Ellen White: Prophet or Not?
God has given His church the gift of prophecy. This gift was manifested in the life and work of Ellen G. White. As students of the Bible, we must know who is a true prophet, and we must know whether or not Ellen White fulfills the Biblical tests of a true prophet. Before reading this article, please read “The Gift of Prophecy”.
What are the Bible qualifications of a true prophet?
| Qualifications | Scripture |
| Live a godly life | Matthew 7:15-20 |
| Be called to service by God | Isaiah 6:1-10, Jeremiah 1:5-10, Amos 7:14,15 |
| Speak and write in harmony with the Bible | Isaiah 8:19,20 |
| Predict events that will come true | Deuteronomy 18:20-22 |
| Will have visions | Numbers 12:6 |
Did Ellen White live a godly life?
Ellen White related of her own experience in the following words, “at the age of eleven years I was converted, and when twelve years old was baptized, and joined the Methodist Church. [Mrs. White was born at Gorham, Maine, November 26, 1827.] At the age of thirteen I heard William Miller deliver his second course of lectures in Portland, Maine. I then felt that I was not holy, not ready to see Jesus. And when the invitation was given for church members and sinners to come forward for prayers, I embraced the first opportunity, for I knew that I must have a great work done for me to fit me for heaven. My soul was thirsting for full and free salvation, but knew not how to obtain it.” {Early Writings 11.2}
“The life of Mrs. White is an example worthy of emulation by all… She was a humble, devout disciple of Christ and ever went about doing good… She was honoured and respected by all who appreciate noble womanhood, consecrated to unselfish labour for the uplifting and betterment of mankind. Her death marks the calling of another noted leader of the religious thought and one whose almost 90 years were full to overflowing with good deeds, kind words, and earnest prayers for all mankind.” [Star (St. Helena, CA: July 23, 1915)]
Answer: Yes! Ellen lived up to all the light she had. She was genuinely converted and thirsted for full and free salvation. She was an example to believers everywhere.
WAS ELLEN WHITE CALLED TO SERVICE BY GOD?
Read the following quotations and discover what others thought about Ellen White’s call to service.
“Once upon a time, a hundred years ago, there lived a young lady named Ellen White. She was frail as a child, completed only grammar school [actually, she never really finished the third grade], and had no technical training, and yet she lived to write scores of articles and many books on the subject of ‘healthful living. Remember, this was in the days when doctors were still bloodletting and performing surgery with unwashed hands. This was in an era of medical ignorance bordering on barbarism. Yet Ellen White wrote with such profound understanding of the subject of nutrition that all but two of the many principles she espoused have been scientifically established.”
– Paul Harvey (1918-2009), American Broadcasting Company news
commentator and United Features syndicated columnist, 1960)
“Mrs. White… early manifested some of the gifts of prophecy. With the formation of the church of the Seventh-day Adventists, she immediately developed an influence and that influence was maintained to the hour of her death, a period of seventy years. Besides unusual talents as a preacher, she had organizational and administrative powers. These were all given to her church. It prospered and grew until it has spread through many lands. Universities were founded, medical schools, hospitals and schools for teachers and missionaries. Mrs. White was a remarkable woman. Had she lived in an earlier period of the career of Christianity and escaped the bigots and the fire she would most surely have been canonized. She was the flesh of which saints are made.”
– Editorial, “A Modern Prophetess,” Toledo Blade (July 19, 1915)
Answer: Yes! Ellen White was called by God to do a special work. Given the gift of prophecy, the Holy Spirit worked through her to build up the Seventh-day Adventist church. Her counsels are inspired by God and are still in some respects ahead of modern science today.
DID ELLEN WHITE SPEAK AND WRITE IN HARMONY WITH THE SACRED SCRIPTURES?
