Concepts of Revelation and Inspiration

1
Concepts of Revelation and Inspiration

• Denis Fortin
• Writings of Ellen G. White

2
The Issues

• Most difficulties with the writings of Ellen
  White stem often from a faulty understanding of
  how God gave her messages and how her writings
  are inspired.
• Thus, people not well informed regarding the
  processes of revelation and inspiration are more
  vulnerable to a loss of confidence in her
  ministry when they discover information contrary
  to their views.

3
Ellen Whites view of her ministry

• Introduction to the Great Controversy
• "In harmony with the word of God, His Spirit was
  to continue its work throughout the period of the
  gospel dispensation. During the ages while the
  Scriptures of both the Old and the New Testament
  were being given, the Holy Spirit did not cease
  to communicate light to individual minds, apart
  from the revelations to be embodied in the Sacred
  Canon.

4
Ellen Whites view of her ministry

• "The Bible itself relates how, through the Holy
  Spirit, men received warning, reproof, counsel,
  and instruction, in matters in no way relating to
  the giving of the Scriptures. And mention is made
  of prophets in different ages, of whose
  utterances nothing is recorded. In like manner,
  after the close of the canon of the Scripture,
  the Holy Spirit was still to continue its work,
  to enlighten, warn, and comfort the children of
  God." (GC viii)

5
Ellen Whites view of her ministry

• "The Spirit i.e. the gift of prophecy was not
  given--nor can it ever be bestowed-- to supersede
  the Bible for the Scriptures explicitly state
  that the word of God is the standard by which all
  teaching and experience must be tested." (GC vii)

6
Modes of Revelation

• 1. Visions
• In her early years of ministry, Ellen White
  received visions often attended by striking
  physical phenomena.
• Unconscious of earthly surroundings
• Temporary cessation of breathing
• Unblinking eyelids
• Supernatural strength

7
Ellen White's first vision

• "While I was praying at the family altar, the
  Holy Ghost fell upon me, and I seemed to be
  rising higher and higher, far above the dark
  world. I turned to look for the Advent people in
  the world, but could not find them, when a voice
  said to me, "Look again, and look a little
  higher." At this I raised my eyes, and saw a
  straight and narrow path, cast up high above the
  world. On this path the Advent people were
  traveling to the city, which was at the farther
  end of the path." (EW 14)

8
Modes of Revelation

• 2. Prophetic Dreams
• These were visions received during her sleep.

9
San Francisco Earthquake

• "While at Loma Linda, California, April 16, 1906,
  there passed before me a most wonderful
  representation. During a vision of the night, I
  stood on an eminence, from which I could see
  houses shaken like a reed in the wind. Buildings,
  great and small, were falling to the ground.
  Pleasure resorts, theaters, hotels, and the homes
  of the wealthy were shaken and shattered. Many
  lives were blotted out of existence, and the air
  was filled with the shrieks of the injured and
  the terrified. . . . The awfulness of the scenes
  that passed before me I cannot find words to
  describe. It seemed that the forbearance of God
  was exhausted, and that the judgment day had
  come. Terrible as was the representation that
  passed before me, that which impressed itself
  most vividly upon my mind was the instruction
  given in connection with it." (3SM 40-41)

10
Natural Dreams

• Prophetic dreams must be distinguished from
  natural dreams
• by the information and content
• by the presence of the same angel as in prophetic
  daytime visions

11
Genuine visions and dreams

• "I would call especial attention to the
  remarkable dreams given in this little work, all
  with harmony and distinctness illustrating the
  same things. The multitude of dreams arise from
  the common things of life, with which the Spirit
  of God has nothing to do. There are also false
  dreams, as well as false visions, which are
  inspired by the spirit of Satan. But dreams from
  the Lord are classed in the word of God with
  visions and are as truly the fruits of the spirit
  of prophecy as visions. Such dreams, taking into
  the account the persons who have them and the
  circumstances under which they are given, contain
  their own proofs of their genuineness." (1T
  569-570 1867)

12
Modes of Revelation

• 3. Short visions during periods of prayer or
  writing
• Well, while I was praying and was sending up my
  petition, there was, as has been a hundred times
  or more, a soft light circling around in the
  room, and a fragrance like the fragrance of
  flowers, of a beautiful scent of flowers. (Ms
  43a, 1901)

