This extraordinary passage from the writings of Ellen White is given short change by the official interpreters of Ellen White's writings. Her reference to the apocrypha they say is unexpected and unrepeated. We cannot say what the passage means because Ellen White makes no other reference to the apocrypha.
It is the purpose of this text to make three points:
There is clear evidence that Ellen White used the apocrypha and included it within the traditional Bible.
For example
"In a report signed by three early believers reference is made to the hidden book as Ellen White uttered certain words in vision. Here is the account:
'"At another time at a meeting held at Brother Curtis' in Topsham, Maine, she was taken off in vision, and arose to her feet, took the large family Bible from the table, and held it on her hand some time at an angle of forty-five degrees, and said THE HIDDEN BOOK WAS NOT THERE. When someone asked if THE APOCRYPHA was not in the Bible, Brother Curtis remarked it was not. She talked sometime about THE HIDDEN BOOK. No one knew but Bro. Curtis Family that THE APOCRYPHA (APOCRYPHA) was not there.
Mrs. S. Howland
Rebecca Howland Winslow
Frances Howland Lunt'"
This clearly shows that Ellen White's "large Bible" included the apocrypha and when in vision she was concerned that the Bible she was holding did not include the apocrypha, which she also referred to as the "hidden book".
In addition there is evidence that the early Adventists used Bibles containing the apocrypha, for example James White quoted from the apocrypha in "A Word to the Little Flock" (see pages 3,15,17,19,20, and 23).
James White also wrote in the Review and Herald dated Feb. 2, 1869 page 48 we see where James White stated "The Association will probably issue an edition of the Apocrypha with references soon, which, well bound, can be sold for about seventy-five cents a copy." Also in the Review and Herald dated Aug. 5, 1858 page 96 in a response "To Correspondents" we read "Concerning the Apocrypha, we regard portions of it as containing much light and instruction. If we were asked to specify, we should mention 2 Esdras, Wisdom of Solomon, and 1 Maccabees. Concerning the Wisdom of Solomon, Sears' History of the Bible thus speaks: "Although the fathers of the church, and particularly Jerome, uniformly considered this book apocryphal, yet they recommended the perusal of it, in consideration of the excellence of its style. The third Council of Carthage, held in the year 397 , pronounced it to be a canonical book under the name of "The Fourth Book of Solomon," and the famous Council of Trent confirmed this decision.' Concerning the first book of Maccabees, it also states, 'The first book of Maccabees is a very valuable historical monument, written with great accuracy and fidelity, on which even more reliance may be placed than on the writings of Josephus.' The question of the inspiration of these books - the reason that might be adduced in favor of such an opinion, and the objections that might lie against it, we have never made a subject of particular study, and are not therefore prepared to discuss."
Joseph Bates, whom introduced James and Ellen White to the Sabbath, also quoted from the Apocrypha many times including on pages 66 and 67 in his pamphlet "A Seal of the Living God - A Hundred Forty-Four Thousand:"
"The 2nd book of Esdras, contains very important truths for those that keep God's law and commandments; they will probably benefit no others, 12:37,38. I have refrained from quoting here while writing the Sealing Message, not because I did not believe; but because so much prejudice still exists, on account of its not being canonical scripture. There is abundant testimony in the Old and New Testament to satisfy all that honest minds require respecting the sealing message, being the present truth. I wish however, to quote a few passages to show the sealing, the law, and commandments, time of trouble, a&c. see 9:10, 11, 30-33, 36,37. All this may be objected to as under Moses' dispensation. Let 2:38-47, settle it. Carefully note 1st, the sealing; 2nd, the law; and 3rd, final redemption. Compare it with Rev. 14:1. Still further evidence, 13:31-38. Compare 38th verse with Rev. 17:14, and 19"15, 16. Also the commandments in 15:24, 25, 16:74-76.
"Time of trouble, 15:5,6, 11-27,57,58,62, 16:5,8, 14-24, 31, 37, 40, 67-78. Read the comforting promise for the time of trouble, 2:27. All this is now right before us; let us therefore carefully examine this prophecy. And let us carefully seek to know 'what manner or person we ought to be in all holy conversation and godliness,' seeing that we have now entered upon the last work or message, that God has marked out for his church before their final deliverance from this time of trouble, such as never was."
Joseph Bates, a reader and financial supporter of the Voice of Truth, in which Pinney and Fassett's article had appeared, made use of the Apocrypha in several of his pamphlets. In The Opening Heavens, he quotes 2 Esdras 7"26, then remarked: "But perhaps you do not believe that Esdras is a true prophet; well then, will you believe St. Paul?" Bates thus recognized that there were differences of opinion among his readers on the subject. Nevertheless, the next year he cited Esdras again, right along with Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Jeremiah.
