Month: May 2017

The article by Eugene Prewitt can be read in its entirety here:
http://www.fulcrum7.com/blog/2017/1/3/a-zeal-not-according-to-knowledge

Now Eugene Prewitt is a teacher with name recognition among Seventh-day Adventists, especially those who are usually classified “Conservative”, of whom I consider myself to be. I’m very appreciate of most independent Adventist ministries, and am thankful for Ouachita Hills College, where he used to be Bible teacher for many years.

I met him at the 2010 GC Session in Atlanta, and showed him the original 1858 Great Controversy book that I’ve been trying to spread in various countries around the world. He asked why, and knowing that he knows the book well, showed him the quote: “He who is the father of lies, blinds and deceives the world by sending his angels forth to speak for the apostles, and make it appear that they contradict what they wrote when on earth, which was dictated by the Holy Ghost.” He immediately told me that I was mistaken if I believed the Bible was dictated by the Holy Ghost, which stunned me, and was was even more stunned as he became animated in denouncing the position that the Bible is the words of God.

In the fall of 2016, he wrote an article for Fulcrum7 quoting the Bible several times. I made a comment that it was strange he was quoting the Bible, when he doesn’t believe the words in it are from God. He took umbrage to that, at a level that shocked me, as an entire article basically consigning me to hell was published by Gerry Wagoner of Fulcrum7 on January 3, 2017.

Four points were made in his article supposedly showing where I was in error:
1. He says I make too many comments
2. He says I’m a commandment-breaker for saying Ellen White’s books have been changed
3. He thinks I’m in error for believing the words in the Bible (and SOP) are from God
4. He says I’ve become a negative person

Regarding numbers 1 and 4, these are of course just his point of view – ad hominem attacks. That is fine, but sad. I wish I would be MORE active in spreading the truth for these last days, and am happy to be seen in the same category as Elijah, John the Baptist, and Ellen White as being a “negative person”. Those who call for repentance will always be a “negative person” to those who wish to believe they are alright as they are.

Number 2 is the basis for his argument that I’m a “commandment breaker”, and thus on my way to hell. But this is extremely easy to refute, as all you have to do is to get books with Ellen White’s name on the cover, and then start comparing. One of the clearest examples is to check the first chapter of the 1858 Great Controversy with the equivalent chapter in Early Writings (first printed in 1882). Before you do tho, please read paragraph 5 of the Preface in Early Writings. It says: “… no changes from the original work have been made in the present edition, except the occasional employment of a new word, or a change in the construction of a sentence, to better express the idea, and no portion of the work has been omitted. No shadow of change has been made in any idea or sentiment of the original work, and the verbal changes have been made under the author’s own eye, and with her full approval.”

How does that mesh with what we see when we actually compare them?
http://great-controversy-movie.com/dannywinters/great-controversy-early-writings.html
It looks like only around 70% of that first chapter is the same!

But some may say: “Well, Ellen White approved it, so it’s OK”. No way. She wrote in {Ms188-1907} regarding the subject of changing her writings: “They come to me, those that are copying my writings, and say, Now here is the better revised words, and I think I will put that in. Don’t you change one word, not a word. The revised edition we do not need at all. We have got the word that Christ has spoken Himself and given us. And dont you in my writings change a word for any revised edition. There will be revised editions, plenty of them, just before the close of this earths history, and I want all my workers to understand, and I have got quite a number of them. I want them to understand that they are never to take the revised word, and put it in the place of the plain, simple words just as they are. They think they are improving them, but how do they know but that they may switch off on an idea, and give it less importance than Christ means them to have.”
So no one is to change the words she wrote, as they are Christ’s words, and there will be revisions near the end of time. hmmmmm. Maybe that is where we are today?

Two more examples of changes to the books: “Sister Davis has just called my attention to an article printed in the Youth’s Instructor of May 31, 1894. The question asked is, Did I design to have this sentence just as it appeared in the Instructor? I am surprised to see it just as it appears–“A meat diet is not the most wholesome of diets, and yet I would take the position that meat should not be discarded by everyone.” I cannot explain why this appears just as it does.” … “I would desire that the sentence should be modified by changing the not–“yet I would not take the position that meat be wholly discarded by everyone,” for instance, by those dying of consumption.” MR v.14.

