Aunty, is everything in the Bible about the Seventh-day Adventist Church?
25 March 2o24 |
Dear Aunt Sevvy,
Recently I sat through a sermon where the pastor used the Bible story of King Josiah and Huldah the prophetess to explain Ellen White, and to justify her public and sometimes condemnatory “testimonies” to individuals. It seemed to me that in his need to defend Ellen White, he was taking creative liberties with the text.
I see this in our church often. Really, is everything in the Bible about the Seventh-day Adventist Church?
Signed, Doubtful
Dear Doubtful:
How preachers apply the Scripture to modern listeners is a complicated subject, studied in seminaries under the heading of “hermeneutics.” You are asking a hermeneutical question when you wonder if it is right to apply that story as this pastor did.
If the pastor used the story to show that there were female prophets in the Bible, so there can be additional female prophets and church leaders throughout history, his interpretation may be justified. Of course, that still leaves questions unanswered about the role of Ellen White, the tone of her testimonies, and how much authority we Adventists give her every utterance—especially as evidence mounts that she wasn’t the original author of much of her work.
Is the Bible all about us? Almost all religious organizations at some level justify their existence by finding “proofs” in the Bible. But many churches have a broad ecclesiology, which recognizes other believers as part of God’s family.
Others, such as our church and the Roman Catholic church, go further: we each claim that our church is God’s one true church, and that our group is the only one who has it right. Aunty thinks it should be obvious that this is an overreach beyond what the New Testament intended. Jesus said that there are other folds and other shepherds, and that good people will be gathered together not in any human organization, but under God at some future time.
Aunt Sevvy
Aunt Sevvy has collected her answers into a book! You can get it from Amazon by clicking here.
You can write to Aunt Sevvy at DearAuntSevvy@gmail.com. Your real identity will never be revealed.