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Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, Nos. 51, 52
THE ONLY PEACE OF MIND
Volume
1
Numbers
51, 52
Copyright,
1953 Reprint
All
rights reserved
V.T.
HOUTEFF
Or
Is It Something Dead and Waning?
Five
Men Slay After One Sets A Mark
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 51
1
Take
No Thought For The Morrow
I shall read from "Christ's Object Lessons," beginning on
page 18.
"Christ sought to remove that which obscured the truth.... His
words placed the teachings of nature as well as of the Bible in a new aspect,
and made them a new revelation.... He gave the lesson, 'Consider the lilies of
the field, how they grow [in the simplicity of natural beauty]; they toil not,
neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his
glory was not arrayed like one of these.'
Then followed the sweet assurance and the important lesson, 'Wherefore,
if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is
cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?'
In the sermon on the mount these words...were spoken to the multitude,
among whom were men and women full of worries and perplexities, and sore with
disappointment and sorrow. Jesus
continued: 'Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat?
or, What shall we drink? or,
Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (for
after all these things do the Gentiles seek;) for your heavenly Father knoweth
that ye have need of all these things.'..."
We are now to pray that as Christ's servants, we do all we can to
remove that which obscures the Truth of today; that we find light through
nature and the Bible; that we realize that the Lord cares for us more than He
cares for the lilies; that we learn to trust in Him and to do His bidding, and
be no longer like the Gentiles who worry about the things of this world; that
we know He will see that we have all our needs if our chief business is to
advance His Kingdom.
Timely
Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 51
2
IS
RELIGION SOMETHING LIVING AND GROWING? OR IS IT SOMETHING DEAD AND WANING?
TEXT
OF ADDRESS BY V.T. HOUTEFF,
MINISTER
OF DAVIDIAN 7TH-DAY ADVENTISTS
SABBATH,
JULY 26, 1947
MT.
CARMEL CHAPEL
WACO,
TEXAS
Is religion something that grows and expands, or is it something that stands still? Just the other day we heard on the radio a certain minister boast that his denomination has not added or discarded a doctrine ever since it was organized. Is this something to brag about? or is it something to bemoan? This is a question to which we now wish to find the answer.
If the world does not stand still, if it makes the progress it does,
then why should the church stand still? Why
should the church not know more of God and more of the Bible today than she
did yesterday? Why should
Christianity be proud of not adding Bible doctrines?
What a world this would be if everything was not moving ahead as it is!
If we were to compare the world's increased knowledge and
accomplishments in the last 50 or 100 years with the Church's increased
knowledge and accomplishments in the same period of time, we may see that
there is no comparison whatsoever.
Look at the progress the world has made, and look at the stupidity
which the Church is cultivating. Yes,
I say cultivating, because it seems that rather than bemoaning
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Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 51
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the
fact of not having added or discarded a doctrine, and rather than encouraging
the people to be on the watch for God's visitations, they are making it their
business to keep the laity from coming in contact with God's messengers and
His progressive Truth, with "meat in due season," with God's
messages for today. Anything that
does not originate in their own conventions, the laity are told to have
nothing to do with it. This they
do simply because they themselves do not accept the Truths God sends; and
because if any of their congregation came in contact with and accept It, they
naturally will have to join Truth wherever Truth is.
So it is their chief business to keep the laity in darkness and in fear
that someone is to deceive them if they expose themselves to anything that
their ministers do not approve.
Such a course may hold back progress for years, but it can never
succeed, -- no, not any more than did the opponents of Galileo make the earth
flat by compelling him to recant his position that the earth is round, and no
more than Rome succeeded against the Protestant Reformation or the priests and
rabbis against Christianity. It
is, therefore, high time to realize that people who must be held in ignorance
of something in order to be kept loyal to the Church, are certainly not worth
having; and that the only way to have them really loyal, and firmly
established in the Truth, and saved in the Kingdom, is to teach the Truth and
then give them freedom to choose so that they themselves might personally know
what is Truth and what is error. To
keep them in darkness of what the deceivers teach (if they be deceivers), is
to keep them ignorant of what is in the air.
It is to forever close Heaven's communication line, and to make of the
people spiritual invalids and automatons. The
people must for themselves know what the Truth is, and for themselves must
decide what to do with It if they are ever to be granted
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Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 51
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admission
to the Kingdom. Both those who
must be fenced in, or led with a rope or driven with a club as it were into
the Kingdom, and those who build the fence, pull the rope, or hold the club
will find the door closed, and will hear the Master say, "Depart from Me;
I never knew you." Ministers
are not called to be taskmasters, nor conscience for others.
