Ellen White on the Church Becoming Babylon?

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The following two statements are used and abused to misrepresent the true position of Ellen White on the option that the PROFESSING SDA church could become Babylon:

"The Lord has sent messages of warning and entreaty, messages of reproof and rebuke, and they have not been in vain. But we have never had a message that the Lord would disorganize the church. We have never had the prophecy concerning Babylon applied to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, or been informed that the "loud cry" consisted in calling God's people to come out of her; for this is not God's plan concerning Israel." {RH, October 3, 1893 par. 12}

"The world have a light constantly shining upon them, because this people honor God in keeping his commandments. Now can we expect that a message would be true that would designate as Babylon the people for whom God has done so much? Hell would triumph should such a message be received, and the world would be strengthened in iniquity. All the reproaches which Satan has cast upon the character of God, would appear as truth, and the conclusion would be made that God has no chosen or organized church in the world. O, what a triumph would this be to Satan and his confederacy of evil! God does not work in this way." {ibid, par. 13}

A Similar Promise to the Jews

God made a similar promise to the Jews as you cite Ellen White making. He said that the Jews would be His chosen people as long as the stars shone. Are they His chosen people today? Were they destroyed? Did they become the Synagogue of Satan, or not?!

"If the church of God becomes LUKEWARM [LAODICEAN] it does not stand in favor with God any more than do the churches that are represented as having fallen and become the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Those who have had opportunities to hear and receive the truth, and who have united with the Seventh-day Adventist church, calling themselves the commandment keeping people of God, and yet possess no more vitality and consecration to God than do the nominal churches, will receive of the plagues of God just as verily as the churches who oppose the law of God." E.G. White, Letter 35, 1898.

Did the church of God become Lukewarm? If it did, and it does not stand in favor with God any more than do the churches that are represented as having fallen and become the habitation of devils and the holy of every foul spirit and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird, then how is it distinguished from the cage of unclean and hateful birds except that it is worse because it has known and rejected the truth?!

If Laodicea is not regarded with any more favor by God than the fallen churches, and the call of Laodicea is to all churches, then there is no difference between Laodicea and the fallen churches as far as being in a fallen state is concerned. Different churches believe different aspects of Babylonian teachings, but Ellen White equates them all as far as falling from the favor of God is concerned, and as far as constituting the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. By Karl's quotings of Ellen White, there is absolutely no danger that the church would become Babylon! None whatsoever!

In the above 1898 statement concerning Laodicea, we have an E.G. White statement that was written five years later than the1893 statement.

"The Lord has sent messages of warning and entreaty, messages of reproof and rebuke, and they have not been in vain. But we have never had a message that the Lord would disorganize the church. We have never had the prophecy concerning Babylon applied to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, or been informed that the "loud cry" consisted in calling God's people to come out of her; for this is not God's plan concerning Israel." {RH, October 3, 1893 par. 12}

Notice the date--1893 versus 1898!!!

Now notice another date--1886 versus 1898 and 1893:

"We must as a people arouse and cleanse the camp of Israel. Licentiousness, unlawful intimacy, and unholy practices are coming in among us in a large degree...We are in danger of becoming a sister to fallen Babylon, of allowing our churches to become corrupted and filled with every foul spirit, a cage for every unclean and hateful bird, and will we be clear unless we make decided movements to cure the existing evil? E. G. White, Manuscript Releases No. 449, pp. 17, 18. (Letter 51, 1886 to Elder Butler) Testimonies on Sexual Behavior, Adultery\y, and Divorce, p. 193.

We have statements before and after 1893, by Ellen White, to the effect that the church could become the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Evidently, Ellen White forgot that she said in 1893, that there had never been a prophecy concerning Babylon applied to the Seventh-day Adventist church. She conditionally applied that prophecy to the church in 1886, and 1898. If Ellen White ever "APPARENTLY" contradicted herself, this is a clear and distinct example of such. But wait a minute! Karl and all the dumb-dog watchmen have miserably misinterpreted and misapplied her 1893 statement. How?

Ellen White said that there had never been a prophecy concerning Babylon APPLIED to the Seventh-day Adventist church. It had never been APPLIED to the church because it had never prior to that time committed any act which she defined as constituting a sister to fallen Babylon, or the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Even up to 1898, the church teaching authority [leadership] had not become Laodicean, by sanctioning Laodicean practices, such as licentious adultery, sanctioned by the GC by merely moving pastors who had committed such to another locale. This constitutes the leadership as becoming Laodicean, and if the church body retains such leadership, and it has, then it becomes corporately responsible for such licentiousness and thus became Laodicean itself. Before such acts, the church was not corporately Laodicean. There were Laodicean (tares--foolish virgins) in the church, but the church was not Laodicean or in apostasy.

