UNBELIEVABLY, MANY ARE RETURNING TO -
THE ‘ALPHA OF APOSTASY'
LEARN FOR
YOURSELF THE DANGERS TO BE AVOIDED
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- SECTION ONE -
RETURNING TO THE ALPHA
For years now, the eyes
of many have been focused on the predicted "Omega" of apostasy.
With surprisingly rapid growth we have witnessed a setting aside of the
Spirit of Prophecy, and the special messages it contains, as of little
importance to the Church or in the individual lives of its members. A denial
that the writings of Ellen G. White are needed, or a denial that they are
even inspired of God, this appears to be the heart of the Omega apostasy.
But some among us are,
knowingly or unknowingly, returning to the Alpha of apostasy. They are
imbibing its concepts and voicing its sentiments. In order to do this the
more decidedly, they are carefully studying the erroneous sentiments and
lying reports of the outstanding leader of the Alpha-John Harvey Kellogg. These deceived
individuals have decided that, after all, John Kellogg must surely have been
correct in his assertions about Ellen White. And as proof, they cite
Kellogg's own words, as if they are to be trusted.
But John Harvey Kellogg,
from at least 1895 and onward, was not a man to be trusted. This present
documentary contains one of the most complete biographies of John Harvey
Kellogg currently available in print. Read it and learn for yourself, from
his own words and actions, the words and actions of others, and, most
important, from the words and actions of Ellen G. White -that John H. Kellogg was, clearly, after
the turn of the century,-not a man whose words could be relied upon as truthful.
We have already said
that the Omega of apostasy is keyed to a setting aside or denial of the
Spirit of Prophecy writings as either unnecessary or uninspired.
In comparative contrast,
the Alpha of apostasy had a different approach, and there are individuals
today who are zealously spreading its message. They are returning to the
Alpha, even though they may not realize it. Some openly take their stand with
Kellogg's deceitful attack; others do not realize they are doing so. Their
teaching goes like this: The Spirit of Prophecy may indeed be inspired of
God, at least her earlier writings were. But, later on, other men began
writing statements, articles, -even books,-and get her to sign them.
So we cannot be certain
which of her later writings (after the mid-1880s) were inspired and which
were not. It takes study and careful thought to figure it out, but there are
now Spirit of Prophecy "experts" doing it, and you do welt to heed
their speculative conclusions because they have studied the matter longer
than you have. The problem is that these other men would frequently write
letters and then get her to sign her name to the letters. Now, of course, you
need to understand that she was just an old woman and did not have enough
sense to understand what they were doing, and God never warned her as to what
was going on (although He warned her about hundreds and hundreds of other
matters).
Why, other men even
wrote entire books, such as the Testimonies, parts of Desire of Ages, Great
Controversy, etc., and then brought them to Ellen to sign— and henceforth
claim as of her authorship! And she would go along with this fraud because
she wasn't too smart anyway, and, you know, God never talks to His prophets
about such matters. His prophets can be repeatedly deluded by others and God
will never enlighten His special messengers as to what is taking place. They
can commit fraudulent transactions with others and God cares not for such
matters.
And THAT is the heart of
the Alpha of apostasy. It sounds ridiculous when you lay it all out in one
paragraph as we have done above, but the men now actively promoting the Alpha
never quite come to grips with the full implications of their theory, as we
have done in the above paragraph. Only a small part is given at a time.
"Oh, yes, didn't you know that others wrote some of her books for
her?" "We know that it is true because we have studied it out."
"Oh, I don't believe she wrote that!" "Well, I know she didn't
because that looks like something that Willie would write." And on it
goes. If you protest that it would be wrong for her to do that, you may be
told, "Well, she was getting older and didn't know what was going
on." Upon further inquiry, you will be told that such things had gone on
since the early 1880s. In 1885, Ellen White was only 58 years of age, and
lived for 29 more years, and yet all that time she was supposed to have been
too weak-minded to know much of what was taking place, and too weak-willed to
care about the rest.
"Weak-minded"
is the phrase for some of it: too weak-minded to know that many books and
lots of letters and "Review" articles were written by
"others," who then stuffed the sheets under her pen for her to
sign. "Weak-willed" is the phrase for yet others of the
allegations: too weak-willed to resist most any denominational worker or
leader that wanted her to sign his writings; and then henceforth keep her
mouth shut to what she had done.
THIS is the Alpha of
apostasy. It is the repeating in our own time, the 21st century,
of the tortured twistings that John Harvey Kellogg spoke 75 to 100 years ago.
