Adventist Historical Documents: Real and Fictional
by Ervin Taylor
It has been alleged there are a number of historical documents in various places (e.g., attics, basements, Double Z file at the EGW Estate) that could shed a great deal of additional light on past and present Adventism.
Currently, I hold the view that many of these purported documents are either forgeries or represent fictitious or fabricated stories about documents that do not exist. But in the hope that some might actually exist, here is the first six currently on a list that just came into my hands.
This is a request for anyone interested in a better understanding of the history of Adventism to look in their attics and basements for the following documents which are alleged to exist:
- The receipt James White received for paying the Federal Army so he wouldn't be conscripted to fight in the Civil war
- An 1836 Portland, Maine, High School Annual, with a handwritten note from Joseph Smith to Ellen Harmon, asking her to consider becoming his 'first wife' and to journey with him to Nauvoo, Illinois
- The famous 'Secret Scrap Book' which contains notes and rough drafts of both the original Great Controversy and the Book of Mormon, both written in the same hand
- A 'Textbook of Phrenology' used by Ellen White in evaluating the character of her husband, with marginal notes in her handwriting
- A collection of autographs in the form of handwritten correspondence and first drafts describing several visions of Ellen White which was supposed to have been destroyed after being typed, along with comparisons of the autograph texts with what is purported to have been the exact typed copy of what had been originally handwritten, with marginal comments noting the discrepancies
- A copy of a secret honorary degree received by Cliff Goldstein from the Pontifical University of Rome for, "defense of the Mother Church as a brother in arms of the Society of Jesus"
I would be happy to discuss with anyone who holds such documents an appropriate reward for placing these documents at the disposal of disinterested historians.
If anyone knows of other documents that we should attempt to locate, please let me know. As do all Adventists, all we wish to do is to determine the Truth.
And the point of this blog is???
Why don’t you try searching for documents J, E, D and P to back up the documentary hypothesis?
If medicine relied on hypothetical evidence we’d all be in big trouble if we went to the doctor.Luckily, it’s becoming apparent that the evidence for the efficacy of antidepressants is about as good as for the documentary hypothesis. Perhaps soon people will realise that the evidence de evolution is in the same bucket.
Excuse me! Medicine relies on less evidence for many treatments–pharmaceutical companies make claims, patients are given prescripions, all based on very thin evidence, often times even outright fraud–when there is a change of money between the physician and big pharma. Why the recall of expensive medications that were prescribe for years??
HYPOTHESIS:
1. an assumption or concession made for the sake of argument; an interpretation of a practical situation or condition taken as the ground for action; a tentative assumption made in order to draw out and test its logical or empirical consequences.
Hypothesis is a theory, which can be overturned with better evidence.
THE JEDP hypothesis attempts to understand the various versions of similar stories in the Bible when there are contradictory, even impossible statements.
It is a temporary position to both date the various strands and try to find their common source.
Those who do not accept this hypothesis need to show why and how there are many discrepancies if Moses is claimed to be the author of the Torah. For some, it has been an “Aha!” experience that explains these contradictory stories.
What is an alternate solution? Or, should they simply be ignored?
(The “documents” JEDP are found in the Bible we use today.) Has anyone found ANY original manuscripts for the OT?
I thought that JEDP referred more to traditions (oral and written) rather than documents per se. While I don’t subscribe to the theory myself, I see no other way to explain some of the things said in the Pentateuch than to accept that the scrolls *as we have them* show the work of more than one author. Or else the author was way more comfortable with contradictions than we are.
No one has found – or, AFAIK claimed to have found – the original document of any book of the Bible. Not surprising, really.
“No one has found – or, AFAIK claimed to have found – the original document of any book of the Bible. Not surprising, really.”
Which should result in less hubris and more humility. The Jews readily acknowledge that over the centuries, the stories have been interpreted by the oral story tellers. So to accept as “pure” the Bible we have today is failure to recognize that there is no such thing. Actually, every time a story is repeated, it experiences slight changes, this is the human record. For those who read Hebrew, there are constant problems: there are no vowels, which means that much has to be assumed; when finally written on scrolls, each time a section was copied, there was another risk of changes.
Today, there is such an idol made of the Bible that it should never be questioned, as it is “God’s Word” somethng that is never claimed internall.
Interesting that in the age of PhotoShop and the Obama Birther movement, this kind of speculation should be finding its way into some revisionist concepts of Adventist history. The Adventist Church, like the Bible, has its “inter-testamental period,” about which much “apocryphal” writing has been circulated—that is, the period from the Great Disappointment of 1844 until the inception of the American Civil War, and the organization of the Adventist Church.
Received history via the Adventist education system fails to present in any multifaceted way the vast influences that buffeted the “little flock” during those two decades of wilderness wandering, except in the context of the various pillars of the Adventist belief system that emerged in often highly charged debate during that time. That sociologically Adventism has so many similarities to Mormonism invites the conjecture that somehow they MUST have MORE commonality in origins than is usually admitted. I reject out of hand any possibility that Smith and White somehow met, exchanged notes, or even imitated one another from near or far—the chronology simply is not there. BUT we cannot deny that they both DID COME from the same basic region of the United States, during a particularly turbulent era of faith, and that both denominations struggled valiantly and effectively to replace unworkable early doctrines with a more forward-thinking body of spiritual guidance for their members. Their continuing parallel growth is a testament to the charisma of their founding prophets and the ability of these two denominations to surmount almost superhuman odds to press forward as emerging world-class churches.
It is doubtful that either religion would grow and flourish in the U.S. today.
The area where they both originated, was ripe and ready for such beliefs which allowed the birth of such religion, just as the “Cambellites” and JWs grew in other parts of the U.S.
