COLLEEN TINKER | Editor, Proclamation! |
As far back as I can remember, Ellen G. White (EGW) was the core of Adventist identity whom we loved to hate. As a child I learned that she was God’s prophetess for His remnant church, but my Bible teachers in school taught that we didn’t call her a prophet in public.
“She called herself a ‘Messenger’,” I was taught. “Sister White said that her work involved ‘much more than the word “prophet” signifies’” (Review and Herald, Jul. 26, 1906).
Mormons claimed a prophet; Adventists did not. We were careful to protect Sister White by not publicly referring to her as a “prophetess”; those who were not our people might classify her with other prophets who, in Sister White’s own words, were “a reproach to the cause of Christ” (Ibid.).
I learned early that we needed Sister White, that she was the true prophet whom God sent to prepare the way for Jesus’ second coming, and that she gave us insider insights into the Bible which would protect us from spiritualism, from the mark of the beast, and from cancer and animal passions.
Concurrently, I learned to hide her from outsiders. They needed to hear the logic of our doctrines before they were told that a prophet had shaped our beliefs and interpreted the Bible for us. As a colleague at an Adventist academy said to me one day in a discussion about non-Adventist friends, “I wonder what they’d say if I told them, ‘Did you know that we have a prophet?!’”
No one who accuses God of tricking, lying, or otherwise deceiving people is His messenger in any sense. Moreover, people who internalize the teachings of a false prophet are predisposed to embrace further false teachings because they are not grounded in truth.
When I saw that the gospel of the Lord Jesus contradicted the Adventist “plan of salvation” and the terrifying uncertainty of the investigative judgment, I had to grapple with Ellen White. Maybe she wasn’t a prophet after all. Maybe God used her as a willing tool at a time of disappointment when the church needed direction. An ethics professor at an Adventist university articulated this understanding when he said to Richard and me, “I don’t believe God literally whispered those things into her ear!”
I bargained that I could think of her as a sincere (but not necessarily inspired) commentator whose colorful descriptions of heaven, for example, might be right. I could honor her for being part of my heritage.
Then I read EGW’s words from the Review and Herald, 1850-11-01, where she said William Miller’s first prediction that Jesus would come in 1843 was the message God intended the world to hear. In fact, He put His hand “over and hid a mistake in some of the figures, so that none could see it, until his hand was a removed.” In other words, God purposely misled the Millerites so they would get ready for the next date: 1844.
That was when I knew I could not hold onto Ellen White as not-a-prophet. I had to call her a false prophet. No one who accuses God of tricking, lying, or otherwise deceiving people is His messenger in any sense. Moreover, people who internalize the teachings of a false prophet are predisposed to embrace further false teachings because they are not grounded in truth.
We pray that the truth of the gospel of Jesus’ finished work on the cross will break through the curtain of confusion and the fear of prophets and teachers who do not speak for God. Long ago God spoke “to the fathers in the prophets,” but “in these last days [He] has spoken to us in His Son” (Heb. 1:1-2). †
—Republished from Proclamation!, Spring, 2016.
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As a young child, she was such a conundrum for me. I remember really wanting to see her as a warm, grandmotherly figure….but her facial expressions, matched with what I heard preached, was taught, and read on my own never allowed me to do that. It felt disappointing.
Yes! I understand that reaction so well!
I was brought up Baptist, so my Christian foundation was pretty good. I had attended Calvary Chapel churches and a number of non-denominational churches. Then I moved to another state and my next door neighbors were Adventist. I liked what I saw because of the 7th day. I started going to that church. Mind you, it was not as strick as some but dress and food were important. It was reading about Ellen White that made that little discernment button start going off. I was Adventist for 6 years. I was so brainwashed. I left the church in 2022. I still see my neighbor and sing in a community choir with them but I really have a hard time with THE DAY. God is so good. I listen to Regular Christian Radio and inevitably God will put a paster on who really explains it well, bringing me back full circle. Praise God. THANK YOU!
Ellen White said “ we need to understand that God is in the health – reform movement “. God communicated to her the SDA health message. She said I received light … it was presented to me … I have been instructed … I have a message to bear … the light given me … I was shown … during the pass night many things have been opened before me .
The health – reform movement is called HYGIENE. Ellen White said “ set before them the principles of the Bible upon hygiene “
Christian Temperance, pages 117-122(1890)
All of the above is false according to Herbert M. Shelton :
“ Outstanding among the pseudo-Hygienists was Dr. John Harvey Kellogg of Battle Creek fame. Almost immediately after graduating from the Hygeio-Therapeutic College, where he also taught chemistry, Kellogg assumed editorship of the ‘ Health Reformer ‘ and became medical director of the institution founded by the Whites in Battle Creek for the ‘ Hygienic ‘ care of the sick. Mr. And Mrs. White, who also founded the Adventist Church, had learned their
‘Hygiene’ from Graham, Trall and Jackson. Trall was a regular contributor to the ‘Health Reformer’. Before making it known that he had become editor of the‘Health Reformer’, Kellogg challenged Trall to a discussion of a minor issue. Accepting the challenge, Trall threshed the daylights out of Kellogg and was repaid for his trouble by being denounced as too radical and excluded from the pages of the ‘Health Reformer’.
Kellogg subsequently graduated from an allopathic school of medicine, repudiated his degree from the Hygeio-Therapeutic College, saying that he never wanted it anyway. And went his own way with what he called ‘rational medicine’. With the support of the Adventist Church, he built the little institution founded by Mr. and Mrs. White into a large institution of world-renown, at the same time, slowly leading the Adventist away from ‘Hygiene’. The name of the ‘Health Reformer’ was changed to ‘Good Health’ and continued to be published well into this century with Kellogg as its editor. It continued to carry on its mast-head the legend that it was a ‘Hygienic’ publication, but it deviated severely from the primary principles of ‘Hygiene ‘. All of this desertion of ‘Hygiene’ and devotion to hydropathy with the administering of some drugging was an effort on the part of Kellogg to get the favour of the medical profession. “[ Natural Hygiene Man’s Pristine Way Of Life by Herbert M. Shelton page 602 ].
Shelton said the Whites learned their ‘Hygiene’ from Sylvester Graham, R.T. Thrall MD and Dr James Jackson. The evidence reveals that Ellen White is firstly a liar and secondly a false prophet.