Resources For SDAs Only An Introductory Study for SDAs on the Subject of Separation - How do we reconcile the above two quotes with our conclusion that the SDA church has indeed fallen and is now part of fallen Babylon?
| An Introductory Study for SDAs on the Subject of Separation - How do we reconcile the above two quotes with our conclusion that the SDA church has indeed fallen and is now part of fallen Babylon? |
 |
 |
|
Page 14 of 19 How do we reconcile the above two quotes with our conclusion that the SDA church has indeed fallen and is now part of fallen Babylon? Ellen White sets out the following divine principle when studying the testimonies: “Regarding the testimonies, nothing is ignored; nothing is cast aside; but time and place must be considered”. {1SM, p 57}. With the above principle in mind of the need to consider the 'time and place' for the above two quotes, what is the circumstances that have led the prophetess of God to state the above quotes and were the quotes qualified or unconditional in nature? In 1893 a man by the name of A.W. Stanton issued and circulated a tract (called: Loud Cry) calling the SDA church Babylon. But in 1893 the church was not fully united with the world to be identified with Babylon. Ellen White stated then that this message was from Satan and not from God. For only God can declare the church to be Babylon. The only testimony in which Ellen White ever spoke about this issue was in 1893, and solely in response to the Stanton tract. Nothing about this subject was stated before or after 1893, which strongly suggests that this testimony was written in the present tense form. In the same testimony she said the following: “There is but one church who is AT THE PRESENT TIME standing in the breach, and making up the hedge…”. {TM, p 50-1893}. Earlier, in June 12, 1893, she wrote something similar which suggests strongly that when she said the church was not Babylon, she was referring to the church in 1893: "The Lord has had a church from that day, through all the changing scenes of time to the present period, 1893." {3SM, p 18}. As a further proof that what she wrote in 1893 in response to the Stanton tract was in the present tense form of the condition of the SDA church, there and then, is the following quote. In this quote , which was written two years later, she warned the church not to be married to the world lest, it [SDA church] become a 'cage of every unclean and hateful bird'. This phrase is taken directly from Revelation 18, which the Lord uses to describe the state of Babylon, and hence the need to come out of her. “The world must not be introduced into the church and married to the church. Through union with the world the church will become corrupt, --‘a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.’ The customs of the world must not have a place; for they will be open doors through which the prince of darkness will find access, and the line of demarcation will become indistinguishable between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not… Satanic forces are continually at work through the world, and it is the object of Satan to bring the church and the world into such close fellowship that their aims, their spirit, their principles, shall harmonize…”. {RH, February 26, 1895}.
|