How False Teachers Differ from the True.
By John Nevins Andrews
“He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory; but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.” John 7:18. “I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” John 5:43. “But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one; to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God.” Acts 8:9, 10. These texts teach us a most impressive lesson. Read them several times over, and then ponder them in your heart. Observe the difference between the work of God and that of Satan. The Lord's work leaves his most favored servants almost out of sight, calling the attention not to the workman, but to the work. But when Satan sends men out to preach, it is not the truth, but themselves, which forms the burden of their message. The Son of God is the Alpha and the Omega of the Scriptures; yet observe how he sought to hide himself even when performing mighty miracles. He charged those who were healed not to make him known. And in this, fulfilled the words of Isaiah: “He shall not strive nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice [concerning his own greatness] in the streets.” Matt. 12:15–19. Simon the sorcerer had a very different spirit. And so have all self-sent or Satan-sent men. The past twenty-five years have been prolific of men claiming to be the promised Elijah. Their anxiety has not been to possess Elijah's power in prayer, his humility, his self-denial, his godly life, and his large measure of the Holy Spirit; but it has been that they might have the title of Elijah the prophet given them by their fellow-men, and be called by men “the great power of God.” I might give an extended list of names of those who have, during the present generation, taken to themselves this high-sounding title. But they are not worthy of an enumeration. Two cases only will I mention. One year ago last winter, we were visited at Battle Creek by a person from Ypsilanti, who requested the privilege of speaking in our house of worship one evening. This being granted, he first made some general remarks not particularly objectionable, and then informed us who he was. He was the prophet like unto Moses; he was the David promised in Ezekiel; he was the Michael that should stand up at the commencement of the time of trouble, and he was also the King of kings that should ride upon the white horse. If I rightly remember, he was also the promised Elijah. He claimed, moreover, some other offices which I have now forgotten. He gave a sign to prove his divine appointment to these extraordinary offices; viz., that on a certain day in the following June or July, the city of Paris should be burned. In the vicinity of Boston we have a case very similar to that of the person narrated above. How many offices he fills, or claims to, I know not. But he claims to be the Elijah that was to come; he is the prophet like unto Moses; he is the one like God (Jer. 49:19); he is the Cyrus of Isaiah's prophecy; he is the great prince Michael; he is the Zerubbabel of the Bible; he is the divinely appointed reader and expositor of the book of Revelation; he is also the King of kings that rides forth upon the white horse. Burdened with these weighty responsibilities, he sets himself to the work of discharging them in various ways. That he may fulfill the work of Cyrus, he puts forth a decree compounded of vanity, presumption, and falsehood. Here it is: “Now therefore, I, Joseph T. Curry, in the name of Yahveh, God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Israel, do hereby affirm that Yahveh, God of Heaven, hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him a house in this wilderness of the people. Who is there among you of all this people? Take ye from among you an offering to Yahveh: whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering of Yahveh; according to the typical offerings made by the children of Israel in obedience to the command of Moses, recorded in Ex. 35. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith Yahveh of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And all nations shall call you blessed; for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith Yahveh of hosts. Blessed be Yahveh, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name forever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. And let all the people say, Amen.”—Voice of Israel, Vol. 1, No. 7, November 1868. Mr. Curry relates the following wonderful things concerning himself, great “I” standing out very conspicuous: “In the first half of the year 1866, Yahveh opened my eyes to the fact that I, Joseph T. Curry, am the Cyrus of Isaiah's prophecy. I saw that the prophecy had a very limited typical application to the ancient Cyrus. . . . As God chose the ancient Cyrus to overthrow the Babylonian or Chaldean power, so he has chosen me to overthrow the modern Babylon. . . . . . . . . “I saw that the king of Babylon is Louis Napoleon, Emperor of France; that he will invade this country, according to specific predictions by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk and Zechariah. . . . I saw that the time for this invasion was to be appointed by me, according to the word of Jeremiah: ‘Behold, he [the invader] shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan unto the habitation of the strong [the United States—see Micah 4:7, 8.]; but I will make them suddenly run away from her; and who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her? for who is like me [Mi-cha-el, who like God]? and who will APPOINT ME THE TIME? and who is that shepherd [Cyrus] that will stand before me?’ (Jer. 49:19; 50:44.) “From the moment of my perception that the appointment of the time was in my hands, the subject was continually in mind. In my absorption I made a wrong inference from certain prophecies, and it led me into a grave error.” Mr. Curry goes on to state that he appointed February 24, 1869, as the day for Louis Napoleon to invade the United States. As Napoleon neglected his part in this arrangement, the appointment proved a failure. But it neither opened the eyes of Mr. C. nor those of his disciples. He reconsidered the matter, and tried it over again. On the former occasion he had got the right month and day, but in his haste did not get the right year. He must therefore try it again. He brings all his prophetic gift this time to the test. He takes into the computation the work which he, “the modern Cyrus,” had begun in the building of the Lord's house, i. e., in the establishment of his own sect, and then announces the result. He says: “The corrected date” “must consequently be fulfilled this 24th of February, 1870. ‘The vision is yet for an appointed time.’ It has ‘tarried’ one year beyond my word, but not at all beyond God's word. On Feb. 24, 1870, the man on the red horse [Napoleon] will go forth. . . . To this I call the whole nation to witness.” And he concludes his statement by making the fulfillment of this prediction that Napoleon should invade the United States, the sign whereby his call to the office of Elijah should be attested. He says: “All this is attested by the coming again of Napoleon to the South on the 24th of the eleventh month (Feb. 24), which coming is the sign ordained by Yahveh to arouse the children to believe the Elijah message. To Yahveh alone be all the glory, world without end.”—Joseph T. Curry in Voice of Israel, Vol. 1, No. 10. Mr. Curry gave the above sign as a test of his prophetic powers, under date of Feb. 18, 1870. Under date of March 4, he says in his Voice of Israel: “As I write these words I cannot point to any fact which fulfills this prophecy, but that it was fulfilled on the 24th of February, 1870, is certain. When we get the history of that day, we shall have the last item which marks the prophetic year.” The following month, April, 1870, he explains the failure of his prediction by the following statement which could not have been very satisfactory to those who had depended upon the sign of his prophetic powers which he had publicly given, and which had in no sense been verified by any known event. Here are his words: “Though it tarry, it will not tarry.” How can that be? How can a thing tarry, and yet not tarry? This question belongs to the present hour. The prophet Habakkuk records this word of Yahveh: Write the vision, and make it plain on tables, that the reader may run with it. For the vision is for an appointed time; and at the end it shall speak, and not lie; though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Hab. 2:2, 3. What vision is referred to? The vision of an invasion. See Hab. 1:6–11; 3:16. What invasion? The invasion of the United States by Louis Napoleon. See Voice of Israel, Nos. 6, 7, 8, 10. What is the “appointed time” for the vision to be fulfilled? Feb. 24, 1870. See Voice of Israel, No. 10. Will the vision tarry beyond the appointed time? “It will surely come, it will not tarry.” Why, then, is the word given, “Though it tarry, wait for it”? It can mean this: Something is done by the invader at the appointed time, but the thing is not revealed to the world until an interval after the appointed time. This secrecy is necessary to the accomplishment of the invader's purpose, and hence the invasion really dates from the appointed time, although it does not actually take place until afterward. The consequence is that it appears to tarry, in one sense, does tarry, and makes necessary the exhortation, “Though it tarry, wait for it.” But when the truth is brought to light, there will be no room to question the fact that Napoleon did move to invade the country on the day named, and that the actual invasion is the direct and perfect result of the thing then done. “The invasion is a trap, a snare, a perfect and terrible surprise. It will verify the following prophetic address to the invader: ‘Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee!’ (Isa. 33:1.) It will astonish the world with its subtle consummation, and signally vindicate the word of Yahveh in those prophecies which speak of Napoleon's ‘craft.’ It will also expose the cunning of the southern rebels, spoken of in Isa. 29:15; 30:1; Ps. 83:3, 4. It is the last great attempt of the animal man to frustrate the development of the ‘saints of the Most High.’ And it is near. Though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”—Vol. II, No. 1, April, 1870. Under date of March, 1871, Mr. Curry suspends his paper. And though Napoleon instead of fulfilling the sign that was to justify Mr. C. in calling himself Elijah, did in some six months from the time fixed for his invasion of this country, meet with a complete overthrow, which has suspended that invasion indefinitely, yet Mr. C. offers no explanation, and makes no retraction of his arrogant and even blasphemous assumptions. In his paper for March, 1870, he expounds the opening of the sealed book in Rev. 5. The Lamb who opens the book does this through the appointed reader, J. T. Curry! The rider on the white horse is this same Alpha and Omega of prophecy, J. T. C. “The red horse rider is Louis Napoleon.” Here is his description of himself:— “The opening of the first seal shows a white horse. The horse symbolizes war. (Job. 39:19, 25; Ps. 20:7; Hosea 14:3; Rev. 19:11.) The white horse signifies a righteous war. (Rev. 19:11.) The bow in the rider's hand is the bow of Joseph. (Gen. 49:24.) The crown given to the rider agrees with God's call of Cyrus to be his shepherd or governor of Israel. (Isa. 41:2, 25; 45:1–5, 13; 46:11; 48:14; Jer. 49:19; 1:44.) The same person is identified in Rev. 19:12 as having ‘a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.’ Compare Isa. 45:4. The whole teaching is that Elijah—Cyrus—Zerubbabel—Michael goes forth ‘conquering and to conquer.’” The rider on the red horse is to invade the United States. Then Michael or Elijah, i. e., J. T. C., is to drive the Napoleonic beast out of the country. And thus he gives the next part of the programme:— “Nor will the conquering work cease there, but we shall proceed to take possession of our father-land, deeded to Abraham and his seed 4000 years ago. ‘The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.’ Dan. 7:18. Glory to Yahveh! the first seal is opened—the white horse has gone forth, and the house of Israel begins to muster its forces for the battle of the great day of God Almighty.” And so the King of kings that is to reign over the kingdom of God, and that is to give that kingdom to the saints, is this same erring, fallible, self-conceited, and no doubt insane, J. T. C.! Those who are tired of waiting for “this same Jesus” that ascended, and that no longer hope for his revelation as the lightning shines from the east even unto the west, can accept such a kingdom as this poor mortal can give them, and can spend the rest of their lives in saying to their fellow-men, Lo! here is the kingdom of God. It seems strange indeed that such arrogant assumptions should be accepted as the teachings of an inspired man. But there is something in it which proves attractive to a certain class, who regard this man as the great power of God. The whole drift of Mr. C.'s teaching is absolute fatalism! He relieves men of accountability for their actions by making everything the result of fixed decrees. Probably it is a satisfaction to some, to think that all their conduct is exactly such as God foreordained it, even though it be not in accordance with the precepts of his word. But though Mr. C. takes the place of the Son of God, claiming even to be the one addressed in the second Psalm that shall dash the nations in pieces, and the one that Zechariah calls the Branch, he is only able to save his people from their sins by teaching them in substance that whatever is, is right! It is with no ill-will toward him who is the victim of this most awful self-deception, nor toward those who are its supporters and adherents that this article is written. Would to God that it could open the eyes of some to see how different was the spirit of him who preached not himself, but Christ Jesus the Lord. J. N. ANDREWS.