Vol. 2 Timely
Greetings No. 15
THE ONLY
PEACE OF MIND
Volume 2
Number 15
Copyright, 1948 Reprint
All rights reserved
V.T. HOUTEFF
THAT WHICH IS TO BE
DURING THE
SIXTH TRUMPET WHILE
PROBATION STILL LASTS
Timely Greetings, Vol. 2,
No. 15 1
TEXT FOR PRAYER
Cherished Sin Keeps Truth Out
C.O.L. p. 50 -- "'He
also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth
the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke
the word, and he becometh unfruitful.' The gospel seed often falls among thorns and
noxious weeds; and if there is not a moral transformation in the human heart,
if old habits and practices and the former life of sin are not left behind, if
the attributes of Satan are not expelled form the soul, the wheat crop will be
choked. The thorns will come to be the
crop, and will kill out the wheat.... If the heart is not kept under the
control of God, if the Holy Spirit does not work unceasingly to refine and
ennoble the character, the old habits will reveal themselves in the life....
Christ specified the things that are dangerous to the soul. As recorded by Mark he mentions the cares of
this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things. Luke specifies the cares, riches, and
pleasures of this life. These are what
choke the word, the growing spiritual seed.
The soul ceases to draw nourishment from Christ, and spirituality dies
out of the heart."
This reading commands us to pray that the
seed sown in our hearts may fall in good soil, that it may take root; that we
be free from the cares of this life and from sin, for no matter how impressive
the Truth that goes into one's ears, It will never reach the heart if there is
any cherished sin therein.
Timely Greetings, Vol. 2,
No. 15 2
THAT WHICH
IS TO BE DURING THE SIXTH TRUMPET WHILE PROBATION STILL LASTS
TEXT OF ADDRESS BY V.T. HOUTEFF,
MINISTER OF D. SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS
SABBATH,
MT.
The subject of our study is found in
Revelation, chapters 10 and 11. We shall
begin with--
Rev. 10:1 --
"And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a
cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun,
and his feet as pillars of fire."
This angel has all the characteristics of a
power that sends down "the latter rain," and that causes the
spiritual grain fully to develop, for that is what cloud, sunshine, and
rainbow, indicate. As a rainbow never
appears without rain, the angel is therefore the angel that brings the rain and
the sunshine for the development of the final harvest.
Rev. 10:2 --
"And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon
the sea, and his left foot on the earth."
There is but one book in the Bible that has
had to be opened, and that is the book of Daniel (Dan. 12:4). And since the first thing which the angel did
was to open the book, the analysis proves that he actually appears on the scene
at the commencement of the time of the
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end, the time the book was to be opened. (Rev. 10:2).
You know that man naturally starts out with
his right foot. Now, since the angel's
right foot was upon the sea and his left foot upon the land, the symbolism
shows that he starts out on the sea, the
Rev. 10:3, 4 -- "And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth:
and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their
voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me,
Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not."
Here we see that there was another truth
which could have been recorded, but John was told not to write it. We do not know how extensive a truth the
Seven Thunders contain, but possibly as much as or more than the Seven
Trumpets. Regardless, however, one thing
stands out boldly, and that is that the omission of the Seven Thunders leaves a
gap in the chain of Truth. And since the
Seven Thunders are not recorded, the truth of them cannot be revealed by
interpretation, for there is nothing written of them, and therefore nothing to
interpret from. If, then, we are ever to
know the truth of the Seven Thunders, it is to be shown to us perhaps by the
same means as The Revelation was shown to John.
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No. 15 4
Rev. 10:5-7 -- "And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth
lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, Who created heaven, and the
things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and
the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to
sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to His
servants the prophets." (At the beginning of the sounding of the seventh trumpet,
the Mystery of God is to be finished.)
What about the statement, "there shall
be time no longer"? -- The answer is found in Rev. 10:6, which in
actuality proves that there shall be time no longer for the Mystery of God to
be finished; that the remaining days of the sixth trumpet, the time to the
sounding of the seventh trumpet, is the time for the Mystery of God, the Gospel
of Christ, to be finished. In fact, the
very first announcement of the seventh angel is that the kingdoms of this world
are become the kingdoms of our Lord, -- that the Gospel work is finished.
