MY ADVENTURE INTO THE ADVENTIST FAITH...

[Stan]

MY ADVENTURE INTO THE ADVENTIST FAITH was quite the journey. Often, when I was instructed about various matters, I smiled and nodded in agreement because the position being argued seemed logical and was presented in a compelling way. Often the thoughts being shared with me started with the phrase, “Sister White said . . . .” But in the back of my youthful mind, some of it simply made no sense and, at times, seemed to contradict the very gospel commission given to us by Christ Himself.

One such position people felt strongly about was the injunction to get out of the cities and move to the country. Some of the statements were made so strongly that they still echo in my head. I wondered, however, how could the people in the cities be reached if no one lived there? If our message had become to tell people to move out of the cities, where was the gospel message in that?

Turns out Ellen G. White’s message to people that they should move out of the cities had good reasons. At the time she wrote, many cities where horrid places to live. Lifespan in the cities was significantly shorter than in the country. It has been pointed out that at the time Ellen White would have written those statements, people who dwelled in the country lived, on average, into their 50s, whereas the average lifespan in the cites was early 40s. Why? Raw sewage, epidemics, and diseases like cholera ran rampart. In one major port city, the dreaded plague had 12 epidemics in one year! Sanitation and health care was nowhere near what it

is today. Recently, it was stated that people in the cities have a longer lifespan, on average, than those who live in the country now. Why? Easier and better access to health care.

Her last statement I could find about cities was this: “If God gives me strength now, at nearly eighty-two years old, I shall be in the cities. . . . . Now where are the people that will be ready to go out into the city?”1

In another place, she talks about people who use her statements to proof-text and follow them as absolute laws with no context. “‘Why, Sister White has said so and so, and Sister White has said so and so; and therefore we are going right up to it.’ God wants us all to have common sense, and he wants us to reason from common sense. Circumstances alter conditions. Circumstances change the relation of things.”2

So, is the direction to move out of the cities relevant today? I would argue that it isn’t; it was specific for a time and place that has come and gone, and yet some people view these counsels as if they were marching orders. On the other hand, can we live unguarded if we live in the cities? That, too, would be silly.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

Stan, you pose an extremely interesting and important question!!!  

I hope you get some thoughtful responses...

My own sense is that we are to be lights to shine the way for others.  There's not too many "others" in a dark forest out in the boonies.

[B/W Photodude]

3 hours ago, Stan said:

Turns out Ellen G. White’s message to people that they should move out of the cities had good reasons. At the time she wrote, many cities where horrid places to live. Lifespan in the cities was significantly shorter than in the country. It has been pointed out that at the time Ellen White would have written those statements, people who dwelled in the country lived, on average, into their 50s, whereas the average lifespan in the cites was early 40s. Why? Raw sewage, epidemics, and diseases like cholera ran rampart. In one major port city, the dreaded plague had 12 epidemics in one year! Sanitation and health care was nowhere near what it is today. Recently, it was stated that people in the cities have a longer lifespan, on average, than those who live in the country now. Why? Easier and better access to health care.

It is important to keep in mind where the increase in lifespan came from. Nearly all of the increase in lifespan came from maternal child health. If a child survived to the age of five, they had pretty much the same life span we have to day. I have noticed in going thru genealogy records just how long some of those people lived a couple hundred years ago. One writer discussing the impact of modern medicine stated that all of the modern medicine advances other than maternal-child health gave the average person 2 more years of life! I wonder sometimes if 17 percent of the national budget should be spent on 2 more years. There are many other facets of this issue that could be explored, but the topic is city life. 

I saw another person write something regarding where he wanted to work. I said he wanted a booth right outside that gates of hell to rescue those going to their eternal loss. Sister White might have agreed with him except for the theology of it all.

[Gregory Matthews]

Stan, you have raised an important issue.  The time, place and circumstances of the advice that EGW gave  should always be considered.  We not to take an arbitrary stand that everything that she said     is applicable everywhere at all times.  Just because she said that people should do X, does  not mean that in our time, more than 100 years after her death, every person should do X.

I am reminded that at one time   EGW clearly stated that the women at Loma Linda should shorten their skirts.  O.K. If  they had continued to shorten their skirts each year until today, they would long ago have totally ceased to wear a skirt.  That can not reasonably imagined as advice that EGW would  support.