They are called to be teachers of the Truth.
If the Church is not making progress with Truth, if she is not
periodically adding unquestionable knowledge to knowledge, then, I am sure,
she has nothing to boast about. She
is inactive, her communication line with Heaven broken, is God forsaken, dead.
She can never serve her members with "meat in due season"
from the throne of God.
Let us for example take religion as it is in the Bible today.
It did not come all at once. Rather,
it took something like four thousand years to accumulate, and about two
thousand more years to comprehend as much as the Church has comprehended by
now.
If we should compare Abel's knowledge of religion with the Christian's
knowledge of it, we should no doubt discover that there is no comparison, that
Abel knew comparatively only the very first principle of the Christian's
faith. If religion, therefore, is
not something living, growing, and progressing, then what is it?
Abel's religion of six thousand years ago has advanced and expanded to
meet the people's necessities of today. This
was done only by Inspiration's adding to it, and Itself unfolding it.
If the Church is not commensurably growing and expanding, then how can
she be a living Church? and how
can she keep up
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Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 51
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with
the signs of the times, and with the progress in the sanctuary above?
Let us read:
Eph.
4:11-14 -- "And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some,
evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we
all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:
that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about
with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness,
whereby they lie in wait to deceive."
Inspiration makes it plain that God's plan is that the Church should
ever be growing both in knowledge and perfection till we all come in the unity
of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto
the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we henceforth be no
more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in
wait to deceive.
Since the Church has not yet attained the standard set forth in this
verse of Scripture, it is obvious that she needs to have greater knowledge of
Bible religion than she has at the present time.
Being far from having reached such unity of faith, of knowledge, and
perfection, we see the need as clear as crystal: We as Christians need to
start growing, otherwise the season of such growth will pass and we shall be
left but dwarfs, not having advanced far
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enough
to be eligible for a home in the Kingdom.
Then shall it come to pass that all such unmatured Christians shall
bitterly cry out, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are
not saved." Jer. 8:20.
Bible knowledge you see, is Heaven's way to salvation and eternity, but
the modern minister's way is to keep men ignorant of what is taught outside
their own circles, so they may have men under their control.
That Truth is growing, and that we should keep pace with It, we shall
now read:
Rev.
14:6-10 -- "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having
the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to
every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice,
Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and
worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of
waters. And there followed
another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because
she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man
worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in
his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is
poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be
tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in
the presence of the Lamb."
Here are represented three messages, one following the other.
Unless we keep pace with each of them progressively, we shall find
ourselves trailing behind the time, as are the Jews to this day.
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Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 51
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Those who fail to keep pace with the Truth as Inspiration unfolds It,
can never, of course, come to "the unity of the faith," and to a
full "knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure
of the stature of the fullness of Christ."
Such will forever be "children, tossed to and fro, and carried
about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men,..." Eph. 4:13,
14.
Plainly, then, religion itself is something living and unfolding, but
the tragedy is that not all are keeping pace with it.
Let us look into this vital subject even more concretely.
Truth, you know, kept unfolding and growing even after Moses' death.
The Jews, though, killed the prophets and did not advance any further
than where Moses left them. In
fact, they ever retrogressed. And
so they are where they are today because they failed to change their course
even though prophet after prophet was sent to keep them from the pit into
which they were fast falling. Even
Christ Himself failed to awaken them to the dreadfulness of their situation.
Only a comparatively few saw the red light, the danger, and returned to
the Lord.
This halting and backsliding never did stop.
It has continued on and on to this very day.
Even the early Christian church herself eventually went to sleep, and
brought on the Dark Ages of religion. Moreover,
though Inspiration placed the bright light of Truth in the hand of the
Reformation during the darkest hour of that day, yet the Church as a whole
failed to see the light, failed to see the need of reformation.
Rather than coming to the light, the church did all she could to put it
out. The elect, nevertheless,
walked out of the darkness and into the
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Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 51
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light.
Thus it was that another sect, the Lutheran denomination, was
organized.
But this was only the beginning of the Reformation.
As one Truth after another began to unfold, and each forced the
inception of a new denomination because each of the older daughters (sects),
following in the footsteps of the mother, herself, refused to keep pace with
the messages. Indeed, the
Lutheran denomination itself, like all others before or after, was satisfied
to remain where Luther left it. And
so of necessity another, the Presbyterian denomination, came into being.
Thus down the stream of time one denomination after another has done
likewise.
This is how it has been all through the centuries.
