A Proper Response to Ellen White's Statements to the Church—

#2—The Church that Appears as About to Fall but Does Not, and Where Ezekiel 9 Begins and Ends

Click to go to our Home Page


 

 

Dear Reader, 

A person on SDA Issues who wishes to remain anonymous (and I would to if I misrepresented Ellen White like he does), totally misinterpreted two Ellen White statements: one concerning Ezekiel 9 and the world, and one concerning a Vance Ferrell interpretation of Ellen White’s statement as to the church that appears to fall but does not.

Vance’s misinterpretation is inexcusable because he was an ordained minister of the SDA church, although Vance is closer than the person who posted his statement, and much of what Vance says is true as far as he takes it, but he does not include The Great Controversy, p. 616 statement. Vance’s talk also omits the statement by Ellen White that the leaders, those in responsible positions, will instruct the people to keep Sunday.

"The Lord has a controversy with his professed people in these last days. In this controversy men in responsible positions will take [future tense] a course directly opposite to that pursued by Nehemiah. They will not only ignore and despise the Sabbath themselves, but they will try to keep it from others by burying it beneath the rubbish of custom and tradition. In churches and in large gatherings in the open air, ministers, will urge upon the people the necessity of keeping the first day of the week." E.G. White, Review and Herald, Vol. 1, p. 405, col. 3.

How do we know Ellen White is referring to SDA’s?

·      She says “His professed people…”

·      She says that men in responsible positions will take a course opposite to that pursued by Nehemiah. Nehemiah was a Jew. Ellen White is comparing the course of a literal Jew with God’s end-time spiritual Jerusalem, Seventh-day Adventism.

·      The statement is future tense! It thus would not make sense to apply this statement to Babylon’s fallen leaders, because they have been taking a course opposite to what Nehemiah took for hundreds of years, and they were never a “chosen” people who claimed to keep the commandments of God and the Sabbath. So Vance says in his MP3 audio sermon that Ellen White does not say what the church militant will do, but she certainly does in the above statement. Now we go to the next issue.

Here is another gross misrepresentation of the real facts of the case regarding Ellen White’s statements. The rest of the story to the statement about the church that appears as about to fall, had never been discovered by SDA's until I found it in The Great Controversy, p. 616. Ellen White was NOT speaking about the SDA church militant at all. She was speaking about the church triumphant during the great time of trouble when it is surrounded by the enemy, just before Jesus intervenes. There is no way of escape, but Jesus delivers them. That is the church that appears as about to fall. This is another statement by Ellen White involving specifically THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT, that the church militant misapplies to itself.  Many SDA’s apparently do not have the mentality and/or the spiritual discernment to see the facts of this statement and Ellen White’s statement about Ezekiel 9—where it begins and where it ends. Do you? I will post my responses and then the posts that I am responding to on SDAissues forum.

 

Misinterpretation #1—The Church That Appears as About to Fall but Does Not Fall

 

It is During the Time of Jacob's Trouble That the Church Triumphant Appears as About to Fall but Does not Fall

 

"The people of God will then be plunged into those scenes of affliction and distress described by the prophet as the time of Jacob's trouble.... Jacob's night of anguish, when he wrestled in prayer for deliverance from the hand of Esau (Genesis 32:24-30), represents the experience of God's people in the time of trouble....Jacob's company, unarmed and defenseless, SEEMED ABOUT TO FALL HELPLESS VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE AND SLAUGHTER." E.G. White, The Great Controversy, (1911 edition), p. 616.

 

Here we find "the people of God, paralleled with Jacob's company which appeared as about to fall, but did not. It is the church triumphant during Jacob's Great Time of Trouble that appears as about to fall, not the professing SDA church once militant that has already fallen into the Omega of Apostasy.

 

See this article:  https://omega77.tripod.com/churAATFall.htm

 

Statement #2: Ezekiel 9 and the Destruction of the World 

 

Below is a classic demonstration of how SDA's strain at the bit to confound anything that applies to their church.  God is speaking to Jerusalem in Ezekiel 9, and He says BEGIN at my Sanctuary. His Sanctuary is not the world. True, the Ezekiel prophesies the doom of the world in Ezekiel 5:9, because there mentions the worst thing that God ever did or ever will do, and that is Matthew 24:21.

 

God says:

 

Eze 9:6 Slay utterly old [and] young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom [is] the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which [were] before the house.

 

The word's "begin at my Sanctuary," give strong intimation that the slaughter will end elsewhere, and it does, with the destruction of the world. Also, God says that JUDGMENT BEGINS AT THE HOUSE OF GOD, and the world is not the house of God.

 

Ellen White was clear as to where the slaughter of Ezekiel 9 BEGINS:

 

Begin at My Sanctuary -- "Here we see that the church--the Lord's sanctuary--was the first to feel the stroke of the wrath of God. The ancient men, those to whom God had given great light and who had stood as guardians of the spiritual interests of the people, had betrayed their trust. They had taken the position that we need not look for miracles and the marked manifestation of God's power as in former days. Times have changed. These words strengthen their unbelief, and they say: The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil. He is too merciful to visit His people in judgment. Thus 'Peace and safety" is the cry from men who will never again lift up their voice like a trumpet to show God's people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins. These dumb dogs that would not bark are the ones who feel the just vengeance of an offended God. Men, maidens, and little children all perish together." E. G. White, Testimonies, Vol. 5, 211.          

