The belief that knowledge can—indeed must—be possible by divine revelation is as old as religion; in fact, it is as old as the human race. The Hebrew-Christian tradition is founded upon it. In both the first and the last chapters of the Bible, God is portrayed as talking to men, telling them things they otherwise would not have known. The pages between are filled largely by the writings of and stories about men and women who believed that they were speaking for God, passing on to others what he had told them, frequently quoting him verbatim.

There are obstacles, however, in transmitting the word of God to human understanding. The problem first appears in Genesis 3:8–10, where the man said, "I heard the voice of the Lord God…I was afraid…I hid myself."

On a later occasion, God spoke to a great congregation from the top of Mt. Sinai. At that time, he was no more successful in establishing a communion than he was during his first attempt in the garden.

The record in Exodus 20:18–20 says that

The people were afraid and trembled…and said to Moses, "You speak to us…but let not God speak to us, lest we die.…" The people stood afar off, while Moses drew near to the thick cloud where God was.

To the people who in their fright had asked that Moses speak in place of God, this man with whom God could speak face to face gave assurance that other intermediaries would continue after he was gone:

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me…him you shall heed.…And the Lord said…I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak…all that I command him. (Deut. 18:9, 15–18)

Along with this promise, the Lord anticipated a basic problem with this method of revealing himself and his will. Human beings do not always understand precisely or correctly. They do not always tell the truth. One might claim to speak for God when the Lord has not spoken to him. He may sincerely believe that he has received a message by divine revelation, or he may be deliberately lying. In either case, there should be ways of testing his validity.

Two principles are involved in this test. First, the pronouncements of a prophet—any prophet—are to be put to the test. When he speaks on matters that can be verified by human criteria of fact, his message is subject to such verification. The personal certainty of an individual that he has received a divine revelation neither proves nor disproves his authenticity. The validity of his claim must be settled rationally by the coherence of evidence in the total situation.

Second, when a particular message fails the test, this does not necessarily brand the messenger as a false prophet. It merely invalidates that particular message—not others that the same prophet may have given in the past or may give in the future. (For a forceful illustration of this principle, see 1 Kings 13.)

Authority and Infallibility

I suggest that at least part of our problems with Ellen White stem from our failure to distinguish between authority and infallibility. Of course we are uncomfortable with either. We are uneasy with authority and nearly paranoid about infallibility! When we find that a prophet is not infallible, we don’t seem to know how to handle it.

Can a prophet be authoritative without being inerrant? Does bestowal of a spiritual gift render the recipient incapable of effor? Do we require that teachers, healers, pastors, or administrators be free from mistakes to be authoritative? Do we feel that a teacher, healer, pastor, or administrator is compromised if he makes use of other sources in his formal speaking or writing?

Upon a review of biblical personalities identified as speaking or acting under the bestowal of the Holy Spirit, we must conclude that perfection of character was not a qualification required for their selection. Cain, murderer of his brother, received the first message from God outside Eden of which we have record. The pagan king, Abimelech, was given a divinely inspired dream. Jephtha—bastard son of a harlot, bandit chief, and killer of his daughter—was victorious recipient of "the Spirit of the Lord." The song of the prophetess Deborah was not only one of gladness in victory but also of exultation in vengeance.

Then there was David, of whom the scribe of 1 Kings 15:5 wrote this eulogy: "David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite." Now that is a rather liberal appraisal in light of what we are told of David’s life. If we wonder why God bestows his Spirit upon people like David, or why he speaks through sinners, there is but one answer. He uses sinners as his spokespersons because that is the kind of people there are in the world. If he didn’t convey his messages in imperfect vessels, he couldn’t convey them at all. God does the best he can with what is available. The miracle is that he has gotten his word through at all. The more we see of the failings of God’s servants and their limitations as bearers of the divine word, the greater does the miracle of the Bible become. The miracle is not in the spokesperson, not in the prophet, but with God.

Harmony and Enlightenment

In my opinion, our current problems in respect to the writings of Ellen White arise primarily from two basic errors:

1. Making a pro forma faith in their divine origin the basis for their authority rather than allowing their authority to develop out of a wide acquaintance and experience with them.

2. The fallacious assumption that all utterances of a prophet—on any subject matter—are infallible and treating them as though they were verbatim quotations from God.

If our search for God in nature and the inspired word—or our endeavors to find the harmony between these two revelations of him—fall short of our hopes, I suggest that rather than becoming frustrated or discouraged, we recognize that even our difficulties may be a source of enlightenment. If that sounds enigmatic, think over this statement by Ellen G. White:

God is to be acknowledged more from what He does not reveal of Himself than from that which is open to our limited comprehension. Both in divine revelation and in nature, God has given to men mysteries to command their faith. This must be so. We may be ever rearching, ever inquiring, ever leaning. and yet there is an infinity beyond.1

Notes and References

1. Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1 (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1948), 261, emphasis supplied.

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