Among Adventists, few books are held in higher regard than the Great Controversy. This book unravels the mysteries of the future, presenting scenes that supposedly will take place at the end of Earth's history. Millions of copies of the book have been printed and distributed throughout the world.
The origin of this profound book is shrouded in mystery. It all began in 1858, at Lovett's Grove, where Mrs. White supposedly received a panoramic vision of the future. As the story goes, over a period of years Mrs. White wrote out portions of this great vision, which is now known as the "Great Controversy" vision. These writings first appeared in print in 1858 under the title "Spiritual Gifts (vol. 1)". Later, in 1884, they were expanded upon and republished as "Spirit of Prophecy (vol. 4)". Finally, in 1888, the book was once again revised and reprinted under the title for which it is known today, "The Great Controversy". The book predicts such things as the ecumenical movement, the rise of spiritualism, the papacy's takeover of the world, and the passing of National Sunday legislation.
Mrs. White assured her followers that this book came straight from God:
The book The Great Controversy I appreciate above silver or gold, and I greatly desire that it shall come before the people. While writing the manuscript of The Great Controversy, I was often conscious of the presence of the angels of God.
And many times the scenes about which I was writing were presented to me anew in visions of the night so that they were fresh and vivid in my mind. [1]
With a glowing endorsement like that, it is no surprise that loyal Adventist believers flocked out to purchase the book in droves. Of course, by 1911, there were few Adventists around who were familiar with the events of 1858. So, just what happened that year?
In 1858, a First-day Adventist author named H. L. Hastings published a landmark book entitled THE GREAT CONTROVERSY BETWEEN GOD AND MAN: Its origin, progress, and termination. Yes, a first-day Adventist wrote a "Great Controversy" book prior to Mrs. White. Furthermore, it appears the Whites had a copy of the book and read it before Ellen's vision.
H.L. Hasting's 1858 original book "The Great Controversy"
The date of Mrs. White's Lovett's Grove vision was March 14, 1858. Interestingly enough, a mere four days later, on March 18, 1858, a review of Hastings' book appeared in James White's Review magazine. In order to appear in the March 18 issue, the Whites must have purchased and read the book prior to the paper being prepared for the press in early March. The disturbing reality is that the Whites were familiar with Hastings' book prior to Mrs. White's vision.
In the Review article, the unnamed author (most likely James White, but possibly Uriah Smith) points out that the book needs some improvements:
"And while everyone must close the volume with a vivid sense of the manner in which the controversy will close in the triumph of the power and justice of God, and the certainty of this issue, we could wish that the author had dwelt more at length on the points of man's rebellion, and the terms of reconciliation. When he speaks of the way we may approach to"a more glorious mercy-seat," of the position of Christ "in the heavenly places," and of the "ark of God's testament" seen in the temple of heaven, we could wish he had reminded the revolters of a certain law that reposes in that ark, beneath that mercy seat, which is the constitution of God's government, and upon which hinges the whole controversy between him and man."[2]
It was not long before James and Ellen began making the necessary improvements to Hastings' book. A mere six months after the book review appeared, Ellen published her own version of Hastings' book in Spiritual Gifts, vol. 1.
In his review of Hastings' book James had lamented, "We could wish he had reminded the revolters of a certain law that reposes in that ark." James and Ellen had the opportunity to improve on Hastings' lack of attention to the law when they published their own Great Controversy. They devoted a whole chapter to the law: Chapter 25, "God's Law Immutable."
James had also expressed a wish that Hastings had spent more time "on the points of man's rebellion and the terms of reconciliation." Mrs. White made up for these shortcomings when she published a version of the Great Controversy. It has two chapters dealing with these subjects: Chapter 29, "The Origin of Evil" and Chapter 30, "Enmity Between Man and Satan." Of course, Mrs. White's version of the controversy between God and Satan differed according to her unique Seventh-day Adventist beliefs, such as Sunday observance being the mark of the beast. So while it appears she took the structure and some of her ideas & from Hastings' book, the important question is:
Do the unique SDA teachings that appear in the Great Controversy originate from her Lovett's Grove vision?
