There are many Seventh-day Adventists who sincerely believe that it would require another prophet to inform them if and when the SDA church has reached such a state of Omega Apostasy that separation from the church is necessary. Most professing Seventh-day Adventists are totally unaware of the many conditional statements by Ellen White involving when to separate from the SDA church and any church. Here are some of the more poignant of those statements:
"When those who are uniting with the world, yet claiming great purity, plead for union with those who have ever been the opposers of the cause of truth we should FEAR AND SHUN THEM as decidedly as did Nehemiah. Such counsel is prompted by the enemy of all good. It is the speech of timeservers, and should be resisted as resolutely today as then. Whatever influence would tend to unsettle the faith of God's people in His guiding power, should be steadfastly withstood." E.G. White, Prophets and Kings, 660.
"Any connection with infidels and unbelievers which would identify us with them is FORBIDDEN BY THE WORD. We are to come out from them and be SEPARATE. IN NO CASE are we to link ourselves with them in their plans or work." E.G. White, Fundamentals o Christian Education, 482.
OUR COMMENTARY: Uniting with the other churches by any connection which would identify us with them is the same as uniting with the world, because Early Writings, 273, says that the fallen churches are indistinguishable from the world. SDA ecumenical linkage by MEMBERSHIP and "WORKING RELATIONSHIP" with the World Council of Churches, its subsidiary National Councils of Churches, and local Ministerial Associations, is strictly forbidden by the Word of God. Beware, all who do so knowingly will be "broken in pieces." Isaiah 8:9-12, and Ezekiel 9:2, see marginal reference for the words "slaughtering weapon" in verse two. The margin says "a weapon of His breaking in pieces."
The Achan principle in
Scripture, as well as the "one body in Christ principle, and Ellen White,
make it clear that every member of a church organization is responsible for the
actions of the church they support. Were this not true, separation from
Here are a few of Ellen White's statements on corporate responsibility:
"The plain straight
testimony must live in the church, or the curse of God will rest upon His
people as surely as it did upon ancient
"I was shown that the pointed testimony must live in the church. This alone will answer to the message to the Laodiceans. Wrongs must be reproved, sin must be called sin, and iniquity must be met promptly and decidedly, and put away from us AS A PEOPLE." Testimonies,vol. 3, 260.
"Should a case like Achan's be among us, there are many who would acuse those who might act the part of Joshua in searching out the wrong, of having a wicked, faultfinding spirit...God's displeasure is upon His people, and He wil not manifest His power in the midst of them while sins exist among them and are FOSTERED BY THOSE IN RESPONSIBLE POSITIONS." Testimonies, vol. 3, 270.
Ecumenical linkage to fallen
"While praying at the family
altar, the Holy Ghost fell on me, and I seemed to be rising higher and higher,
far above the dark world. I turned to look for the Advent people in the world,
but could not find them--when a voice said to me, 'Look again, and look a
little higher.' At this I raised my eyes and saw a straight and narrow path
cast up high above the world. On this path the Advent people were travelling to
the City, which was at the farther end of the path. They had a bright light set
up behind them at the first end of the path, which an angel told me was the
Midnight Cry. This light shone all along the path, and gave light for their
feet so they might not stumble. And if they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus, who
was just before them, leading them to the City, they were safe. But soon some
grew weary, and they said the City was a great way of, and they expected to have
entered it before. Then Jesus would encourage them by raising his glorious
right arm, and from his arm came a glorious light which waved over the Advent
band, and they shouted Hallelujah! Others rashly denied the light behind
them, and said that it was not God that had led them out so far. The light
behind them went out leaving their feet in perfect darkness, and they stumbled
and got their eyes off the mark and lost sight of Jesus, and fell off the path
down in the dark and wicked world below. It was just as impossible for them to
get on the path again and go to the City, as all the wicked world which God had
rejected. They fell all the way along the path one after another, until we
heard the voice of God like many waters, which gave us the day and hour of
Jesus' coming....
By this time the 144,000 were all sealed and perfectly united. On their
foreheads was written, God, New Jerusalem, and a glorious Star containing
Jesus' new name." E.G. White, Word to the Little Flock, p. 14.
OUR COMMENTARY: The Midnight Cry of Matthew 25, called people out of the fallen churches. All who ever hear and understand the Midnight Cry, and thereafter take their eyes off the path lighted by that cry, by re-joining the fallen churches they were called out of by membership or confederacy in ASSOCIATION, COUNSEL AND/OR COUNCIL, GIRDING, OR LINKING WITH THEM IN ANY WAY WHICH WOULD IDENTIFY US WITH THEM, FALL OFF THE PATH AND IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR THEM TO GET ON THE PATH AGAIN, WHICH IMPLIES SHUT DOOR UNPARDONABLE SIN! God's Word implies the same unpardonableness for such offense in Isaiah 8:9-20, and Revelation 14:9, 10. This is how the professing SDA church has committed corporate unpardonable sin. This is why Ellen White says that another literal manifestation of Ezekiel 9 will destroy SDA churches around the world. This is why the destroying angel of Ezekiel 9 begins at "His Sanctuary," the SDA churches, Testimonies, vol. 5, 211.
All this is what Ellen White really meant by "shut door!" Those who have committed this unpardonable sin have grossly perverted her meaning. This is a most serious consideration every SDA should weigh heavily before he/she determines to enter ecumenical relationship with and/or join any of the fallen churches.
How do we Prove Absolutely That the Above Statement Did Not Ever Imply a Shut Door on Everyone But Confirmed Adventists? We simply point Ellen White's adversaries to the following words from the statement:
"The living saints, 144,000 in
number, knew and understood the voice, while the wicked thought it was thunder
and an earthquake....
By this time the 144,000 were all sealed and perfectly united."
Neither Ellen White nor any who
followed her from 1844 on, ever thought that faithful Adventists numbered
144,000 from 1844-1849, which is timeframe that Ellen White's critics say she
taught a "shut door" by her above statement! There were only a few
hundred SDAs by 1849! Ellen White was speaking of a time when 144,000 saints would
be perfectly united on the truth. That time never existed even up to the time
of her death, and it is questionable if that number of SDAs are perfectly
united even to this day!
Also, Ellen White said that they fell all along the path till the end of time.
This is speaking specifically (in context) of those who had once heard and
obeyed the Midnight Cry light.
"There can be no unity between truth and error. We can unite (join) with those who have been led into deception only when they are converted." E.G. White, The Upward Look, p. 88.
"I saw that decided efforts should be made to show those who are unchristian in life their wrongs, and if they do not reform, they should be separated from the precious and holy, that God may have a clean and pure people that He can delight in. Dishonor Him not by linking or uniting the clean with the unclean." Testimonies, vol. 1, 117, 118.
"As they persisted in their rejection of the gospel the apostle [Paul] ceased to preach in the synagogue." E.G. White, Acts of the Apostles, p. 285.