Dear Jeff and Kathy,
I talked to you at Leoni Meadows about feast day keeping and you said to send a request for a pamphlet called Detours and Ditches. Please send it to me at . . .
I also have a question about a book written by Stephen N. Haskell in 1914. I was wondering if he was one who was spreading error. In your talks you mentioned books of a new order being written or coming on the scene in the 1930’s so I didn’t know if this one fit that category. The title is The Cross and Its Shadow. The reason I’m asking is because someone (who does not believe there are different times of probation closing for different groups of people. He does not think it is scriptural.) He was telling me about something in it that talks about the Day of Atonement services that when the high priest was done in the most holy place would come out to the holy place and linger in order to put blood on the horns of the golden altar. I have understood that the golden altar is technically part of the furnishings of the most holy place but needed to be placed before the veil because of the symbol of the prayers going up to God continually and had to be tended by the priests daily but going beyond the veil was done once a year. Any way the man telling me about the high priest lingering there was so that anyone remembering an unconfessed sin could still bring an offering. I do agree that God wants us to have every chance but I know that after the judgment is finished there are no more chances.
What I found in Ellen White’s writings was not too clear concerning different times for the close of probation. She seems to write about the general close of probation for everyone. Would it be listed under something else other than probation? And I understand from the study of the parable of the 10 virgins that there is a group that has their probation closed before another group. Are there any other places in scripture that support this? This man used the people in Noah’s day (and Sodom and Gomorrah) as an example of everyone’s probation closing at the same time but I thought it was an example of how a certain group of people have already had their probation closed so it can be that way again. I didn’t think quick enough to tell him that at the time and I don’t want to argue with him, he tends to get that way,(argumentative). I think he is not very open minded so I may not be the person to say anything to him but it is good for me to study more about these things and wanted to know if you knew about Stephen N. Haskell. Thank you for any information you can share with me. Your friend, ST.
Response
Sister ST,
I have no problem with Elder Haskell’s book, even if there are some differences he and I may have. I am speaking of books that have been written that purposely attempt to change our understanding of truth. I have never found that with Elder Haskell’s writings. As human beings we will all have erroneous ideas and misconceptions, but since the fifty’s in general there has been book after book propagated within Adventism that either undermines or outright rejects the truths established in the beginning of Adventism.
We know the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24 identifies 490 years of probationary time for the Jews.
“The seventy weeks, or 490 years, were to pertain especially to the Jews. At the expiration of this period the nation sealed its rejection of Christ by the persecution of His disciples, and the apostles turned to the Gentiles, A.D. 34.” The Great Controversy, 410.
At the end of that period, when Stephen was stoned, ancient Israel was divorced from God. Their probationary time had ended. Yet that history clearly identifies a progressive close of probation.
“Israel as a nation had divorced herself from God. When Christ, near the close of His earthly ministry, looked for the last time upon the interior of the temple, He said, ‘Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.’ Matthew 23:38. Hitherto He had called the temple His Father’s house; but as the Son of God passed out from those walls, God’s presence was withdrawn forever from the temple built to His glory.” Acts of the Apostles, 145.
“When Caiaphas rent his garment, his act was significant of the place that the Jewish nation as a nation would thereafter occupy toward God. The once favored people of God were separating themselves from Him, and were fast becoming a people disowned by Jehovah. When Christ upon the cross cried out, ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30), and the veil of the temple was rent in twain, the Holy Watcher declared that the Jewish people had rejected Him who was the antitype of all their types, the substance of all their shadows. Israel was divorced from God. Well might Caiaphas then rend his official robes, which signified that he claimed to be a representative of the great High Priest; for no longer had they any meaning for him or for the people. Well might the high priest rend his robes in horror for himself and for the nation.” The Desire of Ages, 709.
Was ancient Israel divorced when Caiphas rent his garments, or when Stephen was stoned roughly three and a half years later in fulfillment of Daniel 9:24? Ancient Israel’s progressive close of probation prefigures modern Israel’s progressive close of probation.
“God did not spare Adam, though his sin may seem to us a small one. Neither will he spare us, if we continue to disregard his requirements. He divorced Israel from him because her people walked not in his ways. Never was a people more beloved. Never had a nation greater evidence of the divine favor. Yet only two of the adults who left Egypt entered the promised land. The rest died in the wilderness, having proved unworthy to enter Canaan. Pride and self-indulgence were their ruin.
“Their history has been traced by the pen of inspiration, that by their experience we may take warning. It is written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. God will call us to account if we retain wrong traits of character, refusing to call to our aid the power of the word, and in the name of Jesus correct our faults and subdue the passions of the natural heart. Many enthrone Satan in the heart, to triumph over Christ by the indulgence of evil inclinations. Sin reigns where Christ should reign. Those who thus continue to cherish sin can never be saved as they are. Unless they change, they will never enter heaven themselves, and they make very difficult the path of those who are trying to overcome. Their faulty, unconsecrated lives place them on the side of the power of darkness, while they are professedly on the side of Christ. Jesus makes them the objects of his tender solicitude and unwearied labor, until, notwithstanding all his efforts, they become fixed in sin. Then those over whom he has wept and yearned in love and compassion are left to pursue their own course. The Saviour turns from them, saying, sadly, They are joined to their idols; let them alone. God forbid that this should be said of us.” Youth Instructor, March 5, 1903.
The Bible teaches that we are judged first and those outside of Adventism are judged thereafter.
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? 1 Peter 4:17.
Jeremiah also identifies that Jerusalem, (God’s people) are judged first.
For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took I the cup at the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the Lord had sent me: To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day. Jeremiah 25:15–18.
The Bible further teaches that first God’s people (modern Israel—Adventism) is gathered and then those outside of Adventism are gathered.
The Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him. Isaiah 56:8.
Jesus teaches the identical truth. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. John 10:14–16.
Sister White teaches that the door closes upon Adventism first in several areas.
“Oh, that the people might know the time of their visitation! There are many who have not yet heard the testing truth for this time. There are many with whom the Spirit of God is striving. The time of God’s destructive judgments is the time of mercy for those who have had no opportunity to learn what is truth. Tenderly will the Lord look upon them. His heart of mercy is touched; His hand is still stretched out to save, while the door is closed to those who would not enter.” Testimonies, volume 9, 97. Hope this helps. Jeff.
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