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George
W. Reid, Former Director
Biblical Research Institute
Background
of the Issue
Since their earliest years Seventh-day Adventists have discussed whether
church members should participate in insurance plans for protection against
loss, with special attention being given to life insurance. Although the
denomination as a whole has not taken an official position, much less making
it a test of fellowship, many church members have felt that the church discouraged
or disapproved the purchasing of life insurance policies as incompatible
with the kind of trust in God's providence that marks the dedicated Christian.
Often ministers have included testimony against insurance in their public
presentations and have encouraged believers, both old and new, to discontinue
policies.
Many early Adventists, while
recognizing that the Bible does not address the subject of insurance directly,
urged that no type of insurance should be taken by Christians. For example,
in 1860 Roswell F. Cottrell, prominent author and leader, cited these Bible
texts in support of his position:
"He that hateth suretyship is sure" (Prov. 11:15). "Be separate and
touch not the unclean" (2 Cor. 6:17). "I have not sat with vain persons.
. . . I have hated the congregation of evildoers; and will not sit with
the wicked" (Ps. 26:4, 5). "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the
son of man, in whom there is no help" (Ps. 146:3). "He shall deliver
them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him" (Ps.
37:39, 40). "Blessed is the man that trusteth in thee" (Ps. 84:12).
(Review & Herald, 16:3 [June 5, 1860], p. 20)
While concurring with Cottrell's general position, James White had reservations
about the texts' applicability and expressed his concern about the consequences,
writing:
As
for Insurance, we said, Vol. xv, No. 23, "In regard to insurance we
have nothing to plead at this time. We do not get our own buildings
insured and if the church agree to trust the Office property without
insurance, we shall be suited." Therefore Bro. R.F.C's "strong reasons"
are one side of the main question under discussion. But we hope that
all will carefully consider his proof texts and their connections, and
see for themselves the amount of direct testimony against Insurance.
Trust will stand. (Review and Herald, 16:3 [June 5, 1860],
p. 20)
While
the early discussion among Adventist leaders dealt with insurance as a
whole, the risks involved led them in time to accept the principle of
insuring property against fire, storm, and theft. The change in attitude
developed especially about 1860, at the same time the church was accepting
legal incorporation as a means of holding church-held properties. In that
period the risk of fire was especially threatening, for heat was provided
by coal or wood stoves and light often by oil lamps.
Mrs. White's acceptance of
insurance protection for property is illustrated by her letters. In 1880
she wrote her son, W. C. White, "I wish you would see that the house
at Healdsburg is insured. Talk to Lucinda about it. I feel anxious in
regard to it."-Letter 17, 1880. Four years later she wrote, "Brother
Palmer says he has written to you in regard to the insurance. If the house
is not insured, it should be at once."-Letter 40, 1884. Such counsel
was in harmony with her often-repeated instructions that every reasonable
step be taken to safeguard property. While she was still living, her son,
W. C. White, responded to inquiry concerning fire insurance, writing:
We do not find in Mother's writings any condemnation of the practice of
insuring our property against fire. Mother has always regarded this as
very different from life insurance. She keeps her own buildings properly
insured, and has encouraged some of our institutions to do the same. (Letter,
W. C. White, Aug 5, 1912)
Ellen
White and Life Insurance
Life insurance, however, was seen in a different light. In the main those
who took a position against life insurance did so in response to statements
by Ellen White, beginning with her two-page article, "Life Insurance,"
first published in 1867 in Testimony No 12. Because it is her earliest
and most extensive discussion of the subject, it is here reproduced in
full:
I was shown that Sabbathkeeping Adventists should not engage in life
insurance. This is a commerce with the world which God does not approve.
Those who engage in this enterprise are uniting with the world, while
God calls His people to come out from among them and to be separate.
Said the angel: "Christ has purchased you by the sacrifice of His life.
'What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which
is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are
bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your
spirit, which are God's.' 'For ye are dead, and your life is hid with
Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, shall appear, then shall
ye also appear with Him in glory.'" Here is the only life insurance
which heaven sanctions.
Life insurance is a worldly policy which leads our
brethren who engage in it to depart from the simplicity and purity of
the gospel. Every such departure weakens our faith and lessens our spirituality.
Said the angel: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises
of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."
As a people we are in a special sense the Lord's. Christ has bought
us. Angels that excel in strength surround us. Not a sparrow falls to
the ground without the notice of our heavenly Father. Even the hairs
of our head are numbered. God has made provision for His people. He
has a special care for them, and they should not distrust His providence
by engaging in a policy with the world.
