“As professed teachers from God come to us declaring that they have a message from God, it is proper to inquire carefully, How do we know that this is truth? … The Word of God gives us a test whereby we may know what is truth. … ‘To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” – Ellen White in The Review and Herald, Feb. 23, 1892
As you have studied the evidence concerning Ellen White, you have considered what Ellen White herself had to say. You have seen what various Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders at the highest levels of the denomination have believed about their prophetess. And you have read what numerous former Seventh-day Adventists have written.
Seventh-day Adventists strongly believe Ellen White was a faithful messenger for the Lord and will be rewarded by Jesus Christ for her good deeds. But this happy picture of Ellen White does not agree with the facts of her life. The evidence has shown that in her personal life Ellen White was a plagiarist, a fraud, and a hypocrite. She never confessed these sins. In her public ministry, the evidence shows she was not inspired by God, she contradicted God’s Word, and she even contradicted herself. The evidence further demonstrates her claims to supernatural visions and visits from heavenly angels are spurious.
How then should Ellen White be evaluated? What will be the final judgment of her life and work? Few Seventh-day Adventists are aware of what the highest authority, God, tells us concerning false prophets who claim false visions and plagiarize one another:
“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! Your prophets, O Israel, are like jackals among ruins. You have not gone up to the breaks in the wall to repair it for the house of Israel so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the Lord. Their visions are false and their divinations a lie. They say, ‘The Lord declares,’ when the Lord has not sent them; yet they expect their words to be fulfilled! Have you not seen false visions and uttered lying divinations when you say: ‘The Lord declares,’ though I have not spoken?
Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because of your false words and lying visions, I am against you, declares the Sovereign Lord. My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will not belong to the council of my people or be listed in the records of the house of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.
Because they lead my people astray, … and because when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash, therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall. Rain will come in torrents, and I will send hailstones hurtling down, and violent winds will burst forth. When the wall collapses, will people not ask you, ‘Where is the whitewash you covered it with?”
Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: In my wrath I will unleash a violent wind, and in my anger hailstones and torrents of rain will fall with destructive fury. I will tear down the wall you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you will be destroyed in it; and you will know that I am the Lord. So I will spend my wrath against the wall and against those who covered it with whitewash. I will say to you, ‘The wall is gone and so are those who whitewashed it, those prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her when there was no peace, declares the Sovereign Lord.
Now, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people who prophesy out of their own imagination. Prophesy against them and say … ‘I will tear off your veils and save my people from your hands, and they will no longer fall prey to your power. Then you will know that I am the Lord.” — Ezekiel 13:3-18, 21 (NIV)
These strong words of warning ought to make every Seventh- day Adventist fear to make any personal claims for prophetic inspiration. Instead, Seventh-day Adventism has been an incubator for false prophets. And this even though the Church’s leadership has fought valiantly to reserve the title of “prophet” exclusively for Ellen G. White.
False prophets within Seventh-day Adventism is not a new phenomena. Ellen White wrote that from the very beginning of the movement individuals had arisen from within the membership falsely claiming inspired dreams, visions, and/or prophetic messages:
“To a greater or less degree, false manifestations have been coming in, here and there, since 1844 after the time when we looked for the second coming of Christ. We have had them in the Garmire case, in the statements of K, and in the Stanton movement. … Letters are coming to me from many persons concerning visions which they have had and feel it their duty to relate. May the Lord help His servants to be cautious. When the Lord has a genuine channel of light, there are always plenty of counterfeits.” – EGW in 2SM, page 96, written in 1894
Notice, from the beginning Ellen White severely denounced all challenges to her prophetic mantle. It was her belief that God had called her, and her alone, to be the Lord’s “genuine channel of light” to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Consider the harsh words she used to undermine, deter, and demolish all who dared to claim similar prophetic inspiration:
“The light given me regarding this case is that should this sister be encouraged to think that she has been given messages for others, the result would be disastrous, and the sister would be in danger of losing her own soul.” – Selected Messages, vol. 2, page 98, written 1905.
“While they think that they are led by the Spirit of God, they are in reality following an imagination wrought upon by Satan” – Selected Messages, vol. 2, page 99, written in 1886.
