Biblical Inspiration and Ellen G. White

RUSSELL KELLY | Baptist, Converted to Adventism, and Returned Baptist

1976: “That the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament were given by inspiration of God, and contain an all-sufficient revelation of His will to men, and are the only unerring rule of faith and practice.” (Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual, 1976, page 32)

1980: “The Holy Scriptures, Old and New Testaments, are the written word of God, given by divine inspiration through holy men of God who spoke and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. 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 revelator of doctrines, and the trustworthy record of God’s acts in history.” (#1 of the 28 Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists)

1989: “Seventh-day Adventists recognize in Ellen G. White an authority in doctrine and life that is second only to that of the Scriptures….The Seventh-day Adventist church holds the writings of Ellen G. White in the highest regard as a source of doctrinal understanding….Some Adventists have inferred that in Dr. [Desmond] Ford’s view Ellen White’s authority does not extend to doctrinal issues. On this point the Seventh-day Adventist position is that a prophet’s authority cannot justifiably be limited in that way.” (Doctrine of the Sanctuary, Biblical Research Committee, 1989, 223-224.)

The first two statements above would be accepted in almost any conservative Christian church. They appear to place Seventh-day Adventism securely within the boundary of orthodox Christianity and away from false religion. 

When comparing the two statements, however, a not-so-subtle change has taken place. Adventists have deleted their older statement that the Scriptures are the “all-sufficient” revelation of God’s will. They have also deleted their older statement that the Scriptures are “the only unerring rule of faith and practice.” Next, they have added the statement that the Scriptures are given by “divine inspiration through holy men.”

There is a reason for these changes: Ellen G. White, the prophetess of the Seventh-day Adventist Church who died in 1915. When Adventists state that the Scriptures were “given by divine inspiration through holy men of God” and are “the infallible revelation of His will” (1980 statement), they indirectly include Ellen G. White because they hold her writings in the “highest regard as a source of doctrinal understanding” and because “a prophet’s authority cannot justifiably be limited” to exclude doctrine (1989 statement). They regard her as a full-fledged prophet on equal standing with Biblical prophets. 

The Biblical Research Committee which issued the 1989 statement is sponsored by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It is located “at the world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States. Among its primary purposes is to promote the study and practice of Adventist theology and lifestyle as understood by the world church, as well as provide theological resources for the administration and departments of the world headquarters and the church as a whole.” (http://news.adventist.org/data/2006/01/1138809705/index.html.en) When it rebutted Dr. Ford’s research in which he showed that the investigative judgment has no biblical basis but was established instead on Ellen White’s endorsement, the Committee was forced to admit that Ellen White’s prophetic authority extended to doctrinal correctness.

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” (#18 of the 28 Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists).

[The wording of Fundamental Belief #18 was changed in 2015. The sentence “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,” was changed to read: “Her writings speak with prophetic authority and provide comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction to the church.”]

The above statement sounds like 2 Timothy 3:15-17 which states in part: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…”

The following quotations are from Ellen White’s own words from the “Introduction” to her book The Great Controversy. Read them and decide for yourself whether or not she considered herself on the same level with the prophets of God’s Word:

GCx “At this time the special endowment of divine grace and power is not less needful to the church than in apostolic days.”

GCx “Through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, the scenes of the long-continued conflict between good and evil have been opened to the writer of these pages. From time to time I have been permitted to behold….”

GCxi “As the Spirit of God has opened to my mind the great truths of His word, and the scenes of the past and the future, I have been bidden to make known to others that which has been revealed—to trace the history of the controversy in past ages, and especially so to present it as to shed a light on the fast-approaching struggle of the future.”

GC xi “Regarding them [her collection of history books] in the light of God’s word, and by the illumination of His Spirit, we may see unveiled.…”

In this introduction Ellen G. White carefully and slowly eased into her declaration that she is an essential last-day prophet. She wrote that God had illuminated her and opened her eyes with scenes of the past and future. God had instructed her to present the content of this book, The Great Controversy (with scores of quotations from non-Adventist historians).

