Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Charge Number 8

Mrs. White wrote: “I was shown that God’s people, who are his peculiar treasure, cannot engage in this perplexing war, for it is opposed to every principle of their faith.”—Testimonies for the Church 1:361. EGWC 123.9

“Hence not a single Seventh-day Adventist took any part in the effort to save the union and free the slaves—not so much as to go as nurses. Had all the people done that way, the nation would have been divided, and slavery would be with us now.” EGWC 123.10

We have surely now passed the day when, as Seventh-day Adventists, we need to offer any apology for our noncombatant position, a position which we had our first opportunity to state at the time of the Civil War. We received then our official recognition from Washington as a noncombatant religious group. EGWC 123.11

This particular charge would also have lost much of its force if it had been given in its proper context. The preceding paragraph on the same page states explicitly: “I saw that it is our duty in every case to obey the laws of our land, unless they conflict with the higher law which God spoke with an audible voice from Sinai, and afterward engraved on stone with his own finger.”—Testimonies for the Church 1:361. EGWC 123.12

The very sentences that follow Mrs. White’s statement that God’s people “cannot engage in this perplexing war, for it is opposed to every principle of their faith,” reads thus: EGWC 124.1

“In the army they cannot obey the truth and at the same time obey the requirements of their officers. There would be a continual violation of conscience.” EGWC 124.2

The columns of the Review and Herald during this period reveal that the Seventh-day Adventist leadership, though not wholly agreed as to all the reasons that should cause them not to enlist in the Army, rather generally set forth such reasons as the difficulty in keeping the Sabbath, the duty to love our enemy rather than kill him, and the difficulty of maintaining a holy life under certain army conditions. EGWC 124.3

But the Review and Herald also set forth clear, sane counsel against any who would think to defy the draft. Seventh-day Adventists were instructed to comply peaceably with it, if and when the draft fell upon them, then to seek in a lawful manner for a noncombatant status. ^* EGWC 124.4

It is evident from a reading of all that the Review and Herald said on the matter at that time, and from all Mrs. White herself said, that she viewed the war as “opposed to every principle” of Adventist faith in essentially the same sense that conscientious noncombatants view war today. But, we repeat, it is hardly necessary today to provide fair-minded people with proof that a non-combatant may be as loyal to his country and as brave as any man who takes up arms. EGWC 124.5

It is charged that “not a single Seventh-day Adventist took any part in the effort to save the union and free the slaves—not so much as to go as nurses.” It is a fact that Seventh-day Adventists did not volunteer, and it was against volunteering that Mrs. White was really speaking. A volunteer then, even as today, could not strike any agreements with officers as to conscientious convictions. Hence a Seventh-day Adventist would violate his conscience in the performance of routine military duties. When Army service was made compulsory—with release, by purchase, no longer a legal alternative—provisions were incorporated in the draft law that protected the rights of those who had conscientious scruples as to bearing arms. EGWC 124.6

Actually, there were a number of Seventh-day Adventist men in the Army—how many, we have no way of knowing, for figures were never compiled by the church. ^* EGWC 125.1