Rev. 10:8-10 -- "And the voice which I heard from heaven spake
unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand
of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the
earth. And I went unto the angel, and
said unto him, Give me the little book.
And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly
bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's
hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I
had eaten it, my belly was bitter."
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No. 15 5
To eat the book is, as it were, to
"swallow" its sayings. The
honey sweet must be the joy that comes from its promises, and obviously the
bitter denotes inability to digest, to comprehend all, and thus a
disappointment. These, you know met
fulfillment in the days of the First Advent Movement, when through the study of
the book of Daniel, they learned that the cleansing of the Sanctuary (Dan.
Rev. 10:11 --"And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and
nations, and tongues, and kings."
After the disappointment they were commanded
to prophesy again; that is, again to proclaim the cleansing of the
Sanctuary. This work they were to do
among many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings, obviously not to all.
Thus it was that the first Advent Movement
was reorganized and renamed, Seventh-day Adventists. The Seventh-day Adventist organization,
therefore, will not finish the work. Its
message does not go to all people, to all nations, tongues, and kings. Consequently, the Church, too, is to be
reorganized if the Gospel of the Kingdom is to be preached to all nations. "'A revival and a reformation must take
place under the ministration of the Holy Spirit. Revival and reformation are two different
things. Revival signifies a renewal of
spiritual life, a quickening of the powers of mind and heart, a resurrection
from spiritual death. Reformation
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No. 15 6
signifies a reorganization, a change in ideas and theories,
habits and practices.'" -- Christ Our Righteousness, pg. 121, 1941
edition.
How will the
reorganization come about?--
"For, behold, the Lord will come with
fire, and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury,
and His rebuke with flames of fire. For
by fire and by His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the
Lord shall be many.
"They that sanctify themselves, and
purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's
flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord.
"And I will set a sign among them, and
I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish,
Pul, and Lud, that draw the
bow, to Tubal, and Javan,
to the isles afar off, that have not heard My fame,
neither have seen My glory; and they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles.
"And they shall bring all your brethren
for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots,
and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to My
holy mountain
In these verses we see a slaughter taking
place, a slaughter which takes away the transgressors of the Truth. Those that escape the
Timely Greetings, Vol. 2,
No. 15 7
slaughter of the Lord are
sent to the nations who have not seen God's glory, or heard His fame, and they
are to bring all their brethren out of "all nations." Plainly, then, the slaughter is in the
Church, for those who escape are sent to preach to the Gentiles that know
nothing of God. Sending the faithful to
the nations, after the slaying of the unfaithful, presupposes a reorganization. And
the commission at last is to go, not to many nations, but to all nations. If they are to bring all their brethren out
of all nations, then they must be the last, the ones to finish the work,
"the Mystery of God," to bring probation to a close and the world to
an end.
Rev. 11:1 --
"And there was given me a reed like unto a rod:
and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the
The measuring of the worshipers is in
reality the numbering of them. And so
you see that following the Seventh-day Adventist Movement there is to be a
numbering of its people. And as there is
but one numbered company, the 144,000 (Rev. 7:3), the first fruits (Rev. 14:4),
the servants of God (7:3), it follows that they are the ones who are numbered,
who escape, and also who are sent to the nations. Yes, they are the ones who finish the Mystery
of God as they bring all their brethren out of all nations (Rev. 7:9), the
second fruits.
Rev. 11:2 --
"But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not;
for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under
foot forty and two months."
The worshipers, the members of the church,
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the tribes of Israel, are to
be numbered, but those who are to fill up the court, those of the Gentiles, are
unnumbered: "After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man
could number, of all nations, and kindreds and
people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with
white robes, and palms in their hands." Rev. 7:9.
Seven times seven, forty-nine, determined
the year of Jubilee, the liberation of the people and of the land, the type of
the Kingdom complete. Besides any other
significance, the forty-two months being only six sevens, it signifies that the
holy city, Jerusalem, will not be "trodden down" all the way up to
the time of the antitypical Jubilee, -- the Gentiles are to be driven out of it
before the Mystery of God is finished, before the seventh angel begins to
sound.
