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“ ‘You
are not alone in the work the Lord has chosen you to do. You will be taught
of God how to bring the |
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truth
in its simplicity before the people. The God of truth will sustain you, and
convincing proof will be |
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SEARCHING FOR — |
given
that He is leading you. God will give you of His Holy Spirit, and His grace,
and wisdom and keeping |
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power
will be with you.’ ” |
—The
Writing and Sending Out of the Testimonies to the Church, p. 11 |
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Changes in the
Testimonies
1
0
7
7
DATE
OF PUBLICATION: APRIL 2002 |
A friend recently phoned and said he
had been told that the Testimonies had been changed, and therefore were
no longer reliable. This was a person I considered almost as a son; for he had
once been a teenager in a church I pastored a number of years ago.
The charge that the
critics are making is this: “The Testimonies are full of changes,—and
all those changes have radically changed its meaning. Those changes were
made by evil men at the Review office. Ellen White may not have known what was
happening.”
I have spoken with others who, because
of this charge, are fearful to read the Testimonies. When I ask what is
the evidence, they say there are supposed to be bad things written into the Testimonies,
all through them, but they haven’t found them yet.
In other research studies, I have
prepared a sizeable amount of material validating the integrity of the Spirit
of Prophecy writings. In this present study, the changes in the Testimonies
will be examined. We want to know what this is all about.
As the Spirit of God guided her, Ellen
White wrote many letters, counseling various individuals. Because those
let-ters contained worthwhile information needed by many others, she was
instructed to gather together her copies of these letters and have them printed.
The first collection was published in 1855. Containing 16 pages, it was
en-titled, Testimony for the Church. Still more small book-lets of
testimonies were printed later. By 1882, 31 had been printed.
At Ellen’s request, the
printed copies of the first 30 of those testimonies (Testimonies, No. 1,
Testimonies, No. 2, etc.) were carefully proofed by her trusted
help-ers: Marian Davis (who began helping her in 1878) and her son, William C.
White (who began helping her as soon as James died in 1881). The plan was to prepare them for reprinting in Testimonies
for the Church, Vols. 1 to 4.
Under Ellen’s continual
oversight, working in her own home, those corrections were made on the 30 Tes-timony booklets. No
proofing and corrections were made at the offices of the Review.
No printing house was ever permitted to do that. Only her own helpers, working
in her home, were entrusted with that task. Ellen person-ally reviewed
everything they did. When the task was completed, those testimonies
were typeset at the Review; the galleys were proofed again by her helpers, and
then
Testimonies for the Church, Vols. 1-4, were printed. That was the preparatory
procedure for all her printed books, from 1851 onward, including those after
1878.
Testimonies, No. 31 to 33,
were also first published as booklets and then, later, as
Vol. 5. All later testimonies were not first printed as booklets, but
were directly
printed in one of the
volumes of the Testimonies (Vols. 6 to 9).
All of Ellen’s printed
materials (whether they be ar-ticles or books), prior to 1878, were proofed by
James White; after that, Marian Davis and other trusted help-ers performed this
task.
TESTIMONIES, VOL. 1
As noted
above, our present Vol. 1 of the Testimo-nies
was published in 1885, and is a republication of
Testimonies, No. 1-14. It consisted of small booklets first issued
between 1855 and 1868.
In preparation for this present study,
I carefully ana-lyzed Testimonies, Vol. 1, and found it to be filled
with instruction, warnings, reproofs, and corrections.
Vol. 1 is filled with instruction and rebuke; yet a
com-parison of the original Testimonies, No. 1-14, with our present Vol.
1 reveals no essential difference between the two!
This is significant since,
if wicked men later really had changed the testimonies,—it would have
been its high standards and reproofs of wrongdoing that they would have
changed! Yet this was not done.
The Testimonies are filled with
warnings and reproof. No wicked men have removed them! Here are examples of the
type of material that Vol. 1 contains:
Leaving
the Methodist Church, 35—The danger of
re-lying on ministers and leaders.
Be Zealous and Repent, 141—Our church is worldly and needs to earnestly repent. The
members are in ter-rible spiritual condition.
The
Privilege and Duty of the Church, 178—Some in
the church are living right, but many are lukewarm or cold.
The Shaking, 179—The chapter, also found in Early Writings (269-273), is
about how few will go through to the end and be saved.
