Thank God Ellen White Was an Alcoholic

Seventh Day Adventist ^ | 01/27/2023 | by Stephen Ferguson | 27 January 2023 |

[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.

2. 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 17^th-century New England, an area where Mrs. White grew up.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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

[Responsibility2nd]

More

[Responsibility2nd]

Ellen White?

[Responsibility2nd]

ping

[Larry Lucido]

I’m a hard cider kind of guy.

George Costanza

[TheBattman]

White was a false prophet on a level seen very little in that day and time. That is the primary origin of the cult that is known as “Adventist”. From a denial of the Jesus Christ of the Bible, to the many other heresies including soul sleep and annihilationism, and a myriad of works-based salvation doctrines - it is among the most insidious and soul-damning of near-mainline “Christian” cults. Which speaks volumes of the group that split off from the Adventists - taking their heresies to new heights of depravity under Charles Taze Russell (Jehovah’s Witnesses).

[TheBattman]

Funny - but that vinegar doesn’t contain any alcohol. Pretty sure the “vinegar” White was addicted to was hard cider - aka apple liquor.

[vespa300]

Dang, she wrote some pretty deep stuff for being a drunk.

Here for example, about the Papacy:

Quote:

The Roman Church reserves to the clergy the right to interpret the Scriptures. On the ground that ecclesiastics alone are competent to explain God’s word, it is withheld from the common people. [See Appendix note for page 340.] Though the Reformation gave the Scriptures to all, yet the selfsame principle which was maintained by Rome prevents multitudes in Protestant churches from searching the Bible for themselves. They are taught to accept its teachings as interpreted by the church; and there are thousands who dare receive nothing, however plainly revealed in Scripture, that is contrary to their creed or the established teaching of their church.

Notwithstanding the Bible is full of warnings against false teachers, many are ready thus to commit the keeping of their souls to the clergy. There are today thousands of professors of religion who can give no other reason for points of faith which they hold than that they were so instructed by their religious leaders. They pass by the Saviour’s teachings almost unnoticed, and place implicit confidence in the words of the ministers. But are ministers infallible? How can we trust our souls to their guidance unless we know from God’s word that they are light bearers? A lack of moral courage to step aside from the beaten track of the world leads many to follow in the steps of learned men; and by their reluctance to investigate for themselves, they are becoming hopelessly fastened in the chains of error. They see that the truth for this time is plainly brought to view in the Bible; and they feel the power of the Holy Spirit attending its proclamation; yet they allow the opposition of the clergy to turn them from the light. Though reason and conscience are convinced, these deluded souls dare not think differently from the minister; and their individual judgment, their eternal interests, are sacrificed to the unbelief, the pride and prejudice, of another.

[Jamestown1630]

Switchel itself was generally not alcoholic, and it was popular hydration for field workers. But rum was sometimes added to it in some settings to make an alcoholic drink.

[sauropod]

bkmk

[eldoradude]

I’m a hard cider kind of guy.

[Paul46360]

I lived in the town, Berrien Springs MI a BIG Adventist university, Andrews Univ.is.
I attended Andrews in a pursuit towards my degree but I am not a 7th Day Adventist.
What I witnessed is this BLIND belief that she was a messenger from God. Almost faultless.
But yet they are the 1st to criticize the Catholic faith in their stance on the Pope.

[Tell It Right]

My #1 problem with how 7th Day Adventists impacted our culture is the young earth movement.

IMHO, neither old-earthers nor young-earthers can exegetically (Bible interpretation without bias) say how old the earth is, as long as we say that God had a very active hand in making the earth and us (so don't say it was through theistic evolution). For centuries there was some back and forth debates over the age of the earth, but no churches were dogmatic about it. It was just something Christian nerds would discuss among themselves.

Until the 7th-Day'ers took archibishop Ussher's young-earth belief and made it dogma. Which IMHO is okay, until, other Christians needed an apologetics response to things like the scope monkey trials. And since most churches hadn't done much research on apologetics at the time, they turned to what the 7th-Day'ers had been saying and ran with it. The next thing you know in a lot of churches you heard messages that you couldn't call yourself a Bible-believer unless you believe God made the earth in a week about 6,000 years ago.

So people outside the church who were considering giving Christ a try might hear that and think, "Hmmm.... I don't know if want to do this if it means I have to give up knowing that the earth is billions of years old. That sounds too much like a cult to me." When in truth, the Bible doesn't explicitly say one way or the other how old the earth is so it's not an argument we have to win. The only argument we have to win (apologetically speaking) is that it requires a lot more religion than I've got to believe that we got here like atheists said which is through a bunch of freak accidents.

[vespa300]

Ellen White the drunk also wrote this.

It is in a chapter on the Swiss Reformer Ulric Zwingli from her book “The Great Controversy”

This lush Ellen White wrote some pretty interesting stuff for being half snockered all the time....:

Quote:

At the time when God is preparing to break the shackles of ignorance and superstition, then it is that Satan works with greatest power to enshroud men in darkness and to bind their fetters still more firmly. As men were rising up in different lands to present to the people forgiveness and justification through the blood of Christ, Rome proceeded with renewed energy to open her market throughout Christendom, offering pardon for money.

