I'm not sure what you were trying to say with that last post, manofgod. Almost every Adventist I know is a former baptist/Lutheran/pentecostal/catholic/Presbyterian/missionary alliance, and so on. My pastor is from the missionary alliance. My mother was a Lutheran, my father was a catholic...and both of them taught me to leave the Adventist church the second I find anything that disagrees with the bible. We're supposed to be seekers after truth. And the reason that the bible does not have to say "don't keep a different day holy" is because there wasn't one! They didn't have 2 choices, so they didn't have to argue over it. They didn't have to prove "sabbath" to gentiles because there was only one. If there is only one it doesn't leave much room for discussion over which day to keep. The apostles kept it, Jesus kept it, it's still one of the ten commandments, so I'm going to keep it. I'm still of the opinion that if you can't show me a verse where God, or Jesus, or Paul, or Peter, or John say that they transferred the holiness of the sabbath to the first day of the week...then I'm going to stick to my guns. Go ahead and call me a cultist. Only time will tell.
"The foremost proponent of Sabbath-keeping among early Adventists was retired sea captain Joseph Bates. Bates was introduced to the Sabbath doctrine by a tract written by Millerite preacher Thomas M. Preble, who in turn had been influenced by Rachel Oakes Preston, a young Seventh Day Baptist."
To say Ellen White is a false prophet because she doesn't agree with your beliefs isn't really a good stance to take....because I believe a lot of your beliefs are false. Convince me that my views of the bible are false, then I will say Ellen White is a false prophet. The only problem is...I'm beginning to see how you defend your faith. By attacking my character/salvation when you run out of ideas. Not a good witness. So far you're just convincing me that I'm in the right place. I would never go so far as to say you're going to hell for your beliefs. I would still like to thank you though, because of these discussions I have had a taste of that "peace that passeth understanding" when it comes to my beliefs. I look at yours and I see no coherency. You can't apply the sacrificial type, you can't apply revelation, you can't apply all the commands to keep the commandments, all the commands to flee from sin, the humanity of Jesus in taking on our nature, the state of the dead, the nature of our salvation. Many of them just make no sense at all when you try and fit them in your belief system. They all line up in my beliefs. Every single last one of them.
That is the truth. And hopefully from my previous posts you can see that I do use only the scripture. There are some "slightly psycho" Adventists that over-exalt Ellen White just like there are slightly psycho people from other denominations. But...as a whole...the Adventist church does believe that everything is subject to the scriptures. Only after its been proven through the scripture can it be claimed that it comes from God. And I'm sorry, but Ellen White does agree with my bible beliefs. I really appreciate your christian attitude, Cattle. I know you don't agree with me, but you're keeping a good attitude about it.
And linnie/manofgod/others...I do believe the bible is a complete work by itself...like I said...I don't need Ellen White to prove my points. I use only the bible. And look...I guess my point is...I am an Adventist. You aren't. I know what Adventists believe. You guys are throwing a bunch of half-truths or flat out falsehoods at me that I know are not what I, the Adventist church, or Ellen White believe. And your poor understanding of my beliefs is supposed to make me want to change? I would have to wonder if you guys are just copying and pasting stuff from websites you find. Because it's just not true. And I understand my beliefs well enough to know the difference. Better then you guys anyway. Now you may be slandering my church to other people that read this and don't know the facts, but is that really how you want to do this? You say you "love me and want me to change", but you just need to prove you're right. That's the only explanation. You're just mostly throwing sand in the air so far. But now nobody cares what I think because I'm in a cult....great....
This quote I found amazes me. And yes...it's Ellen White. I can actually thank you guys for showing it to me, lol. I probably would have never read it if I wasn't checking out your supposed "false prophecies". What are the odds.
"I saw that those who oppose the Sabbath of the Lord could not take the Bible and show that our position is incorrect; therefore they would slander those who believe and teach the truth, and would attack their characters. Many who were once conscientious and loved God and His Word have become so hardened by rejecting the light of truth that they do not hesitate to wickedly misrepresent and falsely accuse those who love the holy Sabbath, if by so doing they can injure the influence of those who fearlessly declare the truth. But these things will not hinder the work of God. In fact, this course pursued by those who hate the truth will be the very means of opening the eyes of some. Every jewel will be brought out and gathered, for the hand of the Lord is set to recover the remnant of His people, and He will accomplish the work gloriously."
Man, you guys post fast...I can't keep up! Stop copying and pasting whole websites!:boxing: I've spent about 10 of the last 24 hours in the bible and replying to your posts...is this some sinister plot to wear me down?:ROFL: I'm trying to keep up...forgive me if I miss a few. Rayen!? I need help! Let's go every other one!:zzzz: Luckily my business was pretty much shutdown today because of a city fair, or I'd be way behind. The loud karaoke music wasn't helping though...
I would like to encourage you to study history and Prophecy, more specifically Daniel and Revelations. God teaches us about prophecy, our pastors who have studied it help us understand it, as well as history. 'Speaking' of history, have you studied about the Roman General, Constantine? He was the empire that, after seeing paganism declining, decided to become a 'Christian' for political purposes. The problem was, in early 4th century, pagans had their own day of rest and worship, which was Sunday (dear faithful brothers and sisters, I do not state that you are pagans, if you worship on Sunday, I won't judge you).
Christians and Jews in that time worshiped on Saturday or Sabbath. What Constantine did was, he combined Christianity with paganism. He established his Sunday law, he forbid the violation of Sunday/Dies Solis. Christians were required to observe Sunday- I've heard people state that they worship on Sunday, their reason is Christ rose on that day, or because it is the first day of the week. Others, shockingly enough, admit, "We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church in the Council of Laodicea, transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday." The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, Third edition, pg. 50. However, it is not only about worship, it is about rest. Constantine then went on to issue an order that no one is to rest on Sabbath, but on Sunday, except those in agriculteral work (you can read Gibbons "Decline and fall of the Roman Empire")
'Speaking' of prophecy, God too identifies with the Sabbath. He states that it is His seal, other verses use 'mark'. (Please read Ezekiel 20:10-24, and Matthew 12:8.
God identifies with the Sabbath, all the more reason for Satan to hate it. "In the Council of Toulouse, the church leaders ruled: "We prohibit laymen possessing copies of the Old and New Testament...We forbid them most severely to have the above books in the popular vernacular."-Concil Tolosanum, Pope Gregory IX, Anno. Chr.1229"- A. Jan Marcussen, A shocking glimpse behind the scenes National Sunday Law. "On December 8, 1866, Pope Pius IX in his encyclical Quanta Cura issued the following statement: "Socialism, Communism, clandestine societies, Bible societies...pests of this sort must be destroyed by all means"-ibid.
Somehow Satan has found a way to infiltrate the word of God to deceive many. Catholic versions(once again, this is not an attack on faithful servants of God) of the word contains the ten commandments, thing is, the Roman Catholics are not instructed from the Bible, but from the church's catechism, which has been altered by the papacy! If you were to look into the Catholic catechism, the 2nd commandment has been omitted, the 10th commandment is divided into 2, the 4th has some omissions and placed on 3rd position as if to imply that it was the 3rd. Alarmed yet? When did God give us permission to do this?!?!
2 Peter 2:2, "Even so, many will follow their immoral ways; and because of what they do, others will speak evil of the Way of the truth."
Take time to study and you will see how the Devil has slipped in amongst the oblivious Servants.
Jesus Christ always led by example. At the end it is entirely up to us, whether we follow or not. I stand strong because of Christ, I am weak and gullibe without Him and His teachings. Like I 'said' before, do not believe in everything you hear or read, but ask God to reveal the truth lest you get deceived. This is the Devil's job, to deceive. Do not insult anything you have no complete knowledge of either. Learning never ends. Are you done learning? You sure have concluded.
Why was it so easy for Eve to believe in a lie? Think it's any different now? Is it that she CHOSE to or she had no faith? I have put this down before, do you think God would let you become deceived if you didn't want to and leaned entirely on Him? Time and again He warned, do not be deceived. If the truth sounds bad, I sympathize deeply with you, but it's the lies that are usually candy-coated, works of the cunning one. Some people like the idea of reincarnation, so they believe in it. Some like the idea of "there being no controlling God", they believe in that. Eve thought the fruit looked good to eat and liked the idea of being wise.
Guys, feelings can be misleading, even the truth may not be comforting at times. It would be wise of you all to study prophecy instead of digging for clear and perfect answers which you can get from God if you'll ask Him. We mortals may not be able to answer everything. Can you answer everything, or can God? So instead of calling us cultic, which by the way is the worst thing to call a Christian, seek God.
My answer to you, Cattleman, is that it would be very tragic of me to have not accepted Christ as my Lord and Saviour by now. I thank God that I gave Him my heart when I was a young girl-not to say it didn't belong to Him anyway. I had a sincere desire to know my Creator. I realised how important my relationship with God was as I grew older, and long to spend eternity with Him. It would be better to be hated by the world but loved by the Creator of the world. Once I got my first gift, life, it would be highly foolish to refuse God's gift in the form of His precious death on the cross for ME, and all my stains. Last thing I want to do is tamper with His word, or waste time spreading lies, or arguing. This won't please Him.
Take note, Matthew 7:14
"Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." Hard fact to handle, even for me. And then in Jesus Christ's words,
Matthew 5:19,20, "Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the Kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of heaven."
This is not about winning an arguement, but out of love, let's encourage one another and point to Christ, without criticism...
Seventh Day Adventism (SDA) is a very deceitful false religion. SDAs, more than any other false religion, APPEAR as born again Christians. An Adventist gentleman sent me the following website, trying to defend the SDA religion...
http://www.adventistreview.org/2003-1539/wed.html
From looking at the above website, you'd never know they were unsaved heretics. They believe in Christ's deity, the Virgin Birth, the Godhead, etc. They teach on their webpage that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone, just as the Word of God teaches. But don't be fooled. This deception has led MANY people, even Christians, to accept SDAs as "Christian." What they're NOT telling you about is their HIDDEN heresies which they would never put forth to the public. With the help of the beloved Dr. John R. Rice (1895-1980), I would like to EXPOSE the truth about this Satanic cult that falsely claims to be "Christian."
Here is a lengthy quote from Dr. John R. Rice's excellent book, FALSE DOCTRINES (pg. 182), available from the Sword of the Lord (which I highly recommend)...
"A friend sent me a card, 'What Seventh-Day Adventists Believe,' and said, 'The enclosed card seems orthodox and supported by Biblical references. I would not call them heresies. Wherein do they err?'
I am glad to give you a brief analysis of the position of Seventh-Day Adventists stated on the card.
Unfortunately, heresy always presents itself in deceitful form. False doctrine has always involved some moral guilt also. So in 2nd Corinthians 11:13-15 God warns us:
'For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.'
So Satan makes sure that heresy always appears like orthodoxy. Wolves put on sheep's clothing, as Jesus said about false prophets in Matthew 7:15. And the worst heresies in the world pretend that their doctrine is founded on Scripture and they give Scripture references, though the Scriptures themselves do not always teach what the false doctrines try to teach.
I call your attention to some things in this statement of faith of Seventh-Day Adventists which a good Christian should question."