God
designs that we should preserve in simplicity and holiness our peculiarity
as a people. Those who engage in this worldly policy invest means which
belong to God, which He has entrusted to them to use in His cause, to
advance His work. But few will realize any returns from life insurance,
and without God's blessing even these will prove an injury instead of
a benefit. Those whom God has made His stewards have no right to place
in the enemy's ranks the means which He has entrusted to them to use
in His cause.
Satan
is constantly presenting inducements to God's chosen people to attract
their minds from the solemn work of preparation for the scenes just
in the future. He is in every sense of the word a deceiver, a skillful
charmer. He clothes his plans and snares with coverings of light borrowed
from heaven. He tempted Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit by making
her believe that she would be greatly advantaged thereby. Satan leads
his agents to introduce various inventions and patent rights and other
enterprises, that Sabbathkeeping Adventists who are in haste to be rich
may fall into temptation, become ensnared, and pierce themselves through
with many sorrows. He is wide awake, busily engaged in leading the world
captive, and through the agency of worldlings he keeps up a continual
pleasing excitement to draw the unwary who profess to believe the truth
to unite with worldlings. The lust of the eye, the desire for excitement
and pleasing entertainment, is a temptation and snare to God's people.
Satan has many finely woven, dangerous nets which are made to appear
innocent, but with which he is skillfully preparing to infatuate God's
people. There are pleasing shows, entertainments, phrenological lectures,
and an endless variety of enterprises constantly arising calculated
to lead the people of God to love the world and the things that are
in the world. Through this union with the world, faith becomes weakened,
and means which should be invested in the cause of present truth are
transferred to the enemy's ranks. Through these different channels Satan
is skillfully draining the purses of God's people, and for it the displeasure
of the Lord is upon them. (Testimonies, vol. 1, pp. 549-551)
A
careful reading enables us to see the five reasons Mrs. White gives for
opposing life insurance. It
1. Encumbers believers excessively
with the world
2. Encourages a worldly, secular
spirit contrary to the simplicity and singlemindedness of Christian service
3. Diminishes one's sense of
God's providence
4. Represents a denial of true
stewardship before God by diverting His funds to risky ventures in hope
of gain
5. Manifests greed comparable
to speculation in rights to patents and inventions
From Ellen White's reasoning
it is clear that she regarded participation in life insurance both as
a threat to spiritual experience and defective because it is a speculative
venture.
Following her initial article
of 1867, Mrs. White made only occasional references to life insurance
in her writings. Her principal later statement was addressed to N. D.
Faulkhead, a prominent worker in Australia who, along with his deep involvement
with Masonic Lodge, carried an insurance policy in the amount of 200 pounds.
Mrs. White, in urging him to sever connections with the lodge, also counseled
him to discontinue his life insurance policy. Responding to her appeals,
Faulkhead wrote:
I have also seen wisdom in your testimony regarding the life insurance.
I held a policy in one of the offices in town, and with the help of
God I have let that go too. (N. D. Faulkhead to Ellen G. White,
Sept. 18, 1893)
Sister White wrote him in reply, saying:
Your letter has been received and has been read with deep interest.
I am very thankful to our gracious heavenly Father that He has given
you the strength through His imparted grace to cut yourself loose from
the Free Mason lodge . . . I rejoice also that you have been
cut loose from the Life Insurance Policy. . . .
The assurance of heaven is the best life insurance
policy you can possibly have. The Lord has promised His guardianship
in this world, and in the world to come He has promised to give us immortal
life. . . . (Letter 21, Oct. 8, 1893)
Ellen
White's several subsequent references to life insurance do not reflect
further development, but are largely metaphorical uses of the term "life
insurance," frequently related to the assurance found in 2 Peter
1:10, 11. For example, she wrote:
No one need to spend sleepless moments in regard to his life insurance
papers. His title deed as heir of God and joint heir with Jesus Christ
[is] to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled and that fadeth not
away. (MS 63, 1899)
A review of the Ellen White statements brings us to the conclusion that
life insurance as it was practiced during her lifetime, was contrary to
Christian principles, both from a spiritual viewpoint and as good stewardship
over the goods of the Lord.
Insurance
Practices in the Late 19th Century
The post-civil-war period was a time of rapid expansion in the U.S. and
technological innovation. It has been described accurately as an age of
rampant opportunism and speculation virtually unregulated by government.
Monopolistic practices and industrialization were focused toward the amassing
of vast personal fortunes almost untouched by taxes.
Get-rich-quick schemes were the order of the day, generally ending in
loss of one's investment. It was a time well characterized by P. T.
Barnum's famous quip, "There's a sucker born every minute."
