Tony Cirigliano Ministries
September 2005
Pastor Tony Cirigliano – Editor

On August 12-14th we held a revival at the Pittsboro SDA Church. It was a great pleasure working with Pastor Louis Badenhorst and his lovely wise Heloise. They are a godly couple dedicated to the Lord.

The Lord’s spirit was truly present throughout the weekend in a mighty way. Friday night I preached the sermon Roadmap to Heaven about the need to be people of the book. Sabbath morning the message was The God of A Second Chance. Many came forward to rededicate their life and some made decisions for baptism.

After a wonderful dinner prepared by some of the best vegetarian cooks in the country I preached the message The Return of Jesus. Many church members stood by for the after noon service. We were also blessed by Darren Brisco and his lovely wife who were at the morning service, and before they had to leave Darren led a lively song service and did special music before the afternoon message. It was a blessing! Many gave testimony of what the second coming means to them personally. It was holy time! A side note, the dear sister pictured above testified that a few days earlier she said to herself “Why don’t we ever have anointing services?” She then prayed for one, and here she was one of 25 anointed on Sunday morning as Pastor Louis and myself teamed together to do the anointing. The Holy Spirit was there and true healing took place! Below is a picture of one of the 25 people who came back on Sunday morning for the anointing service.

Before Sabbath vespers, Monique Jenkins gave a beautiful concert that fit perfectly with the week-end revival. God is good! My vesper message was Journey Through Orion and we were all blessed – myself included as we talked about heaven – the better land

FEED THE SHEPHERDS growing! - Thanks to many of you over 100 pastors including Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen, John Hagee, Paul and Jan Crouch, Ralph Woodrow and many others have received the Final Events DVD by Doug Batchelor and the Sabbath Rest CD by Pastor Kevin Morgan! The complete list of pastors and churches that have received the truth packets is located at the website http://cleartruths.com/ReceivedTruth.htm Bookmark that site and visit it often as the list grows! The cost to get the packet to pastors in your area is just $10. Help us feed the shepherds of other churches the truth so that they can feed their flock!
New Book Being Printed!


For all those who have donated $25 or more to this ministry, please be patient. The new book Exceeding Great & Precious Promises – Bible Promises for the Last Days is being printed now and we will mail it out asap. I pray it will be a continued source of blessing to you till kingdom come! Yahweh’s promises are powerful and exceedingly great! The book also has in it the major doctrines of the Bible such as the Gospel, the Sabbath, the Second Coming, the Health Message, the Sanctuary, and the state of the dead in the comments on the promises contained in the book. I am excited about this book because it will be a great tool to use for those who are discouraged and in need of comfort and assurance and TRUTH! The book will be used as a thank you and sent to each person that has or will donate $25 or more to Tony Cirigliano Ministries.
 

A Lifetime of Love! - Percy Arrowsmith is 105 years old and his wife Florence is 100. In June, they celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary – setting a Guinness record for the longest marriage in the world! What has been the glue that has kept the Arrowsmiths together for eight decades? Percy joked that it was his consistent use of the phrase “Yes dear.” But both the Arrowsmiths agreed that the longevity of their union could be attributed to their nightly ritual of kissing and holding hands. They wouldn’t think of going to bed angry with one another.
Florence confessed, “It has not been easy, but worth every minute because he is much more than my best friend, he is the love of my life.”
 

Brothers and sisters, Seventh-day Adventist marriages are under attack like never before! Strengthen your home by making Jesus the Carpenter that builds your home! My wife Mary Ann and I read Ephesians 4:29-32 each morning, and then we pray together. It’s a powerful tool to keep your marriage solid!
 

29Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. 30And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

The Lord’s Word tells husbands to love their wives and wives to honor their husbands. Good advice what do you say?
 

