Ellen G. White’s Attitude Toward Her Work

18. The Question of Ellen G. White’s Opinion

“This is not my opinion”: “After I wrote you the long letter which has been belittled by Eld. X as merely an expression of my own opinion, while at the southern California camp meeting, the Lord partially removed the restriction, and I write what I do. I dare not say more now, lest I go beyond what the Spirit of the Lord has permitted me. EGWATHW 8.4

“When Prof. Z came, I put to him a few pointed questions, more to learn how he regarded the condition of things, than to obtain information. I felt that the crisis had come. Had Eld. X, and those united with him, been standing in the light, they would have recognized the voice of warning and reproof; but he calls it a human work, and casts it aside. The work he is doing he will wish undone ere long. He is weaving a net around himself that he cannot easily break. This is not my opinion. What voice will you acknowledge as the voice of God? What power has the Lord in reserve to correct your errors, and show you your course as it is? What power to work in the church? You have, by your own course, closed every avenue whereby the Lord would reach you. Will He raise one from the dead to speak to you? .... EGWATHW 8.5

“In the testimonies sent to Battle Creek, I have given you the light God has given to me. In no case have I given my own judgment or opinion. I have enough to write of what has been shown me, without falling back on my own opinions. You are doing as the children of Israel did again and again. Instead of repenting before God, you reject His words, and attribute all the warnings and reproof to the messenger whom the Lord sends.”—Testimony for the Battle Creek Church, 50, 58. EGWATHW 8.6

A point met repeatedly: “Many times in my experience I have been called upon to meet the attitude of a certain class, who acknowledged that the testimonies were from God, but took the position that this matter and that matter were Sister White’s opinion and judgment. This suits those who do not love reproof and correction, and who, if their ideas are crossed, have occasion to explain the difference between the human and the divine. EGWATHW 9.1

“If the preconceived opinions or particular ideas of some are crossed in being reproved by testimonies, they have a burden at once to make plain their position to discriminate between the testimonies, defining what is Sister White’s human judgment, and what is the word of the Lord. Everything that sustains their cherished ideas is divine, and the testimonies to correct their errors are human—Sister White’s opinions. They make of none effect the counsel of God by their tradition.”—Manuscript 16, 1889. EGWATHW 9.2

The testimonies not her opinions: “In the testimonies sent to_____I have given you the light God has given to me. In no case have I given my own judgment or opinion. I have enough to write of what has been shown me, without falling back on my own opinions.”—Testimony for the Battle Creek Church, 58. EGWATHW 9.3

Not her mind: “Permit me to express my mind, and yet not my mind, but the word of the Lord.”—Counsels to Writers and Editors, 112. EGWATHW 9.4

Attributing God’s messages to human sources: “What reserve power has the Lord with which to reach those who have cast aside His warnings and reproofs, and have accredited the testimonies of the Spirit of God to no higher source than human wisdom? In the Judgment, what can you who have done this, offer to God as an excuse for turning from the evidences He has given you that God was in the work?”—Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 466. EGWATHW 9.5