1

ORDINATION: What Did

Ellen G. White Really Say???
A Brief Survey of E.G. Whites Varied
Use of Ministry-related Terminology!!
By Derrick Gillespie
BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION

Considering the quagmire of confusion and misinformation that presently surrounds the
writings of SDA pioneer E.G. White, especially as it concerns her use of certain terms related
to the ingoing Womens Ordination Controversy (a controversy threating to divide
Adventism), this vital paper will compellingly demonstrate Mrs. Whites varied use of certain
controversial key terms and expressions, and show how a better understanding of the varying
contexts in which she used these expressions would clear up certain misconceptions.
This paper also sets out to show how E.G. White described metaphoric pastors or shepherds of the
flock of God and divinely ordained ministersi.e. all Christian Church members who are to be
witnessing missionaries and guides to others, e.g. as bible workers, teachers and preachers (licensed and
unlicensed) --- as opposed to literally or humanly/Church ordained Pastors, or Ministers and Elders
serving as representational leaders in Christs stead. All inserts in brackets [ ] and emphases are all mine.
ALL ARE DIVINELY COMISSIONED OR DIVINELY ORDAINED TO EVANGELIZE BUT ONLY SOME ARE
CHURCH ORDAINED TO BOTH PREACH AND LEAD
EVIDENCE #1:
All who receive the life of Christ are ordained [i.e. not by humans, obviously] to work for the salvation
of their fellow men. For this work the church was established, and all who take upon themselves its
sacred vows are thereby pledged to be co-workers with Christ. Whatever one's calling in life, his first
interest should be to win souls for Christ. He may not be able to speak to congregations, but he can
work for individuals. To them he can communicate the instruction received from his Lord. Ministry does
not consist alone in preaching. Those [certainly] minister [or are in general evangelistic ministry] who
relieve the sick and suffering, [are] helping the needy, speaking words of comfort to the desponding
and those of little faith. - Desire of Ages, pg. 822

The foregoing makes plain that at times Mrs. White did use the terms ordain, minister, and
ministry to apply to all Christians in the Church (including herself as a divinely ordained prophetess),
who are divinely commissioned to reach others with the gospel by whatever means, but who may or
may not be humanly or Church ordained Elders or career Ministers /Pastors (i.e. Ministers who are
either ordained officially, or just licensed to preach but not officially ordained by the Church). At times
when Mrs. White chose to speak of a fully ordained Minister or Pastor or Preacher (and not just a
preacher licensed to preach, like she herself was so licensed) she used the terms the ordained
minister, and so it cannot be assumed that at all times when she used the expression the minister in
the ministry it had to have been an ordained one. It could have been either licensed preachers (either
trained or maybe untrained ones like herself) who admittedly could be both male and female, or fully
ordained ones who were definitely males only. By the way, while Mrs. White saw herself as a divinely
ordained prophet, called to witness like all Christians who are likewise divinely ordained to
evangelize, yet she WAS NOT officially ordained as a Minister (neither as an Elder), despite she was
officially licensed to preach, as the 2013 E.G. White Encyclopedia makes abundantly clear on pages
1011-1012 (as acknowledged by the Churchs expert historians).
EVIDENCE #2:
Not upon the ordained minister [i.e. the Church appointed/ordained Pastor] only rests the
responsibility of going forth to fulfill this [evangelistic] commission [Matthew 28: 19, 20; Mark 16:15-16].
Everyone who has received Christ is called to work for the salvation of his fellow men It is a fatal
mistake to suppose that the work of soul-saving depends alone upon the ministry [i.e. involving trained
Ministers or Pastors who are humanly/Church ordained]. Faith to Live By, pg. 308
Dear young friends, remember that it is not necessary to be an ordained minister [i.e. the Church
appointed/ordained Pastor] in order to serve the Lord. There are many ways of working for Christ.
Human hands may never have been laid on you in ordination, but God can give you fitness for His
service. He can work through you to the saving of souls. If, having learned in the school of Christ, you are
meek and lowly in heart, He will give you words to speak [preach] for Him. . .
- Youth Instructor, Feb. 6, 1902

