Why Were Parts of Ellen White’s First Vision Deleted?

Feature, Investigative Judgment, Wes Ringer

WES RINGER | Former Adventist Bible Translation Consultant |

“Let’s start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start,” give very sound advice for anyone seeking to test Ellen White’s claims to have received visions from the Holy Spirit.1  I was raised a fifth generation Seventh-day Adventist, who from early childhood desired to know Christ. But in high school and college, I became increasingly convinced that I would not be saved because I would not be able to live without sin at the time when Jesus would cease to be our mediator in heaven.2 In 1970, at the beginning of my senior year at Andrews University, God graciously opened my heart to believe and receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. This was at a time when many others there were coming to personal faith in Christ. I had great joy in knowing that I was a child of God through Christ’s once and for all sacrifice, and I developed a deep thirst to understand the Word of God. 

One month later as I was reading through Hebrews in the Living New Testament, I was struck that Hebrews 6:19-20, chapters 9-10, and 13:10-13 all seemed to be saying that Jesus had at the time of his ascension fulfilled the work of the high priest on the Day of Atonement. He did this by going once and for all by means of his own blood into the heavenly Most Holy Place, and that by faith in his one sacrifice, believers in the first century could enter boldly through the veil into the presence of God. As I read and re-read Hebrews, the following question came to me, “If it is true that Christ had entered the Most Holy Place when he ascended into the heaven, then what happened in 1844?” The writer of Hebrews seemed to be saying that nothing happened. However, if nothing happened in 1844, then clearly Ellen White could not be a prophet of God, nor could the Seventh-day Adventist Church be the last true remnant church. 

This revelation caused me to purchase a New American Standard Study Bible and to read and re-read Hebrews including all of its cross references. I also read Leviticus 16, which described in detail what happened on the Day of Atonement, and many other passages in Exodus to Deuteronomy that spoke of the sanctuary, the veil, and the functioning of the Holy and Most Holy Place over the next several years. Where the New Living Translation used Most Holy Place in Leviticus 16 and Hebrews 9-10 and 13, the NASB used Holy Place. This caused me to look at the context in which Holy Place was used, and I found that in each of these verses it was speaking about the work of the high priest on the Day of Atonement when he went into the second room of the sanctuary, which was clearly the Most Holy Place.3 This study confirmed what I had first seen in November of 1970. Many years later, I was able to read through Hebrews in the Greek New Testaments, which only confirmed that Christ had fulfilled the work of the high priest on the Day of Atonement when he ascended into heaven. 

All this study and my new realizations finally resulted, in August, 1981, in my being suspended from my teaching of Bible and History at San Gabriel Academy in California and being granted a study leave. During this leave, I did research in the Heritage Room at Loma Linda University on the issues relating to 1844, the shut-door, and Ellen White’s visions and writings from 1844 to 1855, for the Southern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.4 After presenting them my paper The Shut-door and the Sanctuary: Historical and Theological Problems, I was  fired from my teaching job in April, and disfellowshipped by my local Adventist Church in May of 1982.

Back to the First Vision

Now let us look at the background that led up to the first vision Ellen Harmon received at the age of seventeen in December of 1844. When she was about nine years of age, she was struck in the nose by a rock which resulted in a serious injury that left her hovering between life and death for a number of months. After that, she was only occasionally well enough to attend school because of the lingering effects of that injury. In 1840 at age 13, she and her parents began attending Millerite meetings, and she had fears that she was not ready for Christ’s coming. Then she had a vision-like experience of the love of Jesus filling her soul. 

“Wave after wave of glory rolled over me until my body grew stiff. Everything was shut out from me but Jesus and glory, and I knew nothing of what was passing around me. I remained in this state of body and mind a long time, and when I realized what was around me, everything seemed changed.”5 

William Miller taught that Jesus would return sometime between March of 1843 and March of 1844 according to 15 different proofs.6 However, in February, 1844, S. S. Snow predicted that Christ would not come until the fall of 1844.7 When Jesus failed to return, Adventists came to believe that they were slumbering and sleeping regarding the time of Christ’s coming on the basis of the parable of the Ten Virgins in Mathew 25:1-13. They believed this parable explained in detail every aspect of their advent experiences from 1843-1844. This time of sleeping continued until August of 1844, when Snow proclaimed the Midnight Cry that Jesus would return on the Day of Atonement in 1844. However, in reporting on his remarks in The Advent Herald, the writer expressed that one should hesitate to attempt to know the very day of Christ’s coming.8 There was also continued uncertainty about when the Day of Atonement would occur in 1844, because the orthodox Jews observed that day on September 23, while the Karaite Jews celebrated it on October 22, 1844.9 It seems that the Adventists settled on October 22, 1844m as the day of Christ’s coming since he had not come in September.

When the mainstream denominations began to react negatively to Miller’s time-setting by disfellowshipping Millerites, Charles Fitch, in 1843, applied the second angel’s message of Revelation 14 to the churches that rejected Miller’s date for Christ’s return. All Adventists were, as a result, to come out of these churches which Fitch labeled “Babylon.”10 James White confirmed this view when he said, “The fall of Babylon commenced in the spring of ’43 when the churches all around, began to fall into a cold state, and was complete on the 7th month ’44, when the last faint ray of hope was taken up from a wicked world and church.”11 This belief resulted in Ellen and her family being disfellowshipped from their Methodist Church in Portland, Maine. When Christ failed to return, many Adventist said that their work for the world was finished, because they felt that the door in the parable of the ten virgins, in Matthew 25 was now shut. 

