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Commentary on "The Work of the Prophets"
Day 5: Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Todays lesson, “Communicating God's Will”, is a look at some of the ways in which God's messages were delivered through his prophets. It is shown that Ellen White, like some Biblical prophets also had some reluctance to share what she had been shown. The author of the lesson again resorts to the method of statistical support for her ministry, by finishing the lesson with the statement, “When Ellen White died, she left behind about one hundred thousand pages of published and unpublished material.”
When one encounters the work of one individual who wrote by hand, without any of our modern technology, the question must be asked, how did one person write so much? The Ellen G. White Estate does not deny that she had literary assistants. However, the understanding of what those literary assistants provided has been modified as new information has been revealed about the sources of Ellen White's literary output. (Please see commentary for day 2 above regarding the use of these kinds of statistics.)
At the end of the lesson, the question is asked, “What do the writings of Ellen G.White mean to you personally?” The form this question takes is one that, since the 1970's, has become increasingly popular among Christians. Ever since Gadamer's Hermeneutics, people have believed that asking “What does it mean to me?” is a primary concern for the Christian. According to one professor at Talbot Theological Seminary, that is the last question a Christian should ask. Of course, the subject in question is the Bible. However, in Adventism, little distinction is made between the writings of Ellen White and the Bible. A distinction may be made on a theoretical level, but on the practical level her writings are as authoritative as any statement from scripture.
Effort is rarely made to ask whether her writings are in harmony with the Bible. The Bible is searched to identify support for statements that she makes. Rarely, in some settings never, is an error in her writings allowed to be questioned based on the fact that the Bible contradicts one of her statements. Rather than asking what her writings mean to you personally, it may be more important to ask, “What does the Bible say about her writings?”
As we end these first five days of study this week, we are about to delve into an area on which there is great disagreement and much discussion among Christians of all denominations.
Summary
- Communicating God’s will is a matter of proclaiming truth. The last question Christians should ask is what God’s communication means to me. The first question to be asked when examining extra-biblical sources of information is, “Is this true?”
- For the second time this week the lesson author resorts to statistical data to bolster the image of Ellen White. Statistics do not indicate whether something is true. The Bible must be the ultimate source of truth for the Christian.
Copyright 2009 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised February 5, 2009. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.
Official Adventist Resources
Standard Edition Study Guide Week 7
Teacher's Edition Study Guide Week 7
Easy Reading Edition Study Guide Week 7
Search the Complete Published Ellen G. White Writings