How does God speak?

Defining inspiration is like catching a rainbow. When we have put forth our best efforts, there will remain an elusive factor, an element of mystery. Inspired writings may be known, but never fully grasped. Instead, they grasp us—for through them God speaks to humanity. It is His— God's—presence, in the initial production and the subsequent reading, that makes them at once inspired and ultimately beyond our complete understanding.

Yet, inspired writings invite our study in order to discover their nature and purpose. They consist of words—common, ordinary words. They do not employ an other worldly vocabulary, no mumbo jumbo of a secret society. Rather, inspiration comes to us in human speech, clothed with our humanity. We may examine these clothes, turn the words over and feel them to see what it is that makes them inspired.

As we focus in this study on the writings of the Bible and Ellen G. White and seek to comprehend their inspiration, we may gain information in two ways. First, the writings themselves make certain statements regarding their nature and purpose. Compared with the total sweep of the writings, these statements are rather few; however, they deserve careful attention. Second, apart from what the writings say about themselves, we may study what they reveal. We may look at these words and arrive at conclusions concerning the way in which inspiration has worked to produce them.

Thus, inspired writings inform us both by self-identity and self-disclosure. These two sources lead us to an understanding of the nature and purpose of their inspiration.

This approach to the question of inspiration is an inductive one, rather than a deductive, which begins with preconceived ideas about the nature and purpose of inspiration, coming to the writings with its mind already made up. The deductive method reasons: "If the Bible is inspired, then... If Ellen White was inspired, there would (would not) be . . ." The flaw in such an approach is that when the data of the Bible or the Ellen White writings do not harmonize with these expectations, the conclusion is that the writings are not inspired. But what has failed—the inspired writings or a preconceived theory of inspiration? This is why we must let the writings themselves reveal how God has inspired them rather than telling God what inspired writings must be like.

A short article such as this cannot expect to exhaust the wealth of data about inspiration that the Scriptures and Ellen White writings yield. Instead we shall confine ourselves to the principal conclusions to which these data point.

First, it is evident that Seventh-day Adventists have peculiar advantages over other Christians who seek to understand the nature and purpose of inspiration. Those believers have only the Scriptures, and the historical circumstances of their writing are shrouded in the mists of antiquity. While occasional Bible writers mention others who assisted them in their work, for the main part we must conjecture regarding the processes that led to the Biblical books as we have them today.

Seventh-day Adventists, however, have access to much secondary material that sheds light on Ellen White as an inspired writer. We have letters to and from her as she was engaged in her work; we have the observations of other Adventist pioneers and of her literary assistants and close associates. The time gap between the production of Ellen White's writings and our day is not great. Although there are some "missing links" in our knowledge of the production of her major works, the quantity and quality of historical data accessible to us is vast. We can draw back the curtains and look in upon an inspired writer actually at work in a manner that is impossible for us to do in examining the Bible writers.

Second, inspired writings are not subject to scientific "proof." They are too big to be encompassed within the span of finite reason. Although they come to us in everyday garb, they are the word of God. God is not to be proved by human minds! So neither the Bible nor the Ellen White writings attempt to prove their inspiration. Both claim inspiration—and invite the reader to test that claim. They show such evidences of inspiration as unity, fulfilled prophecy, internal harmony, and their ability to change the life of the reader. All these appeal to our rational powers, but they do not constitute proof. If inspired writings could be proved by science or philosophy, the most brilliant minds of our times would all be persuaded.

But God's way confounds the wise and the mighty. His is the way of faith: as we open ourselves to Him, He reveals Himself through the reading of His writings. We know in our innermost being that they are inspired, because in them we find God. In a mysterious way, inexplicable to reason but known to everyone who will "taste and see that the Lord is good" (Ps. 34:8), inspired writings have a living, abiding character.

God's written word is like Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word. Looking at Jesus of Nazareth, the people saw One who had "no beauty that we should desire him" (Isa. 53:2), One apparently just like them selves. There were evidences that He was different—birth, miracles, offers of forgiveness. Evidences, but not proof as such. They wanted more: "Show us a sign," they kept saying. But He refused. He was the sign, if only they could see it. By accepting Him, by believing, they might have found that He was in fact the '"Wonderful Counselor, . . . Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace'" (chap. 9:6, R.S.V.).

Third, the Scriptures and the works of Ellen White are inspired in a manner different from other creations of the human spirit. We use the word inspiration in differing contexts: to describe the feelings produced by a beautiful sunset or Beethoven's Ninth Symphony; to tell of a preacher's power to move us; to reveal the inner renewal found in a piece of great literature. In all these experiences we are aware of transcending our normal state to a higher level of being.