For months, they had worked day and night to warn people of Christ’s coming, as if they were running the 100-yard dash, and as a result, they were both physically and emotionally exhausted when Christ failed to return. William Miller finally carried the parable of the Ten Virgins to its logical conclusion by asserting in November 18, 1844:

“We have done our work in warning sinners, and in trying to awaken a formal church. God in his providence has shut the door; we can only stir one another up to be patient . . . we are now living in the time specified by Malachi 3:18, also Daniel 12:10, Rev. 22:10-12. In this passage we cannot help but see that a little while before Christ should come, there would be a separation between the just and the unjust, the righteous, and the wicked. . . And never since the days of the apostles has there been such a division line drawn, as was drawn about the 10th or 23rd day of the 7th Jewish month.”12

However, other Adventists said that that door would not be shut until Christ came, and since he had not yet come, the door of salvation remained open, and they continued to preach the gospel and reported sinners being saved. This division between open-door and shut-door Adventists was to continue for more than ten years.13

It was in the context of this heated division between shut-door and open-door Adventists, that Ellen Harmon had her first vision in December of 1844, which was published first in a shut-door Adventist paper, The Day-Star on January 24, 1846. 

At this, I raised my eyes and see a straight and narrow path, cast up high above the world. On this path the Advent people were traveling to the City, which was at the farther end of the path. They had a bright light set up behind them at the first end of the path, which an angel told me was the Midnight Cry. This light shone all along the path and gave light for their feet so they might not stumble. And if they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus, who was just before them, leading them to the City, they were safe. But soon some grew weary, and said the City was a great way off, and they expected to have entered it before. Then Jesus would encourage them by raising his glorious right arm, and from his arm came a glorious light which waved over the Advent band, and they shouted, Hallelujah! Others rashly denied the light behind them and said that it was not God that had led them out so far. The light behind them went out which left their feet in perfect darkness, and they stumbled and got their eyes off the mark and lost sight of Jesus, and fell off the path down in the dark and wicked world below. It was just as impossible for them to get on the path again & go to the City, as all the wicked world which God had rejected. They fell all the way along the path one after another, until we heard the voice of God like many waters, which gave us the day and hour of Jesus’ coming.14

In this vision she saw that those who rejected the light behind them, which was the Midnight Cry that Christ would come October 22, 1844, fell off the path down into the wicked world. The reason given as to why they could not get back on the path was that God had rejected all the wicked world.

Her first vision was republished, with only minor changes, on April 6, 1846, along with her second vision given in February, 1845, in a broadside To the Little Remnant Scattered Abroad. At that time Ellen Harmon had been staying for most of the previous eight months with the family of Otis Nichols. On April 20, 1846, Nichols wrote on the back side of a copy of that April 6, 1846, broadside a letter to William Miller, in which he sought to persuade Miller that her visions came from the Holy Spirit. 

The message to the church and world, “Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgement has come,” I fully believed ended on the 10th day of the 7th month, 1844 (for there has not been any effect produced on the church and the world by preaching the gospel of the Kingdome (sic) and judgement since that time.)

Her message was always attended with the Holy Ghost, and wherever it was received as from the Lord it broke down and melted their hearts like little children. [It] fed, comforted, strengthened the weak, and encouraged them to hold on to the faith and [to] the seventh-month-movement—that our work was done for the nominal church and the world what remained to be done was for the household of faith.15

He spoke of “the 10th day of the 7th month, 1844,” which referred to October 22, 1844, and his statement that “that our work was done for the nominal church and the world” showed that he is a shut-door Adventist. However, by March of 1845, Miller had rejected the shut-door and was preaching the gospel to sinners. This seemed to be the reason why he did not accept her visions. From 1844 to 1851, I have found no record of any open-door Adventist coming to believe that the visions of Ellen White were from God. 

Joseph Bates writing in April, 1847, explained why the shut-door and the gospel were not compatible. 

 “Paul’s Open-door, then, was the preaching of the gospel with effect to the Gentiles. Now let this door be shut, and the preaching of this gospel will have no effect. This is what we say is the fact. The gospel message ended at the appointed time with the closing of the 2300 days; and almost every honest believer that is watching the signs of the times will believe it.”16

Bates also noted in A Word to the Little Flock published on May 30, 1847, that he had observed Ellen White for almost two years, as she had a number of visions. At first he was uncertain as to the source of her visions, but finally concluded, “I can now confidently speak for myself. I believe the work is of God, and is given to comfort and strengthen his ‘scattered,’ ‘torn,’ and ‘pealed people,’ since the closing up of our work for the world in October, 1844.”17 Bates had also begun keeping the seventh-day Sabbath several years before, and saw Ellen in vision on April 6, 1847, when she made very strong statements supporting the keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath, which he published as A Vision, on April 7, 1847. This vision was also republished in A Word to the Little Flock, which I will compare to her first vision below. It is clear that Bates became convinced that her visions were the work of God because they confirmed both the shut-door and the seventh-day Sabbath.

Ellen White wrote a letter to Joseph Bates on July 13, 1847,18 in which she talked about both her first and second vision. She related the effect that her second vision, in February, 1846, had on those who heard it. 