13
Modes of Revelation

• 4. Precognitions
• Literal eyewitness-style revelations of persons
  she did not know or events that had not yet
  happened.
• "Sometimes the things which I have seen are hid
  from me after I come out of vision, and I cannot
  call them to mind until I am brought before a
  company where that vision applies, then the
  things which I have seen come to my mind with
  force." (2SG 292-293)

14
Modes of Revelation

• 5. Impressions
• When I am speaking to the people I say much
  that I have not premeditated. The Spirit of the
  Lord frequently comes upon me. I seem to be
  carried out of, and away from, myself the life
  and character of different persons are clearly
  presented before my mind. I see their errors and
  dangers, and feel compelled to speak of what is
  thus brought before me. I dare not resist the
  Spirit of God. (5T 20)

15
Function of Inspiration

• In contrast to revelation, which is a process of
  wholly divine initiative and control, the process
  of inspiration involves a union of divine and
  human elements.
• Inspiration is the work of the Holy Spirit upon
  the prophet.

16
Union of Divine and Human Elements

• "The Ten Commandments were spoken by God Himself,
  and were written by His own hand. They are of
  divine, and not of human composition. But the
  Bible, with its God-given truths expressed in the
  language of men, presents a union of the divine
  and the human.  Such a union existed in the
  nature of Christ, who was the Son of God and the
  Son of man. Thus it is true of the Bible, as it
  was of Christ, that 'the Word was made flesh, and
  dwelt among us.' John 114." (GC v-vi)

17
Role of the Holy Spirit

• "Each Bible writer, under the guidance of the
  Holy Spirit, presents what is most forcibly
  impressed upon his own mind--a different aspect
  of the truth in each, but a perfect harmony
  through all." (GC vi)

18
Role of the Holy Spirit

• "God has been pleased to communicate His truth to
  the world by human agencies, and He Himself, by
  His Holy Spirit, qualified men and enabled them
  to do this work. He guided the mind in the
  selection of what to speak and what to write."
  (GC vi)

19
Role of the Holy Spirit

• "I am trying to catch the very words and
  expressions that were made in reference to this
  matter, and as my pen hesitates a moment, the
  appropriate words come to my mind." (Letter 123,
  1904 8MR 35)

20
Role of the Holy Spirit

• "I have all faith in God .... He works at my
  right hand and at my left. While I am writing out
  important matter, He is beside me, helping me. He
  lays out my work before me, and when I am puzzled
  for a fit word with which to express my thought,
  He brings it clearly and distinctly to my mind. I
  feel that every time I ask, even while I am still
  speaking, He responds, "Here am I." (Letter 127,
  1902 2MR 156-157)

21
Role of the Holy Spirit

• "Through the inspiration of His Spirit the Lord
  gave His apostles truth, to be expressed
  according to the development of their minds by
  the Holy Spirit. But the mind is not cramped, as
  if forced into a certain mold." (Letter 53, 1900
  in 1SM 22)

22
Where does this divine-human union occur?

• The dictation theory of inspiration virtually
  asserts that the earliest point at which a human
  element becomes part of the writing is at the
  pen.
• In other words, every word and detail is
  pre-selected and dictated by God and the only
  part of the prophet really involved is the
  prophet's hand.

23
Where does this divine-human union occur?

• The term "verbal inspiration" has today such a
  wide range of interpretations that it has lost
  much of its precision.
• As understood by early Adventists, however, it
  denoted the idea that every word of the prophet's
  utterance was pre-selected by God without any
  human participation, hence could not subsequently
  be altered, even by the prophet.

24
Where does this divine-human union occur?

• The verbal/dictation view was specifically
  rejected by the 1883 General Conference, in a
  resolution offered by W.C. White, and clearly
  representing Ellen White's understanding of
  inspiration.
• The context for this resolution was the need of
  reprinting Ellen White's Testimonies for the
  Church which had gone out of print.

25
Where does this divine-human union occur?

• Whereas, We believe the light given by God to His
  servants is by the enlightenment of the mind,
  thus imparting the thoughts, and not (except in
  rare cases) the very words in which the ideas
  should be expressed therefore - Resolved, That
  in the re-publication of these volumes such
  verbal changes be made as to remove the
  above-named imperfection, as far as possible,
  without in any measure changing the thought and,
  further - Resolved, That this body appoint a
  committee of five to take charge of the
  republication of these volumes. (Review and
  Herald, November 27, 1883, p. 741 see also 3Bio
  217-219)

26
Conceptual or Thought Inspiration

• Ellen White taught that the union of the divine
  and human in the process of inspiration took
  place at the level of the "mind and will."

