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Jesus had 'OLDER" brothers?

An SDA tried to defend the following EGW position........

A good example of poor logic and misuse of scriptures. Follow the sequence of correspondence and our reply.

The "Original Article" we posted:

When reading Desire of Ages, on page 62 or 87 depending which version one has, in the 10th paragraph of chapter 9 "Days of Conflict", Ellen G White states, "All this displeased His brothers. Being older than Jesus, they felt that He should be under their dictation."

If Jesus had older brothers, how could He have been born of a Virgin Birth? If He wasn't born of the Virgin Mary, then He would have inherited Adam's sinful nature. Perhaps this is no mistake due to Ellen G White and the Seventh-Day Adventists belief in Jesus taking on sinful human nature. Another evidence of their false Jesus!

Reply from an offended SDA

---- Original Message ----- From:---- ------- ------

To: jwfacts@netidea.com Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 11:50 AM

Subject: Jesus' brothers

Jesus did indeed have brothers. But they were step brothers! Read Matthew 13:53-58. verse 55 states that Jesus had brothers. Yes Joseph the earthly father of Jesus was actually married before he met Mary and married again.

So Mary was a virgin and Ellen White is not denying that by saying that Jesus had brothers! read it again in Mark 6:1-6 verse 3 says the same thing!

You are looking for errors in Ellen White to discredit her. When you do that you will never find any truth in her writing because truth is not what you are looking for! You need a change of heart towards Ellen White in order to truly see if what she says is the truth or not. Dont say to yourself,"This is threatening my faith". If you want the truth then change your heart to test it with proper scales. Do not be a Pharisee when it comes to new light concerning something. Judge it fairly with a heart that wants to know what is right.

This is my Prayer Amen.

Kevin

Dear Kevin

I received your comment re EGW's words in Deisre of Ages concerning Jesus' supposed "OLDER brothers and sisters", and I must say that I appreciate your writing in to MacGregor Ministries concerning this on their web site. As a former SDA myself, who strongly believed in EGW until I was about 28, I can understand your necessity to defend her at all costs -- even when she denigrades our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ (Tit 2:13).

I used to do the same, not thinking that the Bible shows what is God's Scales for weighing out whether one is a True or False prophet in Isaiah 8:19+20. It asks how we'll know if they speak from God or a familiar spirit, and the answer is "If they speak not according to this Word (the very Word of God) there is NO LIGHT in them". In this case, Bro Kevin, over the past 30 years as a former Adventist, I have encountered scores of places where she contradicts the Word of God, and herself, and over a dozen of her false prophecies. All these are the Biblical Tests of a True or False prophet. It is God who says "there is no light in them" and this of necessity applies to her.

In the specific instance of her statement that Jesus had OLDER brothers and sisters, here is just one more example, Bro Kevin. For the Bible references you gave did not say "OLDER", but only spoke of brothers and sisters! So here EGW adds the word 'older' and it changes the whole Bible Story! In EGW's defense you stated:

1. Yes Joseph the earthly father of Jesus... Bro Kevin Jesus had NO earthly father. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit as we read in Luke 1 and Matt 1. Indeed Joseph was shocked to discover Mary was pregnant and wanted to divorce her, until the angel told him she had conceived of the Holy Spirit, and that He WAS THE SON OF GOD (not any human father). By your calling Joseph an earthly father of Jesus, you are denying His virgin birth, which is the very problem you're trying to solve for EGW because she said Jesus' brothers and sisters were OLDER than Him! So to uphold his virgin birth, you're making Joseph His earthly father, thus DENYING his virgin birth anyway.

2. Joseph was married before he met Mary, and married again. Please provide the Biblical Text that shows this! Here you are merely question begging! But there is no Bible proof of this. Here you're dismissing Sola Scriptura and relying on what your 'prophet' EGW has indicated. But in doing this you're buying into the Catholic teaching that was generated to uphold their view of the perpetual Virginity of Mary, so that she's still the immaculate Virgin Mary in heaven today! Thus EGW has brought this from Catholicism and made it divinely inspired for SDAs by endorsing it!

But it is contrary to Scripture. Matt 1: 24+25 say that Joseph took her as his wife, and he "did not know her until she had brought forth her FIRST BORN"son, Jesus Christ. This tells us that Joseph DID KNOW Mary after Jesus was born, SO she was not perpetually a virgin after that but she became the mother of Jesus brothers and sisters -- who were Younger than Him, for He was FIRSTBORN.

3. Really Bro Kevin, you have tried to re-define what are Step-brothers, though you probably did not realize it. Step siblings are brothers and sisters who share ONE Common parent.--not two. In this case ONLY Mary was a Common parent to Jesus and his brothers and sisters. Joseph was NOT Jesus parent, so He was not his actual father. Adoptive parents (as you may refer to Joseph's relation to Jesus) do not author Step-Children. Thus EGW was clearly very wrong in this respect concerning Jesus, for His ONLY earthly parent was Mary, and so His only brothers and sisters had to be from Mary's womb.

And it's very important, for as soon as you take EGW's view, you are denying Jesus' virgin birth, and accepting the basis of her second false view re Christ, that being that Jesus had a fallen Sinful Human nature. And of course you are also opening the door to her third view that denied the True and Absolute deity of Jesus, for she really spoke of him as an angel in many places. She taught in 1903 "The man Christ Jesus was NOT the Lord God Almighty".

I hope that some of these things I've shared with you here, Kevin, may help you to use a Biblical Scales to evaluate EGW, instead of your own subjective emotional opinions, for she really is there to challenge your faith. The bottom line, would be however, that you must ask "Who do I love the Most?: Jesus, or EGW?" If you defend EGW at the expense of Jesus, when she denigrades Him as she does, then She's got first place in your heart, and you're breaking the first commandment.

If you Love and defend Jesus, and let the False Prophet go, then You've made Jesus LORD over your life and faith. That's the real Christian way to God. If you hold EGW's writings as above the Bible, by adding whatever she says to the Bible as a basis for your faith, then again she's your false god. For the Real God of the Bible tells us NOT TO ADD to what He has spoken! EGW has added to the bible in hundreds of places, and we as SDAs had forsaken Sola Scriptura. To be a real Christian you must return to Sola Scriptura, Bro Kevin

May God bless and guide you as you seek to do His will, and begin to uphold Him first in All things and every area of your life. Amen

Yours because of Calvary

Rev V Streifling, PhD. vostreif@attcanada.ca