The inspiration of the Bible and Ellen White's writings is of a higher and different order, however. We do not deny the possibility of the Holy Spirit's working in some of the experiences we have just mentioned, but with inspired writings, in the sense that we are discussing, He is preeminent. The Spirit moves upon the writer so that God's message is communicated; He likewise moves upon the reader so that the divine message is received. "All Scripture is God-breathed," writes the apostle (2 Tim. 3:16, N.I.V.).' "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," echoes Peter (2 Peter 1:21). Paul claims that the counsel he writes to the Corinthians is indited by the Spirit (see 1 Cor. 7:40; 14:37). Over and over the prophets affirmed: "The word of the Lord came unto me, saying ..."

Ellen White's writings, therefore, are not to be put on a level with those of other great Christian commentators. Although she often deals with subjects common to Luther, Calvin, and Wesley, and although there is often similarity of ideas, Ellen White's work differs in two respects— claim to superintendence by the Holy Spirit and to authority. "I was shown," she often commences; and, unlike the writers mentioned above, she received many of her messages through visions and dreams. She wrote with authority; to disregard or treat lightly her words would be to spurn the word of the Lord. Thus she could write: "Sister White is not the originator of these books. They contain the instruction that during her lifework God has been giving her. They contain the precious, comforting light that God has graciously given His servant to be given to the world."— Selected Messages, book3, p. 50. (Seepages 48-61 for similar and related statements.)

"I do not write one article in the paper expressing merely my own ideas. They are what God has opened before me in vision—the precious rays of light shining from the throne."—Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 67.

Fourth, inspired writings are fully human, but they are more than human. They are products of time and place, conditioned by the circumstances of their production and the personality of the writer. The authors employ the vocabulary and syntax of their culture and avail themselves of the sources of information available to any other writers of their time—records, assistants, other works on related topics, the fund of human knowledge.

Since inspired writings are fully human, in some respects they may be studied in the same way as any other literature. The Scriptures are ancient documents; Ellen White's writings are nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century works. Literary analysis, historical reconstruction, development of themes, setting in life, and so on may be brought to bear on the study as with any other literature.

Yet these writings, fully human, are more than human. They are word of man—but they are also word of God. Through them God speaks to us, calls us out of our lethargy and sin, calls us back to Himself. They live and abide forever (see 1 Peter 1:23), bridging the centuries and confronting us with the prophetic voice in the quietness of our living room.

Because inspired writings are more than human, the methods of literary analysis that we may employ on other historical writings are not fully adequate when applied to inspiration. If we would be open to the transcendent element in these works, we must be guided by the Spirit of God. That Spirit, who called forth the works initially, still brings them to bear upon us personally.

The Spirit moves upon our spirit so that spiritual things "are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14). Without the leading of the Spirit, inspired writings are merely word of man; with Him we hear them as also word of God.

Ellen White has expressed the blending of human and divine by a telling metaphor: "The Bible, with its God-given truths expressed in the language of men, presents a union of the divine and the human. Such a union existed in the nature of Christ, who was the Son of God and the Son of man. Thus it is true of the Bible, as it was of Christ, that 'the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us' (John 1:14)."—Selected Messages, book 1, p. 25.

We must tread carefully when we discuss the nature of Jesus Christ, the God-man. Likewise we must speak with caution when we seek to describe the nature of inspired writings, not going beyond what is revealed or seeking to reduce the mystery of the divine to the confines of our logic.

Some Christians have a "docetic" view of inspired writings. Just as in the early centuries of the Christian era Docetists downplayed the humanity of Jesus, making it only a shell or form to contain the divine, so today some do not accept the full humanity of the Bible and Ellen White's writings. Theirs is a view that sees virtually every word of inspired writings as having been given directly by God.

On the other hand, some people who read the Bible or Ellen White's works see them as no more than religious literature, as works having historical interest and moral value, but nothing more. Such a view is similar to those early Christian heresies that taught that Jesus was a good man, even God's man, the Messiah, but not fully and eternally God.

Fifth, we should speak of inspired writers rather than inspired words. When we look at the actual words of the Bible and Ellen White, we see all the marks of humanity. Style and vocabulary differ from writer to writer; some use expressions that at times seem harsh or even coarse; there are minor disagreements regarding facts and numbers; writers quote from sources both within and without Scripture; sometimes they use poor grammar.

This should not surprise us. The Holy Ghost did not dictate each word; if He did, there would be uniformity of style, perfect construction, absence of discrepancies. Instead, the Spirit inspired men and women—fishermen, shepherds, a physician, herdsmen—learned and unlearned. The thoughts were God's, but the words were theirs. (See Selected Messages, book l, pp. 15-23.)

When John, Matthew, Paul, and Luke wrote, they wrote for the common person. They wrote to be understood, and used the ordinary language of the day. But they wrote as the Spirit inspired them. "It is not the words of the Bible that are inspired, but the men that were inspired. Inspiration acts not on the man's words or his expressions but on the man himself, who, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, is imbued with thoughts."—Ibid., p. 21.

Sixth, inspired writers frequently employed assistants in their work. Since we have so few direct references to assistants in the Bible, we cannot be dogmatic as to the extent of their activity. Baruch wrote at Jeremiah's dictation, and Tertius wrote the Epistle to the Romans for Paul. (See Jer. 36; Rom. 16:22.) Very likely Paul used assistants for his other letters, but their names are not mentioned by him.

