“Now you can see and understand why I feel no duty to go to Battle Creek. … I have no duty to stand in General Conference, the Lord forbids me. That is enough.” —Ellen White, Letter 17, 1881, written to W. C. White, September 12, 1881
The “state of the dead” is one of the cardinal doctrines of Seventh-day Adventism, another unique pillar of “truth” that sets them apart from orthodox Christianity. Central to this doctrine is their concept of “soul sleep” – the belief that the dead are unconscious in the grave and therefore unable to communicate with the living. Thus most Seventh-day Adventists are horrified when they hear of people desiring to communicate with the dead, or claiming to have communicated with the dead (necromancy).
Their horror is based upon scriptures such as:
“When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.” – Isaiah 8:19-22
“Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.” – Deuteronomy 18:10-12
“A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads.” – Leviticus 20:27
Seventh-day Adventists generally don’t pause to consider that God would not sentence a human being to death for pretending to do something that is patently impossible – such as communicate with the dead! Think about it: no criminal court would sentence school boys to death because they pointed their fingers at one another in a game of Cowboys and Indians and shouted, “Bang! Bang! You’re dead!” Everyone understands the young boys are pretending, they are not committing a crime! Even in human courts the death penalty is reserved for acts of murder – not for pretending to murder someone. Ergo, if the Seventh-day Adventist belief is correct that it is impossible to communicate with the dead, then why would there be a divine penalty for pretending to do so?
All that aside, the faith Seventh-day Adventists have in their prophet Ellen White makes it literally impossible for them to consider that she did indeed consult a familiar spirit (see previous chapter “Who Was That Young Man?”), and took advice from the dead (necromancy). The problem for Seventh-day Adventists is that Ellen White was a prolific writer. Not only did she write books – largely copied from other authors – but she also wrote personal letters to her own family members. And it is in one of those personal family letters she wrote that we see her guard down and read her admission of the true source of her “inspiration.”
What follows are the pertinent paragraphs of a letter Ellen White wrote to her son, W. C. White on September 12, 1881. Her original words are printed in bold, my added comments are printed in normal type and placed in parenthesis. The context of this letter is that the General Conference wanted Ellen White to attend a meeting in which her suspicions were she would not be well received. Her husband, James White, had died on August 6, 1881, just five weeks before Ellen White wrote this letter to her son explaining why she had decided not to comply with the General Conference’s request. Here is Ellen White’s letter and my added comments:
- “A few days since I was pleading with the Lord for light in regard to my duty. (Notice Ellen White specifically stated she was asking God for guidance regarding whether to attend the General Conference session.) In the night I dreamed I was in the carriage, driving, sitting at the right hand. (This then, must be one of the many dreams Ellen White received “from God” throughout her lifetime, and in which she believed the Lord communicated his will to her.) Father was in the carriage, seated at my left hand. He was pale, but calm and composed. (Ellen White generally used the term “father” when speaking about her husband James White. Remember, James had died five weeks earlier.) ‘Why, Father,’ I exclaimed, ‘I am so happy to have you by my side once more! I have felt that half of me was gone. Father, I saw you die; I saw you buried. Has the Lord pitied me and let you come back to me again, and we work together as we used to?’
- “He looked very sad. He said, ‘The Lord knows what is best for you and for me. (Notice in this “divinely-inspired” dream, Ellen White is having a conversation with her dead husband – something the Lord said in His Word is “detestable” and worthy of being “stoned to death.” Worse, dead James White pretends to speak for the Lord and advises Ellen about her duty!) My work was very dear to me. We have made a mistake. We have responded to urgent invitations of our brethren to attend important meetings. We had not the heart to refuse. These meetings have worn us both more than we were aware. Our good brethren were gratified, but they did not realize that in these meetings we took upon us greater burdens than at our age we could safely carry. They will never know the result of this long–continued strain upon us.
- “God would have had them bear the burdens we have carried for years. Our nervous energies have been continuously taxed, and then our brethren misjudging our motives and not realizing our burdens have weakened the action of the heart. I have made mistakes, the greatest of which was in allowing my sympathies for the people of God to lead me to take work upon me which others should have borne.
- “Now, Ellen, calls will be made as they have been, desiring you to attend important meetings, as has been the case in the past. (Notice that here dead James White predicts the future for his wife, Ellen, and advises her on what she should do! Remember, this advice is coming from a dead man in her dream!) But lay this matter before God and make no response to the most earnest invitations. Your life hangs as it were upon a thread. You must have quiet rest, freedom from all excitement and from all disagreeable cares. We might have done a great deal for years with our pens, on subjects the people need that we have had the light upon and can present before them, which others do not have. Thus you can work when your strength returns, as it will, and you can do far more with your pen than with your voice.”
- “He looked at me appealingly and said, ‘You will not neglect these cautions, will you, Ellen? Our people will never know under what infirmities we have labored to serve them because our lives were interwoven with the progress of the work, but God knows it all. I regret that I have felt so deeply and labored unreasonably in emergencies, regardless of the laws of life and health. The Lord did not require us to carry so heavy burdens and many of our brethren so few. (Dead James now gives Ellen a wonderful opportunity to chastise the “brethren” for shirking their duties and thereby working him to death.) We ought to have gone to the Pacific Coast before, and devoted our time and energies to writing. Will you do this now? Will you, as your strength returns, take your pen and write out these things we have so long anticipated, and make haste slowly? There is important matter which the people need. Make this your first business. You will have to speak some to the people, but shun the responsibilities which have borne us down.’ (Dead James’ advice is very clear, telling his wife Ellen what to do as well as what not to do.)
