To Be…or Not…Inspiration of Ellen White

The fact that the Seventh-day Adventist church has not unequivocally concluded the ‘type’ of inspiration that Ellen White falls under from the foundations of the denomination should and are often a warning sign to many that maybe we do not hold all the answers, and maybe we are holding positions that simply are not aligned with Scripture.

The types of biblical inspiration are as simple as defining what it means to be a Seventh-day Adventist. In general, there is dictation (direct), verbal, intuition, and illumination. Outside of these there are a few other suggested types of inspiration that no one denomination or theological school of thought will agree.

Verbal or direct inspiration in a nutshell means that God directly spoke to the individual writer, scribe, or author. Detailing word for word, exactly what to write.

Intuition inspiration typically means that the individual writer has a close relationship with God and the Holy Spirit has placed upon the person’s heart a message to convey. That individual is then free to utilize words and illustrations to convey that message.

Illumination inspiration typically refers to an individual that has directly been shown a vision or dream and then writes that insight down in literary form.

Why is the inspiration of Ellen White so important to define? What inspiration is Ellen White?

Tackling the first question of, ‘why is the inspiration of Ellen White so important to define?’ is paramount to the previous statement of defining what it means to be a Seventh-day Adventist. For some, Ellen White is directly / verbally inspired by God, and use proof – text style examples from her writings to prove their point. For others, Ellen White is inspired in a way that we cannot yet define. This is a cop out, an excuse to be able to pacify her admonitions when they do not suit our actions and plans and to weaponize the writings when they will subjugate our foes and propel or self-righteous egos and leadership. We cannot be a biblically centered church, fully unified, until the question is settled of the inspiration of Ellen White.

On to the next question, was Ellen White inspired?

Yes….if she was a biblically centered, gospel grounded believer in Christ, baptized, and pursuant of being known and knowing Jesus as Messiah, King, Redeemer, Creator, and God.

That does NOT make her special or anything to stand apart. This is where the church has so easily avoided making a decision and has mislead, covered up, and allowed heretical ideology to permeate the lives of it’s members.

There are 2 covenants laid out in Scripture. Old Testament Israel fell under the covenant given at Sinai. The symbolic high point was the celebration of Passover and the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).

Passover was instituted by God through verbal inspiration to Moses while Israel was enslaved in Egypt.

“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.[a]

7 “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

14 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.”

The lamb signified the Messiah, and the blood covering the door post signified the Messiah’s sacrifice to provide salvation for the obedient follower of the directions given to Moses and Israel. Notice it was by direct obedience and action of the individual that the person or persons inside the homes where saved. In better terms, they were saved through their own actions according to the word given to Moses. This is the Old Covenant.

We come down to the New Covenant given to us in Jeremiah 31:31-34,

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Notice that ALL the work done in order to know God, be known by God, follow God, and to be saved by God are fully done directly by God. Man has no part in his own salvation. This is further seen in Ezekiel 9 and 10 when a Messiah type, the man in the linen cloth, is directed by God to go before the six judgements facing Israel. The Messiah was to mark TAV, which according to the etymology of the Hebrew letter Tav was written as an X. The X was to be marked and signified salvation from the judgement facing Israel and their apostasy, idolatry, and disobedience to God. Those who were saved where those whose hearts grieved over sin and spoke out and were bothered by the sin around them. This, as is often the case with the Scriptures, mirrors the Passover and yet represents the Messianic fulfillment. It was God, not man, doing the work. Obedience had no bearing on salvation. Positions of the heart and attitudes toward sin were the deciding factor in receiving the mark of salvation.

“And the Lord said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” 5 And to the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. 6 Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the house. 7 Then he said to them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out.” So they went out and struck in the city. 8 And while they were striking, and I was left alone, I fell upon my face, and cried, “Ah, Lord God! Will you destroy all the remnant of Israel in the outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem?”

9 Then he said to me, “The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice. For they say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see.’ 10 As for me, my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; I will bring their deeds upon their heads.”

11 And behold, the man clothed in linen, with the writing case at his waist, brought back word, saying, “I have done as you commanded me.”

Understanding the Old and New Covenants is important when understanding Scripture and the application of instructions, relationship, and theological material in the lives of believers. Under the Old Covenant, Israel had judges, the priestly class, a king, and prophets. Salvation was based upon the obedience to the law laid out at Sinai. Not simply the Decalogue (Ten Commandments).

The promise of the New Covenant points to a deeper meaning to the Law. Something beyond obedience. The New Covenant promises intimacy, fulfilled relationship, and the reality of the indwelling Spirit, the unification of God and humanity.

The death and resurrection of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, is the moment the New Covenant was instituted. Confirmed on the day of Pentecost with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Peter, in Acts 2, quotes the prophecy at length in Joel 2:28-32,

“’And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.”

Peter then goes on to state that the prophecy has then been fulfilled. “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

Now we come down to the New Testament Church, which we as Christians are descendants. In Ephesians 4:11-16 we have laid before us as believers and followers of Christ, the promise of the indwelling Holy Spirit that will give each believer certain Spiritual gifts.

“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds[c] and teachers,[d] 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,[e] to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

Furthermore, we have promised to us, through the Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 14 that members will prophecy, and that we should seek prophecy.

Christianity today is divided. Reformed theology is cessationist, meaning the gifts of the Spirit ceased at the end of the apostolic age with John. Arminian and Pentecostals believe that the gifts of the Spirit continue and have continued through the life of the church in history, even through today. Unfortunately, the charismatic movement has plagued people’s imagination with what the expression of Spiritual gifts and the movements of the Holy Spirit are today.

In short, Ellen White was an inspired author, because she was a believer. However, this only applies to when she agrees with Scripture.

Did Ellen White plagiarize and borrow from other authors? Yes. The church has long proven over and over again that she used nearly sentence for sentence at times to convey a message, even one she states she saw in a dream. Various academics, at the behest of the denomination’s leaders, have come up with varying degree of reliance that Ellen White depends on other sources.

Was the borrowing / plagiarism at the extent to which it occurs, ethical? No. Ignorance cannot be feigned when Ellen White’s writings passed through experienced and knowledgeable secretaries and editors. In fact the excuse given based on ignorance of the time does not stand on any legs. Plagiarism was seen as an issue and prosecuted during Ellen White’s time. James white cited all quotations made in the publication of her first vision, A Word to the Little Flock.

Ellen White’s writings are no more inspired to the Christian than those of another believer who writes and finds agreement with Scripture.

We should not dismiss so easily the possibility that we as the church have erred in viewing Ellen White’s writings. Either discounting them or promoting them. The greatest error made surrounding Ellen White and her writings was the pedestal to which we allowed them to be placed. The 19th Century and 18th Century were filled with Great Awakenings and counter spiritual activities and movements.

There is a deeper meaning found in the formation of the Seventh-day Adventist church, when the church is allowed to come together, stand on the principles set forward in the New Testament for the ecclesiastical operation and actions of the body of Christ by the Apostles.

The reality is, sound exegesis and theological approaches simply are not allowed by lay members and academics in the Seventh-day Adventist church. Cherry picking occurs in the analysis and application of biblical instruction. Maybe it is day dreaming to think that there is a deeper purpose being missed by Seventh-day Adventists. Until that time, I continue to pursue ministering with the Seventh Day Baptists.

Until the issues are openly talked about, in front of lay men and women, I have remained absent from formal academic discussions inside the church. Administrators and academics know the solution, know the evidences, and yet for the sake of power, politics, money, and job security, they carry on the current course.