The Trilemma of Sister White

The Trilemma of Sister White

“Don Quijote de la Mancha” was a book written hundreds of years ago by a man called Miguel de Cervantes – considered by many the Spanish Shakespeare. Cervantes allegedly started writing Don Quijote while in jail for financial discrepancies in his tax collecting account. In his years in jail, disillusioned with his government and with time to meditate, he wrote the novel that became a classic. The story follows a man who has lost his mind and believes he is a knight. In his delusion he goes out to save his imaginary damsel in distress called Dulcinea accompanied by a servant called Sancho Panza. As he searches for her he looks at the windmills and he imagines them to be giants. He sets out to attack them in spite of Sancho’s now famous saying, “Don Quijote those are not giants they are windmills!” Some scholars now believe that Cervantes saw himself as Sancho Panza faithfully following a “lunatic” king.

Someone studied the life of Jesus and concluded that there are only three possibilities with Jesus. He is either: a liar (conman), a lunatic or He is the risen Christ, the Lord of all Creation, the Alpha and the Omega, the King of Kings. The lesson quotes Clifford Goldstein concluding the same thing about Ellen G White. This is what he says about it,

“Ellen White made claims about her ministry that leave no room for compromise or ambivalence about those claims. She claimed to have seen things that could have come only from supernatural inspiration. Either her claims are true or she was a lunatic and/or a powerful liar who promulgated her insane ravings or amazing deceptions from the middle of the nineteenth into the second decade of the twentieth century.”

Why would Clifford Goldstein write that? Because, millions of the world population have believed what this woman has claimed to be: inspired. And, this we have believed for more than 160 years. So there are three options: She was who she said she was, we are all fools, or we are all Sancho Panza’s.

So what do we do with all the evidence? We have all the visions, and witnesses to them. We also have all the books and articles written by a woman that barely had a grade school education. She predicted things that have come true even to this day. She also revealed things about people that no one else knew. How do you explain all that? It had to be supernatural, even divine.

But, a mere intellectual acceptance of Jesus as the Son of God and man, or that Sister White was indeed a divinely inspired prophet will do nothing for us. Only the belief of Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior will save you. Likewise with Sister White writings, only accepting them as God’s message to you and you heeding to them will make a difference. Do her writings lead you to repentance or criticizing others? Do her writings lead you to study scripture or to ignore or reject them? Do her writings lead you to a more loving and fulfilling relationships with Christ or not? All this requires faith.

The author of Hebrews wrote that “without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6). And what is faith? “… faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). A mere belief is not enough, because as James says, “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble” (James 2:19).

Now, Paul says “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). This can mean that faith is what can happen when you hear the word of God, be it from the Bible or Sister White. Faith is the favorable response of heeding a warning that the path we are pursuing is sinful, and we are in need of repentance. You know that little cherished sin that she warns against in her writings. It does not seem harmful and we are unwilling to let go.

Part of having faith is, believing in what we cannot see (Hebrews 11:1). We can not see where will this little cherished will eventually lead us, but the invisible God does. We also cannot see where heeding God’s warning will lead us, but the invisible God does. So, when we have faith, we hear then we believe what we hear and follow it, even if it defies all worldly logic and wisdom. So the question is how are we responding? This will determine whether we have faith or not.