The
Laodicean Church, 185—A strong testimony, pointing
out of sin within the church.
Houses of Worship, 196—God’s people are hoarding money to themselves and not
giving to the forwarding of the work. / Lessons from the Parables, 197—Similar
top-ics.
Errors in
Diet, 204—Those in the church are not do-ing
right, in regard to diet and other matters.
Slackness
Reproved, 210—Wrongdoing by the people,
including leaders and Review workers.
Fanaticism in Wisconsin,
228—Ministers and leaders in Wisconsin doing wrong and even
leading out in fanati-cism. / Concealing Reproofs, 233—Wrongdoing in New
York State. / The Cause in Ohio, 234—Serious problems in Ohio.
Personal
Experience, 244—Last part urges ministers
to reprove wrongdoing, which they are not now doing.
2
Dangers
and Duties of Ministers, 368—Some of our ministers
are slothful and not doing their work properly.
The Cause
in the East, 409—Fanaticism among
min-isters and members in the northeast.
Unconsecrated
Ministers, 438—Warning to our min-isters
not to be proud and conceited.
Our
Ministers, 466—Our ministers need to be
con-verted.
Sketch of
Experience, 570—The coldness toward the
Whites by a large number in Battle Creek.
Laborers
in the Office, 585—A variety of wrong
atti-tudes and actions by leaders and workers at the Review.
Conflicts
and Victory, 592—How those at Battle Creek
were mistreating James and Ellen.
Response from Battle Creek
Church, 609—A state-ment written and signed by
Uriah Smith and other Battle Creek leaders, expressing regret for what has
happened and affirming their continued support for the Spirit of Prophecy.
Cutting
and Slashing, 612—Strong testimony
regard-ing slander against Ellen and James.
Publishing Personal
Testimonies, 630—How people misuse
her testimonies, but she determines to publish them anyway.
The Case of Hannah More,
666—A sad story of a con-vert who was so mistreated by everyone at
Battle Creek that she left and died with non-Adventists.
In addition to the above,
other chapters in Vol. 1 provide additional counsels, reproofs, and
corrections on the following topics:
Parents, wives, young people, local
church, business contracts, diet and health, tithe paying, the church name,
care for the poor, stocks and speculation, honesty, slavery, church
organization, philosophy, family religion, jealousy, dress standards, ministers’
wives, patent rights, recreation, Sabbath observance, political involvement,
lending and usury, the wealthy, life insurance, missionary work, litera-ture
distribution, amusements, improper cooking, and du-ties of husbands and wives.
—Yet in all that material,
we find essentially little variation between the original Testimonies, No.
1-14, and our present Testimonies, Vol. 1. And that variation was
the result of thoughtful decisions by Ellen White and her helpers.
A TYPICAL TWO PAGES OF
VARIATIONS
Here are some samples of
these variations between the original Testimony booklets and our present
Vol. 1. They will show you the type of changes which were made.
First, we will look at a sample of
what the variations look like. This is from the first two pages of variations
in our Vol. 1, p. 113:1 to the end of 115:0. We will show the
variants from that found in the original, which was Testi-monies, No. 1, p.
1:1 to the bottom of the next page (end of 2:2).
Vol. 1,
p. 113:1—The location of “came” is changed in
the sentence.
Vol. 1, p. 113:2—The original does not start a new paragraph, but
continues on as part of para. 1. / “A mere theory” is in the original; in ours,
it is “a mere theory of the
Waymarks
truth.”
Vol. 1, p. 113:3—“The enemy is busy to destroy souls” in ours; “the enemy
was busy to destroy souls” in the origi-nal. / “This must be laid aside” in
ours; it is “It must be laid aside” in original.
Vol. 1,
p. 114:2—“to their property. They flatter”
from “to their property, and flatter.”
Vol. 1, p. 115:0—“By their example they say to those around them that”
from “They set the example to those around them that.”
The above
are all the changes in Vol. 1, pp. 113:1 to the end of 115:0, from
the original booklet, which was
Testimonies, No. 1-10, pp.
1:1 to the end of the paragraph on 2:2.
It is
quite obvious that none of these changes are of any significance. The first sentence in the original was:
“November 20, 1855, while in prayer,
the Spirit of the Lord suddenly and powerfully came upon me, and I was taken
off in vision.”—Testimonies, No. 1, p. 1:1.
