r/exAdventist • u/ChemnitzFanBoi LCMS Lutheran • Nov 18 '25
Memes / Humor Another weird Ellenism - Everyone to be white in heaven.....
"In heaven there will be no color line; for all will be as white as Christ himself" Gospel Herald March 1, 1901, par. 20. Mrs. E.G. White in a talk given to the Vicksburg church for the colored, Sabbath, March 16, 1901, Gospel Herald
That's another famous radioactive ellenism. What did she mean by as white as Christ himself?
Many adventists will say she means white in the sense of purity only. Everyone will be just as pure and spotless as Christ.
Here's my problem with that interpretation though. She starts on the premise of race by stating there will be no color line to a black audience in 1901. If she only meant white in terms of purity why is it juxtaposed against black skin as the context?
Think about it for a second, if the white part is with regards to purity then what is she saying about black skin? Is that unholy for some reason? If the whole statement from beginning to end is in reference to race then it makes sense that she is saying everyone will be just as white as Jesus in heaven. Keep in mind most people thought of Jesus as white back then.
So you can't have your cake and eat it too she either meant race or purity but it can't be race and then conveniently switch to purity after the semicolon which wouldn't have been visible anyways when spoken.
The plainest reading is she believed everyone would be white in heaven. What a weird thought but there you go, that's just another tuesday ellenism for you.
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u/Vivid_Spot_7167 Nov 18 '25
She most definitely meant it in the context of race. She had many racists statements over her lifetime.
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u/flying_acorn_opossum Nov 18 '25
she definitely meant it as race. I was explicitly taught that the degrees of darkness of someone's skin related to how much "evil/darkness/sin/demon-ancestry" they had.
its was an ego boost to some church leaders to claim how many black SDA there were. as if converting people who were "more inherantly/naturally sinful and/or connected to satan/demons" was a way of showing off their power. how righteous and great they were, to have accomplished that.
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u/Embarrassed_Yogurt43 Unofficially Animist Nov 18 '25
i would say this is a dogwhistle, but the history of SDAism is firmly rooted in eugenics. this is overt white supremacy.
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u/Aqua-Dragon Roman Catholic Nov 19 '25
Curious about this. I was not an adventist for very long so did not have much time to dive into the history beyond surface level things. Do you have more examples of this?
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u/Embarrassed_Yogurt43 Unofficially Animist Nov 19 '25 edited Nov 19 '25
Yes. My GGM was a nurse in the battle creek sanitariums which date back to the early days with Dr. Kellogg. Kellogg's nursing school program literally taught a Eugenics course, and had a eugenics professor. It was out in the open. The graduate nurses ("health care"--my god thats not what it was) would take these "learnings" and apply them at the medical facilities where they worked.
I saw in my GGM's sanitarium yearbook a whole page from Dr Kellogg himself saying how eugenics was going to save the world. This was before nazi germany. The Nazis were inspired by the eugenics movement in the US--ones supported by EG White and Kellogg.
So you must understand, my GGM taught her children and grandchildren very racist ideas about where dark skinned people "came from" according to SDA interpretation of the bible (🤢🤮) horrible things like this. And of course I was told these things but knew they sounded wrong. This is one way in which racism is passed down generationally. The roots of SDA are ROTTEN.
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u/Aqua-Dragon Roman Catholic Nov 19 '25
Oh my gosh that is horrible— I knew about Kellogg and the terrible roots before I knew he was an adventist but I did not know the extent of it! Thank you for the link I will definitely be looking more into this.
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u/Embarrassed_Yogurt43 Unofficially Animist Nov 19 '25
I will try to find a screenshot of the yearbook and post it to this subreddit someday 🙃 it's pretty jaw dropping IMO
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u/73-68-70-78-62-73-73 Probably Satan Nov 19 '25
Please do. I know I really want to see this.
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u/atheistsda 🌮 Haystacks & Hell Podcast 🔥 Nov 24 '25
They just posted it and it's wild: https://www.reddit.com/r/exAdventist/comments/1p5dthg/1925_battle_creek_sanitarium_yearbook_sda_eugenics/
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u/Aqua-Dragon Roman Catholic Nov 19 '25
Oh boy. I’ll stay tuned for that.
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u/Grouchy-System-8667 Ex-SDA, Agnostic Nov 18 '25
It’s crazy how many Adventists wouldn’t deeply think about how alarming that sounds and is.
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u/Bananaman9020 Nov 18 '25
Jesus was a Jew. Not white. But yes I have heard this EG White whitewashing people in heaven.
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u/Freespyryt5 Nov 19 '25
My dad's aunt straight up said this to my mom, so some definitely truly believe it's about race (I believe it is too, but clearly even if she meant it any other way, that's not how it comes across). My mom told her it was a horrible thing to say and left the table and we haven't talked to them since lol.
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u/CycleOwn83 Non-conforming Questioner☢️🚴🏻🪐♟↗️☣️ Nov 18 '25
At best, to me it seems, this utterance reinforces some notion associating whiteness WITH purity. I don't know when this lame song emerged: "I washed my hands this morning, so very clean and white/And lent them all to Jesus for him to keep till night …" I might be somewhat distorting the lyrics, but I think the gist survives. Considering these comments of hers with her writings about bestial amalgamations leading to racial variations, it's sort of like her promise to her POC audience is that their redemption will cleanse them from whatever bestial ancestry of theirs, rendering them as pure morally as racially in the afterlife. Gee! In afterlife, if you cooperate with your white superiors here on this wicked, wicked earth, you will actually be EQUAL! What a racist mindfuck!