There was one sister there that was called very spiritual. She had traveled and been a powerful preacher the most of the time for twenty years. She had been truly a mother in Israel. But a division had risen in the band on the shut door. She had great sympathy, and could not believe the door was shut. (I had known nothing of their differences.) Sister Durben got up to talk. I felt very, very sad. 

At length my soul seemed to be in an agony, and while she was talking I fell from my chair to the floor. It was then I had a view of Jesus rising from His mediatorial throne and going to the Holiest as Bridegroom to receive His kingdom. They were all deeply interested in the view. They all said it was entirely new to them. The Lord worked in mighty power setting the truth home to their hearts. 

Sister Durben knew what the power of the Lord was, for she had felt it many times; and a short time after I fell she was struck down, and fell to the floor, crying to God to have mercy on her. When I came out of vision, my ears were saluted with Sister Durben’s singing and shouting with a loud voice. Most of them received the vision, and were settled upon the shut door. Previous to this I had no light on the coming of the Bridegroom, but had expected Him to [come to] this earth to deliver His people on the tenth day of the seventh month. I did not hear a lecture or a word in any way relating to the Bridegroom’s going to the Holiest.

In this letter she made it clear to Bates that before her first vision, she had given up believing that the door was already shut, and thought it would still happen in the future. However, it was her first vision in December, 1844, and her second in February, 1845, that confirmed to her that the door was indeed shut. She also spoke approvingly of J. Turner, a friend of her family, although she denied having read the paper that he had written, which was in her house. She expressed surprise when she discovered that her December, 1844, vision was in agreement with his views. Turner wrote in the January, 1845, Advent Mirror, “But can any sinners be converted if the door is shut? Of course they cannot, though changes that may appear to be conversions may take place.”19 

James White  republished her first vision with these same the minor changes in A Word to the Little Flock in May, 1847.  He also had this to say about the effect that this first vision had on her and the Advent band in Portland, Maine:

When she received her first vision, Dec. 1844, she and all the band in Portland, Maine, (were her parents then resided) had given up the midnight-cry, and shut door, as being in the past. It was then that the Lord shew her in vision, the error into which she and the band in Portland had fallen. She then related her vision to the band and about sixty confessed their error, and acknowledged their 7th month experience to be the work of God.20

Writing in the May, 1850, Present Truth he explained his understanding of the meaning of the shut-door when he said, “He is still merciful to his saints, and ever will be; and Jesus is still their advocate and priest. But the sinner, to whom Jesus had stretched out his arms all the day long, and who rejected the offers of salvation was left without an advocate, when Jesus passed from the Holy Place, and shut the door in 1844.”21

However, when Ellen White’s first vision was republished in the Review and Herald Extra on July 21, 1851, two parts were omitted representing about 6% of the total vision. She gave the following as the reason for leaving out some things from her first vision. “Here I will give the view that was first published in 1846. In this view I saw only a few of the events of the future. More recent views have been more full. I will therefore leave out a portion and prevent repetition.”22  It was also noted in this Extra, “But, as many are prejudiced against visions, we think it best at present not to insert any kind in the regular paper. We will therefore publish the visions by themselves for the benefit of those who believe that God can fulfill his word and give visions ‘in the last days’.”23 There is much to suggest in this Review and Herald Extra, that by that time Ellen and James White were beginning the process of reinterpreting the meaning their shut-door views, which strongly suggests that that was the reason why what is bold italics below was deleted from her first vision.

While praying at the family altar the Holy Ghost fell on me and I seemed to be rising higher and higher, far above the dark world. I turned to look for the Advent people in the world, but could not find them, when a voice said to me, Look again, and look a little higher. At this, I raised my eyes and see a straight and narrow path, cast up high above the world. On this path the Advent people were traveling to the City, which was at the farther end of the path. They had a bright light set up behind them at the first end of the path, which an angel told me was the Midnight Cry. This light shone all along the path and gave light for their feet so they might not stumble. And if they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus, who was just before them, leading them to the City, they were safe. But soon some grew weary, and said the City was a great way off, and they expected to have entered it before. Then Jesus would encourage them by raising his glorious right arm, and from his arm came a glorious light which waved over the Advent band, and they shouted, Hallelujah! Others rashly denied the light behind them and said that it was not God that had led them out so far. The light behind them went out which left their feet in perfect darkness, and they stumbled and got their eyes off the mark and lost sight of Jesus, and fell off the path down in the dark and wicked world below. It was just as impossible for them to get on the path again & go to the City, as all the wicked world which God had rejected. They fell all the way along the path one after another, until we heard the voice of God like many waters, which gave us the day and hour of Jesus’ coming.

What is often not mentioned is why an even larger part of her first vision was deleted when it was reprinted for the fourth time in The Review and Herald Extra of July 21, 1851, while the Broadside 3 A Vision was published with no deletions in this same Review and Herald Extra.

