From Vision to Vexation: Ellen White's Shocking Statements about the SDA People

By Dirk Anderson, June, 2025

The Seventh-day Adventist prophetess Ellen G. White was well known for her harsh judgments and criticisms of Sunday-keepers. However, as she aged, the prophetess became increasingly critical of her own followers. Particularly after the 1888 crisis, her writings became more acrimonious towards the sect and its leaders. In response to this negative press, sect leaders began marginalizing her, which only increased her bitterness. She was vexed that her followers no longer valued her testimonies as they once did. Her aging voice became one of discontent, growing disappointment, and increasing disillusionment. While hypocritically warning others not to find fault with herself or her writings, she was studiously finding fault with nearly everything in the SDA sect. With escalating frequency, she turned her sharpest weapon of condemnation—her pen—internally upon her own followers.

Dire Spiritual State of Seventh-day Adventists

In her early years, Mrs. White expressed two serious complaints against the SDA people. First, she felt that many of her followers were either ignoring her testimonies or outright rebelling against them. For instance, in 1867 she wrote a testimony on this subject and concluded that "not one in twenty" SDAs were "living out the self-sacrificing principles of the word of God."¹ In 1870, she lamented that the Battle Creek SDA Church was not following her health instructions, leading them into a state of lethargic darkness:

I have seen that the disregard of health reform has brought the church into darkness and under condemnation where it is almost impossible to arouse them to a sense of the exalted character of the work of God.²

Another frequent complaint was that her followers were not sending the sect enough of their hard-earned money. In 1871, she wrote, "Many who are professing to love the truth" had buried their talent instead of placing it into the sect's coffers, and thus they were "deceiving their own souls" and "robbing God."³ In 1873, she added:

I saw that many who profess to be keeping the commandments of God are appropriating to their own use the means which the Lord has intrusted to them, and which should come into his treasury. They rob God in tithes and in offerings.⁴

While Mrs. White always had a knack for finding fault with those who displeased her or threatened her authority, the rhetoric picked up after 1888. After 1888, Mrs. White repeatedly criticized her sect for being largely lost. Time and again she pointed out that only five percent of her followers were saved.

• 1892 - "Not one in twenty whose names are registered upon the church books are prepared to close their earthly history, and would be as verily without God and without hope in the world as the common sinner."⁵

• 1894 - "In the past I have made a solemn statement to the church, that not one in twenty whose names are registered upon the church books, is prepared to close his earthly history.⁶

• 1898 - "There is not one in twenty who knows the beauty, the real essence, of Christ's ministry."⁷

• 1900 - "Not one in twenty whose names are registered upon the church books are prepared to close their earthly history, and would be as verily without God and without hope in the world as the common sinner. They are professedly serving God, but they are more earnestly serving mammon.⁸

In 1898, Ellen White explained that only one percent of her followers obeyed Christ's commandment to love the Lord and their neighbors:

There are a very small number that are genuinely in sympathy with Christ Jesus, who show their allegiance to Him by keeping His commandments. They neither love God with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength, nor their neighbor as themselves. ... We have little enough of Christ’s character. We need it all through our ranks. We must reveal that love that dwelt in Jesus. Then we shall keep the commandment that not one in a hundred of those who claim to believe the truth for this time are keeping.⁹

What a shocking admission that only one percent of Seventh-day Adventists obey the most important commandments in the Bible (Matt. 22:36-40)! Her description makes SDAs look like the most spiritually diseased sect on the planet. She added fuel to the fire the next year, writing: "Not one in a hundred know the value of eating the bread of life."¹⁰ "Eating the bread of life" means to receive Jesus as the source of spiritual sustenance and enter into a transforming relationship with Him. Only one percent of SDAs understand the value of this? Either Mrs. White was lying or else the SDA sect is spiritually sick to an alarming extent.

Further statements by Ellen White prove the sick nature of this sect:¹¹

• 1897 - "Many will stand in our pulpits with the torch of false prophecy in their hands, kindled from the hellish torch of Satan."

• 1890 - "The religion of many among us will be the religion of apostate Israel, because they love their own way, and forsake the way of the Lord."

• 1890 - "Bible religion is very scarce, even in the ministers."

• 1892 - "The guilt of self-deception is upon our churches. The religious life of many is a lie."

• 1903 - "Unless the church, which is now being leavened with her own backsliding, repents and is converted, she will eat the fruit of her own doings, until she shall abhor herself."

