Vol. 1 Timely
Greetings No. 7
THE ONLY
PEACE OF MIND
Volume 1
Number 7
Copyright, 1953 Reprint
All rights reserved
V.T. HOUTEFF
WHAT MAKES ONE
ELIGIBLE?
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OPENING PRAYER THOUGHT
I shall read from The Mount of Blessing, pg.
155, beginning with the second paragraph.
M.B. pp. 155, 156 -- "The very first
step in approaching God is to know and believe the love that He has to us; for it
is through the drawing of His love that we are led to come to Him.
"The perception of God's love works the
renunciation of selfishness. In calling
God our Father, we recognize all His children as our brethren. We are all a part of the great web of
humanity, all members of one family. In
our petitions we are to include our neighbors as well as ourselves. No one prays aright who seeks a blessing for
himself alone.
"'Which art in
heaven.' He to whom Christ bids
us look as our Father,' 'is in the heavens; He hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased.' In His care we may safely
rest, saying, What time I am afraid, I will trust in
Thee.'"
What does the reading instruct us to pray
for? -- For an appreciation of God's love and for better understanding of Him;
for the right understanding of what it means to pray the Lord's prayer; for
wisdom to know why we address God as our Father, why we are members of one
family, brethren of one household; for grace to remember to pray not for
ourselves only but for our neighbors, and even for our enemies.
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WHAT MAKES
ONE ELIGIBLE?
TEXT OF ADDRESS BY V.T. HOUTEFF,
MINISTER OF DAVIDIAN 7TH-DAY ADVENTISTS
SABBATH,
MT.
A number of brethren have written to me from
time to time, wanting to know what makes them eligible to receive the Seal of
God. Some want to know whether they will
be sealed by doing this or by doing that.
Others want to know whether they will be left without the seal by not
doing this or not doing the other.
The questions are indeed very timely and
commendable. Such vital questions
deserve answers as concrete as are the questions themselves. And who can give a more concrete answer than
those who have gone before us, those whose duties were similar to ours, those
who were passing through a similar experience, those
who traveled the same road that we are traveling, those who were preparing
themselves for the Kingdom as are we.
In whom do we find such a parallel? -- In no
others than those who left
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deeds, and if we are to be
sealed, then the deeds of those who failed to enter therein, we must shun as
completely and as quickly as we would shun a lion's den.
We are now to find out why some of them went
into the promised land, and why others did not go in,
for this is what Inspiration commands us to do.
This scripture implies that if the experiences of ancient
Let us
begin our examination by starting with Moses, with the human agent, the visible
leader of the movement. Reared in the
courts of Pharaoh, he received the highest education the world then
offered. And having understood that he
was the one to free his brethren from Egyptian bondage, he felt quite capable
for the job.
You remember the story of how he started out
to deliver them although he was not yet told to do so. He killed an Egyptian, fell into a quarrel
with one of the Hebrews, and then fled for his life. So it was that in Midian
he obtained a job, became a shepherd, and married his employer's daughter. During those forty years of shepherd's life
he forgot the Egyptian language, and with it the Egyptian learning. In its place, though, he learned to tend well
to sheep. He therefore dismissed from
his mind the idea of ever delivering the people of God from their Egyptian
bondage. Then it was that God saw him
strong and well able, and commanded him to go back to
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out of it His groaning people. You recall that Moses protested against the
idea and argued that he had failed at his first attempt, the time he was young
and well-informed and that at that late hour of his life he was not trying
again, that he could no longer even speak the language. After a prolonged conversation God removed
his objections by promising to give him his brother, Aaron, to be his
spokesman, and Moses finally consented to return to
There with his shepherd's rod he performed
many signs and wonders before both the Egyptians and the Hebrews. And you remember what took place the night of
the Passover, the night before they left
Those who disobeyed the Divine injunction,
were, on the day following busily moaning and burying their dead, while those who
obeyed the command were joyously and orderly marching out of the cities. Yes, only those who were able to take orders
were made free from slavery. It is,
therefore, prerequisite that we learn to take orders if we are to receive the
seal of God in our foreheads.
Let us not forget, though, that the children
of
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Humanly viewing the situation, they were in
a precarious predicament. In that moment
they forgot their miraculous deliverance from Pharaoh's taskmasters and their
eyes closed to the wondrous cloud by day and pillar of fire by night that had
led them all the way. As they saw it,
the evidence against Moses' ability to lead them safely was overwhelming. Insofar as they were concerned, the whole
venture appeared doomed to failure.
