Hello Symes,
You said,
That is not the case at all. If you look at the history of the SDA Church and the Sabbath you will find that EGW was not the founder of the Sabbath in the SDA Church and was in fact reluctant at first to embrace the Sabbath as she had come from a Methodist background.
First as I have already mentioned the SDA` Sabbath doctrine is based on the visions of Sister White.
94- {5MR 93.3}
I
will now write you the vision God gave me on the Sabbath, the twenty-fourth of March. We had a glorious meeting. I was taken off in vision. {5MR 94.1}
I saw the commandments of God and shut door could not be separated. I saw the time for the commandments of God to shine out to His people was when the door was opening in the inner apartment of the heavenly sanctuary in 1844.
She did not come to this conclusion through bible study but what she believed to be divine revelation.
Early Writings Pg 32-33
*The four on the first table shone brighter than the other six.
But the fourth, the
33
Sabbath commandment, shone above them all; for the Sabbath was set apart to be kept in honor of God's holy name. The holy Sabbath looked glorious--a halo of glory was all around it.
I saw that the Sabbath commandment was not nailed to the cross.
I saw that God had not changed the Sabbath, for He never changes. But the pope had changed it from the seventh to the first day of the week; for he was to change times and laws. {EW 32.3}
She also taught that the Sabbath is a test for true salvation.
Early Writings Pg 37 The Sealing
Thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting." I asked who this company were. The angel said,
"These are they who have once kept the Sabbath and have given it up."
We have believed in Thy coming, and taught it with energy." And while they were speaking, their eyes would fall upon their garments and see the writing, and then they would wail aloud.
I saw that they had drunk of the deep waters, and fouled the residue with their feet--trodden the Sabbath underfoot-- and that was why they were weighed in the balance and found wanting. {EW 36.2}
You are correct that the idea did not originate with her, it came from Joseph Bates who had studied with a seventh day baptist woman named Rachel Oakes. But what is also true is that what ever Ellen White claims to see in vision the Seventh Day Adventists claim for doctrine regardless of what the Bible says. They only select the verses that they feel support the visions neglecting the rest of scripture. And any one who disagrees, from Ballenger and Canright to Rea and Brimsmead are put out of the Church. All these men were cast out because they did their own bible studies and found the visions of Ellen White to be with out Scriptural support.
Christian experience and teachings of Ellen G White
pg 85
Elder Bates was resting upon Saturday, the seventh day of the week, and he urged it upon our attention as the true Sabbath. I did not feel its importance, and thought that he erred in dwelling upon the fourth commandment more than upon the other nine.
Joseph Bates is also the one who brought the tarrying time teaching of seven years from 1844 to 1851 believing that the investigative judgment would end in 1851 and Jesus would return. Ellen White supported this teaching through her visions.
On June 27, 1850, Mrs. White wrote that only a few months remained for the people to get ready:
"My accompanying angel said, 'Time is almost finished. Get ready, get ready, get ready.' . . . now time is almost finished. . . and what we have been years learning, they will have to learn in a few months." (Early Writings, pp. 64-67).
This vision also failed and now the SDA church tries to pretend it never happened. They have modified this to what is now called the open and shut door doctrine because the original visions failed. Ellen White did say
"I saw the commandments of God and shut door could not be separated". Now how can half of a vision be true and the other half fail? Does this seem to you how God reveals his Truth?
If the part of the vision on the Sabbath is true then why did the Adventists keep the Sabbath incorrectly for 10 years!
.
"TIME TO BEGIN THE SABBATH"--FOR A PERIOD OF ABOUT TEN YEARS SABBATH KEEPING ADVENTISTS OBSERVED THE SABBATH FROM 6 P. M. FRIDAY TO 6 P. M.
SATURDAY.
1 Testimonies for the Church Appendix
PAGE 116,
1 Testimonies for the church, Ch 16 Pg 116
*I saw that it is even so: "From even unto even, shall ye celebrate your Sabbath." Said the angel: "Take the word of God, read it, understand, and ye cannot err. Read carefully, and ye shall there find what even is, and when it is. I asked the angel if the frown of God had been upon His people for commencing the Sabbath as they had. I was directed back to the first rise of the Sabbath, and followed the people of God up to this time, but did not see that the Lord was displeased, or frowned upon them.
* I inquired why it had been thus, that at this late day we must change the time of commencing the Sabbath. Said the angel: "Ye shall understand, but not yet, not yet.
To this day the Adventists have not received an answer to the question Ellen White asked her guiding angel
The reason again for the improper Sabbath keeping is because of Joseph Bates.
*
ELDER JOSEPH BATES IN HIS FIRST PAMPHLET ON THE PERPETUITY OF THE SABBATH OF THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT, PUBLISHED IN 1846, HAD GIVEN REASONS FOR THE SUPPOSED SCRIPTURAL SUPPORT FOR THE OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH IN THIS WAY.
It was Joseph Bates who first instructed the Adventists on proper Sabbath keeping AFTER Ellen White had her vision supporting his teaching. So was it God who gave her the truth on the proper way to keep the Sabbath?
A THOROUGH BIBLE INVESTIGATION OF THE QUESTION WAS MADE BY ELDER J. N. ANDREWS, WHO WROTE A PAPER SETTING FORTH THE BIBLICAL REASONS IN FAVOR OF THE SUNSET TIME.
THE PRESENTATION OF THE SUBJECT TO MRS. WHITE IN THIS VISION, GIVEN TWO DAYS LATER, ANSWERED THE QUESTIONS LINGERING IN SOME MINDS AND EFFECTED UNITY AMONG THE BELIEVERS.
Again no. Just as she received all the information first from Bates and had a "vision" now she receives all the information first
from John Andrews and then TWO DAYS later has another vision saying that Andrews is right and Bates is wrong. Now does this seem to you how Gods prophets reveal truth?
yours in Christ
deu58
Also I should add that the passing of 1851 is a clear message that The Sanctuary, Investigative Judgment, The Sabbath, The Shut door, and The Scape Goat visions were never from God for all these visions were directly related to what the Adventists believed was the end time second coming that was to take place in the fall of 1851. The only reason Adventists hold these doctrines today is because to admit other wise is to also admit that Ellen G White did not have the gift of prophecy.
