Jesus was both divine and human. But the nature of Christ's humanity is perhaps the most explosive and divisive issue in Seventh-day Adventism.  Was His humanity like that of Adam before the Fall, or like that of a fallen human being?

It is not just an intellectual question, as one's understanding of what that nature is goes on to shape one's understanding of salvation and the daily life of the Christian before Christ's return. Both viewpoints appeal to the writings of Ellen White to support their position.  How do we interpret what she has to say on the subject?

As he did in his Ellen White on Salvation, Woodrow Whidden analyzes Ellen White's comments from a chronological perspective.  he has gathered all the statements she made on the subject and examines how she expanded or focused her perspective to meet changing issues and needs n the developing Seventh-day Adventist Church. Whidden asked those on both sides of the issue to send him every Ellen White statement that they feel speaks to the subject, and he has collected them in an extensive appendix. Every Seventh-day Adventist studying this issue will want this book for the appendix alone.

In the Desire of Ages Ellen White said, "He [Christ] took our nature and overcame, that we through taking His nature might overcome. Made 'in the likeness of sinful flesh,'  He  lived a sinless life" (pp.311,312).  The key question for this study is: In the thought of Ellen White, just how much like our sinful human nature is the human nature of Christ?

Is there something unique to sinful human nature that makes it tragically unique when compared with the human nature of Christ? Is there something unique about the human nature of Christ that makes it redemptively unique when compared with our sinful nature? What does Ellen White mean by the word "sin"? Does it apply only to acts, or does it also apply to a deeply deranging condition that predisposes to sin?

The initial objective of this study is to shed light on the lingering debate over the nature of  Christ by seeking to demonstrate how Ellen White's understanding unfolded in her ministry before and after 1888. But the ultimate objective is to clarify how her understanding of the nature of Christ influenced her teachings on salvation, especially in the critical years following 1888.—adapted from the book jacket introduction.