Ellen White Investigation

"I Am Not...A Prophet":
Ellen White's Most Truthful Statement

By , Dec.

On Sunday, October 2, 1904, the 76-year-old Ellen White made an astounding statement as she spoke before an audience of 2,500 at the Battle Creek Tabernacle. This audience included many citizens who were not Seventh-day Adventists. Some claim this was the most truthful statement she ever made. However, she started her talk with a falsehood:

The truth that we proclaim today is the same truth that we have proclaimed for the last fifty years.1

Perhaps in her elderly condition she forgot the shut door doctrine that she saw in vision, taught others, and wrote about extensively for seven years from 1844-1851, and then dropped entirely after the brethren finally concluded it was false. Perhaps she forgot all of the times she backpedaled on her testimonies and how some recent testimonies contradicted her earlier ones.

Next, in a moment of incredible candor, she shocked the audience with this honest admission:

I want you to read the books Patriarchs and Prophets (I expected to have them here on the stand before us), Great Controversy, Desire of Ages, Ministry of Healing[, which] is nearly done, and a great many other books. I am not, as I said yesterday, a prophet. I do not claim to be a leader; I claim to be simply a messenger of God, and that is all I have ever claimed.2

It is unclear why she made this statement to a public audience. She had successfully hidden this fact from everyone for nearly 60 years. Why reveal it now? It appears she was trying to promote her books and perhaps she was hoping to remove the public's prejudice against her by claiming she was not a prophet.

The Unguarded Statement

Grandson Arthur White wrote that this statement "startled her hearers." He notes that she was speaking "without notes." Apparently she went off-script and revealed something the brethren wished she had not. Perhaps, without notes, her memory loss and dementia got the best of her that day. Arthur labels it as an "unguarded statement."3 What is an "unguarded statement?" It refers to a comment made without careful thought, consideration, or caution. Such statements can reveal more than the person intended. They may unintentionally disclose secrets or sensitive information, resulting in embarrassment. Did Ellen reveal a secret she was not supposed to?

What about her reference to what she said yesterday? White made a similar statement to a much smaller group of SDAs on the previous day:

They say she is a prophetess, they say she is this and that and the other thing—I claim to be no such thing. I will tell you what I want you all to know, that I am a messenger... Now I want to tell you this, that Mrs. White does not call herself a prophetess or a leader of this people. She calls herself simply a messenger...4

Her Sabbath statement was heard by a much smaller audience and received no publicity. She did not say she was not a prophet. She merely said she made no claims to the title. That was odd enough. She had been the defacto spiritual leader of the sect since the 1840s. The sect had long claimed she had the gift of prophecy. In fact, every prospective SDA had to agree to that on their baptismal vow before an SDA pastor would baptize them. White wrote multiple volumes entitled Spiritual Gifts and Spirit of Prophecy. Her followers claimed she was a prophet for decades and she never stopped them. What changed?

Her public statement on Sunday went further than her private Sabbath statement. She created confusion about her role by specifically stating she was not a prophet. The Battle Creek newspaper trumpeted the news:

The woman the Adventists had believed in all these years as a prophet had now come straight out and said she was not a prophet after all!5

SDA Corporate Damage Control

While her critics applauded this long-awaited confession with satisfaction, SDA corporate leaders were frantic. Their entire sectarian system was built on the premise that they were the only denomination that kept all of the commandments of God (i.e, the Sabbath) and had the Spirit of Prophecy manifesting in their prophet Ellen White (Rev 14:12, 19:10). Without a prophet, they were just one of dozens of Sabbatarian sects, and could no longer point to themselves as the sole remnant of Bible prophecy. They went into immediate damage control mode. Arthur understates the gravity of the situation:

Ellen White and church leaders found that an explanation must be made.6

News of the shocking admission circulated around the denomination, confounding members who had been under the impression for years or decades that Ellen White was a prophet. Ellen's candid admission raised thorny questions. In January, the brethren decided that the disastrous statement must be addressed on the pages of the sect's flagship publication, the Review. In that month's paper, White struggled to contain the damage:

Sunday afternoon I spoke again in the Tabernacle. ... I said that I did not claim to be a prophetess. I have not stood before the people claiming this title, though many called me thus. I have been instructed to say, “I am God's messenger, sent to bear a message of reproof to the erring and of encouragement to the meek and lowly.” With pen and with voice I am to bear the messages given me. The word given me is, “You are faithfully to reprove those who would mar the faith of the people of God. Write out the things which I shall give you, that they may stand as a witness to the truth till the end of time.”7

The publication of the event in the Review, along with her awkward explanation, likely brought even more unwanted attention to it. Notice how Ellen White attempts to spin her statement into something less damaging:

Original statement on October 2 Revised statement on January 26
"I am not, as I said yesterday, a prophet." "I said that I did not claim to be a prophetess."