The Day-Star January 24, 1846

Broadside 3, A Vision, April 7, 1847

Her first vision was published in The Day-Star January 24, 1846 (all this part below was deleted from her first vision in the R&H Extra of July 21, 1851)

Ellen White, Broadside 3, A Vision, April 7, 1847 written to Joseph Bates (Wes italicized things of interest in this vision)

And as we were gazing at the glories of the place, our eyes were attracted upwards to something that had the appearance of silver. I asked Jesus to let me see what was within there. In a moment we were winging our way upward and entering in. Here we saw good old father Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Noah, Daniel, and many like them. And I saw a veil with a heavy fringe of silver, and gold as a border on the bottom. It was very beautiful. I asked Jesus what was within the veil. He raised it with his own right arm, and bade me take heed. I saw there a glorious ark, overlaid with pure gold, and it had a glorious border resembling Jesus’ crowns. On it were two bright angels; their wings were spread over the ark as they sat on each end, with their faces turned towards each other and looking downward. In the ark, beneath where the angels wings were spread, was a golden pot of Manna of a yellowish cast, and I saw a rod, which Jesus said was Aarons, I saw it bud, blossom, and bear fruit.—And I saw two long golden rods on which hung silver wires, and on the wires most glorious grapes. One cluster was more than a man here can carry. And I saw Jesus step up and take of the manna, almonds, grapes, and pomegranates, and bear them down to the city, and place them on the supper table. I stepped up to see how much was taken away, and there was just as much left, and we shouted Hallelujah. {These words were all omitted in R&H Extra of July 21, 1851} 

In the Holiest I saw an ark; on the top and sides of it was purest gold. On each end of the ark was a lovely Cherub, with their wings spread out over it. Their faces were turned towards each other, and they looked downwards.

Between the angels was a golden censor. Above the ark, where the angels stood, was an exceeding bright glory, that appeared like a throne where God dwelt. Jesus stood by the ark. And as the saints’ prayers came up to Jesus, the incense in the censor would smoke, and He offered up the prayers of the saints with the smoke of the incense to His Father. In the ark, was the golden pot of manna, Aaron’s rod that budded and the tables of stone which folded together like a book. Jesus opened them, and I saw the ten commandments written on them with the finger of God. On one table was four, and on the other six. The four on the first table shone brighter than the other six. But the fourth (the Sabbath commandment,) shone above them all; for the Sabbath was set apart to be kept in honor of God’s holy name. The holy Sabbath looked glorious—a halo of glory was all around it. I saw that the Sabbath was not nailed to the cross. If it was, the other nine commandments were; and we are at liberty to go forth and break them all, as well as to break the fourth. I saw that God had not changed the Sabbath, for He never changes. But the Pope had changed it from the seventh to the first day of the week; for he was to change times and laws. {Ellen White Broadside, April 7, 1847 par. 3}

In this second deleted portion of the first vision, Ellen Harmon was taken into the Most Holy Place in heaven by Jesus and shown the inside of the ark of the covenant, where she saw only the manna and Arron’s rod. However in her April, 1847, vision,24 when Jesus led her into Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary, and showed her the ark, she saw not only the manna and Arron’s rod, but also the Ten Commandments, with a halo of light around the fourth. 

Why did Ellen not see the ten-commandments, or any mention of the seventh-day Sabbath in her first vision? In 1844, she was not yet keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, but by 1847 she was. These two contrasting visions strongly suggest that Ellen White only saw in vision what she previously had either heard or read about what her fellow Adventists were discussing. In the aftermath of the Great Disappointment in October, 1844, there was a fierce debate within Adventist circles as to whether the door of salvation for sinners was open or shut. She acknowledged in her July, 1847, letter to Bates that she had gone from believing that the door was shut to believing that it was open before of her December, 1844, vision, but that it was her first and second visions that reconfirmed her faith in the shut-door. However, in 1844 there was no similar debate within Adventist circles about keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, or linking the Sabbath with the shut-door. 

Yet according to a vision that she had on March 24, 1849 in Topsham, Maine, the Sabbath was to have been a testing truth ever since Christ entered the Most Holy Place as our high priest on October 22, 1844. 

There I was shown that the commandments of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ, relating to the Shut-door, could not be separated, and that the time for the commandments of God to shine out, with all their importance, and for God’s people to be tried on the Sabbath truth, was when the door was opened in the Most Holy Place of the Heavenly Sanctuary, where the Ark is, containing the ten commandments. This door was not opened, until the mediation of Jesus was finished in the Holy Place of the Sanctuary in 1844. Then, Jesus rose up, and shut the door in the Holy Place, and opened the door in the Most Holy, and passed within the second veil, where he now stands by the Ark; and where the faith of Israel now reaches.25

The fact that she did not see in her first vision either the ten commandments in the ark, nor that the Sabbath had become a testing truth since the shutting of the door in 1844, strongly suggest that, that was the reason why this second part of her first vision was deleted when it was republished in the July 1851 Review and Herald Extra. She said that her visions were given to correct peoples’ errors.26 If that was true, then why was she not shown in her first vision that she and others should have been keeping the seventh-day Sabbath since October 22, 1844? 

She saw in her second vision that Christ had entered into the Most Holy Place for the first time as our high priest on October 22, 1844, which confirmed those who heard her in their belief that the door was shut.27 And once they began to keep the seventh-day Sabbath, they were convinced that all reports of the conversion of sinners could not be true, since these new converts did not keep the seventh-day Sabbath.28 However, her visions about the Sabbath contradicts Paul’s injunction that no one was to be judged with regard to a festival, a new moon or Sabbath, because they are but a shadow and the reality is Christ.29 If someone does not believe that Paul, in Colossians 2:16-17, was referring to the seventh-day Sabbath, then please compare his use of the terms: festival, new moon or Sabbath with what the Old Testament has to say about the meaning of these same terms when they are used together.30

In a vision Mrs. White experienced in Oswego, N. Y. on July 29, 1850, she saw that those who had not kept the seventh-day Sabbath since 1844, and had followed the pope in keeping the first day would have to be baptized again.

