THE SHUT-DOOR PROPHETESS!

When Christ failed to return as planned on October 22, 1844, the followers of William Miller were thrown into great confusion. Over the subsequent months most of the Millerites returned to their churches. However, there were others who were too ashamed to admit their error or felt too humiliated to return. Some felt that their old churches had treated them with an unchristian spirit and they preferred to worship with those who had experienced a similar journey.

Many began meeting together, often in homes or rented halls. These people were known as "Adventists" and it was among these people that the "shut door" teaching developed. The "shut door" teaching is based upon the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25. According to the parable, the messengers of the Bridegroom cry out at midnight that the Bridegroom, who represents Jesus, is coming to the marriage feast (Matt. 25:6). After the disappointment, many Adventists believed that the 1844 movement announcing Christ's return represented the midnight cry of Matthew 25.

The shut-door followers taught that the Bridegroom came to the "marriage supper" on October 22, 1844:

And while they [foolish virgins] went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with Him to the marriage, and the door was shut. (Matt. 25:10)

They taught this verse was fulfilled on October 22, 1844, when Christ arose in the heavenly sanctuary and moved from the Holy Place into the Most Holy Place. In so doing, Christ shut the door of salvation to all except the "wise virgins," those Advent believers who had prepared for Christ's second coming by participating in William Miller's 1844 movement. They believed Jesus was now "shut in" with His special people, preparing and purifying them through a series of tests and trials so that they would be worthy to receive His kingdom. They believed that since October 22, 1844, Christ was ministering only to Israelite Adventist believers. They taught that Christ was testing His children on certain points of truth, such as the Sabbath, and that their work for the salvation of lost souls was finished.

At first, William Miller himself taught the shut-door doctrine, as shown in the article he wrote in December of 1844:

"We have done our work in warning sinners and trying to awaken a formal church. God in his providence has shut the door; we can only stir up one another to be patient."[1]

On February 19, 1845, Miller expressed his belief that no sinners had been converted on the earth during the last five months: "I have not seen a genuine conversion since [Oct. 22, 1844]."[2]

Adventist minister Gilbert Cranmer recalls how rigidly the shut-door doctrine was enforced in the early days:

"They taught that Jesus rose up and shut the door of the Holy Place and opened the door into the Most Holy. Many also believed and taught that the door of mercy was closed against sinners in 1844. In fact, the position taken by the body of Advent believers in 1844, William Miller included, was that the work for the world was finished, that there was no salvation for sinners after 1844. So firmly was this believed that some who had a desire to unite with the body of Advent believers, who had not been in the '44 move, were rejected."[3]

Thus, some Christians who desired to join the Adventists were rejected because the Adventists believed the door of salvation was shut. However, it soon became evident to most that the doctrine was flawed. By the end of 1848, nearly all of the shut-door believers, including William Miller, had given up this teaching.

Nevertheless, there were a few Adventists who persisted in the shut-door doctrine. Joseph Bates was a vociferous believer in the shut door. Based upon his prophetic calculations, he believed there would be a seven-year period during which Christ would test His children on the Sabbath question. He believed that period began in 1844 and would culminate in 1851, with the return of Christ. In 1847 Bates describes how the door of salvation was closed for Gentiles (non-Adventists) in 1844:

"Paul's open door, then, was the preaching 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 just what we say is the fact. The gospel message ended at the appointed time with the closing of the 2,300 days [in 1844], and almost every honest believer that is watching the signs of the times will admit it."[4]

Like Bates, James and Ellen White were ardent advocates of the shut-door doctrine. As early as 1845, Ellen received visions showing that the door of salvation was shut. Lucinda Burdick, a young lady from Maine who was about the same age as Ellen, describes how she came to know the young prophetess:

"I first heard of Miss Ellen G. Harmon (afterward Mrs. Ellen G. White) in the early winter (Jan. or Feb.) of 1845, when my uncle Josiah Little came to my father's house and reported that he had seen one Ellen Harmon in the act of having visions which she claimed were given her of God. He said that she declared that God revealed to her that the door of mercy was closed forever and that there was henceforth no salvation for sinners. This caused me great uneasiness and anguish of mind for I had not been baptized and my youthful heart was much disturbed as to my salvation if the door of mercy was really closed."[5]

Learning that the door of salvation was shut to sinners must have been quite distressing to the young Lucinda. She recalls further frightening experiences with the prophetess:

"Ellen was having what was called visions: said God had shown her in vision that Jesus Christ arose on the tenth day of the seventh month, 1844, and shut the door of mercy; had left forever the mediatorial throne; the whole world was doomed and lost, and there never could be another sinner saved."[6]

Hence we find that Ellen's visions taught her followers to believe the whole world was lost, and the door of salvation was shut. Ellen's message to her followers was that no work remained to be done for non-Adventists. Adventist minister Isaac Wellcome recalls hearing her relate this message in vision in 1845:

"I was often in meetings 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. She and James taught this for one or two years. Recently, in her published visions, called 'Testimony,' her visions differ widely, and directly contradict flatly her former ones."[7]

Adventist minister Gilbert Cranmer recalls how Ellen White had seen the shut door in her visions:

"The 'shut-door' doctrine formed a part of the doctrine of the church; that is, Mrs. White had seen in the vision that the day of salvation for sinners was past, and those that fully believed in her visions as coming from God also accepted that doctrine."[8]

Thus we can see that Ellen's visions were instrumental in convincing other Adventists to accept the shut door of salvation doctrine. In early 1846 Ellen describes one experience her her visions helped convince doubting souls that the door of salvation for the lost was indeed shut:

"While in Exeter, Maine, in a meeting with Israel Dammon, James, and many others, many of them did not believe in a shut door. I suffered much at the commencement of the meeting. Unbelief seemed to be on every hand. There was one sister there who was called very spiritual. She had traveled and been a powerful preacher 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 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."[9]

Her visions may have convinced Sister Durben and others present at the meeting that the door of salvation was shut, but others were still unconvinced. The Whites began traveling around the region in an effort to convince other Adventists, such as Brother Stowell, that the door of salvation was shut. Ellen relates this experience: 

"The first Sabbath we spent in Topsham [March 24] was a sweet, interesting time. It seemed that Jesus Himself passed through our midst and shed His light and glory upon us. We all had a rich draught from the well of Bethlehem. The Spirit came upon me and I was taken off in vision. I saw many important things, some of which I will write you before I close this letter. I saw Brother Stowell, of Paris, was wavering upon the shut door. I felt that I must visit them. Although it was fifty miles off and very bad going, I believed God would strengthen me to perform the journey. We went and found they needed strengthening. There had not been a meeting in the place for above two years. We spent one week with them. Our meetings were very interesting. They were hungry for the present truth. We had free, powerful meetings with them. God gave me two visions while there, much to the comfort and strength of the brethren and sisters. Brother Stowell was established in the shut door and all the present truth he had doubted."[10] 

The efforts of the Whites to establish the shut-door doctrine were noted by other Adventists. One devoted follower of Sister White, a shut-door advocate named Otis Nichols, wrote to William Miller in April of 1846 commending Sister White for the visions God was giving her on the shut door of salvation:

"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, fed, comforted, strengthened the weak, and encouraged them to hold on to the faith, and the seventh-month movement; and that our work was done for the nominal church and the world, and what remained to be done was for the household of faith."[11]

Ellen had some of her shut-door visions in the home of an Adventist named John Megquier, who lived in Poland, Maine. He shares his eyewitness account: 

"We will know the course of Ellen G. White, the visionist, while in the State of Maine. About the first visions that she had were at my house in Poland. She said God had told her in vision that the door of mercy had closed, and there was no more chance for the world, and she would tell who had got spots on their garments; and those spots were got on by questioning her visions, whether they were of the Lord or not. Then she would tell them what to do, or what duty to perform, to get into favor with God again. Then God would show her, through a vision, who was lost, and who was saved in different parts of the State, according as they received or rejected her visions."[12]

Once again we find Mrs. White predicting who was lost and who was saved based upon their receptiveness to her visions. After a while, the Whites felt that simply going from town to town preaching the shut door was not sufficient. In 1847 James published a paper entitled "A Word to the Little Flock" in which he and Ellen promoted their shut-door doctrine. In this publication, Ellen describes an amazing vision she received from God:

"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 saw 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 to 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 they 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 leaving 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 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."[13]

According to this vision, the fallen Adventists could not regain the path to heaven because the door of salvation was shut. Like the "wicked world which God had rejected," fallen Adventists had no further hope of salvation. James added his thoughts on the shut door in the same paper:

"Jesus is clearly represented in the bible, in his different characters, offices, and works. At the crucifixion, he was the meek, slain lamb. From the ascension to the shutting of the door, Oct. 1844, Jesus stood with wide-spread arms of love, and mercy; ready to receive, and plead the cause of every sinner, who would come to God by him. On the 10th day of the 7th month, 1844, he passed into the Holy of Holies, where he has since been a merciful 'high priest over the house of God."[14]

While James and Ellen continued to teach that Jesus was no longer pleading the cause of sinners during 1847, the tide was beginning to turn against the doctrine. By the end of 1848 most Adventists realized it was in error and discarded the teaching. Meanwhile, God's prophetess was not about to give up on the doctrine. This was the message God had given her to preach and she was not about to relinquish it in spite of its fading popularity. Should prophets change their message just because it is unpopular? Of course not! Thus, the Whites and Bates continued to trumpet the shut-door teaching. In fact, James started a new monthly magazine entitled Present Truth. The shut-door doctrine received prominent attention in this magazine nearly every month of its short-lived publication.

The fall of 1849 marked nearly five years that the shut-door Adventists had refused to work for the salvation of the lost. Former SDA minister W.H. Brinkerhoff recounts this sad history:

"For a number of years after 1844, S.D. Adventists, acting consistently with their theory, would not labor for the salvation of sinners, notwithstanding they had, as they claim, the gift of prophecy in the church for the correction of errors, and it was only when circumstances compelled them to admit the possibility of others besides '44 Adventists being saved, that they yielded the point of the 'tight' shut door... [15]

It is painful to imagine how many lost souls never heard the gospel during this time period. How many people could have been brought to Christ? After enduring five years of shut-door dogma some were probably wondering when the angels were going to tap Ellen on the shoulder and tell her that the shut-door teaching was fiction. On the contrary, however, the angels were reemphasizing to her that the day of salvation for sinners was over. In August Ellen shared with the readers of Present Truth what her accompanying angel told her:

"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 for their salvation is past."[16]

While other Christians (those whom the Whites referred to as Babylon and the Synagogue of Satan) were fulfilling Christ's commission to spread the gospel to lost souls, the shut-door Adventists felt no "travail of soul for sinners." However, by early 1850 the shut-door Adventists were facing a dilemma. Their doctrine was floundering and they were having difficulty attracting new adherents. According to Bates' understanding of prophecy, Jesus was scheduled to return in the fall of 1851 and they only had about eighteen months to get ready! The troubling aspect of all this was that their followers numbered in the hundreds and they needed 144,000 by autumn of next year. What were they going to do? Perhaps they had shut the door too tightly!

In early 1850 the first signs appeared that the shut door was beginning to crack open. In a letter written to some friends in February, Mrs. White announced some new converts to the Advent message:

"Souls are coming out upon the truth all around here. They are those who have not heard the Advent doctrine and some of them are those who went forth to meet the Bridegroom in 1844, but since that time have been deceived by false shepherds until they did not know where they were or what they believed."[17]

Here we find the first indication that those who were not part of the 1844 movement could be saved. Of course, Mrs. White is careful to mention that these people were Christians who had never heard the Advent doctrine. There was still no hope for the non-Christians and those Christians who had rejected Miller's 1844 time-setting message. 

In April of 1850, the shut door cracked open a little fisher to allow the children of the saints to enter. Nearly six years had elapsed since the Great Disappointment and many children had been born during this time period. Could these children be saved since they were not part of the 1844 movement? The matter was decided in Present Truth magazine:

"As they [little children] were then [1844] in a state of innocence, they were entitled to a record upon the breastplate of judgment as much as those who had sinned and received pardon; and are, therefore subjects of the present intercession of our great high priest."[18]

Throughout 1850, James White continued to promote the shut-door message in his magazine. Despite the rising unpopularity of the shut-door message, James and Ellen were determined to keep promoting it. In May James wrote:

"But the sinner, to whom Jesus had stretched out his arms all the day long, and who had rejected the offers of salvation was left without an advocate when Jesus passed from the Holy Place and shut that door in 1844."[19]

Finally, near the end of 1850, the shut door cracked open a little further. The shut door was opened just wide enough to let Herman Churchill slide in. Churchill was unconverted in 1844. Churchill's decision to join the Adventist believers in August of 1850 caused quite a stir among the shut-door believers. James wrote about the event in a letter:

