Ellen White Had the Right View of Inspiration

Brother Daniel:

Thanks for your comments! I am excited by the fact that you seem to be pro-life. There is a great need for a revival in our church regarding this issue.

As far as your question dealing with the inerrancy of Scripture, I tend to agree with Ellen White's views about inspiration. She evidently did not believe in the inerrancy concept, since she did state that in the past some copyists did introduce some changes in the text  in an effort to make some passages of Scripture clearer, thus introducing errors. My objective is to paint a true picture of the Bible, instead of advancing false claims which are not supported by facts as revealed in Scripture. I developed the habit of reading the Holy Book on a daily basis everyday before attempting to do anything else. I see in its pages the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Mrs. White also stated that the Bible was not the result of dictation, but rather inspiration, with the writers using their own words to express the ideas presented to them through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And she added that God is not represented in the Bible as the author. Besides, Mrs. White did tell us that only God is infallible. This means to me that everybody else is fallible, including those who wrote the Bible. I will give some examples below.

The fact is that David was wrong, I believe, when he stated "Blessed are those who dash your little ones against the rocks." This statement by David contradicts the one that says: "Vengeance is mine, says the Lord." There are similar passages found in the Bible which do not make sense. We have the statement asserting that God instigated David to count Israel so he could punish him later. Likewise, we have contradictory statements affirming that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and that Pharaoh hardened his heart. These contradictory statements cannot be both true.

I just visited my web site and performed a search by typing the word "inerrancy". After reviewing what I have written about the inerrancy of Scripture, I do not see the need to make any corrections.

Thanks for writing. May the good Lord continue to bless you in your ministry!

Nic Samojluk
909-796-4760
SDA Forum Editor
www.sdaforum.com
Flamingo Real Estate Broker
www.flamingorealestate.com

Bible Writers Had no Control Over

What they Wrote

"He who is the father of lies, blinds and deceives the world by sending his angels forth to speak for apostles, and make it appear that they contradict what they wrote when on earth, which was dictated by the Holy Ghost." [29]

"The scribes of God wrote as they were dictated by the Holy Spirit, having no control of the work themselves." [30]

These are two powerful statements showing that yes, she did exactly believe that the Bible was dictated.

Your statement saying you know which parts (or A part) of the Bible is/are not inspired shows that you are on very, very slippery sand.

Let's look to Jesus today, the author and finisher of our faith,

Ellen White's View of Inspiration 

Brother Daniel:

Thanks for your comments. I made an attempt at locating the Ellen White's quotations you make reference to, but was unsuccessful. Can you please give me exact reference?

I did locate, though the following explanation written by Ellen White detailing how biblical inspiration works:

"The Bible is written by inspired men, but it is not God's mode of thought and expression. It is that of humanity. God, as a writer, is not represented. Men will often say such an expression is not like God. But God has not put Himself in words, in logic, in rhetoric, on trial in the Bible. The writers of the Bible were God's penmen, not His pen. Look at the different writers.

It is not the words of the Bible that are inspired, but the men that were inspired. Inspiration acts not on the man's words or his expressions but on the man himself, who, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, is imbued with thoughts. But the words receive the impress of the individual mind. The divine mind is diffused. The divine mind and will is combined with the human mind and will; thus the utterances of the man are the word of God. (Manuscript 24, 1886; written in Europe in 1886.)" And here is the Internet link to this statement:

        http://www.whiteestate.org/issues/re

For me, this inspired statement by Ellen White explains why we find both in the Bible and in her writings  things that are hard to understand. You did suggest that I am on a slippery slope because I quoted some obscure passages that seem contradictory. If I adopt your position suggesting that every biblical statement was dictated by the Holy Spirit, I have a problem. How could the Holy Spirit have dictated the following: "Blessed are those who dash your little one against the rocks"? When I compare said statement with another one: "Vengeance is mine, says the Lord," I conclude that both statements could not have been "dictated" by the Holy Spirit.

