Here is a timely and informative article that my good friend Shawn wrote... I am seeing some alarming errors creeping in among us regarding the writings of Ellen White. I’m seeing people falling off the narrow path to Heaven left and right, and I want to raise an alarm for those who are still on the path not to venture on this ground. So I put together several things I have written in emails to various people regarding these dangerous errors I see coming in, and I wanted to post it on Facebook. Please read this! It’s very important! I don’t want to see any more of my friends fall off, into the abyss! First I address the question – Didn’t Ellen White have misunderstandings on some topics? Next I address the question – Why do you keep the feasts if Ellen White didn’t know about it? Last I address the first steps I see people taking that lead them off the path into darkness. In reply to the question, Didn’t Ellen White have misunderstandings on some topics even though she was a prophet? Yes, I agree that all the prophets have had misunderstandings, but God did not allow them to insert their misunderstandings into the messages of truth that He sent through them. John the Baptist had a misunderstanding about the Messiahs true mission. But God did not allow John the Baptist to insert that misunderstanding into the inspired message which he bore. Its true that Ellen White had a misunderstanding about when to start the Sabbath, but I have never yet found a place where she put that misunderstanding into her writings. She never wrote that we should keep the Sabbath from 6 pm to 6 pm even though she believed that way for ten years. During that ten years she wrote many important messages about the Sabbath, but God did not allow her to put that misunderstanding into her messages. Neither did she write that Jesus was coming in 1844, even though we know she herself believed that (this was before she was chosen as a messenger for God). She may have had a misunderstanding about the law in Galatians, but she did not insert that into her writings either. And Im quite sure Ellen White did not understand the truth about the Feasts yet in her day, even though she was closer than any other person. But God did not allow her to put whatever misunderstandings she might have had into the messages she wrote. I have never yet found a place where Ellen White wrote that we shouldnt keep the Feast days. So even though many of the prophets had misunderstandings, God did not allow those misunderstandings to change the inspired messages that the prophet delivered. This is the only way we can have anything sure to plant our feet on. If God allows the prophets to add their misunderstandings into the inspired messages He sends then there might be false statements all throughout the Bible. The only option would be for us to sift through it and try to use our own brains to figure out what is inspired and what has been colored by the misunderstandings on the prophets. Ultimately our own minds would then become the highest standard of truth and error, not Gods word. The scriptures would no longer be infallible. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (2Tim 3:16) Do you see what I mean? If you take the stance that the prophets could have delivered erroneous messages because of their misunderstandings, then all the Bible verses you quote in your studies may be misleading you. You may be basing your beliefs on false information mistakenly inserted by the prophets thousands of years ago. We do have several example where the prophets made mistakes in their messages....and God immediately corrected them so that they would not be giving false information. One example is when king David wanted to build the Temple, and the prophet Nathan told him, Go, do all that is in thine heart; for the God is with thee. (2 Sam. 7:3) But that night God told Nathan to go back and correct what he had said. King David was not to be the one to build the Temple. I remember reading a similar experience once in the life of Ellen White. She had given the church leaders counsel at a certain meeting that was mistaken. And that night God told her to go back and correct what she had said. So God will correct His messengers if they make false statements. Because we know He does this we can trust His word as full truth, not mixed with error. The wine of Babylon is truth mixed with part error, but the word of God is pure truth, not mixed with any error. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” (Isa 8:20) This is one of the tests of a true prophet. False prophets usually speak 90% truth mixed with about 10% deadly error. That is how satan works. He just mixes in a little poison with the drink – just enough to make it deadly, even though the rest of the drink may be nice and healthy and good. He knows the scriptures and the truth much better than any of us do. So he may even mix up a nice drink for us that has much more advanced truth than most people even know about. There may even be much new light in it, but we must inspect it carefully to discern what other hardly-noticeable ingredients may have been mixed in as well! This verse does not say, “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not 100% according to this word, you can still accept them as a true prophet, but just try to sift out the error from the truth.” True prophets speak 100% truth; false