The traditional teaching of the Seventh-day Adventist Church on the timing of the harvest of Matthew chapter 13 with the close of probation and the second coming of Jesus is a mixture of private opinions which range from placing the harvest after the close of probation to placing it at the second coming. Neither position is Biblically correct. Below is a response to a question along these lines which argues convincingly that the final harvest of souls during the Lord Cry must take place before the close of probation and the second advent. Come and see the evidences for yourself.
“In reference to the chart on p. 14 of the “A Reply to The Shepherd’s Rod,” the reader will note that some of the events there thus arranged are without divine authority. Let us illustrate the method used therein to interpret the Spirit of Prophecy. “Christ’s Object
Lesson” says: “The tares and the wheat are to grow together until the harvest; and the harvest is the end of probationary time.” If the English language means anything then the statement here quoted certainly could not place the harvest after probationary time has closed but rather before.
How could the harvest be after the close of probation if “probationary time” is before the close of probation, seeing that it does not say, “the harvest is” after “the end of probationary time.” Hence, it is plain that the harvest must precede the close of probation; that is, the harvest is the end — the last part of “probationary time” — and with it probation closes. Moreover, Jeremiah prophetically saw that after the harvest was past and the summer ended (the time men were to be saved) the wicked said: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” (Jer. 8:20.)
If the harvest is after the close of probation, why should they say, “The harvest is past, the summer Is ended,” for they certainly could not say these words before probation closes, neither could they after the second coming of Christ, for then they would be dead and could not speak? Consequently, the only time these words could be spoken is in the period between the close of probation and the second coming of Christ, which fact places the “harvest” before probation closes.
Furthermore, in Matt. 13:30 the Lord says: “In the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares.” The words, “In the time of harvest,” show that the harvest is a period of time. Moreover, in “Early Writings,” p. 118, the Spirit of Prophecy says: “Then I saw the third angel. Said my accompanying angel,…’he is the angel that is to select the wheat from the tares, and seal, or bind, the wheat for the heavenly garner.’”
If the third angel is to do the separating, and inasmuch as the third angel’s message is to be proclaimed before the close of probation, not after, it shows that the harvest in which time the angels seal and bind, occupies the time while the third angel’s message is being proclaimed. Plainly then, the words, “The harvest is the end of the world,” denote the very last period of probationary time which brings the world to its end. The Spirit of God through Paul Interprets the term, “The end of the world,” thus: “But now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” (Heb. 9:26.)
We all know that the world did not come to its end 1900 years ago when Christ was sacrificed, and yet it is said, “In the end of the world.” However, the truth of Paul’s statement is this: As the sins of man are blotted out in the Judgment since 1844, it proves that Paul was looking forward to our time when Christ “by the sacrifice of Himself” in the time of the judgment of the living is to blot out our sins. Obviously then, the term, “The end of the world,” applies to the time of the Judgment of the living, in the time of the Loud Cry, In the end of probationary time,” — the last message that closes this world’s history. Moreover, the S.D.A. denomination has for years been teaching that the end of the world began in 1798. See “Thoughts on Daniel; p. 387; (in connection with Dan. 12:4); also “Bible Readings for the Home Circle,” p. 324. The denomination has never had any official pronouncement as to the truth of the harvest, but now in their attempt to refute the SRod, they are changing their position of what they once taught the end of the world is.
It would not be out of place in this connection to relate my experience of what I heard just shortly on this subject. Eld. G.W. Wells, one of the field secretaries of the Gen. Conf. early in 1935 devoted nightly meetings for a whole week in an endeavor to refute the SRod in which time, night after night, he taught that the harvest is the “end of the world — the second coming of Christ” — the beginning of the millennium.
At the close of his meetings, on the Sabbath afternoon, Eld. R.L. Benton, pres. of the Southwestern Union Conf. staged another tirade against the SRod at which time he displayed a chart showing that the harvest is from the close of probation to the second coming of Christ. The following Wed., Eld. W.H. Clark, Home Miss. Sec’y of Texas Conf. conducted the prayer meeting, at which time in answer to my question he placed the harvest before the close of probation. Here is the point. In ten days’ time three S.D.A. ministers, paid by the S.D.A. treasury, all occupying responsible positions, gave three different interpretations on the harvest, which facts prove that the denomination as a body, even among the leading men, there exists no special agreement on this subject. Then, in the face of such blindness, the adversaries of the SRod caution the laity against accepting error! O, what a sad deception!
