Ellen White and the salvation of the heathen
Throughout her writings, Ellen White urged the church to fulfill its God-given responsibility to bring the gospel to those who don’t know Christ. She clearly understood that many people will be lost because the gospel wasn’t brought to them. “The world is in need of the saving truth that God has entrusted to His people. The world will perish unless it be given a knowledge of God through His chosen agencies” (TM 459), and “ Multitudes perish for want of Christian teaching. Beside our own doors and in foreign lands the heathen are untaught and unsaved” (MH 288). In the book Education she wrote, “Millions upon millions have never so much as heard of God or of His love revealed in Christ. It is their right to receive this knowledge. They have an equal claim with us in the Saviour’s mercy. And it rests with us who have received the knowledge, with our children to whom we may impart it, to answer their cry” (Ed 263).GP 18.1
Though Ellen White spoke of millions upon millions of people going into Christless graves because the gospel is not brought to them, she also taught that there are occasions when God, apart from human messengers, reaches out to individuals in heathen lands and brings the gospel to them:GP 18.2
Those whom Christ commends in the judgment may have known little of theology, but they have cherished His principles. Through the influence of the divine Spirit they have been a blessing to those about them. Even among the heathen are those who . . . worship God ignorantly, those to whom the light is never brought by human instrumentality, yet they will not perish. Though ignorant of the written law of God, they have heard His voice speaking to them in nature, and have done the things that the law required. Their works are evidence that the Holy Spirit has touched their hearts, and they are recognized as the children of God (DA 638).GP 18.3
Heaven’s plan of salvation is broad enough to embrace the whole world. God longs to breathe into prostrate humanity the breath of life. And He will not permit any soul to be disappointed who is sincere in his longing for something higher and nobler than anything the world can offer. Constantly He is sending His angels to those who, while surrounded by circumstances the most discouraging, pray in faith for some power higher than themselves to take possession of them and bring deliverance and peace. In various ways God will reveal Himself to them and will place them in touch with providences that will establish their confidence in the One who has given Himself a ransom for all, “that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.” Psalm 78:7 (PK 377, 378).GP 19.1
In each of these cases, the Holy Spirit or the angels of God are reaching out to these individuals and implanting the grace of God in their hearts. These heathen are not saved because they have done the works their conscience told them to do. As we have said, this would be salvation by works. They are saved because the Holy Spirit has touched their hearts and revealed God’s love to them. However, such cases are the exceptions and not the rule.GP 19.2
Ellen White’s comments regarding the salvation of the heathen fall into three categories: (1) The majority of her statements make it clear that God’s general way of saving the heathen is through the church. (2) Some quotations indicate that God brings honest people among the heathen in contact with the gospel. (3) And in some cases, God, through the Holy Spirit, speaks to individuals in heathen lands and brings them the gospel without any human messengers. Such occasions, however, are not the rule but the exception.GP 19.3