In 1849 he suggested that while 2 Esdras contains "very important truths for those that keep God's las and commandments, they will probably benefit no others." Then he cited 2 Esdras 8"37, 38, in which the author of Esdras is instructed to "write all these things that thou has seen in a book, and hide them: And teach them to the wise of the people."
This text, about a hidden book to be revealed only to the wise, appears again in a rare Ellen White comment on the Apocrypha, a comment which neatly summarizes the early Adventist position: "I saw that the Apocrypha was the hidden book, and that the wise of these last days should understand it. I saw that the Bible was the standard book, that will judge us at the last day." She thus encouraged an understanding of the Apocrypha, while preserving the canonical Scriptures as the standard.
Given this attitude, it is not surprising that Ellen White would have been familiar enough with 2 Esdras as to have used its language in her early visions, nor that James White would provide footnote references to the passages from the Apocrypha which paralleled her account.
For instance, Mrs. White describes heaven, where she saw Mount Zion. and notices that "about it were seven other mountains, on which grew roses and lilies." At that point, James White's footnote pointed the reader to 2 Esdras 2:19, which describes "seven mighty mountains whereupon there grow roses and lilies."
There is even one phrase from the Apocrypha that James White did not note. Ellen White describes Jesus as welcoming the saints into the New Jerusalem with the words: "You have washed your robes in my blood, stood stiffly for my truth, enter in. 2 Esdras 2:47 says "Then I began greatly to commend them that stood so stiffly for the name of the Lord." The parallel phrase evidently became a common one among early Adventists, for as late as 1856, one believer writes the Review and Herald to say "We mean to be of that company that Esdras saw who stood stiffly for the truth."
In case Adventists did not have the Apocrypha in their Bibles, E.L.H. Chamberlain of Middletown, Connecticut, placed and ad in the Review in 1851 offering to sell copies of it for 15 cents. This practice of making the Apocrypha available to Seventh-day Adventists was revived again as late as 1869 when James White announced that the church's publishing association would be issuing an edition of the Apocrypha.
By 1869, D.M. Canright noted in the Review that "although the books of the Apocrypha are not commonly regarded as being inspired, yet their testimony is important as showing the belief of the Jews at the time they were written."
The topic cropped up in one article during the American Civil War, when J.H. Waggoner took it upon himself to refute the idea then circulating, that the eagle of 2 Esdras represents the United States because after one of its three heads was destroyed, the remaining two symbolized the North and the South. No, said Waggoner, the eagle refers to Rome, because 2 Esdras 12:11 says "The eagle whom thou sawest come up from the sea, is the kingdom which was seen in the vision of thy brother Daniel."
So clearly early Seventh-day Adventists including Ellen White studied the Apocrypha in their search for God's word to his people. We now turn our attention to Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, December 1945, where an Arab peasant called Muhammad Ali discovered a jar containing thirteen papyrus books, bound in leather. Subsequent investigation revealed fifty-two texts from the early Christian era, including a collection of early Christian gospels, previously unknown. These gospels include the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of Truth and the Gospel to the Egyptians. Another group of texts consists of writings attributed to Jesus' followers, such as the Secret Book of James, the Apocalypse of Paul, the Letter of Peter to Philip and the Apocalypse of Peter. So here we have another set of extra-Biblical writings, called by scholars the Nag Hammadi library, similar to the traditional Apocrypha. The term "apocrypha" means literally in the Greek "things hidden", from "apo" meaning "from" and "kryptein" meaning "to hide". Of course these books were hidden in the sense that they had been hidden in caves for two thousand years, however the titles of the books also includes names such as the 'Apocryphon of John' (literally 'secret book of John'). Does it make sense to treat the writings in the same manner as Ellen White and the early Adventists treated the Apocrypha? Are these writings also worthy of study and able to shed light on the message of God?
To answer these questions we need to look at what these early books reveal about the history of Christianity. In them we discover an alternative Christian tradition, snuffed out by the Catholic church in the early years of the Christian era, but continued by individuals throughout history, and restored at last by the Seventh-day Adventist church. These writings reveal the missing part of the Great Controversy - the early Christians destroyed by the Catholic church and gradually restored by the Reformation culminating in the SDA concept of the "remnant" church.
