The Ellen G. White Writings (by Arthur White 1973)

The question for me has been settled a long time ago – Is the Bible the words of God and thus inerrant, or is it the words of humans with their tendency to make mistakes? This is the absolute most important question us humans will ever have to answer – and our answer will definitely determine our eternal destiny. Yes, i know that to know the only true God and Jesus Christ who he sent is eternal life, but how can we know that? – thru the Bible. And if the Bible has mistakes in some areas, how can we be sure it doesn’t have mistakes in this area too? If there are some mistakes/errors in the Bible, then it all becomes a great guessing game about what is true and what is not, and the end result will be a class of highly educated skeptics who will assert that they are the only ones to determine what in the Bible is true, and what is not. Sad to say, we as Seventh-day Adventists have been moving slowly down the latter path for several generations now, and it is getting harder and harder to find people who really believe all the Bible is from God and thus completely true.

For most all SDAs, and i’ve written on this before, the question of inerrancy arises when they find discrepancies or outright contradictions in the books that have Ellen White’s name on the cover. This is true. You can find many such places. The problem resolved itself for me a long time ago when i realized that almost no one, including her husband, really believed that what Ellen White wrote was from God himself. In 1883 the General Conference formed a committee with the express intention to “correct the imperfections in the books”. The year before that they came out with “Early Writings”. In comparing the part in that book that corresponds to the 1858 Great Controversy, i became alarmed because there were so many changes and additions and deletions. Also, on the official Ellen .G. White Estate web site, you can find an article regarding the changes made to the Great Controversy in 1911. Basically, they formed a committee and asked for opinions from many people and made the changes. Now wait a minute – God never gives his prophetic word by committee. Also, he never gives his words, and then a few years later takes them back and/or gives completely contradicting words. With this information, i knew that there was something rotten at the core of what has been done to the writings of Ellen White.

William (Willie) White was Ellen’s son, and entrusted with overseeing the book work. As far as i can tell, he was very unfaithful. Then Arthur White, Ellen’s grandson, became the White Estate director. He wrote the book reviewed here, showing that he was unfaithful also.

This book review is based on its reading in the Northern Luzon Adventist College’s (Philippines) library in early 2007. One reason i was interested in this book, is that the only person in Japan printing and actively promoting the printing of Ellen White’s books recently had this book translated and printed, trying to bolster his position of there being small mistakes in the Bible.
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Favorably quoting William White’s words in 1912:
“If it had been essential to the salvation of man that he should have a clear and harmonious understanding of the chronology of the world, the Lord would not have permitted the disagreements and discrepancies which we find in the writings of the Bible historians…” (p.37)

Page 26 quotes Henry Alford favorably: “the highly appreciated British theologian — admits of much variety in points of minor consequence.”.