Ellen White on Diet, Spiritual Perception, and Apostasy

Those who continue to use flesh meats in spite of the light given will eventually lose their spiritual perception and fall into backsliding and apostasy, often choosing their own course of corruption over the truthPH128 1.2+2.

The Danger of Disregarding Light

• Loss of Spiritual Discernment: Those who have the opportunity to adopt a vegetarian diet but choose to follow their own preferences will gradually become careless regarding other points of present truth until they lose their ability to perceive what truth isCH 130.2+1.

• Backsliding and Apostasy: Disregarding the principles of health reform is a form of backsliding similar to that of the children of Israel, which leads to a hardness of heart that can result in hopeless apostasy1888 1505.1+2.

• Separation from God: The indulgence of a perverted appetite strengthens animal passions and diminishes the moral and spiritual nature, eventually leading to a separation from GodCD 389.5+2.

The Final Result of Indulgence

• Discarding Meat for the Future: Among those who are truly waiting for the coming of the Lord, meat eating will eventually be entirely done away with as they prepare for translationCCh 231.7.

• A Warning to Leaders: Ministers and those in positions of influence who continue to use or prescribe flesh meats are considered "out of order" and are working on the wrong side, counterworking the message of reformCD 401.1+2.

• Final Judgement: Those who have wrested the Scriptures to sustain their own course of iniquity and led others into error will have to answer for those souls in the day of reckoning Matthew 25:41-4612MR 308.2+1.

A Call to Return

If there has been a departure from these principles, the Lord calls for a thorough work of repentance and conversion to return to the light He has graciously providedSpM 429.1+2.

... but who choose to follow their own preferences in this matter, eating and drinking as they please, will gradually grow careless of the instruction the Lord has given regarding other phases of the present truth and will lose their perception of what is truth; they will surely reap as they have sown— CH 130.2 (1923)

...ighteousness. At first they felt some compunction of conscience, but they refused to turn back, and now hardness of heart is preparing them for hopeless apostasy, and the judgments of God. The appeals of their Saviour have been resisted, His mercy abused, His p...— SpTB07 13.2 (1906)

...ss during the forty years of travel. Those who continue to follow their own course in this respect, eating, drinking, as they please, will gradually grow careless of the instructions the Lord has given regarding other phases of the present truth; they surely reap as they have sown. I have been instructed that the students in our schools are no...— PH128 1.2 (1908)

Among those who are waiting for the coming of the Lord, meat eating will eventually be done away; flesh will cease to form a part of their diet. We should ever keep this end in view, and endeavor ...— CCh 231.7 (1991)

...ingle vindictive feeling indulged may open the way to a train of feelings which will end in murder. The least deviation from right and principle will lead to separation from God, and may end in apostasy. What we do once, we more readily and naturally do again; and to go forward in a certain path, be ...— PH100 70.2 (1879)