Archive through September 02, 2007 Log Out | Topics | Search
Moderators | Edit Profile

Former Adventist Fellowship Forum » ARCHIVED DISCUSSIONS 6 » Exposing Adventism - Life On Other Worlds » Archive through September 02, 2007 « Previous Next »

Author Message
Jorgfe
Registered user
Username: Jorgfe

Post Number: 661
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 9:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Someone recently asked where Ellen White made the statement about other worlds. It is found in Early Writings, pages 39-40

quote:

The Lord has given me a view of other worlds. Wings were given me, and an angel attended me from the city to a place that was bright and glorious. The grass of the place was living green, and the birds there warbled a sweet song. The inhabitants of the place were of all sizes; they were noble, majestic, and lovely. They bore the express image of Jesus, and their countenances beamed with holy joy, expressive of the freedom and happiness of the place. I asked one of them why they were so much more lovely than those on the earth. The reply was, "We have lived in strict obedience to the commandments of God, and have not fallen by disobedience, like those on the earth." Then I saw two trees, one looked much like the tree of life in the city. The fruit of both looked beautiful, but of one they could not eat. They had power to eat of both, but were forbidden to eat of one. Then my attending angel said to me, "None in this place have tasted of the forbidden tree; but if they should eat, they would fall." Then I was taken to a world which had seven moons. There I saw good old Enoch, who had been translated. On his right arm he bore a glorious palm, and on each leaf was written "Victory." Around his head was a dazzling white wreath, and leaves on the wreath, and in the middle of each leaf was written "Purity," and around the wreath were stones of various colors, that shone brighter than the stars, and cast a reflection upon the letters and magnified them. On the back part of his head was a bow that confined the wreath, and upon the bow was written "Holiness." Above the wreath was a lovely crown that shone brighter than the sun. I asked him if this was the place he was taken to from the earth. He said, "It is not; the city is my home, and I have come to visit this place." He moved about the place as if perfectly at home. I begged of my attending angel to let me remain in that place. I could not bear the thought of coming back to this dark world again. Then the angel said, "You must go back, and if you are faithful, you, with the 144,000, shall have the privilege of visiting all the worlds and viewing the handiwork of God."


Yes. She actually wrote that all as one paragraph!

Gilbert Jorgensen
Randyg
Registered user
Username: Randyg

Post Number: 449
Registered: 12-2004
Posted on Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 10:12 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Gilbert, I have to say that my first impression on reading this passage makes me think back to watching Startrek as a kid.

Its like watching an old Sci-fi movie. It seems so fake and made up, now to my adult eyes.

I have to seriously question the imagination that contrived all of this. And then I even more seriously question how for so long I never even questioned if any of it made any sense. All I can say is WOW.

Palm of hand to forehead,

Randy

(Message edited by randyg on August 30, 2007)
Jorgfe
Registered user
Username: Jorgfe

Post Number: 662
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 10:18 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Randy, I really don't think that most Seventh-day Adventists actually read her books. They have no idea what is in them!

Gilbert Jorgensen
Randyg
Registered user
Username: Randyg

Post Number: 450
Registered: 12-2004
Posted on Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 10:39 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Gilbert, you are right. Most have very little idea of what she said on topics other than their own pet peeves, such as diet, or the Sabbath.

If they did, there would be far more Palms of the hand to foreheads.

Growing up, the only books of hers I was somewhat familiar with were on health and education. And messeges to young people.

I had the testimonies and conflict series in the bookcase for 30 years, and never cracked them.

A blessing I now see,

Randy

(Message edited by randyg on August 30, 2007)

(Message edited by randyg on August 30, 2007)
Raven
Registered user
Username: Raven

Post Number: 812
Registered: 7-2004


Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 4:37 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

We had most all of her books growing up, and I either read most of them or were read to from them, so every one of these bizarre quotes that come up, I have heard them several times before long ago. And that stuff didn't really bother me then. What did bother me was her scathing rebukes in the Testimonies and the impossible standards she endorsed in books like Messages to Young People and Child Guidance. Even at a young age, I saw a huge disconnect between the attitude of her writings and the Gospel books of the Bible.
Pnoga
Registered user
Username: Pnoga

Post Number: 20
Registered: 1-2007
Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 5:08 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Maybe the SDA church should start doing their sermons on the Sci-Fi channel. I'm sure all those Star-Trek fans would dig these wacked out stories of other planets.
Jim02
Registered user
Username: Jim02

Post Number: 212
Registered: 5-2007
Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 6:08 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

EGW aside.
I find it unrealistic to think that in our massive universe,so large, with numbers of stars and planets too numerous to truly fathom,so vast the zeros 000000000 run off the page ("Billions and Billions" Carl Sagan) , ...
in all of that, we suppose that this is the only planet with life on it.

We cap the awesome creative Power of God.

Flat Earth Society.............
Jorgfe
Registered user
Username: Jorgfe

Post Number: 665
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 6:39 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Raven, I remember that as well. My parents would study books like "Messages to Young People" and the "Adventist Home" with us for evening family worship. They never got around to reading us the book "Solemn Appeal", and the White Estate had not yet produced "Testimonies on Sexual Behavior, Adultery and Divorce". "Councils on Diet and Food" was used as our dietary GPS to help us navigate the minefield of forbidden foods.

Occasionally we would read "Testimonies". The (bizarre) story that especially stuck in my mind is the vision that Ellen White had of her hiding in her house as the Catholics surrounded it looking for any "Sabbath-keepers" to kill. We just "knew" that would happen to all of us "faithful" once the Sunday laws were passed. Now that I am a "former Adventist", I find it appalling that any denomination would manifest such a rabid hatred for another denomination.

