The authority of prophets

Then they came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him. And they said to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority to do these things?”

But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things: The baptism of John—was it from heaven or from men? Answer Me.”

And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men’ ”—they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed. So they answered and said to Jesus, “We do not know.”

And Jesus answered and said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things” (Mark 11:27–33, NKJV).

By what authority are you doing these things?’ ” Jesus replied to that question in good rabbinic fashion with a counter question. In rabbinic debates, the counter question was meant to point the way to the answer to the original question. This is what Jesus was aiming for. When they refused to answer, He refused to give a clear answer. Why? If they refused to acknowledge God’s power in John’s ministry, there was little point in discussing His own authority as also from God.¹

The authority of canonical prophets

In the life of every Christian, God is the highest authority. No human being can take that place, no parent, teacher, or minister. In Acts 5:29, Peter and the other apostles, facing the high priest and others, said: “ ‘We ought to obey God rather than men’ ” (NKJV).

In the Old Testament, God delegated his authority to certain people—prophets were His spokespersons. When God called Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt, Moses tried to avoid taking on this responsibility. God said to him, “ ‘Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? . . . So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God’ ” (Exod. 4:14–16, NKJV). Aaron was Moses’ spokesman, as Moses was God’s spokesman.

In Deuteronomy 18:15, Moses told the Israelites, “ ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear’ ” (NKJV). The first fulfillment of this prophecy was Joshua, then the prophets, and finally Jesus Christ. And Jesus delegated His authority to His disciples in Matthew 28: “ ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations’ ” (v. 19, NKJV).

In Matthew 18:18, Jesus told His disciples, “ ‘Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven’ ” (NKJV). Paul, therefore, could say to the Thessalonians, “When you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God” (1 Thess. 2:13, NKJV). The prophetic word has authority because God gives it His authority.²

Moses knew that he was authorized to speak on God’s behalf; the prophets knew they spoke on God’s behalf; Paul certainly knew it, “For even if I should boast somewhat more about our authority, which the Lord gave us for edification and not for your destruction, I shall not be ashamed” (2 Cor. 10:8, NKJV), and the early church accepted the apostles as God’s messengers.

The authority of noncanonical prophets

After David committed adultery with Bathsheba, Nathan the prophet came to him with a message from God, saying, “ ‘You are the man!’ ” (2 Sam. 12:7). In David’s time, Scripture was the Torah (the five books of Moses), but not for one moment did David question the authority of Nathan. He knew Nathan was a prophet, and his word was authoritative for David. Nathan also wrote at least one inspired book: “Now the acts of King David, first and last, indeed they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer” (1 Chron. 29:29), but Nathan’s book is not in the Bible.

Why did God not include all inspired books in the canon? Knowing our weakened human brain, He selected only those books He knew we needed to know to understand His plan of salvation. If He had included all the inspired books, we would be carrying several volumes of Scripture to Sabbath School and church!

What these prophets like Nathan, Ahijah, and Iddo said or wrote was just as authoritative and binding for the people of that time as were the books of Moses and Samuel. The authority of prophetic books lies in their inspiration, not in the book’s place in the canon. But since John the Revelator’s time, the canon, God’s yardstick, has been closed, and no other inspired books can be added.

The biblical canon is simply the collection of books that, under God’s guidance, was put together as our rule of life and faith by which everything else must be measured. It contains everything a person needs to know to be saved. To the Colossians, Paul wrote, “Now when this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea” (Col. 4:16). If we found Paul’s letter to the Laodiceans and other inspired letters, they would not become part of the canon. They would remain inspired letters outside of the canon.

The authority of the end-time prophet

The question that concerns some is What authority have the writings of Ellen G. White in the church today? Most Adventists agree that she was an inspired messenger of God. We do not believe in degrees of inspiration. But what authority do her writings have? Adventists, like all Christians, believe that the biblical canon has been closed since John the Revelator; that is, everything people need to know to be saved is found in the canon of the Scripture. Scripture is God’s Word for all time and all people. Now, after the canon has been closed, we discover that there is a modern prophet of God who says, “God showed me” this and that. How shall we evaluate such messages?

Ellen White and Scripture. The relationship between Scripture and Ellen White, as I understand it, is as follows:

1. The Bible is God’s message for all time and all people. The writings of Ellen White are God’s message for a particular time, the end time, for a particular people, the remnant church.
2. Ellen White’s writings are not a new or additional standard of doctrine but a help for the church in the time of the end. Her writings have a different purpose from Scripture; they are the “lesser light to lead . . . to the greater light.”³

In 1982, the Biblical Research Institute and the Ellen G. White Estate issued a statement on the relationship between the Bible and the Ellen G. White writings:

AFFIRMATIONS

[My comments are in brackets]

