But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!
As we have said before
This statement may be referring to the fact that when Paul and Barnabus were in the Galatian region, they had previously told the Galatians of the importance of the Gospel. More likely, however, Paul is repeating in verse nine the message of verse eight, with some slight changes for emphasis. In verse eight, Paul said, “if we or an angel from heaven should preach… Now, in verse nine, he says, “if any man is preaching,” referring to what was then going on.
In lesson 5, we looked at several instances where the visit of an “angel” influenced the teachings and art of the early Christian church, such as the Shepherd of Hermas. We noted it is claimed the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mohammad and instructed him to write the Quran, which led to the formation of Islam. More recently, we have the “Angel Moroni,” who supposedly appeared to Joseph Smith and directed him to find the hidden plates. This was the genesis of the Book of Mormon.
My wife Carolyn and I were both multi-generational, conservative Seventh-day Adventists. We both grew up in the Adventist tradition, were educated in the Adventist educational system, and I pastored for thirteen years in the Adventist denomination, seven of which were at Monterey Bay Academy where I taught Bible. I was an avid reader of Ellen White. I am well aware of Ellen White’s reliance on angel communications. Paul mentions the possibility of an angel from heaven preaching a gospel contrary to the one Paul received from the Risen Christ. Historically, religions that started with angel communications usually, if not always, have a false gospel. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to examine the teaching of Ellen White’s “accompanying angel.”
In Adventism, Ellen G. White is held to be a true “Messenger of God” more than a prophet (Graeme S. Bradford, More than a Prophet, [Berrien Springs MI, Biblical Perspectives, 2006]). In the current (2019) official “Fundamental Beliefs” of Adventism, her writings are said to “… speak with prophetic authority…” (See Fundamental Belief No. 18 “The Gift of Prophecy”).
In this lesson, we will discover what influence an “angel” had on the formation of Adventism. Ellen G. White mentions “my accompanying angel” about 58 times. She uses, “said the angel” some 382 times, she writes, “I was shown” 1,491 times, and “I saw” 3,265 times. As these instances are often repeated in her books, the actual numbers are probably about a third to half of the numbers listed above.
Nevertheless, these numbers betray a vast dependence upon “angel communications.” Adventists claim that Ellen White had over 2,000 visions from God during her lifetime.
Think of it—from 1844, when she 17, until 1915—the year of her death—she had more than 2,000 visions (General Conference Ministerial Department, Seventh-day Adventists Believe, [Silver Spring MD], p. 224).
If any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!
Let us discover what Ellen White’s “accompanying angel” taught. I invite our readers to evaluate these teachings. Are these teachings in harmony with Scripture? Did the angel’s statements prove to be true? Most importantly in connection with our study of Galatians, do the teachings of Ellen White’s “accompanying angel” proclaim a true gospel?
Please read carefully the following quote.
The angels seemed to be intense while Jesus was communing with His Father. Three times He was shut in by the glorious light about the Father, and the third time He came from the Father we could see His person. His countenance was calm, free from all perplexity and trouble, and shone with a loveliness which words cannot describe. He then made known to the angelic choir that a way of escape had been made for lost man; that He had been pleading with His Father, and had obtained permission to give His own life as a ransom for the race, to bear their sins, and take the sentence of death upon Himself, thus opening a way whereby they might, through the merits of His blood, find pardon for past transgressions, and by obedience be brought back to the garden from which they were driven. Then they could again have access to the glorious, immortal fruit of the tree of life to which they had now forfeited all right (Ellen G. White, Early Writings, p. 126).
A few lines later, we have another statement from her angel.
Said the angel, “Think ye that the Father yielded up His dearly beloved Son without a struggle? No, no.” It was even a struggle with the God of heaven, whether to let guilty man perish, or to give His darling Son to die for them. Angels were so interested for man’s salvation that there could be found among them those who would yield their glory and give their life for perishing man. “But,” said my accompanying angel, “that would avail nothing.” The transgression was so great that an angel’s life would not pay the debt. Nothing but the death and intercession of God’s Son would pay the debt and save lost man from hopeless sorrow and misery (Ibid., p. 127).
Do these statements of Ellen white’s accompanying angel line up with the truth of Scripture?
EGW
Jesus had to “plead” three times with His Father before He let Jesus give his life for human salvation.
Bible
“For God [the Father] so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16).
EGW
“It was even a struggle with the God of heaven, whether to let guilty man perish or to give His darling Son to die for them.”
Bible
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved (Eph. 1:3-6).
EGW
Ellen White’s angel separates the Father and the Son in that One has to plead with the other. They are not always united in the way they think or feel.
Bible
The Father and the Son always work together because they are both fully God. “And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him” (Jn. 8:29).
We will next examine several statements of Ellen White’s accompanying angel who apparently was trying to help the early Adventists get ready for the soon coming of Christ.
Then I was pointed to the earth and saw that there would have to be a getting ready among those who have of late embraced the third angel’s message. Said the angel, “Get ready, get ready, get ready. Ye will have to die a greater death to the world than ye have ever yet died.” I saw that there was a great work to do for them and but little time in which to do it (White, Early Writings, p. 64).
