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48 Ellen G. White -- Messenger or Medium?

ELLEN G. WHITE -- MESSENGER

OR MEDIUM?

Ellen G. White called herself "the Lord's messenger." Her follow-
ers claimed she was a prophetess whose writings were a necessary
aid to Bible understanding. Were Mrs. White's visions from
YEHOVAH God, or were they from the spirits of darkness? How
can we tell? What about the trances she frequently succumbed to
and the amazing strength she exhibited during them? Were her "out
of body" experiences and frequent "fainting spells" signs of a ser-
vant of YEHOVAH -- or was she simply a medium through whom
the powers of darkness made themselves known?

John D. Keyser

E llen G. White, the well-known leader of the Seventh-day Adventist Church for more than 60
years, liked to be known as "the Lord's messenger." Although she refrained from coming right
out and claiming to be a prophetess, her followers claimed that she was, and made her prophe-
cies a "test of fellowship" within the Church.

In the Review and Herald, dated October 4, 1928, the editor made this pronouncement: "As
Samuel was a prophet to Israel in his day, as Jeremiah was a prophet to Israel in the days of his cap-
tivity, as John the Baptist came as a special messenger of the Lord to prepare the way for Christ's ap-
pearing, so we believe that Mrs. White was A PROPHET to the Church of Christ today."

Although she didn't call herself a prophetess, Ellen G. White did, however, class herself
along with the Biblical prophets. "In ancient times God spoke to men by the mouth of prophets and
apostles," she wrote in 1876. "In these days he speaks to them by the Testimonies of his Spirit" -- a
PLAIN REFERENCE to her own work (Testimonies, vol.4, p.148).

Was, then, Ellen G. White a prophetess or "MESSENGER" of YEHOVAH God or-- as
some have supposed -- a MEDIUM of the spirit world? Psychic mediums claimed to be guided by
an invisible power, but so did Ellen G. White. Was there really a difference? Is there a possibility--
no matter how remote -- that she may have been influenced by the same forces that controlled the
mediums of her day -- and those of today as well?

Let us study the life of this enigmatic woman and REVEAL THE FACTS concerning her
role in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The final arbiter in this study will be -- and must be -- the
Word of YEHOVAH, the Bible.

The Berean Voice November-December 2002