Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Chapter 9—The Civil War Predictions

Basic Charge: At the time of the Civil War, Mrs. White made allegedly prophetic statements about the war which were no more than common knowledge. She sided with those who belabored Lincoln and his administration. She also made a series of predictions [mentioned, in order, in the body of this chapter] that proved false. EGWC 112.1

The portion of Mrs. White’s writings on which most of these charges are based, was printed first as a little pamphlet entitled Testimony No. 7, in February, 1862. The rest of the charges are based on Mrs. White’s statement that appeared originally as another pamphlet, entitled Testimony No. 9, in January, 1863. Now, if her Civil War predictions were so glaringly wrong, and if, according to the critic, as we shall note later, certain of our earliest pamphlets and papers were suppressed by Mrs. White and her associates, so that none might see her mistakes, would we not naturally expect that these two little pamphlets would also have been suppressed? But this was not the case. The quotations supporting his charge are drawn from a current work published by Seventh-day Adventists, Testimonies for the Church, ^* volume 1. EGWC 112.2