In Summary

We have considered the two areas of Ellen White’s writing where her quoting or paraphrasing of other writers is largest. The principles we have considered surely would have application to those other subjects where she borrowed considerably less. Was her use of other writers or helpers an act that made her less inspired, or less a prophetic messenger? The evidence would indicate not.WDEGWB 12.5

It is clear that Ellen White was open about such use of others, as her introduction to The Great Controversy testifies, written almost one hundred years ago. The historians quoted, she said, provided a convenient framework in which to tell what God was doing in history. Their chronologies, and accounts were an aid to the telling of the controversy story. Many events were shown to her in vision, but we cannot know with exact precision which details she saw and which she quoted from the historical record. This was not important, for her purpose was to give God’s perspective, not man’s.WDEGWB 12.6

Her use of the writing of health reformers seems most often to be for comparison with her visions. She saw the necessity of sifting what they said with the “gospel sieve.”WDEGWB 13.1

The work of her helpers, too, was secondary. Though Ellen White occasionally lamented her lack of literary skills, that lack seems to be largely a technical one, and not of ability to write beautifully.WDEGWB 13.2

Ellen White used authorities in various fields by design. There was no intent to deceive as is suggested by the charge of plagiarism. Sometimes she liked their gift of expression. At other times she used sequence or chronology, or paraphrased. But at all times her prime Source was the Lord.WDEGWB 13.3

Anyone might discover through research, or even by accident, a health habit that is correct. Ellen White developed a health message that was comprehensive, avoiding the extremes of her contemporaries. There are skilled historians, but none of them wrote history with the prophetic perspective and insights into the purposes of God and Satan as she did.WDEGWB 13.4

When a person looks merely at the mechanics of her writing it may seem that some of Ellen White’s writing is to be attributed to human sources. But when we search what she has written looking for truth, we hear the voice of God speaking to our hearts. The words may be human and imperfect, but the message is divine, with a power that convicts and changes the life.WDEGWB 13.5

Ellen White would be the last to take the glory to herself. She said it as plainly as possible:WDEGWB 13.6

I have no special wisdom in myself; I am only an instrument in the Lord’s hands to do the work He has set for me to do. The instructions that I have given by pen or voice have been an expression of the light that God has given me (Testimonies for the Church 5:691).

May, 1981