Reclaiming the Prophet: An Honest Defense of Ellen White’s Gift

Preliminary Observations from the White Estate Office

May 8, 2025

As we undertake this brief and preliminary reaction to this book, we do so with a love for our
colleagues who have written from a place of genuine conviction and concern. We are conscious that
what we share will be at odds with many of their conclusions. We do so with respect for them and a
commitment to both Ellen White’s understanding of her work as the “Lord’s messenger” and the
Seventh-day Adventist doctrinal acceptance of the prophetic gift.
Additionally, the White Estate has a responsibility as the organization created by Ellen White
and tasked with making her writings available, and promoting a correct understanding of her life,
ministry, legacy, and prophetic gift.

Bibliographic Information: Eric Anderson, Ed. Reclaiming the Prophet: An Honest Defense of Ellen
White’s Gift. Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, July 2025.

Authors and Chapters:

Eric Anderson “Introduction” 9-15

Terrie Dopp Aamodt “Ellen White Was a Woman” 17-32
Jonathan Butler “Embracing Ellen White: What Her Defenders and Detractors
Misunderstand” 33-50
Gilbert M. Valentine “Messenger with a New England Style” 51-70
Paul E. McGraw “The Prophet as Preacher” 73-84
Denis Fortin “Ellen White as a Devotional Writer” 85-95
Eric Anderson “God Wants Us All to have Common Sense: Ellen White’s
Guidelines for Interpretation” 97-108
George R. Knight “What My Teachers Never Taught Me” 111-123
Donald R. McAdams “Turning Points” 125-148
Ronald D. Graybill & “Ellen White for Today: A Twenty-First Century Affirmation 149-156
Lawrence Geraty
Niels-Erik Andreasen “Where Do We Go from Here?” 157-163

Summary

The stated objective of the book is “to reclaim our prophet by honest affirmation of her gift”
(11). Five almost universally appreciated generalizations are given as assumptions for the book:
1. Ellen White led the Advent movement from fanaticism to Christian orthodoxy.
2. Ellen White inspired the creation of a network of schools and medical institutions
committed to re-creation and restoration.
3. Ellen White taught her followers to separate holy living from legalism.
4. Ellen White prodded Adventism into a worldwide mission that transcended its American
roots.
 5. Ellen White quietly rejected exaggerated claims about herself (12).
The book presents Ellen White as an inspiring devotional writer, a remarkable person, a product
of her time, who achieved much while facing unique challenges. Her human contributions are
counterweighted with a focus on her weaknesses and deficiencies. The major omission in this book is
the near absence of demonstrable supernatural special revelation from God to His church through Ellen
White’s life and ministry.
It redefines “prophet” as merely “a person who (in God’s name) persuades—a leader who
changes people’s behavior” (11). She is portrayed as a gifted person who influenced or convinced
others to change their behavior. The “litany of negatives” (10) against Ellen White are represented as
requiring a redefinition of the nature and role of her “prophetic” ministry.
The presentation of what constitutes divine inspiration hardly exists. Some chapters are more
correctly nuanced than others but overall the book remains unbalanced to the human side. Where
present, inspiration is at best an “encounter” with God that is diminished by human deficiencies. There
is little biblical perspective on the operation of the prophetic gift.
Ellen White was not a verbalist but embraced thought inspiration in a divine-human
incarnational model that the book hardly recognizes. This dramatically influences all the assertions and
conclusions that are made throughout the volume and places her positive contributions in a humanistic
framework. While Ellen White’s writings include books that are devotional in nature, Seventh-day
Adventists also believe she had frequent communication with God through visions and dreams. These
were communicated in a trustworthy way under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, thereby setting her
books apart from other devotional literature.
The book presents the history of the church, and particularly the last fifty years, with
assumptions and assertions. While it is impossible for a book of this nature to be exhaustive in details
or footnotes, that which is shared should at least represent the spectrum of church publications that
address various issues and concerns. The citation of sources neglects many important church
publications that present a biblically and historically defensible understanding of Ellen White’s use of
sources, role of her assistants, inspiration, fallibility, and the relationship of her writings to Scripture,
among other issues. It is unfortunate that the White Estate was never notified or consulted about this
project.
Chapter nine calls for an entire paradigm change that modifies Fundamental Belief 18 by
removing language that speaks of Ellen White’s “prophetic authority” and the end-time manifestation
of the Spirit of Prophecy as an “identifying mark of the remnant church.” This underscores Ellen White’s
admonition that “the very last deception of Satan will be to make of none effect the testimony of the
Spirit of God. ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish’ (Prov. 29:18)” 1 SM 48.
What is omitted in the book has more destructive impact on the fundamental nature of the
prophetic gift and God’s establishment of the Seventh-day Adventist Church as a remnant movement
than what has been stated in it. If this book were written by a group of non-Adventist scholars and
published by a non-Adventist press it might be considered an interesting and generally positive review
of Ellen White from an outside perspective. But as a statement from Seventh-day Adventist scholars
and former administrators and published by the North American Division’s publishing house, it is highly
unfortunate. At least the book should not be published and distributed by a Seventh-day Adventist
press.

