Adventist Teaching: Yes
Biblical Teaching: No
Ellen G. White, who the SDA Church upholds as divinely inspired and correcting of inaccurate interpretations of scripture, contradicts the Bible in one of her most popular works, Patriarchs and Prophets. She also claimed that this specific chapter of the book was given to protect Gods people from deception. In it, she claims that the Serpent plucked the fruit from the tree, placing it in Eve’s hand. Not only that, but she also claimed that, prior to Eve eating the fruit, the Serpent ate some first. This not only contradicts scripture, but is an addition to scripture—what we refer to as an Advent-ism.
The Bible clearly says Eve took the fruit herself, ate, and gave to her husband who was with her (Genesis 3:6). Mrs. White also contradicted scripture in this same chapter by claiming Adam wasn’t there when Eve was being tempted by the Serpent. Ellen claimed that Eve supposedly disobeyed a warning from an angel to not leave her husbands side, wandered away from him, and then had to find him after she had eaten of it and took armfuls of fruit to go tempt him. If God sent an angel to warn her about this and she disobeyed, that means sin occurred prior to the temptation with the Serpent.
This is insight into how the SDA Church views Ellen White’s writings. They are the “lesser light” that sheds extra details onto the “greater Light” (ie: the Bible) that aren’t actually found in the Bible.
Literally one sentence before saying the serpent plucked the fruit and gave it to Eve, Ellen White claimed that “whatever contradicts God’s Word, we can be sure proceeds from Satan.” We’ll let you connect the dots.
