It’s a pretty weighty and bold statement to claim that Ellen G. White is a False Prophet. Many have told me that I would have to stand before God regarding my decision and how I’m approaching these topics.

I guess I’m a little confused as to why I would stand before God when all I’m attempting is to test the spirit as we are asked in the Bible,

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.” (1 Jn 4:1–3)

So here is my next series on Ellen G. White and her fixation with setting the time of Jesus’ return.

As a young person in the early 1840s, Ellen Harmon was deeply influenced by the Millerite movement, which focused on predicting the return of Christ. After William Miller’s initial prediction that Jesus would return in 1843 failed, his colleague Samuel Snow recalculated a new date, October 22, 1844, which Millerite preachers then proclaimed as the day of Christ’s return. When this, too, proved false, many Adventists continued to hope for an imminent return. Snow suggested that the Millerites were in a “tarrying time” as Jesus made His way to earth (Habakkuk 2:3). Other Adventists, like James White, pointed to a parable in Luke 12:35-40 to propose that Jesus would return during the “fourth watch” of the night, which they expected in October 1845. Additionally, some believed that the Jubilee trumpet had sounded in October 1844 and that Jesus would return at the end of the Jubilee year in October 1845. It wasn’t until late 1845 that most Adventists abandoned the practice of setting dates for Christ’s return. However, the Shut Door Adventists, led by Joseph Bates and James and Ellen White, continued to make such predictions. This article will explore how Mrs. White repeatedly made predictions about Christ’s return that ultimately failed.

Ellen White’s Early Failed Predictions

Lucinda Burdick, who knew Mrs. White in the 1840s, described how Mrs. White frequently made predictions about Christ’s return:

“I became acquainted with James White and Ellen Harmon (now Mrs. White) early in 1845. … She pretended God showed her things which did not come to pass. At one time she saw that the Lord would come the second time in June 1845. The prophecy was discussed in all the churches, and in a little ‘shut-door paper’ published in Portland, Me. During the summer, after June passed, I heard a friend ask her how she accounted for the vision? She replied that ‘they told her in the language of Canaan, and she did not understand the language; that it was the next September that the Lord was coming, and the second growth of grass instead of the first in June.’ September passed, and many more have passed since, and we have not seen the Lord yet. It soon became evident to all candid persons, that many things must have been ‘told her in the language of Canaan,’ or some other which she did not understand, as there were repeated failures. I could mention many which I knew of myself.

Once, when on their way to the eastern part of Maine, she saw that they would have great trouble with the wicked, be put in prison, etc. This they told in the churches as they passed through. When they came back, they said they had a glorious time. Friends asked if they had seen any trouble with the wicked, or prisons? They replied, ‘None at all.’ People in all the churches soon began to get their eyes open, and came out decidedly against her visions; and, just as soon as they did so, she used to see them ‘with spots on their garments,’ as she expressed it. I was personally acquainted with several ministers, whom she saw landed in the kingdom with ‘Oh! such brilliant crowns, FULL of stars.’ As soon as they took a stand against the visions, she saw them ‘doomed, damned, and lost for ever, without hope.'” [1]

Despite the failures of her predictions in 1844 and 1845, Mrs. White continued to predict Christ’s imminent return. She and James White appear to have embraced Joseph Bates’ idea that the Day of Atonement would last seven years, culminating in Christ’s return in the fall of 1851. Mrs. White soon claimed to have visions that supported Bates’ erroneous view.

On November 18, 1848, in Dorchester, she had a vision, which Bates published in his book, The Seal of the Living God, in 1849:

“The time of trouble has commenced, the reason why the four winds have not been let go, for the saints are not all sealed…” [2]

According to this vision, the time of trouble had already begun in 1849, and the sealing process was ongoing. Bates echoed Mrs. White’s sentiments by declaring in the same book that the “time of trouble has began.”