To begin our understanding of the ideas destroyed by the Catholic church, we need to go right back to the use of the resurrection as an attempt to establish a new church hierarchy. The Apostolic Tradition was invented by the Catholic church to legitimate its authority. They argued that since no one of later generations can have access to Christ the way the apostles did during his lifetime and at his resurrection, every believer must look to the church at Rome, which they founded, and to the bishops for authority. Yet this view did not go unchallanged. All Christians agreed that only Christ himself - or God - can be the ultimate source of spiritual authority, but the immediate question was the practical one: who in the present administers that authority? The Christians who wrote the Nag Hammadi literature answered: whoever comes into direct, personal contact with the 'living One'
The Catholics argued that since the death of the apostles, believers must accept the word of the priests and bishops, who claim to be their only legitimate heirs. The non-Catholics disagreed. They accepted that at first people believe because of the testimony of others, but then they come to believe from the truth itself. Like artists, these Christians expressed their own spiritual insight in their books, recounting their own visions of Christ, their revelations and dialogues. Remarkable poems such as the 'Round Dance of the Cross' and 'Thunder, Perfect Mind' show how spiritually alive these non-Catholic Christians were.
The non-Catholic Christians argued that one's own experience of God offers the ultimate criterion of truth, over all the second-hand testimony and tradition. They celebrated every form of creative invention as evidence that a person has become spiritually alive. Thus the structure of authority can never be fixed into a institutional framework: it must remain spontaneous, charismatic and open.The meetings of these non-Catholics began by the believers drawing lots to see who would take the role of 'priest' to offer communion, another lot was drawn to see who would be 'bishop', to read the Scriptures for worship, and another as prophet, offering extemporaneous spiritual instruction. When the group met again, they would throw lots again so that persons taking each role changed continually. This created a very different structure of authority, instead of clergy and laity everyone was equal. Everyone - men and women - participated equally.
It is significant that the role of men and women was different between the Catholic and non-Catholic Christians. In everyday life of the time women were everywhere involved in business, social life, education, literature, sports events and travelling. However the Catholic church set itself against this equality, insisting women be subject to men. By the end of the second century, Christians with women as leaders were branded heretics by the Catholic church.
These non-Catholic Christians believed that the true church was invisible (true Christians existed both inside and outside the established church). The Catholics took the opposite view - the true church was the visible, established Catholic church, and to be excommunicated from the visible church was to be thrown out of the kingdom of heaven itself. It is interesting that when Martin Luther made the same distinction 1,300 years later - he believed the true church was 'invisible', i.e. not identical with Catholicism.
Perhaps the most significant part of the Protestant Refermantion was the translation of the Bible so everyone could read it. In 1407 the Archbishop of Canterbury had made translation punishable by excommunication, so when the English translation was achieved by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale it was a victory for the individual over the establishment. The first casualty was the standing of the Church; who needed a hierarchy of clergymen to interpret the Bible when people could read it for themselves? Making the scriptures available to everyone had great subversive potential. An order that every parish was to have its own English Bible was rescinded in 1543 because the right was being abused by the 'lower sort'. It was decreed that 'no women, nor artificers, prentices, journeymen, servingmen of the degrees of yeomen or under, husbandmen bor labourers shall read the Bible or New Testament to himself or any other privately or openly' (the restrinctions were lifted after Henry's death). The power of the word offered a direct relationship with God, unmediated by popes or bishops, the common language of devotion gave the individual all sorts of rights he might never have otherwise throught he had.
The Catholic Church argued that if we want a single truth, the Bible cannot be available to everyone. But by making God's word freely available the rule of dogma was broken, and suddenly there were a hundred different denominations. By giving everyone the right to their own interpretation - in good conscience - we also accept that different people will have different opinions. Thus the truth of Protestantism is the triumph of difference over uniformity.
Such an interpretation of Protestantism is not always accepted. There are those who argue that their own group is a new "true" church - in other words, a rejection of the "invisible" church a return to the "visible" church - the identification of the people of God with one particular denomination. The Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventists are a particularly good example of this. They trace the "true church" back from the Reformation, starting with Martin Luther. He was succeeded by Knox, then Wesley, then Campbell and then William Miller. At each point new light is revealed by God and the "true church" defined as those who respond to the new truths. Denominations that fail to follow new light are left behind. After William Miller comes Ellen White and the Seventh-day Adventists. However the Seventh-day Adventists themselves failed to follow the new light given to Victor Houteff who formed the Davidian Seventh-day Adventists, but some of these in turn failed to follow the new light shown to Ben Roden who formed the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventists, and some of these failed to follow the new teachings Lois Roden who in turn was succeeded by David Koresh. At each point anyone who rejected the new teachings was not simply deciding not to worship with a particular denomination but rejecting God himself. This is because in the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventist tradition the visible church (the BDSDA church) is identified as the people of God, and to reject this church is to reject God. This rejection of the concept of the "invisible" church is no different to the original doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church at the time of the Reformation, and is a perversion of the meaning of Protestantism which gives the believer the right to interpret the Scriptures and the responsibility to judge which doctrines are true.
