Education
In 1872, Ellen White received a vision on proper principles of education. A short time later, she wrote thirty pages recording what she had been told. Among other things, she wrote, “We need a school where those who are just entering the ministry may be taught at least the common branches of education and where they may also learn more perfectly the truths of God’s word for this time” (3T 160).GP 108.3
Battle Creek College was officially opened two years later, and soon it offered bachelor degrees in arts and science. At first, the curriculum mirrored the classical education pattern that the state colleges followed at that time. This meant that Bachelor of Arts students studied three years each of classical Latin and Greek, and science students took four years of Latin and two years of Greek. The students had to read Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, Seneca, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Homer, and other pagan authors. Furthermore, except for the mission course, the majors offered didn’t require any Bible classes. Thus in 1877-1878, for instance, the college had an enrollment of 413 students but only 75 took a Bible class. GP 108.4
For years Ellen White urged that the Bible and not infidel authors should be the center of our educational program. In 1896, she wrote, “The greatest wisdom, and most essential, is the knowledge of God. Self sinks into insignificance as it contemplates God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. The Bible must be made the foundation for all study” (FE 451). A year later, E. A. Sutherland became president of the college, and the classical curriculum was abolished. From 1898 on, only New Testament Greek, New Testament Latin, and medical Latin were taught.GP 108.5
Today, Seventh-day Adventists have 5,500 schools and about 100 colleges and universities around the globe. We have the largest Protestant school system in the world. Why? Because our pioneers took seriously what God told them through the gift of prophecy.GP 109.1