In the summer of 1849, a cholera epidemic struck American cities, resulting in hundreds of deaths. Mrs. White interpreted this event as a fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy regarding “pestilences” and other signs marking the “beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:7-8). She alarmed her readers with a grim prediction about soon being surrounded by dead bodies:

“What we have seen and heard of the pestilence, is but the beginning of what we shall see and hear. Soon the dead and dying will be all around us. I saw that some will be so hardened, as to even make sport of the judgments of God. Then the slain of the Lord will be from one end of the earth, to the other; they will not be lamented, gathered, nor buried; but their ill savor will come up from the face of the whole earth. Those only who have the seal of the living God, will be sheltered from the storm of wrath, that will soon fall on the heads of those who have rejected the truth.” ^[3]

Shortly after this prophecy was written, the epidemic subsided, and the United States entered a period of relative peace and prosperity that lasted many years. When the passage was republished 33 years later in *Early Writings* (1882), the above line was removed. As a result, few modern Seventh-day Adventists are aware of this “inspired” prophecy, thanks to those who quietly deleted it.

In January 1849, Mrs. White shared another vision:

“I saw some, looking too far off for the coming of the Lord. Time has continued on a few years longer than they expected, therefore they think it may continue a few years more, and in this way their minds are being led from present truth, out after the world.” ^[4]

This vision revealed to Mrs. White that it was wrong for some to believe the Lord’s coming was still a few years away, implying that Christ’s return would be sooner. How many years constitute “a few” years? Two? Three? Five? It has now been 175 years! Ironically, those she criticized for not expecting the imminent return of Christ were correct, while she was mistaken.

In March 1849, Mrs. White wrote to Sister Hastings, describing how the remaining time before Christ’s return was so “short” that it could be described as “a few more days”:

“A few more days here in toil and then we shall be free. Time is short; let us hold fast unto the end.” [5]

On March 24, 1849, Mrs. White had a vision of an unnamed man:

“I saw that this person was a vessel of wrath fitted for destruction, reserved for the seven last plagues…” [6]

She also saw that slave masters would “endure the seven last plagues and then come up in the second resurrection and suffer the second, most awful death. Then the justice of God will be satisfied.” ^[7]

That man has long since died without experiencing the “seven last plagues,” as Mrs. White predicted. This is yet another clear example proving her visions were false.

In the August 1, 1849 issue of The Review, Mrs. White reminded her readers that the sealing time was in progress:

“Satan is now using every device in this sealing time, to keep the minds of God’s people from the present, sealing truth; and to cause them to waver.” ^[8]

“I saw that Satan was working through agents, in a number of ways. He was at work through ministers, who have rejected the truth, and are given over to strong delusions to believe a lie that they might be damned.” ^[9]

“I saw that Satan was at work in these ways to distract, deceive, and draw away God’s people, just now in this sealing time.” ^[10]

By April 1850, Mrs. White was claiming that the final shaking had already begun:

“The mighty shaking has commenced, and will go on, and all will be shaken out who are not willing to take a hold and unyielding stand for the truth, and sacrifice for God and his cause.” ^[11] (See additional footnotes)

Meanwhile, her husband James declared that God’s people had already left Babylon (Revelation 18:4):

“Babylon, the nominal church is fallen. God’s people have come out of her. She is now the ‘synagogue of Satan’ (Rev. 3:9). ‘The habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird’ (Rev. 18:2).” [12]

On June 27, 1850, Mrs. White wrote that only a few months remained for people to prepare:

In a view given June 27, 1850, my accompanying angel said, “Time is almost finished. Do you reflect the lovely image of Jesus as you should?” Then I was pointed to the earth and saw that there would have to be a getting ready among those who have of late embraced the third angel’s message. Said the angel, “Get ready, get ready, get ready. Ye will have to die a greater death to the world than ye have ever yet died.” I saw that there was a great work to do for them and but little time in which to do it.

 

Then I saw that the seven last plagues were soon to be poured out upon those who have no shelter; yet the world regarded them no more than they would so many drops of water that were about to fall. I was then made capable of enduring the awful sight of the seven last plagues, the wrath of God.^[13]

But now time is almost finished, and what we have been years learning, they will have to learn in a few months. They will also have much to unlearn and much to learn again. Those who would not receive the mark of the beast and his image when the decree goes forth, must have decision now to say, Nay, we will not regard the institution of the beast.^[14]

This is a significant statement. Mrs. White indicated that the Adventist doctrines she and her associates had spent five years learning would have to be grasped by new converts in just a few months.

