EXCUSE ME BUT I HAVE A VERY WORRYING PROBLEM!

Max Hatton

Please note that Scriptures quoted in what follows are from the New International Version unless otherwise stated.

INTRODUCTION:

I am sad to say that my problem is with the Church that we love, but I think more particularly with the White Estate. I am so concerned about this problem that I have decided that I must not, I can not, go quiet on it. I believe that it is so important that it must be dealt with. Fair go now, please give me a hearing and make your decision at the end. Don’t worry I am not intending to do the Church harm. Quite to the contrary I am wanting to gain some important clarifications for its good. I need to offer a rather long explanation to clarify. Please stay with me and if you think I am wrong please help me by clarifying where. If I am wrong I need help please.

I was baptised and accepted into the fellowship of the Seventh-day Adventist Church on the twenty fourth day of September 1966. The Baptism Certificate contained twenty-seven Fundamental Beliefs. Item 20 states:

“The Church is to come behind in no spiritual gift. The presence of the gift of the Spirit of prophecy is one of the identifying marks of the remnant church, and Seventh-day Adventists recognize its manifestation in the work of Ellen G. White.”

Item 8 of the Baptismal Vow as shown on the Certificate of Baptism is as follows:

“Do you accept the doctrine of spiritual gifts, and do you believe that the Spirit of prophecy is one of the identifying marks of the remnant church?”

I think I can say quite safely that no one at the time they are ready for baptism or even since has read all of the purported 100,000 pages that Ellen White wrote. I had a very large amount of her books but since retirement and living near Avondale College, I have unloaded many of them. Yes, I admit I had never read them all. I have the Ellen White computer disc and often use it.

During the 10th century, the Grand Vizier of Persia carried a 177,000-volume library with him whenever he went on official business. The extensive library was hauled in alphabetical order by a caravan of 400 camels. How many camels would we need in order to cart around all of Ellen White’s writings? How many church members do you think might have read them all? A church member once told me that he had been on a study with some Christadelphians and didn’t take his Bible with him, he just took volume 7a of the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary. This contains all of the statements by Ellen White found in the Commentary. There is available a King James Version containing Ellen White statements throughout. Some Adventists become quite fanatical in their devotion to and use of Ellen White. I will have more to say on this further on.

So how do we come to the point of baptism and are able to say, “Yes I believe that she had the spiritual gift of prophecy?” I doubt that I am much different to most, having read The Desire of Ages and part of The Great Controversy and being influenced by what I read in Church publications, I felt satisfied to make this vow. In good faith we make the vow and are pleased to do so but we don’t know very much about her or her writings really. I still believe that our dear sister had the spiritual gift of prophecy, however, I do not believe that she was used by God to be the arbiter on what is true or false in the interpretation of Scripture. She stated very clearly herself that this was not her role and that she was a lesser light to lead to the greater light (the Bible). I do believe that God used her to give direction to the Church on many matters and that the Church would not be what it is today but for her guidance. I think I understand her much better today and this is what I wish to discuss with my readers.

AM I JUST A LONELY FOOLISH OLD MAN?

In recent times I have felt like a very lonely man. Many have accepted my explanations of the Trinity doctrine but no one seems willing to acknowledge their agreement with the evidence I reveal on what Ellen White believed about the Members of the Godhead in her early years as a Seventh-day Adventist. Maybe this is because others have somehow come to opposite conclusion to me and many folk are inclined to just believe them? The men concerned have a reputation as Scholars. I was surprised to read a few years ago the following from Woodrow W. Whidden 11:

“Ellen White decisively believed in the full deity of Christ. She can be characterized as Trinitarian in her convictions, even from her earliest years…What is truly remarkable about her Trinitarian views is that she held them at a time when many of the leading nineteenth-century Adventist ministers had strong Arian influence.” Ellen White on Salvation, Review and Herald, 1995, page 59.

Since then after re-reading the following by Erwin Gane, I notice that he offers a similar view. Please note that I have changed the font colour to red where I want to draw special attention to what is said:

The Arian or Anti-Trinitarian Views Presented in Seventh-day Adventist Literature and the Ellen G. White Answer

by Erwin Roy Gane

C H A P T E R XIII

ELLEN G. WHITE A TRINITARIAN MONOTHEIST

The final chapters of this thesis are devoted to a relatively brief discussion of the position of Ellen G. White in regard to the nature of God. The present writer has found no evidence that Ellen G. White ever wrote or declared herself orally in favor of the Arian position. On the contrary all the evidence which will be presented here is of a distinctly Trinitarian nature. As will become apparent, by far the greatest number of the E. G. White statements on the subject were made in the latter decades of the nineteenth century and the early years of this century. It has been demonstrated that there was an evolution of thought among Adventists generally on the nature of God. This took the form of gradual repudiation of Arianism and acceptance of Trinitarianism. But Ellen G. White’s writings do not reveal this type of thought evolution. The profound statements of her later period do not contradict anything she wrote in the earlier period. Instead they reveal a growing awareness of the deeper mysteries of the Godhead.
Certain of Ellen G. White’s statement, which clearly contradicted the positions of her Adventist contemporaries, were written prior to 1898. Evidently the significance of these statements was not immediately appreciated, as is evidenced by the continued presentation of contrary views in denominational periodicals and books. Ellen G. White’s statements on the nature of God became more abundant, more insistent and increasingly unequivocal as the nineteenth century drew to a close.