Here are two more statements that address the same issue: the Adventists were not ready for Christ to come.
I then saw the third angel [of Revelation 14:9]. Said my accompanying angel, “Fearful is his work. Awful is his mission. He is the angel that is to select the wheat from the tares, and seal, or bind, the wheat for the heavenly garner. These things should engross the whole mind, the whole attention”(Ibid., p. 118).
My accompanying angel cried out with awful solemnity, “Get ready! Get ready! Get ready! For the fierce anger of the Lord is soon to come. His wrath is to be poured out, unmixed with mercy, and ye are not ready. Rend the heart, and not the garment. A great work must be done for the remnant” (Ibid., p. 119).
We observe that to get the Adventists ready for Christ to come, the angel stressed that “a great work must be done for the remnant.” To get them ready, the angel focused on the message of the “third angel” of Revelation 14:9,10, which is a description of those who receive the mark of the beast. In context, the “work” that needed to be done for Adventists was twofold. First, they were to keep the Sabbath of the fourth Commandment. In this way they could avoid the mark of the beast referenced in Revelation 14:9,10. Second, they were to overcome every temptation and develop a character after the similitude of Christ (“When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own” Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 69). We note there is no mention of salvation by grace through faith. Note the different emphases between Ellen White’s angel and the Bible.
EGW
“Get ready, get ready, get ready.”
Bible
“For this reason, you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will” (Mt. 24:44).
If one is counting on perfectly keeping the Sabbath and the perfection of character to be ready for Christ to come, there is no point at which one can say he or she is ready. We all continue to sin (see Rom. 6:23). However, if one is counting on the righteousness of Christ that is “in Christ” and imputed to us by faith, the message of Paul’s gospel, then one can “be ready” all the time. What a difference! Rather than allowing the description of the mark of the best to “engross the whole mind, the whole attention” we would do well to focus on who we are “in Christ”—saved, forgiven, redeemed, adopted into the family of God, possessing eternal life, and qualified to receive our inheritance in light!
There is yet one more angel statement on the coming of Christ we must examine.
I was shown the company present at the Conference. Said the angel: “Some food for worms, some subjects of the seven last plagues, some will be alive and remain upon the earth to be translated at the coming of Jesus” (White, Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, p. 293. See also Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, p. 148-159).
Ellen White gives additional advice to Adventists showing that she believed what her angel said:
Because time is short, we should work with diligence and double energy. Our children may never enter college (Ibid.).
It is really not wise to have children now. Time is short, the perils of the last days are upon us, and the little children will be largely swept off before this (White, Letter 48, 1876).
How would you evaluate these statements?
Here is another troubling statement by Ellen White’s accompanying angel.
I saw that the mysterious signs and wonders and false reformations would increase and spread. The reformations that were shown me were not reformations from error to truth. My accompanying angel bade me look for the travail of soul for sinners as used to be. I looked, but could not see it; for the time for their salvation is past (Early Writings, p. 45).
From my book, Cultic Doctrine.
The context for this statement is that early Adventists taught the “door of mercy” was shut for all those who did not accept the teaching regarding what happened on October 22, 1844. Those who wish to examine more evidence for this teaching may find it in “The Swinging Door” in Cultic Doctrine (Dale Ratzlaff, Cultic Doctrine, [Camp Verde, AZ, 2009], p.117-136).
Ellen White’s accompanying angel also had some powerful and direct words about the truthfulness of early Adventist teaching.
I saw a company who stood well-guarded and firm, giving no countenance to those who would unsettle the established faith of the body. God looked upon them with approbation. I was shown three steps, —the first, second, and third angels’ messages. Said my accompanying angel, “Woe to him who shall move a block or stir a pin of these messages. The true understanding of these messages is of vital importance. The destiny of souls hangs upon the manner in which they are received.” I was again brought down through these messages, and saw how dearly the people of God had purchased their experience. It had been obtained through much suffering and severe conflict. God had led them along step by step, until He had placed them upon a solid, immovable platform (Early Writings, 1858, p. 258, 259).
What was the “first angel’s message?”
I saw that God was in the proclamation of the time in 1843. It was His design to arouse the people and bring them to a testing point, where they should decide for or against the truth. Ministers were convinced of the correctness of the positions taken on the prophetic periods, and some renounced their pride, and left their salaries and their churches to go forth from place to place to give the message. But as the message from heaven could find a place in the hearts of but few of the professed ministers of Christ, the work was laid upon many who were not preachers. Some left their fields to sound the message, while others were called from their shops and their merchandise. And even some professional men were compelled to leave their professions to engage in the unpopular work of giving the first angel’s message (Ibid., p. 232).
We observe that the first angel’s message, the acceptance upon which “the destiny of souls hinges,” was “the proclamation of the time [of the second coming of Christ] in 1843.”
What was the “second angel’s message”?
