Ellen G. White and Her Critics

The Divine Image Defaced

Let us now note parallel passages in Mrs. White’s writings. In Patriarchs and Prophets, where she writes much more at length on the subject, she speaks thus of the descendants of Seth and Cain: EGWC 310.3

“For some time the two classes remained separate. The race of Cain, Spreading from the place of their first settlement, dispersed over the plains and valleys where the children of Seth had dwelt; and the latter, in order to escape from their contaminating influence, withdrew to the mountains, and there made their home. So long as this separation continued, they maintained the worship of God in its purity. But in the lapse of time they ventured, little by little, to mingle with the inhabitants of the valleys. This association was productive of the worst results. ‘The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair.’ The children of Seth, attracted by the beauty of the daughters of Cain’s descendants, displeased the Lord by intermarrying with them. Many of the worshipers of God were beguiled into sin by the allurements that were now constantly before them, and they lost their peculiar, holy character. Mingling with the depraved, they became like them in spirit and in deeds; the restrictions of the seventh commandment were disregarded, ‘and they took them wives of all which they chose.’ The children of Seth went ‘in the way of Cain;’ they fixed their minds upon worldly prosperity and enjoyment, and neglected the commandments of the Lord.”—Pages 81, 82. EGWC 310.4

Here Mrs. White paints a picture of cumulative wickedness, climaxing in the Flood, and stemming largely from the amalgamation of the “race of Cain” and the “children of Seth.” We are using the word “amalgamation” in its proper dictionary meaning, and according to the common usage of the time in which Mrs. White wrote—the intermarriage of different races. EGWC 311.1

Further on in Patriarchs and Prophets Mrs. White declares: EGWC 311.2

“Polygamy was practiced at an early date. It was one of the sins that brought the wrath of God upon the antediluvian world. Yet after the flood it again became wide-spread. It was Satan’s studied effort to pervert the marriage institution, to weaken its obligations, and lessen its sacredness; for in no surer way could he deface the image of God in man, and open the door to misery and vice.”—Page 338. EGWC 311.3

In a comment on the history of Israel, she observes: EGWC 311.4

“It came to be a common practice to intermarry with the heathen.... The enemy rejoiced in his success in effacing the divine image from the minds of the people that God had chosen as His representatives.”—Fundamentals of Christian Education, 499. EGWC 311.5

Then take this passage from another of Mrs. White’s writings: EGWC 311.6

“Unhallowed marriages of the sons of God with the daughters of men, resulted in apostacy which ended in the destruction of the world by a flood.”—Testimonies for the Church 5:93. EGWC 311.7