book and video review

The question for me has been settled a long time ago – Is the Bible the words of God and thus inerrant, or is it the words of humans with their tendency to make mistakes? This is the absolute most important question us humans will ever have to answer – and our answer will definitely determine our eternal destiny. Yes, i know that to know the only true God and Jesus Christ who he sent is eternal life, but how can we know that? – thru the Bible. And if the Bible has mistakes in some areas, how can we be sure it doesn’t have mistakes in this area too? If there are some mistakes/errors in the Bible, then it all becomes a great guessing game about what is true and what is not, and the end result will be a class of highly educated skeptics who will assert that they are the only ones to determine what in the Bible is true, and what is not. Sad to say, we as Seventh-day Adventists have been moving slowly down the latter path for several generations now, and it is getting harder and harder to find people who really believe all the Bible is from God and thus completely true.

For most all SDAs, and i’ve written on this before, the question of inerrancy arises when they find discrepancies or outright contradictions in the books that have Ellen White’s name on the cover. This is true. You can find many such places. The problem resolved itself for me a long time ago when i realized that almost no one, including her husband, really believed that what Ellen White wrote was from God himself. In 1883 the General Conference formed a committee with the express intention to “correct the imperfections in the books”. The year before that they came out with “Early Writings”. In comparing the part in that book that corresponds to the 1858 Great Controversy, i became alarmed because there were so many changes and additions and deletions. Also, on the official Ellen .G. White Estate web site, you can find an article regarding the changes made to the Great Controversy in 1911. Basically, they formed a committee and asked for opinions from many people and made the changes. Now wait a minute – God never gives his prophetic word by committee. Also, he never gives his words, and then a few years later takes them back and/or gives completely contradicting words. With this information, i knew that there was something rotten at the core of what has been done to the writings of Ellen White.

William (Willie) White was Ellen’s son, and entrusted with overseeing the book work. As far as i can tell, he was very unfaithful. Then Arthur White, Ellen’s grandson, became the White Estate director. He wrote the book reviewed here, showing that he was unfaithful also.

This book review is based on its reading in the Northern Luzon Adventist College’s (Philippines) library in early 2007. One reason i was interested in this book, is that the only person in Japan printing and actively promoting the printing of Ellen White’s books recently had this book translated and printed, trying to bolster his position of there being small mistakes in the Bible.
—————————-
Favorably quoting William White’s words in 1912:
“If it had been essential to the salvation of man that he should have a clear and harmonious understanding of the chronology of the world, the Lord would not have permitted the disagreements and discrepancies which we find in the writings of the Bible historians…” (p.37)

Page 26 quotes Henry Alford favorably: “the highly appreciated British theologian — admits of much variety in points of minor consequence.”.

This book’s purpose is to refute those who believe that we must separate from the Seventh-day Adventist church.

I support the major purpose of this book strongly.
My mother had her name removed from the SDA church in the 1970s, citing the medal to the pope as the last straw in an organization that is “no longer going down the same path as the organization i joined”. In my own life i’ve seriously considered twice the possibility that my duty to God may be to separate from the church. One time was over the tithe and trademarks, and the other time was over what my local church did to me. Both times after much study of the inspired word and prayer, i came to the same conclusion – i must stay with the church at this time. To separate because of what some local church does to me is just a personal “tit for tat” that cannot be of God, and to quit because of the tithe and trademark problem where the GC is not following God’s revealed will (and doctrinal errors that have come in), is not God’s will either. God’s leaders in Israel’s time even killed some of the prophets, yet Israel was still God’s people until they killed Jesus.

The Bible passage that helped me most in deciding whether to separate from the SDA church or not was Ezekiel 9. I definitely want to receive the seal of God in my forehead, and to get that mark, i must not only be sighing and crying for the abominations done in Jerusalem, i must physically be IN it.

Having said that, i do not know but that maybe there will be a message in the future to leave the church. That is my biggest problem with this book. In my heart i wish to give it a “A”, because the conclusion is correct – we should not leave the SDA church here in 2008.

The poor proofreading precludes that tho, and the use of very selective inspired texts pushes it down more. But the stated purpose of the book “To Separate or not to Separate?” is never fully come to grips with. The logic-killers to the author’s whole purpose are shown below in numbers 4 & 13. Truth is progressive, and if God gives the order in the future to leave the SDA church, we must follow. And the clearest example of “separation” in the Bible – the rejection of Israel – is strangely ignored….

So this book (actually small enough to justify calling it a “booklet”), is basically just a Ellen White CD run of quotes on limited topics.

