and prosperity; that
they are to speak well of everyone, no longer will they waste their breath or
time talking of the sins of others; that never will they busy themselves with
other people's concerns; that they are to manage their own, and execute
judgment and peace in their homes; that God's Truth is to expand rapidly: at
first one individual speaking the Truth to another; then one city
communicating It to another city; finally one strong nation is to invite
another nation to join the Lord.
I agree with you that these promises do seem incredible and even
fantastic. But the more they so
appear, the brighter the prospect, for God does not do what seems possible to
man, but He does the things that seem altogether impossible to them.
Think of God's marvelous work in the Exodus Movement: He led them out
of Egypt, while they marched through the Red Sea, through the desert, and
through the Jordan. He brought
down manna from heaven, and continued to do so for forty long years.
Visualize, if you can,
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 16
30
Pharaoh's
brick slaves becoming prophets, priests, and kings!
The three Hebrews comfortably standing in the midst of the fiery
furnace; and of Daniel in the lion's den; of Mordecai's victory over Haman; of
David's victory over the giant; of Joseph feeding the world; of Moses
surviving the Nile; of Samson pulling down the temple by bare hands. Countless
are the wonders of God's mighty power all through the ages.
All these deliverances, and many others were absolutely impossible with
men, but very much possible with God. These
mighty miracles bring us face to face with the fact that God is in the
business of making "possibles" out of discordant
"impossibles." Therefore,
"let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words"
of the Lord.
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 16
31