Walter Rea, while researching the Great Controversy, discovered that it was Joseph Bates who first advanced the teaching that Sunday observance was the Mark of the Beast in the 1840s before he met the Whites. The "United States in prophecy", the "Mark of the Beast," the "Image to the Beast" had all come out earlier in James White's book Life Incidents, first published in 1868. A comparison shows that words, sentences, quotations, thoughts, ideas, structures, paragraphs, and even total pages were taken from it and put in The Great Controversy. [3]
Interestingly, much of Life Incidents came primarily from J. N. Andrews' book published in 1860 entitled The Three Messages of Revelation XIV, 6-12, and particularly The Third Angel's Message and The Two-Horned Beast. Thus, many of the predictions later found in the Great Controversy were in place prior to the writing of that book. It appears the teachings in the Great Controversy came from the studies of Joseph Bates, and later, J. N. Andrews and Uriah Smith — not the visions of Ellen White.
This is a disturbing finding given the fact that Ellen White said the book came straight from God:
"God gave me the light contained in The Great Controversy and Patriarchs and Prophets and this light was needed to arouse the people to prepare for the great day of God, which is just before us. These books contain God's direct appeal to the people. Thus He is speaking to the people in stirring words, urging them to make ready for His coming. The light God has given in these books should not be concealed." [4]
At the 1919 Conference on the Spirit of Prophecy, church leaders discussed the problems with the book Great Controversy:
B. L. House: —As I understand it, Elder J. N. Andrews prepared those historical quotations for the old edition [1888 Great Controversy], and Brother Robinson and Brother Crisler, Professor Prescott and others furnished the quotations for the new edition. Did she write the historical quotations in there?
A.G. Daniells:-No..
W.W. Prescott:- You are touching exactly the experience through which I went, personally, because you all know that I contributed something toward the revision of Great Controversy. I furnished considerable material bearing upon that question.... When I talked to W.C. White about it (and I do not know that he is an infallible authority), he told me frankly that when they got out of Great Controversy, if they did not find in her writings anything on certain chapters to make the historical connections, they took other books, like [Uriah Smith's] Daniel and the Revelation, and used portions of them...
The mystery of the Great Controversy is no longer a mystery. Instead of a prophet receiving visions and writing those visions out over the years, we find the book was developed in a different manner. The book was assembled first from the writings of H. L. Hastings. Added to this were the writings of Adventist theologians, such as J. N. Andrews, Uriah Smith, Robinson, Crisler, and Prescott. Finally, historical quotes were taken from a variety of non-Adventist authors.
In the 1970's, SDA scholar Dr. Don McAdams did his doctoral thesis on the book Great Controversy. He notes:
"Ellen White was not just borrowing paragraphs here and there that she ran across in her reading, but in fact following the historians page after page, leaving out much material, but using their sequence, some of their ideas, and often their words. In the examples I have examined, I have found no historical fact in her text that is not in their text. The hand-written manuscript on John Huss follows the historian so closely that it does not even seem to have gone through an intermediary stage, but rather from the historian's printed page to Mrs. White's manuscript, including historical errors and moral exhortations." [5]
While many find The Great Controversy to be an interesting and thought-provoking book, it can hardly be considered an original work. All of the major themes in the book were developed earlier and written out by other authors, many of them non-adventists. A considerable part of the book was actually supplied by W.W. Prescott and put together by editors. It is difficult, if not impossible, to point to any idea or historical fact that actually originated with Ellen White. The only conclusion that can be reached is if Mrs. White did indeed receive a vision at Lovett's Grove in 1858, that vision resulted in no new concepts that were not already published!
[2] Unsigned book review published in the March 18, 1858, issue of the Review, vol. 11, 418
[3] Walter T. Rea, The White Lie, pp. 223-224.
[4] Ellen White, Manuscript 23, I890.
[5] Donald McAdams, "Shifting View of Inspiration", Spectrum, vol. 10, No. 4, March. 1980.
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