Jerry Moon wrote chapter 14 “Ellen White’s Role in the Trinity Debate” in the book The Trinity published by Review and Herald in 2002. Subsequently he wrote The Adventist Trinity Debate, Part 2: The Role of Ellen G. White in Andrews Seminary Studies, No. 2 Autumn 2003. In this article he states:

“Her writings about the Godhead show a clear progression not primarily from anti- to pro-trinitarianism, but from relative ambiguity to greater specificity. Some of her early statements are capable of various interpretations, but her later statements, 1898-1906, are explicit to the point of being dogmatic. Her change of view appears clearly to have been a matter of growth and progression, rather than reversal, because unlike her husband and others of her associates she never directly attacked the view of the Trinity that she would later explicitly support.”

I will interact with Jerry Moon further on when I examine what the early Ellen White had to say on matters related to God.

For now I have to say that I find myself out of harmony with these three brethren and this displeases me quite a bit. If I am any judge at all it seems to me that most Adventists assume that what these three men have to say is unquestionably true. I believe that they are quite wrong. I have included what they say in fairness to my readers so that they will closely examine the evidence, which I believe, contradicts these three men.

THE POSITION ADOPTED BY MOST ADVENTISTS:

In practice, I have found from experience that most Adventists immediately respond with a quote from the later Ellen White when the Trinity Doctrine is being discussed. The Anti-Trinitarians in the Church on the other hand seem to major on early Ellen White quotes in their presentations. The anti-Trinitarians load up their papers with Ellen White quotes. I have known some who seemed enamoured with Ellen White leave the Church when Walter Rea and others have shown that she was not what they thought she was. This is a great pity for she never claimed to be what they thought she was. Our Fundamental Beliefs say quite clearly that our beliefs must come from the Bible. However, in practice many seem to major on Ellen White quotes. I have sat in Sabbath School classes where some seem to play a game of “She Says.” All you hear is she says this and she says that. What Ellen White says, or what anyone else says, must meet the standard of the Bible – that is the yardstick.

There are an abundance of statements by Mrs White which instruct that her writings should not be used to formulate our doctrines. I have challenged all the Anti-Trinitarians that I know to justify their dishonouring her by their ignoring of her counsel. I received not a single response. Our Sabbath School pamphlets used to be loaded with Ellen White quotes. Fortunately, this has been rectified. It has been well said, “to overdo is to undo” and I believe that the misuse of Ellen White has caused much harm to her image and to the Church. Here is just one statement by Ellen White which could be supported many times from her other writings. Others will be provided further on.

The testimonies of Sister White should not be carried to the front. God’s Word is

the unerring Standard. The Testimonies are not to take the place of the Word….

Let all prove their positions from the Scriptures and substantiate every

point they claim as truth from the revealed Word of God. Evangelism, page 256.

Despite my apparent foolishness I will continue confident that the evidence I will offer will show the three men quoted above to be in error. But that is not the really important thing – that is that we are not being open with our constituents and others about the real Ellen White.

MY CONCERNS:

For many years I have not been at all comfortable with the statement of Ellen White found on page 45 of Patriarchs and Prophets:

Man was to bear God’s image, both in outward resemblance and in character

It puzzled me how Ellen White could say that the physical image of God is resembled in man. It is clear enough that she is saying that God is something like us to look at?

When I became an SDA I was not an absolute rookie on things of the Bible. I had been a Jehovah’s Witness for about five years. Although they are quite wrong in many of their teachings I was not altogether ignorant of the Bible. The idea that we look much like God, or in other words, He looks much like us does not sit well with Isaiah 40:18:

To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare him to?

Surely Isaiah is advising that God is unique – that there is nothing in all of our experience that we can liken Him to. John 4:24 advises that God is Spirit. I could not reconcile what Ellen White says with the Bible. However, I let the matter go for then just making a mental note that there is a problem here that I must solve one day..

In recent times I have come back to what Ellen White says on other matters concerning God and have had to come to conclusions such as those, which follow.

Our God is not just the God of some mountain, city, country, or even just of planet Earth – He is the Great God of the Universe. Later, Ellen White clearly stated:

“Nothing can happen in any part of the universe without the knowledge of Him who is omnipresent. Not a single event of human life is unknown to our Maker.” The Faith I Live By, page 61.

Never forget that God is Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Eternal. Psalm 139 beautifully describes God’s Omnipresence. It requires that God is everywhere present at the same time. This attribute should not be confused with Pantheism which teaches that God not only exists everywhere but is everything. Here are just three references from Scripture teaching the Omnipresence of God:

Psalm 139 verse 7 asks, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” Verse 8 comments, “If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths you are there.”

Proverbs 15:3 reminds us of the omnipresence of God, “The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.”

“Am I only a God nearby, declares the LORD, and not a God far away?

“Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him? Declares the LORD.

“Do not I fill heaven and earth? Declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 23:23, 24.

Think for a moment about the Sabbath day, God is present with His people in thousands of places all over the earth. He listens to millions of prayers at the same time and they come to Him in many different languages. God cannot be restricted to a single spot or even to a single planet. He is constantly with the creatures He has created on other planets in the universe.

There are references in which God is said to have eyes, hands, wings, and suchlike but these must be understood to be Anthropomorphisms. They help in our understanding of God but were never intended to be taken literally. He does sometimes take on a form similar to ours but these must be understood to be Theophanies – God is not literally a pillar of fire or a cloud. Remember John 4:24 where we are informed that He is Spirit – invisible.