The Pocket Ellen G. White Dictionary

F

faith — Fundamentalism

faith

The response of the believer to trust God; it comes about through *conversion. Faith is not based upon any merit but is completely a heart response that leads to an entirely new way of life. “Saving faith is a transaction by which those who receive Christ join themselves in covenant relation with God. Genuine faith is life. A living faith means an increase of vigor, a confiding trust, by which the soul becomes a conquering power” (DA 347).

family

Ellen G. White recognized the importance of family, although in her specific situation sometimes that meant she had to leave her children with others. She stated that this was the “greatest sacrific ” of her life (1T 101). She and *James White tried to make their trips as brief as possible, and as their children grew older, they traveled with their sons. Ellen G. White admonished others who neglected their families. “Your first and most sacred duty is to your family,” she wrote (2T 85). Furthermore, parents are to “encourage love in the hearts” of their children (2T 260).

fanatic

A person who exhibits a strong spirit or radical ideas that often lead to wild and extravagant emotion or behavior. Such “one-idea men can see nothing except to press the one thing that presents itself to their minds. . . . The e is a conscientiousness that will carry everything to extremes, and make Christian duties as burdensome as the Jews made the observance of the Sabbath. . . . One fanatic, with his strong spirit and radical ideas, who will oppress the conscience of those who want to be right, will do great harm” (HS 212).

fanaticism

Extreme devotion and zeal to a cause that leads to wild and extravagant emotion and behavior. Ellen White spoke of “the desolating effects of fanaticism in Maine” shortly after the *Great Disappointment. The fanatical ones, she wrote, “seemed to think that religion consisted in great excitement and noise” (LS 85). Fanaticism was a phenomenon she frequently encountered throughout her seventy-year prophetic ministry.

fastidious

Very attentive to and concerned about accuracy and detail. Ellen G. White noted that when trying to reach the rich classes that it is not necessary to adopt all of their manners and methods or “fastidious tastes” (MH 213).

faultfinding

A common problem and one of the most prevalent themes in the volumes of Testimonies for the Church has to do with individuals who find fault with one another. No Christian should ever be the *conscience for someone else. Ellen G. White noted that some personalities are more prone to a spirit of faultfinding and that such persons should not be permitted to associate with Adventist young people or be allowed to be in church leadership. Ellen G. White was unequivocal: “Constant faultfinding is wrong” (3T 531). See also criticism.

fervor

Intense and passionate feeling. Ellen G. White de-scribed how David with “wonted [lacked] fervor . . . was able, for the last time, to address his people” (PP 750).

fete

A public celebration. Ellen G. White described how early Christians were “often made the chief entertainment at public fetes” (GC 40).

fiction

Ellen G. White warned against fiction, especially sensational novels (MH 445, 446). She warned against any books that distract from God’s Word (COL 107). A superficial reading of her statements might lead one to initially conclude that she was against anything that is not factual. Ellen G. White did, however, distinguish between great works of literature—such as John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, which she recommended (GC 252)—and cheap, trashy dime novels that were sensational in nature. Such mindless literature does not contribute to Christian *character. She did collect stories, some of them nonfactual that had a moral and uplifting purpose, for the four-volume compilation Sabbath Readings for the Home Circle. It is therefore quite clear that Ellen G. White did not use the word fictio in the same way that many people do today by meaning something nonfactual. In

Fitch, Charles (1805-1844)

Millerite minister prominent in western New York and Ohio. He tragically died from pneumonia after becoming chilled following an outdoor baptismal service. His most famous sermon, “Come Out of Her, My People,” denounced other churches that ostracized Millerites. This was characteristic, he believed, of the fall of Babylon in Revelation 18:2. Later, after his death, Ellen G. White de-scribed seeing him in the earth made new in her first vision folk. A nineteenth-century way to refer in a generic sense to relatives or to a community of people.

foolscap

A roughly legal-size piece of paper, typically with a watermark (3BIO 102). This stationery was common in the nineteenth century.

fop

Also: foppish A term to describe a foolish person who is overly concerned about his or her clothes or appearance (MC 56; 4T 391).

forgive/forgiveness

The act or process of forgiving or being forgiven. Ellen G. White counseled that forgiveness is a vital part of the Christian experience. Each individual must experience Christ’s personal forgiveness and extend that spirit of forgiveness to others. “He who refuses to forgive is thereby casting away his own hope of pardon” (COL 247). Those whose “hearts are not broken and humbled on account of sin” become “exacting and unforgiving toward others” (COL 246).

formal religion

The mere outward observance of beliefs, including Sabbath keeping, that lacks an inward *conversion and therefore lacks the proper motivation. All “formal religion is to be dreaded” and avoided at all costs (4T 396).

Foss, Hazen Little (1819—1893)

A Millerite who claimed F to receive several visions but refused to share them. According to Ellen G. White, Foss believed that these visions had been taken from him and given to her instead. Though possibly true, White never endorsed Foss’s claim. Foss was a brother-in-law to Ellen G. White by marrying her older sister, Mary (1821-1912).

Foy, William Ellis (1818-1893)

A black Millerite minister who claimed to receive four visions from 1842 to 1844 and who suffered under racial *prejudice. His visions are similar to some of Ellen G. White’s earliest visions, and the first two are published in his tract The Christian Experience of William E. Foy (1845).

fractious

Divisive. Being “fractious in spirit,” including “dwelling upon the dark side, will make you weak and spiritless” (4T 349).

French modistes.

A term for dressmakers who made and sold fashionable French style dresses and hats. Ellen G. White contrasted *dress reform with their fashions (MH 292).

frivolity

A term used by Ellen G. White, often in conjunction with worldliness, to describe aimless pleasure seeking. She decried the “frivolity of young men and young women” whose “minds are filled with nonsense. Their conversation is only empty, vain talk” (AH 407).

froward generation

A reference to the King James Version’s prose for Deuteronomy 32:20. Froward means some-one or something that is difficult but in this case, meaning a perverse or disobedient group of people. Ellen G. White alluded to this biblical passage when referring to the condition of the world before Christ’s soon return, including the change of the Sabbath (PK 185, 186).

Fuller, Nathan (1825—1895)

Adventist minister and conference president in New York and Pennsylvania who in 1869 apostatized after several clandestine affairs became known. Ellen G. White’s knowledge of Fuller’s experience resulted in the publication of her longest extant *testimony in which she stated that her confidence in humanity had been terribly shaken (2T 439—489). He later joined the *Marion Party, an early dissident movement in Iowa.

Fundamentalism

A theologically conservative movement in that emphasizes a literalistic reading of the Scripture. The term Fundamentalism refers to a specific American movement that began in the early twentieth century. In 1922, the Baptist pastor Curtis Lee Laws used the term to refer to the historical Fundamentalist controversy that split many Protestant denominations in North America during the 1920s. While there were many points of agreement between Adventism and