Since the prophet Victor Houteff released of the very first Rod book, Shepherd’s Rod volume 1, the God-appointed storehouse history has experienced what we call “limbo periods” or otherwise stated — grace periods. In other words, the storehouse of God was involved in clear spiritual trouble/disobedience from within, so serious that it caused God to relocate it. However the eastward course, prophetically had to be followed per His prophetic Word in Ezekiel chapter 47 and confirmed by the prophet.
“These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.” (Rev. 14:4)
Our Lamb has taken us on a journey, complete with success and failures, twists, turns, splits, and regrouping. But ultimately the eastward course to the Kingdom!
“In reviewing our past history, having traveled over every step of our advance to our present standing, I can say Praise God! As I can see what God has wrought, I am filled with astonishment, and with Christ as our leader. We have nothing to fear for the future except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us.” (TM, p.31)
Let us now look back into these periods to keep abreast of the Lord’s leading His people and why the changes were necessary.
We shall look at the four DSDA grace/limbo periods:
2 — Mt. Carmel Waco storehouse to 100% Rod group storehouse
3 — Salem storehouse to MountainDale storehouse
4 — Mountaindale’s current grace/limbo period
Period 1, SDA storehouse to DSDA storehouse —
In 1930 the Lord began His final message of Elijah predicted in Malachi 4:5
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord”
Brother Houteff then published Shepherd’s Rod, volume one. This fulfilled the prophetic timetable of Ezekiel 4. Yet, the SDA church was in the dark for many years since the prophetess went to sleep in 1915. Then the SDA church was faced with either acceptance of this new Rod light or a rejection of it. We all know the outcome.
This rejection was predicted by the prophetess —
“The third angel’s message will not be comprehended, the light which will lighten the earth with its glory will be called a false light, by those who refuse to walk in its advancing glory.” (RH, May 27, 1890)
“There is to be in the churches a wonderful manifestation of the power of God, but it will not move upon those who have not humbled themselves before the Lord, and opened the door of the heart by confession and repentance. In the manifestation of that power which lightens the earth with the glory of God, they will see only something which in their blindness they think dangerous, something which will arouse their fears, and they will brace themselves to resist it.
Because the Lord does not work according to their ideas and expectations, they will oppose the work. “Why,” they say, “should not we know the Spirit of God, when we have been in the work so many years?”—Because they did not respond to the warnings, the entreaties of the messages of God, but persistently said, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.”(RH, Dec. 23, 1890)
Indeed, the SDA leaders felt the Lord was not working “according to their ideas and expectations” therefore despite the pleadings of the prophet, they refused to come in one with the Lord’s message of Elijah.
Despite this, the Lord patiently waited on the rejectors, giving them time to come back in line with the Lord, for example we read the following —
“In case some one’s name should be taken off the church books for carrying on the message, do not be discouraged in any way but press onward as though nothing has happened. Pay your honest tithe and offering to your church, and feel like “IT IS” your Father’s house. Continue your work of reform with as many as you can possibly interest.” (Srod, vol. 1, p.251)
This patience lasted roughly 5 years before the Lord made His announcement through the Rod in Sym. Code, vol. 1, no. 5, page 9, in November of 1934. The Storehouse was now changed! The SDA church failed to come into line with God’s Truth.
“The instruction in the SRod, Vol. 1, p. 251, regarding tithe, proves that we have payed our honest part all the way. It says that the tithe should be paid to the old S.D.A organization. But now since the leading part of the denomination has rejected the sealing message of the 144,000 and is passing on to the people a pseudo refutation of its subject matter to justify their actions, doing all they can to prevent the people from coming in contact with the message, the action of the SRod in calling not only for the tithe but also for the offerings to be brought in for the support of the message of present truth is Divinely approved and justified, for present truth has always constituted God’s “storehouse.” (SC, vol. 1, no.5, p.9)(1934)
Again in Tract 4, p.66-
“The instructions in The Shepherd’s Rod, Vol. 1, p. 251, “Pay your honest tithe and offering to your church, and feel that ‘IT IS’ your Father’s house,” came near the close of 1930, before the leading brethren, as a denomination, had rejected the sealing message. Clearly, then, The Shepherd’s Rod has faithfully discharged its duty in refusing to accept any tithes or offerings until after the books were scattered throughout the denomination, and after the brethren began bitterly to oppose the message. Now, though, since the opposition is no longer passive, but intensely active, and the proclamation of the message supremely urgent, the only course open is apparent. It will take an army of workers, including the tithes and offerings, to reach the people.”
This first grace/limbo period was approximately 5 years. The transfer of headship of the Lord’s church appears to be Nov. 1934, and this was also right after the leading SDA brethren rejected brother Houteff’s teachings at their Los Angeles meeting in early 1934. No doubt that despite this waiting period, some believers nevertheless sent in their tithes and offerings during that 5 year period to the DSDA movement (and was accepted as shown in Sept. 1934 code –Vol. 1, no. 3, p,5), but the legal notice of transfer, as far as we can tell, was in Nov. 1934 in the Code announcement.