 

"Study the 9th chapter of Ezekiel. These words will be literally fulfilled yet the time is passing, and the people are asleep. They refuse to humble their souls and to be converted. Not a great while longer will the Lord bear with the people who have such great and important truths revealed to them, but who refuse to bring these truths into their individual experience. The time is short. God is calling will YOU hear? Will YOU receive His message? Will YOU be converted before it is too late? Soon, very soon, every case will be decided for eternity. Letter 106, 1909, pp. 2, 3, 5, 7. (To "The churches in Oakland and Berkeley, September 26, 1909.)" E. G. White Manuscript Releases Volume One, p. 260.

 

The poster of the below statemen6t, and other foolish virgin Seventh-day Adventists, will misinterpret and misrepresent such important and clear testimony of the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, to their own damnation. But for those who want clear, unadulterated truth the meaning is clear and clarion.

 

Ron

 

  

----- Original Message -----

From: Anonymous

To: sdaissues@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 8:02 AM

Subject: [SDAIssues] Another Fulfillment

 

The Doom of the world not the Church

 

The Saviour's prophecy concerning the visitation of judgments upon Jerusalem is to have another fulfillment, of which that terrible desolation was but a faint shadow. In the fate of the chosen city we may behold the doom of a world that has rejected God's mercy and trampled upon his law.   {GC88 37.1} 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Anonymous

To: sdaissues@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, February 02, 2007 10:23 AM

Subject: [SDAIssues] The Church Will Appear to Fall but Does Not 

 

The Church Will Appears as About to Fall but Does Not:

 

Introducing an Audio Sermon in MP3

 

It is very likely that nearly everyone who has ever attended a denominational SDA church has heard this assertion proudly sounded from pulpit and read it in publications. Indeed it seems that leaders and ministers who openly do all in their power to destroy confidence in the Testimonies of the Lord’s Messenger, still wave this statement around as a banner. Many honest in heart have been led by this to stifle the convictions of conscience and continue to support, or at least refrain from denouncing, apostate and corrupt leaders and practices in the conferences and churches, feeling that, because of this assurance, somehow through some miraculous working of God, wicked doing will still receive the support and blessing of God.

 

Is there something more we need to know about this statement? Yes, indeed there is. There has been a deliberate cover-up and misapplication of this statement taken out of context and falsely applied.

First, I want to direct your attention to the time of the first advent of Jesus. The corrupt leaders of those days had pet statements too, drawn from misapplications and taken out of context. They had taken the prophecies that spoke of the glory of the second coming and applied them to the Messianic hope causing all to look for a mighty conqueror that would destroy their enemies and place them on the throne of the entire world. The clear explanations of scripture as to the Messiah’s mission as a suffering sacrifice for sins were conveniently kept out of sight or ignored.

 

They had their does not fall statements also making the promises of God’s promise of blessing to their nation as unconditional teaching that because of these promises, (actually conditional upon their obedience) that there was no way their nation and temple could be destroyed. But we all know what happened in AD 70!

 

Do you realize that even when the Roman hoards were surrounding the city and pleading with the leaders to surrender even when people inside the walls were killing and eating their own children leadership were still chanting to the people that their church could not fall and that somehow God was going to work a miracle and save them. But their misplaced confidence in promises they had forfeited all right to claim, did not help them. They were slaughtered like rats in the very temple they trusted in and worshipped. Worshipped the Temple? Yes, for centuries the Jews had forsaken loyalty to God and His words and turned their worship towards human leaders, structures, rituals, and even buildings.

 

As Jesus ministered to the people, thousands were moved at His words, and yet by far the majority ended up rejecting Him and were lost! Why? Some try to tell us that Jesus presented a completely new religion to them. This is a grievous falsehood! He presented only the Original Advent Message as had been given by their own prophets though the centuries and was clearly to be seen in Scripture. Why then when their hearts were so stirred and their consciences moved powerfully by the teachings of Jesus, did the majority turn back and follow Him no more?

 

To know the answer, we have to look to what they turned back to. They turned back to their leaders, and the leaders brainwashed them with their church cannot fall statements and they confidently continued to support these apostate and corrupt leaders until they perished in their sins eternally lost! It is interesting to note that in those days, ONLY those who were willing to search the scriptures and study for themselves accepted Jesus and were saved; those who trusted leadership to tell them the truth were lost.

 

Even Jesus’ own disciples were so leavened with these false applications used by the leadership of those days, that they did not even understand or accept the words of Jesus as He tried so hard to get them to see that their ideas were false and they were in for a terrible shock! The false promises of a corrupt leadership sounded so much more attractive than the straight, cutting truth Jesus was telling them. They refused to open their mind and listen.

 

I urge you today to open your mind and listen prayerfully to the rest of the story that you were never told of the church will not fall statement   the context and meaning, which were kept hidden away from the lay people for decades but now, in the mercy of God, is published and available! (webservant)

 

Now hear Elder Vance Ferrell present:

 

'THE CHURCH APPEARS TO FALL'

MP3 Audio

To download, right click and choose 'save target as' (approx 2 mb)

RETURN