The author of 'Testimony of Truth' called priests and bishops 'blind guides' and 'dumb animals', Christians need to discover the truth for themselves, not listen to the ignorance of the established Catholic church. Such dissent was not tolerated when the Catholic church assumed political power. The writings of the non-Catholic Chrisitans were destroyed and believers persecuted. After a few hundred years, non-Catholic Christians were exterminated.
Were these early Christians correct in their view of the church? Does God communicate directly to believers with visions and revelations in order to move truth forward? Of course Roman Catholics accept the reality of visions but only as emotive expressions of existing dogma: those visions which conform to church doctrine are accepted, any which do not are rejected. Does God use visions and revelations for more than this? Does he reveal new things? The answer is clearly 'Yes' as the example of Paul in the New Testament shows.
Paul was the first Christian to challange the 'Catholic' view of authority. When God sent revelations and visions to Paul, Paul had to argue that he was equal with the apostles who had seen Christ when he was alive - hence the term the 'apostle' Paul. However Paul was not an apostle in the sense that he was one who had seen Christ on earth, he was called an apostle because the risen Christ appeared to him in a vision. Yet in doing this God demonstrated that the 'Apostolic Tradition' is a myth - anyone at any time can have a vision of the risen Christ, and so become an equal with the original apostles. Paul was simply the first of many Christians who had received revelations directly from Jesus.
In the early church the apostles of Jesus were being proclaimed as a new clergy because they had been with Jesus. Paul opposed this on the grounds that he too had received revelations from the risen Jesus which were just as legitimate as those to the original apostles. So Paul became the "first born" of all believers who claimed legitimate authority to be messengers from God, beyond those of the "established" church. Of course the political structure of the church soon ensured that Paul's message was drowned out by the noise of the establishment, and Paul's radicalism suppressed and twisted into a new orthodoxy. However the force of his ideas lived on, and an underground movement of those who had received knowledge of the heart directly from God continued to live on.
These believers were in turn oppressed by the Catholic church when it assumed political power. The Gospel of Thomas relates that when the disciples asked Jesus where they should go, he said only "there is light within a man of light, and it lights up the whole world. If he does not shine, he is darkness." Far from legitimising any institution, both sayings direct one instead to oneself - to one's inner capacity to find one's own direction, to the 'light within'.
Whoever remains ignorant, a 'creature of oblivion', cannot experience fulfillment. The non-Catholic Christians said that such a person 'dwells in deficiency' (the opposite of fulfilment). For deficiency consists of ignorance:
"... as with someone's ignorance when he comes to have knowledge, his ignorance vanishes by itself; as the darkness vanishes when light appears, so also the deficiency vanishes in the fulfilment."
Self-ignorance is also a form of self-destruction:
"... if one does not understand how the fire came to be, he will burn in it, because he does not know his root. If he does not first understand the water, he does not know anything... If he does not understand how the wind that blows came to be, he will run with it. If one does not understand how the body that he wears came to be, he will perish with it... Whoever does not understand how he came will not understand how he will go..."
Realising the divine within the individual, the non-Catholic Christians laughed in joy at being released from external constraints to celebrate their union with God:
"The gospel of truth is a joy for those who have received from the Father of truth the grace of knowing him... For he discovered them in himself, and they discovered him in themselves, the incomprehensible, inconceivable one, the Father, the perfect one, the one who made all things."
This new experience of God is totally opposed to the religious tradition of God as an oppressive dictator. William Blake summed this up when the wrote:
The vision of Christ that thou dost see
Is my vision's deepest enemy...
Thine is the friend of all Mankind,
Mine speaks in parables to the blind:
Thine loves the same world that mine hates,
Thy Heaven doors are my Hell gates...
Both read the Bible day and night
But thou read'st black where I read white...
Seeing this False Christ, In fury and passion
I made my Voice heard all over the Nation."
