The Great Controversy

[Gregory Matthews]

The following article asks a simple question:   Would Ellen White endorse the mailing of millions of copies of The Great controversy to the public today?   It should be noted that the author of this article has held high positions of leadership in the SDA denomination.

https://spectrummagazine.org/views/2022/are-we-addicted-great-controversy

 

[phkrause]

I believe she would've been OK with the mailing of the GC!!

[Kevin H]

I think she would with caution; in academy and college the teachers would read some letters she wrote which talked about the difficulty she had of trying to maintain a balance between the issues she needed to bring up, but not be anti-Catholic. I think she would edit or at least include copies of this/these letters at the front of the book. 
 

[GHansen]

People shouldn't be ashamed of being Protestant Christians. It doesn't mean rejecting all elements of Roman Catholicism or warring against the people of that faith.

[Gustave]

On 1/1/2023 at 11:24 PM, GHansen said:

People shouldn't be ashamed of being Protestant Christians. It doesn't mean rejecting all elements of Roman Catholicism or warring against the people of that faith.

That was well said GHansen! 

[Gregory Matthews]

 

The following article is a critical review of the efforts of Ted Wilson to distribute this book as an evangelistic effort. 

https://spectrummagazine.org/views/2023/ted-wilsons-obsession-great-controversy

[Gustave]

Is it possible that the folks who are against using the Great Controversy as an evangelistic effort are in fact in favor of the Book but just not the current timing for its distribution as an evangelistic effort? 

It would seem reasonable given the recent work of people like Matthew Korpman that the general SDA will be aware that 90% of the Spirit of Prophecy was taken from Books that are not in Protestant Bibles today and will also learn that Ellen White considered those Books now removed from their Bible to be part of "The word of God". 

From the SDA Q&A video I watched it appeared that Ted Wilson was not aware of this discovery and didn't even like the idea of SDA's looking into the Apocrypha.

The negativity from upper SDA management might simply be that they want to develop some answers as to how to answer questions about the Apocrypha and Ellen's actual level of inspiration prior to distributing a book, that among other things, claims that the Catholic Church was trying to keep the BIble away from the common person. This would be a hard thing to sell given that it's now been proven that Ellen believed the Apocrypha was part of the word of God and the SDA Church along with the White Estate has suppressed this information and at times actually lied about it (see the attachment below).

Right at the beginning of that SDA Q&A video Dr. Ron Graybill answers Ted Willson with a direct quote from Ellen White. Dr. Denis Fortin (another SDA heavyweight) goes on to describe how shocked he was to discover that the Spirit of Prophecy was literally 90% taken from the Apocrypha and John Milton's Paradise Lost. John Milton was an anti Trinitarian Arian who wrote a massive poem about a great controversy between Satan and God. 

 

 

 

White Estate denial EGW used Apocrypha.pdf

[Gregory Matthews]

*  It is clear that EGW appeared on some levels to favor the Apocrypha.  I do not believe that can be challenged.

*  However, the extent to which she favored the Apocrypha is a subject for debate.

*  Recent scholarship is adding to our understanding as to the sources for some of what has been published in her writings.  It has been acknowledged for some time as to the fact that much of what was published in The Great Controversy came from secular historians of her day.  With the passage of time, we have become aware that some material probably came from Milton's Paradise Lost.

*  Recent scholarship suggests that: 1)  Uriah Smith was the source for some of what EGW wrote.  2)  Some of what we thought came from the secular historians of her day actually came 2nd hand from Smith who got it from the secular historians.

In short:  We continuer to learn more about the ministry of Ellen White.  My personal position is:  Ellen White was used by God during the developing days of the SDA Denomination.  However, human SDA leaders have contributed to distorting the role that she had in our denominational development and humans are responsible, in part for current misunderstandings or her role.

I believe that current misunderstandings are due in part to people failing to accept what she actually said about her role.  Anyway, in short, God is still leading and is leading us to a better understanding of her role.

 

[Gregory Matthews]

NOTE:  On a personal basis, I find value in the Great Controversy book.   However, I strongly object to its planned use in a mass distribution for evangelism.

