Prophets

[Gregory Matthews]

See:

https://spectrummagazine.org/interviews/2020/prophets-conflict-issues-authority-author-interview

In the above, Dr. George Knight compares Ellen White with the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith.

Read and be challenged.

[phkrause]

That was a great read, thanks for the post. I love reading books, articles, etc., by Dr George Knight. Especially books about EGW. ?

[Kevin H]

Powerful! One part that was very impressive was when he said that Adventists tend to have this hierarchy of authority: 1.) Tradition 2.) Ellen White 3.) Church authority and 4.) Bible.  I think that I'd make a 1a.) if not a new #2 and push the others down a number, and add "Fundamentalism" right behind tradition. 

These are important topics as in the future the Christian church as a whole will be dealing   the Bible for the exact same reasons why people tend to give  up on Mrs. White. Our working out appropriate ways to deal with Mrs. White we are also preparing to help our Baptist and other Christian friends when they are dealing with the issues with the Bible that does not reach the fundamentalists perspective. 

The quote he gave from Selected Messages reminds me a lot of the many letters I read in the White Estate vault between Mrs. White and/or Willie to people such as Elder Washburn and Wilkinson and others who are very popular with the so called "Historic Adventists" and Fulcrum7 etc.  And we see the power of how they tended to use Mrs. White in the comment by frankpeachamvt that accuses what Dr. Knight as writing as revisionist and that we find all sorts of teachings of perfection in her writings and quotes a couple that he thinks solves the issue. Now I'm not sure if frankpeachamvt is a supporter of the views popular in Fulcrum7 or if he's a rejecting  Mrs. White because of the pain that the so called "Historic Adventists" have made on people's lives and does not want to change his picture of her in his mind. Mrs. White talks about victory over sin, but she has a balanced view that we sometimes miss between the so called "Historic Adventist" views and our traditions. 

One thing I'd like to add to this article is how Mrs. White's writings fit in 3 basic categories: First for the buildup of the church from the great disappointment into a church then the health and education outreach and the restructuring of the church and her last battle (which she lost and died while fighting) trying to keep fundamentalism out of the church. This would include things like how to work a city.  The second category is personal testimonies, warning people about things in their life that was having a bad effect on their spiritual life. The third is the issues of the Great Controversy. The 3 revelations of the trinity, Satan's 3 deceptions, one against each member of the trinity, how many of the threes in the Bible deal with this, and the powerful chapters on Gethsemane and "It is Finished" and how the 3 deceptions of Satan are answered in the 3 angels messages.