Personal Reasons
Changes in the Spirit of Prophecy books?!
She studied her SOP books and i remember seeing a light on downstairs in the wee hours of the morning, and open books on the table when i arose. She became more and more convinced that the SDA church was forsaken by God because they had forsaken him. She was a little famous as a trouble-maker in the church because she would get up and walk out of the sermon if it was contrary to some teaching in the Bible and SOP.
I was shocked when in around 1972, going to a Awakening meeting in Nashville, TN, some of the attendees were playing pinball in the lobby even tho it was the Sabbath. My mom told Robert Brinsmead in the meeting that the whole Bible and Spirit of Prophecy were inspired of God and should be followed. Fortunately she didn't follow many of her friends who just followed the man right out of faith altogether.
Then the next year she had her membership removed from the Highland, TN SDA church because she didn't want to be involved with "an organization that wasn't following God" and "giving medals to popes". Usually the voting in churches is all perfunctory, but this time the hands had to be counted 3 times. On the 3rd time the vote was something like 39 to 36 in favor of letting her take her name off the church books.
I was baptized when i was around 13, but although i wasn't cold by doing bad stuff, i wasn't hot for God either. When i graduated from MTSU and went to Atlanta, GA to be a computer programmer i re-evaluated what i believed in. What really settled me in the faith were the "old" books. Sure, i read the Great Controversy when i was 16, but frankly, there were just a few diamonds to be found among a whole slog of references. "Maybe religion is supposed to be boring" i thought. But when reading the Review and Herald articles (vol.1) and the "Little Flock" and the original SOP books i was changed. There was LIFE in this! I was happy to spend time with these books (^o^).
A Herbert Hoehn(?) sent me material explaining how the "brothers" started changing the books to suit their tastes as early as the early 1880's. Something clicked. I remember seeing my brother studying "Daniel and Revelation" and it not seeming to have much impact on him. How could i square this with Ellen White's statements about "when we as a people understand Daniel and Revelation more clearly, we will have a totally different religious experience"? Also, in studying, i could see discrepancies in some of the writings. Wait, she's a prophet. God doesn't make mistakes. What's going on here? I purchased an original 1892 Steps to Christ. I'd always thought it strange that our own publishing house wouldn't print this work by God's messenger. The Fleming Revell company printed it. What i saw surprised me. The whole 1st chapter in the present Steps to Christ wasn't in the original!!
After praying earnestly for God to open doors and then for strength to follow, i quit my $36,000/year programmer job in 1989 and moved to Japan to work at Country Life vegetarian restaurant for $240/month. It was a big change, but it drove me closer to the Lord. It also took me away from the worldly influences of being caught up in watching grown men chasing pig bladders or swatting little white orbs into holes or over fences. But the low level of spirituality in SDA churches in Japan wasn't encouraging. Lots of higher-ups don't believe that the SOP is inspired, which probably explains why there are only a few books of her's translated, and those at a high price (approx. $40/book!).
Regarding the Great Controversy: i personally quit reading the 1911 edition a long time ago. I would read the 1884 edition. Then around 1994, my brother-in-law introduced the 1858 original edition to my mom. She had the Spiritual Gifts books, and had read them, but had never realized that Spiritual Gifts Volume 1 was the original Great Controversy (me neither). She was over-joyed:) She wanted to print some more. So my dad willingly put up his 401K money, and 5,000 copies came off the press in 1995. Those copies are all distributed now, but i still want to introduce these original books to as many people as possible, because i see the results that come from reading and following them. People either reject them outright, or give up their Laodicean condition. When God has been so gracious as to give us a prophet who wrote in the most widely used language in the world today, why settle for some other's "compilations" when the originals are available??!!
Yes, it's true. First i'll show a few early instances where people admitted to changing the prophet's words - by honest-in-heart additions or mistakes in printing, and then by those who sought to "remove the imperfections". Also, a few instances will be given to show you that it has been done, and then some results of this satanic work. The strong word "satanic" is used because Satan is behind all these movements to change God's word by having it 'interpreted' for us - like in most new Bible versions and of course in the Spirit of Prophecy books being printed today.
In both of the Ellen White articles there are superscripts in parentheses referencing a Bible or Apocrypha verse. When she mentions: "I saw that the number of the Image Beast was made up..." The editor, her husband James White, inserted after the word number: "(666)". Now from all appearances, it sure looks like she was talking about that number - 666. But she didn't actually use that. It was added along with the Scriptural references. I'm not saying that James White was wrong, just that something was added to the prophet's words here. But at least James had the decency to put the additions within parentheses to clearly point out that they weren't in the original.
James also admits to making a mistake in the printing: "Those who have received the little sheet will see by referring to Ex. 26:35, that there is a mistake in the 10th and 11th lines from the top of the first column. This mistake is not in the original copy now in my possession, written by the author. I have therefore, corrected this mistake, that I made in hastily copying the vision to send to brother Bates." James is open about making the mistake, and very careful to put the blame for it squarely on himself. All-in-all, James' dealing with the Spirit of Prophecy writings are what we could expect from almost anyone who was honest-in-heart and trying to do the best they could with the light they had. I personally may have made a mistake or two in typing up the SOP books and putting them on the internet.
