w eriJicERP6

JEWISH RABBI ASKS: WHO IS THIS ELLEN WHITE?

Quinta-feira, 18 de Maro de 2010 18:05
De:
Este remetente verificado pelo DomainKeys
"Eduardo Folster Eli" <folster.eli@gmail.com>
Adicionar remetente lista de contatos
Para:
teologia.salt@yahoo.com.br
Segue o testemunho de Elfred Lee acerca de rabinos que se "converteram" atravs da leitura de Patriarcas e Profetas de EGW (logo
aps est o LINK onde foi encontrado)

---

JEWISH RABBI ASKS: WHO IS THIS ELLEN WHITE?

As told by

Elfred Lee

Rabbi Josef (Joe) Kagan is an Eastern European Jew. His family immigrated to the United States when he was still a quite young.
Musically gifted and born with a beautiful singing voice, he made his debut at age 13 in New York's famous Carnegie Hall. He later
became a cantor, and then a rabbi. Several years later, he also became a member of the research staff of the then-Governor Ronald
Reagan in Sacramento.

For a long time, Rabbi Kagan had very negative feelings towards Christianity and Christians because of an unfortunate incident
which occurred in Europe when he was still a child; an aunt was raped by some "Christian" while a priest who held a crucifix stood
over her said: "This is what you get for killing Christ." Because of his animosity as a result of her aunt's having been violated by
some "Christians", he refused to touch the New Testament for a long time. However, he knew the Jewish Old Testament [Torah]
extremely well as a highly-educated rabbi. Fortunately, he later learned that American Christians are not at all like her aunt's
European "Christian" assaulters.

It was in 1978 at the Weimar Institute in Weimar, California where Rabbi Kagan and I got acquainted. He was already getting up in
years then. After our initial meeting, my family and I developed a beautiful friendship with Joe, his wife, and his son. As our
friendship blossomed, we started to study the Bible together and read some of Ellen White's books.

It was during one of our Bible study sessions that he told us an interesting story about how he somehow got hold of a book called
Patriarchs and Prophets by Ellen G. White. After reading it, he was very impressed at the way it was written, and wanted to know
who this Ellen White was. And then he asked my wife and me: "Who is this Ellen G. White anyway? What university did she
attend?"

When we told him that she had a third grade education only, he was amazed.

"Then, where did she learn Hebrew?" he further inquired.

We told him that, to our knowledge, she did not learn any Hebrew.

The more he became amazed. He told us that the information in the book is mishnaic, and the Mishnah, which is part of the Hebrew
scholarship, was translated into English only in the 1940s, and that only high-level rabbis are acquainted with the information in the
Mishnah. Joe further told us that, what Ellen White wrote in Patriarchs and Prophets was the history of his [Jewish] people and it
was very accurate. Moreover, one had to know Hebrew to be able to write like the way she did; her sentence structure was Hebrew--
-the rhythm, the meter, the arrangement of words and expressions, she wrote as if she was a Hebrew and her writing was just
translated into English.

Then he surprisingly told us: "I am convinced that Ellen White was inspired by the same source that inspired the Hebrew prophets.
Now, I am ready to become a Christian and accept Jesus Christ as my Messiah."
I somehow feel that even though the Hebrew Scripture is full of prophecies pointing to the Messiah, it took Ellen White's writings
to prove to him that Jesus Christ was indeed the fulfillment of all the Hebrew messianic prophecies. And only then did Joe finally
pick up the New Testament and read about Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who was a Jew!

Many times, I have seen Joe shed tears---for whatever reason, I don't know and I never felt comfortable enough to ask; so, let's just
say, I'd like to believe that it is probably because of "his joy in finally finding the Lord".

Before Joe and I got acquainted, I was commissioned to paint a mural called "Christ, The Way of Life" for the world headquarters
of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside Washington, DC. And when Joe and I met, I was in
the middle of painting the mural. The painting is based on another artwork originally "inspired" by Ellen and James White, who had
commissioned an engraver to do a black and white drawing of the same subject.

For some reason, Joe became very interested in the painting, and he confirmed [to me] that Ellen & James White's concept about the
whole plan of salvation as written in both the Old and New Testament was very accurate, but that somehow the engraver had
misrepresented her concepts. And for some reason Joe became "quite involved" with the painting to the point where he helped me
in making the details of the painting historically and theologically accurate, especially those regarding the sanctuary, the Hebrew
writing on the cross, and the scene of the last supper. It was Joe who suggested to paint Jesus and His disciples in an oriental style
scene, sitting on mats on the floor---not on Roman couches like some of the European artists did. He also recommended that the
heads of Christ and the disciples should be covered, and to make sure that I painted the wine, the unleavened bread, and the bitter
herbs "according to the exact symbols" that they were supposed to represent. Joe even made the first "stamp of approval" of the
whole painting before its official unveiling.