It was later changed to
this:
“November 20, 1855, while in prayer,
the Spirit of the Lord came suddenly and powerfully upon me, and I was taken
off in vision.”—Vol. 1, p. 113:1.
The
switching of “came” makes the revision flow more smoothly, without changing the
meaning.
The other
two variations on that page are equally in-consequential.
This
provides you with a very good sampling of what nearly all the other variations
are like.
TESTIMONY 13
Next we go to Testimony
13 . This was Ellen White’s earliest exposé of the spiritual crisis which
had come to the church in Battle Creek. The most pointed pas-sage in it is
found in 1T 579:1b to 585:1 (Testimony
13, p.
14:4 to 180a). I have carefully
examined this passage in both the original and our present Vol. 1, and
this is what I find. This passage portrayed a terrible picture of how the
church was printed by the Review. THIS was a passage the leaders would want to
tone down—or eliminate entirely! Yet they did not do so. Here are the changes:
Vol. 1,
p. 579:1—“cold reception which he met” from “cold
reception he met.”
Vol. 1, p. 579:2—“I came home to Battle Creek like a weary child, who
needed comforting words and encour-agement” was changed to improve the
chronological order of the paragraph, from its bottom to its top.
Vol.
1, p. 579:2—“large meeting, and that I
was very weary” was changed from “large meeting. I was very weary.” Vol.
1, p. 580:1—“fellow laborer whom” from “fellow laborer, whom.” / “as
we met distrust and positive cold-ness instead of welcome and encouragement”
from “as we met, instead of welcome and encouragement, distrust and
positive
coldness.”
Vol.
1, pp. 580:2-581:0—“Grieved in spirit beyond
mea-sure, I remained at home . . for fear of being wounded” changed from
“Grieved and wounded
in spirit beyond measure, I remained at home . . for
fear of being wounded.” Vol. 1, p. 581:1a—“Was not my interest in the
cause and work of God as great . . My whole experience and life were
interwoven with it” changed from ‘Was not my inter-est in
the cause and
work of God
as great .
. My whole
W Changes in the
Testimonies
M
experience
and life were interwoven in the work and cause
1
0 of God.” / “had invested everything in this cause, and had 7 considered”
from “had invested everything in this cause. I 7 had considered.”
As you
can see, the changes improved and smoothed out the grammatical construction.
Her powerful message was not toned down in the least, much less removed. Read
the passage for yourself.
A similar strong testimony is Testimony
23, pp. 3-9 (Vol. 3, pp. 252-262); yet no real changes occurred.
TESTIMONY NO. 31
Next
we will go to the strongest, most hard-hitting of Ellen White’s printed
testimonies to the brethren, in the books of the Testimonies. The first
is Important Testimony (5T 45-62); the second is The
Testimonies Slighted (5T 62-84). They
were both in Testimony No. 31 (which was also
printed by Pacific Press as a booklet entitled, Testimonies to the
Battle Creek Church, 1882). Unlike Testimony 13 which stated
everything in general-ized terms, we have here two testimonies, of which Ellen
later recognized needed to have some of its identities re-moved.
In the final printing, why
did Ellen omit anything from those two testimonies? Let her tell us:
“During the last nine years, from 1855 to 1864, I have written
ten small pamphlets, entitled, Testimony for the Church . . It
has been thought best to reprint them, as given in the following pages,
omitting local and personal matters, and giving those portions only which are
of practical and general interest and im-portance.”—3 Selected Messages (4a
Spiritual Gifts, facing p. 2).
“After the matter for the Testimony is prepared, every
article must be read by me . . I try to bring out general principles, and if I
see a sentence which I fear would give some one excuse to injure someone else,
I feel at perfect liberty to keep back the sen-tence, even though it is all
perfectly true.”—3 Selected Messages, 98 (Letter 32, 1901).
It was
for the above stated reasons that, while prepar-ing the final, permanent
edition of this material, Ellen de-cided to leave out part of it, as we will
learn below.
Here is
the background of this: Goodloe Harper Bell (1832-1899) was a schoolteacher. He
was converted dur-ing an illness when he was in the Battle Creek Sanitarium.
For a time, he operated a private school in the community. Then, in 1872 he
opened a school under the auspices of the General Conference, which later
became Battle Creek College. By 1881, Bell was head of its English department.