Seventh-Day Adventism began in the mid-nineteenth century, when a Baptist preacher, who later repented of his folly, predicted that Jesus Christ would return in 1844. Miller had over 10,000 followers, many of whom sold their homes, gave away all their earthly possessions, quit their jobs, and waited eagerly for the Lord's return--But the Lord didn't return in 1844! In came Ellen G. White to save the day, claiming that instead of returning to the earth, Jesus entered into the Holy of Holies in Heaven to finish His work of atonement. She termed this event the "Investigative Judgment," a doctrine not found anywhere in the Word of God. We will expose this more later.
Adventists Teach Salvation by Works!
Dr. Rice goes on to say on page 183..
"In article 9 (of 'What Seventh-Day Adventists Believe'), it says, 'that those who are truly converted and love God will diligently study, and give heed to, His Word.' And they give eight Scripture references and none of them say anything like that. The simple truth is that people who are converted do not always 'diligently study' the Bible and do not always obey it in many matters. This is a part of the doctrine of salvation by works which they teach, and that one may keep saved by keeping on working."
Thank God for Dr. Rice's wisdom and uncompromising stand for the truth! The Devil can't deceive us if we shine the light of God's Word upon the darkness. As with most false religions, SDAs talk out of both sides of their mouth. They say one thing here, and then another over there. SDAs will swear on their mother's grave that they believe in salvation by grace through faith in Christ; BUT, then the writings of Ellen G. White, whom they ALL recognize as a prophet inspired by God, contradicts their claims. Here again are the words of Dr. John R. Rice, from his book FALSE DOCTRINES (Pg. 188)...
"Mrs. White, the 'prophetess' of Seventh-Day Adventists, is quoted in their book, Answers to Objections, by Francis D. Nichol (published by the Review and Herald Publishing Association, Washington, D.C.), page 402, as saying:
'Those who accept the Saviour, however sincere their conversion, should never be taught to say or to feel that they are saved. This is misleading. Every one should be taught to cherish hope and faith; but even when we give ourselves to Christ and know that He accepts us, we are not beyond the reach of temptation ... Only he who endures the trial will receive the crown of life."
"On page 409 (of Answers to Objections) Mr. Nichol says, speaking officially for Seventh-Day Adventists:
'Thus we escape on the one hand, the false doctrine of Universalism; and on the other, the equally false doctrine of claiming full and final salvation for a man before he has endured 'unto the end.' "
Clearly, SDAs teach that a person must "endure" to the end to be guaranteed salvation in Christ. In contrast 1st John 5:13 states, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may KNOW that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." We read in Romans 4:3, 5 that Abraham simply BELIEVED God, and was saved WITHOUT any works, "For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness ... But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." There is NO mention of enduring to the end to be saved. "Enduring" would be a work. Eternal life is a "FREE GIFT" (Romans 5:15; 6:23), paid for by the precious blood of Christ (1st Peter 1:18,19). SDAs teach salvation by works when they require a person to "endure unto the end" to be saved for certain.
Francis D. Nichol, in his book, Answers to Objections, states on page 243...
"Here is our position: Only those will be saved who, having been redeemed by the grace of Christ, walk in obedience to all the light that God sheds on their way."
This is the official Adventist position! The above doctrine means that all SDA members must comply with ALL of the requirements of the SDA church to be saved. So, according to SDA doctrine, if you don't tithe, you're not saved. Jesus NEVER asked anyone to FOLLOW Him to be saved; BUT, rather, only to BELIEVE upon Him (John 3:16). Jesus never asked anyone to work for salvation, only believe.
Baptismal Regeneration
Here's a website I found that teaches Baptismal Regeneration. The following LIE of Satan is taken from a Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church website...
"Through baptism we are truly born again in Jesus." -SOURCE (2nd paragraph from bottom)
What a lie of Satan! No where in the Word of God are we ever told that baptism saves. Lutherans and other Bible-corrupters like to manipulate 1st Peter 3:21, "The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." Usually, the heretics will just take a few words out of this Scripture, failing to quote the entire Verse. If a person were only to consider the phrase, "...baptism doth also now save us," then they might get the WRONG impression that baptism is essential to going to Heaven. If we read the rest of the Verse, then the truth is clearly seen, "...not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God." Being baptized cannot forgive our sins. In fact, getting baptized will just get you wet! 1st Peter 3:21 states that baptism is the "like figure." Romans 6:5,6 plainly teaches that baptism is only the "likeness" of the Gospel, not the Gospel itself. Ironically, SDA's state this on the the above webpage, which is extremely CONTRADICTORY. How can baptism be "symbolic" if it also has the POWER to save. Romans 1:16 declares that the Gospel is the "power" of God unto salvation. Baptism is not mentioned.
You can argue with me all you want, the SDA quote above, requiring baptism for salvation, speaks for itself.
Investigative Judgment Verses Biblical Redemption
There is some confusion on this matter. First, there is NO such thing as "Investigative Judgment," it is an exclusive heresy of Seventh-Day Adventism.
Also, many preachers ignorantly teach that Christ's work of redemption was completed at Calvary; BUT, the blood needed to be applied to the mercyseat in Heaven. When Jesus said, "It is finished," He hadn't yet died, been buried, or rose again. How could the Gospel by finished if Christ hadn't even died yet? So what did Jesus mean? In John 19:28-30, we read...
"After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished..."
What was finished? All of the prophecies concerning Christ up until that time. Jesus meticulously paid attention to every detail that had been prophesied concerning Him. Notice that Jesus said, "It is finished," after He received the vinegar. So, Christ's work of redemption wasn't finished at the time He spoke those words.
Furthermore, atonement is an Old Testament word. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin (Hebrews 10:4); BUT, only cover (atone) for those sins. Look up the Greek word for "atonement" and you will see that it means "to cover." Interestingly, this is the same Hebrew word used for the "pitch" used to cover Noah's ark. Thus, the blood of the Old Testament animal sacrifices only temporarily atoned for the sins of the people. In contrast, Jesus' blood sacrifice didn't atone for our sins; BUT, rather, TOOK OUR SINS AWAY (Hebrews 9:12). Hebrews 9:24 states, "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." Notice Jesus' words in John 20:17, "Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father..." Jesus needed to take His shed blood to Heaven, to APPLY to the heavenly mercyseat.
In the time of Moses, God required the people to apply the blood of a slain lamb to the lintel (top of the door) and door posts of each home, or else the firstborn would surely die. We read in Exodus 12:13, "And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you..." If the family killed the lamb, but didn't APPLY the blood, then the firstborn died! The blood had to be applied! Likewise, Jesus' blood had to be applied to the mercyseat in Heaven. This is why I so zealously EXPOSE heretics like John MacArthur who claim that Jesus' blood is only representative of Christ's death, and that the blood by itself has no significance. The Word of God proclaims the blood of Jesus, from the blood sacrifice which Abel offered (Genesis 4:4; Hebrews 12:24), to the blood of the Lamb in Revelation (Revelation 7:14). We read these wonderful Words in 1st Peter 1:18,19, "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ..."
I only mentioned these Bible doctrines because some of the Christians exposing Seventh-Day Adventism claim that Jesus atoned for our sins at Calvary. As we have seen from the Bible, Jesus didn't atone for our sins, He TOOK OUR SINS AWAY forever. The only mention of the Word "atonement" in the New Testament is in Romans 5:11, and is a mistranslation. It should be the word "reconciliation." Also, Jesus didn't finish His work at the cross, He still needed to ascend into Heaven with the blood that He had shed, to apply it to the mercyseat on our behalf. When Jesus returned from Heaven, He allowed Thomas to TOUCH His scars; whereas, He had told Mary not to touch Him at all. Once the blood had been applied to the mercyseat in Heaven, Christ's work was FINISHED! What a Wonderful Savior!!!
The Lie of Investigative Judgment
Now, having laid the foundation, let's look at the Seventh-Day Adventist teaching of "Investigative Judgment." The following quote by Ellen G. White is from The Great Controversy...
"As in typical service there was a work of atonement at the close of the year, so before Christ's work for redemption of men is completed, there is a work of atonement for the removal of sin from the sanctuary. This is the service which began when the 2,300 days ended (according to Mrs. White this was in the year 1844! Evidently the nineteenth century was more wonderful than we had imagined!-Ed.). At that time, as foretold by Daniel the prophet, our high priest entered the most holy to perform the last division, of his solemn work to cleanse the sanctuary . . . in the new covenant the sins of the repentant are by faith placed upon Christ, and transferred, in fact, to the heavenly sanctuary . . . so the actual cleansing to cleanse the sanctuary. . . in the new covenant the sins of moval, or blotting out, of the sins which are there recorded. But, before this can be accomplished, there must be an examination of the books of record to determine who, through repentance of sin and faith in Christ, are entitled to the benefits of His atonement. The cleansing of the sanctuary therefore involves a work of investigation�a work of judgment. Those who followed in the light of the prophetic word saw that, instead of coming to earth at the termination of the 2300 days in 1844 (as Prophet William Miller had so dogmatically and widely proclaimed.�Ed.), Christ then entered in the most holy place of the heavenly, to perform the closing work of atonement preparatory to his coming."
It is heresy for anyone to claim that Christ's work of redemption wasn't completed at the mercyseat. There is NOTHING in the Scriptures teaching otherwise. There is nothing even remotely indicative of an "investigative judgment" (as they term it), where Christ completes His work of redemption. Such a doctrine is damnable heresy! SDAs cannot KNOW they are saved, because of their faulty understanding of Christ's work of redemption. SDAs believe that Jesus is still in the process of redeeming them. On the contrary, Hebrews 9:26 teaches, "...but now ONCE in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Jesus didn't need to go into the Holy of Holies repeatedly as did the Old Testament high priests; BUT, only once (Hebrews 9:25)! The very concept of an "Investigative Judgment" would require Jesus to enter into the Holy of Holies AT LEAST TWICE, the second time being in 1844. Clearly this is extremely unbiblical. The heresy of "Investigative Judgment" denies Christ's COMPLETED work of redemption.
Disturbing Questions for Seventh-Day Adventists
Furthermore ... and this is PROOF that Seventh-Day Adventism is a big scam ... why was there NO Seventh-Day Adventist religion before 1844? Why was there NO teaching of the "investigative judgment" before 1844? Why isn't this doctrine found in the Word of God? Why do SDAs only recognize Ellen G. White as a prophetess? Do you mean to tell me that no other prophets have appeared in nearly 2,000 years? According to the Bible, in Hebrews 1:1 and 2, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son..." According to God's Word, there are NO prophets today, nor have there been since John completed the Book of revelation in A.D. 96; thus, completing the Bible. The Word of God is our Final and Only Authority! Jesus NEVER told us to look for another messenger or prophet. If what SDAs teach is true concerning Ellen G. White, then surely the Word of God would have foretold of the coming of such a great prophetess, who would reveal new doctrines. To the contrary, the Bible says nothing of the such. I find it utterly disturbing that the entire SDA religion was formed out of a major embarrassment, when a foolish Baptist preacher twisted the Bible around, set a date for Christ to return, and then Christ DIDN'T return. Not even a lightning bolt. And another thing, why did all those Baptists descent, suddenly starting a whole different religion? The entire matter is disturbing to say the least.
