How the Seventh-day Adventist
‘Spirit of Prophecy’ was Born

During the mid seventies, I along with many others, was doing work concerning the writings of Ellen G. White, the Seventh-day Adventist prophet. What we were all finding was disturbing, to say the least. It was not that others before us had not known about the copy work from other authors, that was done in the writings of the materials under Ellen's name. It was not even the amount. If we who were doing the research have made any contribution to Adventist thinking and scholarship, it was the extent of copy work that was not known before by the members of the Church as a whole, which we all uncovered. That amount was so overwhelming that it prompted the 1980 Glendale Committee called to review the evidence to state that

1. THAT WE RECOGNIZE THAT ELLEN WHITE, IN HER WRITINGS, USED VARIOUS SOURCES MORE EXTENSIVELY THAN WE HAD PREVIOUSLY BELIEVED.

2. THAT, AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, A PLAN BE DEVELOPED FOR THOROUGHLY INFORMING OUR CHURCH ADMINISTRATORS CONCERNING THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF ELLEN WHITE’S USE OF SOURCES.

Because others within the Church had from the earliest beginnings of Adventism discovered that Mrs. White had plagiarized and had said so, the fact of her doing so was never seriously challenged by the Church authorities.

How much was plagiarized?

The defense for her actions that was used up until our time was that the amount was the important issue and that that amount varied from 8% to 10%, depending upon which apologist one read or wanted to believe. It was not until the Church hired Dr. Fred Veltman to study the book Desire of Ages that the figure was raised to 30% or more depending upon the chapters chosen in the book one was using. After great expense and almost eight years, Veltman confirmed what other studies showed, that depending upon the material used from Ellen White’s writing, the copy work could be as much as 90%. In fact, Dr. Don McAdams, an Adventist scholar, had stated in the 1980 Glendale meeting that "If every paragraph in the book Great Controversy, written by Ellen White, was properly footnoted, then every paragraph would have to be footnoted." That statement has never been seriously challenged by any member of the Church.

It is clear to any reasonable scholar that the Church has not dealt with the real issues that the many studies have raised, nor have they followed through with their first commitment that they would keep in touch with me and inform the Church as a whole what the real issues are. Instead, they have continued to cloud the issues of copying and plagiarizing with other less important issues, such as what is the proper interpretation of inspiration? The interpretation or even the thought of inspiration is a word and concept that theologians have argued and debated and even killed each other over for almost two thousand years. Administrators or scholars of the Adventist Church still have not answered their own hired scholar, Dr. Fred Veltman, when after finishing his study, he asked, why did Ellen G. White deny that she ever copied? Another false issue that is often raised is that she only did what all the Bible writers did. To raise this reasoning is hardly worth refuting, in as much as Adventists have always made it clear to the general public, if not the membership at large that they did not consider Ellen White equal to, or similar to the Bible writers and their works.

The real issue, of course, is one that the Church will not or date not debate or discuss in public debate with me or any scholar who has studied her writings. But that real issue is greatly discussed and debated by scholars of the Church and honest thinkers and lay members who want to know the truth concerning the Church and its writings and its ‘Spirit of Prophecy.’ The real issue is, of course, how much was the copy work in all of her writings of human function and origin and how much of it, if any, was of divine origin or a supernatural gift from God? How reliable is the information contained in the books under Ellen White's name? A related issue, depending upon how one answers the first issue, is what kind of a God does the Seventh-day Adventist Church worship? Is it one who is above deceit and lying and one who does not need the words of others to deliver ideas and thoughts in the mouth or mind of another who has been copied, or is He a God who would play tricks and clever games on His creation?

"I was shown..." statements copied from other authors

This study, which I call HOW THE THOUGHTS AND SUPPOSITIONS OF OTHERS WRITERS BECAME GOD’S ABSOLUTES THROUGH ELLEN G. WHITE, will show that each time Ellen White said ‘I was shown’ to give the impression that God was speaking through her, she was in reality copying other people's thoughts and impressions, often word for word, without giving credit to her human sources. The study will also show that as she copied, starting at the very beginning of her writings to the very end, that even in her most serious, and some think ‘sacred’ ‘testimonies’, she was turning the suppositions and fantasies of those writers she was copying into her absolutes from God, as if she was getting her ‘insights’ and ‘inspiration’ from a higher source.