• 1909 - "There are many Seventh-day Adventists who do not understand that to accept the cause of Christ means to accept His cross. The only evidence they give in their lives of their discipleship is in the name they bear."

From these statements, one can easily assess the spiritual state of the SDA sect, which grew under Ellen White's direct supervision:

• 95% are lost
• 95% serve mammon instead of God
• 99% do not obey God's greatest commandments (love)
• 99% fail to understand the value of a personal relationship with Christ
• Many are disciples in name only

This is the bitter fruit of Ellen White's 70 years of ministry: A sect that is thoroughly spiritually diseased and dysfunctional—by her own admission! Jesus said it best:

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? (Matt. 7:16)

Not Working Hard Enough

The fact that SDAs are still on the planet could be considered proof of their dismal failure. In 1898, Mrs. White explained:

If God’s people had the love of Christ in the heart, if every church member were thoroughly imbued with the spirit of self-sacrifice, if all manifested thorough earnestness, there would be no lack of funds for home and foreign missions; our resources would be multiplied... Had the purpose of God been carried out by His people in giving the message of mercy to the world, Christ would have come to the earth, and the saints would ere this have received their welcome into the City of God.¹²

Since only one percent of SDAs obeyed God's commandments to love, it is no surprise that she admits her people did not have the love of Christ in their heart. If the SDA people would have only given more money and worked harder, Christ would have come by 1898. Yet, what did she expect from a sect where 95% were not saved and were serving mammon instead of God?

In her later years, Mrs. White griped repeatedly about the failure of SDAs to fulfill her commission to spread the quirky SDA doctrines to other Christians:

• 1904 - "Not one in a hundred among us is doing anything beyond engaging in common, worldly enterprises. We are not half awake to the worth of the souls for whom Christ died."¹³

• 1908 - "Commercial enterprises have so long absorbed the interests and capabilities of so many Seventh-day Adventists, that they are largely unfitted to do the work of bringing the light of present truth before those who are ignorant of it."¹⁴

• 1909 - "Many Seventh-day Adventists are apparently unable to understand the necessity for an earnest work being done quickly. Years are passing into eternity with apparently little done to help those who were recently a race of slaves."¹⁵

• 1913 - "Comparatively little missionary work is done; and what is the result? The truths that Christ gave are not taught. Many of God's people are not growing in grace. Many are in an unpleasant, complaining frame of mind."¹⁶

When Mrs. White said "many" were is an "unpleasant, complaining frame of mind," she was obviously referring to herself, who constantly complained about the SDA people's failure to convince Christendom to adopt SDA doctrines so that Christ could return.

Not Giving Enough Money

As noted earlier, part of the reason for the delay in Christ's return was that SDAs were simply not doling out enough of their hard-earned money to the sect. For example, in 1893, she published the following comment in the sect's paper:

Very recently I have had direct light from the Lord upon this question, that Seventh-day Adventists were robbing God in tithes and in offerings...¹⁷

In 1901, she continued her rant in the sect's paper:

But many Seventh-day Adventists fail to realize the responsibility which rests upon them to co-operate with God and Christ for the saving of souls. They do not show forth to the world the great interest God has in sinners. ... The leprosy of selfishness has taken hold of the church.¹⁸

In this quote, Mrs. White explains the reluctance of SDA sect members to shell out their hard-earned money is a symptom of a deeper spiritual problem: The leprosy of selfishness. Leprosy is a deadly disease. Thus, in Ellen White's mind, the sect was in the throes of a deadly spiritual infection.

SDAs Fail to Follow Ellen White's Commandments

After 1888, Mrs. White repeatedly mentioned her earlier gripe that SDAs were either rebelling against or ignoring her testimonies on health and other subjects:

• 1889 - "The minds of many have been engrossed with contentions, and they have rejected the light given through the Testimonies, because it did not agree with their own opinions."¹⁹

• 1890 - "God has sent plain, direct testimonies, pointing them to the word they have neglected to follow. Yet the light is often rejected."²⁰

• 1894 - "We are living in an age of gluttony, and the habits to which the young are educated, even by many Seventh-day Adventists, are in direct opposition to the laws of nature."²¹

• 1904 - "God has spoken to His people by testimonies, by words of reproof and warning. These have been misrepresented, sneered at, misinterpreted, and rejected by many."²²

• 1908 - "His people today have no excuse for turning away from the counsels of His Spirit. In His Word, He has given us examples that should be warnings to us, yet although we have known all this, many of God’s people have not taken heed to the warnings of God."²³

It is yet another sign of severe spiritual sickness that "many" SDAs do not take heed to the warnings of God.

