The Question of Influence and the Early Books

The great controversy vision was given to Ellen White at Lovett’s Grove, Ohio, on March 14, 1858. Shortly thereafter at meetings in Battle Creek over a weekend, she told the high points of what had been shown to her in that vision. Elder J. N. Andrews happened to be in Battle Creek at the time, and he was very much interested in what Ellen White related. After one of the meetings he came to her and said, “Sister White, some of the things you have told us sound to me quite a bit like a book I have read.” Then he asked, “Have you ever read Paradise Lost?” She said, “No.” “Well,” he said, “I think you would be interested in it.”EGWW 85.3

She forgot about the conversation, but a few days later Brother Andrews came to the White home with a copy of Paradise Lost and left it with Ellen White. She was busily engaged in writing out what had been shown to her, and she took the book, hardly knowing just what to do with it, looked at it, but didn’t open it. She took it to the kitchen and put it up on a high shelf, determined that if there was anything in that book similar to what God had revealed to her in vision she was not going to read it until she had first written out what the Lord had revealed to her. Her subsequent writings indicate that later she did read at least portions of Paradise Lost. Thus, for example, one phrase from this work is quoted in Education.EGWW 85.4

But to go back. Ellen White proceeded with the writing out of the great controversy story as she did in Spiritual Gifts, volume 1 (now available in a facsimile reprint), without first reading Paradise Lost. This volume of Spiritual Gifts is a little book consisting of 219 pages. It merely touches the high points of the great controversy story as we have it now in the last part of Early Writings. The vision created in her mind a deep interest in the history of the Reformation. After completing Spiritual Gifts, volume 1, within six months of the time of the vision, she turned to some of the histories. In the vision she had seen essential portions of this history. The vision brought to her new light on the whole matter of the conflict between the forces of righteousness and the forces of evil. With that interest, the White family read for worship in the next several months most of D’Aubigné’s History of the Reformation. They observed with interest those things that were in harmony with what had been shown to her.EGWW 86.1

So when in 1884 she was rewriting the great controversy story more fully as it was presented in Spirit of Prophecy, volume 4, and then later was carried into The Great Controversy, she quoted from some of these historians. She tells us that she did so not because she was dependent upon them for the information which is there presented but because their presentation afforded “a ready and forcible presentation.” As a matter of convenience she had made use of such quotations. She explains this in the third from the last paragraph in her introduction to The Great Controversy.EGWW 86.2

When the health reform vision was given to Ellen White on June 6, 1863, she began to tell the people about what had been shown to her. Of this she wrote in 1867:EGWW 86.3

As I introduced the subject of health to friends ... and spoke against drugs and flesh meats, and in favor of water, pure air, and a proper diet, the reply was often made, “You speak very nearly the opinions taught in the Laws of Life, and other publications, by Doctors Trall, Jackson, and others. Have you read that paper and those works?” My reply was that I had not, neither should I read them until I had fully written out my views, lest it should be said that I had received my light upon the subject of health from physicians and not from the Lord.... I did not read any works upon health until I had written Spiritual Gifts, Vol. 3 and 4, and Appeal to Mothers, and had sketched out most of my six articles in the six numbers of How to Live.—The Review and Herald, October 8, 1867.EGWW 86.4

If you are familiar with these publications, you will recognize them as the basic early writings on the subject of health. The six articles in How to Live are now in the Appendix of Selected Messages, book 2.EGWW 87.1

After having written out the basic presentation as it was made to her, Ellen White and her husband read with interest what had been written by physicians who were pioneering in the field of physiology and nutrition, and they measured what they read by the light given to Ellen White. Some things they could accept, because it was in harmony with what had been shown to her; other things they could not accept.EGWW 87.2

It should be pointed out that the Lord did not show Ellen White how to give fomentations, but the Lord did make it clear to her that water was a very important agency to be employed in the recovery of the sick. The Lord never gave the visions to take the place of initiative, of study, of hard work, or of faith. The principles were set forth in vision. The Spirit of Prophecy pointed the way. Then they studied what others were doing in health lines to find out in a detailed way how to apply these principles.EGWW 87.3

Ellen White in her books does not tell how to give fomentations. The Whites did apply in their own personal experience what they learned from others in these matters. In 1867 she wrote, speaking of the subject of health, “My views were written independent of books, or the opinions of others” (MS. 7, 1867). Either this statement is true or it is not. If it is true, as Seventh-day Adventists believe, Ellen White’s teachings on health were not derived from doctors, but came from God.EGWW 87.4

In this connection it should be pointed out that God is the Author of the laws of nature, and if men through their painstaking research and experimentation discover those laws or if God reveals them through vision through His servant, there is bound to be harmony. Both came from the same source. So we need not be dismayed if we find some similarity between the writings of Ellen White and of physicians leading out in reforms.EGWW 88.1