Vol. 1 Timely
Greetings No. 35
THE ONLY
PEACE OF MIND
Volume 1
Number 35
Copyright, 1953 Reprint
All rights reserved
V.T. HOUTEFF
NATIONS SEE
BLOSSOM, AND
TEXT FOR PRAYER
"Do Ye Even So To Them"
Our reading this afternoon is found on pages
192 and 193 of "The Mount of Blessing"--
"On the assurance of the love of God
toward us, Jesus enjoins love to one another, in one comprehensive principle
covering all the relations of human fellowship.
"The Jews had been concerned about what
they should receive; the burden of their anxiety was to secure what they
thought their due of power and respect and service. But Christ teaches that our anxiety should
not be, How much are we to receive? but, How much can we
give? The standard of our obligation to
others is found in what we ourselves would regard as their obligation to us.
"Every one who has been made a steward
of the manifold grace of God, is called upon to impart
to souls in ignorance and darkness, even as, were he in their place, he would
desire them to impart to him....
"So also with the gifts and blessings
of this life: whatever you may possess above your fellows, places you in debt,
to that degree, to all who are less favored."
What shall we pray for this afternoon? --
That we may imbibe the great principle of the Golden Rule, and realize that our
concern should not be as to how much we are to receive, but as to how much we
can give. Let us pray for understanding
that the standard of our obligation to others is found in what we personally
would regard as their obligation to us; and also that whatever we possess above
our fellowmen places us to that degree in debt to those less favored.
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No. 35 18
NATIONS SEE
TEXT OF ADDRESS BY V.T. HOUTEFF,
MINISTER OF DAVIDIAN 7TH-DAY ADVENTISTS
SABBATH,
MT.
Our subject for this afternoon is found in
Isaiah 34 and 35. Last week, you recall, we studied the thirty-third chapter,
the Lord's burden concerning the church as she approaches the time of
"harvest," -- the time the "wheat" is put into the barn,
and the "tares" burned (Matt. 13:30); the time the "good
fish" are put into "vessels" and the "bad fish" cast
out (Matt. 13:47-49) as are those who have not the "wedding garment"
on (Matt. 22:1-13). Continuing now into
the thirty-fourth chapter, we there see that God invites the nations of the
world to draw near and to hear His mighty work of refining:
Isa. 34:1-3 -- "Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken,
ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all
things that come forth of it. For the
indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and His fury upon all their
armies: He hath utterly destroyed them, He hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and their
stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the
mountains shall be melted with their blood."
Why does God invite the nations of all the
earth to draw near and to hear? -- That they might consider His indignation
against the wicked in His church and know
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what to expect when His
Judgment spreads out among all nations; that they might know what to expect
when His refining work begins among them; that they might therefore beforehand
count the cost. His judgment, He
declares, is already pronounced upon the armies of the world -- "For the
time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the
gospel of God?"--1 Pet. 4:17.
Isa. 34:4 -- "And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved,
and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall
fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree."
While verse 3 points out that the solemn
events of this chapter take place in a day of gigantic world-wide armament
program, verse 4, being parallel with Revelation 6:14, it reveals that they
take place in the period of the sixth seal, in the days of the sealing of the
144,000 and the gathering of the innumerable multitude out of all nations, the
seal that we are now living in. The
sixth seal may overlap the seventh.
Isa. 34:5-11 -- "For My sword shall be bathed in heaven:
behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the
people of My curse, to judgment. The sword of the Lord
is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs
and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the Lord hath a sacrifice
in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the
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streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust
thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from
generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for
ever and ever. But the cormorant and the
bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and He
shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of
emptiness."
The immediate curse, we see, rests upon Idumea. Antitypically speaking,
it is the land of the antitypical Esauites -- those
who by rights should have kept the office which the antitypical Jacobites take away from them. They so underestimate its value that they,
like Esau of old, sell their rights for a dish of red pottage as it were. (For further study on the
subject, see "The Shepherd's Rod," Vol. 1, pp. 52-111.)
Isa. 34:12 -- "They shall call the nobles thereof to the
kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing."
Evidently after the destruction falls upon Idumea, none of her so-called nobles shall be found there
to participate in the exodus (Isa.
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[the Third
Angel's Message] when it shall have swelled into the Loud Cry." -- "Review and Herald,"
Isa. 34:13-15 -- "And thorns shall come up in her palaces,
nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet
with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the
screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself
a place of rest. There shall the great
owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather
under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her
mate."
God does not forsake the earth. He does not forgo His power nor His interest in Truth and righteousness. He does not let the world go into
oblivion. What He does do, though, is
make examples of some in order to save many others, for when the judgments of
God are upon the earth, the inhabitants will learn righteousness. (Isa. 26:9.)