In April of 1902, the publishers of the Review, perhaps grieved at Mrs. White's relentless negativity and griping, decided to move her articles from the front of the magazine to the middle of it. Mrs. White was livid when she discovered this:

My soul is troubled in regard to the change made in our church paper. ... The articles containing the special light for this time are not easily found. ... I saw Elder D. M. Canright holding up a copy of the Review and Herald before a congregation and telling them that the messages of Ellen G. White were now regarded by most Seventh-day Adventists in the manner indicated by changing them from the first page of the Review to the middle of the paper. The action taken in placing before these articles the editorials has not been pleasing to the Lord, but it has pleased the enemy of righteousness and truth. This action has spoken louder than words to hundreds, saying that these articles are less esteemed by some than are the editorials which are now given the precedence.²⁴

Mrs. White seems to be burnt up that SDAs preferred reading other authors over herself. Despite the threatening of God's displeasure, the publishers ignored Mrs. White's demand and kept placing her articles in the middle of the Review.²⁵

SDAs Too Inept to Understand the Bible?

According to Mrs. White, the SDA people are to blame for the testimonies. She wrote:

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.²⁶

Because SDAs gave "little heed...to the Bible," a "lesser light" was given to them "to lead men and women to the greater light."²⁷ What a startling admission! Because of their lack of interest in the Bible, and because they had not studied the Bible with a desire to reach perfection, God had to knock them over the head with Mrs. White's blistering testimonies! Even further, she claimed the "additional light" in her writings was intended "to bring confused minds to his Word."²⁸ This implies SDAs were confused about the Bible and needed Ellen White to explain it to them.

Disunity

In the Bible, Paul lists "enmity, strife...rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy" as among the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21). This indicates that disunity does not come from a Spirit-filled life but from carnal desires and a lack of spiritual maturity. Paul scolds the Corinthian church for their divisions, saying, "For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not worldly?" (1 Cor. 3:3). Disunity shows that believers are behaving like unbelievers. Disunity, strife, and contention grieve or quench the Holy Spirit's work within the community (Eph. 4:30, 1 Thes. 5:19). Satan is often seen as the ultimate author of division, seeking to sow discord among believers to weaken them. In summary, the Bible describes disunity not as a minor issue but as a serious spiritual defect that hinders the church's health and effectiveness.

At one point, Mrs. White acknowledged that her sect had started manifesting her same spirit of fault-finding:

And many Seventh-day Adventists stand before the world as fractious and fault-finding, instead of bound together by oneness with Christ.²⁹

In 1905, she wrote:

Faultfinding and differences between brethren are robbing many of God’s people of spiritual life and of faith.³⁰

This is yet another evidence of a sect that imbibed in their prophet's practice of fault-finding, ultimately resulting in the fruit of disunity.

The Lukewarm Church

After 1888, Mrs. White repeatedly denounced her sect as the Laodicean Church. In 1889, she woke up to the demise of the SDA sect and made an appalling admission: "A false religion has come in among us, a legal religion."³¹ How could that happen with a "prophet" at the helm? Interestingly, during this era, all of the "prophetess" churches of "Apostate Protestantism" (Methodist, Baptist, etc.) managed to avoid a legal religion without a prophet to guide them. All they had was the Greater Light.

In 1890, she wrote in the sect's paper:

Since the time of the Minneapolis meeting, I have seen the state of the Laodicean Church as never before. I have heard the rebuke of God spoken to those who feel so well satisfied, who know not their spiritual destitution. ... Like the Jews, many have closed their eyes lest they should see...³²

Over the remaining decades of her life she continually lambasted the sect for being Laodicean:

• 1897 - "I tell you, in the name of the Lord, that those who have had great light are today in the state described by Christ in His message to the Laodicean church."³³

• 1898 - "The church is in the Laodicean state. The presence of God is not in her midst."³⁴

• 1901 - "Light has been coming to me that unless we have more evident movings of the Spirit of God, and greater manifestations of divine power working in our midst, many of God’s people will be overcome."³⁵

• 1902 - "The description of the condition of the Laodicean Church is a faithful delineation of our own spiritual state."³⁶

