What Every Seventh-Day Adventist Should Know About the Shepherd’S Rod: Volume 1

By Garrick D. Augustus

If you are a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, you have no doubt heard of The Shepherd’s Rod, a message of present truth and reform first presented to leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the years 1929 and 1930. It has created much controversy.

In What Every Seventh-day Adventist Should Know about The Shepherd’s Rod, author Garrick D. Augustus brings to light the historic and the theological reasons behind the rejection of The Shepherd’s Rod message. It exposes the systematic misinformation, as well as the willful manipulations of the facts surrounding Victor Houteff and the movement he began more than eight decades ago. It provides clear and accurate answers to the questions raised against the Rod’s message. And, it answers the objections church leaders have historically offered as “proof” against its bearing the credentials of inspiration.

Augustus fused the forensic methods of evidence analytics, as well as the investigative method of internal evidence analysis, to the claims brought against the message by the leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. His research took him from the Heritage Library in Loma Linda, California, to The Biblical Research Committee in Silver Spring Maryland, and beyond.

What Every Seventh-day Adventist Should Know about The Shepherd’s Rod journeys through the pages of history and helps to separate truth from propaganda. It takes a fresh look at an old controversy that began in eternity past and has played itself out in the rank and file of Seventh-day Adventism.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 9, 2018
• ISBN: 9781491784006

Garrick D. Augustus

Garrick D. Augustus is a Seventh-day Adventist Christian who has also studied deeply into the teachings of The Shepherd’s Rod message. He also works as a mechanical engineer and lives in Virginia.

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Copyright © 2014 Garrick Augustus.

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The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-8398-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-8399-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-8400-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015920553

iUniverse rev. date: 09/10/2018

"The LORD’S voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the Rod, and who hath appointed it." Micah 6: 9.

Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes. Ezekiel 37: 19, 20.

The_Shepherds_Rod_Re-Examined_Vol-1%20R7-2.jpg

"Use your Rod to shepherd your people, the flock that belongs to you, that lives alone in the forest of Carmel. Let them find pasture in Bashan and Gilead, as they did long ago." Micah 7: 14, ISV; emphasis added.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Some Conventions Used in This Book

BIBLE VERSIONS TABLE

NOMENCLATURES

Preface

Author’s Biography

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Layout and How To Use This Book

Chapter 1: Authentic History -The Shepherd’s Rod

VICTOR T. HOUTEFF: THE MAN, HIS MESSAGE, AND HIS MISSION

Houteff’s Glendale Hospital Visit and Spiritual Awakening

Great Controversies Over The Shepherd’s Rod

The Church Takes Action

Loss of Fellowship and Revived Roman Inquisition

The Six Hearings SDA’s Never Had With V.T. Houteff

Chapter 2: Houteff and the Growing Controversy Over The Shepherd’s Rod

HOUTEFF’S LOMA LINDA MISSION TRIP

Group Think: Professor O.J. Graff, The Voice of the Church

SDA’s Finally Agreed To An Official Meeting With Houteff

Local Church Moved Needle, Drafted Hearing Terms

Meeting in Jeopardy Before It Got Started

Team Seventh-day Adventists

The Meeting’s Underway

Meeting Abruptly Ended After Two Hours

H.M.S. Richards’ Diary Notes Scrutinized

Chapter 3: The SDA Church Replies to Houteff

Church Leaders Prepared A Reply

General Conference Prepared Reply Same Time of Hearing

The Committee of Twelve Reports

The General Conference Takes Action

Background on Elder W.A. Spicer

Mt. Carmel Center Leads the Way

Chapter 4: Clearing The Goalposts for Reexamination

Doctor, Norris Nosworthy—Davidian Zealot and Alarmist

The Seven Letters of Doom to SDA Church Officials

The Seven Letters of Doom to US Government and UN Officials

Difference between Davidians and Branch-Davidians

Adventists’ Issues with the Rod Message

SDA’s Pastor’s Confession Over the Jerusalem Question

SDA’s Opening Salvos Against The Shepherd’s Rod

The Charge of Spurious Quotations

Spurious Statement 1

Spurious Statement 2

Spurious Statement 3

Chapter 5: Analyzing Adventists’ Perspectives

SDA’s Assert That the Rod Claims Infallibility183

Adventists’ Proof Method Of Investigating the Rod

Chapter 6: Forensics; Examining Adventists’ Case Evidence

PROPOSITION 1A; WHAT DO THE SEVEN HEADS ON THE LEOPARD-LIKE BEAST REPRESENT?

PROPOSITION 1B: DOES THE SHEPHERD’S ROD TEACH THAT THE SDA CHURCH IS BABYLON?

Chapter 7: Proposition 2; Who Is The Beast Of Revelation 13?

Chapter 8: Proposition 3; When and How Did One Head of the Beast Receive the Deadly Wound?

Understanding The Great Controversy, p. 579

Chapter 9: Proposition 4; What Is The Seal Of The Living God?

Chapter 10: Proposition 5; Will the Whole Church, Every Member, Be Perfect Before the Loud Cry?

Chapter 11: Proposition 6; What Is The Harvest Of Matthew 13?

Chapter 12: Proposition 7; When Will the Wheat And The Tares Be Separated?

Timeframe Covered by the Seven Seals

Chapter 13: Proposition 8; The Church Name—Seventh-day Adventist

Chapter 14: Proposition 9; The Seventh-Day Adventist Ministers And Leaders

Adventists’ Quizarama

Chapter 15: Proposition 10; The Slaughter Of Ezekiel 9—When Will It Take Place?

ALLEGATION 1: THIS SLAUGHTER TAKES PLACE IN THE SDA CHURCH ALONE AND NOT IN THE WORLD.

ALLEGATION 2: EZEKIEL 9 WILL AFFECT ONLY THE LEADERS OF THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST DENOMINATION

ALLEGATION 3: THE HALF AN HOUR SILENCE IN HEAVEN REPRESENTS THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS.

ALLEGATION 4: THE REASON FOR THE SLAUGHTER IS BECAUSE THE LEADERS HAVE NOT ACCEPTED THE MESSAGE OF REFORM AS PRESENTED TO THEM IN THE SHEPHERD’S ROD.

ALLEGATION 5: WHEN THE SLAUGHTER IS FINISHED, THEN THE LOUD CRY—A GREAT SOUL-WINNING WORK, BEGINS, GIVING THE LAST MESSAGE TO THE WORLD.

