H ere are some things she predicted that did not come to pass: That no sinners would be saved after 1844; that Christ would come in person and abolish slavery; that slavery would stir up a second rebellion; that England would declare war on the United States. So she was proven false even as was William Miller. The denomination has ever backed up all of Mrs. White’s assertions about herself and her literary productions. No where have I found either in their early or later writings any repudiation of her. The Review and Herald of August 14, 1883 stated: "Our position on the Testimonies is like the keystone to the arch. Take that out and there is no logical stopping- place till all the special truths of the message are gone . . . Nothing is surer than this, that the message and the visions belong together, and stand or fall together.” Words could not be plainer than that. Mrs. Ellen G. White stands in the same relation to the Adventists that Mrs. Eddy does to the Christian Scientists. For a sect to rely upon the visions of any woman-—and especially one whose mentality was such that she felt her self the equal of Daniel, and Paul and all the other apostles and prophets— certainly places it in anything but a Chris tian category! Well, Elder White and his remarkable wife are dead. Who is now the voice of the Seventh-day Adventists? No single individual. Mrs. White laid down the principle herself: "I have been shown that no man’s judgment should be surrendered to the judgment of any one man. But when the judgment of the General Conference, which is highest authority that God has upon earth, is exercised, private independence and private judgment must not be maintained. It must be sur rendered” ( Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 9, pp. 260, 261 ). Well, the Vatican exercises no greater power over the Catholics than that! In like manner, the Adventists’ highest administrative body is the voice of the Lord to them. That is why if one who has been with them a long time sees fit to repudiate their teachings and join some other group, he is hounded all his days, as illustrated by the two men I have mentioned previously. Our country is a land of religious liberty. One has the right to believe as he pleases, and to take whatever action his conscience dictates. There is no reason why, if one loses confidence in a certain re ligion, that he should not be allowed to resign and serve the Lord elsewhere. But woe unto anyone who raises his voice against Seventh-day Adventism! With such a basis for their doctrines, that one must defer to other writings than the Scriptures, it is no wonder that the Adventists, who have some truth, have so obscured it by error that those who are enlightened by the Word can not remain with them. Very accurately did W . C. Whitmarsh state in The Cri teria for Prophecy, Oct., 1930: "The Bible and Early Writings [o f Mrs. White] stand in absolute antagonism one to the other. To accept the Bible as the inspired, authorita tive Word of God, is to reject Mrs. White’s 'inspiration.’ To accept Mrs. White’s 'inspiration’ is to reject the Word of God as the source of final appeal.” END. N E X T M O N TH What Seventh-day Adventists Believe
were her books inspired, but even her personal letters were "the precious rays of light shining from the throne” (Testi mony No. 31, p. 63). One of the standard textbooks for Seventh-day Adven tism is the volume to which I have previously referred: The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan, by Mrs. Ellen G. White, which has undergone a number of re visions and re-arrangement of material, so that one has to check in the various editions to find the material he is seeking. Now in the 1903 edition, the preface, written by some other Adventist, contains this statement in regard to the author, Mrs. White: "We believe that she has been empowered by a divine illumination to speak of some past events which have been brought to her knowledge with greater minuteness than is set forth in any existing records, and to read the future with more than human foresight.” What is "more than human foresight” but divine fore sight? Another writer made this wild statement regarding their prophetess: "As with the ancient prophets, the talking is done by the. Holy Spirit through her vocal organs. The prophets spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost— 2 Peter 1:21” (Lake Union Herald, Nov. 7, 1941). hus she is put on a par with the writers of the Bible. The fact that her predictions did not come to pass daunted the Adventists not one whit. F. M. Wilcox, one of their early leaders, and editor of their official publications, had this to say about Mrs. White: "As Samuel was a prophet to Israel in his day, as Jeremiah was a prophet to Israel in the days of his captivity, as John the Baptist came as a special messenger of God to prepare the way for Christ’s appearing, so we believe that Mrs. White was a prophet to the church today.” She is ranked with the prophets of the Old and New Testaments. And yet the Adventists claim to be devoted to the Word of G od ! Only those chosen by God to set down the record for us may be said to be inspired of God. We believe in verbal inspiration, word-for-word inspiration, in the original text; and we believe that with the book of Revelation, the canon of Scripture was closed; the revelation was completed. All that come after and claim for their writings inspiration are false prophets and prophetesses. Here are her own claims of inspiration for her Testi monies in which she incorporated her visions upon which Adventism is really built: "I took the precious Bible and surrounded it with sev eral Testimonies to the church” ( Testimony Vol. 2, p. 605). "They are what God has opened before me in vision” (Testimony No. 31, p. 63). "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” ( Testimony No. 33, p. 189) ■ "It is hardly possible for men to offer a greater insult to God than to despise and reject the instrumentalities [her Testimonies ] that He has appointed to lead these” (Testi mony No. 33, p. 208). I say one could scarcely offer a greater insult to God than to claim that the writings of a neurotic woman are on a par with His inspired Word.
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