“Then I saw those whose hands are now engaged in making up the breach and are standing in the gaps, that have formerly since ‘44 broken the Commandments of God and have so far followed the pope as to keep the first day instead of the Seventh, would have to go into the water and be baptized in the faith of the Shut door and keeping the Commandments of God and in the faith of Jesus coming to sit on the throne of his Father David and to redeem Israel.”31

There was some truth to her charge that the pope had changed the day, because most Christians in her day thought that they were keeping the Sabbath of the fourth commandment on Sunday. Because of this belief, these shut-door Adventists had a powerful old covenant argument for keeping the Sabbath on the seventh-day. However, Christians in the early church had a much better understanding of the difference between the old and new covenant. Justin Martyr, who lived from around 100 to 165 AD, was put to death because of his faith in Christ. At that time the bishop of Rome did not have the power that the pope would later have. Justin had an extended dialogue with Trypho, a Jews who did not believe in Christ, but sought to have Justin become circumcised and keep the whole law of Moses, so that he would be saved. Justin has this to say in reply,

As, then, circumcision began with Abraham, and the Sabbath and sacrifices and offerings and feasts with Moses, and it has been proved they were enjoined on account of the hardness of your people’s heart, so it was necessary, in accordance with the Father’s will, that they should have an end in Him who was born of a virgin, of the family of Abraham and tribe of Judah, and of David; in Christ the Son of God, who was proclaimed as about to come to all the world, to be the everlasting law and the everlasting covenant, even as the fore mentioned prophecies show.32

You may feel quick to reject Justin’s reasoning, because you are so certain that the fourth-commandment is part of the eternal moral law of God. But before you do so, please note what Jesus said to the Pharisees, when they accused his disciples of breaking the Sabbath, “Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent?”33 So which was more important to rest on the Sabbath, or for the priests to work by offering sacrifices on the Sabbath? Likewise, the Jews would circumcise their sons on the Sabbath, even though Gentile believers in the New Testament were not required to be circumcised. Here again we see that keeping the ceremonial part of the Law was seen as being more important than resting on the Sabbath.34

 Likewise note what Paul says, “One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.”35 He also said that Jesus brought the Jews and Gentiles to become one, by abolishing the law that had divided them, and that this law was only to last until the coming of Christ.36 The writer of Hebrews also noted that before Jesus could serve as our high priest there must first be a change in the law, and “By calling this covenant ‘new’, he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.”37 

The expectation that they would know the day and hour of Christ’s coming suggests that that was why in her first vision she,  “. . . heard the voice of God like many waters, which gave us the day and hour of Jesus’ coming.”38 Again in her second vision she said, “Then we heard the voice of God which shook the heavens and earth, and gave the 144,000 the day and hour of Jesus’ coming.” In a 1847 vision she wrote, “And as God spoke the day and hour of Jesus coming, and delivered the everlasting covenant to His people.”39

In a letter to the editor of The Day-Star on August 19, 1845, James White mentions Ellen Harmon’s first vision in which God gave the 144,000 the day and hour of Jesus’ coming.40

There is one Sister in Maine who has had a clear vision of the Advent people traveling to the City of God. In her vision she heard the “Mid-night Cry”—she saw a mighty host start at the point where the cry was made, finished—soon she saw many denying the light set behind them, (which was the midnight cry.) By this time they were in darkness, and began to stumble and fall off from the straight and narrow path, down into the dark world below to rise no more. She saw them continually falling till the voice of God was heard as recorded in Ezek. 12:25, which was a number of days before the “Sign of the Son of Man” appeared—which was the great white cloud, Rev. 14:14. We think it may be 15 days—the prophetic hour of temptation. Rev. 3:10. 

He followed with a second letter published by The Day-Star on September 20, 1845, in which he was convinced that Jesus would come before October 22, 1845. “Do we know what watch the Lord is coming? Certainly. Three have passed, and there is but four. All who see this light will receive a certainty that before the 10th day of the 7th month 1845, our King will come, and we will watch, and like Noah know the day.”41 

Even when this new date for the coming of Christ was proved to be wrong, James White remained convinced that God would proclaim to believers the day and hour of Christ coming. In A Word to the Little Flock published in May 1847, he republished an article that he had first published in The Day Dawn, in which he says that Jesus had promised that the Father will make known the day and the hour of his coming.

“Concerning the time of that (Christ’s) coming, he says, in Mark 13:32, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” It is thought by many, that this passage proves that men are never to know the time. But if it proves this, it likewise proves, that the Son of God, himself, is never to know the time; for the passage declares precisely the same concerning him, that it does concerning angels and men. But can any person believe that our glorious Lord, to whom all power in heaven and earth is given, is, and will remain ignorant of the time until the very moment that he comes to judge the world?42

Jesus has left us the sure promise, that his Father will make known the day and the hour of his coming. That “Lord God” has promised to speak, and assures us that the word that he will speak, “shall come to pass.” With such testimony as this before us, from the Father and Son, what other conclusion can we come to, than that the “word which the Father is to speak, is the true time, and when he speaks, his voice will make it known to his saints?43

Ellen White also saw that God had made time a test, in this vision published in the November 1850 Present Truth, “The Lord showed me that the 1843 chart was directed by his hand, and that no part of it should be altered; that the figures were as he wanted them. That his hand was over and hid a mistake in some of the figures, so that none could see it, until his hand was removed. . . . . The Lord showed me that Time had not been a test since 1844, and that time will never again be a test.”44

But how could the God make the time of the coming of Christ a test in 1844? Jesus had made clear the whole point the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1-13, when he concluded by saying, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” There have been many groups setting dates for Christ coming both before and after 1844, who should have heeded Jesus warning. Snow said that he knew the day of Christ coming, based on Miller’s understanding of Daniel, however, it seemed that neither he nor Ellen White realized, it if his reasoning was correct, then Miller correctly understood Daniel 8-9 and Jesus did not. For if while Jesus was speaking to his disciples, he had correctly understood Daniel 8:14, he would have known then that he would be returning on October 22, 1844.

