Section IV—The Voice of a Movement

Chapter 17—Organization, Unity, and Institutional Development

“We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.” ^{1Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 196.}MOL 182.1

The ministry of Ellen White and the emergence of the Seventh-day Adventist Church are inseparable. To try to understand one without the other would make each unintelligible and undiscoverable. Ellen White and the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, in thought and structure, are as integrated as the union of Anglo-Saxon languages in the formation of English speech. ^{2“During a long life span, she exerted the most powerful single influence on Seventh-day Adventist believers.” Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. XX, p. 99. “Mrs. White was the acknowledged inspiration of the movement.... Her ideas established the world of Adventism in its medical, educational, and missionary work around the world.” Hartzell Spence, “The Story of Religions in America—Seventh-day Adventists,” Look, XXII (June 24, 1958), p. 79.}MOL 182.2

Ellen and James White were the rallying center for those Millerites who later became the Sabbatarian (Saturday-sabbath) Adventists. James White, a remarkably resilient organizer, embraced simultaneously many aspects of a growing movement as few others could. By his side, emboldened with a holy candor and unwavering commitment, Ellen White encouraged the growing “little flock” with visions bold. This administrator/prophet team within a few decades led a New England group into an international mission. Though they were the human center of a worldwide movement, neither claimed recognition, reward, or even earthly comforts. ^{3In the Bible Conference of 1919, A. G. Daniells, president of the General Conference, reflected on how he would teach young people about the relationship of Ellen White to the thought and structure of the Seventh-day Adventist Church: “I would want to begin with the beginning of this movement. At that time here was a gift given to this person; and with that gift to that individual, at the same time, came this movement of the three-fold message. They came right together in the same year. That gift was exercised steadily and powerfully in the development of this movement. The two were inseparably connected, and there was instruction given regarding this movement in all its phases through this gift, clear through for seventy years.” “The Use of the Spirit of Prophecy in Our Teaching of Bible and History,” Spectrum, vol. 10, no. 1, p. 29.}MOL 182.3

On one hand, the Whites fearlessly denounced the evils of the social order; on the other, they led tens of thousands in their day to catch a picture of how the gospel brings spiritual, social, and physical restoration in this life—all in fulfilling the divine command to prepare a people to meet the soon-coming Lord. Out of this twin emphasis, a turning from the distracting customs of worldly practices and the commitment to tell the world of the principles of the kingdom of God, emerged an international network of medical and educational institutions, supported by scores of publishing houses and a worldwide mission network. ^{4See VandeVere, in Adventism in America, pp. 66, 67.}MOL 182.4

The indisputable guiding force behind this impulse was Ellen White. Her unifying, motivating “voice” continues to provide light and compelling dynamics long after her death in 1915. ^{5“Since her death [in 1915] there has been constant recourse to EGW’s thoughts and positions on each and every issue which faced the Seventh-day Adventist Church ... so that in every discussion her approval was either assumed or subsumed. Still today her voluminous writings are read, quoted and discussed by both ministry and laity of the SDA church to a much greater degree than are the writings of John Wesley in Methodism, and perhaps more than the works of Martin Luther in the various Lutheran churches.” Roy Graham, Ellen G. White, Co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (New York: Peter Lang, 1985), p. 1.} Yet, one of the unique factors that distinguishes her from others who claimed the prophetic gift in the nineteenth century ^{6Joseph Smith of the Mormons, Mary Baker Eddy of the Christian Scientists, etc., see p. 37.} is that she never perceived herself as a leader of a new movement. She never swerved from her simple self-perception that she was only God’s messenger to the Advent movement.MOL 182.5

Mrs. White kept one eye on the divine commission as set forth in Revelation 14, an assignment that would ultimately unite all who seek truth, from every continent and from every ethnic, social, and economic background; her other eye was on the core group that was to make credible this good news of God’s last-day invitation to a judgment-bound world. She knew that without the gospel principles working in the lives of those who proclaimed the gospel, results would be minimal. For her, the church’s highest priority was to reflect the Christlike life that would make Christ’s gospel appealing and convincing. ^{7“The gospel is to be presented not as a lifeless theory, but as a living force to change the life. God would have His servants bear testimony to the fact that through His grace men may possess Christlikeness of character and may rejoice in the assurance of His great love.... We are witnesses for God as we reveal in ourselves the working of a power that is divine.... These precious acknowledgments to the praise of the glory of His grace, when supported by a Christlike life, have an irresistible power that works for the salvation of souls.” The Ministry of Healing, 99, 100; see p. 470. See also The Desire of Ages, 826.}MOL 182.6