The scribes may well have been more than copyists. We forget that anciently reading and writing were not widely known. It is probable, I think, that some of the Bible authors were poor writers. The literary assistant possibly would help them in smoothing out expressions. In some cases, such activity of scribes may account for the marked stylistic differences between works by the same writer, as between 1 and 2 Peter.

Ellen White leaned heavily on the work of literary assistants. She could not have accomplished her prodigious output of writing without them. Present research indicates that in general their activity was at a mechanical, rather than creative, level. They copied Ellen White's hand written notes, corrected spelling and grammatical errors, smoothed the syntax. Ellen White herself, however, gave final approval to the work.

Marian Davis was Ellen White's assist ant par excellence. She played a major role in the preparation of The Desire of Ages, collecting appropriate material written by Mrs. White from among articles, letters, and manuscripts; making suggestions concerning topics; arranging materials into sequence and chapter progression. Ellen White called her."my bookmaker," acknowledging her contribution to the task (see Selected Messages, book 3, p. 91).

But Marian Davis herself drew a sharp line between her work and Ellen White's. She made it clear that in no way was she the originator of the material with which she worked.

Inspired writing thus involves a process. At its beginning there is a contact between God and His messenger, as the person chosen by God is imbued with the Spirit to convey the divine instruction. At its end point lies a complete literary production, a letter to the Galatians or The Desire of Ages. In between we see a varying number of stages. In some cases the messenger proclaims the divine message and someone else then commits it to writing. In other instances the written material itself goes through several drafts, with increased reflection, polishing, and revision. Thus, The Great Controversy as it finally emerged in the 1911 edition was the end result of a long process.

Seventh, while we should speak of inspired persons rather than inspired words, inspired writings as a whole bear the impress of the Holy Spirit. They are "God-breathed," a production of the Spirit. We may point to individual words to show the humanity, the personality, and even the frailty of the writer; we may even be able to identify discrepancies—but the total work is alive, impregnated with the Spirit. The words are man's, but the ideas are God's—they are His message to us.

There is no mixing of error with truth. Inspired writings set out the way of salvation; they reveal the divine will for us. Through them the Spirit breaks through the barrier of our faulty, fragmented efforts to communicate so that God can touch men and women and declare Himself and His plan to them.

This is why, despite the diversity of style and presentation, despite the many authors and the large time gap from first to last, there is a fundamental unity of inspired writings. One God speaks; one way of salvation is portrayed.

Eighth, inspired writings are given primarily to lead us to God and His salvation. They are not books of secret knowledge, they are not meant to be the last word in historical matters, they are not textbooks of science. Rather, they are "for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim. 3:16, 17). They are able to make us "wise unto salvation" (verse 15).

In setting out the way of salvation, inspired writings touch on many areas of life. Especially is history prominent in the Scriptures. Inspired writings deal responsibly with each of the areas they introduce, but they do not claim final authority in them. For instance, while Biblical history is accurate, since Yahweh manifests Him self in time, it is to some degree flawed. For example, the words of Jesus and the accounts of His ministry show variations and discrepancies, even as the chronologies of the Kings and Chronicles are not in perfect agreement.

But in no way is the central message of the inspired writings diluted by these discrepancies. They are of a minor order; the chief thrust in every case is clear. The Scriptures are inerrant as a guide to salvation. Ellen White's writings show similar data: she did not claim to be an authority in history or the order of events in the ministry of Jesus, even as she wrote that Paradise Valley Sanitarium had 40 rooms when it had only 38 (Selected Messages, book 1, p. 38). But the overall impact of her work remains untouched: her writings bear the stamp of the divine credentials.

Finally, a study of inspired writings leads us to focus on the writings instead of the writer. This may seem surprising, since we have already seen that we should speak of inspired men and women rather than inspired words. But understanding better the nature of inspiration, discerning some thing of the process that produced the writings, we become more conscious of the humanity, the frailty, of the person at the center of the circle of inspiration. He or she, imbued with the Spirit, struggles to communicate the divine message to us. At times other individuals assist the efforts. The result is human, fully human. Critics and skeptics may point to its flaws.

But God has spoken! And God still speaks through these writings! The word of man is also the word of God. Though the messenger is weak, the Spirit accomplishes His purposes. Though the messenger is humble, God uses him or her to convey His will. Thus, if the person of Isaiah or Paul or Ellen White recedes, this is as it should be, that God might be all and His message be heard.

Though our humanity is weak and frail, it is still noble, patterned in the image of God. Though our speech falls short of perfect communication, it is still beautiful, capable of extraordinary persuasiveness. Two millennia ago God took humanity, as the Word was made flesh. Thereby He glorified it. In inspired writings the Word became—and remains—flesh again. Thereby our speech is glorified and utters the mysteries of heaven.