Have the Spirit Of Prophey Books Been Changed?

Avalee,

Isn't it sad to see the lengths to which some folk will go to stir up doubt and distrust. Your hunch seems right to be wary of these critics. Guardians they are not.

The part of the Patriarchs and Prophets passage that they use to "compare" leaves out several paragraphs. If one reads the whole passage, the context clearly implies that as the Israelites moved across the Lord followed behind them in the pillar of fire which illuminated their way, leaving the Egyptians in the shadow of the pillar. As they passed throught the sea, it says the Egyptians followed behind the pillar which would have left them out in the middle in the darkness or dim light of the very early morning hours. It says that "in the morning watch" the Lord turned the fire toward them creating panic and confusion where they were in the midst of the passage through the sea. The morning watch would have been the period just before daybreak. By that point the Israelites were safely out of the sea and as daylight was coming on, Moses stretched out the rod drowning the Egyptians. As day breaks, that is the sight that the Israelites see.

There really isn't any genuine inconsistency between the two passages. It seems that those wh would hold that EGW merelysat down and took dictation from God's lips, look at any variation in wording with suspicion. Understanding that EGW wrote and edited her own work over time, reused and adapted earlier writings and used other sources and a staff of assistants to help research and edit puts things in a more realisitic perspective and gives a broader, more meaningful understanding of inspiration.

Tom

Avalee,

When I first came back into the church someone started talking to me about the books being changed. There was something about a man in Canada who had done a lot of "reseach" proving that this or that one had changed EGW's writtings. My mother had run into someone thirty years ago who was telling her that Willie White and others had ordered books to be burned after Ellen White's death. Many stories of this nature are floating around. Just recently I heard (again) something about Uriah Smith had changed the Great Controversy. Totally bogus. Smith died in 1903 and EGW herself revised the book in 1911, eight years after Smith died.

If God could protect the writings of Scripture for 4000 years, He is perfectly capable of protecting the writings of EGW for 150 years. Satan doesn't care how he gets people to lay the work of His messenger aside and discount it, anything will serve his purpose. This is just one of those things.

The same folks who are trying to tear down the SP are the one's who think that the only Bible to study or read is the KJV. The find something to nit-pik and that is there cause, not the gospel.

Rod Dunneback

Hi Rodney,

I would have thought it 180 degrees the other way. If you were to feel that textus receptus material was going to get you as close as possible to what the Bible writting prophets said, then safeguarding SOP from a modern prophet would be a logical and comperable theological step.

Because if someone would only settle for inspiration, in an as undiluted, apples to apples translation format as the KJV only mindset preposes; then it would seem that they of all SDA's would want to follow through in the same mindset and safeguard SOP.

At least that's how it seems to me.

BTW on on my co-workers, only uses KJV. I would have thought she would have preffered the Douay - Rheims, since she is Catholic. On our home PC we use Online Bible freeware which has a wide assortment. But there would not be any real problems caused if KJV was the only Bible version available.

I got a real suprise when I looked up a text in KJV & DR once. It was talking about the sacrifices in the OT. KJV said sacrifice, DR said HOLOCAUST

EX:

(KJV)Exodus 20:24 An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.
(DR)Exodus 20:24 You shall make an altar of earth unto me, and you shall offer upon it your holocausts and peace offerings, your sheep and oxen, in every place where the memory of my name shall be: I will come to thee, and will bless thee.

Exodus 24:5 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD.
Exodus 24:5 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, and they offered holocausts, and sacrificed pacific victims of calves to the Lord.

Leviticus 1:10 And if his offering be of the flocks, namely, of the sheep, or of the goats, for a burnt sacrifice; he shall bring it a male without blemish.
Leviticus 1:10 ¶ And if the offering be of the flocks, a holocaust of sheep or of goats, he shall offer a male without blemish.

Leviticus 1:13 But he shall wash the inwards and the legs with water: and the priest shall bring it all, and burn it upon the altar: it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.
Leviticus 1:13 But the entrails and the feet they shall wash with water. And the priest shall offer it all and burn it all upon the altar for a holocaust, and most sweet savour to the Lord.

Leviticus 1:14 And if the burnt sacrifice<05930> for his offering to the LORD be of fowls, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves, or of young pigeons.
Leviticus 1:14 But if the oblation of a holocaust to the Lord be of birds, of turtles, or of young pigeons:


This took me aback & I wondered why the word holocaust instead of sacrifice. lots of the words used and translated sacrifice = strong's #'s <05930>


05930 hle ‘olah o-law’ or hlwe ‘owlah o-law’

f act part of 05927; TWOT-1624c, 1624d; n f

AV-burnt offering 264, burnt sacrifice 21, ascent 1, go up 1; 289

1) whole burnt offering
2) ascent, stairway, steps

05930. hle æolah o-law’; or hlwe æowlah o-law’; feminine active participle of 05927; a step or (collectively, stairs, as ascending); usually a holocaust (as going up in smoke):—ascent, burnt offering (sacrifice), go up to. See also 05766.


So holocaust is within the list of definitions, but the english word holocaust does not connotate the idea of sacrifice but rather Auschwitz or Bergenbelsen or Trublinka - the Nazi death camps.

The english word sacrifice carries mental images & so does holocaust, but I saw a trend, that the Biblical context shows the appropriate definition to use. I also saw the trend that SOP uses similiar principles concerning the uses of words, phrases, definitions.

Few folks use the phrases "trig the wheels" or "chock the wheels" etc. Those phrases applied to animal powered transportation & the actions involved with wagons & sleights & so on.

Folks that want to modernize SOP, do not have the opportunity to consult EGW, so changing words, phrases, and word pictures - may retain some basic things, but runs the risk of giving a different set of connotations than EGW written SOP would do. God knows that, and has caused SOP to be spread in various media, as EGW wrote it & worked with assistants and approved of the finished books, manuscripts, and so on.

I've heard this too, and I called the Ellen White estate about it. I specifically asked about Great Controversy. They told me that indeed a committee of men edited Great Controversy. They also said that Ellen White authorized the changes they made.

However, I found the following quote written by Ellen White's son. "In a few places where ambiguous or misleading terms have been used, Mother has authorized a changed reading, but she protests against any change in the argument or subject matter of the book, and indeed, we find, as we study into the matter, a clear and satisfactory defense for those passages to which our critics might take exception."

My husband decided to do a close comparison between the original Great Controversy and the current Great Controversy. He found that about 200 pages have been added and many pages deleted. The changes were very major--not minor as Ellen White was saying in the above quote.

So, my question is this. Do committees of men think that God wasn't able to get His Word through His Prophet right the first time that they had to come along and do major changes?

For those who want to obtain the original Ellen White writings before being edited by committees of men, and do their own comparisons, go to www.vbates.com.

Ellen White died in 1915, well after the publication of the 1911 edition of GC. She approved of the changes.

Avalee:

Early in Mrs. White's ministry, she published (I think it was four) volumns that were titled: SPIRIT OF PROPHECY Vol. 1 . . . etc. Over a period of time, those sold so well that the publishers felt there should be another printing. Ellen White said no, she wanted to revise, and expand, to meet a more general audience than that intended for the SOP series. The books that she then wrote became know as THE CONFLICT OF THE AGES series. I think that you know what these favorite books are.

It should be pointed out, the the changes were made by Mrs. White. They were made as she then had a different audience in mind. But, yes, the Conflict series does hava a basis in the old SOP series. Today, you can find elements in GC, and other books in the series from the old SOP series.