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The "Great Controversy” Shackles Adventist Theology

Illuminator

New Member
Since the 1911 edition over a 100 years ago, it has not been updated in any form. Thus, the book that historically had been the pace-setter for Adventist theology has become dormant, effectively freezing Adventist theology in its tracks. What this situation has fostered is a perpetuation, and in some instances codification, of many 19th and early 20th century EGW understandings of our world and our place in it which some believe should not be “disturbed.” Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, the book’s subject and viewpoints beg for engagement, both inside and outside the church. There are several issues arising from the GC that have defied, and continue to defy, settlement within the church, periodically erupting into open conflicts.

source: 17 May 2018 - SPECTRUM - a Seventh Day Adventist publication
“The Great Controversy” Shackles Adventist Theology (spectrummagazine.org)
 

Illuminator

New Member
"The risk to the GC’s credibility is not only that it is too vitriolic against Catholicism or too Euro and America-centric. The real risk is that it is too exclusionary in its focus. By telling a purported universal story and prophesying largely through the narrow prism of her known universe, EGW unwittingly 'otherizes' a big slice of the world, who may, in trying to read the book, promptly ignore it."

In reality, it is not just "too vitriolic against Catholicism," it is so completely consumed with tunnel-vision as a reactionary movement against Catholicism that it is utterly dormant in its progressiveness. You can literally feel yourself regressing backwards a hundred years and more when reading SDA material.
by HiddeninHim,
SDA: Seventh Dilemma Adventism | Christian Forums @ Christianity Board
 

Illuminator

New Member
Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi, perhaps the best Adventist scholar, wrote:

The earliest documents mentioning Sunday worship go back to Barnabas in 135 and Justin Martyr in 150. Thus, it is evident that Sunday worship was already established by the middle of the second century. This means that to be historically accurate the term “centuries” should be changed to the singular “century.” This simple correction would enhance the credibility of The Great Controversy, because it is relatively easy to defend general Sabbath observance during the first century, but it is impossible to do it for the second century.

http://shamelesspopery.com/answering-seventh-day-adventism/
 

Illuminator

New Member
THE SDA/NAZI CONNECTION

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies, Vol. 6 [2010], No. 1, Art. 2
(SDA publication)

It is estimated that a staggering 55 million people perished during WW II, including the six million Jews—men, women, and children—who died in the ethnic extermination camps and ghettos across Europe (US Holocaust Museum:2008)... (no mention of the 3 million Polish Catholics and 1000+ priests, italics mine)

...churches in Germany, then looking at the interactions of the Nazi State and the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and concluding with some of the lessons learned from this sad chapter of Adventist history so that hopefully our church will not stumble again over the same issues in the future...(they already have)

It is mind boggling to attempt to understand how the hermeneutical ...contortions of the leading theologians could excuse and even legitimize such actions against any human being; and yet history sadly attests that it happened. The question we need to ask is: In all this, where did the Seventh day Adventist Church stand?...

...Following in the footsteps of the Christian majority, the Seventh-day Adventist Church cannot be commended for its actions during the Nazi Regime. Echoing the praises for the rise of Hitler to power, Adolf Minck, President of the Adventist German Church, penned his satisfaction with the election of Adolf Hitler in the August Edition of Advenbote (the offical periodical of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Germany at that time):

...Another example expressing enthusiasm for the Nazi state was Wilhem Mueller who went so far as to label Hitler as “chosen by God” for the office of chancellor and praising his similarity with Adventism’s health reform:...

...Not only did the Seventh-day Adventist leadership sing praises to the Nazi government, it even went so far as “strongly recommending” how its members were to vote in every plebiscite of the Nazi Regime...

...Sadly, in spite of all the praise and official stance that the church took in favor of the government, the Nazi state decided to ban the Adventist Church on November 26, 1933. This ban lasted until December 6, 1933 (Blaich 1994:262)... (2 weeks)

...The Adventist Church’s pro-government PR campaign became much more aggressive after the ban. It went on to support the notion of the Volkisch state, ascribing validity to that idea and saying it was in accordance with biblical principles. In the December 1933 edition of Gegenwartsfragen, one of the Adventist periodicals, it proudly proclaimed that “we are part of this revolution as well—as individual Christians and also as a corporate denominational body” (Blaich 1994:264). This type of enthusiastic approval of the state was not an isolated incident. The acceptance of the Volk concept with its racial undertones, its ideology of ethnic purity, and its implicit proscription of the Jews due to their racial heritage was accepted by the Seventh-day Adventist Church as part of the gospel proclamation...

... “While continuing the traditional emphasis on healthful living, Adventist publications soon adopted elements of the Nazi racial agenda. . . . A curious path led from caritas, the caring for the less fortunate and weak, to elimination of the weak, as the work of God” (Blaich 2002:180)...

