Introduction

Late in 1980, a professional survey was conducted which enabled researchers to discover, among other things, the differences between the Christian attitudes and behaviors of Seventh-day Adventists who regularly read Ellen G. White’s books and those who do not. ^{1Endnotes Des Cummings, Jr. and Roger L. Dudley, “A Comparison of the Christian Attitudes and Behaviors Between Those Adventist Church Members Who Regularly Read Ellen White Books and Those Who Do Not,” April, 1982. Available from the Ellen G. White Estate.} The results were very revealing. Eighty-five percent of those who read Mrs. White’s books indicated that they had an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, while only 59 percent of the non-readers did. Eighty-two percent of the readers had the assurance that they were “right with God,” while only 59 percent of the nonreaders did. Daily personal Bible study was a habit with 82 percent of those who read Ellen White’s writings regularly, while only 47 percent of those who did not read Ellen White studied their Bible regularly.TAWL 1.1

And so it went, in category after category. Those who regularly spent time reading from Mrs. White’s writings felt better prepared for Christian witnessing, engaged in witnessing more often, felt more at home with their fellow church members, prayed more, gave more to support local soul winning, were more willing to help their neighbors with personal problems, and had family worship more regularly. In short, their religious experience was stronger, more active, and more positive.TAWL 1.2

These actual survey results present a far different picture from that set forth by Walter Rea in his recent book, The White Lie. ^{2Walter T. Rea, The White Lie (Turlock, Calif.: M & R Publications, 1982), 409 pp.} On the dust jacket of the hard-back edition, the author likens the Seventh-day Adventist regard for Ellen White’s prophetic gift to the tragic fascination of Jonestown’s inhabitants for their demonic leader, Jim Jones. The book sets out to describe what it calls “the depths of that cult’s [Adventism’s] far reaching ramifications over the past 140 years and the millions of souls it has affected.” Indeed, the book claims to be “every whit as shocking in its expose as the horrendous Jonestown tragedy wherein only a few hundred were involved and died.” Like this one, many of the author’s claims are either so lacking in substance or so harsh and sarcastic that they fall of their own weight.TAWL 1.3

Ellen White is not the only object of attack in The White Lie. Ministers of all faiths are repeatedly characterized as “supersalesmen” or “salesmen of the psychic.” The theme pervades the book:TAWL 1.4

All supersalesmen sell the advantages of their particular name brands. In the cults and sects, it’s the brand of their saint and what is required by that saint to be saved. In the larger and longer established forms of religion, it’s the Clan Plan, mother’s religion, the faith of the fathers, the true light. ^{3Ibid., p. 191. 4Formal quotations are set in italics throughout this document.}