HOME / PROCLAMATION! MAGAZINE / 2009 / FALL / Who is The Source

FALL 2009
VOLUME 10, ISSUE 4

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A R T I C L E S

 

Colleen Tinker

 

"Where do you find that in the Bible?"

Richard and I sat in our living room, Bibles open in our laps, across from our neighbors Mel and Monica. We had been meeting weekly for several months for Bible study, reading systematically through books of the New Testament. This was not the first time we had encountered this question from Mel as we discussed possible meanings of passages we read.

It was the mid-90's; Richard and I both were consciously asking God to reveal the meaning of His word to us without an Adventist overlay. We believed we had set aside Ellen White as an interpreter or source of doctrine or belief, yet here we were—once again caught in what we could only call an "Ellen-ism". The worst part of our predicament was that we had no idea our perceptions were colored by Ellen White—until Mel asked his question.

"Where do you find that in the Bible?"

That night I realized with a sense of embarrassment that we had to give Mel and Monica full disclosure if we were going to continue to study the Bible seriously with them. We had thought such an admission would not be necessary, but to our chagrin we had been wrong.

I looked at Richard and said, "I guess we'd better tell them…"

Richard, looking as uncomfortable as I felt, agreed. We stared a moment at our puzzled neighbors, and then I took a deep breath and said, "Well, we have a prophet…"

I watched their expressions change from puzzled to incredulous as Richard told them about Ellen White. We hastened to assure them that we personally no longer considered her to be authoritative, that we adhered to the Bible only, but we admitted that we kept bumping into presuppositions we didn't know were unbiblical until we encountered the words of Scripture—or Mel's relentless question: "Where do you find that in the Bible?"

 

Familiar arguments

Before I begin discussing the way Ellen White is used within Adventism, I want to clarify that I know the arguments and rationale Adventists use to justify her position. I not only know them, I used to use many of them. I also know that from an Adventist perspective, these arguments seem plausible—and because Christians in general do not understand her true influence, these Adventist defenses seem convincing on the surface.

For example, we frequently hear variations of these themes: "I don't need Ellen White to support my beliefs. Everything I believe comes straight from the Bible." "I don't read Ellen White, and I don't need her." "I don't believe she was a prophet." "I don't use her as a Bible interpreter; she just points me to the Bible." "She is a great devotional writer like Philip Yancey or Charles Swindoll." "We don't expect Jeremiah or Isaiah to be perfect; why should we expect Ellen White to be perfect?" "You're just reading her out of context!" "She never called herself a prophet." "I don't have to believe in Ellen White to be an Adventist."

 

What the children learn

One of the most telling means of determining what the Seventh-day Adventist Church really believes about Ellen White, however, is to examine the contents of the organization's children's books. The Adventist publishing houses and bookstores provide a variety of books for young readers which tell the stories of the early Adventist pioneers, especially Ellen White. One such book, Grandma Ellen and Me, is written at an early elementary school level by one of Ellen White's granddaughters, Mabel R. Miller. Her father was White's youngest son, Willie. In the chapter "Writing for God" are several statements establishing Ellen White's authority as God's "special messenger":

When she was seventeen, God asked her to be a special messenger to His people. During the rest of her life, God gave her more than two thousand visions. "Write! Write! Write!" her angel kept saying to her. So she did. She wrote for God. When she died in 1915, she had written more than any other woman in history! 1

Mabel Miller tells of White's manuscripts kept safe in fireproof vaults and claims, as Christians claim for the Bible, that God has protected her messages so we can have them all now:

In those rooms there are two thousand sheets of Grandma Ellen's own handwriting. There are three thousand typed sermons and talks and diary pages. More than five thousand magazine articles and five thousand letters she wrote are there too. God has protected those messages all these years so we would still have them today. Her writings have been translated into more than 140 languages. And not one word in all of her 125 books disagrees with God's Holy Bible. 2

Mrs. Miller goes on to explain that White would write at night, getting up about 3:00 A.M. to work: "With angels all around her, she wrote down the things that God had shown her".3

The above sentence is particularly interesting when compared to the biblical accounts of prophets being given words from God. While some accounts say the "angel of the Lord" spoke to the prophet, never are biblical prophets described as working with angels surrounding them.