prophets speak 90% truth and 10% error. Actually, in my experience, several of the false prophets I have encountered spoke about 99% truth and only 1% error. Satan mixes in however much error he thinks he can get you to swallow. If you are already on your guard he may only mix in 0.05% error for you – however much he thinks he can get you with. But each bit of position deadens your perceptions, so that next time he can mix in more error into your drink. We must watch and pray earnestly so we will not be deceived! Satan deceived one-third of the angels in Heaven, who were much wiser than we are! It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that we can discern and reject his lies. Now, I know that many people have thought they saw errors or contradictions in Ellen White’s writings. I have had the same experience too, both with the Bible and the messages sent through Ellen White. But I have found through my experience that usually these are because of a lack of understanding on my part. Weeks, months, or even years, later I will finally reach the level of knowledge and understanding necessary to realize that these things that before looked to me like contradictions are actually very deep truths – truths that were before way too deep for me to understand! That was why I thought they were contradictions. So now when I find something in the Bible or writings of Ellen White that seems to be an error or contradiction I examine it carefully and see what I can learn about it. If I can’t find any way to resolve it, I accept it and file it in the back of my mind as something that needs more understanding. But I do not cast away my confidence in the Bible or writings of Ellen White because of it! And usually it won’t be too long before I will finally learn something or come to a new understanding that suddenly makes it all fit into place perfectly. It wasn’t any error or contradiction – it was an incredibly deep truth! There are several things right now that are puzzling to me in the Bible and writings of Ellen White, and could look like errors or contradictions. But I have had enough experience with these kinds of things in the past that I know that if I just file it away in the back of my mind for now, I will eventually reach the point where I will be able to understand it and it will all become clear – amazingly clear! So don’t cast away your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward! That which now appears dark will one day be understood. In reply to the question of, Why didn’t Ellen White know about feast keeping if she was a prophet? Here’s my understanding of prophets. Prophets are humans through whom Jehovah sends messages to His people. Prophets only know what Jehovah tells them. And He typically doesn’t tell any one prophet everything there is to know. So prophets are not all-knowing (omniscient); only Jehovah is all-knowing. If prophets knew everything they would be like God Himself. So Ellen White would only have known what God chose to reveal to her at that time in history. So it would be up to God whether He saw best to reveal Feast keeping to her or not. And since the purpose of the prophet was to reveal messages from God to the people, God many times only revealed to the prophet whatever light was intended for that generation, or whatever light they were able to handle at that time. “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” (John 16:12) In some cases Jehovah also revealed things through the prophets that were only meant to be understood by future generations, but the meaning was hidden from the prophets themselves, and the generation they lived in. I believe this is the case with many things Ellen White wrote. We can now see the full meaning and significance of some of the things she wrote, even though she and her generation did not. The full meaning of what she had written was not revealed to them yet at that time. (See 1Pet 1:10-12) There are also times when Jehovah reveals things to His prophets, but forbids them to tell it to the people. Paul speaks of how a certain man (maybe himself) “was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” And the prophet John was about to write some of the things he had heard in vision, but he was told, “Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.” Could Ellen White have been told about the feasts and possibly kept them privately herself, but was told not to write about it yet since the people were not ready? There are some interesting historical tidbits that could hint at this (see Pam Benton’s book, “Did Ellen White Keep the Feasts?”). But there is no proof one way or the other that I know of. Whatever Jehovah may, or may not, have revealed to Ellen White, she did write some very positive things regarding the Feasts that were quite different from the typical teachings of her day. And the things she wrote about the Statutes and Judgments were definitely far in advance of what the majority of people were teaching in her day! This is how Jehovah works; He is leading His people forward, slowly and gently, into brighter and brighter light, as they are able to bear it! If they refuse to advance, He may have to stop shining more light on them for awhile, because He knows they would only reject it if He did. So He sometimes waits until they are more ready to receive it. But sometimes, if they refuse to move forward