Ellen G. White: The Later Elmshaven Years: 1905-1915 (vol. 6)

An Array of Questions from One Physician

A letter from one prominent physician contained the most complete list of questions yet brought forward by the Battle Creek medical workers. A few illustrated the kind of trivia that the questions sometimes dealt with. Among the points presented in this letter were: 6BIO 94.1

1. Is everything from Ellen White's pen a “testimony,” or are some just “letters”? 6BIO 94.2

2. Is one to assume that the conditions described in the testimonies actually exist or are they just designed to forestall such conditions? 6BIO 94.3

3. What was meant by Ellen White's statement in the college library just before the 1901 General Conference that perhaps she had written too strongly to Dr. Kellogg? 6BIO 94.4

4. What about the statement “I am not a prophet”? 6BIO 94.5

5. Does W. C. White influence the testimonies? 6BIO 94.6

6. What about “contracts”? 6BIO 94.7

7. Can I have a statement about what you mean by God in nature? 6BIO 94.8

8. Do you approve of sending personal testimonies, which the Lord has given to certain men, to other people also? 6BIO 94.9

9. Referring to the Berrien Springs incident regarding the confrontation over pantheistic teachings, does Ellen White give directions as to when, how, in what order, and to whom her writings should be sent, or is it left for others to decide? 6BIO 94.10

10. What about W. C. White's influence? Here the doctor quotes J. Edson White's alleged statements at the Berrien Springs meeting that if W. C. White did not quit tampering with the testimonies the Lord would have to take the prophetic gift from Ellen White. (Edson denied having said this. See J. E. White to EGW, July 24, 1907.) 6BIO 94.11

11. Are the testimonies a test of fellowship? 6BIO 94.12

12. What about the recall of the volume 7 galley proofs for revision? 6BIO 94.13

13. Is it right for any Seventh-day Adventist to labor in the [Battle Creek] Sanitarium? 6BIO 94.14

14. Does a late testimony abrogate all the previous ones on the same theme? 6BIO 94.15

15. What about the K-4-1899 Ellen G. White letter to Kellogg stating that medical missionary work is undenominational? 6BIO 94.16

16. What about the reform dress? (See The Review and Herald, October 8, 1867.) 6BIO 95.1

17. Were there eleven or twelve disciples at the Last Supper? [Probably supported by a mistake made by Edson White in his first issuance of the book Christ Our Saviour, an adaptation that was a mixture of E. G. White materials and his writings on the life of Christ.] 6BIO 95.2

18. To what extent and in what ways are the testimonies edited after leaving your pen? 6BIO 95.3

Ellen White answered some of these questions; a few she ignored. At times the Elmshaven staff prepared answers. Sometimes the answer was readily available; sometimes the question itself was more a statement than a question (30 WCW, p. 333). 6BIO 95.4