ALLEGATION 6: DOES THE PHRASE GENERAL DESTRUCTION, MEAN THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD SIMULTANEOUSLY?

Are The General Destruction and General Ruin the Same or Different?

Does The Rod Teach That Davidians Will Be The Death Angels?

Historic Fulfillment of Ezekiel 9 in Babylonian Invasion of Jerusalem?

DAVIDIANS WILL NEVER DIE?

Truth’s Reply

Chapter 16: Correcting Historical Inaccuracies

New Mt. Carmel Center In Axtell (Not Waco), Texas

The Davidian’s Doctrine on War, Weapons, and Killing

Background on the Various Davidian Splinter Groups Today

The Rise of Benjamin & Lois Roden

The Rise of Vernon Howell (David Koresh)

The Rise of Mt. Carmel Center

The Rise and Fall of Florence Houteff

From 1959 to Disbandment

1955 to the Historic 1961 Session

M.J. Bingham and the 1961 Session’s Bashan Concept

Florence Houteff’s Carry-Over Errors Among Many Davidians Today

The Pure Shepherd’s Rod Stands Without A Peer In Present Truth

Chapter 17: The Four Cardinal Davidian Divisions

THE BRANCH-DAVIDIANS

THE CARMEL PASTURE

THE BASHAN PASTURE

The Rise of Victor T. Bingham

THE GILEAD PASTURE

Chapter 18: My Personal Testimony of Physical and Verbal Abuse

Chapter 19: M.L. Andreasen’s Interview With V.T. Houteff

Chapter 20: Analysis of M.L. Andreasen’s Unpublished Letter to The General Conference

Chapter 21: The King of The North Unveiled

Example of Adventist’s Erroneous Case-Hardened Views

Summary of current SDA Thought On Dan. 11: 40-45

SDA Assertion That the KON is Turkey, the Papacy, or France is Fraught with Errors

SDA Assertion that all the promises of a future kingdom will only be realized in the New Jerusalem, False

Modern SDA Assertion that The Pleasant Land or the Glorious Land, is the USA or SDA Church—Error

Modernist SDA Assertion that The Glorious Holy Mountain is the SDA Church/the Heavenly Sanctuary—Error

Look For The Waymarks, the Great Prophetic Waymarks

Amazing Facts About Mt. Jerusalem and Biblical Mt. Sinai

Michael Stands Up

Prove All Things and Hold Fast To That Which is Good

Is My Name Written There?

Chapter 22: The Conclusion of the Whole Matter

Seventh-day Adventist Teaching versus The Shepherd’s Rod PROVES TO BE GREATEST OF ERROR

Appendix

How Shall We Study The Scriptures And Discover The Truth?

How to Investigate A Point of Doctrine and Arrive at The Truth

The plan of Salvation (The Cross) as revealed in the Lamb of God.

The Law of Yahweh (Commandments, Statutes and Judgments)

The Divinity of Christ (Yahshua as God)

The Humanity of Christ (Yahshua as Man)

Gift To the Human Race

The operation and ministry of the Holy Spirit

The nature of man—the non- immortality of the soul—on the nature of death—Spiritualism

The plan of Redemption (The inheritance of the saved)—the Kingdom of glory

Righteousness by Faith—yielding the Righteousness of Christ

Worship is only attributed to the Godhead

Conclusions must hold to the weight of evidence, and be in compliance with the context of the chapter or passage

Doctrines cannot be derived or sustained from the writings of Ellen White alone

The Cover Story- Eleventh Hour Call

Servants In The Vineyard

The Householder

The Vineyard:

The Labourers

The Call

The Sun

The Marketplace

Five calls in the Parabolical Day

General Overview of the Parable

Houston, We Have A Problem!

The Ancient Timepiece Superimposed on Our Modern Time Clocks

Unfolding The Calls

The Servants of the First Call

The Servants of the Second Call

The Servants of the Third Call

The Servants of the Fourth Call

The Servants Of The Eleventh Hour

Join the Conversation On My Blog

End Notes

Dedication

T HIS BOOK IS dedicated first to God the Father, YHWH, and His Son Jesus Christ (Yahshua) the Messiah, in the person of The Holy Spirit (Ruach Hakodesh), for giving me the burden to compile this book, so that the Church and the world may know the truth of The Shepherd’s Rod . I also dedicate this book to all Truth seekers, in the hopes that their search may result in their candidacy for being among God’s servants at The Eleventh Hour— read The Cover Story in the Appendix section to understand this. I dedicate this book also to my wife, Ellen and son Garthaniel, who watched me spending sleepless years of nights reviewing and perfecting this compendium of truth. I wish to also thank Sueann Williams for her critical review of chapters 1 thru 15, and Joe Stapleton for reviewing the Preface through chapter 2 and other segments of the book in development. Their valuable insights and suggestions have helped to perfect this volume. Thanks to all others for their prayers and encouragement through these many years, as the book was being prepared. Lastly, thanks to my unnamed friend whose encouragement has caused me to add Chapter 21, just prior to final release of this volume to the publishers. Read that chapter to understand how the US Embassy’s relocation to Jerusalem is a pivotal move in end-times Bible prophecies.

Some Conventions Used in This Book

Bible Versions Table

Scripture references other than from the King James Version (KJV) quoted by permission in this book are as follows:

ASV. Texts credited to ASV are from the Holy Bible, edited by the American Revision Committee, Standard Edition, Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1901.

CW. Bible citations credited to The Clear Word which is expressly not a translation of the Bible, are from The Clear Word Bible, © 1994, Review and Herald® Publishing Association, authored by Dr. Jack Blanco.

GWT. Scripture is taken from GOD’S WORD®, © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group.

ISV. The Holy Bible: International Standard Version. Release 2.0, Build 2015.02.09. Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.

NIV. Scripture quotations credited to NIV are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

NKJV. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

NRSV. Bible texts credited to NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission.

RSV. Bible texts credited to RSV are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Copyright © 1946, 1952, 1971.

DARBY. The Darby Bible, this Bible is in the public domain in the United States, and and is stored online and was accessed from: https://www.biblegateway.com

Bible Citations: When multiple verses from the Scriptures are quoted, the verse number will precede the verse, thereby allowing the reader to more accurately follow the passage on a verse-by-verse basis.