The fledgling insurance industry
was fully involved in the spirit of the times, a spirit steeped in the
essence of high risk. Undercapitalized insurance stock groups, while promising
quick wealth, frequently collapsed without notice, leaving their policies
worthless. Company dealings with their customers often were unjust and
not infrequently fraudulent in nature. Policies written on the lives of
complete strangers were urged upon a public that was encouraged to invest
in the hope of profiting from the death of the insured.
The abuses of such a system
led to public demand for government regulation. State and Federal regulatory
laws, beginning in 1906, were designed to limit fraud and require the
insurance industry to follow sound practices.
Today's life insurance industry,
heavily regulated by law and government agencies, differs in important
ways from that of the late 1800s. Ellen White's counsel against investing
in life insurance must be understood against the background of the practices
of her times if the meaning of her words is to be properly understood.
Provision
for the Time of Need
Both the Scriptures
and the writings of Ellen White elevate the level of Christian responsibility
to protect and provide for one's loved ones to a divine mandate. In both
faith and practice the Bible assigns prime responsibility for such care
upon near relatives. Building on the authority of the fifth commandment,
"Honor thy father and thy mother," the apostle Paul stresses the principle's
importance in the strongest of terms. He wrote:
"But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to
shew piety at home, and to requite their parents; for that is good and
acceptable before God. . . .
But if any provide not for his own, and specially
for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than
an infidel" (1 Tim. 5:4, 8).
Jesus reinforced the same principle, referring to it as the "commandment
of God" (Matt. 15:6).
Repeatedly Mrs. White stressed
the importance of providing for future needs. Examples of such counsel
include the following:
You might today have had a capital of means to use in case of emergency
and to aid the cause of God, if you had economized as you should. Every
week a portion of your wages should be reserved and in no case touched
unless suffering actual want, or to render back to the Giver in offerings
to God. . . .
The means you have earned have not been wisely and
economically expended so as to leave a margin should you be sick and
your family be deprived of the means . . . to sustain them.
(Letter 5, 1877 [in The Adventist Home, p. 396])
Had you and your wife understood it to be a duty
that God enjoined upon you to deny your taste and your desires, and
make provision for the future instead of merely living for the present, . . .
your family could have had the comforts of life. (Testimonies,
vol. 2, pp. 432, 433)
Throughout
her lifetime Mrs. White encouraged as Christian duties such practices
as diligence, hard work, exercise of foresight, and self-denial, often
to make possible generous benevolence to the Lord's cause. She encouraged
the purchase of quality goods and care for them. She spoke in favor of
home ownership where possible and approved the accumulation of reasonable
reserves for use in necessity. She conceived of such reserves as available
not only for personal needs, but also for extending the work of God and
assisting those outside one's family who experienced need. She looked
favorably upon the acquisition of a modest but comfortable home for one's
retirement and spoke of the self-respect that would follow from having
provided for the future (Testimonies, vol. 7, pp. 291-292).
Conclusion
In seeking to understand
the teachings of the Scriptures and the writings of Ellen White on life
insurance, many Adventists have focused on Mrs. White's warnings against
insurance to the neglect of her equally pointed testimony toward making
provision for times of necessity. The effect has been to deprive members
of benefits of the kind that prudent planning could provide.
The ultimate question is, Under
today's conditions, do life insurance policies offer a method for meeting
emergency needs that is compatible with Christian principles? Could they
help meet the crisis raised by the disability or death of the wage earner
without weakening one's faith or commitment to trust in God's providence?
Could they help meet the divinely-given responsibility of protecting the
innocent survivors of tragedy in a hazardous world? Could they help fill
the void created by the diminished role of family ties in the modern world
as increased individualism and governmental programs displace the ancient
bonds?
A study committee of the General
Conference and the Ellen G. White Estate conducted a thorough study
of life insurance, summarized in a 50-page report issued in 1957. Its
propositions, based upon careful investigation, provided a sound interpretation
of the principles concerned and should be taken into account in arriving
at a decision.
1. That the Spirit of Prophecy
counsels unhesitatingly and definitely teach that the Christian should
make provision for "a rainy day." We should recognize that a time will
come when there will be reduced or terminated income, and looking ahead,
we should if possible have a reasonable amount of property or money in
reserve to meet such needs, that "the charities of others need not be
depended upon."
2. That it is proper to have
the security of a modest home of our own and conservative financial investments,
money in the bank, invested in the Lord's work, or in other sound investment.
3. That it is proper to avail
ourselves of the protection offered by fire insurance and insurance on
the automobile.
