KASPARS OZOLINS | Assistant Professor, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Growing up in a progressive Adventist household, I was not raised to read the writings of Ellen G. White. While she was viewed as a great Adventist pioneer, in practice, her work was not cited all that much by my parents, and I only occasionally would hear about her at church. It was during my teenage summers in Latvia that I would pick up her writings myself and read from them out of curiosity (I had long acquired the reputation of being a bookworm). I read through the Conflict of the Ages series in particular with a great eagerness. I will always remember being struck by her bold writing. Here I want to clarify that I would have described her writing as bold not because of its style but because of her claims in these books.
As many are aware, the Conflict of the Ages series serves as an expanded commentary on the Bible. In fact, I would argue that these works function as an alternative to the Bible, offering insights and “background” details that naturally attract Adventists (certainly me in my teens). When Jesus had concluded his sermon on the mount, Matthew records that “the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” (Matt 7:28–29). When I read Ellen White, I detected a similar kind of “authority,” a boldness, if you will, in her writings. As Adventists, we would often boast that, thanks to EGW, we have a Great Controversy window into the true background of the Bible unlike other denominations.
The authoritative extra-biblical writings of Ellen White included her access to the heavenly council at the creation of the world (in Patriarchs and Prophets), the thoughts of Christ (in the Desire of Ages), even future events involving the United States (in The Great Controversy).
The authoritative extra-biblical writings of Ellen White included her access to the heavenly council at the creation of the world (in Patriarchs and Prophets), the thoughts of Christ (in the Desire of Ages), even future events involving the United States (in The Great Controversy). The writings were so bold, and the things claimed in them so direct, that it was absolutely clear that she was relaying this information to us as revelation she had personally received from God himself. Unfortunately, her “bold” writing was a mask for dangerously anti-biblical ideas.
A False Abraham
One of the most horrifying examples of how Ellen G. White warped God’s Word is her treatment of the story of Abraham. We rightly speak of Adventism’s false Christ because it truly does construct an alternative, false portrait of Christ. But in reality, Ellen White’s writings have twisted all of Scripture, in one way or another. Detecting this twisting requires paying attention to all the details, for like a painting that consists of numerous individual brush strokes, it is the details collectively that form the portrait of a biblical character or doctrine.
In chapter 12 of Patriarchs and Prophets, Ellen G. White recounts the stories about Abram (later called Abraham) found in Genesis 13–15, also including parts of chapter 17 and 18. When comparing White’s writings to those of the Bible, one should pay attention to matters of emphasis. What does the author major on? Where is the main focus placed? As one reads the material about Abraham in Patriarchs and Prophets, a definite pattern of emphasis emerges.Abraham is repeatedly lauded for his exemplary character and upright behavior, serving as a paragon of religious conduct.
Ellen White praises Abraham’s character, describing him as “[r]ich in faith, noble in generosity, unfaltering in obedience, and humble in the simplicity of his pilgrim life.” She explains matter-of-factly, “Abraham had honored God, and the Lord honored him, taking him into His counsels, and revealing to him His purposes.” Although similar sounding statements can be found in the Bible (e.g., 1 Samuel 2:30), there is a critical difference. The honor that believers bestow upon God does not originate with them, nor are they credited righteous for exhibiting honor. Rather, anything good in us is a gift of God in Christ, who prepared good works for us from the foundation of the world (Ephesians 2:10). Furthermore, none of those good works gives us a right standing before God, but rather the faith that is itself a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8–9).
…when White speaks of Abraham honoring God, she is essentially saying that “God helps those who help themselves.”
By contrast, when White speaks of Abraham honoring God, she is essentially saying that “God helps those who help themselves.” The proof of this idea may be found in the very next chapter of Patriarchs and Prophets (chapter 13). In it are detailed the events involving Hagar, but the primary story is the testing of Abraham by means of God’s command for him to offer up Isaac. Here, the Great Controversy theme is reiterated in unmistakable words: “God desired to prove the loyalty of His servant before all heaven, to demonstrate that nothing less than perfect obedience can be accepted, and to open more fully before them the plan of salvation.”
In case you were wondering, by “His servant” and “perfect obedience,” Ellen White is referring to Abraham, and not Jesus Christ.
A Bold Lie
One of the most disturbing elements of the story of Abraham as retold by Ellen White is the episode involving the covenant ceremony with God in Genesis 15. In this chapter, God reiterates His promise to Abram that he will be the father of many nations. As God brings him out to see the stars, He asks him to number them if he can and promises him, “So shall your offspring be” (Gen 15:5). Then follows one of the greatest verses of the Old Testament, cited by New Testament authors as evidence for what a right standing with God actually looks like: “And he [Abram] believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Gen 15:6).
God next instructs Abram to prepare a heifer (a young cow), a female goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a pigeon. Abram cut each animal in half and laid the halves one against the other. Scripture records that a deep sleep fell upon him as the sun was setting, heightening the tension in the story and making readers anticipate that something dramatic is about to happen. Indeed, the ancient reader would have come with a very particular set of expectations to this story.