Nomenclatures

1. The Spirit of Prophecy, or Spirit of Prophecy is an identifier used for some volumes written by E.G. White, bearing that title, and also the entire compendium of her works. This term is also applicable to the Bible prophets—the Bible. When written in italics, as in The Spirit of Prophecy, it has singular reference to Mrs. White’s works, but when written without italics, as The Spirit of Prophecy, or The Holy Spirit of Prophecy, it is a designation for The Holy Spirit, Deity.

2. YHWH is a designation for The Lord our God, (Yahweh, Yehovah or Jehovah). In Hebrew it is called the Tetragrammaton, and is recognized as, the proper name for God. In the KJV of the Holy Bible it is written as the LORD, in the Hebrew Old Testament.

3. Y’shuah, or Yahshua is a designation for the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and more accurately reflects His given Hebrew name.

4. SDA is an abbreviated designation for Seventh-day Adventists, or the Seventh-day Adventist church.

5. DSDA is an abbreviated designation for Davidian Seventh-day Adventists, not to be convused with "the Branch."

6. BDSDA is an abbreviated designation for Branch-Davidian Seventh-day Adventists, sometimes written as Branch-Davidians, Branch Davidians, or the Branch.

Design: Except otherwise credited, all designs, including cover art work, are by the author.

Contact Information:

Garrick Augustus

E-mail: [e-mail]

Preface

T HIS BOOK IS about The Shepherd’s Rod , a message of present truth and reform, first presented to the leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church in the years 1929 and 1930, by Mr. Victor T. Houteff. It was met with fierce opposition from the Adventist ministry, which instigated the local churches to debar its author and his sympathizers from attending worship services.

That move created quite a ruckus, as church members began to privately investigate the claims of his teachings and started discovering new light in them. The Shepherd’s Rod has created a stir in the Denomination reminiscent of the experience at the 1888 General Conference, when Elders Waggoner and Jones proclaimed their message of Righteousness by Faith, and were reproached as fanatics and evil men, Ellen White’s endorsement of their message notwithstanding.

Today, the very mention of the names Shepherd’s Rod or Victor Houteff, in a Seventh-day Adventist church setting, without much contempt heaped upon them, is generally met with resentment and religious indignation, principally from those who have never read a single line of his teachings. This hatred exists primarily because of the vast amount of misinformation and brainwashing invented by church leaders, in order to insulate their base from finding interest in the Rod’s teachings.

With the passage of time and the advent of the Internet, Shepherd’s Rod believers have found more creative ways of communicating their message, to avoid confrontations in the congregations, and this has led to a renascence in its teachings world-wide. The Internet has made it impossible for leadership to block, or censure, parishioners from visiting any Shepherd’s Rod information website, as they had when the Rod was principally delivered as a non-electronic printed literature.

To continue its opposition and counter the influence of the Davidians, the Denomination has found more creative ways of combating the Shepherd’s Rod, also using the Internet as well as garnering support from its vast publishing ministries. Many books, web pages, and magazine articles are written against the Rod, all of which are loaded with the same old lies promoted by church leaders since the 1930s. Today, the unsuspecting inquirers who desire to conduct an objective study of the Rod are typically left to source those same old lies, reworked as new discoveries about the ministry and teachings of Victor Houteff.

The writer has conducted a personal investigation of the claims against The Shepherd’s Rod, and has documented his findings in this and a successive volume, so the church and the world may know that a prophet hath been among them. (Ezekiel 33:33). The evidences produced herein, will generate a renewed interest in this present truth message, and will result in the revisions of many books and web pages, if they are interested in speaking the facts of history, rather than promoting deliberate lies of the Adventist’s invented story.

Being the only text of its kind, this book brings to light both historic and theological reasons behind the rejection of The Shepherd’s Rod message. It exposes the systematic misinformation, as well as the willful manipulations of the facts surrounding Houteff and the movement he began over eight decades ago. It provides clear and accurate answers to the questions Adventists have raised against the Rod’s message. Furthermore, it answers the objections church leaders have historically offered as proof against its credentials of inspiration—grounds by which it has been stoutly rejected and globally denounced as error throughout the Adventist world. Finally, it challenges the honest in heart to conduct a personal investigation in the message of The Shepherd’s Rod, and to determine for yourself if you’ve heard the voice of God or mutterings of a Bulgarian from the Rhodope Mountain.

This is not a book about David Koresh, or the Branch-Davidians, though it glancingly touches on these topics, by way of establishing accurate historical reporting. Due to the world-wide confusion surrounding the true identity of The Shepherd’s Rod, the Davidians, and the Branch-Davidians, I shall in Chapters 20 and 21 lay out the facts and show the similarities and differences between their ministries and divergent ideologies and theology.

I imagined writing a book over thirty years ago, but the conviction for writing this book to expose the fallacious Adventist declarations against the Rod’s message, fallacies which are now also repeated in public media as though they were true, has been a project brewing in my mind since the spring of 1993. Through many changes in my life and multiple dangers faced by the manuscript, this book has been written several times throughout those 25 years, and even now, there are still seven lost chapters which cannot be recovered. But I felt the urge to delay no longer, given the times in which we live.

My motivation for writing this book was by no means selfish; it was Holy Spirit driven for the love of my church, my family, and the many souls being hoodwinked daily by the enemy of righteousness. I have stood on the shores of time and watched my Adventist Church over the past thirty years descend from holiness to decadence, from students of the Word to the people most ignorant of the Scriptures, and from conservative to ultraliberal congregations. I hear constantly the corrective voice in my mind that had our church leaders been honest with The Shepherd’s Rod, they might well have averted the current apostasy in which it is now mired, and from which it cannot be extricated except through the restoration of primitive godliness—a thorough revival and reformation.

The passage of time has made only more manifest the truthfulness of the Bulgarian’s writings, and every Seventh-day Adventist deserves to know what has gone on in our Church’s history over the past eighty-eight years since the advent of The Shepherd’s Rod, and the legacy of light it has left behind for our spiritual enrichment.

On the one hand, I am comforted that the old guards are now all dead and have left behind the records of their contempt for revealed truth. Houteff left behind the legacy of his writings also, but most people are not aware of this; they speak as though he had never written a book or preserved the tenets of his message, and have invented many fanciful tales about his theology. This book will clarify and reset in their original contexts the integrity of his message. And in an age of Islamic terrorism, and the relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, I am confident that many of his detractors will acknowledge at one level or another, the timeliness of his message for this day and age. In that day shall these words find fuller meaning, "And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come), then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them." Ezekiel 33:33.