Another of White's granddaughters, Ella M. Robinson, wrote what has become a classic book for children ages nine to adult, Stories of My Grandmother. She explains that early Adventist pioneer John Loughborough traveled with James and Ellen White for many years and witnessed Ellen in vision nearly fifty times. Ella says of him:

How he loved to tell experiences that he had witnessed with his own eyes on those delightful occasions when heaven seemed to touch earth, and celestial beings came down from the heights of glory to talk with one of God's humble handmaids, to open up mysteries of past and future ages, and to give instruction, counsel, and encouragement for His remnant church who have the "testimony of Jesus," which is "the spirit of prophecy." (Rev. 12:17; 19:10.) 4

The above quotation uses the classic Adventist proof texts, Revelation 12:17 and 19:10 to impress upon the young readers that Ellen White is God's prophet foretold in the book of Revelation for God's final true church. The fact is that these two texts which Adventists use to support Ellen White's authority are used out of context and are misinterpreted. Yet using them here, in a book for young children, is particularly revealing; the Adventist organization systematically and intentionally trains children from earliest childhood to perceive Ellen White as a true prophet of God whose existence was prophesied in Revelation and whose words bear the weight of authority carried by the Bible writers.

Mrs. Robinson further recounts a vision Mrs. White had in front of an audience at Battle Creek, Michigan. In this passage her husband James tells the audience how they could know her visions were from God:

To the people watching he said earnestly, "You have all seen that the visions are given to God's messenger today in the same manner in which they were given to His prophets in Bible times…They confirm faith in the Scriptures as the inspired Word of God, and in Jesus as the divine Son of God, our only Saviour. They point the way to heaven and warn of dangers along the pathway. They give instruction on how to overcome sin and become like Jesus in character.

"And the final proof of their divine source is that they always agree in every point with the instruction recorded in the Bible, which was given through God's prophets in past ages, and by Jesus Christ and His apostles." 5

In the final chapter of her book, Mrs. Robinson says of Mrs. White: "Yet it was not Ellen White who did this great work. It was God working through a weak human being using her lips, her voice, her pen, to speak for Him." 6

Without doubt the intent of this book, which is currently sold in Adventist Book Centers, is to train children to believe that Ellen White is God's voice to them today.

 

The "angel of prophecy"

Ruth Wheeler wrote the book His Messenger in 1939. Revised and copyrighted again in 2001, this book has been a classic children's book teaching Adventist young people about Ellen White's prophetic status for decades.

In her chapter entitled "And God Sent His Angel", Ruth Wheeler sets up an argument that Ellen White was inspired by the same angel who inspired the Bible prophets. The opening paragraph says:

The angel who spoke to Ellen Harmon in vision has carried God's messages to this earth for thousands of years. We might call him the angel of prophecy, for he is the angel who spoke to the prophets whose revelations of the divine will are recorded in the Bible.7

Wheeler continues by naming many people to whom she claims God spoke through His angel, including Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Samuel, and Daniel. She states that Daniel identified the angel who spoke to him in vision as Gabriel. Then she comes to John the Revelator. She explains that John was imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos and writes:

While John was there on that rugged island, Gabriel, the angel of prophecy, came and spoke with Him.…John called the book that he wrote, The Revelation. He said that it was the "Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants" the things which would come to pass. Jesus sent this message to John the prophet by His own angel, the messenger angel of prophecy.

Once when Gabriel, the messenger angel, came to John, he showed him in vision the new earth and the tree of life, and the river of life that flows out of the throne of God." 8

It is important to note that Gabriel is never identified in Revelation. First, Jesus appears to John and delivers the first parts of Revelation. Later, one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues spoke to John as recorded in Revelation 21:9: "Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." In Revelation 22:9, this angel says of himself, as John fell to worship at his feet, "Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God."

