But Ellen White did not believe in verbal inspiration. She wrote in 1886, "The Bible is written by inspired men, but it is not God's mode of thought and expression. It is that of humanity. God, as a writer, is not represented. ... The writers of the Bible were God's penmen, not his pen. ... It is not the words of the Bible that are inspired, but the men that were inspired. Inspiration acts not on the man's words or his expressions but on the man himself, who, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, is imbued with thoughts. But the words receive the impress of the individual mind. The divine mind is diffused. The divine mind and will is combined with the human mind and will; thus the utterances of the man are the word of God." Not only did Ellen White reject verbal inspiration but she also denied inerrancy of the Bible. This position on thought versus verbal inspiration was the one officially adopted by the denomination three years earlier at the 1883 General Conference session.