Upcoming Schedule as of 8/18/05
November 5-6 – Snellsville Georgia Soul Winning Revival Week-end
January 21-22 Mount Olive, Georgia Soul Winning Revival week-end.
February 3-5, 2006 – Birmingham, Alabama Soul Winning Revival week-end.
February 18-19, 2006 – Pittsboro, North Carolina Soul Winning Revival Week-end.
 

God is good – all the time! I want to thank each one that has sent money to support this ministry. The Lord has provided our needs thus far and has worked through you! Not even a glass of water given to a servant of Yahweh is forgotten, but it is rewarded by our heavenly Father! He will repay with good measure pressed down and shaken together and running over, and He will multiply your bread cast upon the water! It will come back to you in rich rewards! Thanks again!
 

“Temptations often appear irresistible because through neglect of prayer and the study of the Bible, the tempted one cannot readily remember God’s promises and meet Satan with the Scripture weapons.” – GC, p. 600.

The great Methodist preacher John Wesley wrote: “I want to know only one thing – the way to heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way. He has written it down in a book! At any price, give me that book!”

In the book The Great Controversy, on page 593, we find these words written: “The last great delusion is soon to open before us. Antichrist is to perform his marvelous works in our sight. So closely with the counterfeit resemble the true, that it will be impossible to distinguish between them except by the Holy Scriptures. By their testimony every statement and every miracle must be tested.”

Until next month, remember God is good to US – ALL THE TIME!

    

THE LIGHT STILL SHINES

Defending the Spirit of Prophecy

By Pastor Tony Cirigliano

 

     Today there are many attacking the Spirit of Prophecy writings. Websites attacking the Lord’s servant by former SDAs and even former Seventh-day Adventist pastors abound. Some people are shaken when they find out that Ellen White used statements of others who wrote on the same subject she was writing about – sometimes without giving credit as was the custom of her day. Even some famous statements have been shown to be copied from other sources. These may trouble some, but it was common place in her day, and. The interesting thing is that she never copied erroneous statements – always truth. She knew what the truth was!

 

     I will be honest with you and say that there are some statements that I don’t understand as yet, but I hope in this short CD booklet to give you some principles to consider concerning the Spirit of Prophecy so that you will weather the storm of criticism that we have been told will be “the very last deception of Satan.” I will give you just a few examples – perhaps the ones heard most often by the Spirit of Prophecy critics. And I will end this sermon with strong proof for you to stay firm in your faith in the Spirit of Prophecy!

 

     A former pastor who left the faith points out on his site that Ellen White says in the Spaulding and Magan collection on page 11 that meat eating animalizes the nature. She wrote, “Let not our ministers set an evil example in the eating of flesh meat . . . Let not our ministers animalize their own nature and the nature of their children.” He points out that in 1 Kings 17:6 it says:

 

6   And the ravens brought him (Elijah) bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.

 

     He says why would God animalize the nature of His prophet by giving him flesh to eat? He also points out that Jesus ate the Passover Lamb and that the priests were ordered by God to eat the flesh of the sacrifices. Did Yahweh order His priests to animalize their nature? I have to be honest and say I don’t understand the statement, but I will bring up what I feel is a very important point to remember. With Ellen White’s writings, we have an unusual situation. We have all of her 25,000,000 words – even her shopping lists! We don’t have everything the Bible writers ever wrote. We have in the Bible only what the Lord chose for our salvation and help! For example, I prepare words for a sermon for God’s people, but if you heard every word I have ever spoken, you may not want to listen to me preach – and you would have a lot to take apart and criticize! We have that situation with Ellen White – who has 25,000,000 words in print – surely someone  can find something that they can attack!

 

     I personally believe that the five books in the Conflict of the Ages Series Patriarchs & Prophets, Prophets & Kings, The Desire of Ages, Acts of The Apostles, and The Great Controversy were messages to the world sent from God. In fact, I believe if the Bible were being written today these books would be part of it. Unlike the many letters to friends, and the compilations made after her death, Ellen White scrutinized these books carefully before publication, and her critics usually don’t pull things from those books.

