What is the Elijah Message for the S. D. A. Church Today?

This subject is particularly controversial and confused amongst Seventh-day Adventists. On one hand the church leadership desperately struggles to keep the laity from investigating the claims of the Shepherd’s Rod by falsely asserting that the Elijah message does not have a messenger (another prophet after Ellen White according to a reference found in Testimonies to Ministers, p. 475) but rather it is the three angel’s messages to be proclaimed by the church members today. The only trouble with this shortsighted reasoning is that this message of the three angels announcing the judgment for the dead that began in 1844 is not a fresh revelation of truth which reveals the soon coming judgment for the living. This added message came to the church in 1930 in a series of publications known as the Shepherd’s Rod penned by the antitypical Elijah the prophet proclaiming the details of “the great and dreadful day of the Lord” (Mal. 4:5). On the other hand there are professed Davidians who claim to believe the writings of the Shepherd’s Rod but they are not satisfied to believe that the last prophet for the church today, the promised Elijah, the author of the original Rod message, is none other than the late Victor T. Houteff. Thus, these troubled individuals are looking for a living prophet in their midst who steps up making the claim that they are the Elijah of today. The purpose of this brief compilation is to bring together a few references from the original Shepherd’s Rod message and see what it has to say. The subjects of relevance are conveniently arranged in a question and answer format. Links for every quote back to digital scans of the original Rod literature are included for your more detailed study and investigation.

“Question: Is the Shepherd’s Rod the Elijah Message or do we look for another?

Answer: If the SRod is the truth, and one accepts it with all one’s heart, and does the truth, the possibility of being lost would be identical to the possibility of Paul’s being lost for accepting with all his heart the message which Christ sent to him and of which he said, “But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets.” (Acts 24:14.)

Moreover, as the SRod is the Elijah message (T.M. 475), it is impossible for anyone who accepts it and lives it to die, for the type demands translation. Thus it is that Elijah stands as a type of the 144,000. (D.A. 421.)” — Symbolic Code, Vol. 1, No. 9, p. 9

Question: What serves as the mouth piece of Elijah?

Answer: “The foregoing prophecies are now becoming history, and this prophetic organ “The Symbolic Code,” proves to be the mouth piece of the Elijah message, leading hundreds of S.D.A.’s in the work of helping this message to restore the defunct and decadent institutes of the Christian religion; for, as it is written, “Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things” (Matt. 17:11), and “in the time of the end, every divine institution is to be restored.” — “Prophets and Kings,” p. 678.).” — Symbolic Code, Vol. 2, No. 9, p. 2

Question, What is Elijah (his mouth piece) to do?

Answer: Here we are told that in the time of trouble these arise, some to live forever and some to die again.

“Do you now realize that not only the time of trouble is at the door, but even this special resurrection? Do you actually see that in the time of trouble, while the living saints are being delivered these dead who rise “to everlasting life,” are also delivered from their graves? Do you realize that this time of trouble is in “the great and dreadful day of the Lord,” the day which the promised prophet Elijah announces? Do you actually know that he is to turn the hearts of the fathers and of the children toward each other? lest the Lord smite “the earth with a curse.” Mal. 4:5, 6. Do you see that the prophet appears in a day he can restore all things, everything that was lost through sin, even the Kingdom? Do you know that the resurrection of Daniel 12 is not the same as the resurrection of 1 Thessalonians and of Revelation 20:5?” — Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 7, p. 11

Joel’s two chapters give us a most compact and vivid view of “the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” From these alone we can clearly see what it is like. And as Elijah comes just before that day begins, he must necessarily be the one who is to interpret these prophecies of the day, and who consequently announces that the day is at hand.

This surely confirms the conclusion that since Elijah is to herald the great day, he can therefore be the only one who will rightly interpret the prophecies of the day, which are still mysteries to Christendom, and even to our own Denomination! Indeed, to reiterate, it is for this very reason that the prophet is sent. He is to unroll the scroll to explain what the day of the Lord is like, what the Lord will do then, and how we may survive His judgments. To re-emphasize the fact, let it be said again that being the last of the prophets Elijah is, therefore, the only one who can open to our understanding all the prophecies of the Scriptures pertaining to the great and dreadful day of the Lord — prophecies which heretofore have been only mysteries to all. Thus he is, as the Scriptures say, to blow the trumpet in Zion, and to sound an alarm in God’s holy mountain, in the church.

In doing all this, he sets in motion the Power that is to restore all things. Hence Christ’s positive declaration: “Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.” Matt. 17:11. Inevitably, then, without his message we would die in our ignorance and in our sins — never live to see the restoration completed.” – General Conference Special, p. 19

Question: Does it Matter who Elijah is?

