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Marian Davis and
Fannie Bolton both worked closely with Ellen
White on her books and articles and they
both had something to say regarding Sister
White’s literary borrowing (plagiarism).
Marian Davis served as Ellen G. White’s
copyist, bookmaker, and literary assistant
for 25 years, from 1879 until her death from
tuberculosis in 1904. She accompanied Mrs.
White in her travels throughout America,
Europe, and Australia. Marian was assigned
the task of compiling Mrs. White’s various
writings on Christian experience and then
putting them into book manuscripts.
Marian Davis had great misgivings
about Ellen White’s plagiarism during the
time she worked with her.
“Vesta
J. Farnsworth, who was in Australia during
the time Ellen was there, wrote that Marian
“had shared in the decision to leave out
quotation marks in the early edition of
[The] Great Controversy and to the using of
the general acknowledgment in the Preface.
Then when there came severe criticism for
this, she, with Sister White and her
associates, felt it very keenly.”
That Marian was upset and weeping herself to
sleep night after night eventually got back
to the family, according to Obadiah, and
they worried about her because the health of
their sister was not robust. Dudley M.
Canright, one of Ellen’s biographers, wrote
that Marian “was one day heard moaning in
her room. Going in, another worker inquired
the cause of her trouble. Miss Davis
replied: ‘I wish I could die! I wish I could
die!’ ‘Why, what is the matter?’ asked the
other. ‘Oh,’ Miss Davis said, ‘this terrible
plagiarism.’”
[1]
Marian Davis
understood all too well that Ellen G. White
was wrong to quote other writers of her day
without giving them credit and then say God
showed her those things in visions.
Fannie Bolton was
one of
Ellen G. White’s literary assistants. She was
“converted to Seventh-day Adventism in 1885
by George B. Starr, a minister at the
Chicago Mission. Fannie first met Ellen
Gould White, Seventh-day Adventism’s
messenger, at the Springfield, Illinois,
campmeeting in 1887 when she was reporting
for the paper. She was then twenty-eight
years old. Because of her background it was
natural that she be asked to edit Ellen’s
sermons. According to Fannie’s account to a
friend, Ellen was pleased with the way she
made the sermons over for the press, and she
wished to employ her.”
[2]
Fannie Bolton exposed Ellen
G. White’s plagiarism a few years after
going to work for her.
“During a campmeeting in January of 1894,
Fannie said, “she was “writing all the time
for Sister White.” Furthermore, she said
that most of what she wrote was “published
in the Review and Herald...as having been
written by Sister White under inspiration of
God...I am greatly distressed over this
matter, for I feel that I am acting a
deceptive part. The people are being
deceived about the inspiration of what I
write. I feel that it is a great wrong that
anything which I write should go out under
Sister White’s name as an article specially
inspired of God. What I write should go out
over my own signature; then credit would be
given where credit belongs.”
[3]
Fannie wrote,
“…I have to some degree
believed that [Sister] White was a
prophet of God; but some things in
connection with using matter from other
writers and the editorial relation that were
out of harmony with my early school training
and the maxim’s applicable to secular
literature and uninspired literature,
started doubt and questioning as to why this
relation was not thoroughly acknowledged,
and the sources of quotation credited as in
the authors of the world.
[Sister] White writes about quotations
in the last page of the preface of Great
Controversy as follows: “The events which
have marked the progress of reform are
matters of history. . . In some cased where
a historian has so grouped together events
as to afford, in brief, a comprehensive view
of the subject, or has summarized details in
a convenient manner, his words have been
quoted; but except in a few instances no
specific credit has been given, since they
are not quoted for the purpose of citing
authority, but because his statements
affords a ready and forcible presentation of
the subject.
This uncredited matter
and an unacknowledged editorial relation
with some human frailties in [Sister]
White, with dull spiritual perception and a
distorted vision of truth, caused me to lose
sight of the sacred character of the work,
and I lost to a great extent my realization
that the work through [Sister]
White was “the testimony of Jesus.” I tried
for years to harmonize what seemed to me
inconsistency in the work with a worldly
literary maxim that requires an author to
acknowledge his editors and to give credit
to all works from which he quotes. In
contending that [Sister] White was
not open and honest about this matter, I
supposed myself standing for a principle of
ordinary justice and literary honesty….”
[4]
Ellen White’s response to Fannie
Bolton’s claims.
