Each October 25, Mt. Carmel pauses from its work while residents and visitors for the occasion gather in the Chapel to hear read the most significant developments in the work and among Davidians both on Carmel and afield, and to enjoy and accompanying program. This is History Day or the beginning of days at Mt. Carmel. As such it is appropriately known as
the Days of Days.
Although only a relative few visiting Davidians were able to present for the Day this past October 25, we know that all would dearly have liked to be. So it has seemed good to make the most interesting and edifying part of the history available to all in this Special
issue of the Code.
Symbolic Code Vol. 10 No. 2
3HISTORY FOR DAVIDIANS
Once again we stand at the threshold of the beginning of Days, solemnly looking back in perspective upon what we have been hopefully looking forward in vision to what we may become. Day of reckoning that it is, yet of thanksgiving to God for His love and mercies, and of rejoicing hope and faith for victorious, redemptive progress ahead- truly it is our day of days. God grant that, of all so far, this may be the most memorable- the most inspiring.
Though each passing year has brought its swift successions of events of present and historical significance, certainly none more that that now spending has packed its months with soul stirring news and action to every Davidian, impressing all with the lateness of the hour in which we live; with the urgency of the task before us; and with the consequent gravity of our responsibility and duty before God and man.
And now as in retrospect we come again down from the event-filled way of ’54, moving along from milepost to milepost, let us lay well to heart the solemn lessons the record holds for us. May our mistakes and our misdoings the past year monitor for us a right course in the months to come, and may the great love of God so manifest
In His many mercies and blessings upon us grip our hearts 4 In His many mercies and blessings upon us, grip our hearts with a great gratitude and fill us with new faith and courage to meet tomorrow and tomorrow – triumphantly!
During an entire week in November, a special series of meetings, with Bro. Oliver hemanson in charge, were held by the active Hunters on short leave from the field.
Principally for the benefit of ministerial students and prospective Hunters, these sessions were designed to give them practical demonstrations of how to overcome some of the obstacles in approach, tactics, and special objections which are encountered in the field. Through trial and error, much valuable experience was gained in the filed work by the early Hunters. This practical knowledge was passed on to those who were soon to follow in the hunting campaign.
The highlight of this educational series was an unexpected address by Brother V.T. Houteff, who spoke to the gathering for about forty-five minutes on November 26. The text of this address is now incorporated in #9 of the Jezreel letter series.
Out in the Caribbean, the five-and-one-half month effort on the island of Grenada the spice island of the West, came to its gratifying conclusion November 10, with Brethern Simmons and Bingham going on to St. Lucia and with Sisters Rohoman and Loge going to Trinidad to start the hunting there. 5 It was while conducting hall and street meetings in the islands of Grenada and St. Lucia that brother Bingham found, from the hundreds of Catholics and Anglicans who eagerly crowded in to hear, that there is power in the Message to reach the multitudes of Babylon. On both islands these second- fruits souls begged him to stay and teach them. Truly the harvest is ripe.
In Compton, California, Paul Philips, who is now a fulltime ministerial student, then as a new believer wrote asking Mount Carmel’s opinion in his writing to all his relatives and the Seventh Adventist friends about importance of this movement. He showed his zeal and determination, as a young man who and just accepted the message, by sending in a second large list of Seventh-day Adventist names.
In the East, Elder C-----, who is bitterly opposed to the Rod, said that Davidians were buying and selling souls, and that therefore they should be driven out of the church as Christ drove out the money changers!!
Several weddings took place in Mt. Carmel’s Chapel during the year. The preface to the ceremony which was used for the last two and which may become the model for future weddings is as follows:
“Since marriage is in reality an extension of creation, the means of upbuilding the Kingdom of God, it must be entered into intelligently and in the fear of the Lord if it is to have
Blessing and if the home is to proper A present- Truthi 6 Blessing and if the home is to proper. A present- Truth believer who enters upon marriage for any reason other than God’s reason, or for a purpose irrelevant to His business, is sure to fail in one respect or another. It is therefore exceedingly important that the officiating minister make certain that the individuals who seek the rite of marriage are intelligently and in the fear of God venturing life together.
