
	"We Discovered Ellen White Failed the Biblical Tests of a Prophet"
Honest Answers for Real People

Main Menu

Is the Bible Sufficient?

By D. Anderson

Esta pagina in Español

Mrs. White claims her testimonies were given because of the fact that Seventh-day Adventists were ignorant of the Bible:

"If you had made God's word your study, with a desire to reach the Bible standard and attain to Christian perfection, you would not have needed the Testimonies." (Testimonies, Vol 5, p. 605)

In the same paragraph she places her writings on par with the writings of Holy Scripture:

"I took the precious Bible and surrounded it with the several Testimonies for the Church, given for the people of God. Here, said I, the cases of nearly all are met. ... God has been pleased to give you line upon line and precept upon precept." (Ibid.)

Just as the Mormons add the Book of Mormon to the Scriptures, Mrs. White, describes in visual terms how she places her Testimonies side-by-side with the Holy Word of God. Is it true that Mrs. White's writings can stand side-by-side with the Holy Scriptures? Let us compare the two...

Holy Word of God	Ellen White's Writings
Infallible	"In regard to infallibility, I never claimed it" (1 Selected Messages, p. 37.)
A perfect revelation of God's will (2 Tim. 3:16,17)	An imperfect revelation: "There are serious errors in our authorized books...but we let them go on year after year asserting things which we know to be untrue." (Prescott letter to W.C. White)
Written by men inspired "by the Holy Ghost" (2 Pet. 2:21)	Written by a women who plagiarized heavily from other authors. "The copy work could be as much as 90%". (Rea, How the SDA SOP was Born)
A perfect harmony throughout	Contains sharply contradictory testimonies
Written by dozen of authors over thousands of years	Written by one author over 60 years (although some books, articles, and letters were apparently authored by Fannie Bolton and Marian Davis)
Prophecies never failed. Prophets never had to go back and delete out parts of their writings when they did not come to pass.	Contains glaring false prophecies. Mrs. White had to delete out portions of her visions regarding the shut door of salvation.

Is the Bible Enough?

Does the Bible contain everything a Christian needs in order to live a godly life in this age? Paul wrote:

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. 1 Timothy 3:16,17

Scripture contains everything necessary in order for a child of God to be "perfect." The Greek word for "perfect" is artios which means, "complete, sufficient, completely qualified." The Bible is complete. It is sufficient. We do not need anything else. In fact, other writings may distract not only our time from studying the Scriptures, but may also lead us down incorrect paths.

We don't need the writings of "Church Fathers"
We don't need the Book of Mormon
We don't need the Testimonies of Ellen White

God speaks to us through His Word, and His Word is the Holy Scriptures. The Bible, the inspired, infallible revelation of God's will, is His chosen instrument to inspire His followers with faith and hope:

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Rom. 10:17)
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. (Rom. 15:4)

Thus, the Bible is sufficient to make us perfect and complete, to inspire us with faith and hope, and to show us our duty towards God and man. A book that is "complete" needs nothing added to it. It is done. It cannot be improved upon. The Bible is the complete and perfect revelation of God's plan for mankind. The Bible needs no additions. We would do well to heed the words written by the apostle John in the last chapter of the last book of the Bible:

If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. (Rev. 22:18)