"One brother [Herman Churchill], who had not been in the Advent, and had made no public profession of religion until 1845, came out clear and strong on the whole truth. He had never opposed the Advent, and it is evident that the Lord had been leading him, though his experience had not been just like ours. Such, who come into the couth at the eleventh hour, may expect great trials."[20]

Nearly six years after the Great Disappointment the Adventists had made their first convert who was a nonChristian in 1844. They were surprised that someone who was not a part of the 1844 movement would be interested in joining them. General Conference President George Butler, writing in the April 7, 1885, Review and Herald, recalls the startling nature of Herman Churchill's decision:

"His was one of the very first cases of conversion from the world to the present truth, which occurred after 1844... I remember him well as he came to Waterbury, Vermont, and attended meetings in my father's house, where a few met from time to time. They were quite surprised at first that one who had been an unbeliever should manifest an interest in the Advent doctrine. He was not repulsed but welcomed. He was earnest and zealous and as they discerned in his sincerity, they accepted him as a true convert."[21]

As the year 1851 progressed, it was more and more apparent to all that Christ was not going to return in the fall. The expected signs were not happening and people were undoubtedly growing weary of hearing predictions about Christ's soon coming. They were also growing weary of the shut-door teaching. After nearly seven years, James and Ellen reluctantly gave up this doctrine. An angel did not tell them their error. Ellen did not receive a vision showing their mistake. Time itself had killed the doctrine. It simply did not make sense anymore.

Discarding the shut-door doctrine put Ellen White in the position that every prophet hates to be in. How do you explain to your followers that your visions were wrong? The people were expecting a prophet to correct false teachings not endorse them! As a result, for the next few years, Mrs. White was strangely quiet. Fortunately for the Whites, the damage was limited in scope. It is unlikely that more than a few thousand people had even heard of Ellen White. Perhaps this was a wound that time would heal. Moving to a new location and a new field of labor seemed to be in order since their influence had been irreparably damaged in the northeast. By the mid-1850s the Whites had relocated to Michigan, where they focussed their efforts on the mid-western United States. Lucinda Burdick writes about their loss of influence in the New England area:

"Soon after this, both confidence and interest in this fanatical couple vanished as the visions were not only childish and devoid of sense, but absolutely contradictory..... Their influence and field of labor in Maine being lost they soon went out West where they succeeded in creating considerable interest and a large following through their Sabbatarian teaching."[22]

James set out immediately to restore Ellen's image. He began what was to become a lifelong task for him revising his wife's prophetic writings. James went through all of his wife's articles and deleted the objectionable part! dealing with the shut-door doctrine. He scrapped the Present Truth magazine, which some had come to believe was anything but present truth. He then started a new magazine entitled The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald. He reprinted the "revised" version of his wife's visions in 1851 in a 64-page pamphlet named "Experience and Views."

While James was apparently unfazed about deleting the writings of a prophet of God, not all the brethren were so pleased. When the new pamphlet came out with 19 percent of the original text missing, a crisis threatened to explode. As you can imagine, some of the members of the tiny church were aghast over the exclusion of whole visions, which they believed came directly from God. Some of the brethren called for a meeting with James. Mrs. White describes how James defused this dangerous crisis:

"At one time in the early days of the message, Father Butler and Elder Hart became confused in regard to the testimonies. In great distress, they groaned and wept, but for some time they would not give the reasons for their perplexity. However, being pressed to give a reason for their faithless speech and manner, Elder Hart referred to a small pamphlet that had been published as the visions of Sister White and said that to his certain knowledge, some visions were not included. Before a large audience, these brethren both talked strongly about their losing confidence in the work.

"My husband handed the little pamphlet to Elder Hart and requested him to read what was printed on the title page. 'A Sketch of the Christian Experience and Views of Mrs. E. G. White,' he read. "For a moment there was silence, and then my husband explained that we had been very short of means, and were able to print at first only a small pamphlet, and he promised the brethren that when sufficient means was raised, the visions should be published more fully in book form.

