The teachings of Ellen White on health reform are all over the map. It is hard to get a clear vein of thought on what it is that she wanted to convey at any particular time. But since I established HERE that she taught all of her words written down on any letter or book were inspired that means everything is on the table. There is a very clear teaching in her writings that eating meat is a sin. Below is a list of her statements to this effect.
“The simple grains, fruits of the trees, vegetables, have all the nutritive properties necessary to make good blood. This a flesh diet cannot do.” – Ellen White, Counsels on Diet and Foods, 322
“The eating of flesh meats has made a poor quality of blood and flesh… Flesh meats will depreciate the blood.” 2T 61, 368
“Flesh meat…is…corrupting to the lifeblood coursing through the veins.” MM 310
“The light has come to me for many years that meat eating is not good for health or morals.”- Ellen White, Counsels on Diet and Foods, Pg 413
“…meat eating deranges the system, beclouds the intellect, and blunts the moral sensibilities.” 2T 64
“You place on your table butter, eggs, and meat, and your children partake of them. They are fed with the very things that will excite their animal passions, and then you come to meeting and ask God to bless and save your children. How high do your prayers go?” —2T, p. 362.
“Those who digress occasionally to gratify the taste in eating a fattened turkey or other flesh meats, pervert their appetites, and are not the ones to judge the benefits of the system of health reform. They are controlled by taste, not by principle.” — – Ellen White, Counsels on Diet and Foods, Pg. 399.
“No man can become a successful workman in spiritual things until he observes strict temperance in his dietetic habits. God cannot let His Holy Spirit rest upon those who, while they know how they should eat for health, persist in a course that will enfeeble mind and body.” – Ellen White, Counsels on Diet and Foods, Pg 55
Notice she says “God cannot let His Holy Spirit rest upon those who…”. Why is it that God cannot do that? I thought he could do anything. If she is saying that he won’t rather than is not capable then the problem is just as bad because she is teaching that you cannot be saved unless you submit to health reform.
God gave the light on health reform, and those that reject it reject God.” — Series B, No. 6, p. 31. EGW address to the General Conference in Oakland, published in the General Conference Bulletin, 1903, pp. 84-88.
“God has written His law upon every nerve and muscle, every fiber and function of the human body. The indulgence of unnatural appetite, whether for tea, coffee, tobacco, or liquor, is intemperance, and is at war with the laws of life and health. By using these forbidden articles a condition of things is created in the system which the Creator never designed. This indulgence in any of the members of the human family is sin. . . . the eating of food that does not make good blood is working against the laws of our physical organism, and is a violation of the law of God. The cause produces the effect. Suffering, disease, and death are the sure penalty of indulgence.” EV 265-266
The above quote is crucial in understanding her teachings on diet. Notice she says that if you are “eating food that does not make good blood” you are in “violation of the law of God“. What else can this be except sin?
Add this to the other quotes above teaching that:
- meat blunts the morals,
- those who do not submit are rejecting God,
- your prayers don’t go high if you eat eggs,
- controlled by taste not by principle
- corrupting the lifeblood
Taken as a whole or in part it is clear that she teaches it is a sin to eat meat. Modern SDA will argue that eating meat doesn’t become a sin until the health message was received and given to the world by Ellen White.
The problem is that they claim her message came from God. God knows everything and would know what is sin and what is not sin. All we need to do on this is to observe Christ. Surely Christ would not have sinned and he would have known with or without Ellen White’s health message whether or not it is lawful to eat meat.
“See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” ; And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. ; And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” ; They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ; and he took it and ate before them.” Luke 24:39-43 ESV
Above we see that Jesus ate lamb and a broiled fish. Note that the latter is after the Resurrection, in his Glorified Body. When put together with the teachings of Ellen White we can only assume that she either believed Jesus to be a sinner, or that he wasn’t aware of what sin is.
“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” John 6:9-12 ESV
Above we see Jesus fed the five thousand with many pounds of fish. If this were a sin then Jesus would have been causing people to sin. If we put this together with the teachings of Ellen White the only logical conclusion is that Jesus was a mass sinner who encouraged others to do the same, or he was simply ignorant of what is sin.
It doesn’t end there, we see also that Ellen White was guilty of eating meat. She even did so after receiving the health message.
“Mary, if you can get me a good box of herrings, fresh ones, please do so. These last ones that Willie got are bitter and old. If you can buy cans, say, half a dozen cans, of good tomatoes, please do so. We shall need them. If you can get a few cans of good oysters, get them.” —Letter 16, 1882
“Christmas morning we all took breakfast together—James Cornell; Florence and Clara, their two girls; Brother and Sister Moore and their three children; Sister Bahler and Etta, a girl living with them; and Sister Daniells, our cook, Father, and myself. We had a quarter of venison cooked, and stuffing. It was as tender as a chicken. We all enjoyed it very much. There is plenty of venison in market. (Written December 26, 1878, from Denison, Texas, to “Dear Family at Battle Creek–Willie, Mary, Aunt Mary, Edith, Addie and May, and Brother and Sister Sawyer.”)” —Manuscript Releases, Volume Fourteen, p. 318. Letter 23, 1878.
“I do not preach one thing and practice another. I do not present to my hearers rules of life for them to follow while I make an exception in my own case….” —Selected Messages Book 2, p. 302. Letter 12, 1888.
Clearly, Ellen White taught that both herself and Jesus Christ were sinners. I don’t personally have a problem believing that Ellen White was a sinner and I don’t believe that SDA struggle with this either. But to teach that Jesus was a sinner would mean that we would have no atonement, no sinless sacrifice as the propitiation of sins.
The truth is that we were warned this would happen a very long time ago by Paul.
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, ; through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, ; who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. ; For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, ; for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.” 1 Tim 4:1-5 ESV
That passage fits Ellen White to a tee. She was a messenger of a very deceitful spirit, be it her own imagination or that of a demon. She taught abstinence from food that God had made clean and created to be received. She is a false prophet and you need not fear her. There are enough laws in the Bible we don’t need more, to do so is blasphemy as one has to put themselves in the place of God to make laws of God.