Wheeler quotes this same verse, thus clarifying she is speaking of this same passage, but she overtly names this angel "Gabriel", even though the Bible shows him to be merely one of seven angels holding the seven bowls of plagues. Then she says this:

John, on his barren island, was shown a church that would "keep the sayings of this book," and be waiting to welcome Jesus when He comes. He saw that this church would be keeping the commandments of God, and that it would be different from all others because it would have the testimony of Jesus, which is the Spirit of prophecy.

Is it not an inspiring thought that this same angel, who was sent to Daniel, to John, and to the other prophets, to Zacharias, and to Mary, the mother of Jesus, was also sent to Ellen Harmon [White]? 9

For decades Adventist children have been reading this book, as I did as a child, learning to believe that Ellen White is a prophet inspired exactly the same way the Bible prophets were inspired. Moreover, Adventist children have been learning that Adventism is God's true church of Bible prophecy because, among other things, they have God's only true last-day prophet who received visions from Gabriel.

No matter what Adventists say publicly, internally they overtly teach their children and their members that Ellen White must be respected as a true prophet of God who has the same authority the Bible prophets had.

 

Junior Baptismal Guide

The Adventist organization has published several guides for preparing children to be baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. One is entitled Following Jesus by Monte Church. It is specifically written "as a tool for pastors working with junior age youth". ("Junior age youth" range from nine or ten to twelve years of age.) In the chapter entitled "Two Other Ways God Talks To Me", the theme thought states,

I'm pleased God has given us the writings of Ellen White, not to take the place of the Bible, but to keep me close to the Bible. I'm glad for the way these writings explain in modern-day language the principles of the Bible. I am happy for the way God illustrates His love for me through the beautiful communion service and ordinance of humility.10

The author summarizes the importance of Ellen White in these words:

Have you ever heard of the Spirit of Prophecy that the Bible talks about in Revelation 19:10? It simply means that the Holy Spirit has spoken to certain people through the ages and had them write out suggestions and ways we can follow to better understand the Gospel. Moses, Isaiah, and Matthew were people who were led in a special way to speak and write. Ellen White was another person God especially spoke to in this way. We call her writings the Spirit of Prophecy today, too. The reason that so many appreciate and believe in her writings is whenever you read her writings, they always lead you to the Bible and help you understand it more clearly…Her writings are like a little light that always leads you to the greater light which is the Bible.

God said He would speak to us through people like Ellen White, especially as we near the time when Jesus will come again.11

This passage illustrates the way Adventists teach children about Ellen White. They never claim that she wrote Scripture. Yet they overtly compare her to the writers and prophets of the Bible. They say she was inspired the same way the Bible writers were inspired, and they teach that God has given her to His people in the last days to help them understand the Bible.

It is a technicality to claim that Ellen White did not write Scripture or that she is a "lesser light". In reality, Adventist children are taught from earliest childhood to understand Ellen White to be a prophetess of God, a fulfillment of biblical prophecy, and God's appointed messenger for these last days to explain the Bible and to tell us how to live. In other words, without Ellen White, we would not understand God's full intention for us. Her inspiration must be heeded in order to better know the gospel and understand God's will. Adventist children grow up understanding that they can no more reject Ellen White than the Bible; the two stand or fall together. Together they are God's provision for godly living.

Adventist children's worldview is shaped by the belief that Ellen White must be heeded with the same devotion as the Bible.

 

Source of truth

No matter what defenses Adventists use publicly to "normalize" Ellen White's role in Adventism, the fact remains that the Seventh-day Adventist church has a very clear statement of fundamental belief about her:

Number 18: The Gift of Prophecy: One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is prophecy. This gift is an identifying mark of the remnant church and was manifested in the ministry of Ellen. G. White. As the Lord's messenger, her writings are a continuing and authoritative source of truth which provide for the church comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction. They also make clear that the Bible is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested. (Joel 2:28, 29; Acts 2:14-21; Heb. 1:1-3; Rev. 12:17; 19:10.)12 (emphasis mine)

In spite of the rather confusing defenses Adventists raise to convince "outsiders" that White is neither canonical nor an official interpreter of Scripture, the specific wording of the statement of belief is careful and intentional.