"Elder Butler was deeply moved, and after the explanation had been made, he said, 'Let us bow before God.' Prayers, weeping, and confessions followed, such as we have seldom heard. Father Butler said: 

'Brother White, forgive me; I was afraid you were concealing from us some of the light we ought to have. Forgive me, Sister White.' Then the power of God came into the meeting in a wonderful manner."[23]

James performed a masterstroke which turned a disaster into a small victory. Not only did manage to explain away the deletions, but he also managed to throw the responsibility for the deletions back upon the brethren for not providing him with enough money to fund the project! Brother Butler had been concerned that the "light of heaven" was being concealed. He learned a lesson that day that many would later learn. When James White would edit and delete parts of Mrs. White's writings he was not concealing the "light of heaven." Rather, he was concealing errors and mistakes, which if pondered would lead people to question whether his wife was actually a prophet.

We do not know how much money James collected that day for the republishing of the entire book. However, we do know that in later years the Whites were in dramatically improved financial standing. Did James ever keep his promise to print the entire vision when more money became available? Despite his improved finances, James never reprinted the material. Gradually the visions were forgotten as relics of the past. The shut door was whited out from church history and the subject was rarely brought up after the early 1850s. The shut-door doctrine might have rested in the graveyard of silence forever had it been for the events of the 1880s.

The Early Writings Fiasco

Thirty years later, the wounds of the shut door had almost been healed. Ellen White's articles in A Word to the Little Flock and Present Truth had long since vanished, and very few Adventists were even aware of their existence. Most Adventists had no idea their prophet had promoted a false teaching through her visions. However, the shut-door wounds continued to be a source of irritation from time to time.

In 1866 two Adventist ministers in Iowa, B.F. Snook and W.H. Brinkerhoff, printed some of Mrs. White's questionable statements and visions in a book. This brought to the forefront an issue that was beginning to fade from memory. Many Adventists who were a part of the 1844 Movement were able to recall the events of the shut door. Adventist W. Phelps asked the rhetorical question:

"Now I ask in all candor: Who that was an Adventist in 1844 does not know that when the time passed, it then became the faith of the great mass of Adventists that probation was over, that the Salvation of sinners was past; and some held the same view as late as 1852, and that vision on the shut door was in harmony with that view?"[24]

The ensuing controversy over Ellen White and her visions led to a split in the church in Iowa, but the Whites blasted Snook and Brinkerhoff and this storm eventually passed over. Nevertheless, for many years there were rumblings in the church about the suppressed writings of Ellen White.

In the early 1880s General Conference President George Butler was anxious to put those rumblings to rest. Adventist minister D.M. Canright relates how Butler approached him and James White about republishing Mrs. White's earliest writings:

"At that time Butler was president of the General Conference, president of the Publishing Association, etc. One day in 1880 he came into the office where Elder Smith and myself were. In high glee, he said: 'Those Western rebels say we have suppressed some of Sister White's earliest visions. I will stop their mouths, for I am going to republish all she ever wrote in those early visions.' Elder White leaned forward, dropped his voice low, and said: 'Butler, you better go a little slow.' That was all. I did not understand what his warning meant, nor did Butler. Soon Elder White died — in August 1881. Butler then went ahead and in 1882 issued the present edition of Early Writings."[25]

Despite the warning from James, Butler went ahead and published early 8'ritings to silence the critics of Ellen White. After the book was published, Butler wrote an article announcing it:

"These were the very first of the published writings of Sister White... Many have greatly desired to have in their possession ALL she has written for publication... So strong was the interest to have these early writings reproduced that several years ago the General Conference recommended by vote that they be republished. The volume under consideration is the result of this interest. It meets a long-felt want...  There is another interesting feature connected with this matter. The enemies of this cause, who have spared no pains to break down the faith of our people in the testimonies of God's Spirit and the interest felt in the writings of Sister White, have made all the capital possible &om the fact that her early writings were not attainable. They have said many things about our 'suppressing' these writings as if we were ashamed of them. Some have striven to make it appear that there was something objectionable about them, that we feared would come to the light of day, and that we carefully kept them in the background. These lying insinuations have answered their purpose in deceiving some unwary souls. They now appear in their real character, by the publication of several thousand copies of this 'suppressed' book, which our enemies pretended we were very anxious to conceal. They have claimed to be very anxious to obtain these writings to show their supposed error. They now have the opportunity."[26]

There is no doubt the whole purpose of the publication was to silence Ellen White's critics. In the preface, the publishers assure us that these are indeed the earliest writings of Mrs. White:

"A widespread interest has arisen in all her works, especially in these early views, and the call for the publication of a second edition has become imperative." "No portion of the work has been omitted.No shadow of change has been made in any idea or sentiment of the original work, and the verbal changes have been made under the author's own eye and with her full approval."[27]

Rather than silence the critics, the book resulted in a firestorm of controversy. Immediately after Early Writings was published Elder A.C. Long published a tract of sixteen pages entitled "Comparison of the Early Writings of Mrs. White with Later Publications." In that publication, Elder Long showed line by line where parts of Mrs. White's writings were deleted. In reality, Early Writings consisted of Ellen White's writings Rom the pamphlet published by James in 1851 entitled "Experience and Views.*' This 1851 publication did not have the earliest writings of Ellen White.

