Mark- " While she didn't predict a single prophet, she did make many sweeping statements about the church in receipt of the latter rain."

Sorry to read this brother, but as I've already posted evidence that she prophesied of the "Elijah" to come, I'll not pursue it further. The Lord shall reveal the truth in this regard, may we be on the right side.

In regards to the final days of Christ's life, I shall start a new thread and feel free to come there and reveal your perceived error.

I would be very hesitant to say a confusion over "the sixth hour" is proof of authenticity of a prophet.
This issue has been hotly debated for many centuries and the interpretations are not unique to either EGW or Houteff.

There is no need to draw Christ's trial over several days in order to agree with the Bible.



Matt. 26:34 Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice
Luke 22:34 And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.
22:54 Then took they him, and led [him], and brought him into the high priest's house. And Peter followed afar off.
(Peter denies the Lord three times with about an hour between each denial -- the cock crows)
22:62 And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.

22:66 And as soon as it was day, the elders of the people and the chief priests and the scribes came together, and led him into their council
(Where he was accused of blasphemy)

23:1 And the whole multitude of them arose, and led him unto Pilate.

Mark 15:25 - “And it was the third hour, and they crucified him.”

Mark 15:33 - “And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.”

Matthew 27:45 - “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.

Luke 23:44 - “And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.”


Thursday evening -- Jesus and disciples celebrate the Passover.
It is night when they go to the garden.
There Jesus agonizes in prayer while the disciples sleep-- it is well past their bedtime.

Sometime around two in the morning the six hours of when the Israel was making their fatal choice began.
Jesus was to be examined and presented as the faultless Passover lamb.

Jesus was arrested and taken to the high Priest, where they had an illegal pre-trial.
This pre-trial period lasted till day break, when the roosters started crowing and Peter realized with horror that He had denied His Lord.
At day-break a more regular (but still illegal) Sanhedrin trial took place where they accused Christ of being guilty of blasphemy.
And "straightway in the morning" He was taken to Pilate" "and it was early".
Pilate sends Jesus to Herod who was also in Jerusalem (not far away) Herod sends Jesus back to Pilate.

Just read the Scriptures together and we can see that all these events could easily have taken up to six hours before the last rejection cry against their Savior "the king of the Jews" is shouted, as Pilate presents the Lord before the multitudes who give out that fateful sentence of “Crucify him!”

John 19:14 "And it was the preparation of the Passover lamb, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!
19:15 But they cried out, Away with [him], away with [him], crucify him.

The 'sixth hour' of what?

The sixth hour refers to the sixth hour of the preparation of the Passover lamb, Jesus Christ, for slaughter.

Jesus was not only examined by the priests, and the high priest, but also by Herod and Pilate, and at the end of it all the conclusion was, "I find in him no fault at all." (John 18:38). Thus he was turned over to be killed.

The events that happened from the time the Lord Jesus was first arrested in the early morning hours till the time that Pilate finally presents Him before the Jewish multitude in the open square and says: “Behold your King!” was SIX hours.

He was arrested around
2:00 - 3:00 AM
Declared as faultless but Rejected as King around
8:00 - 9:00 AM
Crucified
9:00 AM
He was on the cross another SIX hours
9:00 AM till 3:00 PM (darkness hiding him the last three hours.
Taken from the cross and buried before the Sabbath hours began.

There is no mention in her writings of another prophet in the sense that the SR claim. Indeed EGW herself does not place herself in the position the SR place Houteff and to a lesser degree EGW.

However, you are right -- the prophetic gift will be manifested.

But is the prophetic gift the same as "a prophet" who alone can interpret scripture?


We read in Joel
2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, [that] I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
2:29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.

What does EGW say about a future "Elijah"?

GLL, I believe you really are concerned that Adventism has rejected a prophet. I appreciate your sincerity and your concern for us. I hope you sense my concern too. What matters most is whether we allow the Word to speak to us. Isn't it true that blind Laodicea is you and me. We all need that heavenly eye salve, especially to see our own helpless condition. It's a prerequisite to recovering our sight. God help us all.

Dedication that's as good an explanation as any for the sixth hour issue.

You know, I've read the D of A quite a bit. But as I listened to it again on my little MP3 player recently, this statement arrested my attention about the final manifestation of the Holy Spirit:



One of the prominent doctrines you'll find in the teaching of Jones and Waggoner is that the same creative power that framed the universe is the power that forgives, restores and sustains the inner life of the Christian. Over and over Jones and Waggoner pointed us to the word and expounded how to have living faith that would tap into that power of the living Word. The latter rain is not an abnormal condition for the church. The lack of the gifts among us is the evidence of a famine for the living word among us. A church with an abundance of spiritual gifts is in fact the normal, healthy condition of the body of Christ. We have the inverse in our thinking because a feeble, diseased body is the "norm" to us, it's all we've ever known, but this is not the norm to God. "The Spirit and the Bride say come". When we sense the feeble, diseased condition of our spirituality then we be motivated to take of the healing water of life freely.

Very true, Mark.

The Church's greatest most urgent need.

Mark--
"GLL, I believe you really are concerned that Adventism has rejected a prophet. I appreciate your sincerity and your concern for us. I hope you sense my concern too. What matters most is whether we allow the Word to speak to us. Isn't it true that blind Laodicea is you and me. We all need that heavenly eye salve, especially to see our own helpless condition. It's a prerequisite to recovering our sight. God help us all."