Also, as printed in the 1992 book “Christ Triumphant”: “Those placed in positions of responsibility should be men and women who fear God, who realize that they are humans only, not God. They should be people who will rule under God and for Him.” But in the original Manuscript 163 (1902): “Those placed in positions of responsibility should be men who fear God, who realize that they are men only, not God. They should be men who will rule under God and for Him.” (see
http://advindicate.com/articles/2014/4/16/the-insertion-of-gender-inclusive-language-in-recent-ellen-white-compilations
for more information on how the E.G.White Estate is actively promoting changing the books to make them “gender-inclusive”.

Number 3: In refuting charge #2, we have covered a bit the most important point in this whole issue:
ARE THE WORDS IN THE BIBLE AND SOP FROM GOD, OR NOT?

I’m convinced the standard SDA position that only the ideas are from God, and not the words themselves, is the worst error ever received by God’s remnant church. This error will make us stumble on our way to the New Jerusalem, because it makes a path of slippery sand for our feet, instead of the unchanging rock.

My parents were both SDA, and my mother, especially, was a diligent student of the Bible and SOP. We called the Bible the “Word of God”, which no doubt many of us SDAs do. It wasn’t until my late 40s that I found out many of my fellow SDAs claim to believe in the “Word of God”, but not the “words of God”! That type of semantic antic is straightened out by Jesus himself when he says in Matthew 4:4: “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Of course Jesus is quoting what is written in Deuteronomy 8:3. Now according to those who believe only the ideas in the Bible and SOP are from God, Jesus is telling Satan that Moses’ words have more authority than Satan’s??? Even after Moses came under the dominion of Satan for a while???! That is the logical end of this damnable doctrine that is pleasing to Satan. No, of course not, Jesus is quoting God’s words, and showing that they have more authority than Satan’s words. Practically all Christians used to believe this, so it is very strange to see how God’s last church in the end time has thrown out God’s words, and replaced them with only “God’s ideas”.

John 12:48-50 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. John 17:8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

So Jesus himself says that he speaks the words from God, and that what he spoke was from God, and that the word that he spoke is what shall judge us in the last day. Really, is there any SDA, or any other Christian for that matter, who doesn’t know that the Bible is the rule book that will judge us in the last day? Six times in the Bible it says: “words of God”. “Words of the Lord” is used 19 times. “My words” and “your words” are used to refer to God’s words multiple times too.

John 14:23 “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” Doesn’t this speak directly to our time today – to Laodicea? Where is the Lord in Revelation 3:20? Isn’t he outside the door, desiring to come in? He tells Laodicea (SDA Church) how to let him in – to “Keep my words”.

Many believers in the doctrine that the words are not inspired base their belief on one quote from Selected Messages vol.1: “It is not the words of the Bible that are inspired, but the men that were inspired.” The preface to the 1888 Great Controversy also says: “The truths revealed are all “given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16); yet they are expressed in the words of men.” But with at least 7 different instances in the SOP of the phrase “inspired words”, and over 100 instances of “words of God”;
3RH 1887-7-19; inspired words
10RH 1915-7-22; inspired words
Steps to Christ p.108; inspired words
Home Missionary 1892-9-1; inspired words
Paulson Collection p.138; inspired words
YI 1895-7-18; inspired words
1888 Materials; words inspired of God
we can easily see that these 2 statement purported to be from Ellen White, are in fact, spurious. Just the name should be a caution flag: “Selected Messages”. Of course a preface to a book is also dubious.

Broadside #2 1849: “I saw that in striking against the visions, they did not strike against the worm, the feeble instrument that God spoke through, but against the Holy Ghost. I saw it was a small thing to speak against the instrument, but it was dangerous to slight the words of God.”

As noted above, not everything with Ellen White’s name on the cover is from her pen. MR4 1883 says regarding how a certain Mr. Curtis twisted her writings: “I am not responsible for all that has been printed as coming from me.” She writes in Testimonies for the Church #11 regarding people twisting what she wrote on the dress reform: “I protest against the perversions of my private conversations on this subject, and ask that what I have written and published be regarded as my settled position.” So even things like Manuscript Releases should not be held on the same level as her published works, let alone Selected Messages or the Preface of any book.

The E.G.White Estate has an article describing how many changes to the 1888 Great Controversy, to come up with the 1911 Great Controversy, were first proposed by W.W.Prescott: http://www.whiteestate.org/issues/GC-Prescott.html Supposedly Ellen White approved the changes, but, as seen above, Ellen White didn’t approve the change of even “one word” that God had given her. Elder Prescott wrote Willie White in 1915: “It seems to me that a large responsibility rests upon those of us who know that there are serious errors in our authorized books and yet make no special effort to correct them. The people and our average ministers trust us to furnish them with reliable statements, and they use our books as sufficient authority in their sermons, but we let them go on year after year asserting things which we know to be untrue…. The way your mother’s writings have been handled and the false impressions concerning them, which is still fostered among the people, have brought great perplexity and trial to me. It seems to me that what amounts to deception, though probably not intentional, has been practiced in making some of her books,”

So how did the changes that we actually see in the books get there if Ellen White didn’t do or approve them herself? In the case of the 1911 Great Controversy, we see that Willie White, who didn’t believe the words his mother wrote were from God, was instrumental in approving the changes.