These two statements are very different, as her critics were quick to point out. She back-pedaled from a stark admission that she was not a prophet to saying she did not "claim" to be a prophet.

What's a Messenger?

Apparently, Ellen's explanation was still too nebulous and confusing for many SDAs. Ellen claimed to be a messenger, but what exactly is a messenger? Does a messenger have the Spirit of Prophecy? What is the difference between a messenger and a prophet?

According to the Bible, a messenger could perform many roles:

Which category of messenger was Ellen White? Was she a prophet like Haggai? Was her role similar to a priest who simply communicated the Bible to people? Was she like Epaphroditus, merely communicating messages from other sect leaders? Or was she like John the Baptist, whose work entailed that of a prophet but much more?

To complicate matters, in the past, Ellen White had called other SDAs "the messengers of God." For example:

A.T. Jones

What category of messenger did Ellen White fall in? Was her role the same as A.T. Jones and other SDA ministers? If so, was A.T. Jones' word as inspired as Ellen White's? What about when the words of these two messengers clashed? By 1906, messenger A.T. Jones was calling into question the validity of messenger Ellen White's prophetic gift, and she responded by labeling him "a man deluded and deceived."16 Which messenger were the SDAs to believe? It was getting increasingly confusing.

SDA people began ignoring Ellen White's counsel even more than they already did before, claiming she was not a prophet by her own admission. Arthur writes,

There was a continued misuse of her unguarded statement, and further explanations were called for.17

In July of the following year, Mrs. White responded to the ongoing confusion and controversy in a letter to the elders of the Battle Creek church. She made it clear that any questions about her prophethood were inspired by "Satan" and those who questioned her unhinged statement were "becoming channels through whom Satan can communicate doubt and questioning."18 Thus, she insinuated that the problem was not with her own confusing statements but with everyone who dared question her. In the letter she said she was "intending" to tell the people...

"I do not claim to be a prophetess." If I spoke otherwise than this, let all now understand that what I had in mind to say was that I do not claim the title of prophet or prophetess.19

After assuring the brethren that she simply misspoke and was not unintentionally letting the truth slip out, she further defined her role as messenger:

Why have I not claimed to be a prophet? Because in these days many who boldly claim that they are prophets are a reproach to the cause of Christ; and because my work includes much more than the word “prophet” signifies. ... My commission embraces the work of a prophet, but it does not end there. It embraces much more than the minds of those who have been sowing the seeds of unbelief can comprehend.20

One may assume that Ellen had significant assistance from her favorite son W.C. White in crafting this new message to his liking. Some saw through it. His brother Edson (also a "messenger") was well-known in Battle Creek for letting everyone know that Willie was manipulating his mother. Ellen had to rebuke him sharply for confessing to others in Michigan that Willie "manipulates my writings."21

It seems that Ellen's status as "more than a prophet" did not last long, because in 1909, she wrote to the church in Washington D.C. and confessed to them that the Lord appeared to her in a dream and told her "you are my messenger."22 Thus, the confusion continued. Which is it? Prophet? More than a prophet? Messenger?

Conclusion

In a matter of less than two years, Ellen White went from "not a prophet" to "not claiming to be a prophet" to "more than a prophet!" In fact, in one of her most narcissistic statements ever made, she claimed she was so far beyond a prophet that her opponents could not even comprehend it! No one knows if these words were Ellen's or Willie's, but this settled the matter for corporate leaders. When Ellen confessed before the Tabernacle in 1904 that she was not a prophet, she simply misspoke. Ellen was not only a prophet, but far more of a prophet than her opponents could ever comprehend!

Corporate leaders have hoped this would forever settle the matter, but in 1909 Ellen White stated that when "speaking before large congregations...It is not I who controls my words and actions at such times."23 On first glance, that sounds as if it is confirmation of her status as more than a prophet — God controlling her words when she speaks. However, it creates an interesting dilemma: If God controlled her words when she spoke before "large congregations," then when she spoke before the large congregation of 2,500 in Battle Creek in 1904, God must have been controlling her words. If so, she could not have misspoken any more than God could have. That means her 1904 confession was controlled by God, making it the most truthful statement she ever spoke: "I am not...a prophet...simply a messenger."

See also