JESUS SET THE FIRST EXAMPLE IN THE ORDINATION OF ALL MALE REPRESENTATIONAL LEADERS
EVIDENCE # 1:
In a book chapter titled, He Ordained Twelve, Ellen White says of the leading disciples, or the 12
Apostles: Their office [of Church leadership] was the most important to which human beings had ever
been called. As in the Old Testament the twelve patriarchs [all male leaders] stand as
representatives of Israel, so the twelve apostles were to stand as representatives of the gospel church
The Saviour knew the character of the men whom He had chosen; all their weaknesses and errors were

open before Him; He knew the perils through which they must pass, the responsibility that would rest
upon them; and His heart yearned over these chosen ones. -Desire of Ages, pg. 291.

EVIDENCE #2:
While Christ is the minister [High Priest] in the sanctuary above, he is also, through his delegates, the
minister of his church on earth. He speaks through chosen men, and carries forward his work through
them, as when, in the days of his humiliation, he moved visibly upon the earth. From Christs ascension
to the present day, men ordained of God, deriving their authority from him, have become teachers of the
faith. Christ, the True Shepherd [and True Head], superintends his work through the instrumentality of
these under-shepherds. - Gospel Workers, pg. 11.

Here it is plain that Mrs. White understood that the Apostleship of the 12 involved the ordination of the
most important representational leaders to serve in place of Jesus (the true MALE Head of the Church),
and it is remarkable that Jesus chose NO FEMALE to represent the gospel church in terms of its
representational headship. Seems like the TRUE HEAD of the Church knew that only males could
TRULY REPRESENT His own MALE Headship of the Church, whether in the Old Testament or in the
New, while all in the Church are called to be witnesses in various ways. Who am I to question Him?
PRESENTLY *ORDAINED UNDERSHEPHERDS SHOULD BE MALES
EVIDENCE #1:
Shepherds who fail at home will fail at church.--He who is engaged in the work of the gospel ministry
must be faithful in his family life. It is as essential that as a father he should improve the talents God has
given him for the purpose of making the home a symbol of the heavenly family, as that in the work of the
ministry, he should make use of his God-given powers to win souls for the church. As the priest in the
home, and as the ambassador of Christ in the church, he should exemplify in his life the character of
Christ. He who fails to be a faithful, discerning shepherd in the home, will surely fail of being a faithful
shepherd of the flock of God in the church. ----Manuscript Release, Vol. 6, pg. 49.
In the above quote it is plain Mrs. White is describing the ordained MALE minister whos chosen to LEAD
the Church congregation (not just preach to it), based on his BIBLE-BASED qualification of, first, ruling
well his own home as a father and head of his wife. It is plain that GENDER-BASED headship in the
Church should correspond with GENDER-BASED headship in the home, and is the only suitable GENDERBASED headship to represent Jesus own MALE headship. Anything else flies in the face of Jesus own
example in terms of the specific gender (male) he personally chose to be his own ordained Under
Shepherds!! Thats at the heart of the Womens Ordination Controversy, and at what COST to the
real BIBLE truth will the TOSC (the Theology of Ordination Study Committee set up by Church
authorities) hermeneutically skirt and dance around these plain Bible-based issues?

But, some may argue, what of Mrs. White saying both women and men can be pastors of the flock?
Good question and it is easily explained by Mrs. Whites own CONTEXT of usage, where she used a
metaphorical (!!) application of the expression pastors [or shepherds] to the flock in those instances
where it applied to females in the preaching, teaching or evangelistic ministry. Proof?
EVIDENCE #2:

