Revisiting the Issue of Gentiles in the SDA Church

In 1 Selected Messages, page 37, we read the far-reaching counsel by Inspiration —

“We have many lessons to learn, and many, many to unlearn. God and heaven alone are infallible. Those who think that they will never have to give up a cherished view, never have occasion to change an opinion, will be disappointed. As long as we hold to our own ideas and opinions with determined persistency, we cannot have the unity for which Christ prayed.” ( 1 Selected Messages, p.37)

Indeed! Yours truly has an opportunity to “relearn” an understanding of the issue of Gentiles in our church. In a previous post called  “Are There Any Gentiles in our Church?” on August 6, 2019. 

We made the argument that the SDA church is composed of those of Jewish lineage. However, we did say at the end of that post —

“Lastly, we know in Rev. 12:17 that the Dragon brings in a flood into the church. Who is this flood? They are people not called from God! Could there be non-Israelite bloodlines in the church? Food for thought.”

As the years have passed, the Spirit of Truth has enlightened more on this issue. The specific reference that triggered a new understanding is the following —

“In the hope of destroying the woman, the serpent at first persecuted her. Failing, though, to reach his goal, he suddenly reversed his tactics. He ceased the persecution and began instead to befriend her. But at what cost to the woman! Cunningly he cast water as a flood after her, seeming to put forth a mighty effort to refresh her, when in actuality it was a mighty effort thereby to destroy her.

The figurative words of Inspiration explain that the compulsory Christianizing of the Gentiles and the pouring of them into the church during the fourth century of the Christian era, was not in reality a friendly act. Rather it was like a devastating torrent to drown the saving power of Christianity. In other words, Inspiration predicted the period in which the dragon clothed Pagan politicians in a garb of Christianity and then led them to compel the non-Christian pagans to join the church, that they might thus paganize her rather than she Christianize them….

…Let it be remembered that it is after the earth swallows the flood that the dragon is to be wroth with the woman, and “to make war with the remnant of her seed [not with her personally], which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Rev. 12:16 17. Clearly, then, there is no escaping the conclusion that the doing away with Satan’s flood is doubtless the purifying of the church, the destroying of those who have joined the church through the aid of the serpent.” (Tract 15, p.87-89)

We see that some members of our Church have been brought in by the dragon! Therefore we cannot escape the conclusion that he has brought in Gentiles who are not converted to Christ but for are joining with false pretenses and motives.

The Spirit of Prophecy adds more to our subject —

 “The Lord does not now work to bring many souls into the truth, because of the church members who have never been converted and those who were once converted but who have backslidden. What influence would these unconsecrated members have on new converts? Would they not make of no effect the God-given message which His people are to bear?” (Testimonies, vol. 6, p. 370)

 

We see that Inspiration tells us that our church should not be as large as it is today (approx. 22 million). If the Lord has not brought in this large number, who has? 
“…who have joined the church through the aid of the serpent.”

In summary, yes there are obviously many unconverted in our church who consists of BOTH of the lineage of Jews and Gentiles. When we discuss the often “those with” argument —

“The 144,000 will be just Jews as per Rev. 7, but what about the Gentiles in the church?”

We can explain that, yes, there could very well be Gentiles in our church but from  evidence in the message, they are the  Gentiles who are unconverted. Satan has brought them in and apparently it is a “flood” meaning a truly large number. Does that mean that all the lineage Jews  in the church today are converted and will be among that number? No, it does not.

How dare you Translate the Rod into Spanish!

It is so very sad when we see our adversary bring truly false ideas and doctrines into the minds of others. The Spirit of Prophecy states —

“These strange ideas should not even be mentioned, much less taught as essential truths. We have reached a time when things are to be called by their right name. As we did in earlier days, we must arise, and, under the Spirit of God, rebuke the work of deception.” ( 2 SLM, p.25)


Unbelievably the title of this post is basically what we heard recently from UPA7/Eric Edstrom. This brother, and he needs no introduction as to falsehood, has just about topped himself in his latest statements of twisting truth                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    .

In his recent YouTube channel, he posted a video entitled “Pre 11th Hour Ministry: God’s next Storehouse or Rogue Madhouse?”, he has asserted a truly remarkable statement, we quote —

“When asked about what they (Pre-11th Hour Ministry) are planning to publish, all they could offer was Spanish translations. And the question is asked –Did brother Houteff publish Spanish translations or any other language? And the answer is no he did not! So these Spanish translations are total confusion and unauthorized. 

