This is an outrage and nothing other than a disaster for understanding the Word of God.
Instead, the opinion of some self-important person, parading as the view of Ellen White, ends the discussion. The terrible tragedy that results is that God’s authoritative word, the Bible, is not seriously studied and debated. Those of you who know what I’m talking about, ask yourself the last time that you heard someone quote Ellen White and actually give the name of the book in which the statement was supposed to have appeared? (To say nothing about a citation to chapter or page numbers!) Since many (most?) Adventists are not well acquainted with Ellen White’s writings, my belief is that the “authoritative” Ellen White citation which ends the class discussion most likely reflects what the speaker thinks - and is unlikely to be an accurate quote from Ellen White, much less an accurate distillation of all of her writings on the subject. After all, who is bold enough to dispute the prophet? Especially, many Adventists believe that Ellen White is “authoritative” (meaning “conclusive”) commentary on disputes over Bible interpretation. Worse, it has been my experience that when Adventist students are in a Sabbath School class discussing the Bible lesson, if anyone “authoritatively” cites what Ellen White said on the subject, the discussion ends. After all, in contrast with the Bible, there are 49,000 more pages of her works to read! Since many Sabbath School students do not seem particularly well versed in their Bible, my guess is that their effective knowledge of what Ellen White has written is close to nonexistent. White Estate, Ellen White’s writings are contained in 50,000 pages of manuscript as reflected in her published books and articles. (For young eyes, the NLT is only 730 pages long, for old eyes (large print) it is 1,406 pages long.)Īccording to the Ellen G. It should not be “heavy lifting” for someone who wants to know about God to purchase a contemporary translation of the Bible, such as the New Living Translation, and read God’s word from cover to cover. A number of popular contemporary novels are about the same length. The Bible is not very long about 1,100 pages. I believe the primary source for every Sabbath School question and every Sabbath School answer should be the Bible. When they respond to questions given by the teacher, most often they recite their own views or what they think they can recall from Ellen White.
What I frequently found was that class members have their quarterlies open on their laps and their Bibles closed. Over the years I often been troubled when I visited Sabbath School classes in other Seventh-day Adventist churches.
The secondary reason why the teaching outlines generally do not cite Ellen White reflects a concern about the misuse of her writings. The secondary reason for not citing Ellen White in these lessons involves a much more complex and important problem and discussion. Thus, not citing her does no damage to Adventists and avoids problems with members of other churches. Those who are not Adventists may stop reading the lessons if they see regular citations to Ellen White. Citing her is not necessary for Adventists. Since the quarterly cites Ellen White extensively, those Adventists who read the quarterly and the lessons at or already have the benefit of Ellen White’s insight. My son/webmaster, Blake, and I believe that a large percentage of the GoBible readers are not Seventh-day Adventists. The GoBible web site follows the Adventist Adult Sabbath School lesson quarterly, but is aimed at Bible students from all denominations. The primary reason is that the lessons posted on this web site are copied from the originals posted at. Readers ask why I generally do not cite Ellen G.