FALSE TEACHING # 5: ELLEN WHITE A PROPHETESS

Seventh-day Adventism believes that Ellen White was a prophetess. Consider some quotes from their writings:

“Seventh-day Adventists believe that Mrs. Ellen G. White exercised the true prophetic gift. They believe that God graciously spoke to her in divine revelations, and that through her He sent inspired messages to His church. … The Seventh-day Adventist Church is indebted to her as a spiritual leader and a pioneer builder and guide. In most of the soul-winning activities of the church, from its very beginnings, the leaders received guidance from what they believed were the prophetic insights of this servant of God” (D.A. Delafield, Ellen G. White and the Seventh-day Adventist Church, pp. 2, 10-11).

“The Holy Spirit that inspired Moses, Paul, and John, also inspired Sister White. The inspiration of the prophets is one thing” (The Spirit of Prophecy Treasure Chest, p. 30).

“The Ellen White books have been likened also to a telescope which greatly enlarges the vision of God’s plans as revealed in His word” (Ellen G. White and the Seventh-day Adventist Church, p. 34).

“These messages, we believe, should be faithfully followed by every believer. Next to the Bible, and in connection with it, they should be read and studied. They throw a floodlight upon the Sacred record” (Prophetic Guidance, Lesson 16, p. 60).

“Consistency calls for acceptance of the Spirit of Prophecy writings as a whole. We cannot justify accepting part and rejecting part. For example, to accept one of Mrs. White’s books of a devotional character while questioning what she has written on doctrine, morals, or health standards, is really accepting one part and rejecting another” (Prophetic Guidance, Lesson 18, p. 70).

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

1. Mrs. White taught doctrines that deviate from New Testament Revelation. See Isaiah 8:20; Romans 16:17-18. The fact that a group holds many true doctrines does not mean we are to overlook its heresies. False imitations of Christianity have always been characterized by a mixture of truth and error. The Galatian heretics were apparently orthodox in most of their doctrines. We have no reason to believe they were anything but orthodox about the Trinity, Christ’s Deity, the Resurrection, and Biblical Inspiration, but the fact that they added to Paul’s gospel brought upon them a divine curse (Galatians 1:8-9). In fact, they were all the more dangerous because of their seeming orthodoxy. Rat poison is at least 95% harmless.

Romans 16:17 warns us to mark and avoid those that cause divisions contrary to the doctrine which we have learned. Seventh-day Adventism is guilty of this. They cause divisions contrary to the apostolic doctrine of death, of sabbath-keeping, of Hell, of the ministry of Christ during this present age, of the Mosaic Law, of the woman’s place in the church, and of the apostolic doctrine of the last days, and others.

2. Ellen White contradicted herself and was a hypocrite.

Consider two examples:

She taught that women should abstain from wearing jewelry.

“To dress plainly, abstaining from display of jewelry and ornaments of every kind, is in keeping with our faith” (White, Testimonies, vol. 3, p. 366).

Ellen White did not follow her own teaching. She wore jewelry, including broaches, expensive pins with white stones, and chains. In “Did Ellen White Wear Jewelry?” S. Cleveland and D. Anderson document this fact (http://www.ellenwhiteexposed.com/contra7.htm).

She taught that photography is idolatry.

“This making and exchanging of photographs is a species of Idolatry. Satan is doing all he can to eclipse heaven from our view. Let us not help him by making picture-idols” (White, Messages to Young People, p. 316).

Mrs. White often sat for pictures, contrary to her own teaching.

3. Women are not to teach nor usurp authority over men. God calls men, not women, to lead the churches (1 Timothy 2:11-12). There were no female apostles, and women are not qualified to be pastor-elders (1 Tim. 3:1-2; Tit. 1:5-6). Ellen White lived in direct opposition to these commands. She was a leading figure in the development of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. She addressed large crowds of men.

4. The true prophetic gift was to cease when its purposes for this age were fulfilled.

“Charity never faileth: but WHETHER THERE BE PROPHECIES, THEY SHALL FAIL; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away” (1 Cor.  13:8-10).

The context of 1 Corinthians 13 pertains to spiritual gifts. The entire section from chapter 12 to 14 deals with this subject. 1 Corinthians 13:8-10 refers to the revelation gifts of prophecy, knowledge, and tongues, through which God spoke to the early churches. These gifts were to pass away upon completion of their divine purpose, just as many other elements of God’s program for the ages have passed away.

