Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Mrs. White Follows Bible Pattern

Mrs. White’s urgent appeals to believers to make ready for the soon-coming judgments of God simply follow the Bible pattern. When she speaks of time being nearly finished, when she appeals to new believers to learn in a few months the solid truths of the Word, that they may be ready for perilous days just ahead, she is inventing no new form of exhortation. Indeed she virtually borrows the words of Scripture. Listen to Paul speaking again, in his letter to the Hebrews: EGWC 261.7

“Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” Hebrews 10:35-37. EGWC 262.1

To the church at Rome, Paul wrote: EGWC 262.2

“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” Romans 13:11-14. EGWC 262.3

Paul declares that “the day is at hand” and that “yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” Mrs. White uses almost identical language, and besides she writes in the very days that the prophet declared to be “the last days.” EGWC 262.4

Note, incidentally, that Paul’s appeal to the church at Rome to be in readiness, ends with the command: “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” Mrs. White, in her 1854 statement, administered a rebuke to those who were indulging in the “lusts” of the flesh. EGWC 262.5