Validating Truth

How should one validate truth? By counting heads and accepting the position that attracts the largest number of subscribers? Hardly.IRWHW 60.8

What is the best way to determine the correct time of day? If someone is asked, “What time is it?” and responds, “It is 7:10,” how does one know whether he is correct? Incidentally, if you ask several individuals for the time of day, you may get as many different answers as there are persons with watches. Furthermore, each person will probably assume that his is the only right time if others disagree.IRWHW 60.9

Many communities have a telephone number one may dial to get the exact time of day. Some radio and television networks have a “blip” signal that may be heard exactly on the hour, superimposed over the voice of the announcer giving the call letters of the station.IRWHW 60.10

Validating the time of day for most of us may not be crucial. Whether we are one or two minutes off may not be too important. But validating spiritual truth may be eternally important.IRWHW 60.11

And how does one validate truth? The response of Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, French bishop and seventeenth century court preacher to Louis XIV, is apropos. Louis was a great lover of the theater, and often had command performances in his court. Bossuet, on the other hand, was widely known to oppose the theater as being inimical to the development of Christian character and as being an instrument of evil.IRWHW 60.12

One day, as the story goes, during a lull in the proceedings of court, Louis looked around and, seeing Bossuet on the periphery, called loudly in his direction, “My bishop, what do you think of the theater?”IRWHW 60.13

Courtiers gasped, for they knew the views of both men. They also knew the peril of rendering a verdict contrary to the royal opinion. At the very least, the offender might be banished from court (a fate, for these sycophants, almost worse than death); at the very worst, he might be sent to his death.IRWHW 60.14

Everyone waited breathlessly for Bossuet’s response, wondering whether he would take the expedient way out of the dilemma (on the theory that it is better to be a live coward than a dead hero), or whether he would risk all to speak the conviction of his heart.IRWHW 60.15

Bossuet gravely made his way into the immediate presence of the Sun King, genuflected, and said with great dignity, “Sire, you have asked what I think of the theater. I will tell you, Sire, what I think. There are some great persons in favor of it ... and there are some great reasons against it!”IRWHW 60.16

It might equally be said of the “strait-jacket” theory of “more sureness.” “There are some great persons in favor of it; but there are some great reasons against it.” How does one decide? Validation is potentially a painful process, for facts sometimes force us to change long-held highly cherished opinions. But validation is an intellectual necessity to anyone who holds truth to be as important as life itself.IRWHW 60.17

It is important for each of us to know what we believe, as well as why we believe it.IRWHW 60.18

In part 1 of this series we noted Paul’s declaration that “we have this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Corinthians 4:7) and Ellen White’s observation that “in the work of God for man’s redemption, divinity and humanity are combined.” ^{12Testimonies for the Church 5:747. Complete bibliographical information for Ellen G. White writings used in both parts 1 and 2 of this article, may be found in the footnotes at the end of part 1.} Jesus was both Son of God and Son of man; and this same union of the divine and the human exists also in the Bible. The “treasure” consists of truths revealed and inspired by God; the “earthen vessel”—the human packaging—is the words of men, chosen by them to communicate divine truth. ^{13The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan, p. vii.}IRWHW 60.19

The “treasure”—the God-given truth or message—is not only “an infallible revelation of His will” but is also “authoritative” ^{14Ibid., p. vii.}—normative and binding upon the Christian. Commenting upon the question of infallibility, Ellen White wrote, “God alone is infallible.” ^{15Selected Messages 1:37.} “Man is fallible, but God’s Word is infallible.” ^{16Selected Messages 1:416.}IRWHW 61.1

Concerning the “earthen vessel,” the human side of the equation, Mrs. White added, “Everything that is human is imperfect“: ^{17Selected Messages 1:20.} and “no man is infallible.” ^{18Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 376 (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1944).}IRWHW 61.2

Some have stumbled over the fact that there are imperfections in the writings of Ellen White. Examples cited by the critics include her incorrect numbering of Abraham’s allies; her early statement that God commanded Adam and Eve not to touch the forbidden fruit, later changed to state that these were Eve’s words; her assertion that only eight souls received Noah’s message, contradicted in another place by her statement that there were others who believed and who helped build the ark; and her account of the daily ministration in the ancient tabernacle, ^{19Ellen G. White, The Story of Patriarchs and Prophets (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1958), p. 354.} which does not entirely square with the account given in the Pentateuch.IRWHW 61.3

Some critics have gone on to ask if these imperfections, these inaccuracies, this demonstrated untrustworthiness, are not sufficient reason for not basing any doctrine upon her writings. ^{20Robert W. Olson, 101 Questions on the Sanctuary and on Ellen White (Washington, D.C.: Ellen G. White Estate, 1981), p. 52.}IRWHW 61.4

There is no charge that can be leveled against Ellen White, in her professional role as a prophet, that could not and has not first been leveled against the writers of the Bible by the so-called “higher critics,” whether such accusations allege misstatements of fact, copying uninspired writers (a charge examined in detail in part 1 of this series), unfulfilled prophecies, or having to retract statements made at an earlier time.IRWHW 61.5

Let us not claim more for Mrs. White than we would for the Bible writers; but let us not claim less, either (for reasons that will be discussed in some detail in part 3 of this series).IRWHW 61.6

Coming back to Peter’s forthright claim, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy,” let us examine, successively, the lives of the prophets, and then the declarations of the prophets, to see if we are able to determine how this “more sureness” operates—or does not operate.IRWHW 61.7