IN THIS brief article I wish to stress the vital role of the Word of God as a means of grace, and explain the relationship of the Spirit of Prophecy to God's Word. The following passage from the pen of Ellen G. White is relevant:
I took the precious Bible and surrounded it with the several Testimonies for the Church, given for the people of God. Here, said I, the cases of nearly all are met. The sins they are to shun are pointed out. The counsel that they desire can be found here, given for other cases situated similarly to themselves. God has been pleased to give you line upon line and precept upon precept. But there are not many of you that really know what is contained in the Testimonies. You are not familiar with the Scriptures. 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. It is because you have neglected to acquaint yourselves with God's inspired Book that He has sought to reach you by simple, direct testimonies.—Testimonies, vol. 5, pp. 664, 665.
Every Seventh-day Adventist should understand the purpose of the visions given to God's servant and the testimonies that she wrote. They were given:
1. "To bring the minds of His people to His word."—Ibid., p. 663.
"God has through the Testimonies simplified the great truths already given."— Ibid., p. 665.
2. To call attention to Bible "principles for the formation of correct habits of living" (ibid., pp. 663, 664).
3. "To specify what is truth."—Letter 117, 1910.
4. "To correct those who err from Bible truth." — Experience and Views, p. 64 (Early Writings, p. 78).
"To correct and reprove the erring."— Review and Herald, Jan. 10, 1856.
"To correct specious errors."—Letter 117, 1910.
5. "To confirm the faith of my people in the position they have taken."—Review and Herald, July 18, 1907 (Selected Messages, book 1, p. 41).
6. To instruct concerning God's will (Testimonies, vol. 5, p. 661).
7. To instruct concerning "the course that He would have them pursue" (ibid.).
8. To specify "man's duty to God and to his fellow man" (ibid., p. 665).
9. "For the comfort of His people."— Experience and Views, p. 64 (Early Writings, p. 78).
10. "To encourage the desponding."— Review and Herald, Jan. 10, 1856 (Messenger to the Remnant, p. 53).
Ellen White's messages encouraged implicit obedience to the Word of the Lord much as the words of Mary, the mother of Jesus, encouraged the servants at the marriage feast in Cana to obey His instructions:
"Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it" (John 2:5). "Do whatever He tells you." The voice of Ellen White has led Seventh-day Adventists into an experience in repentance and saving grace in true Bible religion.
The Testimonies are like a string tied about the collective forefinger of the church reminding us all of the explicit directions given to us in the Word of God—stimulating our memory and inspiring faith and obedience.
To put it another way—in the chemistry of church life and experience the action of the Testimonies has been catalytic in drawing the people and the Word together, compounding the Spirit of God and man into a whole, strengthened for service. In the Review and Herald of May 4, 1897, Mrs. White wrote:
Bible religion is not a garment which can be put on and taken off at pleasure. It is an all-pervading influence, which leads us to be patient, self-denying followers of Christ, doing as He did, walking as He walked. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.". . .
"Search the Scriptures." No other book will give you such pure, elevating ennobling thoughts; from no other book can you obtain a deep, religious experience. When you devote time to self-examination, to humble prayer, to earnest study of God's word, the Holy Spirit is near to apply the truth to your heart. As you feed upon the heavenly manna, you will find comfort and joy, and will be inspired to tell others of the wonderful experience you have received.
Mrs. White and the Protestant Reformers
Mrs. White was writing as the most authoritative voice in Seventh-day Adventism when she described the members of her church in these words:
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 or all of these should be regarded as evidence for or against any point of religious faith. . . . We should demand a plain "Thus saith the Lord" in its support. —Review and Herald, June 7, 1906. (See also The Great Controversy, p. 593.)
Mrs. White and her church here stand in the tradition of Luther, Huss, and Jerome, of Wycliffe and the Protestant Reformers as defenders of the Scriptures' authority. Note her emphasis: "the opinions of learned men," "creeds or decisions of ecclesiastical councils" are not to "be regarded as evidence for or against any point of religious faith." "We should demand a plain 'Thus saith the Lord' in its support."
Seventh-day Adventists subscribe to the foregoing theological position and humbly place ourselves along with Mrs. White in the ranks of true Protestants. She wrote:
Christ was a protestant. He protested against the formal worship of the Jewish nation, who rejected the counsel of God against themselves. He told them that they taught for doctrines the commandments of men, and that they were pretenders and hypocrites. Like whited sepulchers they were beautiful without, but within full of impurity and corruption. The Reformers date back to Christ and the apostles. They came out and separated themselves from a religion of forms and ceremonies. Luther and his followers did not invent the reformed religion. They simply accepted it as presented by Christ and the apostles. The Bible is presented to us as a sufficient guide.—Review and Herald, June 1, 1886.
Source of the Church's Doctrine
Seventh-day Adventists are occasionally asked, Did you derive any of your teachings from the writings of Ellen G. White? In other words, Is the Spirit of Prophecy, like the Scriptures, profitable for doctrine, that is, for teaching and instruction in the faith? It is true that all the doctrines of the Christian faith are stated explicitly or implicitly in the sixty-six books of the Bible. The doctrines were all there in the Word of God before the gift of prophecy appeared in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. But we would have had much difficulty in unearthing some of these teachings, and in choosing the truth and rejecting error, had it not been for the Spirit of Prophecy. Describing the Bible conferences of the early formative years where the pillars of the truth were set forever, Ellen White wrote:
When our brethren who had assembled for study, came to a point where they could go no farther, and had recourse to earnest prayer, the Spirit of God would rest upon me, and I would be taken off in vision, and be instructed in regard to the relation of scripture to scripture. These experiences were repeated over and over and over again. Thus many truths of the third angel's message were established, point by point. Think you that my faith in this message will ever waver? Think you that I can remain silent, when I see an effort being made to sweep away the foundation pillars of our faith? I am as thoroughly established in these truths as it is possible for a person to be. I can never forget the experience I have passed through. God has con firmed my belief by many evidences of His power.— Review and Herald, June 14, 1906.
The visions of Ellen G. White were given to save the pioneers from espousing wrong views of Bible teaching. The vision of Peter on the housetop (Acts 10) was given to save the apostle from a prevalent misconception about the Gentiles' standing with God. The housetop vision at Joppa reminded Peter of a Biblical truth and principle taught and emphasized by the example of our Lord (Luke 7:24-30; John 4:1-30; etc.) and clearly stated in the New Testament: "God is no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34).
The Adventists who survived the 1844 disappointment, but who turned from the light on the sanctuary truth and the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, believed in the same Bible and used the same Bible as the Sabbath-keeping Adventists did. Why did they not accept this light? First of all, they held to erroneous views that had become as sacred as tradition. But we must never forget that a basic reason why they were misled is because they did not have in their midst the Spirit of Prophecy to correct their errors and to specify what is truth.
Christians of all faiths have in their possession the Holy Scriptures to teach them, just as Seventh-day Adventists do, but they do not hold to the Bible on certain basic doctrines. Why is this? For one reason, they lack the guiding light of the Spirit of Prophecy writings—a blessing that the remnant church enjoys. And it has been this gift more than any other that has clarified our understanding of certain passages of Scripture and has held us true to the fundamental teaching of the Word.
The relationship of the Spirit of Prophecy to the Bible is similar to the relationship of the Bible to the law of Ten Commandments. The Spirit of Prophecy is a glorious unveiling of truth, and when the veil is pulled away we behold certain things that were there in the Word all the time, but we did not see them. Here is the science of divine magnification adapted to the needs of our poor spiritual eyesight! May these wonderful books be read more and more by every Seventh-day Adventist.
