A Critique of the Book Prophetess of Health

Recalled by the Aid of the Spirit

Obviously the prophet could not accurately remember all that had been revealed in vision. An outstanding case in point is the vision given to the 17-year-old Ellen Harmon in the late summer of 1845. At family worship a vision was given to her in which a card was held up before her on which were written “in letters of gold” the chapter and verse of 50 texts of Scripture. (See Early Writings, 22-31.) After the vision she took the large family Bible and turned to all the texts that she had seen on the card. She jotted them down also as the Spirit recalled them to her mind, for they are listed in Early Writings and elsewhere. What normal individual, let alone a frail teen-age girl with three years of schooling, could, unaided, recall 50 texts seen in a list on a card? A few years later she wrote: CBPH 122.10

After I come out of vision I do not at once remember all that I have seen, and the matter is not so clear before me until I write, then the scene rises before me as was presented in vision, and I can write with freedom. I am just as dependent upon the Spirit of the Lord in relating or writing a vision, as in having the vision. It is impossible for me to call up things which have been shown me unless the Lord brings them before me at the time that he is pleased to have me relate or write them.—Spiritual Gifts 2:292. CBPH 122.11

In dealing with the apostles, Henry Alford names as one of the gifts bestowed upon them the ability of “recalling by the Holy Spirit of those things which the Lord had said to them” (op. cit., par. 8). And he hastens to point out that “this was his own formal promise, recorded in John 14:26.” The Gospels were written at a point many years after the events took place. The sayings and acts of the Lord are recorded. Even though they were eyewitnesses, without the Holy Spirit’s recalling these facts to the mind the Gospel writers would have been involved in hopeless garbling. CBPH 122.12

Of their experience Ellen White wrote: CBPH 122.13

When the apostles of Christ were to bear His gospel to the world and to record it for all future ages, they were especially endowed with the enlightenment of the Spirit.—The Great Controversy, ix. CBPH 122.14

Three of the Gospel writers were disciples continuously with Jesus. The fourth, Luke, was not so favored. He asserts that he diligently traced down from the first the account of all things. In other words, as Alford puts it, he was “a faithful and honest compiler” (op. cit., par. 12). But this work he must have done under the leading of the Holy Spirit. The same must be said of Matthew as he presents the story of the birth of our Lord. CBPH 123.1

In The Desire of Ages Ellen White writing of Nicodemus’ night visit with Jesus informs us that “Nicodemus related to John the story of that interview, and by his pen it was recorded for the instruction of millions” (page 177). As John records the incident and conversation in his Gospel some sixty years after the event, the Holy Spirit must have fulfilled His mission in recalling the words of conversation to the apostle’s mind. CBPH 123.2

The Holy Spirit frequently recalled to Ellen White’s mind what years earlier was revealed in vision, as when she visited publishing houses in Switzerland and Norway in 1885 and recognized printing presses shown to her ten years before and delivered appropriate messages of correction and reproof to employees imparted to her a decade before the plants were established. The experience was repeated in Australia six years later as she recalled instruction given her for publishing-house employees sixteen years before. CBPH 123.3

Frequently people would come to Ellen White for counsel, and she would respond immediately, presenting a message that both she and the person who approached her would consider inspired. Any question on this point is easily dissipated if the relationship of the testimony Ellen White presented to the vision in which information was imparted to her is clearly understood. CBPH 123.4