Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Conclusions We May Draw

Now let us see what conclusions follow from the evidence revealed in these various quotations. First, we may conclude that in 1851—the crucial date in the charge—and before and after that date, there was held by various Sabbathkeeping spokesmen the idea that the number 666 applied to the second beast of Revelation 13, and that the 666 represented that number of churches. We cannot say to what extent the view was held before 1851. But this much we can say, that there is no evidence to support the idea that the view had suffered any eclipse or abandonment in 1851. The prophetic chart would strongly suggest the contrary. EGWC 288.3

But the charge against Mrs. White depends for its weight on the claim that she suppressed the passage under discussion because she had abandoned the view by 1851. And of course the implication is that she abandoned the view to avoid the embarrassment of holding to a view that others had abandoned. EGWC 288.4

Mrs. White need not have been embarrassed to publish that passage in Experience and Views in 1851, even if it taught what it is alleged to have taught. With that fact established, we need hardly go farther, for we have removed the primary basis for the charge. If the deletion cannot be explained on evil, deceptive grounds, then we are here confronted only with one more of a long list of deletions that we have found may be explained on perfectly honorable grounds. EGWC 288.5

But let us look a little further into the evidence to discover, if possible, whether there is reason to believe that Mrs. White ever held that the number 666 applied to 666 sects of Protestantism. In 1860 a correspondent who was troubled over the propriety of creating an organization for the legal holding of church property wrote the following question to James White: EGWC 289.1

“If this government is the two-horned beast, can we be recognized and protected by it without becoming one of the number of his name?” EGWC 289.2

It is clear that the questioner believed that the number 666 belonged to the “image” of “the beast,” and referred to church organizations. EGWC 289.3

In his reply Elder White pointed out logically that the “number” should be associated with the first beast of Revelation 13 rather than with the two-horned beast, and then continued: EGWC 289.4

“Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast,’ &c. Here is a call for wisdom. Let him that hath understanding come forward. We confess our lack of wisdom, and decline attempting an exposition to the matter. But let them that have wisdom come forward and ‘count the number of the beast.’ EGWC 289.5

“Fifteen years since some declared the number 666 to be full—that there was that number of legally organized bodies. Since that time there have been almost numberless divisions, and new associations, and still the number is just 666!“—The Review and Herald, April 26, 1860, p. 182. EGWC 289.6