Ellen White did not initiate one single doctrine in the church. All came from the Bible. And we depend solely on the Bible to this day. We don't need her writings to prove doctrine. That wasn't her role. You will not find one example any where in her writings that offers a doctrinal dissertation.
You'll will probably not even bother to read this, or accept it as genuine, but Ellen White wrote the following:
But God will have a people upon the earth to maintain the Bible, and the Bible only, as the standard of all doctrines and the basis of all reforms. The opinions of learned men, the deductions of science, the creeds or decisions of ecclesiastical councils, as numerous and discordant as are the churches which they represent, the voice of the majority—not one nor all of these should be regarded as evidence for or against any point of religious faith. Before accepting any doctrine or precept, we should demand a plain “Thus saith the Lord” in its support.
Satan is constantly endeavoring to attract attention to man in the place of God. He leads the people to look to bishops, to pastors, to professors of theology, as their guides, instead of searching the Scriptures to learn their duty for themselves. Then, by controlling the minds of these leaders, he can influence the multitudes according to his will. GC 595.1 - GC 595.2
Ellen G. White was a false prophetess. Her promotion of Sabbath-keeping as a primary doctrine in the church goes against the clear teaching of the New Testament on the matter (
Romans 14:5). Her “revelation” that hell is not eternal contradicts Jesus’ words concerning “eternal punishment” in
Matthew 25:46. Her teaching that the sins of believers will be placed on Satan, the “scapegoat” (
The Great Controversy, p. 422, 485), is the opposite of what the Bible says about who bore our sins (see
1 Peter 2:24). Her identification of Jesus as Michael the archangel (
Jude 1:9,
Clear Word Bible, published by Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1994) is a denial of the true nature of Christ. Her repudiation of the
verbal inspiration of the Bible (
Selected Messages, Book 1, p. 21 Manuscript 24, 1886) is at variance with passages such as
2 Timothy 3:16 and
Psalm 12:6.
More basically, followers of Ellen G. White face a very real question concerning the sufficiency of Scripture. Is the Bible
sufficient for our faith and practice, or do we need further revelation in the form of 2,000 visions from a self-proclaimed prophetess? Seventh-Day Adventists’ official stance is that “the Holy Scriptures are the supreme, authoritative, and the infallible revelation of His will. They are the standard of character, the test of experience, the definitive revealer of doctrines, and the trustworthy record of God’s acts in history” (
https://www.adventist.org/en/beliefs/god/holy-scriptures/, accessed June 2, 2016). Yet, at the same time, most Seventh-Day Adventists accept the works of Ellen G. White as authoritative and binding. From the same official website: “Her writings speak with prophetic authority and provide comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction to the church” (
https://www.adventist.org/en/beliefs/church/the-gift-of-prophecy/, accessed June 2, 2016). What is “prophetic authority” if not the right to mandate belief based on divine words given through a human? How do the utterances of Ellen G. White differ from the Bible’s declarations of truth?
Who was Ellen G. White? Was Ellen G. White the founder of Seventh Day Adventism? Were Ellen G. White’s visions biblical?
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