Statement Regarding:
Reclaiming the Prophet: An Honest Defense of Ellen White’s Gift
Ellen G. White Estate Board of Trustees
June 5, 2025
In May 2025 the Ellen G. White Estate received a copy of the book
Reclaiming the Prophet: An Honest Defense of Ellen White’s Gift,
co-authored by 11 scholars (8 retired), edited by Eric Anderson. As we
undertake this brief reaction to this book, we do so with regard for our
colleagues who have written from a place of genuine conviction and concern.
We are conscious that what we share will be at odds with several of their
positions. We do so with respect for them and a commitment to both Ellen
White’s understanding of her work as the “Lord’s messenger” and the
Seventh-day Adventist doctrinal acceptance of the prophetic gift.
Bibliographic Information: Eric Anderson, Ed.
Reclaiming the Prophet: An Honest Defense of Ellen White’s Gift
. Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, July 2025.
Authors and Chapters:
Eric Anderson “Introduction”
9-15
Terrie Dopp Aamodt “Ellen White Was a Woman”
17-32
Jonathan Butler “Embracing Ellen White: What Her Defenders and
Detractors
Misunderstand” 33-50
Gilbert M. Valentine “Messenger with a New England Style”
51-70
Paul E. McGraw “The Prophet as Preacher”
73-84
Denis Fortin “Ellen White as a Devotional Writer”
85-95
Eric Anderson “God Wants Us All to have Common Sense: Ellen
White’s
Guidelines for Interpretation” 97-108
George R. Knight “What My Teachers Never Taught Me”
111-123
Donald R. McAdams “Turning Points”
125-148
Ronald D. Graybill & Lawrence Geraty “Ellen White for Today: A Twenty-First Century
Affirmation 149-156
Niels-Erik Andreasen “Where Do We Go from Here?”
157-163
The stated objective of the book is “to reclaim our prophet by honest
affirmation of her gift” through a “new consensus” and “reconstruction” of
Ellen White’s role and influence in the Seventh-day Adventist Church (11,
back cover).
We share appreciation for the five generalizations that are given as
assumptions for the book:
-
Ellen White led the Advent movement from fanaticism to
Christian orthodoxy.
-
Ellen White inspired the creation of a network of schools
and medical institutions committed to re-creation and
restoration.
-
Ellen White taught her followers to separate holy living
from legalism.
-
Ellen White prodded Adventism into a worldwide mission that
transcended its American roots.
-
Ellen White quietly rejected exaggerated claims about
herself (12).
Some other places of agreement include: (1) Seventh-day Adventists are
explicitly clear that we do not consider Ellen White’s writings as
additional Scripture or as a rule of faith. (2) We also recognize that
Ellen White is not the final authority for interpreting the Bible, she
never intended for her writings or work to function in that way. (3) It is
evident that Ellen White frequently used other sources in her writings and
adapted them for her purposes. (4) Throughout her life, Ellen White used
literary assistants and they played an important role in preparing her
books and articles for publication (5) It is necessary when reading Ellen
White to understand the historical context of what she is writing and the
circumstances related to it. That context and the historical circumstances
must be applied to correctly understand the principles behind her counsels.
(6) She was not infallible in her understanding but was constantly growing
in both her knowledge, practice, and experience.
Reclaiming the Prophet presents Ellen White as an inspiring
devotional writer, a remarkable person, a product of her time, who achieved
much while facing unique challenges. Her human contributions are
counterweighted with a focus on her weaknesses and deficiencies. The major
omission in this book is the near absence of attention to special
revelation from God for His church through Ellen White’s writings and
ministry.
The book redefines “prophet” as merely “a person who (in God’s name)
persuades—a leader who changes people’s behavior” (11). She is portrayed as
a gifted person who influenced or convinced others to change their
behavior. The “litany of negatives” (10) against Ellen White are
represented as requiring a redefinition of the nature and role of her
“prophetic” ministry.
The presentation of what constitutes divine inspiration hardly exists.
Perhaps from the authors’ perspective this is because belief in inspiration
is a matter of faith rather than evidence. Some chapters are more carefully
nuanced than others but overall the book remains unbalanced to the human
side. Where present, inspiration is at best an “encounter” with God that is
significantly diminished by human deficiencies. There is little biblical or
Ellen White perspective on the operation of the prophetic gift.
Ellen White embraced thought or message inspiration in a divine-human
incarnational model. While her writings include books that are devotional
in nature, Seventh-day Adventists believe she had frequent communication
with God through visions and dreams and other means of divine communication
and guidance. These messages were communicated in a trustworthy way under
the direction of the Holy Spirit, thereby setting her books apart from
other devotional literature.
For some of the authors it seems that certainty of the “facts” regarding
Ellen White requires a shift toward a human based approach to inspiration.
Is it really a fact that Ellen White was a “plagiarist” (43, 45) or that
her “chronic insomnia” was sometimes interpreted by her as being awakened
in the night by an angel? (68) Is it a fact that Ellen White engaged in a
coverup regarding her use of sources? (133) Is it really true that Marian
Davis should probably be given co-author status with Ellen White? (45, 133)
Is it really a fact that Ellen White and her contemporaries saw the
Testimonies
as the “canon within the canon” and the Conflict of the Ages
series in the “lesser category of inspirational?” (41-42) These and other
details are assumed as “facts.” At the White Estate we do not accept these
interpretations and many other assumptions presented as “facts.”
The book presents the history of the Church, and particularly the last
fifty years, slanted toward historical-critical scholarship with the
corresponding assumptions. An example is the representation of Ron Numbers'
book Prophetess of Health and the description of the White
Estate’s response (140). Numbers' book has as a stated a priori that divine
action cannot be evaluated and therefore must be excluded from
consideration. According to one of the authors, the only “authentic
kernel,” when reading Ellen White, is the “part that lifts us.” (50).
Perhaps that is the best that historical-critical scholarship can provide
in regard to faith.
While it is impossible for a book of this nature to be exhaustive in
details or footnotes, that which is presented should at least represent the
spectrum of church publications that address various issues and concerns.
The citation of sources neglects many important church publications that
present a biblically and historically defensible understanding of Ellen
White’s use of sources, role of her assistants, inspiration, fallibility,
and the relationship of her writings to Scripture, among other issues.
Chapter nine calls for a paradigm change that modifies Fundamental Belief
18 by removing language that speaks of Ellen White’s “prophetic authority”
and the end-time manifestation of the Spirit of Prophecy as an “identifying
mark of the remnant church” (154-155). Do these suggested changes and the
other approaches toward inspiration move in the direction which Ellen White
warned that “the very last deception of Satan will be to make of none
effect the testimony of the Spirit of God. ‘Where there is no vision, the
people perish’ (Prov. 29:18)”? 1 SM 48. We are inclined to think that it
does.
What is omitted in the book does more to deconstruct the fundamental
nature of the prophetic gift and God’s establishment of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church as a remnant movement of Bible prophecy than what has been
stated in it. If this book had been written by a group of non-Adventist
scholars and published by a non-Adventist press it might be considered an
engaging and perhaps sympathetic review of Ellen White from an outside of
faith perspective.
In summary, rather than reclaiming the prophet, as the book
proposes, we believe that much of its content redefines the
prophetic role and the Holy Spirit-inspired messages of Ellen White, in
ways that are out of harmony with her own statements and understanding of
her prophetic calling and the long-standing belief of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church as formulated and outlined in the 28 Fundamental Beliefs.
Following recent consultations, Pacific Press has decided not to further
circulate or reprint the book. We are grateful for these actions and
appreciate their ministry as a dedicated and loyal church publishing house.