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A Critique of the Book Prophetess of Health

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    Consulting Physicians

    The attention of the reader is focused on the stance of the believers in the late 1840’s and early 1850’s on consulting physicians in case of illness. After recounting on page 32 several occasions when Ellen White was healed in response to prayer, the book states that “with divine help so readily available, Ellen saw no reason to resort to physicians.” In the concluding paragraph to an 1849 broadside ... she counseled her readers not to seek medical assistance. The passage in question reads:CBPH 42.10

    If any among us are sick, let us not dishonor God by applying to earthly physicians, but apply to the God of Israel. If we follow His directions (James 5:14, 15) the sick will be healed. God’s promise cannot fail. Have faith in God, and trust wholly in Him, that when Christ who is our life shall appear we may appear with Him in glory.—1849 Broadside, “To Those Who Are Receiving the Seal of the Living God.”CBPH 42.11

    Prophetess of Health then makes a good point; “Given the low state of the medical arts at the time, her advice probably did little harm” (page 32). This view is supported by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes’ remark of 1860 (quoted on page 49) to the effect that “if the whole materia medica, as now used, could be sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would be all the better for mankind, and all the worse for the fishes.” To consult a physician at the time of which we write was to invite a high risk of death.CBPH 42.12

    There is ample evidence, also, that many miracles of healing were experienced among the Sabbathkeeping Adventists during that period. In a letter to William Miller, Otis Nichols said of Ellen Harmon during her very early ministry—1845-1846:CBPH 42.13

    The Spirit of God is with her and has been in a remarkable manner in healing the sick through the answer of her prayers; some cases are as remarkable as any that are recorded in the New Testament.—Otis Nichols Letter to William Miller, April 20, 1846.CBPH 42.14

    Here are a few brief samples of similar healings:CBPH 42.15

    Sister Penfield’s miraculous healing after physicians had given her up to die (see Letter 1, 1848); the instantaneous healing of Frances Howland (Spiritual Gifts 2:42); William Hyde’s complete and sudden restoration from the bloody dysentery (Spiritual Gifts 2:44); and the healing of Clarissa Bonfoey when Hiram Edson “laid hands on her in the name of the Lord” (Letter 14, 1850).CBPH 42.16

    On March 6, 1853, Anna White, who was living at Rochester with James and Ellen White, wrote Brother and Sister Tenney: “I am now living with a people who believe that God is able and willing to heal the sick now, and who when sick, apply nowhere else for aid.”CBPH 43.1

    Luman Masten, non-Adventist printer hired by James White to superintend the work done in the newly established Rochester printing office, recounts his experience in 1852 when taken with cholera. He lived in a rooming house near the White home. Masten called a physician whose “first treatment was to bleed” and “after administering a variety of remedies ended his process with doses of calomel.” Such treatment he reports “is pronounced by some of the most skillful physicians as sure death” (The Review and Herald, September 30, 1852, 3:86). It was to his landlady, who, stricken at the same time, received the same treatment. She died.CBPH 43.2

    When a second physician pronounced Masten’s case as hopeless, his Adventist friends prayed for him and he made a good recovery.CBPH 43.3

    Elder J. N. Loughborough writes of the experiences in Rochester: When in 1852, I accepted the third angel’s message and the Sabbath truth, we did not have the light on healthful living as now so clearly developed among this people. When there was sickness among us, we had not the light on the treatment of disease by the use of nature’s remedies, but were requested to bring our sick ones to the Lord in prayer, following the rule in the fifth chapter of James. In the Rochester church for many months every case thus brought to the Lord was healed. This led some to conclude that every case thus presented to the Lord would be healed. For this conclusion we had not, however, had any such instruction from either Brother or Sister White.—Pacific Union Recorder, September 16, 1909, p. 9.CBPH 43.4

    He then refers to the experience of Nathaniel White who died at Rochester on May 6, 1853, just three months after Anna White’s statement. Special prayer was offered for his healing and he was anointed. While he was greatly blessed, he was not healed. Loughborough reports that soon the news spread among our people, Nathaniel White is dead. This was unexpected news to those who thought that those prayed for could not die. Sister Seely, who had taken part in several of these praying seasons for Nathaniel, said, He is not dead. He can’t die, for we have prayed for him. Be it remembered, however, that there had been no such instruction given to us. In answer to prayer for those perplexed over such an experience Sister White had a vision, a writing-out of which is found in Testimonies for the Church 1:120, 121:CBPH 43.5

    “Man is erring, and although his petitions are sent up from an honest heart, he does not always ask for the things which are good for himself, or that will glorify God. When this is so, our wise and good Father hears our prayers, and will answer, sometimes immediately; but He gives us the things that are for our best good and His own glory.”CBPH 43.6

    “It was presented to me like children asking a blessing of their earthly parents who love them. They ask something that the parent knows will hurt them; the parent gives them the things that will be good and healthful for them, in the place of that which they desired. I saw that every prayer which is sent up in faith from an honest heart, will be heard of God and answered, and the one that sent up the petition will have a blessing when he needs it most, and it will often exceed his expectations. Not a prayer of a true saint is lost if sent up in faith from an honest heart.”CBPH 43.7

