Samuele Bacchiocchi is generally considered as one of the greatest "conservative" scholars in the Seventh-day Adventist church. Unfortunately, while examining his works, it becomes clear that he is one of the worst opposer of the fundamental basis for our hope - ie. He does not believe that the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy (books by Ellen White) are inspired in the way Christians down thru the centuries have understood it. He believes that the writers of these books wrote some good things, but that they wrote some errors too.

This is the main problem - Samuele Bacchiocchi believes there are errors in the Bible and SOP!

Here are some email conversations showing that he believes the Bible and SOP has errors, and also showing how arrogant he is.

In Samuele Bacchiocchi's Endtime Issues #87 is a very arrogant statement, one so bald-faced as to make any true Seventh-day Adventist gasp at the audicity of it:
"If Ellen White was alive today, would she welcome the service of competent scholars willing to correct the remaining inaccuracies found in The Great Controversy and other publications? There is no reason to think otherwise, because she was a woman who recognized her limitations, and was committed to the search for truth.. On my part I would be glad to offer my services to her, because I can never stop thanking God for the inestimable contributions she has made to my spiritual life and to the message and mission of our Adventist church."

Yes, Samuele Bacchiocchi sets himself up as higher than God's prophet.

January 24, 2003 - In response to Samuele Bacchiocchi's Endtime Issues #87, i wrote the following email to him:
"My attempt to propose a broader interpretation of the 1260 days prophecy, has led some concerned fellow believer to question my commitment to the Adventist message." Perhaps this is the way you are interpreting it, and perhaps this surface comment is the one that most people who wrote their concerns to you expressed. But this is not the crux of the problem. The crux is that you are demoting the authority of Ellen White. The prophecies need interpretation - and fast. But instead of demoting Ellen White, we should be promoting her, and thanking God for being merciful to us to give us this added light. When our views clash with the Spirit of Prophecy, we should humble ourselves and get in line with the truth instead of demoting the authority God raised up.

"The problems associated with our traditional biblical interpretation and historical application of this prophetic period, cannot be addressed by one or few independent scholars. Only a commission duly appointed by the General Conference can undertake such a task" This type of thinking is anti-Adventist. Can you imagine William Miller writing such a statement?

Regarding our President, Jan Paulsen, you write: "He is by far the most competent, trained theologian that our Adventist church has ever had as a president. He hold a doctorate in theology from Tubingen University." God forbid his church's leader should be ingrained in thinking that openly proclaims: "The Protestant Theological Faculty also maintains strong relationships to the World Council of Churches and to the international ecumenical and missionary movements." No wonder the Holy Spirit cannot work much in the Seventh-day Adventist church. He is calling for a peculiar people, and we are clamoring for a king to be like the nations around us!

The above raises questions about how you relate to the world and the church. By reading your articles it seems very apparent that you have imbibed heavily at the cistern of worldly teaching, cloaked in the garb of religion. That is, that degrees=power, or that scholarship=authority. How many of the 12 disciples had Th.D.s or D.D.s? How about those in the Great Second Advent Movement?

May we humble ourselves and come together in the truth,

At any rate I have decided to suspend the study of the time prophecies of Daniel and Revelation until the GC appoints a commission for this project.

You wrote a couple of newsletters last year, especially #86-88 regarding Ellen White's role, and authority in the church. I sent you a email explaining that many books with Ellen White's name on them could not have been written by her. The answer to this problem of Ellen White speaking out of both sides of her mouth is that books were edited by a man who was openly defying the Testimonies. Ellen White's name was left on the cover to sell books, but the insides were totally edited. That is why there are many outright contradictions, and people either:
1: Think Ellen White was a false prophet.
2: Think she was inspired but made mistakes like any one else.
3: Put their heads in the sand and refuse to see the contradictions.
4: Believe she was inspired, but her works handled by agents of Satan.

I believe #4, and the proof for that is that Uriah Smith, a man openly opposing the Testimonies, became the editor of the Review office in 1881. Immediately you see "compiled" books come out, and you start to see many changes in the books. Perhaps this is why Ellen White didn't have her Steps to Christ book published by the Review, an organization she helped build up with sweat, blood, and prayers, but instead went non-SDA - Fleming Revel - to get it printed. I don't know the facts of that particular case, but do know by comparing the books themselves that the early works were definitely inspired down to the word, but later (after 1881) books have lots of problems.

The Prophectic Research Initiative invited me to join their team last November last year which i did, and agree whole-heartedly that we need to re-examine the "historical" prophecies including the 1260 one. At the same time, we must stay true to the visions God gave his servants thousands of years ago, and the ones his gave his servant around 150 years ago. Are you on the PRI team also?

One thing you wrote: "Some of them had been closely associated with Ellen White for many years, helping her in the revision of her writings." shows the problem succinctly, tho it is perhaps not easily recognized. Ellen White never revised her writings. Other people did, and tried to capitalize on her name by keeping it on the cover. Then they put out many things supposedly from the pen of Ellen White saying she approved of the changes. God is not yea and nay, so we should realize there is a problem here without demoting the authority of God's Spirit and the words he gave originally to Ellen White.

May God's scattered sheep come together in the purity of the word,