Period 2, Mt. Carmel Waco to 100% Rod-only group —
Florence Houteff took over leadership almost immediately upon the death of the prophet on Feb. 6, 1955. In fact, the callous way she took over was almost beyond belief!
A hastily called meeting was arranged for her to take the headship of the movement and also to discuss her personal financial arrangements and was certainly a BAD START in the Rod movement after the death of the prophet. We read the details as follows —
GENERAL ASSOCIATION
OF DAVIDIAN SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS
MT. CARMEL CENTER
WACO, TEXAS
February 6, 1955
To the Exective Council:
I am requesting by this letter that the Council convene
for the purpose of considering and passing a resolution on the
follo~ng requests made by V. T. Houterr before his death:
(1) That in case of V. T. Houteff’s death which would
automatically leave vacant the office of President,
Mrs. Florence Houter! be appointed to fill the office
of Vice President;
(2) That someone be appointed to succeed Ms. Florence Florence
Houteff as Secretary;
(3) That T. O. Hermanson be appointed a member of the
Executive Council;
(4) That the Council make a resolution to provide for the
welfare of Mrs. Florence Houte!! as long as she lives.
Sincerely yours,
(Mrs. Florence Houteff)
Notice it was the VERY NEXT DAY (Feb. 6) that she wanted a meeting to discuss business! The body was not even cold yet!
But despite this, the Lord still had the DSDA Mt. Carmel organization as the official storehouse at this time. No change was announced in this regard. So rightfully many continued to send in their tithes and offerings to the storehouse, but as we know, soon the whole movement would be upended.
Fast forward to April 22, 1959. This is the day that the Rod , which had been placed on the Altar by Florence and her council, took a BIG hit spiritually speaking. This action was prophesied by the prophet a few years before —
“Everything that can be done against God’s message of today will be done with even a greater vengeance than was manifest against Heaven’s message in the days of Christ’s first advent, for the Devil knows that if he loses now, he loses forever — that he is to have no other chance. Unparalleled, therefore, is the urgency that every eleventh-hour church member now quickly and solidly brace himself against the Enemy’s effort to deliver a knockout blow. We must be alert, too, to realize that the blow is to come from surprisingly unsuspected foes — from professed friends of the gospel, who are no less pious than were priests in Christ’s day.” (WHR, p. 33)
So it appears that this date, April 22, 1959, was to set in motion the grace/limbo time clock for the Waco Mt. Carmel organization to “right the ship” as it were. However, instead of correcting the situation, the leaders, sunk the ship down further! Florence and her council soon decided that the message was to go to the world and not just Davidians. They falsely believed that the prophet had somehow forgotten to send this message to the world at large! A giant fiasco!
This grace/limbo period lasted for approximately 2 and a half years. In August of 1961, the 100% Rod-only DSDA organization, through the Symbolic Code made the following announcement –
“A MESSAGE FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT..
To you whom the Lord would seal first
Again it is our joy to salute you, our faithful Davidian brethren, as we all now return to our heaven-appointed task in Laodicea (The SDA Church), of gathering the 144,000 first fruits. Scattered throughout the denomination, which is God’s appointed place for them in His great vineyard … It is, unfortunately, the failure of too many Davidians to drink thus of the Truth, which has left them unable, apparently, to discern the truth at any point. Most notably, they are unable to
discern the fact that The Leviticus ordains Constitutional Association and that the message is to go now only to Laodicea–the S. D. A. Church.”
Thus we see that the Lord announced important injunctions in this 1961 relocation of His storehouse. His people were to “return” to the job He gave them and there was to be a “Constitutional Association”, and not everyone doing their own thing answering to no one and making their own home a storehouse, a thing forbidden according to 4 Answerer, p. 44. Constitutional order per the Leviticus, was God’s method of the work going forward.
An important note to bring up at this point is the question of the eastward course. It appears that the prophesied “Knock out blow” required a regrouping of His people to properly recover from such a disaster in Texas. So , as far as we can discern, this “temporary” retreat was authorized by the Lord and sanctioned. Soon the storehouse would assemble in Salem, and the course would resume.
Period 3 — Salem storehouse to Mountaindale storehouse
After about 10 years in southern California, the Calif. group decided to move the storehouse headquarters to Salem, South Carolina. Not all were on board with this transfer, but many decided, upon a re-study of Ezekiel 47 prophecy, that an eastward course was to be resumed. The official announcement came in July of 1971.
For several years the Lord’s storehouse headquarters got down to business, printing the literature and spreading the message throughout the world. Brother Don Adair, was, as many know the leader during this tenure at Salem.
