A THOUGHT FOR PRAYER

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

    "The one thing essential for us in order that we may receive and impart the forgiving love of God is to know and believe the love that He has to us.  Satan is working by every deception he can command, in order that we may not discern that love.  He will lead us to think that our mistakes and transgressions have been so grievous that the Lord will not have respect unto our prayers, and will not bless and save us.  In ourselves we can see nothing but weakness, nothing to recommend us to God, and Satan tells us that it is of no use; we can not remedy our defects of character.   When we try to come to God, the enemy will whisper It is of no use for you to pray; did not you do that evil thing?  Have you not sinned against God, and violated your own conscience?  But we may tell the enemy that 'the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.'  When we feel that we have sinned and can not pray, it is then the time to pray.  Ashamed we may be, and deeply humbled; but we must pray and believe...."

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

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

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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

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 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'

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 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.

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 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.

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    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

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 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

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 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

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 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?

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    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

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 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

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 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

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 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

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 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

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 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

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 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."

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    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."

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    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

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 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

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 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.

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Tract No. 9

"BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW"

"What Manner of Persons Ought Ye To Be?"

   The Scriptures exhort that those in the Truth be "in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?  Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.  Wherefore beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless" (2 Pet. 3:11-14), and the more so now while He is

SETTING UP HIS KINGDOM.

    "In that day" (when the Lord is about to make empty the earth), He "shall set His hand again the second time," says the prophet Isaiah, "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 comers of the earth." Isa. 11:11, 12.

    The work of gathering set forth in these scriptures, shows that before the resurrection of the righteous (1 Thess. 4:16) and before the pre-millennial destruction of the

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 nations, the Lord is to make up His kingdom at first of the living saints only, as seen from the prophecy of Daniel 2: the "stone" being "cut out" of the mountain (Dan. 2:45), and being symbolical of the kingdom of Christ in its beginning (Dan.2:44), then the mountain from which it is cut out, must necessarily   represent the church from which the first fruits of the kingdom, the 144,000, are gathered.  And as the stone grows and becomes "a great mountain" (Dan. 2:35) after it is "cut out," it obviously at first represents the kingdom  in its infancy -- the "first fruits" only.  The fact, also, that the stone grows and fills "the whole earth," is another evidence in the proof that after this long-looked-for kingdom  is "set up," a great multitude is to join it.  Were this not so, then the stone could not become "a great mountain."  Its being, furthermore, at first but a very small part of the mountain, shows that the kingdom has a very small beginning, just as the Lord says: "The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard  seed,...which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest  among herbs." Matt. 13:31, 32.

    The "mountain," the kingdom of God, clearly then, is begun with the first fruits of the living (the 144,000) and followed by the second fruits of the living (the great multitude -- Rev. 7 :9), and is completed with the first and second fruits of the dead -- the 120 (those who received the

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 Spirit on the day of Pentecost), plus those who arose with Christ (Matt. 27:52, 53), plus the great multitude who accepted Him after the Pentecost (Acts 5:14), plus all who awake to everlasting life in the resurrection of Daniel 12:2, plus the remaining dead of all ages, who rise on the great resurrection day (Rev. 20:6), also those of Ezek. 37:1-14.

    Going back to Daniel's prophecy, there we find

The Days in Which the Kingdom Is Set Up.

    "In the days of these kings [not after, but in the days of the kings who are symbolized by the feet and toes of the great image] shall the God of heaven," says Daniel, calling attention to the kingdom at its beginning, "set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people but it [the kingdom] shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." Dan. 2:44.  Thus we see that while the nations of our age (symbolized by the feet and toes of the great image of Daniel 2:41, 42) are yet in existence, the Lord will set up the kingdom with which He will overthrow them.  Then it shall be said: "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever." Rev. 11:15.

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    Pronouncing the doom of ancient Israel, the prophet Hosea inscribed the solemn writ:"...the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim." Hos. 3:4.  At the same time, however, a promise was made that "afterward [after the many days] 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." Hos. 3:5.

    As ancient David is in his grave, the king here promised must be an antitypical David, just as the Elijah of Malachi 4:5 must be an antitypical Elijah.  Otherwise, in order to fulfill the prophecies, ancient David must necessarily rise from his grave, and ancient Elijah descend from Heaven.

    Daniel's declaration (p. 42) that with this antitypical  kingdom, the Lord will break the nations, and  Jeremiah's declaration (in the ensuing paragraph)  that it is His battle ax, clearly show

The Kingdom's Retributory Work.