Logic with me here. If what SDAs teach is true, then what about all those Christian people who died between the cross of Christ, and the beginning of the investigative judgment of 1844? If Christ needed to complete His work of redemption, then why would He wait until 1844? And here's something to really consider, the year 1844 wasn't set by Ellen G. White--it was set by a Baptist preacher, Miller!!! If Ellen G. White was such an inspired prophetess, why didn't God give her the revelation of the year 1844? Why would God give it to a Baptist preacher? The Seventh-Day Adventist religion was formed by a group of SINFULLY PROUD people, who couldn't accept the FACT that they had been hoodwinked by a misguided Baptist preacher. Thankfully, most Baptist preachers would never be so foolish as to set a date for Christ's return. The Bible plainly teaches in Mark 13:33, "Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is." The foolish people in 1844, who followed a man, instead of God's Word, were greatly embarrassed when Miller's prophecy failed to come true. Think about it ... these people had sold their homes, quit there jobs, and given away all earthly possessions! Can you imagine how idiotic and desperate they felt? The embarrassment was so overwhelming that they couldn't live with themselves, so they fabricated a new religion which would heal the wounds. Unfortunately, it was to their own destruction, "...in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction" (2nd Peter 3:16).
Seventh-Day Adventism is a False Religion!
Here again is Dr. John R. Rice from his excellent book, FALSE DOCTRINES (pg. 181)...
"Try Seventh-Day Adventist teaching by the Bible. Do they teach salvation by works, or by grace alone? By works, of course, by Sabbath-keeping, by tithing, by law and commandments. But this is not the plan of John 3:16 or of Ephesians 2:8. It is the heresy Paul condemned so strongly in the Galatians, when he said they had fallen from grace in doctrine, and now taught salvation by the law. He said in Galatians 4:9,10:
"But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years."
That is the sin of Seventh-Day Adventism.
The following information from www.wayoflife.org by David W. Cloud is very well explained...
"Seventh-day Adventism plays the same game in salvation as every other false movement of Christendom. They profess to teach salvation by grace through faith, but they redefine this in a way that is contrary to New Testament doctrine.
Though they often deny this, the Adventist denomination teaches that salvation is by grace plus law, faith plus works. Grace, according to Adventist theology, is the power and forgiveness God gives to enable a sinner to keep the law and to thereby build a holy character fit for Heaven. He who fails to build the right character by God's grace will never see Heaven. Faith and works are the two oars by which the believer is propelled to glory.
The Adventist doctrine of salvation is a subtle mixture of grace and law that can never provide Bible security. Simply stated, this doctrine is as follows: The sinner is powerless to live up to God's holy standards, the law. He does not and cannot possess in himself the character demanded of God. Thus God has come to his aid through the sacrifice of Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit. God now offers, because of the atonement of His Son, enablement to the sinner by which he is empowered to keep the law. Christ's blood covers all shortcomings, (only) as long as these are properly confessed and forsaken. God offers the grace and power; the sinner must take these and develop within himself the character demanded by the law, or at least, to put it as the cults would, to allow Jesus to do this work. The believing sinner who fails to properly walk with the Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit shall ultimately be lost, in spite of his faith in Christ.
This doctrine of salvation cannot and does not offer any security for the adherent. There can never be assurance of eternal life for the cultist, because he does not, in practice, believe that eternal salvation is TOTALLY a gift of God through the finished work of Jesus Christ. The cultist, rather, is convinced that he, too, has a part in gaining eternal life. He must properly endure to the end in the law of God and the works of his church. If he fails to develop the proper character, he will never inherit eternal life. Thus, he can have no assurance of salvation until after the examinations of judgment day. The misled cultist cannot "stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Rom. 5:2). Since works play a role in his salvation, he can never testify with joy, saying, "I am NOW justified by his blood ... I SHALL BE saved from wrath through him" (Rom. 5:9). -SOURCE
Seventh-Day Adventists Condemn Themselves by Their Own Words!
WHAT ADVENTISM TEACHES: The SDA doctrine of salvation documented. Consider carefully the following Seventh-day Adventist statements relative to salvation. While professing to uphold salvation by grace alone through faith alone, they actually redefine this contrary to Apostolic revelation. The result is a false gospel that subtly mixes grace and law.
From a SDA tract -Deceptively titled Saved By Grace: "Christ says to every man in this world what He said to the rich young ruler: If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments, Matthew 19:17. In other words, THE STANDARD FOR ADMISSION INTO HEAVEN IS A CHARACTER BUILT ACCORDING TO THE TEN SPECIFICATIONS, OR COMMANDMENTS, OF GOD'S LAW. ... He can lift you up to the place where the requirements of the law are met in you. ... THE MASTER BUILDER WILL STAND RIGHT WITH YOU AND IN YOU, AND SEE TO IT PERSONALLY THAT YOUR LIFE COMES UP TO THE REQUIREMENTS OF GOD'S LAW" (Charles T. Everson, Saved By Grace, pp. 45-46).
From SDA correspondence courses. "It is not the work of the gospel to weaken the claims of God's holy law, but to bring men up to where they can keep its precepts" (Prophetic Guidance Correspondence Course, Lesson 10, p. 36).
"Do you want to be a Christian? ... The steps to Christ are few and plain and easy to understand, and we will turn to God's Guidebook now for information. ... Believe; that's the first step toward becoming a Christian. ... the second step is repentance ... repentance is simply being sorry for our sins and putting them away ... the next step in becoming a Christian is confession ... real repentance and confession mean not only to stop sinning, but to do everything possible to make past wrongs right ... The next step is baptism, and the proof for that is found in Acts 2:38-39 ... Fifth, obedience through Christ in us ... So we have clearly outlined the steps that we need to take in order to become a Christian: to believe in God, to repent of and to confess our sins, to be baptized, AND TO OBEY ALL THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE LORD. ... He may stumble and fall, but he gets up and presses forward again, determined to overcome by God's enabling power. Such a fall is not counted against him when he repents and asks forgiveness and divine help to live the right life" (New Life Voice of Prophecy Guide, #12).
"Before Christ comes a second time to take us to His Father's house in heaven above, we must allow Him to conquer sin in our lives. ... Because in this life we have chosen to accept these lovely graces of Christ as our own, the sudden transformation at Jesus' appearing will seal our characters. ... ONLY THOSE WHO LIVE THE JESUS-LIFE CAN BE FREED FROM SIN. ... Jesus counseled the rich man who was seeking eternal life, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. ... It is Jesus who delivers us from sin but not in sin. WE MUST ACCEPT HIM AND THROUGH HIS POWER IN US BE SEPARATED FROM THE IMPURE, THE UNHOLY, THE DEFILING ALL DISOBEDIENCE TO THE COMMANDMENTS" (New Life Guides, #10).
From a SDA catechism. " ... We were slaves to sin. Jesus came down and suffered with us, and for us, and delivered us. As we behold Him in His word, and in prayer and meditation, and serve Him in the person of others, WE MAY BE CHANGED MORE AND MORE INTO THE GLORY OF HIS LIKENESS; THEN, IF FAITHFUL, WE SHALL SOMEDAY SEE HIM FACE TO FACE" (Bible Footlights, 1960, p. 17).
From a SDA doctrinal study. "To whom will God impart immortality? To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality (Rom. 2:7). What shall be their reward? Eternal life (Rom. 2:7). Upon what conditions may men obtain this blessing? Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life (1 Tim. 6:12). ... Will a man's final destiny be in accordance with the life he has lived? Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Gal. 6:7)" (C.B. Haynes, When A Man Dies, pp. 46-47).
From one of Ellen White's major works. While discussing the doctrine of Investigative Judgment, Mrs. White presents the following teaching about salvation: "The righteous dead will not be raised until after the judgment at which they are counted worthy of the resurrection of life. ... As the books of record are opened in the judgment, the lives of all who have believed on Jesus come in review before God. ... every name is mentioned, every case closely investigated. Names are accepted, names rejected. When any have sins remaining upon the books of record, unrepented of and unforgiven, their names will be blotted out of the book of life, and the record of their good deeds will be erased from the book of God's remembrance. ... all who would have their names retained in the book of life should now, in the few remaining days of their probation, afflict their souls before God by sorrow for sin and true repentance ... the work of preparation is an individual work. We are not saved in groups. The purity and devotion of one will not offset the want of these qualities in another" (Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, pp. 425, 431).
I plead with you to forsake the Seventh-Day Adventist false religion if you are a victim. Acts 16:31 is the only invitation which God ever gave for men to be saved ... "Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
This paper is being written to two groups. One is my family and friends who are members of the Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) church, which is most of them, and the other includes those who are not members or don�t know much about the SDA church. For this reason there may be some explanations about the church or its beliefs that are boringly obvious to SDA�s reading this but not to others.
I was reared in the SDA church from day one up to 21 years of age. I attended church every Sabbath (Saturday) and faithfully studied my Sabbath school lessons during the week. My mother sacrificed to send us to SDA schools, both elementary and high school academy, and later two years at Walla Walla College to study theology. I did it all right, I followed all the rules, I thought I was living right for God and doing what I was supposed to. I even got "the most spiritual student on campus" award engraved on a wood plaque at high school graduation. The problem was, it was me doing it. I was trying to live right. The bible says our righteousness is like filthy rags. All this stuff won�t get a person one step closer to God. Only by accepting Christ�s perfect life to cover our tainted lives can we enter God�s presence. "In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence." (Ephesians 3:12) I had read things like this many times but I was still caught up in doing the works. It didn�t hit my heart until I heard preaching by Dr. Desmond Ford, a gifted scholar who used to be in the SDA church. Everyone�s experience of finding God comes in a different way at different times. This time it hit me when I heard him preach the cross of Christ and that it had all been done for me and I knew right then that I had eternal life (1 John 5:11-13). A weight was lifted and it changed me forever. No longer did I have to hope to get to heaven by doing it right.
After this event that made me a child of God, some of my "stable" beliefs that I had held to started to unravel. Desmond Ford was also teaching on Daniel 8:14, the heavenly sanctuary and Christ our high priest in Hebrews. But what really floored me was that Ellen G. White�s writings and Adventist doctrine contradicted the Bible in the book of Hebrews. How could she be wrong? I did not know how to react because I had always been taught that she was a true prophet of God and we believed all her writings. Ultimately I had to make a choice and it was not Ellen White. I did not leave the church immediately. I kept studying and searching within Seventh-Day Adventism. I spent 2 years at Walla Walla College studying theology and did not find the answers there either. There is no explanation. It either lines up with the Bible or it doesn�t.
The SDA church made it clear which way they would go in 1980. The Sanctuary Review Committee, made up of SDA administrators and scholars, met in Glacier View, Colorado to discuss Dr. Ford�s views presented in his 991 page manuscript Daniel 8:14, The Day of Atonement and the Investigative Judgment.1 Instead of a discussion it turned into a trial where scholars� voices went unheard and administrators took over and proclaimed to the church that they would follow Ellen White and traditional doctrine. Reports I�ve read say that most of the members didn�t even read Ford�s manuscript. The scholars made a list of key points on which they agreed with Dr. Ford. Later a small group of administrators wrote a list of 10 points to use against him and proceeded to can him to the shock of the scholars who were promised it wouldn�t be a trial. The end result, one of the brightest scholars in the church was stripped of his pastoral ordination and fired. The fall-out in the early 1980�s resulted in over 100 ministers leaving the Adventist church because they had to stay true to their consciences, many members and some whole congregations went with them. I was one of these casualties. I guess you can�t blame the church administrators. If they admitted their prophet and some of their doctrines were wrong, they probably feared the whole thing would fall apart. Or they just plain feared the unknown because they believed in Ellen so strongly, as I did.
