Vol. 2 Timely
Greetings No. 20
THE ONLY
PEACE OF MIND
Volume 2
Number 20
Copyright, 1948 Reprint
All rights reserved
V.T. HOUTEFF
THE
LAODICEANS PERISH WITHOUT THE
"MESSAGE
TO THE LAODICEANS"
TEXT OF ADDRESS BY V.T. HOUTEFF,
MINISTER OF D. SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS
SABBATH,
MT.
Rev. 3:15-17 -- "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would
thou wert cold or hot. So then because
thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth.
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased
with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not
that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."
"What greater deception can come upon
human minds than a confidence that they are right, when they are all wrong! The message of the True Witness finds the people of
God in a sad deception, yet honest in that deception. They know not that their condition is
deplorable in the sight of God. While
those addressed are flattering themselves that they are in an exalted spiritual
condition, the message of the True Witness breaks their security by the
startling denunciation of their true condition of spiritual blindness, poverty,
and wretchedness. The testimony, so
cutting and severe, cannot be a mistake, for it is the True Witness who speaks,
and his testimony must be correct." -- Testimonies, Vol. 3, pp. 252-253.
When people are wretched, miserable, poor,
blind, and naked as are the Laodiceans, and do
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No. 20 18
not know it, then the only title that can be given them
is "Deceived," yet ironically the Laodiceans
are the people most fearful of being deceived!
They think themselves in need of nothing, although the Lord Himself says
that they are in need of everything.
They think themselves rich and increased with goods. What goods? -- Not money, I am sure, for
right along we hear them calling for money, even begging for it.
It is with supposedly sufficient Bible Truth
that they are satisfied. They are
confident that they have all the revealed Truth they need to take them through
to the Kingdom. This is their great
deception. They do not know their great
need of Truth now while the Church is about to enter upon the final phase of
her work. They do not realize that this
next phase of the Church's work cannot be carried on with her old phase of
Truth. The Church now can no more do
without the additional message (Early Writings, pg. 277) than could she at the
closing of the Old Testament era have entered the Christian dispensation with the
Old Testament ceremonial Truth isolated from the Gospel.
But, sad to say, to speak to the Laodiceans of more Truth than what they already have is to
incur their greatest displeasure: and the idea that they need no more Truth,
that they have it all, and that someone is always trying to deceive them, has
been drilled into them as deeply as it can be drilled. This has made them prejudiced and suspicious
of everyone who dares approach them with something new. This is what puts them in as bad a position
as the Jews of old. Plain it is that if
the Laodiceans choose thus to remain lukewarm,
satisfied in their deception, they shall be spued out
and forever
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No. 20 19
left without hope.
Rev. 3:18 --
"I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the
fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment,
that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of
thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes
with eyesalve, that thou mayest
see."
The gold tried in the fire obviously represents
inspired Truth for this time, the only truth that saves, the only kind God
would sell. And what can be the white
raiment which the True Witness urges them to buy, if not the righteousness of
Christ?
And what must one do to obtain these? -- We
shall find the answer in--
Mic. 6:5 --"O My people, remember now what Balak
king of
Here we are admonished to remember Balak's question and Balaam's answer if we would know the
righteousness of the Lord. Let us turn
to--
Num. 24:17-24 -- "I shall see Him, but not now: I shall behold Him, but not nigh:
there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre
shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all
the children of Sheth. And
Timely Greetings, Vol. 2,
No. 20 20
said, Amalek was the first of
the nations; but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever. And he looked on the Kenites,
and took up his parable, and said, Strong is thy dwellingplace,
and thou puttest thy nest in a rock. Nevertheless the Kenite
shall be wasted, until Asshur shall carry thee away
captive. And he took up his parable, and
said, Alas, who shall live when God doeth this!
And ships shall come from the coast of
Obviously this is a prophecy of Christ
having taken "the reins in His own hands." Testimonies
to Ministers, pg. 300. Such is
His Righteousness that we are urged to know.
Concretely speaking, knowing the righteousness of Christ is knowing
whole-heartedly that in the latter days He is to take the Scepter, that He is
to reign; that at the outset He is to smite the "corners of Moab, and
destroy all the children of Sheth"; that Edom
and Seir shall be a possession for His enemies; that
Israel shall do valiantly; that He shall have dominion, and so on. According to Scripture, this is our
righteousness of Christ if we know it.
And he who realizes that the reign of Christ and His kingdom is not
something intangible, not something imaginary floating in space, as it were,
somewhere across hell, but a real thing, as real as any of the kingdoms today,
will immediately inquire, as did the Apostle Paul, "What wilt Thou have me
to do Lord?" This we shall again
see from the prophecy of Micah--
Mic. 6:6, 7 -- "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow
myself before the high God? Shall I come
before Him with burnt offerings, with
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No. 20 21
calves of a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands
of rivers of oil? Shall I give my
firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my
soul?"
This inquiry by the people in the unfolding
of this scripture reveals what they think would be most pleasing to the
Lord. They think a gift of some kind
from material things is perhaps the most acceptable gift they can offer for the
remission of their sins. We with our own
eyes actually see this very thing throughout our churches. This same condition obtained in the days of
Christ's first advent: The Jews were very particular about paying tithe even on
the minutest item of income, on such as mint, anise, and cummin,
but they omitted "the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and
faith." Matt. 23:23. Honest tithing
was to their credit, said the Lord, but tithing should never replace judgment,
mercy, and faith. This same answer comes
to us today through the prophet Micah:
Micah 6:8 --
"He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and
what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to
walk humbly with thy God?"
