Replacing
the Spirit of Prophecy By Vance
Ferrell
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A NEW WAY TO GET RID OF ELLEN WHITES BOOKSWell, you have
been expecting it for years; and it has finally happened: They are starting
to rewrite the Spirit of Prophecy I am not referring to
an abridged edition in her own words, which is clearly stated as such. Our
own Basic Steps to Christ, which is in the front of our 1888 Great
Controversy is such a production. Every basic point in the book is
included, but only in her own words. This enables the reader to read
the complete pathway to Christ What I am referring
to is the new book, Messiah, written by Jerry Thomas and published by
Pacific Press. It is a total rewrite! Thomas, a book editor at Pacific Press
for 10 years, has produced a book which, it is hoped, will be read by our
people Thomas book is being
heavily promoted by Pacific Press in local Adventist churches throughout
North America, with videotaped endorsements by well-known church leaders and
with featured "camp-meeting" discounts. Obviously, only her
words are inspired; so such a rewrite would appear to be an attempt to get
rid of one of the primary inspired books which God has given for our time in
history. More rewrites will
probably follow. The advantages of
such books for our church publishing houses is that the new books provide
them with clear copyright control, something they no longer have on the
Spirit of Prophecy books. Pacific Press will own this book; and not even the
E.G. White Estate can dictate any requirements they must follow. The advantages for
the liberals are many. This is a new step away from the books they so much
dislike. To whom should you
send your protests? Friends working there in the mid-1980s told me that
Pacific Press had to please the General Conference, or it could withhold
permission for them to print certain books, including certain Sabbath School
materials. So if you wish to write protests, it would be good to send them to
the General Conference (not only to Pacific Press). The Press is a General
Conference institution. Here is Thomas
rewrite of Desire of Ages, 83:4-5. Compare it with the original. His
rewrite reduces two paragraphs of eight sentences to one differently worded
paragraph of four sentences. "It would be
good for us to spend an hour every day thinking about the life of Jesus. We
should use our imagination to put ourselves in each story, especially the
stories from the last week of His life. The more we think about His great
sacrifice for us, the more confidence well have in Him, and the more love we
will feel. The more we study and think and talk about Jesus, the more like
Him we will become." Messiah,
p. 54. In addition, not one
Bible quotation in the entire book, Messiah, is from the King James
Version. Add to that the fact that a very large number of Scripture
quotations have been totally omitted. Her books are a treasure-house of Bible
quotations BOOKS OF A NEW ORDER
"The enemy of
souls has sought to bring in the supposition that a great reformation was to
take place among Seventh-day Adventists, and that this reformation would
consist in giving up the doctrines which stand as the pillars of our faith,
and engaging in a process of reorganization. Were this reformation to take
place, what would result? The principles of truth that God in His wisdom has
given to the remnant church, would be discarded. Our religion would be changed.
The fundamental principles that have sustained the work for the last fifty
years would be accounted as error. A new organization would be established.
Books of a new order would be written. A system of intellectual philosophy
would be introduced. The founders of this system would go into the cities,
and do a wonderful work. The Sabbath of course, would be lightly regarded, as
also the God who created it. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of
the new movement. The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice,
but God being removed, they would place their dependence on human power,
which, without God, is worthless. Their foundation would be built on the
sand, and storm and tempest would sweep away the structure." 1 Selected Messages, 204-205 NSL: THE CRUCIAL COMING EVENT
Friends on the West
Coast are concerned about a strange new teaching that is being taught by
Marvin Moore. Because he is senior editor of Signs of the Times, he is
in an extremely influential position, not only at Pacific Press and with
everything printed in Signs, but also in his camp meeting and other
lectures. Moore is teaching
that the crucial coming event will be falling meteorites! Our leading
missionary periodical, Signs of the Times, has for years been
strangely silent about certain historic Adventist beliefs. Among these is its
refusal to say anything negative about the Catholic Church, either in past
history or today. You may recall that,
until the 1950s, Signs was our only missionary paper. It was printed
weekly on low-cost newsprint and distributed in the millions by our people. I
recall many sessions, in the late 1940s, at our local church, where we would
hand address copies of Signs and mail them to people all over the city
we lived in. Then, in the 1950s, These
Times (originally called Our Times) began being published by
Southern Publishing in Nashville, as an expensive glossy monthly missionary
periodical. Until the mid-1950s, Signs editor Arthur S. Maxwell
(1896-1970) clearly presented our truths in the Signs. But, because he
refused to be hushed up about Rome, the General Conference decreed that
henceforth both missionary papers would be monthly and printed on glossy
paper. This jacked up the price of the Signs immensely. By Vatican II,
none of our new denominational publications said anything negative about
Rome. Now Moore is telling
us that it is not the National Sunday Law, but meteorites, that the
world should look forward to as the coming crisis! This is another backward
step in soft-peddling the truth about Rome. You may recall the
1989 Signs article which lavishly praised Pope John Paul II as the
world leader in promoting peace and stability (Appreciating the Pope
[WM207]. The situation
steadily grows worse. The focus of attention is being turned from the Sunday
Law crisis to the blowing of a trumpet, which Moore says will produce one or
more desolating meteorites, while another writer says the great coming event
will be a massive earthquake. |
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