The Life of Ellen White by D.M. Canright

Chapter 22 - Conclusion


Mrs. White had much to say about the three messages of Rev. 14:6-10. These, she said, were the foundation of her message and movement.

The first, she held, was fulfilled in William Miller's time-setting movement of 1843-4.

For over sixty-five years she applied the second message, or fall of Babylon, to the Protestant churches, and said it could not apply to the "Romish Church." But, as we have seen, in 1911 she changed her teachings regarding this message, and applied it particularly to the Roman Church. If correct in her later exposition, she was in error, and taught error regarding the second message nearly all her life.

The third message warns against false worship and receiving the mark of the beast. Nearly all her life Mrs. White taught that the mark of the beast is Sunday-keeping; but, as we have seen from the preceding chapter, near the close of her life she changed her views regarding this, and said that to "give Sunday to the Lord" was always acceptable to him.

In other words, she mistook and taught error regarding all three of the very messages which she and her followers have held to be the foundation of their movement. If wrong on the fundamentals, how can she safely be relied upon in other matters?

To summarize briefly some of her more prominent mistakes, the following may be noted:

The great characteristic of the 144,000 as described in the last named Scripture is that "in their mouth there was found no guile."

Guile is deception. No guile, therefore, means no deception. But, as pointed out in so many instances in this book, Mrs. White's claims to being an inspired prophet of God have been maintained very largely by deception, both on her own part and on the part of her defenders and supporters. Both she and they, therefore, fail to meet the very description and characteristic which Inspiration has seen fit to give of the 144,000.

No genuine gift of God, no true gift of the Spirit, has ever required guile - deception, deceit, fraud, or double-dealing - to defend and sustain it.

That she meant to be a Christian, and that her works contain many things good in themselves, need not be denied. Her motives we may safely leave with God. But her high claims are not defensible. They are disproved by too many patent and incontrovertible facts.


Previous Chapter BACK HOME