PURPOSE:

To reveal the time when the “Latter Rain” message came, the crucial events surrounding it and the reaction of the church leadership.

INTRODUCTION:

Though Sis, White wrote in 1890 that she did not know the “Specific time of which to speak… when the might angel will come down from heaven and unite with the third angel”… (ISM 192), she later wrote: TM 91,92 – “The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones… it presented justification through faith in the surety, it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ…”

Prayer Thought:

But unless the members of God's church today have a living connection with the Source of all spiritual growth, they will not be ready for the time of reaping. Unless they keep their lamps trimmed and burning, they will fail of receiving added grace in times of special need. {AA 55.2}

Those only who are constantly receiving fresh supplies of grace, will have power proportionate to their daily need and their ability to use that power. Instead of looking forward to some future time when, through a special endowment of spiritual power, they will receive a miraculous fitting up for soul winning, they are yielding themselves daily to God, that He may make them vessels meet for His use. Daily they are improving the opportunities for service that lie within their reach. Daily they are witnessing for the Master wherever they may be, whether in some humble sphere of labor in the home, or in a public field of usefulness. {AA 55.3}

E.G White Letter 106: “The whole of Revelation 18 will be fulfilled in the glorious closing of this work. It hasn’t yet been fulfilled: and yet the light of the fourth angel’s message began to shine in that strange and impressive way at Minneapolis. The only reasonable conclusion is that the light was put out by human instrumentalities”

General Conference Bulletin (GCB) 1893, p. 183 – “What is the message of righteousness? The Testimony has told us what it is, the Loud Cry – Latter Rain. Then what did the brethren… reject at Minneapolis? They rejected the Latter Rain – the Loud Cry of the third angel’s message”.

Taking up a Reproach [E.G. White, writing from Australia): “In 1888 at the General Conference held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the angel of Rev. 18:1 came down to do his work and was ridiculed, criticized and rejected. And when the message he brings again, swells into a loud cry, it will again be ridiculed, spoken against and rejected by the majority.”

Note:

Indeed the 4^th Angel’s message – the Latter Rain, first came in 1888 – 1892 through Jones and Waggoner, but was rejected! Here are some of the reasons why those people rejected the message (a lesson to us today not to repeat their history):

ISM 234-235 “Unwillingness to yield up preconceived opinions and to accept this truth, lay at the foundation of a large share… by exciting that opposition Satan succeeded in shutting away from our people, in a great measure, the special power of the Holy Spirit that God longed to impart to them…” Cherished traditional theories, and spiritual pride were the major causes.

SHALL THAT MESSAGE EVER COME BACK AGAIN?

Again, read the quote above “Taking up a Reproach” -yes, it is to come back, to swell into the Loud Cry of the 3^rd Angel! Here is Elder A.G. Daniells in 1926 – Christ our Righteousness P. 35 – 39 – He was a former General Conference President: “Nearly forty years ago there came to the Seventh – day Adventist Church a very definite awakening message… will be accorded a dominant place in the closing period…” If Elder Daniells wrote in 1926 that the message is still in the future, then don’t believe those who are trying to deceive members that the message of Jones was accepted and implemented by the General Conference, when Inspiration has told us that they never did; and that the Angel actually returned to heaven!

Elder Jones later wrote: “That [1888 Message] however, is but a sample. There will be things to come that will be more surprising… and brethren we will be required to receive and preach that truth. But unless you and I have every fibre of that spirit rooted out of our heart, we will treat that message and the messenger by whom it is sent, as God has declared we have treated this other message” – GCB 1893, p. 185.

Elder, T.G. Bunch (a former president of Idaho, Michigan and Oregon Conferences) – Exodus in Type and Antitype p. 947: “The opposition of some became very bitter and they not only ridiculed and criticized those who led out in preaching the message of righteousness by faith, but even accused Sister White for standing with them. Scenes were enacted at conference and afterwards that were very similar to those enacted by the Israelites at Kadesh – Barnea” At Kadesh, the Exodus movement (Numbers 20) rebelled against God and His messenger – Moses, so did the SDA Church in 1888 -1890. As the children of Israel returned into the wilderness for forty years, so did the SDA Church enter into a 40 year period of waiting for the Latter Rain message to come back..

The exact year predicted:

GCB May 9, 1892 (E.G. White writing from Melbourne, Australia) “I saw that Jones and Waggoner had their counterpart in Joshua and Caleb. As the children of Israel stoned the spies with literal stones, you have stoned these brethren with stones of sarcasm and ridicule. I saw that you willfully rejected what you knew to be truth, just because it was too humiliating to your dignity… I saw that if you had accepted their message, we would have been in the kingdom two years from that date, but now we have to go back into the wilderness and there stay forty years” The 40 Years of waiting in hunger: 1890 + 40 = 1930. Did anything happen in 1930?

YES:

A layman, and a Sabbath School teacher (Victor Tasho Houteff) in one of the churches in Los Angeles, Southern California, started teaching about the 144 000. He compiled this lesson in a manuscript and gave 33 copies to 33 of the SDA Conference Leaders at the General Conference held in Southern California that year! (1930).What a fulfillment! “That they make a careful investigation of the contents, the recipients promised to do so and to make known, either in person or by letter, their findings and intensions. At the time the first issue of this tract went to press, six years had passed by, and only two out of these thirty – three brethren had replied” – Tract 7, p. 6 – V. T. Houteff. Finally, only 3 out of the 33, replied as individuals. Two: a former Union President - E. T. Wilson, and the other, Doctor Butterbough, replied and both accepted the message while the 3rd Doctor Gilbert, rejected it.

