"New light": how and when did this idea start?

by psyco 12 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  waton

  wt writers also introduced the 'sailboat tacking against the wind' analogy to justify their vacillation on many subjects.

  admitting that the crew is on a collision course with realityt most, if not all the time.
• 

  Terry

  Question:

  "New light": how and when did this idea start?

  
  Answer:
  "7th Day Adventists' Ellen White", that's the answer to your query.
  
  Ellen White taught that the believers should not consult non-Adventists regarding new light for the time of the end, for God would reveal new light directly to His remnant church. She said: "If God has any new light to communicate, He will let His chosen and beloved understand it, without their going to have their minds enlightened by hearing those who are in darkness and error."
  
  "Ellen White indicates that “new light”—which means better understanding of truth, not different doctrines—will be discovered if we will only spend the time and effort to study line upon line, precept upon precept."
  
  "Throughout their history, Seventh-day Adventists have looked forward to discovering additional truth. Ellen G. White, one of the church's principal founders, kept this hope alive, stating, "Truth is an advancing truth."
  
  She encouraged believers to search for additional light, for "there are mines of truth yet to be discovered by the earnest seeker."
  
  In speaking of "truth" she always meant truth as given by God through His divine Word."
  
  "

  Crucial Questions.

  In practical terms, if the "new light" was "not present in earlier times" and if God did not reveal our "present truths" to the "prophets and disciples of old," by what criteria can today's believers determine whether this "new light" is really light or darkness?
  
  Is the ordination of women as elders or pastors (which some are now calling a "moral imperative") new light or no light? To name some other current examples the church faces, how can a Christian today know whether approval of homosexual practice is new light or no light? Is the assertion that our earth is millions of years old new light or no light? Is speaking in unintelligible ecstatic utterances new light or no light? Are suggestions that we eat unclean meats, drink alcohol, and wear adornment new light or no light?

  Thus the reinterpretations raise fundamental questions about how we may know what is new light and about the very character of truth itself.

  When any group or individual claims to have "new light," we must evaluate it. It is essential to study what divine inspiration has revealed about the nature of new light. What new light can we expect just before the second advent? Will it change the way we look at Scripture and how we interpret it? In what areas can we expect to see a development of new light? These questions will help us focus on some key aspects of this important topic."
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  Charles Taze Russell came in contact with some of the writings of Ellen G. White, who had developed the system known as Seventh-Day Adventists. Many of the ideas of Ellen White fascinated him, especially the idea of soul-sleeping and the annihilation of the wicked. He began to formulate a doctrine of his own, beginning with the idea that “hell” meant only the grave. This was the beginning of Russell’s doctrine.
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  psyco

  Many thanks to everybody!