See Appendix A at the back of this paper to read about a huge church denomination in 1986 that was confronted with just such a crisis.
I have not written formally to most of you on the subject of Ellen White since 1984 when I wrote the booklet The Search for Truth to explain to family and friends why I was leaving the church I had grown up in. Why write about Ellen White now? Several reasons. After the tragedy of September 11 we had a relative over who was "singing the praises" so to speak of Ellen White and how she had predicted this tragedy in New York. This got me interested in looking into it further. I found this quote on the Ellen G. White Estate Home Page on the web:
Contrary to unsubstantiated reports, Ellen White made no prediction concerning the destruction of a twin-towered building in New York or any other place in the world. She did foresee great disasters of various kinds resulting in the loss of magnificent buildings and many lives in the large cities before Jesus' return. She spoke of demonic forces exercising their power in earthquakes, fires, and other calamities. She also warned that the time will come when defiant rejection of God's Spirit will result in the complete removal of His restraining power over such destructive elements in the earth.
Due to the many inquiries received by the Ellen G. White Estate since the devastating events of September 11, we have gathered some of Ellen White's statements on the general topic of conflicts in the last days, mostly as found in the compilation Last Day Events and the devotional book Maranatha. This collection has been prepared with no attempt to make any specific application to recent events, places, or individuals. 4 (bold letters are in the original)
Turns out she didn�t make this prediction. This got me motivated to revisit the whole issue of the prophetic claims of Ellen White. I finally took the time to read the book The White Lie, by Walter Rea (available at Amazon.com). I had only skimmed through parts of it in the past but now it will form a large part of the source content for this paper. The tone of the book can be offensive but the facts outlined in it are shocking and undeniable. In the 1980�s when I was struggling with all this stuff it was enough for me just to find out where she contradicted Scripture, which we will discuss later. That was all I needed to turn me away. But now all the other details do matter as it makes up the whole picture of her credibility. Especially when you rub elbows with those who believe she was a true prophet who had special inspiration from God.
Believe me, it is a big deal to "leave" the SDA church because the members feel that they are the remnant of God, the one true church. It was very similar to the feelings involved when my wife Debbie left the Catholic church. Strict Catholics believe it is the one true church and that their system is the way to God.
There is no system that leads us to God, it is only through Christ. "Jesus answered, �I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.�" (John 14:6)
There is a remnant, a true church of God that remains but it is not the Jews, the Catholics, the SDA�s, or any other church or system. It is those who trust in Christ alone as their only way of being saved and they rest under that grace.
"So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace." (Romans 11:6)
The Bible translation quoted in this paper is the New International Version. Any underlining or bold type in the Bible texts has been added.
The Prophet
Ellen Gould White- in the mid 1800�s was one of the early founders and prophet of the newly forming Seventh-Day Adventist church. She died in 1915 but her legacy continues strong.
She wrote scores of books and volumes of other articles and sermons. She claimed to have had over 2000 visions from God. Her books are cherished by Adventist members and she is regarded as a true modern day prophet. Many of the unique foundational doctrines of the church were formed by her interpretation and visions. Her writings add a lot of details to the Biblical account that are not found in Scripture. And in practice, some Adventists hold her visions and writings with equal authority to Scripture. I know this because I lived in the system for many years. And as I write this I know some of you will deny this statement and if you do, then why is it so difficult or impossible for you to consider that she could be wrong in an interpretation or a doctrine? I have other Adventist friends who consider her as more of just a good Christian writer/helper, while I believe the bulk of the church holds her as inspired and prophetic. And that is the church�s official stance. It was not just those around her who elevated her to this status. She herself made it clear when she made statements like this:
"�I am presenting to you what the Lord has presented to me. I do not write one article in the paper expressing merely my own ideas, they are what God has opened before me in vision- precious rays of light shining from the throne." 5
An Adventist that I spoke with claims that he gets his beliefs and doctrines directly from the Bible and not from Ellen White. The only way you could do that is if you were isolated completely from anyone with just your Bible and the Holy Spirit and that is the only input you ever had since childhood. All of us are products of our environments and the people and institutions that taught us. If you were reared in a Seventh-Day Adventist environment, or attended one of their churches or schools, read their material, read their Sabbath school lessons, heard their sermons, etc, etc then you have been taught through the eyes of Ellen White. The bulk of it stems from her interpretation of the Bible. If you believe Adventist doctrine as they teach it, you didn�t come up with it independently with just you and your Bible.
Sometimes as you go through the system, ideas start blending together and what you might think is Biblical is actually only found in Ellen White�s writings. One example that I have shared before: I was discussing the end times with an Adventist that lives near me and he claimed that this quote was in the Bible, that "the Sabbath is the Seal of the living God" and it would be the deciding factor in the end times. He was absolutely sure it was in the Bible and that it was in Revelation. I told him to search for it and let me know where it is written. He never found it in the Bible because it was a statement Ellen White made in The Great Controversy p.561 (paperback). In his mind it was a certain Biblical principle.
Plagiarism?
This word is defined as the act of taking another�s works and passing them off as your own without giving credit.6 Until recent times Ellen White�s use of other authors was little known in the church at large. The problem had shown its head a number of times over the last hundred years but it had always been stifled. Evidence kept mounting and it could no longer be ignored until finally the flood gates were opened when Walter Rea released his book in 1982.
It had all started when Rea, an Adventist minister for 36 years before he was fired, was studying for his Ph.D. and came across some Old Testament history books by Edershiem that had language strikingly similar Ellen White�s book Patriarchs and Prophets. In fact he found that "Edersheim�s chapter titles, subtitles, and page headings paralleled and were many times almost identical with the chapter titles of Ellen White�s Patriarchs and Prophets (1890)." 7 He started finding other books that were very similar to her writings also and his shock turned into a determination to get to the bottom of it. When Rea�s research started getting out, the White Estate�s first reaction was to try to cover it up and eventually it led to Rea�s dismissal from the church. I will include this passage from his book. The Robert Olson mentioned here is from the Ellen White Estate:
"Olson took to the stump in an all-out effort to blunt the impact that my findings were beginning to have, for by now people in various regions of North America were asking for the evidence found in my research. At an afternoon presentation by Olson in January 1979 at Loma Linda university in California, someone in the audience asked about Mrs. White's borrowing from published sources. Olson's reply was to the effect that there was nothing to it, that all of her writings were her own. He then volunteered that there was some minister in South�ern California making waves with allegations about borrowed material for her key book, The Desire of Ages, but that there was nothing to these rumors.
To say that I was in a state of shock after the meeting is to put it mildly. My file at that very time already held several letters from that same Olson encouraging me to keep sending him my comparisons of Ellen with her contemporaries. Furthermore, he had personally talked with me when he was in California only a short time before and had sought my promise that I would not publish any report on my work until he and the White Estate staff had been given additional time to survey the material. I had agreed to his request, and the fact of the agreement had been recorded in the in-house memo that he wrote afterward and that I held in my files.
So now I knew that Robert Olson either had a very short memory or was telling a white lie. In any case, it was obvious that the White Estate people knew much more that they were telling.
The files of the White Estate had referred to a book by William Hanna called The Life of Christ. Within twenty-four hours after the Loma Linda meeting, therefore, I had obtained Hanna's book. From that time on, I have learned more than I ever wanted to know.
Spectrum, a journal published independently by the Association of Adventist Forums, gave a background account of a January 1980 committee meeting at Glendale, California. This meeting was called by General Conference President Neal C. Wilson at my urging that con�sideration be given to the scope of the findings of Ellen White's literary indebtedness. Eighteen of the church's appointed representatives went on record that what my research showed was alarming in its propor�tions but that the study should continue - with additional help.7
Likewise, Spectrum later reported my dismissal by the church8 (after thirty-six years of service) primarily because of the disclosure article initiated and written by religious editor John Dart and published in the Los Angeles Times.9 Not one of the officials doing the firing had ever talked with Dart. Not one had seen the research on which the article was based. The heart of the issue itself was not important to church officials. It was necessary only that someone be punished so that others would stay in line and so that both Ellen White and the Seventh-day Adventist Church would appear to be innocent of any wrongdoing.
In view of what I have observed, experienced, and learned, I have thought it proper and necessary to record for future generations the findings of my ongoing study. These coming generations will want to know the truth about what has been unearthed from the past. It will be a part of what they will take into consideration in their religious experience and judgments." 7
It is not just the fact that Ellen copied from other writers and didn�t give credit, it is the amount and the method. We are not talking about a few words or sentences here and there. We are talking about whole paragraphs, chapters and even books and it was passed off as if they were from her or from God. She took complete chapter headings and copied them into her works and then used the author�s thoughts, ideas and exact phrases to produce the content of the book and then called it her own. This was never more evident than in books like Patriarchs and Prophets, E.G.W. 1890. Rea lists 65 chapter headings from this book that are almost word for word identical to Bible History/Old Testament, Alfred Edersheim 1876-80.8
Rea has included in his book hundreds of pages of side by side comparisons of Ellen White�s writings to passages from other books published before hers. She had nearly 400 books in her personal library and she made use of many.
The Desire of Ages, 1898, one of Ellen�s most beautifully written books, did not originate with her. Rea shows side by side comparisons from all these books that were copied to produce The Desire of Ages:
o The Great Teacher, John Harris 1836
o The Life & Times of Jesus the Messiah, Alfred Edersheim 1883
o The Life of Christ, William Hanna 1863
o The Life of Christ, Ferederic W. Farrar 1877
o Walks and Homes of Jesus, Daniel March 1856
o Night Scenes in the Bible, Daniel March 1868-1870
o The Life of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, John Fleetwood 1844
o The Life and Works of Christ, Cunningham Geikie 1883
Here are some comparisons:
The Desire of Ages
Ellen G. White 1898
[466] No external force is employed. Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve. In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom. The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself�.
The only condition upon which the freedom of man is possible is that of becoming one with Christ. "The truth shall make you free;" and Christ is the truth. Sin can triumph only by enfeebling the mind, and destroying the liberty of the soul.
Subjection to God is restoration to one�s self, to the true glory and dignity of man. The divine law, to which we are brought into subjection, is the "law of liberty."
The Great Teacher
John Harris 1836 (1870 ed.)
[126] No external force is employed�.It is true, the change is necessitated; but that moral necessity is the highest form of freedom. It is true that the mind is brought under the authority of a new law; but that law is the royal law of liberty�.He comes to the emancipation of the will from a state of slavery; (for sin can only triumph by enfeebling the mind and extinguishing the liberty of the soul;) and hence [he]�.calls into exercise its noblest powers. Even the expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself�."The only condition on which the freedom of a finite will is possible, is, by its becoming one with the will of God" �so that subjection to him is restoration to one�s self.9
(Underlining was added)
The Desire of Ages
Ellen G. White 1898
[419] Jesus calls to His side three of His disciples... and leads them across the fields, and far up a rugged path, to a lonely mountainside .The Saviour and His disciples have spent the day in traveling and teaching, and the mountain climb adds to their weariness. Christ has lifted burdens from mind and body of many suffer�ers; He has sent the thrill of life through their enfeebled frame;... He is wearied with the ascent....
The light of the setting sun still lingers on the mountaintop....
