As we have learned, God called prophets at specific times and gave them important tasks. Their primary function was to bring people to a knowledge of God and a faithful relationship with Him. This was Ellen G. White’s guiding orientation. Her ministry had two primary functions: to lead people to Jesus and to point them to His Word—the Bible.
Ellen G. White had a lifelong passion for Jesus and a desire to share the love of God with others. Her famous five-book series, The Conflict of the Ages, begins and ends with the words “God is love.” In Steps to Christ, perhaps her most popular book, she wrote: “Our growth in grace, our joy, our usefulness—all depend upon our union with Christ. It is by communion with Him, daily, hourly—by abiding in Him—that we are to grow in grace. He is not only the Author, but the Finisher of our faith.”—Steps to Christ, p. 69.
During the 1890s, when she was working on The Desire of Ages, she wrote in her diary: “In writing upon the life of Christ I am deeply wrought upon. I forget to breathe as I should. I cannot endure the intensity of feeling that comes over me as I think of what Christ has suffered in our world.”—Manuscript 70, 1897. Ellen G. White loved to speak about Jesus.
The Bible was the second focus of Ellen White’s ministry. She saw her writings as a “lesser light” leading people to the “greater light”—the Bible (Selected Messages, book 3, p. 29). She always encouraged people to go to Scripture, where God has revealed His loving character and plan of salvation. As she put it early in her ministry: “I recommend to you, dear reader, the Word of God as the rule of your faith and practice.”—Selected Messages, book 3, p. 30.
Years later she would write: “The Lord desires you to study your Bibles. He has not given any additional light to take the place of His Word. . . . If eaten and digested, [His Word] is as the life-blood of the soul. Then good works will be seen as light shining in darkness.”—Letter 130, 1901.
Ellen G. White also believed that all who claim the prophetic mantle of Christ must teach “what Christ had taught. That which He had spoken, not only in person, but through all the prophets and teachers of the Old Testament, is here included. Human teaching is shut out.”—The Desire of Ages, p. 826.
Ellen G. White kept Jesus and Scripture at the center of her Christian experience. Next Friday, we will explore her views on revelation and inspiration.
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Supplemental EGW Notes
The Great Controversy, “The Scriptures a Safeguard,” pp. 593–602.
Child Guidance, “The Bible in the Home,” pp. 507, 508.\
The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.