“When Ellen
found out that Fannie was revealing her
working methods, she had a vision, according
to what she told George B. Starr: “There
appeared a chariot of gold and horses of
silver above me, and Jesus, in royal
majesty, was seated in the chariot.... Then
there came the words rolling down over the
clouds from the chariot from the lips of
Jesus, ‘Fannie Bolton is your adversary!
Fanny Bolton is your adversary!’ repeated
three times.” Ellen wrote Marian also that
she was “warned” that Fannie was her
adversary.
On February 6, 1894, Ellen
wrote Fannie: “Now, my sister, I do not want
you to be any longer connected with me in my
work. I mean now, for your good, that you
should never have another opportunity to do
as you have done in the past.”
[5]
Fannie seemed to be torn between
doing the right thing and suffering the loss
of her friends and family.
“Fannie had been destroyed for trying to
tell the truth, and was shown no mercy or
grace by the people who destroyed her.”
[6]
Fannie tried to
make peace with Ellen White and her
supporters after Sister White’s attack on
her character.
“As her health declined, she had little
strength to deal with the attacks of Ellen
and her supporters. And yet, the attacks
continued because Fannie embodied by far the
most serious threat to exposing Ellen’s well
concealed secrets of plagiarism and fraud.
In an attempt to make peace with her critics
and enemies, Fannie issued the following
statement in 1901 that brought Ellen and her
followers great relief, and to which they
latched on to as Fannie’s official
confession.
“I thank God that
He has kept Sister White from following my
supposed superior wisdom and righteousness,
and has kept her from acknowledging editors
or authors; but has given to the people the
unadulterated expression of God’s mind. Had
she done as I wished her to do, the gift
would have been degraded to a common
authorship, its importance lost, its
authority undermined, and its blessing lost
to the world.’”
[7]
We have to ask, did God change His mind
about plagiarism where Ellen G. White was concerned?
God warned his people through the
prophet Jeremiah that the prophets who steal
the words from other people were false
prophets. Did God change His mind about
plagiarism and fraud? Would God condemn
stealing words for all the other prophets
and exclude Ellen White from that
prohibition?
And we have to ask, was
Fannie wrong about what she learned in her
early school training and the maxim’s
applicable to secular literature? Was it not
already considered proper to thoroughly
acknowledged, and give credit to the sources
used in Ellen White’s writings, just as the
authors of the world did?
Was Fannie
Bolton wrong to contend that Sister White
needed to be open and honest about giving
proper credit where credit was due? And was
Fannie wrong to stand for the principles of
ordinary justice and literary honesty?
Why didn’t the literary maxim that
requires an author to acknowledge her
editors and give credit to all works from
which she quotes apply to someone like Ellen
White, who was supposedly speaking on God’s
behalf as His last day prophet and
messenger?
Fannie Bolton was a broken
person.
Her entire life was intertwined with
the Adventist people. She had seen her
friend Marian Davis die at an early age and Fannie
herself was isolated and alone, working for
a woman who would discredit her any chance
she got. I can understand how a person would
do and say things to hopefully restore her
place among her people. Fannie had lived
much of her latter life with Ellen White and
with her mental and physical health failing,
it is understandable how she could want the
whole controversy to be over.
Whatever her reasons, she was wrong to think
it was now okay to stop acknowledging
editors and authors. The Seventh-day
Adventist Church was wrong to cover-up all
of the literary fraud of Ellen G. White and
bury the evidence away in a vault somewhere.
Jeremiah’s words still stand, “I have heard
what the prophets have said who prophesy
lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I
have dreamed!’… Therefore, behold, I am
against the prophets, declares the LORD, who
steal my words from one another.” (Jeremiah 23:25, 30)
This is
from an interesting article by Adventist.org about prophets.
Ellen G. White is not mentioned by
name in the article but she is the only
person the Seventh-day Adventist Church has
acknowledged as a latter day prophet and a
founder of their church.
ARE THERE…BAD PROPHETS?
“So far we’ve talked about prophets in a
positive light, but the Bible also tells us
to be wary of “false prophets.”
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you
in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are
ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15, ESV).
Hold on, though. If a prophet is someone
playing the part of God’s mouthpiece, what
would a false prophet be?
You can
probably deduce that false prophets would be
acting against prophets of God, wanting
people to believe something opposite or
irrelevant to the messages God sends through
His prophets.
In one situation,
false priests and prophets were evil enough
to pronounce a death sentence on the prophet
Jeremiah, just because they didn’t like what
the prophecy said about their city! They
claimed to still be followers of God, but
their interests were their own.
