The great apostolic doctrine of Christ’s second coming, the revival of interest in this event by the reformers, and the signs that indicated its nearness, formed background for the preaching of the second advent early in the nineteenth century. This introductory statement from the Church Heritage Manual set the stage for the arrival of the “Spirit of Prophecy” upon the scene to offer guidance and insight to those who expect the soon reappearing of Jesus Christ.
Ellen White was not the first prophet sent by God, but she
proved to be the most durable of the trio that was sent, and beyond doubt the
hardest working. The signs, portents, and wonders had occurred. The first of
the three angels had already spoken, and the second continued to speak to the
inhabitants of the earth. October 22, 1844 (the “Great Disappointment”) had
come and gone. Some divine guidance was needed by the group of believers
who would soon be called Seventh-day Adventists.
John (the “Revelator”) had been a conduit of the “Spirit of
Prophecy” back on Patmos when he wrote Revelation. The Spirit was revived in
the nineteenth century, first in the person of William Ellis Foy. He
experienced a vision that revealed the ultimate victory of the saints, and a
subsequent vision that enigmatically featured three platforms. After the
“Disappointment,” he drifted away from the Advent movement.
A second prophet, Hazen Foss, was granted the same
“platform” vision that Foy had witnessed, and was admonished by a messenger of
God to “use it or lose it” (the “Message Bible” version). Foss, apprehensive
about the potential difficulties the work of a prophet entails, dropped out of
the prophecy business, and God chose to use a frail teenage girl to replace the
uncommitted pair of pioneers.
This young girl, seventeen years old at the time of the
“Disappointment,” experienced her first vision a few months later in 1844. Her
biographer, Arthur L. White (grandson of the subject of his researches), will
be quoted often in the exposition of these ten “factors” regarding Ellen White
(his short biography of his grandmother is available on the Ellen G. White
Estate website). He informs us that, with regard to the First Vision: the power of God rested on Ellen she
witnessed in vision the travels of the Advent people to the city of God. Also: the 17-year-old girl reluctantly and
tremblingly related this vision to the Adventist group in Portland, [and] they accepted it as light from God. The Church Heritage Manual states that the
content of the First Vision was that the coming
of Jesus was not as near as they had hoped. The troops would just have to
keep soldiering on.
“Elmshaven,”
Mrs. White’s last address, half a mile from an Adventist Sanitarium
The Victorian style edifice that Ellen White would name
“Elmshaven” was 15-years-old when she purchased it in 1900. She would occupy it
for another 15 years. She may have been advanced in age, but was in no way
diminished in capacity, for she continued to write prolifically while living at
Elmshaven, and still continued to make frequent road-trips. Wikipedia describes
her end game: “In 1915, White tripped
while entering her study room and broke her hip. Her health subsequently began
to decline, and she died on July 16, 1915. After three funeral services, she
was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery [back in Battle Creek] with her husband.”
Visions
The First vision that Ellen White received, at age 17, has
been described. There were many subsequent visions, both great and small. Her
grandson Arthur selects two of these visions to highlight in his brief biography
of his grandmother. The first of these “great” visions, one concerning the
“Great Controversy” theme, will be reserved for the section labeled “Lovett’s
Grove, Ohio…”
The “Health Reform Vision” is the second of the “great”
visions to be described by Arthur L. White. This event transpired on June 23,
1863. The vision was not only significant for the Adventist denomination (which
wisely heeded and embraced it), but for the entire world (which is in the process
of embracing it). Here are a few comments from a synopsis of a sermon on this
topic presented by a member of Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church, Atlanta: Dr. Tracey Wallace attended Loma Linda
University. He is an enthusiastic evangelist for the Adventist Health Message [the
“Health Reform Vision”], first revealed
in 1863. He described it as being 150 years ahead of its time. It was
concurrent with now obsolete medical practices such as ‘bleeding, purging, and
poisoning.’ Dr. Wallace touted the accuracy and wisdom of scriptural
prescriptions for healthy living, with an emphasis on dietary law. He remarked
upon Ellen White’s prescient recognition of the bad influences tobacco and meat
has upon the constitution. He referenced the Blue Zone phenomena [areas of
the world where people enjoy exceptionally long lives; Loma Linda, California
is one of these zones] with regard to the
Adventist lifestyle and its beneficial contributions to longevity. It
works! The test of a true prophet is whether they are right, or whether they are
wrong. Ellen G. White (as was Saul, for just a moment) can definitely be
counted “among the prophets.”
On November 26, 1827 in Gorham, Maine, the daughter of a hatter was born
Wikipedia ominously reveals that the person who would
eventually be named Ellen Gould White’s father, Robert Harmon, was a farmer who
also made hats using mercuric nitrate (the very substance that can potentially render
one “mad as a hatter”). Much of Ellen's youth was spent in the pursuit of her
father's hat making sideline. Ellen
learned the simplest part of it, which was shaping the crown of the hat. This
is a lot like Henry David Thoreau helping his father to make pencils. A few
years subsequent to her birth, father Robert, mother Eunice, and the rest of
the eight children relocated to the big city, Portland, Maine. She was long
gone from Gorham when the most significant event of her childhood occurred. A
classmate lobbed a rock at her head, and she was in a coma for three weeks as a
result of this incident. The victim’s nose was literally “out of joint,” and
her formal education came to an abrupt end. She accepted Jesus at age 12, and
was baptized into the Methodist Church. But this is all Portland stuff. Gorham
was where Ellen White was born, and this fact may be all that recommends Gorham
to our notice.