    "Thou art My battle ax and weapons of war," says the Lord to Israel of today (those who are to compose the infant kingdom), "for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;...with thee also will I break

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 in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid; I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers." Jer. 51 :20-23.

    This scripture cannot be applied to the Israel of Jeremiah's day, for she was then losing out rather than conquering, and from that day to this, she has had no kingdom of her own.  It is obviously therefore the Israel of these last days the kingdom, through whose instrumentality God will bring this world to an end.

    This soon-coming kingdom being not like an earthly kingdom, but like a heavenly one, its confines shall be a place of

Perfect Peace and Absolute Safety.

    Characterizing both the king and the kingdom to be established after the "many days," the prophet Isaiah declares: "...with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked.  And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins.

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    "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.   And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.  And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.  They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Isa. 11 :4-9.

    This prophesied era of absolute righteousness, peace, and knowledge of God (in the kingdom)   under the reign of the "rod" (David) and of the "Branch" (Christ), must begin

Before the Close of Probation.

    The Scriptures show that the kingdom is set before, rather than at, the beginning of the  millennium, for "in that day [in the day the kingdom  is set up and peace reigns]...a root of Jesse [the rod and the Branch]...shall stand for an ensign of the people [of the kingdom]," says Isaiah, and "to it shall the Gentiles seek." Isa. 11:10.  And as after the close of probation, the doors of the kingdom will be shut to all, the ensign must therefore be set up before probation  closes: the only time that the Gentiles will have a chance to be

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 converted to the Lord and to His kingdom, -- a conclusion common to the following scriptures:

    "Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee when I returned the captivity of My people.' Hos. 6:11.

    So shall it come to pass "that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." Isa. 2:2, 3.

    "Surely the isles shall wait for Me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver  and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because  He hath glorified thee.  And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in My wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee.   Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought.  For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.

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    "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary; and I will make the place of My feet glorious.   The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending  unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations"  (Isa. 60:9-15) in the land

Where the Kingdom Stands; There Sin Exists Not.

    "For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of My people Israel  and Judah, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it... For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.

    "Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling-places; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof.

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    "And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small." Jer. 30:3, 17-19.

    "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 [a work which can be done only in probationary time], 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." Ezek. 36:24-27.

    At this nearing time, when the Lord's people who have been scattered will be gathered "from among the heathen," and brought into their "own land," their hearts will be changed; then it will be said in effect: "whosoever  is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." 1 John 3 :9.  Then shall the law of sin, now dominant in the natural heart, no longer exist.   Thus freed from sin's tyranny, the "stony heart" shall be

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 replaced with a "heart of flesh" with the law of God inscribed upon it forever.

    The very fact that God is now to restore the kingdom of Israel, gives rise to the question as to whether He will not do so through the current effort of

The Jews Returning to Jerusalem.

    In regard to the present activities in old Jerusalem, and of the returning of Jews to their homeland, as fulfilling the promises made to the descendants of Jacob, we must not lose sight of the fact that the promises are not to find their fulfillment in the returning to the promised land, of either the Jews who denied and crucified their Lord or their descendants who in nearly two thousand years have failed to accept Him as their Saviour, but rather in God's bringing there those Jews who are Jews not only by blood but also by faith.

    The promise, therefore, is unmistakably to the latter and to their descendants who composed the Christian church in its beginning, and who were willing to die for, rather than to deny, their Lord.  The promise is not, in other words, to the unconverted (represented first by Ishmael, and second by Esau); rather it is to their younger brethren -- the converted Jews (represented first by Isaac, and second by Jacob).  It is therefore   to those who have allowed the Lord to change their names from "Jews" (fleshly Israel) to

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 "Christians" (spiritual Israel), just as Jacob their forefather, allowed God to change his name from Jacob to Israel.  Thus being by natural birth the seed of Jacob, and by spiritual birth, the seed of Christ (the Truth), they are both sons of Jacob and sons of God, and hence full-fledged Jews, Israelites indeed.

    "...I know the blasphemy," said the angel, "of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan." Rev. 2:9.

    Though the early Christian church was made up purely of Jews, yet as they began to be called "Christians" (the new Jewish sect) in contradistinction to Jews (the old Jewish sect), they gradually lost their racial distinctiveness, until finally they altogether ceased to be called Jews; whereas throughout the centuries the non-Christian Jews have preserved intact their racial identity.

    "For it is written," writes Paul, figuratively identifying these two lines, "that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bond woman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in

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 bondage with her children.  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

    "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.   Nevertheless what saith the scripture?  Cast out, the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free." Gal. 4:22-31.