Alleged Outside Influence on Ellen G. White

ON PAGE 105 of his book "The truth about Seventh-day Adventists" Walter Martin says: "The second and extremely serious charge against Mrs. White . . . relates to her inspiration. The claim is that at times she was under influences other than the Spirit of God, which influences strongly affected some of her 'Testimonies.' "

The "influences," he said, were not de­monic, but the human influence of certain strong-minded "older persons surrounding her." He then takes the specific instance of the founding of the Battle Creek Health Reform Institute, and seeks to show "her fallibility and the futility of Adventists' at­tempting to defend everything she wrote as divinely inspired, as some have been prone to do" (page 108).

We may dismiss any implied claim of in­fallibility, partly because Martin himself admits that only "some" Adventists have made it, but mainly because this denomina­tion has not claimed, and does not now claim, infallibility for Mrs. White. Walter Martin admits the falsity of the charge of infallibility (pp. 112, 113). For that matter, it would be easy to prove that the inspired prophets and apostles of the Bible were not infallible (see 2 Sam. 7:3-5; Gal. 2:11). How­ever, supposed disproof of inspiration is now circulated, and we must examine it. Our readers would do well to read Nichol, "A Middle Position on Inspiration," Ellen G. White and Her Critics, pp. 459-467.

The events involved in this charge hap­pened between 1865 and 1867. When we draw conclusions and make serious personal charges based on events that are almost a hundred years old we need to be sure that we understand as clearly as possible the background of events in which the persons involved lived their lives.

The Civil War Years

The tragic Civil War brought problems for the Adventists, especially in the winter of 1864-65. Numerous calls for men for the Army finally brought President Lin­coln's summons for another 300,000, with the stipulation that any deficiency in volun­teers was to be made good by a draft in 1865.

Seventh-day Adventists had found Army life very difficult to harmonize with their religious convictions (see Testimonies, vol. 1, p. 361). And Elder James White was worn out with helping men in trouble and with raising money for compulsory bonus funds with which men were exempted from Army service, in addition to his other heavy-duties. Heavy traveling under the arduous conditions of those times brought him to complete exhaustion, and on the morning of August 16, 1865 he suffered a paralytic stroke. Nervous prostration supervened, and "attending physicians declared that unless a miracle were wrought in his be­half, he would never regain either his phys­ical or mental vigor."-—D. E. Robinson, The Story of Our Health Message, p. 134.

Two other stalwart leaders of the small Adventist community fell ill at this time —J. N. Loughborough and Uriah Smith. All three, with Mrs. White, moved as soon as they could to a private institution, "Our Home" in Dansville, New York, and placed themselves under the skillful care of a cer­tain Dr. Jackson. This robbed the Advent­ists of their financial leader in the person of James White, their editor, Uriah Smith, and a vigorous promoter in J. N. Lough­borough.

The Health Institute

On December 25, 1865, Mrs. White had a vision at Rochester, from which we take this apposite quotation:

I was shown that we should provide a home for the afflicted and those who wish to learn how to take care of their bodies that they may prevent sick­ness.—Testimonies, vol. 1, p. 489.

The whole vision is recorded in Testi­monies, volume 1, pages 485-495. In general it visualized the establishment of a health "institution of their own," and the develop­ment of medical health work by Seventh-day Adventists as a regular part of their work. There can be no doubt that as a re­sult of following this and subsequent coun­sel on the subject, the medical and health work of this denomination has grown till today it operates 221 hospitals and clinics, employs 11,557 doctors, nurses, and other workers, not to mention scores of private institutions throughout the world.

No one could have foreseen, in that day of small things, to what large enterprises and endeavors the instruction given in the vision of December 25, 1865, would lead.—The Story of Our Health Mes­sage, p. 142.

The Situation in 1865-66

In addition to the health breakdowns already referred to among the pitifully small ministerial working force, John Bostwick of Minnesota died, and D. T. Bourdeau, A. S. Hutchins, J. B. Frisbie, and John Byington were all incapacitated by ill health during the year ending in the spring of 1866.

