Inspiration/Revelation: What It Is and How It Works

Chapter 4—” The Bible and the Bible Only! “

In the days of the Protestant Reformation the rallying cry of the “protesters” against the primacy of human tradition over inspired Scripture was “The Bible and the Bible Only!” IRWHW 83.5

In the early days of the Advent movement this same slogan was often heard, but at this time the slogan was primarily employed to camouflage subtle denigrations of Ellen White’s ministry and messages. This slogan is also heard today in the same connection. IRWHW 83.6

At a camp meeting last spring an Adventist pastor from one of our North American colleges told this experience: One Sabbath, in a certain Sabbath school class taught by a professor on campus and attended by college students, the teacher started out by asking the class members individually what insights they had found in extrabiblical contemporary writings that would bear on the day’s lesson study. Responses were offered by way of quotations from such helpful writers as Luther and Calvin, as well as Keith Miller, Paul Tournier, C. S. Lewis, and so on. Next the teacher asked for student reaction to the lesson, and a series of individual testimonies followed. At this point one member of the class, a college student well versed in the writings of Ellen White, said that she had found something helpful, something that met her need, in Mrs. White’s writings; but before she could elaborate, the teacher cut her off with the remark, “Let’s stay with ‘The Bible and the Bible Only’ in this class!” Ironically, up until that moment, the direct witness of the Bible had been totally absent from the class! IRWHW 83.7

Ellen White, in addressing Sabbath school teachers in 1900, instructed them to “leave the impression upon the mind that the Bible, and the Bible alone, is our rule of faith.” ¹⁰⁵ And in the last book she wrote before her death in 1915 she admonished the church’s ministers that “the words of the Bible, and the Bible alone, should be heard from the pulpit.” ¹⁰⁶ Did this mean, as some today allege, that her writings should never be incorporated into a sermon? Not at all. IRWHW 83.8

In a helpful 37-page monograph ¹⁰⁷ Arthur L. White, for years the secretary of the Ellen G. White Estate at the General Conference (and himself a grandson of the prophet), surveys the position of the pioneers of our denomination and cites published statements not readily available to the present-day inquirer. He also examines the 13 major statements from Mrs. White’s pen in which she used the Reformation slogan “The Bible and the Bible Only,” and comes to four conclusions in summarizing the documentary evidence: IRWHW 83.9

1. That at no time was this phrase employed to exclude the binding obligation to respond to the visions as light which God has given to His people.

2. That in most instances the words are employed in the setting of contrasting the teachings of God’s Word with tradition or man’s theories of a false Sabbath, et cetera.

3. In several cases the words are used in defining our position on the visions with the explanation that to follow the Bible enjoins the acceptance of the workings of the gift of prophecy as binding upon all who accept God’s Word, which forecasts the appearance of this gift in the last days.

4. That through the visions God has led us to a correct understanding of His Word and has taught us and will continue to do so. Further, we must ever recognize our obligation to accept this leading of God.

Arthur White also points out that although the 13 major statements from Ellen White’s pen span more than half a century (from 1851 to c. 1914), still the tenor of the statements at the end of her life are not appreciably different from the earliest statements written on the subject. ¹⁰⁸ Mrs. White never changed her stand on this subject. IRWHW 83.10