The first booklet written and published by those who were the nucleus of what was to become the Seventh-Day Adventists, was dated in the front - May 30, 1847, signed by James White. This booklet was titled "A Word to the Little Flock". Three articles/letters signed by Ellen White, along with one by Joseph Bates are included.
The following is a word-for-word copy of something put in Selected Messages Book 3, page 96. Whoever the compilers were, i'm not sure, but probably the Battle Creek Press Publishing Editor - Uriah Smith - gave his final approval to this. I'll put more on Uriah Smith and his attitude toward the Testimonies on this page in the future. Suffice for now, that Uriah Smith was openly rejecting the Testimonies here in the early 1880's.
Especially pay attention to what number 33 is saying. It reads almost the same as the introduction i read to a New International Version so-called "Holy Bible" recently. Of course, a 100 years of refining words has made it sound even nicer. They say in the NIV that they added words where necessary to make it more understandable to the modern English reader. They don't mention the thousands they deleted or changed. Essentially the same thing happened with the SOP starting around 1883. They say the words themselves aren't given by God, just the main ideas. With this mind-set, everyone is free to interpret God's words to suit their own cultural background, education, philosophy, whims, fancies, etc.
When Jesus met the Devil "by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God", it gave us a perfect example to follow. No, you've probably already figured out i'm not a "older-is-better" Bible man. From the studying i've been able to do, not knowing Hebrew or Greek, there are only 4 versions in English that profess to translate the "words" and not the "ideas". They are the KJV, NKJV, LITV, & the MKJV. But i DO know English (my academy English teacher may want to disagree:), and we still have the actual originals of the Spirit of Prophecy books available!! Wow! What a merciful God! And why did he choose me? I don't have to spend agonizing years studying some foreign language to get the meaning. Why should i want it pre-digested by someone else and imbibe their ideas? I want the straight truth, pure and unadulterated. It WILL cause a shaking in the Laodicean church.
Patriarchs and Prophets, pp.36,37: "The angels joyfully acknowledged the supremacy of Christ, and prostrating themselves before Him, poured out their love and adoration. Lucifer bowed with them, but in his heart there was a strange, fierce conflict. Truth, justice, and loyalty were struggling against envy and jealousy."
OK, this is a change in degree of what was in his heart, but a similiar meaning is presented.
Patriarchs and Prophets, p.39: "The time had come for a final decision; he (Lucifer) must fully yield to the divine sovereignty or place himself in open rebellion. He nearly reached the decision to return, but pride forbade him. It was too great a sacrifice for one who had been so highly honored to confess that he had been in error, that his imaginings were false, and to yield to the authority which he had been working to prove unjust."
Either Lucifer repented or he didn't. Which is it? This one DOES make a difference in how you believe about God. Will he forgive anyone anytime? No. When the judgment is finished and "it is done" is proclaimed, then there is no more mercy for any sinners. Lucifer had been the covering cherub, the closest to the Father and Son. There was no plan to save him from his sin. Sure, he could have been re-instated before it became open rebellion, and the Son pleaded with him to come back to purity, but when the door was open - he refused it. After being thrown out of heaven he repented, but his judgment was over, he rejected mercy.
Patriarchs and Prophets, p.287 "The Egyptians could no longer discern the camp of the Hebrews, and were forced to halt. But as the darkness of night deepened, the wall of cloud became a great light to the Hebrews, flooding the entire encampment with the radiance of day..... As morning broke it revealed to the multitudes of Israel all that remained of their mighty foes - the mail-clad bodies cast upon the shore. From the most terrible peril, one night had brought complete deliverance."
This is a quote from A Word to the Little Flock: "In the city I saw a temple, which I entered. I passed through a door before I came to the first vail. This vail was raised, and I passed into the Holy Place. Here I saw the Altar of Incense, the candlestick with seven lamps, and the table on which was the showbread, etc. After viewing the glory of the Holy, Jesus raised the second veil, and I passed into the Holy of Holies."
Where is the altar of incense? Of course it's in the Holy Place, not the Most Holy Place. See Exodus 30:7-8 and Exodus 40:26-27. Also we know that since 1844 Jesus has been in the Most Holy Place: SOP Volume 4 (1884) p.269: "At the termination of the 2300 prophetic days in 1844, Christ changed his ministration from the holy to the most holy place. When, in the ministration of the earthly sanctuary, the high priest on the day of atonement entered the most holy place, the door of the holy place was closed, and the door of the most holy was opened. So, when Christ passed from the holy to the most holy of the heavenly sanctuary, the door, or ministration, of the former apartment was closed, and the door, or ministration, of the latter was opened."
Wow! It plainly teaches something directly contradicting the Bible that: 1 Thessalonians 4:17 "Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." This seems to be conditioning people to accept Satan's personation of Christ's second coming.
To be continued...(updated April, 2000)