1. We believe that Scripture is the divinely revealed Word of God and is inspired by the Holy Spirit.
2. We believe that the canon of Scripture is composed only of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments.
3. We believe that Scripture is the foundation of faith and the final authority in all matters of doctrine and practice. [Scripture is the standard for all doctrines.]
4. We believe that Scripture is the Word of God in human language.
5. We believe that Scripture teaches that the gift of prophecy will be manifest in the Christian church after New Testament times [Rev. 19:10; 12:17; Eph. 4:11; 1 Cor. 12:28].
6. We believe that the ministry and writings of Ellen White were a manifestation of the gift of prophecy.
7. We believe that Ellen White was inspired by the Holy Spirit and that her writings, the product of that inspiration, are particularly applicable and authoritative to Seventh-day Adventists. [No degrees of inspiration. Authority is in the inspiration.]
8. We believe that the purposes of the Ellen White writings include guidance in understanding the teaching of Scripture and application of these teachings with prophetic urgency to the spiritual and moral life. [Her writings are faith-building and faith-strengthening.]
9. We believe that the acceptance of the prophetic gift of Ellen White, while not a requirement for continuing church membership, is important to the nurture and unity of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. [Generally, we expect that a person who wants to become a Seventh-day Adventist accepts Ellen White as God’s messenger. But nobody can be dropped from membership if he or she loses faith in Ellen White’s writings, just as we do not disfellowship people who stop tithing.]
10. We believe that Ellen White’s use of literary sources and assistants finds parallels in some of the writings of the Bible. [Jeremiah and Baruch; Paul and Tertius; and others]”

DENIALS

1. We do not believe that the quality or degree of inspiration in the writings of Ellen White is different from that of Scripture.
2. We do not believe that the writings of Ellen White serve the same purpose as does Scripture, which is the sole foundation and final authority of Christian faith. [Scripture is God’s word for all time. Ellen White’s writings are God’s messages for the remnant church in the time of the end.]
3. We do not believe that the writings of Ellen White are an addition to the canon of Sacred Scripture.
4. We do not believe that the writings of Ellen White may be used as the basis of doctrine. [In Bible studies we should not use the writings of Ellen White.]
5. We do not believe that the study of the writings of Ellen White may be used to replace the study of Scripture.
6. We do not believe that Scripture can be understood only through the writings of Ellen White. [Her writings are primarily an inspired homileti­cal rather than an exegetical commentary.]
7. We do not believe that the writings of Ellen White exhaust the meaning of Scripture.
8. We do not believe that the writings of Ellen White are essential for the proclamation of the truths of Scripture to society at large. [They are not essential for salvation.]
9. We do not believe that the writings of Ellen White are merely the product of Christian piety.
10. We do not believe that Ellen White’s use of literary sources and assistants negates the inspiration of her writings.

We conclude, therefore, that a correct understanding of the inspiration and authority of the writings of Ellen White will avoid two extremes: (1) regarding these writings as functioning on a canonical level identical with Scripture, or (2) considering them as ordinary Christian literature.⁴

Why read Ellen G. White?

Some Adventists believe that the authority of Ellen White is only pastoral, faith-strengthening but not faith-building. In other words, they think her theological statements can be ignored. This differentiation between pastoral and dogmatic prophets, however, is not scriptural. Scripture makes no distinction between a prophet’s pastoral and teaching function.

“A prophet is God’s spokesperson whatever the content of the message. Any claim that Ellen White’s writings carry no teaching authority must fly in the face of her own statements. As we have seen, she declares unequivocally, ‘My commission embraces that of a prophet, but it does not end there.’ She either told the truth or she didn’t. If she didn’t, what further confidence could we have in her even if she honestly but mistakenly thought so?”⁵

Above all, we should not forget the main theme of all her writings. The first sentence in the book Patriarchs and Prophets is “God is love.” The last sentence in the book The Great Controversy is “God is love.” Her main theme was always Jesus. Constantly, she pointed people to Scripture and Jesus Christ. Her whole life was devoted to making Jesus the center of our faith.

In 1980, a poll was taken among Seventh-day Adventists. Of those who regularly read Ellen White’s writings, 85 percent stated that they had a close personal relationship with Christ. Only 59 percent of those who did not read her regularly said the same. Of those who regularly read her books, 82 percent also stated that they study Scripture daily. Of the nonreaders, only 47 percent said they read Scripture regularly.⁶

I do not believe that much has changed since 1982, except that a more recent church survey by the Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research has shown that only 74 percent of Seventh-day Adventists accept Ellen White’s prophetic gift wholeheartedly. Another 12 percent accept it because the church teaches it.⁷ At any rate, from my personal observation of over 50 years in many countries, I can say that in most churches, the missionary-minded people are frequently avid readers of her books. Now, if reading her books makes people read more Scripture and more missionary-minded, should we not encourage all our members to read her books?

Conclusion

The Pharisees refused to answer Jesus because they were not willing to give up their own preconceived ideas and opinions. I am afraid many today reject the writings of Ellen White for similar reasons. Let us not forget Jehoshaphat’s words to Israel: “ ‘Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper’ ” (2 Chron. 20:20, NKJV).