No reasonable person after checking the references given and the copy work presented could seriously argue in public or private that ‘God’ had anything to do with such deception. If any other group or denomination on earth presented such information and writings and they were exposed as the study shows, Seventh—day Adventists would be the first to condemn the material as false and seriously flawed as far as having anything to do with a reasonable God. Indeed, they have done just that in the book The Great Controversy, supposedly communicated by God to the world through Ellen White. The book attacks almost every religious system in the civilized world but yet makes it clear that God only approves of those Adventists who believe, live and practice what Ellen White, their prophet, has said God told them to believe. If Adventist would confess that they have been in error in their assessment of Mrs. White and her writings, they could then go on to a more sensible approach by using what she wrote as instruction for her time, by men and woman of their time, reaching as they and all of us are, for a better understanding of God and how he instructs men and woman of our time. This is what I hope this study will accomplish for those that read it without anger or prejudice.

As a former minister of the Seventh—day Adventist Church who was relieved of my Church credentials because I allowed the Church and public to know of my findings, what I discovered does not shake my faith in God or His plan of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ. In fact, it was my desire to move Adventism away from many of its fanatical views given through the ‘insights’ of Ellen White. Recognizing the Adventist mind set, there will be those that will call down Heaven's wrath upon me and this study, as has always been the case when some one past or present attempts to change men’s thinking in any age about anything. Perhaps it would be well to quote from a well-known author, M. Scott Peck and his book The Road Less Traveled-. pg.46.

What happens when one has striven long and hard to develop a working view of the world, a seemingly useful, workable map, and then is confronted with new information suggesting that that view is wrong and the map needs to be largely redrawn? The painful effort required seems frightening, almost overwhelming. What we do more often than not, and usually unconsciously, is ignore the new information. Often this act of ignoring is much more than passive. We may denounce the new information as false, dangerous, heretical, the work of the devil. We may actually crusade against it, and even attempt to manipulate the world so as to make it conform to our view of reality. Rather than try to change the map, an individual may try to destroy the new reality. Sadly, such a person, may expend much more energy ultimately in defending an outmoded view of the world than would have been required to revise and correct it in the first place.

What he is suggesting is that it takes more honesty and courage to change than to continue to believe a White lie.

It is very fair to ask the question: Did Ellen G. White, the Seventh-day Adventist prophet, receive her instructions, insights, information and wisdom from human sources or from divine revelation and inspiration as is claimed?

In order to be as objective as possible it is only fair and proper to present what Ellen White herself said in public and in her writings as to her source of material. There are many such statements but only a few are necessary in as much as none of the statements, from the beginning to the end of her life ever changed from the thought that God was behind it all. Hundreds of ‘I was shown’ were used in her early writings, and no doubt was ever left as to who showed her what. It was always an angel of God or of the Spirit of God and not man. Note the following:

“God was speaking through clay. You might say that this communication was only a letter. Yes, it was a letter, but prompted by the Spirit of God, to bring before your minds things that had been shown me. In these letters which I write, in the testimonies I bear, I am presenting to you that which the Lord has presented to me. I do not write one article in the paper, expressing merely my own ideas. They are what God has opened before me in vision --the precious rays of light shining from the throne…”
(letter to Dr. Paulson; St. Helena, California, June 14, 1906, Selected Messages pp 24—37)

“You have thereby insulted the Spirit of God. You know how the Lord has manifested himself through the Spirit of prophecy. Past, present, and future have passed before me. . . if you seek to turn aside the counsel of God to suit yourselves, if you lessen the confidence of God’s people in the testimonies he has sent them, you are rebelling against God as certainly as were Korah, Dathan and Abiram. . . God was speaking through clay. You might say that this communication was only a letter. Yes, it was a letter but prompted by the Spirit of God. To bring before your minds things that had been shown me. In these letters which I write, in the testimonies I bear, I am presenting to you that which the Lord has presented to me. I do not write one article in the paper, expressing merely my own ideas. They are what God has opened before me in vision.-The precious rays of light shining from the throne . . .”
(The Testimonies Slighted; Healdsburg, California June 20, 1882, Testimony for the Church vol. 5: pp 62—70)

And yet, in spite of these absolute, unequivocal statements, what followed in the next paragraph and for several after, was word for word, thought for thought, sentence for sentence, copy work from another author. Without giving any credit to any human source, leaving the impression to anyone reading that it all came by ‘what God has opened before in vision’ or ‘things that had been shown me.’ or ‘prompted by the Spirit of God.’ (read the White Lie by Walter Rea for these comparisons) Certainly this is a different concept of ‘vision or the Spirit of God’ than the Church has been taught in the past.

In all of these cases, Ellen White is promoting her authority as the voice of God, her instructions as first from God. Yet, in spite of the fact that she is using the words, thoughts, and sentence structure of another, we are suppose to believe that God is speaking what she is saying. He is not.

"Visions" originated with others

The conviction or assumption that God was showing Ellen White all that she said she saw from whatever source she gleaned the information, started very early with Ellen. In a book written by Delbert W. Baker, a black Adventist minister, entitled The Unknown Prophet, Baker produces some interesting information. Foy, who is Baker’s unknown prophet, had his ‘vision’ from 1842—1845. On page 123 Baker states that Mrs. White in 1912 said

“He had all these before I had them. They were written out and published. She indicates that at one time she possessed a copy of them.”