In late 1979. the painting was unveiled during a ceremony at the Auburn [California] Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Joe even
wrote a song based on one of Jesus' last words on the cross: "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" [My God, My God why have You
forsaken me?] to go with the painting. And at the unveiling, seated at the organ, Joe sang---his entire body shook as he sang and
openly wept. His singing was so beautiful and so moving that there was not one dry eye in the congregation that day.

The original painting now hangs in the new Seventh-Day Adventist world headquarters in Maryland. I could never have done the
mural accurately and correctly without the inspiration of Rabbi Joe Kagan and Ellen White. I wish they were still alive!

On Saturday, December 22, 1979, my wife and I were at Joe's secret baptism in the Bear River near Sacramento. There were only
four of us present---the minister, Joe, my wife, and I. For whatever his reason might be, he decided not to tell his wife and son that
he had become a Christian. As he came up out of the cold water praising God and singing to his new Messiah, he said, "I am now a
completed Jew. I have now accepted the Old and New Testament and the Messiah that all Jewish prophets talked about!"

On a recent trip to Europe where I presented workshops on art and some of my archeological work in the Middle East. I happened
to meet a Jewish family from Israel. Shalom David is originally from Iraq and his wife is from Chile, and they have become
Christians. They are attending college in Europe. Shalom David and his wife invited me to their home for supper on Friday night
[Shabbat]. It was a most enjoyable evening as he, his wife and their beautiful children sang and celebrated the arrival of Sabbath as
Jews have done for thousands of years. As we ate, I told them the story of Rabbi Kagan, and they got very excited. Shalom said,
"Believe it or not, the same thing happened to me! I would have rather burned the Bible than touch it! I wanted nothing to do with
Christianity, but after I read the writings of Ellen White, somehow I felt that the Spirit of God was on that woman. Her writings are
as if she wrote in Hebrew. You can definitely hear the Hebrew rhythm, meter and expressions in her books. I also believe she was
inspired by the same source as the Hebrew prophets. And she has helped me fall in love with Jesus Christ as my Messiah." [Let me
point out that, there is presently quite a bit of opposition to Ellen White's writings in Europe.]

After returning from Europe, for some reason, I met another rabbi living here in California, Rabbi Ben, who invited me and a group
of Seventh-Day Adventists for guess what? Supper on Friday evening [Shabbat]. He went through the whole pre-Sabbath meal
ceremony just like Rabbi Kagan and my other new found friend [Shalom David] in Europe. During the meal, I told the group about
Rabbi Kagan and Shalom David's separate experiences in "accidentally" reading Ellen White's book, Patriarchs and Prophets.
Surprisingly Rabbi Ben said that he had a similar experience. He hated the Bible, particularly the New Testament, until he read
Ellen White's book which somehow opened his eyes and "brought him to Christ" and which helped him to read the New Testament
and to fall in love with the Messiah.

Rabbi Ben's initial encounter with Ellen White's Patriarchs and Prophets took place while visiting one of the most influential rabbis
in America, whose name he preferred not to mention [to protect the rabbi]. As the other rabbi and Rabbi Ben chatted, somehow
Rabbi Ben could not help but scan the other rabbi's extensive collection of books which lined an entire wall of the other rabbi's
home library, and there he saw the book Patriarchs and Prophets by Ellen White. Apparently, Rabbi Ben must have previously
heard or known of Ellen White because he asked the other rabbi about Ellen White's book, where he got it, and why he would have
a book by a Christian author in his library.

The other rabbi simply replied, "It is a very authoritative source about our history as Jewish people."

Finally, somehow the 3ABN television network people got wind of my experiences, and I was invited to share on television my
encounters with the three orthodox Jews-turned-Christian because of Ellen White's Patriarchs and Prophets. After my TV
appearance, my telephone has rung day and night with calls from people from as far away as India and Australia telling me that they
want to know more about Ellen White and the Jewish Christian converts.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Elfred Lee is a portrait artist, muralist, and painter. He has studied art in Europe and the United States. He has a doctorate in fine
arts, and has taught art classes in several U.S. colleges and universities. He has also traveled worldwide and has been an illustrator
and photographer for archaeological expeditions, including Frank Navarre's search of Noah's Ark.

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=28057582454&topic=11812