The disciples do not venture to ask Christ whither He is going, or for what purpose. He has often spent entire nights in the mountains in prayer.
Walks and Homes of Jesus
Daniel March 1856
[150] The Master calls the three fa�vorite disciples to himself, and makes his way... across the open fields... and up the steep ascent of the mountain. ... The light of the setting sun lingers long upon the top ....
He has spent the day in travel and in teaching, and this mountain climb at night adds a heavy weight to the weariness His hand has lifted the burden of infirmity from many shoulders, and sent the thrill of life into many a worn and wasted frame. But he himself is as much fatigued with the steep ascent as the impetu�ous Peter or the gentle John. They do not ask him whither he is going, or for what purpose.... They have known him many times to spend the whole night in desert places, or upon lonely mountains in prayer. 10
The thoughts expressed in The Desire of Ages aren�t Ellen�s original ideas, they aren�t her beautiful words and they aren�t visions from God. They are the expressions from all these writers from whom she copied.
Rea describes it this way, "Ellen�s use of Hanna, and other sources as well, was not �selected revelation,� with God�s permission, to fill in a scene here or there to help a fading prophet�s memory, but was a running commentary and paraphrase of each passage or chapter selected�often with pauses for a personal homily, but likewise often expanding that homily to be strikingly similar to the devotional material of the author copied." 11
Since her copying had become a well known fact, the White Estate took it upon themselves to catalog the percentages of her material they believe to be copied. They emphasize that this is the amount "presently known" and that it is an ongoing process. I believe it is just the tip of the iceberg and as they keep searching they keep finding more and more. It is painstakingly time consuming to find all these comparisons as you must read hundreds of books and then try to find the parallels in the other books. The White Estate lists 43 of her books that contain copied material. Even if you take the conservative numbers they say that 20% of the book The Great Controversy was copied, 12% of Sketches From the Life of Paul, 6% of Steps to Christ and so on.12 If I copied every 5th sentence of this essay without giving credit could I call it my own?
On their web page, the White Estate also quotes an attorney who proclaims that her use of other author�s writings and making them her own was within the legal boundaries and it was not plagiarism.13 Excuse me, that is the definition of plagiarism! Where did they get this guy? Taking someone�s material and passing it off as one�s own was not right or acceptable in the 1800�s and is it not right or acceptable now.
They go on to say, "Ellen White urged her readers to get copies of some of the very books she made use of�"14 I would be very interested if anyone could find one place where she said that. She never said it in any of her books. In fact, the only book where the publishers added some general comments about other sources being used was when The Great Controversy was republished in 1911, and that was only done because of the growing controversy over it.14
Some use the argument that she was shown in vision all these truths and ideas and that she wrote them down before she opened the books on her shelves containing the exact words and ideas written before that time. Hmmm.
The book The Great Controversy, 1886, had the most misuse of all. Besides the huge amount of content that was copied from James S. Wylie�s book The History of Protestantism, 1876, they even took the pictures and illustrations from his book and deleted some of the artists� signatures or copied over them with "Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal." and put them into The Great Controversy. 15 Rea quotes a scholar named Don McAdams who did some research on this book:
"The historical portions of The Great Controversy that I have examined are selective abridgements and adaptation of historians. Ellen White was not just borrowing paragraphs here and there that she ran across in her reading, but in fact following the historians page after page, leaving out much material, but using their sequence, some of their ideas, and often their words. In the examples I have examined I have found no historical fact in her text that is not in their text. The hand-written manuscript on John Huss follows the historian so closely that it does not even seem to have gone through an intermediary stage, but rather from the historian's printed page to Mrs. Whites manuscript, including historical errors and moral exhortations." 16
Here are some comparisons:
The Great Controversy
E.G. White 1888 (1911 ed.)
[631] Celestial beings have taken an active part in the affairs of men. They have appeared clothed in garments that shone as the lightning; they have come as men in the garb of wayfarers. Angels have appeared in human form to men of God. They have rest�ed, as if weary, under the oaks at noon. They have accepted the hos�pitalities of human homes. They have acted as guides to benighted travel�ers. They have, with their own hands, kindled the fires at the altar. They have opened prison doors and set free the servants of the Lord. Clothed with the panoply of heaven, they came to roll away the stone from the Saviour's tomb.
In the form of men, angels are often in the assemblies of the righteous�.
Night Scenes in the Bible
Daniel March 1868-1870
[453] These high and mighty ones ... have borne an active part both in the common and in the great events of this world.... They have taken the form of men, and shown themselves to human eyes, and spoken aloud in the languages of earth�.
And these celestial visitants have come from their far distant homes to take part in the affairs of men....
[454] They have rested under the shadow of oaks at noon as if weary... they have received hospitality in human homes at evening... they have guided and protected travelers on their way... they have rolled away the stone from the tomb... they have kin�dled the fire of the altar... they have clothed themselves in garments that shone like the lightning, and they have appeared in so common a garb as to be taken for wayfaring men.17
The Great Controversy
E.G. White 1888 (1911 ed.)
[399] The slaying of the Passover lamb was a shadow of the death of Christ. Says Paul: "Christ our Pass�over is sacrificed for us."
1 Corin�thians 5:7. The sheaf of first fruits, which at the time of the Passover was waved before the Lord, was typical of the resurrection of Christ. Paul says, in speaking of the resurrection of the Lord and of all His people: "Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming." 1 Corin�thians 15:23. Like the wave sheaf, which was the first ripe grain gathered before the harvest, Christ is the first fruits of that immortal har�vest of redeemed ones that at the fu�ture resurrection shall be gathered into the garner of God.
Life Incidents
James White 1868
[162] The slaying of the Passover lamb was a type of the crucifixion of Christ. Paul says, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. 1 Cor. v, 7.
The sheaf of the first fruits of the harvest, which was waved before the Lord, was typical of the resurrection of Christ. Paul again says, in speak of the resurrection of the Lord and all his people, Christ, the first fruits, af�terward they that are Christ's at his coming. 1 Cor. xv, 23. As this sheaf was like the grain in all the wide harvest-field, only that it was the first ripe grain, so Christ arose from the dead a sample of all the just to be raised at his second coming. Then all the saints will have glorious bodies, like that of their divine Lord. Phil. iii, 21. 18
Steps to Christ
E.G. White 1892
[96] Another element of prevailing prayer is faith. "He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that dili�gently seek Him." Hebrews 11:6....
But to claim that prayer will always he answered in the very way and for the particular thing that we desire is presumption.
God's Will Known and Done
Almon Underwood 1860
[291] Another requisite of prevail�ing prayer, is faith. 'He that cometh unto God, must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him." Heb. 11:6.... You are not to expect it to come in a par�ticular way, nor necessarily at Just such a time.19
Testimonies to Ministers
E.G. White 1923
[16] Consider ... His church, to be His own, His own fortress, which He holds in a sin-stricken, revolted world; and He intended that no au�thority should be known in it, no laws be acknowledged by it, but His own.
Satan has a large confederacy, his church. Christ calls them the synagogue of Satan because the members are the children of sin. The members of Satan's church have been constantly working to cast off the di�vine law, and confuse the distinction between good and evil....
The Great Teacher
John Harris 1836 (1870 ed.)
[158] It is the only fortress which he holds in a revolted world; and he intended, therefore, that no authority should be known in it, no laws ac�knowledged, but his own.... His high design is, that, as Satan has a church, (he himself speaks of the synagogue of Satan,) consisting of the children of sin, -- a church in which men have been always laboring to cast off the divine law, and to confound the dis�tinctions between good and evil....20
Here are some questions raised by Walter Rea:
"The fact of Ellen White's borrowing or plagiarizing has been docu�mented and acknowledged by recognized representatives of the Seventh-day Adventist Church over the years. But the information revealing the extent of her literary dependence has been deliberately kept from lay members until independent researchers began to make the facts public. Thus new problems arise because of these discoveries that have not yet been faced by the Adventist people or their present leaders. For example:
1. "Why did Ellen change most, if not all, of the copied author's speculations and suppositions into absolutes, so that the copywork made it appear that she was always on the scene of action in some "visionary" form, when obviously she wasn't?
2. "How do the footnotes and Bible texts she copied as fillers from others meet the criteria established for inspiration?
3. "How do the abuse and misuse of others' material on an extensive scale fit into the ethics of either her time or ours?
4. "Inasmuch as the extent of the copywork makes it certain that for Ellen to have done it all herself was humanly impossible, who among her helpers gets the credit for her "inspiration"?
5. "Whose authority are we now dealing with?"21
The Bible
This is probably the most serious area where I have convictions regarding Ellen White and her writings. This discussion will focus on several areas where she contradicts the Bible. When I first discovered some of these it was a hard pill to swallow. I could not believe that she could ever contradict the Bible. My upbringing had led me to believe that she was an instrument of God and that she regularly had visions from Him or had an angel standing by her dictating the messages that she was to write. God would not contradict Himself and inspire her with things that contradicted His Word.
Perfectionism
The first topic is perfectionism. Ellen White teaches, in no uncertain terms, that we must achieve perfect characters BEFORE Christ returns and He will not remove any defects or sin from us at that time because we will have already reached perfection, but will instead just give us the "finishing touch of immortality" before we step into heaven.22 And with Christ�s help through a lot of our own toil and effort can work out ALL of our character defects and become perfect in this life just like Christ was perfect!
These are her own words on the subject:
"When He comes He is not to cleanse us of our sins, to remove from us the defects in our characters, or to cure us of the infirmities of our tempers and dispositions. If wrought for us at all, this work will all be accomplished before that time. When the Lord comes, those who are holy will be holy still. Those who have preserved their bodies and spirits in holiness, in sanctification and honor, will then receive the finishing touch of immortality. But those who are unjust, unsanctified, and filthy will remain so forever. No work will then be done for them to remove their defects and give them holy characters. The Refiner does not then sit to pursue His refining process and remove their sins and their corruption. This is all to be done in these hours of probation. It is now that this work is to be accomplished for us�.
"But as we lay hold upon the truth of God, its influence affects us. It elevates us and removes from us every imperfection and sin, of whatever nature. Thus we are prepared to see the King in His beauty and finally to unite with the pure and heavenly angels in the kingdom of glory."23
"Paul describes the work of God�s ambassadors as that by which every man shall be presented perfect in Christ Jesus. Those who embrace the truth of heavenly origin should be refined, ennobled, sanctified through it. It will require much painstaking effort to reach God�s standard of true manhood�.
"Perfection of character is a lifelong work, unattainable by those who are not willing to strive for it in God�s appointed way, by slow and toilsome steps."24
"None need fail of attaining, in his sphere, to perfection of Christian character. By the sacrifice of Christ, provision has been made for the believer to receive all things that pertain to life and godliness. God calls upon us to reach the standard of perfection and places before us the example of Christ�s character. In His humanity, perfected by a life of constant resistance of evil, the Saviour showed that through co-operation with Divinity, human beings may in this life attain to perfection of character. This is God�s assurance to us that we, too, may obtain complete victory."25
"We are not yet perfect; but it is our privilege to cut away from the entanglements of self and sin, and advance to perfection. Great possibilities, high and holy attainments, are placed within the reach of all."26
"A well-balanced character is formed by single acts well performed. One defect, cultivated instead of being overcome, makes the man imperfect, and closes against him the gate of the Holy City. He who enters heaven must have a character that is without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Naught that defileth can ever enter there. In all the redeemed host not one defect will be seen."27
"The precious hours of probation are granted that you may remove every defect from your character, and this you should seek to do, not only that you may obtain the future life, but that you may useful in this life." 28 (underlining added)
I don�t believe the Bible ever teaches that we can achieve a perfect character like Christ or be without sin in this life. The difference is that Christ was born without sin and never committed any. He "had no sin" in Him. (2 Cor. 5:21) We, on the other hand, were born into sin and continue to "fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). We have a sinful nature, Christ did not.