any farther He has to leave them be and keep leading forward whoever among them is will to keep moving onward. Time and time again, throughout history He has had to leave the greater majority behind because they refused to walk in the advancing light. We are now deciding if this will be the case in our generation. Again, Jehovah’s messengers are human and only know what He chooses to reveal to them. They do not know everything there is to know and may very likely still have misunderstandings on some points of truth. But Jehovah makes sure that they do not mingle their own understandings with the inspired messages He has them write down. His Word is pure, and not mingled with human misunderstandings, even though the Bible prophets themselves may have had such misunderstandings. Jehovah protects His Words of Truth, even though He sends them through imperfect human channels. Jehovah alone is infallible. The prophets themselves are not infallible. But when Jehovah sends messages through His prophets, the messages are infallible, because they come from Jehovah Himself! So that’s a summary of my understanding of prophets. One more thing I want to address about how people relate to Ellen White: I have seen a worrisome trend among some people. It seems like some people have an independent spirit and they want to have freedom to interpret that Bible in a different way and not be hemmed in by the messages sent through Ellen White. The writings of Ellen White are very broad and cover just about every area of doctrine. The Bible is a much more compact book, and so it does not specify nearly as many barriers that would restrict people’s freedom to interpret it the way they want to. So because the messages sent through Ellen White keep people from being able to interpret the Bible the way they want to, they begin to find flaws with the writings of Ellen White and things they suppose to be errors. This gives them the freedom to begin to pick and choose what they want to believe and what they chalk up to “Ellen White’s misunderstandings”. Now they are no longer restricted to staying within the bounds Ellen White defined. They may not even realize they are doing this. But it is dangerous business. I have seen many people start out this way, and they eventually get lost in a maze of confusion. I have seen a number of people start out by just questioning a few things in the writings of Ellen White. But they affirmed heartily that they still believed she was inspired by God. But then as time goes on they question more and more until finally they conclude that she was not a prophet from God. But they still heartily affirm their belief in the Bible. But after awhile they start to question things in the Bible too, sometimes starting with the writings of Paul. Then they go on to question the life of Jesus. Soon they have entirely rejected the entire New Testament. Next they begin to question certain books in the Old Testament. They just go on from one stage to the next, until they have totally cut their anchor line and there is no longer anything to hold the ship from being wrecked in the wild sea of error. But all along they keep affirming their right to question and discard what they don’t think is valid, and they claim that they are only following God’s leading as He opens all these things to their minds. They seem sincere, but eventually they are adrift on the sea without an anchor or a sail! I don’t know what has happened to these people after this, because they usually drift away and I lose contact with them. I’m seeing more and more people beginning on this course, and it alarms me! Yes, the messages sent through Ellen White are very restrictive, they prevent us from interpreting the Bible how we might like to. But this is because God wants to prevent us from leaving the right path and venturing down this dead end road of doubt and unbelief. I see many of my friends on facebook venturing a few feet down this path, and it alarms me. I feel like I am traveling up the narrow path to Heaven, and it is getting narrower and narrower, and there are an increasing number of hazards along the way. And lately I have been seeing people falling off the path left and right! People were walking right close to me and then suddenly they are gone! It seems like I used to only see the really “liberal” people falling off the path. I expected that – I could see it coming. But now I am seeing people who were once the most conservative, Bible believing, folks, suddenly get tangled up in some error and disappear over the edge of the abyss! I’m becoming very alarmed! The winds of doctrine are blowing very strong these days. We must not allow ourselves to be blown off the path. God has set up guard rails all along the way, and if we keep within these guard rails we will be safe, but if we have a desire to be independent and we step outside the bounds of these guardrails, we may very well vanish over the edge of the precipice! These guard rails are the Bible and messages sent through Ellen White. It’s not safe to step even one foot over these guardrails anymore! The path is too narrow, and there are too many snares and trip wires set up to catch unwary pilgrims! Don’t fall off the path friends! I don’t want to see any more of you go!
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:05:12 +0000
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