Rev. 11:3, 4 -- "And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall
prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two
candlesticks standing before the God of the earth."
When the prophet Zechariah asked what the
olive trees of his vision symbolize, the angel answered, "the Word of the
Lord." Zech. 4:6.
The two olive trees, then, are figurative of
the Old and New Testaments, the Bible (The Great Controversy, pg. 267). As to the symbolization of the candlesticks the
Lord Himself points out that they are figurative of the churches (Rev.
1:20). The two candlesticks in
connection with the olive trees are therefore figurative of the Old and New
Testament churches,
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No. 15 9
the churches which gave us the Bible.
Rev. 11:5 --
"And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth
out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and
if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed."
From this we see that though the Bible is
the best friend to Its friends, It is a terrible enemy
to Its enemies. When Truth cannot save,
it kills.
Rev. 11:6-11 -- "These have power to shut heaven, that it
rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them
to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
"And when they shall have finished
their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the
bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill
them. And their dead bodies shall lie in
the street of the great city, which spiritually is called
"And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead
bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put
in graves. And they that dwell upon the
earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to
another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and an half the Spirit
of Life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great
fear fell upon them which saw them."
I need not say more on these verses, for you
Timely Greetings, Vol. 2,
No. 15 10
will find a detailed explanation of them in Tract No. 2,
The Warning Paradox, pp. 47-48, revised edition.
Rev. 11:12, 13 -- "And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come
up hither. And they ascended up to
heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour was there a great
earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and
in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were
affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven."
The Bible points out that but one bottomless
pit was opened, the pit out of which the locusts came (Rev. 9:2), and it was
the heavenly Star that opened the pit to let out its captives, -- the locusts
who were to hurt only those men who have not the seal of God in their
foreheads. Since the locusts were
capable of knowing who had and also who had not the seal of God in their
foreheads, and since they were friends to God's sealed people, the truth is
obvious: The Star that liberated them from the pit is Christ, and the locusts
are the Christians, the people that were rescued from apostate Judaism.
Moreover, the fact that the Angel of
Revelation 20:1 (Satan's great enemy), is the One Who has the key of the
bottomless pit, it follows that the Angel of Revelation 20:1 and the Star of
Revelation 9:1 are the same, for the One to Whom the key was given, is the only
One that could have it.
Now we may ask who is the beast of the
bottomless pit?
If the Star that came from Heaven and opened the pit is Christ, and if the
locusts that came out of the pit are the Christians, then
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there is no way of escaping the conclusion that the beast
which came out of the bottomless pit is symbolical of Christendom. Thus it is that the Lord was crucified there.
Now that the city is spiritually called
A tenth part of the city must represent the
Lord's part, the tithe, so to speak. The
earthquake therefore represents a shaking in the
Moreover, the fact that the Mystery of God
is finished when the seventh angel begins to sound, and also the fact that the
shaking is here shown to take place during the sounding of the sixth angel, the
Truth stands out that the shaking takes place before the Gospel work is
finished. The Spirit of Prophecy in our
day also foresaw this shaking:
"I asked the meaning of the shaking I
had seen, and was shown that it would be caused by the straight testimony
called forth by the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans. This will have its effect upon the heart of
the receiver, and will lead him to exalt the standard and pour forth the
straight truth. Some will not bear this straight
testimony. They will rise up against it,
and this is what will cause
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a shaking among God's people." -- Early Writings,
pg. 270.
Rev. 11:14-19 -- "The second woe is past; and, behold, the
third woe cometh quickly.
"And the seventh angel sounded; and
there were great voices in heaven, saying, The
kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ;
and He shall reign for ever and ever.
"And the four and twenty elders, which
sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
saying, We give Thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy
great power, and hast reigned. And the
nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they
should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward
unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and
them that fear Thy name, small and great; and shouldest
destroy them which destroy the earth.
"And the
If you wish to study the eleventh chapter of
Revelation in all its details, read the Tract, "To The
Seven Churches."
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