“We are happy to announce that on September 4, 1971, we received the Charter from the State of South Carolina. This is the culmination of about fourteen months work with both South Carolina and California legal authorities in obtaining the necessary legal procedure for the clear title to a Charter. We, the Council believe the Lord has led and the way is open to republish religious literature. Our chief aim is to print the Shepherd’s Rod message as given by Bro. V.T. Houteff. Publishing is to be done under the above name –“The General Association of Davidian Seventh-day Adventists.” (10 Sym. Code, no. 2, July-September , 1971, p.9)
During 1973 to 1975 Adair traveled to Jamaica, Barbados and St. Lucia. Many new brethren were converted to the message and joined Salem. Many of these brethren became leaders of Mt. Dale and Waco. Then a very pivotal study meeting occurred in 1982. Adair gave the study of “those with” to some brethren, among whom was Bro. Tony Hibbert. This study was in New York. Hibbert rejected the study as not in accordance with the message. Soon other Jamaicans and other brethren took sides on this issue. This issue was and is not a light issue because the Rod says the following —
“If we do not understand the subject of the 144,000, we may not be sealed, for it would be worthless to understand it after the sealing, just as it would be of no value to understand the beast and his image after his work on earth is finished.” (SRod, Vol. 1 p.14)
…Its dominant doctrinal concern being the truth of the 144,000, and a correct understanding of it being a life-and-death matter to all, the Rod unfolds it from several different angles, each urging the Denomination to prepare for the glorious deliverance of the saints and against the inglorious destruction of the sinners as foretokened by the marking and slaying recorded in Ezekiel 9.” (SRod Tract, p.5-6)
According to Adair’s book “A Davidian Testimony” Hibbert rose up during the study and contested it. He did not agree with “others with” the 144,000 sealed at Ezekiel 9 from the SDA church. This rejection, we believe was divine providence and Lord’s leading, as we know upon a careful study and weight of evidence that the message tells “only” 144,000 are sealed from the SDA church at Ezek. 9. And thus those who “add” or “subtract” from His Word are in eternal soul jeopardy.
This began an irreconcilable major split. Salem now declared the opposing brethren as “rebels” as Adair put it. Salem then took away their fellowship cards and told them they were no longer members of Salem and cast them out. The brethren began to meet in New York as like-minded Davidians, yet with no particular affiliated association.
This grace/limbo period was about 1 year. On May 23, 1983 The New York brethren held their first session, establishing their newly formed group. An important part of the session minutes read as follows through the DSDA official newsletter–the Symbolic Code —
“The long-awaited meeting of the world field of Davidia, met its fulfillment, when most of the delegates and brethren from the different branches convened in Brooklyn, New York, to commence what was to be an historic occasion. … A motion was made, thoroughly discussed, and unanimously passed to sever ties from the General Association of D.S.D.A Salem, South Carolina. As a consequence, another motion was made to re-establish God’s headquarters as it was in the beginning after the order of Mt. Carmel Training Center, Waco, Texas….At this juncture it was evident to all that God was leading, and that His Spirit enveloped the place.”
Soon the brethren would establish their headquarters on a large property located in Mountaindale, New York. It is their headquarters today.
Period 4 — The current grace/limbo period with Mt. Dale
After the break up with Salem, the brethren, who were mostly taught by Adair, regrouped and grew in numbers from their base in New York. But as many know, some of these brethren were led to believe that Waco was a place were the movement started and should remain there. No doubt the message describes Waco as a “permanent home”, and as such a serious discussion began for relocation.
“We are happy to announce that the headquarters office of the sealing message moved from Waco to Mt. Carmel Center on September 29 to its new and permanent home location for the proclamation of the message of the “True Witness to the Laodiceans.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. 3, p. 253” ( 1 SC, no. 16, p.1)
However, not all the Mt. Dale brethren were on board with this idea. They argued that the message has always taught that the “eastward course” would be the roadmap to the kingdom and that because New York was in this prophetic roadmap heading eastward from Salem, they could not break the prophetic vision and course and double back to Waco.
Nevertheless, a split occurred in 1991. Mt. Dale continued to push forward with the message even as Waco was re-established. Both of these associations saw growth in the years ahead. It is very important to point out here that most of the leaders from both groups were taught by Don Adair. And he taught them some controversial doctrines such as the “Assyrian confederacy”, JTT coming before Ezek. 9, an intervening time for the 144,000 before Ezek. 9, for example. The one beloved Adair doctrine of “those with” was not , however, generally accepted by Mt. Dale or Waco.
As the years went some brethren began to restudy the aforementioned doctrines and they found out that they had the “new codes” as much of their basis. In the year 2002 two Waco brethren published an in-depth report showing the error and problems with these new codes. This was submitted to the Waco leaders and was rejected and no action was taken. However this began the debate about them and so more brethren began to investigate. The issue became more exposed with the advent of computers and technology. Reports, blog posts, Facebook, emails, phone and Zoom studies were used to widen the discussion. This issue was growing as to concern about their content.
