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Understanding Ellen White

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    Ellen White and thought inspiration

    Ellen White’s own statements are closer to the thought inspiration view. She wrote:UEGW 35.1

    It is not the words of the Bible that are inspired, but the men that were inspired. Inspiration acts not on the man’s words or his expressions but on the man himself, who, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, is imbued with thoughts. But the words and thoughts receive the impress of the individual mind. The divine mind is diffused. The divine mind and will is combined with the human mind and will; thus the utterances of the man are the word of God. 6EGW, “Objections to the Bible,” Manuscript 24, 1886 (diary entry from 1885 written in Europe); EGW, Selected Messages (Washington, DC: Review and Herald®, 1958), 1:21.UEGW 35.2

    Many Adventists claim to believe in thought inspiration. But it has a significant diversity of interpretation. It can range from almost a strict verbal view to nearly a strict encounter view. If it leans towards the strict verbal view, it is believed that thoughts require words and therefore God must manage the words that create the thoughts. This more verbal perspective on thought inspiration can limit the ability of the prophet to grow in their understanding or allow them to make inconsequential mistakes, which requires a level of accuracy that is not evident in Scripture or Ellen White’s writings.UEGW 35.3

    Some who claim thought inspiration lean toward a strict encounter view. They believe that God inspired the thoughts of the prophet, which were divine but allowed for significant errors in the prophet’s presentation. For example, they incorrectly presume that God inspired Moses with thoughts about Creation, but he drew largely from accounts by his contemporaries and thus may not be presenting a historically accurate description of a six-day creation (Gen. 1). Some Adventist thinkers who do not embrace all aspects of the encounter view advocate thought inspiration in this manner. They subjectively limit inspiration to matters of salvation with wide latitude for error on other matters.UEGW 35.4

    In a functional way, some within the Seventh-day Adventist Church are either encounter or verbalist leaning in their orientation, even though they claim to believe in thought inspiration. The closer to the middle one goes, the more moderate the view becomes and the weaknesses of either extreme are reduced. But these common descriptions are inadequate. Ellen White combined thought inspiration with an incarnational view of the process of inspiration, which transcends these narrower definitions.UEGW 35.5

    As helpful as a consideration of these models of inspiration may be, they all have significant limitations. Thus a more incarnational, integrated, or wholistic approach, as experienced by Ellen White, might be suggested. Before examining this concept in more detail, a few historical examples of problematic approaches to combining ideas on inspiration need to be considered.UEGW 35.6

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