 

     I also believe the Testimonies for the Church and Testimonies to Ministers are for God’s remnant people, and we should read and study them. I also think we need to be wise about compilations of her writings which were done by men and women who chose what to include and what not to include after Ellen White’s death. As I said, with 25 million words to scrutinize, those looking to doubt will always find something to hang their doubts just as atheists do with the Bible.

 

     Someone once said to me, “Ellen White lied about when she stopped eating meat. She also ate chicken soup and copied from others without giving credit.” Here’s where this man was greatly mistaken, and where you and I need to be careful! If we think a prophet has to be perfect or sinless in order to be inspired by God, we are in grave danger! Prophets don’t have to be perfect to be messengers of the Lord. In the case of Ellen White, the very events she wrote about are happening before our eyes! To deny their truthfulness and prophetic fulfillment makes as much sense as a man jumping off a building and saying, “I don’t believe in the law of gravity! I just don’t believe in it!”

 

     Do you know what I said to that man who was worried because Ellen White ate chicken soup and pressed chicken after she received the health message in vision? I asked him, “Do you have the book of Psalms in your Bible?” He said, “Yes,” I said did you know that David had Uriah the Hittite killed and took his wife? According to your thinking, you should rip out all of David’s psalms from your Bible because he was a murderer! Being a murderer is a lot worse than eating chicken soup don’t you think?” I then asked, “Do you have Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy in your Bible?” He said, “Yes.” I said you should rip them out too because Moses was a murderer! I asked Him if he had the gospel of Mark in his Bible. He said, “Yes.” I said, you have to throw that out too because Peter who dictated it to John Mark cursed and even denied the Lord. “Do you have the gospel of Luke in your Bible?” He said, “Yes.” I said, you need to throw that out because Luke got his information from others sources and did not give credit to the sources!” Finally I said, “If you keep Psalms, and the first five books of the Bible, and the gospel of Mark and Luke in your Bible, I guess I’ll keep my Great Controversy!” What do you say?

 

     Friends, the writings speak for themselves! A bad tree cannot produce good fruit! The devil cannot be divided against himself! The devil cannot tell people to love Jesus, to live holy lives, to obey God’s commandments! Ellen White’s writings were filled with such counsel!

 

     Let me give you a brief history of our church and how the Spirit of Prophecy fits in it. Beginning in the 1830s, people all over the world began studying the book of Daniel, and it caused a great awakening to the soon return of Jesus. People wanted to know when Christ would come. Speakers on prophecy were in great demand.

 

     William Miller and hundreds of others all over the world, using the book of Daniel, and especially Daniel 8:14 preached that Jesus would come to cleanse the earth after 2300 days or years (prophetic day = 1 year – Ezek. 4:6) They believed that the earth was the sanctuary. So the cleansing of the earth would be Jesus’ coming. There was no SDA Church at the time. The Great Second Advent Movement was made up of Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Catholics, Presbyterians, etc.

 

     The book of Daniel that God said would be “sealed to the time of the end” was being opened all over the world! The first of the three angel’s messages of Revelation 14 began to sound!

 

“Fear God and Give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come.”

 

    The Adventists as they were called for their powerful preaching of the Advent of Christ began to point to 1844 as the time when Christ will come. The Bible book of Revelation chapter 10 told of the movement, and of what became known as the Great Disappointment Many do not realize that this disappointment was supposed to occur!

 

Notice these verses in Revelation chapter 10.  8   And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.9   And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
10   And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.

 

     Here is predicted the Great Disappointment of 1844, the little book open was the book of Daniel, and being sweet in the mouth referred to the joy and excitement that Jesus would soon come that catapulted the Advent Movement led by the Holy Spirit!

     All over the world, the Advent believers waited with great anticipation for the date October 22, 1844, the end of the 2300 prophetic years, and the Day of Atonement that year!  People repented of their sins; they sold their lands and gave away their possessions for the cause of God. They met in their homes and at the churches and prayed – many times all night! As many as 50,000 had been put out of their churches for preaching the advent message and the soon coming of Jesus. The blessed hope was not being proclaimed in the churches, and it was time for a revival of the message of Jesus’ soon return!