“I have heard Sister White speak hundreds of times, have read all her Testimonies through and through, most of them many times, and I have never been able to find one immoral sentence in the whole of them, or anything that is not strictly pure and Christian; nothing that leads away from the Bible, or from Christ; but there I find the most earnest appeals to obey God, to love Jesus, to believe the Scriptures, and to search them constantly. I have received great spiritual benefit times without number, from the Testimonies. Indeed, I never read them without feeling reproved for my lack of faith in God, lack of devotion, and lack of earnestness in saving souls. If I have any judgment, any spiritual discernment, I pronounce the Testimonies to be of the same Spirit and of the same tenor as the Scriptures.”
- DM Canright, former Seventh-day Adventist who left the church after 28 years, “A Plain Talk to Murmurers,” Review and Herald (April 26, 1877)
“I am now looking over my diaries and copies of letters written for several years back, commencing before I went to Europe…. I have the most precious matter to reproduce and place before the people in testimony form. While I am able to do this work, the people must have these things, to revive past history, that they may see that there is one straight chain of truth, without one heretical sentence, in that which I have written. This, I am instructed, is to be a living letter to all in regard to my faith.”
– Ellen White {3MR 245.2}
Answer: Yes! By careful study of the Scriptures guided by the Holy Spirit, people will find that everything Ellen White wrote is in harmony with the Bible.
DID ELLEN WHITE PREDICT FUTURE EVENTS WITH ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY?
In 1902, Ellen referred to disaster which would affect cities around the bay area of California. She wrote the following:
“Not long hence, these cities will suffer under the judgment of God. San Francisco and Oakland are becoming as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Lord will visit them in wrath” (Evangelism, 403-404).
On April 18, 1906, an earthquake devastated the cities which Ellen mentioned! In 1890, she wrote the following:
“The tempest is coming…. We shall see trouble on all sides. Thousands of ships will be hurled into the depths of the sea. Navies will go down and human lives will be sacrificed by millions” (Signs of the Times, April 21, 1890).
Answer: Yes! With prophetic accuracy, Ellen White predicted events which would happen in the future with absolute certainty.
DID ELLEN WHITE HAVE TRUE VISIONS?
Ellen White manifested all of the true physical signs of a prophet in vision. Remember that the physical evidences include losing physical strength, receiving supernatural strength, no breathing, ability to speak, lack of awareness of earthly surroundings and eyes being wide open. Read the following statements:
John Loughborough had seen Ellen White in vision at least fifty times. He stated: “in passing into vision, she gives three enrapturing shouts of “Glory!” which echo and re-echo, the second, and especially the third, fainter but more thrilling than the first, the voice resembling that of one quite a distance from you, and just going out of hearing. For about four or five seconds she seems to drop down like a person in a swoon, or one having lost his strength; she then seems to be instantly filled with superhuman strength, sometimes rising at once to her feet and walking about the room. There are frequent movements of the hands and arms, pointing to the right or left as her head turns. All these movements are made in a most graceful manner. In whatever position the hand or arm may be placed, it is impossible for anyone to move it. Her eyes are always open, but she does not wink; her head is raised, and she is looking upward, not with a vacant stare, but with a pleasant expression, only differing from the normal in that she appears to be looking intently at some distant object. She does not breathe, yet her pulse beats regularly. Her countenance is pleasant, and the colour of her face is florid as in her natural state (emphasis added).” (https://whiteestate.org/legacy/issues-eyewitns-html/)
Answer: Yes! Ellen White manifested all of the true physical signs of a prophet in vision.
DID ELLEN WHITE EXALT THE BIBLE?