First, the penultimate sentence of the statement, "As the Lord's messenger, her writings are a continuing and authoritative source of truth which provide for the church comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction," is eerily similar to 2 Timothy 3:16: "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness." Although Fundamental Belief #18 is not a quotation of 2 Timothy 3:16, the structure and content of the two sentences are similar enough that one cannot dismiss the wording as accidental.

Second, Fundamental Belief #18 clearly uses the word "source": "As the Lord's messenger, her writings are a continuing and authoritative source of truth." The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines the noun "source" as follows:

1 a: a generative force: cause; b (1): a point of origin or procurement: beginning; (2): one that initiates: author; also: prototype, model (3): one that supplies information.13

Words have standard meanings; we cannot dismiss them because we don't agree with the meanings or because we think they're intended to connote something different from usual. In the case of the Seventh-day Adventist Fundamental Belief #18, we have to take the words at face value. To be sure, the "source" phrase is immediately followed by a disclaimer: "[The writings of Ellen White] make clear that the Bible is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested." The result is a dichotomy of double-speak—but again, this dichotomy is intentional.

Adventists know that the Christian faith tolerates no source of doctrinal truth apart from Scripture, and they have taken great pains to be seen as "evangelical". Simultaneously, Adventists know that the one unique doctrine that defines and authenticates the Seventh-day Adventist Church's existence—the investigative judgment—cannot stand upon the Bible alone. Although Edson and Crosier helped formulate it, Ellen White's confirming visions provide the authoritative source of this central doctrine of Adventism.

 

Earlier Statement of Belief

In the early 1980's, at least two men's in-depth scholarship threatened to expose Ellen White as unbiblical and a fraud. In 1980 Desmond Ford presented to church leaders gathered in Glacier View, Colorado, his findings proving that the investigative judgment, the one unique doctrine of Adventism, was not supportable from Scripture alone. One can only find this doctrine explained in the writings of White where she uses Daniel 8:14 to identify the investigative judgment. Most of the Adventist scholars present agreed with Ford's findings, but instead of admitting the errors of this doctrine, the Adventist organization covered up Ford's findings and published an article entitled, "Ford Document Studied; Variant Views Rejected" in the Adventist Review, Aug. 28, 1980, p. 32.14

Close on the heels of Ford's disclosure, Walter Rea published The White Lie in 1982. Rea had spent several years researching and comparing White's writings to sources available to her. His findings concluded that a significant percentage of her works were plagiarized from other authors, and some were written by ghostwriters. The publication of Rae's book followed a meeting held January, 1980, where Rea presented his findings to Adventist leaders. They promised to inform the Adventist membership about White's plagiarism. Because they did not keep their promise, Rae published his own book in which he revealed the results of his research.15 Subsequently, church-appointed scholar Fred Veltman spent eight years examining only a portion of The Desire of Ages, and he confirmed that significant portions of the section of the book he examined were plagiarized.

Church leaders were aware of both Ford's and Rae's scholarship before their official meetings with them. They knew there were serious charges against Ellen White's reliability, and they knew their own scholars could not affirm that the core doctrine of Adventism, the investigative judgment, was supported by the Bible alone. Because Adventist doctrine and its cultural heritage depended upon the statements and biblical interpretations of Ellen White, they could not renounce her authority and continue to maintain the organization.

A similar dilemma had occurred over 60 years before when, at the 1919 Bible Conference, Adventist church leaders had agreed to ignore the serious concerns many held regarding the validity of Ellen White's inspiration. They sealed the minutes of the conference for 50 years, and they agreed not to rock the denominational boat by addressing the pervasive doubts. When the Adventist leadership chose to rewrite the fundamental belief statement in 1980 instead of openly addressing the serious charges against Ellen White's reliability, they were merely continuing the precedent set by their predecessors.16

Prior to 1980, the statement of belief concerning White was worded thus:

19. That God has placed in His church the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as enumerated in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4. That these gifts operate in harmony with the divine principles of the Bible, and are given "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:12). That the gift of the Spirit of prophecy is one of the identifying marks of the remnant church (1 Cor. 1:5–7; 12:1–28; Rev. 12:17; 19:10; Amos 3:7; Hos. 12:10, 13). They recognize that this gift was manifested in the life and ministry of Ellen G. White.17

Importantly, the Adventists' pre-1980 fundamental belief about Scripture stated that the Old and New Testaments "contain an all-sufficient revelation of [God's] will to men, and are the only unerring rule of faith and practice."18

In other words, prior to 1980 the Adventists' fundamental beliefs stated that Scripture was the "only unerring" and "all-sufficient" revelation of God's will for faith and practice. Concurrently, while they did claim prophetic status for Ellen White, they did not word their fundamental belief in such a way that she was credited with being a source of truth.