Answer: “It matters not what we think, God is to have a strong, faithful people, the very kind here described; and Jerusalem is to be inhabited by holy people, not a sinner among them. Since the antitypical prophet Elijah, who appears just before the great and dreadful day of the Lord, just before the Judgment day for the living, finds the church overrun by the Devil as badly as was the Jewish church in Christ’s day, and as the saints, the first fruits, are to be rescued one by one, He at first sends fishers to fish them out and afterwards hunters to hunt them out (Jer. 16:16). Thus He gathers them one by one (Isa. 27:12, 13). And so it is today — they are fished by this free literature, and are now hunted by men right to their houses, be they in the city, village, or countryside.” – Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 9, p. 5

(Note: The only message to come to the Seventh-day Adventist church announcing the soon coming “great and dreadful day of the Lord”, the judgment for the living, is the Shepherd’s Rod. The 232 page book entitled “The Shepherd’s Rod, Vol. 1” was first published in 1930 and declared the particulars of the sealing of the 144,000. They alone will escape the judgment that first begins in the house of God and will serve as the sanctified ministry to proclaim the Loud Cry with power and force whom God will use to call the great multitude of Rev. 7:9, that no man can number, from the fallen churches constituting Babylon.)

Question: What is the work of Elijah?

Answer: He declares, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Mal. 4:5.

This messenger of the covenant (of the promise), antitypical Elijah the prophet shall prepare the way; he shall restore all things. As he prepares the way, the Lord will suddenly come to His temple, to His church. And what is His work to be? To purify or cleanse His people by weeding the unrepented sinners from among them. The question: “But who may abide the day of His coming?” solemnly declares that we had better now get busy and do what it takes to make us stand before the cleansing begins.

Whom in particular will He purify? — Let us read–

Mal. 3:3 — “And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.”” – Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 30, p. 12

Question: Will we know both the great and dreadful day of the Lord and the Elijah who proclaims it?

Answer: “All may for a surety know both “the day” and the Elijah as he proclaims it, because to our surprise he will point out that every Bible prophet describes the day and also tells what the Lord would have us do while it is approaching and subsequently while we are going through it. All will see that no one but Elijah can proclaim the day.” — General Conference Special, p. 12

Question: Is Elijah the last Prophet and why?

Answer: “Joel’s two chapters give us a most compact and vivid view of “the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” From these alone we can clearly see what it is like. And as Elijah comes just before that day begins, he must necessarily be the one who is to interpret these prophecies of the day, and who consequently announces that the day is at hand.

This surely confirms the conclusion that since Elijah is to herald the great day, he can therefore be the only one who will rightly interpret the prophecies of the day, which are still mysteries to Christendom, and even to our own Denomination! Indeed, to reiterate, it is for this very reason that the prophet is sent. He is to unroll the scroll to explain what the day of the Lord is like, what the Lord will do then, and how we may survive His judgments. To re-emphasize the fact, let it be said again that being the last of the prophets Elijah is, therefore, the only one who can open to our understanding all the prophecies of the Scriptures pertaining to the great and dreadful day of the Lord — prophecies which heretofore have been only mysteries to all. Thus he is, as the Scriptures say, to blow the trumpet in Zion, and to sound an alarm in God’s holy mountain, in the church.” — General Conference Special, p. 19

Question: What about others who claim to be Elijah the prophet?

Answer: “Since the Scriptures clearly picture Elijah and his work, and also what the day is to be like, none who will humbly inquire about him and his work need to guess or to be in the dark concerning either his identity or his mission, for it is his God-given duty to publish the timely truths as revealed to him out of the prophecies. And so all who are willing and obedient, will have no trouble recognizing him and his message (John 7:17). They will know that anyone who comes with a message other than the message found in the prophecies concerning the great and dreadful day of the Lord, is not the promised Elijah.

What is more, should God send another than Elijah, that is, someone with a message other than of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, he will not claim to be the Elijah, he will not lie. Hence, for anyone to make the claim that he is the Elijah, but bear another message than that of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, is in itself positive proof that he is not a prophet of God at all, but a rank imposter. And if any should tell you that a former prophet has fulfilled the promise, although the prophet himself has not said so, then not to know for a certainty that such are not working for the God of Elijah, but for the devil, is Laodiceanism of the worst kind.

“…Let us act as Christians, true as steel to God and His holy work; quick to discern the devices of Satan in his hidden, deceptive workings through the children of disobedience.” — “Testimonies to Ministers,” p. 276.

Since the promised Elijah is to be the last prophet to the church today, as John the Baptist was the last prophet to the church in his day, and since the last work on earth is the Judgment for the Living, the truth stands forth like the light of day that Elijah’s message is the message of the Judgment for the Living, the last, which in the very nature of the gospel is of far more importance and consequence than any other message ever borne to a people.” — General Conference Special, pp. 22, 23

Question: What becomes of those who claiming to know the Rod follow another message?

Answer: “Thus will be the Devil’s deal while the day of God is approaching, and while Elijah is making the announcement of it as the scroll unrolls and while the prophecies concerning the day of God are being unsealed. His work and his interpretation of the prophecies for the great day will identify him as the promised Elijah the prophet (“Testimonies to Ministers,” p. 475), and this will enrage the Devil as never before. Nevertheless, one’s only safety will be in the teaching of Elijah, for there will be no other voice of timely Truth and authority to whom one may turn. Any others will lead their victims blind-folded into perdition.” — General Conference Special, p. 7

 

Tagged as: Elijah message, Malachi 4:5, prophet, spirit and power of Elijah, Spirit of Prophecy