Chapter 15 — Sola Scriptura and Ellen G. White: Historical Reflections
Alberto R. Timm
Seventh-day Adventists have always subscribed to the Protestant principle of sola Scriptura (by Scripture alone). As early as 1847 James White stated that the Bible is “a perfect, and complete revelation” and “our only rule of faith and practice.” Statement 3 of the 1872 A Declaration of the Fundamental Principles Taught and Practiced by the Seventh-day Adventists affirmed that “the Holy Scriptures, of the Old and New Testaments, were given by inspiration of God, contain a full revelation of his will to man, and are the only infallible rule of faith and practice.” And in 1884 Ellen White added, “But God will have a people upon the earth to maintain the Bible, and the Bible only, as the standard of all doctrines and the basis of all reforms.” GOP 289.1
At the same time, Seventh-day Adventists also accept the writings of Ellen White as an end-time manifestation of the true gift of prophecy. But some critics argue that the acceptance of those writings undermines the Seventh-day Adventist claim of strict adherence to the sola Scriptura principle. D. M. Canright, a longtime critic of Adventism, went so far as to claim that Seventh-day Adventists have “another Bible”—Ellen White’s writing—and “they have to read our old Bible in the light of this new Bible.” Dale Ratzlaff, another vociferous critic, stated that Seventh-day Adventists have two equal “sources of authority, two sources of truth: the Bible and the writings of Ellen G. White.” Some helpful studies have responded to these criticisms, but there is room to further assess the relationship between the sola Scriptura principle and the writings of Ellen G. White from a broader historical perspective.GOP 289.2
The present article surveys basic concepts related to (1) the Roman Catholic claim to being the only true interpreter of Scripture; (2) the Protestant response through the sola Scriptura principle; (3) new hermeneutical alternatives that undermine that principle; (4) Ellen White’s reemphasis of the sola Scriptura principle; and (5) how she uses it in her expositions of Scripture. Such concepts can provide a useful framework for understanding Ellen White’s crucial end-time role in uplifting the sola Scriptura principle.GOP 290.1