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By L. Richard
Conradi The American Sabbath
Tract Society (Seventh Day Baptist) Plainfield, N. J. 1939
Divine
truth rests upon the Bible, and if it alone is the rule and expositor, its
sanctifying influence is quickly apparent in unity. Seventh Day Adventism is a rather strange mixture of a varied
character, arising between 1840 and 1947. Its founders were William Miller, S. S. Snow, Joseph Bates, James White,
Mrs. Ellen G. White, and –against his protest – O. R. L. Crozier, also. The most perplexing part lies in the visions
of Mrs. Ellen G. White in which she quotes Christ and angels, and asserts
herself as an infallible authority.
From
a small beginning in the eastern part of the United States, the Seventh Day
Adventist denomination has spread world-wide, now numbering about 425,000
members, and has a very extended literature in many languages. Personal and careful research among their
own documents has fully persuaded me, after a long, active leadership among
them, that it is my duty as a Christian and lover of divine truth to show the
danger of their blending truth with error.
To
look for the appearing of the great God and of our Savior Jesus Christ is a
“blessed hope”, which redeems us from all iniquity, and purifies unto Christ as
a peculiar people, zealous of good works (Titus 2: 13-15). The Lord has charged his disciples to watch,
pray, and be at all times prepared for his blessed return in glory.
Regarding
the long time of waiting, which Jesus well fore-knew, he gave them sober,
practical information in the parable of the Ten Talents, or Pounds. They should, in the most diligent manner,
try to increase the talents entrusted to their care, so that when their master
“after a long time” returns and makes a reckoning with them, they might be
found faithful. (Luke 19: 11; Matthew
25: 19.) For certain events in the new
Testament, the Lord has indeed given prophetic dates, but never for the advent
of Christ. (Mark 13: 32.) Thus the 1260 days in Daniel and Revelation
play quite an important role. A century
before the French Revolution, Bishop Fleming foretold, in 1701, that at their
termination God’s judgements would begin to fall on the papal Babylon, and first
on France, the eldest daughter of the Roman Catholic Church. When this was actually realized, Terry in
London simply republished in 1793 the original edition as the best
evidence. The spiritual leaders of
Great Britain, convinced by the events in France of the certainty of the
prophetic word, concluded that the downfall of the papacy would be followed by
a similar wasting of the Turkish power, and thus a door would be opened for the
circulation of the Bible in all tongues, and for the spread of the gospel in
all the world. As precious fruit of
this true advent movement in Great Britain, the nineteenth century became
generally noted as “The Great Missionary Age.” By referring to the fulfillment of prophetic time, proved by historic
events, the true advent hope in Great Britain produced most precious fruits of
sanctifying influence. When William
Miller, in New England, felt himself justified in fixing at the close of the
2300 year days the coming of Christ “about the year 1843,” the opposite was the
case, and great disappointment the grave result. Friends of prophecy in Great Britain warned Miller in vain. The Miller movement in the United States of
America was in itself un-Biblical; because, according to the definite
declarations of our Lord Jesus, not the year, day, nor hour of his advent should
ever be made known.
Miller’s
“about the year 1843” was already a serious blunder, doing much harm to the
advent hope. As partial justification,
he remarked in his Apology, of April 1, 1847, that some of his brethren had
urged him to state the date more definitely, and had tried to make him feel
that it was his duty to call the churches Babylon and to exhort men to come out
of them.
“With
this I was much grieved, as not only was the effect very bad, but I regarded it
as a perversion of the word of God – a wresting of Scripture. But the practice spread extensively, and
from that time the churches, as might have been expected, were closed against
us.” “On the passing of my published
time, I frankly acknowledged my disappointment to the exact period, but my
faith was unchanged in any essential feature.”
Accordingly,
in the summer of 1844, he toured the middle west with Editor Himes, who
published the Advent Herald in Boston; and, with E. Jacobs, The Western
Midnight Cry in Cincinnati. Eld. S. S.