A Few Examples
Assumptions and Assertions:

 “The October 22 [2023] conference was ready to concede the basic validity of the critical,
contextualizing work and move on to the positive work of contributing to a denominational
consensus on the proper use of the writings and ministry of this remarkable woman” (10).
 “Her publications became, to a considerable degree, anthologies of her reading. From the
outset, she was embraced as an inspirational writer but, in fact, she may have been better
characterized as an inspired reader. When she read devotional works that inspired her, she
passed the content along to her readers to inspire them” (45).
 “Thinking of the Testimonies as one kind of writing and the Conflict of the Ages as another can
help us understand what is generally considered Ellen White's most gapping vulnerability—the
inspired writer who borrowed, in fact plagiarized so generously from other writers” (42-43).
 “In time, the pejorative term plagiarism was appropriately applied to her literary practice and
probably in all fairness. This did not lessen the work of her literary assistants. In the case of
Marian Davis in particular, whom the Prophet referred to as "my bookmaker," she may have
deserved co-author status” (45).
 “With no small measure of audacity, she hoped to transform herself into an acclaimed
devotional writer in the wider world. The literary, unimpressive letters that made up the
testimonies were what was generally classified as ‘woman's work.’ Ellen White stayed within her
skill set, topically and stylistically, with this unpretentious literary effort” (42).
 “She believed that her visions were from God and as faultless and unimpeachable as the God
who sent them to her. They were also her only access to a seat at the table” (43).
 “Why did Ellen White not just openly and unequivocally share with everyone what those who
worked close with her knew? Marian Davis rewrote much of The Great Controversy and came
close to being a co-author for other books” (133).
 “Whatever the reason for the cover-up, White herself cannot escape some responsibility for the
Ellen White problem that still troubles the church” (133).
 “But church leaders now knew the borrowing was everywhere. They were aware of the
magnitude and sequence of the borrowing, the role of Whites' literary assistants, and the
errors, both scientific and historical. And yet their response, however illogical, was a
reaffirmation of Whites' authority” (145).

Reframe Fundamental Belief 18 to remove “Prophetic Authority” and “Identifying Mark of the Remnant
Church”

 Proposed change to working of Fundamental Belief 18: “The Scriptures testify that one of the
gifts of the Holy Spirit is prophecy. We believe this gift was manifested in the ministry of Ellen G.
White. Her writings provide comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction to the Church. They
also make clear that the Bible is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be
tested” (150).
 “Note that Revelation 12:17 and 22:8, 9 are not among the Scriptures cited because they have
nothing to do with Ellen White. The expression ‘the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy’
is a reference to the message conveyed by Jesus in the spirit of the prophets and not some
 anciently anticipated slogan used by Seventh-day Adventists as a synonym for Ellen White and
her ministry. Instead it refers to the role of the author of Revelation claimed as a fellow
prophet” (155).
 “The other concept left out of the recommended statements is the concept of the remnant.
While God has a ‘remnant,’ it is not identical with any nameable group or organization of
people. The remnant is observable by what it believes and does, not by its name” (155).

Redefinition of a Prophet:

 “The authors of Reclaiming the Prophet will often employ the term "prophet" to describe Ellen
White. The point is not to mystify readers nor to hide her ordinary thoughts or essential
historical content. Using non-technical layman's language, a prophet is a person who (in God's
name) persuades—a leader who changes people's behavior. To call Ellen White a prophet is to
focus on what she built” (11).
 “She was a masterful institution-builder, playing an essential role in the creation of Adventist
schools, hospitals, and church organizations. She was an inspiring writer, able to motivate
dramatic change and breathtaking sacrifice in the lives of believers. Over the course of a long
life, she often challenged entrenched ‘brethren of experience,’ prodding Adventists away from
sectarian and heterodox positions toward orthodox Christian understanding of the atonement,
the Trinity, and the transforming power of God's love. Shaped by many sources, she wrote
devotional literature that appealingly described the attraction of holy living and Christian
service” (10).
 “Ellen White used a homiletical approach to address issues within her own time as well as ours.
Reading her as a preacher helps us steer clear of futile arguments about a perfect prophet who
never changed her mind or style. Our eyes are opened and we can understand the rich variety
of her writings” (83).

Ellen White’s Visions and Experience:

 “Worrying intensely with a mind churning and not being able to let things go was an innate part
of who Ellen White was and contributed to her chronic insomnia. At times she would interpret
this as being ‘awakened in the night by an angel” prompting her to get up and write.” “A side
effect of Ellen White's inherited heightened sensitivity was that it contributed to her being a
high maintenance person” (68).
 “To see a film [vision?] suffused with intense drama and rich, luxuriant imagery, and then be
asked to describe in writing what you have seen on the screen, is one of the hardest things to
do. It has been said that in every prophet, there is more than a little charlatan, for the prophets
as visionaries inevitably fail at adequately describing what they have seen in vision” (43).
 “Again and again, the perceived limitations imposed by her gender became avenues of influence
and spiritual power. As she multitasked her way through family and institutional roles, her
weaknesses became her strength” (17).
 “As a wife and mother, she struggled with hard times, sickness, and family challenges. She had
some sharp edges. She also had a gift she had not asked for, the responsibility of bringing God's
message to a people who desperately needed it, but who did not always welcome it. In doing
 so, she became a powerful preacher, wise counselor, prolific writer, and the indispensable
founder and shaper of Adventism. Her books, though they are dependent on sources and
literary assistance, are clearly hers. They are the product of her vision, and they serve the
purpose she intended” (148).

“Inspiring” Rather than Inspiration:

 “For Ellen White herself and for her contemporaries, however the Testimonies were the ‘canon
within the canon;’ these were the inspired writings. The Conflict of the Ages series, on the other
hand, belonged in the lesser category of inspirational” (41).
 “The Testimonies were the purest expression of Ellen White's authority in print form. To fault
them was to disparage her credentials as a prophet” (44).
 "Today, once again, church leaders face a turning point. This time the need to turn is simply the
accumulated weight of Ellen White research." Building on the research that began in the 1970s,
historians have enriched vastly our understanding of White. The Angwin Appeal of October 22,
2023, is a recognition that what historians of Adventism know today, the world church will know
tomorrow. It is past time to acknowledge the limits of White's authority and focus on the value
of her writings for their wise counsel on Christian living and devotional power" (125-126).