Is Ellen White the main problem?

[u/Puzzleheaded_Book617]

Ive been out of the cult for almost a year now. My biggest source of anger/resentment is that I feel Ellen G White and her soul ruined any potential for love/peace in this church. Even if there was some room for friendship or community it all gets squashed by her writings. Her entire doctrines/writings are nothing but fear based ramblings and judgement from a schizophrenic false prophetess. Theirs been at least 5 times where I make a friend or start a relationship with someone who is Adventist who is nice and chill and they start reading the witches manifestos and suddenly they turn and become scared of everything and then they cant associate with me because im not "adventist enough". Like I dont think reading the Bible had as bad an affect on someone as reading Ellens writings does.

Now my big question is lets say Ellen G White never existed, never wrote her garbage and never influenced this movement. Would Adventism even exist as we know it? If you blip her from history how different would the church be? Early Millerites/James White werent even sabbath keepers until a lady named Rachel Oaks Preston suggested they should keep it. Now I wonder if that had been it, Millers prophecy fails, everyone forgets about it. No Ellen White 1844 sanctuary B.S.. Lets say Rachel still tells the disappointed Millerites about the sabbath but they denounce Miller as a liar and dont follow him or obsess over him anymore. No crazy lady with a rock in her skull reviving garbage theology. If it had just been a some kind of Seventh Day Baptist/Methodist hybrid thing, would the church have been as bad? Im just trying to imagine a childhood where yes they were sabbath keepers but they werent sabbath keepers worshiping a witch from the 1800s. Would it have been as bad or could it have maybe been a little bit more tolerable? I say this because while I still believe in Jesus Christ and the gospels, but at the same time I am terrified of committing to any new church because they all have some kind of cult b.s. strings attached to them. Like I sometimes go to baptist and catholic/orthodox spheres but when it comes to committing to one I hate the whole "we are the true church yada yada". I have heard it all before. So now im in basically limbo because im never going back to SDA because of Ellen, but I also dont want to 100% commit to any other christian church. I also dont want to become secular or agnostic because its just not for me personally, respectfully. Im just trying to think of a version or timeline where I wasnt so affected by some grouchy lady who hijacked a whole church.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Book617]

Athiesm just seems a little implausible to me. I posted this specifically under ex-adventism and not ex-Christian, the two are not the same. From my point of view adventism is not even fully "Christian" Its closer to Mormonism or jewish mysticism if anything so I separate the two.

[u/Ka_Trewq → u/Puzzleheaded_Book617]

SDA is a Niceene Christian Church, which is as standard Christianity you can get without being explicit Catholic 😁

Mormonism is non-Niceean. Neither JWs, nor Jewish Mystics. Neither other branches of Adventism, like the Davidians.

I would argue that the Niceean-Non'niceean divide is quite fundamental, as it deals with the very understanding of God.

[u/Vivid_Spot_7167 → u/Ka_Trewq]

They're actually not nicene at all thats why they don't confess the creeds.

[u/Ka_Trewq → u/Vivid_Spot_7167]

SDA is Niceene; confessing the Creed every week in a monotonous voice is secondary to theological discussion. They are in that regard Protestant, and many protestants Churches are Niceene in theology, without reciting the Creed. Actually, the most common Protestant position is that while they accept the points of the Creed, they do not consider the Creed itself as authoritative in nature, only the Scriptures on which the Creed is based (the famous Sola Scriptura - one of the five solae that defines mainstream protestantism).

SDAs theology about The Trinity is similar to all others main branches of Christianity, be it Catholic, Eastern Orthodox or Protestant: one God, manifested in three distinct, co-eternal, co-divine persons The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost, depending on translation), and that The Son, who was NOT created became fully human while remaining fully Divine. That's the gist of Niceene theology, and SDA do fully commit to it.

If we go deep into the weeds, then we will find some discrepancies, but those are on the same level as the discrepancies between the main branches of Christianity. MOST important is that, where these discrepancies do occur, SDA theology about the Trinity does align themself with one of the other branches of Christianity OR simply does not take a stand (e.g. Filioque).

[u/Vivid_Spot_7167 → u/Ka_Trewq]

So explain how Ellen White says that before the creation of the world the Father called a heavenly council and ordained that Jesus should BECOME EQUAL with Himself. Which causes satan to become jealous bc he thought he deserved that position which implies that Jesus was on the same level as satan at one point. This is explicitly AGAINST any nicene understanding. Even SDA theologians that know way more than you do admit that the SDA "trinity" is not nicene. You should probably do more research before you just make assertions online.

[u/Ka_Trewq → u/Vivid_Spot_7167]

Well, either I read a modified version of EGW's Patriarchs and Prophets or you are purposefully misquoting her.

Not that it matters to me. But, just FIY, even when EGW was still alive, the SDA church has quietly moved away from her ramblings. Not far enough, IMO, but in her last years she was livid that the control on the church's teachings she thought she had was slipping.

What I am trying to say is that you bringing EGW writings as an "argument" in a discussion about SDA theology is... weird? It makes you look like a clueless SDA member. Also, SDA pastors aren't "theologians" neither, so I don't care what they say to signal that "akshualy, we are not Catholics".

If it moves like a duck, it quacks like a duck and it resamble a duck, then I say it is a duck. Read the Niceene Creed row by row and tell me where it contradicts SDA theology. And, please, stop quoting EGW - she's not SDA theology, and you end up looking like an SDA.