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The False Teachers: Ellen G. White

A few weeks ago I set out on a new series of articles through which I intend to scan the history of the church—from its earliest days all the way to the present time—to examine some of Christianity’s most notorious false teachers. Along the way we will visit such figures as Arius, Pelagius, Fosdick, and even a few you might find on television today. We continue this morning with a false teacher—the first woman in the series—who has around 18 million followers in the world today.

Ellen G. White

Ellen Gould Harmon was born on a small farm near the village of Gorham, Maine, on November 26, 1827. Only a few years after her birth, her parents Robert and Eunice Harmon gave up farming to move to the nearby town of Portland where her father became a hat maker. When Ellen was nine she was permanently disfigured when a fellow student maliciously hit her in the head with a rock. The rock put her into a coma that lasted several weeks and forced her to miss a long period of schooling.

When Ellen was twelve, she and her family attended a Methodist camp meeting in Buxton, Maine, and there she had a formative religious experience in which she professed faith in Jesus Christ. In 1840 and 1842 she and her family attended Adventist meetings and become devotees of William Miller. Miller had dedicated himself to the study of biblical prophecy and was convinced that Christ would return on October 22, 1844. When Christ did not return, a non-event that would become known as The Great Disappointment, most people abandoned Adventism. But in the resulting confusion, Ellen claimed to have received visions that were soon accepted as God-given revelation. The small Adventist movement that remained was split by many rifts and much infighting, but Ellen was believed to have a gift that could reunite and guide the movement. Her dreams and visions continued and she quickly became a leader among them.

In 1846, Ellen married a young Adventist preacher named James White and together they traveled extensively, spreading the Adventist faith to New England and beyond. Twelve months later she gave birth to a son, one of four children she would bear, but soon left the child with friends so she could carry on traveling, preaching, and writing.

Ellen G WhiteIn 1855 the Whites moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, and that became Adventism’s hub. Five years later, representatives from each Adventist congregation gathered there and determined that henceforth they would be known as Seventh-day Adventists. Soon after they formally organized as a denomination.

All through this time Ellen continued to receive prophetic dreams and visions—some 2,000 during her lifetime—and through them she guided and formed the church. Over her lifetime Testimonies for the Church expanded from a mere sixteen pages to nine full volumes. In 1863 she received a vision about human health and her followers soon adopted her health regulations as part of their practice, rejecting meat, coffee, and medication in favor of natural remedies.

The Adventist movement continued to expand and the Whites were in high demand across America. They traveled constantly, addressing large congregations and meetings. After James died in 1881, Ellen traveled all the more, spending two years in England and almost nine years in Australia. She spent most of the final fifteen years of her life in Elmshaven, California, and was largely consumed with writing and organizing the growing denomination. She died on July 16, 1915, at the age of 87. During her lifetime she had preached countless times and had written some 5,000 articles and 40 books. By the time she died, Seventh-day Adventism had a worldwide membership of nearly 140,000.

False Teaching

In many respects Ellen G. White appeared to hold to the historic Christian faith. She believed in Christ’s imminent bodily return, she held to the inspiration and authority of the Bible, and she taught that we are saved by Christ’s righteousness rather than our own. But amid that truth were some dangerous false teachings. I will focus on only two.

The most obvious false teaching was the one that gave the Seventh-day Adventists their name: the view that the proper day of worship is Saturday rather than Sunday. Shortly after James and Ellen married, they studied a tract written by Joseph Bates titled Seventh-day Sabbath and became convinced that they were to keep Saturday as the sabbath. Six months later, Ellen had a vision in which she saw the law of God with a halo of light surrounding the fourth commandment. She and her husband took this as proof that their newfound understanding was correct. They elevated this to a doctrine of first importance.

Of far more concern was White’s aberrant view of death, hell, and eternal punishment. Adventists adopted several key tenets including one stating that God does not eternally torment sinners, but that the dead enter into soul-sleep until the second coming and last judgment. At that time the punishment for sinners will be that they cease to exist.

White held that a God of eternal wrath must be incompatible with a God of love and kindness. In The Great Controversy she wrote, “How repugnant to every emotion of love and mercy, and even to our sense of justice, is the doctrine that the wicked dead are tormented with fire and brimstone in an eternally burning hell; that for the sins of a brief, earthly life they are to suffer torture as long as God shall live.”