Christian Experience of W. E. Foy

Christian Experience of E.G.W. 1846

“I then see countless millions of shining ones coming with cards held in their hands. These shining ones became our guides. The cards, they bore shone above the brightness of the sun; and they placed them in our hands but the names of them I could not read. “There were countless millions of bright angels, whose wings were like pure gold, and they sang with loud voices, while their wings cried, holy. “Behind the angel I beheld countless millions of bright chariots...each chariot had four wings like flaming fire and an angel followed after the chariot, and the wings of the chariot, and the wings of the angel cried as one voice saying, ‘holy.’ The Unknown Prophet, pp 10-11, 18

"All the angels that are commissioned to visit the earth hold a golden card, which they present to the angels at the gates of the city as they pass in and out." Early Writings, p. 39 "On either side of the chariot were wings and beneath it wheels. As the chariot rolled upward, the wheels cried 'holy' and the wings as they moved, cried 'holy'. "And as the chariot rolled upward the wheels cried, ‘holy’ and the wings as they moved, cried, ‘holy’ and the retinue of holy angels, around the cloud cried, ’holy’ ‘holy’ Lord God Almighty" Early Writings p. 35; Spiritual Gifts vol. 1, p. 208

In spite of Delbert Baker’s provocative title and his presuppositions about God and the ‘visions’ that William Foy was supposed to have had, there is no evidence given in his book that Foy was a prophet, let alone an unknown one. Nothing that he said he saw or what was later copied by Ellen White has proven to be true or a prophecy. It cannot even be said that the ‘people of God’ of the ‘visions’ had anything to do with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, as Ellen White would have people believe, in as much as there was no Seventh-day Adventist church at that time, and none of the rest of the events listed can be examined or proved.

Perhaps one of the greatest shocks to the Adventist myth of Ellen’s ‘divine visions’ came with the publication by Harper's Row of Ronald Numbers book Prophetess of Health in 1976. In the book, Numbers documents dozens of parallels where Ellen White is paraphrasing or even using the same words, thoughts and language of others and insisting that what she was seeing was coming directly from God. But Numbers had only scratched the surface as the following references will show Ellen was copying not just from the doctors of her time, but from many, many others in every field of thought she wrote about, always making sure that the ‘vision’ or ‘scene’ sounded as if she herself was there to ‘see’ or ‘hear’ what was actually taking place.

Even the "Testimonies" were copied from other writers

Beginning with the first volume of the Testimonies to the Church, covering the period from 1855-1868, to the last volume nine, Ellen used whatever writers she wished to agree with and claimed it all came from God, but always to her first, never giving credit to any other source. Listed below are hundreds of references in her writings where she has taken and used the thoughts, words, and even the suppositions of other uninspired writers and made them inspired by insisting that what she was seeing and saying was coming directly from God. Time and space will not allow side by side comparisons as has been done in the book The White Lie, but anyone wishing to do so can do so if they are able to obtain the books listed, many of which were listed by the E.G. White Estate as being in Ellen’s own library while she was working with her helpers on her writings for the Church. The names of the authors that Ellen used are listed and where the statements that she copied can be found.

