Dear Sister ___________,

Thank you for contacting the Ellen G. White Estate. I will be glad to try to answer your questions.

Hello:

There is a discussion going on with several of us regarding a tape done by Samuel Pipim regarding the death penalty. Through the American Cassette Ministries, tapes were release by Samuel Koranteng-Pipim. It is the series "Faithful unto Death," tape #5 called "Wisdom from the Past."

In this tape he used the above book from pages 761 through 764 as his reason that we as Adventist should not support the death penalty as it stands today in the United States or any country.

This section of PP, is the Appendix and under Note #8, he quotes much of those pages as the reason we cannot support the death penalty.

1. Since this is in the Appendix, was EGW alive when these notes where added to the book? If they were, who wrote them? Did EGW or someone else?

We have an 1890 Patriarchs and Prophets here, showing how the book appeared when it first came out. Though the paging is a bit different, the original edition contains this note in the appendix. I did not compare it word for word with what appears in the current edition, but it does seem to be the same material.

We do not have the name or names of the author(s) of the appendix notes. On the analogy of the notes in The Great Controversy, we assume that these were not written by Ellen G. White but by others, whom she trusted. If she had disagreed with something in the notes, no doubt she would have protested it, and it would have been changed for the next printing. I did not see any indication of a change in the brief look-over that I gave it.

2. Can this apply to the death penalty issue as it appears that Pipim has done?

I cannot comment on how Pipim has done this, since I have not heard his presentation. In my reading of the appendix, I concluded that it was protesting man's trying to enforce God's laws or laws pertaining to our relationship with Him, such as laws about worship or blasphemy. Crimes such as murder, which may be capital crimes in our society, are of course contrary to God's laws as well as man's. But in assessing the penalty, even the death penalty, most governments are not trying to enforce God's laws but their own civil laws. Many people who have no respect for God believe that the death penalty is appropriate for such crimes as first degree murder. It is a crime against another person and a crime against society. For them, the appropriateness of the death penalty is unrelated to considerations of the law of God. So on my first reading, I did not conclude that such crimes as first-degree murder were those the appendix was addressing which governments should not try to punish as they were punished under the theocracy.

3. Is there any clear evidence that EGW supported the fact that we as Adventist should support capital punishment for murder. If so, does she use any statement outside of the Theocracy period, which is what this Note #8 points to?

I did a search for "death penalty" on the CD-ROM. I found this statement from Patriarchs and Prophets, but it does not look at the issue from the civil side, but only from the angle of whether the commandments have been done away with:

In our day there are many who reject the creation Sabbath as a Jewish institution and urge that if it is to be kept, the penalty of death must be inflicted for its violation; but we see that blasphemy received the same punishment as did Sabbathbreaking. Shall we therefore conclude that the third commandment also is to be set aside as applicable only to the Jews? Yet the argument drawn from the death penalty applies to the third, the fifth, and indeed to nearly all the ten precepts, equally with the fourth. Though God may not now punish the transgression of His law with temporal penalties, yet His word declares that the wages of sin is death; and in the final execution of the judgment it will be found that death is the portion of those who violate His sacred precepts. {PP 409.2}

Then there is this statement, in which Mrs. White says "the death penalty has been abolished." But is she speaking universally, or only about the penalty for doing the wrong work in the Lord's service? In the context, the latter seems more likely to me:

Brethren, never allow anyone's ideas to unsettle your faith in regard to the order and harmony which should exist in the church. Many of you do not see all things clearly. The directions in regard to order in the tabernacle service were recorded that lessons might be drawn from it by all who should live upon the earth. Men were selected to do various parts of the work of setting up and taking down the tabernacle, and if one strayed in carelessly and put his hands to the work assigned to another, he was to be put to death. We serve the same God today. But the death penalty has been abolished; had it not been, there would not now be so much careless, disorderly work in His cause. The God of heaven is a God of order, and He requires all His followers to have rules and regulations, and to preserve order. All should have a perfect understanding of God's work. {5T 274.1}

Another passage is this one, definitely beyond the Old Testament time:

"It is time for thee, Lord, to work," David said; "for they have made void thy law." David lived many hundreds of years ago, and he thought then that the time had come for God to interfere to vindicate his honor and repress the swelling unrighteousness. Today men have almost filled the cup of their iniquity. But the Lord does not execute the death penalty on the transgressors of his law until they have heard the warning, and have been given an opportunity to see the result of rebellion against him. How wonderful is his forbearance and patience! He is putting a constraint on his own attributes. Omnipotence is exerted over Omnipotence. {RH, December 15, 1904 par. 4}

Does this statement mean that a civil government may not legitimately impose the death penalty for civil crimes? Interpretations may differ, but I do not see that it is making such a point. It says to me that God will not (at least not usually!) strike you down for violating His law; but of course, there is a time coming when the tally will be settled.

In the six-volume biography of Mrs. White, Arthur L. White quotes his father, W. C. White, regarding some of their experiences in Australia:

Of the wild animals on the place, we cannot speak so definitely. There is a small family of large kangaroos, which show themselves occasionally. The wallabies are quite numerous, although many have recently been shot. Thus far they have not done serious injury to our crops. The native bears are getting scarce. We seldom hear their cry. Opossums can be heard any night, although they have been thinned out by the hunters. Snakes are much talked about, but rarely seen. Each year we see less and less of them. Occasionally a tiger cat makes a raid on our fowls. Then we trap him, and he suffers the death penalty for his fowl murders. Flying foxes have done us no harm this year. Of magpies, there are plenty. The laughing jackasses, though not numerous, are very sociable. Groups of cockatoos and parrots are occasionally seen. The bell bird and the whip bird can be heard every day. {4BIO 346.3}

W. C. White's reference to the "death penalty for his fowl murders" seems whimsical with its pun. I get no hint of contrast between this whimsy and an attitude he may have had against the death penalty for human crimes. If he had been strongly opposed to the latter, one can hardly imagine his having made the witticism he did here.

There may be other statements bearing on the issue, but I did not locate them. Without having heard Dr. Pipim's line of argument, I can only say that I did not find material in Mrs. White's writings which I thought would call upon us to oppose the death penalty for civil crimes.

I know this is a difficult issue, but any information or history of the SOP regarding this issue would be helpful. It has been an interesting experience. I have been the only person against the death penalty, so I am trying to make sense of this from what I have always come to believe, that murder is wrong, no matter the reason.

Thank you for any help that you can give me for or against.

___________

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

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William Fagal, Director
Ellen G. White Estate Branch Office
Andrews University
Berrien Springs, MI 49104-1400 USA
Phone: 616 471-3209
FAX: 616 471-2646
Website: www.WhiteEstate.org or www.egwestate.andrews.edu
E-mail: egw@aubranch.egwestate.andrews.edu