 

     How would your life change if you truly believed that Jesus was coming tonight? Would we need to make some drastic changes in our life – or would that have been done already? That’s for each of us to answer in our hearts? But today may be our last day – and the second coming would have occurred for us – no chance after that!

 

     On October 22, 1844, the sun came up as usual. The people went out and looked, searching the sky for a sign of the Savior. As the day wore on, the scoffers, and the mockers became emboldened. The half-hearted who were with the Adventists because of fear turned away when it looked like the Lord was not coming after all! Atheists mocked the Advent believers. And when the sun sank beneath the horizon on that fateful day, the hearts of the Advent believers sank also. The little book they had been feeding on – the book of Daniel, now made their belly’s bitter just as the prophecy of Revelation 10 said! But friends, the work was not yet done!

 

     A remnant of the movement was not shaken. They knew the Lord was in the work. They met together and continued to pray and study, “Lord show us where we went wrong.” As they prayed, and fasted, and studied, they realized that the earth was not the sanctuary, and that the cleansing of the sanctuary was not Jesus coming to earth, but rather the beginning of the last phase of His ministry as our High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary – His Most Holy Place ministry – the heavenly Day of Atonement!

 

     Just as the Day of Atonement was the last in the round of yearly services in the earthly sanctuary, so the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary began in 1844! Jesus is right now acting as our High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary! When this work is concluded, Jesus will change from a priest to His Kingly robes and come as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

 

     As they studied the subject of the sanctuary, they also noticed a very important verse in Revelation 11, verse 19: And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.  Here it says that the temple door to the Most Holy Place – where the Ark of the Covenant was in the earthly sanctuary was open! The prophecy said inside this open door was the Ark of the Covenant – where the Ten Commandments were stored! The Law of God that was in the Most Holy Place shone down to the earth – and the remnant people began to study the subject of God’s holy law.

 

     A Seventh-day Baptist - Joseph Bates shared light on the Seventh-day Sabbath with the advent believers. Many came to the conclusion that God’s moral law is still binding on all believers! As they studied the fourth commandment regarding the seventh-day Sabbath, they plainly saw that it was a memorial to the Creator, and was still and always will be in effect as long as Yahweh is the Creator God!! And so they began to proclaim the second angel’s message of Revelation 14 telling the world to worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the seas, and the fountains of water!

 

     And hidden in the Bible was a verse that gave a command after the purifying and testing message of the great disappointment. It is found in Revelation 10, verse 11, right after the belly turning bitter is this cryptic verse: “And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.”

 

     So, according to God’s word, from the disappointment of the Second Advent Movement, a people would arise who would go to the entire world with a prophetic message. In fact, they were told to “prophesy,” and to do this they would need the spirit of prophecy among them! The great and terrible day of the Lord was approaching!

 

     In Joel 2:28-32, it is written: 28   And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: 29   And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. 30   And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 31   The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of YAHWEH come. 32   And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of YAHWEH shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as YAHWEH hath said, and in the remnant whom YAHWEH shall call.

 

     The Lord said that sons and daughters would prophesy! On the handmaids would He pour out His Spirit! It would happen after the sign of the Dark Day, and the moon appearing as a drop of blood!  May 19th, 1780. Verse 32 said these signs would appear in the remnant church that He would call out of Babylon! This Advent movement was raised up by God! Never forget it! This is not just any church, but a remnant with a unique message from the Lord!

 

     Right after the great disappointment in 1844, when the command from heaven was that the remnant must prophesy again, the Spirit of Prophecy was given to God’s remnant people. It was first given to a man by the name of Hazen Foss who was among the disappointed Advent believers. Because the message was too straight He was too nervous to bear it. And he failed to deliver it. In later years, when he heard Ellen Harmon proclaim the vision, he recognized it and said it was the same message he had received. Witnesses heard him say he was a lost man and left the room never again to be interested in spiritual things!