However, Ellen White’s many visions, between 1844 to 1851, did not help her to understand this conclusion that both Jesus and his apostles spoke about again and again in many other teachings and parables.45 After the passage of many years, Ellen White grew in her understanding of the Word of God partly as the result of reading many evangelical Christian authors.46 It was not her visions, but rather her understanding of Scripture that lead her to finally agree with those who had opposed the Adventist date setting in the 1840’s, and to agree with open-door Adventist, who said that they had been wrong to set a date for Christ’s coming. Over fifty years after 1844, Ellen White would write the following in The Desire of Ages:

“But the day and hour of His coming Christ has not revealed. He stated plainly to His disciples that He Himself could not make known the day or hour of His second appearing. Had He been at liberty to reveal this, why need He have exhorted them to maintain an attitude of constant expectancy? There are those who claim to know the very day and hour of our Lord’s appearing. Very earnestly are they mapping out the future? But the Lord has warned them off the ground they occupy. The exact time of the second coming of the Son of man is God’s mystery.”47

However, if in 1840, she had believed what she later wrote in The Desire of Ages, she would not have become an Adventist, or if she had come to this understanding after the great disappointment in 1844, she would have become an open-door Adventist. Instead, it was her visions from 1844 to 1851, that caused her again and again to hear that God would proclaim the day and hour of Christ coming, and to see in vision that God had made the time of Christ’s coming in 1844 a test. 

What must one conclude about this first vision? That this vision caused Ellen White and those who believed in her visions to believe in the shut-door. It also hid the true meaning of the parable of the wise and foolish virgins in Matthew 25:1-13 from her, even though Jesus had concluded this parable about his second coming by saying, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” However, even though she would later affirm a correct understanding of Jesus’ teaching against date setting, she would still never admit to others that her first two visions had led her into the error of believing that God had shut the door on October 22, 1844. And this error kept her and others, who believed in her visions, not to preach the Good News to sinners for more than seven years.

Those who believe that Ellen White’s visions came from the Holy Spirit, wish to accept her later statements that her visions never taught the shut-door. Thirty years after 1844, she wrote in Selected Messages, 

“I did believe no more sinners would be converted. But I never had a vision that no more sinners would be converted. I never had stated that the world is doomed or damned.”48

“For a time after the disappointment of 1844, I did hold in common with the advent body, that the door of mercy was then forever closed to the world. This position was taken before my first vision was given me. It was the light given me of God that converted our error, and enabled us to see the true position.”49 

However, these later statements by Ellen White simply cannot be reconciled with her first vision and what she, her husband James, and Joseph Bates repeatedly said about the meaning of the shut-door between 1844 to 1851. Nor can her later warning in Desire and Ages against setting a date for Christ coming be reconciled with her earlier visions that God would tell the 144,000 the day and hour of Christ’s coming and had made the 1844 date a test.

I have sought in this paper to test if her first vision came from the Holy Spirit, but you may wish to know how I can account for the contradictions that I see in her life? On the one hand her visions and writings from 1844 to 1851 show her to be an earnest Christian, who was convinced that her visions were from the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, her 1847 letter to Joseph Bates showed that it was her first two visions that convinced her and that the door was shut and sinners could longer be saved. What is the best way for me to understand these contradictions? We know that she suffered a serious brain injury as a young girl, and sometimes this type of injury can cause someone to have visionary experiences that can be religious in nature.50 This I believe best accounts for her visions. I also believe that because she was utterly convinced that her visions came from the Holy Spirit, that she feared that if she ever doubted her visions in any way, that she would lose her salvation. In the August, 1851 Experience and Views, she has this to say about her visions.

And while at family prayers one morning, the power of God began to rest upon me, and the thought rushed into my mind that it was mesmerism, and I resisted it. Immediately I was struck dumb, and for a few moments was lost to everything around me. I then saw my sin in doubting the power of God, and that for so doing I was struck dumb, and that my tongue should be loosed in less than twenty-four hours.51

When the Lord first gave me messages to deliver to his people, it was hard for me to declare them. And I often softened them down, and made them as mild as possible for fear of grieving them. It was a great trial to declare the messages as the Lord gave them to me. I did not realize that I was so unfaithful, and did not see the danger and sin of such a course, until I was taken in vision into the presence of Jesus. He looked upon me with a frown, and turned his face from me. It is not possible to describe the terror and agony I then felt. I fell upon my face before him, but had no power to utter a word. O, how I longed to be covered and hid from that dreadful frown. Then could I realize, in some degree, what the feelings of the lost will be, when they cry, “Mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and the wrath of the Lamb.”