...The church leadership was aware of this twisting of terms and meanings. G. W. Schubert, vice-president of the German Adventist Church, shared his “faint hope” with a fellow vice-President of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists that “perhaps this might be the way of the Lord to get the same freedom later on for the distribution of our religious literature” (Blaich 2002:182). That freedom never came and time proved that the compromise was not to be “the way of the Lord.”...

...In a circular passed around on April 4, 1938, the German Union recommended that Adventists hand the Fuhrer “a thankful ‘yes’” (Blaich 1994:265)...

...Furthering its compromise the Adventist Church also agreed with the forced sterilization policy, also known as the Eugenics Laws (Blaich 2002:176). At first the opposition to such policies was open and general among the church members and leadership as it was viewed to be a violation of Christian principles. However in response to this resistance the government responded with an educational campaign that used Adventist journals to defend the new eugenics laws...

...Again, hermeneutical acrobatics were used to defend the government’s position that was based on principles that were completely antagonistic to Adventist beliefs...

...As the eugenics policies became law the opposition to such concepts and legislation was silenced from Adventist publications. Sterilization was only a first step in this racial attack; the next step involved the elimination of those who were deemed to be hazardous elements to the German gene pool. (Blaich 2002:180)....

...As a result the leadership of the Adventist Church recommended that their members should submit to the authorities and not bring any problems among themselves or the church (Blaich 1994:270). As the state regulations against religion increased year after year, the church obeyed them closely in order to avoid a second banishment at the hands of the regime (Pratt 1977:4)...

...the church had little choice but to conform to Nazi standards if it wanted to publish . . . it is also clear that German Adventist leaders eagerly courted Nazi goodwill by accommodating to the new order” (2002:181).by accommodating to the new order” (2002:181). After the war, the Adventist German leadership reacted by closing ranks and resisted all outside pressures from the General Conference to denounce or proscribe their perceived errors. It appears that the actions taken were wholly justified by the German leadership. In a letter to the General Conference President, J. L. McElhany, Adolf Minck expressed this sentiment of self-defense by rationalizing that they had followed church policy, they had maintained the structure of the church, and also that they had had to adapt to living the commandments according to the times they lived in, times of war, and not peace, nonetheless maintaining in their minds the holiness of the Decalogue (Minck 1994:277).

https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/...g.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1042&context=jams

Again, this is an SDA publication.

207 How about a date?
We have so much in common! 208
 

Illuminator

New Member
To summarize:
Anti-Catholic psychos were running around Germany railing against the "Whore of Babylon" "the Beast", the "Anti-Christ popes", with the blessing of the German High Command.

The SDA collaborated with the Nazis and were granted liberties to preach their gospel, because it was compatible with Geobbles propaganda. 3,000,000 Polish Catholics, 3,000,000 Jews and over 1000 priests and ministers were killed in Poland alone, while the Vatican saved 860,000 Jewish lives.

The Holocaust Archives lists numerous minority groups as victims. Not a single SDA member is found. Now we know why.
 

Heather Frank

restricted access
Since the 1911 edition over a 100 years ago, it has not been updated in any form. Thus, the book that historically had been the pace-setter for Adventist theology has become dormant, effectively freezing Adventist theology in its tracks. What this situation has fostered is a perpetuation, and in some instances codification, of many 19th and early 20th century EGW understandings of our world and our place in it which some believe should not be “disturbed.” Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, the book’s subject and viewpoints beg for engagement, both inside and outside the church. There are several issues arising from the GC that have defied, and continue to defy, settlement within the church, periodically erupting into open conflicts.

source: 17 May 2018 - SPECTRUM - a Seventh Day Adventist publication
“The Great Controversy” Shackles Adventist Theology (spectrummagazine.org)
Yeah, I kinda think that might be taken a little but too literally. Apparently, there is a war between either Christ and Satan, or Lucifer and another archangel, but that's in the spirit world. Wars on earth by humans don't seem to follow that much, and actually, the worst people to make wars usually present themselves as really peaceful, like the Hindu Indians, or the more eastern Buddhists, or Sun Tzu. The Eastern/New Age/"Occult" people are usually really pretty voluminous and lazy, actually, they tend to sit around meditating all the time and just deplete energy and resources. They don't do much marching and drill. Ellen White was all a peacenik and Adventist are passivists, but she did have that understanding of opposing good and evil forces and was more clued in than some synergist like Blavatsky, and she knew considerably more about the real world than Mary Baker Eddy.
The primary problem with Ellen White is her attitude towards the Civil War. She was from the North, and she tried to put on a show of being "all fair" about the North and the South. A bit too spiritual in some ways, really, but other parts of her writings aren't like that. She wouldn't let the war conclude, and there are some further specific issues with the way that church practices evangelism.
 
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