Yes, it’s true. This is not clickbait and without the critics, we’ve finally found an instance where Ellen G. White issued counsel that was both erroneous and misleading to her audience… And not only am I happy about it, I’m pretty sure you should be too because this means there’s even more evidence that her writings are inspired and authoritative. Why is that? We’ll get to that, but first, let’s take a look at an instance in the Bible where a prophet makes a mistake in some counsel he gives:
2 Samuel 7:1-3 ESV
“Now when the king lived in his house and the LORD had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, 2 the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” 3 And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you.”
Nathan, without consulting God, gave David His affirmation for David to go ahead and build the temple. But that instruction was incorrect because that same night, God confronts Nathan:
2 Samuel 7:4, 12 ESV
“But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, 5 Go and tell my servant David… 12… I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
The prophet stood corrected! Initially he had mistakenly expressed that God’s will was with whatever David wanted to do but much like a parent who confronts their child after a phone call from their Elementary School Principal, God points out Nathan’s error and commands Him to go back and issue the correction. The prophet was Divinely fact-checked and much like the modern-day counterpart, not only do we have the corrected advice but we have the record of Nathan’s slip. This means that if a prophet ever speaks out of turn, we can be assured that God will immediately intervene through the same channel to let everyone know.
So back to Ellen White… do we have it on record that she was wrong about some guidance she expressed? That is correct and here it is:
“I know that matters in Battle Creek are in a most precarious condition. For two months recently I suffered great distress of mind. For more than a month I was unable to sleep past twelve o’clock, except once or twice. At a council held at my house here, I spoke words which gave liberty for certain things to be done in a certain place. I was reproved by the Lord. For three nights in succession scenes were presented before me in which I saw what the result would be of following the plans of men instead of the plans of God. A horror of great darkness came upon me. As soon as possible I wrote a letter saying that I had been wrong in sanctioning these plans, that God did not endorse them.” 13MR 120.4
In 1902, both the Battle Creek Sanitarium (in February) and the Review and Herald building (in December) were destroyed by fire and in this same letter she mentions seeing angel with a flaming sword over the city of Battle Creek in a scene presented to her. God was clearly displeased and it appears that Ellen White unadvisedly spoke in a meeting and agreed with certain actions relating to reconstruction* (REF 18LtMs, Lt 17, 1903. par. 26) that were seemingly in response to the fires… But that advice was clearly a mistake!
In a case that’s interestingly similar to Nathan’s, Ellen gives premature sanction to some individuals and not only is she corrected, she vulnerably relates that she “suffered great distress” because of this mistake (a cautionary tale to those who would be prophets) and she quickly issues the inspired correction to the parties in question. Ladies and gentleman, this means that God is a fact-checker! But in this quaint and almost virtually undisscussed occurence there are other amazing realizations to be made:
1) God is both Author and Editor of our faith: One thing that is universally consistent with the human experience is failure. No matter how high or low, how important or unimportant an issue is, because of sin, the potential for human failure is not just a possibility but a likelihood without Christ. But Jesus is both the Author and Editor (see Hebrew 12:2 “teleiotes”), meaning He is in charge of the final product before it reaches the audience. God is the final filter by which what might be our personal mess becomes a message to others and this story shows a beautiful example where even the person that was receiving the most direct communication from Christ Himself, makes a mistake, and God was ready to step in and solve the problem of our humanity with His divinity.
2) The Silent Approval: When we understand what took place with both Nathan and Ellen White, we discover the established fact that if a Prophet or Messenger speaks out of turn, God will correct them. So this in turn means, if God never issues a correction on an issue, then logically His silence after the message is delivered renders a silent approval of what His Prophet or Messenger wrote. In other words, in all the other writings of Nathan that we find in scripture, we can have increased confidence that those statements are exactly what God wanted expressed because God never corrected them. Hence, it’s the same for Ellen White. With the plethora controversial issues and many detractors that are vying to diminish the weight of her influence, inspiration and authority in Adventist thought and policy, we now have another measuring stick by which to assess the claims that she spoke out of turn with God.
Thus it is, that when we examine the tapestry of divine communication, although we may find threads of human error, God intricately and intentionally weaves a beautiful lesson into the fabric of revelation. Just as Nathan’s slip was not a stain on his prophetic ministry but a story that remarkably affirmed it, Ellen G. White’s vulnerable admission of fallibility only serves to accentuate the trustworthiness and integrity of her inspired writings. Through these twin instances, we not only see the persistence of God’s grace in attending to human frailty but also discern the silent affirmations that underpin the uncorrected revelations of His chosen messengers. Thus, amidst the controversies and critiques, the enduring authority of Ellen G. White’s guidance shines brighter, affirmed not only by her inspired words but also by this divine correction that ensures the integrity of the message.