Though many of today’s modern Adventists have never heard of The Shepherd’s Rod or Victor Houteff before, it is my conviction that they are more inquisitive and rational in their judgments, and will be more frank with the evidence than were believers in the 1930’s. It is to this class of thinkers that my book is primarily directed—those who will not use Ellen White’s writings to countermand the Bible, but who instead will rationally examine the testimony of Scripture and make decisions on the weight of biblical and historical evidence. I believe that when this test is applied, the thought leaders in Adventism will be forced to come clean and honest. Then, I believe, God’s Holy Spirit will have His way, as the corporate leaders acknowledge the folly of their doings, and in corporate repentance seek to correct the evils fostered in secret chambers these many years now.

It was rather sobering to me as I watched how the Adventist church tried to distance itself from The Shepherd’s Rod during the Branch Davidian standoff against the US government in 1993. Yet, unbeknownst to many was the sad truth that the Church’s hands were dripping with the blood of those individuals! Here is how one conference president vented his emotions in the wake of that crisis.

Like millions of other Americans, I watched as NBC broke in to regular television on Sunday, February 28 [1993], with a special report on a gun battle between a religious cult and the ATF in Waco, Texas. Seventh-day Adventists of my age associate Waco with the Shepherd’s Rod. Please, God, don’t let them link the Seventh-day Adventist Church! was my instant fervent prayer. That prayer was not answered.

All that day, and for almost a week, every news release identified my church with that wicked cult. It was excruciating! …

Fortunately, as time passed, we got some separation from Waco; but the damage may have already been done. Our friends will quickly recover their respect for the church, and many will continue to join our fellowship. But those who wish us harm for our doctrinal preaching will use this catastrophe to close minds and hearts to our remnant message. The devil had a field day.

The worst losers are those poor deluded seekers for truth who were led astray by a false prophet. They were good people looking for a deeper spiritual life. That they found death instead of life should challenge each of us. At least two lessons leap out from this catastrophe:

1. Just because a person can spout dozens of Bible texts does not guarantee that he/she is teaching Bible truth. David Koresh is the perfect example of a Bible student out of control or in the control of the devil.

2. The Church must protect its good name, even by legal means if necessary. I do not want my church name attached to former Adventists, or radical Adventists. Those who opposed the legal action in Hawaii may now wish we had started with the Shepherd’s Rod in the 1930s. It might have saved us heartache, embarrassment and lost opportunities to preach the gospel. Please, church leaders, protect our Seventh-day Adventist name from other Davidians.

With all the problems, this is still God’s church. I claim the promise that all things work together for good … I am watching intently to see what good God will make of this sad experience.¹

The evidence shows that Church leaders lamented the negative publicity and scandalous impact the siege of the holed-up Branch Davidians caused the church. But they were ignorant of, or were not willing to bear responsibility that the siege never would have happened on that date, if ever, bullets never would have been fired, and lives never would have been lost, were it not for the SDA leaders siccing the federal government on this group of separated Adventists, as a rogue cop his dogs on alleged criminals. But they did this in the full hopes of gaining a greater advantage. Observe carefully the language of the conference president: "Seventh-day Adventists of my age associate Waco with The Shepherd’s Rod." What the denomination’s leaders wanted was a final kill-shot to the resilient ministry started by Victor Houteff. His decades-long publishing work was the constant nemesis of contemporary Adventist theology, and those writings are now being brushed off and read for the first time at the grassroots level.

Having obtained information through hearsay from church members in Australia, Shirley Burton, then Communications Director for the General Conference, passed that tainted information with a high dose of hype, over to governmental officials, who then believed the Branch-Davidians were a real and immediate public safety threat. Further too, through the public media outlet, the Denomination performed an excellent job in convincing the world that David Koresh’s Ranch Apocalypse was in Waco, in the very place where Victor Houteff, nearly sixty years earlier, had established his ministry. (Later in this book, I will provide evidence to the contrary). Again, as Elder Martin stated, Waco in the mind of Adventists of his age means one thing—The Shepherd’s Rod!

We can also see that there was a growing appetite in the Adventist ministry to rid the church of Shepherd’s Rod adherents through legal means—by court action. The church leader remonstrated that legal action had not been taken earlier, in the 1930s! Filled with indignation, he wrote, "The Church must protect its good name, even by legal means if necessary. Here he was making the case, and would also seek to stifle the consciences of his colleagues who had opposed such legal actions by the General Conference against radical Adventists. He appealed to this Koresh incident to gain leverage for a precedent-making policy shift towards Adventist radicals, independent ministries, and offshoots, in the name of protecting the Church from other Davidians."

Justifying current denominational persecutions and lawsuits against dissenters, the Pastor contended, Those who opposed the legal action in Hawaii may now wish we had started with the Shepherd’s Rod in the 1930s. This line has direct reference to a civil case that had been won by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists against the Creation Seventh-day Adventist Church, an eleven-member break-away congregation in Hawaii, in the 1980s. Some church leaders were not comfortable with that evil method and expressed their reservations about the unchristian nature of such legal methods. Those misgivings have been healed, however, and expulsion from church attendance by court action is normative throughout the Church today.

The most effective way to combat error has never been to appeal to Caesar and exert force, but to teach the pure unadulterated Truth. Then there won’t arise the need to employ Rome’s methods of settling religious differences, and the God of heaven will not be misrepresented through the wickedness of those who profess to be divinely appointed for His solemn work on earth, but in whose closets are dead men’s bones.

Author’s Biography

G ARRICK AUGUSTUS IS a Seventh-day Adventist Christian who has also studied The Shepherd’s Rod , and wants every Seventh-day Adventist to know the truth behind the claims of heresy their church has heaped upon it.

Garrick is also a mechanical engineer, and has brought together the forensic methods of evidence analytics as well as the investigative methods of internal evidence analysis to the claims brought against the Rod by the leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

His research has taken him from the Heritage Library in Loma Linda, California, to The Biblical Research Committee in Silver Spring, Maryland, and beyond.

In this book he presents compelling evidence that proves the Seventh-day Adventist Church has willfully rejected that which it knew to be truth, and lied to the world church about it for over eighty years now.