When the Adventist organization amended its statements of belief in 1980, it not only amended its statement of Ellen's authority, but it amended its statement concerning Scripture as well. The authors eliminated the words "all-sufficient" and "only unerring rule". The new statement reads in part, "In this Word, God has committed to man the knowledge necessary for salvation. The Holy Scriptures are the infallible revelation of His will. They are the standard of character, the test of experience, the authoritative revealer of doctrines, and the trustworthy record of God's acts in history."19

The 1980 amended fundamental belief statements coincided closely with the public exposure of serious criticism of Ellen White. The official writers deceptively worded the statements to make it appear they honor Scripture as the only infallible source of doctrine. Simultaneously, however, they strengthened their statement regarding Ellen White, giving her the distinction of being not merely an interpreter of Scripture but also the definer of how both Scripture and her own writings are used, and they made her an actual "source of truth"—an originator of foundational beliefs and "truth" which was not only valid during her lifetime but which is "continuing and authoritative" today.

Concurrently, the statements' authors eliminated the words that declared Scripture to be the only rule of faith and practice and the all-sufficient revelation of God's will.

The amended 1980 statements give Ellen White's writings the same authority as Scripture while weakening the authority of the Bible. The authors camouflaged these amendments with the disclaimer that Scripture is the standard by which teaching and doctrines must be tested, but such a claim is meaningless when they have eliminated the statements of Scripture's absolute authority and have added Ellen White as a source of truth.

Words mean what they say, and the writers of the Fundamental Beliefs chose words that clearly communicate the true nature of Ellen White's authority within the Seventh-day Adventist organization.

 

Internal reality

Although Adventism outwardly denies that it holds her writings to be on a par with Scripture, internally they teach their members that Ellen White's inspiration is the same as that of the Bible writers, and they teach their members that she is to be honored as a prophet of God. In practice, they shape their theology and their worldview on her Scriptural commentary and interpretation.

During the first quarter of 2009, the Adventist Sabbath School lessons were entitled "The Prophetic Gift." In the introduction to the January/February/March, 2009 Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, author Gerhard Pfandl writes:

Seventh-day Adventists believe that the gift of prophecy has been manifested in the ministry of Mrs. Ellen G. White (1827-1915). For seven decades she gave messages of counsel and warning to our church; and though she died in 1915, her books, full of spiritual insights and counsel, have been a source of tremendous blessing to countless millions whose lives have been, and continue to be, spiritually and theologically enriched through them. We truly have been given a gift 20 (emphasis mine).

This "gift" of a prophet who is a "continuing and authoritative source of truth" is not always acknowledged openly. Many Adventists think they don't follow her instruction but follow the Bible alone. Many others claim they do not believe she is a prophet. A great many Adventists believe she has historical significance but no modern significance. Still others hold her works to be sacred.

The fact is, however, that no matter what individual Adventists claim to believe about her, the organization teaches that she is God's last-day mouthpiece for them. Moreover, Adventists teach that she has the authority of Bible writers and the authority to interpret Scripture. One of the methods they employ to present Ellen White as authoritative is to suggest that the Bible writers were fallible and have no higher quality of inspiration than she has.