This is why not one of the churches has climbed any higher than the
founders left them. And this is
why Christians, rather than growing into the unity of the faith, are with each
passing day, becoming more and more disunited in faith and hostile to each
other's faith.
To boast, therefore, that one's denomination has never added a doctrine
or laid off one, is to admit that his church is at a standstill, virtually
saying, "We are rich and increased with goods, and have need of
nothing," when in fact they are "wretched, miserable, poor, blind,
and naked," but know it not.
Very obviously, religion is something which grows and unfolds, but its
people as an organization have never kept pace with it.
The most astonishing part of it is that those who have led the
denominations after the death of their founders, rather than teach the laity
to watch and
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Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 51
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wait
for more revealed Truth, instead are teaching that their church has all Truth
and that there is need of no more.
Here we see that the "church militant" is in reality the
church which is militant against advancing Truth, and that "the church
triumphant" is the church which marches on with the progress of Truth.
This fact was seen at the very first step toward progress in religion:
Both Cain and Abel were endeavoring to walk in the highway of progress by each
offering a sacrifice. Abel
worshiped according to the wisdom of God, whereas Cain worshiped according to
the wisdom of man. Cain's
sacrifice was merely the counterfeit of Abel's.
Here we see that where Truth is, there is also a counterfeit.
While there are denominations which were established on Truth, there
are also counterfeits, and that is what accounts for the great multiplicity of
denominations and sects.
Cain's slaying Abel for doing what the Lord would have him do, is a
type of false worship, of opposition and of persecution.
Thus has it been in the past, and still is: Those who are in error are
ever found hostile against Truth and persecuting those who practice the Truth.
Now suppose that Abel had lived until our day and had followed the
progress of Truth through each generation, what would have been his experience
in religion? -- He would necessarily have joined with Enoch's movement; with
Noah's; with Abraham's; with Jacob's; with Moses'; with all the prophets';
with John the Baptist's; with the Apostles'; then with the Lutherans'; with
the Presbyterians'; with the Methodists'; with the First-day Adventists'; with
the Seventh-day
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Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 51
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Adventists';
and at last he would have joined the Davidian Seventh-day Adventists.
In order for him to keep up with advancing Truth, Abel would have had
to leave one movement and join another at each new unfoldment of Truth,
otherwise he would have remained as ignorant in the progress of religion as
have the Jews.
We now see as plainly as Truth can make it, that throughout the ages,
the Church triumphant was and still is made up of the Church's members who
unceasingly kept climbing the ladder of Truth all along to this day.
Ezek.
36:23, 24 -- "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."
Here the truth is again reiterated: Those who are determined to stay
down on the first rung of the ladder of Truth, will be left there to stay
forever. But those who keep pace
with Truth shall be brought into their own land, no longer having to sit in
the pews with the Laodiceans and no longer having to tread the lands of the
Gentiles.
Ezek.
36:25 -- "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."
This thorough and final cleansing, you see, is obtained only after the
Church triumphant moves into
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the
Promised Land. Those who fail to
keep pace with the Truth and who choose to stay with their idols, will be
unable to carry out their personal desires anyway, for "they shall go
into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the
Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the
earth." Isa. 2:19.
Ezek.
36:26 -- "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."
When this cleansing takes place, then it is that a new heart and a new
spirit will be given to all who are now striving to grow in the knowledge of
God, and who are then found in the Kingdom.
After this heart operation takes place, to do the will of God will be
but a natural thing: There will no longer be a struggle against the carnal
heart.
Ezek.
36:27-29 -- "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.
And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye
shall be My people, and I will be your God.
I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for
the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you."
Dan.
12:1 -- "And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which
standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble,
such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that
time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in
the book."
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Lo, the world is already headed for the time of trouble.
And when it is reached, refuge will be found only in an up-to-date
Truth, Truth that puts one's name in Michael's book of Heaven.
Dan.
12:10 -- "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the
wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the
wise shall understand."
Who are the wise: -- They must be those who are ever searching for
"golden oil," those who have their vessels full (Matt. 25:1-13).
Those who are let in through the door are those who have obtained and
followed an up-to-date map of Truth.
Religion, Brother, Sister, is not something dead and waning. It is
something living and growing, and God's people grow with it.
And now in closing I wish to leave this question for you to ponder and
to answer to yourself: Is this experience -- the experience of progressing
with Truth -- your experience? If
it is not, then why not? yes,
why? Is it not worth everything
-- money, houses, lands, friends, mothers, fathers, husbands or wives?
Is it not worth all these in order to double them?