"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:8,9)
We cannot get to the point in this life where we are without sin and are ready to step into heaven and all we need is for God to just give us the immortality part. The point at which this will occur, that is, to be changed into Christ�s likeness, made perfect and void of a sinful nature is at Christ�s return.
"Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3:2)
"and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." (Philippians 3:11,12)
"So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable, it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power, it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body." (1 Corinthians 15:42-44)
These verses show us that we are changed when Christ appears, and the resurrection from the dead and being made perfect happen at the same event. And we go to the grave in dishonor and weakness and are raised in glory and power. Here is good news:
"And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." (Hebrews 10:10)
Christ has become "our righteousness, holiness and redemption."(1 Corinthians 1:30)
Although our goal is to be Christ-like, the only way we can be fit for heaven is by accepting Christ�s perfect life to cover our lives and having His righteousness and holiness to stand in place of ours. It is not by us "removing every defect from our characters" through "slow and toilsome steps."
Saying or Feeling Saved
The next topic I want to discuss is the place where Ellen White says that we should not say that we are saved. Here is a passage from her book Christ�s Object Lessons:
"Those who accept the Saviour, however sincere their conversion, should never be taught to say or feel that they are saved. This is misleading. Every one should be taught to cherish hope and faith; but even when we give ourselves to Christ and know that He accepts us, we are not beyond the reach of temptation.29 (Underlining added)
One of the reasons she gives for not saying we are saved is that we might fall into temptation. But even if we fall into temptation and sin, it doesn�t mean that we are not saved. None of us are sinless. The Bible teaches and emphasizes repeatedly that we are saved.
"And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." (Acts 2:47)
"We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved�" (Acts 15:11)
"For in this hope we were saved." (Romans 8:24)
"By this gospel you are saved..." (1 Corinthians 15:2)
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith�" (Ephesians 2:8)
"who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." (1Timothy 2:4)
"who has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done�" (2 Timothy 1:9)
"he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit," (Titus 3:5)
"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." (1 John 5:13)
The Heavenly Sanctuary
The topic we have just discussed could lead to interesting theological discussions in many different religious circles. But the next one I want to show is very clear. To me it is black and white. There is no mistaking what Ellen White says and what the book of Hebrews says. She differs completely from the Bible in this next doctrine. It is concerning Christ our High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. The Israelites had a sanctuary or tabernacle that consisted of a "holy place", the first apartment and a "most holy place", the second apartment behind the curtain. The priests carried on ceremonies daily in the holy place year round but only the High Priest could enter the most holy place where God�s presence lived and that was only once a year on the day of atonement. (Exodus chapters 25-40, Hebrews 9:1-12) In the New Testament Christ is our High Priest pleading on our behalf. After his death and resurrection he went into the most holy place in heaven in God�s presence and acts as our High Priest. The book of Hebrews explains this in detail. Ellen White taught that Christ only entered the holy place at his ascension and didn�t go into the most holy place until the year 1844.
Ellen White writes:
"For eighteen centuries this work of ministration continued in the first apartment of the sanctuary (Holy Place)"
"�when the 2300 days ended. At that time, as fortold by Daniel the prophet, our High Priest entered the most holy place, to perform the last division of His solemn work- to cleanse the sanctuary."
"�instead of coming to the earth at the termination of the 2300 days in 1844, Christ then entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to perform the closing work of atonement preparatory to His coming." 30
(Underlining added)
The Bible says:
"We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek."
(Heb 6:19-20)
"He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption." (Heb 9:12)
(See also: Hebrews 8:1-2, Hebrews 9:1-12, Hebrews 9:24, Hebrew 10:19-20)
Christ entered the Most Holy Place in God�s presence at his ascension. This is recorded in Hebrews which was written back in the 1st century! He did not wait until the year 1844. Christ entered the Most Holy Place almost 2000 years before Ellen White says he did. What makes this more significant is that she claimed that God told her this interpretation in a vision. God does not contradict Himself!
This doctrine has more meaning to Ellen White and the Seventh-Day Adventist church than a casual observer would notice. This understanding or interpretation is what saved the movement when this church was just beginning. A little history will clarify how this came about.
Big revivals were happening in the United States during the 1830�s and many new churches/sects started up like the Mormons, Christian Science, Jehovah�s Witness, etc. There was a Baptist minister/scholar named William Miller who had about 200,000 followers and they were called the Millerites. Miller preached that Christ would return to earth on Oct. 22, 1843 based on his interpretation of Daniel 8:13,14. When Christ didn�t return on that date there was a falling out of some of the followers while others recalculated and realized they missed a year in the calculation so the date should have been Oct. 22, 1844. The revival resumed only to collapse when Christ didn�t come back again in 1844. What followed was called The Great Disappointment. Many believers left the movement disheartened. Ellen Harmon (Ellen White�s maiden name) was one of the ones who stayed to figure out what happened. The movement was saved when Hirum Edson and Ellen Harmon reported seeing visions of Christ entering the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary and concluded that this is what took place in 1844. So they believed this was the correct interpretation of Daniel 8:13,14. This offshoot from the Millerite movement became the Seventh-Day Adventist church. Sadly, this 3rd interpretation was also incorrect, but it has stuck with the church ever since. Over the years, some of the brightest scholars have left the church because of this doctrine and the use of Ellen White�s writings.
Instead of believing that Daniel 8:13,14 foretold Christ�s return in 1844, now they believed that the heavenly sanctuary was defiled by the sins of the saints and needed cleansing. They also believed the erroneous view that Christ did not go to the Most Holy Place in the presence of God at his ascension but only went to the Holy Place and stayed there until 1844 when He finally moved into the Most Holy Place to start an "Investigative Judgement" of the saints. Ellen White explains in The Great Controversy that in 1844 the "books of record" were opened and Christ started judging those who are "professed people of God" starting with the dead and moving on to the living.31 She writes: "Names are accepted, names rejected. When any have sins remaining on the books of record, unrepented of and unforgiven, their names will be blotted out of the books of life" 32 This is not judgment of the wicked, this is judgment of God�s people from 1844 until now and your name could come up at any moment. According to this teaching, Christ is going over the books to see if you have any sins that might have been left on the books unrepented or unforgiven, and if He finds one, you are out of luck. This is not the God of the Bible I see! This "Investigative Judgement" is NOT Biblical! Yes God will judge the wicked but He rewards those who are His. When those who are covered by Christ�s blood face the judgment, He hands out rewards not condemnation. Where in the Bible does it say God records the sins of His saints and then later uses it to blot their names out of the book of life?
The only place where the New Testament mentions blotting out someone�s name is actually affirming that He will never blot out his name.
"He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels." (Revelation 3:5)
The Bible never gives the idea that God will blot our names out of the book of life if he happens to find one sin left on the books. This is what I see the Scripture saying:
"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord," (Acts 3:19)
"However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
"Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered."
"Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.""
(Romans 4:4-8)
"as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." (Psalms 103:12)
"I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more." (Isaiah 43:25)
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,"
(Romans 8:1)
"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." (John 5:24)
This "Investigative Judgement" that is woven into this doctrine does more to damage the Gospel than anything. It makes a person feel unsettled and unsure of his salvation.
When Ellen White and the early founders made this 3rd incorrect interpretation of
Daniel 8 they totally disregarded the context. Daniel 8:9-14 relates to an evil force (the little horn) desolating the earthly sanctuary NOT the sins of God�s people desolating the heavenly sanctuary!
The prophecy in Daniel 8 refers to the earthly Jewish sanctuary. The 2300 days mentioned in Daniel 8:14 does not equal 2300 years, as they are assuming, which wrongly stretches it out to the year 1844. This prophecy was literally fulfilled in history (171-165 B.C.). Antiochus Epiphanes and his armies murdered the high priest, stopped the daily sacrifices and desecrated Israel�s earthly sanctuary by slaughtering pigs on the alter. Judas Maccabees won back control of Jerusalem and reconsecrated the temple in 165 B.C. and the Jews still celebrate the Feast of Hanukkah to commemorate it. This terrible reign of Antiochus over Israel and their temple fits in the 2300 literal days of the Daniel 8:14 prophecy.33
Christ does have a ministry in the heavenly sanctuary as explained in Hebrews 8, 9, 10
but it has nothing to do with Daniel 8.
Stories of the Bible
Ellen White wrote (or copied) volumes of material filling in great details to the accounts and stories that are recorded in the Bible. She writes these details as if they are facts and that God gave her this extra knowledge and understanding. As I have written on this subject previously, her accounts of stories like Noah, the tower of Babel and Jacob�s night wrestling with the angel are different and inaccurate from the Bible account. Who are we to believe when we see inaccuracies and we know much of this material didn�t come through a vision from God but rather from other religious writers of her day?
Conclusion
To dispel any doubts about what she claimed for her own writings I will include these quotes as pointed out in Rea�s book, page 52 & 189. Keep in mind that she refers to her writings collectively as the "testimonies" and there is a multi-volume set of her books called the Testimonies for the Church.
"In ancient times God spoke to men by the mouth of prophets and apostles. In these days he speaks to them by the Testimonies of His Spirit." 34
"If you lessen the confidence of God�s people in the testimonies He has sent them, you are rebelling against God as certainly as were Korah, Dathan, and Abiram." 35
"Although I am as dependent upon the Spirit of the Lord in writing my views as I am in receiving them, yet the words I employ in describing what I have seen are my own." 36
"Abundant light has been given to our people in these last days. Whether or not my life is spared, my writings will constantly speak, and their work will go forward as long as time shall last. My writings are kept on file in the office, and even though I should not live, these words that have been given to me by the Lord will still have life and will speak to the people." 37
"When I went to Colorado I was so burdened for you that, in my weakness, I wrote many pages to be read at your camp meeting. Weak and trembling, I arose at three o�clock in the morning to write you. God was speaking through clay. You might say that this communication was only a letter. Yes, it was a letter, but prompted by the Spirit of God, to bring before your minds things that had been shown me. In these letters which I write, in the testimonies I bear, I am presenting to you what the Lord has presented to me. I do not write one article in the paper expressing merely my own ideas, they are what God has opened before me in vision- precious rays of light shining from the throne." 38
All of these issues concerning Ellen White wouldn�t matter so much if only she had claimed to be just another Christian writer and her followers believed the same. But she claimed that she had a direct connection with God, received thousands of visions and at times had an angel standing next to her showing her what to write. This puts her a cut above all the rest. And it makes her an inspired prophet of God as officially held by the Seventh-Day Adventist church.
I can�t go down this road any longer because of all the reasons I�ve shared in this paper. Each one has to make their own decision. I know that for many Adventists who read this it will have no effect at all. But I still have the hope that for someone it may spark an interest as to what the truth is concerning all of this.