Their hopes of going ahead or of even going back left them,
and all because they thought Moses, not God, was their deliverer! How shortsighted, unstable, doubting, and
forgetful human beings are! Experience
in the gospel work has taught me that God's people of today have the same
tempter to contend with, and similar temptations to overcome if they are to
receive the seal of God.
What a great difference would there have
been had the Israelites only believed that God, not Moses, was their Leader,
that that which appeared to be their death trap, was their door of hope. Let their experience teach us to remember
that God is either leading us altogether or not at all, that His ways are not;
our ways, and that what may appear to be our greatest obstacle, may actually
turn out to be our greatest blessing.
Israel's real danger, we now see, was not in
what Moses did, but in their unbelief of God's having the reins in His hands,
in not knowing that His ways are beyond finding out -- contrary to ours. They failed to see that God could again and
again perform miracle after miracle to deliver them from their enemy's hand,
that He could dry the ocean as easily as He could flood the earth.
Having their failures before us, we should
make
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them our stepping stones to success. Let us therefore wholeheartedly believe that
God is in charge of our salvation, of our lives and of our death, too. That He is able to take us
to safety even if the earth should drop out of space, that we cannot die if He
wants us alive, and that we cannot live if He wants us dead. Let us ever bear in mind that we of ourselves
know nothing about God's plans except as told through His appointed servants,
the prophets, and as we witness them day by day. If we daily walk with God, if we commit all
to Him, then the responsibility is all His.
God, in His wisdom, brought
Had Moses been as doubtful of God's power
and leadership as were the people that were with him, what effect would his rod
have had as he struck the sea with it? -- None whatsoever. If the Judgment of the Infinite were the same
as the judgment of the finite, then Pharaoh's army would have either killed or
enslaved
Their mighty deliverances should, therefore,
forever establish our confidence in God, and should stand as everlasting
memorials that the wisdom of men is foolishness with God, and that faith in Him
does actually remove mountains and seas, too.
Notwithstanding these ensamples, though, men
still expect God to work in accordance with their judgment, and that is why
sometimes He uses children in
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His work
instead of wise and prudent men.
The Hebrew host well knew that they were led
to the sea by following the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. Yet none of these wonders seemed to have made
any lasting impression on them. There is
a danger that we, too, may forget the way the Lord has led us.
After Israel crossed the sea, and after the
sea closed in on their enemies, they all sang and gave God the glory, but
though Pharaoh's army and the sea were no longer objects of fear but of
interest, their trials, doubts, and fears were not yet at an end: Almost
immediately after they saw the sea behind and the desert ahead they began to
recriminate Moses for having brought them into the desert to starve there for
want of water and food. It never entered
their minds that if God can dry the sea, He can certainly flood the desert and
make it blossom as a rose.
Notwithstanding their doubts and their moanings
God again performed an even greater miracle: He caused water to gush out of the
rock and He brought manna from Heaven!
Today as in Moses' day many are duplicating
the sins of that people: Some are all on fire on day, and all on ice the
next. Others praise God to the top of
their voices while their ship is smoothly sailing, but when the sea becomes
rough and the waves start beating against them, then they see only a man at the
wheel and rather than expecting God to calm the sea they begin to hunt for a
jumping off place. Still others are
constantly trying to promote themselves by continual fault-finding against the
ones that bear the whole burden of the load.
So it is that there must be among us today -- antitypical doubters,
complainers
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office seekers and
faultfinders, admitting one great truth one day and forgetting it the next day
-- yet expecting to be sealed with the seal of God and to stand with the Lamb
on Mt. Zion!
The Lord fed His ancient people with Angel's
food, the kind their work and climate required.
He delivered it fresh daily, and it did not cost them one cent. All they had to do was to bring it into their
tents and to eat it. But they disliked
the manna, and wished they were back in
You recall that by craving flesh food they
made the situation unbearable for Moses.
So, to their great surprise quail filled the camp, and the multitude
carried them into their tents. But at
what a cost! Thousands of them died even
while the flesh was yet between their teeth.
Then they understood that the manna was the better food. It was a great lesson, but an expensive
one. What about us Vegetarians?
Their murmuring, however, did not end even
then. They found something else to
murmur about. They grew jealous of Moses
and of Aaron. "They are taking too
much on themselves," the office seekers complained. "We are just as much favored of God as
are Moses and Aaron. God speaks with us
as much as He speaks with them," they said. And who were the chief complainers? -- The
princes of the nations, the
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men who were the most capable, the very ones who should
have known better. Those who could have
been the greatest help to Moses became the biggest hindrance to him. They wanted Aaron's office; they wanted
Moses' office. They refused to be
satisfied with anything less. The Lord
Himself got nowhere with them. The only
thing He could do was to cause the earth to swallow them. Thus in one day thousands -- practically all
the so-called wise -- fell into the bowels of the earth. Are we, too, seeking office by which to exalt
self and are we, too, endeavoring to usurp the seat of the Spirit of Truth?