Later, the Church Conference only made a hasty meeting with Bro. V.T. Houteff, sent false reports about the message and threatened any SDA member who would study and accept the Message. They prepared a fight-back document which they sent to all the SDA Church in the world, these have been the issues up to now! And thus the SDA Church is remote-controlled by the Conference. Only a few can dare to personally investigate the message. We who have personally investigated the message and accepted it at our own risk and expense, would like to share with you! Now it is your turn to decide for better, for worse!

THE SDA LEADERSHIP IN SPOTLIGHT – 1888, 1930 AND BEYOND:

GCB 1901, P. 23 E.G. White – “The brethren assented to the light God had given, but there were those connected… with the Review and Herald office and Conference (Uriah Smith camp) who brought in elements of unbelief, so that the light that was given (in 1888) was not acted upon…God gave them clear light as to what they should do, and what they should not do, but they departed from that light….That these men should stand in sacred place to be as the voice of God to the people, as we once believed the General Conference to be… that is past. What we want now is a re- organization. We want to begin at the foundation… The men that have long stood in position of trust while disregarding the light that God has given, are not to be depended upon. God wants them to be removed…” [Ellen G. White] Manuscript 29, 1890 -“The religion of Jesus is endangered. It is being mingled with worldliness.

Worldly policy is taking the place of true piety and wisdom that comes from above and God will remove His prospering hand from the Conference. Shall the Ark of the Covenant be removed from this people? Shall idols be smuggled in? Shall antichrist be respected? Shall the true doctrines and principles given to us by God, which have made us what we are (3 Angel’s Message), be ignored…this is directly where the enemy, through blinded, unconsecrated men, is leading us.”

Note: Saul was rejected but still left to rule, until he was slaughtered. He persecuted his successor David. But David respected Saul until Saul’s death. After Soul’s death, David became King over Israel. Likewise, the lay members who accept the 4^th Angel’s message, have to respect antitypical Saul (Gen. Conference as leader – but without any compromise of Truth and righteousness) until the unsealed shall die in the slaughter (Ezek. 9/Amos 9:9-10 /Isa 65:10-15). Then the sealed 144 000 shall become the leaders of the purified SDA Church during the Loud Cry period (5T. 80-82)! This is the greatest moment of our lives! Our future depends on what we decide TODAY! It is our prayer that we choose a Glorious Future.

CONCLUSION

**From the Study we have seen that the Message announcing the Judgment of the Living came a long time ago (1930) to the SDA Church.

**That though it is being barred from the general membership of the Church, God is revealing it to those who wish, and only they in turn alert others, and strive to obtain the seal among the 144,000.

** As Elijah told the backsliding Israel of his day that no rain would fall until a revival and reformation and slaughter of false prophets of Baal was fulfilled on Mt. Carmel, likewise, no “Latter Rain” (Joel 2:28 Pentecostal Power) will ever fall on the SDA Church in its present state, until the removal of false leaders and teachers and their disciples from the Church. Only those who repent, accept and sealed by the 4^th Angel’s Message, will survive the Judgment of the Living in the House of God (1Peter 4:17 / Ezek. 9 / 5T. 209-216).

5T. 729 – “To souls that are earnestly seeking for light and that accept with gladness every ray of divine illumination from His holy word, to such alone light will be given. It is through these souls that God will reveal that light and power which will lighten the whole earth with his glory.”

E.W. 277 – “I saw another mighty angel commissioned to descend to the earth, to unite his voice with the third angel, and give power and force to his message… The work of this angel comes in at the right time to join in the last great work of the third angel’s message, as it swells to a loud cry”

Review and Herald, Nov. 7, 1918. - "In the manifestation of the power that lightens the earth with its glory, they will see only something which in their blindness they think dangerous, something which will arouse their fears and they will brace themselves to resist it. Because the Lord does not work according to their expectations and ideas, they will oppose the work. Why, they say, should we not know the Spirit of God, when we have been in the work so many years?"

TM 106 – 107 – “Beware of rejecting that which is truth. The great danger with our people has been that of depending upon men…those who have not been in the habit of searching the Bible for themselves, or weighing evidence, have confidence in the leading men, and accept the decisions they make; and thus many will reject the very messages God sends to his people, if these leading brethren do not accept them… Even if all our leading men should refuse light and truth, that door will still remain open. The Lord will raise up men who will give the people the message for this time.”

Testimonies, Vol. 5, pp. 80, 82. - "...In the last solemn work few great men will be engaged.... God will work a work in our day that but few anticipate. He will raise up and exalt among us those who are taught rather by the unction of his Spirit, than by the outward training of scientific institutions.... God will manifest that he is not dependent on learned, self-important mortals."

"Review and Herald," Nov. 19, 1908. - "Only those who have withstood and overcome temptation in the strength of the Mighty One will be permitted to act a part in proclaiming it [Third Angel's Message] when it shall have swelled into the Loud Cry."

Now we have an idea of what has happened, is happening, and about to happen in the Church. If you have studied this far, you are no longer an ordinary SDA member, but one who is called by God, as Daniel, Paul, Luther, etc. were called for a very special work of their times. May God guide all of us by His Truth so that we survive the Judgment of the living. Amen.

END OF LESSON 2(b) OF THE LATTER RAIN