Ellen G. White and Her Critics

The Fourth Medical Witness

That Mrs. White should have been treated, at times, at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, or that a few doctors may have been faithless, is hardly significant, nor does he trouble to offer proof in support of his sweeping remark about these “prominent” doctors, other than the proofs here being examined. But what he says immediately following is really the significant part of his whole statement concerning the testimony of medical men: EGWC 79.4

“Dr. J. H. Kellogg, for many years the head of that institution, has [c. 1919] a world-wide reputation as a physician and a scientist. He was brought up to reverence Mrs. White and her revelations. Through long years he had every opportunity to study her case. Against his best interests he was compelled to lose faith in her visions. He is no longer a believer in her visions. These physicians, so closely connected with her, learned that the visions were simply the result of her weak physical condition.” EGWC 80.1

This statement that Dr. Kellogg had high medical standing and that “through long years” he “had every opportunity to study her case,” is correct. He was the medical director of the Battle Creek Sanitarium almost from its opening, and down into the twentieth century. Until early in this century he was a prominent figure in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a prime mover in its medical activities. ^* EGWC 80.2

This doctor, with “a world-wide reputation as a physician and a scientist,” repeatedly placed on record his pronounced conviction that her visions were of God. His words were Clear, emphatic, and unqualified over the years. No critic who has read anything of Adventist literature would attempt to challenge this statement. ^† This confidence in Mrs. White he expressed as late as the opening years of this century, as his letters to her reveal. EGWC 80.3

And then what happened? Did Mrs. White in her old age have public visions once more so that Dr. Kellogg could study her “case” anew and as a result be “compelled to lose faith in her visions”? No. When he turned to be an opposer, Mrs. White was in her late seventies and spending her time largely in California. There were no physical manifestations of any kind in connection with her spiritual office in her later years that provided clinical material for a physician to study. His turning away from belief in her was squarely on the same grounds as that of certain others who turned away—nonmedical grounds. Mrs. White spoke out against certain of his views and policies that vitally affected his relationship to the church. He refused to accept her testimony against him, and for the same reason that some others refused to do so—the testimony cut squarely across his path. EGWC 80.4