The educational level, and skepticism that education brings, would curtail such rapid growth of such religions. Yes, there have been even more strange religions developing in various parts of the world, but none have drawn large numbers: Jim Jones, Heaven’s Gate, Scientology, etc.
So many Americans claim no religion at all (15%, up from 8% in 1990), that this category now outranks every other major U.S. religious group except Catholics and Baptists. In a
Some studies suggest that Adventist members, culturally, appear to be extraordinarily susceptible to scams by other Adventists, surpassed only by members of the Mormon Church, who have even less resistance to fraud by their fellows.
These findings have been around for quite some time, and come from law-enforcement records. The common denominator seems to be that inducements to invest money in questionable causes are most persuasive when accompanied by a patina of mystical approval, a quote from the prophet, a sense that the venture at hand is approved by God.
It has been suggested by some that Mormonism is the “shadow” of Adventism—that it is a neo-pagan faith that denies the eternal divinity of Jesus Christ, the definitive sufficiency of Scripture, and the uniqueness of the Almighty, beliefs now universally endorsed by Adventism.
Yet, in many cultural ways, the two faiths share many outward characteristics—including the apparent susceptibility to charlatanry.
Ed, I would be most interested in credible studies doing a side-by-side comparison of the religious affiliations of scam victims and perpetrators before accepting your conclusions. Most murder victims are killed by someone whom they know. Jews are probably more likely to be scammed by other Jews, like Bernie Madoff. It has nothing to do with an ostensible moral/divinely ordained purpose for the scam. It’s simply inherent in the nature of social creatures that they are most likely to both support and prey on their own.
We are more likely to place confidence in people that we know have the same group identity as ourselves. I suspect one would find that Amish people are particularly susceptible to scams by other Amish folks, and African Americans are more susceptible to scams by their own. One must look deeper than mere correlation before making assumptions that defective religion facilitates scams.
Nate: I will get those sources for you as soon as I can. I know where they can be found.
Doctorf, I'm not sure you want to be as comfortable as you appear with your conclusions. Religious stereotyping on the basis of particular experiences strikes me as unbecoming a person with your intelligence and education. Would you not be appalled if I were to proudly assert, based on negative experiences I may have had with women or minorities in a particular sphere of human activity, that I would never have relations with women or minorities in that sphere again?
I too would be uncomfortable entering into a transaction with someone who used credentials or qualifications unrelated to the transaction to inspire confidence. Surely African-Americans would be distrustful of someone who began a business proposition with "I'm a brother…" But it does not follow from the fact that this might have occurred on more than one occasion that they would never again do business with an African-American.
Abuse of status, education, religion, race, gender, and sympathy to inspire confidence are common to human nature, and should not occasion discrimination on the basis of those characteristics. The reality is, as Solzhenitsyn observed, that evil runs through the center of every human heart – not through the religious, political, or geographic boundaries by which humans seek to establish moral and intellectual superiority over one another.
One should do business with someone who has more and better qualifications that mutual friends, religion or race. Business decisions should be made by business acumen. Too many have lost because of such sleazy tactics to ingratiate themselves to legitimately "rob" others. Scam artists are essentially con men and say whatever will work to get access to other's money. I agree with Doctorf: if someone claims mutual church membership, religion, or club membership, hang onto your wallet and run. I have personally known too many who have lost too much by their simple trust (otherwise know as naivite). Once burned, they never fall again.
You really need to be careful here. Anti-Christian, anti-S.D.A. rhetoric by the Left sounds very much like the Aryan anti -semitic rhetoric of the 30's, now experiencing a renaissance in Europe, and rampant in the Arab world. These kinds of statements were the bien pensant precursors to Kristallnacht and the Holocaust.
Anyone can draw a comparision between any two positions, which may, or may not be true.
It is not anti-Christian or anti-SDA to be wary of people claiming religious belief in order to gain access to make an easy buck. History has proved it to be a good entry. The history of this church has a whole list of financial scams: Davenport, the LE videos never produced in the Columbia Union, and more.
Read "Fatal Accounts" (available through AToday) for much more.
I completely agree with the notion that one should be wary (resistant) of anyone who uses religious affiliation, or any other irrelevant qualification to gain credibility. That is a far, far different matter from refusing to do business with someone because of their religion, which was what I understood Doctorf to be advocating in his last sentence. My 401K has been with a licensed Adventist financial consultant for the past 20 years, and I have been very happy with his services. So what does that tell you about Adventist investment advisors? Absolutely nothing! Anecdotal personal experience is a very poor reason for offering disparaging generalizations about a group based on gender, race or religion.
Unless you have some meaningful reference point, the abuses of trust you reference really say nothing unique about the SDA religion or organization. The corrupt conduct of politicians and public "servants" makes SDA scandals look like child's play by comparison. Isn't it a bit ironic that you are so judgmental towards a religion and organization that you harshly condemn for its judgmentalism?
For a more complete history of the many financial "scams" in which the SDA church has been involved, read Who Watches, Who Cares available here at AToday.
A short content list:
Davenport invesments
Harris Pine Mills bankruptcy
Family Enrichment Resources
Shady Grove Hospital
Robert Folkenberg's finances
Boston Regional Medical Center demise
These have cost SDA members millions in tithe money because of the ineptitude and incompetence with the church official's use of OPM (other people's money). It's always true: if one must use his own money, there is much more care before it is spent; with other people's money, there is far less concern.
It can be called "judgmentalism" or "scrutiny." We each pass judgment on something every single day:
we judge whether the price is worth the asking; if a person can be trusted with your savings; all these.
This is not a condemnation of any single individual, but as has often been proved, if all you really know about someone is that they are a member of your world church, that should not be sufficient, should it?