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Thank God Ellen White Was an Alcoholic
Seventh Day Adventist ^ | 01/27/2023 | by Stephen Ferguson | 27 January 2023 |

Posted on 05/02/2025 10:11:24 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd

I was conversing with some ex-Adventist the other day when I came across a claim that Seventh-day Adventist pioneer and prophetess Ellen White was an alcoholic. It seemed farfetched to me. However, after doing my own research, I was able to find Mrs. White’s own words on the subject, as recorded in Counsels on Diet and Foods (p.54):

“I have just read your letter. You seem to have an earnest desire to work out your salvation with fear and trembling…. There was a time when I was in a situation similar in some respects to yours. 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. I relate this experience to you for your help and encouragement…. As long as you acknowledge this habit by indulging it, Satan will retain his hold on your will, and bring it into obedience to himself.”

Note Mrs. White’s own admissions here:

  1. She indulged in a desire for vinegar. Many know vinegar is made from alcohol-fermentation.
  1. The vinegar in question was probably not the condiment you might put on your salad or fish-and-chips. Rather, Mrs. White was probably talking about a vinegar switchel made from apple cider. This was a popular drink originating from 17th-century New England, an area where Mrs. White grew up.
  1. She was drinking vinegar in such quantities and on such repeated occasions it had become a habit. In fact, Mrs. White uses the word “habit” twice. A habit is not a once-off slip.
  1. When trying to stop this habit, she suffered chronic physiological effects, which she says lasted for “many weeks”. Mrs. White said she was very sick and thought she might even die, which sounds like a serious addiction. Today, we would probably recognise these as classic withdrawal symptoms.
  1. This counsel comes from a letter written in 1911, when Mrs. White was 83 years old. While she doesn’t say exactly when she became a vinegar addict, noting Ellen White began to have visions at age 17, we are probably talking about an addiction that arose during her time in the prophetic office. We are not likely talking about some pre-conversion period of her life.

I am not a physician or drug rehabilitation specialist, so I am happy to be corrected by any readers who are experts. Nonetheless, noting the most obvious and straightforward explanation is often the correct one, even if we cannot identify the substance with exacting precision, it seems reasonable to conclude Ellen White was most likely suffering from some sort of alcohol addiction, even if she would not have identified it in those terms.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: alcoholic; ellenwhite; vinegar
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To: spintreebob

Adventist belief is that
1. Jesus is the angel Michael
2. Satan takes on the sins of the world
3. Jesus entered heaven’s holy if holiest only in 1844
4. They believe in the Holy Trio: three deities not a Trinity.

They worship a different Messiah.

The Adventist cult us a non Trinitarian, non Christian belief system


61 posted on 05/02/2025 12:17:57 PM PDT by Cronos
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To: vespa300

Nah, she was a false prophet with false prophecies that never happened.

This Mark’s her and the Adventist religion as a non Christian religion, a Luciferan cult


62 posted on 05/02/2025 12:19:23 PM PDT by Cronos
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To: vespa300

She really isn’t that deep. The way you praise her writing you would think she was Augustine.


63 posted on 05/02/2025 12:25:09 PM PDT by Trump_Triumphant (“They recognized Him in the breaking of the Bread”)
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To: Trump_Triumphant

____She really isn’t that deep. The way you praise her writing you would think she was Augustine.___

Augustine couldn’t carry her ......her....her purse.


64 posted on 05/02/2025 12:27:42 PM PDT by vespa300
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To: vespa300

Give her a medal. And a straitjacket to pin it on.


65 posted on 05/02/2025 12:29:00 PM PDT by Trump_Triumphant (“They recognized Him in the breaking of the Bread”)
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To: vespa300
Perhaps--but my statement stands as to what started the hullabaloo.

Personally, I don't care what day you worship on, nor what day you decide to keep as Sabbath. It doesn't bother me. What bothers me is begin called satanic for worshiping on Sunday.

66 posted on 05/02/2025 12:29:49 PM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux - The Ultimate Windows Service Pack )
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To: vespa300

You are nuts. Augustine wrote his Confessions and the monumental work City of God. Ellen White wrote the same thing over and over again, ie, the Pope’s the Antichrist, Protestants are evil too, the sabbath is the only doctrine worth talking about, gimme a bottle of hooch…


67 posted on 05/02/2025 12:38:09 PM PDT by Trump_Triumphant (“They recognized Him in the breaking of the Bread”)
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To: Preachin'

Here’s one source, among several, that address the issue. In 1893, The Catholic Mirror stated: “The Catholic Church... by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday.” It goes on to say that this reflects the Church’s belief in its authority to interpret and establish liturgical practices.


68 posted on 05/02/2025 12:40:18 PM PDT by Prince Caspian
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To: Trump_Triumphant

____You are nuts. Augustine wrote his Confessions and the monumental work City of God. Ellen White wrote the same thing over and over again, ie, the Pope’s the Antichrist, Protestants are evil too, the sabbath is the only doctrine worth talking about, gimme a bottle of hooch…___

I can tell you are an expert on the fruits of Ellen White. From classic books read by millions, the life of Christ, the patriarchs and prophets, the protestant Reformation, ......to the founding of a world renown Medical University in Loma Linda CA, to a health message that makes Adventists among the longest living healthiest people on the planet earth........and so on and so on.....