If rightly improved, the advantages which God has placed within our reach would enable us to send
forth a much larger number of workers. There is need of vigorous work in our churches. The special
message showing the important issues now pending, the duties and dangers of our time, should be
presented before them, not in a tame, lifeless manner, "but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power."
Responsibilities must be laid upon the members of the church. The missionary spirit should be
awakened as never before, and workers should be appointed as needed, who will act as pastors to the
flock, putting forth personal effort to bring the church up to that condition where spiritual life and
activity will be seen in all her borders. {5T 723.2} -Testimonies Vol. 5, pg. 723
Here it is plain Mrs. White was focusing on the need for a larger force of missionary workers [not
leaders] in the gospel field, and that if more members of the church [not leaders] rightly selected to
increase the workers involved, they would act as pastors to the flock!! Here it is plain she is using the
expression in the metaphorical sense, and not in the sense of ordained Church Ministers, proving that
she could and did use the expression metaphorically, and not only in the sense of ordained leaders!!
With that background in mind, now we can understand her saying:
It is the accompaniment of the Holy Spirit of God that prepares workers, both men and women, to
become pastors to the flock of God.- Testimonies, Vol. 6, pg. 322
A thorough reading of the surrounding sentences, both before and after the above extracted line, shows
clearly that nowhere does Mrs. White speak of the ordained minister, or the ordained pastor being the
focus of her thoughts (but just the preaching ministry generally), and with her showing elsewhere that
even the bible studies and visitation work of the ministers UNORDAINED wife (work which she can be
paid for) it can be considered as pastoral work in the metaphorical sense, then that makes it even
plainer that she was speaking metaphorically when writing about women being considered as pastors
to the flock of God. Proof?
EVIDENCE#3-5:
Some matters have been presented to me in regard to the laborers who are seeking to do all in their
power to win souls to Jesus Christ. The ministers are paid for their work, and this is well. And if the
Lord gives the [NON-ORAINED] wife, as well as the [whether ordained or just licensed] husband, the
burden of labor, and if she devotes her time and her strength to visiting from family to family, opening
the Scriptures to them, although the hands of ordination have not been laid upon her, she is
accomplishing a work that is in the line of ministry. Some women are now teaching young women to

work successfully as visitors and Bible readers.This is the grand and noble work that the minister and
his wife may qualify themselves to do as faithful shepherds and guardians of the flock.
-ManuscriptRelease,Vol.5,pgs.326-328
The tithe should go to those who labor in word and doctrine, be they men or women Daughters of
God,pg.113.
women, who labor with their husbands in gospel work, should be paid for their services. Women,
as well as men, are needed in the work that must be done. Those women who give themselves to the
service of the Lord, who labor for the salvation of others by doing house-to-house work, which is as
taxing as, and more taxing than standing before a congregation, should receive payment for their
labor. If a man is worthy of his hire, so also is a woman Manuscript Release, Vol. 1, pg.263.

Here it is plain that rightly understood, IN CONTEXT, women who are wives of pastors, for instance, like
all members operating as a larger number of evangelistic workers, can indeed be considered
METAPHORICALLY as pastors to the flock of God while even being paid a wage as a bible worker, and
yet can remain non-ordained preachers, evangelists and bible workers. To Jesus, even the Pharisees in
his day (teachers of the Law) were shepherds to the flock, and yet they were not the priests then
who would logically correspond to the ordained ministers of today. Even general teachers in the
Church as well as the general body of teaching evangelists are considered shepherds [pastors] of the
flock, and not just ordained leaders. Proof of the above described?
EVIDENCE #6-7:
The Pharisees [teachers of the Law; NOT priests] had just driven one from the fold, because he dared to
bear witness to the power of Christ. They had cut off a soul whom the True Shepherd was drawing to
Himself. In this they had shown themselves ignorant of the work committed to them, and unworthy of
their trust as shepherds of the flock. Desire of Ages, pg. 477
Guilt rests upon us as a people who have had much light, because we have not appreciated or improved
the light given upon health reform. Through misunderstanding and perverted ideas many souls are
deceived. Those who teach the truth to others [teachers, preachers, leaders] and who should be
shepherds of the flock will be held accountable for their willing ignorance and disregard of nature's
laws. Counsels on Health, pg. 505
WOMEN CAN INDEED BE SET APART FOR SPECIAL MNISTRY, BUT NEVER DESRIBED AS ORDAINED
ELDERS OR PASTORS:
It is most striking that while instances can be found in Mrs. Whites writings where she described the
possibility/acceptability of women being set apart by the laying on of hands for certain specifically
described support work, such as charity or welfare work, medical work, deaconess work, etc., yet
NEVER ONCE did E.G. White ever describe women *regularly operating in any role of being

