SDA Prophet Ellen White Trivializes Evil

[Dale]

[FONT=&quot]The Life Sketches of Ellen White is the autobiography of Ellen White, the founder of the Seventh Day Adventists, who started having visions as a teenager.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]I’m sure that the Adventists can correct me if I am wrong. In The Life Sketches of Ellen White, she never refers to any person that she disagrees with by name. Only those who agree with her and accept her wisdom and her visions are dignified with names. Everyone else is a blur.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Even more extreme, anyone that she disagrees with seems to become an agent of the Devil. For instance, on p. 140-141 of the Kindle edition:[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]“I saw that my husband must not give up the paper, for Satan was trying to drive him to take just such a step, and was working through agents to do this.”[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Normally it would be presumptuous of a mortal to claim to know exactly what Satan is trying to do. She gives no vision to back up her assumption, and this is typical. She simply assumes that those who are telling her husband that his health problems will not allow him to continue to run a small paper are “agents” of “Satan.”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]This isn’t the only time that EW pegs someone as an agent of the devil with little or no evidence. : At a meeting, two men that she doesn’t like are present. After her husband addresses the meeting: “These agents of the enemy were then so bound as to be unable to exert their baleful influence again that night.” Page 82, Life Sketches[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]It doesn’t occur to EW that these men could simply be mistaken or misguided.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Another term that she uses for those she doesn’t like is “children of darkness,” as on p. 135.[/FONT]
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[Dale]

[FONT=&quot]Ellen White apparently believed that she was living in the last days before the Second Coming.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]“It is Satan’s special object to prevent this light from coming to the people of god, who so greatly need it amid the perils of these last days.” Life Sketches, p. 201.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]The Life Sketches of Ellen White was published in 1860, so it has now been 152 years since she said this. Apparently she was wrong.[/FONT]

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[Dale]

[FONT=&quot]“Every man whom God will accept, Satan will attack.” Ellen White says this on p. 218, Life Sketches. Like so many of her statements, it raises more questions than answers. What does it mean to say that God will accept a man? Christians generally believe that God gladly accepts any who repent and follow Him. By “attack” it is quite possible that she refers to physical illness.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]“We believed the affliction of the child was the work of Satan, to hinder us from traveling …” Life Sketches, p. 145

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]“Our child was recovering and Satan was not again permitted to afflict him.” Life Sketches, p. 139

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]“Then Satan came in another form. My husband was taken very sick.” Life Sketches, p. 137

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]“…and the power of Satan was broken. That night I suffered much, but the next day I was sufficiently strengthened to return home.” Life Sketches, p. 163.

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]“At the time of the conference at Battle Creek, in June, 1858, I was shown in vision that in the sudden attack at Jackson, Satan intended to take my life, in order to hinder the work I was about to write; but angels of God were sent to my rescue.” Life Sketches, p. 163

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]Oddly enough, the “prophet” Ellen White seems to spend more time talking about physical evil, disease, bad health, than about moral evil. It doesn’t occur to her that people who aren’t prophets, and don’t have a prophet in the family, also get sick. In the end, she has no insight as to why people get sick, but she sees her own diseases, and those in her family, as a personal battle with Satan.


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[LittleLambofJesus]

Subscribing

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[Dale]

[FONT=&quot]Ellen White spends a lot of time talking about Satan trying to hinder her religious work through physical illness. Some of the decisions that she took while members of her family were ill are questionable at best. She decided to travel to northern Michigan during a cold winter while her husband was “extremely feeble” with an illness. They traveled together.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot] “It required no small degree of moral courage and faith in God to bring my mind to the decision to risk so much; but I knew that I had a work to do, and it seemed to me that Satan was determined to keep me from it.” Life Sketches, p. 173

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]Notice how E. White commends herself for “moral courage.” An independent observer could conclude that she recklessly endangered a member of her family for selfish reasons. She wanted to continue her religious work, she prided herself on it, and let nothing stand in the way, including family illness.

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]It goes without saying that under 19th century conditions, long before antibiotics, almost any illness could be life threatening, especially when traveling in a horse and buggy during a hard winter.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]What disease did her husband have? A few pages earlier:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“Every moment my husband’s case was growing more critical. It was clearly a case of cholera.” Life Sketches, p. 137

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]Cholera??? Hardly trivial, but it didn’t stop them.[/FONT]
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“We believed that Satan was trying to hinder us, and my husband decided to go, trusting in the Lord.” … “My husband had to be helped into the wagon, yet every mile we rode he gained strength.” Life Sketches, p. 138

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[Defensor Christi]

Subscribing

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Same here...

 

[LittleLambofJesus]

Originally Posted by LittleLambofJesus Subscribing

Same here...

Where is everyone?

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[Pythons]

Ellen White appears to have held a very high opinion of herself and the importance of her "prophetic" teaching.

 

[Dale]

Where is everyone?

