Lesson 35:
False Teachings
PURPOSE:
To expose the false teachings that are taught by some people among the believers of the Shepherd’s Rod, so that we can help the Brethren affected.
INTRODUCTION
Matt. 24:24 – “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”
WHR 24 – “Here, let every serious-minded reader pause to ponder what Inspiration says: Isa. 66:19 and 20 explain that those who escape the slaughter of Isa. 66:15 and 16, are to be sent as missionaries to the Gentiles, who as yet know not God. Hence these escaped (remaining) ones are God's remnant, His first fruits of the harvest, His guileless servants, the 144,000 -- the elect. And only they, none others, the Scriptures declare, shall bring all their brethren from all nations”
CAUTION:
1SM 181 – “Let the plain, simple statements of the Word of God be food for the mind; this speculating upon ideas that are not clearly presented there is dangerous business.”
EW 96 – “I was shown that the truth once published now, will stand, for it is the truth for the last days; it will live, and less need be said upon it in future. Numberless words need not be put upon paper to justify what speaks for itself and shines in its clearness. Truth is straight, plain, clear, and stands out boldly in its own defense; but it is not so with error. It is so winding and twisting that it needs a multitude of words to explain it in its crooked form.”
Tract 11:12/13 –
“All present truth believers should now see the necessity of shunning every wind of doctrine regardless how plausible or reasonable it might appear to be….Get your doctrine, Brother, Sister, only from the golden bowl (see The Shepherd's Rod, Vol. 2), and be not like the waves of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed -- be not carried about by the many winds of doctrine that are blowing wildly from every direction to cause you to lose your way to the everlasting kingdom.”
Tract 3:91, 99, 101, 102 – “The most common cause of doctrinal confusion among Bible students lies in their so very frequently failing to view a subject in full perspective from the writer's point of view, -- a failing which results in their seeing it from some foreign standpoint so narrowing their view that instead of gaining the writer's idea on the subject, they gain a false idea on it. And if the idea be to their liking, they magnify and zealously promote it as truth, whereas if it be not to their liking, they vigorously oppose it, and then lay it to the responsibility of the writer!. Clearly, therefore, when this scripture is interpreted according to its context, human measurements of time are seen not to be God's measurements, just as human thoughts are not His thoughts (Isa. 55:7, 8) ….
Wave-sheaf and The Vanguard
Are they one and the same group??
Leviticus 23
10. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:
14. And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:
10. And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. …
Lev. 23 cont…
14. Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.
15. Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; [they are] the firstfruits unto the LORD.”
Wave-sheaf and wave-loaves thank offerings
Tract 3 page 79.2 (comm. on DA 785-786)
“So Christ, the first fruits, and those who with Him at His resurrection came forth from the grave, raised to everlasting life, were the antitypical wave-sheaf of the dead. And since the wave-sheaf of grain pointed forward to the ingathering of the first fruits of the field, just so those who arose with Christ, being first fruits of the dead, pointed forward to the ingathering of the gospel's first fruits -- the 120 disciples. But as those who arose with Christ ascended with Him as trophies of His victory over death and the grave, they thereby became a living type, and thus The Wave-Sheaf Of The Living.”
In a futile effort to discredit Christ and those who arose with Him as the antitypical wave-sheaf of the living, Bro. Sam cites the following reference to show that those who arose with Christ will return to earth and join the kingdom Church:
Tract 9 page 41.1
“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 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.”
This reference is talking about the kingdom complete with all the redeemed from earth. It does not say that those who arose with Christ, and were immortalized and received into heaven, will return to earth to join the pre-millennium kingdom. Take a look at the groups that actually make up the kingdom Church here on earth:
Tract 9 page 65.4
“These groups are
(1) the 144,000, Israelites the first fruits of the living, whose "nobles shall be of themselves," and whose "governor shall proceed from the midst of them" (Jer. 30:21); they shall return to Jerusalem, and stand on Mount Sion with the Lamb;
(2) those whom John saw, after the sealing of the 144,000, gathered from "all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," during the "great tribulation," the "time of trouble such as never was" -- the great multitude who go to Jerusalem before the resurrection;
9Tr 65:4 cont…
(3) those who arise to everlasting life in the resurrection of Daniel 12:2;
(4) those Israelites who shall come forth in the resurrection of Ezekiel 37:1-14;
(5) all who come in the resurrection of Revelation 20:6; -- collectively, these are all the Israelites and Gentiles who shall return to Jerusalem, possess the promised land, and then the whole earth.”