Gilbert Jorgensen
Larry
Registered user
Username: Larry

Post Number: 132
Registered: 5-2007
Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 7:13 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Raven,

My folks had a rich assortment of egw books around too, but they made the mistake of also buying a set of Collier encyclopedias. The Collier is where I spent my time. Good thing for me!
Randyg
Registered user
Username: Randyg

Post Number: 452
Registered: 12-2004
Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 9:11 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jim,

I don't for a minute assume that we are the only planet or world with life on it. I also don't think that would be the thoughts of anybody on this board.

What I find amazing about the quote, is that regardless of what she sees, or where she sees it, the main premise of the message is obedience to the Law, and the consequences to those that misstep.

Even describing this "other world" her message is Old Covenant theology.

I find these types of "visions" just one more way she had to manipulate her readership into accepting her to be what she purported to be, even though there was no way to verify any of what she said.

It is my belief, that she was of the "shock and awe" school of vision making. When the flock gets restless, or are tired of the tirades on bedroom ediquette, perils of masterbation, or the evils of cheese, you have to hit them with an intergalactic vision like this one, just to keep their attention.

Randy
Susans
Registered user
Username: Susans

Post Number: 458
Registered: 8-2006
Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 9:35 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Randy, I agree completely!

Along the lines of the Old Covenant in her "visions" in that one she stated there was a tree of knowledge of good and evil in that world, and if those inhabitants disobeyed, then they would have fallen.

My question was - well, then, what would happen if they fell? What would God do? Would Jesus have to come and incarnate into how those people were and die again? How would that impact everything? Would God the Father come and die? God the Holy Spirit?

How terrible to muddle things like that! Of course, when I read those things (and EW was a favorite book of mine) I never stopped to consider the implications of that. I'm more amazed every day of how I swallowed the entire package.

"Shock and awe". How appropriate that description is! Always keep the flock in fear.
Jorgfe
Registered user
Username: Jorgfe

Post Number: 666
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 11:28 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Randy, you are right on! Given her documented hysteria and the emotionalism of the time, if she had lived in the 1970's she could have helped produce the Max Factor 7Up ads. I can't help but think of how similar her vivid imagination was to an LSD trip.

Gilbert Jorgensen
Jeremy
Registered user
Username: Jeremy

Post Number: 2091
Registered: 10-2004


Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 12:39 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I do believe that the earth is the only planet with life on it. Consider the following verse:


quote:

"For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited),
'I am the LORD, and there is none else." (Isaiah 45:18 NASB.)




Jeremy
Susans
Registered user
Username: Susans

Post Number: 459
Registered: 8-2006
Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 2:42 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jeremy,

I believe we are the only one as well. That is why I had the questions I posted above.

Susan
Colleentinker
Registered user
Username: Colleentinker

Post Number: 6698
Registered: 12-2003


Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 2:53 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I also agree. I remember how certain I used to be that there must be many inhabited planets, but, at least in our universe, it seems we're the only one, Biblically speaking. God reconciled all things in heaven and on earth to Himself through Jesus, making peace through the blood of His cross (Col 1:19-20). This sentence alone suggests that sin had affected our universe, and Jesus' work on earth reconicled creation to Himself. (See also Romans 8:22)

I sometimes am so eager to see reality without being bound by time and our three dimesnions...

Colleen
Jeremy
Registered user
Username: Jeremy

Post Number: 2094
Registered: 10-2004


Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 2:58 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

You're right, Colleen, that the Bible is clear that the entire universe is affected by sin. So it is impossible for there to be "unfallen beings" on other planets. And if there are fallen beings, that would pose even more problems!

Jeremy
Philharris
Registered user
Username: Philharris

Post Number: 167
Registered: 5-2007


Posted on Saturday, September 01, 2007 - 9:32 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

One of the "other problems" is the question of being under the curse of sin.

We, as the human race, are under the curse of sin because we are decendants of Adam. A race of people on another planet would not be decendants of Adam and therefore not under the curse. However, the Bible is very clear about the entire universe being under the curse. My conclusion, therefore, is that God's creation of the human race is unique and was done only one time when he created Adam and Eve.

Phil
Honestwitness
Registered user
Username: Honestwitness

Post Number: 315
Registered: 7-2005


Posted on Saturday, September 01, 2007 - 11:28 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I'm also a one-world proponent.

I heard an interesting broadcast last week on Christian radio. The speaker was stating that up to now scientists have not been able to come up with any evidence that life exists on other planets. Furthermore, the speaker stated that, if scientists were able to do so, evolutionists would consider it a huge victory for their belief system. The evolutionists evidently don't want to believe that our planet was any kind of 'special creation.'

Honestwitness
Jorgfe
Registered user
Username: Jorgfe

Post Number: 680
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Saturday, September 01, 2007 - 4:23 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jeremy, you shared with us that "the Bible is clear that the entire universe is affected by sin". I would be especially interested in see all of the texts that you feel clearly support this. That is a very interesting thought to ponder.

Gilbert Jorgensen
Jeremy
Registered user
Username: Jeremy

Post Number: 2104
Registered: 10-2004


Posted on Sunday, September 02, 2007 - 9:13 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hi Gilbert,

I was mainly referring to the passages that Colleen mentioned above. Also, the Greek word kosmos (usually translated "world") can mean the entire universe.

Additionally, we are told (2 Peter 3, Revelation 21) that both the earth and the heavens will be destroyed and that there will be a new earth and new heavens.

Jeremy

Topics | Last Day | Last Week | Tree View | Search | Help/Instructions | Program Credits Administration