He strongly advocated Ellen White’s principles of educa-tion, but some of the
parents considered him a severe dis-ciplinarian. He clashed strongly with the
principal, Alexander McLearn, on the operation of the college. As a result, the
college was closed for a year and Bell resigned, moved east to become the head
of the newly established South Lancaster Academy. Two years later, he returned
to Battle Creek and gave private instruction. Later still, he greatly helped in
efficiently organizing our Sabbath schools.
On
March 28, 1882, shortly after Bell left for Mas-sachusetts, Ellen wrote “Important
Testimony” (5T 45-62), in which she set forth certain matters which
3
she wanted Smith to read immediately to the Battle Creek Church.
It was true that Bell had made mistakes, but the church
members had mistreated him. Parents were not properly disciplining their
children at home, and were upset because Bell required obedience at school.
Although he made mistakes, Bell’s influence had been beneficial. The church
needed to understand the issues involved, so they would not repeat them again.
There were principles in “Important
Testimony” and “Testimonies Slighted” which should be published for
the instruction of the church as a whole; however there were portions of a
private nature which should not be circulated.
Therefore, Testimony,
No. 31, containing both tes-timonies in a small booklet, was primarily
printed for believers in Battle Creek. But, later, prior to their reissuance in
Vol. 5, Ellen decided to omit certain por-tions. They were of too localized a nature for widespread circulation.
She recognized that, in future years, she would have to work with Battle Creek
and Uriah Smith at the Review; the messages had been written to them.
There-fore, for the permanent, widespread record in Vol. 5, cer-tain
identifying passages were omitted.
Critics make much of this, and charge
that this proves that wicked men tampered with the Spirit of Prophecy
writ-ings. But notice that, even here, although some paragraphs were
omitted, nothing was added. The obvious purpose is not sinister; it was done to
maintain privacy.
Ellen knew she was going
to have to deal closely with Smith and the folk at Battle Creek for years to
come, so she was guided to edit out part of those two testimonies before
publication in Vol. 5. You will not find what leadership would have added, if
it dared do so: praise of church leaders and the duty of members to obey them.
The only positive statement about Smith was omitted! “Elder Smith . . has been considered so mild, so kind,
and so tender.”
Here is an overview, in my
words, of what was in the omitted portions. (In
order to conserve space: “sen” and “sen’s” = “sentence(s),” and “para”
and “para’s” = “paragraph(s).” “E” = end of the paragraph, “a” = first part
of the paragraph, “b” = middle of the paragraph, “Testimonies, No. 31” = “T31.”
IMPORTANT TESTIMONY (VOL. 5,
45-62)
5T 45:2E—Two sen’s were omitted, Some kept silent and
Brownsberger answered some questions (T31, 20:1).
5T 51:3 after sen 1—Some members had a wrong spirit towards Bell, who had a
wrong spirit in some mat-ters. I have reproved him for this (T31, 26:1).
5T 54:0E—I hope not to make public all the cruelty done to Bell
in this case. [T31, 29:0 clearly shows she did not want all this widely
known.] Smith was considered mild mannered, but did wrong here. He will have to
an-swer for it in the judgment. He could have prevented this, and was more
accountable than anyone else. Smith can be firm when he wants, so his course
here is without excuse
(T31,
29:0-2).
5T 55:0E—What you have done to injure Bell is writ-ten in heaven, and
you will have to answer for it. Bell could not take the pressure because of
problems he was, at the same time, encountering at home [something personal,
Ellen did not want generally published] (T31, 30:3-31:0).
4 Waymarks
5T 55:1E—Bell has done an outstanding work, which has helped our
schools and Sabbath school work every-where. [Later, she says she does not want
Bell to learn of this appreciation, since it would not be good for him to hear
such praise] (T31, 31:3-4).
5T 58:0E—[At the end of 5T 58:0, which was not in T31,
Ellen ADDED this: “If Brother __ were all that you represent him to
be,—which I know he is not,—your course would still be unjustifiable.” [This
addition shows that Ellen was in charge of what went into 5T; for neither Smith
nor the members in Battle Creek would have added it!] (not in
T31,
34:2E).
5T 58:0, after above addition—Your course has caused Bell the
keenest suffering. Because he has now left Battle Creek, I write this letter to
you (T31, 35:1).
5T 59:1E—Wales and
Miller both had
bad attitudes
(T31,
36:2-3 ).
5T 59:2E—“I do not wish these statements ever to come before Bro.
