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A Critique of the Book Prophetess of Health

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    The Health Reform Vision and Its Publication 3The reader’s understanding of the following material will be facilitated by the chronology of events appearing on p. 6.

    Prophetess of Health devotes pages 81 to 85 to recounting quite accurately what took place in connection with the health reform vision and Ellen White’s experience in relating and writing it for publication.CBPH 52.7

    Considerable space is given to the question of the relationship of her presentations as they related to available books and journals on health. As she recounted orally, soon after the vision, what she was shown she was told by some that her statements were similar to views expressed by certain of the health reformers. They remarked:CBPH 52.8

    You speak very nearly the opinions taught in the Laws of Life, and other publications, by Drs. Trall, Jackson, and others. Have you read that paper and those works?—The Review and Herald, October 8, 1867, 30:260. 4See appendix A for the full Review and Herald article in which Ellen White deals with questions on the Health Reform vision.CBPH 52.9

    And Mrs. White reports:CBPH 52.10

    My reply was that I had not, neither should I read them till 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.—Ibid.CBPH 52.11

    She elaborated on that point in her answer in the Review and Herald:CBPH 52.12

    I did not read any works upon health until I had written Spiritual Gifts, vols. iii and iv, Appeal to Mothers, and had sketched out most of my six articles in the six numbers of How to Live. I did not know that such a paper existed as the Laws of Life, published at Dansville, New York. I had not heard of the several works upon health, written by Dr. J. C. Jackson, and other publications at Dansville, at the time I had the view named above [on June 6, 1863]. I did not know that such works existed until September, 1863, when in Boston, Mass., my husband saw them advertised in a periodical called the Voice of the Prophets, published by Elder J. V. Himes. My husband ordered the works from Dansville and received them at Topsham, Maine. His business gave him no time to peruse them, and as I determined not to read them until I had written out my views, the books remained in their wrappers.—Ibid.CBPH 52.13

    Prophetess of Health asserts that:CBPH 52.14

    In her anxiety to appear uninfluenced by any earthly agency—“My views were written independent of books or of the opinion of others”—Ellen White failed to mention certain pertinent facts. Not only did she ignore her reading of Jackson’s article on diphtheria nearly six months before her vision, but she incorrectly gave the time when James had first learned of Jackson’s other works.—p. 84CBPH 52.15

    It is important to note that in the statement in question Ellen White makes a clear distinction between “works,” by which she obviously means “books,” and “papers,” meaning, of course, periodicals or magazines. Indeed, she was quizzed in the latter category only about the Laws of Life.CBPH 52.16

    Since she had not studied the books written by contemporary health reformers nor known of the magazine Laws of Life at the time, she answered her questioners accordingly.CBPH 52.17

    It is easy for us today to suggest that she would have given a better response if she had recited every scrap of information about health which she had picked up prior to her vision, including the Jackson article on diphtheria, which she had found in a rural newspaper. As noted earlier, that article apparently made little lasting impression on her.CBPH 53.1

    In the flood of light provided by the vision, any lesser glimmers paled into insignificance in her mind. She did not list in her response every health item the Review had published or that she may have read prior to the vision. She gave the message she received in vision. She gave the message because she had received it in vision. This is the substance of her argument.CBPH 53.2

    Prophetess of Health points out that Mrs. White was incorrect in regard to the exact time when James White ordered health books from Dansville (p. 84). He apparently ordered the books in mid or late June; she says she did not know such books existed until September.CBPH 53.3

    Mrs. White never claimed to have an infallible memory when it came to recalling biographical data. This is indicated in the preface to her autobiographical sketch published in Spiritual Gifts, Vol. 2, where she tacitly acknowledges having a faulty memory for dates (Spiritual Gifts 2:iii).CBPH 53.4

    We must bear in mind that prophets are human beings with “frailties like our own” (James 5:17, NEB). The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:14-16 acknowledges the possibility of a faulty memory respecting the number of people he baptized in Corinth.CBPH 53.5

    It is, of course, very possible that Mrs. White, a busy woman, may have been unaware that James had ordered the books in June. But even if she had once known, she could easily have forgotten the exact month by the time she wrote her account of the purchase of the health books four years later. At the time she wrote out her recollections she was in the midst of a busy speaking tour and may have inadvertently tied the ordering of the books to an event she did remember—the time she saw the ad in Boston (The Review and Herald, October 8, 1867, 30:260). Why did not James correct her recollections? We do not know. Perhaps he too had forgotten the exact time.CBPH 53.6

    But the point that needs to be emphasized is this: It is of little importance when James White ordered the books or whether his wife learned of their existence in June or in September, so long as she did not read them until after she had written out her account of her vision. Her main point is that she got her views from the Lord, not from physicians. We repeat: What is important is not whether she was mistaken regarding a date, but whether she did not read the works of other health reformers before publishing her account of her vision.CBPH 53.7

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