This means you believe Ellen White understood the Bible 100% perfectly. This is clearly false as she changed her views and encouraged others to do so. No one knows 100%. We all learn from the Holy Spirit and our learning continues (as you allude to in your first paragraph attempting to antagonize). For example, Ellen White believed the Sabbath is a New Covenant practice. The Bible teaches otherwise, "By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear." (Hebrews 8:13). The Bible makes much more sense when we examine covenants and how they operate. Ellen White did not understand covenants. She believed every covenant was basically the same covenant revised.
When I am writing bible studies, and teaching, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit it will all coincide with the bible. I believe the same about Sister Whites writings. When anybody shares what the Lord has revealed to them from the bible they need this kind of faith that knows the Lord is leading in their studies. I do not write my opinions except when sizing up a teacher, or book or something that we must be critical of. You must do the same. To assume that you are right when sharing truth is dangerous, because as I write, and as anybody writes in this ever accountable position God does do the revealing and the sharing, because I know not what you need God does. Much of the things I write are quite amazing to me. I proof read and ask myself if I really wrote this. I will never take any credit for God's work, and every time I share God with people it is doing His work. Moses was denied the promised land because he took credit when he struck the rock and said "must 'we' fetch you water."
Do you believe our covenant today is the same as the covenant made with Moses but is now written on our hearts? There is Law written on our hearts, it is this, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" (John 13:34). The old covenant was summed up by loving God and loving each other as we love ourselves. The new covenant is to love each other as God loves us. This is THE NEW command. Yes, Jesus gave A NEW COMMAND. It is a NEW COVENANT. It is different, it is better.
Covenants are highly overrated. Far too many will use this as an excuse to hide the fact we must be obedient, and overcome all sin in our lives TODAY. The old covenant is this, after Moses finished reading the book of the law the congregation said, Exodus:19:8: "And all the people answered together, and said,
All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD." That stated the impossible. From the moment Eve bit the fruit it became impossible for man to become anything but a sinful human with sinful nature. Everyone who has and will ever die in Christ, from Adam to the last person to die in Christ will be saved by grace! To say that the "new" law of love is anything but a reminder of what God told the Israelites in the wilderness does not fit. Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5 "And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." and Leviticus 19:18 "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD." when He RE-established the law of love. His whole life was an example of that love which the jews have forgotten over the generations. Love is not the new covenant. Writing the law in our hearts and in our minds instead of circumcision is the "new" covenant. BUT in reality Jesus is the "new" covenant. God gave the new covenant to Abraham on mount Moriah when he was told to sacrifice Isaac. "God will provide Himself a Lamb" is the "new" covenant.
Well, show me how it is not the Bible, because I disagree obviously.
What I keep reading from your writings does not agree with the bible, as I have been showing. You do not use the bible when you write comments. The bible is king over anything else. My opinions are not allowed here! What I read of your comments is des ford. Please do not take this as an attack. I pray earnestly over everything I write on here to be certain the bible agrees 100% with it. We all MUST do this, otherwise how are we helping anybody?
(p.s. Des loved E.G.W. and quoted from her often, but I do not defend him because I agree with him, I actually disagree with much of what he teaches, I defend because he helped me greatly and his teaching on the gospel is far better than Ellen White or the SDA church has ever understood; including you).
Ford does not love Ellen White from the little I have heard from him. The accuser of the brethren is satan. His teaching on the gospel has deceived many. You say you do not agree with him on "much"? Why is that? His teachings have changed drastically over the years as he removes himself further from Christianity altogether. No des ford has always been deceived and a deceiver, I am not accusing him, I am stating observation form what I have heard from him, and what many, who have come out from his teachings have told me. I make it my duty to steer clear of false teachers. I will not sift through miles of error to find one tiny gem of truth. Satan wants us to have 99% of the truth, but the 1%, which is the perverted doctrine of salvation has the whole Christian world upside down on this issue. That is why I am so passionate about it. I care less about most other doctrines. Ephesians 2:8-10 is the most important context in the bible and far too many rely totally on their favorite pastor's interpretation of it for their salvation. I have studied this most important doctrine all my Christian life. I have been reading the bible for over 50 years and have been studying it very critically for 30, allowing the Comforter to reveal His will for my life and ministry. We all have Spiritual gifts, and we all should be exercising them.
I use to be a Ty Gibson disciple until God showed me through a long battle with my desire to be right and what the bible teaches that we are not to follow any man. A Brother from church came to me and told me that Ty is wrong. I argued with him for quite some time, and we studied it out for close to a year, sometimes all night until the sun came up. Finally the Lord revealed to us where he is wrong and what the true gospel of righteousness by faith is.
Here is a quote to prove it! I do not write things unless I can prove them from scripture, and to twist scripture into saying something it does not say is not my thing. Romans:3:11: "There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God." Far too many "Christians" want to ad their two cents to God's word. God showed me early that my understanding means nothing, absolutely zero! As I read the bible I rely totally on the Comforter to guide me into all the truth He has for me at any given time. If the Christian world read, prayed about and followed the Comforters revelation of John 14-17 there would be ONE denomination today and one translation of God's word. But suffice it to say, God gave man intellect, and far too many try to ad theirs to God's holy word.