“Their visions were Satan’s work.” – Selected Messages, vol. 2, page 77, written in 1890.
Even though Ellen White admitted many predictions of these so- called “false prophets” were fulfilled, she stated their “visions were Satan’s work” and had ceased as a result of her admonitions:
“It was all a farce, a deception. Yet many things they told came to pass as they predicted. I was asked how this could be if the visions were all false. I told them that it was Satan’s purpose to mingle truth with error, that through these deceptive exercises he might make of none effect the genuine work of God. From that time all their many visions ceased.” — Selected Messages, vol. 2, pages 77-78, written in 1890.
Notice how Ellen White first admitted “many” of the predictions of these so-called false prophets “came to pass.” When we compare this candid admission with the evidence of Ellen White’s own predictions, it is very difficult not to conclude that those she called “false prophets” were more accurate than Ellen White herself! This is an issue Seventh- day Adventists need to carefully consider: how can “false prophets” do a better job at predicting the future than “the Lord’s Messenger?” Which side is God on?
In 1890 Ellen White claimed “their many visions ceased” as a result of her challenges, but once again she was wrong. The fact is, from its beginning right through today, there has been no shortage of people associated with Seventh-day Adventism claiming to have divinely-inspired prophecies, dreams, and/or visions. An abbreviated list includes:
- Hazen Foss (1844)
- William Foy (1844)
- Ellen G. White (1844)
- Samuel S. Snow (1844)
- Hiram Edson (1844)
- Anna Garmire (1885 — 2SM 73)
- “Four in one family” (1890 — 2SM 76)
- “Men and young girls” (1890 — 2SM 79)
- Anna Phillips (1893 — 2SM 85)
- A “dying man” (1893 — 2SM 113)
- Brother “T” (1893 — 2SM 101, 115)
- Mr. Stanton (1893 — 2SM 96)
- Mrs. Mackin (1904 — 3SM 365)
- “A sister in Germany” (1905 — 2SM 97)
- Brother and Sister “L” (1908 — 2SM 99-100)
- Johann Wick in Germany (1915)
- Margaret Rowan (1925)
- One woman and two men in Germany (1965)
- Harold Knapp in Nebraska (1978)
- A woman in India (1984)
- David Koresh in Texas (1993)
- “Little Ellen” in Oregon (1995)
- Jeanie Sautron in Washington (1997), et cetera.
However, by attacking “false prophets” within the SDA Church, Ellen White opened herself up to be convicted as a false prophet by the same criteria she applied to others. Consider what she wrote in 1879:
“Those who so presumptuously preach definite time, in so doing gratify the adversary of souls; for they are advancing infidelity rather than Christianity. They produce Scripture and by false interpretation show a chain of argument which apparently proves their position. But their failures show that they are false prophets.” – Testimonies, vol. 4, page 307.
Because Ellen White failed in her predictions regarding the time of Christ’s second coming, and failed in her entire End Time scenario, her own words condemn her as a false prophet!
But, at what point will Seventh-day Adventists recognize this? When will Seventh-day Adventists question why Ellen White vigorously fought every person who challenged her position as the Church’s only prophet?
When will Seventh-day Adventists question why their Church attracts so many people who believe they have a “message from the Lord”?
And when will Seventh-day Adventists begin to understand the Biblical doctrine of spiritual gifts — including the genuine gift of prophecy?
I believe that time will come on the day the Seventh-day Adventist Church publicly repudiates Ellen White and returns contritely to the Bible as the true source and determiner of God’s will. For until then, Seventh-day Adventists will continue to be led astray by both false prophets and false doctrines. They will continue to misuse, undermine, and defame God’s Word. And they will continue to be a cult.
NEXT WEEK: “APPENDIX A – EGW’S COPYING”
White Washed is a comprehensive look at Ellen White’s prophecies, practices and publications. Sydney Cleveland examines her claims of inspiration, her dreams and visions, the doctrines she endorsed, her personal practices which opposed her teachings, and the effects of her claims on the Seventh-day Adventist church. This book is a well-documented overview of the little-known reality about Ellen White and her long service to Adventism.
- 13. A Word to Aspiring Prophets - October 8, 2020