[Kevin H]

I've noticed two different ways of reading the Great Controversy. One is seeing how she is dealing with the issue of freedom in contrast to the two sides of the dragon (spiritualism, do your own thing, you have your truth, I have mine," live as you please for heaven is your home.") and the beast (enforced morality). She draws lessons from the role of the Catholic church over history. Many Christians see the danger in the dragon, but in response we run to the beast to protect us. Seventh-day Adventists are particularly open to this as long as the beastly ideas come from a different location than Rome. As I mentioned above, in academy, college and graduate school professors wrote statements by Mrs. White about the difficulty of maintaining the balance between the criticisms of the Catholic Church and what they teach us about one side of the great controversy, yet not be anti-Catholic. (and she wrote this at a time where much of America was indeed anti-Catholic and thus not worried about her criticisms.) Mrs. White gives us principles that can transcend denominations and even religions. I believe that even the Pope can read it and use it's principles as he carries out the role of being the bishop of the Roman Catholic Church.  

The second way of reading Great Controversy is to use it to attack especially the Catholic Church, and to put down other protestants and to build a temple to the glory of the Seventh-day Adventist church. And as I mentioned, are very willing to follow the control of the beast just as long as it comes from someplace else that Rome. 

I fear that most who want the Great Controversy passed out want to do it from the second approach. 

If we were to give out the Great Controversy, I believe that it would be useful to talk about the historical and cultural situation of it's writing and include that passage that the Bible teachers read to us on her fearing that she may not have been as balanced as she wish she was. 

Now, what I wish the church would do for outreach in today's culture is to collect the chapters "The Origin of Evil" from Patriarchs and Prophets, "Why Was Sin Permitted" from Great Controversy. The article from Signs of the Times January 20, 1890, "God made Manifest in Christ" "Gethsemane" from Desire of Ages, and Mrs. Whites greatest work "It is Finished" from Desire of Ages. 

I've been complaining that we don't have them all under one binding for years, but recently when complaining a pastor pointed out for me that these are online and we can simply send them out. He recommended cell phone evangelism, but since I'm not that much of a cellphone user, I've been printing them up, including a few chapters that I've learned about over the years, including a chapter on what the terms "Milk and Honey" meant to the ancient world, a chapter on the term kataluma in Luke 2 (mistranslated as "inn" but was actually a room in the family home for out of town relatives to stay in. The original Christmas tradition happens to be reunions of dysfunctional families). and the wickedness of Nazareth. (The town was so small it did not make maps nor city lists of the area, it was isolated. Because of the Bible the Jews were very well educated, but Nazareth would only have the equivalent to a 6th grade education. They felt their circumstances prevented the local paper to read "local boy [or girl] does good. But at least they were Jews and not the gentiles around them. But they were right on the edge of the Jezreel Valley, where many Bible stories took place. They had a set of the Bible Story even better than Uncle Arthur's. They were upset that first of all Jesus' success was a criticism of them for wallowing in their pity of lack of opportunity, and that Jesus showed texts about God's grace towards these horrible gentiles. There was an implication that since they could read and write and do simple math, all they needed to do was look out over the Jezreel Valley, or take a walk to spots in the valley and contemplate on the texts as they look at the geography where the stories took place, and if they did this they could be as great as Elijah and Elisha in ministering to the gentiles around them.  I also include a chapter on the death of Jesus and the Jews, as well as a chapter on last day events, and close with "the end of the wicked a barbecue?"  Then closed with two chapters making the principles practical by a chapter looking at the ideas of Eli Siegel, William Glasser and Lois Eggers, which we are all dealing with daily, as well as our unique approach to the world based on our temperaments, love languages, apology languages and attachment styles.   So far I've printed about 4 of these, gave out two (one to a neighbor interested in Adventism, and one I left in a local laundry with the books and magazines for people to read while doing their wash). Thus far no response, but I think that this book is a more useful introduction to Mrs. White, Seventh-day Adventism, and gives them a message to help them deal with all the evil we are seeing in life. I would like to get more of these out, and I'd love to maybe meet a rabbi who is open minded enough to take the principles and put it in terms that the typical Jew can accept. I'd love to find a cheaper way of printing this up. 

