God has always spoken to His people through prophets, and the Bible promises that the gift of prophecy will continue until Jesus comes. Seventh-day Adventists believe that gift was manifested in the life and work of Ellen G. White. This study looks at what the Bible teaches about prophets, how to test one, how Ellen White understood her own work, and why her humble example still speaks to the church today, especially to its women.
A Bible study · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 10 min read
God Speaks Through Prophets
“Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”
Amos 3:7
“And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.”
Numbers 12:6
Prophets were never meant to replace God’s written word, or to be followed blindly. They were God’s way of guiding, warning and encouraging His people at critical moments. And trusting the messages He sent through them was tied directly to trusting Him:
“And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.”
2 Chronicles 20:20
Your Daughters Shall Prophesy
Joel foretold a day when the gift would be poured out on men and women alike:
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.”
Joel 2:28-29
Peter quoted those words on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17-18). And the Bible names several women whom God used as prophets:
- Miriam, “the prophetess, the sister of Aaron,” who led Israel’s women in praise at the Red Sea (Exodus 15:20).
- Deborah, “a prophetess,” who judged Israel (Judges 4:4).
- Huldah, the prophetess King Josiah’s officials consulted when the book of the law was found (2 Kings 22:14).
- Anna, “a prophetess,” who recognized the infant Jesus in the temple and “spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem” (Luke 2:36-38).
- Philip’s four daughters, “which did prophesy” (Acts 21:9).
“At that time the prophetess Huldah was living in Jerusalem, near the temple. The mind of the king, filled with anxious foreboding, reverted to her, and he determined to inquire of the Lord through this chosen messenger to learn, if possible, whether by any means within his power he might save erring Judah, now on the verge of ruin. The gravity of the situation and the respect in which he held the prophetess led him to choose as his messengers to her the first men of the kingdom.”
Ellen G. White · Prophets and Kings, p. 398
A Gift Until The End
Some believe the gift of prophecy ended with the apostles. But Paul lists it among the gifts Christ gave to His church, and says how long they would last:
“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:”
Ephesians 4:11-13
“Till we all come in the unity of the faith.” That day has not come yet. Paul told the Corinthians they came “behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:7). And Revelation describes God’s last-day people this way:
“And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
Revelation 12:17
What is “the testimony of Jesus Christ”? The angel told John:
“And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
Revelation 19:10
The church of the last days will keep the commandments, including the Sabbath (see The Bible Sabbath), and it will have the spirit of prophecy among it.
How To Test A Prophet
Because false prophets would also come (Matthew 24:24), God gave clear tests. Paul said: “Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21). Every claim to the prophetic gift must pass these:
1. Agreement With Scripture
“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”
Isaiah 8:20
2. Fulfilled Predictions
“When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.”
Deuteronomy 18:22
3. Good Fruit
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?”
Matthew 7:15-16
4. Jesus Christ Come In The Flesh
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:”
1 John 4:1-2
A true prophet points to Jesus, agrees with the Bible, and lives a life that bears good fruit. By those tests Adventists have examined Ellen White’s seventy years of ministry, and every reader is invited to do the same.
Ellen G. White: The Lord’s Messenger
Ellen Gould Harmon was born in Maine in 1827. In December 1844, just weeks after the Great Disappointment, she received her first vision at seventeen. For the next seventy years, until her death in 1915, she wrote, preached and counseled. With her husband James White and Joseph Bates she helped found the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Her book Steps to Christ has been translated into well over a hundred languages. (For how her vision of the sanctuary came after the Bible study, see The Sanctuary And 1844.)
She did not go looking for the work. She was a sick, shy teenager, and when God first told her to share what she had seen, she begged Him to choose someone else:
“I was only seventeen years of age, small and frail, unused to society, and naturally so timid and retiring that it was painful for me to meet strangers. For several days, and far into the night, I prayed that this burden might be removed from me, and laid upon some one more capable of bearing it.”
