Forbidding Marriage

By Dirk Anderson

Paul, a true prophet of God, warned Christians of what to expect in the last days of earth's history...

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it bereceived with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer (1 Timothy 4:1-5).

Could this passage be referring to Ellen White and others like her?

First, the Spirit said this would take place in the "latter times." In 1907, Mrs. White quoted 1 Timothy 4:1 and wrote: "The time of this apostasy is here."¹ Therefore, according to her own testimony, she fits the time of this prophecy. However, does she meet the other criteria spelled out in it?

The prophecy says that those who depart from the faith will command others to "abstain from meats." It is a well-documented fact that Mrs. White commanded her followers to abstain from meat and animal products. For example:

Vegetables, fruits, and grains should compose our diet. Not an ounce of flesh meat should enter our stomachs.²

Shall human beings live on the flesh of dead animals? The answer, from the light that God has given is, No; decidedly no.³

We bear positive testimony against tobacco, spirituous liquors, snuff, tea, coffee, flesh-meats, butter, spices, rich cakes, mince pies, a large amount of salt, and all exciting substances used as articles of food.⁴

Banish butter, cheese, flesh meats, and every article that is not the most simple and the best calculated to make a healthy quality of blood.⁵

It is for their own good that the Lord counsels the remnant church to discard the use of flesh meats...⁶

If a temperance pledge providing for the abstinence from flesh foods, tea, and coffee, and some other foods, that are known to be injurious, were circulated through our ranks a great and good work would be accomplished.⁷

From these quotes it is obvious that Mrs. White fulfilled this part of the Spirit's warning: "Commanding to abstain from meats." Furthermore, while telling her flock to abstain, she hypocritically ate meat most of her life. Paul said these false teachers of the latter times would speak "in hypocrisy." Thus far, Mrs. White appears to be a qualified candidate for the fulfillment of this passage. But what about the forbidding of marriage?

Mrs. White categorically denied forbidding marriage:

We have, as a people, never forbidden marriage, except in cases where there were obvious reasons that marriage would be misery to both parties. And even then, we have only advised and counseled.⁸

In many passages Mrs. White endorses marriage in beautiful terms. For example:

Marriage has received Christ's blessing, and it is to be regarded as a sacred institution. True religion does not counterwork the Lord's plans. God ordained that man and woman should be united in holy wedlock, to raise up families that, crowned with honour, would be symbols of the family in heaven. And at the beginning of His public ministry Christ gave His decided sanction to the institution that had been sanctioned in Eden. Thus He declared to all that He will not refuse His presence on marriage occasions, and that marriage, when joined with purity and holiness, truth and righteousness, is one of the greatest blessings ever given to the human family.⁹

Despite these endorsements, a closer study of her writings reveals instances where she did indeed object to marriage in many subtle and not-so-subtle ways. These will be examined below in detail.

A Wile of the Devil

Prior to their own marriage, Ellen and James seemed opposed to the idea, possibly considering it a distraction since they thought Christ's return to be imminent. In 1845, James White wrote of two Adventists who had...

...denied their faith, in being published for marriage. We all look on it as a wile of the Devil. The firm brethren in Maine who are waiting for Christ to come have no fellowship with such a move.¹⁰

Despite their reservations about it being a "wile of the devil," James White married Ellen Harmon the very next year after questions were raised about the propriety of them traveling together. According to Ellen, she "never expected to be married."¹¹

Some Would Have to Break Marriages

In 1850, Mrs. White had a vision instructing one sister to break her marriage because the husband refused to join the radical shut-door Adventists:

I then saw Sister S. Peckham that she would have to break loose from her husband for he has no part nor lot with the saints.¹²

This is contrary to Scripture. Jesus said: "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:9). Paul said: "And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband" (1 Cor. 7:10).

Too Close to the End for Marriage

Forty years later, in 1885, she penned the following testimony for the SDA Church:

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.¹³

While this testimony does not absolutely forbid marriage, it would certainly tend to discourage the practice.

Marriage Among SDA Workers

Mrs. White had particular concerns about marriage among SDA workers. She seemed to feel that marriage would make some workers less efficient. In one testimony, Mrs. White lamented the fact that a missionary (Brother C.) had taken a wife:

How much better would have been the influence of both if they had not married ... Brother C. could have done a very good work for the Master, had he devoted himself to this work as the Lord's servant. When married, his work has not been more than one-half what it might have been.¹⁴

Perhaps his work was "one-half what it might have been" because he was following God's command to "be fruitful and multiply" (Gen. 1:28).