 

     God then turned to a man by the name of William Foy. But because of prejudice, for Foy was an African American, no one paid attention to him, and he became discouraged.

 

     Finally God reached down and got the weakest of the weak. There was a young teenager in that group looking for the Lord to come by the name of Ellen Harmon. She was 17 years old in 1848. Because of an accident when she was just a child, she had been given up to die, and had to leave school in the third grade. But she loved the Lord. God chose this young girl as one of the handmaidens that He would pour His spirit upon, and He laid on her the gift of prophecy. She was among the group praying and asking the Lord for light after the great disappointment. She was taken off in her first vision in 1848 before many witnesses. And by the time of her death in 1915, she had received some 2,000 visions and wrote some 25,000,000 words. This girl with just a 3rd grade education became the most prolific woman writer that has ever lived.

 

     She married a man by the name of James White, another Advent believer, and became Mrs. Ellen G. White. The brethren did not at first believe the visions, but tested them over time by the Bible tests of a prophet. As a true prophet, she glorified and lifted up Jesus Christ. The best proof of her inspiration is the books she has written.

 

     Read Steps to Christ, and Desire of Ages, and tell me whose voice you hear speaking through those books, or Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, or Christ’s Object Lessons! The Bible says that a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. The writing of Ellen White has proven to be good fruit to millions of people the world over. A reporter went to the Library of Congress and asked the curator there for his opinion of the greatest and grandest biography on the life of Christ. Without a moment’s notice, he said, “The Desire of Ages,” by Ellen G. White.

 

     A true prophet lifts up God’s law! Isaiah 8:20 says, “To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, there is no light in them.” Ellen White lifted up God’s holy law as did the prophets of the Bible. False prophets who arose at the same time as Ellen White, like Joseph Smith, and Mary Baker Eddy spoke against the Sabbath of the fourth commandment! They did not speak according to the law and the testimony!

Joseph Smith taught that Adam became God – and that we will become gods! Mary Baker Eddy said there was no such thing as death – it’s all in the mind! Ellen White taught Bible truth. She lifted up Jesus and His Word and His law!

 

Dudley Canright, who turned against Ellen White because she rebuked his pride, wrote a book denouncing her. It is the basis of many modern books that attack Ellen White. Canright wept at her funeral and had to be dragged away from the casket. He EG White books after her death!

 

     The Publishing Ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church has more publishing house in more languages – some 900 – than any other church on earth! This was because of the counsel given by Ellen White.

 

     Long before doctors knew anything about the dangers of Tobacco, in fact, some were saying the heat was good for the lungs; Ellen White called tobacco a “most malignant poison.” How amazing that she used the word “malignant.” She was several decades ahead of the surgeon general!

 

     She saw in vision The Civil War and described The Battle of Bull Run in perfect detail! She wrote in Counsels on Diet and Foods, “Animals are becoming more and more diseased, and it will not be long until animal food will be discarded by many besides Seventh-day Adventists.” P. 384. That was before the Vegetarian Craze and the Mad Cow Disease epidemic of today!

 

     She wrote about Catholics and Protestants uniting together – unheard of in her day, but a reality today! She predicted the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, and warned Adventists a few weeks before it to leave, and she also named other cities like Oakland that would feel the displeasure of God. The cities she named were along the San Adreas Fault which no one knew about when she wrote those words!

 

Many Adventists after the events of 9/11/2001 looked up in Ellen White’s writings words she had written about New York City long ago. Here’s a quote from a vision recorded in Testimonies, Volume 9: “On one occasion, when in New York City, I was in the night season called upon to behold buildings rising story after story toward heaven. These buildings were warranted to be fireproof, and they were erected to glorify their owners and builders . . . much of the money that they thus invested had been obtained through exaction, through grinding down the poor . . . the scene that next passed before me was an alarm of fire . . These buildings were consumed as though made of pitch. The fire engines could do nothing to stay the destruction. The firemen were unable to operate the engines.”  Interesting that the vision about this was in Testimonies, Volume 9, starting on page 11! 9/11!

