In order to understand what early SDAs meant by saying God is a person, God is a personal being, God has a personality, God is not an impersonal being, and more, we need to read their writings with the goal in mind to understand what they meant by the word person and its variants. If we don’t have the same idea in mind for what it means to be a person in the first place, we won’t rightly understand this pillar of our faith that Ellen White identified as being “everything to us as a people.” Ellen White promoted the early SDA pioneers’ understanding of this pillar doctrine and said that when men would come in who would move one pin or pillar from our faith, the articles written by the pioneers should be reprinted. In this video, we examine an article “Man Made in the Image of God” by early SDA pioneer Roswell Fenner Cottrell, and we compare statements from Ellen White with portions of what he said taking note of the agreement between the two.
Our hope is for people to delve deeper into these subjects to see if these things are so. Here are a few links to help get you started.
Some images Courtesy of The Ellen G. White Estate Inc.
Some images Courtesy of Adventist Archives.
LINKS:
“Man Made in the Image of God” by Roswell F. Cottrell found in “The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, November 24, 1863, Vol. 22, No. 26, p. 205”
👉 https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH18631124-V22-26.pdf
Introduction (by R. F. Cottrell) to Ellen White’s book Spiritual Gifts, Vol. 1:
👉 https://legacy.egwwritings.org/?ref=en_1SG.5.1¶=104.10
Playlist “What Is The Spirit of Prophecy?”
👉 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq5exKaBCIq_2A4DsFEIkOOXv-vWPARdo
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Intro
0:24 The Why
2:33 The What
3:51 A Brief Overview of Who R. F. Cottrell Was
5:30 “Man Made in the Image of God” by R. F. Cottrell
8:20 Both Man and Beasts were Made Innocent
8:52 Unsound Argument by an Objector
10:48 That Which Prove Too Much Proves Nothing
12:23 Same-Pattern Syllogisms
14:50 Simple and Obvious Conclusion (RFC)
17:29 Obvious Meaning (EGW)
17:55 Man Was Made Innocent (EGW)
19:32 Christ Shares God’s Form, He’s the Express Image of God’s Person (RFC)
20:23 Daniel 7 verse 9 and Revelation 1 verses 13-15
21:40 A Comparison of Daniel and John’s Descriptions of Father and Son
24:55 RH, December 17 1872, par. 1 (EGW) “Personal Appearance”
26:08 A Sketch of the Christian Experiences and Views of EGW, p. 64 “Personal Appearance”
27:10 Continuing with RFC’s article
28:21 “That view is grossly material”
30:41 Tangible ➡️ Material (EGW statements)
35:37 Summary and Conclusion
37:08 Next Time – A. C. Bourdeau
