The Final Years 1905 through 1915

“The Godhead in Black and White” book.

The closing years of Mrs. White’s life were busy. At the age of 81 Mrs. White traveled again to Washington, attending the General Conference session in 1909 (her last). At the conference she spoke a number of times in a clear, firm voice. This was her last trip to the eastern states, and it made a lasting and vivid impression on the many Seventh-day Adventists who heard her speak or who met her at the General Conference session.

Realizing that her remaining days were few, when Ellen White returned to Elmshaven she intensified her efforts to bring out a number of books presenting essential instruction to the church. Testimonies for the Churchvolume 9, was published in 1909. In 1911 The Acts of the Apostles appeared. In1913 Counsels to Parents and Teachers was issued, and in 1914 the manuscript for Gospel Workers was finished and sent to the press. The closing active months of Mrs. White’s life were devoted to the book Prophets and Kings.

On the morning of February 13, 1915, as Ellen White was entering her comfortable study room at Elmshaven, she tripped and fell, and was unable to rise. Help was summoned, and it soon became clear that the accident was serious.

An X-ray examination disclosed a break in the left hip, and for five months Mrs. White was confined to her bed or wheelchair. Her words to friends and relatives during the closing weeks of her life indicated a feeling of cheerfulness, a sense of having faithfully performed the work God had entrusted to her, and also a very solemn warning: “I tell you now, that when I am laid to rest, great changes will take place. I do not know when I shall be taken; and I desire to warn all against the devices of the devil. I want the people to know that I warned them fully before my death.” {Manuscript 1, 1915}

The life of Ellen White ended July 16, 1915, at the age of 87 years. The faithful warrior was laid to rest at the side of her husband in Oak Hill Cemetery, Battle Creek, Michigan.

Examining the writings 1905-1915

If Ellen White was to make any corrections regarding the Godhead, surely such corrections must be found in the last works penned by her (for there were none so far). What does an examination of the writings of this period reveal? Did Ellen White change her belief to a trinity? Or did she continue to uphold the truths that were revealed to her from the start? We shall allow her to answer our questions for herself.

Did Ellen White reverse or change her views in the last years of her life?

I understood that some were anxious to know if Mrs. White still held the same views that she did years ago when they had heard her speak in the sanitarium grove, in the Tabernacle, and at the camp-meetings held in the suburbs of Battle Creek. I assured them that the message she bears today is the same that she has borne during the sixty years of her public ministry. She has the same service to do for the Master that was laid upon her in her girlhood. She receives lessons from the same Instructor. The directions given her are, “Make known to others what I have revealed to you.  Write out the messages that I give you, that the people may have them.” This is what she has endeavored to do.” {E. G. White, Review and Herald, July 26, 1906 par. 20}

What did she add to her consistent definition of the Holy Spirit of God?

“The Lord encourages all who seek Him with the whole heart. He gives them His Holy Spirit, the manifestation of His presence and favor.” {E. G. White, Testimonies Volume 9, p. 230} 1909

dove cloudsWhere does the Holy spirit come from?

The Holy Spirit, which proceeds from the only begotten Son of God, binds the human agent, body, soul, and spirit, to the perfect, divine-human nature of Christ. This union is represented by the union of the vine and the branches. Finite man is united to the manhood of Christ. Through faith human nature is assimilated withChrist’s natureWe are made one with God in Christ.” {E. G. White, Review and Herald, April 5, 1906 par. 16}

When Christ spoke of the Spirit, was He speaking of a different person?

“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”Christ is not here referring to his doctrine, but to his person, the divinity of his character.” {E. G. White, Review and Herald, April 5, 1906 par. 12}

Who does the fashioning and the molding of the work?

“Let those who bear responsibilities remember that it is the Holy Spirit who is to do the fashioningIt is the Lord who controls. We are not to try to mold, according to our own ideas, those for whom we work, but to let Christ do the molding.” {E. G. White,Testimonies Volume 9, p. 135} 1909

Who will send conviction to the minds of hearers?

“Preach the word, and the Lord by His Holy Spirit will send conviction to the minds of the hearers. The word is: “And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.” Mark 16:20.” {E. G. White, Testimonies Volume 9, p. 141} 1909

Is the Holy Spirit described as a third being besides God and Christ?

“Let them be thankful to God for His manifold mercies and be kind to one another. They have one God and one Saviour; and one Spirit–the Spirit of Christ–is to bring unity into their ranks.” {E. G. White, Testimonies Volume 9, p. 189} 1909

Are we to discard the earlier truths regarding the personality of God and Christ?

He who denies the personality of God and of his Son Jesus Christ, is denying God and Christ. “If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.” If you continue to believe and obey the truths you first embraced regarding the personality of the Father and the Son, you will be joined together with him in love.” {E.G. White, Review and Herald, March 8, 1906 par. 19}

What fact were the fallen angels seeking to obscure in heaven?

“Angels were expelled from heaven because they would not work in harmony with God. They fell from their high estate because they wanted to be exalted. They had come to exalt themselves, and they forgot that their beauty of person and of character came from the Lord Jesus. This fact the [fallen] angels would obscure, that Christ was the only begotten Son of God, and they came to consider that they were not to consult Christ. One angel began the controversy and carried it on until there was rebellion in the heavenly courts, among the angels.” {E. G. White, This Day With God, p.128} 1910 (Note: Is thisFACT still being obscured by some today? Who is behind such efforts?)

