If you live in a 3rd world country and your income is no more than $4 / day, I will pity you, but if not, why can't you get basic Ellen White software? Or you can even download all of Ellen White's writings in text and html format and query from there. You can get those at http://www.whiteestate.org/

You are not allowed to show confidence in a quote you can't cite. You must cite your references:



She says tea and coffee drinking. That means the daily habit.

She also says it's idolatry. Therefore Ellen White does not add a new definition for sin but the one given in the Bible.

My grandpa used to "have coffee" with his friends at the truck stop. It's a regular fellowship thing. Like a congregation. In most Sunday churches, they have coffee together in their Bible study group. Such a habit is injurious. That means it causes physical harm to the body.

And this has caused some to reject the truth, because they know those who have the truth don't drink coffee. There's also the issue of pork, etc. So self indulgence causes some to reject the truth. It would also cause you to be a poor witness.

Prov. 31:4 [It is] not for kings, O Lemuel, [it is] not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:
31:5 Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.

So it causes them to forget the law and pervert the judgment of the afflicted. You might not be able to convince anyone that it's a sin, but the bible says it will cause you to sin:

Hebrews 12:16 Lest there [be] any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

Now Esau's lust caused him to sell his birthright. He still has not literally sinned. He has broken no law. But that caused him to try and murder his brother and to covet.

Now if it says: "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.", (Romans 10:14).

That does not mean you can just say one prayer and that guarantees your salvation. If so, everyone would be saved. It means those who are in the daily habit of calling on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Also those who are in the daily habit of coffee drinking are addicts, and according to Ellen White idolaters. Yet when it comes to things that are borderline idolatry the counsel is given:

Romans 14:5 ...Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

Ellen White used coffee on rare occasions for medicinal purposes. That's not a sin. If you say it's a sin, then you are mistaken.

You can have a habit of prescription drugs. You could say that's a sin. But following a doctors orders and taking the drugs if you need them would not be a sin, right?

But don't charge people with sin falsely. That causes people to become devils. There's only one definition for sin.

1 John 3:4 ...sin is the transgression of the law.

Everything you can call a sin must break one of the Ten Commandments. To say otherwise is to charge God with folly in leaving something out of the Ten Commandments. And I can't imagine God blushing...



If you believe this, then I hope you can stand by it and never deny it.

What about sins of omission? You can stop doing bad stuff (maybe), but can you be sure of doing all the good stuff that it's in your power to do at all times?

The point is that Satan is very clever and introduces sin in ways that make it seem as if it has no consequences and as if it is all so innocent. A favorite technique of his is to get people to feel more interested in being popular than in doing what is right. They become more concerned with what others think than in what God thinks. Ever read C. S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters? That's one thing he writes of in that book.

I know that I am coming late into this discussion....I have scanned the last 3 pages, and I am still amazed at the lack of one word in this discussion....

You guys talk a good game when it comes to sin, law, perfection and all the rules thereof.....but you guys forget, one concept that trumps sin, law, and perfection....

That word is grace....God's grace.....

and you boys are not adding that into your discussion...EGW's writings are full of grace, when you are looking for it...the writings are also full of perfection-ism as well, ...if you are looking for that.

There needs to be far more grace in our lives, gentlemen....

I was talking to a guy this past week...He mirrored something that I have been saying... mankind KNOWS it's guilty..some people know it better than others...what we need is hope that we are going to make it. Grace gives us that hope....

Good Thought. And we are all in that situation to some degree. We ALL sin. We are ALL sinners. We ALL fall short. Praise God for His Grace and Mercy towards us sinners.

Good Point Neil. And Good Post.

If you read my posts, you'll find they are full of God's grace. I write all the time about how God saves us from sin. That is, in fact, what all of my posts are concerned with. God saves us in order to heal us of the effects of sin. God's grace includes not only justifying us but also sanctifying us, that is, setting us apart as holy for his purposes. He says, "I am holy; therefore you must be holy." And so, as a manner of speaking, God may find us in the mud, fig, yet He loves us too much to leave us there. We look in the mirror of His law and see how sinful we are, then we find His grace in His cross, and He cleans us up as we walk daily with Him. He will certainly do it if we continue putting all our trust Him.

Therefore ... if we sin ... we are willfully sinning. In order to sin ... we have to willfully reject all this power that Ellen White is talking about.

QR frame:

Sin! Sin! Sin! ...even, sin, sin, sin...

Law: entole; nomos; commandments...; What!?

Good grief. Methinks, we all doth protest too much.

Sins great. Sins small. Sins in part. Sins done willfully. Sins practiced. Sins occasional. Sins of entrapment. Sins withstood, ‘cepting by the flesh. Sins, as Bravus notes, of omission. Sins we’d commit, excepting, we haven’t the opportunity. Sins unknown.

Coffee, tea, milk? mebbe, chocolate? howsabout, milk and sugar, together?

Good grief; sometimes it’s all just so much hanging chads.

As St Paul wrote, “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind."

And if Gd desires to enhance our poor fleshly selves with chains of gold and stones, why, just let us be thankful that Gd – blesses us.

That is not to say that we forget or disdain the less fortunate – invite them to potluck