Those who arose with Christ are not mentioned here. They will not return to earth to be a part of the Pre- millennium kingdom but they are a part of the kingdom complete, the redeemed of the earth.
Tract 3 page 80.2
“From these facts it can more clearly be seen that those whom Christ took with Him were the living wave- sheaf and the only one that has been offered in the heavenly sanctuary; and that as ones raised from the dead, they are the first fruits of the dead, whereas as ones everliving before the Father, they are the living wave-sheaf of the first fruits of the living, the 144,000 servants of God…”
Tract 3 page 84.3
“The reader will remember that those who arose with Christ on the eighteenth day of the first month (follow the chart of page 55), were immortalized and received into heaven as the antitypical sheaf, pointing to the ingathering of the fruits that shall never die. Their resurrection from the dead signified the beginning of the first-fruit harvest of the 120 disciples who were to die and be resurrected…”
Tract 3 page 85.2
“Just as Christ and those whom He raised and took with Him became the prototypical sheaf, betokening the ingathering of the first fruits (the 120) of those who are to be resurrected, so also when He entered upon His priestly ministration in the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, and presented Himself and His trophies before His Father, they became the antitypical sheaf, betokening the ingathering of the first fruits of those who are to be translated (the 144,000 living saints)…”
Vol. 3 Symbolic Code Nos. 5, 6. page 12, 13
“Question No. 165:
"If Christ is the first fruits of the dead, is He not also the first fruits of the living?
"Answer:
This query is answered in tract No. 3, "The Harvest," in the illustration on p. 44, of which the barley sheaf of the first fruits is pictured in type and anti-type; that is, the ceremonial sheaf of barley prefigured the resurrection of Christ, the first fruits, including those who arose with Him. These resurrected ones constituted the spiritual sheaf which, at the beginning of the judgment of 1844, was offered before the Father as a sheaf offering of the living first fruits.”
Tract 3 page 82.4
“As the light focusing to this point clearly reveals that the Pentecost after the resurrection was for the ingathering of those who were to die, there must, correspondingly, be a Pentecost for the ingathering of those who are to be translated. And by the same token of logic, the wave-sheaf and the wave-loaves must have a double application, each to the dead and to the living, together comprising the total fruits of the antitypical harvest.”
Tract 3 (Supplement) page 75 (15)
“The typical wave-loaves, which signified the completion of the first fruit harvest (Lev. 23:17), were baken with leaven to symbolize that the sins were not blotted out at the time the "servants of our God" were sealed. Hence the investigative judgment for the living (blotting out the sins) will begin after the sealing of the 144,000 (the spiritual wave-loaves), and after the outpouring of the Spirit.”
Wave-sheaf and vanguard are called first of the first fruits. Are they one and the same?
Tract 3 page 80.1
“Just as Christ arose on the very day the sheaf was to be offered, likewise the Holy Spirit fell upon the 120 disciples on the very day the wave-loaves were to be presented before the Lord. The apostolic Pentecost was accordingly the prototype of the ceremonial Pentecost (the day the wave-loaves were offered). And since the wave-sheaf was a figure of Christ and of those who arose with Him as the first of the first fruits of the dead, hence the wave-loaves were a figure of the 120 Spirit-filled disciples who were the full complement of first fruits of the dead, and who were gathered in after the resurrection.”
WHEN DID THE GATHERING OF THE 1ST FRUITS START?
