Unfortunately, the passing of time still has not awoken a very misguided and divisive brother, his name is — Eric Edstrom. Recently we posted a HearyetheRod post entitled, “A missing Tube”. In it, we pointed out some startling facts which as truth seekers we simply can’t ignore.
Shortly thereafter we were led by the Spirit to warn this brother of his mistaken idea that brother Houteff drew only six tubes entering the Golden bowl, when in fact the original Tract 6 Chart shows clearly–seven tubes entering.
Further, we built the case that as brother Houteff announced to the world his drawing in Tract 6 was an “exact” reproduction of Zechariah’s vision, by this clear and unmistakable evidence, the Chart must/did show seven tubes per the vision.
Our warning was posted on his website “Whyperish.org” link- http://whyperish.org/2013/07/the-golden-bowl-revisted/
He responded to our comment as follows —
“Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils” — Isaiah 2:22
You are following a hallucination coming at the hands of B. Albert Graham. Your folly will be exposed shortly.–The Publishers”
Hallucination? Did brother Graham draw that Chart or brother Houteff? We should point out that this is a photocopy of the original Tract that came directly from brother Sydney Smith (one of the original members) and is as original as it gets.
The real hallucination lies in Edstrom’s failure to open his eyes. In our post ALL should see clearly, from the original Tract, the seven tubes entering the top of the golden bowl.https://hearyetherod.wordpress.com/2016/05/20/a-missing-tube/
Shortly after he posted a report exposing our so-called “folly” in a post called “Can Error correct Error and lead to Truth” and a video on YouTube ( the post can be seen in the above Whyperish link under recent posts).
We read this report and true to form from his prior posts lambasting our work, we were amazed at the half-truths, innuendos, misguided ideas, and the twisting of the facts.
First, before we begin, we would like to point out that we entitled this post as the “sad saga” because this situation truly is —sad.
On the one hand, Edstrom has done much good work in Davidia, producing good historical reports, and some present truth articles that were quite good. But due to his continual divisive and judgmental accusations of the brethren he is, we believe, destroying with his left hand what his right hand has built.
We all remember as kids going to the beach and building a most beautiful sand castle and after a short while we completely destroyed it. This case we believe, spiritually speaking, is quite similar.
Ok let’s look at his report.
First, we’d like to address his last point —
“Meanwhile the real work of getting the original SRod literature out as the leaves of autumn under a multitude of independent storehouses under the control of the Holy Spirit lies languishing in the dust in large part because of Rob Peralta’s hatred of the truth that comes from upa7.org.”
NOTE: The above exact words were what Edstrom said on his original post, however since we published this report he has since changed these words to read something different in his report. Apparently, this has struck a truth cord and caused him to rethink what he said.
Unbelievable. Do we not see that Edstrom attempts to exalt yours truly with the power to hold back the Holy Spirit’s work? This truly is amazing and bordering on blasphemy (exalting a human with power above and beyond the Holy Spirit).
Are we to think that RP has done such a powerful job against truth that Edstrom’s own site “lies languishing in the dust” because of the defeat of the Holy Spirit?
Perhaps he would do well to remember Inspiration’s words concerning this matter–
“For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.”(2 Cor. 13:8)
“If the LORD does not build a house, then those who build it work in vain.” (Psalm 127:1)
Let us review what the Word says about this–
“But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” (John 16:13)
It is the Holy Spirit’s job to guide into all truth, and as such any site or report, that speaks truth, the Holy Spirit will guide to that–“He will guide you into all truth..”
Apparently something is holding the Holy Spirit back from Edstrom’s site because as we see , it is not man but the Holy Spirit that guides us to go where truth is and no one or thing can stop this work! Edstrom stating his “publish at home” website idea is not doing well is no fault but his own, as we’ll show in these reports.
He needs to stop looking around and pointing fingers at others and “determine to know the worst of your case”(SG, vol. 1, p.264) to know why his site is doing so poorly. Therein will lie his answer- studying self.
Additionally, we find a particularly troubling point in that Edstrom is promoting the idea that there should be individual “storehouses”. He is encouraging individuals to take upon themselves, presumably within their own houses, the idea that they can be a “storehouse”. And this leads to withholding the Lord’s Tithes to further the work according to our own ideas.
This is going directly against the Lord’s Rod as shown here–
CANNOT MY HOME BE HIS “STOREHOUSE”?
Question No. 97:
Is it Scriptural for one to retain and personally use his tithe and offerings in order to carry on the gospel work in his own community, according to his own plans?
Answer:
Nowhere in the Scriptures do we find permission to use the Lord’s money at our own discretion. The only justification for so doing would be sheer inability, for some reason to send it to the Lord’s “storehouse.” Should one voluntarily, though, engage in such a practice then he would set the wrong example before others.
And if following in his lead, others assume the same right, their course must inevitably result in seriously handicapping the Lord’s work, bleeding and subverting His treasury, and thus disorganizing His work and reducing the church to a mere shell, while her members are hiring themselves as laborers in the Lord’s vineyard, helping themselves to the Lord’s money, and running without having been sent! What a Babylon that would be!
Though the Lord commands, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse” (Mal. 3: 10), He does not say to bring all the offerings. Thus, He shows that if we would engage in some personal charity or missionary activity, we should sustain it from offerings, not from the tithe.
