Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Human and Divine Related in Miracles

No one believes more fully than do Seventh-day Adventists that there is a distinctly supernatural, and thus miraculous, operation involved in the manifestation of the prophetic gift. But, speaking of the miraculous, we note from Scripture that when Christ worked mighty miracles He displayed His power only to do that which men could not do for themselves, For example, He put clay on a blind man’s eyes. He then told the man to go wash it off. He restored the dead man, Lazarus, to his sisters. But strictly speaking, He performed only the miracle of restoring life to Lazarus. He then left to men the task of unwinding the funeral bandages so that Lazarus could walk and see and act as a living man. EGWC 462.3

But Christ’s miracles are no less supernatural because of the human actions in connection with them. We believe God has a purpose in this combining of divine and human, a purpose so often forgotten by those who superstitiously would look for miraculous happenings of every sort, as if the divine should substitute for the human on every side and in every feature of life. A careful reading of Scripture reveals that God is sparing of the miraculous, and at no time displays His power merely to create wonder or substitute for accomplishments that men could produce if they diligently tutored and employed all the talents and resources He has already given to them. EGWC 462.4

Without seeking to draw a close analogy, we believe that this principle of divine economy in the display of the miraculous may help us to reach a right conclusion on the question before us. We think that the unprejudiced reader of The Great Controversy, for example, will have no difficulty in concluding that the book gives evidence of a grand design that was not copied from human writings, and that the limited borrowings from other authors do not dim the conviction as to that grand design. Or, to change the figure: There is a pulsing life in that book that cannot be found in secular or church histories, certainly not in the histories from which Mrs. White borrowed some of her descriptions. We believe the life that pulses in that book is God breathed—inspired of God. That there should be the human touch of human hands before this miracle of life actually speaks to men, detracts nought from the miracle. EGWC 463.1

Not only were Mrs. White’s literary borrowings limited; they were also not central to the grand design or purpose of her writing. They are, by and large, part of the frame of the inspired pictures of truth that she seeks to bring before our eyes. The measure of the inspiration of an artist is not the frame of his picture, but the picture! EGWC 463.2