Do you believe that prospective members of the SDA church should have to believe that Ellen White was inspired by God in order to become baptized in the SDA denomination? Why or why not?

It's one of the 27 Fundamental Beliefs; #17 to be exact. So yes, it should be a requirement. The first step down the road to perdition for any SDA is a rejection of the light sent to us in the SOP.

Hi Windsor, long time no hear.

Yes I do believe that the belief in her should be a requirement. Why? Glad you asked. Because our denomination would not be what it is without the SOP. If the church as a whole is going to accept her as the prophet she is should not we as members also be required to accept her? She is fundamental to our faith just as is the 7th day Sabbath, the state of the dead etc.

Now if a person wishes to accept everything else we stand for but reject Mrs. White then that is their prerogative but they should not then call them selves a Seventh-Day Adventist.

I liken the church in some ways to a club, in any club there are certain rules and regulations which you must follow if you wish to be a member. Should we expect less from what we believe to be the remnant church?

Now I do question what belief in her entails and there is much debate on that point within the church.

Redfog

I would also answer YES. However, there are many in our church who either don't have her books or they collect dust on the shelves. There is an assent to her as a prophet but in some it doesn't seem to take root in the heart.

There is such wonderful light and truth in her books--I love to read them. I am always inspired and convicted when I read her writings, as well as my Bible. They seem to go hand in hand.

I find her writings inspiring, but this is not a requirement of a converted heart who wants to give their life to Christ. I didn't have to answer that for my baptism, and at the same time I believe God inspired her. Naturally many people will always say "oh looky here, she made a n error", or "she plagarized" or she was a false prophet" or whatever.. I believe the gift of prophecy is for the end times, and we have plenty of counsel in what she wrote (I have only scratched the surface), but I read her books to get a glimpse of things to come and not as Scrupture.
God Bless,
Will

It depends on how you view baptism. Do you believe it is a commitment to all God has said, or is it somewhat less significant?

Let me ask it this way,

If you were about to get married, and you told your future spouse, I want to get married, but I think you are a liar, how receptive do you think your future spouse would be?

It is similar to a person that wants to be baptized and still wants to smoke. Would you tell your future spouse that you still want to get married, but you also cannot give up your other boyfriend or girlfriend?

I think that if a person does not believe that EGW is God inspired author, they are not ready to be baptized. Baptism is acceptance of all 27 beliefs and a willingness to devote the rest of one's life to God just as a marriage is devoting ones life to a spouse.

I too belive that a person who is being baptized should belive in the prophet God has given the remnant church - Seventh-day Adventist. I have seen newly baptized people who did not have a belief in Sister White as a prophet and sad to say they were very unhappy later on in their experience. Most of them left the faith as it was too much for them. Maybe if they had had a more understanding and belief before they were baptized they would have not went out.

Naturally it is ludicrous to claim to be an SDA and simultaneously disregard the SOP.
But, this brings up a pastoral problem: How do you tell if someone actually does?? A written test on the Testimonies? The person's sworn allegiance signed and passed by the church board? Or simple the man's word, "Sure, sure...I think EGW was inspired, yeah."??

I know many an SDA who claim to faithfully endorse EGW, yet ignore her books, or read only to support their own pet theories, or pick and choose what they consider safe to endorse from her and pleastantly ignore the rest.

So the bottomline, light-years beyond the "club membership" concept, is what is actual faith in God's Messenger in realtionship to baptism unto His death? Can one trust Christ and distrust His spokeswoman?

This sounds like if we are to be baptized unto Ellen White. That to me sounds ludicrous if not outright blasphempous.
If you feel your life is on the line and I am talking about the meatier things in terms of eternal matters do you think its right to tell a person "Sorry we need you to believe in Ellen White as a prohphet, so that will take X weeks\days\months\years, and after our Bible studies then you can be baptized". Being on the Seventh-Day Adventist membership does not mean you are going to heaven. No one was baptized unto Isaiah, or Ezekiel or John the Baptist, our source of eternal life comes from Jesus Christ not Sister White. I think that circumstances may be different for people in the sense that my parents are\were Seventh-Day Adventists and believe that Ellen White is a messenger of God, so to me it was not a matter of whincing or second thoughts when I read or heard something Sister White said. In fact I have had more of an interest on the platform of Truth that our pioneers have established and of things to come than I did in '97 when I got baptized. I knew I had to give my life to Christ because I want to be saved, and I was baptized
God Bless,
Will

[ June 04, 2005, 11:30 PM: Message edited by: Will ]

Will, I think you're getting things a little twisted up here. No one is saying we're baptized into Ellen White. (I don't really understand where you came up with that.)

But for anyone to reject light from heaven is a serious matter....with heaven-or-hell implications. It's not so important for a Methodist, or a Presbyterian, or a Catholic, etc. to profess belief in EGW's inspiration. They don't yet have the light we have. But for an SDA, a member of God's remnant to whom she was sent, it's vitally important. If an SDA doesn't believe in her inspiration, that's a rejection of Christ Himself. He is, after all, the One Who sent her to us. That's pretty meaty! If we reject her, we might as well reject all the other prophets God sent -- including the Bible writers. A prophet is a prophet, is a prophet. It's not given to us to pick and choose which ones we'll accept as inspired, and which ones we'll disregard, cafeteria style. (I'm not saying that you're doing that, not at all; speaking in general terms)