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 A Careful Examination of Ellen G. White's Teachings

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Michael
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Michael



A Careful Examination of Ellen G. White's Teachings Empty
PostSubject: A Careful Examination of Ellen G. White's Teachings   A Careful Examination of Ellen G. White's Teachings EmptyTue Feb 19, 2008 12:41 am

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The law and the gospel cannot be separated. In Christ mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. The gospel has not ignored the obligations due to God by man. The gospel is the law unfolded, nothing more nor less. It gives no more latitude to sin than does the law. The law points to Christ; Christ points to the law. The gospel calls men to repentance. Repentance of what?--Of sin. And what is sin?-It is the transgression of the law. Therefore the gospel calls men from their transgression back to obedience to the law of God. Jesus, in His life and death, taught the strictest obedience. He died, the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, that the honour of God's law might be preserved, and yet man not utterly perish.\

The work of salvation in both the Old and the New Testament dispensation is the same. Christ was the foundation of the whole Jewish economy. The types and shadows under which the Jews worshipped all pointed forward to the world's Redeemer. It was by faith in a coming Saviour that sinners were saved then. It is through faith in Christ that they are justified today.

In giving His Son, God gave Himself that man might have another trial. If God could have changed this law to meet man in his fallen condition, would He not have done this, and retained His only begotten Son in heaven?--He certainly would. But because His law was as changeless as His character, He gave His beloved Son, who was above law, and one with Himself, to meet the penalty which His justice demanded.

Satan is working with all his deceptive power to ensnare the world. He would have them believe that this great sacrifice was made in order to abolish God's law. He represents Christ as opposed to the law of God's government in heaven and in earth. But the Sovereign of the world has a law by which to govern His heavenly intelligences and His human family, and the death of His Son fixes the immutability of that law beyond any question. God has no intention of doing away with His great standard of righteousness. By this standard He can define what a correct character is.

"Christ consented to die in the sinner's stead, that man, by a life of obedience, might escape the penalty of the law of God. His death did not make the law of God of none effect; it did not slay the law, lessen its claims, or detract from its sacred dignity. The death of Christ proclaimed the justice of His Father's law in punishing the transgressor, in that He consented to suffer the penalty of the law transgressed Himself, in order to save fallen man from its curse. The death of God's beloved Son on the cross shows the immutability of the law of God. His death magnifies the law and makes it honourable, and gives evidence to man of its changeless character. From His own divine lips are heard the words, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." The death of Christ justified the claims of the law."

But the doctrine is now largely taught that the gospel of Christ has made the law of God of none effect; that by "believing" we are released from the necessity of being doers of the word. But this is the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which Christ so unsparingly condemned. To the church of Ephesus He says, "I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars; and hast borne, and hast patience, and for My name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember then from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate."

"Those who are teaching this doctrine today have much to say in regard to faith and the righteousness of Christ; but they pervert the truth, and make it serve the cause of error. They declare that we have only to believe on Jesus Christ, and that faith is all-sufficient: that the righteousness of Christ is to be the sinner's credentials; that this imputed righteousness fulfills the law for us, and that we are under no obligation to obey the law of God. This class claim that Christ came to save sinners, and that He has saved them. "I am saved," they will repeat over and over again. But are they saved while transgressing the law of Jehovah?--No; for the garments of Christ's righteousness are not a cloak for iniquity. Such teaching is a gross deception, and Christ becomes to these persons a stumbling block as He did to the Jews,--to the Jews, because they would not receive Him as their personal Saviour, to these professed believers in Christ, because they separate Christ and the law, and regard faith as a substitute for obedience. They separate the Father and the Son, the Saviour of the world. Virtually they teach, both by precept and example, that Christ, by His death, saves men in their transgressions."

It is necessary that every intelligent being shall understand the principles of the law of God. Christ through the apostle James declares, "Whoso shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." These words were spoken this side of the death of Christ; therefore the law was binding upon all at that time.

The Saviour raised His voice in protest against those who regard the divine commandments with indifference and carelessness. He said, "Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." And He also declared, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled."

"Men may talk of freedom, of gospel liberty. They may assert that they are not in bondage to the law. But the influence of a gospel hope will not lead the sinner to look upon the salvation of Christ as a matter of free grace, while he continues to live in transgression of the law of God. When the light of truth dawns upon his mind, and he fully understands the requirements of God, and realizes the extent of his transgressions, he will reform his ways, become loyal to God through the strength obtained from his Saviour, and lead a new and purer life. "Whosoever abideth in Him," says John, "sinneth not; whosoever sinneth, hath not seen Him, neither known Him."


What's wrong with this teaching? Would you consider this to be sound Christian doctrine? Why or why not?
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btate0121

btate0121



A Careful Examination of Ellen G. White's Teachings Empty
PostSubject: Re: A Careful Examination of Ellen G. White's Teachings   A Careful Examination of Ellen G. White's Teachings EmptyWed Mar 26, 2008 8:36 am

oooh.. this one is a struggle for me because i have a dear friend who is SDA.. hmmm. do i believe these are sound christian beliefs?

not in the least.

she makes a couple of assumptions here i don't see in scripture..

Quote :
If God could have changed this law to meet man in his fallen condition, would He not have done this, and retained His only begotten Son in heaven?--He certainly would.

that's crazy talk! I've never seen this presented ANYWHERE in scripture and falls firmly into "EISEgesis" to me. On the contrary.. the Bible teaches that God had a plan FROM THE BEGINING! He set it all up and knew how things were going to go down before he even laid the foundations of the Earth.. WHOOOOOO.. God is so limitless!!!! whoa.