By September 1850, Mrs. White warned that the sealing was almost complete and that Jesus was nearly finished with His work in the Most Holy Place:

“I saw that the time for Jesus to be in the Most Holy Place was nearly finished, and that time cannot last but a very little longer…^[15]

“Let the commandments of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ be in your minds continually, and let them crowd worldly thoughts and cares from the mind. When you lie down and when you rise up let them be your meditation. Live and act wholly in reference to the coming of the Son of man. The sealing time is very short, and soon will be over. Now is the time to make our calling and election sure, while the four angels are holding the four winds.” ^[16]

After Christ did not return in 1851, some Adventists set a new date for 1854. In 1854, Mrs. White claimed, “I was shown the shortness of time.” [17]  But who would have shown her something that turned out to be false? Not God! After it became evident Jesus was not returning in 1854, she reportedly “saw that the time would pass.” [18]

Ellen’s early years ran rampant with false predictions and urgency around the coming of Jesus.  This has been an ongoing thread in how the Adventist church communicates and converts Christians into their ranks today.  For the last 170 years, Adventist pastors and evangelists have pointed to current events to prove the coming of Jesus, and yet all of these ‘current’ events have yet to lead to his return.  Do these ‘current’ events that haven’t led to his return make these pastors and evangelists false witnesses?  We should be careful not to fall into the same trap.

Yes, Jesus is coming soon!  His coming has felt urgent ever since the early Apostles preached the Gospel, which we can read about in the New Testament. But the Apostles never predicted the coming of Jesus.  They understood the fact from Jesus,

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. (Mt 24:36)

Scripture is clear: no one knows when Jesus will return. Yet Ellen G. White was supposedly given special insight into the imminent return that was falsely predicted and never happened.

Why do Adventists continue to stand by these blatant lies?

In the next post, we will explore how, after a decade of falsely predicting Jesus’ return, the Whites worked diligently to erase these false predictions.

But as my parents would remind me as a small child,

“Remember, your sins will surely find you out!”

 

In Christian Love,

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Grant, Lucinda Burdick as Quoted in An Examination of Mrs. Ellen White’s Visions.

[2] Bates, The Typical and Anti-Typical Sanctuary, 10.

^[3] Ellen Gould White, The Present Truth, n.d., 12.

^[4] Ellen Gould White, To Those Who Are Receiving the Seal of the Living God, n.d., 10.

[5] White, “Letter 4, 1849 to Brother and Sister Hastings, March 22 from Topsham, Maine.”

[6] White, “Manuscript 7, 1849, Written March 24, at Topsham, Maine.”

^[7] Ellen Gould White, Early Writings of Ellen G. White (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1882), 276.

^[8] Ellen Gould White, The Present Truth, n.d., 8.

^[9] Ellen Gould White, The Present Truth, n.d., 8.

^[10] Ellen Gould White, The Present Truth, n.d., 8.

^[11] Ellen Gould White, The Present Truth, n.d., 14. (Ellen White wrote in 1861, “…we believe the shaking time has come.” (Letter 5b, 1861, to Lucinda Hall) Ellen White wrote in 1864, “I saw that we are now in the shaking time.” (Testimony for the Church Vol. 10 (1864), 38; Review and Herald, Jan. 19, 1864).

[12] White, Present Truth.

^[13] Ellen Gould White, Early Writings of Ellen G. White (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1882), 64.

^[14] Ellen Gould White, Early Writings of Ellen G. White (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1882), 67.

^[15] Ellen Gould White, A Sketch of the Christian Experience and Views of Ellen G. White, 1851, 46.

^[16] Ellen Gould White, A Sketch of the Christian Experience and Views of Ellen G. White, 1851, 46–47.

[17] White, “Manuscript 6, Para. 2.”

[18] Ball, Hope of Israel Vol. 1, No. 11, 79.