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Hi, Kendrell —
You said:
I did a little research on Ellen White, and
found that she did not start the (SDA) Seventh-Day
Adventist church. It was actually a merger
of three different things.
The following was taken from an article
on the Catholic
Answers web site: Seventh-Day
Adventism:
The
Seventh-Day Adventist church traces
its roots to American preacher
William Miller (1782–1849),
a Baptist who predicted the Second
Coming would occur between March
21, 1843, and March 21, 1844.
Because he and his followers proclaimed
Christ's imminent advent,
they were known as "Adventists."
When Christ failed to appear, Miller
reluctantly endorsed the position
of a group of his followers known
as the "seventh-month movement," who
claimed Christ would return on October
22, 1844 (in the seventh month of
the Jewish calendar).
When this didn't happen either,
Miller forswore predicting the date
of the Second Coming, and his followers
broke up into a number of competing
factions. Miller would have nothing
to do with the new theories his followers
produced, including ones which attempted
to save part of his 1844 doctrine.
He rejected this and other teachings
being generated by his former followers,
including those of Ellen Gould White.
Miller had claimed, based on his
interpretation of Daniel and Revelation,
that Christ would return in 1843–44
to cleanse "the sanctuary" (Daniel 8:11-14, 9:26), which he interpreted
as the Earth. After the disappointments
of 1844, several of his followers
proposed an alternative theory. While
walking in a cornfield on the morning
of October 23, 1844, the day after
Christ failed to return, Hiram Edson
felt he received a spiritual revelation
that indicated that Miller had misidentified
the sanctuary. It was not the earth,
but the Holy of Holies in God's
heavenly temple. Instead of coming
out of the heavenly temple to cleanse
the sanctuary of the earth, in 1844
Christ, for the first time, went
into the heavenly Holy of Holies
to cleanse it instead.
Another group of Millerites was influenced
by Joseph Bates, a retired sea captain,
who in 1846 and 1849 issued pamphlets
insisting that Christians observe
the Jewish Sabbath: Saturday instead
of worshipping on Sunday. This helped
feed the intense anti-Catholicism
of Seventh Day Adventism, since they
blamed the Catholic Church for changing
the day of worship from Saturday
to Sunday.
These two streams of thought:
- Christ
entering the Heavenly sanctuary, and
- the need to keep the Jewish Sabbath,
were
combined by White, who claimed to
have received many visions confirming
these doctrines. Together with Edson
and Bates, she formed the Seventh-Day
Adventist denomination, which officially
received its name in 1860. |
So although the seeds of Seventh-Day
Adventism did not start with her,
it was her theology (or the Baptism theology of several
ministers), along with her "visions" that
founded this denomination.
I will let the reader decide.
RE: Revelation 13:18, near the end of the web posting you referred to in your question, it stated:
E = 0
L = 50
L = 50
E = 0
N = 0 |
G = 0
O = 0
U = 5
L = 50
D = 500 |
W = 10
H = 0
I = 1
T = 0
E = 0 |
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| |
|
|
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| 100 + |
555 + |
11 = |
666 |
Ellen=100, Gould=555, White=11.
- Ask him whether this proves that the foundress of his religion was the beast?
If he says No, then the tallying of the name means nothing.
- If he says Yes, then
what's he doing belonging to a church
founded by the beast?
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The point being made was not so much
that Ellen Gould White is the beast,
but that many people's full name can add
up to 6 6 6, the sign of the beast,
including the false
title anti-Catholics give
to the Holy Father:
- Vicarius Filli Dei or (Vicar
of the Son of God), which is not his title;
- Vicarius Christi or (Vicar
of Christ), is
his chief title.
The fact that anyone's name adds
up to 666 is meaningless, and does
not necessarily mean any person is
designated as the sign of the beast.
My two cents on the issue:
I would
hold far more credence to the case
for Nero being the beast, than anyone
else who lived back then.
The Beast persecuted those who did
not worship it, as Christians would
refuse to do.
- Did Nero persecute Christians?
Indeed he did. In fact, he executed
two of the Apostles — Peter
and Paul!
As for documentation supporting
the Pope as the beast, I believe
you will find many Protestant ministers
and scholars, who say the only place
for that documentation is in the
waste basket!
All you have to do is read the beautiful
encyclicals and holy letters this
current Pope
(or any previous Pope) have written,
to see how false that documentation
is.
I hope this helps,
Mike Humphrey
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