Mt. Dale decided to finally bring this issue to a head in 2022 session. The aforementioned doctrines and the new codes were to be discussed and approved or disapproved, and voted upon. But brethren such as Brother Harrison, Brother Reyes , Brother Fanis, Yours truly, among others, did not agree with the aforementioned doctrines as sound and inspired however. Votes were taken and the majority of Mt. Dale brethren voted to keep the status quo and the doctrines as taught.
The disagreeing brethren stood by inspired council —
“God has men in reserve, prepared to meet the demand, that His work may be preserved from all contaminating influences. God will be honored and glorified. When the divine Spirit impresses the mind of the man appointed by God as fit for the work, he responds, saying, “Here am I; send me.” … Nehemiah showed himself to be a man whom God could use to put down false principles and to restore heaven-born principles; and God honored him. The Lord will use in His work men who are as true as steel to principle, who will not be swayed by the sophistries of those who have lost their spiritual eyesight…We shall meet with opposition of every description, as did the builders of the walls of Jerusalem; but if we watch and pray, and work as they did, God will fight our battles for us, and give us precious victories…. We should move forward with unwavering confidence, believing that God will give to His truth great and precious victories…. Relying upon Jesus, we shall carry a convincing power with us that we have the truth.”. (Sons and Daughters, p. 213)
However, they were not prepared to leave Mt. Dale, despite the wrong decisions being made. But very soon after the session an ultimatum was sent out to the brethren who opposed the session’s doctrine decisions. Basically they were told that unless they taught the aforementioned doctrines they would be terminated and no longer employed. Upon receiving the ultimatum, the brethren sent out a letter to the concerned parties explaining their position —
“We pen this letter due to the several requests for explanation in regards to Bro’s Terry Harrison, Rene Reyes, and John Robert Posso Zuluaga, and their termination of employment with The Mountain Dale Association.
The 2022 Mountain Dale Session instituted a Unity Agreement. A form to be signed by employees of the Association agreeing to teach the Association’s positions and not to discuss or teach one’s personal beliefs in private or public. Agreement must be signed to continue employment with Mountain Dale.
The copy of the agreement that was adopted by the 2022 Session and circulated among believers, does not reflect the full intent of the Session. When the agreement was being formulated in Session, and after it was adopted by Session, the question was specifically asked if the intent was that there be no PRIVATE or Public discussions about one’s personal beliefs, and the response was YES.
Since this “AGREEMENT” infringes on One’s Religious Liberty, and results in having to VIOLATE one’s Conscience, the aforementioned brethren declined to sign said agreement. This resulted in the Mountain Dale Association terminating the employment of aforementioned brethren.
What has transpired is akin to what the Salem Association ( Bro. Don Adair ) did to those who challenged and disagreed with his teaching of “Those With the 144,000″. They were forced out and eventually formed the Mountain Dale Association.”
The Davidian movement was once again at a fork in the road. The Lamb of God was asking His people to follow Him in yet another turn of His path to the Kingdom. Soon the terminated brethren came together and discussed with prayer their next move. They had no choice but to move forward with the truth, A decision was made, the newly formed group would be called “Pre- 11th Hour Ministry”. A council was formed and the announcement went out to the DSDA field. The Ministry began to meet and plan in September and October of 2022.
In the first formal gathering of the brethren, some important decisions were made. There was agreement that for the time being, the ministry would NOT be a formal DSDA association. The point was made that the Lord would have the ministry wait upon Him, to see if our beloved Mt. Dale brethren would see the light and change course. Just as the previous 3 grace/limbo periods before them, Mt. Dale association would now enter the grace limbo period as well.
Summary —
The Lord’s Word says that the 144,00 follows the Lamb wherever He goes. Thus when we know the Lord’s history of leading our DSDA movement, we do indeed know where He goes and we follow Him in Truth. We have seen that our history has had 4 different periods of grace/limbo time in which the Lord’s mercy is extended to come into line with His Truth. Time has been given to do this, yet it is limited.
In period one we saw that the SDA church headship was taken away by a refusal to advance in the Truth. We saw in period 2 that the DSDA headship was taken away from Florence Houteff and her council due to their refusing to humble themselves and repent from their errors and mistakes. We saw in period 3, the same refusal by Salem and Don Adair and thus the headship passed to Mt. Dale. Today we know that the same historic grace/limbo period is given to Mt. Dale and we are praying and waiting for their leadership to humble themselves and repent. Pre-11th hour ministry is considered a ministry at this time during this period but soon the Lord may have to lead our ministry to the headship if a correction does not come from Mt. Dale. We urge prayer for our Mt. Dale brethren.
HearYeTheRod 