The 1851 publication did not have any of the damaging statements about the shut door. In actuality, the earliest writings were written in 1845 and published in the 1846 DayStar paper. Other early writings appeared in A Word to the Little Flock and the article Present Truth published between 1847 and 1850. One example cited by Elder Long is found on page 14 of Early Writings. In this example, we find one of Ellen White's most famous visions with a sentence missing (noted in brackets below):

"While I was praying at the family altar, the Holy Ghost fell upon me, and I seemed to be rising higher and higher, far above the dark world...I raised my eyes and saw 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 beginning of the path, which an angel told me was the midnight cry. This light shone all along the path and gave light to their feet so that they might not stumble. If they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus, who was just before them, leading them to the city, they were safe. But soon some...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.] Soon we heard the voice of God like many waters..."

The reason why these lines were suppressed is obvious. They teach a shut-door doctrine that the church discarded 30 years earlier. After Elder Long published his tract Butler probably realized why James White had told him to go slowly. Even though church leaders were now aware that Early Writings was not really Mrs. White's earliest writings, they did not retract the book. In fact, the book is still available today.

The controversy finally reached Mrs. White and in an attempt to explain her shut-door statements, she wrote the following in 1884:

"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 to me. It was the light given me by God that corrected our error, and enabled us to see the true position."[28]

While admitting she made a mistake, Mrs. White tried to make it appear that her visions from God corrected the error. What she failed to mention was that she held the belief for nearly seven years and taught it to others based upon her visions.

As devastating as this may appear, the most startling discovery about Mrs. White's early days was yet to be made. Over 100 years after Early Writings was published a Seventh-day Adventist seminary student made what has been described as the Adventist historical discovery of the century. It was a shocking discovery regarding Ellen White's early associate Israel Dammon...

Footnotes:

[1] Advent Herald, Dec. 11, 1844.

[2] Voice of Truth, Feb. 19,1845.

[3] M.A. Branch, The Autobiography of Gilbert Cranmer.

[4] Joseph Bates, Second Advent Waymarks, 1847, pp,97-110.

[5] Letter from Lucinda Burdick, Bridgeport, Connecticut, Sep. 26,

[6] Miles Grant, An Examination of Mrs. Ellen @Rite's Visions, Boston: Advent Christian Publication Society, 1877.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Robert Coulter, The Story of the Church of God (Seventh Day) (1983,

[9] Bible Advocate Press: Denver, Co.), pp. 12-13.

[10] Ellen White, Manuscript Releases, Vol. 5, p. 97

[11] Ibid., p. 93.

[12] DF 105, Otis Nichols to William Miller, April 20, 1846. (Taken from

[13] The Early Years, Volume 1, pp. 75-76.

[14] Ibid.

[15] A Word to the Little Flock, 1847. Note: Ellen White's earliest visions were printed in the DayStar in 1846. Her letters to Enoch Jabobs, the editor were dated during the winter of 1845.

[16] Ibid., pp. 1-2.

[17] W.H. Brinkerhoff, Hope of Israel, July 24, 1866.

[18] Present Truth, August, 1849.

[19] Letter4,1850, pp. 1,2.

[20] Present Truth, April, 1850.

[21] Present Truth, May, 1850.

[22] James White, AR, August 1850, (Early Years,p. 191).

[23] George Butler, Review and Herald, April 7, 1885.

[24] Letter from Lucinda Burdick, Bridgeport, Connecticut, Sept. 26,

[25] Selected Messages, Vol. 1, p. 53.

[26] W. Phelps, Hope of Israel, letter to the editor, Aug. 21, 1866.

[27] D.M. Canright, The Life of Ellen White, chapter 8, 1919.

[28] Advent Review, Dec. 26, 1882.

[29] Early writings,.preface.

[30] Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, Vol. 1, p. 63.