19/05/2026
I don’t normally post about Ellen White, even though she was a key founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. However, she actually wrote quite a lot regarding the early church debates over the Trinity. From a historical perspective, you have to credit her with using the Bible to guide the Adventist Church toward the mainstream Trinitarian view. Since there is still a lot of misinformation floating around out there claiming otherwise, I wanted to share her actual quotes to set the record straight.
Here are several well-known quotations from Ellen G. White that are commonly cited in discussions about the Trinity and the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
“Three living persons”
From Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 7, pp. 62–63 (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 baptised…”
This is one of her clearest statements referring to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together.
Also from the same source:
“The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, powers infinite and omniscient, receive those who truly enter into covenant relation with God.”
(Also cited in Evangelism, pp. 615–616.)
On Christ’s eternal divinity
From The Desire of Ages, p. 530:
“In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived.”
And from Review and Herald, April 5, 1906 (also in Selected Messages, Book 1, p. 247):
“The Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, existed from eternity, a distinct person, yet one with the Father.”
On the Holy Spirit as a person
From Evangelism, p. 616:
“The Holy Spirit is a person, for He beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God.”
And from Evangelism, p. 617:
“The Holy Spirit has a personality, else He could not bear witness to our spirits…”
Both statements are drawn from Manuscript 20, 1906.
On the Godhead
Another frequently cited statement from Evangelism, p. 615:
“There are three living persons of the heavenly trio… the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
These definitive quotations prove that Ellen White explicitly affirmed a triune Godhead, marking a decisive shift from the non-Trinitarian views held by early Adventist pioneers. While modern Seventh-day Adventists ground their faith strictly in the Bible as a scripture-based church, they take note of her writings to recognise how her theological guidance helped shape the denomination's understanding of the Trinity over time.
Interestingly, Ellen White was never among the anti-Trinitarian pioneers of our church. She was born a Methodist, and was always a Christian believing Trinitarian.
Maranatha
