Ellen White: Woman of Vision

E. G. White Settles The Question Of The D'Aubigné Quotations

Ten days after this report was made by W. C. White to A. G. Daniells, a question arose, sparked by the checking of all quoted materials in the book. It was found that the most frequently quoted historian was D'Aubigné, whose History of the Reformation, written in French, had been published in five translations in England and the United States. Three of the translations were represented in The Great Controversy, but it was discovered that only one had the wholehearted approval of the author. The question now was, “Should all the matter quoted from this author be from just the one that had the author's approval?” To do so would call for a good many changes in The Great Controversy text, and in some cases, provide a less desirable wording. Work on the pages involved was held up until this matter could be settled by Ellen White herself. WV 528.3

In the meantime, possibly with some intimation of the question that had to be settled, Mrs. White made a clear-cut statement to Mary Steward that Mary carefully wrote out, dated, and signed on July 31. Here it is: WV 528.4

Whenever any of my workers find quotations in my writings, I want those quotations to be exactly like the book they are taken from. Sometimes they have thought they might change a few words to make it a little better; but it must not be done; it is not fair. When we quote a thing, we must put it just as it is (DF 83b). WV 528.5

To make any alterations in the text of the book written under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, especially a book as widely circulated and studiously read as The Great Controversy, was recognized by Ellen White and the staff at Elmshaven as something that would raise questions in the minds of Seventh-day Adventists. Many were jealous for Ellen White and the Spirit of Prophecy, and, not having thought the matter through, held, for all practical purposes, to a theory of verbal inspiration in the work of God's prophets. An action disavowing this stance was taken by the General Conference in session in 1883. But by 1911 this was either unknown or forgotten by Adventists generally. Here is the wording: WV 528.6

We believe the light given by God to His servants is by the enlightenment of the mind, thus imparting the thoughts, and not (except in rare cases) the very words in which the ideas should be expressed (The Review and Herald, November 27, 1883 [in MR, p. 65, and Selected Messages 3:96]). WV 529.1

And W. C. White, in the 1911 statement, approved fully by his mother, addressed himself specifically to the matter of verbal inspiration. He pointed out: WV 529.2

Mother has never laid claim to verbal inspiration, and I do not find that my father, or Elders Bates, Andrews, Smith, or Waggoner, put forth this claim. If there were verbal inspiration in writing her manuscripts, why should there be on her part the work of addition or adaptation? It is a fact that Mother often takes one of her manuscripts, and goes over it thoughtfully, making additions that develop the thought still further (WCW Letter, July 24, 1911 [see also Ibid., 3:437]). WV 529.3