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Ellen G. White
became the leader of the newly formed,
Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1863. Her
visions and writings have had a significant
impact on the Seventh-Day Adventist Church
and its teachings. Many Seventh-day
Adventists still see Ellen G. White as a
divinely inspired, prophet of God.
Ellen G.
White claimed her commission embraced “the
work of a prophet” and more.
“I am now instructed that I am not to be
hindered in my work by those who engage in
suppositions regarding its nature, whose
minds are struggling with so many intricate
problems connected with the supposed work of
a prophet. My commission embraces the work
of a prophet,
but it does not end there. It
embraces much more than the minds of those
who have been sowing the seeds of unbelief
can comprehend. —Letter 244, 1906. Addressed
to elders of the Battle Creek church;”
(Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 34-36).
“My work includes much more than this
name signifies. I regard myself as a
messenger, entrusted by the Lord with
messages for His people.” (Letter 55, 1905,
Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 32, 35, 36).
Ellen G.
White said she was shown future events by
the Spirit of God.
“As the
Spirit of God has opened to my mind the
great truths of His word, and the scenes of
the past and the future, I have been bidden
to make known to others that which has thus
been revealed — to trace the history of the
controversy in past ages, and especially so
to present it as to shed a light on the
fast-approaching struggle of the future. In
pursuance of this purpose, I have endeavored
to select and group together events in the
history of the church in such a manner as to
trace the unfolding of the great testing
truths that at different periods have been
given to the world, that have excited the
wrath of Satan, and the enmity of a
world-loving church, and that have been
maintained by the witness of those who
“loved not their lives unto the death.” (The
Great Controversy xi. 2).
Ellen G. White said that we had to either
believe everything she said was from God, or
none of it was.
“The visions
are either of God or the devil.
There is no
half-way position to be taken in the matter.
God does not work in partnership with Satan.
Those who occupy this position cannot stand
there long. They go a step farther and
account the instrument God has used a
deceiver and the woman Jezebel. If after
they had taken the first step it should be
told them what position they would soon
occupy in regard to the visions, they would
have resented it as a thing impossible. But
Satan leads them on blindfolded in a perfect
deception in regard to the true state of
their feelings until he takes them in his
snare” (Letter 8, 1860, pp. 16, 17, to
Brother John Andrews, June 11, 1860. 1MR
307.1).
“…I am presenting to you what
the Lord has presented to me.
I do not write
one article in the paper expressing merely
my own ideas,
they are what God has opened
before me in vision- precious rays of light
shining from the throne.” (Testimonies Vol.
5, p. 67).
How
can we know if a person who claims to be a
prophet of God is for real or not? What
guidelines does the Bible give us to ensure
that the professing prophet is nothing more
than a charlatan?
The
Official Seventh-day Adventist Church’s website says
this:
“The Prophetic gift will
always be in harmony with the Bible. We are
warned that if prophets “do not speak
according to God’s word, it is because there
is no light in them (Isaiah 8:20, NKJV).
There are also several notes of caution
throughout the New Testament about hearing a
“different gospel” (Gal. 1:6-9) than
what the Bible reveals (Rom. 16:17-18;
Eph. 4:14).”[1]
The
Bible gives us solid guidelines for testing
prophets:
1. The prophecies of the
prophet must be fulfilled (Deut. 18:20-22).
2. Prophets cannot have
falsehoods in their visions (Jer. 23:32).
3. Prophets cannot steal their
writings from others (Jer. 23:25, 30).
4. Prophets cannot contradict the Word of
God (Isa. 8:16-22).
5. Prophets must
bear good fruit (Matt. 7:15-16).
6.
Prophets must encourage and build up others
(1 Cor. 14:3).
We need to
closely examine Ellen G. White’s first
visions regarding the Shut Door to see if
what she said was biblical, historically
correct, agrees with, or contradicts the
Word of God, and see if her words were
fruitful, encouraging and uplifting.
Ellen G.
White and the Shut Door prophecies.
