A Response to the Video:
Seventh-day Adventism, the Spirit Behind the Church

by Bob Pickle

Answers to Questions Raised by:
Mark Martin, Sydney Cleveland
Dale Ratzlaff, The White Lie
. . . and Others

Discern Fact from Fiction

Jehovah's Witnesses, Cont.; Plagiarism

#101: "Through diligent research it was discovered that her supposed inspiration from God had been borrowed from other authors without proper credit being given to the original sources."—Narrator. [p. 73]

#101: Her inspiration was borrowed from others without giving credit. The problem with this argument is that it directly undermines the authority of the Scriptures.

Anyone reading Matthew, Mark, and Luke can tell that someone borrowed from someone without giving credit. Does that mean that Luke got his "supposed inspiration" from Matthew? Should we conclude that Luke was therefore a false prophet?

The books of Kings and 2 Chronicles are awfully similar in many places, and some of Chronicles's genealogies are found elsewhere. Parts of Jeremiah are just like 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and 1 Chronicles is nearly identical to 2 Samuel in places. Joshua 15:16-19 is the same as Judges 1:12-15. Someone was borrowing from someone.

The similarities between 2 Peter and Jude are another very striking example:

2 Peter	Jude
Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. (1:1)	Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called. (1)
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you. (1:2)	Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. (2)
Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them. (1:12)	I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this. (5)
. . . there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. (2:1)	For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. (4)
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but . . . delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment. . . . The Lord knoweth how . . . to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. (2:4, 9)	And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. (6)
And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly. (2:6)	Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example. (7)
But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. . . . they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. (2:10)	Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. (8)
Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. (2:11)	Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil . . . durst not bring against him a railing accusation. (9)
But these, as natural brute beasts . . . speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption. (2:12)	But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. (10)
Spots they are and blemishes, . . . while they feast with you. (2:13)	These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you. (12)
Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. (2:15)	Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. (11)
These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest. (2:17)	Clouds they are without water. (12)
To whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. (2:17)	To whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. (13)
That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour. (3:2)	But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. (17)
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts. (3:3)	How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. (18) [p. 74]

If Jude "copied" from Peter, then he "borrowed" a total of 14 out of 25 verses!

"But Jude and Peter were both Bible writers. Mrs. White copied from people who weren't." Talk to the right skeptic, and he'll try to convince you that the Bible writers did that too. For example, compare the following selections from the book of 1 Enoch with 2 Peter 2:4, 9, and Jude 6:

And again the Lord said to Raphael: "Bind Azazel hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: . . . . and let him abide there for ever, and cover his face that he may not see light. And on the day of the great judgement he shall be cast into the fire."—10:4-7, in The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament.

And there mine eyes saw how they made these their instruments, iron chains of immeasurable weight. And I asked the angel of peace who went with me, saying: "For whom are these chains being prepared?" And he said unto me: "These are being prepared for the hosts of Azazel, so that they may take them and cast them into the abyss of complete condemnation."—54:3, 4, Ibid.

Four points should be noted. First of all, is the book of 1 Enoch inspired or is it not? Its seventh chapter tells us that angels married people, and that their kids grew to be "three thousand ells" tall. Then when men ran out of food to feed these giants, the giants started eating people. These and other doings led to the fallen angel Azazel and his cronies getting the punishment described above. Now you know why the book of 1 Enoch never became part of Scripture.

Second, did either Peter or Jude, in borrowing the wording of this uninspired source, say anything that was not factually and doctrinally accurate? Not at all. They simply referred to the fact that the angels who rebelled against God will be punished on the day of judgment. These angels are on death row in prison, as it were. Moreover, neither Peter nor Jude endorsed the idea that these angels had fathered giants who ate up all the food.

Third, did either Peter or Jude "plagiarize"? Using a modern definition given by Encyclopædia Britannica, let's see.

plagiarism, the act of taking the writings of another person and passing them off as one's own. . . .

If only thoughts are duplicated, expressed in different words, there is no breach of contract.

No, they didn't plagiarize. They didn't copy 1 Enoch verbatim and then pretend that they had written the material themselves. Instead, they borrowed a few words to use when expressing their own thoughts.

Fourth, did Jude or Peter fail to give "proper credit"? It is safe to assume that they did whatever was considered "proper" by society at that time.

God inspired Peter and Jude with divine thoughts, and they then put those thoughts into the best human words they could find.

Evangelicals, Bible-believing Christians everywhere, if a prophet cannot borrow some of the words of another writer without giving credit and still be considered divinely inspired, then the Bible is not inspired!

Surely Jeremiah Films could not have known that this video they were making at the behest of former Adventists would strike right at the heart of the authority of Scripture.

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