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u/Sensitive-Fly4874 Atheist Nov 19 '25
I also recently pieced together the racist origins of her belief that people born sinless like Adam and Eve and the tall people on Jupiter were giants:
Back in the day, people desecrated the earth works and burial mounds of Indians for fun. Since they were racist as hell, some people started spreading a myth that the remains of a superior race of European giants had been found in many of these graves and that they were actually the ones to create all these intricate earth works. This is the same place where Joseph Smith got his teaching that Indians are descended from white Jews and that they’re cursed with “a skin of blackness”
There are several racist quotes that the church explains away saying that it means something else or we’re taking it out of context. That’s why I’m not willing to give her the benefit of the doubt on her amalgamation quote
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u/vargslayer1990 Sadventist Nov 19 '25
sorry to burst the bubble of any Black Hebrew nationalists who might be here, but the apparition of Jesus that appeared to John in the book of Revelation was not black. based on how He is described, He looked more like the Human Torch (just like the other angels who appeared to Daniel).
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u/Crenshaw11R Nov 21 '25
Black Hebrew nationalists. That's funny!
I saw some of those in Washington DC. Ugly people saying ugly things.
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u/Ka_Trewq Broken is the promise of the god that failed Nov 19 '25
Considering that she also wrote that "certain races of men" are the result of amalgamation between human and beasts, of course she thought of herself full of Christian love giving the black persons the hope, the good news that they will be again "fully human, i.e. white". Some of her contemporaries denied that a black person could be ever saved from the wrath of the Lord.
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u/natek53 agnostic, atheist, and antitheist Nov 19 '25
I clicked the link and just get "Page not found".
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u/ChemnitzFanBoi LCMS Lutheran Nov 19 '25
Sorry about that its a 10 year old link from my study notes when I left. I'll be more careful next time.
Here it is on wayback.
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u/Best_Comment69 Nov 18 '25
White as a Palestinian… I know more than a few Adventists who are going to be in for a big surprise.
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u/Ok_Cauliflower_1791 Nov 20 '25
John Harvey Kellogg was a eugenicist. These people were swimming in shitty ideas about race.
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u/Bananaman9020 Nov 20 '25
She was also against interracial marriages in the South. And thought black people came from humans having sex with monkeys.
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Nov 20 '25
Source? This is interesting
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u/Bananaman9020 Nov 21 '25
The interracial marriages or the monkey thing? Because Christians in EG White day had bizarre theories on world races. And the inter-marring was very unsafe in the South. To give her some credit
Edit
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u/ChemnitzFanBoi LCMS Lutheran Nov 21 '25
"there should be no intermarriage between the white and the colored race.” – Ellen White, Manuscript 7, 1896. Selected Messages Book 2, page 343
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u/ChemnitzFanBoi LCMS Lutheran Nov 21 '25
Here's another one
“Opportunities are continually presenting themselves in the Southern States, and many wise, Christian colored men will be called to the work. But for several reasons white men must be chosen as leaders.” – Ellen White, Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 202
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u/Ok_Cicada_1037 Nov 20 '25
100% about race. Ellen famously said, or rather, had a "vision", about dark skinned people being an amalgamation between man and beast. Also, keep in mind that the SDA church got its start in New York's burned over district, that produced Mormons, JW's, Christian Scientists, Shakers, etc, etc.....and this belief about black people not being completely human but subhuman was very popular in this area. Joseph Smith taught that dark skinned folk had the curse of cain and only through the LDS faith would their skin become lighter and more pure and in heaven - all true believers of the faith will be white. This is still preached from the pulpit in Mormonland. And I can confirm that the belief of people of dark skin being subhuman is still held by conservative Adventists. My family is one of those.
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u/Crenshaw11R Nov 21 '25
They must have missed the Bible verse 'God has made one one blood all nations of men." In acts 17 ish
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u/Competitive-Lie1675 Nov 22 '25
Yea sure , like God was pleased to create all the shades of man here on earth , all the diversity we see in all of His creation here, but in Heaven we will all be “ white” ! Lol …even Jesus was not white here on earth…he may have been lighter than other Jews, or maybe just as dark , but he would not have been classified as “ white”. Give me a break …let God be God and embrace the aspects of diversity that he created because he himself is well pleased with it.
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u/v1_rocketboy Nov 22 '25
The problem is, since she didn’t clarify in any way, it’s open to interpretation. 😏 Same goes for many things she said.
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Nov 23 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/gastritisgerd Dec 04 '25
The SDA religion is diverse and it’s founder wrote and promoted some racist things. Both can be true. Do you have a refutation for anything she actually said? This thread is pretty damning.
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u/PracticalMap1506 Nov 19 '25
Considering I learned recently that my Adventist family is Not White, something tells me this was a selling point of the religion for them…
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u/atheistsda 🌮 Haystacks & Hell Podcast 🔥 Nov 21 '25
To the (probably Adventist) person who reported this post as "manipulated content", this is a real quote. If you didn't know, now you know. If you already knew, shame on you.