literally/humanly ordained elders or literally/humanly ordained Ministers that would lead local
Churches (i.e. baptizing, officiating weddings, church boards, and communion services, etc.), or would
be leading the Conferences or the General Conference of SDAs. I repeat. Never once!! And while she did
suggest that women in some cases can be better managers of certain aspects of Church life, yet it is
plain that management does not only mean the highest positions of representational leadership. And
when she was asked whether she was the representational LEADER of Adventism because of her
prophetic work (and more) or simply being Gods Messenger, she flatly rejected that leadership role,
and instead pointed to the MALE Elders who were chosen by Church vote to fill those biblically
designated roles of representational leadership in Gods or Jesus stead (The Churchs true Head).
Proof of all of the above observations?
EVIDENCE #1
No one has ever heard me claim the position of leader of the [SDA] denomination. Responsibilities
are distributed among a large number of competent men [males] Every member of the church has a
voice in choosing officers of the church.By this arrangement every conference, every institution, every
church, and every individual, either directly or through representatives, has a voice in the election of the
men who bear [notice now] the *chief responsibilities in the General ConferenceIn the early days of
our denominational work the Lord did designate Elder James White [her husband] as one who, in
connection with his wife [i.e. as his supporter], and under the Lord's special guidance, was to take a
leading part in the advancement of this work.Neither then [when the work was just starting] nor since
the work has grown to large proportions, during which time responsibilities have been widely
distributed, has anyone heard me claiming the leadership of this people
-Testimonies, Vol. 8, pgs. 236, 237.
The above is so strikingly pointed and clear (with no mention of females involved) that not much
commentary is needed. Notice to whom she pointed as the chief leaders in Gods stead (the true
Leader). ALL MALES!! And notice whom she called Elder. Her own husband she supported to advance
the work!! It was her husband Elder James White who was the General Conference President of SDAs
for several years; not E.G. White!! Why fight what is so potently clear? Notice the other pioneers saying
the same. In an 1895 issue of the Signs, a reader asked SDA leaders, Should women be elected to
offices in the church when there are enough brethren? Here is the response of pioneer Milton Wilcox:
If by this is meant the office of elder [synonymous with an ordained Pastor], we should say at once, No.
But there are offices in the church which women can fill acceptably, and oftentimes there are found
sisters in the church who are better qualified for this than brethren, such offices, for instance as
church clerk, treasurer, librarian of the tract society, etc., as well as the office of deaconess, assisting
the deacons in looking after the poor, and in doing such other duties as would naturally fall to their
lot. The qualifications for church elder are set forth in 1 Tim. 3:17 and in Titus 1:79. We do not
believe that it is in Gods plan to give to women the ordained offices of the church. By this we do not
mean to depreciate their labors, service, or devotion. The sphere of woman is equal to that of man. She
was made a help meet, or fit, for man, but that does not mean that her sphere [or role] is identical to

that of mans. The interests of the church and the world generally would be better served if the distinctions given in Gods word were regarded. (Question Corner #176: Who Should Be Church Officers? --Signs, Jan. 24, 1895).
In that same year (1895), E.G. White made plain, that woman, in counsel with the ordained male
elders and ordained male ministers, could be set apart for certain specific work (proving how she spoke
in unison with the other pioneers on the issue):