In 1890, Mrs. White reiterated her desire that SDA workers not marry, referring to it as a Satanic snare:

There are men and women through the country who would have been accepted as laborers together with God if Satan had not laid his snares to entangle their minds and hearts in courtship and marriage. Did the Lord urge them to obtain the advantages of our schools and mission that they might sink everything in courtship and marriage, binding themselves by a human band for a lifetime? By accepting the work of rearing children in these last days of uncertainty and peril, many place themselves in a position where they cannot labor either in the canvassing field or in any other branch of the cause of God, and some lose all interest to do this.¹⁵

What a tragedy that marriage was causing SDA youth to lose interest in proselytizing other Christians with SDA doctrines!

Marriage to Unbelievers

Mrs. White did forbid the marriage of Adventists to unbelievers.

The curse of God rests upon many of the ill-timed, inappropriate connections that are formed in this age of the world.

Never should God's people venture upon forbidden ground. Marriage between believers and unbelievers is forbidden by God.¹⁶

While this would seem to be Biblically sound, one must wonder what Ellen White meant by unbeliever? What is an unbeliever in Christ? Or an unbeliever in SDA doctrines? From her 1850 statement quoted earlier, it would seem to be the latter.

Early Marriages

Mrs. White discouraged marriage at a young age:

Before assuming the responsibilities involved in marriage, young men and young women should have such an experience in practical life as will prepare them for its duties and its burdens. Early marriages are not to be encouraged.¹⁷

It appears she disapproved of any marriage while the partners were still in school:

The marriages formed by students at school are not right nor proper.¹⁸

Marriage if One Partner Was Ill

Mrs. White called it a "sin" for a sick man to marry a healthy woman:

Sickly men have often won the affections of women apparently healthy, and because they loved each other, they have felt themselves at perfect liberty to marry... Those who thus marry, commit sin."¹⁹

The Bible never calls such a marriage a sin.

Large Age Difference in Marriage

The following statement on marriage is noteworthy because it is so outlandish, implying that if the age of the parents differs widely, the children will be somehow physically or morally deficient:

Another cause of the deficiency of the present generation in physical strength and moral worth, is, men and women uniting in marriage whose ages widely differ. It is frequently the case that old men choose to marry young wives. ... She should consider, if children be born to them, what would be their condition? It is still worse for young men to marry women considerably older than themselves. The offspring of such unions in many cases, where ages widely differ, have not well-balanced minds. They have been deficient also in physical strength. In such families have frequently been manifested varied, peculiar, and often painful, traits of character. They often die prematurely, and those who reach maturity, in many cases, are deficient in physical and mental strength, and moral worth.²⁰

Aside from the questionable science in this statement, it is worth noting that the Bible never forbids such marriages. In fact, one of the great romances in the Bible is between Ruth and Boaz, a man who was much older than Ruth.²¹ Ruth gave birth to Obed, who gave birth to Jesse, father of David. It is doubtful that Obed was "deficient in physical and mental strength, and moral worth" just because Boaz was a generation older than Ruth!

Interracial Marriages

Another form of marriage forbidden by Mrs. White was between those of different races:

...there should be no intermarriage between the white and the colored race.²²

While the Jews were not permitted to marry pagans from the surrounding nations, there is no specific prohibition in the Bible regarding interracial marriages. In fact, Moses was married to an Ethiopian woman.²³ Today there are many mixed marriages in the SDA Church, showing that even they do not believe their prophet's words are inspired.

