Sorry I've been busy the past few days. I'll keep this brief. Today we'll examine another one of Ellen White's unbiblical statements. It concerns how God's judgment is handled. Here's her false statement for today.
"God cannot take the slave to heaven, who has been kept in ignorance and degradation, knowing nothing of God, or the Bible, fearing nothing but his master's lash, and not holding so elevated a position as his master' brute beasts. But He does the best thing for him that a compassionate God can do. He lets him be as though he had not been." Spiritual Gifts, vol. 1, p. 193
First of all HOW is that compassionate? That poor slave. Not only did he have to deal with a rotten life on this earth the first go around but then you have Ellen White saying God just dismisses him in the judgment too! A double whammy! Don't you think that that slave deserves some justice? A fair hearing from God? Think about that. God according to EGW apparently let this poor human being suffer a rotten life as a slave and then when judgment time rolls around God just forgets him and does no justice for him in his case! God just leaves him in the grave! This makes God look awful! Well thankfully it's not true. Here's what the Bible says about God's judgment.
The Bible says:
"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 2 Cor. 5:10
"And I saw a great white throne...and I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God...and the dead were judged...and they were judged every man according to their works...and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Rev. 20:11-15
"Who will render to every man according to his deeds:"(Rom 2:6)
"Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him."(Jude 1:14,15)
Exactly what does the word "all", "every man", and "every one" mean? Simple, it means what it says and Ellen White is wrong and contradicts the Bible in her conclusion that some slaves will not come up to face judgment but will instead remain dead forever after their first death.
You see the Bible is clear about what happens in these types of circumstances. Paul in the book of Romans says that those who do not know about God/Jesus or the Law will be judged by their conscience and against our standard, Jesus. See Roman's chapter 2 for how God deals with those situations. Briefly,
Romans 2
14For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
15Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
In other words God will hold that slave accountable in the judgment by the light which God gives to EVERY man( see John 1:9) regardless of whether they know about Jesus, the Bible , or God or not. It will either excuse him on that day or condemn him. Just because someone doesn't get to know about Jesus or hear about the Bible or God does not mean they will be excused from His judgment. Everyone has to stand before God and give an account. And frankly God can most certainly take anyone to heaven He pleases. In fact, there will MANY people in heaven who've never heard the name Jesus or read the Bible. They will be there because had they been given the opportunity they would have accepted Jesus. They will be there because they did the best they could with the light which was upon them, their conscious!
God is a fair judge. He does not hold us accountable for a lack of knowledge when it's not in our power to attain it. In fact the Bible says that God winks at ignorance. In the case of the above slave, God will bring him forth to judgment and he will have to give answer to God about how he lived and whether or not he lived up to the light of his conscience or not.
I'm sorry but Ellen White is mistaken here when she says some slaves won't face judgment. They most certainly will according to the Bible!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
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6 comments:
I have personally read quite a bit of Ellen White's writings. And I've also come across some really interesting sayings.
HOWEVER,
I have never come across a statement that has caused such a "knee jerk" response as the one you quoted in this post!
All I could say is "WHAT?!"
Good one Lex!
I wonder how Adventists would explain THAT one?
That truly is quite a different view on Divine mercy and justice.
Perhaps the early writings of EGW were not inspired?
Or perhaps we are all missing something here?
This statement does seem to be in stark contrast to my understanding of things, but perhaps it is the general protestant view? It presumably comes from Romans 10:14:
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
But do all Adventists believe this as stated by EGW?
Hi Clement,
You said, "Perhaps the early writings of EGW were not inspired?,"
Well, that's the tricky thing for Adventists. In those "early" years, Ellen was purportedly receiving visions and divine insights and instructions from God. Many of her statements have the form of the Old Testament prophets such as, "the Lord said to me...", "the Lord showed me...", "the Lord has commanded me...", etc., i.e. her sayings have an authoritative quality about them that come from the Lord and the understanding He has given to her.
This is something that my Dad and I talked about at times: How to really determine which passages of Ellen White are to be considered "inspired", and which ones are not. Several books have been written by Adventists attempting to deal with this issue. From what I found in my own personal experience was that usually if a person disagreed with Mrs. White's statement, then for that person the statement was "uninspired". That seemed to work for most!
Blessings to you!
Davis,
Here is a link presenting some explanations on that text (read here).
God bless.
Hi Still,
I read the reference you gave. Thank you for that. However, I must disagree with their conclusions.
The Adventist response, to which you directed readers in your link, attempts to tackle this specific issue in two parts:
The first part dealt with whether it is just of God to allow the "ignorant" slave to "remain in the grave as though he had never been". Their conclusion was, yes, it is just of God to do this. I strongly disagree with this. Just as Lex pointed out in his post, the person who was kept in the harsh lifestyle of slavery his entire life, "fearing his master's lash", certainly does deserve a fair hearing by God. And this is exactly what Jesus says will happen at the second coming when He gathers all nations before Him (cf. Matt. 25:31-46). And it is this passage that brings us to the second part of the Adventist response.
Part two of their response attempted to make the case that when the Bible says "all" in reference to the judgment, that it does not really mean "all", but is rather limited in scope. I do not see this taught in Scripture. For example, in the passage from Jesus that I referenced above, it should be abundantly clear that everyone, meaning all people, is meant. Otherwise, Jesus was misleading His disciples when He said "all nations".
Also, as is brought out from Jesus' teaching in Matt. 25:31-46, the judgment will have nothing to do with a certain type of "knowledge", but rather our actions toward other human beings. This is what Jesus is most concerned about in His various teachings, as well as in His teaching of the judgment. People may be "ignorant" about certain knowledge, but everyone knows to do good and not evil to their fellow human being. This is why the standard in the judgment is concerning how we treat one another rather than some esoteric knowledge, because this "knowledge" is truly universal and is therefore the only legitamate standard that could be used for everyone.
Those are my reasons for rejecting the Adventist response. Now for some thoughts upon their defense of Mrs. White's statement:
I generally found their response to be somewhat ingenuine on their part. I mean, here is Ellen White plainly contradicting such a clear teaching of the judgment in Scripture, and the Adventists are engaging in "mental gymnastics" in an attempt to make what she said okay. Well, it's not okay, okay? She messed up, alright? But do the Adventists acknowledge this mistake? No! They desperately try to justify it! I can only imagine that if it was Joseph Smith who had said it instead of Ellen White, that the Adventists would have been quick to utilize the quote in denouncing him as a false prophet. So once again emotional bias toward one of their own has triumph instead of the truth for the Adventists. It really is sad how obvious it is. After all, I use to be there as well.
Anyways, that my thoughts on the matter.
Blessings everyone (and I really mean everyone)! ;~)
I would like to add just one more thing to my comment above.
The Adventist response made reference to Deut. 1:39 as substantiating Mrs. White's comment about the "ignorant" slave. I think it is well to actually quote the passage in order to look at what it really says:
"Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it , and they shall possess it (i.e. the promised land)."
Contrary to God "allowing" the "ignorant" to remain in the grave "as though he had not been" as Ellen White suggests, this passage appears to teach the exact opposite! God says that those children who do not know the difference between good and evil will actually inherit the promised land, which represents the new earth (cf. Rom. 4:13), or in other words, salvation. Thus we see that the very passage the Adventists used to justify Ellen White actually implies something different from what she said!
Jesus said, "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 19:14). You see, Jesus says that children, you know the "ignorant" ones who know nothing of good or evil, is who the kingdom of heaven is for. I guess the Judge of all the earth will do right after all!
All I can say is, thank God for His justice, mercy, and compassion!
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