The Ellen G. White Writings

Figures and Symbols

Reference is made to symbols that God apparently often employed as an effective means of conveying truth to the prophets. Note these statements: EGWW 154.2

God Himself employed pictures and symbols to represent to His prophets lessons which He would have them give to the people, and which could thus be better understood than if given in any other way.—Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists, 211, 212. (Republished in Selected Messages 2:319.) EGWW 154.3

Angels ... for ages have communicated to men light and knowledge, telling them what to do ..., unfolding before them scenes of thrilling interest, waymark by waymark in symbols and signs and illustrations.—Manuscript 16, 1888. (Published in Selected Messages 1:17.) EGWW 154.4

But the prophet gaining his knowledge in symbolic representation usually embodied the truths taught in words projecting a literal image. Ellen White in her Introduction to The Great Controversy states: EGWW 154.5

The Infinite One by His Holy Spirit has shed light into the minds and hearts of His servants. He has given dreams and visions, symbols and figures; and those to whom the truth was thus revealed, have themselves embodied the thought in human language.—Selected Messages 1:25. EGWW 154.6

However, this was not always the case. At times as a means of impressive teaching the symbols were reproduced by the prophet in his written account. Note this concerning the revelator: EGWW 154.7

In figures and symbols, subjects of vast importance were presented to John, which he was to record, that the people of God living in his age and in future ages might have an intelligent understanding of the perils and conflicts before them.—The Acts of the Apostles, 583. EGWW 155.1

And of her own experience she wrote: EGWW 155.2

In the night season the Lord gives me instruction in symbols, and then explains their meaning.—Manuscript 22, 1890. EGWW 155.3

For instance, on several occasions the ills that would result from consolidation of the publishing work of the denomination—removing from the several houses their autonomy and placing the control under one management, a course which seemed very promising to our leaders in the early 1890’s—were revealed to Ellen White as trees planted too closely together, with entangled roots, resulting in their being stunted and dwarfed. The symbol gave force to the point made. EGWW 155.4

In 1903, writing to Dr. John H. Kellogg, medical superintendent of the Battle Creek Sanitarium and the natural leader of our medical work, she opened to him certain symbolic representations given to her relating to his case: EGWW 155.5

Many other scenes connected with your case have been presented to me. At one time you were represented to me as trying to push a long car up a steep ascent. But this car, instead of going up the hill, kept running down. This car represented the food business as a commercial enterprise, which has been carried forward in a way that God does not commend.—Letter 239, 1903. EGWW 155.6

I saw you holding up the banner on which are written the words: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 14:12. Several men, some of them those with whom you are connected in the sanitarium, were presenting to you a banner on which was a different inscription. You were letting go the banner of Seventh-day Adventists, and were reaching out to grasp the banner presented to you.—Testimonies for the Church 8:153, 154. EGWW 155.7

A few sentences carried a message that without the symbolic representation would have taken pages to present, and perhaps would have been less effective. But there is no mystery as to the teaching of these two representations. Rather than creating mysteries, symbols were an effective and economical means employed to convey plainly clear-cut truths. But because truths are at times presented in a symbolic framework, there are some who would tend to consider as symbolic much that we have evidence should be understood literally. This tendency gave Ellen White considerable concern, and on a number of occasions she spoke out emphatically on this point. EGWW 156.1