A Pastoral Use of Scripture

Her pastoral use of ^{76What I have called pastoral use of Scripture others have termed as “homiletical” use of Scripture (cf. Pfandl, 314). I think that a pastoral use is broader than just homiletical. Furthermore, any responsible pastor—and preacher for that matter—will strive to be faithful to the original and overall message of Scripture, and will not twist and distort the meaning of Scripture.}Scripture becomes evident when she applies Scripture with prophetic insight, wisdom, and pastoral intention to various people who needed personal guidance, direction, edification, exhortation, encouragement, and correction. She often takes biblical texts literally and uses them at face value to provide counsel, advice, and direction. ^{77Cf., for instance, when she warned not to marry an unbeliever (E. G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, 174, 175; idem, Testimonies for the Church, 5:364, where she alludes to Matthew 24:37-39).}GOP 314.3

Ellen White also uses words of Scripture that were familiar to her, and applied the message or the encouragement of a biblical passage to a current situation even though the original biblical context may have addressed a different situation. In doing so, she is not distorting or twisting Scripture; neither is she unfaithful to Scripture. Instead Ellen White applies the message and gist of Scripture to new situations, helping us to be reminded of God’s wonderful acts in history and His great faithfulness so that we realize that the same God who acted in the past is alive today and can do the same wonderful things for His people as He did in the past. This might be similar to what the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews is doing in chapter 13 when he gives some concluding admonitions and makes the following statement: “Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you’ [Josh. 1:5], so that we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?’ [Ps. 118:6]” (verses 5, 6, NASB). Just as the biblical writer of Hebrews aligns very different passages from the Old Testament that affirm God’s faithfulness and remind the reader of God’s wonderful acts in behalf of His people in the past, to encourage the believers in new situations, Ellen G. White also uses Scripture pastorally to uplift, comfort, remind, and encourage the reader today to trust God in similar ways. In those cases she does not strictly work as an exegete, but uses Scripture to apply the general gist of its message to new situations as an encouragement.GOP 315.1