Ellen G. White’s first Shut Door
“vision” was in December 1844.
“Soon we heard the voice of God like
many waters, which gave us the day and hour
of Jesus’ coming.” … “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, leaving their
feet in perfect darkness, and they stumbled
and lost sight of the mark and of Jesus, and
fell off the path down into the dark and
wicked world below. It was just as
impossible for them to get on the path again
and go to the City, as all the wicked world
which God had rejected.”[2]
NOTE: In
Ellen’s first vision, she said she saw that
it was “impossible for them [anyone who did
not believe the message of the midnight cry]
to get on the path again and go to the
City”…
Letter of Ellen G.
White, Letter 3, pp. 49-51 (LLU SDA Heritage
Room 1847)
“At the time I
had the vision of the midnight cry [her
first vision] I had given it up in the past
and thought it future [the shut door], as
also most of the band had. I know not what
time J. Turner got his paper. I knew he had
one out and one was in the house, but I knew
not what was in it, for I had not read a
word of it. After I had the vision and God
gave me light, he bade me deliver it to the
band, but I shrank from it, I was young, and
I thought they would not receive it from me…
The very next morning Joseph Turner called,
said he was in haste going out of the city
in a short time, and wanted I should tell
him all that God had shown me in vision. It
was with fear and trembling I told him all.
After I had got through he said, he had told
out the same last evening.”[3]
NOTE: Ellen is saying here that her early belief
that the door of mercy’s closing was still
future, but her vision corrected that belief
and showed her that time of mercy was closed
for those who rejected their message.
Ellen G. White, Selected
Messages Volume 2, pp. 34-35
“…after the passing of the time in 1844,
fanaticism in various forms arose … I went
into their meetings. There was much
excitement, with noise and confusion … Some
appeared to be in vision, and fell to the
floor.… As the result of fanatical movements
such as I have described, persons in no way
responsible for them have in some cases lost
their reason. They could not harmonize the
scenes of excitement and tumult with their
own past precious experience; they were
pressed beyond measure to receive the
message of error; it was represented to them
that unless they did this they would be
lost; and as a result their mind was
unbalanced, and some became insane.”
Ellen goes on to say that during this same
period she experienced a number of visions
and fell to the floor often, in such mental
turmoil that “for two weeks my mind
wandered,” an experience that she would
later call her “extreme sickness.”
Therefore, Ellen felt a certain empathy for
the “many inmates of insane asylums” who
“were brought there by experiences similar
to my own.”[4]
A Seventh-day Adventist minister
named Isaac Wellcome testified to
Ellen White’s shut door prophecies:
“I was often in meeting with Ellen G.
Harmon and James White in 1844 and ’45. I
several times caught her while falling to
the floor, --at times when she swooned away
for a vision. I have heard her relate her
visions of these dates. Several were
published on sheets, to the effect that all
were lost who did not endorse the ’44 move,
that Christ had left the throne of mercy,
and all were sealed that ever would be, and
no others could repent.”
[5]
Ellen G.
White Manuscript Releases, Present Truth,
5:93 (LLU Library Heritage Room August 1849)
“I was shown that the commandments of God,
and the testimony of Jesus Christ, relating
to the shut door, could not be separated …
My accompanying angel bade me look for the
travail of soul for sinners as used to be. I
looked, but could not see it, for the time
of their salvation is past.”[6]
NOTE: In 1849, Ellen White
began
linking Sabbath-keeping with her Shut Door
prophecies.
According to Ellen White, the door of mercy
was now closed for everyone who did not
believe in the Shut Door prophecy and
Sabbath-keeping.
Ellen G. White, To Those
Who are Receiving the Seal of the Living God
(January 31, 1849)
“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. In these
things I saw great danger; for if the mind
is filled with other things, present truth
is shut out, and there is no place in our
foreheads for the seal of the living God.