She also believed that God would simply annihilate the souls of those who did not follow him. “But I saw that God would not shut them up in hell to endure endless misery, neither will He take them to heaven; for to bring them into the company of the pure and holy would make them exceedingly miserable. But He will destroy them utterly and cause them to be as if they had not been; then His justice will be satisfied. He formed man out of the dust of the earth, and the disobedient and unholy will be consumed by fire and return to dust again.”

Followers and Modern Adherents

Adventism nearly came to an end in the days following The Great Disappointment. But Ellen G. White gave the movement new life and a new voice. Through constant preaching, teaching, and evangelism, she and her followers had grown the movement to nearly 140,000 by the time of her death in 1915. Today there are an estimated 18 million Seventh-day Adventists in the world. Their individual beliefs vary so widely that some Christians consider them a cult while others do not.

Seventh-day Adventism has continued to evolve. They continue to regard Ellen G. White as having a unique, God-given gift of prophecy. They continue to hold to the sabbath and to their emphasis on healthy eating and living. They continue to deny both the immortality of the soul and the reality of hell as eternal, conscious torment. Successors to Ellen G. White have also developed the distinctive and troubling doctrine of Investigative Judgment. (one ministry helpfully lists their affirmations, denials, and most troubling teachings and provides this counsel: “There are too many problems within Seventh-day Adventism to recommend it as a safe church.  Though there are Seventh-day Adventist groups that are within orthodoxy, there are too many of them that are not.”)

What the Bible Says

The Bible counters much of what Ellen G. White taught and what her church teaches today.

In the matter of the sabbath, the New Testament clearly shows Christians worshiping together on Sunday rather than Saturday. Not only that, but Romans 14 teaches that each person must be convinced in his own mind about the day they observe as the Lord’s Day; if the sabbath was binding on all Christians today, this passage would be meaningless.

In contrast to White’s teaching on the eternal destiny of those who do not know the Lord, the Bible teaches that hell is real, that it is eternal, and that in hell God’s wrath is poured out in conscious, everlasting punishment. John the Baptist spoke of Jesus, saying, “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12). Jesus himself spoke of hell saying, “if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire” and “these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Mark 9:43, Matthew 25:46). And in the epistles, Paul warned, “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). Only by deliberately twisting the Scriptures can anyone deny the terrifying reality that hell is real and that those who do not know the Lord will be there to face his wrath forever.

Seventh Day Adventist Cult | Sabbath Worship Exposed

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Apostasy

“Warn them from Me”: The 3 Things Paul did to Protect God’s People [podcast]

The 3 Things Paul did to Protect God’s People [podcast]


Jesus and His holy apostles often rebuked and exposed false leaders and false doctrine (Matthew 23; Acts 13:10; 20:29-31; Galatians 5:11-12; 2 Timothy 4:2-4; 2 Peter 2; 2 John 7-11; Revelation 2:6, 15, etc.). Therefore we know that part of following Jesus includes doing the same. In fact, the body of Christ is mandated to do just that (Romans 16:17-18; Philippians 1:17; Jude 3-4).

PWT = Preach, WARN, Teach

“Whom we PREACH, WARNING every man, and TEACHING every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:” Colossians 1:28

Did you catch what the apostle Paul did to prepare the church to meet Christ?

  • Preach
  • WARN
  • Teach

Any man not guarding, not protecting Christ’s flock, by warning of false teachers and false doctrine, is himself a wolf!

Simply put, it doesn’t matter what you think: The LORD has commanded that Satan’s ministers, his human emissaries, be exposed. Time to shut up and obey! (2 Corinthians 11:12-15)

Lest someone think that warning is a cover for slander, let’s address that.

There is a difference between warning and slander. Warning is to be distinguished from slander. William Penn said it correctly when he recorded these words of wisdom:

“Believe nothing against another but on good authority; and never report what may hurt another, unless it be a greater hurt to some other to conceal it.” ~William Penn

The love of God in us will compel us to warn. Firstly this is done in obedience to the LORD and for the protection and care of those being warned. Warning is divinely mandated in order to protect His beloved sheep.