4. That in whatever provision
is made for future needs the Christian is ever mindful of the special
and tender watch care of God over His children, and He is not forgetful
of the needs of the cause of God.
5. That the family and the
church have a responsibility to its members in time of need or bereavement,
the Christian sharing his brother's burdens so that none will suffer.
6. That just what provision
be made for the day of need and how it shall be arranged must be left
with the individual to settle carefully and prayerfully, with heart fully
surrendered to God, and with the determination in the heart that in fulfilling
these responsibilities, every move may be made in harmony with God's will.
7. That the Spirit of Prophecy
counsels on Life Insurance made in the 1860s were given at a time when
Life Insurance was uncontrolled and often handled by "fly-by-night" concerns,
more or less as a gambling proposition in a "get-rich-quick" scheme.
8. That the Spirit of Prophecy
counsels in the years between 1867 and 1909 were consistent in discouraging
Life Insurance, but in the United States such insurance did not come under
the control of state banking laws until 1906 and onward, and as late as
1910 some companies were involved in questionable and often dishonest
practices. There were no statements on life insurance from Ellen White
after 1909.
9. That various savings and
insurance plans today termed "life insurance," protected as they are by
carefully enacted state laws, and subject to close inspection of state
authorities, are generally considered a safe and sound investment, sounder
than many other investments.
10. That in most so-called Life Insurance as
it is today written, there is actually carried out the principle of putting
something aside for the day of need and, of sharing one another's burdens,
the circle reaching out beyond the family or the church to include quite
a large number of persons, thus equalizing the burden and minimizing the
expense.
11. The health care insurance is simply another
plan for equalizing what may be an unusual and heavy expense, a large
number of persons sharing the burdens of one another.
12. That burial insurance provides a means whereby
the expense now connected with death is provided for in a certain and
sure manner, through advance payments over a period of years.
13. That burial societies in which a large number
of persons participate, either by specified dues, or by assessments at
the time of the death of a member, are a means of systematically spreading
the expense in such a way that we bear one another's burdens, and through
a well-organized plan make proper provision for expense which must be
met.
14. That Social Security is recognized by the
church as a plan whereby employer and wage earner unite in systematically
placing in reserve that which will be available in time of need, either
at retirement or at death.
15. That these various plans virtually accomplish
for the lay member wage-earner what the denominational retirement plan-called
into being through the Spirit of Prophecy-has for many years
provided for ministers and other employees of the denomination-a
plan by which a regular percentage of the payroll of the various employing
organizations is accumulated in one central fund, to be disbursed in monthly
payments to retired or incapacitated laborers or their widows, and in
case of need, in meeting unusual medical and burial expense.
16. That the Seventh-day Adventist Church, although
it does not encourage or discourage its members in the matter of insurance
of different types, has by actions of the General Conference Committee
in Annual Council, formally placed its approval on Social Security and
Survivor's Benefit plans.
17. That in the choice of the method employed
in providing "a capital of means to use in case of emergency" (The
Adventist Home, p. 396) whatever that method shall be, care should
be taken to seek and follow the counsel of those of experience who can
be depended upon to give safe guidance.
18. That whatever provision the wage earner makes
in preparation for the day of financial adversity, or lessened income,
he must guard carefully against a course of action which will lead to
a love of money, or to the creation with his own hands of something in
which he places his trust, as to impair that close connection with his
Creator and Redeemer.
19. That the Lord, through the Spirit of Prophecy
counsels, has given an abundance of instruction and guidance relating
to our responsibility for financial stewardship, making clear our obligations
to God, our family, our fellow church members, and those about us; and
these counsels should be carefully studied, re-studied and adhered to,
that we may lay up treasure in heaven, lest Satan lure us into soul-destroying
entanglements.
RECOMMENDED, 1. To urge all believers, especially those who have
financial responsibility for families, to make a thoughtful, planned provision
for meeting unforeseen emergencies that affect themselves and their families.
2. To regard those forms of
life insurance which offer no conflict with Christian principles as being
legitimate means of making provision for times of need.
3. To consider that any decisions
regarding the degree to which insurance policies are used to contribute
to family financial planning are a matter of personal conscience, and
that the church should take no official position in that respect.
4. To counsel that the act
of providing for future needs grants no license for the exercise of greed.
5. To advise those who endeavor
to make provision for the future to exercise care lest selfish motives
become a part of their planning.
6. To educate church members
through the stewardship ministry regarding sound principles of family
financial planning.
7. To take no steps as a church
toward establishing or promoting any forms of general life insurance for
members.
Adopted by the General Conference officers, 1985
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