Understanding Ellen White

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has become a truly global movement with almost twenty million members from diverse cultures and backgrounds; many of whom are unfamiliar with the history of God’s leading and the prophetic ministry of Ellen White.  

While it does not attempt to provide the final answer for every question, Understanding Ellen White builds a foundation for interpreting her experience with God and her ministry. Basic to any understanding of Ellen White is her own walk with God. Two golden threads weave throughout her life and experience and are central to who she was and what she accomplished: the love of God in Christ and a focus on Scripture. When these two principles are correctly understood and integrated in examining Ellen White’s life and experience, then all other issues addressed in this book are put in perspective. 

Perhaps the saddest reality regarding Ellen White’s writings is that many dismiss them as irrelevant even before reading her work. A Kellogg’s Corn Flakes advertisement from several years ago is apropos when applied to Ellen White’s writings and ministry: whether you have lived with her writings your whole life or have never read her, the invitation is to “taste them again for the very first time.”

Book Chapters

1. The Gift of Prophecy in Scripture, by Jon Paulien
2. Revelation and Inspiration: Ellen White's Understanding, by Merlin D. Burt
3. Ellen White and Scripture, by R. Clifford Jones
4. The Authority of Ellen White's Writtings, by Alberto R. Timm
5. How to Read Ellen White's Writings, by George R. Knight
6. Ellen White as God's Spokesperson, by Herbert Douglass
7. Humanity of the Prophets, by Alberto R. Timm
8. Ellen White and the Development of Seventh-day Adventist Doctrines, by Denis Fortin
9. How Ellen White Did Her Writing, by Denis Kaiser
10. Ellen White Criticisms and D. M. Canright, by Jud Lake
11. Ellen White and Sources: The Plagiarism Debate, by Tim Poirier
12. Understanding Ellen White and the "Shut Door," by Merlin D. Burt
13. Ellen White and Science, by Jerry Moon and Tim Standish
14. Ellen White and Vegetarianism, by Theodore Levterov
15. The History and Work of Ellen G. White Estate, by James R. Nix
16. The Gift of Prophecy and Contemporary Ideas, by Gerhard Pfandl
17. Why Should I read Ellen White? by Chantal J. Klingbeil