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Ellen G. White and Her Critics

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Critic’s Exhibit Number Two of “Influenced” Testimonies

“Mrs. White herself has given an illustration of how her testimonies were given to order as requested by officials needing them. In 1867 the first building for the Health Reform Institute (Sanitarium) was being planned and built at Battle Creek, Mich. Elder White was sick and away from home. So Elder Loughborough and others went ahead with the work. Money was needed. As usual, they went to Mrs. White and asked for a testimony to the brethren to donate the means. This was delivered as ordered.... (Testimonies for the Church 1:492, 494).... EGWC 495.3

“The building was begun, and the first story up, when Elder White returned. He was angry because he had not planned and bossed it. It had all to come down—every stone. Then he put it all up again another way at a loss of $11,000 of the Lord’s money! EGWC 495.4

“This put Mrs. White in a bad fix. He demanded another testimony repudiating the first one. She had to humbly obey, and did. Here is her confession: EGWC 495.5

“‘What appeared in Testimony No. 11 concerning the Health Institute should not have been given until I was able to write out all I had seen in regard to it.... They [the officials at Battle Creek] therefore wrote to me that the influence of my testimony to the institute was needed immediately to move the brethren upon the subject. Under these circumstances I yielded my judgment to that of others, and wrote what appeared in No. 11 in regard to the Health Institute.... In this I did wrong’ (Testimonies for the Church 1:563). [Deletions in the quotation from Mrs. White are by the critic.] EGWC 495.6

“This proves that Mrs. White was influenced by the officials to write a testimony, just as they wanted it, to use to get money. Then, at Elder White’s demand, she writes another testimony, confessing that the first one was wrong!” EGWC 496.1

Before accepting the conclusions of the critic, who so confidently discusses events that occurred half a century before he wrote, let us recite some history from the published records. EGWC 496.2

In a vision given to her on December 25, 1865, at Rochester, New York, Mrs. White stated that she was shown, among other things, “that we should provide a home for the afflicted, and those who wish to learn how to take care of their bodies that they may prevent sickness.”—Testimonies for the Church 1:489 (Testimony No. 11, article entitled “The Health Reform”). EGWC 496.3

This vision was not written out until January, 1867, a fact important to an understanding of the matter before us. However, it seems evident that in the light of this vision she made an oral appeal for a health institution at the General Conference Daily Bulletin, May, 1866. EGWC 496.4

Land was purchased in Battle Creek. The cottage on it, plus “the new Bath building,” constituted the physical facilities of the Western Health Reform Institute, which opened its doors in September, 1866, to provide the called-for “home for the afflicted.” * EGWC 496.5

The institution, though small, met with immediate success, and the problem became one of housing the patients. Wrote Dr. J. F. Byington, less than four months after the institution opened its doors: EGWC 496.6

“The present prospect is that our great difficulty will be to accommodate all who wish to avail themselves of the benefit of the Health Institute. But we hope the time is not distant when our accommodations will be sufficient to receive all who may wish to come.”—The Review and Herald, January 1, 1867, p. 43. * EGWC 496.7

The same issue of the church paper contains this editorial item: EGWC 497.1

“We call attention to the article in another column in reference to the Health Institute. For the length of time it has been in operation, the Institution has been successful beyond all our expectations. Yet but a little over half of the $25,000.00, originally called for by the committee, have been pledged, and but little is now doing in the way of pledges; and more means are needed at once to make the Institution what it may and should speedily become.”—The Review and Herald, January 1, 1867, p. 48. EGWC 497.2