 

     She wrote that the very last deception of Satan would be to make of none effect the testimony of the Spirit of God. We are seeing that today!

 

     Many say, “All I need is the Bible. It is enough.” That is true! If we read it and searched it as we ought. But the Lord knew we needed help! All I need is my eyes to see, nothing can replace my eyes! True, but sometimes I need eye-glasses to read the small print! The Spirit of Prophecy is like eye-glasses that help us see what’s in the Word!

 

     If I have a log book that has in it all I need to know to get safely to port, am I following the log book if in it says, “When you get to this dangerous part of the voyage, pick up additional instructions.” If I fail to do that, I am not following the log book! Jesus said, “I will send you prophets.” He said beware of false prophets, which meant that there would be true ones! Joel said, “In the last days, your sons and daughters will prophesy,” The Bible says, “Despise not prophesying, but prove all things, hold fast to that which is good.” The book The Great Controversy helped lead me to the truth of God’s Word! The spirit of Prophecy draws us to Jesus!

 

      When I worked in the post office, there was a man there who absolutely hated Ellen White. He spoke against her every time I tried to witness to him of the truth. One day it was family day at the post office. This man’s wife came that day and I struck up a conversation with her about the Lord. We talked about Christian books. She said that her husband had some books that he absolutely loved, and he would read them whenever he was down or discouraged. She said that a man who came to the door sold this set of books to her husband. I asked her what the names of these books were. She said, “I think one is called Patriarchs and Prophets, and another The Desire of Ages.” I then said to her husband who hated Ellen White, “You know Larry; those books that you love and read when you’re discouraged were written by that lady you hate – Ellen G. White!” He never said a bad word about Ellen White after that!

 

     2 Chronicles 30:20 says, “Believe His prophets, and so shall thou prosper.” I have determined not to stone God’s prophet! I will read, and be blessed by what is good. As I said, there are some Ellen White statements that I don’t understand. And I suggest that you test Ellen White by the Bible and not test the Bible by Ellen White! What I don’t yet understand I will leave for God to answer! All I know is that when I read the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy I fall more in love with Jesus, and want to live a godly life. It makes me want to put away sin and to be pure in heart. It makes me appreciate and study my Bible more! That’s good fruit! What do you say?

 

     Jesus wants to tell us how much He loves us, but we can’t now see Him face to face – we would perish. So He speaks to us through the prophets in His inspired Word and in the Spirit of Prophecy! He wants you to know that He loves you, and He won’t let you go or forget you ever! Let me share with you a passage from Ellen White’s writing that illustrates how the Spirit of Prophecy highlights Bible truth and makes it plain to your heart. In this passage she is writing about the verse in John 6:37. Here’s the passage.

 

“The message from God to me for you is ‘Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.’ (John 6:37). If you have nothing else to plead before God but this one promise from your Lord and Saviour, you have the assurance that you will never, never be turned away. It may seem to you that you are hanging upon a single promise, but appropriate that one promise and it will open to you the whole treasure house of the riches of the grace of Christ. Cling to that promise and you are safe. ‘Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.’ Present this assurance to Jesus, and you are as safe as though inside the city of God.” – Manuscript Releases, Vol. 10, p. 175.

 

     Jesus loves you and because He does He sends you instruction and warnings and counsel. He wants you to be with Him forever! Stay firm in the Lord! Believe His prophet and you will prosper! Let the words of the prophet speak to your heart and you decide what Spirit inspired them. Don’t be shaken by the critics for they are only being used as part of the “very last deception of Satan” as they try to “make of none effect the testimony of the Spirit of God!” Stay firm in the faith and be blessed forever!