Brother Houteff never left instructions to translate the Rod into another tongue. So this is a total rank apostasy. They do not count. And the argument that  ‘oh well the Bible was translated to another tongue’  is totally out of context. Brother Houteff didn’t publish the Bible he published the Shepherd’s Rod and he never gave permission to translate it.

The work was complete and ready to go in his lifetime. So to tamper with it, when you do translations you introduce artifacts and people who speak bi-lingual will tell you that.” ( From video link 18:40 to 19:45 mark) 

While there is much we could respond to in his latest video, and we will soon on our DSDA YouTube channel, we want to concentrate on this one area.

The counsel from the Lord is —

“Says the Spirit of Prophecy, “Close reasoners

and logical thinkers are few. ” “How many men in this age of the world fail to go deep enough. They only skim the surface. They will not think closely enough to see difficulties and grapple with them, and will not examine every important subject which comes before them with thoughtful, prayerful study, and with sufficient caution and interest to see the real point at issue. They talk of matters which they have not fully and carefully weighed. ”—“Fundamentals of Christian Education,” p. 27; “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. 4, p. 361.( 3 SC, no.5-6, p.7)

Edstrom once again speaks of matters he has not weighed. Let’s follow his reasoning. Take the Scriptures, for instance, what was the early translation history?

“The evangelistic thrust of the early church gave impetus for many translations to impart the gospel to peoples in diverse language areas of the Roman Empire. Before A.D. 400 the Bible had been made available in Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, and Georgian. The succeeding centuries brought still other translations.” (Source: Meadowbrook church/Translation history report)

Wait a minute! Who gave authorization to those translators to take and translate to Old and New Testament from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek,  and into Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian and Georgian and still other later translations including English?

Do we see the failed and myopic ideas coming from a man whose breath is in his nostrils? Total lunacy brethren! This is why we need to sink the shaft deep into the minefield of Truth with close reasoning and logical thinking.   

I guess you and I (English readers) should never have had the Bible given us, we are unauthorized to read them as they themselves are unauthorized translations. Sounds a bit like the old Roman Catholic priests forbidding the regular people to read Scripture  — “You are unauthorized”.

It is clear that a private uninspired individual who is saying “They do not count” is speaking folly. To say “Brother Houteff” was the one to authorize translation is to say the same logic that the prophets should have given authorization for future translation, yet did not! Folly. It is God who has CONTROL of the Inspired messages and Who ultimately directs, controls, and authorizes.

The Bible counsel shows that such made-up controversy is nothing new, in fact Apostle Peter warned us through Inspiration —

“If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.” (1 Tim. 6:3-5)   

What we have here is another false claim from a well-known “accuser of the brethren”. When we take the time and investigate and do logical thinking we see another attempt to blacken God’s workers and self-exalting oneself as some type of corrector of imagined heresies. 

We find other evidence of our correct understanding in Tract 11, p.7 —

“All the generic terms, in the various languages, are designative of what God is, rather than of Who He is; in other words, these terms are the titles of His nature and character, rather than of His identity. Therefore, if they were not translated into the languages of the nations, they would be meaningless to the people.

From the combined evidences herein of Scripture, history, philology, and logic, we see clearly that the words, God, Lord, et al., were not originally, nor ever exclusively, the names of Baal, or of any other idol. Consequently there is

Nothing Wrong With God’s Titles in any Language.”

The same principle applies to the final message of Elijah –the SRod publications. There is absolutely nothing wrong with producing them in any language as long as strict fidelity is taken into account as to the same meaning of words from the English version. Additionally, only the original writings published by the prophet are translated (no new codes).

We know from a personal account that MANY have been blessed by our Pre-11th Hour ministry Spanish publications, videos and website. We do indeed plan on publishing the Rod in English as soon as our publishing department gets up and running.

In closing, will the Lord count this supposed “sighing and crying” for the sins done in the midst as righteous sighing and crying? Or a twisting of His message? Time will tell and we fear for those with such actions.

He wants The final message of Elijah, the Rod,  translated into ALL languages as the leaves of Autumn. To say that all people of other languages must read it only in English is to shortchange God’s message and revert back to Pharisical thinking and censorship. God forbid. Pray for UPA7 and Edstrom, at this very late hour they sure need it.