Jezreel Letter 8

ADAM’S BROCHURE AND THE SHEPHERD’S ROD

Dear Friend:

  Here is Heaven’s Truth of Elder Adam’s brochure. Needless to say that it is enlightening as well as interesting. This you will see soon after you begin reading. You have long been waiting for this information and now you have it.

  Elder Adam’s brochure, like all the other anti-Shepherd’s Rod literature, very plainly shows that the Brochure contains only half truth about “The Shepherd’s Rod.” What we mean by half truth is here demonstrated by Matthew 27:5 and Acts 1:18: “And he [Judas] cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.” Matthew 27:5. “Now this man [Judas] purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.” Acts 1:18. These two halves, put together, is what tells the full story of Judas crime and death. But the anti-Christians living in the days of the Apostles, declared:

  “These divergent records positively contradict each other, and the authors of them are nothing less than deceivers.”

  But were they? Matthew 27:5 tells the first part of the story – that Judas hanged himself. And Acts 1:18 tells the second part of it – the way he died. Reading the two records together, they tell that Judas hanged himself, but that either the rope or the limb broke off, and that Judas fell headlong over something, perhaps a stick, or a stump that ripped his abdomen, then his bowels gushed out and that is the way he died. This harmony between the two gospel writers can be derived only if the reader reads to know the Truth, not if he is looking for pegs to hang his doubts on.

  The anti-Rod literature, however, very plainly shows that by quoting from the Rod the conclusions the Rod comes to, but leaving out the premises upon which It makes them, the authors of the Brochure are not trying to prove what the Rod really is, but to fabricate traps for the Brochure’s readers to fall into. How do they do this? – In order to refute “The Shepherd’s Rod,” they quote statements from It but leave out the premises upon which the statements are made! This unfair practice, half truth, you will plainly see in the following passages which the Brochure quotes from “The Shepherd’s Rod”:

  “ ‘Note that the separation takes place just at the beginning of the HARVEST; also that the tares are gathered in first. The separation marks the beginning of HARVEST. The HARVEST IS THE LOUD CRY OF THE THIRD ANGEL’S MESSAGE.’ – Shep. Rod, Vol. 1, p. 104.” – Adam’s Brochure, p. 8.

  The very first word in the Brochure’s quotation from the Rod, you see, is the word “note” by which the Rod calls attention to the fact that the statements in the quotation are based upon the information laid down in the lines that precede the quotation. By isolating the proof upon which the statements are made, the Brochure makes the Rod statements appear blunt, unauthorative, without foundation and untrue!

  Here is another example: Further quoting from the Rod, the author of the Adam’s brochure again omits the Rod’s basic reasons for the statement It makes, and it again starts with the Rod’s word “Note”:

  “‘Note that the existence of the present name – SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST – is conditional, otherwise the NAME will be spued out of His mouth.’ – Shep. Rod, Vol. 1, p. 101.” – Adam’s Brochure, p. 9.

  Work of this kind is more than to hang a man without a hearing. It is to bury him alive and his witnesses with him. It is violent injustice to the Rod, with intention to grossly deceive anyone who reads the Brochure. And what is more than these, is the fact that since the Rod claims Inspiration for Its revelation, and since no one has ever sat down to prove It otherwise, the anti-Rod literature is anti-Heaven’s Truth, blasphemy against the Spirit of all Truth – unmatched wickedness!

  Obviously the premises upon which the Rod makes Its statements are left out from the quotation because the authors of the Brochure recognized that the Rod proves Its point and if quoted would overthrow the idea which the Brochure is trying to put over. For the same reason the Brochure sympathizers instruct the laity not to read “The Shepherd’s Rod’’ literature and not to talk to Its adherents.

  We use the plural form, authors of the Brochure, because the Brochure has nothing original; that is, the Brochure and all anti-Rod literature is only a rehash of the “A Reply to The Shepherd’s Rod.” The Brochure’s unfair practice is seen all through the anti-Rod literature – misrepresenting the Rod and deceiving the people. Why do they do this? Because the anti-Rodists are anti-Truth, and anti-Christ’s people. They want forever to keep the Laodiceans in their “need of nothing” theory, and in darkness of the Truth for today.

  The Rod does not make blunt statements; what It says It proves. But because the anti-Rodists judge others by themselves they constantly accuse the Rod of taking Sister White’s writings out of their setting but never produce the Incident. How true the statement, “thou that judgest doest the same things” (Rom. 2:1). The “golden rule’’ is trampled under foot by those who pretend to promote it!

  Let us now have a sample of their habit of quoting from Sister White’s writings and of their system of interpreting them. Here it is:

  “‘The tares and the wheat are to grow together until the HARVEST, and the HARVEST IS THE END OF PROBATIONARY TIME.’ – Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 72.” – Adam’s Brochure, p. 8.