Here are other conditional statements on the church becoming Babylon--the cage of every unclean and hateful bird, language which the Bible applies ONLY to Babylon:

"The world must not be introduced into the church, and married to the church, forming a bond of unity. Through this means the church will become indeed corrupt, and as stated in Revelation, 'a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.'" Testimonies to Ministers, p. 265.

"The church cannot measure herself by the world nor by the opinion of men nor by what she ONCE was. Her faith and her position in the world as they NOW ARE must be COMPARED (JUDGED) with what they would have been if her course had been continually onward and upward. The church will be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary. If her moral character and spiritual state do not correspond with the benefits and blessings God has conferred upon her, SHE WILL BE FOUND WANTING." Testimonies, vol. 5, pp. 83, 84.

"When this church is weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, it is found wanting, having left its first love....What is the fatal deficiency?--'Thou has left thy first love...'

The light that gladdened your heart when you first understood the message for this time is an essential element in your experience and labors, and this has been lost out of your heart and life. Christ beholds your lack of zeal, and declares that you have FALLEN, and are in a perilous position." E.G. White, Review and Herald, vol. 2, pp. 462-3.

The above statement applies individually and corporately to the church entity.

"Worldly policy is taking the place of true piety and wisdom that comes from above, and God will remove His prospering hand from the conference. Shall the ark of the covenant be removed from this people? Shall idols be smuggled in? Shall false principles and false precepts be brought into the sanctuary? Shall antichrist be respected? Shall the true doctrines and principles given us of God, which have made us what we are, be ignored?.... This is directly where the enemy, through blinded, unconsecrated men, is leading us." E. G. White, Manuscript 29, 1890.

"Christ has plainly taught that those who persist in open sin must be separated from the church..." E. G. White, Christ's Object Lessons, 71.

Ellen White's 1893 Statement Concerning Stanton and Caldwell Versus Her "Unknowing Prophecy" of Another Coming Out

All three of the following statements are from the same article. Note the qualifying words in each statement.

"The Lord has sent messages of warning and entreaty, messages of reproof and rebuke, and they have not been in vain. But we have never had a message that the Lord would disorganize the church. We have never had the prophecy concerning Babylon applied to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, or been informed that the "loud cry" consisted in calling God's people to come out of her; for this is not God's plan concerning Israel." {RH, October 3, 1893 par. 12}

Indeed, nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the New Movement organization, even though God be removed, Selected Messages, vol. 1, 205. The church could not be removed from organization and still be around for the next literal destruction of Jerusalem, the church. But if A.D. 70 was a prefigure, The Great Controversy, p. 25, the only church that could be the counterpart of that A.D. 70 apostate Israel, is the professing SDA church. Yes, the destruction prefigured the destruction of the world, but it all "begins at His Sanctuary," Testimonies, Vol. 5, 211, and the chapter begins on p. 209, by quoting Ezekiel 9. And, according to the prefigure type of A.D. 70, a faithful remnant left apostate Israel and went to the mountains of Pella, SDA Bible Commentary, Vol. 5, 74-77. We are talking type and antitype friend of mine, and that is safe to follow. That is as safe to follow as it gets! That is as sure an indication of an absolute "another coming out" as any statement Ellen White could have made!

What is the implication of the above cited facts? The implication is that Ellen White had indeed given a prophecy that a faithful remnant would leave the church, when she said that the A.D. 70 destruction of Jerusalem, the church, was a prefigure, and that a literal fulfillment of Ezekiel 9 will occur again. There is only one church that could represent the commandment-keeping antitype counterpart of the Jewish apostate church--the professing SDA Church. All one has to do is look at A.D. 70, and see who left who. A faithful remnant fled to the mountains of Pella, and the apostate church was destroyed.

Oh yes, friend, the A.D. 70 destruction prefigures the destruction of the world after it has heard the gospel, but Ellen White says that the destruction "begins at His Sanctuary," the professing SDA church, Testimonies, Vol. 5, 211.

"The counsel of Christ to the Laodicean Church was being acted upon, and all who were feeling their poverty were buying gold (faith and love, white raiment (the righteousness of Christ), and eyesalve (true spiritual discernment)." E. G. White, Review and Herald, Vol. 6, 513, col. 3.

"How could they (Stanton and Caldwell) come from that meeting where the power of God was revealed in so marked a manner, and proclaim that the loud cry was that the commandment-keeping people were Babylon?" E. G. White, Review and Herald, Vol. 6, p. 514, cols. 1 and 2.

"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.

Ron Beaulieu