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EGW, was, in my opinion, the most aggressive, liberal thinking person, we have ever had in leadership. As an Ordained Minister in the Adventist Church, she stood tall.

Being a spirit is clearly something different from being made up of atoms, molecules, chromosomes, genes, and DNA. A spirit can take a form, and have an appearance, and even interact with us on a physical level; but beings such as angels (and of course God) are something far beyond what we are. We cannot use ourselves as a measure for determining what they are. Gabriel in Daniel 9 was able to travel from Heaven to earth where Daniel is in the short time it took for Daniel to pray his prayer (see Daniel 9:21-23). Assuming Heaven is an actual place somewhere in the universe, perhaps beyond the Great Nebula in Orion (said to be 1,344 light years from Earth, or 8,064,000,000,000 miles), this means that the angel Gabriel had to travel many, many times the speed of light--something that the laws of physics tell us is impossible for any physical object in our level of existence. So spirit has to be something significantly different from the physical matter that comprises us. And then consider that the Holy Spirit is able to be instantly omnipresent, anywhere in the universe, and that is something that is clearly beyond anything physical. But yet that does not mean the Holy Spirit is bodiless. We believe the Holy Spirit does have a body, can and has manifested Himself as having a body. At Jesus' baptism the Holy Spirit was manifested in bodily form as a dove (Matt. 3:16). So being spirit does not mean bodiless. It simply means an entirely different order of being from the physical realm. There is a different KIND of body. Angels cannot mate with humans (despite what some superficial readers of Genesis 6:4 may think), and the Son of God had no DNA to combine with Mary's DNA.

I think the OP fits what I've been saying all along: Carson will shine brightly, briefly, then flame out. Partly because he's certain to make some telling gaffe, partly because stronger candidates will emerge and partly just because the media have a short attention span. Gotta pace yourself in these contests, can't peak too early.

Yeah, our election campaigns here tend to be a month or two long. The US system where there are presidential elections every 4 years and now almost a full 2 years of each term is taken up with campaigning just seems bizarre to us.

As children of earthly parents get older, the ideal is that they become more and more independent. As children of God, what I see is that God wants His children to become more and more dependent on Him as they mature. Do you find this odd?

Learning may require correction.

Learning something is not the same as correcting something, is it?

I like the question about Joseph Smith... and I do wonder whether Mormon discussion sites attract as many anti Joseph Smith people, as SDA discussion sites seem to attract anti Ellen White people. _________ Sometimes I also get the impression that there is some misunderstanding about what Mrs. White did, and did not, claim. Let's bear in mind that she wrote things like this, "My commission embraces the work of a prophet, but it does not end there..." (1Selected Messages, p. 36), and, "If others call me by that name [i.e. a prophet/prophetess], I have no controversy with them" (1SM p. 34). Ellen White definitely claims that her work embraces (or includes) the work of a prophet, but of course she did not make this claim prominent in her work.

No, but they are more human that we like to think they are. Did sell some, any intellectual has no problem viewing other view points. Many would not disagree with some of the historical points. EGW was not the "in your face' that so many of her followers can be. Theories are theories, Truth, what ever that is, invites and begs for investigation. Judgement day is not going to be a test of 28 questions, (we used to think it was 27) but how we treated others.

I do not believe that God wants us to become more dependent on Him. I do believe that God wants us to trust Him more.

Neil many years ago when I had cancer, I was being treated by the head oncologist at the regional cancer center ( a referral center for cancer treatment- at the time there were 80 in the United States) in Chattanooga Tennessee. He was a Christian, not an Adventist, who would make comments about Ellen White. He told me that my cancer was unrelated to lifestyle, but that a friend of mine, who had lung cancer from prior smoking, would not have gotten it had he always followed our teachings. He used to comment about Ellen White.. One day, he asked me directly who she was. I told him she was a woman with a third grade education who lived in the 1800s and early 1900s and said among other things that cancer was caused by a germ, and that she was one of the founders of the Adventist church. "I believe her to be a modern prophet" I concluded. He replied that based on what I had said, this was probably the case. Later, I gave him a copy of Ministry of Healing. He thanked me and said he would read it with interest.

8thdaypriest said; I prefer to let the Bible be its own expositor. I have many, many doubts (some grave doubts) concerning the "inspiration" of Ellen G. White. It is your privilege what to believe or not. To me Ellen White helps to understand the Bible better. No matter what Ellen White said there will be people who would not believe her. The very same thing happened in Jesus' day. No matter what Jesus did and said, there were people who would not turn their heart to Jesus.