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The SDA's seem to have a policy of not responding to what I say.


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[Dale]

[FONT=&quot]Continuing what I was saying in post #5 …[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]The children were not immune from this treatment.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]“The family who had entertained us said that if we went on, we would bury the child on the road; and to all appearance it would be so. But I dared not go back to Rochester. We believed the affliction of the child was the work of Satan, to hinder us from traveling; and we dared not yield to him.” Life Sketches, p. 145-146

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]Again, an impartial observer would likely think that E. White was willing to sacrifice members of her own family for her missionary work.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]“The family who entertained us …” In other words, even a family that invited Ellen White and her family to spend the night, or a week, if needed, become nameless unpersons when they disagree with EW on anything.[/FONT]

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[Defensor Christi]

Where is everyone?

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Is it Saturday? (sorry I couldnt resist....)

 

[Frenchfrye]

whats Saturday?

 

[Tangible]

It is the very nature of legalism to attempt to reduce God's unkeepable law into something keepable, thereby devaluing the very law they claim to uphold.

 

[Dale]

It is the very nature of legalism to attempt to reduce God's unkeepable law into something keepable, thereby devaluing the very law they claim to uphold.

This is true. Every Christian is tempted to go through the Bible and pick out rules or commandments that are easy for them to follow. Every one of us is at some time tempted to say, the rules that are easy for me to follow are the important ones.

But the Golden Rule isn't always easy. Justice, mercy, compassion aren't always easy.

I think that is the true meaning of Paul's warning that the "letter of the law" kills.

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[Dale]

[FONT=&quot]EW induced her husband to take up the business of publishing a religious newspaper. It is difficult to avoid the impression that Ellen is the dominant partner in this relationship. Submitting to her husband doesn’t seem to be her thing.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Ellen’s husband, known as Elder White, did take up producing the newspaper. Previously he had worked at jobs like cutting hay, hauling bricks, and so forth. As proprietor of this Adventist paper, at one point he owed over $2,000.

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]As Ellen puts it, “We feared that he [Elder White] would die while still in debt.” Life Sketches, p. 157

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]In other words, Ellen White "feared" that her husband would die while owing more than two thousand dollars.[/FONT]

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[TruthWave7]

The SDA's seem to have a policy of not responding to what I say.


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I'm happy that you doing so much reading of EGW's writing maybe others in CF will join in. )

 

[Dale]

[FONT=&quot]Seventh Day Adventists teach that there is no permanent hell, no place of eternal suffering. Instead, they say that the condemned at the Final Judgment are consumed by fire but do not continue to suffer. SDA’s often deny the immortality of the soul, or the existence of a soul, instead teaching that there is “soul sleep” until the time of the resurrection.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]How did Ellen White come to this doctrine? Did she have a grand and glorious vision on this subject? You would think the answer would be “yes” since she claimed to have innumerable visions.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]In Life Sketches, EW explains that she discarded the traditional Christian belief in a fiery hell, or any other permanent hell, along with eternal torment, after a conversation with her mother. She discarded belief in a soul separate from the body at the same time. No visions, just a long talk with her mother. Life Sketches, p. 49.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]EW quotes her mother, Mrs. Harmon, as follows. “The Bible gives us no proof that there is an eternally burning hell. If there is such a place, it should be mentioned in the Sacred Book.” Further, “If the love of God will not induce the rebel to yield, the terrors of an eternal hell will not drive him to repentance.”[/FONT]

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[TruthWave7]

The SDA's seem to have a policy of not responding to what I say.

For one, if I did say something I might get booted off CF. Secondly, you already seem to have made yourself an authority on her writings. Thirdly, I would ask you: Do the "Disciples of Christ" have a recognized prophet?

 

[Dale]

For one, if I did say something I might get booted off CF. Secondly, you already seem to have made yourself an authority on her writings. Thirdly, I would ask you: Do the "Disciples of Christ" have a recognized prophet?

[FONT=&quot]Truthwave,[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] I hope this sheds some light on your question.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]From a Sebring Christian Church handout:[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Special Revelation - There are some churches whose founders or leaders claim special supernatural instruction from God. Their assumption is that man is not capable of understanding the Bible apart from the special knowledge[/FONT][FONT=&quot] that was imparted to them personally. These church leaders usually develop entire religious systems that must be completely adhered to by the followers.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]There are two logical problems here. 1) A follower can neither challenge nor vary from the teachings of the leader, since the follower was not blessed with the supernatural knowledge as the leader was. 2.) When the leader dies[/FONT][FONT=&quot] and time passes, the followers are left trying to interpret what the leader meant when he explained what God meant when he spoke. This church is in need of a new leader with a greater challenge than the first and a vicious cycle begins.[/FONT]


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[bbbbbbb]

Where is everyone?

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I'm here. Just ran across it in the netherworld of the second page of threads.