Ask Ellen

Question:

Dear Ellen,

A friend loaned me a copy of a book called White Washed by Sydney Cleveland. Such terrible material! I don’t see how people can write things like this about you. Anyway, there is something I need to know the honest truth about. On page 142 it has a photograph of your handwritten manuscript for page 184, "Objections to the Bible". And there in your own handwriting you wrote:

Human minds vary the minds of different education and thought receive different impressions of the same words and it is difficult for one mind to give to a different temperament education and habits of thought by language exactly the same idea as that which his clear and distinct in his own mind. (Manuscript 24, 1886, written in Europe in 1886)

And it appears that your copyists changed your inspired writing in Selected Messages to say:

Human minds vary. The minds of different education and thought receive different impressions of the same words, and it is difficult for one mind to give to one of a different temperament, education, and habits of thought by language exactly the same idea as that which is clear and distinct in his own mind. (Selected Messages, vol 1, page 19)

In any event, I am trying to understand exactly what you are saying here. Can you help me understand?

Signed, Searching for Truth

Answer:

Dear Searching,

You came to the right place! These additional statements of mine should clear up any confusion.

Yet now when I send you a testimony of warning and reproof, many of you declare it to be merely the opinion of Sister White. You have thereby insulted the Spirit of God. You know how the Lord has manifested Himself through the spirit of prophecy. Past, present, and future have passed before me. (Testimonies, vol 5, page 65)

In these letters which I write, in the testimonies I bear, I am presenting to you that which the Lord has presented to me. I do not write one article in the paper expressing merely my own ideas. They are what God has opened before me in vision–the precious rays of light shining from the throne. (Testimonies, vol 5, page 67)

It has been presented to me that, so far as possible, I am to impart instruction in the language of the Scriptures; for there are those whose spiritual discernment is confused, and when their errors are reproved, they will misinterpret and misapply what I might write, and thus make of none-effect the words of warning that the Lord sends. He desires that the messages He sends shall be recognized as the words of eternal truth.–Letter 280, 1906, p. 4. (To "My Brethren and Sisters in Denver and Boulder," August 27, 1906.) {5MR 151.1}

The Lord speaks to human beings in imperfect speech, in order that the degenerate senses, the dull, earthly perception, of earthly beings may comprehend His words. (Selected Messages, vol 1, page 22)

I intended to say what I meant to say, which is what I said. But my copyists changed it to mean something different. So the way that it got published does not mean what it meant. I appreciate this opportunity to share with you the light that I have received, and look forward to your questions.

Ellen White