Celibacy in Marriage

At one point Mrs. White even sent out a testimony admonishing Seventh-day Adventists who were already married to be celibate, although this obviously uninspired testimony was so controversial that it was quickly withdrawn:

The time is and has been for years, that the bringing of children into the world is more an occasion of grief than joy..... Satan controls these children, and the Lord has but little to do with them. The time has come when, in one sense, that they that have wives be as though they had none.²⁴

General Negativity Toward Marriage

Throughout her entire prophetic career, Mrs. White made negative and discouraging statements about marriage. She warned that marriage could result in spiritual danger and curses from God:

Many imperil their own souls, and bring the curse of God upon them, by entering into the marriage relation merely to please the fancy.²⁵

In the same testimony, she warned her followers that less than one percent of marriages result in happiness and are approved by God:

There is not one marriage in one hundred that results happily, that bears the sanction of God, and places the parties in a position better to glorify Him. The evil consequences of poor marriages are numberless.²⁶

Finally, she expresses a very dim view of marriage in another testimonies to the sect:

Many marriages can only be productive of misery...²⁷

Marriage, in a majority of cases, is a most galling yoke.²⁸

Conclusion

While Mrs. White made no blanket statement absolutely forbidding marriage, she certainly discouraged marriage in a variety of cases:

• Church workers
• Those of widely differing ages
• When one partner was ill
• Those of different races
• Anyone after 1885, because the time of trouble was imminent

None of these restrictions are found anywhere in the Bible. Believers in Ellen White should examine these statements carefully in light of Paul's warning, and take heed so as not to be deceived by seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.

Citations

1. Ellen White, Letter 410, 1907.

2. Ellen White, Manuscript 115, 1903

3. Ellen White, Manuscript 3, 1897.

4. Ellen White, Testimony for the Church (1872), 44.

5. Ellen White, Letter 47a, 1874.

6. Ellen White, Manuscript 71, 1908.

7. Ellen White, "Backsliding in Health Reform" (1908), 1.

8. Ellen White, Letter 60, 1900. Published in Testimonies on Sexual Behaviour, Adultery, 14.

9. Ellen White, Bible Echo, Aug. 28, 1899.

10. James White letter to Brother Jacobs, Day Star, October 11, 1845.

11. Ellen White, Manuscript Releases, vol. 5, 208.

12. Ellen White, Manuscript 7a, 1850, para. 13.

13. Ellen White, Testimonies, vol. 5 366.

14. Ellen White, Counsels Regarding Parenthood, DF 360A, White Estate, 7.

15. Ellen White, Manuscript 18a, 1890.

16. Ellen White, Adventist Home, 62-63.

17. Ellen White, Ministry of Health, 358. See also Testimonies, vol. 3, 44.

18. Ellen White, Youth Instructor, Aug. 10, 1899.

19. Ellen White, A Solemn Appeal (1870), 107.

20. Ellen White, Testimonies on Sexual Behaviour, Adultery, 36, 37.

21. In Ruth 2:6 the Hebrew word na`arah (Strong's 05291) is used of Ruth. This word is translated as girl/damsel/little girl/young woman/marriageable young woman. In all likelihood she was in her teens or twenties. Internal Biblical evidence indicates Boaz to be at least 40 years old, and probably older. "Boaz comments that Ruth has not run after younger men and he refers to her as daughter.[Ruth 2:8] This would be an appropriate comment for a man of Boaz' age, for he would be about fifty now, if he were born in the first year of planting after the conquest of the land. Or between 40 and 60 years old, if Rahab, his mother, was 20 at the time of the fall of Jericho, and could bear children until she was 40." (Bruce Alan Killian, "The Relative Place of the Ruth Story in Time", ScriptureScholar.com). In Rabbinical literature, Boaz was said to be eighty and Ruth forty years old ("Boaz", JewishEcyclopedia.com).

22. Ellen White, Manuscript 7, 1896; Selected Messages Book 2, p. 343, para. 2.

23. Numbers 12:1-8.

24. Ellen White, Manuscript 34, 1885. Some have questioned the legitimacy of this testimony because it was withdrawn and does not appear in any of the published writings of Ellen White. The legitimacy of the testimony is proven by the fact it appears in document DF-360A which was published by the White Estate on July 15, 1934, and was written by her son Willie White and D.E. Robinson (Ellen White's secretary). The authors quote from the testimony as if it were a valid Ellen White testimony.

25. Ellen White, Testimonies, vol. 4, 504. This sounds similar to Dr. Jackson's sentiment: "...men and women frequently enter upon this relation with no higher feeling than that of fancy..." ( James Caleb Jackson, Consumption :How to Prevent it, and How to Cure it (Boston : B.L. Emerson, 1862), 22).

26. Ibid., 503.

27. Ellen White, Testimonies, vol. 5, 122.

28. Ellen White, Review and Herald, Feb. 2, 1886.