For example, the lesson for March 23, 2009, in the Adult Teachers Sabbath School Bible Study Guide states,

Because Paul preached Christ from Scripture, showing that He was the promised Messiah, those who heard him with an open mind were driven to study the Scriptures for themselves to see if these things were indeed so. In other words, even Paul's words weren't good enough. They had to be confirmed by the Bible.21

The above quotation refers to Paul's preaching to the Berean Jews as recorded in Acts 17. In order to validate Ellen White's supposed inspiration from God, they compare her to Paul with a straw-man argument. The Bereans in Acts 17 who searched the Scriptures after hearing Paul preach did not search them because Paul's words "weren't good enough". In fact, Acts 17: 10-11 states:

The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these [the Berean Jews] were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.

The Bereans searched the Scriptures not because they doubted the word delivered by Paul and Silas but because, in their joy, they wanted to confirm for themselves how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies they knew and loved.

Moreover, Peter identified Paul's writings as Scripture in 2 Peter 3:15-16. Paul was called by the Lord Jesus as an apostle and given the grace of explaining the mystery of the administration of the new covenant to everyone (Ephesians 3:9). Ellen White was not an apostle, and her words are not validated as Scripture. For the Adventists to compare her writings to Paul's is disingenuous and designed to confuse members. They defend her authenticity first by diminishing the authority of Paul or of other Bible writers, then by trying to demonstrate that she is just like them.

Two more excerpts from the Sabbath School lessons confirm this point. In the study guide for March 25, 2009, we read:

Among us, as in ancient Israel, there are those who in various ways, subtle and sometimes not so subtle, are working to destroy confidence in the prophetic ministry of Ellen White. It has been that way from the beginning, and we can be sure it will be right up to the end, as well. Just about every charge leveled against her and her works are similar to the charges leveled against the prophets of old and against the Word of God itself.22

As with the inspiration of the Bible, questions remain about the manifestation of the prophetic gift in the life of Ellen White. Yet, the gift speaks for itself and gives the best testimony and witness regarding itself…More than enough evidence has been given for anyone to make an informed decision regarding the gift, regardless of the unanswered questions that we who "see through a glass, darkly" (1 Cor. 13:12) might still have.23

These straw-man arguments do two things: they undermine the authority of the Bible to Adventist members, and they establish Ellen White as categorically the same as Bible writers. A nineteenth-century "prophet" who is known to have plagiarized liberally and whose writings contradict both themselves and the Bible cannot be compared to the Bible writers.

 

White contradictions to the Bible

A prophet of God never contradicts Scripture. Moreover, a biblical prophet is inspired with God's own words (2 Tim. 3:16). Ellen White claimed to have direct revelations from God, but she often contradicted the words of the Bible.

Following is a small sampling of Ellen White's statements which contradict the clear words of Scripture.24

 

White: Eve yielded to temptation, and through her influence Adam also was deceived" (Spirit of Prophecy, Vol. 4, p. 352).

Bible: And it was not Adam who was deceived but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression (1 Ti. 2:14).

 

White: The sign, or seal, of God is revealed in the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, the Lord's memorial of creation (Testimonies for the Church, Vol., 7, p. 136).

Bible: And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30. See also 2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13).

 

White: Let not any of our ministers set an evil example in the eating of flesh meat. Let them and their families live up to the light of health reform (Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 36).

Bible: And He said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover [lamb] with you before I suffer (Lk. 22:15).

But the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer (1 Tim. 4:1-5).

 

White: Regarding prayer for the sick: "We should first find out if the sick one has been withholding tithes or has made trouble in the church" (Healthful Living, p. 237).

Bible: And when evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill (Mat. 8:16).

 

From the pulpit

In spite of her obvious contradiction of Scripture, Adventists have learned to rationalize that she doesn't really disagree with God's word—after all, God Himself spoke to her. Therefore, her words must offer special insight that we must consider as we read Scripture. This reverence for Ellen White as an authoritative mouthpiece for God is not limited to official written statements. Adventist pastors, including well known popular ones, quote her writings from the pulpit to validate their sermon messages. A recent sermon preached in the Henderson Highway Seventh-day Adventist Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, illustrates Adventists' general acceptance of Ellen White's authority to interpret and explain Scripture.