The vision of 1865 was presented in sub­stance to the third General Conference ses­sion in 1866 (four months after its recep­tion), but it was not committed to writing till 1867. In September, 1866, five acres of land, with a good house on it, was pur­chased in Battle Creek, Michigan. A few weeks later two adjoining acres and another cottage were purchased, and some recon­structions completed. Great zeal was en­gendered and the institution was opened. Initially, everything looked prosperous, but soon it became evident to some that the financial situation of the institution was not sound.

Elder James White, indicated above as the business brain among the leaders, was sorely missed. In these circumstances the men on the spot greatly wished that Mrs. White's as-yet-unpublished vision of 1865 might be used to encourage liberality toward the little institution.

Some of the leaders at Battle Creek urged Mrs. White to place in writing the revelation given to her on December 25, 1865, regarding ... a health re­form institute. It was naturally felt that the publi­cation of this vision without delay would greatly aid in raising money needed for the Institute. She re­sponded by writing out part of that revelation, and this was included as a chapter for Testimony No. 11, bearing the title "The Health Reform." This was published in January, 1867.—F. D. Kichol, Ellen G. White and Her Critics, p. 497.

It appears from subsequent events that Mrs. White issued this part of Testimony No. 11 reluctantly and under great burdens.

Mrs. White's testimony gave great im­petus to the work, and soon E. S. Walker, the secretary, and some associates were pro­moting a new "large building," and the im­pression was created that Mrs. White en­dorsed ambitious enlargements. Actually in August, 1867, less than a year after the opening of the institution, funds were ex­hausted. James White, though out of Battle Creek during most of 1867, endorsed Mrs. White's testimony but saw no justification in it for inexperienced leadership to launch into enthusiastic but overambitious expansion at that time when finances were inadequate.

Then Mrs. White issued Testimony No. 12 in September, 1867, in the course of which she said:

I was shown . . . that we should have such an in­stitution, small at its commencement, and cautiously increased, as good physicians and helpers could be procured. . . . And as I have seen the large calcula­tions hastily urged by those who have taken a lead­ing part in the work, I have felt alarmed, and in many private conversations and in letters I have warned these brethren to move cautiously.—Testi­monies, vol. 1, p. 558.

Mrs. White then spells out the reasons for caution—failure to obtain competent physicians and the lack of income and pa­tients to fill a large institution, with re­sultant "general discouragement." There had been many failures of health institu­tions in the United States during the pre­vious twenty-five years.

In the above circumstances it is not sur­prising to learn that drastic action was un­dertaken, largely at Elder White's insist­ence. Building came to a halt, and certain structural work was torn down. The value of this work has been variously estimated to have been as low as $4,000, and by cer­tain critics as high as $11,000. (See F. D. Nichol's Mrs. White and Her Critics, p. 498.)

Mrs. White's Confession

In reverting to the reluctance of Mrs. White to write out part of Testimony No. 11, we here quote her own words:

This was a great trial to me, as I knew I could not write out all I had seen, for I was then speaking to the people six or eight times a week, visiting from house to house, and writing hundreds of pages of personal testimonies and private letters. This amount of labor, with unnecessary burdens and trials thrown upon me, unfitted me for labor of any kind. My health was poor, and my mental suf­ferings were beyond description. Under these cir­cumstances I yielded my judgment to that of others and wrote what appeared in No. 11 in regard to the Health Institute, being unable then to give all 1 had seen. In this I did wrong.—Testimonies, vol. 1, p. 563. (Italics supplied.)

In the light of later events, she admitted:

What appeared in Testimony No. 11 concerning the Health Institute should not have been given until I was able to write out all I had seen in re­gard to it.—Ibid.

This is a frank confession of human fallibility in actions which she did not claim were taken under direct orders from God. She candidly said that despite criti­cism of which she was aware on this sub­ject—

I have no desire to withdraw one sentence that I have written or spoken.—Ibid., p. 559.

What Mrs. White meant when she said "I was shown" was, as F. D. Nichol has clearly shown in Ellen G. White and Her Critics, the whole revelation of the plan to establish the health institution. What she meant by "I did wrong" appears surely to be her human action in writing out a part only of Testimony No. 11 instead of releas­ing the whole. Her basic contention was not wrong, and she nowhere repudiates her original position.

What appeared in Testimony No. 11 concerning the Health Institute should not have been given until I was able to write out all I had seen in regard to it. (Italics supplied.)

