Don S. McMahon

Don S. McMahon is a retired SDA medical doctor from Australia. He has been an ear, nose and throat surgeon for his career and has been published in medical textbooks and served on state medical panels.[1] After retiring, he spent time researching and writing about Ellen G. White and issues related to her health message and claims of visions from God contributing to her health advice. In 2005 he published his analysis in "Acquired or Inspired." In it, he compares Ellen White to other health authors of her era and compares their accuracy according to his understanding of evidence-based medicine of 2000 C.E.[2] The authors that Dr. McMahon used in his study include Sylvester Graham, Dr. William Alcott, Dr. Larkin B Coles, James Caleb Jackson and Dr. John Harvey Kellogg.[1][3] Also in 2005, Dr. McMahon co-authored "The Prophet and Her Critics" with Leonard Brand. He also served as a lecturer at Avondale College in Australia.[1][4]

Dr. Graeme S. Bradford, an Adventist scholar and author of another highly acclaimed book about Ellen White,[5] has said of Dr McMahon's book, "Don McMahon has done the Church a wonderful service through this research. If the reader will carefully examine his arguments they will find he has developed one of the most powerful arguments that can be presented for the inspiration of Ellen White. When people read this book they will be pondering the question 'how could a relatively uneducated woman living in the 19th century be so right at a time when her more educated contemporaries were so wrong?" [6]

Ronald L. Numbers, who describes himself as agnostic.,[7] stated "Despite their pretense to scientific rigor, McMahon's books are riddled with pseudoscientific claims, historical errors, and misleading comparisons."[8]

Dr. Percy C. Harrold, an Adventist scholar and former associate health director for the Adventist Church in the South Pacific,[9] stated "Don McMahon has done an excellent thing...This work honestly looks from a scientific and statistical viewpoint at an area taken as a faith issue and comes up with the splendid answer that there was no way Ellen White could have chosen the contents of her health writings from the knowlege [sic] of her time and been as accurate as she was in light of modern knowlege [sic]. These results even surpassed Don McMahon's original expectations...'Acquired or Inspired' is an honest publication written by a Seventh-day Adventist physician who is passionate about his church and its heritage. For the Seventh-day Adventist reader, it will strengthen faith in Ellen White as a person with a gift from God. For the person who is not an Adventist this book provides a challenge which is hard to ignore." [6]

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 http://www.adventistbookcenter.com/authors/don-s.-mcmahon
  2. ↑ p. 23, McMahon, Don S. "Acquired or Inspired? Exploring the Origins of the Adventist Lifestyle." Signs Publishing Company, Victoria, Australia. 2005
  3. ↑ p. 49-50, p. 111, McMahon, Don S. "Acquired or Inspired? Exploring the Origins of the Adventist Lifestyle." Signs Publishing Company, Victoria, Australia. 2005
  4. ↑ https://www.avondale.edu.au/Main/Research/Literature-Reviews/Adventist-Studies-Booklet.pdf
  5. ↑ http://www.teachservices.com/more-than-a-prophet-bradford-graeme-s
  6. 1 2 https://www.hopechannel.com/au/read/books/acquired-or-inspired
  7. ↑ See introduction to Ronald Number's book: The Creationists. See also Prophetess of Health Reappears, an interview of Numbers by Alita Byrd of Spectrum. And Inside the Mind of a Creationist: Ron Numbers & Paul Nelson in discussion
  8. ↑ Ronald L. Numbers (2 July 2008). Prophetess of Health: A Study of Ellen G. White. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-8028-0395-5. Despite their pretense to scientific rigor, McMahon's books are riddled with pseudoscientific claims, historical errors, and misleading comparisons.
  9. ↑ https://www.hopechannel.com/au/profile/838-percy-harrold
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