On May 30, 2009, Bill Santos, the Canadian evangelist for It Is Written, a Seventh-day Adventist worldwide evangelistic ministry, presented the Sabbath sermon at the Henderson Highway church. Santos' purpose was to energize the congregation to support It Is Written's outreach. He preached on Jesus' parable in Matthew 20 about the landowner who hired workers at the eleventh hour and paid them as much as he paid those he hired at the beginning of the day.

Santos admitted the rationale for paying the workers the same amount seemed unclear, and then he said, "So I decided I'd turn to the 'Spirit of Prophecy' to try to clear some of my confusion, which I think is a good practice."

Ellen White explains that the landowner fired the early workers and hired the eleventh-hour workers to finish the work, paying them the same amount because the later workers actually completed what the early workers had failed to do.

Then Santos said,

In the parable—in the internal context of this parable—there is no evidence whatsoever that the early workers failed to do their job. There's no evidence of that. There's no condemnation of the early workers—there is no criticism of the early workers—in the immediate, internal context of the parable. But when I turned to the writings of Ellen White, when I began to look at what she wrote, when she opens up this parable, she criticizes the early workers and praises the eleventh-hour people. The immediate internal evidence does not suggest that. But Ellen White here uses prophetic license. Ellen White was called of God, and Ellen White has the liberty to do with Scripture what you and I do not have the liberty to do. Let me unfold this parable for you as it appears in the writings of Ellen White.25 (emphasis mine)

Bill Santos' comments cannot be dismissed as an obscure statement from a provincial pastor. Santos is a high-profile Adventist evangelist whose career is spent preaching evangelistic meetings across Canada and also in the United States with the goal of bringing new members into the Adventist organization. In his public meetings, Santos would not likely make such a revealing statement about Ellen White.

Yet when he preaches to an Adventist audience, Santos is free to claim White's authority to add to Scripture and to interpret Scripture contrary to its clear meaning. He knows his listeners will share his belief in her authority because he and his audience have been shaped by the same internal indoctrination: Ellen White was called by God and authorized to reveal Scripture's true meaning to God's remnant church.

 

Official teaching

In spite of Adventism's many public denials of dependence upon Ellen White for doctrine, denominational history confirms that the doctrines' formation depended upon her visions. The facts also confirm that Ellen White was not actually a Bible scholar.

The book Light Bearers by Richard W. Schwarz and Floyd Greenleaf is a textbook used at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Originally copyrighted in 1979 by the Department of Education of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, it was revised and copyrighted again in 2000.

This book details the earliest events in the formation of the Seventh-day Adventist organization. The authors explain how the founding Adventists reached their doctrinal positions:

They were hammered out as the result of Bible study, discussion, and prayer. Much of the time, Ellen White testified, she could not understand the texts under discussion and the issues involved. Yet she later remembered that when the brethren who were studying "came to the point…where they said, 'We can do nothing more' the Spirit of the Lord would come upon me, I would be taken off in vision, and a clear explanation of the passages we had been studying would be given me, with instructions as to how we were to labor and teach effectively." Because the participants "knew that when not in vision, I could not understand these matters,…they accepted as light direct from heaven the revelations given."26

This passage not only confirms that students at the Adventist seminary are overtly taught the fact that Adventist doctrines were formulated with dependence upon revelations from Ellen White's visions, but it also confirms that neither Ellen White nor the other founders of the Adventist organization were able to understand the Bible.

Instead of affirming God's assistance to the founding Adventists, this passage and Ellen's own admission that she could not understand the passages reveals that she and her colleagues were unable to discern the spiritual truth in Scripture. 1 Corinthians 2 explains that when we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, we understand spiritual reality:

'Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.' For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God (1 Cor. 2:9-10).

Jesus also promised,

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (Jn. 14:26).

The Holy Spirit was not given to the church through the visions of one or even of a few individuals. The Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, and His personal indwelling is the mark of all true believers (Eph. 1:13-14). Each person born of the Spirit is filled with the Holy Spirit, and God teaches and reveals the meanings of Scripture to all who submit their minds and their understanding to Him.

Light Bearers reveals not only official Adventist teaching to those who earn theology and divinity degrees from Andrews seminary; it also reveals that neither Ellen White herself nor her colleagues grasped the meaning of Scripture and spiritual truth Jesus promised His followers would have. This textbook further demonstrates that, despite their public assertions, Adventists from the very beginning have depended upon Ellen White's visions for their understanding of Scripture and their formation of doctrine.

