.... so don't worry if you don't. I have to vent, but I didn't want to violate rules by doing so. So I sat and bit my knuckles and hyperventilated for a minute or two before deciding to duck into this forum where I think it's safe, and spout off.
(Deep, cleasing breath.) Here goes:
To someone else, on another thread in another forum:
So you're such a stickler for accurate titles--why don't you just be totally honest and call yourselves Ellen G. White-ians?
----says a VERY "former" SDA.
Not directed at anyone here. Hoping not to offend.
I'm not sure why you're upset, so you can place me in the category of not understanding your point.
It is the nature of a sect's desire to be distinctive apart from the rest of Christendom that invokes labels such as Ellenites following Ellenisms, for it is Ellen White that makes Adventism distinctive in the first place. I use the labels I mention on rare occasion, but I haven't used the label you mentioned.
Is the label derogatory?
Yes, it is - and this is what has likely upset you.
Consider the flip side on this labeling for a moment:
Non-Adventists tend to apply labels when they learn that they're dealing with a group of people that follow a leader who had this to say about their church affiliation:
Babylon is said to be "the mother of harlots." By her daughters must be symbolized churches that cling to her doctrines and traditions, and follow her example of sacrificing the truth and the approval of God, in order to form an unlawful alliance with the world. The message of Revelation 14, announcing the fall of Babylon must apply to religious bodies that were once pure and have become corrupt. Since this message follows the warning of the judgment, it must be given in the last days; therefore it cannot refer to the Roman Church alone, for that church has been in a fallen condition for many centuries. Furthermore, in the eighteenth chapter of the Revelation the people of God are called upon to come out of Babylon. According to this scripture, many of God's people must still be in Babylon. And in what religious bodies are the greater part of the followers of Christ now to be found? Without doubt, in the various churches professing the Protestant faith. At the time of their rise these churches took a noble stand for God and the truth, and His blessing was with them. Even the unbelieving world was constrained to acknowledge the beneficent results that followed an acceptance of the principles of the gospel. In the words of the prophet to Israel: "Thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through My comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God." But they fell by the same desire which was the curse and ruin of Israel--the desire of imitating the practices and courting the friendship of the ungodly. "Thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown." Ezekiel 16:14, 15. {GC 382.3}
Many Bible students take offense to someone using passages describing political entities and applying them to their church.
Having your church called a daughter of a harlot just doesn't set well with a lot of folks, either.
That's the Adventist 'distinctive' from Ellen White.
If you find that labels are offensive, please consider where the practice originated from.
Victor
