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What Ellen White has Meant to Me

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    Chapter 15—Humbled and Amazed at Her Insights

    In telling why I believe in Ellen White it is a temptation to list some of the issues that come to the Biblical Research Committee of the General Conference and to show how Ellen White met many of these issues long ago. But such a procedure would be tempting and altogether too lengthy for this personal note on my confidence in this remarkable woman.WEWMM 119.1

    There is one general subject area, however, which is also significant for me as a student in the field of communications—the phenomenon of revelation-inspiration. This subject underlies the authority of the Bible and of the writings of Ellen White. I am interested in it as a communicator because revelation-inspiration involves God’s communication with man, and man’s communication to man for God.WEWMM 119.2

    I am amazed at Ellen White’s insights on both aspects of this vital subject. As a field of study, communications considers itself an ultramodern discipline (in the formal sense at least), and in one way it is disconcerting to discover how thoroughly Ellen White antedated its well-researched conclusions.WEWMM 119.3

    Take, for instance, general semantics—the field concerned with problems of meaning as they affect human conduct and relationships. We speak in the communications field of the fact that meaning resides in people, and hence the necessity for receiver-orientation in effective communication. Since human minds differ from one another even as individuals differ in background, heredity, education, and all other respects making the total person, attempts to communicate must take such differences into account.WEWMM 119.4

    Ellen White recognized these variables when she wrote in 1886: “Human minds vary. The minds of different education and thought receive different impressions of the same words, and it is difficult for one mind to give to one of a different temperament, education, and habits of thought by language exactly the same idea as that which is clear and distinct in his own mind....WEWMM 120.1

    “The writers of the Bible had to express their ideas in human language. It was written by human men....WEWMM 120.2

    “The Scriptures were given to men, not in a continuous chain of unbroken utterances, but piece by piece through successive generations, as God in His providence saw a fitting opportunity to impress man at sundry times and divers places.”—Selected Messages 1:19, 20.WEWMM 120.3

    Ellen White likewise recognized that the same words have different meanings for different persons:WEWMM 120.4

    “Everything that is human is imperfect. Different meanings are expressed by the same word; there is not one word for each distinct idea....WEWMM 120.5

    “The stamps of minds are different. All do not understand expressions and statements alike.... Prepossessions, prejudices, and passions have a strong influence to darken the understanding and confuse the mind even in reading the words of Holy Writ.”—Selected Messages 1:20.WEWMM 120.6

    In the light of these observations, the problem the Lord encounters in using men as His channels of communication is formidable. Yet He chose to use men as His channels, under His special direction. This, however, does not eliminate the human factors. Ellen White observed: “The Bible is written by inspired men, but it is not God’s mode of thought and expression. It is that of humanity. God, as a writer, is not represented. Men will often say such an expression is not like God. But God has not put himself in words, in logic, in rhetoric, on trial in the Bible. The writers of the Bible were God’s penmen, not His pen. Look at the different writers.”—Selected Messages 1:21.WEWMM 120.7

    When we look at the limitations and difficulties the Lord met in using men as His channels of communication, we are led to marvel at the effectiveness of the Word. We are led to compare the process of divine revelation with Christ’s experience in the Incarnation, as the divine indwelt the human in a mysterious blending of the two natures. So, through the process of revelation-inspiration:WEWMM 121.1

    “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 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.”—Ibid.WEWMM 121.2

    As Ellen White dealt with the confused impressions which some drew from the Scriptures because different writers spoke of the same events differently, she shows once again her remarkable grasp of the semantic principles involved: “The Lord gave His word in just the way He wanted it to come. He gave it through different writers, each having his own individuality, though going over the same history.... The thoughts expressed have not a set uniformity, as if cast in an iron mold, making the very hearing monotonous....WEWMM 121.3

    “The Creator of all ideas may impress different minds with the same thought, but each may express it in a different way, yet without contradiction. The fact that this difference exists should not perplex or confuse us.”—Selected Messages 1:21, 22.WEWMM 121.4

    As the general semanticist calls for all who use signs and symbols to be patient with one another, and to recognize the possible sources of misunderstanding latent in the variables (so that we check and double check to see whether the receiver had the same meaning for the words the source uses), so Ellen White warned that different minds will be impressed with the same thought in different ways, and express them in different ways, yet without contradiction. “The fact that this difference exists should not perplex or confuse us. It is seldom that two persons will view and express truth in the very same way. Each dwells on particular points which his constitution and education have fitted him to appreciate. The sunlight falling upon the different objects gives those objects a different hue.”—Selected Messages 1:22.WEWMM 121.5

    In communications we always seek to match the source with the receiver, as far as possible. The more completely that the code meaning the receiver takes from the message matches the code meaning the source put into it, the more complete and accurate communication will be. We might say that the Lord has a problem in speaking to human beings in our imperfect language. But in so doing He condescends to meet us where we are. This is essentially what Jesus Christ did when He came in person to communicate God to man. The difficulty a master of a highly technical language (such as a medical doctor) has in expressing his ideas in the language of a layman illustrates the Lord’s problem in communicating the greatness of His thoughts through the faltering channel of human language. In spite of the difficulties, however, Ellen White insists that the Holy Spirit has overruled the communication process to convey to us all of the truth essential to our salvation and all that our finite capacity can appreciate and receive.WEWMM 122.1

    In the parallel problem of communicating to others messages the Lord has entrusted to us, Ellen White again manifests a knowledge of communications that is completely up to date. Modern communicators generally assign to the factor of attention the greatest share of the communication process. Without attention there can be no communication. It is not only necessary to gain the attention of the receiver at the outset of a communication attempt, but his attention must be maintained from beginning to end if he is to receive the message intended.WEWMM 122.2

    We live in the greatest age of mass communication ever known in human history. There is scarcely any comparison between the mass communications of our day and those that existed when Ellen White closed her ministry. Yet she revealed insights concerning the factors of attention that underlie the vast commercial advertising world of our time, though her concern was for “selling” the gospel, not a material product.WEWMM 122.3

    The book Evangelism brings a number of statements together that show Ellen White’s overwhelming burden for the urban masses of her time. (And again, there is no comparison between the population then and now.) In discussing her burden she made such perceptive statements as the following: “In the cities of today, where there is so much to attract and please, the people can be interested by no ordinary efforts. Ministers of God’s appointment will find it necessary to put forth extraordinary efforts in order to arrest the attention of the multitudes.”—Page 40.WEWMM 122.4

    When I think of how accurately this statement describes the predicament of the modern communicator in the mass populations of our time, I am intrigued by the validity of the gift of prophecy.WEWMM 123.1

    In expressing her burden for the masses in the cities Ellen White appealed, “Let every worker in the Master’s vineyard, study, plan, devise methods, to reach the people where they are. We must do something out of the common course of things. We must arrest the attention.”—Evangelism, 122, 123.WEWMM 123.2

    Having arrested the initial attention of people, however, the messenger must then have something to say that will meet the need of the listener. Should he fail to do so, the initial attention will dissipate almost instantly. Communicators know that attention comes in waves of extremely brief duration, and that if the needs of the individual are not met by that which gives temporary attention, his mind quickly turns in other directions.WEWMM 123.3

    In summary, I remain continually impressed with the foresight and insight God gave Ellen White; she saw clearly the problems involved in God’s speaking to His servants the prophets, and of the prophet’s problem (and ours) in communicating these messages in turn to those whose everlasting life may hinge upon hearing and receiving. I am daily more humbled before this gift and more grateful for it. I long, with her, for the completion of the church’s task in communicating God’s message.WEWMM 123.4

    Takoma Park, Maryland
    July 15, 1972

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