The Truth About The White Lie

It is alleged that the White Estate and the church have been trying to “cover up” Mrs. White’s literary borrowing. Just what has been known in the past about this topic, and what has been shared with the church?

In 1933, W. C. White and D. E. Robinson of the White Estate prepared “Brief Statements Regarding the Writings of Ellen G. White” which spoke quite candidly about Ellen White’s use of sources insofar as those sources were known at that time. At the Advanced Bible School in 1935, W. C. White again discussed the topic, mentioning a number of sources. Interestingly, a survey was conducted among the ministers and teachers attending that 1935 session. ³ They were asked which points of criticism then being leveled at Mrs. White seemed most important. Nearly all of them wanted answers to the charge that some of her early writings had been “suppressed,” ⁴ and just as many were concerned about the 1856 prediction that some then living would be translated. ⁵ Only half of the group thought it would be important to answer the plagiarism charge. If these attitudes were typical, they indicate that the issue of Ellen White’s literary borrowing was not as high a priority question in the church as it is now. TAWL 13.1

Hundreds of ministers attending the A. L. White classes on Prophetic Guidance in the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary and its extension schools between 1956 and 1971 and by Paul Gordon since that time have heard the subject discussed in the classroom. TAWL 13.2

More recently the 1933 pamphlet, “Brief Statements,” was widely distributed as a supplement to the Adventist Review and is currently available from the Ellen G. White Estate, as are W. C. White’s lectures at the Advanced Bible School. TAWL 13.3

Three voluminous chapters on “Literary Borrowings” were published in 1951 in the F. D. Nichol book, Ellen G. White and Her Critics. Until recently, however, the extent of literary borrowing was not known by those in the Ellen White Estate. Although the topic was not stressed, from time to time what was known was communicated to the church, and new information will continue to be made available. TAWL 13.4