This seal is the Sabbath. I saw that the
time for Jesus to be in the most holy place
was nearly finished, and that time can last
but a very little longer; and what leisure
time we have should be spent in searching
the Bible, which is to judge us in the last
days.”[7]
NOTE: Ellen White begins to
advocate for the teaching that
Sabbath-keeping is the seal of God contrary
to what the New Testament clearly says about
the Holy Spirit being the seal of God
(Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30; 1 Cor. 12:12-13;
2 Cor. 1:21-22; 2 Tim. 2:19).
Ellen G.
White Manuscript 11, pp. 3-4 (LLU Library
Heritage Room, 1850)
“Then I
saw the Laodiceans … Dare they admit that
the door [of salvation] is shut? The sin
against the Holy Ghost was to ascribe to
Satan what belongs to God or what the Holy
Ghost has done. They said the shut door was
of the devil and now admit it is against
their own lives. They shall die the death.”[8]
Ellen G. White, Early Writings, p.
64
“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.”...
“Some of us have had time
to get the truth, and to advance step by
step, and every step we have taken has given
us strength to take the next. 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.” (ibid. p.
67)[9]
NOTE: While Ellen did not set an exact time for
Christ’s coming she did say that there was
“little time in which” to get ready for his
coming. New people joining their group would have only a
“few months” to learn “the third angel’s
message.”
Ellen G. White’s
Camden, vision, June 21, 1851 (Camden, New
York)
“I saw that Jesus
prayed for his enemies; but that should not
cause us to pray for the wicked world, whom
God has rejected. When he prayed for his
enemies there was hope for them, and they
could be benefited and saved by his prayers,
and also after he was a mediator in the
outer apartment for the whole world; but now
his spirit and sympathy were withdrawn from
the world; and our sympathy must be with
Jesus, and must be withdrawn from the
ungodly.”[10]
NOTE: In 1851 Ellen made
the false and heretical claim that God’s
sympathy was being “withdrawn from the
ungodly” and their little group was not to
“pray for the wicked world “contrary to what
Jesus said in Matthew 5:44, “But I say to
you, Love your enemies and pray for those
who persecute you.”
Ellen
White later denied that she taught the Shut
Door doctrine in her visions!
NOTE: Ellen claimed
her first “vision” actually corrected the
Shut Door teachings, when in fact, it did
just the opposite. Ellen White, her husband James White
and Joseph Bates had deleted all of Ellen
White’s early visions in 1851 from their
publications to cover-up the false
predictions made by her regarding the Shut
Door doctrine.[11]
Ellen
G. White, Selected Messages Volume 1, p. 74
(1874)
“With my brethren and
sisters, after the time passed in 1844, I
did believe that no more sinners would be
converted. But, I never had a vision that no
more sinners would be converted.”
Ellen G. White 1883 statement quoted in
Arthur L White, Ellen White and the Shut
Door Question (White Estate 1982, revised,
p. 13)
“For a time after the
disappointment in 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 corrected our error,
and enabled us to see the true position.”[12]
NOTE: These later
comments made by Ellen White were deliberate
lies designed to deceive the church members
and cover up for her false prophecies.
Conclusion:
In 1883, Ellen White lied about the
“Shut Door” visions she had to make it look
as if her visions corrected a flaw in the
early Adventist body’s belief about the door
of mercy being shut. The Seventh-day Adventist
Church has continually lied about the timing
of the events to cover-up what was clearly a
series of false prophecies by Ellen White. The
Seventh-day Adventist Church has a few
webpages devoted to covering up for Ellen
White’s mistakes and are complacent in the
deception (I have linked to them below). Steve Daily
in his book, “Ellen G. White A
Psychobiography” has shown through the
historical documents the true chronology of
events.
We have to ask, what kind of prophet makes false predictions
about the important issues of salvation and
the second coming of Jesus Christ, then
tries to cover-up her mistakes? You have to
ask yourself, how many false prophecies does
it take to disqualify a prophet? The
guidelines for a true prophet are 1) a
Prophet’s prophecies must be fulfilled
(Deut. 18:20-22) and 2) they cannot
have falsehoods in their visions (Jer. 23:32). Ellen White failed both of those
qualifications. Three more of the guidelines
have been answered as well, The prophet
cannot contradict the Word of God, and their
teachings must bear good fruit, encourage
and build others up (Isa. 8:16-22; Matt. 7:15-16; 1 Cor. 14:3).