• 1903 - "The Laodicean message is applicable to our churches. Many of God’s people...[are] refusing to heed the admonitions of the Lord. Many who were once firm believers in the truth have become careless in regard to their spiritual welfare, and are yielding, without the slightest opposition, to Satan’s well-laid plots."³⁷

• 1907 - "Many of God’s people are standing in the position described in the messages to the churches in Sardis and Laodicea: 'I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.'"³⁸

• 1912 - "Because of a failure to deny self many of God’s people are unable to reach the high standard of spirituality He has set for them."³⁹

She even went so far as to privately ponder if she should leave the SDA denomination and start a new sect:

As reformers they had come out of the denominational churches, but they now act a part similar to that which the churches acted. We hoped that there would not be the necessity for another coming out.⁴⁰

This is how bad it had gotten: Even the founder of the sect wondered if it would be necessary to leave it!

Why would SDAs desire to call people from other churches to join their sect when it is so obviously diseased? By Ellen White's own admission, the fruit of her labors was a sect that:

• Fits the bill as the lukewarm church of Laodicea
• The presence of God is absent from it
• Lacks movings of the Holy Spirit
• Filled with "many" who are careless to their own spiritual welfare and do not oppose Satan's plans
• Is a "dead" church like Sardis
• Filled with "many" who fail to deny self

Who would want to join a sect like this? Are SDAs transparent about this? Do they make prospective converts aware that according to their prophet, the sect is Laodicea, absent of God's spirit, filled with unbelievers (95%), and as "dead" as Sardis?

SDA Leadership Even Worse

After 1888, it seems that Mrs. White lost all confidence in SDA leaders. Obviously tiring of her negativity and tirades, they sought to blunt her impact by moving her out of the spotlight to an obscure outpost in Australia. Meanwhile, though separated from the leadership in America, she repeated blasted them with scathing testimonies:

• 1890 - "The God of Israel has opened the windows of heaven and sent to the world rich floods of light, but that light has been rejected. The spirit manifested in Battle Creek has been the spirit of many churches."⁴¹

• 1895 - "The General Conference is itself becoming corrupted with wrong sentiments and principles. Men connected with the work of God have been dealing unjustly... Plans contrary to truth and righteousness have been introduced... This devising leads to oppression, injustice, and wickedness."⁴²

• 1896 - "The voice from Battle Creek, which has been regarded as authority in counseling how the work should be done, is no longer the voice of God."⁴³

• 1897 - "The mortifying, disgraceful proceedings...have been worked by satanic agencies, and the cause of truth has been hindered."⁴⁴

• 1898 - "It has been some years since I have considered the General Conference as the voice of God."⁴⁵

When she returned, she continued her verbal abuse:

• 1906 - "The ways and works that have been developed in Battle Creek since the General Conference of 1901, cause me to tremble for those who are there; for many have been acting as if blinded by satanic agencies."⁴⁶

• 1908 - "Men placed in high positions of responsibility have not borne fruit God can accept. ... They were standing in positions of high, sacred trust, and yet the fruit was not such as would glorify God, because they bore wild fruit."⁴⁷

Once again, has the SDA leadership been transparent about their spiritual state to prospective converts? Have they revealed to the world that their prophet said they were "corrupted" by wrong principles, that their meetings are "worked by satanic agencies," that they are "blinded by satanic agencies," and they are hindering the cause of truth? Who would want to join a sect with this type of leadership? One could only hope the sect's leaders took heed of her admonitions, but numerous scandals in recent decades would seem to cast doubt on that.⁴⁸

The Worst Insult of Them All

For years Mrs. White lampooned and derided non-SDA churches for their failure to adopt SDA doctrines. She used a variety of negative labels to describe them such as "Babylon" and "Apostate Protestantism." However, in 1900 she made a ghastly admission:

Many who are standing aloof from the Seventh-day Adventists are living more in accordance with the light they have received than are many Seventh-day Adventists.⁴⁹

Here we find the ultimate put-down! She devastated the sect by saying that "Babylon" was living more in accordance with the light they received than SDAs. For an SDA, it cannot get any more humiliating than that!

Conclusion

Whether Mrs. White's statements are truth or falsehood will be left to the reader to decide. However, if she was speaking the truth, and not lies, this has serious ramifications for the SDA sect. If true, SDAs are a sect that utterly failed in their mission, is absent the spirit of God, and its leadership has gone over to the dark side. 95% of its members are not saved and 99% do not understand or obey basic Christian principles. Most members are ruled by mammon instead of God.