Ellen White helps me understand the apparent contradiction by telling me that it is not the words of the Bible that were inspired, but rather the men, and they used their own words to express what they received from above. Such a view of inspiration helps me understand other apparent contradiction we find in the Bible. Classic examples are the statements asserting in one passage that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and in another that it was Pharaoh who hardened his heart. Likewise, it helps me understand the biblical statement saying that God incited David to count Israel so he could punish him for doing so.

God bless!

Nic Samojluk

That quote is not possibly from

Ellen White.

The 2 quotes i gave you DEFINITELY ARE from Ellen White.  One is from the original version of The Great Controversy (1858), and the other quote is from Volume 26 of Testimonies for the Church.

I have gone over this issue of mistakes in the Bible with several people before.  You can see this experience on my blog at:

I assumed that you had access to all the writings of Ellen White on your computer, which is why i did not give the exact reference earlier.  I'm sorry for assuming that, and leaving you in the dark. Please find a way to get all the SOP on your computer, so that you can search for yourself, and find that God's words are ALL to be highly regarded.

Deuteronomy 18: "[18] I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. [19] And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. [20] But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die."

Can We Pick & Choose What Ellen White did Write?

Dear brother Daniel:

Thanks for your response and for your comments. I am really amazed at the reason you are giving for rejecting two statements attributed to Ellen White by the White Estate. If I cannot trust the White Estate, then why should I trust anything that has been published bearing her name? Both the book and the White Estate attribute said declarations to Ellen White, yet you reject them because they do not agree with your preconceived understanding of inspiration.

I do not know whether you realize what you are doing. In fact you are doing to Ellen White's writings exactly what you stated was inappropriate to do to the Bible writers: to pick and choose what does not agree with your personal doctrinal preferences. The Adventist church has taken the position that there is no difference in the degree of inspiration between what Mrs. White has written and what we find in the Holy Book. This means that we have no right to reject portions of what has been attributed to Ellen White by a reliable source like the White Estate simply because we do not like what we find there.

This is where Ellen White's understanding of inspiration comes in handy. She claims that what the Lord inspired was not the specific words, but rather the prophet. Then the prophet used the best words he could muster to express the ideas conveyed to him by the Holy spirit. This means that certain inspired writers had the ability to express God's messages in a clearer manner than others. It also means that some Bible writers, like Luke, for example, were inspired to engage in careful research and then report the result of their work in their own words. It also explains all the apparent contradiction found in the Gospels.

A literal, verbal inspiration model forces us to accept apparently contradictory statements like the ones I cited to you before. Insisting that both "God hardened the heart of Pharaoh" and "Pharaoh hardened his heart" are verbally and literally true is irrational and false. They cannot both be true at the same time. If the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, then it would have been immoral for Him to punish him for non-compliance with his command. The same moral principle applies to two other apparently contradictory statements stating that "God incited David to count Israel" and "Satan moved David to count Israel." Logic forces us to give preference to the second statement as factual, since it accords with God's character as revealed throughout the Bible.

I am including again the two statements attributed to Ellen White which describe what I believe to be the best description of how inspiration works. By the way, I did verify the references with a hard copy of Ellen White book: Selected Messages. Now regarding the statements you have quoted, I am still waiting for the precise references with page numbers. I did make an attempt at locating them through the Internet, but did not succeed. I am not questioning their genuineness, but given Ellen White's view of inspiration I have quoted, I have no problem accepting them as coming from her pen.

 

 Selected Messages, book 1, pages 21.

"The Bible is written by inspired men, but it is not God's mode of thought and expression. It is that of humanity. God, as a writer, is not represented. Men will often say such an expression is not like God. But God has not put Himself in words, in logic, in rhetoric, on trial in the Bible. The writers of the Bible were God's penmen, not His pen. Look at the different writers.