Snow used the occasion of their absence to launch for tarrying time a new
slogan, “The Tenth Day of the Seventh Month, Year of Jubilee!” In his “True Midnight Cry” of August 22,
1844, (A Word to The Little Flock, p. 5) Snow perverted the sense of Mark, 13:
22, so that the Father would make known October 22nd (Karaite
reckoning), as the date of Christ’s coming. As Ezra arrived on the first day of the fifth month at Jerusalem, it
would leave him over two months for building preparations before the day of
atonement; or, altogether, seven months of tarrying. (Olsen, p. 152.) How Snow
secured his mistranslation, The Advent Harbinger and Midnight Alarm (Vol. II,
No. 1), edited by R. Winter and F. Gunner in London, explains. Before I would state that Doctor Jarvis
hailed from Middletown, Connecticut.
Under
“Knowledge Shall be Increased,” Winter asserts:
“In a late work of Dr. Jarvis’s (an acknowledged linguist),
in opposition to our views, he gives the following correction of the English
translation of Matt. xxiv, 36, ‘But of that day and hour maketh known, no man
(instead of knoweth) no not the angels of heaven, but my father only.’ We have also consulted other unquestionable
authorities, which confirm this criticism. This reading entirely alters the meaning of the passage, which has been
the great weapon, offensive and defensive, of unbelievers. It is exactly opposite to the almost
universal sentiment, that no one can ever know anything about the day or the hour,
and unbelief which has been too long cherished, even by Adventists.” (August 14, 1844, Vol. II, p. 7.)
Then
Winter continues on the same pages, 7-8, under the heading “The Seventh Month”:
“Since our devoted Bro. Snow has been with us, I have been led
more seriously to consider the meaning of these shadows of things to come, and
to understand that the body, or substance, is of Christ. When he was with his disciples, he taught
them, that he came to fulfil the law, and that every jot and tittle must have
its accomplishment. We find that the
time and circumstances of his death, minutely correspond with the type of the
paschal lamb, even unto the day, and the hour of the day, in which it was
slain. If he accomplished such a
definite fulfillment in his first Advent of the type before given, why should
we doubt the conclusion that the types of the seventh month ‘CAN only have
their fulfillment at his second coming?’ We have believed and fully expressed that the TIME is REVEALED, and that
it is the duty of every one to search and understand, as the ancient prophets
did. (See 1 Peter, i, 11.) We should therefore, submit to the leadings
of the Father’s unerring providence and follow Christ and his truth, and not
settle down in the error of our opponents, and say the exact time is sealed,
the prophetic mine exhausted, and wisdom must die with us. No, truly, for God hath appointed a day, in
which he will judge the world, and of that day and hour maketh known, none save
the Father, and the wise shall understand. Let us, then, look not back into Egypt, but listen to the voice from the
pillar of fire, which reproves our sadness, saying, ‘wherefore criest thou unto
me? speak unto the children of the Advent, that they go forward.’ “What
shall we say then, if God and his truth are with us, who shall prevail against
them? If these shadows are of Christ,
his body will soon appear. Let us then
follow on to know the truth, and if the vision tarry from the first, until the
seventh month, let us wait for it, knowing assuredly that at the end, it will
speak and not lie.”
Then
closing his chronology, Winter states:
“To fall of Papal Rome
…………….. A. M. 5955, B. C. 1798 To fall of Mohammedan Power …. A. M. 5997, B. C. 1840 To the End ……………………….. A.
M. 6000, B. C. 1843-4”
When,
on the 14th of September, Miller and Hines arrived from Ohio, they
were hailed by 50,000 Adventists with the cry “The Tenth Day of the Seventh
Month!” Fields were left unharvested,
businesses were closed, trade neglected, and properties and belongings given
away. Influenced by Snow, thousands had
left their churches and were now indeed left in Babylon! In vain did Miller and Himes protest against
Snow’s definite date. During the last
two weeks they also yielded, so that on the 12th of October, Miller
wrote to Himes:
“I see a glory in the seventh month which I never saw
before. Let Br. Snow, Br. Storrs, and others be blessed for their
instrumentality in opening my eyes! Christ will come on the Seventh Month and bless us all. Oh, glorious hope!” (Days of Delusion, by Clara Sears, p. 164,
ff.)
