Reclaiming the Prophet

[Gregory Matthews]

Reclaiming the Prophet is a book of about 176 pages that was written about Ellen White by some ten SDA Scholars and published by the SDA Church.  After publication, some objected to it and the book was removed from sale and all printed copies that could be retrieved were recovered.   Teh book has now been plae on the Internet and can be read/printed by the world at large.  To do so, click on the link below. 

https://atoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Reclaiming-the-Prophet.pdf

On Saturday, November 8, 2025, there will be a Zoom Conference on this book.  Click on the following link to learn about this.

https://atoday.org/download-the-banned-book-reclaiming-the-prophet-free-from-adventist-today/

 

 

[Gregory Matthews]

I will suggest that this is a very important book.  To describe it, I have copied the following from the Introduction to the book.

Quote

In the litany of negatives, we knew that Ellen White was neither unique nor infallible. She was not unmarked by her historical context. She was not the final authority for all Biblical interpretation. She was not always original, but often borrowed words and ideas from other writers, thoughtful men and women who did not themselves claim divine inspiration. She took for granted many (but not all) of the same ideas that the Methodists and Baptists of her time accepted, from amusements to the age of the earth. Even her apocalyptic vision was rooted in her own time. As she rebuked spiritualism, compromising Protestantism, and unchanging Catholicism, she did not describe the “final movements” of earth’s history in language that included communism, militant Islam, environmental crisis, or a resurgent, imperial China. She did not envision a relentless tide of secularism engulfing much of the world, including the homeland of the Reformation.

If all this was true—and the conference participants were not disposed to dispute these conclusions—these negatives gave a very incomplete picture. Something more was needed to capture the prophet’s spirit. Abuse did not explain away appropriate, reasonable, even inspiring use. The October 22 conference was ready to concede the basic validity of the critical contextualizing work and move on to the positive work of contributing to a denominational consensus on the proper use of the writings and ministry of this remarkable woman.

We owe too much to Ellen White to ignore her or join the angry voices dismissing her as a “fraud,” Her achievements far outweigh her imperfections—or the exaggerations of some of her followers.

She was a masterful institution-builder, playing an essential role in the creation of Adventist schools, hospitals, and church organizations. She was an inspiring writer, able to motivate dramatic change and breathtaking sacrifice in the lives of believers. Over the course of a long life, she often challenged entrenched “brethren of experience,” prodding Adventists away from sectarian or heterodox positions toward orthodox Christian understandings of the atonement, the Trinity, and the transforming power of God’s love. Shaped by many sources, she wrote devotional literature that appealingly described the attraction of holy living and Christian service. Indeed, many of the participants in the Angwin Conference could testify to the dramatic power of her words in their own lives. “Steps to Christ prompted my conversion,” said one. “I am an Adventist today because I read The Great Controversy,” testified another scholar. The book you hold in your hands is based on the presentations, questions, and dinner-table debates of the “Ellen White for Today” conference. At last, there is an

INTRODUCTION 11

audience. Each author engages some form of the question, “What can she teach us today?” Finding a positive answer about “proper use” of this providential gift is, we believe, the most pressing issue facing Adventism. In the pages that follow, readers will discover the beginning of a work of reconstruction. The goal is simple: to reclaim our prophet by honest affirmation of her gift.

[Asia Joe]

Quote

The conference included five former college or university presidents, as
well as several experienced teachers and researchers of church history. In the era of YouTube,
none of the presentations was recorded.

Interesting. 

Quote

The conference had been built around a shared insight-or a simple hunch. All the
participants believed that the Seventh-day Adventist denomination faces a turning point. 

What kind of turning point? 

 

Quote

She was a daughter, a twin, a sister, a wife, a mother, a
mother-in-law, an aunt, a grandmother.

What ever happened to her twin? 

What about the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren? 

That would be a good book. 

 

Wow, I am only on page 15, this is a great book. Thank you for posting this. 

 

[Asia Joe]

Wow, I love this book !!!  It gives such insight to their lives.  They had such struggles. 

Quote

On Sabbath, July
30, the couple attended church together in Battle Creek. Early the following week they both
came down with severe malaria and were transported to the sanitarium, where they were
carefully tended by Dr. Kellogg. James, no doubt weakened by his stroke-related infirmities, died
on Sabbath afternoon, August 6, two days after his sixtieth birthday. Ellen, a few months short of
her fifty-fourth birthday, eventually recovered from her illness, but she struggled to find purpose
in her life in the months that followed

I did not know there was malaria in Michigan. 

Quote

AI says : Malaria was once common in Michigan, especially during the 19th and early 20th centuries, but it has been virtually eliminated due to extensive drainage of wetlands that reduced mosquito habitats. Recent cases have been linked to travel or local transmission from infected mosquitoes, but the disease is no longer endemic in the state.

So there were 16 years difference between them. 

Life was so hard back then. More things to be grateful for. That we live in a time of convinces and powerful medicine. 

 

 

[Gregory Matthews]

Joe, you ask:  What kind of turning point?  I think your answer is found in the following quote:  " . . . we believe, the most pressing issue facing Adventism. In the pages that follow, readers will discover the beginning of a work of reconstruction. The goal is simple: to reclaim our prophet by honest affirmation of her gift."

[Asia Joe]

Yes, I see that now. 

It is really hard for me to comprehend the difficulty of life in America back then.  The poverty, the sickness, the difficult travel.  One of the things this book has not yet touched on was the cold.  The daily temperatures were colder than today.  This is one reason they had such thick clothing. Also, the lack of central heating made life difficult. 

Life was VERY difficult back then. 

[Gregory Matthews]

This Sabbath, November 8, 2025, from 2:30–4:30 pm PT, join us in the Loma Linda University Church auditorium for a bold, historic panel on the much-discussed new book Reclaiming the Prophet: An Honest Defense of Ellen White’s Gift.

This candid, once-in-a-generation conversation—jointly presented by Adventist Today, Spectrum, and the LLUC Sabbath Seminars class—brings together leading Adventist scholars for a deep, unfiltered discussion of Ellen White’s prophetic role.

Chaired by the book’s editor, Eric Anderson, the panel features contributing authors:

Terrie Dopp Aamodt, Niels-Erik Andreasen, Jonathan Butler, Lawrence T. Geraty, Ronald D. Graybill, and Gilbert M. Valentine.

If you’re anywhere near Southern California, be there in person—the room will be electric.

Can’t attend in person? Watch the live stream here:

? https://www.lluc.org/live