- “‘Well,’ said I, ‘James, you are always to stay with me now and we will work together.’ (Here Ellen White makes a pact with dead James – he is to always stay with her, and they will work together! This is a pact with a dead man!) Said he, ‘I stayed in Battle Creek too long. I ought to have gone to California more than one year ago. But I wanted to help the work and institutions in Battle Creek. I have made a mistake. Your heart is tender. You will be inclined to make the same mistakes I have made. Your life can be of use to the cause of God. Oh, those precious subjects the Lord would have had me bring before the people, precious jewels of light!”
- “I awoke. But this dream seemed so real. Now you can understand why I feel no duty to go to Battle Creek for the purpose of shouldering the responsibilities in General Conference. I have no duty to stand in General Conference. The Lord forbids me. That is enough.” – Letter 17, 1881, pages 2-4 (written to W. C. White, September 12, 1881), the White Estate, Washington, D.C., March 25, 1980. You may verify this letter in Arthur White’s book Ellen G. White, The Retirement Years, pages 161-162, or go to the Ellen White Estate website and search for any key phrase in the letter.
Now, let’s briefly outline some of the major issues Ellen White’s letter raises:
First, Ellen White had prayed to God specifically asking Him to direct her in her duty.
Second, Ellen White received a “dream” in which she believed the Lord communicated her “duty” to her. This is fully in line with her many claims to have received some 200 “divinely-inspired” dreams and visions over her lifetime. Thus, from her perspective, this dream is not different from the others and all are claimed to have a common source.
Third, in this dream Ellen White communicated with and received advice from her dead husband, James White – even though she taught others that communicating with the dead (necromancy) is detestable to God, and worthy of being stoned to death. Thus Ellen White’s dream is in direct contradiction to the Seventh-day Adventist view of Scripture, and would be immediately rejected by the typical Seventh-day Adventist! But not so with Ellen White – she fell for this deception and followed its guidance.
Fourth, notice in this dream Ellen White requested that her dead husband to stay with her and continue working with her. She wanted this dead man’s guidance and influence to continue throughout the rest of her life!
Fifth, when Ellen awoke from this dream, she followed the advice of her dead husband! Worse, she claimed the “Lord” had spoken to her through her dead husband. Thus it was Ellen White’s belief, that in this dream, the Lord had communicated her “duty” to her through the dead.
Shouldn’t Ellen White have instantly known that any communication with the dead is prohibited in Scripture – especially when she wrote widely on the topic? If Ellen White was actually inspired by God, why would she take advice from a dead person, thinking it came from the Lord? And why would she want to continue working with this dead person for the rest of her life?
Can you trust Ellen White when she repeatedly contradicted God’s Word—even in her “divinely-inspired” dreams? Can you believe the so-called “light” she presented in her books, when she is guilty of communicating with the dead? Can you trust her judgment in spiritual things when she believes God spoke to her through a dead person and did what God said is in Scripture is “detestable” and worthy of death?
The truth about Ellen White is this: she was a false prophet—a false prophet who was deceived by dark forces her entire life. There is no light in her whatsoever, because a lie cannot be made into the truth, and a false prophet cannot be made true. If you want to know truth, then look to Jesus Christ and study His Word. Jesus Christ is the Author of truth, the Author of Scripture, and the Savior of all people who put their faith and trust in him. True Christians need nothing more.
Seventh–day Adventists have had Ellen White’s grave registered as an historic site with the State of Michigan. The sign includes the following: “Ellen, a prophetess, reportedly experienced over two thousand visions.” Elder Wilfred Olsen, long time researcher into Ellen White’s claims, is at the right. His library of rare, out-of-print books has been a gold mine for those searching for the truth about “the Lord’s Messenger.”
This is a page of Ellen White’s hand-written article on inspiration. The first sentence actually reads: “Human minds vary the minds of different education and thought receive different impressions of the same words and it is difficult for one mind to to give to a different temperament education and habits of thought by language exactly the same idea as that which his clear and distinct in his own mind.” Could these words really be inspired by God? Is this how God speaks? Apparently her secretaries did not think so. They produced the polished version appearing in Selected Messages, book 1, page 19: “Human minds vary. The minds of different education and thought receive different impressions of the same words, and it is difficult for one mind to give to one of a different temperament, education, and habits of thought by language exactly the same idea as that which is clear and distinct in his own mind.” Even with careful editing her “divinely-inspired” writing hardly makes sense!
White Washed. Copyright © 2011 by Sydney Cleveland. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2011. Revised and enlarged 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2011. All Scripture quotations—except where otherwise noted—are from Holy Bible, New International Version, © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved. Life Assurance Ministries, Inc.
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.
- White Washed - July 1, 2021
- 13. A Word to Aspiring Prophets - October 8, 2020
- Appendix B – SDA Jewelry and Dress - October 8, 2020
To her defense, she had a dream. She wasn’t doing necromancy (calling spirits) or witchcraft. I think the points made here aren’t valid. Nothing wrong for God to give her a dream with her husband telling her things. It’s not like she called out his spirit from the dead by doing some type of ritual.
Note: I’m not SDA, I just know a lot of them and almost got trapped in it.
Also, do you guys have a higher resolution of her handwritten letter? Or know where I can find it? Thank you!