Will There Be Another Special Messenger?

Claimants to the Prophetic Office

During the last ten years of her life a number of individuals felt called to be Mrs. White’s successor. Some of these wrote to her; others came to see her. Each one was confident that approving word would be given which would establish him as her successor. W. C. White, who was for many years associated with his mother in her literary work, spoke of this in 1915: ASM 1.5

“A dozen or more persons have presented themselves from time to time, some claiming that the time had come for Mrs. White to lay down her work, and for them to take it up; others claiming that they had been selected of God to be her successor. Some have traveled long distances to see Mrs. White, saying that it had been revealed to them that they had been chosen to act as her successor, and that when she saw them she would recognize them, and testify that they were the ones chosen of God to act in her place when she should die.

“When she has met these people, and listened to their claims, their proposals, their arguments, and their entreaties, she has said to them that she had no commandment, no instruction regarding them. Some of these goodhearted but misguided people have listened to their friends and have given up the claims based upon their fancies. Others have spent years writing and publishing fanatical expositions of scripture filled with denunciations of those who did not accede to their claims and expositions.”—Reported in The Battle Creek Enquirer, July 25, 1915.

In 1912 while Mrs. White was still living, in replying to a letter on this point of a successor, W. C. White wrote: ASM 2.1

“You may be interested to know that during the last five years Mother has received six or eight letters from individuals who feel as this sister, that God has placed upon them the Spirit of Prophecy, and that He will instruct Sister White to testify in their behalf. To all of these Mother has been obliged to send the same answer, that God has given her no instruction regarding their call to any special work....

“Sometimes our brethren ask Mother who will bear the burden of the special work which God has given her after her death, and she tells them she does not know. God has never revealed this to her, and she has no anxiety regarding the matter because God is fully able to instruct His servants and to manage His work according to His infinite wisdom and purpose.”—W. C. White Letter, October 6, 1912.