Finally, the emancipated children of
There are thousands today who are doing
virtually the same when they say, "Isaiah, chapter 2, Micah, chapter 4,
Jeremiah, chapter 31 and Ezekiel, chapters 36 and 37 will never be
fulfilled." It was those who were
of age, those who should have known better, that started the ball rolling down
hill to destruction. The youth, of
course, must have echoed the murmurings of their elders, but the Lord did not
hold it against them. And in order to salvage
the youth, God had to bury all their murmuring parents except the two faithful,
trusting men who protested against the evil report of the other ten spies. Mark you, every adult that
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left
Christians often think that the Israelites
were very wicked and unruly people, but after having their experiences to
profit by, think how much worse we would be if we do as they did! If we do no better than they, how can we expect
to be eligible for the seal and for the Kingdom since they were not eligible?
In the very prime of life, Moses thought
himself capable of delivering the children of
He did not need Pharaoh's training in order
to do God's work. It was a hindrance to
him! Why? Because it made him
self-sufficient, independent of God.
Such a person would be the right one to lead God's people away from Him
and into sin, but the wrong one to lead them to God and away from sin.
How true the statement in Testimonies, Vol.
5, pg. 80: "...In the last solemn work few great men will be engaged. They are self-sufficient, independent of God,
and he cannot use them. The Lord has
faithful servants, who in the shaking, testing time will be disclosed to
view."
God can help only those who know that they
are unequal to their task, those who know that they need His help. So, then, those who think that they can do
wonders
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are the very ones who can do nothing but harm.
Plainly, those whom God is
to use in His final work, in the time of the end, are not to be anything like
the Egyptian crown prince, not anything like the learned Moses. Those who can learn to keep and feed sheep
well and to readily take orders, are the ones who can be taught how to keep and
feed God's people.
Moses' wife was the only Ethiopian in the
entire company. For this reason some
thought they were superior to her. They
thought that Moses had committed the unpardonable sin by marrying out of his
nation, as though race had anything to do with making people superior or
inferior. Moses' own sister, Miriam, was
caught in that sin. There she was, trying to break up his family, yet Moses prayed for her
recovery when she was stricken with leprosy.
Who went into the promised
land? -- All but the murmurers. Do you suppose that you can entertain the
same spirit of murmuring and complaining, and in spite of it receive the seal?
-- How absurd the very thought! How unfair it would be for a just God to
destroy the disobedient of that day, but to save the disobedient of this day.
What made one group eligible to cross the
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Having these ensamples before us, this
picture to go by, I can confidently tell whether I am headed for the Kingdom or
whether I am headed for the bowels of the earth (Rev. 12:16). And I am sure that you, too, can tell which
way you are headed. The Lord does not
require more or less of us than He required of our types. There is therefore no mystery as to what we
must do, and what we must not do to receive the seal of God.
We need not go into a land of wonderment,
need not entertain the idea that we must have a mysterious feeling, exciting
emotion, need not wallow in the dust or jump to the ceiling. No, we need not make fools of ourselves. All we need to do is be ourselves. Be calm, decent, respectable, heaven-like
beings, endeavoring to do God's will on earth as it is done in heaven. We need not make a display of ourselves, but
we need to mind our God-given business and to keep our noses out of other
people's business.
Only when we have done all we can to comply
with the requirements of the message for today, not of yesterday, shall we be sealed
and stand with the Lamb on
Should we not be glad that while we are
being invited to the Kingdom, we are also being told how to get there? Seeing all these, we must never let our
confidence in God wane. We ought to be stable,
firm in everything, lacking nothing.
God's eleventh-hour servants, says Inspiration, are to be "a great
people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any
more after it." Joel 2:2. They know
what they believe, and believe what they know.
Most important of all, they know that they are led by God, not by man.
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They are not like the Pharisees who were
building monuments in memory of the dead prophets (Matt.
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The Sacred Page
A glory gilds the sacred page,
Majestic like the sun;
It gives a light to every age,
It gives, but borrows none.
The Spirit breathes upon the word,
And brings the truth to sight;
Precepts and promises afford
A sanctifying light.
The hand that gave it, still supplies
The gracious light and heat;
His truths upon the nations rise,
They rise, but never set.
Let everlasting thanks be thine,
For such a bright display;
It makes a world of darkness shine
With beams of heavenly day.
--Wm. Cowper
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