Romans 6 as a whole refutes her entire statement... unless I'm incorrectly reading something here.. i'm open to correction

Quote :

Romans 6

Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
Slaves to Righteousness
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

19I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[b] Christ Jesus our Lord.

how do we become dead to sin and slaves of righteousness under GRACE.... (vs 14 & 15 in particular). doesn't quite sit right.

then you have the whole circumcision ordeal that took place.. gentile believers being required become circumcised.. WHICH PAUL REFUTED by this same reasoning!

Quote :
Galatians 5:1-12
Freedom in Christ
1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

2Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

7You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? 8That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9"A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." 10I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. 11Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

New Testament Passages CLEARLY REBUKE ANY attempt to adhere to law as an attempt to be justified THRU WORKS! This snatches the power of Salvation from God's hand and puts it right into our prideful sinful flesh. Here Paul says "WARNING WARNING... anyone who is circumcised DENIES GOD'S AUTHORITIVE POWER TO SAVE! I REPEAT, YOU ARE SEPERATING YOURSELF FROM THE WORK OF CHRIST!!!" Quite literally.. he repeated himself... he made it clear!

so..... what do we do with the above information and the point she made regarding what Jesus had spoke....

Quote :
The Saviour raised His voice in protest against those who regard the divine commandments with indifference and carelessness. He said, "Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." And He also declared, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled."

they appear to be at odds! I personally (here's where things get hairy) Hold to the view that Jesus came to FULFILL the law... it gets tricky when you start to define "fulfill". When i view this test (Mathew 5:19-20) I take the stance that the law was made more complete... perfected if you will fulfilled. obviously some things changed... I believe Christ negated a lot of the Old Testament rules and they were nailed to the cross with him (popular terminology here) But he also REITERATED AND EXPANDED on a lot of them (The Mosaic Laws.. the 10 commandments). commandment number 4 is tricky because it was never reinstated in the New Testament by Jesus, though we do see it's mention. but I digress. Jesus, when referring to the Laws and Prophets i believe was only referring to the MOSAIC laws, not the entire body of laws... so we're left with the 10 commandments essentially. Take the letters to the Galatians for instance... holding these two passages side by side... we'll see where one may address specific laws and leave the rest untouched negating parts of EACH OTHER.. while one reading only galatians would come away thinkin.. "wow.. i don't have to keep ANY of the laws!" and one reading only matthew might say "man..i have to keep ALL of teh laws" notice each address portions of the other.. mathew says "ah ah aha.. leave those mosaic laws alone and obey!".. while galatians says "ah ah ah... leave those civil/sacrificial laws alone.. no need to obey.. Christ is all!" putting it together the picture become more defined as in "ok.. i see i need to obey the 10 commandments while i can rest in Christ on the rest! Praise God!". let me qualify.. my general overall belief is this.. the bible makes no clear destinctions between, civil, moral, or sacrificial.... therefore i don't either.. so when Paul speaks of the entire law being dead... that's what i believe... but on top of that... I add in what Jesus said about "obeying these laws" and which laws he was refering to.. so obviously Paul couldn't have meant EVERY single law... just the ones Jesus hadn't directly commanded adherance to. hope that makes some sense. LOL.

ok.. that's my dos pesos... if anyone has anything to add or correct.. please.. i'm open for discussion! I hope someone was blessed by my ramblin!


Last edited by btate0121 on Wed Mar 26, 2008 9:10 am; edited 1 time in total
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btate0121

btate0121



A Careful Examination of Ellen G. White's Teachings Empty
PostSubject: Re: A Careful Examination of Ellen G. White's Teachings   A Careful Examination of Ellen G. White's Teachings EmptyWed Mar 26, 2008 9:02 am

Something I just remembered...

Each of the Gospels is written to cater to either a certain audience or to make a specific point. Matthew i believe was written to address JEWS specifically and prove Christ as being the son of God and KING. (Hence the geneology at the begining, proving Christ fulfilled prophecies about being in the line of King David). So mentions about the law are not surprisingly thrown in... this was the perspective the Jews lived from!
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TwistTim





A Careful Examination of Ellen G. White's Teachings Empty
PostSubject: Re: A Careful Examination of Ellen G. White's Teachings   A Careful Examination of Ellen G. White's Teachings EmptyThu Mar 27, 2008 10:00 am

btate0121 wrote:
Something I just remembered...

Each of the Gospels is written to cater to either a certain audience or to make a specific point. Matthew i believe was written to address JEWS specifically and prove Christ as being the son of God and KING. (Hence the geneology at the begining, proving Christ fulfilled prophecies about being in the line of King David). So mentions about the law are not surprisingly thrown in... this was the perspective the Jews lived from!

You are correct. Matthew was for the Jews.

Luke (and Acts) was for Theophilus, a Greek... who's literal name is Friend of God.... and thus it was written to the Greeks....

John was for all peoples....(The last gospel)

and Mark was the most interesting... it was the first gospel written as an account of the events, by a guy who had been with Paul, but then left him (John Mark)... went back to Jerusalem and investigated the truth of Jesus... then went back to Paul and brought the Gospel back with him......this is that Gospel Paul preached, this is the Gospel that Barnabas brought with him.... Along with what was revealed to them before it....

just a little history there.....
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