Every sin had its price, and men were granted free license for crime if the treasury of the church was kept well filled. Thus the two movements advanced,—one offering forgiveness of sin for money, the other forgiveness through Christ,—Rome licensing sin and making it her source of revenue; the Reformers condemning sin and pointing to Christ as the propitiation and deliverer.

[Responsibility2nd]

White was a false prophet on a level seen very little in that day and time.
____________________________________

Actually there were quite a few cults formed in the 1800;s.

Several significant religious denominations were formed in the 1800s, particularly in the United States, as a result of revival movements, new interpretations of Christianity, and changing social dynamics. Key denominations and movements include:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons): Founded by Joseph Smith in the 1820s-1830s, this movement was unique in its origins and doctrines, distinct from other Protestant denominations.

Seventh-day Adventist Church: Emerged from the Adventist movement during the Second Great Awakening, emphasizing the imminent return of Christ.

Jehovah’s Witnesses: Originated in the late 19th century with Charles Taze Russell’s Bible Student movement, later becoming Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Christian Science: Founded by Mary Baker Eddy in the late 1800s, emphasizing healing through prayer.

African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church: Established in 1816 as the first independent Black denomination in the U.S., breaking away from the Methodist Episcopal Church.

National Baptist Convention: Organized in 1895, becoming the largest Black Baptist denomination in the U.S..

Reform Judaism: The Reform movement in Judaism gained dominance in the U.S. in the 1880s, with Conservative Judaism emerging as a middle path by the end of the century.

Other notable groups formed or grew during this era include the Christian Union, Christian Israelite Church, and various utopian Christian communities, though most of the latter did not survive long-term.

[vespa300]

That is an amazing statement from this Drunk.

She said Rome was “licensing sin”....

I never heard a protestant put it like that.....much less a Drunk Protestant.

Rome was “licensing sin”.....and it was “her source of revenue” .....while Reformers were “CONDEMNING SIN, and pointing to Christ as propitiation and deliverer.”

Give this drunken woman a medal. Wow.

[spintreebob]

Christians are just a spinoff Jewish sect.
Protestants are a spinoff of Catholics.
Free Methodist and Wesleyan Methodist are spinoff of Mainline Methodist (which totally forgot John Wesley in 1 generation)

7th Day Adventists are some of the best Bible believing, Bible practicing Christians I have known. (Besides, they provided big vote to Goldwater in my inner city Chicago ground game when I was young in politics.)

Individuals are saved, not organizations. And most of us individuals are imperfect...Just read letters of Paul the Apostle.. or remember Peter on Good Friday.

[Responsibility2nd]

I guess we can be glad Ellen White kept her drunkenness to herself and didn’t lace her vinegar with cyanide and give it to her sheeple like another cult leader; Jim Jones.

[Wuli]

The problem I have with 7th day Adventists preference for total abstenation from alcohol, is it is made from an assumption, sometimes from some adventists own anecdotal experience, that all consumption of alcoholic beverages leads to an alcohol addiction and all persons who drink alcohol on any recurring basis, no matter how minor, are alcoholics.

Yet the data on the levels of acoholc consumption versus alcoholism do not support the idea that to consume any amount of acholol beverages at any rate ypu will become an alcholol addict - which is not true.

Some people - SOME - cannot handle alcholol consumption without becoming an alcholic at most and regularly drunk at least. The facts say that is not true for most people. Most people easily self-monitor and control their limited alcholol consumption as an occassional refreshment and not in answering an addiction.

[lefty-lie-spy]

What is this weird culty stuff doing here? All we need to live by is in the Ten Commandments.

[Philsworld]

Looks like she was on to something....You should try it for your acne and parasites.

DAILY VINEGAR CONSUMPTION BENEFITS:

Controls blood sugar level
Regulates glucose homeostasis
Prevents infection
Anti-bacterial properties
Aids in weight loss
Changes gut bacteria processing
Reduces blood pressure
Improves cardiovascular health
Lowers cholesterol level
Promotes heart health
Regulates body pH
Maintains acid-base balance
Detoxifies the body
Supports overall health
Improves cardiovascular health
Promotes heart function
Potentially prevents cancer
Possible anti-carcinogenic effects
Treats dandruff
Eliminates fungal growth
Soothes acne-affected areas
Kills bacteria, prevents infection
Calms insect bites
Reduces inflammation, itching
Relieves sunburn
Soothes skin irritation
Promotes clear skin
Enhances skin health
Treats indigestion
Alleviates dyspepsia symptoms
Removes parasite infection
Eradicates parasites
Subsides leg cramps
Relieves muscle spasms
Diminishes aging process
Supports skin rejuvenation
Increases hair shine
Promotes hair health