Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Charge Number 3

Mrs. White wrote: “The system of slavery, which has ruined our nation, is left to live and stir up another rebellion.”—Testimonies for the Church 1:255. “A plain, false prophecy. No such thing happened, as all now know.” EGWC 117.2

But let us give her statement in its context: EGWC 117.3

“Those who have ventured to leave their homes and sacrifice their lives to exterminate slavery, are dissatisfied. They see no good results from the war, only the preservation of the Union, and for this thousands of lives must be sacrificed and homes made desolate. Great numbers have wasted away and expired in hospitals; others have been taken prisoners by the rebels, a fate more to be dreaded than death. In view of all this, they inquire, If we succeed in quelling this rebellion, what has been gained? They can only answer discouragingly, Nothing. That which caused the rebellion is not removed. The system of slavery, which has ruined our nation, is left to live and stir up another rebellion.”—Testimonies for the Church 1:254, 255. EGWC 117.4

Mrs. White here is giving the question raised by those who “have ventured to leave their homes and sacrifice their lives to exterminate slavery” Then she gives the answer that they return to their own question. Even if we took these words as an expression of Mrs. White’s views, there would be nothing amiss in them, nothing of false prophecy; they were simply a statement of conditions as of the moment, and a declaration that the seeds of “another rebellion” resided in the system of slavery. If she had said, for example, that the war would end with slavery not abolished and that a new war would ensue as a result, then might the critics charge her with false prophecy. But she did not say that. And, in fact, as we have already observed, the context suggests that she is merely quoting what others have said. EGWC 117.5