Nathaniel Faulkhead: Freemason to Adventist
Season 2 | Episode 40
Nathaniel Faulkhead had a good reputation as a businessman
and so soon after he was baptized in 1886 or 1887,
he was named the treasurer at the Echo Publishing House.
His work was good and the results were favorable,
however there was another side to him.
He was also a prominent member of the Masons
and several other secret organizations
and saw no reason why he needed to resign from these organizations
when he became a Seventh-day Adventist.
However, his interest in the work of God began to fade
and his friends were concerned for his spiritual well-being.
[music]
Soon after Ellen White arrived in Australia in 1891,
she was given a detailed vision
of the situation here at the Echo Publishing House
and wrote the entire vision out,
including a testimony for Nathaniel Faulkhead which was fifty pages in length.
Something told her at the time not to send it, though,
as it would not be accepted.
Soon after this, J. H. Stockton, a fellow worker,
asked Nathaniel what he would do if Ellen White had a testimony for him.
He replied, 'Well, it would have to be pretty strong
for me to believe that it came from God.'
[music]
Not long after this, Nathaniel dreamed
that the Lord had prepared a message for him through Sister White.
And so the next time he saw her he asked her if she had a message for him.
She was tired and said that she would share it with him later, but he insisted,
and so in spite of her fatigue,
she shared the fifty-page testimony with him.
As she was doing so, she made signs and gestures
that only members of a Masonic Lodge knew.
Nathaniel interrupted her and asked her if she knew what she was doing,
and if she had done anything unusual.
She said no.
[music]
She spoke on and made another sign
that she later said her attending angel made her do.
Nathanael turned pale.
He had only learned this a few days previous,
and it was known to only six people in the whole of Australia.
There was no way a woman could know this sign.
As she continued the conversation, she made another sign,
and Nathaniel remembered the conversation he'd had
with J. H. Stockton a few days previous,
and he was fully convinced that this testimony was from God.
[music]
Finally, after speaking for more than three hours,
God prevailed and Nathaniel surrendered everything to Him,
and made a vow which he kept:
that he would resign from all the secret societies that he was a member of.
God used perhaps the most unlikely thing to capture this man's attention
and reach through to his heart.
God meets us where we are
in ways that will grab our attention but maybe not someone else's.
Today we might not have a living, breathing, live prophet,
but we still have God's inspired Word,
and His Holy Spirit still speaks to our hearts.
May we be sensitive,
may we heed the admonitions in the scriptures,
and may we listen to the Holy Spirit
when He speaks to us in a still small voice.