Tract 5 page 105.2
“The trumpet symbolism has now brought us up to the time of the ingathering of the "firstfruits" (the 144,000)… There being, moreover, an important event and a message at the commencement of the ingathering of the "first-fruits" from many nations, since 1844, so must there be an important event and a message signalizing the commencement of the ingathering of the second fruits, the great multitude, from all nations. ”
Tract 3 page 85.1
“Wonderful indeed is the way in which God has worked out the plan of salvation and revealed it step by step as necessary. When in 1844 the investigative judgment of the dead and the ingathering of the first fruits of the living began, He did not leave His people in darkness concerning these events. The very first vision which Sister White received in 1844 was of the 144,000 first fruits, the "servants of our God," who shall never taste death. (See Early Writings, pp. 13-15.)”
The Leviticus of D.S.D.A. page 3.2
“…Second, it (the Association) purports itself to be the first of the first fruits of the living, the vanguard from among the present-day descendants of those Jews who composed the Early Christian Church. With the emergence of this vanguard and its army, the first fruits, from which are elected the 12,000 out of each of the twelve tribes of Jacob, "the 144,000" (Rev. 14:1; 7:2-8) who stand on Mount Zion with the Lamb (Rev. 14:1; 7:2-8), the reign of antitypical David begins.”
Vanguard + Army = First Fruits
The Leviticus of D.S.D.A. page 3.2
“…Second, it (the Association) purports itself to be the first of the first fruits of the living, the vanguard from among the present-day descendants of those Jews who composed the Early Christian Church. With the emergence of this vanguard and its army, the first fruits, from which are elected the 12,000 out of each of the twelve tribes of Jacob, "the 144,000" (Rev. 14:1; 7:2-8) who stand on Mount Zion with the Lamb (Rev. 14:1; 7:2-8), the reign of antitypical David begins.”
The Gathering of the First Fruits in Type and Antitype
Tract 3 page 86.1
“The 40 days (Acts 1:3, 9) from the resurrection to the ascension are consequently typical of the period from 1844 to the fulfillment of the marking and slaying as recorded in Ezekiel 9 and Revelation 7:3-8; 14:1-5 respectively…”
Tract 15 page 62.3
“Here is seen that from among the first fruits of the harvest, come the 144,000, the servants of God for the closing work of the great harvest. These are the first saints ever to have been relieved of the "tares" among them. ”
Tract 15 page 63.0
“…This phase of truth reveals the sealing of the first and second fruits: From among the first fruits come the 144,000 -- 12,000 out of each of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel…”
Tract 15 page 62.3
“Here is seen that from among the first fruits of the harvest, come the 144,000, the servants of God for the closing work of the great harvest. These are the first saints ever to have been relieved of the "tares" among them. ”
Tract 15 page 63.0
“…This phase of truth reveals the sealing of the first and second fruits: From among the first fruits come the 144,000 -- 12,000 out of each of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel…”
The White-House Recruiter page 46.2
“As present-truth adherents in the first-fruit period, may God help us all, Brother Sister, to be either among or along with the first fruits, the 144,000. …”
Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 23 page 9.1
“The Lord wants us to know that when He turns away our captivity He will also make us a name and a praise among all the people of the earth. This kingdom of Judah (the church purified and set apart), is therefore, not only pre-millennial, but also probationary. And how glad we ought to be for the privilege to be among the first of the first fruits.”
Answerer Book 5 page 80.0
“…How much more important, then, as our types teach, that we who have the culminating message of the gospel, and who are the vanguard of the hosts of the eternal kingdom, defile not the temples of our souls with that which our types were forbidden to eat.”
Slaughter Among the First Fruits, - those in the Church
Tract 8 page 74.0
“…As the "passover" and the slaughter of the "first-born (first fruits) who had not the blood on the "door posts," released God's ancient people from the bondage of Egypt, so shall the antitypical passover (Ezek. 9:4; Isa. 66:16) free the first fruits, the 144,000, His first-born now, from the bondage of sin and sinners today.”
