HOME / PROCLAMATION! MAGAZINE / 2008 / JANUARY/FEBRUARY / EDITOR'S COMMENTS

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2008
VOLUME 9, ISSUE 1

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D E P A R T M E N T S

Editor's COMMENTS

Worldview shaped without consent
Colleen Tinker

 

One evening in 1999, our recently-formed Former Adventist Fellowship Bible study met, as usual, in the upstairs room assigned to us at Trinity Church. We had invited our pastor Gary Inrig to teach us that night on the subject of "death". Gary was leading us from text to text, explaining in context what each taught about the subject.

Then he jolted us by referring to Jesus' transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-13), pointing out that Moses, who had died, appeared alive with Jesus and Elijah. Gary's point was that the spirit of Moses had to have survived the death of his body in order for him to appear alive on that mountain.

"But Moses was resurrected!" several of us shot back as Gary explained his point.

I'll never forget the look on Gary's face. Our pastor, who has large portions of Scripture memorized and who prepares his sermons from the Greek, not the English text, looked completely baffled.

"Where do you get that?" he asked.

"Oh, in Jude 9," we quickly responded, "where Michael was disputing with the devil about Moses' body. Michael won, and God resurrected Moses."

Puzzled by our understanding but confident of his own, Gary replied, "That text does not say Moses was resurrected. It merely says Michael the archangel contended with the devil for Moses' body. There is no hint of resurrection."

I remember feeling shock. I had always seen "resurrection" when I read that passage, and for the first time I realized that the text did not suggest resurrection at all. We had read "resurrection" into the text rather than deriving if from the passage.

With embarrassment I admitted, "I think I just stumbled onto another 'Ellenism'."

I had thought I had expunged all of Ellen White's interpretations from my reading of Scripture, but unexpectedly I discovered yet another skew of the plain meaning of the text. I had firmly believed that text taught that Moses was resurrected, and, upon further reflection, I realized that my early belief (derived from EGW's teaching) that "Michael the Archangel" was another name for Jesus only solidified my conviction that Jude 9 was describing Jesus contending with the devil for the right to resurrect Moses.

I began to realize that my entire worldview had been shaped by the underlying influence of Ellen White. EGW's interpretation of Jude 9, for example, confirmed not only that Moses was resurrected but also that Michael the archangel was synonymous with Jesus and that Jesus and Satan are contending with each other. This understanding fit the "Great Controversy theme" EGW taught in her book, The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan: Jesus and Satan are engaged in an ongoing struggle which will be resolved by "the saved" demonstrating that God is trustworthy and by God proving to Satan that He is fair.

When I was able to dismiss EGW as having any authority from God to interpret Scripture, the Bible became a new book. I have discovered that God is sovereign over all, even over Satan and evil. He is not proving His "fairness" to Satan and a watching cosmos. God does not answer to us or to Satan; rather, He is the righteous judge of all the earth (Ps. 82:8; 50:6; Heb. 12:23).

I finally realized that even when I had thought I no longer heeded what EGW wrote, her influence underlay every facet of my beliefs and practices. Even though I had given up reading her works, I believed the Bible meant what Adventism, under her influence, had taught it meant. In essence, she had shaped my worldview without my conscious consent.

 

In this issue Martin Carey examines our Adventist understanding that other worlds are watching us grapple with sin and salvation. Desmond Ford explains the faulty hermeneutics that established the doctrine of the investigative judgment, and Chris Lee explains why Life Assurance Ministries is committed to challenging Adventists to embrace biblical truth. I share my response to a proposal that Christian missionaries use Ellen White to teach Adventists the gospel, and Royce Earp and Cora Holder tell their experiences of God awakening them to truth.

"In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son" (Heb. 1:1-2). We pray that as you read, you will see Jesus. †

 

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