Ellen G. White · Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, p. 69
Many people called her a prophet. She never took the title for herself:
“I have had no claims to make, only that I am instructed that I am the Lord’s messenger; that He called me in my youth to be His messenger, to receive His word, and to give a clear and decided message in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
Ellen G. White · Selected Messages, book 1, p. 32
“Why have I not claimed to be a prophet?—Because in these days many who boldly claim that they are prophets are a reproach to the cause of Christ; and because my work includes much more than the word ‘prophet’ signifies.”
Ellen G. White · Selected Messages, book 1, p. 32
A Lesser Light To The Greater Light
Ellen White never put her writings in the place of the Bible. She called them “a lesser light” whose whole purpose was to send people back to Scripture:
“Little heed is given to the Bible, and the Lord has given a lesser light to lead men and women to the greater light.”
Ellen G. White · Colporteur Ministry, p. 125
“The written testimonies are not to give new light, but to impress vividly upon the heart the truths of inspiration already revealed.”
Ellen G. White · Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 665
And in the introduction to her best-known book she wrote that the Bible is the test of every gift, including her own:
“The Spirit was not given—nor can it ever be bestowed—to supersede the Bible; for the Scriptures explicitly state that the word of God is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested.”
Ellen G. White · The Great Controversy, Introduction
That is why every study on this website starts with Scripture, and quotes Ellen White only to shed light on what the Bible has already said.
A Humble Example For Our Time
Ellen White was without question one of the founders of the Adventist movement. God used her to guide its doctrines, its health work, its schools and its missions. Yet she never sought an elevated position for herself. She held no office in the church and asked for no title. She even refused to take credit for her own books:
“Sister White is not the originator of these books. They contain the instruction that during her lifework God has been giving her.”
Ellen G. White · Colporteur Ministry, p. 125
Humility did not mean silence. When God gave her a message, she delivered it plainly, even to the leaders of the church, as she did at Minneapolis in 1888 (see What Ellen White Said About 1888). But she spoke to lift up Christ and His truth, never to lift up herself. She worked alongside her husband and her brethren, and she built up the church and its leadership rather than competing with it.
Her example is one that the women of the Adventist church today can follow with confidence. A Christ-like woman builds up the church, including the authority of its leaders, as Christ would do. She does not lift herself up by tearing others down. That is the same calling Paul gives every believer, man or woman:
“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:”
Philippians 2:3-5
(See The Role Of Women In The SDA Church.)
Answering The Critics
“Adventists Put Her Above The Bible”
She said the opposite, repeatedly, as the quotations above show. Her writings are “a lesser light.” Any Adventist who uses them to overrule Scripture is going against Ellen White herself.
“She Copied Other Writers”
She used the words of historians and other authors, and she said so openly in the introduction to The Great Controversy: where “a historian has so grouped together events as to afford, in brief, a comprehensive view of the subject… his words have been quoted.” Bible writers did the same: Luke says he gathered his Gospel from eyewitness sources (Luke 1:1-3). Borrowing a well-phrased description of history does not make the spiritual message borrowed.
“The Gift Ended With The Apostles”
Ephesians 4:11-13 says the gifts continue “till we all come in the unity of the faith,” and Revelation 12:17 and 19:10 say the last-day church will have “the testimony of Jesus,” “the spirit of prophecy.” Scripture never says the gift would stop before the end.
Believe His Prophets
The gift of prophecy is not about a person. It is about a God who loves His people too much to leave them without guidance in the last days. Ellen White would want every reader of this page to close it and open the Bible. Read her books the way she asked them to be read, as a lesser light leading to the greater, and test everything by the Word.
Keep Studying
- Did Our Pioneers Believe In The Trinity?: what she and the pioneers actually wrote
- What Ellen White Said About 1888
- The Role Of Women In The SDA Church
- The Sanctuary And 1844
- Important SDA Issues