(See Isaiah 61:6, 7; Mark 10:28-31.)
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Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 51
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TEXT
FOR PRAYER
Bringing
New Truths
I shall read from "Christ's Object Lessons," page twenty, beginning with the second paragraph.
"In the earlier part of His ministry, Christ had spoken to the
people in words so plain that all His hearers might have grasped truths which
would make them wise unto salvation. But
in many hearts the truth had taken no root, and it had been quickly caught
away. 'Therefore speak I to them
in parables,' He said; 'because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear
not, neither do they understand.... Jesus desired to awaken inquiry.
He sought to arouse the careless, and impress truth upon the
heart...."
In Christ's day it was just as difficult to bring new truths to the
people as it is today. Jesus used
every possible means to interest the people in the present Truth of His day,
but you know what little success He did have -- just a few of the common
people. The so-called learned men
of the day bitterly opposed Him and spent their time and means to falsely
accuse Him of one thing, then of another.
In the kind of world we live we cannot expect the people to be
different today than what they were in His day.
Let us therefore pray that we ever keep awake, that we continue to be
even more dissatisfied with our attainments as the days go by lest we, too, be
found wanting -- back into Laodiceanism.
Let us pray that our hearts be ever open to His unfolding Truth, and
that we never lose our hunger for "meat in due season."
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Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 52
14
FIVE
MEN SLAY AFTER ONE SETS A MARK
TEXT
OF ADDRESS BY V.T. HOUTEFF,
MINISTER
OF DAVIDIAN 7TH-DAY ADVENTISTS
SABBATH,
AUGUST 2, 1947
MT.
CARMEL CENTER
WACO,
TEXAS
The subject of our study this afternoon is found in the ninth chapter of Ezekiel. We shall begin with--
Ezek.
9:1-6 -- "He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause
them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his
destroying weapon in his hand. And,
behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the
north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them
was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in,
and stood beside the brasen altar. And
the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon He was,
to the threshold of the house. And
He called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his
side; and the Lord said unto him, 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.
And to the others He said in mine hearing, 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
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were
before the house."
Note that at the command of Lord, the angels in charge are to slay the
sinners in Jerusalem (in the church), not in the world.
Only the abomination-hating ones, those who receive the mark for
sighing and crying against the wrongs are to be left.
The day Ezekiel had this vision in Babylon, Jerusalem had already been
in captivity and emptied of its people for years.
See Ezekiel 1:1; 8:7. No
such a purification or cleansing as here described ever took place in
Ezekiel's day or in the annals of the church since his day.
It is, therefore, certain that the prophecy is yet to be fulfilled.
Inspiration in our day, moreover, puts this foreseen cleansing still in
the future and makes this explanation:
"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.'
"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," says the Spirit of
God, "had
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betrayed
their trust." -- "Testimonies for the Church," Vol. 5, pg. 211.
The enemies of God, you note, have taken possession of the churches,
but soon the tables will be turned, and the servants of the Devil will be no
more; they will fall and not be found.
The people, you note, are deceived by the ancient men who have betrayed
their trust. You well know that
the prophets, the apostles, Jesus Christ, and the reformers, were all in their
times railed against and taunted as "Offshoots," but we thank God
that the "offshoots" and the Truth, not the dead tops, triumphed.
"...They [the ancient men] had taken the position that we need not
look for miracles and the marked manifestation of God's power as in former
days." -- "Testimonies," Vol. 5, pg. 211.
Is not this now the position of the ancient men?
Are they not now crying peace and safety?
Are they not now preaching that Ezekiel nine is not now to take place
and that it is not to take place in the church, that this message is a false
alarm? What does it take to
awaken a dreaming sleeper? They
are dreaming that--
"...Times have changed. These
words strengthen their unbelief, and they say, The Lord will not do good,
neither will he do evil." "God
will not slay His people," "The church is His most precious object
on earth," they say.
Of course the church is His most precious object on earth, and that is
just exactly why He is to cleanse it, that is why He is to slay the wicked in
the midst of her
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and
seal (preserve) the penitent so that He may have a church clean, "without
spot, wrinkle, or any such thing." -- Eph. 5:27.
"...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." -- "Testimonies," Vol.
5, pg. 211. Continuing further,
the Spirit of God asks:
"Who are standing in the counsel of God at this time?
Is it those who virtually excuse wrongs among the professed people of
God, and who murmur in their hearts, if not openly, against those who would
reprove sin? Is it those who take
their stand against them, and sympathize with those who commit wrong?
