Good post. I have recently started reading both Last Day Events and Maranatha! WOW what timely messages for the end times! How thankful I am that God through His Holy Spirit has blessed us with such messages straight from the Throne Room of heaven!

Praise God!

And also - a praise for this thread and those who do not accept Ellen White - giving away those valuable resources to those who would genuinely appreciate and study them!

God is good - ALL the time!


in Christ,

Bob

Let me make a few statements that I belive to be true.

#1 There is no SDA that follows everything that Ellen White says to do.

#2 No SDA really understands what she meant about everything she wrote about.

#3 Most SDAs don't believe in everything she ever said. For one thing ... we probably don't really understand it.

#4 Her purpose was to point us to scripture. If she doesn't do that for you ... then no sweat. Just go to scripture anyways.

#5 Let me offer you some advice ... don't be caught up in trying to prove her wrong or proving her right. It really doesn't matter. What matters is God's Word.

And like Amelia said ... believing in her or not believing in her every word should not make or break your membership in the church.

#1 Agreed. But there is no SDA that follows everything that the Bible says to do... so what's your point?
#2 Agreed. See #1
#3 Agreed. See #1
#4 Agreed
#5 If you believe Mrs. White was a prophet like Isaiah, Daniel, Paul, John, Moses.. Then she presented God's Word, too. So, then it DOES matter.

Thanks Bob and TS! I too have total faith in the Spirit of Prophecy and am astounded and blessed as I reread Maranatha. I'm taking notes on it and have been working on them for over a year. Every Adventist should prayfully read and study this book. Indeed, this goes for all her books. What a marvelous blessing!!!!!

Suzanne

I just want to make it clear to everyone at this forum that I dont have any bad feelings towards my local SDA church or EGW , but I will say that because of the thorough study I did on EGW & the SDA church that I no longer believe that EGW was a true prophet nor did I ever believe that the general conference was infallible. Ellen White's statement, "When the judgement of the General Conference, which is the highest authority that God has upon earth, is exercised, private independence and private judgement must not be maintained, but must be surrendered." (Ellen White, Testimonies, vol. 3, p.492), really began to bother me. How is this claim of denominational infallibility any different from similar papal claims against which Adventists are so vocal? Is not the Holy Spirit the highest authority that God has upon earth, whose duty it is to convict individual hearts and minds that are open to Him? I realized that based on my Spirit lead convictions I could not surrender my private judgement to earthly men, so my only option was to leave the church. Once again if anyone wants to read my full study & discern it for themselves, I would be happy to send it via email.

I agree with you on this quote. Either I understand her correctly and accept it. Or I understand it incorrectly and thus reject the message. But either way ... you don't have to accept all of Ellen White to be an SDA.

Your quote and your conclusions have been taken out of context.
As for the papacy, the 'universal' (Catholic) church is governed by one man having an agenda of speaking and acting against God's will for money, power and other motives.

As for the General Conference, Mrs White was specifically contrasting the 'independent' ideas and judgment of one man against the decisions and guidance of a group of Godly people, dedicated to following God's word and will.

If you take the words of Christ in Matthew as a literal statement ("you have the keys to the Kingdom and what you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven", etc), then you have to conclude that God has a chosen people, and specifically for these last days. If God can set up and take down leaders of nations, then He can control the leadership of the Remnant.

Mrs. White didn't say they were (are) infallible. The apostles and all the prophets weren't infallible, either, but who will say they weren't chosen by God to fulfill a mission? I have issues with some local conferences, but the General Conference leadership is the cream of the crop and the remnant WILL push on through to the end. I believe the remnant will be led by the GC leadership. Mrs. White said the church will 'appear' to fail, but it won't. I can accept that.

What you say is true, but what about people who say they believe she was a false prophet? If she was a false prophet, who inspired her? Would you want to be a member of a church that was co-founded and led largely by a person who was inspired by Satan, as some believe?

She herself said that she was either inspired by God or inspired by His enemy. I talk to people frequently in the various forums who believe she was of the devil. If I believed that, I certainly wouldn't want anything to do with her or with the church she led.

I believe that some who think she was false still want to stay with the SDA church because they haven't really thought through the implications of their view of Ellen White.

Not sure where someone would go to. I doubt they would find a church with more truth. With EGW or without EGW.

I think the problem lies in the perception and need to think that EGW was perfect and without error. If one finds something they disagree with in her ... they tend to want to toss her and the church out the window.

I don't believe this is necessary.

I think you're misunderstanding what Ellen White said. If you read her life's story and everything she said about the church and the GC, it will be plain that she is not claiming the GC is infallible. There were plenty of mistakes made, and she writes about them. She never claimed infallibility for herself or for the church or the GC.