The Gift of Prophecy (The Role of Ellen White in God’s Remnant Church)

Models of the inspiration of the Bible

Many evangelical Christians consider the Bible to be verbally inspired and therefore both infallible and inerrant. As W. Elwell explains, “Inerrancy is the view that when all the facts become known, they will demonstrate that the Bible in its original autographs and correctly interpreted is entirely true and never false in all it affirms, whether that relates to doctrine or ethics or to the social, physical, or life sciences.” ² GP 51.1

Although Seventh-day Adventists have a high view of Scripture, they have never subscribed to verbal inerrancy. As Ellen White explained, GP 51.2

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. GP 51.3

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 (1SM 21). GP 51.4

Seventh-day Adventists, therefore, have avoided the term verbal inspiration and have generally preferred the term thought inspiration. This does not mean that the words of the Bible aren’t trustworthy or important. On the contrary, both thoughts and words were involved in the inspiration process. The authors of Scripture received God’s messages in visual or verbal form, and they conveyed these messages as best as they could in written form, frequently expressing the thoughts in the very words that they heard God or the angels speak. So Ellen White stated, “I take the Bible just as it is, as the Inspired Word” (1SM 17). GP 51.5

We might further describe biblical inspiration in terms of two models. Most Adventists know and understand the prophetic model of inspiration. It simply means that God communicated with His prophets through (1) dreams and visions (see Numbers 12:6; Isaiah 1:1; Ezekiel 1:1; Daniel 7:1; Amos 1:1); (2) direct speech (see Genesis 12:1; Exodus 3:4-6); or (3) angels (see Daniel 8:15, 16; 9:21). GP 51.6

In Jeremiah 36:2, the prophet is told, ” ‘Take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah even to this day.’ ” What God said against Israel, Judah, and the nations fills almost the whole book of Jeremiah. It is hardly likely that, on his own, Jeremiah could have remembered everything the Lord had told him over the previous twenty years. ^* The Holy Spirit must have brought to his mind what he had been told, and the same Spirit also guided him in writing it down, because the end product of what he dictated to his secretary Baruch is called “the words of the LORD” (verse 11). “The experience of Jeremiah indicates that the prophets did not write their books as if they were mere copyists. They were fully involved, while moved and guided by the Spirit, in their writing.” ³ GP 52.1

Not all the books of the Bible were written by prophets on the basis of dreams and visions, however. Some books were written under a different model of inspiration. The Gospel of Luke provides a fitting illustration of this model. In his introduction Luke wrote, “Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed” (Luke 1:1-4). GP 52.2

Nowhere in his Gospel does Luke claim to have had dreams or visions, nor was he an eyewitness of the life of Christ. So, how did he write the Gospel that later became part of the New Testament? In his introduction he mentions other accounts of the life of Christ with which he was obviously familiar. He refers to eyewitnesses, some of whom he probably met and interviewed. The apostles, the seventy disciples, the women who attended Jesus, and members of Jesus’ family had been eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life and had heard His teachings. Luke may not have had personal interviews with them all, but everything that he records in his Gospel he received in some way from others. GP 52.3

Luke also mentions “ministers of the word” (huperetai in Greek). Who were these people? George Rice believes that they were individuals who performed a special function in the early church. “They were specially chosen to memorize the sermons, parables, and deeds of Jesus. Their responsibility was to repeat from memory what the Lord said and did, and possibly to interpret their meaning.” ⁴ Luke identifies John Mark as one of these huperetai in Acts 13:5. GP 53.1

From Luke’s introductory statement we can infer that he gathered reports of Jesus’ life, interviewed eyewitnesses, collected material, and read books, and the Holy Spirit led him in selecting what to write. Luke arranged the events in the order in which he wanted to present them to Theophilus, a man of high rank in the Roman world of the day. Thus in the book of Luke, we find what may be called “the research model of inspiration.” In this model the Holy Spirit guides writers in their research, reading, and interviews, and then He directs them in the selection and presentation of their material. From the time of the early church onward, Christians believed that the Holy Spirit guided Luke in the selection of the material and ensured that what he wrote down was in harmony with the historical events and with God’s will. Ellen White has an interesting comment on this point. She wrote, “God has been pleased to communicate His truth to the world by human agencies, and He Himself, by His Holy Spirit, qualified men and enabled them to do this work. He guided the mind in the selection of what to speak and what to write” (GC vi). GP 53.2

Other books most likely written under this model are 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles. At times the authors of these books used existing sources, such as court records (see 2 Chronicles 35:4), chronicles (see 1 Chronicles 27:24), histories (see 2 Chronicles 27:7), and books by other prophets (see 1 Kings 11:41; 2 Kings 14:28; 1 Chronicles 29:29). Nevertheless, as the authors studied and composed, the Holy Spirit guided their minds in the selection of what sources to use and what to write. GP 53.3

Some books may have been written under both models of inspiration. For example, we find hints of genealogical tables that Moses consulted in writing the book of Genesis (see Genesis 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10; etc.). Yet, we know that Moses was also the recipient of many visions and verbal communications from God. Ellen White says that most of the content of the book of Genesis was revealed to Moses while he was in Midian taking care of his father-in-law’s herds and flocks (see PP 251). GP 53.4

Some of Paul’s letters might also fall into this category. He received visions (see 2 Corinthians 12:1-7), but he also received information from church members that he incorporated into his letters (see 1 Corinthians 1:10, 11). At times he also quoted from pagan authors. For example, the saying “Bad company corrupts good character” (see 1 Corinthians 15:33, NIV) is a quote from the Greek poet Menander (343-280 B.c.), and the Cretan “prophet” whom he cites in Titus 1:12 was most likely Epimenides. GP 53.5

Although the biblical authors used different sources in addition to revelations from heaven, the end product of this cooperative effort between God and man was the Word of God, because all the writing was done under the supervision of the Holy Spirit. GP 54.1