Jezreel Letter 9
GUARANTEED PROSPERITY AND SECURITY
Dear S.D.A. Present Truth
Believer:
This is a personal message to you of how to
prosper and enjoy life to the fullest measure.
Prosperity and security are here guaranteed -- insurance policy that knows
no limit. I am, therefore, rushing this
to you, and hope that you will enjoy it and profit by it. Here is how it works:
"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." Mal. 3:1.
The promise here is that the Lord will send
a messenger, and as the fourth chapter of Malachi is but a continuation of the story
in the third, we are there told that the messenger is antitypical Elijah (Mal.
4:5), the one who is "to restore all things" (Matt. 17:11) and
Inspiration of a later addition, and in a special message to the Seventh-day
Adventist ministry warns:
"Prophecy must be fulfilled. The Lord says: 'Behold, I will send you
Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the
Lord.' Somebody is to come in the spirit
and power of Elijah, and when he appears, men may say: 'You are too earnest,
you do not interpret the Scriptures in the proper way. Let me tell you how to teach your
message.'" -- "Testimonies to Ministers," pp.
475, 476.
There are two main points to note in these
quotations: (1) that the message and messenger here mentioned
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are the very last; (2) that they are to restore all
things, (3) that there is danger for some to make fools of themselves by daring
to tell him how to teach his message -- assuming to take God's place!
This verse of Malachi three, as you will
readily see, met only a partial, typical, fulfillment with John the Baptist,
and that its antitypical fulfillment is now not only imminent but that aside
from Christ's first advent it is the most important. Let us now notice why most important:
The promise is that the Lord is to send a
messenger, someone with a message, and that with It
the messenger is to prepare the way for the Lord's coming to His temple. The Lord's purpose for coming, you will note,
is to purify His Temple, the church, and in particular the Levites -- the
ministry:
"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' soap: 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." Mal. 3:2, 3. No, not before this work is done for the
ministry can they offer acceptable offerings to God, you note.
Plain it is that this chapter of Malachi was
especially written for the faithful people of God at this very time, the time
in which the purification of the church takes place, the time the good fish are
put into vessels and the bad "cast away." -- Matt. 13:47, 48. After the purification takes place, you note,
that
"Then shall the offering of
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"And I will come near to you to
judgment and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the
adulterers, and against false swearers, and against
those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless,
and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not Me, saith the Lord of hosts.
For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not
consumed." -- Mal. 4:5, 6.
Here Inspiration explains how the Judgment
for the Living begins, how the cleansing of the sanctuary on earth takes place
(Dan.
Says He: "Even from the days of your
fathers ye are gone away from Mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto Me, and
I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein
shall we return?" Mal. 3:7.
Since His people still do not see wherein they
have departed from His ordinances, He specifically points out and immediately
pleads for action:
"Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me. But ye say,
Wherein have we robbed
Thee? In tithes and
offerings. Ye are cursed with a
curse: for ye have robbed Me, even this whole
nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the
storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows
of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to
receive it." Mal. 3:8-10.
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The phrase, "even this whole
nation" robbing God is so because the old message, the "Judgment for
the Dead, (for the proclamation of which the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination
was specifically called forth), is now out of date as is the message of Noah's
flood, and as Denominational officials have already rejected the message of the
Judgment for the Living but are still collecting tithes of the people, they as
a nation (as a Denomination) are robbing God.
There are many precious truths contained in
the Word of God but it is present Truth that the Flock needs now. ("Early
Writings," p. 63).
Note that not to the Levites,
or to some other place or people but into God's storehouse are the tithes and
offerings to be brought. And for no
other reason than that His storehouse may have the means to dispense spiritual
food, "meat in due season."
These words definitely and positively show that the only support which
the message of the purification for the church has for caring on its work is
the tithes and the offerings from His faithful people; that in no other way
could the message be dispensed; that in no other way could the expenses be
paid. This is God's reason for no plate
passing now in our gatherings, for no money raising in
any form, and for scattering our literature everywhere as the leaves of autumn
without money and without price to the people.
In other words, the literature, the ministers, and the Bible workers --
those who bring the message of the hour to your door, are to be paid by the
tithes and offerings that come to the Lord's storehouse. God, therefore, asks His faithful people to
gladly respond to His call and sufficiently to supply the need. He asks this not only for the prosperity of
His storehouse, but for His people's prosperity as well.
Why must the message bearers come to your
door in order to bring the message to you? -- Because, as you
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already know, most of the ministers have closed the church
doors and the laity's minds and hearts against the Lord's message for
today. This they have done in no lesser
degree than the priests did in Christ's day.
The Lord way back in Jeremiah's time foresaw that the angel (ministry)
of the church of the Laodiceans would do this wicked
thing against Him and His people so as to keep forever the Laodiceans
in their self-deception. Speaking of ancient
"Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall
fish them, and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them
from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the
rocks." (Jer. 16:16.)