Presently an angel bid me rise, and the sight that met my eyes can hardly be described. A company was presented before me whose hair and garments were torn, and whose countenances were the very picture of despair and horror. They came close to me and took their garments and rubbed them on mine. I looked at my garments, and saw that they were stained with blood, and that blood was eating holes in my garments. Again I fell like one dead, at the feet of my accompanying angel. I could not plead one excuse. My tongue refused all utterance, and I longed to be away from such a holy place. Again the angel stood me upon my feet, and said “This is not your case now, but this scene has passed before you, to let you know what your situation must be, if you neglect to declare to others what the Lord has revealed to you.52

It was this fear that if she doubted her visions in any way, she would lose her salvation, and her later need to defend them, that caused her to be far less that truthful in her later statements about what her early visions had led her to believe in the shut-door. 

In the end the Word of God only asks me to test if her visions came from the Holy Spirit, nor to prove what the source of her visions were. I believe that I have demonstrated in this paper that her first vision led her away from the clear teaching of the Word of God, and that the source of her first vision came largely from what she had heard and read about what other shut-door Adventists were saying. However, I wish for you to test and see if you come to this same conclusion. 

Let us test Ellen Harmon’s first vision by these words from Deuteronomy 18:21-22. You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?”52 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.” †

Endnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 18:21-22 says that what a prophet says must come true, or God has not spoken through him. Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 to test prophecies and to hold on to what is good. If we wish Mormons and Muslims to test their prophet, even if it would cause loss of relationships or death, then we should also be willing to test Ellen White’s prophetic claims.
  2. Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 425. “Those who are living upon the earth when the intercession of Christ shall cease in the sanctuary above are to stand in the sight of a holy God without a mediator.”
  3. NASB translates the holy place in the following verses while the NIV and Good News translate the same Hebrew or Greek word as most holy place: Leviticus 16:2,16,17,20,23,27; Hebrews 9:8,12,25; 10:19; 13:11. KJV likewise translates holy place like the NASB in all these verses except in Hebrews 9:8 & 10:10 where it translates holiest, and in 13:11 it translates sanctuary. NLT also translates Most Holy Place in all of these verses except Hebrews 13:11.
  4. Wesley Ringer, “The Shut-door and the Sanctuary: Historical and Theological Problems”, April 6, 1982
  5. Ellen G. White, “Experience and Views,” Review and Herald Extra, July 21, 1851 paragraphs 4-5. See Ibid. Appendix XXI: A-107 for the full text.
  6. See Ibid. Appendix II: A-40, William Miller’s 15 Proofs that Jesus was Coming in 1843-1844. I have read the Great Controversy p. 317-432, beginning with chapter 20, “A Great Religious Awakening” to the end of chapter 28, “The Investigative Judgement”. Ellen White mentions Miller’s understanding of Daniel 8:14 many times in those pages, while never mentioning any other verse in Daniel 8. Miller again and again took a verse or verses out of context in each of his 15 proofs, in order to be able to prove that Jesus was coming in 1843-44.
  7. S. S. Snow, “Prophetic Time”, The Advent Herald, April 3, 1844, vol. 7, p. 69-70. See Ibid. Appendix III: A-47 for full text. Note that Snow was really claiming that if Jesus had just understood Daniel 8-9 correctly, he would have known that October 22, 1844 was the date of his second coming.
  8. “The Exeter Campmeeting,” The Advent Herald, August 21, 1844, vol. 8, no. 3, p. 20.
  9. “The tenth day of the seventh month. When does it Come?” The Advent Herald, September 25, 1844, vol. 8, no. 8, p. 60.
  10. Charles Fitch, Come out of Her My People, p. 24
  11. James White, “Watchman, What of the Night!” The Day-Star, September, 20, 1845, vol. 7, no. 7, p. 26.
  12. William Miller, The Advent Herald, December 11, 1844, vol. 8, no. 18, p. 142. Note that the 23rd day of the 7th Jewish month, refers to October 23, 1844 the day after the Day of Atonement according to the Jewish calendar.
  13. See “The Shut-door and the Sanctuary”: Chapter III: The Conflict Between the Shut-door and Open-door Adventist 1845-1846
  14. Ellen G. Harmon, “Letter from Sister Harmon. Portland Me. Dec. 20, 1845,” The Day-Star, January 24, 1846, vol. 9, no. 7&8, p. 31. See Ibid. Appendix IV: A-52 for the complete text of this vision.
  15. Otis Nichols, “Letter to William Miller,” April 20, 1846.
  16. Joseph Bates, Second Advent Way Marks and High Heaps, p. 65-66
  17. Joseph Bates, A Word to the Little Flock, p. 21.
  18. Ellen G. White, “Letter to Bates July 13, 1847″: Read why this letter was hidden for so long and what is its significance in Adventist Currents, Volume 1, No. 4, at www.hacksplace.com; or in The Shut-door and the Sanctuary: Appendix VIII: A-71.
