Michigan Camp Meeting 2019: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

White Out: Whatever Happened to the Gift of Prophecy?

Mark Howard

Satan’s Last Deception

What the Bible Says About Prophets

Ellen White or Sola Scriptura

Can a Plagiarist be Inspired

Reading Ellen White - Part 1

Reading Ellen White - Part 2

Father in heaven, we are thankful to be here at the Michigan Camp Meeting.

We're so thankful for the privilege we have to come together as like-minded believers to study your word and to understand your purposes for our life better.

Lord, especially as we believe we live in a generation that will see Jesus come.

We want to be ready for that day, and so we ask Lord that you would use this and other presentations here at Camp Meeting that would help us to be ready and help us to help others be ready as well.

We ask and pray these things in Jesus' name.

Now I want to give you a little bit of a background for myself.

Some of you perhaps have heard this before.

My family grew up, I grew up at Seventh-day Adventist.

My mom and dad were first-generation Adventists.

And they actually, we all left the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the early 1980s during the Desmond Ford crisis.

Now, I don't know if you know about that or not, not necessary that you do, but I want you to understand that for our family, the subject of Ellen White was not a positive 1.

And so that when I was in my mid-twenties and the Lord was able to stir my heart and bring me to conversion and give my life to Him, and I was looking for which church to attend.

I looked at the Adventist church among other churches, and you can believe I had a sticking point with the spirit of prophecy, and it led me to maybe a deeper study than many would go into, into the subject.

So I want you to know a little bit about where I'm coming from from this.

I came from a position of having a lot of skepticism, and some of the things that I'm going to share throughout this week and things that I'm sure many of you have heard about Ellen White, about her ministry, about whether or not she was a plagiarist and whether or not she had failed visions and all of these kinds of things.

That was something that I had to answer for myself coming into the faith, and the Lord has impressed me to share those with others because I think it's very important.

You know, the Bible tells us that we're to give this last message, the 3 angels' messages, with a loud voice.

And that loud voice implies personal conviction.

You can't give anything with a loud voice without personal conviction.

And so we need to be settled on this matter of the spirit of prophecy as well as many other things.

So I'm hoping that this seminar will meet that need among us.

Now the title for the week's seminar is White Out, as you see that on the screen, whatever happened to the gift of prophecy.

And I want to tell you that attacks on Ellen White and her ministry are not anything new.

In fact, I'd like you to turn with your Bibles this morning, and I hope you have your Bibles throughout the week.

We'll be referring to them quite a bit here.

There are a lot of things I'm going to bring up today that I'm not going to substantiate.

I just need to lay some groundwork this morning.

Revelation 12 and verse 17, the Bible says, and the dragon was what?

Now, if you're reading any King James, it's the word wrath, and the New King James is the word enraged.

The dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Now, I'm not going to break this passage down, but as Seventh-day Adventist we believe, of course the dragon right there in the passage earlier tells us it's the devil, representative of the devil, and that woman represents the church.

And Revelation 12 brings us down to the last days, which we believe Revelation 12, 17 points to, where the dragon is enraged with the church that keeps the commandments of God and has what's called the testimony of Jesus Christ.

We believe that refers to the gift of prophecy, the ministry that was manifested through Ellen White and other prophets.

And we're going to talk about that further in the week.

But I don't want you to miss that first part.

A lot of times when Adventists talk about this verse, and we say, well, there's 2 characteristics here of the remnant church.

They keep the commandments, and they have the testimony of Jesus.

But there's a third characteristic that too many people overlook, and that third characteristic is the devil is enraged with this church.

You got to be clear on that, and especially what 2 things, the commandments of God and the gift of prophecy.

And so we should not be surprised at attacks on the gift of prophecy, neither outside the church or inside the church.

Now I want to share with you a statement here.

Our title of our message today is Satan's Last Deception.

It's going to come from a statement I'm going to share in just a moment.

But I want to share this statement from Selected Messages, Volume 3, page 83.

Ellen White says, "'All who believe that the Lord has spoken through Sister White and has given her a message will be safe from the many delusions that will come in these last days.

I want to tell you that the devil knows this statement better than any of us knows it, and that's why he can't stand this gift of prophecy.

It's 1 of God's ways to help ensure his people are ready for the coming of Jesus.

The devil has attacked the spirit of prophecy, as we've mentioned.

And today in the church, I'm afraid we're just plain confused about the role of Ellen White's gift in our church.

I was just talking to a young man yesterday.

Said that 1 of the professors had brought up 1 of the statements where Ellen White says that the Lord could have come to our earth, ere this, before now, had God's people done the work that God had given them to do.