    To the Rochester company Sister White said, “The Lord has heard and answered prayer in Nathaniel’s case. He has gently let him down to the grave in a manner that was no burden to any one. He knew the future best, and the dangers to that ambitious young man. While in a well-prepared state of consecration He has let him fall asleep.”—Pacific Union Recorder, September 16, 1909, 9:1.CBPH 43.8

    Prophetess of Health asserts that “it was not the poor quality of medical care that prompted” Ellen White’s advice for Adventists to avoid physicians (pages 32, 33), and to be sure, she does not mention this factor in her statement. Still, she could not have been ignorant of the fact that medical care was often ineffective and sometimes the source of added suffering. One would not want to rule this factor out entirely.CBPH 43.9

    We do know that to go to physicians in the 1840’s and 1850’s was often at the risk of losing one’s life, if so, could it be that God in His mercy spared us this? We only wish the records we are dependent upon were more full so that we might be able to judge the matter more accurately. In 1860 in discussing the case of Mrs. Prior, Ellen White wrote:CBPH 43.10

    Could it also be that, as in the days of the apostles, for the encouragement of the early Adventist believers and to place heaven’s seal of approval on their ministry, there were in the initial years many miracles of healing? If so, we would expect to read less of miracles as time went on. Or do we understand from the record that in the case of the apostles there was no slacking of the performance of miracles of healing and this situation continued throughout their ministry so that all the sick they encountered were raised up to health? How about Paul’s unanswered prayers for healing? (See 2 Corinthians 12:7).CBPH 43.11

    We believe in the prayer of faith; but some have carried this matter too far, especially those who have been affected with fanaticism. Some have taken the strong ground that it was wrong to use simple remedies. We have never taken this position, but have opposed it. We believe it to be perfectly right to use the remedies God has placed in our reach, and if these fail, apply to the great Physician, and in some cases the counsel of an earthly physician is very necessary. This position we have always held.—Spiritual Gifts 2:135. (Emphasis supplied).CBPH 43.12

    As the case of Mrs. Prior is discussed on page 35, it is suggested that on account of Ellen White’s position that brethren should “never” apply to earthly physicians, she died. Observe that the more general and less prohibitive statement of the 1849 Broadside is, “Let us not dishonor God by applying to physicians,” but in Prophetess of Health this is firmed up to be that believers were “never to apply to earthly physicians.”CBPH 44.1

    As to the Prior case, the only reference we have to her death, which occurred in 1853, comes from Mrs. White’s own pen. Here is the complete account:CBPH 44.2

    While in Lipton, Iowa, March, 1860, we met the report that I frequently traveled with Bro. A. This is the only time I ever rode with Bro. A. without my husband, and on this occasion Sr. Bonfoey was with me. Other reports equally groundless were circulated by a Mr. M. who had moved from Camden to Iowa, relative to the death of Sr. Prior, It was stated that we were the cause of her not having medical aid. I will briefly state that we knew nothing of Sr. P.’s sickness, were in Rochester, about one hundred miles from Camden, when this matter occurred, and we had no knowledge of her death until a brother from Camden visited Rochester and brought us the intelligence. There were but two families engaged in this matter. After this we visited Camden, and I was shown in vision that there had been a lack of judgment in regard to the case of Sr. P. in giving their influence against her obtaining medical aid. I saw that they had carried matters to extremes, and that the cause of God was wounded and our faith reproached, on account of such things, which were fanatical in the extreme. The reproof given and the plain testimony borne in regard to these things was the cause of E.W.W. turning from me and taking his position with the ‘Messenger’ party in circulating falsehood calculated to injure me.—Spiritual Gifts 2:134.CBPH 44.3

    In evaluating the account of Sister Prior’s death, the following points should be borne in mind:CBPH 44.4

    1. The poor quality of medicine generally practiced at that time would not have encouraged Sister Prior to go to a physician for help.CBPH 44.5

    2. The frequent miracles performed on behalf of the believers would doubtless have led her to hope for the restoration of her own health by this means.CBPH 44.6

    3. After the initial publication of her 1849 advice in the Broadside against going to physicians, Mrs. White did not include this counsel in any later publication, though she did in 1851 republish most of the 1849 Broadside in her first book. Could it be that the statement imperfectly expressed her views?CBPH 44.7

    4. In 1860 Mrs. White insisted that she had never intended for her earlier statements to be so rigidly interpreted as to mean that a doctor should never be consulted, under any circumstances.CBPH 44.8

    5. Mrs. White herself went to a physician in the spring of1854.CBPH 44.9

    6. Mrs. White is our sole source of information concerning Sister Prior’s death. She had no fear of memorializing the episode by putting the details into print.CBPH 44.10

    These are all the facts we have. We wish we had more. It may not be possible for us to prove to the skeptic that Mrs. White was telling the truth in 1860.CBPH 44.11

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