2 Corinthians 5:9-11, 14-21

“Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. 10  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 11  Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. … 14 For the love of Christ constraineth (compels) us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15  And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. 16  Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. 17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19  To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20  Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

“The Apostle had arrived at the deliberate conclusion and judgment that the ‘all’ who realized what Christ had done for them (and he among them) must live with as much devotion toward Him as others toward themselves. A new world had been opened by Christ’s resurrection. All things had become new. Let us live in daily touch with that world of faith and glory, refusing to be judged by the old standards. It is clear that the reconciliation of the world is as complete as God can make it, but it is for us to urge men to fall in with and accept God’s proposals.” FB Meyer

“Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we the more earnestly persuade men to seek his favour; and as God knoweth this, so, I trust, ye know it in your own consciences.” John Wesley

It’s a blessing to be humbled, to be brought low. Sometimes we need to be embarrassed (Proverbs 6:23). There’s a place for it. Paul openly rebuked Peter publicly (Galatians 2). That wound worked to the glory of God and the eternal good of Peter.

“For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:” Romans 6:23 

Keep in mind that each one of us are at times in need of being admonished, corrected, or even rebuked…. it’s “the way of life” as long as we are in this world and it’s out of the love of our God and for our own eternal good.

“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” Revelation 3:19

Did God command us to warn the wicked?

Ezekiel 3:7 “Warn them from me.”

“So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and WARN THEM FROM ME.” Ezekiel 33:7

What would you think of the father who lived on a busy street and refused to warn his children to stay away from that street?

“Whom we PREACH, WARNing every man, and TEACHing every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:” Colossians 1:28

Were Jesus, His prophets, and apostles trying to harm the body of Christ when they often warned of and exposed wolves and their false teachings by name? No, he sought to get the cancer out of the body of Christ so it couldn’t spread (Romans 16:17-18, etc.). Beware of the wolf defenders who refuse to believe the wolves they follow are antichrist enemies of the LORD (2 John 10-11).

“Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” Isaiah 58:1

Most warnings in God’s Word are to the backslidden – those who after being Christ’s, have departed from the faith – and also the counterfeits who have a mere form of godliness.

Jesus says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

Isaiah 59

“Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. 3  For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. 4  None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.”

“Thy prophets (leaders) have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered (uncovered) thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity (bondage); but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.” Lamentation 2:14

God instructed us to “mark” false leaders. Jesus is the Great Shepherd of the sheep and intends for them to be protected from being lured away (Hebrews 13:20; Romans 16:17-18).

“Christians do not judge the world. Christians must judge those who SAY they live for Christ. Wolves will not spare the flock where pretenders go unchallenged/unjudged.” Robert Lorne

Paul had the heart of the Savior as we should. He cried “with tears” for three years day and night over the protection of Jesus’ sheep and said He gave them all the counsel of God, not just some of it, to protect them (Acts 20:20-32).

Ignoring and deciding we are going to selectively pick out what we want to preach and reject the rest that WE don’t like is anything but the cross. This reveals the heart of a self-serving tare. A person truly in the cross says LORD, “NOT my will but thine be done,” and not “I’ll decide for myself what I’m going to preach” (Luke 22:42).

“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove (expose) them.” Ephesians 5:11

After promising that we are His and we shall be persecuted as He was, then our LORD informs us that He is going to expose darkness and that we are to be a part of this process as we stand and speak His His light of truth into the darkness of our day. And to fear not anyone except Him (v 26-28).

“Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. 27 What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. 28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:26-28 

Jesus instructed us to know that He will bring all darkness, every dark deed and evil doer into the light (v26), and told us to shout it, to expose it to all from the housetops (v27), and to do so fearlessly as concerns mere sinful men – the guilty ones who will persecute you for exposing them (v28).

How are we to warn them? what is to be our disposition in warning others as the LORD commanded? One thing we should keep in mind is that God wants us dealing biblically – with the desire to restore – and without personal wrath (Galatians 6:1-2).

“For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” James 1:20

It’s a scary thing to NOT warn the wicked….

“When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to WARN the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.” Ezekiel 3:18

“And of some have compassion, making a difference: 23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” Jude 22-23

Read these 2 verses closely. Notice how if you die in sin – no matter what your past relationship with God was – you are going to hell irrevocably. Enduring to the end of your life on earth with Christ, in an abiding relationship, is essential to eternal glory. Summation: The LORD judges people on their spiritual state at the moment of death. Share. Repent now heretic. 

