ECYC 2013: Something Better

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Eastern Canada Youth Conference

Daniel Stojanovic

Is the Bible Enough?

It's not always easy when you connect with other Christians to know how to deal with Ellen White.

We sometimes feel that when we talk with Catholics, Protestants, that we have Ellen White as a burden.

And we say Bible, and somehow we don't know at what time in our conversation how to introduce, in the right way, Ellen White.

And so this is why I think that it is very important that we ask this question, is the Bible enough?

And the title, as I said, The Lesser Light will help us to understand the relationship between the Bible and the spirit of prophecy.

And of course, you will have time to ask questions.

If I cannot answer all questions, just email me at daniel.stojanovic at outlook.com or stojanovic.daniel at adventist.ca.

And I will be more than glad to continue the discussion with you.

When I think about the role of LNG White writings, I remember a situation that I had in France.

At that time, it was probably 98, 99, before my coming to the North American division, We had a lot of discussion with the Protestant churches in France.

And this association of Protestant churches, called in France Fédération Protestante de France, was a big institution, probably around 900, 000 members.

So during these discussions, we had the opportunity to ask questions, to know them better.

And they had also the opportunity to ask us important questions.

So you can imagine a long discussion about 5 questions.

And the first question was sola scriptura.

And this is what I tried to give you here.

In general, the question is not difficult.

But subsequent question, coming from the question itself, is a little bit difficult.

Could you imagine what was the story of the day?

And the third 1 was about the mortality of the soul.

And the fourth 1 was about the sanctuary.

So when you go through 5 questions, you have a lot of discussion, as you can imagine.

So the first question was, do you believe in sola scriptura?

And I appreciated the content of our answer, but then came another subsequent question.

If you believe in sola scriptura, When you say sola scriptura, which means the Bible only as the rule of faith.

If you believe that there is only the Bible as the rule of faith, why do you declare that You believe also in the inspiration of the Ellen G.

And we can say that it is a legitimate question.

If the Bible is enough, what about the writings of Ellen White?

Why do we need to state during every general conference session that we believe strongly in the inspiration and the authority of Ellen G.

So this is mainly what I will try to answer during this presentation.

I'm just reminding you, probably you know, when you read our 18th fundamental beliefs of our church you know that we have 28 fundamental beliefs.

So the 18th 1 is about the gift of prophecy.

1 of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is prophecy.

This gift is an identifying mark of the remnant Church.

So just underline this aspect, remnant Church, and was manifested in the ministry of Ellen white.

As the Lord's messenger, her writings are a continuing and authoritative source of truth which provide for the church comfort, guidance, instruction, and even correction.

They also make clear that the Bible is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested.

And I come back to this discussion that we had in France.

At the end of the story, I could not forget to mention important elements from the Bible.

I remember someone said, you know, Luther is very important for us.

OK, I was listening to everything, everything.

And at the end, I said, you know why I love this discussion?

It is because I'm strongly attached to Sola Scriptura.

And because I am attached to Sola Scriptura, I am also attached to the writings of Ellen white.

Because in sola scriptura, in the Bible, you will find that God said, not me, not me, God said, Jesus said, the apostle said that In church history, we will have manifestation of different gifts of the Holy Spirit.

And he considered that it is really necessary in order to build his church that he also sends the gift of prophecy for the church.

If the Bible says, and God appointed some as apostles, some as evangelists, some as prophets, it would be a surprise for me that during the church history There is no manifestation of the gift of prophecy.

In fact, the lack of the gift of prophecy is a big question mark for me.

If you don't have the gift of prophecy, then you can say, how are we following the Sola Scriptura?

Because we see the gift of prophecy, then we can say, yes, we are following the instructions of the Bible itself.

And I ask themself, how do you understand the gift of prophecy?

I would like to know on your side, you say, Luther is not a prophet.

If Luther is not a prophet, who else will accomplish the mission of God himself?

In fact, the church will recognize sooner or later the prophecies of the Bible regarding even the gift of prophecy.

And this is how we started the long discussion.

I remember it was almost funny from my perspective.

I mentioned a text of Jesus, Matthew chapter 10.

At the end of the chapter Jesus said, He who receives a prophet will receive also the reward of the prophet.

And an individual who was there, he said, but this is I didn't mention from the Bible, but just by memory.

So I had to take my Bible and to show and to read.

And it was really a surprise for people to understand, yes, Jesus said, if you accept the prophet, you will receive the reward of the prophet.

So Jesus knew in advance that it was necessary for his church, for the well-being of the church, to receive the gift of prophecy.

And you will see at the end how important it is for us.

Because God, surely the Lord does nothing unless he reveals his secret to his servant, the prophet.

It's against his will to communicate with his people, not to send the gift of prophecy.

In fact, the spirit of prophecy is the proof what is written so well in Hebrew chapter 1, verse 1, that God is longing to connect with human beings.

And you know, God who several times in the past talked to our fathers through the prophets, is talking to at the present time through Jesus Christ.

The gift of prophecy is the desire of God to communicate.

The communication skills of God are excellent.

And if you think about the importance of what we receive through the gift of prophecy, it's huge.

150 years before, we received through the gift of prophecy, so many good instructions that even today, the science is trying to discover some details about the importance of this.

Is the Bible Enough?

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