Why Some Materials Were Deleted

Some references to other churches were left out because Ellen White felt “that ministers of popular churches reading those statements would become angry and would array themselves against the circulation of the book.” ^{38W. C. White, Selected Messages 3:453. W. C. White deplored those who tried to find sinister reasons for the deletions and changes when they compared the 1888 edition with that of 1884: “Why will not our brethren study God’s merciful dealings to us by imparting information to us by the Spirit of Prophecy in its beautiful, harmonious, and helpful features, instead of picking and criticizing and dissecting, trying to cut it up into little mechanical concrete blocks such as we buy for our children to play with and then ask somebody else to fit it together so that it will make a pattern that pleases them and leave out the particular parts of the pattern that they do not like?” Ibid. “In our conversations with her regarding the truthfulness and the accuracy of what she had quoted from historians, she expressed confidence in the historians from whom she had drawn, but never would consent to the course pursued by a few men who took her writings as a standard and endeavored by the use of them to prove the correctness of one historian as against the correctness of another.” Letter from W. C. White to L. E. Froom, Feb. 18, 1932. Ellen G. White Estate Correspondence File.}MOL 448.6

The frequent references to “I saw,” “I was shown,” etc., were omitted chiefly because the general public, unaware of her divine calling, would be distracted from the message of the book.MOL 448.7

Mrs. White wrote the “Introduction” to the 1888 edition in May 1888, after she returned from Europe in 1887. In it she explained the distinctive purpose of the book and why she quoted from historians and others. She further informed her readers that she also included material from those who “were carrying forward the work of reform in our own time,” no doubt referring especially to J. N. Andrews, Uriah Smith, and her husband James White. ^{39Selected Messages 3:442.}MOL 448.8

In developing the 1888 revised edition, she used additional materials from J. H. Merle D’Aubigné, J. A. Wylie, and others in fulfilling her purpose of tracing “the unfolding of the great testing truths” during the Protestant Reformation. In the interest of precision and convenience, some of their materials were quoted exactly, some were paraphrased, and some she summarized in her own words to provide background. At times, this historical background was used without specific credit, although the material was enclosed within quotation marks.MOL 448.9

W. C. White recalled how his mother coordinated divine inspiration with historical sources: “The great events occurring in the life of our Lord were presented to her in panoramic scenes as also were the other portions of The Great Controversy. In a few of these scenes chronology and geography were clearly presented, but in the greater part of the revelation the flashlight scenes, which were exceedingly vivid, and the conversations and the controversies, which she heard and was able to narrate, were not marked geographically or chronologically, and she was left to study the Bible and history, and the writings of men who had presented the life of our Lord, to get the chronological and geographical connection.” ^{40Letter to L. E. Froom, Jan. 8, 1928, cited in Selected Messages 3:459, 460. Donald R. McAdams, in his article, “Shifting Views of Inspiration: Ellen G. White Studies in the 1970s,” summarized Mrs. White’s use of historical sources: “I believed when I wrote ‘Ellen G. White and the Protestant Historians,’ and still do, that the evidence is compatible with Ellen White’s statements claiming inspiration regarding historical events and describing her use of Protestant historians. A belief that God revealed to Ellen White the activities of Christ and His angels and Satan and his angels in the great-controversy struggle, along with occasional flashlight views of historical events with explanations about the spiritual significance of those events, is compatible with the evidence. A belief that God showed Ellen White one historical scene after another making up the continuous historical narrative that appears in The Great Controversy is not.” Spectrum, March 1980, p. 34.}MOL 448.10

W. C. White stated further that Ellen White made no claim to being a “standard” by which all other historians were to be measured. Her purpose in quoting historians “was not to make a new history, not to correct errors in history, but to use valuable illustrations to make plain important spiritual truths.” ^{41Letter from W. C. White to L. E. Froom, Feb. 18, 1932. Ellen G. White Estate Correspondence File.}MOL 449.1