No, indeed! Unless they
repent, and leave the work of Satan in oppressing those who have the burden of
the work, and in holding up the hands of sinners in Zion, they will never
receive the mark of God's sealing approval.
They will fall in the general destruction of the wicked, represented by
the work of the five men bearing slaughter weapons.
Mark this point with care: Those who receive the pure mark of truth,
wrought in them by the power of the Holy Ghost, represented by a mark by the
man in linen, are those 'that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that
be done' in the church. Their
love for purity and the honor and glory of God is such, and they have so clear
a view of the exceeding sinfulness of sin that they are represented as being
in agony, even sighing and crying. Read
the ninth chapter of Ezekiel." Then
says the Spirit:
"But the general slaughter of all those who do not
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thus
see the wide contrast between sin and righteousness, and do not feel as those
do who stand in the counsel of God and receive the mark, is described in the
order to the five men with slaughter weapons: '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.'" --
"Testimonies," Vol. 3, pg. 267.
Here are shown two classes in the church -- the faithful and the
unfaithful -- those who view sin as sin and those who view it as fun.
Also it is seen that the church has a closing work, a work that must be
done especially for her, not for the world.
In addition, it reveals that the closing work for the church is the
sealing of the 144,000, that they, therefore, are the ones who will feel most
deeply the wrongs among God's professed people.
Ezek.
9:7-11 -- "And He said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts
with the slain: go ye forth. And
they went forth, and slew in the city. And
it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell
upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord God!
wilt Thou destroy all the residue of Israel in Thy pouring out of Thy
fury upon Jerusalem? Then said He
unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and
the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say,
The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not.
And as for Me also, Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity,
but I will recompense their way upon their head.
And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his
side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as Thou hast commanded
me."
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When is this separation of the wicked from among the righteous to take
place? Jesus places it in the end
of the world. Says He:
"Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of
harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and
bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into My barn.
Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the
sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore,
and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away."
Matt. 13:30, 47, 48.
As tares they are burned; as bad fish, they are cast out. This is the
way in which the Kingdom comes, says the Lord.
And what is the harvest if not the Judgment for the Living? -- the work
which separates the one from the other.
"The true people of God," says Inspiration, "who have
the spirit of the work of the Lord, and the salvation of souls at heart, will
ever view sin in its real, sinful character.
They will always be on the sides of faithful and plain dealing with
sins which easily beset the people of God.
Especially in the closing work for the church, in the sealing time of
the one hundred and forty-four thousand who are to stand without fault before
the throne of God, will they feel most deeply the wrongs of God's professed
people. This is forcibly set
forth by the prophet's illustration of the last work under the figure of the
men each having a slaughter weapon in his hand." --
"Testimonies," Vol. 3, pg. 266.
On which side do you stand?
Now the subject of the 144,000 stands out brighter than ever before.
Now you can clearly see that those
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who
escape the slaughter foreseen in Ezekiel nine, are the 144,000 the future
servants of God, the first fruits of the harvest, resulting from the cleansing
of the sanctuary (church), the work of the investigative judgment of the
living. This work and this Truth,
therefore, are the most important for the day, and should whole-heartedly be
heeded if one expects to receive the mark and the seal and escape the
slaughter, survive the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
Our neglect to sigh and cry for the abominations in the church would
mean our eternal loss. We dare
not allow anything to divert our attention from this great and glorious work
for the saints, and most dreadful and inglorious for the sinners.
This work must "engross the whole mind, the whole attention."
-- "Early Writings," p. 118. Nothing
should be allowed to interfere with your eternal welfare.
No, not for a moment, for the day is far spent!
What? -- friends, relatives, husbands, wives, you are to lose them with
yourself if this Truth fails to convince you and them?
But the promise to the faithful is: "For your shame ye shall have
double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in
their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto
them." Isa. 61:7.
Do you, Brother, Sister, actually comprehend, actually realize, the
crisis as outlined here? Do you
see the prediction that the sealing message is to be resisted by those who
foster the abominations? Are you
with them? I hope not.
Is there then any question that if the brethren are left ignorant of
this cleansing work that God is about to do among His people, I say, if they
be left ignorant of it, will they not fall in the general destruction of the
wicked, represented by the work of the five men bearing slaughter weapons?
Obviously all the sinners in the church will perish
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in
this slaughter of the wicked, be they men, women, or children.
Parents who continue to serve the Devil will have their little ones
with them in hell; and parents who break away from abominations will have
their little ones with them in the Kingdom.
Where do you stand? Are
you with those who have the burden of this work, or are you against them?