How did Ellen White regard the Bible? What was the position she took with her own writings in relations to the Scriptures? Read the following statements from Ellen White:
“The Lord has sent His people much instruction, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little. Little heed is given to the Bible, and the Lord has given a lesser light to lead men and women to the greater light. Oh, how much good would be accomplished if the books containing this light were read with a determination to carry out the principles they contain! There would be a thousandfold greater vigilance, a thousandfold more self-denial and resolute effort. And many more would now be rejoicing in the light of present truth.” {CM 125.2}
“The written testimonies are not to give new light, but to impress vividly upon the heart the truths of inspiration already revealed. Man’s duty to God and to his fellow man has been distinctly specified in God’s word, yet but few of you are obedient to the light given. Additional truth is not brought out; but God has through the Testimonies simplified the great truths already given and in His own chosen way brought them before the people to awaken and impress the mind with them, that all may be left without excuse. The Testimonies are not to belittle the word of God, but to exalt it and attract minds to it, that the beautiful simplicity of truth may impress all.” {CCh 92.1}
“The Spirit was not given—nor can it ever be bestowed—to supersede the Bible; for the Scriptures explicitly state that the word of God is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested. Says the apostle John, “Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” 1 John 4:1. And Isaiah declares, “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isaiah 8:20.118” {CCh 92.2}
“The people who obey God’s commandments are now the light of the world, the preserver of the Word of God in its purity, and they are elevating and exalting the law of God,—the only true, infallible standard of character in our world,—therefore every man and woman whom Heaven has intrusted with this most sacred truth are required to be active instruments to diffuse the light to others. The church who obeys God’s law is to send forth her sons as missionaries and preachers, and her daughters as teachers. The Bible is to be opened and explained to those who are in the darkness of error. The great missionary work is to draw men to Christ…”
Answer: Ellen White is very clear. In no uncertain terms, she teaches that her writings are a lesser light that point to the greater light of the Bible. Her writings do not provide new light, but impress truths already revealed from the Bible. In no way do her writings belittle the Bible; rather, they attract minds to Scripture. She exalted the law of God claiming that it is the only true, infallible standard of character in our world. Ellen emphasized that the Bible is to be opened and explained to people. In summary, Ellen exalted the Bible, the law of God and Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
DID ELLEN WHITE EDIFY THE CHURCH?
Did Ellen White counsel and guide the church and try to correct errors? Find out in the following statement:
“…As we began to labor with the church, and teach them that they must have a spirit of labor for the erring, much that I had seen relative to the cause in that place, opened before me, and I wrote out pointed testimonies not only for those who had erred greatly and were out of the church, but for those members in the church who had erred greatly in not going in search of the lost sheep. And I was never more disappointed in the manner in which these testimonies were received. When those who had been greatly in fault were reproved by most pointed testimonies, read to them publicly, they received them, and confessed with tears. But some of those in the church, who claimed to be the fast friends of the cause and the Testimonies, could hardly think it possible that they had been as wrong as the testimonies declared them to be. When told that they were self-caring, shut up to themselves and families; that they had failed to care for others, had been exclusive, and had left precious souls to perish; that they were in danger of being overbearing and self-righteous, they were brought into a state of great agitation and trial.” {2T 19.2}
Answer: Through her writings and sermons, Ellen counseled and guided the church and its members. Her writings continue to be an authoritative source for revival and reformation in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
PROPHETIC AUTHORITY
Ellen White spoke with boldness. Read the following statement:
“I am instructed to say to those who endeavor to tear down the foundation that has made us Seventh-day Adventists: We are God’s commandment keeping people. For the past fifty years every phase of heresy has been brought to bear upon us, to becloud our minds regarding the teaching of the Word—especially concerning the ministration of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, and the message of heaven for these last days, as given by the angels of the fourteenth chapter of Revelation. Messages of every order and kind have been urged upon Seventh-day Adventists, to take the place of the truth which, point by point, has been sought out by prayerful study and testified to by the miracle-working power of the Lord. But the waymarks which have made us what we are, are to be preserved, and they will be preserved, as God has signified through His word and the testimonies of His Spirit. He calls upon us to hold firmly with the grip of faith, to the fundamental principles that are based upon unquestionable authority.” {4MR 246.1}
When put into practice in life, readers will find that Ellen White’s writings are truly inspired by God. There will be positive changes that occur in the lives of all who study her writings and daily apply them to their individual cases. Clearly, Ellen White spoke with authority given to her from on high. The question for us today is: will we accept the prophetic authority of Ellen White and her inspired counsels?
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