Tract 9 page 62.2
“This sparing of the wheat on the one hand, and slaying of the tares on the other hand, among the first fruits, -- those in the church, -- foretoken the sparing of the good and the slaying of the bad among the second fruits, those in Babylon (Rev. 18:4)…”
Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 31 page 9.0
“…The first born (first fruits) who failed to paint the door post with the sacrificial blood in the first exodus, the type, perished. So any of the first fruits of today who fails to comply with the demands of the message for today, will as certainly perish at the angel's slaughter weapons (Ezek. 9:5, 6).”
Shepherd's Rod Tract 1 page 56.0
“…Accordingly, the antitypical Passover will take place in the time of the first fruit harvest -- the sealing of the 144,000, the first fruits, the first to go to antitypical Jerusalem, the first to stand on Mount Zion with the Lamb, the first-born by the Spirit. Obviously, all of the firstfruits who receive the mark will live on, and all who fail to receive the mark will perish as surely as did the first-born who at the time of the typical Passover failed to apply the blood on the door-posts.”
WHO GATHERS THE 144000 - THE SO-CALLED VANGUARD ?
Isa. 63:5 –
"And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore Mine own arm brought salvation unto Me; and My fury, it upheld Me."
2TG 44:37
“Here you note that when the time came there was not even one among His servants "to uphold" the work of the harvest, and consequently the Lord Himself did the work without them. For the second reaping, however, He uses His guileless "servants," the "firstfruits," the 144,000, as prefigured by the angel with the sharp sickle (Rev. 14:17, 18).”
1TG 17:4
"And it shall come to pass afterward [after the former and the latter rain -- Joel 2:23], that I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit." Joel 2:28, 29.
Plainly, then, the "latter rain" is miracle-working Truth that causes the saints to mature for the harvest of which the 144,000 are the first fruits (Rev. 14:4). Then, in order to quickly gather the second fruits, God pours His Spirit upon every first fruit saint, (upon "every one grass") old or young, boy or girl -- not upon one here and upon another there.
WHO IS JEZREEL?
4Tr. 49-50:
“‘Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not My wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts.’ Hos. 2:1, 2.
From this we see that Jezreel, the one addressed, is symbolical of a prophet who is to command his "brethren, Ammi," and his "sisters, Ruhamah," to go to their "mother" and plead with her to reform. The names, Ruhamah and Ammi, represent a brother and a sister (singular), but in commissioning Jezreel to speak to them, the Lord designates them in the plural, -- "brethren" and "sisters," embracing the entire church membership. Obviously, therefore, God ordained that one of the laity, Jezreel, His chosen agent, was to herald the message to Ammi and Ruhamah, his "brethren" and "sisters," who in turn were to plead with their "mother," the ministry.”
Tract 3:9
“I am confident that after hearing our Father's merciful plea in the succeeding pages, and then closely restudying this appeal, it will become the more urgent. Be assured that I shall rejoice to hear from all of you as to the results of your importuning ‘Mother.’
Sincerely yours for a happy home,
JEZREEL
By V.T.H.”
“THE WHITE-HOUSE RECRUITER
A-Bombs, Flying Saucers, World War III
-------------------0-----------------
A Post For Every Ministerial Graduate By V. H. Jezreel, H.B.”
“Jezreel Letters NOS. 1-9
‘Plead with your Mother, plead.’- Hosea 2:2 JEZREEL
(V.T. HOUTEFF).” WHR 64-65
“The prophet Hosea, too, was shown this great ingathering of all God's people now at the eleventh hour:
‘For 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: 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.’ Hos. 3:4, 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.’ Hos. 1:11.
Hosea's aforequoted vision not only projects God's tearing down His ancient (typical) Kingdom, and His consequently scattering His people world-wide, thus causing them, to lose their identity and to become assimilated by the Gentile nations during these many centuries, but also projects the glorious restoration of His Kingdom (the antitype), and His subsequently gathering into It His people from all nations, while He is closing the work of the gospel. Moreover the contents of Hosea's timely vision decisively point out that this great world-wide work of ingathering cannot begin till "Jezreel" appears on the scene.”