He does. He convicts the world of sin, believers of righteousness, and the devil of judgment (John 16:8-11) - verse 8 is explained afterwards, we mustn't read it in isolation.
If we take ourselves out of this equation we are denying the work of the Comforter in our lives. There is a song we use to sing a lot as my children grew up called "Jesus loves my this I know". When we get to the part that says "they" are weak, but He is strong??? I was quite amazed to hear that and always taught my children to say WE are weak and He is strong. To remove ourselves from that equation puts us on a whole separate plain. I always questioned the "leaders" in the church whom I looked up to and said "who are 'THEY'"? But nobody could answer. To try to remove ourselves from the convictions of sin that the Comforter brings to us will cause great loss of our souls. The convictions from the Comforter is all we have that gives us the voice of God to our souls. The process of sanctification is when the Comforter reveals things in our lives that we must change. He cannot reveal all of them right off the bat, that is why we are sanctified every step of the way.
I'm very sorry you feel this way. Romans 5:8-10 is just one passage that disagrees with you.
This is the crux of the biscuit! We cannot be holy while we are living in sin, in fact if we regard sin in our hearts the Lord will not even hear our prayers, Psalms:66:18: "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:" The ONLY sins that will be "covered" are CONFESSED sins! 1John 1:9. The word IF we confess means just that. IF we do not confess how can God forgive us? Here is sure proof that our sins must be removed before we receive the robe of Christ's righteousness. Zecariah:3:3&4: "Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment."
What do you mean by saying justification is a process? It seems to me you are confused just as Ellen White was confused.
No I am not the confused one. I do not write anything on here unless I have bible support for it. Jesus said John:6:44: "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day." There is nothing we can do to come to Christ. We submit to the working of the Comforter in all things. As we are going through the roman 7 "process" of "the good I want to do I don't do..." this is the Holy Spirit drawing us to Him. Conversion is the end of the process of wooing by the Holy Spirit, and sanctification is the process of preparing us for battle, equipping us to do the Lord's work, and we have all we need every step of the way. I remember when I first came into the truth, I was very zealous and handed out literature everywhere I went, and went out of my way to spend all my spare time doing that. As I grew in Christ I gained more knowledge to be able to answer questions and sit and study with people. This is a process, we do not receive it all at once.
is the act or process of acquiring sanctity, of being made or becoming
holy.
I care less what uninspired dictionaries define sanctification as. I know that to be sanctified means to be holy, and sanctification means to set apart for a holy purpose. We MUST be sanctified, past tense in order to do the Lord's work. It is as simple as that. No need to get into any intellectual mind bending discussions, which most (SDA) "popular" theologians love to do in order to make us think that these topics are only meant for them to teach, not for us to really understand.
Note there is two parts to sanctification, there is the setting apart (justification) and there is the change in our behaviour that follows from the change in our nature. Sanctification includes justification and the results of justification occurring in our lifestyle.
No there are tow parts to the doctrine of salvation. Justification and sanctification. Justification is the imputed righteousness of Christ which we are given when we finally do as Paul did in Romans 7 when he said "I thank God through Jesus Christ..." The moment we are converted we are justified, sanctified, righteous, holy, sinless, perfect ETC. BUT that is only the beginning our the Christian walk of sanctification to heaven. On that walk the Comforter convicts out conscience of things we need to know, like the knowledge of God's word, or something we may not know is sin. Say Joe does not know that stealing is sin. As long as he does not know it his stealing is not a sin, but when the conviction comes to his mind he realizes he is sinning when he steals. If he stops stealing he is sanctified, if he does not, well he will be accountable to God until he does stop stealing, and God gives us plenty of time to follow our convictions.
:
God's act of removing the guilt and penalty of
sin while at the same time declaring a sinner
righteous through
Christ's atoning sacrifice. In
Protestantism, righteousness from God is viewed as being credited to the sinner's account through
faith alone, without
works. (Wikipedia, note also Strong's definitions G1347, 1345).
We are declared "righteous" when we repent and realize that we can have Christ's righteousness when we are walking with Him through obedience. Not that obedience has any merit, but, well I like to put it this way. We are not saved by our good works, but we will certainly be lost without them. Obedience is the fruit of faith, not our access to it. Did you know that grace was given to us FOR OBEDIENCE? Romans 1:5. Grace is the power that we need in order to obey.
We believe more similarly than you would expect. But I live holy from righteousness, I do not live holy for righteousness. My reason for not sinning is I do not want to grieve the Spirit, not because I am scared God will abandon me and refuse His justification (take back His gift). The thing you claim about me, you should also apply to yourself. There is teaching, but who am I to teach? If you do not trust me, how can I say anything you will understand?
I live Christ's righteousness every day. I have absolutely nothing to give. I am the lowest of the low. I lay my life on the alter every day. I am more critical of myself over anybody. We do believe very similarly, but you must realize that we will not enter heaven with one unconfessed sin in our lives. I ask everyone this one question, which many are very relieved when they realize the power of God to forgive AND to give us victory over every temptation. When you get on your knees and ask God to forgive your sins how many are left? When you get up off your knees the power of grace to overcome will keep you from falling and give you victory after victory so that we are overcomers in Christ. How can anybody who believes they do not have to stop sinning ever expect to have ANY victory, or to be overcomers? If we are not overcomers we will not receive of the tree of life,