Within Adventism, Ellen White is, indeed, "a continuing and authoritative source of truth".

 

Walk with integrity

In conclusion, I appeal to each person reading: if you struggle with cognitive dissonance, with confusion about Ellen White's importance or true role within the church, ask God to reveal truth to you. If you know there are problems with honoring Ellen White and simultaneously considering the Bible to be God's revealed word to us, don't rationalize. Let God show you the supremacy of His word and the pretension of the claims of a modern prophet.

If you do not believe that Ellen White ought to be used as a source of doctrine or an authority, but you cling to Adventism because you want to "make a difference", I ask you to submit your concerns and fears to God. Ask Him to give you the courage to know and walk in truth. Ask the Lord Jesus to remove the deception and blindness which veils the reality of the finished work of Jesus' cleansing blood on your behalf. Ask Him to be your Lord, your Savior, and ask Him to show you how to embrace the Lord Jesus alone.

Our future is assured when we are in Christ (Col 3:3). He is standing before us, offering His wounds and His resurrection as the only Source of life and reality.

God redeems everything we submit to Him. Hold up to Him your grip, however weak, on any source of truth besides the Triune God and His own word to us.

He is faithful. He will not trick you nor deceive you. In Him is life and peace, and when we are born again of His Spirit, "we have the mind of Christ" (1 Cor. 2:16). †

 

1. Miller, Mabel, Grandma Ellen & Me, Pacific Press Pub. Assoc., 2000, p. 43.
2. ibid., p. 44.
3. ibid., p. 45.
4. Robinson, Ella M., Stories of My Grandmother, Review and Herald Pub. Assoc., 1967, renewed 1995, pp. 91-92.
5. ibid., p. 136.
6. ibid., p. 192.
7. Wheeler, Ruth, His Messenger, Pacific Press Pub. Assoc., 2001, p. 41.
8. ibid., p. 43.
9. ibid., pp. 44.
10. Church, Monte, Following Jesus, Pacific Press Pub Assoc., 2001, p. 37
11. ibid., p. 38.
12. Seventh-day Adventists Believe, 2nd ed, 2005, Pacific Press Pub. Assoc., Belief #18, p. 247.
13. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/source
14. Hook, Milton, "Chapter Eleven: Momentous Decisions at Glacier View", Desmond Ford, pub. Adventist Today, pp. 236-260.
15. Rea, Walter, "Recant, no! I stand firm", Proclamation!, November/December, 2004. Available at
    http://lifeassuranceministries.org/Proclamation2004_NovDec.pdf
16. 1919 Bible Conference Minutes available at
    http://www.adventist archives.org/documents.asp?CatID=19&SortBy=1&ShowDateOrder=True
17. Seventh-Day Adventist Church Manual, 1976, p. 32.
18. ibid.
19. Seventh-day Adventists Believe, 2nd ed, 2005, Pacific Press Pub. Assoc.,, Belief #1, p. 11.
20. Pfandl, Gerhard, The Prophetic Gift, Adult Teachers Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, January/February/March, 2009, ed. Office of the Adult Bible Study Guide of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, pp. 2-3.
21. ibid., p. 152.
22. ibid., p. 156.
23. ibid, p. 158.
24. For more examples of Ellen White's contradictions and unscriptural teachings, see Cultic Doctrine of Seventh-day Adventists, fourth revision, 2009, by Dale Ratzlaff.
25. retrieved from http://hendersonhighway22.adventistchurchconnect.org/article.php?id=34
26. Schwartz, Richard W., Greenleaf, Floyd, "After The Disappointment", Light Bearers, c. 2000, p. 66.

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Seventh-day Adventist Fundamental Belief #18:

One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is prophecy. This gift is an identifying mark of the remnant church and was manifested in the ministry of Ellen G. White. As the Lord's messenger, her writings are a continuing and authoritative source of truth which provide for the church comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction. They also make clear that the Bible is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested.