The Bible indicates that there would be prophets beyond the days in which the Bible writers lived, otherwise, why would the Bible warn us to beware of false prophets unless there would also be true prophets amongst them?

Shouldn't we "try the spirits"? (1 John 4:1)

/

Actually, SDA have had many prophets: William Miller, two before Ellen White, and quite a few afterwards, the latest being, I believe, Ernie Knoll. The Church was driven into the arms of Ellen White however only in 1980 in response to the challenge put forth by Desmond Ford. Its measured and determined response practically guaranteed her the status of "sole prophet", enshrined as it were in its Fundamental Beliefs, so much so that nothing must deviate from her word or else be heretical.

Yet, curiously, quite a bit of her doctrines is not Biblical at all.

/

A true prophet will talk according to the Law and previous revelation. All the words of a prophet needs to be tested as commanded by the Lord in Deut 13 & 18 which tells us how to test anyone who comes as a prophet. That is the solemn duty of any individuals of a church body who wants to give the title of a prophet to anyone.

I do believe the early visions of EGW were from the Lord, but beyond that: her interpretations of the visions, her own views, and the teachings & beliefs of the pioneers by which she approve or disprove according to the voice she believe was the Lord. Some may be true inspiration, but many are not in harmony with scriptures. Anything not in harmony with the law and other scriptures needs to be discarded. I'm not saying we need to discard all of EGW's writings. But serious work is needed to weed out all the words that was her opinions and not the word from the Lord. From testing SDAs doctrines the past 5 years, I conservatively estimate about 80% of her writings are uninspired.

The Lord takes credit to send anyone with visions and dreams including false prophets. Deut 13 says that even their words can comes to past -- however none of these are proof that person is a true prophet or not. The proof lies if the person speaks in harmony with what was previously reveal to be from the Lord and have known Him from these. Anything not in harmony with what was first establish via Moses and other prophets, is telling us to follow other gods.

AV Dt 13:1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,2. and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; 3 Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Notice above the Lord takes credit to send such person in the purpose to test us if we would follow the Lord or not. Now that's the whole purpose and in this, EGW was used to fulfill a very important task to all of us. Without the work of false prophets we wouldn't of known our true heart status. This is the mercy and the work of the Lord, not to condemn us, but to open our eyes so we can repent and get to know the true one Lord.

The person to stone here, is not EGW for she was sent by the Lord to show us our heart. We need to stone the false propthet in all of our heart that persuaded us to not seek out the Lord for ourselfs in His previous revelation. The reality is we were infactuated with signs and wonders and made a god out of those who had the visions and made all their words infallible and put them above Scriptures. Then we further neglected our studying of His word by which the neglect of it put us in this situation at the first place for not recognizing the words spoken were not from Him, and sought the interpretation of our god, the propthet, to tell us how to interpret any scriptures. We adventists have all done that and are very guilty of not making our food "every word that proceeded from the mouth of the Lord". And have become ignorant of it.

It's time to follow what EGW and James counsel us to do in early years, to study the Bible for ourselves and not quote her words.

Many studied the Bible and were later delighted when they found the same truths in EGW's writings. When we witness to non-believers we do so with Bible Studies (encouraging the study of the Bible) reading and studying from scripture.

Many who thoroughly study the Bible, find that EGW's writings have a ring of truth that harmonizes with what is read in scriptures.



Seems some people ASSUME that Adventists just get their beliefs from EGW but that is NOT the case at all.

People everywhere use other authors to supplement their study. Even the great reformer Luther who promoted "sola scripture" was highly influenced by the so called Catholic "church father" Augustine. Going into Jewish traditional writings isn't sola scripture either.

The Jewish religious leaders messed up considerable over the centuries on their understanding of truth, prophecy, salvation and the Messiah. I have considerable reservations when people look to their traditional written extensions to the Bible for truth.
They may be helpful in understanding their culture, practices and usage of language, but we should be hesitant in looking to those writings to define truth.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has never officially recognized anyone as a prophet except Ellen White.


William Miller was never a Seventh-day Adventist. He was not a prophet. He was a serious Bible Student who prayerfully studied scripture and felt impressed to share his findings with the world.

Only a very small percentage of those who believed Miller's message later became Seventh-day Adventists.

It's true that two men were called by God to the prophetic ministry before Ellen White.
William Foy was a preacher in the Millerite movement, he had four visions which he shared with Millerite believers 1842-1844, he never became a Seventh-day Adventist, and seems to have disappeared from Adventist history long before the SDA church was formed in 1863.

Foss turned down the prophetic ministry and was never any leading personnel in the Adventist Church.

A lot of people have claimed the prophetic gift, both inside and outside -- but they were never recognized as such by the church.

The idea that the "church was driven into the arms of EGW in 1980" is completely false. It has been in the last 30 years that great movements to destroy her creditability have been launched, and thousands have rejected her, but many more see through the assault and having experienced the ring of heavenly, scriptural, truth in her writings, see this assault as a strategy of Satan which he must carry out in his last great quest to deceive the nations. Her writings just too plainly outline his deceptions.

Wishful thinking dedication but far from the truth. I agree with James Peterson when he said to you
I don't agree with the points James brought in that discussion that I was about to bring it up but couldn't because it was closed??? For what reason? Because James dare say something true about us making EGW an idol and relying on her interpretation of scriptures? It's all over the forums, us quoting EGW to prove things, and often EGW can be used to debate both sides of an issues.

With all honesty, dedication, how can you say we are "sola scripture"? Besides the fact we filter scriptures via the church or EGW interpretation, and besides the fact that we mostly quote EGW instead of the Bible to prove points... when we do quote scriptures, the forums shows us that we cherry pick them and ignore any other that doesn't agree, we also twist or add to scripture so it will say what we want it to say, and then we are quite ignorant of the foundation of all truth(the laws of Moses). Reality is often not equal to our perception. You need to be aware of our idols(Ez 14) to come to know of what is reality.

You hide the reality by diverting the point by trivial details not related with James' errors of our church history by which he wouldn't know because he's not from our denomination. But that doesn't make his statement wrong. He is right and perceived rightly and the forums is our witness against us. It's time for us to acknowledge it and start exercising to put our idols at the door when we open scriptures so that our idols doesn't twist all the words of the Lord(Ez 14).

I realize you have left Adventism far behind and embraced a different belief system, filtered by your exposure to Hebraic literature.


But others are fully convinced FROM SCRIPTURE of Adventist truths?
Don't think that they have not spent hours studying SCRIPTURE and finding that the Adventist truths are ALL THROUGH those sacred pages?

What you have been drawn into is the very deception that will sweep the world into the false kingdom -- indeed it is the very OPPOSITE of Adventist prophetic truths and is based very much on the Hebraic extra Biblical writings mixed with dispensationalism.

It's scary how this type of attack on Adventist truths (especially concerning the endtime events) is in some form or other all over the internet. Believe me, I've been more than exposed to it in its varying forms, and I am fully convinced it is the master plan to erase all opposition to the earthly counterfeit kingdom that will be established just prior to the real Advent of Christ, this counterfeit will be heralded as Christ's kingdom and will deceive the whole world.

Revelation is plain that the whole world (almost) will be worshipping the beast and his image.

It never ceases to amaze me how zealously this is being presented in its various forms and yet that train of thought seems to also teach that everyone will eventually be saved -- so why is this zeal so strong?

That in itself shows me that the enemy behind these teachings is working with extreme intensity to be sure everyone will be deceived until it is too late.

Just because I study the law in the Bible like all believers should do… doesn’t equate that I study Hebraic literature. You err right there. I have put up front my intention to study all our(SDA) doctrines over 4 years ago when I joined this forum. Actually you made similar accusation just 2 years ago by which I explained to you very clearly where I stood in this post here. This has not changed. The reason why I engaged into these study is by the counsel of EGW. Just because my belief ended up to differ from SDA church today, is because the church is not biblical. I wasn’t expecting this. The more I test our doctrines to what the Bible actually says, the more I see how superficial and unbiblical our understanding is.

Then why can’t you prove Adventist truths in the discussion in this forum where I’m testing truths with SOLA Scriptures?

This means nothing. We can spend 100 lifetimes of hours studying SCRIPTURE and still coming out in upholding whatever idols we uplift in our heart. Why do you think Jesus spent most of his teaching ministry to correct the Judahites who in those days have “spent hours studying SCRIPTURE”?
You are full of assumption dedication which is not proper to do especially when you treat it as facts. This shows you talk without doing the thorough investigation or just plainly refusing the facts set before you as I did to you 2 years ago and you like jumping to conclusion to your own liking despite what is true or not. I don’t know where you got that I read Hebraic literature beside I study the Law and look up the original Hebrew words in an OT text.

Also, I am far from believing in dispensationalism. This shows how little you know what I have said here. Old Israel-Edomites prophecies will be fulfilled as stated in the Bible(contrary to what SDAs believe that these prophecies are conditional thus not in effect anymore) that say they will be destroyed – but after that - comes judgment --”... when thy judgments [are] in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” Is 26:9 They will be judged and receive the same faith as any other believers or unbelievers who continue in the path of being little antichrists ruling with their own sets of laws without receiving authority from above.

What makes you think you are not worshipping the beast yourself? The deception comes when we cannot even see our own heart idols by which James and I have brought to your attention. Any heart idol will blind us and deceive us to worship some form of beasts or image of it. In this discussion here, you have repeated the same old lies as the Judahites of old believed when they believed there was no way the Lord would destroy their “church”. He did it twice already and He prophesied to destroy Jerusalem another time(Is 29 & Is 19).

Most people who believe in Universal Salvation don’t believe in the judgment nor in the validity of the laws(just as any other denomination including SDAs). To put the record straight, I’m not a Universal Salvationalist believer, I’m a “Restitution of all things”(Act 3:21) believer (if a label could be used this would be it) and there are actually very few that believes as such in the world. I would be surprised you would of encounter any other beside the only one I know who is Adventist who teaches at the Adventist Online forum. And he still attends and only fellowship in Adventist churches as I do(if I have the means to afford the gas) as many other believers in the “restitution of all things” does fellowship in their own church family. There’s no church establish and there’s no organized believing structure in that faith. So you err with your assumptions-conclusive habits once again in categorizing me in that other group based on one similar belief. Reality is we differ widely in believes. It’s like saying to an Adventist they are Catholic because they share one common belief.

Still fighting the devil dedication and still viewing everyone outside the “church belief” as your or church enemy? We have already went through this I think twice in the past dedication. You can see the first time here at the last third of the post.

The Laws of Tribulations
We SDAs are quite ignorant of who is the real enemy and suffer from a severe paranoia syndrome thinking everyone is out to get them during the time of tribulation. This paranoia is described in Lev 26:14 “ ‘But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, 15 if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant, 16 I, in turn, will do this to you:... 17 I will set My face against you so that you will be struck down before your enemies; and those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you. “ Notice the paranoia of the rebellious-believer running away from an imaginary enemy when all along they’re thinking “God is with us” when in reality it is the Lord who has set himself as your real and only enemy and have raised up those you made as enemy(by which you should of considered them and loved them as yourself) to rule over you. This is a hard thing to swallow, nevertheless this is the real truth and the Lord has not changed His laws and His ways towards His people in correcting them FIRST. He acts in this way today, and will still tomorrow until they or we repent.

Just like the Judahites when faced with old Babylon, they did not understand that it was the Lord who sent Babylon to execute His judgment on them despite Jeremiah told them many time before hand and they should of clued in that He was talking according to the law in Lev 26 & Deut 28 especially when they had already gone through 6 captivities in previous history
(#1. 8 years to Mesopotamia, Jud 3;
#2. 18 years to Moabites Jud 3:14;
#3. 20 years to Cannanites Jud 4:3;
#4. 7 years to Midians Jud 6;
#5. 18 years to Ammonites Jud 10; and
#6. 40 years to the Philistines Jud 16).

But no they forgot all the past corrections from the Lord and rebellious Judahites believed in their own lies(via their idols twisting things for them) despite all the prophets sent to tell them otherwise….they still believed that the Lord was still with them and Babylon was there enemy; when it was the other way around. Babylon was doing what any other conquering nation would do, but it was the Lord their real enemy. But they believed in their false prophet Hananiah that said that the Lord is with them and not to comply with bad Babylon’s demands. Amazing how blind a nation may have become despite all that the Lord has done in the past to show them His ways which was reveal in the Law in Lev 26 & Deut 28. But the Lord did not take this further rebellion lightly and this was contempt of court. Babylon may have been barbarian uncircumcised unbelievers, despite the king of Babylon was called “my servant” and he was raised up for the purpose to bring judgment to correct rebellious Judah.

This is the same parallel we need to make with Mystery Babylon today. They were raised up and are serving the Lord’s purpose to correct us because it is us who was in rebellion in the first place, who did not seek Him and His ways, who made all kind of false assumptions-conclusions-claims in the name of the Lord, were not living according to His laws(His ways), and did not establish or teach His laws(His ways) in our own homes & community & government; thus it is our(& our forefathers) fault that society has become so degenerative because we fail to bless all nations with the blessings of knowing the Lord and following Him alone.

It is not them(mystery Babylon, or any other enemy you might be blaming) that is in fault, but it is us who needs to repent from our evil ways.

There’s nothing new here with what is happening today. The Lord is acting out what was plainly laid in the laws of tribulations in Lev 26:14-46 and Deut 28:15-68. SDAs concept of the “time of tribulations” is not even Biblical and is more in line with what the house of Judah falsely believed before their destruction. They felt their church belief was jeopardized by those uncircumcised outsiders, when all along all they had as beliefs was only vomit(teachings of men, Is 28:8) and they had stray from the Lord a long time ago.

There’s nothing the church needs to protect if they have the truth and walk in it. But if they have built their foundation on teachings of men and have nailed the truth(laws of the Lord) to the cross, then nothing out there will protect these falsehood because the Lord said He will become your enemy(Lev 26:17) and will come after anyone who claims His name and does not live up to His standard that He has established in His laws.