Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Mrs. White’s Critics in Strange Company

Certain of the physical phenomena in connection with the visions of Bible prophets are too strikingly like those accompanying Mrs. White’s visions to need comment here. They are cited, not to prove anything in Mrs. White’s behalf, but only to show that in the experience of the prophets of old certain striking physical phenomena were displayed in connection with their visions, phenomena which Bible critics might plausibly attempt to explain away in terms of their similarity to the symptoms of various mental maladies. EGWC 61.3

Did we say, might attempt? The facts are that Bible skeptics and scoffers have attempted precisely this. They have sought to explain away all the Bible visions on natural grounds. They have described the prophets as fanatics, as ecstatics, as trance mediums, as epileptics, and as everything except what the Bible declares them to be—prophets of God. Mention has already been made of the fact that skeptics dismiss Paul’s Damascus-road experience as an epileptic seizure. There are really vast possibilities of explanation for those who set out resolutely on the premise that there is nothing supernatural. EGWC 61.4