3. Private Interpretation

Ellen White was concerned about those who put their own interpretations on what she had written:HPEGWW 7.2

For months my soul has been passing through intense agony on account of those who have received the sophistries of Satan and are communicating the same to others, making every conceivable interpretation in various ways to destroy confidence in the gospel messages for this last generation, and in the special work which God has given me to do. I know that the Lord has given me this work, and I have no excuse to make for what I have done.—Letter 86, 1906.

Writing to a prominent doctor and minister she said:HPEGWW 7.3

When I am meeting with evidences that these communications will be treated by some in accordance with the human judgment of those who shall receive them; when I realize that some are watching keenly for some words which have been traced by my pen and upon which they can place their human interpretations in order to sustain their positions and to justify a wrong course of action,—when I think of these things, it is not very encouraging to continue writing.—Letter 172, 1906.