101 Questions on the Sanctuary and on Ellen White

79. Borrowing from Uriah Smith on the Sanctuary

The Los Angeles Times of October 23, 1980, states that some of Desmond Ford’s arguments against the Adventist doctrine of the investigative judgment “were based on the evidence of literary borrowing by White for her three chapters on the heavenly Investigative Judgment from earlier writings by fellow Adventists Uriah Smith and J. N. Andrews.” The Times article then quotes Ford as saying, “It was Rea who first mentioned the parallels to me. Not only was sentence after sentence copied or paraphrased, but her sources contained errors which she repeated.” How similar is Mrs. White’s account of the sanctuary and the judgment to that of Uriah Smith? QSEW 74.2

In her first paragraph in The Great Controversy, 409, Ellen White used snatches of wording from six pages of Smith’s book. Note the comparisons given below. These are drawn from Delmer Johnson’s study, “A Comparison of Chapter XXIII of The Great Controversy, 1911 ed. by Ellen G. White and Uriah Smith’s 2nd 1877 ed. of The Sanctuary and the Twenty Three Hundred Days of Daniel VIII, 14.” In evaluating the significance of these parallels, the reader may wish to refer to the fourth point mentioned under question 77. QSEW 74.3

Ellen White,The Great Controversy, 409	Uriah Smith, The Sanctuary, Chapter One
The Scripture which above all others had been both the foundation and the central pillar of the advent faith was the declaration:	Let us then say, by way of anticipation, that the sanctuary is a great central object in the plan of salvation. p. 10.
“Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Daniel 8:14. These had been familiar words to all believers in the Lord’s soon coming.	The sanctuary occupies this central position. In it the

	great truths of revelation find their focal point. p. 11.
By lips of thousands was this prophecy repeated as the watchword of their faith. All felt that upon the events therein foretold depended their brightest expectations and most cherished hopes.	It has led them to make a full surrender of positions which were once acknowledged to be the ground and pillar of the Advent faith. p. 24
These prophetic days had been shown to terminate in the autumn of 1844.	“Unto two thousand and three hundred days then shall the sanctuary be cleansed” were household words with every happy believer in the Lord’s soon coming. They were emblazoned on the shield of every soldier in the Advent ranks. They were joyfully uttered from many lips as the watchword of their most ardent desires and their brightest hopes. p. 17
In common with the rest of the Christian world, Adventists then held that the earth, or some portion of it, was the sanctuary. They understood that the cleansing of the sanctuary was the purification of the earth by the fires of the last great day, and that this would take place at the second advent. Hence the conclusion that Christ would return to the earth in 1844.	Arguments had been produced, invulnerable to all the attacks of opposers, and entirely satisfactory to all lovers of the Advent doctrine at that time, that the 2300 days would end in 1844. p. 20.
But the appointed time had passed, and the Lord had not appeared.	The sanctuary is the earth, or at least some portion of the earth. Its cleansing is to be by fire. But the renovation of the earth by fire is to take place only at the second coming of the Lord. Therefore the Lord will come at the termination of the 2300 days. The point of time at length came; but the Lord did not. p. 20.
The believers knew that God’s word could not fail; their interpretation of the prophecy must be at fault; but where was the mistake?	God cannot be the author of the confusion that has existed since that time in some branches of the Advent body. p. 20.

Where had the mistake been made? p. 20. QSEW 75.1

Johnson has drawn the following conclusion as to how Ellen White probably used Smith: QSEW 75.2

“It would seem reasonable to assume that during the years between her 1858 presentation of the sanctuary and the time that she wrote 4SP [Spirit of Prophecy, Vol. IV], Ellen White obtained a copy of Uriah Smith’s 1877 edition of The Sanctuary and read it. She probably found Smith’s work to be ‘a ready and forcible presentation of the subject.’ Smith provided some historical details and a convenient description of the interior of the earthly sanctuary. She must have remembered this when she sat down to write in 1884 and turned to The Sanctuary for aid in presenting the subject which she said, in 1858, she had seen in vision. She also used her Bible and perhaps a concordance as she composed this chapter. In 1888 she also used 4SP and often copied large portions of it verbatim. QSEW 76.1

“It would appear that Ellen White read a chapter or two of Smith’s book and then wrote a few paragraphs on the subject. As she wrote she may have turned back to some especially helpful places. It is evident, though, that she did not simply ‘copy’ The Sanctuary. She thought between the time she read and the time she wrote. There is not a single sentence, other than Biblical quotations, in which Smith has been quoted verbatim. At times she would summarize a page in a single sentence. In some places, she summarized whole chapters with a sentence. On other occasions, when the appearance of the interior of the sanctuary and the service of the earthly day of atonement were being described, she took the liberty to follow him more closely.”—Delmer Johnson’s Comparison etc., pages 54, 55, White Estate Document File #615. QSEW 76.2