Yes brother, those are good and true words. Here's my synopsis of what is really happening within our church. We did a post called " Help I can't see" which we pointed out how that it is impossible for one who has converted (quite knowingly sinning) to not see God's truth.

We are promised in (John 16:13) that "He shall guide you into all Truth". But many don't realize this is a gift. If we cherish sins or if we fail to do the Lord's last instructions from His Elijah message, then we will not have that "eyesalve" in which to correctly discern truth from error.

Further in Rev. chap. 3 our Lord basically says to us Laodiceans that we "need" something. That is clearly more truth. Being all seeing and knowing, "He KNEW that His message of Elijah would be largely rejected by His people (Laodiceans).

I will give you credit, as opposed to certain others here on this site, you have asked good and solid questions. That means you are searching, which is the first step to studying "to show yourselves approved unto God.." (2 Tim. 2:15)

Unfortunately many do not search, as they think themselves "rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing". They think they know all they need to know. They don't ask questions because they want to answer from their wealth of information. This is where we must search inside. Once we know that our Lord said we "Laodiceans" need more, then we all must listen to a message that someone brings and compare it to Scripture and SOP.

The Bible speaks about 144,000 soon to be sealed among the church of God "Israel". These are those who "follow the Lamb wheresover He goeth" even if they have to proclaim the "testing truth" which has "contempt placed upon it" (Testimonies, vol.5 ,p. 453).

You see, brother Houteff did not care about himself being called the "Elijah" to come. Here's his words-

"It is at this time the 144,000 are marked, or sealed. Ezekiel 9 fits Elijah's experience for this reason: The prophet, or the message is called, Elijah, "with the spirit and the power of Elijah." The prophet Elijah thought all Israel had apostatized, and that he alone was left, but the Lord said He had 7,000 men that had not bowed a knee to Baal.

"Seven" signifies a complete or perfect number, which stands as a symbol, in this instance meaning a complete number of thousands. The complete number of the very elect is 144,000. So we, too, like Elijah, think the whole church is drifted into the world (bowed a knee to Baal). Thus Elijah stands as a type of the 144,000 living, translated saints." (SRod vol. 1, p.46-47)

He said " or the message" is called Elijah. So, although many of us today truly believe that VTH was the prophesied Elijah, that is not what is important. The message that he brought is what counts.

And what was VTH's message? It's core was one of revival and reformation and the truth of the 144,000 (who, what and where they are). This is why the SDA church leaders fought him. he called them out for their failure in health reform (adapting to the world standards and not SOP standards) diet reform, dress reform, sanctuary reform and all other necessary reforms.

THAT was his message.

You quoted DA, p.823 and I believe that as well. However we must never forget that SOP, Scripture and the Elijah message ALL predict a church purification before His power is poured out (ie. miracles, wonders and such). As EGW says we cannot expect His power to be poured out with "Achans" in our midst.

"We profess to be governed by the same principles, to be influenced by the same spirit. But instead of giving all for Christ many have taken the golden wedge and a goodly Babylonish garment and hid them in the camp. If the presence of one Achan was sufficient to weaken the whole camp of Israel, can we be surprised at the little success which attends our efforts when every church and almost every family has its Achan?" (Testimonies, vol.5, p.157)

And let's not forget that only overcomers will be "permitted" to proclaim the "Loud Cry" (Review and herald , Nov. 19, 1908)

So, yes this latter rain is coming but there is a solemn event to take place prior. This is ELIJAH'S warning.

But what if we discern that this "message" from Houteff contains a lot of error?
Jesus warns that a lot of false prophets will arise in the last days.


Why even "mary" predicts a "purification" called the great chastisement. A purification for the Catholic church, as well as for others, as part of her "kingdom" to fill the earth. Yet, I don't believe her predictions are from heaven.

Even Muslims teach health reform, dress reform and all manner of reforms. They too think purification by violent means is necessary for their "kingdom" to fill the earth. But do we believe their message is from heaven?

Also Houteff was not rejected because he called people to a more serious regard for the health reform, and a return to Adventist truths. He was rejected for presenting material that was quite different from Adventist truths.

It was not because Houteff AGREED with EGW's writings, (and in many instances he does agree) but it was because he DISAGREED with some core issues, and taught something quite radically different, and yet used fragments of her writings to make it seem like she agreed.

When I read Houteff and see how he takes EGW's writings and weaves her sentences in with his ideas, it is glaringly apparent to me that he is NOT using her writings correctly. Especially when his conclusions are in direct opposition to what she taught.

Then of course the Houteff followers will say -- EGW wasn't agreeing with the Bible, so Houteff had to correct her. We saw this right here on this thread.

In this Houteff followers show they don't really think EGW was a prophet (at least not on any footing with Houteff).
And so it appears to me that SR are just using her writings to strike a responsive cord in Adventists for they know most Adventists do regard her writings as inspired, and by weaving her sentences in with their very different ideas make it appear EGW agrees, when in actuality she taught no such thing.

Bro. Mark , have you had a chance to see the report on Jesus' final days/hours?

Mixing truth with error. It's going to be so hard. Harder than I ever imagined. So many, oh so many are going to be deceived. It is almost overwhelming. We must all be firmly anchored to the scriptures and absolutely firmly know whether we believe Ellen White or not.