Once having caught the vision of the great
need for revival and reformation, God's people are willing to do almost
anything, even to sacrificing their first-born.
For further information Inspiration
advises--
Mic. 6:9 -- "...Hear ye the rod, and Who
hath
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No. 20 22
appointed it."
These are God's answers to the question,
"Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high
God?"
Since we are asked to do "justly, and to
love mercy, and to walk humbly with [our] God," it must be that we as a
people are not practicing these things, that there is dishonesty,
inconsiderateness, and pride. We are
glad, though, that we are not hopelessly condemned for our iniquities, but that
we are invited to give them up, to forsake them, if we expect to stand on
Through the prophet Ezekiel we are shown
wherein we abuse the gift of mercy and justice:
Ezek. 34:21, 22, 31 -- "Because ye have thrust with side and with
shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered
them abroad; therefore will I save My flock, and they
shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle.... And ye My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men, and I am your
God, saith the Lord God."
The diseased, the weak, are of course those
who are less influential, and for one reason or
another are unable to hold their own.
These are pushed and horned out by the stronger, the unjust and
unmerciful class, the class who control the work. This class is nevertheless eventually to be
judged.
There is but one safe course to pursue if we
would find favor with the Lord, and that course is out lined by the prophet
Isaiah:
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No. 20 23
Isa. 7:21, 22 -- "And it shall come to pass in that day, that a
man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep; and it shall come to pass, for
the abundance of milk that they shall give that he shall eat butter: for butter
and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land."
Imagine one cow and two sheep supplying with
butter and honey all who are left in the land!
Since a literal cow and two sheep could not possibly do this, we must
agree that they are symbolical of something which is not only capable of
producing an abundance of milk, but is able also to preserve the lives of its
patrons.
There is but one thing that consists of
three such parts (two sheep and a young cow) that is capable of keeping the
world alive, and that is the Bible -- unfolded by the Spirit of Prophecy, the
Spirit that leads into all Truth. The
two sheep, not being young, and two of a kind, must be symbolical of the Bible
Itself, both Old and New Testaments. The
cow being young and larger in size, is obviously symbolical
of something of later origin, and more voluminous than the Bible itself. Hence it is none other than the published
works of the everliving Spirit of Prophecy -- the
inspired interpretation of the Scriptures.
Those that are left in the land, therefore,
when Christ takes His scepter to reign, are those who live on the butter and
honey which only the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy can supply. All others are to perish with the modern Edomites and Moabites.
In the same symbolical prophecy we are shown
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No. 20 24
that Christ Himself learned the difference between right
and wrong by studying the Scriptures:
Isa. 7:14, 15 -- "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign;
Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name
Immanuel. Butter and honey shall He eat,
that He may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
No one would deny, as mentioned in our last
week's study, that this is a prophecy of Christ's first advent. And as we have the record that His diet was
not of dairy butter and of bee honey, not restricted as was John the Baptist's,
also by the fact that no literal butter and honey has the efficacy of
compelling anyone to choose the good and to refuse the evil, it all proves that
the "butter and honey" are symbolical of the Word of God, that Christ
Himself learned from the Scriptures to choose the good and to refuse the evil.
Here you see that one needs a daily supply
of spiritual butter and honey if he is to sustain his spiritual life. That is, yesterday's meal could not take the
place of the meal today -- no, no more than Noah's inspired message for his
day, can take the place of the inspired message of the Kingdom today.
Only the Heaven-sent message for today can
save the people of today. This is just
as real and as true and as logical as it is to say that the living cannot be
judged with the message of the judgment of the Dead. Yes, "blessed is that...faithful and wise
servant, whom His Lord hath made ruler over His household, to give them
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No. 20 25
meat in due season." Matt. 24:45, 46.
To further realize that we need to study in
order to recognize the abominations that surround us, and to know how to avoid
them, I shall read from Testimonies to Ministers, pg. 445:
"This sealing of the servants of God
[the 144,000] is the same that was shown to Ezekiel in vision. John also had been a witness of this most
startling revelation."
Ezek. 9:4-6 -- "And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city,
through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men
that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst
thereof. And to the others He said in
mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye
spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little
children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin
at My sanctuary. Then they began at the
ancient men which were before the house."
When the day approaches for this scripture
to be fulfilled, then its truth must be the "meat in due season" for
the people at that time. Nothing else
can take its place. And so we see that
as
From the following we see that the message
to the Laodiceans is to bear fruit,
that many will learn to choose the good and to refuse the evil:
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No. 20 26
"In the time when his wrath shall go
forth in judgments, these humble, devoted followers of Christ will be
distinguished from the rest of the world by their soul-anguish, which is
expressed in lamentation and weeping, reproofs and warnings. While others try to throw a cloak over the
existing evil, and excuse the great wickedness everywhere prevalent, those who
have a zeal for God's honor and a love for souls, will not hold their peace to
obtain favor of any. Their righteous
souls are vexed day by day with the unholy works and conversation of the
unrighteous. They are powerless to stop
the rushing torrent of iniquity, and hence they are filled with grief and
alarm. They mourn before God to see religion
despised in the very homes of those who have had great light. They lament and afflict their souls because
pride, avarice, selfishness, and deception of almost every kind are in the
church." -- Testimonies, Vol. 5, pg. 210.
Since we now clearly see that the Laodiceans perish without the message to the Laodiceans, we should hold fast to the Truth for this time,
and win our crown of life, and in addition to it we shall be credited with a
good harvest of souls and with the commendation "Well done, thou good and
faithful servant." Matt. 25:23.
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