Ellen G. White and Her Critics

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8. Those Deleted Passages

We think the evidence permits the conclusion that no effort was made by James White or by other church leaders through the years to suppress early documents containing Mrs. White’s writings. It is a fact, however, that some of her early writings were not reprinted in later years. It is also a fact that some of the early writings that have been reprinted through the years have had sentences and even paragraphs deleted from them and other revisions made. EGWC 277.2

The critics declare that if Mrs. White received inspired messages, those messages, without any deletions, should have been preserved. And consistently, if it is wrong to fail to reprint a certain sentence or paragraph from a message, how much worse to fail to reprint the particular message itself. EGWC 277.3

Thus the problem before us may be considered in terms of two questions: EGWC 277.4

a. May a true prophet revise or delete or perhaps even not preserve his God-given messages? EGWC 277.5

b. And if it is proper for a prophet to do so, were Mrs. White’s revisions, deletions, et cetera, in harmony with the kind of changes made by Bible prophets; or did she make changes with an evil intent to deceive and conceal? EGWC 277.6

What does the Bible reveal concerning the messages of the prophets? EGWC 277.7