A Response to the Video:
Seventh-day Adventism, the Spirit Behind the Church

by Bob Pickle

Answers to Questions Raised by:
Mark Martin, Sydney Cleveland
Dale Ratzlaff, The White Lie
. . . and Others

Discern Fact from Fiction

The Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment

#165, #166, & #167: "There was still dissent however among Adventist followers. Mrs. White decided to have another vision to settle the matter. A delegate to the conference reported that 'After the conference, November 20th, the vision was given, establishing those undecided on the sunset time.' "—Narrator.

#165: She decided to have another vision. As shown under #44 and #112, for Mrs. White to decide to have another vision was an absolute impossibility.

#166: There still being dissent, her vision was intended to settle the matter. Actually, according to one account, the dissent came from only two people, Joseph Bates and Mrs. White:

Now with the position of sunset time so amply supported by Scripture evidence, all the congregation, which included the church's leaders, readily accepted the light and were prepared to shift their practice. All, that is, but two—Joseph Bates and Mrs. White.—Arthur White, vol. 1, p. 323.

Perhaps there were a few others, but the implication of the accusation is clear: Mrs. White "decided" to have a vision to "settle the matter" among the undecided: herself! Does not this seem a bit odd?

We'll comment a little further about the source of the narrator's quotation under #167. For now, consider the fact that other portions of this very same source declare that the vision of November 20, 1855, never mentioned "sunset" at all:

"3. We were present at the Conference referred to above, and also when the vision was given after the close of that Conference, and heard Sr. W. soon after coming out of vision, relate what she had seen. We are therefore prepared to testify that sunset-time was not once mentioned in the vision; but the words given to her in the previous vision were repeated, namely, 'From even to even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath;' and these words were now added: 'Take the word of God, read it, understand, and ye cannot err. Read carefully, and ye shall there find what even is and when it is.' In the first vision we were directed to the word of God by the words 'From even to even;' but on astronomical grounds, it was then decided that even was six o'clock. In the second, exactly the same words were used, and we were more especially directed to the word of God, which when examined conclusively establishes sunset time. This settled the matter with Bro. B. and a few others, and general harmony has since prevailed on the question."—Uriah Smith, Visions of Mrs. E. G. White, p. 91.

If Mrs. White "decided" to have a vision to convince dissenters to begin the Sabbath at sunset, why didn't the vision she "decided" to have say to begin the Sabbath at sunset?

#167: This is what a delegate reported. This quotation from Uriah Smith is taken from his book The Visions of Mrs. E. G. White, which was written and published in 1866 and 1868. The 1866 edition was a reply to 39 quibbles, and the 1868 edition replied to another 13. In the 1868 edition, the five-page section dealing with when to keep the Sabbath was entitled, "Objection 32. - Time to Commence the Sabbath."

Why would the narrator ever want to quote from Smith's book, given the fact that it disproves every one of these accusations? Since the sentence the narrator quoted is the third-to-last sentence of the section, certainly some of the contributors to the video must have read Smith's explanations. They must therefore also know that these charges are entirely bogus (see #166, #168, #169, #174).

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