“Angels keep a faithful record of every man’s work, and as judgment passes upon the house of God, the sentence of each is recorded by his name, and the angel is commissioned to spare not the unfaithful servants, but to cut them down at the time of slaughter….And the crowns they might have worn, had they been faithful, are put upon the heads of those saved by the faithful servants….”Testimonies, Vol. 1, p. 198.(Answerer , vol. 4, p.44-45)
While the idea of where we should put our Tithes today is another study all in itself, Edstrom should realize that the above Answerer clearly shows that our own homes should not be encouraged to be a “storehouse”. This indeed results “in seriously handicapping the Lord’s work, bleeding and subverting His treasury, and thus disorganizing His work and reducing the church to a mere shell.”
The whole basis for his report to suggest people publish their own material stems from the fact that he proclaims that there is no true storehouse today and that God somehow has left Davidia to wallow around as best it can. What folly indeed!
This is a transparent crafty design to imply that only Edstrom’s organization is the true storehouse and should receive the Lord’s Tithes by all true Davidians today.
Further the Lord knows all about the shortcomings within the few longtime organizations — Waco, Mt. Dale and IGDSDA for example. This is way before Edstrom came on the scene many years later(in the late 90’s we believe).
One may ask these serious questions —
- How did Edstrom come into this message?
2. Which organization that he condemns was the one from which he read the Lord’s Rod through their literature?
3. Did the Holy Spirit use a “false DSDA organization” to bring him into the message?
4. Where would he be today if each of the current longtime DSDA organizations, which he condemns, had never published Rod literature?
He needs to step back and think deeply about what he is doing.
IS IT MY DUTY TO SET RIGHT THE LORD’S TREASURY?
Question No. 98:
Should we pay our tithe to the “storehouse” if we know that it is not used rightly?
Answer:
Knowing that our tithe belongs to God’s storehouse, our greatest burden should be to see that it is faithfully paid there. Nowhere in the Bible do we find that the Lord has laid upon any tithe payer the policing of the channels through which these funds pass.
The Lord’s treasury is under His control, and if He Himself should not see fit to correct an abuse in the handling of His money, certainly we could not correct it however hard we might try. If we guard carefully that part of His work which He entrusts to us, our only concern will be to find out where His “storehouse” is, and then faithfully to deposit His money there. He has not made us responsible for its use; that, He will personally take over–even as He is now “taking the reins in His own hands.”
When the Promised Land was divided among the twelve tribes of Israel, the tribe of Levi received no land for an inheritance, as did the eleven tribes. Instead, the Lord decreed that the tithes of the other tribes were to go to the Levites. This was their inheritance. It was actually their own.
And just as they, as the tithe receivers, had no right to dictate to the others, the tithe payers, what to do with their own increase after it had been tithed, so the tithe payers had no right to dictate to the tithe receivers what to do with the tithe. Each tribe was itself to be accountable to the Lord for that which He had entrusted to it. Thus it must be today.(Answerer, vol. 4, p.46-47)
Now to the idea that we “hate” UPA7 and Edstrom. A few years ago, we were led by the Holy Spirit to publish the first Wikipedia article concerning the Davidian Seventh-day Adventists.See here — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davidian_Seventh-day_Adventist
Very shortly after it appeared worldwide on Wikipedia, Edstrom inserted his own recommendation of UPA7.org onto our site. He did not stop there, he further inserted one of his other sites “Shepherd’s Rod Speaks. org”. We should point out that Wikipedia site brings in well over 2000 views each month.
So today, and for the last couple years, two of his websites appear on our worldwide article under “original message” references. Did we fight this and try and eliminate his sites from our article? No we did not. Where’s the hatred? It’s not there.
Contrary to Edstrom who has time and again rebuked and condemned people in public venues for “stealing” his work and/or not giving him credit for something he thinks he deserves credit, implying that he has some type of ownership of the Rod truth (certain reports such as the Special Resurrection, and original Mt. Carmel camp pictures which were sister Bonnie Smith’s for example), we kindly allowed his information to be added to our work. We are not holding back anyone from access to his websites.
Strangely, Edstrom on his own UPA7 website , has this report from brother Houteff saying —
“He rejoices over the good fortune of others, and loves to have others receive credit for something he himself may have accomplished. He expects his credit from the Lord only. What his right hand does his left hand is kept in the dark about (Matt. 6:3, 4).” (A Letter Included With The Original Certificate of Fellowship Card )
In closing this part one, we believe that what he really is upset about is the fact that we do not actively promote his websites along with the ones he condemns. There are very good Biblical reasons for that and we’ll go into this more in part two. Additionally we’ll look at some of his reasons why he condemns the current long time DSDA organizations and why we think it’s a big mistake to do so.
“There is nothing selfish or narrow in the religion of Christ. Its principles are diffusive and aggressive. It is represented by Christ as the bright light, as the saving salt, as the transforming leaven. With zeal, earnestness, and devotion the servants of God will seek to spread far and near the knowledge of the truth; yet they will not neglect to labour for the strength and unity of the church. They will watch carefully lest opportunity be given for diversity and division to creep in.
There have of late arisen among us men who profess to be the servants of Christ, but whose work is opposed to that unity which our Lord established in the church. They have original plans and methods of labour. They desire to introduce changes into the church to suit their ideas of progress and imagine that grand results are thus to be secured.
These men need to be learners rather than teachers in the school of Christ. They are ever restless, aspiring to accomplish some great work, to do something that will bring honour to themselves. They need to learn that most profitable of all lessons, humility and faith in Jesus.
Some are watching their fellow labourers and anxiously endeavouring to point out their errors, when they should rather be earnestly seeking to prepare their own souls for the great conflict before them. The Saviour bids them: “Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”(Testimonies, vol. 5, p.238)
HearYeTheRod 
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