Hello, my name is ___________. I just have a question that was bugging me for a while. Did ever EGW claim that she could be wrong about some things, like did she ever admit that she could make errors, and if yes did she ever make an error? Thank you so much for all your help.

___________

Dear ___________,

Thank you for contacting the Ellen G. White Estate. Below my signature I will copy for you some statements from Mrs. White in which I think we can find the answers to your questions. First, there is a touching passage from a letter Mrs. White wrote to her husband James during the difficult years after several strokes had changed his personality. You will find this in the compilation "Daughers of God," p. 272. Below that I will quote a few pages from Selected Messages, book 2. You will see that here, as in the other statement, she disclaims infallibility. You will see also where she did not use the precise number for rooms in the sanitarium. Was this an error? Perhaps. Personally, I think it was an approximation. But her point was that we should be able to distinguish between the sacred and the common. Even so, I have no problem affirming that, as a human being, she certainly could make errors and no doubt did so.

I hope this is helpful. Thank you or writing, and God bless!

--------
William Fagal, Director
Ellen G. White Estate Branch Office
Andrews University
Berrien Springs, MI 49104-1400 USA
Phone: 269 471-3209
FAX: 269 471-2646
Website: www.WhiteEstate.org or www.egwestate.andrews.edu
E-mail: egw@aubranch.egwestate.andrews.edu

It grieves me that I have said or written anything to grieve you. Forgive me and I will be cautious not to start any subject to annoy and distress you. We are living in a most solemn time and we cannot afford to have in our old age [ELLEN WHITE WAS 48 YEARS OF AGE AND HER HUSBAND WAS 54 WHEN THIS LETTER WAS WRITTEN.] differences to separate our feelings. I may not view all things as you do, but I do not think it would be my place or duty to try to make you see as I see and feel as I feel. Wherein I have done this, I am sorry. {DG 272.4} I want a humble heart, a meek and quiet spirit. Wherein my feelings have been permitted to arise in any instance, it was wrong. Jesus has said, "Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Matthew 11:29. {DG 272.5} I wish that self should be hid in Jesus. I wish self to be crucified. I do not claim infallibility, or even perfection of Christian character. I am not free from mistakes and errors in my life. Had I followed my Saviour more closely, I should not have to mourn so much my unlikeness to His dear image. {DG 272.6} Time is short, very short. Life is uncertain. We know not when our probation may close. If we walk humbly before God, He will let us end our labors with joy. No more shall a line be traced by me or expression made in my letter to distress you. Again I say, forgive me every word or act that has grieved you. {DG 272.7}

No Claim to Infallibility

We have many lessons to learn, and many, many to unlearn. God and heaven alone are infallible. Those who think that they will never have to give up a cherished view, never have occasion to change an opinion, will be disappointed. As long as we hold to our own ideas and opinions with determined persistency, we cannot have the unity for which Christ prayed.--The Review and Herald, July 26, 1892. {1SM 37.3} In regard to infallibility, I never claimed it; God alone is infallible. His word is true, and in Him is no variableness, or shadow of turning.--Letter 10, 1895.

38 {1SM 37.4}

The Sacred and the Common

Sanitarium, California March 5, 1909

I am troubled in regard to Brother A, who for some years has been a worker in southern California. He has made some strange statements, and I am pained to see him denying the testimonies as a whole because of what seems to him an inconsistency--a statement made by me in regard to the number of rooms in the Paradise Valley Sanitarium. Brother A says that in a letter written to one of the brethren in southern California, the statement was made by me that the sanitarium contained forty rooms, when there were really only thirty-eight. This, Brother A gives to me as the reason why he has lost confidence in the testimonies. . . . {1SM 38.1} The information given concerning the number of rooms in the Paradise Valley Sanitarium was given, not as a revelation from the Lord, but simply as a human opinion. There has never been revealed to me the exact number of rooms in any of our sanitariums; and the knowledge I have obtained of such things I have gained by inquiring of those who were supposed to know. In my words, when speaking upon these common subjects, there is nothing to lead minds to believe that I receive my knowledge in a vision from the Lord and am stating it as such. . . . {1SM 38.2} When the Holy Spirit reveals anything regarding the institutions connected with the Lord's work, or concerning the work of God upon human hearts and minds, as He has revealed these things through me in the past, the message given is to be regarded as light given of God for those who need it. But for one to mix the sacred with the common is a great mistake. In a tendency to do this we may see the working of the enemy to destroy souls. {1SM 38.3} To every soul whom God has created He has given capabilities to serve Him, but Satan seeks to make this work of service hard by his constant temptation to mislead souls. He works to dim the spiritual perceptions that men may not distinguish between that which is common and that

39 which is holy. I have been made to know this distinction through a life's service for my Lord and Master.... {1SM 38.4} The message came to me, Dedicate yourself to the highest work ever committed to mortals. I will give you high aspirations and powers and a true sense of the work of Christ. You are not your own, for you are bought with a price, by the life and death of the Son of God. God calls for your child's heart and service under the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. {1SM 39.1} I gave myself, my whole being, to God, to obey His call in everything, and since that time my life has been spent in giving the message, with my pen and in speaking before large congregations. It is not I who controls my words and actions at such times. {1SM 39.2} But there are times when common things must be stated, common thoughts must occupy the mind, common letters must be written and information given that has passed from one to another of the workers. Such words, such information, are not given under the special inspiration of the Spirit of God. Questions are asked at times that are not upon religious subjects at all, and these questions must be answered. We converse about houses and lands, trades to be made, and locations for our institutions, their advantages and disadvantages. {1SM 39.3} I receive letters asking for advice on many strange subjects, and I advise according to the light that has been given me. Men have again and again opposed the counsel that I have been instructed to give because they did not want to receive the light given, and such experiences have led me to seek the Lord most earnestly.--Manuscript 107, 1909. {1SM 39.4}