Prophetic Authority

The prophets of the Bible are unanimous in their conviction that God called them at the moment of revelation. They were compelled to communicate what God had revealed to them. As Micah declared: “I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin” (Micah 3:8). This prophetic self-awareness as recipients of revelation and inspiration, along with this heightened sense of being a messenger for Yahweh, became central to their identity. When they spoke or wrote, they did so as those who spoke for God.

This same prophetic conviction and self-awareness is evident in Ellen White’s ministry. Adventists have, from their beginnings, viewed Ellen White’s writings neither as equal to nor as superior to the Bible, yet they have recognized her ministry as authentic communication from God. The quality of her revelation and inspiration was the same as that of the Bible writers. Yet her authority was subordinate to the final authority of Scripture. Her entire body of work was defined and governed by the Bible. She was a prophet who was tested by Scripture, served Scripture, and pointed to Scripture. Such is the nature of the postcanonical manifestation of the prophetic gift.[1]

This dual understanding of prophetic authority while remaining subordinate to the Bible is expressed in statements such as: “A ‘Thus saith the Lord’ is the strongest testimony you can possibly present to the people. Let none be educated to look to Sister White, but to the mighty God, who gives instruction to Sister White.”[2] This statement reflects that, although the Bible is the final ruling authority, she remained a prophetic voice with instruction from God for the church. 

Within this understanding, she wrote, “In ancient times God spoke to men by the mouth of prophets and apostles. In these days he speaks to them by the testimonies of his Spirit.” And again; “The Holy Ghost is the author of the Scriptures and of the Spirit of Prophecy. These are not to be twisted and turned to mean what man may want them to mean, to carry out man’s ideas and sentiments, to carry forward man’s schemes at all hazards.”[3] Neither statement when taken in context indicates that Ellen White equated her writings with the Scriptures. Her point is that because her writings carry divine, prophetic authority, they should not be ignored or manipulated by human beings to mean anything other than what she intended. 

A Messenger With a Message

In 1871 she wrote about a remarkable dream in which she surrounded the Bible with volumes of her Testimonies and told the audience before her: “You are not familiar with the Scriptures. If you had made God’s Word your study, with a desire to reach the Bible standard and attain to Christian perfection, you would not have needed the Testimonies.”[4] At the end of this account, she received a divine message of personal encouragement: “God has raised you up and has given you words to speak to the people and to reach hearts as He has given to no other one.”[5] Here we see the blending of Scripture’s final authority with the basis of her conviction that she was a spokesperson for God.

Her entire body of work was defined and governed by the Bible. She was a prophet who was tested by Scripture, served Scripture, and pointed to Scripture.

Perhaps her most significant statement about her authority came in 1876, in response to opposition to her prophetic ministry. “This work is of God, or it is not,” she protested. “God does nothing in partnership with Satan. My work for the past thirty years bears the stamp of God or the stamp of the enemy. There is no halfway work in the matter. The Testimonies are of the Spirit of God, or of the devil.”[6] This statement leaves no doubt that in Ellen White’s mind her work was endorsed by God in its entirety.

Later in life (1903), reflecting on the nature of her prophetic ministry, she wrote: “From the year 1844 till the present time I have received messages from the Lord and have given them to His people. This is my work—to give to the people the light that the Lord gives me. I am commissioned to receive and communicate His messages. I am not to appear before the people as holding any other position than that of a messenger with a message.”[7] This statement reveals that throughout her life she held the conviction that God had divinely “commissioned” her “to receive and communicate His messages,” the “light” for the Adventist people.

As we reflect on her lifelong prophetic conviction, it becomes evident that Ellen White wrote her published works with a conscious awareness of the authority of revelation and inspiration. This is not to say that she believed that everything she said or did carried the stamp of inspiration. In many of her personal letters and diaries, for example, she wrote as any person would. But when she communicated a divine message from God to an individual or group, or when she wrote within the collective framework of several divine communications in her books, she did so with this counsel in mind: “In all your communications, speak as one to whom the Lord has spoken. He is your authority, and He will give you His sustaining grace.”[8]

If we take Ellen White’s words seriously, we learn a great deal about how to approach her writings. Although she was human and her inspiration blends the human and the divine, we must be careful not to overemphasize the human side, which can undermine her divine credentials and distract us from hearing God’s message. But neither should we overemphasize the divine at the expense of the human, turning her writings into something they are not. Balance is the key.

While her primary purpose was to exalt Scripture and apply it to our lives, she did so with prophetic authority. In some of her writings she sounded like a skilled expository preacher, explaining and applying the Scriptures, as in Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, a powerful exposition of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In other places she wrote like a devotional writer par excellence, as in Steps to Christ. She was indeed a great preacher and devotional writer, but she was also much more.[9] She was a prophetic voice, carrying divine authority. Her message has resonated throughout Adventist history and continues to do so today.

[1] For detailed discussion on issues raised in this paragraph, see John Peckham, “The Prophetic Gift and Sola Scriptura,” in Biblical Hermeneutics: An Adventist Approach, ed. Frank M. Hasel (Silver Spring, Md.: Biblical Research Institute, 2021), pp. 390-403; Jud Lake, Ellen White Under Fire: Identifying the Mistakes of Her Critics (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 2011), pp. 132-178; and Denis Kaiser, “Divine Revelation, Inspiration, and Authority in Ellen G. White’s Experience, View, and Writings,” in Affirming Our Identity: Current Theological Issues Challenging the Seventh-day Adventist Church, ed. Dan-Adrian Petre, Joel Iparraguirre, and J. Vladimir Polanco (Madrid: Safeliz, 2023), pp. 257-276.

[2] Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, book 3 (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1958, 1980), pp. 29, 30.

[3] Ibid., p. 30.

[4] Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2 (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1948), p. 605.

[5] Ibid., p. 607.

[6] Ibid., vol. 4, p. 230.

[7] Ibid., vol. 8, p. 237.

[8] Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases, vol. 17 (Silver Spring, Md.: Ellen G. White Estate, 1993), p. 63.

[9] Alberto R. Timm, “Ellen G. White as a Bible Expositor: Historical Overview and Critical Appraisals,” in Affirming Our Identity, pp. 277-305.