Those first two chapters, "The Origin of Evil" and "Why Was Sin Permitted" both cover the same topic, but one reflects Mrs. White's discovery of this truth, and has the freshness and awe of learning something new. The other is a visiting of the topic from years of meditation on the topic.  

A while back I was home on leave from the Army. First I visited my roommate from academy for a couple of days, then as he was driving to work he dropped me off at a local bus station to catch my bus home. I had a few hours to wait, and was reading "The Impending Conflict." While waiting, another bus came up from NY City, passengers came off, one, and older lady, very well dressed,  looked around the area outside, then came in and looked around the waiting room, then came up to me and asked "Why is there evil in the world?} I looked at her not sure if I heard correctly, when she repeated "Why is there evil in the world?" She went on to say that she was there for the funeral of her cousin's husband. That man was the mayor of a near by city. He and his wife spent their lives in community service, including helping the homeless. He had suddenly died. She said that normally she travels to places by car, but was not able to get one and thus needed to take the bus. At the port authority bus terminal she saw all the homeless, and wondered why they have to suffer so, and how someone who was trying to make their lives better suddenly died, leaving all these suffering behind." 

I shared with her the chapter "Why Was Sin Permitted." After we talked some she asked if she could borrow the book. I noticed that she was Jewish, and pointed out that it was a book from the 1800s written from a Christian perspective, and some of the words may not fit our culture in how she discussed Jews and Catholics. She replied that she understood but that would not be a problem. Before her ride came she was able to read the complete chapter and here and there in the book. When her ride showed up she came over and hugged me saying "This book makes sense! I now understand the evil in the world!!!" 

The issue of evil, how we relate to the world around us, especially the people near to our hearts, and warnings about the issues coming upon the world are what people are looking for. The Great Controversy is a powerful book, but in today's society may not be the best missionary outreach book, and when we use it we should make people aware of the culture when the book was written and share Mrs. White's concern that she may not have done a good job in the balance between giving her warnings from the history of the Catholic church, yet not be anti-Catholic, and to warn Jewish people about the same issues.  

[Kevin H]

In two of our books: The Abiding Gift of Prophecy and "The Gift of Prophecy in Scripture and History" looks at the role of prophets with some cautious suggestions on some people who may have been prophets over church history. Of course book books name Joachin of Flor (Italy) Sadly, no or little detail about their suggestions. They could have done two chapters on Joachin; one on how his ideas evolved into Seventh-day Adventistm. and one on how the dispensationalists started out accepting him as a true prophet, then took part of what he said, and probably not one of his best ideas, and took that and went off into a whole new direction. So that they don't have to deal with the possibility of Mrs. White being a prophet, they now want to have prophecy ending with the Canon.

This places the dispensationalists in quite a bad situation. First, if prophecy ended with the Canon, then Joachin can't be a prophet, and thus they should not build a doctrine on what he said. But also, as we get close to the end of the Canon, John instead of telling us that prophecy is coming to an end, talks about the importance of prophets over church history as the apostles die off and the Canon ends.  However, even if Joachin was a true prophet, our doctrine is to be built on the Canon, not post Biblical prophets. And are they being fair to Joachin's ministry?

Two other potential prophets mentioned have caught my attention. Hildegard of Bingn seemed to be interested in the health message (I wonder if God was trying to help people prepare for the black plague). And Julian of Norwich, who was interested in looking at the love of God instead of the horror of hell. Besides these, we find Joan of Arc who was interested in freedom, but in her culture looked for king and church to bring to people this freedom, and history tells what they did to her. How much of her ministry and message and death first shook up people enough loosening hearts for when Luther nailed the 95 Thesis. Second, did she get people thinking into ideas that evolved into the American Revolution, Roger Williams, Jefferson/Madison via the age of Jackson which so influenced Miller and others of our pioneers? And Milton's "Paradise Lost" 

Mrs. White's ministry followed the tracks of first telling people not to say that God was not involved with their Millerite expirence. Second, the formation of the Seventh-day Adventist church. Gave personal testimonies (just as the above mentioned potential prophets spend much of their time doing) and then she seems to have united and updated, and corrected, the messages of Hildegard, Julian, Joan and Milton.