What did Christ gain in His incarnation? How was He a Son in a ‘prior sense’?

“In His humanity He was a partaker of the divine nature. In His incarnation He gained in a new sense the title of the Son of God. Said the angel to Mary, “The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing whichshall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). While the Son of a human being, He became the Son of God in a new sense. Thus He stood in our world–the Son of God, yet allied by birth to the human race.” {E. G. White,The Signs of the Times, August 2, 1905. Quoted in Selected Messages Book 1, pp. 226, 227}

What is the ‘older’/prior sense in which the pre-incarnate Christ was God’s Son?

He was the Majesty of heaven, the only-begotten Son of God. Yet “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.” {E. G. White, Testimonies Volume 9, p. 208} 1909

What is given to us in the gift of Jesus Christ?

The Fatherhood of God is given to us in the gift of Jesus Christ; and as God was one with his only begotten Son, so he would have his earthly children one with him.” {E. G. White, Review and Herald, September 30, 1909 par. 15}

Did Ellen White change her mind as to who is speaking in Proverbs 8:22-30?

“The Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, existed from eternity, a distinct person, yet one with the Father. He was the surpassing glory of heaven. He was the commander of the heavenly intelligences, and the adoring homage of the angels was received by him as his right. This was no robbery of God. “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way,” he declares, “before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth; while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth.”” {E. G. White,Review and Herald, April 5, 1906 par. 7}

Who are the only ones that know what our salvation cost?

God and Christ alone know what the souls of men have cost.” {E. G. White, Signs of the Times, January 13, 1909 pr. 8}

What does it mean to have a wrong conception of God?

“The present age is one of idolatry as verily as was that in which Elijah lived. No outward shrines may be visible, there may be no image for the eye to rest upon, yet thousands are following after the gods of this world,–after riches, fame, pleasure, and the pleasing fables that permit man to follow the inclinations of the unregenerate heart. Multitudes have a wrong conception of God and of his attributes, and are as truly serving a false god as were the worshipers of Baal.” {E. G. White, Review and Herald, November 6, 1913 par. 1}

Is the doctrine of the Godhead (the personality of God and Christ) a pillar doctrine? Is it considered as one of the old landmarks?

“Those who seek to remove the old landmarks are not holding fast; they are not remembering how they have received and heard. Those who try to bring in theories that would remove the pillars of our faith concerning the sanctuary or concerning the personality of God or of Christ, are working as blind men. They are seeking to bring in uncertainties and to set the people of God adrift without an anchor.” {E. G. White, Manuscript Release No.760, p. 9} 1905

“I entreat every one to be clear and firm regarding the certain truths that we have heard and received and advocated. The statements of God’s Word are plain. Plant your feet firmly on the platform of eternal truth. Reject every phase of error, even though it be covered with a semblance of reality, which denies the personality of God and of Christ.” {E. G. White, Review and Herald, August 31, 1905 par. 11} (Note: For an account of what the pioneers received and advocated regarding the Godhead doctrine write and ask for the book The Living Voice of the Lord’s Witnesses)

Did Ellen White confess a change in the foundation of truth?

“The Word of the Lord has guided our steps since the passing of the time in 1844. We have searched the Scriptures; we have built solidly; and we have not had to tear up our foundations and put in new timbers.” {E. G. White, Manuscript Releases Volume 1, p. 54} 1907

The evidence given in our early experience has the same force that it had then. The truth is the same as it ever has been, and not a pin or a pillar can be moved from the structure of truth. That which was sought for out of the Word in 1844, 1845, and 1846 remains the truth in every particular.” {E. G. White, Manuscript Releases Volume 1, p. 52} 1906

Summary:

We have found that the last period in Ellen White’s life does not furnish us with any evidence of a change in the doctrine of the Godhead; rather a solid affirmation is given.

Ellen White affirmed that she taught the same unchanged truths during sixty years.
The Holy Spirit is the manifestation of the presence of our Lord Jesus.
The Holy Spirit proceeds from the only begotten Son of God.
In speaking of the Spirit, Christ was referring to His own person (not another person).
The Holy Spirit fashioning is Christ molding. Ellen White used the two interchangeably.
The Lord Jesus is the one who sends conviction to hearts and minds.
There is one God and one Savior. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ.
We are to continue to believe in the first truths regarding the personality of God and Christ.
The rebellious angels in heaven were seeking to obscure the fact that Christ was the only begotten Son of God. (It is not only those angels who are doing that today).
In His incarnation Christ (who was already the only begotten Son of God) became the Son of God in a new sense.
It is still Christ who is speaking in Proverbs 8:22-30.
The cost of our souls is only known to two beings: The Father and Son.
The doctrine of the Godhead (personality of God and Christ) is an old landmark, a pillar of our faith and part of the platform of eternal truth.
Having a wrong conception of God is tantamount to Baal worship.
The foundations of truth were not replaced with ‘new timbers.’
The early truths that were sought from the Word remain the truth in EVERY particular.

LINKS:

Book – The Godhead in Black and White

The Early Years 1827-1862

The Progressive Years 1862-1876

The Lonely Years 1876-1891 

The Australian Years 1891-1900

The Crisis Years 1900-1905

The Final Years 1905-1915 

Appendix – (Dr. Kellogg & the Trinity)
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