“ Even the Civil authorities recognize that premature marriages are inadvisable, and for that very reason the state governments are of God (Rom. 13:1-3), who then dare not seriously take this to heart? It is therefore the minister’s duty, when he is requested to perform a marriage ceremony, first to investigate the marriage eligibility of individuals involved. No Davidian minister is authorized to perform any marriage except both parties to the part be Davidians, and after the woman has reached her eighteenth year of life, and the man his twenty-first year of life-government approved ages of maturity- and only after proper preparation for married life has been made by both parties, as outlined in the Answerer, Book No. 3, pp. 79-86 and , as outlined in the Answerer, Book No. 3, pp. 79-86 and The Answerer No. 4, pp. 69-78.”
During the week ending February 20, the postal inspector of Salem, Alabama, requested the Mt Carmel Office to send him the names of all our Symbolic Code Vol. 10 No.2 7 Contacts in that area. The inspector discovered an appointment card with defamatory remarks addressed to a Hunter, and he wanted to find out who wrote on the card and to warn the offender of his illegal use of it.
As Brother Bingham was unable to remain in the Bahamas (Brother Holme’s native land) until the hunting job was finished there, Brother Warden’s transportation from Mt. Carmel to Nassau and back if he would go there with his car. So arrangements were made for brother Warden to go, and he left on February 28, where he remained until April 30. Through this combined effort more than a dozen souls embraced the Truth.
Brother Bingham returned to the States in February after spending one year to the day in British Guiana and the British West Indies, where about 40 Seventh-day Adventists took their stand for the Davidian message.
Early in March, Brother Nobrega arrived at Mt. Carmel from Portugal, and told of the encouraging progress of the Message in hat country.
As the expansion of the work necessitated more office space, March 23 became a moving day. The Correspondence department moved over to the northeast end. Much of the Mercantile stock was removed to store rooms in other buildings to make more room for all these departments. With this move completed and the floors repolished, the office was
Brother and Sister John C Campbell left for Salem South 8 Brother and Sister John C. Campbell left for Salem, South Carolina, in the latter part of April to take administrative charge of the Davidian rest Home there.
Brother Samuel Mambu of Indonesia, our Davidian representative there, was married May 6, to Sister Mary Buwalda, who is a worker in the Seventh-day Adventist Conference there. Sr. Mambu applied for a certificate of fellowship with the Davidian Seventh-day Adventists and was disfellowshiped from the mother church, though not discharged from her position.
In the Dominican Republic, Brother Willmore began to launch a one-man hunting campaign during the week of May 22. Thus it is that the message spreads from place to place and from island to island.
Word was received from, New Orleans that the members of the colored Seventh-day Adventist church received a shock on a Sabbath morning in April when they learned that their church treasurer had stock share in an Insurance Company, and the members had to pool $4,000 to pay off a debt they knew nothing about! And still the Denomination cannot see that it is indeed badly infiltrated with “strangers.”
A Seventh Day Adventist brother from Litchfield, Maine, wrote in an experience he had with the Northern New England Conference men and wanted our advice. Incidentally this was our first time hearing from him, showing that there 9 are many who have not fully made up their minds, but who have more confidence in the Davidians than in the Denomination. Here follows his unfortunate experience with the Denomination: They agreed that if he willed everything he had to the Conference, they would take care of is burial expense and provide him a monument. Later, though, they gave him a receipt to sign for the monument, and left him a copy. He had signed it in confidence, but after they left, he examined it more closely. Later he discovered, he wrote, that it was not payable on demand!
On May 29, a special meeting was held in Salem Carolina, for field workers and Davidians in that area. It was held shortly before the field workers left for Pennsylvania and other eastern points. Davidians came from considerable distances to attend, and recordings were made of the meetings. According to the recordings and other reports, we have learned that the gathering was profitable and especially for those in Salem, among whom a long-standing and grievous misunderstanding over the Rest Home had just before the meetings been ironed out.
By the efforts of two young ladies, Jemmy Rohoman and Beulah Logie, the first Davidian company was established in Cumana, Trinidad. In July, officers of the newly organized group were elected.