Since the Bible says that point prophecy will cease, when did this happen? The answer is found in Ephesians 2:20. This verse groups the prophets and the apostles together and says that they laid the foundation for the church. They preached the gospel, established the first churches, and wrote the New Testament Scriptures under divine inspiration. Their job was then complete. The foundation was firmly laid, and they were no longer needed. Just as there are no apostles today, in the early church sense, there are also no prophets in the sense of receiving and imparting revelation. In this sense, “prophecy” has “failed.”

Ellen White could not have had the New Testament gift of prophecy, because that gift ceased with the passing of the apostles and prophets and the completion of the Bible.

The Christian faith was delivered once for all to the saints during the days of the apostles (Jude 3). It is not to be added to or tampered with. Rather, it is to be contended for. The Holy Spirit has given everything necessary to make the “man of God perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). This refers to the completed Scriptures, and a seal was placed in the last chapter of the Book, warning all men against claiming to have some new or fresh word from God (Rev. 22:18-19).

Did Mrs. White add to the things contained in the Bible? In just one vision that in the book Early Writings (pages 14-20), she added the following things: She said that Jesus’ hair is curly and shoulder length and that His trumpet is silver. She said that it takes seven days to ascend to heaven. She described tree trunks of transparent gold, fruit that looks like gold mixed with silver, houses that have the appearance of silver supported by pillars set with pearls, and shelves of gold, fields of flowers, “little ones” with wings, tables of stone engraved with the 144,000, and a silver table many miles in length.

She also said that God offered Satan a pardon (The Great Controversy, pp. 495-96), that the serpent had wings (Spiritual Gifts, vol. 3, pp. 39-40), that Enoch’s face radiated light (Spiritual Gifts, vol. 3, p. 57), and that angels who golden cards that they carry with them (Early Writings, p. 39).

There is no doubt that Ellen White’s visions added to the Bible’s prophecies. Those who refuse to accept the Bible as the final Word of God for this age always receive another word through false visions and prophecies. Seventh-day Adventism is the product of this great error.

5. Ellen White’s prophecies did not come to pass. See Deuteronomy 18:22.

In the book Seventh-day Adventism and the Writings of Ellen White, J. Mark Martin documents many false prophecies that were published by Mrs. White. These include the following:

Old Jerusalem Never Built Up

“I also saw that Old Jerusalem never would be built up; and that Satan was doing his utmost to lead the minds of the children of the Lord into these things now, in the gathering time” (Early Writings, p. 75).

In fact, old Jerusalem has been built up extensively since the birth of the modern state of Israel in 1948.

Adventists Living in 1856 Would See Jesus Return

In May 1865 Ellen White declared in a meeting in Battle Creek, Michigan, that some present would “remain upon the earth to be translated at the coming of Jesus” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, pp. 131-132).

England Would Attack the United States

“… when England does declare war, all nations will have an interest of their own to serve, and there will be general war, general confusion. … this nation [the United States] will … be humbled into the dust” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, p. 259).

In fact, England did not declare war and the United States was not humbled into the dust.

……..and these are the Signs of the Times……

This report is excerpted from AVOIDING THE SNARE OF SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM. This book has been called the best on the subject by the editor of The Baptist Challenge. Now it has been throughly updated and enlarged. It is diligently researched from official publications of the Seventh-day Adventist organization and proves conclusively that the Seventh-day Adventist gospel is false. The book begins with a chapter entitled “Adventists Wanted Me to Revise This Book,” describing a deceptive attempt by Seventh-day Adventists to have me change the book. The major divisions of the book are: “Adventist History Proves It is Heretical” and “Adventist Doctrine Proves It Is Heretical.” The book analyzes Adventist doctrines such as Sabbath-keeping, Soul-sleep, Annihilation of the wicked, Ellen White as a Prophetess, Investigative Judgment, Misuse of the Mosaic Law, and Vegetarianism. The chapter “Why Some Have Considered Seventh-day Adventism Evangelical” analyzes Walter Martin’s (author of Kingdom of the Cults) faulty view of Adventism. The book includes selections from D.M. Canright’s 1898 book Seventh-day Adventism Renounced. Canright was an early leader in Adventism who left and became a Baptist pastor.