But
not all false prophets are this easy to
recognize. False prophets have been used by
the Devil to spread lies, mixing truth with
error in order to seem more convincing.
That is why God provided various “tests”
for a prophet.
“Beloved, do not
believe every spirit, but test the spirits
to see whether they are from God, for many
false prophets have gone out into the world”
(1 John 4:1, ESV).
“You will
recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes
gathered from thornbushes, or figs from
thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good
fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad
fruit” (Matthew 7:16-17, ESV). ...”
Then the article goes on to list “the
ways you can test a prophet to see if they
are really speaking for God:”
1. Their
prophecies should honor God, not themselves
or any other human being.
2. Prophecies
should always be in line with what has
already been written as Scripture.
3.
Prophecies should never add anything to
Scripture, but only refer back to it for the
purpose of reminding or expounding upon it.
4. If they do make predictions, they must
come to pass as spoken (Jeremiah 28:9;
Deuteronomy 18:22).
5. Prophecies often
point out the sins of the people and tell
them how to change.
6. What they prophesy
must never contradict that Jesus is the Son
of God and the Savior of the earth (1 John 4:1-3).
7. A person’s “fruits” are what
they repeatedly do. When working for God,
prophets should generally demonstrate a
Christ-like character.”
[8]
Did you notice what test
is missing from the official Seventh-day Adventist list
of tests for a prophet?
Jeremiah 23:25, 30
says, “I have heard what the prophets have
said who prophesy lies in my name, saying,
‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’...
Therefore, behold,
I am against the
prophets, declares the LORD,
who steal my
words from one another.”
The Seventh-day Adventist
Church will never fully acknowledge the extent of literary
theft and fraud Ellen White engaged in. If the
Seventh-day Adventist Church was honest, they would
acknowledge what Ellen G. White did and
renounce her as a thief, a false prophet,
and a “wolf in sheep’s
clothing.”
“A wolf in sheep’s
clothing is symbolic for someone who
outwardly looks harmless and kind with good
intentions but inwardly is full of hate,
evil and deceit. We are warned of this false
teacher in the book of Matthew in the Bible.
This person seeks to twist truth and
Scripture to fit their own agenda. They
deceive their audience with false prophecy
and teachings. Wolves teach false doctrine
while appearing attractive.
Sometimes
the truth can get twisted in this life.
Blurred. Manipulated. Lines get crossed.
Things once seen as black and white may
start to appear grayer. It may seem harder
to recognize what’s true or what’s false.
What’s light and what’s dark? At the heart
of the battle, we face every day, is a real
enemy who prowls around seeking someone to
devour. (1 Peter 5:8) He’ll stop at nothing
to gain new ground. He and his forces have
quoted God’s words since the beginning of
time, twisting it, trying their best to
manipulate the truth, their main goal only
to deceive and lead astray. They know who
God is and the Bible says they “shudder” in
fear at His name. (James 2:19) They know
that God alone will be victorious and no
matter what traps are used today to try to
distract us away from Him, in the end, they
will not win.
Many times, the wolf
disguised in sheep’s clothing knows God’s
Word better than we thought, crafting and
twisting it so much, we might even find
ourselves feeling confused over what real
truth is anymore.”
[9]
All the evidence proves Ellen G. White
was a false prophet. She
contradicted the Bible many times, and
she made well documented, false prophecies
and then said it was God who showed her
those things in vision. According to Fannie
Bolton and Marian Davis (Ellen White’s
closest literary assistants),
she plagiarized the words of other authors
and then tried to cover up her theft. When
the Seventh-day Adventist Church promotes
her they are telling people to believe in a
liar, a fraud, and
a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church has
allowed Ellen G. White to destroy
people’s lives, twist the scriptures and
defraud their members for far too long. They need to
acknowledge that Ellen G. White was a liar and a false
prophet, and discard her writings altogether.
References:
1.
Marian the Bookmaker: Part 2 of the
Unfinished Story of Fannie Bolton and Marian
Davis.
2.
Fannie’s Folly: Part 1 of the Unfinished
Story of Fannie Bolton and Marian Davis.
3. ibid.
4.
Fannie Bolton’s confession in 1901.
5.
Fannie’s Folly: Part 1 of the Unfinished
Story of Fannie Bolton and Marian Davis.
6. Steve Daily. Ellen G. White A
Psychobiography (Kindle page locations
3200-3201). Page Publishing, Inc. Kindle
Edition.
7. ibid.
8.
What Does it Mean to Be a Prophet?
9.
What Does ’Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing’ Mean &
How to Spot One?
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