#2. The 27 doctrinal statements of the church are available on line and it can be seen that the church never declares her writings to be scripture or to be equal to scripture. In fact the church says that her writings are to be "judged" by scripture as I have already stated.
Well let's see...
The Bible declares thus concerning Scripture...
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" (2 Ti 3:16)
The SDA church declares thus concerning the writings of EGW...
"As the Lord's messenger, her writings are a continuing and authoritative source of truth which provide for the church comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction".
You see a difference?!
#1 scripture is given be inspiration of God, scripture is the writings of those inspired by God to give us His message, EGW is called the Lord's messenger, it states that "As the Lord's messenger, her writings...", that would be no different than calling her writings scripture.
#2 EGW's writings as the Lord's messenger are given the same attributes as the scripture defined in 2 Ti 3:16. "Authoritive source" what is authoritive and what is the source? Her writings are authoritive because the source is God.
#3 "Comfort, guidance, instruction, correction" All of these are what is said about "scripture"
So all you have done was a play of words. EGW is called a messenger from God and that makes her as authoritive as Paul or any other messenger from God. Be it verbal or in writing.
EGW did write down what the Lord had given her. That makes these writings "scripture".
You can say that the church does not claim EGW's writings are equal to scripture all day long, but the evidence proves otherwise. Writings are just writings unless they are proven to be penned of behalf of God, then we call them "Holy Scripture". If her writings are not from God then they are not Holy and they are nothing more than commentary. If her writings are from God (and that is what they claim) then they are Holy and are considered Scripture. You can't have it two ways. Either her writings are the word of God or they are just the word of Ellen. Which way do you want it?
#3. As has already been pointed out - we have many examples of inspired prophets in BOTH the OT and NT that wrote nothing in the canon of scripture. In fact we EVEN have evidence that some things Paul wrote never made it to the Bible.
What does this have to do with the topic? I haven't said anything about all Prophets must write scripture.
The fact that God inspires the authore - means that the message "should be correct" if it is not correct - then this proves God did not inspire them to give that message.
But the fact that the message is correct - does not make it scripture as is evidenced by all the Prophets in both OT and NT that are NOT authors of scripture.
I have no problem with this. I don't see what it has to do with the subject. Having a message that coinsides with scripture does not a Prophet make in and of itself and is what I already stated before.
If Ellen's writings only repeat what the Bible already states, if there is no new revelation, then why are they considered anything any different than any other good preacher's writings?
You argue that if a prophet in OT or NT did not actually write scripture then the people of God were not obligated to listen to them.
If you found this argument in something I said, then my apologies. I haven't a clue were it came from. Maybe I mis-spoke somewhere.
You argue that SINCE Adventist DO accept her writings as having authority and providing comfort, instruction and correction - THEN we must make her equal to scriptur EVEN though taking OT and NT prophets that did NOT write scripture as authorotative DID NOT make them the authors of scripture.
This is not what I argue. I have pointed out above what I argue about the declarations of the SDA church on their offical website concerning the writings of EGW. I made no distinctions between OT, NT or "oral" verses "writings". I speak only about EGW's writings verses the Bible and what is said about each.
But as it is - the fact that we do not use her writings as scripture and we DO judge them by scripture (as we would judge all doctrinal statements from ANY Christian author) -- remains.
So what is she to you Bob? A Christian author or a messenger from God who happen to write down the message that God gave her?
Once a prophet gives a message from God and that message is tested by the Bible and shown to be valid - then lets go back to your 3 points.
Since the claim is that God has given this - and the claim is that it holds up to the test of scripture...
#1. Should it be listened to? Obviously yes.
#2. Is God going to be correct in what He says? Obviously yes.
#3. Are you obligated to hear His prophets? Obviously yes.
Bob, this is NOT being a Prophet (capital P, giving NEW revelation). This is nothing more than being a good preacher who has been given the NT gift of prophecy which is the abillity to rightly divide the word of truth precept upon precept.
If all Ellen ever did was write things which helped others interpret the already established written word of God, then she is nothing more than a Christian with the gift of prophecy, she has no authority other than that given her by her followers.
The final conclusion is that men, not God, have raised Ellen's writings up to the authoritive level of Scripture. If in your heart you take Ellen's writings the same as the writings you read in the Bible, haven't you made her writings Scripture?
The SDA declares EGW's writings and the interpretation therein as correct and authoritve. This is no different than the book of Mormon, the Watch Tower or the RCC and their writings they use from the Popes.
Anyways, you have taken me off the reason I started this engagement. I don't want to debate whether or not EGW is a Prophet or whether she had the gift of prophecy. I simply wanted to know what it was about Ellen that made you believe that she was given writings from God for Christians to observe. We already went over your step one, rightly dividing the word of truth. This is done by thousands of Christians so we don't need Ellen's writings for that. So can we move on? What else was there?
God Bless!