Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Charge Number 4

Mrs. White fulfilled Paul’s prediction concerning some who “in the latter times” would “depart from the faith,” “forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received.” (See 1 Timothy 4:1, 3.) See also her letter to a “Brother and Sister V.” EGWC 372.1

The one authentic passage from Mrs. White that is quoted to give plausibility to the charge of “forbidding to marry” is this: EGWC 372.2

“In this age of the world, as the scenes of earth’s history are soon to close, and we are about to enter upon the time of trouble such as never was, the fewer the marriages contracted, the better for all, both men and women.”—Testimonies for the Church 5:366. EGWC 372.3

The context of this passage is an appeal to a young woman who was about to contract a marriage with an unbeliever. The quoted statement is followed immediately with the lines: EGWC 372.4

“Above all, when Satan is working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, let Christians beware of connecting themselves with unbelievers.” EGWC 372.5

Let us grant that this statement regarding “the fewer the marriages” is a difficult one; but it is no more difficult than certain passages in the Bible that seem to go contrary to the general tenor of Scripture. For example, take these words of Paul: “But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none.” 1 Corinthians 7:29. Taken alone, what a perplexing text that is, much more perplexing than what Mrs. White has said. Nor is this the only statement that Paul made regarding marriage that is “hard to be understood.” EGWC 372.6

But lovers of the Bible insist that Paul’s words should be viewed in the larger context of his other statements. He declared that marriage is honorable, and gave counsel on the proper relation of husbands and wives, parents and children. So did Mrs. White. She wrote at length regarding the duties of parents to children and children to parents. She also set forth principles that should govern the youth in the selecting of a life companion. EGWC 372.7

Other than the one passage from Mrs. White, critics do not cite any statements in our church paper, or any other representative literature published by Seventh-day Adventists, “forbidding” or even discouraging marriage. Their failure to do so is significant! EGWC 373.1

Evidently, then, Adventists are not the ones whom Paul foresaw when he predicted that some would arise “forbidding to marry.” But if Adventists are not the ones whom Paul forecast as “forbidding to marry,” they can hardly be the ones he forecast as “commanding to abstain from meats.” In his prophecy those who do the first seem evidently to be the ones who do the second! EGWC 373.2