We have record of covenants between two parties at Ancient Near Eastern cities such as Mari and Alalah (both in modern-day Syria). There, as in Genesis 15, animals were cut in half as part of the covenant ratification ceremony. Then, both parties would walk through the cut animals, their feet mingling with the blood of the sacrifices. The symbolism was powerful, since both parties were making a very strong claim in doing this strange act. By walking between the cut animals, the parties were invoking a self-maledictory oath upon themselves: “May the gods make me like these dead animals if I ever break the terms of this covenant!”
So you can imagine the shock of an ancient reader when he read in Genesis that “a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces” (v. 18). In this covenant, the parties were God and Abram. Yet it was only God, often symbolized in Scripture by a flaming torch, who passed through the pieces! The implications of such an act are vast, leading up thousands of years later to a lonely hill outside Jerusalem called Calvary.
In Ellen White’s retelling of the story,
“[T]he patriarch begged for some visible token as a confirmation of his faith and as an evidence to after-generations that God’s gracious purposes toward them would be accomplished. The Lord condescended to enter into a covenant with His servant, employing such forms as were customary among men for the ratification of a solemn engagement. By divine direction, Abraham sacrificed a heifer, a she-goat, and a ram, each three years old, dividing the bodies and laying the pieces a little distance apart.” —Patriarch and Prophets, p. 18
But at the critical moment, White’s account flatly contradicts God’s holy Word:
“He [Abraham] reverently passed between the parts of the sacrifice, making a solemn vow to God of perpetual obedience.”
Ellen White’s Abraham passes through the sacrificed animals! It is important to stress that this cannot have been an accidental mistake on the part of Adventism’s prophetess; this was a deliberate misrepresentation of Scripture. Notice that White is careful to get the other incidental details of the story right: (1) she correctly names all the five animals; (2) she gives their accurate ages; (3) she even notes that the turtledove and pigeon were not divided in halves in this ceremony (unlike the other larger animals).
Interpreting Ellen White’s Abraham
Serious implications about Ellen White’s work follow from this example. First, though she may not have said it explicitly, by contradicting Scripture in such a “bold” manner, White clearly felt she was justified in adjusting, changing, even denying basic details of Scripture. This is of a piece with White’s repeated statements that her own authority comes from God himself by means of her “accompanying angel” and by the approximately 2,000 visions that Adventists claim she had in her lifetime.
Ellen White’s Abraham passes through the sacrificed animals! It is important to stress that this cannot have been an accidental mistake on the part of Adventism’s prophetess; this was a deliberate misrepresentation of Scripture.
The Conflict of the Ages series turns out to be no ordinary commentary on the Bible. Unlike actual commentaries which offer scholarly comments on holy Scripture, Ellen White constructed an alternative body of literature, a “Bible” thoroughly infused with her Great Controversy paradigm. The “lesser light” is a rival light, designed to reconfigure the Bible’s stories, characters, and themes, bit by bit, in order to ultimately present a different gospel.
Ellen White’s Abraham must be a covenant keeper because the Great Controversy theme is all about the vindication of God through man’s obedience. In The Desire of Ages, Ellen White explains her own gospel in more detail:
The law requires righteousness,—a righteous life, a perfect character; and this man has not to give. He cannot meet the claims of God’s holy law. But Christ, coming to the earth as man, lived a holy life, and developed a perfect character. These He offers as a free gift to all who will receive them. His life stands for the life of men. Thus they have remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. More than this, Christ imbues men with the attributes of God. He builds up the human character after the similitude of the divine character, a goodly fabric of spiritual strength and beauty. Thus the very righteousness of the law is fulfilled in the believer in Christ. God can “be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”—The Desire of Ages, ch. 79
White’s closing with a citation from Romans 3:26 is a clever smokescreen. What she has said has already undone that glorious truth from Scripture. Like her Abraham, Ellen White’s Jesus “developed a perfect character.” Remission of “sins that are past” is offered, somehow “through the forbearance of God.” Christ “builds up the human character after the similitude of the divine character” leading to the fulfillment of “the very righteousness of the law.”
Push through Ellen White’s flowery King James English prose, and you will find deeply blasphemous claims about God that demean the person and work of Jesus Christ our Lord. The more she emphasizes human accomplishments, the more she blasphemes the finished work of Christ on the cross.
Looking To the Day of Christ
In the Bible, Abraham’s record is decidedly mixed, and we see in him a portrait that is often quite ugly. Although he receives commendation in Hebrews 11 along with many others, it is faith in God which distinguishes the biblical figures of that chapter. In fact, not a few readers have puzzled over the inclusion of such characters as Jephthah and Samson in the author of Hebrews’ “hall of faith.”
We should not be so confused. Compared to the Lord Jesus Christ, all who have walked this earth (even those counted righteous), have been unworthy, sinful human beings. As Isaiah declares, rather shockingly, “all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6). Even what we consider to be our best deeds are an abomination to a holy God!
But thanks be to God our Father, who sent forth his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, born under the law (Gal 4:4). “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom 5:6).
What Jesus has done is perfect, complete, and incomparable. One of my favorite passages in all of Scripture is the apostle Paul’s explanation in Romans 4:5: “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”
Did you catch that? In Christ, our God justifies the ungodly!
The one question remaining for you, dear reader is, will you look with Abraham to the day of Christ and rejoice in it? (John 8:56) †
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