Seventh-day Adventists believe that Ellen G. White was inspired by God in exactly the same way that the biblical prophets were inspired, and in practice, her writings are exactly as authoritative and unerring as those of God’s Word, functioning as both an interpreter of Scripture and as a doctrinal guide. In Adventists’ reasoning, since the Bible authorizes the continuing prophetic gift, especially in the last-day or “remnant” church, they added to their first fundamental belief that the Word was given by “divine inspiration through holy men [people].” However, they do not normally admit this dependency on Ellen G. White to new converts or to the inquisitive.

Spirit of Prophecy

Isaiah 8:20: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”(KJV)

Revelation 12:17: “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”(KJV)

Revelation 19:10: “And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not; I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (KJV)

Adventists call Ellen G. White’s writings “the Spirit of Prophecy”. They use the three texts above to prove that the last-day remnant church must also have last-day prophetic guidance. There are several problems, however, with the way they use these texts.

First: Isaiah 8:20 is a test for Old Covenant prophets. It requires a prophet to uphold all of the Mosaic Law, or Old Covenant. Adventists, however, hold in common with most Christians the understanding that most of the ceremonial worship ordinances and the civil legal judgments of the Mosaic Covenant are no longer valid for their church. By holding this belief in the obsolescence of the ceremonial and civil aspects of the Mosaic Law, however, they disqualify themselves as being subjects of this directive. Not only does Ellen White not speak according to the entire Mosaic Law, neither does she endorse the complete New Covenant fulfillment of the Mosaic Law. Yet Adventists use this text as proof to demonstrate that Ellen White was a true prophet.

Second: “Keep the commandments” in Revelation 12:17 does not refer to the Ten Commandments. It refers, rather, to a person’s obedience to what Jesus taught specifically for His New Covenant church. The Apostle John did not use “commandments” in the narrow sense of the “Ten Commandments” (compare John 14:21-23; 15:10-12; 1 John 2:3-10; 3:22-24; 2 John 6:5-6). When John referred to the Old Covenant law, he used the Greek word nomos. When he referred to the teachings of Jesus, however, he used the Greek word entole. This text in Revelation 12:17 uses the word entole.

Third: The phrase “testimony of Jesus” is also applied by Adventists as an unofficial title for Ellen G. White. Many of her writings are called “testimonies”. The term “testimony of Jesus” in Revelation 12:17 and 19:10, however, refers to the testimony about Jesus and also the testimony that Jesus bore. In 12:17 it is used as one of the two things true believers will not abandon. They will testify, or bear witness, to Jesus Christ. Revelation 19:10 further identifies the testimony of Jesus: it is the declaration of the truth about Jesus, and this declaration is the spirit of prophecy. 

A key element in false Christian religions is additional writings held on the same level with God’s Word. Either the Bible contains everything necessary for salvation, sanctification, and the growth of God’s church, or it does not. By their treatment of Ellen G. White, Seventh-day Adventists declare to the entire world that God’s Word is not enough. They defer to her interpretations of Scripture. Their in-house literature frequently makes statements, follows the statements with Bible texts, and then follows the texts with confirmations and/or interpretations by Ellen G. White. 

Because of their dependence upon Ellen G. White for their distinctive doctrines and practices, Seventh-day Adventists denigrate the authority and reliability of Scripture and elevate the status of Ellen G. White. The “spirit of prophecy” is not a mortal man or woman claiming to speak for God. Rather, it is the spiritual gifting with which the Holy Spirit equips Christ-followers to declare the truth about Jesus to a dark and needy world. This truth is found entirely in the Bible; no additional “light” or commentary is needed to find everything we need for lives of faith and godliness. †

---

This article is excerpted from Russell Kelly’s book Exposing Seventh-day Adventism. Information for obtaining this book is cited in Kelly’s biographical sketch.