Men in our own time began reading the accusations of Kellogg and decided to
start repeating them as gospel truth. This has brought the Alpha of apostasy
back into Adventism-at a time when the Omega is flourishing and doing very well for
itself.
For it was about the
year 1885, that John Kellogg began systematically backbiting Ellen White.
Kellogg was determined to have the highest place in the denomination, and by
1885 there were only two people in the Church that had more influence: the
General Conference president and Ellen G. White. So Kellogg began making his
comments, and that is why you will be told that it was the mid-1880s when
"others began writing things for Sister White to sign;"-for that is when John Kellogg began making
his cutting comments about Ellen White.
It is for reasons such
as this that people will tell you that it is safe to read the 1884 Edition of
"Great Controversy," but that there are dangerous errors (which no
one can ever seem to point out) in the 1888 Edition, etc.
Keep in mind some
history: John Kellogg became the operating manager of the
James passed to his rest
in 1881, and everyone was shocked to discover that Ellen, suddenly without
any counsellor, -was just as decided and unyielding as ever. By 1885, Kellogg had
no further doubts about the matter. He was not going to be able to influence
her decisions. Poor John had only discovered that which many others were also
learning. None of the General Conference or "Review" leaders could
influence her either. Standing grandly aloof from all the politics of
From 1888 to 1891 she
traveled through the field and defended the correct view of Righteousness by
Faith, much to the chagrin of the leaders in
Then, upon her return to
the States in 1900, she settled in Elmshaven, Napa County, California, and
while her son continued on with his administrative duties, traveling from
meeting to meeting all over the West Coast and in the East as well, she
would write letters to General Conference, "Review," and Sanitarium
leaders back in Michigan, and work on her books.
At the heart of the
matter, the Alpha is identical to the Omega. Both are a denial of the Spirit
of Prophecy.
But, let us for a moment
consider the larger issues in the Alpha and Omega. The entire
Alpha-through-Omega apostasy is based on an error so terrible that few
understand what it is. If they could but grasp its essential nature, perhaps
many would draw back in horror at its malignity—and flee to the Rock of
Scripture.
The basic issue in the
Alpha and the Omega is this: You are god. You can sit in judgment on the
words of God. You can decide which of those words you will accept. You can
take the writings of John Kellogg and place them above the writings of Ellen
White. You can take the writings of contemporary theologians, trained in
worldly universities, and. place them above the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy.
You can toss the books of Ellen White aside, with all their marvellous
principles, and pompously declare that she was "not canonical." You
are greater than all the prophets.
The Alpha taught that
you are as fully god and as fully divine as that of any other object in the
universe. You are all the god you will ever be. The Omega is now quietly
advocating Evolutionary Theory. You are god—for you made yourself. You
evolved from worms and amoebas, and ultimately from a "big bang"
out there somewhere. (It is now known that a growing number of our Adventist
scientists and science teachers quietly reject Creationism in favor of
Evolution. All this is part of the Omega.)
Above everything, you
stand and look down. You sit in judgment on the works of God. You decide how
He will save you. And you have decided that it will be in your sins. It will
be in a manner convenient to your pleasures and your pastimes.
Only one above God can
safely reinterpret His Word. You are the one that can do it. You can read His
requirements and His commands and that they need not be obeyed.
But you are a very
little god. The days when you used to stand in awe of the Sacred Writings and
carefully obeyed them are now past. You have since figured out an easier way.
You have decided that your own words and thoughts are more valid and
trustworthy. You are your own god.
Now you are stumbling
down the road of speculation and rationalization. The truth is that you
hardly obey anything any more. You are fast becoming a law unto yourself.
Having decided that the Spirit of Prophecy and its standards are of little
worth, you are now ready to turn your attention to the doctrines and pick
them to pieces.
This is the heart of the
Alpha and Omega.
"Many excused their disregard of the testimonies by saying,
'Sister White is influenced by her husband; the testimonies are molded by his
spirit and judgment.' Others were seeking to gain something from me which
they could construe to justify their course or to give them influence.
Repeated warnings have been given, yet there has been no decided
change." -1 Selected Messages,
pages 26-27.
"And then I appealed to them, saying: 'For years you have
had many evidences that the Lord has given me a work to do. These evidences
could scarcely have been greater than they are. Will you brush away all these
evidences as a cobweb, at the suggestion of a man's unbelief? That which
makes my heart ache is the fact that many who are now perplexed and tempted
are those who have had abundance of evidence and opportunity to consider and
pray and understand; and yet they do not discern the nature of the
sophistries that are presented to influence them to reject the warnings God
has given to save them from the delusions of these last days." -1
Selected Messages, page 31.
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Source : www.temcat.com
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