  This quotation they interpret to mean that the wheat and the tares are to grow together until probation closes and that then the harvest is to beam. But does the quotation say so? – On the contrary, it says that “the tares and the wheat are to grow together until the harvest,” then it explains that the harvest ends probationary time – that after probationary time ends, then it is that probation closes!

  If they were honest in their understanding of her writings and of the Bible, and if they were honest in their anti-Rod work, then why did they leave out the time record in which the Bible places the harvest? and why did they leave out Sister White’s statements which reprove their erroneous conclusion of the harvest? Here is what the Bible says, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” Any one who wants Truth can see that since, according to prophecy, no one can be saved after the harvest, the harvest, therefore, is probationary time, that it ends probationary time, that it caused probation to close, that it brings the end of the world.

  “In the time of harvest” (Matt. 13:30), my friends, means that the harvest is a short period of time, the last, the time in which to separate the wheat from the tares, the good fish from the bad (Matt. 13:47, 48) the goats from the sheep (Matt. 2:31-33) - the penitent from the impenitent, from followers of Truth from the followers of men, those who have the mark of the beast (Rev. 13:17) from those who have the mark of God (Ezek. 9:4). The “harvest” and the Judgment for the Living are synonymous terms, you see. This is Bible and It is Truth to which Sister White adds: “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.’ ” – “Early Writings,” p. 118.

  “Only those who have withstood 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.” – “The Review and Herald,” Nov. 19, 1908.

   “Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, that I may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time.” Isa. 60:21, 22.

  These quotations, my friends, are plain and to the point. They are not cunningly devised fables. They all point out that the Third Angel is to do the harvesting, that the church will be purified, that the Loud Cry is to be proclaimed by a pure ministry, that the church is to be “‘fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners,’ she is to go forth into all the world, conquering and to conquer.’“ – “Prophets and Kings,” p. 720.

  The enemy of Truth has tightly closed the people’s eyes against this Truth and as a result they are in a terrible deception. Says the Spirit of God:

  “I saw that the remnant were not prepared for what is coming upon the earth. Stupidity, like lethargy, seemed to hang upon the minds of most of those who profess to believe that we are having the last message. My accompanying angel cried out with awful solemnity, ‘Get ready! get ready! get ready! for the fierce anger of the Lord is soon to come.…’“ – “Early Writings,” p. 119.

  Moreover, pleads Inspiration: “Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.” Isa. 52:1.

  Note that after this call of awakening is made to the church, to Zion and Jerusalem, from then on the unclean and the uncircumcised are no more to pass through her. Furthermore the prophet Nahum adds:

  “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.

  Again note, my friend, that God is directing your eyes to one whom He has sent to bring peace to you and to effect a revival and reformation among His people, and that thereafter the wicked are no longer to pass through the church, they are cut off. Ask the anti-Rodists why all these references are overlooked by the anti-Rod literature and have them explain what these references mean if not what these lines show.

  Of course, it is incredible that ministers of the Gospel would deal with Truth so crookedly, but here you have the naked facts. Shall you close your ears to God’s pleading Word, and your eyes to what the master enemy, the Devil, makes of so-called “men of experience”? “Men of experience”? Yes, but of what kind? Do you see how deeply the Laodiceans are deceived, and who deceived them? No, not wolves in sheep’s clothing but Devil’s agents in ministerial garbs, and in no lesser degree than did his agents in priestly garb deceive the people in Christ’s day. Please do not misunderstand me. I am not speaking with malice in my heart, but in the hope of awakening the sleeping Laodiceans. No, I hate no one, and am saying no more, no, not even near as much as Christ Himself and John the Baptist said when they uttered the following against “men of experience” in their day.

  “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a presence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple it is nothing, but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!

  “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

  “Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Matt. 23:14-16, 23-33.)

  “But when he [John] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matt. 3:7. )

  No, my friend, he who now tells you that the Rod criticizes would have just as quickly accused the Lord if he had been living in His day. The Rod accuses none, It only tells the Truth as God gives It.

  There is nothing in the excerpts from the Bible and from the Spirit of Prophecy which the Brochure quotes that says or implies that the slaughter of Ezekiel nine takes place after probation closes for the world. Search and see.

  These anti-Rod ministers may claim to be divinely appointed, but if they are, then let them remember that Aaron’s two sons (Nadab and Abihu) were also divinely appointed, nevertheless after disobeying they dropped dead. Also let them remember that the lukewarm angel (minister) of the church of the Laodiceans is to be spued out, and let them not forget that “only those who have 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.” – “The Review and Herald,” Nov. 19, 1908. Neither let them overlook the fact that only a few great men will then be engaged in the work, and that those who have trusted to intellect, genius, and talent will not then be the leaders in the work, that God has other servants whom He is then to disclose to view. Read “Testimonies,” Vol. 5, pp. 80, 81. Ever remember that JUDGMENT begins at the sanctuary. Read Ezek. 9:2-7 and 1 Pet. 4:17.