He is challenged with the task of letting the whole world know the truth of secret meetings nestled in church Conferences, kangaroo courts with theological cover-ups, and secret plots hatched in high places by holy men of God dressed in black coats against The Shepherd’s Rod message. This book demonstrates that those methods were misrepresentations before the God of Heaven and towards His ministry of truth on earth.

While completing high school studies in beautiful Jamaica, and in the pursuit of his own spiritual awakening, Garrick was baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist church in December, 1980. That decision he made after spending many days and nights studying the Scriptures over the course of an evangelistic seminar, sponsored by the Glengoffe Seventh-day Adventist Church.

After his baptism, one of his elementary school teachers, T. Evans, himself a Seventh-day Adventist, took special interest in nurturing the young Augustus into the practice of Sabbath observance and thematic Bible studies. Being a proselyte to the Advent message, Garrick was not prejudiced to opening the Bible with anyone, as he had decided that his aim and ambition were to discover the whole truth of salvation, and teach it to others.

It wasn’t long before Evans would expose him to writings other than the Bible, those known to Adventists as The Spirit of Prophecy—the writings of Ellen G. White. While his newfound joy of Bible studies was enlightening, church members became weary of his close association with Evans, then a High School teacher, and warned Garrick to discontinue his studies and fellowship with him.

They further admonished Garrick that what Evans was teaching was The Shepherd’s Rod, a doctrine denounced and rejected as error by the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination, and it was not recommended that church members hold fellowship with, or read the writings promoted by such individuals.

Since Evans’ teachings were in harmony with the Bible and largely supported by The Spirit of Prophecy, Garrick started questioning some of the distinctive doctrines of his church, such as the notion that the stone that smote the great image in Daniel chapter two, was actually Jesus Christ, cut out (Daniel 2: 34) from heaven at His Second Advent, to destroy the wicked nations, while simultaneously gathering His church to Heaven, then also establishing His kingdom here on earth forever.

When the church was unable to satisfactorily answer many of his questions, Augustus was censured. He took his new found joy and convictions in the primacy of Scriptures to his high school, where he commanded the attention of some ninety students on a regular basis during lunch breaks. Today, many of those students are baptized Seventh-day Adventists, and they trace their spiritual genesis to the days when they first heard the Third Angel’s Message taught by Garrick at St. Mary’s College.

As word of his Bible studies spread across campus, Garrick was finally called to the Principal, Mr. Donaldson’s office. After a brief intimidation session, apparently to test how well Augustus would stand to his convictions, Donaldson did not censure him, but told the witty Augustus with a smile instead, My wife is also a Seventh-day Adventist. That meant a lot!

Garrick also believed that it was his God-given duty to share the truth of the gospel with his family, and he quickly began sharing with them the truth of the Sabbath among other themes of the great Advent message. In time, he saw five of his siblings accepting Jesus Christ as Saviour, and baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist church.

In 1982, Garrick made contact with the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. He sent a personal letter to Elder Neal C. Wilson, then president of the World Church, headquartered in Washington DC. He asked pointed questions about The Shepherd’s Rod message, enclosed a little booklet, a tract, The Warning Paradox, written by Victor T. Houteff, and asked the world church leader to expose its errors in his return correspondence.

After a long wait of about six months, Wilson’s secretary sent a packet of booklets exposing and denouncing The Shepherd’s Rod as error. The arguments presented in those writings seemed clear and very convincing, as they were entirely supported by Ellen G. White’s statements. Garrick was very disappointed with his discoveries of error, and like his denominational leaders, became very angry at the author of The Shepherd’s Rod as well as his Davidian brethren, and had almost joined those denouncing Houteff’s teachings as fundamentally erroneous. But while contemplating that terminal decision, the Holy Spirit provided hope in one passage of Scripture that spoke wisdom to his conscience: "Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21). And prove" he did!

In full obedience to the Apostle’s counsel, Augustus spent the next year studying the main document, History and Teachings of The Shepherd’s Rod, methodically analyzing all citations. It did not take him long before noticing that the evidence provided as proof against Mr. Houteff’s purported errors, were largely extracted from the writings of Ellen G. White, with scant use of the Bible, all the while the authors were lifting up the teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church as the gold standard against which The Shepherd’s Rod must be tested! When Augustus opened the Bible against the Church’s proofs, as well as a comprehensive survey of Ellen White’s publications on the topics in question, he found the Rod to be 100-percent vindicated on the biblical conclusions it has made. The more Garrick studied and compared, the more he began to see the makings of a story, a story all too familiar with the methods of the Scribes and the Pharisees in the days of Christ, a story that would later be told and retold, by church men and later the media, for most of the past eighty-eight years, since 1930.

With sufficient evidence of a cover-up unveiled, Garrick became a full-time Bible worker and minister for The Shepherd’s Rod message, traveling throughout the United States and the Caribbean, sharing this present truth message to whomever would listen. It was at this time also, that he was convicted that one day he should write a book, that the world may know the truth of his discoveries in unmasking this great theological cover-up, deception, and mock-investigation, by the Ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

In 1993, after the Branch Davidian gun battle with agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF), and the subsequent incineration of Ranch Apocalypse, the burning desire of writing this book on the truth of The Shepherd’s Rod was rekindled in Garrick’s heart for a number of reasons:

1. The good name of the world-famed Seventh-day Adventist Church was associated with the work and career of religious fanatics who believed in shooting their way out of a perceived time of trouble.

2. The good name and impeccable ministry of Victor Houteff was associated with the wrong-headed doctrines of David Koresh and the Branch-Davidians, as though Victor Houteff had founded that ideology.

3. The Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders exploited the opportunity, and with their uncensored access to the global media, were successful in further tarnishing and burying the real truth of TheShepherd’s Rod in a number of important ways:

a. Distorting Victor Houteff’s message, The Shepherd’s Rod, as erroneous when compared with Ellen G. White.

b. Falsifying the history, doctrines, and development of The Shepherd’s Rod message by rewriting the historical records and handing out misinformation to church members and the public media.

c. Destroying evidence of the real truth behind the Denomination’s rejection of The Shepherd’s Rod.

d. Merging the erroneous teachings of Florence Houteff, Victor Houteff’s widow, with his. (From her husband’s death, Florence’s aim was bent on destroying the movement he had founded in 1930.)

e. Successfully linked the new Mount Carmel Center²—the official headquarters of Florence Houteff’s with the original Shepherd’s Rod movement, in Waco, Texas.

f. Associating the erroneous teachings of David Koresh and the Branch-Davidians with that of Victor Houteff’s message, The Shepherd’s Rod.

