Answer to a Critic of Ellen White

 

I recommended a book by SDA historian George R. Knight called "Ellen White's Afterlife" in which he thoroughly discusses the issues the anti-Adventist crowd has presented here on social media. Let me address some of the points one by one.

 

1. Ellen White never claimed to be equal to scripture much less greater. She told pastors not to quote her from the pulpit as an authority. She described herself as a messenger, not a prophet. Others later on made that claim about her. She did not.

 

2. Her writings always point to the Bible as the source of all truth. She always sent people back to the Bible when she offered advice or a message she received in vision.

 

3. To outright reject her claim to having visions is to dismiss scripture's prophecy (Acts 2: 17) that, "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams." Bible says it will happen.

 

4. Her use of sources credited and uncredited is described clearly in the forward to Great Controversy. She followed what was common publishing practice in her day. When concern was expressed about how her lack of written sources might be perceived, she altered the book in later editions to include references. She was quite frank that in many cases she found a passage in her reading that said what she'd seen or wanted to say better than she could herself. She had secretaries who edited her work and, as I said, she changed some things in later editions, especially if she found better more accurate sources.

 

5. She never claimed to be infallible. Many things she wrote were for individuals and not for public consumption. There was a doctor and his wife (also a doctor) in Australia that Dr. Knight described as "dying of health reform." Sister Ellen wrote them and told them to drink grape juice and 2 raw eggs for breakfast each morning to recover their health. They were doing health reform over-zealously and missing parts of the message. She did not recommend this for all, but in this case it seemed to have saved the couple's lives.

 

6. Of course her health messages were similar to others ideas. If something is good for you, it should be advised by more than one person. She advised people to stop tobacco use a hundred years before doctors finally weighed in on the subject. She preached temperance before AA. She had a knack for getting it right even when it went against the ideas of other health reformers at the time. At one SDA college where she had lunch in the cafeteria, Mrs. White asked for a salt shaker. The waitress said the school no longer provided salt because it was unhealthy. They didn't even use it in cooking. Mrs. White told the waitress, "Please bring me some salt. My Bible says it is good and I trust it's counsel over man's."

 

7. The final words of her final sermon shortly before her death were, "Brothers and Sisters," she said lifting her Bible over her head, "Unto you I commend this book." She advised pastors to teach from the Word and not to quote Sister White. She once complained that it made her skin crawl when she heard someone preface their remarks with "Sister White says...." She got to where she had to almost quit giving people verbal advice, specifically for that person alone, because she often heard it repeated from the pulpit the next Sabbath. This she objected to strenuously.

 

8 After her death, GC president AG Daniels, who knew her and her views, called a conference of educators together to discuss how to use Sister White's writing with students. Daniels was adamant that she never wanted to be used as a club to enforce any idea for which there was not thorough grounding in Scripture. When one conference president wrote her demanding that she give the brethren advice on a hotly debated passage in Galatians as to the meaning of "The Daily", she flatly refused. She told them to go back and pray some more and that God would lead them aright.

9. There was a time in the 40s and 50s when a theologian named Andraeson promoted something called Last Days Theology, which was the idea that Christ's sacrifice was not a completed work, but that humans in the last days would live perfect lives for a time without an intercessor and that it was necessary for humans to prove that one could live perfectly on his own hook. This is contradicted in scripture and comes primarily from one misunderstood passage in a single book which was a compilation which Sister Ellen did not like the idea of were she not involved in the selection of the writings. Andraeson became disruptive with his insistence on Last Day perfection being necessary to justify God somehow, that the church had to withdraw his ministerial credentials. On his deathbed he apologized for the disruption he caused. Unfortunately, his influence was very widespread and it took some controversy within the church in order to resolve the issue. The church now is united on the idea that atonement for His children was completed at the cross. The Sanctuary doctrine and the investigative judgment we believe is a final closing of the books that takes place as Christ comes. The Sanctuary doctrine has far more support in Scripture than the secret rapture doctrine and the immortality of the soul.

 

10. The Adventist Church can support it's theological doctrines from Scripture. We don't have to explain to our members as to why we are allowed to disobey the only commandment that says "Remember" as the first word. We don't have to explain the absence of an immortal soul, an ever-burning hell and a commandment to change the Sabbath to Sunday anywhere in the New Testament.

 

11. We Adventists do a healthy diet as far as possible. Not all of us eat a good diet but in repeated studies, among all Adventists we live 9 or 10 years longer than everyone else. We've taken much from the Old Testament about diet going back to the Garden of Eden where the original diet was fruits and vegetables with grains added after they got kicked out. We reason that if our body is the Temple of the Lord, we should probably treat it well.

 

You can go to church anywhere you like. You may even find your way to heaven without ever darkening the door of an SDA church. Adventists believe Jesus will take home people from all corners of Christendom and beyond. We even believe that some will be saved that never heard the name of Christ, but who searched for Him with all their hearts. But there is no excuse for some Christians who seek to tear down fellow Christians, calling them a cult, calling Ellen White a false prophet and accusing us of a whole horde of things without evidence. That's all I've got to say. If you don't like us, you are not required to fellowship with us. Your salvation is between you and your God. You preach what you believe about God's character and we'll do the same. I frankly believe that when Jesus said the dead sleep, that he meant that. I believe when Paul said "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" that that's exactly how it works. 

 

The God I met while studying Scripture would not torture any one for all eternity. Satan was the one who said "Thou shalt not surely die". and we don't lop a week off the 70 weeks prophecy and move it 2000 years later to hide the identity of the Beast power. 

 

We must have something right or our fellow Christians would not be so anxious to discredit us, I think. We hope you find your way to Him as we too have that blessed hope. We'll see you there.

© 2021 by Tom King