  19. A. Hale & J. Turner, The Advent Mirror, January 1845, vol. 1, no. 1. See Ibid. p. 11.
  20. James White, A Word to the Little Flock, May 30, 1847, p. 22.
  21. James White, The Present Truth, vol. 1, no. 10. May 1850.
  22. Ellen White, “Experience and Views,” The Advent Review and Herald Extra, July 21, 1851, vol. 1, no. 2, p. 2.
  23. Ibid. p. 4. 
  24. Ellen G. White, “A Vision,” Broadside, April 1847. See The Shut-door and the Sanctuary: Appendix VI: A-54 for the complete text of this vision.
  25. Ellen G. White, “Dear Brethren and Sisters,” The Present Truth, vol. 1, no. 3, August, 1849. See Ibid. Appendix X: A-62 for the complete text of this vision.
  26. Ellen G. White, “To Those who are Receiving the Seal of the Living God,” Broadside Jan. 31, 1849. Speaking about her visions she said, “I saw if they were in error and God chose to show them their errors through visions, and they disregarded the teachings of God through visions, they would be left to take their own way, and run in the way of error, and think they were right, until they would find out to late.” See Ibid. Appendix IX: A-73 for full text of this vision.
  27. Read more about this belief in Ellen White’s Second Vision; read “Did Christ Enter the Most Holy Place in 1844?”, by Wesley Ringer at wesleyringer@gmail.com
  28. The Shut-door and the Sanctuary: See Chapter V: “The Shut-door and the Third Angel’s Message”.
  29. Ellen G. White, “A Vision,” Broadside, April 1847 “I saw that the holy Sabbath is, and will be, the separating wall between the true Israel of God and unbelievers; and that the Sabbath is the great question, to unite the hearts of God’s dear waiting saints.” See Ibid. Appendix VI: A-54 for the complete text of this vision.
  30. Please compare Paul’s use of festivals, new moons and Sabbaths in Colossians 2:16-18 with Numbers 28-29, 1 Chronicles 23:30-31, 2 Chronicles 2:4, 2 Chronicles 8:12-13, 2 Chronicles 31:3, Nehemiah 10:33, Isaiah 1:13 -14, Ezekiel 45:17, Ezekiel 46:1-15, Hosea 2:11
  31. E. G. White, “Vision in Oswego, N. Y., July 29, 1850”, copied by Hiram Edison. See Appendix XVI, A-80 for full text.
  32. Justin Martyr, “The Dialogue with Trypho,” Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 216. See also my paper, Did the Jews think the Sabbath was a Creation Ordinance? at wesleyringer@gmail.com
  33. Matthew 12:5.
  34. Read John 7:21-24.
  35. Read Romans 14:5-10.
  36. Read Ephesians 2:11-18 and Galatians 3:19-25.
  37. See Hebrews 7:11-18, 8:13.
  38. Ellen G. Harmon, “Letter from Sister Harmon, Portland, Me. Dec, 20, 1845,” The Day-Star, January 24, 1846, vol. 9, no. 7&8, p. 31. See The Shut-door and the Sanctuary: Appendix IV: A-49 for full text of this vision.
  39. Ellen G. White, “A Vision,” Broadside, April 7, 1847. See Ibid. Appendix VI: A-54 for the full text of this vision.
  40. “Letter from Bro. White, Portland, Me, Aug, 1845,” The Day-Star, September 6, vol. 7, no. 5.
  41. James White, “Watchmen, What of the Night,” The Day-Star, September 20, 1845, vol. 7, no. 7, p. 26. Note that the 10th day of the 7th month, refers when the Day of Atonement occurred according to the Jewish calendar.
  42. James White, A Word to the Little Flock, p.5.
  43. Ibid. p.6.
  44. Ellen G. White, “Dear Brethren and Sisters,” The Present Truth, November 1850, vol. 1. No. 11, p. 86-87. See Shut Door and Sanctuary: Appendix XV: A-85 for full text of this vision.
  45. “You do not know the day or hour:” See also Matthew 24:36-51; Mark 13:32-37, Luke 12:35-40, Acts 1:6-7, 1 Thessalonians 5:2-4, 2 Peter 3:10, Revelation 3:3.
  46. See more about Ellen White’s literary borrowing in Walter T. Rea, The White Lie, M & R Publications, 1982, and Dr. Fred Veltman, Full Report of the Life of Christ Research Project, November 1988.
  47. Ellen G. White, Desire of Ages, p. 632-633.
  48. Ellen G. White, “Letter to Loughborough, August 24, 1874,” Selected Messages, Book I, p. 74.
  49. Ibid. p. 63.
  50. Molleurus Couperus, “The Significance of Ellen White’s Head Injury”, Adventist Currents vol. 1, No. 6, page 17, at www.hacksplace.com
  51. Ellen G. White, Experience and Views, August, 1851, p. 7.  See Shut Door and Sanctuary: Appendix XXIII: A-107 for the full text of Experience and Views.
  52. Ibid. p. 63.

Wesley Ringer was raised a 5th generation Seventh-day Adventist, by loving devoted Adventist parents who served ten years in missions with the SDA church in Korea from 1971-1981. After coming to personal faith in Christ in 1970, Wes began a deep study of Scripture, which led him to begin to study New Testament Greek in 1994, and then finally to complete a MA in Applied Linguistics and to take 4 upper division Greek courses in seminary in 2002-04. Since 2005, he has been serving Christ with Wycliffe Bible Translators, as a translation consultant in South Sudan. He has helped with the finishing of 6 New Testaments there. Wes wrote The Shut-door and the Sanctuary: Historical and Theological Problems for the Southern Conference of Seventh-day Adventists on April 6, 1982, revising it in 2011, and again with some small revisions in 2026. It contains all of Ellen White’s published letters and articles from 1844 to 1855 and quotes extensively from both shut-door and open-door Adventist papers from that time period. Contact him to receive this paper at wesleyringer@gmail.com

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