The Factors of Creeds and Traditions

James White, belonging to the Christian Connection, was dedicated to God’s word without creedal explanation of positions. His contribution to the early Millerite journal the Day Star reveals his distaste for creeds. On January 24, 1846, he writesPBORWEW 3.3

of “a certain class who deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. This class can be no other than those who spiritualize away the existence of the Father and the Son, as two distinct, literal, tangible persons, also a literal Holy city and throne of David... The way spiritualizers this way have disposed of or denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ is first using the old unscriptural trinitarian creed.”

He would stand by the Bible. There was no place for tradition or creeds in his doctrinal holdings. And Ellen White, too, was personally concerned with certain teachings of the Methodist creed taught to her in her teenage years: “There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts.” (Doctrine and Discipline of the Methodist Church, 1896, pp. 19, 20)PBORWEW 3.4

This and conversation with James are likely what led her when in an early vision in seeking to know the truth she on no less than two occasions made inquiry. We find the references in Early Writings, one on page 54, “I asked Jesus if His Father had a form like Himself. He said He had.” Again in Early Writings, 77, she reports: “I have often seen the lovely Jesus, that He is a person. I asked Him if His Father was a person and had a form like Himself. Said Jesus; I am in the express image of my Father’s person.”PBORWEW 3.5

Then there was the Sabbath-Sunday discussion, with the latter totally dependent on tradition.PBORWEW 4.1

With traditions and creeds on one hand, with disturbing teachings of self-appointed prophets on the other hand, our forefathers when confronted with the visions of Ellen White were forced to find and declare a position on the relationship of her teachings to God’s Word—the Bible.PBORWEW 4.2

Could it be that God would inspire a prophet of His choice with messages which conflicted with those of other of His prophets? Would messages given in our day supercede the Bible?PBORWEW 4.3