I know I am very dogmatic. I see things as black & white. I don�t have time for truth mixed with error. There is barely enough time to study the truth. I can get emotionally charged when discussing this. I only hope that I haven�t put this forward in an offensive manner causing it to take away from the meaning.
Even though these issues have a huge bearing on one�s beliefs and practice, I know that the most important issue is what you do with Christ when confronted with the truth about Him.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." (John 3:16-18)
Footnotes
Desmond Ford, Daniel 8:14, The Day of Atonement and the Investigative Judgment
(Euangelion Press, 1980)
Ellen White, Testimonies, Volume 5, p.67
Walter Rea, The White Lie, (M & R Publications, 1982), p. 48-49
Ibid, 3rd & 4th page of the Prologue
Ibid, p. 77
Ibid, p. 313
Ibid, p. 313
Ibid, p. 91-92
Walter Rea, The White Lie, (M & R Publications, 1982), p. 49-50
Ibid, p. 147
Ibid, p. 164
Ibid, p. 361
Ibid, p. 238-239
Ibid, p. 379
Ibid, p. 381
Ibid, 6th page of the Prologue
Ellen G. White, Christian Temperance, Vol.2, p. 355
Ibid, p. 355
Ellen G. White, Testimony for the Church, Vol.5, p. 500
Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 530
Ibid, p. 565
Ellen G. White, Messages to Young People, p. 144
Ibid, p. 415-416
Ellen G. White, Christ�s Object Lessons, p. 155
Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 372-3 (paperback)
Ibid, p. 422-425
Ibid, p. 425
The 2300 Day Prophecy of Daniel Eight, Bible Advocate Press, 1981, p. 36-38
EGW, Testimonies for the Church, vol.4, pp.147-148 Testimony 27 (1876)
35. Ibid, vol.5, p. 66 Testimony 31 (1882)
36. EGW, Selected Messages, Book 1, p. 37
37. General Conference of SDA, Exec Committee to W.C.White, Oct.3, 1921 p. 3
It is good to look at a Bible topic such as this in order to realize how little we can say about it. The Old Testament highlights the constant conflict between false prophets and the prophets of the Lord. Distinguishing between them in the past was difficult, but it had to be done. The Israelites asked the Lord, "How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?" (Deut. 18:21). John wrote to the church, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1). Since this topic is very important, the Lord gave His people some guidance.
1. Fulfilled Prophecies: Moses told the Israelites: "When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken" (Deut. 18:22; cf. Jer. 28:8, 9). At first glance this is a good test, yet it is often difficult to apply. In order to know whether someone is a true prophet, we have to wait for the fulfillment of the prophecy he or she spoke about. In order to help their hearers, prophets sometimes gave within their long-term prophecies a short-term one that was quickly fulfilled (Jer. 28:16, 17). Yet the predictions of a false prophet could also be fulfilled (Deut. 13:1, 2). This suggests that this test is not sufficient, in itself, to know whether a prophet is from God.
2. Correct Theology: This test assumes that people had already received messages from the Lord and that they were able to use them to grade new revelations. For example, since God's law prohibits worshipping idols, a prophet who led others to worship other gods would be a false prophet (Deut. 13:2). The message from a new prophet had to agree with God's former revelations (Isa. 30:8). The people hearing the new revelation had to have a deep personal knowledge of God's Word. This allowed them to use that knowledge to test the truthfulness of the new revelation. In the New Testament God's revelation through Jesus became the central test, with the written Word, to show whether a prophet was true (1 John 4:2, 3; John 17:17). Although this test is more difficult to falsify, it can be falsified. The apostle Paul wrote about "false apostles . . . transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:13, 14). Yet those who know the truth as it is in Jesus will not be deceived.
3. Ethical Test: False prophets do not live up to the God's laws and do not clearly speak out against sin. The prophet Ezekiel accused false prophets, "You have strengthened the hands of the wicked, so that he does not turn from his wicked way to save his life" (Eze. 13:22). False prophets were also arrogant (2 Peter. 2:18), deceitful (Acts 13:6-10), and often preached only for pay (2 Peter. 2:3, 13). Their lives were not in line with God's revealed word. People can give the impression of being holy, even saying all the right things, yet Jesus said they are like wolves dressed in sheep's clothing (Matt. 7:15).
4. By Their Fruit: Jesus Himself established this test. He said: "You will know them by their fruits. . . . Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit" (Matt. 7:16, 17). It is close to the third test, but it goes beyond it by asking, What are the results of the ministry of a person who claims to be a prophet? Does his or her ministry build up the church? This test requires time, but lies and deception are sooner or later revealed.
We have to be open to the possibility that God still speaks to us through His prophets. But in order to identify a true prophet we should know and understand the Scriptures. We should use God's inspired Word to test the teachings and the lifestyle of the person who claims to be a true prophet. Finally, we should not hastily accept somebody's claims. We must allow time for the actions of the new prophet to show what kind of person he or she is. Testing the spirits takes time, prayer, and knowledge of what God has already revealed to us.
Colossians 2:14-16 says the 10 commandments are abolished!
Colossians 2:14-16 so clearly states the weekly Sabbath was nailed to cross and abolished that Sabbatarians are at a loss to know what to do with it!
"Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day- things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ." (Col 2:14-16)
The Ten Commandments are called, Statutes, Ordinances and Decrees. To the shock and horror of Seventh-day Adventists, they will learn they have been lied to by their leaders and that the 10 commandments are the ordinances that were abolished in Col 2:14 and Eph 2:15.
If Col 2:16 refers to the weekly Sabbath, then Sabbatarians are 100% refuted. Herein lies the battle ground. But as you will see, Sabbath keepers have little more than a few lame arguments that are easily falsified. Only the blind and deceived could miss the simple truth in Col 2:16.
A. One of the most stunning and irrefutable proofs that Col 2:16 must be the weekly Sabbath day, is the common "Year, Month, Week" pattern used in Col 2:16.
When God wanted to refer to the whole system of Jewish holy days, rather than name them all, He would refer to the yearly, monthly and weekly as representing the whole system. Sabbatarians argue that the Sabbath Day of Col 2:16 is the years Sabbaths. But yearly Sabbaths were already referred to in Col 2:16 as "festivals". The "Year, Month, Week" pattern is so well established in the Old Testament, that Col 2:16 must refer to the weekly Sabbath. Notice, even Gal 4:10, following this pattern, states the weekly Sabbath is abolished!
Yearly, monthly, weekly pattern proves it is the weekly sabbath
Yearly
monthly
weekly
1 Chronicles 23:31
fixed festivals
new moons
Sabbaths
2 Chronicles 2:4
appointed feasts
new moons
Sabbaths
2 Chronicles 8:13
annual feasts
new moons
Sabbaths
2 Chronicles 31:3
fixed festivals
new moons
Sabbaths
Nehemiah 10:33
appointed times
new moon
Sabbaths
Isa 1:13-14
Appointed feasts
New moon
Sabbath
Ezekiel 45:17
appointed feasts
new moons
Sabbaths
Ezek 46:1-11
appointed feasts
new moons
Sabbath
Hosea 2:11
festal assemblies
new moons
Sabbaths
Galatians 4:10
years
months
days
Colossians 2:16
festival
new moon
Sabbath day
B. All Sabbatarians are taught by their pastors, the false argument that the Plural "sabbaton" in Col 2:16 cannot refer to weekly Sabbath day. But as we can clearly see, there are at least 5 other places where the plural is used of the weekly Sabbath. The deception is even worse, given the fact that while most Seventh-day Adventist pastors know about these other passages, they do not tell their people in the pews!
Matthew 28:1, "Now after the Sabbath" [Greek- plural: sabbaton]
Luke 4:16, "He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath" [Greek- plural: sabbaton]
Acts 16:13, "And on the Sabbath day" [Greek- plural: sabbaton]
Exodus 20:8 (in Septuagint) "Remember the Sabbath day" [Greek- plural: sabbaton]
Leviticus 23:37-38 (in Septuagint) "besides those of the Sabbaths of the Lord" [Greek- plural: sabbaton]
C. Some Sabbatarians will put forth another false argument saying, "The lack of the definite article before the word "Sabbath" in the Greek in Col 2:16 proves it cannot refer to the weekly Sabbath. Of course this argument is no more valid than the one above regarding the plural "sabbaton". The truth is, we find several places where the weekly Sabbath lacks the definite article. An example of a definite article is the word THE in the following sentence: "Only Jews kept THE weekly Sabbath." The same sentence that lacks the definite article would be: "Only Jews kept weekly Sabbath." Or "Only Jews kept a weekly Sabbath."
Matthew 28:1, "Now after the Sabbath" [Sabbath lacks article in original Greek]
John 5:9, "Now it was the Sabbath on that day" [Sabbath lacks article in original Greek]
John 5:10, "It is the Sabbath" [Sabbath lacks article in original Greek]
John 5:16, "on the Sabbath" [Sabbath lacks article in original Greek]
D. A final false objection Sabbath keepers will sometimes raise against Col 2:14-16 referring to the weekly Sabbath, is the fact v14 calls that which was nailed to the cross "hostile to us". Sabbatarians continue to falsely argue: "The weekly Sabbath was not hostile to us!" However, 2 Cor 3:7 calls the entire ten commandment law, a "ministry of death". This effectively refutes their false argument!
Col 2:14
2 Cor 3:7
having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face
which was hostile to us
ministry of death
Sabbatarians have overlooked the fact that the 10 commandments were called a "ministry of death" What is the difference between "hostile to us" and "ministry of death"?
E. Sabbath keepers bind 3 ceremonial Laws of Moses:
Seventh-day Adventists wrongly dismiss that "Sabbath day" is not the weekly Sabbath, but must agree that "food and drink" is a reference to the prohibition against eating pork or other unclean foods. The Jewish law against eating pork was abolished by Christ, yet Sabbatarians continue to enforce what they call, "the ceremonial law of Moses": Mk 7:18-19; 1 Tim 4:1-4; Rom 14:2; Acts 10:9-16
The Jewish Sabbath was abolished in Col 2:14-16, yet Sabbatarians keep the Sabbath, which itself is the only ceremonial law of the 10 commandments.
The Jewish law of Tithing is forbidden in 2 Cor 9, yet Sabbatarians practice tithing from "the ceremonial law of Moses".
Sabbatarians practice the forbidden and the abolished, and forbid that which is allowed!
Ceremonial law of Moses:
What the New Testament says:
What Sabbatarians practice:
Tithing
Prohibited: 2 Cor 9:7
Practice Jewish tithing instead of freewill offerings.
Eating Pork
Permitted: Mk 7:18-19
Bind Jewish law forbidding the eating of pork instead of allowing any food to be eaten like in the time of Abraham.
Sabbath
Abolished: Col 2:14-16
Keep the Jewish Sabbath instead of keeping the Lord's day (1st day)
We Speak truth in LOVE
"you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth" Jn 8:40
If these folks' only peculiarity was that they met on Saturday to worship, we would have very little to worry about. But, they teach that Sunday worship is the Mark of the Beast, and Sunday worshippers, they teach, are Satan worshippers. They may deny this, but as long as they keep quoting Ellen G White, they must have this vulgar heresy stuffed right back down their throats until they repent. Ms White was a heretic, and she added to the Scriptures.