Bell. I would not utter a word of praise to come to any man. I fear the poor
human nature could not bear it” (T31, 37:2). [These omitted two sen’s
are a major part of the reason why she later omitted material from these two
testimonies.]
5T 59:2E—Miller and Ramsey have not treated Bell properly (T31,
37:3-38:0).
5T 59:3E—You celebrated the birthday of the poet Longfellow,
while treating Bell shabbily (T31, 38:2).
5T 61:2E—Gage has grave defects and would not bear what he has
given to Bell (T31, 40:2-41:0).
THE TESTIMONIES SLIGHTED (VOL.
5, 62-84)
Now we begin the second
letter. It was written be-cause Smith waited several weeks before reading the
preceding one. The original title was “The Testimonies Rejected”; but
keep in mind that, as usual, both titles were selected in the offices of
the Review. As you may know,
Ellen generally did not write the titles for book chap-ters. When Testimony
No. 31 was initially printed by the Review in 1882, this chapter was
entitled The Testimo-nies Rejected. The title was originated in the
offices of the Review, as was the later title. By the way, “rejected”
and “slighted” mean essentially the same thing. If I give you a message and you
slight it, you have ignored and rejected it. That is what the word, “slight,”
means.
5T 63:0E—Smith withheld the testimony from the church for weeks,
and questioned whether it should be given at all. Shall he sit in judgment on
my work (T31, 42:1E-43:0)?
5T 63:1b—Smith is stubborn and persistent on the wrong side (T31,
43:1b).
5T 64:0E—You are going, step by step, away from the light (T31,
44:1E).
5T 64:3b—“Eld.
Smith” omitted (T31, 45:1b).
5T 66:1E—In doing this, you have virtually rejected all the
testimonies. My work is like that of Elijah (T31, 46:3-47:2).
5T 67:2b—The document was not read until the Gen-eral Conference
convened (T31, 49:1b).
5T 68:2E—Smith belittled the letter as my own opin-ion. The work he is
doing, he will later wish undone (T31, 50:2-3a).
5T 70:1E—It is terrible that this is occurring right at the heart
of the work (T31, 52:1E).
5T 71:1a—“to you in Battle Creek” omitted (T31, 53:1a).
Carefully comparing three
of the strongest passages in
“Testimonies Slighted” in
Vol. 5, I found few typographical mistakes between Testimony No.
31 and our edition (the chapter in Vol. 5). Marian was probably a
better proofreader than James earlier had been. As head of the Review, he had
many duties to tend to. But she was able to focus entirely on proofreading and
searching for typesetting errors.
The following three passages, the ones
printed in Vol. 5, are most likely to be changed in order to
soften them down. Read the passages for yourself and see how strong they
are.
Vol. 5,
66:2-67:1—No changes, other than changing “he”
and “him” to “He” and “Him” in reference to God.
Vol. 5, 69:0—“doubt is removed you will never” from ”doubt is removed,
you will never” / “perfect knowledge will never” from “perfect knowledge, will
never” / “prompt-ings cease and will” from “promptings cease, and will” /
“resisted His Spirit” from “resisted his Spirit” / “light to His people” from
“light to his people.”
Vol. 5,
71:1—“walk in the light has” from “walk in the light, has”
Notice that, in 68:3, it
mentions that Ellen in vision was taken into homes and heard their
conversations. The critics claim she was ignorant of how her books were be-ing
changed. Yet God could—and did—in vision transport her into homes and committee
meetings! Ellen White al-ways knew what was taking place, even when she was in
Australia.
In summary, it is charged that bad
people have changed all the Testimonies. But, in this study, we have
only dis-covered a few typographical corrections and two letters in which some
paragraphs were omitted by Ellen; nothing more.
As
mentioned earlier, the booklets, Testimonies, No. 1 to 30, were
published in 1885 as Vols. 1 to 4.
Testimonies,
No. 31 to 33, were also first published
as booklets, and then, later, as Vol. 5.
All later
testimonies were not first printed as book-lets, but were directly printed in
one of the volumes of the
Testimonies
(Vols. 6 to 9).
Everything printed in all
of the Testimony books were selected by Ellen White. All corrections and
changes were done by her helpers in her home, under her direction and review.
All of Ellen’s printed
materials (whether they be ar-ticles or books), prior to 1878, were proofed by
James White; from 1878 onward, Marian Davis and other trusted helpers performed
this task. —vf
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