Here you are plainly told that in the
gathering time the servants of God are compelled first to fish His people, then
to hunt them. Since our first contact
with them has been through the literature, it, therefore, must be the
fishing. Rightly so, too, because as it
is scattered everywhere as the leaves of autumn, the fish come to examine it,
find it good for food, take a bite and get hooked, so to speak. Now, however, we are in the hunting period,
and we have already begun to hunt them, be they in the city or in the country,
in places easy to get to, or in places hard to get to. Wherever they live, there they must be
hunted, although it will not be a small easy task to catch at home something
like 300,000 or more Adventists scattered throughout the
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small task, proportionately there has never been the like,
and will therefore take the united strength of every present Truth believer to
keep them going and get the work done so that we can soon go to
Yes, it is a great undertaking and a great
work with a great promise requiring multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars
and all the able and willing bodies He can get to hunt hundreds of thousands of
Seventh-day Adventists "in the holes and in the rocks" world
over. To say a tremendous responsibility
hardly describes the load, but as plain as day stands the fact that it is
worthwhile, that we cannot fail, and that His people will respond both to the
message and to the help of the Lord against the mighty. And how thankful we ought to be that everyone
is given the privilege and the opportunity in one way or in another to share
the "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
In the light of revealed Truth you now
plainly see that God accepts only that which His Truth-loving and
Kingdom-seeking people give willingly and cheerfully. He hates gifts obtained by begging, high
pressuring, and campaigning. He
challenges His people to prove Him, now in the gathering time, by
wholeheartedly bringing their tithes and offerings to His storehouse of the
Judgment of the Living and see if He will not open the windows of Heaven and pour
down a blessing that there would not be room enough to receive. Then He reassures:
"And I will rebuke the devourer for
your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall
your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith
the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall
call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith
the Lord of hosts." (Mal. 3:11, 12.)
Now that the time has come for the Lord to
openly manifest His power, anyone wishing prosperity and
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publicity can have them, "For the time is come that
Judgment must begin at the house of God: if it first begin at us, what shall
the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" (1 Pet. 4:17.)
Though we may have been in the class which
the following words describes, yet we can return to Him and He will pardon and
open our eyes so that we may now see that there is a difference between him
that serveth God and him that serveth
Him not:
"Your words have been stout against Me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What
have we spoken so much against Thee? Ye
have said, It
is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance,
and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they
that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
(Mal. 3:13-15.)
"Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and
the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before
Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name. And they shall be Mine,
saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up
My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth
his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the
righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth
God and him that serveth Him not." (Mal.
3:16-18.)
Having returned to God and having tasted of
this new experience with the Lord, His faithful people long to meet together
and speak their blessings one to another.
Being mindful of their gladness of heart, and of their longing to
communicate His goodness one to another, He promises to write a book of
everlasting remembrance.
We can now for sure take hold of God's
promises and make
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them our own. What
a privilege and what an opportunity is now ours! Look
and see what a difference there is between God's method for supporting His
work, and the Roman system that is now carried on by the church: plate-passing,
high-powered speeches, Big Day, Book Day, high pressuring, campaigning,
selling, auctioneering, Harvest Ingathering, birthday offerings, Christmas-tree
hangings, baby weighings, Dorcas
sales, investment funds, and what not!
As none of these squeezings are Biblical, and
as all of them are Pagan in origin and condemned by the Scriptures, they could
not possibly be considered freewill offerings. Search and see.
Instead of Sabbath-keeping the day is
devoted to money raising, and instead of a house of worship, the church is
turned into a den of thieves -- disgusting to observers, and most discouraging
for a member to invite a friend or a neighbor to a church service. Is there any wonder that God does not now
bring many into the church ("Testimonies," Vol. 6, p. 371)?
It was this sort of thing that aroused
Luther to action as he saw the priests living in luxury by exploiting the
people's conscience and by making the poor poorer. True worship and God's plan for supporting
the work must now be restored.
If there is any revival and reformation
needed in any line it is certainly needed in this line, and no one is excused from
having a part in it if he but takes to heart the Word of God and if he refuses
to comply with the afore mentioned abominations.
The message will soon reach every
Seventh-day Adventist home and the "judgment in the house of God" (1
Pet.
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Now in the day of restoration, Brother,
Sister, God is calling you to arise to His plea:
"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy
voice like a trumpet, and shew My
people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." (Isa. 58:1.)
Be kind, but by no means be sympathetic with
the sinner's sin and do not try to cover the sin. For your own sake,
and for the sake of the brethren's life depart from the abominations and
receive the mark of God's deliverance from the slaughter weapons of the
angels. Read Ezekiel nine and Isa. 66:15-17, 19, 20.
Faithfully yours for eyes to
see the need for cleaning up, and for Wisdom to restore all things,
V.H. Jezreel,
H.B.
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