	Ellen G. White	Authors copied by Ellen White
Testimonies for the Church vol. 1: 1855—1868	p. 371: I was shown pp. 494-5	Marsh p. 90: Our Fathers House Wiley . pp . 29—33 U. Smith, Prophetess of Health p. 112
vol. 2: 1868—1871	What the Lord has shown me. pp 60—67, 96 Look to Jesus p. 123 I have been shown, p. 347 p. 362, On Health pp.364,384 The Lord has given me a view of some of the corruption pp 391,403 409, 486	Cole, Philosophy of Health p.60- Marsh, home life, pp. 210,607 Cole, pp. 266,267 Miller, the cause of exhausted vitality pg. 114 Cole, pg. 538 Miller pp. 39, 43, 110, 114, 350
vol. 3: 1872—1875	In the view given me pp. 68—72 pp. 138—142 I was shown that God had laid upon . . . me pp. 258—259 pp. 273—274, Elijah pp. 333—4 pp. 368—370 pp. 487,562—5	Cole, The Health Reformer 9—144 Horace Mann, Cole, How to Live, pg. 135 Marsh, Night Scenes pp. 68-70 Marsh, Night Scenes pp. 200,334,339 pp. 49—50 Mirror of the Soul, 1835 Marsh, Night Scenes, pp. 58-62 Cole, pp 79, 104
vol. 4: 1876—1881	p. 60 Biographies pp 144-148 Obedience pp.163,253 pp.280—2, Spirit of the Lord p. 374 p. 409 p. 444 p. 480 p. 543 p. 594	Melville, Sermons by Melville ii 3-5 Cole p. 127 Marsh, Night Scenes pp 47—9,203, 60—62, 242, 98, 45—60 Gardener, Ministry of Healing, 1892 Marsh, Walks, pp. 313—4 Melville, pg 95 Marsh, Night Scenes, 98,99, 101 Harris, pp 150—60 Marsh, our fathers house pp 190-1 Melville, last prophecy
vol. 5: 1882— 1889	pp. 68—70 I was told pp. 118—121 p. 133 pp. 154—156 pp. 204—206 pp. 266—268, 270 p. 314 p. 467 pp. 512—516 p. 686 p. 704 p. 707 pp. 735—736 p. 737	Marsh, Night Scenes, pp. 201—204 Melville, pp. 163—168 Marsh, Night Scenes p 263 Harris, pp. 150—156 Harris, pp. 19,30,45, 48. Harris, pp. 9,98 Miller, p. 27 Marsh, Walks, p. 133 Marsh, Night Scenes, p. 352 Secrets pp. 68—69 Melville, p. 190 Harris, p. 9 Melville, p. 369 Melville, p. 68, 83 Harris, pp 113—117
vol. 6: 1990-1	pp. 58—60 He said p. 91 pp. 185— 186 p. 340 pp. 349—5 1 pp. 363—4	Harris, pp. 17, 20 xiv Harris, The Great Teacher, pp. 151—160 Melville, Sermons vol; 2, p. 42 Marsh, Our Fathers House, p. 104 Andrews, J. N., History of the Sabbath, 22-pp. 105—108 Harris, pp. 105-108
vol. 7: 1902	p. 16 The Church p. 148 p. 159 p. 276	Harris, p. 160 Harris, p. 71 Harris, p. 125 Harris, p. 318
vol. 8: 1904	p. 15 p. 21 pp 177-8 p. 201 pp 259-60 pp 309—310	Harris, p. 32 Harris, p. 27 Harris, pp. 107—8 Harris, p. 112 Melville. pp. 42—45 Andrews, J.N., History of the Sabbath Harris, pp. 51, 278, 294
vol. 9: 1909	pp. 50-51 p. 97 p. 256	Melville, pp. 192—199—200 Harris, p. 64 Marsh, p. 16,134

In this study we have shown examples of how all through the years of writing for the Testimonies for the Church from vol. 1 through 9, from the years 1855 to 1909, Ellen White was using the thoughts, words and structure of other writers for her ‘I was shown’. From the beginning with the ‘vision’ of William Foy to the end of her life she used the ‘inspiration’ of others to promote Adventism and her concept of its life style that was necessary’ to please her God.

Conclusion

Thus over and over again, hundreds of times in all her writings she took the speculations, assumptions, and even the fantasies of other writers she was copying and made them absolutes, and in some cases, by her own testimony, the words of the holy Spirit. It seems a deliberate attempt to use the works and words and ideas of others to make those that read her believe that Ellen was carried back in time and was able to read the mind and thoughts and intents of each situation and then interpret for God the times and events of those events she was describing. She does not, as some have tried to argue, follow the thoughts of scripture narrative, but is totally projecting the speculations of others as the thoughts of God.

There are hundreds of other pages that could be given, each with its copy work from other authors, never giving credit to anyone but God and I was shown. An interesting aside can be found in vol. 2 of the Testimonies, p. 116, where Ellen said of her thoughts from a ‘vision’ ‘I was deeply impressed’. And again in the same volume p. 565, ‘Yesterday I had some time for reflection and now have a few thoughts that I wish to present to you.’ Had words such as these been given in the place of I was shown, Ellen White would not have reached the statue of infallibility that her writings did, nor would she have been canonized as we have done! Every sincere priest, every honest prophet, every devout pastor, when they have spoken or written, have believed homiletically, they were delivering God’s message, through them by all their 'I was shown' no matter how or where they got their ‘inspiration.’ Most congregations recognize that a person was speaking in the name of God, not God speaking in the name of a person. What a difference it could have made in Adventism, if we had accepted the same wisdom.

A careful or even casual observation of history will convince any honest researcher that it is made up of the records of people, nations, tribes, or families that have ‘borrowed’ or ‘stole’ without returning or giving credit, someone else's, ideas, words, possessions or goods and land, and then they have claimed throughout all future time that they didn’t do it and have died defending their lies. But only a few have been able to survive, some with great respect and following, by claiming that God either helped them do what they did or at least told them how and where to do it. And why is this done in humanity? The reason is also very clear. We want to possess or control those around us and what better way to do this than to make God our partner and ally. Thus, we have the history of politics and religion since the beginning of time.