Cult expert - writings conform to the historic gospel
Walter
Martin, American Evangelical minister, author, and Christian apologist who
founded the Christian Research Institute. Although Walter Martin didn’t agree
with everything Mrs. White wrote, his concluding evaluation was, “After reading
the publications of the Seventh day Adventist denomination and almost all the
writings of Ellen G. White, including her Testimonies, the writer believes that
Mrs. White was truly a regenerate Christian woman who loved the Lord Jesus
Christ and dedicated herself unstintingly to the task of bearing witness for
Him as she felt led…Ellen White was true to the cardinal doctrines of the
Christian faith regarding the salvation of the soul and the believer’s life in
Christ…no one can dispute the fact that her writings conform to the most basic
principles of the historic gospel, for they most certainly do". (Kingdom of the
Cults, by Walter Martin. Bethany Fellowship, Inc., Publishers; Minneapolis,
Minn. 1965. p. 360, 385)
Archaeologist and Biblical scholar - authentic prophet
William Foxwell Albright (1891-1971) was
America’s—and perhaps the world’s—foremost archaeologist in the twentieth century
and biblical scholar. In the 1950s one of his doctoral candidates at Johns
Hopkins (the late Alger Johns) introduced Albright to Ellen White’s writings.
His curiosity piqued, the famous archaeologist undertook his own investigation
of the life, work, and claims of Ellen White. And in his book From the Stone
Age to Christianity Albright named Mrs. White as one of five individuals whom
he considered to be authentic “prophets” during the past 250 years.
German sociologist
Irmgard Simon, a German sociologist. In 1965, she published her doctoral dissertation in Münster, Westphalia. It dealt with
Seventhday Adventists and Ellen White. She said, in part: She was without fear
of men; courageous and consistent, she struggled within the movement to solve
the many problems. She solved problems which the churches did not expect to see
solved in many decades. Simon was unable to find adequate scientific
explanation for Ellen White’s visions and remarkable experiences. She held the
opinion that had Ellen White been a Roman Catholic instead of a Seventh-day
Adventist, she might very well be canonized in due course!
Renowned scholar and teacher - the book was more than 50 years ahead of its times
Florence B. Stratemeyer, “Recently the book
Education, by Ellen G.White, has been brought to my attention. Written at the
turn of the century, this volume was more than fifty years ahead of its times.
And I was surprised to learn that it was written by a woman with but three
years of schooling. The breadth and depth of its philosophy amazed me. Its
concepts of balanced education, harmonious development, and of thinking and
acting on principle are advanced educational concepts. The objective of
restoring in man the image of God, the teaching of parental responsibility, and
the emphasis on self-control in the child are ideals that the world desperately
needs.”
Director of social education
- I was profoundly moved by the book
Professor Tsunekichi Mizuno of Japan’s Tamagawa
University (and formerly head of the Tokyo Museum of Science and director of
social education for the Japanese Ministry of Education) recommended Education
to parents, teachers, and students. He called it “most profitable reading in
our understanding of the ‘New Education.”- “Education, written with the inspired
pen of Ellen G. White, has for fifty some years been a well-known book which
has rendered the greatest possible service and joy to students, teachers, and
parents the world over. When I was studying at the University of Illinois, it
was my privilege to read the book in its original language. I was profoundly
moved by the book at that time and it has been my desire ever since to
recommend it to the educators in Japan. It is my sincere joy to hear that the
book has been finally translated into the Japanese language.” Cited in Notes and Papers, pp. 314, 315.
In 1960 Paul Harvey, American Broadcasting
Company news commentator and United Features syndicated columnist, wrote a
16-paragraph article featuring Ellen White. It began: “Once upon a time, a
hundred years ago, there lived a young lady named Ellen White. She was frail as
a child, completed only grammar school [actually, she never really finished the
third grade], and had no technical training, and yet she lived to write scores
of articles and many books on the subject of ‘healthful living. Remember, this
was in the days when doctors were still bloodletting and performing surgery
with unwashed hands. This was in an era of medical ignorance bordering on
barbarism. Yet Ellen White wrote with such profound understanding of the
subject of nutrition that all but two of the many principles she espoused have
been scientifically established.” From
Lima, Ohio, News, Aug. 11, 1960
Dr. Clive McCay, who taught the history of
nutrition at Cornell University, received a copy of Counsels on Diet and Foods
from an Adventist graduate student. He was astonished at what he read there,
each statement identified by the year of its publication. For any given year,
Dr. McCay knew who had been writing on nutrition and what they had written.
"Who was this Ellen G. White," he asked, "and why haven't I
heard of her before?". Note a portion of his summation at the end:
"To sum up the discussion: Every modern specialist in nutrition whose life
is dedicated to human welfare must be impressed . . . by the writings and
leadership of Ellen G. White. He further stated, “In the first place, her basic
concepts about the relation between diet and health have been verified to an
unusual degree by scientific advances of the past decades. Someone may attempt
to explain this remarkable fact by saying: `Mrs. White simply borrowed her
ideas from others.' But how would she know which ideas to borrow and which to
reject out of the bewildering array of theories and health teachings current in
the nineteenth century? She would have had to be a most amazing person, with
knowledge beyond her times, in order to do this successfully! . . . Clive M.
McCay, "Adventist Health Teachings Further Confirmed," Review and
Herald, February 26, 1959, p. 10. A reprint of all three articles is available
from the Ellen G. White Estate.
Attorney at law - I would much rather appear as defense counsel for Ellen White
Vincent L. Ramik, a prominent and respected
copyright attorney in Washington, D.C., noticed this power. In 1981, in the
midst of the newly-reborn plagiarism charges, the General Conference legal
office (the Office of General Counsel) used privately-donated money to hire
Ramik to research the case law and the literary evidence to see whether Mrs.
White was guilty of plagiarism, literary piracy, or copyright infringement.
Ramik, a Roman Catholic, spent some 300 hours reviewing cases and reading the
literary evidence. In addition to examining the critics' case, he sampled what
he called "a great cross section of her books," even reading The
Great Controversy all the way through. On the legal matters, he concluded,
"If I had to be involved in such a legal case [regarding charges of
plagiarism, piracy, and copyright infringement against Ellen White], I would
much rather appear as defense counsel [for Ellen White] than for the
prosecution. There simply is no case!".. "I, personally, have been
moved, deeply moved, by those writings. I have been changed by them. I think I
am a better man today because of them. And I wish that the critics could
discover that!" "There Simply Is No Case," interview with
Vincent L. Ramik, Adventist Review, Sept. 17, 1981, p. 6, emphasis his. A
reprint is available from the Ellen G. White Estate.