Ellen G. White and Her Critics

9. “Children of Their Father, the Devil”

The following passage from Mrs. White is also submitted in evidence in an attempt to prove that she taught that there was no more salvation for sinners after October 22, 1844: EGWC 230.2

“I saw that if the false covering could be torn off from the members of the churches, there would be revealed such iniquity, vileness and corruption, that the most diffident child of GOD would have no hesitancy in calling them by their right name, children of their father, the Devil; for his work they do.”—Spiritual Gifts 1:128. EGWC 230.3

This was published in 1858 and is part of the closing paragraph of the chapter entitled “The Church and the World United.” This chapter is a link in a series of chapters in which Mrs. White is tracing the history of the apostasy in the Christian Era, down through the time of the Reformation, and on beyond that to the time of the Advent Awakening under William Miller. The lines quoted describe the state of the church in the days just preceding the Advent movement of the 1840’s. Let us add, now, two sentences that follow immediately the sentence quoted by the critics: EGWC 230.4

“JESUS and all the heavenly host looked with disgust upon the scene; yet GOD had a message for the church that was sacred and important. If received, it would make a thorough reformation in the church, revive the living testimony that would purge out hypocrites and sinners, and bring the church again into favor with GOD.” EGWC 230.5

Thus ends the chapter, “The Church and the World United.” It is followed immediately by the chapter entitled “William Miller,” which describes the “message for the church” that would bring it “again into favor with GOD.” Now, even though Mrs. White describes the church of the early nineteenth century in the language Christ used to describe the Jews—“children of their father, the Devil”—she explicitly states that it was possible for the church again to be brought “into favor with GOD.” EGWC 231.1