But perhaps the worst offender was the man who became the publishing director and chief editor of the SOP after James White’s death – Uriah Smith. He did not believe the words Ellen White wrote were from God, and even went as far as to leave out some Testimonies directed to him when he had them edited down to the 9 volume set we have today. He was the chief of 5 men in 1883 who publicly stated in the Review

“33. WHEREAS, MANY OF THESE TESTIMONIES WERE WRITTEN UNDER THE MOST UNFAVORABLE CIRCUMSTANCES, THE WRITER BEING TOO HEAVILY PRESSED WITH ANXIETY AND LABOR TO DEVOTE CRITICAL THOUGHT TO THE GRAMMATICAL PERFECTION OF THE WRITINGS, AND THEY WERE PRINTED IN SUCH HASTE AS TO ALLOW THESE IMPERFECTIONS TO PASS UNCORRECTED; AND,
“WHEREAS, WE BELIEVE THE LIGHT GIVEN BY GOD TO HIS SERVANTS IS BY THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE MIND, THUS IMPARTING THE THOUGHTS, AND NOT (EXCEPT IN RARE CASES) THE VERY WORDS IN WHICH THE IDEAS SHOULD BE EXPRESSED; THEREFORE,
“RESOLVED, THAT IN THE REPUBLICATION OF THESE VOLUMES, SUCH VERBAL CHANGES BE MADE AS TO REMOVE THE ABOVE-NAMED IMPERFECTIONS, AS FAR AS POSSIBLE, WITHOUT IN ANY MEASURE CHANGING THE THOUGHT; AND FURTHER,
“34. RESOLVED, THAT THIS BODY APPOINT A COMMITTEE OF FIVE TO TAKE CHARGE OF THE REPUBLICATION OF THESE VOLUMES ACCORDING TO THE ABOVE PREAMBLES AND RESOLUTIONS.”–REVIEW AND HERALD, NOV. 27, 1883. “THE COMMITTEE OF FIVE TO TAKE CHARGE OF THE REPUBLICATION OF THE TESTIMONIES PROVIDED FOR IN THE THIRTY-FOURTH RESOLUTION WAS ANNOUNCED AS FOLLOWS, THE CHAIR HAVING BEEN EMPOWERED TO SELECT FOUR PERSONS BESIDES HIMSELF FOR THIS PURPOSE: W. C. WHITE, URIAH SMITH, J. H. WAGGONER, S. N. HASKELL, GEORGE I. BUTLER.”– IBID.”

How bad was Uriah Smith? Ellen White said it was this bad: “I had no rest in spirit in the house of Brother Uriah. I have left the house saying to myself, It is a godless house. I have seen no less than four evil angels controlling members of the family. {Letter3-1869}”.

Interestingly, in Testimony For The Church, No. 13 Ellen White related a vision where she was in Battle Creek, and saw people she knew marching up to her house: “The scene was changed. The appearance now presented was like a Catholic procession. One of the company bore in his hand a cross. Another had a reed. And as they neared the house, the one carrying a reed made a circle around the house, saying three times, “This house is proscribed. The goods must be confiscated. They have spoken against our holy order.” Terror seized me, and I ran through the house, out of the north door, and found myself in the midst of a company some of whom I knew, but I dared not speak a word with them for fear of being betrayed.” What do you think were the “goods” Ellen White had? There is only one reasonable explanation – her books.

In conclusion, we have established that the words in the Bible and SOP are from God, and that Ellen White specifically did not approve the changes to her books. However, it is easy to see actual discrepancies between the books today, and, considering the background of how people close to the heart of the work were being controlled by Satan, and openly stating that they were going to “remove the imperfections”, we can understand clearly that Satan’s hand is involved in these things.

I call on all fellow Adventists to heed the words of God. And especially Br. Eugene Prewitt and Gerry Wagoner, I forgive both of you, and ask you to repent, and resolve to follow all the words of God too, and ingest them as did Jeremiah in chapter 15 verse 16 “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.” 🙂