Now these two “Ruhama hunters” are busily and courageously engaged in strengthening and expanding the work in Trinidad, as is evidenced
by the following letter written by Sisiter Logie: 10 ygyg
“ We are continuing to hold the fort here, and through the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we are daily receiving strength from on high to stand against the fiery darts of the evil one.
In spite if the working of the enemy all around us, we are glad to state that everywhere God’s honest sheep are hearing His voice, the Rod (Mic. 6: 9 ).
“ The battle is rating more and more against us here, as the leading brethren and church members are getting to realize that they are not merely fighting against two young ladies who might appear very small in their eyes, but rather against God’s Truth and his judgment message to the people of God at this time.
“The more we are misjudged, and the more evil that is spoken of us and our work falsely, the more evidence we have that this work is of God and will triumph in the end.
“ The Lord has been surely good to us during our stay here, and through His help we have been able to give the Message to hundreds of Adventists, and have distributed thousands of pieces of literature.
“The Shepherd’s Rod message is now confronting every S.D.A. in Trinidad, and little light-houses are now set up in different parts of the island.i Symbolic Code Vol. 10 No.2 11 “It is our sincere hope that you and the other brethren will continue to remember us before the throne of grace, as the harvest indeed is plenteous, but the laborers few.”
Still ringing in the ears of Mt. Carmel was the starting announcement in July, telling of the beginning of the sale of Mt. Carmel property and of the preparation for an all-out effort to recapture the Church from the hands of the Enemy.
It was brought to our attention that with every passing hour it is being made clearer to all Davidians that the Lord expects His people gladly to support His cause, first by their tithes and offerings, and then by selling all, if they would enter into life eternal. It was stated that he who faithfully meets the first of His requirement, tithes and offerings, will at last, with joy, go all the way by selling all when God gives the command. Thus may he joyfully buy the field with great treasure.
The sale of Mt. Carmel property was pictured as being a move that should awaken all to the fact that the eleventhhour Message is on the very verge of a final and all out effort to reclaim the Church from the hands of the tare-sower.
This announcement was carried to the field in printed form by The Symbolic Code. Thus again the Code had an important role to execute in carrying this and other vital news to Davidians world-wide.
The Code has not been in print for eleven years its place 12 The Code has not been in print for eleven years, its place having been temporarily filled by other publications. The first issue, dated September, 1954, Vol. 10, No. 1, was welcomed by all Davidians far and near, and as it rolled from the presses to the Post Office, and finally into the homes of the people, it was found to contain timely articles of specific and general interest, along with a lively mail-bag department.
On August 11 the clearing and landscaping of the new sub-division- the old peach orchard near the entrance to Mt. Carmel- got underway. The name of the first street, Charboneau Drive., is in commemoration o f Sister Hermanson’s mother, Sister Florence Charboneau, who not only was the first of the pioneer believers but also the first treasurer of the Association of Davidian Seventhday Adventists; likewise of the first group to come to Mt. Carmel, as well as the first to be laid to rest in Mt. Carmel’s Memorial Park.
The other streets may be named after the first twelve pioneers and the others lying at rest with Sister Charboneau.
On August 19, the name “Lake Shore Hills” was selected from among a number of names submitted for the new subdivision. The main entrance road was named Mt. Carmel Boulevard.
This select residential addition, opened up by Brothers Fayne and Vaughn Worth, is already the cite of nine attractive homes, representing attractive homes, representing five Davidian builders. 13 Yes, with the City coming to our very doors, the peach orchard must go. The peach orchard! What memories it brings of low-bowing branches loaded with luscious fruit! Of boys and girls, men and women, filling the baskets with golden juicy Elbertas! There was a plenty for everyone and almost three months of the year we all enjoyed a feast. The cannery was a busy place those days, for thousands of quarts of peaches were packed for winter use, and still there were more. So the Saleway was opened, ad cars came from far and near to buy Mt. Carmel peaches.
All this happened before the drought came. Now the tress are old, half withered, and barely alive. But why should we mourn? They served well their purpose for the time that we needed them. Now the land will be sold at a profit and the means used to search out and save the lost sheep of the House of Israel. Good-by dear old peach orchard.