For a complete explanation of the “Harvest,” read our tract No. 3.” — Vol. 1 Symbolic Code No. 14, pg. 11
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes Brother,
It is impossible for any organization (SDA, DSDA, etc.) to have a harvest without observing the feast days of Leviticus 23 for therein are the three harvest rites:
1). The First of the Firstfruits, the Wavesheaf, the Vanguard, the barley is harvested at the time of the Passover–Feast of Unleavened Bread in the first month and is offered at the time of the Wavesheaf Offering on a Sunday the first day of the week on the morrow after the 7th day Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread (see Lev. 23:5-14; Exodus 23:12-19; & 34:18-26).
2). The Firstfruits, the wheat harvest is harvested at the time of the Day of Pentecost in the third month, which in the type was the 120 firstfruits on the Day of Pentecost (see Acts 1:15: 2:1-4 & Exodus 34:22). The antitype in our day is the 144,000 firstfruits who stand on Mt Zion with the Lamb and they also are harvested on the Day of Pentecost as the type teaches (see Rev. 14:1-5). As you know according to Zech. 6 the first Brass Mountain was the Apostolic church at the beginning of the New Testament era and the second Brass Mountain is the Kingdom Church (the 144,000 and the great multitude) that comes upon this earth in “the last days” (see Isaiah 2:1-3; Micah 4:1, 2 & Dan. 2:34, 35, 44, 45).
Both Brass Mountains were and are Feast keeping organizations and Acts 2:1-4 is irrefutable evidence that the feast days are to be kept during the New Testament era. And those who refuse these irrefutable facts will be forever cut-off (see Nahum 1:15)!
3). The great multitude that no man can number (Rev. 7:9) is harvested at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles in the 7th month and is called the “fruit of the land” (see Lev. 23:39 & Exodus 23:14-17; 34:22). And Zech. 14:16-21 clearly shows that those who do not come up to Jerusalem to keep the “Feast of Tabernacles” in the latter days will be punished by the YAH.
So if you want to escape YAH’s judgments from falling upon you, then it is imperative that you keep His Holy Feast Days in Leviticus 23! Thus will you be harvested into His Everlasting Kingdom. May the Yasha truly open your eyes to see the light, as He did to Paul the Apostle (see Acts 9:15-18), is my prayer for you Brother.
Sincerely,
Allan DeLong
P.S. Please let me hear from you.
Greetings in that blessed name
The Bible, SOP, and the Original SRod is very clear on how we should keep the feasts in this antitypical period
“We all know, moreover, that the Bible arrived with the Exodus movement also the since the arrival, the Lord never bargained, as it were with another people, and that they were the only ones to whom He ever committed the ceremonial covenants and all their rewards and
promises.” White House Recruiter, p. 16
While the apostles united with the ministers and lay members at Antioch in an earnest effort to win many souls to Christ, certain Jewish believers from Judea “of the sect of the Pharisees” succeeded in introducing a question that soon led to wide-spread controversy in the church and brought consternation to the believing Gentiles. With great assurance these Judaizing teachers asserted that in order to be saved, one must be circumcised and must keep the entire ceremonial law. Acts of the Apostles, p. 188
The Jews had always prided themselves upon their divinely appointed services, and many of those who had been converted to the faith of Christ still felt that since God had once clearly outlined the Hebrew manner of worship, it was improbable that He would ever authorize a change in any of its specifications. They insisted that the Jewish laws and ceremonies should be incorporated into the rites of the Christian religion. They were slow to discern that all the sacrificial offerings had but prefigured the death of the Son of God, in which type met antitype, and after which the rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic dispensation were no longer binding. Acts of the Apostles, p.189
In the light of the gospel the ancient rites and ceremonies committed to Israel had gained a new and deeper significance. That which they shadowed forth had come to pass, and those who were living under the gospel dispensation had been freed from their observance. God’s unchangeable law of Ten Commandments, however, Paul still kept in spirit as well as in letter. Acts of the Apostles, p. 190
The ceremonial system was made up of symbols pointing to Christ, to His sacrifice and His priesthood. This ritual law, with its sacrifices and ordinances, was to be performed by the Hebrews until type met antitype in the death of Christ, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Patriarchs and Prophets, p, 365
Are you a Pharisee who wants to assert that in order to be saved, one must keep the entire ceremonial law?
Ohh brother, how readest thou?
Please follow this link to gain the full understanding of how we are to keep the feasts antitypically. http://www.shepherds-rod-speaks.org/2016/02/how-do-we-apply-the-feast-days-today/
Yours for the truth as it is in Christ