What is the Elijah Message for the

S. D. A. Church Today?
Tis 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 Shepherds Rod by claiming that the Elijah message does not
have a messenger (another prophet afer Ellen White according to a reference found in
Testimonies to Ministers, p. 475) but rather it is the three angels messages to be
proclaimed by the church members today. Te 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. Tis added message came to the church in 1930 in a series of
publications known as the Shepherds 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 Shepherds Rod
but they are not satisfed to believe that the last prophet for the church today, the
promised Elijah, the author of the original Rod message, is none other than late Victor T.
Houtef. Tus, 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. Te purpose of this brief
compilation is to bring together a few references from the original Shepherds Rod message
and see what it has to say. Te subjects of relevance are conveniently arranged in a
question and answer format.
Question: Is the Shepherds 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 frst 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.
(1) 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
(2) 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 confrms 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 frst 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, fnds the church overrun by the Devil as badly as
was the Jewish church in Christ's day, and as the saints, the frst fruits, are to be rescued one by
one, He at frst sends fshers to fsh 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 fshed
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: Te 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
Shepherds Rod. Te 232 page book entitled Te Shepherds Rod, Vol. 1 was frst
published in 1930 and declared the particulars of the sealing of the 144,000. Tey alone
will escape the judgment that frst begins in the house of God and will serve as the
sanctifed 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 refner and purifer of silver: and He shall purify the sons of
Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may ofer unto the Lord an ofering 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 confrms 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 fulflled 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
End of Study
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