This you see is the decisive hour for you, for me.
"...Mark this point with care," counsels the Spirit of God.
"Those who receive the pure mark of truth, wrought in them by the
power of the Holy Ghost, represented by a mark by the man in linen, are those
'that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done' in the church.
Their love for purity and the honor and glory of God is such, and they
have so clear a view of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, that they are
represented as being in agony, even sighing and crying.
Read the ninth chapter of Ezekiel." -- "Testimonies,"
Vol. 3, pg. 267.
Who are true Seventh-day Adventists at this crucial moment? -- Those
who resist the closing work for the church?
or those who put their heart and soul into it?
Let us face the situation honestly and sincerely.
Let us anoint our eyes with this Heavenly eyesalve that we might see
and know what Truth is. Only
those who repent and promote the message of the hour rather than fight against
it will stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion.
Let me read again:
"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
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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 honor and a
love for souls, will not hold their peace to obtain favor 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 under foot, while the
servants of Satan triumph...." -- "Testimonies,"
Vol. 5, pp. 210, 211.
No longer serve Satan. No
longer fight God's Truth against your own interests.
The Spirit of Prophecy in these lines has made it as plain as it can be
made, that when the sealing message is brought to the attention of the people,
the servants of the Devil will temporarily triumph, while God's servants and
His Truth for a time will be trampled under foot by those who control the
churches. This evil work, you are
all well aware, is already in progress: The ministering brethren are already
fighting the message instead of teaching it.
The pulpits are occupied by men who Sabbath after Sabbath stage tirade
after tirade against this Truth, the Truth of the Judgment for the Living.
As the gospel prophet in chapter sixty-six was also given light on this
subject, we shall turn to it.
Isa.
66:15-17, 19 -- "For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with His
chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with
flames of
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fire.
For by fire and by His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and
the slain of the Lord shall be many. They
that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens [in places of
worship] behind one tree [following a leader] in the midst, eating swine's
flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith
the Lord.... And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that
escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow,
to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard My fame,
neither have seen My glory; and they shall declare My glory among the
Gentiles."
Here it is reiterated that the slaying takes place in the church among
those who are well acquainted with the things of God, so much so that those
who escape are sent to declare His glory, and His fame among the Gentiles.
Moreover, the very fact that the Gentiles are not slain but are to be
taught of God after the slaying takes place, positively shows that the slaying
takes place in the church only, and before probation closes for the Gentiles.
To repeat, those who escape the slaying are sent to preach salvation to
the Gentiles.
Isa.
66:20 -- "And they [the escaped ones, says the scripture] shall bring all
your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses,
and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to My
holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an
offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord."
Since the 144,000 are the first fruits, and also the servants of God,
and are of both the antitypical house of Judah and of Israel, they must be the
escaped and
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sent
ones. Those whom they bring to
the house of the Lord out of all nations (Rev. 7:9) must, therefore, be the
second fruits. The former are the
fruits from the church, and the latter the fruits from the Gentiles (See
Revelation 7:2-9).
In order to hush the Truth, the ancients in their wickedness and
ignorance now teach the laity that the subject of the 144,000 is a moot
question rather than revealed Truth! The
Devil would have it thus so that the people might fall under the slaughter
weapons of the angels. What
folly! And, what a hold the Devil
has on the men that control the churches!
Are they not deceiving the very elect, the 144,000?
This is truly the time for you to "come to the help of the Lord
against the mighty," if you are to receive God's mark of approval, and if
you are to escape the slaughter weapons of the angels -- if you are to be
"left," if you are to be of the remnant.
There has never been made so great an effort to awaken any people in
any age, as the effort of today. Hundreds
and thousands, yes, millions, of booklets have been scattered throughout the
Denomination. These have been
going now for over a decade. Truly
it can even now be said of the church:
"Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe
unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the
mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they
would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at
the Day of Judgment, than for you. And
thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell:
for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom,
it would have remained until this day. But
I say unto
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you,
That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the Day of Judgment,
than for thee." Matt. 11:21-24.
The Devil today, you see, has the people deeper in the pit than he had
them in the days of Christ or in the days of Luther.
The Lord's victory, though, and the victory of those who escape from
the pit, shall be just that much more glorious.
"And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the
Lord: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken." Isa.
62:12.
"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." Nah. 1:15.
The wicked in the church, you note, have finally come to their end.
With which company do you stand? With
those who close their eyes to this Truth?
or with those who endeavor to bring It to the front?
You judge your own case.
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