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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Dave Fiedler

Insanity:  The Convincing Evidence

Sometimes I think that this is probably the only topic that human beings are qualified to speak on.

I call it the convincing evidence, because we are in a war.

Actually, in Revelation where it says there was War in Heaven, the word is, I'll probably mispronounce it.

It's the root word we get our word polemic from.

Well, I'm going to jump in with some lessons from history.

And some of this, I'm just going to have to count on A little quick adaptation or a little quick adjustment so that you can all kind of get up to speed on it here, so to speak.

We're going to start off talking about Dr.

If you're not a Seventh-day Adventist, well, welcome to the family gathering.

And we're just going to talk about our past for just a moment.

From about 1888, well, earlier in some ways, but from 1888 to 1895, Dr.

Kellogg was a tremendously good influence, mostly, in Seventh-day Adventism.

About 1895, he took offense because he was not being treated well by some individuals, and his heart became, over some period of years, More self-centered, shall we say?

Ellen White says he put on the coat of irritation.

I'm not quite sure what that means, but you kind of get the drift anyhow.

Unfortunately, over time, his influence went downhill significantly.

And he began to work for, I would say, his own honor and glory.

He decided he was going to outperform everybody else in the church, and in many ways he did.

But he was not always godlike or Christlike.

There were ups and downs during this time period, but the trend was for the worse.

Eventually, Ellen White would be required to write things like this.

A scene has presented before me, has been presented before me, of actions performed by you, Dr.

Kellogg, similar to the actions of Satan in the heavenly courts.

From time to time, I have given warnings to different ones who are being blinded by your sophistries and misrepresentations.

Your power of misrepresentation is so continuously exerted that many have been deceived.

In some things, you act like a man bereft of his reason.

It is a marvel to me how 1 who has had the light in so many ways, who has received so many warnings and reproofs, can yet go on blindfolding himself and others." That's not a very good status to be in.

You have been the spokesman repeating the words of accusation and condemnation of the arch deceiver.

Your science has been used to benumb the sensibilities and confuse the judgment of others.

In long night talks, you have presented your mind and plans and works, and these have become their mind and plans and works.

In listening to your words, these men have imbibed the very science of the tempter.

You have twisted and manipulated and misstated and misrepresented the testimonies that God has given, making them of no effect.

Ellen White was certainly the primary individual taking the lead in opposing the work that Dr.

Kellogg was doing, since her writings are often called the testimonies.

He was undercutting her influence and her statements.

This whole matter has been presented to me.

You have worked as Lucifer worked in the heavenly courts to persuade his associates to unite with him.

The enemy has used his arts upon your mind.

Your boasted study of science and your assertion that you have obtained something excellent have deceived the men connected with you, and they have refused to listen to the warnings sent to keep them from listening to your false representations." OK, well, it's kind of a gloomy situation, a gloomy assessment of Kellogg's involvement.

The ministers of God are being drawn in and deceived by his science.

He is doing all in his power to create a division between the medical work and the ministry of the word.

He was pulling ministers, the ministers of God, he was pulling ministers onto the, if you want to, you know, I mean he's making a division.

And he's managing to pull some ministers onto the medical side.

This last point here is particularly important.

And in other settings and other presentations, I spend a lot of time on this aspect.

But this idea of creating that division is particularly important because of this statement.

When the gospel ministers and the medical missionary workers are not united, there is placed on our churches the worst evil that can be placed there.

And I would say that largely happened over 100 years ago.

And I would say we have largely been laboring under that condition of the worst evil upon our churches for the last century.

It doesn't mean that good things haven't been done.

It doesn't mean that souls haven't been saved.

It just means we've been dealing with some Real challenges.

And I'm not going to spend time on that right now.

God wanted a union between the evangelistic work, the ministerial work, and the medical work.

There was this grand plan for this perfect union in these branches of work.

And Kellogg was trying to split them into 2.

Well, I've dabbled in Adventist history for some while, so I was familiar with these statements.

And I thought, some while ago, I said, I really ought to try and find out what was going on.

Because these are rather profound charges.

I mean, you're working as Satan worked in heaven.

I mean, that's not just your average run of the mill ne'er do well.

This is somebody who's really got something going on, and it's going downhill.

And so I kind of went looking for that in a variety of sources.

And that's more or less where we want to go right now.

In order to understand the setting, We go to a well-known verse, Revelation 12.

Behold, a great fiery red dragon having 7 heads and 10 horns, 7 diadems on his heads.

His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.

We normally interpret that to be a third of the angels.

Round figures, at least, something like that.

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Insanity: The Convincing Evidence

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