As to whether the dominating influence in this health institute incident was the strong will of Elder James White, as Martin suggests, or the inspiration which Mrs. White claimed to have received from God, we have an Ellen G. White letter written in 1903 from which we quote these words:

"I have been thinking of how, after we began san­itarium work in Battle Creek, sanitarium build­ings all ready for occupation were shown to me in vision. The Lord instructed me as to the way in which the work in these buildings should be con­ducted in order for it to exert a saving influence on the patients.

"All this seemed very real to me, but when I awoke I found that the work was yet to be done, that there were no buildings erected. "Another time I was shown a large building go­ing up on the site on which the Battle Creek Sani­tarium was afterward erected. The brethren were in great perplexity as to who should take charge of the work. I wept sorely. One of authority stood up among us, and said, 'Not yet. You are not ready to invest means in that building, or to plan for its future management.'

"At this time the foundation of the Sanitarium had been laid. But we needed to learn the lesson of waiting."—Messenger to the Remnant, pp. 10, 11.

This is Mrs. White's record made years afterward as to the source of her counsels on this question. Yet our friend Martin would ask us to reject her words, written toward the close of her days, and to believe that James White and "the Battle Creek clique" made "Mrs. White contradict her­self in successive Testimonies" (page 110).

Inspiration and Fallibility

When the inspired apostle Paul preached "the gospel of the uncircumcision" and the inspired apostle Peter preached "the gospel of the circumcision," one of them was right and one was wrong. Peter rightly associated with the heathen but wrongly withdrew when the Jerusalem leaders ar­rived (see Acts 10:28). When they eventu­ally met in Antioch, Paul said: "I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed" (Gal. 2:11). The R.S.V. says, "He stood condemned," and Phillips, "He was then plainly in the wrong." *

If we could with reverence put words into Peter's mouth, would they not be a candid confession in these words: "I did wrong"? This is not to compare Mrs. White with an apostle, but it is a plain acknowledg­ment that a God-chosen instrument may be inspired in writing, teaching, preaching, exhorting, but humanly fallible in the ex­ercise of private judgment. Prophets, apos­tles, saints, messengers, need redemptive grace in their daily lives in exactly the same wav as does every humble servant of God.

In 2 Corinthians 12:IS Paul asks: "What is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches?" The context shows that if the Corinthians were made to feel subordinate to the other churches, it was because they had not fulfilled the duty of entertaining the apostle, as did the other churches. Then, with delicate touch he adds: "For­give me this wrong." Surely this was a strong statement for so great a leader. This is another illustration of the fact that a man can be God's inspired messenger to the church and yet be touched with human frailty and fallibility in certain details of daily conduct.

The same truth is seen in the Old Testa­ment. For instance, in 2 Samuel 7:2, 5, it is apparent that David expressed to the prophet Nathan his intention to build a house of worship, whereupon "Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart; for the Lord is with thee." That night, however, "the word of the Lord came unto Nathan" with a command to go to David with a message which plainly contradicted the prophet's previous word. Not David, but his son should build God's house (verses 5-13). Nathan's mistake did not invalidate his prophetic office.

The truth is seen again that God's proph­ets, holy men, apostles, teachers, and special messengers all through the ages have not possessed divine prescience, except in the special area of supernatural revelation. Else­where they were fallible human subjects of redeeming grace. We must not make inspiration what has been called an "over­loaded doctrine" which requires a mechanical infallibility in both word and life, or we shall find ourselves in a worse position than when Athenagoras, the second-cen­tury apologist, claimed that the inspired writers of Holy Writ were used by the Holy Spirit "as a flute player breathes into a flute."—A Plea for the Christians, chap. ix.

We agree with Walter Martin that "no one can dispute the fact that her writings conform to the basic principles of the his­toric Gospel" (page 113), and that "Mrs. White was truly a regenerate Christian woman who loved the Lord Jesus Christ and dedicated herself unstintingly to the task of bearing witness for Him as she felt led" (page 112). Furthermore, "we believe that her writings will offer their own testi­mony to those who are willing to read and to consider the fruitage produced by them over a hundred years of time" (Ellen G. White and Her Critics, p. 85); that she was inspired to exalt God's Word before her hearers and readers, and to guide earnest souls into the way everlasting.

* J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern Eng­lish. Copyright 1958, by The Macmillan Company. Used by permission.