CATHOLIC INSIGHT

Ellen White, F.P. (False Prophet)
ERIC HALL  

Ellen White, leader of the early Seventh-day Adventist Church, who is now considered to be a prophet of the SDA church, claims to have received a number of visions.  One vision that she received which was to have a profound impact upon the fundamental teachings of the SDA church is that the Pope changed the Sabbath day. This provided the reason for establishing weekly worship on Saturday rather than on Sunday and for the claim that they were the "true" church.  Ellen White writes:
 

I saw that the Sabbath commandment was not nailed to the cross. If it was, the other nine commandments were; and we are at liberty to break them all, as well as to break the fourth. I saw that God had not changed the Sabbath, for He never changes. But the pope had changed it from the seventh to the first day of the week; for he was to change times and laws.

(Early Writings of Ellen G. White, page 32;
Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, page 100;
A Word to the Little Flock, page 18, 19;
A Sketch of the Christian Experience and Views of Ellen G. White, page 16;
Second Advent Review and Sabbath Herald--1851 Extra, July 21, 1851;
"A Vision," April 7, 1847, Spalding and Magan Collection, page 3)

Although White never specifies which Pope it was that changed the Sabbath, nor when this change was said to have occurred, this is a teaching that she repeated throughout her entire ministry.

In later writings the Pope is referred to as "the man of sin" who thought to "change times and laws".  See, for instance:
 

In the very time in which we live the Lord has called His people and has given them a message to bear. He has called them to expose the wickedness of the man of sin who has made the Sunday law a distinctive power, who has thought to change times and laws, and to oppress the people of God who stand firmly to honor Him by keeping the only true Sabbath, the Sabbath of creation, as holy unto the Lord.

(Testimonies to Ministers, p. 118. [1903])

The time is coming when God's people will feel the hand of persecution because they keep holy the seventh
day. . . . The man of sin, who thought to change times and laws, and who has always oppressed the people of God, will cause laws to be made enforcing the observance of the first day of the week. But God's people are to stand firm for Him.

(The Faith I Live By, page 291).

The mark of the beast is the opposite of this, the observance of the first day of the week. This mark distinguishes those who acknowledge the supremacy of the papal authority, seen in the man of sin thinking to change times and laws, and those who acknowledge the authority of God: The worshipers of the beast are those that receive his mark in their foreheads and in their hands.

(Special Testimony to Battle Creek Church, page 6).

But the man of sin, exalting himself above God, sitting in the temple of God, and showing himself to be God, thought to change times and laws. This power, thinking to prove that it was not only equal to God, but above God, changed the rest day, placing the first day of the week where the seventh should be. And the Protestant world has taken this child of the Papacy to be regarded as sacred. This is called in the word of God her fornication.

(The Kress Collection, page 147)

Prophecy had declared that the papacy was to "think to change times and laws." Daniel 7:25.
        (The Great Controversy, page 51)

All who are on Satan's side will unite with him in honoring the spurious Sabbath, thus paying homage to the man of sin, who has exalted himself above all that is called God and [who] has thought to change times and laws.

(The Upward Look, page 262).

When the test comes, it will be clearly shown what the mark of the beast is. It is the keeping of Sunday. Those who after having heard the truth, continue to regard this day as holy, bear the signature of the man of sin, who thought to change times and laws.

(Bible Training School, December 1, 1903).

The man of sin, who exalted himself above God, and thought to change times and laws, brought about the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week.

(Testimonies for the Church, Volume One, page 76)

"The man of sin, who thought to change times and laws, and who has always oppressed the people of God, will cause laws to be made enforcing the observance of the first day of the week."

(Testimonies for the Church, Volume Nine, page 229)

 The beast with lamb-like horns commands "all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads; and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or
the name of the beast, or the number of his name."  REV. 13:16, 17.] This is the mark concerning which the third angel utters his warning. It is the mark of the first beast, or the papacy, and is therefore to be sought among the distinguishing characteristics of that power. The prophet Daniel declared that the Roman Church, symbolized by the little horn, was to think to change times and laws, [DAN. 7:25.] while Paul styled it the man of sin, [2 THESS. 2:3, 4.] who was to exalt himself above God. Only by changing God's law could the papacy exalt itself above God; whoever should understandingly keep the law as thus changed would be giving supreme honor to that power by which the change was made. Such an act of obedience to papal laws would be a mark of allegiance to the pope in the place of God.

(The Spirit of Prophecy, Volume Four, page 279)

The Seventh-day Adventist hierarchy, knowing that since White claimed she received this information in a vision from God, and knowing that God could not have provided false information, tried for years to produce proof of a name and date of a Pope that had mandated the change of the Sabbath day. Unfortunately since what ever date that they provide to "prove"  when the Sabbath was "changed," it can be shown that communities worshipped regularly on Sunday prior to this date--all the way up to Apostolic Times.  Further, no documentation has been found to document that a Pope changed the Sabbath as is specified in this prophesy of Ellen White since the teaching does come from Apostolic Times.

Perhaps White is suggesting the the Pope was given this authority--and used this authority--during Apostolic Times under the watchful eye of Christ Himself?

Or perhaps this is not a true prophesy but a false one, and Seventh-Day Adventists, accusing the Church of changing the Sabbath Day, have much more to answer for at the Last Day than they are claiming the Catholic Church has done.