An unusual report came to hand that a Davidian sister of Florida was baptized at a Seventh-day Adventist camp meeting. It was further reported that she had first-hand information of how seriously the Conference is concerned about The Shepherd’s Rod.
A number of new Mt. Carmel correspondents in August included one Mrs. ------ who confessed she had been regularly burning the literature sent her. Apparently tiring of this, one day she opened one Timely Greeting that came, and the heading-“The Church walking With The
She had soon memorized the 14 World --caught her eye. She had soon memorized the paragraphs that followed and then from memory she gave the poem in the Seventh-day Adventist church! Now she has ordered more literature to replace the burned copies, She has five sons and is teaching them at home.
Sister Player, who us in charge of foreign relief, has been shipping suitable clothing and shoes to the needy brethren in foreign fields almost as fast as it is received here at Mt. Carmel. Requests are continuing to come for help.
During the weeks in August and September four fires occurred on Mt. Carmel, very evidently purposely set. The last two resulted in costly damage, one to a warehouse adjoining the machine Shop, the other to adjoining the Machine Shop, the other to a warehouse adjoining the machine Shop, the other to Helm’s garage. Because of so many fires occurring in so short a time, the State Fire Marshall was asked to make an investigation of the cause of them. The final report is still pending.
A recent and major event of this year was the commencement of the new ministerial class. It is composed of seriousminded young men who have journeyed here from various sections of the States. These eager-to-learn young men appear determined quickly to acquire a thorough training in the lord’s service for the gathering of the first-fruits during the harvest in Laodicea. One occasion, instructor Merritt Wolfe quoted from the books of Jeremiah and Matthew, then commented concerning the student’s call and the Institute’s purpose for the class , now at eleventh hour. He pointed out that after Israel’s dispersion 15 throughout the nations and after their assimilation by the gentiles, prophecy then disclosed the subject of the gathering of the first-fruits, by saying: “… I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.” – Jeremiah 16:16.
“ This is the reason,” he explained, “that these students have enrolled in this class.”
Thus it was that Monday was that Monday, September 13 the door of the ministerial; class opened again, and upon bended knees and with bowed heads the class petitioned the Master Hunter and pleaded with Him that he be with them as they prepare for His service in the vineyard.
“Today we stand faulty and defective, many with ‘rough and uninviting exteriors’ ,” declared the instructor, “but erelong through the grace of God, as we remain faithful, we shall appear ‘fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners’ (Cant. 6:10, going ‘forth into all the world, conquering and to conquer’ (Prophets and Kings, p. 725). What a hope!”
One important aspect of this ministerial class that differs from the previous one, is the increased number of students attending from Seventh-day Adventist homes, whereas the majority of the students of former classes were composed of young men and women who were long-time Davidian
This is indeed an encouraging development for it discloses
16This is indeed an encouraging development, for it discloses
that young men ad women are now embracing the Message
and are coming forefront, making ready to lead out for
the Message as they are “disclosed” to view. (see Early
Writingss, page 277 and Testimonies, Vol. 5, pages 80,81.)
Following are some of the comments made by a representative
section of the student body. They reveal their hopes and
aspirations for world-wide evangelism after hunting out and
bringing in the firstfruits:
“Since my arrival at Mt. Carmel, I have had the privilege
of meeting many fine, interesting people who have all
the appearance of being a dedicated group. At my first
introduction to the religious activities of Mt. Carmel, I was
impressed with the number of earnest young people present,
in comparison with the young people of the mother church,
who many times possess a subversive attitude toward their
church activities. My purpose here at Mt. Carmel is to attain
not only a thorough knowledge of present Truth doctrines
but also a spiritual foundation and experience that will fit
me to give the Message to the church and the world-with
the ultimate goal of a heavenly home.”-A new student from
California.
“The impression I received when I arrived at Mt. Carmel
was of a people with a Christlike spirit, who are striving to
enter in at the strait gate; a people who praise God, the rod
did arrive to reform and revive; a people who are making