Ellen White founded the Seventh-day Adventist church and members must vow
to believe that she was a prophet! From the 27 Fundamental beliefs, #17 "The gift
of Prophecy: One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is prophecy. This gift is an identifying
mark of the remnant church and was manifested in the ministry of Ellen G. White.
As the Lord's messenger, her writings are a continuing and authoritative source of
truth which provide for the church comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction."
Ellen G. White does one up on Brownsville:
"Small pockets of believers were scattered throughout the northeast.
The meetings (attended by Miss Harmon), who met almost exclusively in
private homes, were characterized by the "holy" salutation kiss,
by immersion, odd exhibitions of voluntary humility (i.e. crawling and barking).
(Read that last sentence again � kissing, crawling and barking.)
Did you say, "barking?" A woman, at the meeting, got on her hands and knees, and
crept over the floor like a child. A man, in the same position, followed her,
butting her occasionally with his head. Another man threw himself at full length upon
his back on the bed, and presently three women crossed him with their bodies."
Ellen Harmon moved continuously among these Adventist extremists.
The most potent blasphemy of Ellen G. White:
On page 481 of 'Great Controversy' (1927 ed.) Mrs. White says, "When Christ by virtue of His own blood removes the sins of His people from the heavenly sanctuary at the close of His ministration, He will place them upon Satan, who in execution of the judgment, must bear the final penalty."
What does the Bible say?
1 Peter 2:23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
If a SDA follower believes Ellen G. White in the above statement, they are damned to hell. There is no hope for them.
There is no repentance and believing as an event of conversion in White's gospel:
"Do you desire to become a follower of Christ, yet know not how to begin? Are you in darkness and know not how to find the light? Follow the light you have. Set your heart to obey what you do know of the word of God. His power, His very life, dwells in His word. As you receive the word in faith, it will give you power to obey. As you give heed to the light you have, greater light will come. You are building on God's word, and your character will be builded after the similitude of the character of Christ."
This is a Gnostic gospel, a works or process gospel.
The trick here is that, like almost all SDA sites, this fellow hides his heresy behind a prophetic emphasis. He exposes the New World Order, and does so rather well as to raw facts, but all this is a cover to sucker in the reader to the SDA line of barnyard manure.
BLASPHEMOUS TWISTING OF GOD'S WORD-- These spiritual scum make Sunday the mark of the Beast by making the mark in the forehead the thought process of Sunday keeping. Insane.
http://www.biblerevelations.org/sundaylaw/
HERE US A STAR WARS APPROACH TO SDA TEACHING BY SDAs
THIS SITE IS CALLED "SDA GOSPEL"-- Their only Gospel message, on virtually every page, is Sabbath, Saturday keeping. This clearly shows that SDAs are saved by keeping the Sabbath. They are thus damned to hell, all of them who approve of this line. HELL !! There is NO hope for an SDA who pulls this line of Satanic Gospel.
http://www.sdagospel.com/
THIS IS ANOTHER SDA SITE WHICH PREACHES NO OTHER GOSPEL THAN SABBATH KEEPING:
http://www.lightministries.com/id800.htm#4
HERE IS AN SDA SITE WHICH QUOTES ELLEN G. WHITE INSTEAD OF THE WORD OF GOD:
"Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience.... Papists, Protestants, and worldlings will alike accept the form of godliness without the power, and they will see in this union a grand movement for the conversion of the world and the ushering in of the long-expected millennium." - Great Controversy p.588 - Official Adventist Doctrine
This site has nothing but Ellen G. White on it. This shows the damnable filth in the heart of the SDAs today. They are on the attack against Bible believers as they scream for law keeping instead of salvation by faith. I have to conclude, from what I am seeing on the web, that the SDAs are having a revival all right, a revival of devils. White is not their savior. Hell enlargeth herself mightily.
Ellen White had warned of the plans Satan had in delaying the coming of the Lord. In 1892 she warned that Satan wanted to take the church and "lead them on a long journey" (Letter 19, 1892). Later, in 1896, she saw that if "Satan can come into the very temple of God, and manipulate things as he pleases, the time of preparation will be prolonged" (Letter 83, 1896). Years later Taylor Bunch claimed that Ellen White had said: "If God�s people had gone to work as they should have done right after the Minneapolis meeting in 1888, the world would have been warned in a few years and the Lord would have come."
"Adventists historically have been reluctant to disclose to outsiders the central role of White in their church for fear of being branded a cult with an extra-Biblical source for their beliefs, which is in fact how they are viewed by many mainstream evangelicals and fundamentalists. As a result of this reticence, Ellen G. White, unlike her contemporaries Joseph Smith and Mary Baker Eddy, remains virtually unknown outside Adventist circles. Officially the church teaches that White's writings, while inspired to the same degree as those of Biblical authors, are not to be considered equal in authority to the Bible.37 Yet in practice this fine, and confusing, distinction is often disregarded. Almost all the unique beliefs that separate Adventism from the rest of Christianity have their basis in the works of Ellen G. White. A great many Adventists, regardless of the official pronouncements of the church hierarchy, consider White's writings to be an infallible authority in which there is no error."
"Then there are the troubling instances in which she was simply wrong, as in her infamous declaration that "if there was one sin above another which called for the destruction of the race by the flood, it was the base crime of amalgamation of man and beast . . . (which produced) the confused species which God did not create," or her claim that virtually every physical malady can be traced to masturbation which is caused by eating meat and other "stimulating" foods?"
"If Prophetess of Health shook up Adventism, the 1982 publication of Walter Rea's The White Lie44 came like an earthquake. Ellen White had frequently been accused of plagiarism. Just as frequently the accusations were denied to the satisfaction of most Adventists. Rea was a well established Adventist minister and self described devotee of White. In the course of graduate work at a non-Adventist university, he discovered a number of uncanny parallels between the works of other nineteenth century religious writers and White's writings. His attempts to bring the results of his research to the attention of General Conference officials were repeatedly met with statements that more study was needed before the issue could be publicly discussed. Rea, however, refused to keep quiet. After an article on the controversy appeared in the Los Angles Times, he was relieved of his position as an Adventist minister. "
After her death--
"After her death the status of White was enshrined with the White Estate set up as official guardian of her place in Adventism. Despite official statements to the contrary, on a practical level her writings came to be revered as supplemental scriptures. As Adventist scholar Arthur N. Patrick puts it, "Instead of a signpost, many in the church seemed to demand that she become a road. Instead of a sketch map, she was expected to be a contour map. Instead of a descriptive dictionary she was pressed to be an all-encompassing encyclopedia of truth and duty. In place of a blazed trail, the church appeared to want her to give it a highway."
MORE REVEALING DISCUSSION
"Let the colored believers be provided with neat, tasteful houses of worship. Let them be shown that this is not done to exclude them form worshipping with the white people because they are black, but in order that the progress of the tnith may be advanced. Let them understand that this plan is to be followed until the Lord shows us a better way (Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 9, pp. 206-207)."
MORE ON THIS
TWO "" CHILDREN OF THE SDA CULT (Deut. 23:2 and Heb. 12:8):
WITCH AND NEW AGER TO TWIST THE MINDS OF THE STUDENTS:
http://www.temcat.com/omega_llu.htm
Uncle Steve's Diet Plan-- Article in this Journal
Check our PETA's religious cultic beliefs and blasphemies:
Vegetarianism is demonic.
http://www.peta-online.org/pubs/at/398/god.html
Useful discussion of the SDA cult:
http://www.biblebelievers.com/SDA/SDA4.html
See where vegetarian religion has come from and who promotes it:
http://www.essene.org/Essene_Doctrine.htm
KENNETH WADE-- Was he connected with David Koresh? Is his book, The Orion Conspiracy, a guide for Waco and David Steiner cults? We have a report that Wade has a symbol of the Knights Templar (a Freemasonic Order) on the podium he uses to preach on TV. Now, watch him try to weasel out of the Steiner and loonie bin connection as he is exposed as a cheap fraud:
http://steinerlegalfund.com/doom.html.
There is something very ominous about this flake. See a review of Wade's Orion Conspiracy which warps Bible prophecy:
http://www.pacificpress.com:80/books/orioncon.htm
THOUGH NOT NARROW THEOLOGICALLY, THIS SITE OPENS UP THE VERY DEEP AND SINISTER AREAS OF SDA PRACTICE: http://www.orionconspiracy.com/home.html
NOTICE HOW THE SDAs HIDE WHO THEY ARE. THIS WEB SITE LOOKS GOOD, BUT IT IS A MASTERFUL SUBTERFUGE. THE ATTACK OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS NOVEL WITH SDAs BECAUSE THEY MADE LITTLE FUSS OVER THEM IN THE PAST. THE STRATEGY IS TO DRAW THE BIBLE BELIEVING FUNDAMENTALIST INTO THE ATTACK ON THE CATHOLICS, THEN TRY TO IMPLY THAT WHERE BIBLE BELIEVERS COINCIDE WITH CATHOLICS, SUCH AS SUNDAY WORSHIP, THE FUNDAMENTALIST IS BY ASSOCIATION A HERETIC. THIS IS DECEPTIVE AND FRAUDULENT LOGIC. TAKE TIME TO HAVE A GOOD LOOK AT THESE VIPERS: http://www.aloha.net/~mikesch/
VERY GOOD DISCUSSION OF THE ANNIHILATION OF THE SOUL OF THE LOST BY A SDA AUTHOR: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/clt4/ts3.htm
The SDA cult teaches that it is NOT enough to simply trust Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, but that the works in your life are important as well. In their official "Doctrine of Statements" published in 1957, the SDA's make clear that faith alone in Jesus Christ is NOT enough to be saved. Of course, we know from the King James Bible that SDA's are LIARS.
If you realize that you are a hell-deserving sinner, and you turn to the Lord Jesus Christ in childlike faith for forgiveness and salvation...then you will not be disappointed my friend (Romans 10:11-13).
SDA focuses ridiculously upon the Sabbath day, twisting the Scriptures and thus creating a cult. The Charismatics make the same mistake, but with the gifts of the Spirit instead. The Old Testament Sabbath was simply a "shadow" of the Saviour to come. When Jesus came to this world and made atonement for our sins upon the cross, He became our Sabbath, the fulfillment of that Old Testament shadow. There is NO Sabbath day today, we rest in Christ Jesus for our salvation (which is what the Old testament Sabbath pictured). People worked six days a week, and then rested on the seventh (the Sabbath). This was only a ceremonial law, not a moral law. Proof of this is the fact that nine of the ten commandments were moral laws and were in affect ALL the time, the Sabbath day was only applicable on the seventh day. A moral law would not be applicable only one day a week. Therefore, it is Biblical and sensible to conclude that the Sabbath day was ONLY a ceremonial law. ALL of the ceremonial laws were nailed to the cross and ceased to be in effect. The Old Testament ceremonial laws were only a shadow of things to come (Hebrews 10:1).
SDA's believe that Jesus entered into his "Work of investigative judgment" in 1844 and now decides who is "worthy" to enter heaven. Even after you die, according to SDA's, your salvation is not settled yet. I have news for anyone reading this article--NO ONE IS WORTHY TO GO TO HEAVEN! Jesus came to die upon the cross for OUR sins because we are unable to save ourselves. Jesus paid a debt that He did not owe, because we owed a debt we could not pay. SDA's are guilty of ADDING works to salvation, just as the Mormons and Catholics so. SDA is a false religion.