And he said 1 of the other students, this is 1 of the theology students, said, well, wasn't that Ellen White's, just Ellen White's opinion?

And the teacher, the professor responded, well, no, that was something she received by inspiration.

Well, the response came back, well, how do we know that that came from inspiration?

I mean, it sounds kind of like just her opinion to me.

And that would be, I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if it were a very isolated comment, but it's not an isolated comment.

In fact, many of the students who ask questions like that are getting their ideologies from some of our other teachers.

I'm just saying that this issue is a widespread issue and so this week we'll be addressing some of these questions and God willing some of the answers.

Today I'm going to be sharing some examples, a little bit of history, and as we progress throughout the week, I'm going to attempt to provide clear answers from leaders, scholars, but more importantly from Ellen White herself.

I think she gives very clear answers to some of these accusations.

Now, I've shared some of what I'm going to share today in a presentation I called at 1 point, Betrayed with a Kiss.

You know, taking from Judas, who betrayed the Lord, not with a…Judas didn't betray Jesus with a punch in the mouth.

He betrayed him in a way that looked like he was on Jesus' side.

I chose not to use that title today because today I'm going to share with you things, attacks from within the church, from outside the church, and from within the church.

And I maybe even should be careful to use the word tax because I have read, and some of what I'm going to share today are actually labeled as defenses of Ellen White's ministry.

But the net effect of the defense is to weaken it not strengthen it and I'm not using the betrayed with a kiss title because it implies that the people who are maybe Presenting some of these views that I'm going to share today are intentionally trying to deceive.

I don't believe that I think we have many sincere leaders and scholars who are trying to make Ellen White's writings relevant in our day, but I'm afraid that in the way they're doing it, they're making her writings of none effect.

I'm going to take you to a statement where Ellen White talks about what she calls the very last deception of Satan.

Selective Messages, volume 2, page 78, notice what it says, the very last deception of Satan will to be what?

Notice the language there, to make of none effect the testimony of the Spirit of God." Now, she's coming on her own ministry and her own writings.

Then she quotes Proverbs 29, 18, where there is no vision, the people perish.

We're going to look at that in another translation as we come toward the end of this presentation.

She continues, Satan will work ingeniously in different ways and through different agencies to unsettle the confidence of God's people, God's remnant people in the true testimony.

Now in the context of this, she's talking about her writings, and she says the very last deception of Satan will be to make them of none effect.

Now as Ellen White often does, she's using the language of Scripture here.

We're going to look at that in a minute because for us to understand this terminology is key.

What is she really saying this very last deception will be?

I need to interject here that if you read in the writings of Ellen White, you're going to find that she uses, she talks about last deceptions in other areas.

I don't think she's talking chronologically.

I don't think we're going down through time and saying the very last chronological thing that's going to happen.

I believe that when Ellen White is talking about the very last deception, what she's addressing is something that when this deception takes hold, Satan will know his cause is secure.

Last in the terms that once the devil pulls this 1 off, he's got it.

And you're going to see what we mean by that as we continue today.

Let's go to our Scriptures here this morning.

Let's go to the Lord's Scriptures and look at this, seek to answer this question, what did she mean by the phrase of none effect?

We're going to the book of Matthew chapter 15.

Now, I'll be reading in the New King James Version.

Of no effect is what it will say in the New King James, but the idea you'll see is the same.

Series

White Out: Whatever Happened to the Gift of Prophecy?

Satan’s Last Deception

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

Mark Howard: White Out? Whatever Happened to the Gift of Prophecy?

Betrayed with a Kiss

1h

The Gift of Prophecy - When and Why

57m

Sanctuary, Salvation, & Our Savior

Sanctuary, Salvation, & Our Savior - Part 5: Sanctuary Under Siege

1h 12m

White Out: Whatever Happened to the Gift of Prophecy?

What the Bible Says About Prophets

1h 1m

IMPACT Scandinavia 2012: Workshop B

The Most Essential and Attacked Gift of God’s Remnant Church, Part 3

1h 29m

End-Time Events & Religious Liberty Implications

Illuminated With His Glory: Revelation 18

1h 2m

Understanding Difficult Topics

1. Understanding and Explaining the Secret Rapture

1h

Emmanuel Institute Bootcamp

4. Antichrist

1h 42m

Seminars

Education and the Three Angels

1h 10m

Fundamentally Flawed? Considering Challenges to Truth

Trinity

49m

Sabbath School and Personal Ministries: Getting the Most Out of BSO

01 A Bible Study Reformation

1h 4m

Christian Berdahl: Music Seminar

1. Overture: Our Personal Journey

2h

Sound Doctrine