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Articles

Overcoming that Old Serpent, Called the Devil, and Satan [podcast]



“And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Revelation 12:9

“That old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world” never left the garden of God’s creation and he won’t till Jesus slam dunks him into the bottomless pit (Genesis 3; Revelation 12; 20). He must be overcome “by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death” (Revelation 12:11). God is able. Satan 

“He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.” Ecclesiastes 10:8

“From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? 2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. 4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. 5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? 6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:1-7

In the scope of past, present, and future history – HIS-story – nothing is over till Jesus wins!

“For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. … 57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:25-26, 57

The Cross

Personally I was not blessed to begin seeing our LORD’s victory in my personal life until Jesus’ cross message began to seep into my heart, thoughts and mind.

The record of Holy Scripture assures us that our LORD Jesus conquered sin, death, hell, and Satan (1 John 3:8). But how? He overcome by the cross.

Jesus conquered sin and death by dying.

“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;” Hebrews 2:14

If this is the first time you are hearing this truth, don’t be ashamed. It’s new to all of us due to the original Gospel message of the cross has been lost among most who claim Christ. | The Cross 

Camping out on the message of the cross will assure you are quickened to “seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually.” (1 Chronicles 16:11) Keeping thine eyes and heart upon His cross message will hasten you to Him, to His cross, to the death of self that Christ might raise you upward in His holy power and glory.

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn (grain, seed) of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. 25  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. 26  If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.” John 12:24-26

The cross truly is a “Let go and let God” economy, experience – crying, declaring “Jesus You MUST increase but I MUST decrease!”

As the apostle Paul discovered, you are NOT sufficient and yet His grace is sufficient for your life in Him.

“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

PRAYER: Father, please grant me eye salve to see Your holy truth and the many wolves that now are disguised in sheep’s clothing and leading many to hell. Help me, Jesus! Knowing my utter poverty of spirit, I this moment turn afresh to You fully, asking You to have mercy on me and wash away all my sins. Grant the eyes of my heart discernment as only You can, as I walk closely with You. I choose this day to deny my own self-will and desires and ask You to consume me with Your wisdom, power, and grace. LORD Jesus, please bless me to know You intimately. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Apostasy

“Shall I not visit for these things?” [podcast]


Widespread Corruption – Evidence of God’s Judgment on a Nation

IMPORTANT: Read Matthew 24 and Luke 21 this week. Jesus foretold this would all be happening right before He returns! Jesus is coming. Get ready.

A cursory introduction to Jeremiah 5-7. God’s people were in rebellion to Him and reaping what they’d been sowing (Galatians 6:7-8). Read, pour prayerfully over these chapters this week beloved. This message is designed to launch the God fearing saint to pour over this passage as they examine their hearts, their lives before Him honestly.

“Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you. 26 For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men. 27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. 28 They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. 29 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; 31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” Jeremiah 5:25-31

Judgment on America for the Rebellion of those who Falsely Claim to be Saved

“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” Revelation 6:9-10

The LORD blesses those who are with Him. Anyone who forsakes Him will be forsaken by Him.

“The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and IF ye seek him, he will be found of you; but IF ye forsake him, he will forsake you.” 2 Chronicles 15:2

The word “if” in God’s Word denotes a choice that will be made.

The LORD is not with you if you are not with Him – doing life on HIS stated terms. That’s exactly why He gave you His recorded Word in tangible form. Read John 14-16.

Notice “IF ye seek him” and not if you go to church or just claim to be His. Are you seeking His holy face “continually”?

“Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually.” 1 Chronicles 16:11

“Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.” Joel 2:12-13

“O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. 2 Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.” Hosea 14:1-2

Notice here in the verse below how setting, allowing wicked things into our eye gates leads to turning aside, departing from Christ, backsliding. Notice how the psalmist views backsliding as a plague. And it sure is. Millions irrevocably occupy the bowels of eternal damnation right this moment and forever who made one bad decision which led to their backsliding. It’s time to read God as if our eternal souls depended on it – because they do. safeguardyoursoul.com

“I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.” Psalms 101:3

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, please break me, make me to be poor in spirit and pure in heart. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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