It is the winners who write history their way. For centuries the Catholic church has labelled 'heretical' anyone who disagreed with her, and had it not been for the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library we would only have been aware of the Catholic Church's version of events in the first few centuries of the Christian era. However now these "hidden books" have "come to light" we are able to see again how a beautiful and fragrant form of Christianity was buried by Catholicism, yet these truths have grown again within individuals in history.
We can see now that Ellen White followed in this lost tradition of non-Catholic Christianity. The discovery of these writings allow us to understand the significance of visions which lead us on to "new light" and so deeper spiritual knowledge. The meaning of Ellen White's message can now be understood within the context of the whole non-Catholic Christian tradition: God doing new things, the reality of the invisible church, God speaking directly to the individual. From history and the Great Controversy we understand that there is a path up the mountain to the temple of God in which the True Believer can follow a lesser light to the greater light, or as Paul writes:
"Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly - mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it." (1 Cor 3:1-2)
"We have much to say about this but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not aquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil". (Heb 5:11-14)
"Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good". (1 Pe 2:2).
God has revealed this mystery to us through his Spirit, not through the institution of a class of priests.
"We speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began... but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit." (1 Cor 2:7-10)
"The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man expect the man's spirit within him? In the same way no-one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us". (1 Cor 2:10-12)
"The spiritual man makes judgements about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgement. 'For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?' But we have the mind of Christ". (1 Cor 2:15-16)
These higher spiritual truths communicated to God's people by his Spirit mark out a special "invisible" church - the remnant church. These non-Catholic Christians constitute the new invisible church hidden from the world but known to God. Ellen White was particularly anxious to speak to this new remnant.
"What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: 'I will send you my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you". (Matt 11:9-10).
"Then Haggai, the LORD's messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people". (Hag 1:13)
"the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the message of the prophet Haggai". (Hag 1:12)
"See, I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me". (Mal 3:1)
The Apocrypha contains hidden knowledge, which Ellen White writes that "the wise of these last days should understand it". These hidden books show that Christians need to progress from the "milk" of truth into more advanced spiritual knowledge. Like the apostle Paul, we can directly receive this knowledge from God to obtain our own enlightnment without the mediation of priests or tradition. We receive knowledge from the heart: pure, spiritual love from God.
The apocrypha opens up the wealth of spiritual knowledge beyond the closed cannon of Catholic totalitarianism. These "hidden books" of the apocrypha are gold and jewels from God to those who can read with understanding. Discovering them means throwing off another yoke from the Roman Catholic tradition of Babylon. They are another source of freedom, another song from the Spirit of God to sound in his garden of redemption. They are another key of David to unlock the riches which God has prepared for those who love him.
This hidden knowledge of the original non-Catholic Christianity is an extension and radicalisation of the spirit of Protestantism. It moves beyond individual interpretation of the Bible to individual experience of God. Every individual should expect their own revelation from God, each individual believer should seek visions from God. Catholic Christianity and those who believe in the visible church want everyone to believe the same doctrines, think the same thoughts, accept the same arguments. Protestantism challanged this by creating a flood of different thoughts and experiences of God. The writings of Nag Hammadi reveal that two thousand years ago non-Catholic Christians were celebrating difference as the authentic work of God. The true Christian is an individual, realising the freedom promised by God. The non-Catholic Christians exterminated two thousand years ago are the real Christians: they dare to be different, to question, to think for themselves, to not follow leaders, to have their own relationship with God that they are able to express in song, art, poetry and a hundred other ways.
Isn't it clear God wants us to be different? God's creation is a celebration of difference. Ellen White tells us that the whole point of the Great Controversy is about freedom. God wants us to be free, Satan wants us to live in tyranny. The ultimate value God gives us is free will, and we deface the image of God when we fail to live a liberated life that realises that freedom to the full. What is freedom if it only means being free to the the same? Are we free to obey orders and produce cloned Christians, or free to be ourselves, as different as we want to be? Tyranny means uniformity and standardisation, exactly what Christ in the Great Controversy is against. Christ died that we might be free, free to be ourselves, free to discover ourselves, free to realise our individuality and uniqueness. If God makes no two snowflakes the same why do we think we wants us to all be the same?
Just as Protestantism discovered that everyone studying the Bible meant there was difference and variety in interpretation, so being receptive to God's new teachings will again result in a rainbow of understandings about God. An artist may paint a flower many times, and each time capture something different about the flower. Each day with our families is different, but adds to the depth of our relationships. Different scientists understand different parts of creation but each part adds to our understanding of the whole. So we need to celebrate difference as expression of the gift of freedom given to us by God and use that gift each day in praise to him.