Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Critic’s Exhibit Number One of “Influenced” Testimonies

“About the year 1882, two Adventist ministers, E. P. Daniels and E. R. Jones, were laboring together in Michigan. In giving a health talk one of them had made some remarks quite offensive to esthetic tastes. EGWC 491.1

“Not long afterward Elder Daniels received a testimony from Mrs. White, rebuking him for the offense, which she said took place at Parma, Mich. But, as the event turned out, she rebuked the wrong man, and the incident did not occur at Parma, but at another place. EGWC 491.2

“Instead of Mrs. White acknowledging her mistake, Elder Daniels, the man wrongly accused, was induced to make the following explanation: EGWC 491.3

“Through a misunderstanding, I happened to be the person rebuked, in the place of the one for whom the rebuke was intended, and who justly merited it. Were all the facts known, it would leave no room for even the slightest disrespect for the motives that influenced her, as she had, as she supposed, the best of reasons for believing that her informant had told her the truth. And, indeed, he had, but he made a mistake in the name of the person. All that he had said was true of another, though the incident did not occur at Parma’ (Review and Herald Supplement, Aug. 14, 1883, p. 10). EGWC 491.4

“At best this is ‘a lame apology for an inspired blunder.’ It demonstrates beyond question that in this instance at least Mrs. White was influenced to write the testimony in question by some one reporting to her.” EGWC 491.5

But why did not the critic quote all that Daniels said, and why did he not quote the introduction to Daniels’ statement? We shall now give the context and the reader will probably be able to answer the question himself: EGWC 491.6