In light of the above, Garrick’s motivations for writing this book are to present the untold truth, and enlighten the Church and the world of the evidence concerning the colossal cover-up successfully engineered by the world’s leader of Religious Liberty—the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination.

More than twenty years later, Augustus finished the book you are now reading. It is written with the hope that the strong foundations of the earth shall know that The LORD has a controversy with His people, [His Church] (Micah 6: 2), and is pleading for her spiritual revival and reformation—the most necessary and urgent of all her needs, so that in the end both the church and the world may benefit from the magnanimity of Divine love as displayed on Calvary’s Cross, and illuminated in the truths of the everlasting gospel. That we may be one of, or one with the 144,000 evangelists, who shall proclaim this gospel of the kingdom to a lost and dying world, and be finally saved at last in God’s eternal Kingdom of peace, is my prayer, in Jesus’ (Yahshua’s) name, Amen.

G.D. Augustus (Author)

Acknowledgements

I WOULD LIKE to take this opportunity to thank the many media houses, websites, and search engines, etc. in advance, for correcting the erroneous links they currently have, associating Victor T. Houteff’s work with the teachings of David Koresh and the Branch -Davidians. Also special thanks to all the libraries throughout the world who are committed to retaining at least two copies of this one of its kind book in their collections, treating on this special subject of The Shepherd’s Rod message. Your investment in making knowledge available to your patrons is like providing nectar to bees in the pollenating of plants. It is my fond and prayerful hope that your work will serve to awaken interest in hearts that would otherwise be trapped in darkness as to the truth of all things redemptive and relevant for these last days.

Introduction

T HE SUBJECT OF this book demands the attention of every Seventh-day Adventist, every news caster, and every serious-minded person who has ever heard of the Branch -Davidian massacre near Waco, Texas. This book is of vital importance because it tells the epic story of one of the largest cover-ups in modern Christian history–the mock investigation of a divinely appointed message of truth, and how it was blackmailed as error. After the author’s death, his wife ran his ministry in the ground, and this has fueled the passions of those who wished him harm. But his wife’s apostasy is no more to be laughed at than were the apostasies of A.T. Jones, and E.J. Waggoner, after the Church’s rejection of their most precious message in 1888, entitled Righteousness by Faith. Nor does her apostasy rank differently than the apostasy of Judas Iscariot, Jesus’ treasurer, and the forsaking of Christ by Peter, His inner-circle confidante. The 12 disciples were Christ’s most trusted and truest friends, yet the enemy was able to overthrow two of them when Christ needed them most! Then to add further insult to His heart-breaking injury, all the disciples forsook Him, and fled. (Matt. 26: 56).

This is a book The Adventist Church leaders don’t want you to read, because you are about to see the facts of high-stakes plots in dark and secret places. The truth of The Shepherd’s Rod that has lain dormant for nearly 9 decades, is now unveiled in this very unique book on its history and teachings. Its author has gone behind the scenes, interviewed Scholars from The Biblical Research Institute of Seventh-day Adventists, examined the forensic evidence on both sides in the controversy, and brings the verdict to the attention of the world church, as well as the onlookers from the rest of the world–both religious and irreligious. Church leaders have spoken, the Rod has spoken, uninformed authors, media houses, and journalists have spoken, and now for the first time the test of time shall speak.

In the wake of the 1993 David Koresh, Branch-Davidian shoot-out and ensuing 51-day siege in Axtell, Texas (a city near Waco), another blow had been dealt to The Shepherd’s Rod. The publishing arm of the SDA Church, as well as the information-hungry media outlets, have carelessly united the dark ministry and theology of David Koresh with that of Victor Houteff’s illuminating teachings, and have made out Koresh’s Ranch Apocalypse (New Mount Carmel or Rodenville) into being the Mount Carmel Center founded by Victor T. Houteff in 1935, some 20 miles away in Waco, Texas.

In this book you will finally see the unabridged evidence from both sides, and given the chance to pass an unbiased judgment for or against the Rod, based on its own merits, devoid of the assertions and insinuations, stigma, and misapplied labels attributed to it.

As in the political, so in the spiritual, in warfare there is much deception, false information (fake news), and propaganda in circulation, one side seeking to undermine the interests of the other, all in the effort of gaining an advantage over the perceived enemy. During the first Gulf War, for example, we read about the Butcher of Baghdad, and Weapons of Mass Destruction, which in the end were never found, because they never existed, except in the imaginations of the proponents of that war!

Similarly, in the Adventist Church, much misinformation have been circulated against The Shepherd’s Rod, all of which have been sopped up by the public media houses, and are now in circulation as the bonafide truth, but which in reality are the makings of fake news. This book levels the playing field, and stops soothsayers in their tracks with the forensic data to vindicate the facts.

Every page of this book is of vital importance. Get yourself grounded in the Bible with the Appendix helps. Be sure to read M.L. Andreasen’s unpublished interview report to the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, from his personal two-day interview with Victor Houteff, at Mt. Carmel Center in 1942. You will see never-before released admissions from the highest levels of church leadership, that they purposefully executed a cover-up, and have been able to maintain that lie until the release of this book.

Layout and How To Use This Book

T HIS BOOK CONTAINS twenty-two chapters, and is divided into seven main sections:

1. Preface through Chapter 2: this summarizes the purpose behind the theological conflict in the Adventist church, and presents a general history of Victor Houteff’s message, The Shepherd’s Rod, and its four principal splinter groups since his death in 1955—Carmelite Davidians, The Branch-Davidians, Bashanite Davidians, and Gileadite Davidians. The reader will also learn that Florence Houteff took the helm of her late husband’s ministry by usurpation and psychological force of arms, a move that placed the ministry of new-Mount Carmel on a collision course with the teachings of Victor Houteff. It has resulted in the shattering of his legacy into many splinters, factions and schisms, many of which bear the name Davidian in their official titles, but are as different in their theology as Baptists are from Presbyterians.

2. Authentic History of The Shepherd’s Rod Message (Chapters 3 through 5): This section examines the early history of Houteff’s engagements with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and takes a forensics analysis of the Denomination’s published writings against his message. Today those writings are relied upon by church leaders as definitive, and lay the foundation of hate and mistrust in the minds of Adventists world-wide, against the Rod believers.