Below are some quotes from the book with selected comments:

1. “The Midnight Cry of the 1830’s and 1840’s…”. Actually, the Midnight Cry lasted from around the middle of August 1844 to October 22, 1844. Ellen White writes in the 1858 Great Controversy regarding the Loud Cry: “This message seemed to be an addition to the third message, and joined it, as the midnight cry joined the second angel’s message in 1844.”

2. “To our shame there are entire web sites devoted to exposing every detail of our churches dirty laundry to the entire world. I pity the person who actually believes that this sort of thing pleases the Lord.”

True that we should not air private sins, but we should, and must, air leader-type denominational sins. As noted above, that is the only way to receive the seal of God in the forehead.
…

“To Separate or not to Separate? That is the Question!”Read More »

The very short summary of the book(let) is that they believe the calendar was changed in the past, so the 7th-day sabbath we observe now is NOT the one that God ordained. Basically, they try to make the case that every time a new moon is observed, a new month begins, with the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and maybe 29th days always being sabbaths. So for example, according to the Gregorian calendar, sabbath may fall on Tuesday this month, Thursday next month, and Sunday the following month.

This is very much mistaken. The idea that the Sabbath is not every 7th day since creation is serious error. In fact, the 7th day – sundown Friday to sundown Saturday (they also don’t believe the sabbath starts at sundown) – that we keep today is the same one that Jesus kept, the same one that Moses kept, the same one that Adam kept, and the same one that God kept after creating this world. We will keep this sabbath all thru eternity.

The story starts out where you’d expect it to – on the steamboat Morning Star going up the Cumberland River near Nashville Tennessee in 1904. Percy Magan and Edward Sutherland are told by Ellen White that the Lord wishes them to buy a large worn-out farm against their better judgment. Of course we know the outcome, and the result is clearly given in the book title.

Sutherland and Magan should be regarded as the pioneers in following counsel in the Spirit of Prophecy in educational lines. These two men were personally responsible for starting Walla Walla College, moving Battle Creek College out into the country side in Berrien Springs (now Andrews University), helping College of Medical Evangelists (Loma Linda)’s fledging endeavor, the Seventh-day Adventist church school system, and of course – Madison College.

The greatest success was found in the Madison example, as the neglect and opposition by church leaders gave them the freest rein to run their school exactly according to Bible and Spirit of Prophecy counsel. If the Lord said the students need to learn agriculture, they would learn agriculture. Poor students should be allowed opportunity to work for an education? No problem. After learning that the practice of conferring degrees was started by a pope, they published this notice in the school paper: “Preparation for usefulness in the cause of Christ will be the subject constantly held before students, replacing the courses and diplomas of the past.” Teachers and students worked together with one spirit in the fear of the Lord, and what mighty things did God do for them!

The book struggles in not condemning those against educational reform. But overall it gives a mostly balanced picture of how this work of reform by these two men was in general not received well by SDA church leaders.
…

Madison, God’s Beautiful FarmRead More »

Now you may be saying, “sure, he believes Ellen White was a prophet, so he gives everything with her name on it a A+”.  No, nearly all of her books have been compiled, and some of them have problems – like the book “Maranatha”.  But this book really is excellent, having what you would expect on the “big picture” of education, down to some of the details, and some of the pitfalls to avoid.  It is the best book after the Bible to teach you how to start a school to educate children according to God’s plan, and the information is modern, and brought together in one volume so it is an absolutely essential book for every educator.Here is an extensive listing of excellent quotes from this book, in the order in which they appear in the book.  Quotation marks have been omitted.

The first great lesson in all education is to know and understand the will of God.

The students in our schools are to consider the knowledge of God as above everything else.

…men may, through well-directed efforts, regain their first perfection, and stand complete in Christ.

It is our duty to understand what God requires of us, and what he would have us to be.

Educators of youth…should aim at perfection in their own case, that the students may have a correct model.

The true higher education is what makes students acquainted with God and his word, and fits them for eternal life.

The object of the Great Teacher is the restoration of the image of God in the soul, and every teacher in our schools should work in harmony with this purpose.

It is the duty of each student…to do all in his power to present his body to Christ a cleansed temple, physically perfect as well as morally free from defilement.

Mothers should let little ones play in open air. Teach them from nature. Books may be used later.  Let them also learn, even in their earliest years, to be useful.

In the children and youth an ambition should be awakened to take their exercise in doing something that will be beneficial to themselves and helpful to others.

The love of pleasure is one of the most dangerous, because it is one of the most subtle of the many temptations that assail the children and youth in the cities.

There is a refining, subduing influence in nature that should be taken into account in selecting the locality for a school.

The teacher should be himself what he wishes his students to become.

…

Special Testimonies on Education by Ellen WhiteRead More »