Ellen White and Proverbs 8:22

Posted Aug 07, 2013 by kym Jones in Spirit of Prophecy

It's ironic that while Trinitarians declare that if you cite Proverbs 8:22-32 as a text which proves that Christ is a literal Son to the Father, then "Woe betide you, for you are an Arian, and believe that Christ was created by the Father"  (or so Pastor Doug Batchelor tells us); Ellen White did precisely the opposite. As far as she was concerned, this text demonstrates that Christ is of the `same substance', or `divine stuff' as the Father; much in the sense that Eve is the `rib' that came from the side of Adam, and is therefore  " . . . bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." (Gen. 2:23) 

Please consider the following passage from page 34 of "Patriarchs and Prophets" . . . . 

"The Sovereign of the universe was not alone in His work of beneficence. He had an associate--a co-worker who could appreciate His purposes, and could share His joy in giving happiness to created beings. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God." John 1:1, 2. Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father--one in nature, in character, in purpose--the only being that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God. "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6. His "goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." Micah 5:2. And the Son of God declares concerning Himself: "The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting. . . . When He appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him." Proverbs 8:22-30."

This was written in 1892. Three years later she wrote: 

“The Eternal Father, the unchangeable one, gave his only begotten Son, tore from his bosom Him who was made in the express image of his person, and sent him down to earth to reveal how greatly he loved mankind." (Ellen G. White, Review & Herald 9th July 1895 ‘The Duty of the Minister and the People’)

Ellen White truly understood the relationship of the Son to the Father, for she quite clearly believed that in this text, "the Son of God declares concerning Himself."