GYC 2025: Seeing the Invisible

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Ellen White? Why Should I Care?

Mark Howard

01 Is Ellen White Even Biblical?

Heavenly Father, we thank you today for a new day of life, a new year, a year of opportunities.

We thank you for the privilege we have of knowing you and your son Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

We pray, Father, that you would direct our attention in our study of your word today, that your Holy Spirit would be present to give us understanding and spiritual things and we ask all this in Jesus name and for his sake amen now before I get into our presentation today I'm gonna put this on the screen that QR code will take you to a place a Dropbox file that will give you access to all the notes that I'm presenting here and all the presentation graphics.

So if you're 1 of those people that's always trying to keep up writing notes, you can access what I'm using from that link.

If you're not a linky kind of person, and you're like, well, I don't know how to do that, you can also go to the michigansspm.org website.

When you get to that site, it will look like this on the home page and there's a little that's a floppy disk for anybody who's old enough or wise enough and digital stuff to anyway you click on that and that will take you to that same Dropbox folder to access everything that I'm going to be presenting this today and tomorrow in the 2 seminars.

We're also doing 1 on how to give Bible study so you're gonna access them.

So MichiganSSPM.org you can go there as well.

Part of the reason, well I'll get to that in a minute.

For those who do not know who I am, my name is Mark Howard, I'm a pastor.

I work in the Sabbath School and Personal Ministries Department of the Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

I'm the associate there with Pastor Cameron DeVazier.

Now Pastor DeVazier and I, in our department, do a weekly program on Sabbath School called Talking Points.

You may be aware of that, where we review the adult Sabbath School lesson.

Pastor Cameron is the director in that department, and I have been in the pastoral ministry for about 25 years.

Now, why am I here besides the fact that they invited me?

You'll hear more about this tomorrow morning.

But as a Seventh-day Adventist, in fact, when I was 15 years old, My parents left the Seventh-day Adventist Church during what we call the Desmond Ford crisis.

Now, you're probably not old enough to remember that.

You certainly didn't go through it, but maybe you heard about it.

Ford was an Adventist theologian, an Australian theologian, who began to find issues with teachings regarding the sanctuary, and Ellen White was 1 of those big issues that he took, 1 of the things he took issue with.

So when my parents left the church, 1 of the issues they had was with Ellen White.

So when by God's mercy and grace, he brought me back into the church in my mid twenties, that was a question I had to answer for myself.

And I didn't want an answer from somebody just saying, well, that's what we believe.

And that scriptural study led me to what I'm sharing with you.

And I have in turn done this now for the past 20 years.

I used to teach the course at Arise and it was we taught 16 credit hours.

Obviously there are things that cannot be put into that time period.

That's why I'm giving you access to the documents or things I won't maybe be able to elaborate as much on that you'll find in my handouts, but also I'm gonna refer you to other resources that you can study to gain a better understanding of this topic.

So let's look at a quick overview of what our today and tomorrow's gonna look like.

This presentation is addressing this question, is Ellen White even biblical?

Why do we have something besides the Bible.

Our next presentation next period is understanding how inspiration works.

I'll explain why these 2 things are so important in just a minute.

After lunch, number 3 is how to avoid misreading Ellen White, which is a more common problem than many would admit.

And so how do we make sure that we're applying and not misapplying what she has written?

This is gonna deal with not just plagiarism, but a number of the things that critics of Ellen White Say about her to discredit her we're going to be looking at some of those things and then tomorrow morning I want to talk specifically about what led me from a position of being outside the Adventist church and having issues with Ellen White to somebody who has firm confidence in the writings of Ellen White.

And I'm hoping that that will help you in that direction as well.

So that's what we're going to be looking at.

We're going to start out with is Ellen White even biblical?

1 of the things that as I began finding my way into the church in my in my mid-20s and I had these questions about Ellen White and I began to talk to people on and research things 1 of the things that struck me right away is that a lot of people both within the Adventist Church and outside the Adventist Church make assumptions about Ellen White's ministry, what it should be or what it shouldn't be, with no knowledge of what the Bible says about prophets.

Okay, so in other words, it's like, well, I don't know that Ellen White, she used the writings of other uninspired people.

And so when you don't understand some of the biblical framework for how the gift works.

And it was I believe it was Willie White, Ellen White's son, who made this statement.

The foundation by which to fix faith in the messages which God has sent to his people will be more readily found in the study of his dealings with his prophets when in past ages simply saying if we have a better understanding of how the Bible portrayed the gift of prophecy will have a better understanding of how it should be working today.

Now I'm going to tell you, we're going to run through a lot of things kind of quickly, both in this presentation and the next 1.

And when I do seminars like this, and I fear it will happen here, If people have an idea that I'm going to talk about how to understand some of Ellen White's statements about things like cheese and wearing pants and other things like that, everybody wants to crowd into that seminar and find the answers without the biblical framework.

If you don't want to spend the rest of your Adventist experience always having to ask somebody else what you should believe, then you want a biblical framework.

Once you have the biblical framework, you can apply it and decide, rightly decide what to believe.

And so that's why again, this is so important.

According to the Bible, what is a prophet?

Now I ask according to the Bible, because if you were to ask the common person on the street what a prophet is, what do you think they'd tell you?

Did you know that not all prophets told the future?

There was a prophet, this is a little quiz, there was a prophet that Jesus called the greatest of the prophets.

John the Baptist did not foretell the future.

And so what is a prophet according to the Bible?

I hope you have your Bibles with you in some kind of format on your phone or a paper copy or whatever.

Exodus 4, we're going to look at verse 14.

Now this is when God calls Moses to go and speak to Pharaoh.

Exodus 4 verse 14, the Bible says, so the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, because Moses didn't want to go, he was unqualified.

God calls us to go and be witnesses, and we're like, I'm not qualified.

And so he tells Moses, I'm going to put the words in your mouth.

And Moses is like, no, send somebody else.

So God was, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite your brother?

And look, he is also coming out to meet you when he sees you you will be glad in his heart now notice what it says you shall speak to him and put the what words in his mouth and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and I will teach you what you shall do.

So he shall be your spokesman to the people, and he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God." Now what did God say Aaron was going to be for Moses?

Let's go just a couple chapters past that, a few chapters past, to chapter 7 and verse 1.

02 How Inspiration Works

03 How to Avoid Misreading Ellen White

04 Was Ellen White a Plagiarist?

Now, what we are going to cover is a little bit of the residual from our last session and then talk about the plagiarism charges.

But before we do that, I want to pray and ask God to bless our time.

Father in heaven, again, we're just thankful for the opportunity we have to be here and we pray for the guidance of the Spirit of God in this seminar.

You give us a clear understanding in this gift of prophecy and how to rightly divide the words of truth.

We ask and pray all of this in Jesus name.

Somebody gave me a list years ago on ways you know you grew up Adventist.

You know you're raised SDA if you pronounce Adventist as Adventist and not Adventist.

It's what you got in Sabbath school, the little friend.

You had an Uncle Arthur, Uncle Dan, and Aunt Sue, and were surprised to find out all your friends did, too.

No, you grew up Adventist if you have that.

You think of kids instead of cars when you hear the term pathfinder.

You have a board somewhere in the attic with a bunch of knots glued to it.

Some of you old pathfinders know what that's talking about.

You can stack 3, 000 calories on a plate at a church potluck.

And I've watched some Adventist stack some plates.

On Saturdays you catch yourself telling your children you can wade, but don't swim.

And Even if you never were in this directly, you've probably somehow encountered this debate over whether you should swim or not on the SAF.

I think Ellen White said something about it, but we're going to disregard that.

Well, this is the statement that that is drawn from and oftentimes we build statements, we build theologies around statements without really delving into the statements.

I'm gonna take a moment to segue and just briefly touch on this.

It's kind of 1 of those things you wouldn't do a sermon on.

But since I'm talking about these things and it just came up again here, the issue of applause or clapping.

How many of you have been in a situation where something happens in an Adventist church and half the people clap and half the people don't?

And some of the people aren't quite sure.

And then they look around and if other people are kind of like, oh, wait a minute, the pet.

And what's really funny to me is most of that is drawn from 2 paragraphs in Testimonies Volume 3.

There's a section in Testimonies 3 called The Danger of Applause.

But the basic point Ellen White makes in that 2 paragraphs is that human beings cannot handle elation and applause.

And so in the context, she's speaking specifically about ministers or performers in the church.

Much of what happens in church can come across as a performance anymore.

I can tell you as a minister I've done evangelistic meetings.

Most Adventists don't applaud for ministers per se, but non-Adventists do.

And I feel really weird to be applauded as a person, especially in light of that, because I'm not giving a performance, I'm communicating for the Lord, whatever I'm doing.

It's ministry and it's to God and I don't want applause for it.

And so that's what Ellen White's statement speaks to.

You're not going to lift up the heads of those high school kids and make them think the same thing as you are some person who just finished special music.

Applause is going to have a different effect.

So I bring that up to say yet again, these are things we need to understand.

It would, it would, boy, it would sure help if we at least got on the same page.

I can't tell you how many times I've been in an awkward situation where we just don't, amen, don't know what to do.

So let's just keep studying and understand the Lord's Word.

Ellen White says here, pleasure-seeking ball playing swimming was not a necessity but a sinful neglect of the sacred day, speaking of the Sabbath, sanctified by Jehovah.

And so I remember this coming up when I was teaching this at an Arise session years ago and a student had asked, I was glad we actually looked it up in class.

I'm like, why does Ella White say you can't swim on the Sabbath?

And we looked this up and there's this statement, okay?

Now this is what we're talking policy and principle.

This is the paragraph right before that 1.

Okay, and so we're going to read them together.

Every working of Christ in miracles was essential and to reveal to the world that there was what?

Relief of suffering humanity So fascinating statement actually Ellen White says that Christ's miracles were not just for the purpose of healing but also teaching and revealing to the world that the Sabbath day was a great day to minister to suffering humanity.

Pleasure seeking, ball playing, swimming was not a necessity, but a what?

It's something you should have done but didn't do.

Something you left undone, not a necessity, but a sinful neglect of the sacred day sanctified by Jehovah.

So now looking at that, let me ask you the question.

Why was she saying that swimming on the Sabbath was not a good idea?

Because God's people would be better doing something else.

And I'm not trying to throw my mom and dad under the bus.

But early, before we left the church, I grew up in the Adventist church.

And Sabbath afternoon is when you went to church as a young person.

And you occupied yourself until they woke up around sundown.

OK, some of you shared that experience, right?

05 Why I Believe In Ellen White

Father in heaven, I want to thank you this morning for a new day of life.

I thank you for each 1 here Thank you for GYC.

We have of knowing you and your son Jesus Christ whom you have sent Lord I ask now this morning that the Spirit of God would especially be with us, would impress our hearts and our minds.

Lord, you've given this gift to us as a people, and you've given it for a great reason, and I pray that that would come clear to each 1 of us this morning in this presentation.

So, I told you earlier in the week, and I'm going to elaborate this morning, that when I was in my, well, my family, my mom and my dad actually were first generation Adventists.

They received Bible studies from some dear saints that are sleeping in the Lord now and I think just before I was born they joined the Adventist Church But my mom and dad were divorced when I was about 7 years old and my mom remarried and and during that time We moved to Mount Vernon, Ohio anybody familiar with Mount Vernon, Ohio and it Good old Adventist ghetto in Mount Vernon.

I went to the church school there through eighth grade.

And 1981 was the year when everything hit the fan in the Adventist church with Desmond Ford.

Desmond Ford was an Australian theologian who began picking at the sanctuary doctrine and obviously by connection Ellen White because he said the only reason we have the sanctuary doctrine the way we do is because of the teachings of Ellen White and Uriah Smith etc.

In fact he said Ellen White got it from Uriah Smith, but that's why we hold to it.

The Ford crisis I mentioned yesterday to those who were in here, this was nationwide at least.

And it hit the main Newsweek magazine, Time magazine, news outlets and what have you about what was happening in the Adventist church.

And of course, all the Christian world was abuzz with it.

Christianity today, the Adventists are finally coming around, you know.

And so multitudes of ministers left the denomination.

Entire churches, congregations switched over to Sunday keeping churches.

And even to this day, time does not permit me to say how much that impact has rippled through in 1 of those areas is Ellen White a Man by the name of Walter Ray and Adventist minister.

He was a Verbal inspirationist We've talked about inspiration.

So when he discovered that Ellen White had actually used other people's writings, he said, well, this, you know, how can you can't do that if you're inspired?

He wrote a book called The White Lie, exposing Ellen White.

They interviewed him in news outlets and what have you.

So this is what was going on when I was in eighth grade.

And at the same time, there are a lot of people in the church, boy, time doesn't permit me, because we have this, we'll always have this.

I wish we wouldn't use the word legalism.

I think we should use the word formalism, because that's what happens.

When we think legalism, we think of somebody who's real strict in their diet or something, but legalism takes a lot of forms.

You know, I can go to the soup kitchen, I can say it's not important to keep the commandments, I don't have to keep the Sabbath, I don't have to do anything, I just go and help the soup kitchen every week.

If I do that because it's going to get me into heaven, which people do, it's like, I'll tell you, I've gone because I'm also in personal ministry.

You knock on doors, you interview people, you ask them about what they think about God.

Do you feel if you died tonight, you'd be saved?

I've heard pastors say, it's like, everybody feels lost.

What gives you that confidence to say, because I'm a good person.

Listen, if you think you're being saved because you're a good person, that's legalism.

I don't care if you're not keeping the Sabbath and if you're not eating cheese, you're eating cheese and doing all these things, you're still a legalist.

And I would say formalism is when you keep going through the motions of religion, but you have no real connection with the Lord.

And that has been a problem in the church, and it will always be a problem in the church.

And that was at probably 1 of its periods of its height in 1981, and I think that's where Ford found access, because Ford came and encouraged people with getting away from the rules and what have you, and there are different takes on that.

But during that time period, I was living with my mom and my stepdad and they left the Adventist church.

My mom, my stepdad actually went on disability for a sickness he contracted.

He was doing construction work so he couldn't do that.

And my mom, my aunt, she actually, she and her husband, my uncle, it was her second husband, he was a highway bridge contractor and had lots of money.

So he invited my mom to move from, we were in Mount Vernon, Ohio, to Columbia, Missouri.

And he was going to put her up in her own beauty salon.

Well, anybody know what the busiest day of a beauty salon is?

Now, my mom, I don't think my mom, she thinks she's the owner, the manager, whatever else, And so she'll go, she doesn't have to go in on Saturday.

It's interesting to me to this day where people would say, and I still hear it.

I was in Australia and I had somebody pushing back because I was telling my story.

And like, You need to tell people how many people were blessed by dr.

Ford We lived through it and it's the people say I'm I'm free in Jesus now because I accept it Let me tell you something about my family.

We were free from Jesus Religion was gone.

So tell me, yeah, this guy's been, look, by their fruits you shall know them.

And the fruit of that teaching doesn't go anywhere good.

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Series

Ellen White? Why Should I Care?

01 Is Ellen White Even Biblical?

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

01 Is Ellen White Even Biblical?

1h

02 How Inspiration Works

52m

03 How to Avoid Misreading Ellen White

43m

04 Was Ellen White a Plagiarist?

54m

05 Why I Believe In Ellen White

45m

Sound Doctrine