2TG 6:18, 25 “Jezreel represents the mouth-piece of God…
” 5SC 1-5:3 “God will have one man to teach His people…
” WHR 64 – puts David and Jezreel to be one person.
2TG 21:7 – “…a Theocratic government, of which antitypical David is to be the king”
1TG 8: 23-24 - “Obviously, then, as a result of this revival and reformation within the Laodicean church, another church emerges of which Joshua is in charge, not the angel of Laodicea. In it there are to be neither "tares" (Matt. 13:30), "bad fish" (Matt. 13:47, 48), or "goats" (Matt. 25:32). The Laodicean, the seventh, is the last that is commingled with hypocrites, saints and sinners.”
Zech. 4:10 -- "For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth."
2TG14:20-21 “The day this scripture is fulfilled, is the day in which the Lord of hosts starts a reformatory work in an apparently very small and insignificant way, and those who despise small and insignificant beginnings will at last rejoice and shall see that antitypical Zerubbabel is the one to direct the work along with all (seven) his helpers. They are the eyes of the Lord. What a momentous day! What a great people! Evidently they constitute the "stone" of Zechariah Three which we studied several weeks ago, and learned that it has seven eyes, complete spiritual vision. Obviously this is the stone that smites the great image of Dan. 2:45….All these taking place at this particular time, and the prophecies now unfolded, prove that antitypical Zerubbabel must now be here, and that as he has started the work, he also must finish it. The fact that Inspiration takes the pains to tell who is to finish the work in itself is proof that there must be active usurpers of his office as there were of Moses' office.”
1SRp 36:3 “Here lay down the man Jacob and rose up the man Israel, exemplifying the agonizing experience through which his posterity must victoriously pass before they, too, receive a new name, pass from sons of Jacob to sons of God, become Israelites indeed. Having gained the victory over this test, "the time of Jacob's trouble," they will reach home, the land of promise -- the happy end of their long and troubled journey. On this trying and testing time the Spirit of Prophecy comments: "A decree went forth to slay the saints, which caused them to cry day and night for deliverance. This was the time of Jacob's trouble" -- Early Writings, pp. 36, 37. (See also Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 202, 203.)”
1TG47:13-15 - “Jer. 30:7 -- "Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it."
The people that have come to this antitypical time of trouble are returning to the homeland, are comforted. Apparently it is bad enough to frighten all, but God's encouraging counsel is, "Fear not.“ Plainly, the burden of this chapter is concerning the antitypical returning to the homeland.”
1TG43:17 - “Plainly, then, the Edomites of Isaiah 63:1 are those who in our day have sold their birthright, and who at the same time are persecuting (as did Esau persecute Jacob) those who have bought it, so to speak. Thus it is that as God's people had to be delivered from the Sanhedrin in Christ's day, they must now be delivered from the General Conference, the antitypical Edomite brethren, in order to be led into all Truth, and into their fathers' land.”
2TG 7:10-11
“Dan. 12:2 – ‘And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.’
Here we are told that in the time of trouble these arise, some to live forever and some to die again. Do you now realize that not only the time of trouble is at the door, but even this special resurrection? Do you actually see that in the time of trouble, while the living saints are being delivered these dead who rise "to everlasting life," are also delivered from their graves? Do you realize that this time of trouble is in "the great and dreadful day of the Lord," the day which the promised prophet Elijah announces?”
CONCLUSION
3Tr 101-102 Cont. “Those who have undertaken to interpret the Scriptures independently of Inspiration, a private exercise which is contrary to the injunction given in 2 Peter 1:20, 21, and those who have accepted such views, will, unless they now forsake their errors for the truth, one day find themselves the victims of the disastrous circumstances with which they have bound themselves, and will be terribly confounded as they hear the horrifying pronouncement: "I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied"; "depart from Me, ye that work iniquity." Jer. 23:21; Matt. 7:23.”
2TG 46:43-44
“The only ones that will endure to the end will be those who carefully watch their steps from being carried away either by his additions to, or by his subtractions from, the works of Inspiration.”