3. The Shepherd’s Rod Message Re-Examined (Chapters 6 and 7): This section covers the basic principles of Bible study employed by Adventist theologians against The Shepherd’s Rod. It also features a critical analysis of the book, The Story of The Shepherd’s Rod, illustrating that it is largely a Story, rather than the records of history. We will explore how to avoid the deceptive traps of the enemy by quickly identifying the characteristic signature features of any purported message of truth, which holds the Bible as the inspired Words of God to mankind. Many of the early objections raised against The Shepherd’s Rod will be unveiled and discussed here, as it prepares the reader to deal with the many unbiblical methods employed by the Denomination in its hostile denunciation of the Rod as a satanic message.

4. Examining the Case Against The Shepherd’s Rod, Based on the Evidences Provided (Chapters 8 through 19): This section provides an in-depth comparative analysis of all the objections the SDA church has raised against The Shepherd’s Rod, in their early publication, A Warning Against Error, and proves that in these hardline positions the Church has either:

a. Reversed itself on;

b. Taught as truth contemporaneously with Houteff while decrying him as false;

c. With the passage of time and the death of the old guards, the church has publicly denounced as erroneous, positions it once held as sacred truth, and has adopted new positions which today are antithetical to its earlier platform of truth on which it proudly stood against Houteff’s theology.

This section also reviews in an expository manner, the ten cardinal propositions raised by the leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination as pillar points for rejecting The Shepherd’s Rod. The evidence there shows that the positions the church held were neither broadly believed by the leadership nor membership, but were the contrived notions of a few leading men such as Professors O.J. Graf and F. C. Gilbert.

Those positions have largely been repudiated by the denomination in succeeding years, and a position more consistent with Mr. Houteff’s teachings on those specific issues, has been adopted since, even while the Church continues to denounce his teachings as erroneous! This repudiation is especially true of the Church’s main subject—the beasts of Revelation chapters 13 and 17, in which it had placed a very heavy emphasis on the Roman Catholic papacy, but has today completely reversed itself from, and now recognizes that there are other players in this spiritual theater, a view for which Victor Houteff was assailed and broadly condemned. This was the single-most deciding factor the Adventists employed in determining the veracity of his message, and since he was not as heavy handed against the papacy as the church leaders would have liked, he was not welcomed in their club—their league of theologians. Hence, it is helpful to see their fruits today, in as much as the current leaders are not proud of the past. They have today consigned that anti-popery theology to the scrap heaps of history!

5. The SDA General Conference’s private interview with V.T. Houteff (Chapter’s 20 and 21), and the half that has never been told. This was an interview primarily conducted by Professor M.L. Andreasen at the original Mt. Carmel Center, in Waco. This report was never published, and is for the first time being seen by the world church. It was kept secret on account of what Andreasen had learned during those approximately 30 hours in Houteff’s presence. It would leave Andreasen a changed man, who was later severed from the Church and his retirement benefits forfeited!

6. Section 6 consists of Chapter 21, a very cutting-edge topic I have just written in December 2017, in the wake of the US Embassy Relocation act, which has been activated by President Donald Trump. In The King of The North Unveiled, you will see the time-tested method of Bible interpretation employed by Victor Houteff, nearly 70 years ago, which pinpointed this historic move the USA is now making with its embassy relocation to be effected by May 14, 2018. Here the reader will get to compare and contrast the methods of prophetic interpretation employed by the Seventh-day Adventists, which was a colossal failure with the passage of time, yet the Rod stands gloriously tall in the face of these global shifts in politics, economics, and religion. This chapter was intended for another volume, but the timeliness of the moment warranted its inclusion at this time, that the world may know that a true prophet has spoken today’s news headlines in yesterday’s prophetic forecasts. Be sure to join the conversation on my blog at: www.sdaprophecies.com

7. Appendix through End Notes: I was impressed by the Lord to provide this invaluable tool for effective Bible study, which allows the seeker to zero-in on Truth no matter by whom it is advocated, providing they respect the primacy of Scripture in drawing their conclusions. It is broken in two sections:

a. The Cover Story: You will be given a chance of using the Bible study tools from the Appendix, to engage in a simple parable of Jesus, told in Matt. 20. Through this introductory study into the truth of the symbols which make up the color chart on this book’s cover—God’s servants at earth’s eleventh hour, you will gain an appreciation for the truth of the 144,000 evangelists being sealed today.

b. End notes will update you on unfamiliar terms and histories that were generally unpublished, as well as providing additional clarification to material covered in the body of the book.

This book may be used as a library reference standard for studying the history and teachings of The Shepherd’s Rod. To get the best use of this book, the reader should read it in its sections, as described above. These sections are comprehensive and continuous, as to provide a holistic view of the topic under consideration. The ten Propositions examined were so presented by the leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church after their failed 1934 meeting with Victor Houteff. These are the main points Church leaders wanted parishioners to know as to why The Shepherd’s Rod was denounced as an unsafe doctrine that is laden with error, and will lead them to the pit of hell, should they disregard the Elders’ wise counsel to not pursue any private studies with Davidians. Through these objections, the reader gets to see the priority Adventists have placed on the objections they’ve raised, and the standard they were asking the Rod to achieve.

Finally, as you read through these protestations generated by Church leaders, be sure to ask yourself these solemn questions:

a) Do these objectionable teachings diminish Jesus Christ?

b) Do any of these objections distort the truth of the Godhead?

c) Do these doctrines lead the believer to a greater sense of holiness or worldliness?

d) Do these teachings uphold the Holy Bible as the standard against which all doctrines must be evaluated?

e) Do these teachings in the Rod disparage the SDA Church as Babylon?

f) Do these teachings diminish or elevate the value of human life?

g) Do these teachings exalt the love or God in sending Jesus Christ as mankind’s only Saviour?

h) Are the defensive positions advanced by the SDA Church in opposition to the Rod, sanctifying, if one were to accept them as taught by church leaders? In other words, will they make one a better Christian?

i) Did the Adventist Church honestly investigate the Rod in their 1934 meeting with Houteff, when he gave them a 2-hour Bible study?

Questions along these lines should be asked, for they establish the questionable basis on which the SDA Church judged and condemned the Rod. My research has shown that the church-centered approach to doctrines, divest of the Bible, could easily have been used by the Scribes and the Pharisees in rejecting Jesus Christ as Saviour.

