Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Adventists Far From Being Bewitched

There is nothing in the records or in the reminiscences of pioneers that supports the attempt to explain the amazing phenomenon under consideration by the claim that Adventists were bewitched by Mrs. White and accepted her testimonies against the witness of their own senses. In fact, we can find right in her current works a statement she wrote in 1867 that reveals the very opposite of this. At that time James White was recuperating from a “stroke.” Financial embarrassment confronted the White home. They had sold certain of their furniture to secure ready cash. Then they appealed to the brethren in Battle Greek for aid. Of their appeal, she wrote, “No notice was taken of the matter only to use it to wound us in our want and deep affliction.”—Testimonies for the Church 1:583. EGWC 510.4

In 1883, George I. Butler, then president of the General Conference, wrote this in an article entitled “The Visions“: EGWC 511.1

“We have found in a long, varied, and in some instances, sad experience, the value of their counsel. When we have heeded them, we have prospered: when we have slighted them, we have suffered a great loss. Many instances of this kind could be given from our past history. As a people, we have no reason to boast of our faithfulness to them. On the contrary, we have shown much unbelief and indifference to their teachings. But when we have regarded them most highly, we have enjoyed the greatest prosperity. It is clear to every one who has closely noticed the workings of this cause that in those Conferences where these Testimonies are most highly regarded, there the greatest degree of prosperity is seen; and in those where they are least respected, there the work drags heavily.”—Review and Herald Supplement, Aug. 14, 1883, pp. 11, 12. EGWC 511.2

These statements by Mrs. White and George I. Butler do not flatter the denomination. But we are glad they wrote frankly—they wrote for our learning—for they thereby exploded any semblance of plausibility to the argument that attempts to explain away the phenomenon of the very general acceptance of Mrs. White’s testimony-letters by church members. The troubles that Mrs. White, with her husband, experienced in 1867 were somewhat like the troubles that ancient prophets experienced with the Israelites. It is not strange that prophets of God should suffer rebuffs and meet with incredulity at times right among those who presumably should be their ardent supporters. EGWC 511.3

But, we repeat, for this most remarkable fact bears repeating, despite the conditions described, that reveal so forcefully that the Adventists of earlier days were far from bewitchment, Mrs. White continued to write letters of counsel, warning, and rebuke—often to members at headquarters in Battle Creek—and those letters were generally accepted, and reform and revival frequently followed in their wake. EGWC 511.4

How shall we explain this? We think there is only one rational explanation. The recipients of Mrs. White’s letters found in them such amazing revelations of themselves, written with such convicting power, that they could do no other than acknowledge the divine source of these testimonies, and act accordingly. As we before remarked, one needs only to read her published letters to discover that they often deal with the secret thoughts of the heart, thoughts that only He who reads the heart could disclose. EGWC 512.1