Is it armament then that the nations of
today need for peace and security? Is
atomic war to be their fear? -- What they need to fear is "the sword of
the Lord," for His "sword shall be bathed in heaven," "it
shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of
[His] curse." They need not fear
anything if they fear the Lord. Let them
make Him their fear, their dread and protection (Isa.
Isa. 34:16 -- "Seek ye out of the
book of the Lord, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her
mate: for My mouth It hath commanded, and His Spirit It hath gathered them."
God here counsels us to search the Bible and
to implicitly
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believe that not one of Its prophecies shall fail, -- no,
not one shall fail to follow another in its turn. And why should we have this confidence? --
Because God Himself has commanded, and because His Spirit, not the wisdom or
efforts of men has gathered into a single volume, the writings of the prophets
of old, "the book of the Lord" -- the non-sectarian Bible as we know It today.
Isa. 34:17 -- "And He hath cast the lot for them, and His
hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from
generation to generation shall they dwell therein."
Regardless whether we take this verse to say
that the wild beasts "shall possess it forever," or whether we take
it to say that those who seek "out of the book of the Lord"
"shall possess it forever," our greatest concern must be to
personally acquaint ourselves with the Lord and His Truth if we would gain His
favor and find a shelter in this time of trouble.
"Behold, a King shall reign in
righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. And a Man shall be as an
hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water
in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Isa. 32:1, 2.
Now we shall go on into the thirty-fifth
chapter of Isaiah, which is but a continuation of the thirty-fourth.
Isa. 35:1 -- "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be
glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose."
What a difference when God manifests His
power and purifies His church! Then the
lands of the Gentiles (the wilderness) and the land of the heathen (the
solitary
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place) shall both be glad to see God's holy people. Finally as God's Truth for this time
penetrates throughout the lands where there are no Christians at all, the
desert places shall blossom as the rose, so to speak, and thus yield an
abundant harvest of souls.
Isa. 35:2-4 -- "It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even
with joy and singing: the glory of
This
great commission and opportunity to proclaim God's soon coming vengeance are
ours. We must not fail to take advantage
of these privileges. With the mighty
message for this time we must strengthen the weak; we must make firm the knees
that are giving out. Those who are
unable to stand up and to hold their own must be strengthened. We must reassure the fearful that God is to
come with vengeance against the unbelieving and with recompence
for the faithful.
Isa. 35:5, 6 -- "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb
sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams [of truth] in the
desert."
When these things take place, then it will
be just as natural for the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to leap,
and the dumb to sing, yes, as natural as blossoms are followed with fruit. God's Truth for this time is to spread
everywhere and reap a great harvest of souls.
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No. 35 24
"I saw jets of light shining from
cities and villages, and from the high places and the low places of the
earth. God's word was obeyed, and as a
result there were memorials for Him in every city and village. His truth was proclaimed throughout the
world." -- "Testimonies", Vol. 9, pg. 28. If but one soul saved from every city and
village there would be several times 144,000 living souls.
Isa. 35:7 -- "And the parched ground [the places which are
now entirely devoid of Truth] shall become a pool, and the thirsty land [the
land that thirsts for God's Truth] springs of water: in the habitation of
dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes."
There shall be fruitage, you see, even where
the dragons lie.
Isa. 35:8 -- "And an highway shall
be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean
shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though
fools, shall not err therein."
None shall be left in the
"wilderness," for there shall be a highway for all the followers of
God's Truth. Matters not what the
faithful be, illiterate or otherwise, they shall not err therein. Indeed, all the "wheat" shall be
gathered and put into the "barn," the Kingdom. (See Tract No. 3, "The
Judgment and the Harvest.")
Isa. 35:9 -- "No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast
shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk
there."
Once the hypocrites are taken out, they
shall not
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be allowed to return and to endanger the peace of God's
people. Only the redeemed shall walk on
the Highway of Holiness. And where does
the Highway lead? -- The next verse gives the answer:
Isa. 35:10 -- "And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and
come to
Yes, the Highway leads to
Brother, Sister, the sacrifices we may be called to make are as nothing
in comparison to the privilege of heading for
"We all went under the tree and sat
down to look at the glory of the place, when Brethren Fitch and Stockman, who
had preached the gospel of the kingdom, and whom God had laid in the grave to
save them, came up to us and asked us what we had passed through while they
were sleeping. We tried to call up our
greatest trials, but they looked so small compared with the far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory that surrounded us that we could not speak them
out, and we all cried out, 'Alleluia, heaven is cheap enough!' and we touched our
glorious harps and made heaven's arches ring." -- "Early
Writings," p. 17.
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