Ellen G. White and Her Critics

11. “The Trial of Our Faith”

FIRST PRINTING

In The Present Truth, September, 1849, pages 31, 32. EGWC 633.4

SECOND PRINTING

In Experience and Views, pages 27-29 (Early Writings, 46-48), with deletion of the closing paragraphs, as follows: EGWC 633.5

Deletion

“The Lord has shown me that precious souls are starving, and dying for want of the present, sealing truth, the meat in due season; and that the swift messengers should speed on their way, and feed the flock with the present truth. I heard an Angel say, ‘speed the swift messengers, speed the swift messengers; for the case of every soul will soon be decided, either for Life, or for Death.’ EGWC 633.6

“I saw that those who had the means, were required to help speed those messengers, that God had called to labor in his cause, and as they went from place to place, they would be safe from the prevailing pestilence. But if any went that were not sent of God, they would be in danger of being cut down by the pestilence; therefore all should earnestly seek for duty, and be sure and move by the direction of the Holy Spirit. EGWC 634.1

“What we have seen and heard of the pestilence, is but the beginning of what we shall see and hear. Soon the dead and dying will be all around us. I saw that some will be so hardened, as to even make sport of the judgments of God. Then the slain of the Lord will be from one end of the earth, to the other; they will not be lamented, gathered, nor buried; but their ill savor will come up from the face of the whole earth. Those only who have the seal of the living God, will be sheltered from the storm of wrath, that will soon fall on the heads of those who have rejected the truth.” EGWC 634.2

Comment on Deletion

A critic explains this deletion thus: “The pestilence here referred to was local, brief, and soon checked. No such tiling happened as she predicted. She simply expressed the fears common to frighten[ed] persons at the time. That is all. The vision absolutely failed, and therefore these lines had to be suppressed!” EGWC 634.3

Now what failed? Mrs. White made two predictions: (1) That those called to labor “would be safe from the prevailing pestilence” as they worked for God; (2) that this pestilence was but a foretaste of what is “soon” to come when “the slain of the Lord will be from one end of the earth, to the other.” EGWC 634.4

If the first prediction failed, then what shall we do with the words of Psalm 91? To the faithful child of God the promise is given: “Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.... Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.” Psalm 91:3-6. EGWC 634.5

As to the second prediction, is it not the practice of Bible writers to use a local judgment of God as the text for a warning against the last and terrible judgments that are to come on the whole earth? Mrs. White quotes the very language of Jeremiah, as he speaks of God’s last judgments when “the Lord hath a controversy with the nations“: “The slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth.” Jeremiah 25:31, 33. When? “At that day.” And what is the practice of the New Testament writers as they picture the end of the world and God’s judgments? Do they speak of “that day” as far off? No. Then in what way is Mrs. White’s statement different from that of Bible writers? In no way. EGWC 634.6

Mrs. White spoke of the local pestilence as “but the beginning of what we shall see and hear.” That statement is not difficult to believe today. The critic’s statement which we quoted was published in 1919. That was before the full effects of the first world war were evident, and before the times of the second world war. Yet he should have been impressed by the influenza epidemic that is estimated to have killed 20,000,000 people. It is also estimated that in connection with the first world war, and immediately after, as many persons died of disease, malnutrition, and outright famine, as were killed in the war. And who can estimate the second world war in terms of lives lost? EGWC 635.1

The trouble with the critic is that he was restive about that word “soon.” He was willing that the Bible prophets should be given ample time. But Mrs. White—No! Or perhaps he had imbibed the popular notion, which was dominant even beyond the shock of the first world war, that the world is gradually improving and that we are on the road, not to judgment and pestilence, but to an earthly millennium. Most men believed just that, and that is why their faces are filled with confusion today. Seventh-day Adventists, and very particularly Mrs. White, never believed that. We have no confusion of face over this deleted passage. We would restore it. Indeed, we have restored it by printing a facsimile edition of Present Truth. However, the substance of it is in the current works by Mrs. White. EGWC 635.2

Whatever the cause for the deletion, it was not because of abandoned belief, not from a desire to suppress an embarrassing statement. Probably it was simply another instance of cutting to fit the sixty-four pages of pamphlet they could afford to print in 1851. EGWC 635.3