EVIDENCE #2:
Women who are willing to consecrate some of their time to the service of the Lord should be
appointed to visit the sick, look after the young, and minister to the necessities of the poor. They
should be set apart to this [SPECIFIC] work by prayer and laying on of hands. In some cases they will
need to counsel with the church officers or the minister [ALL MALES], but if they are devoted women,
maintaining a vital connection with God, they will be a power for good in the church. This is another
means of strengthening and building up the church. -Review and Herald, July 9, 1895.
The above is again clear and consistent, and fits the pattern seen so far in all of SDA pioneering history.
Finally, even in the exceptional cases when Mrs. White suggested that women can be better managers
than men, when the need arises (due to probably the absence of competent males) yet nowhere did she
MENTION or set her eye on the regular representational headship roles of management in her writings,
and hence could be charged with suggesting a change of the principle:
EVIDENCE #3:
It is not always men who are best adapted to the successful management of a church. If faithful
women have more deep piety and true devotion than men, they could indeed by their prayers and their
labors do more than men who are unconsecrated in heart and in life
- Manuscript Release, Vol. 10, pg. 70.
Notice the total absence of her specifying the role of management that she meant, and no hint that
representational leadership roles BIBLICALLY occupied by males only are now to be uni-gender, but the
quote above fits the pattern of what other SDA pioneers echoed when Milton Wilcox said in 1895:
there are offices in the church which women can fill acceptably, and oftentimes there are found
sisters in the church who are better qualified for this than brethren, such offices, for instance as church
clerk, treasurer, librarian of the tract society, etc., as well as the office of deaconess, assisting the
deacons in looking after the poor, and in doing such other duties as would naturally fall to their lot.
[BUT] The qualifications for church elder are set forth in 1 Tim. 3:17 and in Titus 1:79. We do not
believe that it is in Gods plan to give to women the ordained offices of the church
Thats clear!! In the end, the SDA pioneers were united on the issues, and Mrs. White never once
contradicted their united front on the matter, and the present generation of SDAs is faced with a
choice!! Either we remain biblical, and carry on the baton as handed down by the pioneers, or reject the

apostolic principles that the early pioneers patterned as remnants of that apostolic Church!! Or we
push for rebellion against that BIBLE-BASED principle!! But, the following warnings are more than
enough to arrest the attention of the honest searcher for truth.

CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY + WARNING:

WARNING!! ORDAINED LEADERSHIP ROLES FOR MALES ONLY STILL APPLIES!
Many are twisting the writings of Mrs. White to push for and support regular womens ordination in the
areas of representational Church leadership (i.e. ordained Elders and ordained Pastors/Ministers), and
yet when the Bible (the Greater Light) is studied there is no precedence there for it, and when the
writings of Mrs. White are candidly, objectively and carefully assessed, there is no support for that push
either. Thus THE BIBLE AND THE BIBLE ONLY (sola scriptura) MUST REMAIN OUR CREED!! It was Mrs.
White who prophetically saw the need to warn the SDA Church over leadership issues the following
way, and we all (individually and collectively as a Church) should take heed:
Eve had been perfectly happy by her husbands side in her Eden home; but, like restless modern Eves,
she was flattered with the hope of entering a higher sphere than that which God had assigned her. In
attempting to rise above her original position, she fell far below it. A similar result will be reached by
all who are unwilling to take up cheerfully their life duties in accordance with Gods plan. In their
efforts to reach positions for which He has not fitted them, many are leaving vacant the place where
they might be a blessing. In their desire for a higher sphere, many have sacrificed true womanly dignity
and nobility of character, and have left undone the very work that Heaven appointed them -Patriarchs
and Prophets, pg. 59
The law was very explicit that only those who had in a most solemn manner been ordained to the
office, could minister as priest before the Lord. .The sad history of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who
led ancient Israel into rebellion, is recorded as a warning to the people of God until the close of time.
Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition,
upon whom the ends of the world are come." We learn from the sacred word that the people of God
are still in danger from the devices of their archenemy. Satan stands ready to aim his shafts at the
unguarded soul, and he will lead astray all who will give heed to his deceptions. Many who imagine
that they have a sincere zeal for the honor of God, have permitted Satan to control their minds, and
are accomplishing his purposes. Few understand the terrible power of prejudice, of envy and jealousy,
when once they take possession of the soul God would have his people learn the precious lessons of
humility and of willing obedience to his requirements. They will then be united in their purposes and
motives, and will thus be brought into harmony of action.
- Signs of the Times, September 16, 1880
*HE THAT HATH AN EAR LET HIM HEAR. *See online (on Facebook) my Bible-based presentation, as linked
below, proving/confirming that what Mrs. White and her fellow pioneers taught was plainly biblical:
Click here