It is not the words of the Bible that are inspired, but the men that were inspired. Inspiration acts not on the man's words or his expressions but on the man himself, who, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, is imbued with thoughts. But the words receive the impress of the individual mind. The divine mind is diffused. The divine mind and will is combined with the human mind and will; thus the utterances of the man are the word of God. (Manuscript 24, 1886; written in Europe in 1886.)"

May the good Lord bless you in your service for him!

Nic Samojluk

All the Words in the Bible Are From God!

On Certain Instances the Words Were

Chosen by the Lord

Brother Daniel:

Thanks for responding to my comments! Evidently, when we try to interpret correctly Ellen White's writings, we face the same problem as when we attempt to understand Scripture. I am still waiting for you to give me precise reference to those quotations you cited in your previous communications. In the event they are genuine, and I tend to believe that they are, then we have what seems contradictory assertions regarding inspiration.

As I tried to solve this problem in my own mind, I came across a statement from the White Estate which might help us understand this dilemma:

"On certain occasions the very words to be used are impressed upon his mind by the Spirit of God. Note this from Ellen White in a letter of admonition in which after dealing with certain situations she stated: "I am trying to catch the very words and expressions that were made in reference to this matter, and as my pen hesitates a moment, the appropriate words come to my mind."'Quoted in Ellen G. White Writings, p. 22." [http://www.whiteestate.org/issues/Inspiration.html ]

I want to emphasize the sentence "On certain occasions the very words to be used are impressed upon his mind by the Spirit of God." This seems to indicate that sometimes the Holy Spirit leads the prophet in the choice of words and it implies that on other instances the prophet has to choose the best way to express the revelations he has received from above. This makes sense to me. The Ten Commandments is a good example where the words were chosen by the Lord. The writing of Kings, Samuel, and Luke seem to indicate that the writers were impressed to record for posterity the history of God's dealing with his people, but their writings seem to be the result of careful research

You seem to prefer to read every word found in the Bible in a literal manner, but you refuse to grant Ellen White's writings the same treatment and prefer to doubt the authenticity of statements which do not agree with your favorite interpretation of Scripture. Are you implying that her writings are less inspired than those of the Bible writers?

Besides, I have additional questions for you: 1. Who hardened the heart of Pharaoh, God or the king of Egypt? 2. Who incited David to count Israel, God or Satan? 3. Who was morally correct, David who issued a blessing on those who would dash Israel's enemy babies against the rocks, or the one who said "Vengeance is mine, said the Lord."?

You cannot ignore these apparent contradictions. I have attempted to explain the apparent contradiction between opposing statements of Mrs. White regarding inspiration by suggesting that sometimes the words were provided by the Holy Spirit, while on other occasions the prophet had to find the most suitable words from his repertoire. Now I expect you to do the same with the apparent contradictions found in Holy Writ I have cited above!

God bless!

Nic Samojluk

"For the Most Part" the Inspired Words

Were Not Dictated

Brother Daniel:

I found another quotation coming from the White Estate which I believe is helpful in understanding how prophetical inspiration works. I am looking forward to the specific references to the quotations you cited suggesting that all the words found in the Bible were dictated to the Bible writers by the Holy Spirit. Evidently, you copied them from some source. Please, give me those sources.

"Though at times she quoted exactly what she had heard, the writing was not mechanical, nor were the specific words of the complete record dictated. For the most part, the words used were her own, as was true in the case of the Bible writers. God made use of the messenger's background, education, and experience in bringing to His people the revelation He wanted them to have." [A Prophet Among You http://whiteestate.org/books/pay/PAYc17.html ]

Notice the phrase "For the most part," and this is applied both to the writings of Ellen White and the Bible as well. The expression, "for the most part" leaves room for those instances when the words were supplied by the Holy Spirit. This interpretation of inspiration seems to solve the apparent contradiction dealing with the meaning  of inspiration.

Nic Samojluk

Free Mailing List Club!

 

If you would like to be on our SDA Forum Mailing List, please take a minute to sign up today and join hundreds of others who have done already so. It is free, and you will have the choice of unsuscribing at will. We do not share, nor do we sell your E-mail to others.