Of all the great religious movements since the days of the apostles, none have been more free from human imperfection and the wiles of Satan than was that of the autumn of 1844. Even now, after the lapse of nearly half a century, all who shared in that movement and who have stood firm upon the platform of truth, still feel the holy influence of that blessed work, and bear witness that it was of God (White, The Great Controversy, 1888, p. 401).
At the call, “The Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him,” the waiting ones “arose and trimmed their lamps;” they studied the Word of God with an intensity of interest before unknown. Angels were sent from Heaven to arouse those who had become discouraged, and prepare them to receive the message. The work did not stand in the wisdom and learning of men, but in the power of God. It was not the most talented, but the most humble and devoted, who were the first to hear and obey the call. Farmers left their crops standing in the fields, mechanics laid down their tools, and with tears and rejoicing went out to give the warning. Those who had formerly led in the cause were among the last to join in this movement. The churches in general closed their doors against this message, and a large company of those who received it withdrew from their connection. In the providence of God, this proclamation united with the second angel’s message, and gave power to that work(Ibid.).
The second angel’s message was initially the cry, “The Bridegroom cometh.” The context shows this was a prophecy that Christ would come on October 22, 1844.
What is the “third angel’s message”?
This my accompanying angel informed me represented all the heavenly host looking with reverential awe toward the law of God which had been written by the finger of God. Jesus raised the cover of the ark, and I beheld the tables of stone on which the ten commandments were written. I was amazed as I saw the fourth commandment in the very center of the ten precepts, with a soft halo of light encircling it. Said the angel, ‘It is the only one of the ten which defines the living God who created the heavens and the earth and all things that are therein. When the foundations of the earth were laid, then was also laid the foundation of the Sabbath. I was shown that if the true Sabbath had been kept there would never have been an infidel or an atheist. The observance of the Sabbath would have preserved the world from idolatry. The fourth commandment has been trampled upon, therefore we are called upon to repair the breach in the law and plead for the broken down Sabbath. The man of sin who exalted himself above God, and thought to change times and laws, brought about the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. In doing this he made a breach in the law of God. Just prior to the great day of God, a message is sent forth to warn the people to come back to their allegiance to the law of God which antichrist has broken down. Attention must be called to the breach in the law. (White, Life Sketches, p. 237. See Dale Ratzlaff, Sabbath in Christ, [Camp Verde, AZ, LAM Publications, 2019] for evidence that the early Christians were worshiping on Sunday long before AD 321 when Adventists teach the Sabbath was changed to Sunday.)
The “third angel’s message” came after the disappointment of October 22, 1844. The Adventists again reinterpreted the prophecy of Daniel 8:14 to apply to the cleansing of the Heavenly Sanctuary, where they discovered the Law of God with emphasis on the Sabbath.
Therefore, according to Ellen White and her accompanying angel, the first, second, and third angel’s messages upon which hung the destiny of souls was the teaching that Christ was coming in 1843 (the first angles message), the teaching that Christ was coming in on October 22, 1844 (the second angels message) and the teaching of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary with emphasis upon the Law of God and the proclamation of the Seventh-day Sabbath as the seal of God and Sunday as the mark of the beast (third angel’s message).
Like Mormonism, the angles of Adventist teaching find a central place in their art and architecture. (Many of the early Adventist books depict the “accompanying angel” of Ellen White. For Example, the front cover of Stories of Little Ellen and the Message, has a picture of her angel on the book cover. This was written by Helen M. Johnson and Evelyn Roose Dinsmore with drawings by Peter J. Rennings, (Mountain View CA, Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1950). Put into Google, “the three angels’ messages in Adventist art.” The Adventist church at Monterey Bay Academy, where I taught for seven years, has a huge mural depicting these three angels on their church.)
Assignment
- Read chapters 5-7 in Cultic Doctrine.
- If you do not have Cultic Doctrine or the funds to purchase it, please email me at Dale@Ratzlaf.com. I will send you an eBook version of this work for your own personal study.
Questions for discussion
- 1.True or False: Ellen White’s accompanying angel:
a. always told the truth.
b. always told lies or statements that contradicted Scripture.
c. sometimes told the truth, at other times told lies. - Ellen White said that the proclamation of the time [of Jesus coming] in 1843 was the truth. How would you evaluate that statement?
- Ellen White stated, “Of all the great religious movements since the days of the apostles, none have been more free from human imperfection and the wiles of Satan than was that of the autumn of 1844.” Would you agree or disagree with this statement?
- How many untruths told by Ellen White’s angel would it take for you to conclude her angel was an angel of darkness and not from God?
- Do the teachings of Ellen White’s accompanying angel agree with the teachings of Scripture? If not, how does this affect the individual Adventist member today?
- Describe the gospel taught by Ellen White’s angel.
- What would be the result if sometimes Ellen White or her angel taught truth and at other times taught error? Should a person then just take the true statements and forget about the ones that teach a false gospel? If so, what does that do to the official position of the Adventist church that “her writings speak with prophetic authority”?
- Comment on the following: “Many Adventists today may not know the errors of early Adventism. Now there are some who appear to follow the Gospel taught by Paul.”
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