You can't be a serious student of Ellen White and declare that meat eating is not a sin. She says in the quote above that you can't have your prayers answered if you eat meat. She says that it has a harmful affect on the soul. She says that before we can stand before God ... we will have to have victory over this appetite. All that to me says it is SIN.
"Those who have received instruction regarding the evils of the use of flesh foods...will not continue to indulge their appetite for food that they know to be unhealthful. God demands that the appetites be cleansed, and that self-denial be practiced in regard to those things which are not good. This is a work that will have to be done before His people can stand before Him a perfected people." 9T 153.
"Is it not time that all should aim to dispense with flesh foods? How can those who are seeking to become pure, refined, and holy, that they may have the companionship of heavenly angels, continue to use as food anything that has so harmful an effect on soul and body?"
She indicates meat eating causes multiple diseases and that to be sick is a sin. Not hard to connect the dots.
The principle: "To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
And, "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin."
God judges us according to our light. If I study and come to the conclusion that God's will is for me to stop all eating of animal flesh or animal products, but then I keep on eating it, then it would certainly be sin for me. But God doesn't condemn those who eat meat either because there's no other way to gain the nutrients their bodies need or because they know nothing about "health reform." There was a while when Ellen White thought Pig's meat was healthy. God obviously did not hold Ellen White responsible for the sin of eating it when she was unaware that it was wrong to do so. God treats intentional sin differently than he treats sins done in ignorance. He obviously holds SDAs responsible in a way He does not hold the average man in the street who has never heard of health reform or of what the Bible teaches on the subject.
Regards,
"John 3: 17"