Such is the bitter fruit of seventy years of Ellen White's acrimonious, fault-finding ministry.

See also

• Ellen White's Shocking Statements about Women

Citations

1. Ellen White, Testimony for the Church, no. 14 (1867), 3.

2. Ellen White, Appeal to the Battle Creek Church (1870), 81.

3. Ellen White, Testimony for the Church, no. 20 (1871), 133.

4. Ellen White, Testimony for the Church, no. 23 (1873), 25.

5. Ellen White, Letter 16e, 1892. Later published in General Conference Daily Bulletin, Feb. 4, 1893.

6. Ellen White, Manuscript 116, 1894.

7. Ellen White, Manuscript 104, 1898 (6MR 72).

8. Ellen White, General Conference Bulletin, July 1, 1900.

9. Ellen White, Letter 121, 1898.

10. Ellen White, Letter 14, 1899.

11. Ellen White, Manuscript 92, 1897; Manuscript 61, 1890; Manuscript 19, 1890; Letter 19d, 1892; Manuscript 32, 1903 (8T 250); Review and Herald, Feb. 25, 1909 (this statement first appeared in Letter 198, 1908).

12. Ellen White, Australian Union Conference Record, Oct. 15, 1898. Later reprinted in the General Conference Bulletin, Apr. 4, 1901, and the Monthly Missionary Reading, May 9, 1908.

13. Ellen White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8 (1904), 148.

14. Ellen White, Manuscript 65, 1908.

15. Ellen White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9 (1909), 204.

16. Ellen White, Review and Herald, Aug. 7, 1913.

17. Ellen White, Review and Herald, Sep. 12, 1893. Statement first appeared in Letter 57, 1893.

18. Ellen White, Review and Herald, Dec. 10, 1901. Statement first appeared in Manuscript 57, 1901.

19. Ellen White, Review and Herald, Dec. 24, 1889. Statement first appeared in Manuscript 18, 1888.

20. Ellen White, Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene (1890), 129.

21. Ellen White, Christian Education (1894), 163.

22. Ellen White, Letter 101, 1904.

23. Ellen White, Review and Herald, Sep. 24, 1908. Statement first appeared in Manuscript 79, 1908.

24. Ellen White, Letter 110, 1903.

25. For example, for the first 13 issues of the Review in 1902, Mrs. White's article begins on the first page. Beginning with the 14th issue, her articles are moved to the middle of the magazine. For example: 4-8-1902, page 8; 7-1-1902, page 8; 12-30-1902, page 8; 12-3-1903, page 9; 1-7-1904, page 8; 1-5-1905, page 8; 12-7-1905, page 9; 1-4-1906, page 8; 12-27-1906, page 8; 1-03-1907, page 8; 10-31-07, page 8.

26. Ellen White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 605.

27. Ellen White, Words of Encouragement to Those in the Missionary Field, (1904), 6.

28. Ellen White, Letter 130, 1901.

29. Ellen White, Spalding and Magan Collection (1985), 271.

30. Ellen White, Manuscript 26, 1905.

31. Ellen White, Manuscript 30, 1889.

32. Ellen White, Review and Herald, Aug. 26, 1890

33. Ellen White, Letter 5, 1897.

34. Ellen White, Manuscript 156, 1898.

35. Ellen White, Letter 25, 1901.

36. Ellen White, Manuscript 7, 1902.

37. Ellen White, Letter 15, 1903.

38. Ellen White, Letter 226, 1907.

39. Ellen White, Review and Herald, June 6, 1912. This statement first appeared in Letter 152, 1901.

40. Ellen White, Manuscript 30, 1889.

41. Ellen White, Letter 43, 1890.

42. Ellen White, Letter 54, 1895.

43. Ellen White, Manuscript 17, 1896.

44. Ellen White, Manuscript 83, 1897.

45. Ellen White, Manuscript 17, 1898.

46. Ellen White, Testimonies for the Church Containing Messages of Warning and Instruction to Seventh-day Adventists Regarding Dangers Connected With the Medical Missionary Work (1906), 52.

47. Ellen White, Manuscript 16, 1908.

48. The Donald Davenport Financial Scandal (late 1970s - early 1980s), the Walter Rea Plagiarism Controversy (late 1970s - early 1980s), the Folkenberg ADRA scandal (1980s - 1999), sexual abuse scandals (ongoing, with increased public awareness since 2000s), and theological controversies (ongoing).

49. Ellen White, Letter 59, 1900.