One of the first statements on the eternal nature of Jesus
was from Ellen White in 1878:
“The unworthiness, weakness, and inefficiency of their
[ministers of the gospel] own efforts in contrast with
those of the eternal Son of God, will render them
humble, distrustful of self, and will lead them to rely
upon Christ for strength and efficiency in their work.”
An Appeal to Ministers, Review and Herald, April 8, 1878, 49
Ellen White (1878)
“The Jews had never before heard such words from
human lips, and a convicting influence attended them;
for it seemed that divinity flashed through humanity as
Jesus said, ‘I and My Father are One.’ The words of
Christ were full of deep meaning as He put forth the
claim that He and the Father were of one substance,
possessing the same attributes.”
Signs of the Times, November 27, 1893
Ellen White (1893)
“He was equal with God, infinite and omnipotent. …
He is the eternal, self-existent Son.”
Manuscript 101, 1897
Ellen White (1897)
Probably her most definitive statements on the nature
of Jesus appears in the book, Desire of Ages. First she
quotes Jesus’ answer to the Jews, “Most assuredly, I say
to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” (John 8:58

KJV 58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

WEB 58 Jesus said to them, “Most certainly, I tell you, before Abraham came into existence, I AM.

) Then
she elaborates further:
“Silence fell upon the vast assembly. The name of God,
given to Moses to express the idea of the eternal
presence, had been claimed as His own by this Galilean
Rabbi. …
Ellen White (1897)
He announced Himself to be the self-existent One, He
who had been promised to Israel, “whose goings forth
have been from of old, from the days of eternity.”
The Desire of Ages, 469
Then, in the chapter, Lazarus, Come Forth, she wrote:
“In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived.”
Ibid., 530
Ellen White (1897)
“Christ is the pre-existent, self-existent Son of God. …
In speaking of his pre-existence, Christ carries the mind
back through dateless ages. He assures us that there
never was a time when He was not in close fellowship
with the eternal God.”
Signs of the Times, August 29, 1900
Ellen White (1900)
“The world was made by Him, ‘and without him was
not any thing made that was made’ (John 1:3

KJV 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

WEB 3 All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that has been made.

). If Christ
made all things, He existed before all things. The words
spoken in regard to this are so decisive that no one need
be left in doubt. Christ was God essentially, and in the
highest sense. He was with God from all eternity, God
over all, blessed forevermore.”
The Review and Herald, April 5, 1906
Ellen White (1906)
The Godhead
A Shift from Anti-Trinitarian to Trinitarian View
“The work is laid out before every soul that has
acknowledged his faith in Jesus Christ by baptism, and
has become a receiver of the pledge from the three
persons - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
Manuscript 57, 1900
Ellen White (1900)
Here is one of Ellen White’s first statements on what
she refers to as the “three great powers”:
“As at our baptism we pledged ourselves to him, and
received the ordinance in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, these three great powers
of heaven pledged themselves to work in our behalf,
not only to begin, but to finish our faith.”
General Conference Bulletin, April 14, 1901
Ellen White (1901)
“The Father is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
and is invisible to mortal sight. The Son is all the
fullness of the Godhead manifested. The Word of God
declares Him to be ‘the express image of His person.’ …
The Comforter that Christ promised to send after He
ascended to heaven, is the Spirit in all the fullness of the
Godhead, making manifest the power of divine grace to
all who receive and believe in Christ as a personal
Saviour. …
Ellen White (1905)
There are three living persons of the heavenly trio; in
the name of these three great powers - the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit - those who receive Christ by
living faith are baptized, and these powers will cooperate with the obedient subjects of heaven in their
efforts to live the new life in Christ.”
Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 7, 62-63
Ellen White (1905)
Holy Spirit
Power or Person?
“The nature of the Holy Spirit is a mystery. Men
cannot explain it, because the Lord has not revealed it
to them. Men having fanciful views may bring together
passages of Scripture and put a human construction on
them, but the acceptance of these views will not
strengthen the church. Regarding such mysteries,
which are too deep for human understanding, silence is
golden. ”
Acts of the Apostles, 52
“The Holy Spirit is not an influence; nor an impression,
nor peace, nor joy, nor any thing. The Holy Spirit gives
peace, and gives joy, assuages in grief, makes an
impression, exerts an influence.” …
“The Holy Spirit is a Person, eternally a divine Person.
And he must be always recognized and spoken of as a
Person, or he is not truly recognized or spoken of at
all.”
The Medical Missionary, Vol. 16, March 27, 1907
In the early 1890s, Ellen White began to write regularly
on the personhood of the Holy Spirit:
“The Holy Spirit is the Comforter, in Christ’s name. He
personifies Christ, yet is a distinct personality.”
Privileges and Responsibilities of Christians;
Depend on Holy Spirit, Not Self, Manuscript 93, 1893
“Evil had been accumulating for centuries, and could
only be restrained and resisted by the mighty power of
the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, who
would come with no modified energy, but in the
fullness of divine power.”
Holy Spirit Versus Selfishness. The Danger of Rejecting Light,
February 6, 1896, Special Testimonies for Ministers and Workers - no. 10
She later published essentially the same statement in Desire of Ages, 671
“He determined to give His representative, the third
person of the Godhead.”
Signs of the Times, December 1, 1898
“We have been brought together as a school, and we
need to realize that the Holy Spirit, who is as much a
person as God is a person, is walking through these
grounds, that the Lord God is our keeper, and helper.
He hears every word we utter and knows every
thought of the mind.”
Manuscript 66, 1899, 9
“The Holy Spirit has a personality, else He could not
bear witness to our spirits and with our spirits that we
are the children of God. He must also be a divine
person, else He could not search out the secrets which
lie hidden in the mind of God. ‘For what man knoweth
the things of a man save the spirit of man, which is in
him; even so the things of God knoweth no man, but
the Spirit of God.’”
Manuscript 20, 1906
Ellen White’s clear statements on the Trinity provide a
significant challenge to those who believe in her
prophetic gift but remain steadfastly anti-Trinitarian.
Some have even questioned whether or not she actually
wrote some of her statements on the subject. One such
person was M. L. Andreasen.
He was quoted as saying,
“I remember how astonished we were when Desire of
Ages was first published, for it contained some things
that we believed were unbelievable; among other things
the doctrine of the trinity which was not generally
accepted by Adventists then.”
In 1909, he spent three months at Elmshaven talking
with her to gain clarity on her statements. He wrote
about that experience:
M. L. Andreasen
1876 - 1962
“In her own handwriting I saw the statements which I
was sure she had not written - could not have written!
Especially was I struck with the now familiar quotation
in Desire of Ages, page 530: ‘In Christ is life, original,
unborrowed, underived.’ This statement at that time
was revolutionary and compelled a complete revision
of my former view - and that of the denomination - on
the deity of Christ.”
Testimony of M. L. Andreasen, Oct. 15, 1953
There are currently at least four original hand-written
drafts available at the White Estate along with other
drafts in typed form with her notations added. She
approved these typed drafts before publishing with the
handwritten note: “I have read this carefully and accept
it.” The handwriting has also been verified as her own
by handwriting experts for those who still refuse to
accept her definitive support of the trinity (Eternal Godhead) doctrine as we know it today.