The Messenger of the Lord
This sobriquet is frequently attached to Ellen White by
others. It is also a valid description that she herself readily accepted and
proclaimed: For half a century I have
been the Lord’s messenger, and as long as my life shall last I shall continue
to bear the messages that God gives me for His people she wrote in a letter
in 1909, six years prior to her death. When she reached the end, she would have
been more than justified to declaim Second Timothy 4:7-8: I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the
Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but
unto all them also that love his appearing.
“Messenger of the Lord” is the title of a biography of Ellen
G. White that was written by Herbert Douglass, and published by Pacific Press
in the seventies. It focuses upon the prophetic gifts of its subject. Chapter
16 of this work, titled “Ellen White’s Self-awareness as a Messenger,” reveals
that Ellen White did not like to be called a prophet, and much preferred the
less pretentious title of “Messenger of God.” She writes that is all I have ever claimed.
The “Conflict of the Ages” Series
This “boxed set” of works by Ellen G. White manages to
encompass the entire history of the universe (at least those parts that are
worthy of our regard). It consists of five volumes:
Volume 1- Patriarchs
and Prophets: from the rebellion of Satan in heaven to King David.
Volume 2- Prophets
and Kings: covers events from King Solomon to Malachi.
Volume 3- The Desire
of Ages: covers the life and ministry of Jesus.
Volume 4- Acts of the
Apostles: covers from the Great Commission to John the Revelator on Patmos.
Volume 5- The Great Controversy:
covers the 70 A.D. destruction of Jerusalem, through Church History, to the end
of sin and the recreation of the earth.
The Ellen
G. White Estate, Incorporated
The Ellen G. White Estate, Incorporated, is an organization
created in 1933 that acts as the custodian of the voluminous writings of Ellen
White. The headquarters is located at the General Conference in Silver Spring,
Maryland. It is independent of the GC,
but receives an annual allocation just like other departments of the world headquarters.
The White Estate has branch offices and research centers.
The stated purpose of the White Estate is to promulgate
Ellen White's writings, translate them, and provide resources for helping to
better understand her life and ministry. In 2015, 100 years after the death of
Ellen White, the White Estate publicly released all of her unpublished
writings.
Lovett’s Grove, Ohio, the “Great
Controversy” is revealed!
At a funeral service held on the afternoon of March, 1858,
in the hamlet of Lovett’s Grove, Ohio (later to be renamed Bowling Green), at a
public school, a vision of the “Great Controversy” theme (the conflict between
Christ and Satan, assisted by angels in both opposing camps), was given to
Ellen G. White. Two days later Satan tried to kill the prophetess, fearful that
she might reveal to the world the level of mischief that he was responsible
for. His machinations are more effective when his intended victims are not
forewarned. God preserved young Ellen White, and strengthened her as she jotted
down everything that had been presented to her. The book that was fashioned
from these notes was titled The Great Controversy Between Christ and His Angels
and Satan and His Angels. It was first published in 1858. Grandson Arthur L.
White describes the world’s reaction to this enduring work: The volume was well received and highly
prized because of its clear picture of the contending forces in the great
conflict, touching high points of the struggle but dealing more fully with the
closing scenes of this earth's history.
“Sunnyside,” a home away from home (a
type of “Patmos,” if you please)
There in the vicinity of Cooranbong, Australia, down the
street from her son’s enterprise, the Sanitarium Health Food Company, and her
own labor of love, Avondale College, Ellen G. White resided in an ample, but
relatively unadorned (for an age that overindulged in architectural ornament)
wood frame house. In 1960, the Australasian (now South Pacific) Division acquired
and restored “Sunnyside.” Here is an excerpt from page 332 of “Ellen White:
Woman of Vision.” Ellen White was making plans as to how to properly develop
the huge parcel of the outback that had just been purchased for $3 an acre:
She planned to leave some
of the land as woodland, use some for grazing, and some for orchard and garden.
Of course, a choice spot would be selected for the home site. For some time she
had felt that she should have her home in a location more conducive to her
writing than the large rented house at Granville. There it seemed inevitable
that she must run what seemed to be a “free hotel,” with people coming and
going almost every day. Now she determined to build a little cottage where such
demands could not be made upon her. Sometimes the residence of a writer can
become so filled with distractions, they build a little shack in the backyard
that they can retreat into, just in order to be able to concentrate. It is a
shame to have to refer to him, but this is what Philip Roth did. The idea of an
“annex” or “sanctum” also seems to be what “Sunnyside“ represented to Mrs.
White.
Akin to John’s letters “To the
Churches of Asia” are E.G. White’s “Testimonies”
Here is an entry from the website of the Ellen G. White
Estate, Inc.: Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 1885. 758 pp. Counsel from Ellen White containing spiritual
guidance of a general nature and covering a wide variety of
situations-including many letters written personally to members of the church.
Volume One comprises Testimonies Numbers 1-14, written from 1855 to 1868, and a
100-page biographical sketch of the author.
Volume One is revealed to contain 758 pages… and this is just Volume One! There
exists a total of Nine volumes in this compilation of the writings of Ellen
White. The entire set spans the years 1855 through (possibly) 1909. The subject
matter is diverse, and the output is prodigious. A few sections deal with
specific subjects. Volume One, as noted, contains many personal letters from
Ellen White to members of the church. Volume Seven includes a large section
dedicated to the publishing enterprises the church operated (and continues to
operate). Volume Eight includes a refutation of Pantheism. To read the entirety
of the testimonies would be as big a task as reading Proust’s l À la recherche du temps perdu, but
infinitely more edifying.
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