I've heard of those opposed to the SDA church - and many other denominations - but I always recall the booklet that God used to show me what had happened to me: that I had been spiritually reborn. It was "Steps to Christ" from the SDA church. I was so thankful for that booklet years ago and thankful for whoever left it for others to read. I had been very confused by the radio preachers and name it and claim it hucksters. I knew so little back then and didn't even know about spiritual rebirth. I didn't seek it, but I came to understand that I had been spiritually reborn from that booklet. I got copies for my family recently as a matter of fact. So I don't believe that God would use a false church to show me what had happened to me, because back then all I had was God. I didn't know any Christians and when I returned to our Catholic church to speak with the priest, he couldn't guide me - probably because looking back, he most likely wasn't spiritually reborn himself. Not saying that no Catholics are, just that I don't believe that priest was or our conversation would have been much deeper - more than him telling me the CC was the holy mother church.
I'm not going to veer off into another direction this late in the game:) I just never thought of when the Catholic church was even formed - and I know that different people/ denominations hold various beliefs. I went to mass every Sunday, went through CCD classes and I don't know how the CC even came into being, why, or when. In trying to sort it out, looking back I don't think there were any generational Christians on the Catholic side of my family. But my great-grandfather was a pastor on my mother's side. When my mother married my father she had to promise to raise any children Catholic. That annoys me because I feel that I missed out on Protestant teaching growing up and I think someone in my mother's side dropped the ball.
I'm not sure of the Sabbath day issue yet. It's not something that I feel an inclination to study - I have a desire to learn Revelations because of all that is happening in the world now.
There is only one other woman author in American history who has been published more than Ellen White - she is Alice A. Bailey, the occultist, channeller of "Dwal Khul" aka Satan, Luciferian "prophetess" of the New Age.
Sister White did absolutely nothing but point people back to the Bible and to place their faith solely in the Cross of Jesus Christ as our only hope for salvation - not Sabbath keeping, not works or any sort, not anything else.
Did A. A. Bailey do that? She, along with Joanna Southcott, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Edgar Cayce, H. P. Blavatsky, N. V. Peale, C. T. Russell, Pope Pius, Nostradamus, Aleister Crowley, and the rest of the "prophets" of that era did nothing but undermine the teachings of the Bible and point people away from Christ.
Steps to Christ, though small and easily read, is a giant among the Christian classics and if anyone would bother to read it, they'd immediately see that the all the negativity out there about this dear woman is the work of the enemy of souls who hates the Spirit of Prophecy.