Ellen White’s first visions about the Shut Door prove that her
claim to being a prophet of God is
false.
See for yourself how the
Seventh-day Adventist Church intentionally
tries to mislead people by using quotes from
Ellen G. White’s later writings in their
attempt to explain away what was really
taught, and when.
• Ellen G. White® Estate:
“The Shut Door.”
(https://whiteestate.org/about/issues1/unusual/shut-door)
• Ellen G. White® Estate: The “Shut Door”
Documents.
(https://whiteestate.org/legacy/issues-shutdoor-html)
Now see the true chronology of the
shut-door prophecies for yourself
presented in Ellen G. White’s own words!
• Christian Scholars Forum: Part 1, Dr. Steve Daily, Ellen G White A
Psychobiography (this is a 3 hour video but
well worth watching).
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWSqm1B7NZI)
References:
1. From:
What Adventists Believe about the Prophetic
Gift
2. Ellen Harmon’s first vision was published
initially by Enoch Jacobs in the Cincinnati
Day-Star on January 24, 1846, then
republished by James White on April 6, 1846,
in the broadside “To the Little Remnant
Scattered Abroad.” On May 30, 1847, it was
published yet again by James White in the
pamphlet A Word to the Little Flock
(available in facsimile form at any
Adventist book center).
3. An 1847 letter
by Ellen White, quoted in A. L. White’s
Ellen G. White and the Shut Door Question,
letter 3, Loma Linda University SDA Heritage
Room, 49–51.
4. See Ellen White’s
Selected Messages, 2:34–35; Spiritual Gifts:
My Christian Experience, Views and Labors in
Connection with the Rise and Progress of the
Third Angel’s Message (Battle Creek: James
White, 1860), 51,69; and “Responsibilities
of a Physician,” Testimonies, 5:444 and
“Biographical Sketch,” Testimonies, 1:25–26.
5. Miles Grant, An Examination of Mrs. Ellen
White's Visions (Boston: Advent Christian
Publication Society, 1877). Quoted from “Does
Mrs. White Pass the Biblical Tests of a
Prophet?”
6. For these two quotes, see Ellen White’s
Manuscript Releases, 5:93; and Present
Truth, August 1849, Loma Linda University
Library Heritage Room.
7. Ellen White
quoted by James White in a published
broadside To Those Who Are Receiving the
Seal of the Living God (January 31, 1849).
8. Ellen White, Manuscript 11, 1850, Loma
Linda University Library Heritage Room, 3–4.
9. Ellen G. White, June 27, 1850, Early
Writings, p. 64
10. Ellen White’s Camden,
New York, vision on June 21, 1851.
11.
For documentation on the cover-up of Ellen
White’s false prophecies, see:
The Visions of E.G. White Not of God
12. A. L. White, Ellen G. White and the Shut
Door Question (White Estate: 1982), revised,
13. For more on the shut-door doctrine, see
Rolf J. Poehler’s Change in Seventh-day
Adventist Theology (Frankfurt: Peter Lang
AG, 2000); and Merlin D. Burtn’s “Shut
Door,” Ellen G. White Encyclopedia, Denis
Fortin and Jerry Moon, eds. (Hagerstown:
Review and Herald, 2013), 1158–1162.
See:
Steve Daily, Ellen G. White A
Psychobiography, Page Publishing, Inc.
(This article has been adapted from
Steve Daily’s Facebook page: EGW Thread –
Pathology & Ellen’s personal life – part 9
“Shut Door Denial” the week of 10/14/2021: Endnotes
from: “Ellen G. White A Psychobiography” by
Steve Daily [reference numbers are my own])
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