Discovering the New Covenant by Greg Taylor - exAdventist Outreach

DISCOVERING THE NEW COVENANT
writings some 3,315 times while the Bible does so in only
116 verses. She mentions Satan 9,956 times when the Bible
does so only 47 times. She repeatedly mentions the frown of
God or the frown of Christ, and usually in the context of
herself or some other believer who was not measuring up to
perfection. She talks about this frown some 147 times. 16
These examples alone indicate a lack of balance in her
writings.
For us, the biggest problem with Ellen White is the
effect she has had on the SDA Church. There is still wide
misunderstanding of the Gospel of grace in Adventism. In
our years of service this has been an enormous barrier in
helping people find assurance. It is not that she did not teach
grace. She did teach it beautifully at times, but she also
taught perfectionism. Adventists are still basically confused
as a people about the very core of the Christian faith. It is so
difficult for most Adventists to grasp the Gospel because of
these statements. We have never seen an Adventist Church
truly dedicated to applying the writings of EGW that is a
vibrant, alive, growing, happy church community. The
responsibility for this falls directly on the shoulders of EGW.
Surely a church with 100,000 pages of “inspired” writings
should have an even greater grasp on the Good News than
other churches. Sadly, this is not the case. Jesus teaches us to
test the prophets by their fruits. What do we do with the
problems just mentioned? Galatians 1:8 states that even if an
“angel of light” comes and teaches a different Gospel, let
him be accursed. Ellen White did not teach a “faith that
works” but a “faith plus works” theology. 17 She was opposed
to anyone using the phrase “I am saved.” She said, “No
sanctified tongue will be found uttering these words till
Christ shall come, and we enter in through the gates into the
16 Dale Ratzlaff, The Cultic Doctrine of Seventh-day Adventists, (Life
Assurance Ministries, 1998) p. 294
17 Ellen G. White, Sketches from the Life of Paul, p. 192.
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