Augustine is amateur hour......except to people who bow down to humans I guess. Many are good people but maybe they should read the Bible and forget about this Augustine chump.


69 posted on 05/02/2025 12:45:09 PM PDT by vespa300
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To: ShadowAce

____Personally, I don’t care what day you worship on, nor what day you decide to keep as Sabbath. It doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is begin called satanic for worshiping on Sunday.____

I never called you Satanic and if you worship and KEEP Sunday as a holy day of rest...as your catechism says to..I admire you. I can’t find Christians today who even keep Sunday...much less the seventh day. They are rare but a few up here do and I admire them and their faith.

And I have said time and time again...here, that I admire Catholics who go to mass every Sunday, they are faithful, committed and have substance. In fact, my issue originally is with evangelicals. But I have come to learn many Catholics don’t even know what their own church teaches about Sunday and keeping it holy.

They seem to have abandoned it as a day of rest a holy day, set aside...as much as the evangelicals. Thus the unity in attacking the Adventists.

IF they would read their own Catechism and even the apostolic letter by Pope John Paul in 1998, called DIES DOMINI...it’s all about the keeping of Sunday! How it should be kept, why,, it’s value, it’s function, it’s purpose.

I have never said a single person here is going to hell. I don’t judge anyone’s salvation, I don’t just any person. But I judge a system......and I recognize a false religious system and it’s prophecied and in Revelation 1, it says blessed are those who read and those who HEAR the words of this prophecy.

We never judge a person’s salvation. AS you all seem to do.


70 posted on 05/02/2025 12:51:31 PM PDT by vespa300
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To: vespa300

Augustine was the greatest theologian in the west until the 13th century. His writings were influential during the Reformation. Both Luther and Calvin were greatly influenced by him. Erasmus, Pascal, and many other great thinkers were inspired by him.

Have you ever read any books other than the writings of Ellen White?


71 posted on 05/02/2025 1:02:32 PM PDT by Trump_Triumphant (“They recognized Him in the breaking of the Bread”)
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To: Cronos

The guy that did the 5-year homosex study, finding 4/5 Vatican clergy were straight up homosexuals, should have done a second study on their drinking and drug use. Gay Cardinal Coccopalmerio looks drunk in his most famous picture.


72 posted on 05/02/2025 1:13:40 PM PDT by Philsworld
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To: Cronos

Catholics and Evangelicals believe that it’s the voice of a created angel that raises the dead at the second coming.


73 posted on 05/02/2025 1:15:09 PM PDT by Philsworld
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To: Cronos

Nothing you can do or say, Cronos, to get away from this one. The Catholic church clearly states their MARK OF AUTHORITY is in changing the Sabbath to Sunday.

The Council of Trent!
The Council of Trent!
The Council of Trent!


74 posted on 05/02/2025 1:18:25 PM PDT by Philsworld
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To: ShadowAce

Personally, I don’t care what day you worship on, nor what day you decide to keep as Sabbath.

God’s people do. Those included under the New Covenant of Jesus Christ do.


75 posted on 05/02/2025 1:20:28 PM PDT by Philsworld
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To: Preachin'
I don’t think

When God judges us (and He will), it will be by His standards and not by what we think. The Bible pretty much lays out His standards (The Ten Commandments).

76 posted on 05/02/2025 2:13:23 PM PDT by BipolarBob (AA told me to quit hanging around drunks. So I quit going to AA, cuz that's where they were.)
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To: Responsibility2nd
It’s interesting to note how many times the Apostle Paul commanded or even suggested Gentile converts must honor the Sabbath.

How would you know? Were you present?

77 posted on 05/02/2025 2:14:36 PM PDT by BipolarBob (AA told me to quit hanging around drunks. So I quit going to AA, cuz that's where they were.)
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To: Luke21
Every day I sign on I get to see these people disparaged. I think it’s a terrible thing for Free Republic to allow.

It's okay. We don't mind. Gods opinion is what we care about instead of the keyboard theologians.

78 posted on 05/02/2025 2:17:43 PM PDT by BipolarBob (AA told me to quit hanging around drunks. So I quit going to AA, cuz that's where they were.)
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To: BipolarBob

I read my Bible. That’s how I know.

If Sabbath Keeping was still a law then wouldn’t Paul have recorded that in one of his many letters?


79 posted on 05/02/2025 2:17:52 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd (Nobody elected Elon Musk? Well nobody elected the Deep State either.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Why would he record something that is a known fact? He was a strict Jew. He observed the Ten Commandments all of his life. (as did Jesus). Your reasoning makes no sense whatsoever.


80 posted on 05/02/2025 2:32:42 PM PDT by BipolarBob (AA told me to quit hanging around drunks. So I quit going to AA, cuz that's where they were.)
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