Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Why a Miraculous Display at Pentecost?

Bible critics make sport of Pentecost and its miraculous manifestations, and argue that it was some kind of hallucination. They call attention to the fact that nothing like Pentecost and related incidents has happened in succeeding centuries. But lovers of the Bible have another explanation for the spectacular display at the outset, and its later subsidence. We believe that such a display was intended of God to provide a certain aid to faith at the beginning of the way; a sign and a wonder to impress on all who saw and heard, that God had set His hand to do great things through this company of men who declared that they had a divine message for the world. We believe that today, as surely as at Pentecost, genuine believers in Christ receive the Holy Spirit, and we seek to prove that by showing that Christians today can give evidence of the fruits of the Spirit even as could the early Christians. And “by their fruits ye shall know them.” It is the similarity of fruits that leads us to conclude that the Source of power from which Christians draw today is the same as that from which Christians drew in apostolic times. EGWC 73.1

If, indeed, God did give Mrs. White visions—and no believer in the Bible can rule out the possibility that God may give visions to one of His children—why should we not expect that, at the outset at least, He would give these visions in such a way and in such a public manner that the very giving of them would in itself arrest attention, sober scoffers, and place men and women in a mood to listen attentively to the message that the Lord wished her to present? We do not believe that the physical phenomena in connection with Mrs. White’s visions were an integral part of the visions, any more than we think Moses’ rod, which was miraculously turned into a serpent, was an integral part of the message that he brought to the people. But we think that in both instances the phenomena, which were observable to the natural eye, helped to provide a setting for the presentation of the message. EGWC 73.2

In one of the few references that Mrs. White makes to the physical phenomena in connection with her visions she remarks that such phenomena did play a proper part in the early days of her ministry in establishing the faith of believers. Writing in 1906, she refers to the messages given to her in the earlier days: EGWC 74.1

“Some of the instruction found in these pages was given under circumstances so remarkable as to evidence the wonder-working power of God in behalf of his truth.... EGWC 74.2

“These messages were thus given to substantiate the faith of all, that in these last days we might have confidence in the spirit of prophecy.”—The Review and Herald, June 14, 1906, p. 8. EGWC 74.3