  The “Shepherd’s Rod” considers as Seventh-day Adventist doctrines only those which are approved by Inspiration, but these anti-Rodists call Seventh-day Adventist doctrines everything that is taught in the church be it true or untrue. Then they compare their man-made doctrines with the doctrines of “The Shepherd’s Rod,” and because the doctrines disagree, they make it appear that the Rod is in error. Here is one heresy with which the Rod disagrees:

  “And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat of them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.” (Rev. 9:16, 17.) This is the picture which John gives of the 200,000,000 horses and horsemen.

  Now compare Inspiration’s own description of the horses and horsemen with the Denomination’s illustration of them as given in “Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation,” p. 510.

  Why can not the Denomination in their exposition of the Trumpets use Inspiration’s own description of the horses and horsemen? Why did they have to devise one of their own?

  The only answer that can be given is that the Spirit’s own description does not fit their uninspired interpretations of the Scriptures. One’s inability to interpret correctly without Heaven’s gift of interpretation, however, is expected and is excusable. But to say that the vision was shown to the Revelator at so great a distance that he was unable accurately to see the kinds of heads and tails the horses had and where the fire, smoke, and brimstone came from, in order to tailor the vision to accord with their interpretation of it, is not only defiance against Christ’s warning concerning adding to and subtracting from the Scriptures (Rev. 22:18, 19), but it is also outright blasphemy. Do you now see who is teaching error and who is deceiving the people?

  The anti-Rodists’ accusations that the Rod is calling the church Babylon is another falsehood. The Rod proves that the church is not Babylon and that is the reason for which Its adherents stay in it instead of coming out of it, and this is the very reason for which the anti-Rodists are trying to keep them out of the churches.

  As to what the leopard-like beast of Revelation thirteen is, we all know that the Denomination has no established doctrine on it. Let us therefore look at it in the light of revealed Truth for today. Since the leopard-like beast is a part of the symbolical beasts of Daniel seven, we shall herein take a look at all the Bible beasts in one picture.

  These beasts of Daniel’s vision are symbolic of the world in several different periods. For example, let us look at the fourth beast in both its phases: First it was seen to have ten horns. Then another little horn came up among the ten, and three were uprooted. No sensible Bible student would disagree that this beast, as all the others do, represents the world. Daniel’s fourth beast pictures the regime of Pagan Rome, and then the regime of Papal Rome – the world in that day.

  All Adventists teach that the entire beast symbolism does not represent the papacy, that only the little horn which had a mouth and spake like a man represents the papacy, that the other horns represent the kingdoms that were to arise at that time, and that the beast in its second phase depicts both the world’s civil and religious powers. Since the little horn is a combination of horn and head, it depicted a church and state system – civil and religious power. In like manner the leopard-like beast of Revelation 13 does not in its entirety represent the papacy. The papacy is represented only by its one head, the head that was wounded. It’s ten horns, the same as in Daniel’s fourth beast, represent the kingdoms of the world. So as Daniel’s beast depicts the world of that day, John’s beast depicts the world of today. Its horns are crowned because it depicts the world after one of his heads was wounded, after the kingdoms took their thrones and reigned independent of the church.

  Now, since the wounded head represents a church, a religious system, and since all seven heads are on the beast at the same time, not coming up or dropping out one after another, the head symbolism is positively depicting a multi-sectarian world, the churches of today. So we have Heaven’s graphic picture of the world as it actually has been ever since the church-state system was beaten out of it, and ever since multi-sectarianism came in. This is Bible and this is Truth.

  Since number seven is the Biblical number for the whole, and since the blasphemy is over all the seven heads, not over the horns, the picture in the light of present Truth clearly depicts Christianity under apostasy, and the blasphemies in the anti-Rod literature clinches that fact. The Reformation inflicted the wound, and apostasy healed the wound.

  Their associating the name Babylon with this beast is adding to the Word of God. And as they do this in order to fight Truth, the act is blasphemy. There is nothing on this beast to indicate Babylon. Babylon is depicted by the scarlet-colored beast of Revelation 17, the beast that depicts the world after the church is purified, after the image of the beast is made, after a second church and state government comes into being, the next world regime. It is Babylon.

  This is the day in which “all things” are to be restored, and this is the day for each individual, independent of another, to decide whether or not these anti-Rod teachers are the antitypical prophets of Baal.

  Faithfully yours for open eyes to Truth, and for a heart to judge a message by the Word, not by who brought it,

V.H. Jezreel, H.B.