27
Conceptual or Thought Inspiration

• The Bible is written by inspired men, but it is
  not God's mode of thought and expression. It is
  that of humanity. God, as a writer, is not
  represented. Men will often say such an
  expression is not like God. But God has not put
  Himself in words, in logic, in rhetoric, on trial
  in the Bible. The writers of the Bible were God's
  penmen, not His pen. Look at the different
  writers.

28
Conceptual or Thought Inspiration

• It is not the words of the Bible that are
  inspired, but the men that were inspired.
  Inspiration acts not on the man's words or his
  expressions but on the man himself, who, under
  the influence of the Holy Ghost, is imbued with
  thoughts. But the words receive the impress of
  the individual mind. The divine mind is diffused.
  The divine mind and will is combined with the
  human mind and will thus the utterances of the
  man are the word of God (Manuscript 24, 1886 in
  1SM 21).

29
Implications of Conceptual Inspiration

• If the union of the divine and the human in
  inspiration takes place at the level of
  "thoughts," and involves a "combining" of "mind
  and will," it follows that the faculties of both
  understanding and choice were fully operant as
  the prophet wrote.

30
Implications of Conceptual Inspiration

• How the divine mind and will is combined with
  the human mind and will remains a mystery, but
  it suggests that in formulating or choosing
  "words and expressions" to represent the
  "thoughts" received from God, the prophet
  exercised both human intellect and choice, in
  cooperation with the "divine mind and will."

31
Implications of Conceptual Inspiration

• Ellen White clearly understood this process to be
  a live, dynamic one that continued as long as the
  prophet remained under the influence of the Holy
  Spirit.
• She claimed full dependence of the Holy Spirit in
  writing and that
• she had full responsibility and freedom to choose
  her words.

32
Implications of Conceptual Inspiration

• "Although I am as dependent upon the Spirit of
  God in writing my views as I am in receiving
  them, yet the words I employ in describing what I
  have seen are my own, unless they be those spoken
  to me by an angel, which I always enclose in
  marks of quotation." (RH, 8 Oct 1867, also in 1SM
  37 and 3SM 278)

33
Implications of Conceptual Inspiration

• In summary, Ellen White understood the
  combination of the divine and human mind and will
  to be an ongoing process in the prophet's
  experience.
• Inspiration guided the prophet as communicator,
  not only in the initial formulation of thoughts
  into words, but also in the subsequent
  improvement of those expressions by herself or
  with the help of others.

34
Characteristics of divine-human writings

• Individual styles of writings and diversity (GC
  vi 1SM 21-22)
• Variety of viewpoints, yet perfect harmony
• "The Creator of all ideas may impress different
  minds with the same thought, but each may express
  it in a different way, yet without contradiction"
  (1SM 22).

35
Characteristics of divine-human writings

• Imperfect language, yet trustworthy message
• "The treasure was entrusted to earthen vessels,
  yet it is, nonetheless, from Heaven. The
  testimony is conveyed through the imperfect
  expression of human language, yet it is the
  testimony of God and the obedient, believing
  child of God beholds in it the glory of a divine
  power, full of grace and truth" (GC vi-vii).

36
Characteristics of divine-human writings

• "The Bible is not given to us in grand,
  superhuman language. Jesus, in order to reach man
  where he is, took humanity. The Bible must be
  given in the language of men. Everything that is
  human is imperfect" (1SM 20).

37
Characteristics of divine-human writings

• While Ellen White insists that God alone is
  infallible yet she believed in the trustworthy
  reliability of Scripture as a whole (1SM 17).
• "In His word, God has committed to men the
  knowledge necessary for salvation. The Holy
  Scriptures are to be accepted as an
  authoritative, infallible revelation of His will.
  They are the standard of character, the revealer
  of doctrines, and the test of experience" (GC
  vii).

38
Characteristics of divine-human writings

• While the human vessel of inspiration is fallible
  and imperfect, the product of inspiration is
  infallible albeit imperfect.
• Divine inspired writings are not exempt from
  insignificant mistakes due to limitations of
  languages or of comprehension. But the message
  is trustworthy and infallible.

39
Characteristics of divine-human writings

• Erroneous concepts of inspiration lead inevitably
  to misinterpretation and misuse of inspired
  writings.
• Overemphasis on the human elements in inspired
  writings leads to diminished appreciation for
  their true value and authority.
• De-emphasis of the human elements leads to rigid,
  inflexible, and authoritarian applications
  confusion of rules and principles.