Gilbert Jorgensen’s Weblog

Seventh-day Adventist apologetics is a fascinating chameleon-like field where one never quite knows what new gem of "truth" will present itself for our consideration. In an attempt to continually outdo themselves, Adventists generate more and more profound and contradictory statements, all the while attempting to make sure they don’t "shoot themselves in the foot" with Adventism’s own contradictions and checkered history.

A good friend of mine, Adventist apologist, Icyspark, in a moment of candor, shared with me the following insightful statement. "I have yet to see any criticism which, if consistently applied, cannot be shown to have a correspondingly negative impact on Bible authors." One might wonder why Adventist apologists have to hide behind pseudo-names. Perhaps it is so that they can adopt another pseudo-name if their apolgetics backfires.

As I considered the implications of Icyspark’s observation, I thought to myself, "Every so often Adventist apologists actually do deliver some profound conclusions.

Let’s try to consistently apply the following experience of Ellen White to a Bible prophet.

Icysparks asks, "Would it have a negative impact on a Bible author?" I can’t even imagine a Bible prophet experiencing the following:

It obviously comes as a shock to most Adventists to learn that Ellen White’s mental faculties were significantly impaired for some time. Here is how she describes it.

I had indulged the desire for vinegar. But I resolved with the help of God to overcome this appetite. I fought the temptation, determined not to be mastered by this habit. For weeks I was very sick; but I kept saying over and over, The Lord knows all about it. If I die, I die; but I will not yield to this desire. The struggle continued, and I was sorely afflicted for many weeks. All thought that it was impossible for me to live. You may be sure we sought the Lord very earnestly. The most fervent prayers were offered for my recovery. I continued to resist the desire for vinegar, and at last I conquered. Now I have no inclination to taste anything of the kind. This experience has been of great value to me in many ways. I obtained a complete victory." (Letter 70, 1911, reproduced in Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 485)

One can be sure that this was no ordinary vinegar like we use today.

Let’s examine how vinegar was made in the mid-1800s. Here are two recipes for homemade vinegar taken from Miss Leslie’s Directions for Cookery, published in 1851:

CIDER VINEGAR: Take six quarts of rye meal; stir and mix it well into a barrel of strong hard cider of the best kind; and then add a gallon of whiskey. Cover the cask, (leaving the bung loosely in it,) set it in the part of your yard that is most exposed to the air; and in the course of four weeks (if the weather is warm and dry) you will have good vinegar fit for use.

WHITE VINEGAR: Put into a cask a mixture composed of five gallons of water, two gallons of whiskey, and a quart of strong yeast, stirring in two pounds of powdered charcoal. Place it where it will ferment properly, leaving the bung loose till the fermentation is over.

As you can see from these recipes, vinegar in the mid-1800s was made with ingredients such as "strong hard cider" and "whiskey." In your grocery stores today the alcohol content of vinegar is much lower — around .5% alcohol, which is quite small. Can you imagine how much catsup you would have to consume to produce the effect that Ellen White’s "vinegar" produced!

One truly has to wonder if she was drunk at the time she wrote the following incoherant statement:

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)

Is this how God speaks?

Over time we will endeavor to identify the approximate time period that Ellen White was "under the influence", and which of her writings were produced during this time period. Her statement above certainly adds new meaning to the term "spirit" of prophecy. What "spirit" was she under?

We have a new site, VinegarVisions.com, which is dedicated to identifying which of Ellen White’s writings were produced while she was "under the influence" of what she preferred to called "vinegar".