Having grown-up in the Seventh-day Adventist faith, along with its teachings and traditions, I’ve learned through personal trial that my greatest stumbling blocks towards the advancement of truth, has been my own defined “Adventist” beliefs, along with the inherent bias towards others who believe different from me. Whether we admit it or not, we all have some type of belief system and inherent biases associated with our defined belief system.
Years ago, my friend Elijah who is of a different faith, poignantly asked me, “Do you believe Mormons to be Christians?” Before answering his all-important question, I felt it equally important to first ask him a question, “Do you believe that Jesus personally died for your sins, and that his death on Calvary’s Cross, not only atones for your sins, but that His resurrection offers you the same opportunity for eternal life?” His answer, “Most Certainly—Yes!” In response to his question, I told him, “Elijah, it is not what I or someone else’s believes to be the truth, but what the Word of God tells us is the truth.” After quoting John 3:16, and Romans 10:9-10, we both smiled at each other in knowing the answer to his question was answered not by me, but what the Word of God told him, which was undeniably and conclusively Yes!
As with many Christians past and present, my inherent bias towards Mormons use to stereotype them as being non-Christians. I don’t disagree with anyone that many of their peculiar beliefs and practices are justifiably not biblically sound, but does that negate them from Christianity or heaven itself? I think not, knowing that Mormons like Adventists belief Jesus to be their personal savior. Furthermore, I believe that it is Mormon’s many non-salvific add-ons their religion promotes and practices that debases them in the eyes of many Christians today.
When it comes to our personal religious beliefs and ideas being challenged by what others think or believe, we often retreat to our beliefs which not only define us but safe guard us from having to take the position that we might be wrong or have missed seeing something in our collective understanding. This is particularly true when we don’t take the time or show a vested interest in listening to another perspective. Is this not the same mindset and position of the Laodicean Church today? “I am rich in wisdom, and have become wealthy in my perceived understanding, and have need of nothing more.” (Rev. 3:17, emphasis added). Ellen White’s counsel to us is that, “There is no excuse for any one in taking the position that there is no more truth to be revealed, and that all our expositions of Scriptures are without an error. The fact that certain doctrines have been held as truth for many years by our people, is not a proof that our ideas are infallible. Age will not make error into truth, and truth can afford to be fair. No true doctrine will lose anything by close investigation.”[1]
As a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, I have been thoroughly challenged in my beliefs, both inside and outside the Church, but at the same time, I took it as a challenge to reevaluate what I believe to be truth, and to further test it with what I know to be truth—the Bible.
When it comes to the relationship between the gift of prophecy and the inspired words of the Bible, are the Spirit of Prophecy writings of Ellen White, to be the authoritative source for Adventist interpretation of Bible prophecy? L.E. Froom in his four-volume set, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers clearly points out, “Nowhere does Ellen G. White Claim the right or distinction to any original interpretations of prophecy.”[2] J.N. Andrews wrote, “While, therefore, the Bible recognizes the gifts of the Spirit, these are not given to supersede the Bible, nor yet to fill the same place as the Bible… In short, their work is to unite the people of God in the same mind and in the same judgment upon the meaning of the Scriptures.”[3] Ellen White in the preface of the Great Controversy (1888 ed.) had this to say, “The Holy Scriptures are to be accepted as an authoritative, infallible revelation of his will. They are the standard of character, the revealer of doctrines, and the test of experience.”[4] In conclusion, the writings of Ellen White, are not and should not be used as the measuring stick for present truth when it comes to the interpretation of Bible prophecy.
Do we have to first let go of what we believe in order to learn and grow in the truth? Certainly not! But in order to grow, we must first be willing to listen, and thereafter allow ourselves to be challenged. In challenging our beliefs, we allow ourselves to be open to change and to embrace it where truth can be found!
In closing, our understanding as to what we believe, not only shapes us as individuals, but defines for us what we perceive to be the truth. As for truth itself, it comes from listening to the Word of God—the richest source of truth, and allowing the Spirit of truth (John 14:26, 16:13) to speak to our conscience, then and only then may we come to know and understand what is truth. As for our inherent personal and religious biases (prejudices), which we all have, they can be great stumbling blocks when it comes to the advancement of truth. Yet when we consciously lay them aside, the light of Bible truth shall then be revealed. The good news for all of us is that truth never changes, and when we allow it, it will surely change us!
[1] Ellen White, Counsels to Writers and Editors (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Assoc., 1946), 35
[2] Denton E. Rebok, Believe His Prophets (Washington D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Assoc., 1956),167
[3] J.N. Andrews, Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Feb. 15, 1870, 65
[4] Ellen White, The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan (Battle Creek, MI: Review and Herald, 1888), e.