Chapter 1

Authentic History -The Shepherd’s Rod

D URING THE LATE 1920s, when the US economy was spiraling into the Great Depression and the papacy was gaining acceptance in the Protestant nations of Europe and the Americas, within the circles of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, there was a silent theological awakening throughout the Sabbath School Department, one that would give rise to the much-hated message, The Shepherd’s Rod.

The year 1929 was remarkable for several reasons: it was the year that the political revolutionary and reformer Martin Luther King Jr. was born; it was the year America experienced the beginnings of the Great Depression, during which it lost over $50 billion when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted to a record low of 68! It was the year that the Italian government signed the Lateran Treaty with the Holy See, restoring full temporal powers to the papacy, and the pope became king again not just of the Catholic Church but also of many Protestant churches with Catholic leanings.

Indeed, the ascension of the papacy to statehood again after having suffered a near-fatal injury in 1798 at the hands of the French, meant that this move was the virtual death chant of Protestantism. Under Luther (the Monk), the Protestant Reformation had dealt a vexing wound to the papacy in the sixteenth century. For it to then regain temporal power without the Protestant churches raising an eyebrow to the contrary, was indicative of the Protestants’ having ended their 400-year protest, thereby allowing the papacy to self-heal from the prophetic deadly wound, occasioned by the reformatory sword.

This open wound festered until the rise and progress of Seventh-day Adventism. The call of this denomination was to warn the world that Babylon had fallen, but if at any time, it should fail to give such a warning and instead become bedfellows with the papacy, then and only then would it have lost its power to protest, and keep the wound opened, and then too, would the healing process begin.

That the papacy regained international statehood during the spiritual watch of the Seventh-day Adventist Church means much, theologically speaking. It indicates that this Denomination had stopped its protest against the papacy and was conforming to the policies of that institution. Evidence of this march towards the papacy is traceable to the early working policies of church leadership.

We recognize those agencies that lift up Christ before men as a part of the divine plan for evangelization of the world, and we hold in high esteem Christian men and women in other communions who are engaged in winning souls to Christ.³

The Adventists’ lack of continuing the spiritual protest resulted in the reshaping of political and religious alliances that eventually gave birth to the Lateran Treaty. Of that treaty, one news headline in that year read: Mussolini and Gaspari Sign Historic Pact … Heal Wound of Many Years.⁴ The New York Times headlines for the same date read, Pope Becomes Ruler of a State Again, the subheading declared, Bells Peal and Crowds Cheer as Treaty Exchange Restores His Temporal Sovereignty. Thus the record of history squarely shows the reversals of the reformation after 400 years of protest.

This is a big deal in heaven’s eyes because ever since the remnant church had backslidden into cold formalism and no longer saw reason for its protest against despotism, the divine hand that had guided the affairs of the church throughout history had somehow stepped in and sought to correct its course. One might well surmise that the events that had led to the Lateran Treaty reveal the sleeping of Adventism, which was then called to the post of watchman in the progress of the Reformation. During that time, it slowly reversed its steps in a compromising spiritual retreat toward Egypt (worldliness) and in time into the arms of the papacy, an institution against which it had formerly loudly protested.

Because the church is Christ’s only object on earth on which He, in a special sense, bestows His supreme regard, He necessarily had to do something. He had to send a course correction, an alarm, a message of revival and reformation, one that showed that the church was adrift, without chart or compass, thinking it was headed for fair harbor to dock on blissful shores astride the sea of glass, when, in fact, it had ran aground and lost its sail, chart, and compass in the dark and turbid sea of apostate Christianity.

This course correction came in the form of a message—the much despised and hated Shepherd’s Rod. From 1928 to 1929, God had directed the Sabbath School Department of the SDA Church to publish a three-volume Bible study guide entitled Isaiah the Gospel Prophet—a most memorable Adult Sabbath School Lesson Study series, authored by Milian Lauritz Andreasen. This Bible study series would forever change the course of neo Adventism, and give birth to its own spiritual revival and reformation, calling the Church back to its historic roots in Protestantism.

Victor T. Houteff: The Man, His Message, and His Mission

Victor Tasho Houteff, an itinerant businessman turned Seventh-day Adventist Christian in 1919, would later become Sabbath school teacher in a Los Angeles church in the 1920s. In this capacity, Houteff was teaching from Isaiah the Gospel Prophet adult Sabbath school lessons, when greater light (truth) was revealed to him. As he continued to teach those lessons, more and more church members became attracted to the new light studies he was sharing. He was not a grammarian (he was a Bulgarian immigrant), and this caused people to wonder at the knowledge he had gathered from the Scriptures in setting some of the most perplexing concepts of the Bible in so plain a light as to baffle theologians for the simplicity and harmony those answers brought to formerly confounding theological questions.

These new light discoveries and Bible teachings did not sit well with church leaders, however, and they soon found reasons to persecute Houteff. They would eventually excommunicate him from church membership in their efforts to protect the Church from what they considered fanciful and fanatical teachings. The arrival and subsequent rejection of The Shepherd’s Rod message by leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church marked the second time in a generation that the remnant church had taken such an organized approach in defiance of a message purported to be sent from heaven, one bearing the credentials of truth.

In 1888, at the General Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, two young preachers, Alonzo T. Jones, a former military officer turned historian, and Dr. Ellet J. Waggoner, the son of an Adventist preacher, startled that discussion. Both men, independently, yet simultaneously, latched upon the truth of righteousness by faith, a message they would share in the open sessions of that General Conference. Though their messages were strongly endorsed by Ellen White, yet the theological thought leaders of the Church, in a move to protect the church from errors would reject this most precious message of salvation! This occurred in spite of White’s repeated warnings and entreaties that they were rejecting a message from Heaven; the message God wanted His church to receive and live. Of that special message, White pointedly wrote:

The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones. This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It presented justification through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God. Many had lost sight of Jesus. They needed to have their eyes directed to His divine person, His merits, and His changeless love for the human family. All power is given into His hands, that He may dispense rich gifts unto men, imparting the priceless gift of His own righteousness to the helpless human agent. This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel’s message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure.⁵

The True religion, the only religion of the Bible, that teaches forgiveness only through the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour, that advocates righteousness by faith of the Son of God, has been slighted, spoken against, ridiculed, and rejected.⁶

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. The work that might have been done, will be left undone by the rejecters of truth, because of their unbelief. We entreat of you who oppose the light of truth, to