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Doing Theology: Appeals To Ellen White's Authority-5
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September 8-Doing Theology: Appeals To Ellen White's Authority-5

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The ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law. Neh. 8:3.

Yesterday we left off with J. H. Morrison having read from Ellen White's Sketches From the Life of Paul in order to clinch the argument that the law in Galatians was the ceremonial rather than the moral law. The quotations he cited certainly appear to teach that position. Morrison and his friends were convinced they had proved their point on the basis of Ellen White's "divine commentary" on Scripture.

But that was not the position that Mrs. White assumed. That very morning (before Morrison's presentation) in addressing the Galatians isue, she had said: "I cannot take my position on either side until I have studied the question"(MS 9, 1888). It was in that context that she noted that it was providential that she could not find her testimony to J. H. Waggoner on the topic. Some would have misused it to keep people from exploring God's Word.

Ellen White had light for the General Conference delegates on the subject of Galatians, but that light, as she repeatedly asserted, was that they needed to study the Bible and not rely on any other form of authority as they sought the meaning of Scripture. She would hammer that mesage home in her last recorded message at Minneapolis-"A Call to a Deeper Study of the Word."

Apparently Morrison's use of Sketches to prove his point did not impress her. We have no indication that she considered the matter settled by that method, nor did she quote her own writings at Minneapolis to decide any of the theological, hirstorical, or biblical issues. Her writings had their purposes, but one of them was not to take a superior position to the Bible by providing an infallible commentary.

Mrs. White would reflect that same attitude 20 years later in the controversy over the "daily" of Daniel 8, a stuggle once again based on her comments. And once again she told people not to use her writings that way.

In fact, to keep people from misuwing her writings on the law in Galatians, she had the statements removed when she revised Sketches into The Acts of the Apostles in 1911. She meant what she said about people going to the Bible to find out its meaning rather than relying upon  her writings.

The issue of authority is a most important one. May God help us daily as we study His Word to discover His truth and His will for our lives.

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Through its life-giving power it brings all there is of mind and soul and strength into harmony with the divine life. Man with his human nature becomes a partaker of divinity. Christ is honored in excellence and perfection of character(COL 102).
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