As
Miller had never planned to create a new denomination, the 50,000 Adventists
were, on the 22nd of October, 1844, indeed as sheep without a
shepherd. The Advent movement in Great
Britain had, indeed, realized its noble object; namely, to increase spiritual
life, to lead thousands to accept Christ as their Savior, to fulfil Matthew 24:
14 by calling into life Bible and mission societies, to make the best use of
the open door (made free by the wasting of the papal and Turkish powers), and
to strengthen faith in the prophetic word by pointing to the real
fulfillment. The counterfeit American
movement, proclaiming the door of grace shut forever, resulted, on the
contrary, in disappointment and confusion as at the Tower of Babel, and did
untold harm to faith in the prophetic word.
With
the passing of the 22nd of October without the appearing of Christ,
the influence of the fanatical Snow waned, because his “True Midnight Cry” had
proven false. Most of the Adventists
turned again to Miller, who at once exhorted them to stand fast, and showed his
true greatness in the hour of failure. Himes, Bliss, and Hale, the editors of the Advent-Herald, tried on the
13th of November, 1844, to vindicate their position regarding 1843,
and the tenth day of the seventh month in 1844, as far as possible.
“ ‘As the law was a shadow of good things to come,’ as the
crucifixion of Christ – the Paschal Lamb –‘our passover’, was on the very day
of the Jewish Passover, as he arose the first fruits of those that slept on the
day the priest waved before the Lord the first fruits of the earth for a wave
offering, and as the Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost – the feast
of weeks; so we believed that our great High Priest, having entered the holy of
holies, and sprinkled it with his blood, might come out of the same to bless
his people, on the day that this great antitype was shadowed forth by the
observances of the Jewish law. It being
also at a point of time to which all the various periods might extend, and
where they might terminate – we could not resist the conviction that it was the
true view of the time … And yet we are disappointed … As great a paradox as it
may be to our opponents, yet we can discern in it the leadings of God’s
providence … we regard it as another and a more searching test than the first
proclamation of the time.” (Advent
Review, 1850, No. 1, pp. 4-5.)
The
Advent-Herald of October 30, 1844, says,
“We must still regard it as the true midnight cry. And if we have a few days in which to try
our faith, it is still in accordance with the parable of the ten virgins; for
when they had all arisen and trimmed their lamps, there was still to be a time
when the lamps of the foolish virgins would be gone out. This could not be without a passing by of
the tenth day … A little delay is, therefore, no cause for discouragement, but
shows how exact God is in the fulfillment of his work. Let us therefore hold fast the profession of
our faith without wavering, for he is faithful who has promised.”
Even
with the majority of faithful Adventists and with William Miller himself, it
took some months before they fully recovered from their erroneous views, that
they had sounded the “true midnight cry.” In the Morning Watch, the successor of the Midnight Cry, Eld. J. V.
Himes presented in its issue of February 20, 1845, under the title “Is the Door
Shut?” an able argument of six points against this theory; and the article was
reprinted in the Advent Herald of February 26. In the Advent Herald of March 5, Elder Himes wrote of the open door in Canada,
stating, “Our brethren in this region are publishing a free and full salvation
to sinners.” (Advent Christian History,
Johnson, p. 194).
But
in order to give a firm foundation again to the many Adventists who had been
urged to come out of Babylon, a conference was called on April 29, 1845, at
Albany, N.Y., William Miller being in the chair, the conference agreed that one
of the most important duties of the ministers was “to preach the Gospel to
every creature even unto the end.” As
early as 1846, Elders Himes, Brown, and Hutchinson made an extended tour in
Great Britain and formed an extensive acquaintance with the English leaders of
the advent movement. Thus at an early
date the “Advent Christians” turned their attention to soul-winning and
missionary work, stressing especially the doctrine of conditional immortality,
or immortality only by faith in Christ.
A
minority of Adventists still maintained that the call to come out of Babylon,
stressed by S. S. Snow, was to be upheld, and that there was no salvation for
sinners any more. As an additional
proof, they pointed to the Levitical type in Leviticus 25: 9-14, showing that
after the sounding of the jubilee trumpet on the day of atonement, some time
passed ere the captives were set free. Elder J. Marsh, who in his Voice of Truth maintained this view still
longer, declared on November 7, 1844, that
“We cheerfully admit that we have been mistaken in the
nature of the event we expected would occur on the tenth day of the seventh
month; but we can not yet admit that our great High Priest did not on that very
day, accomplish all that the type would justify us to expect. We now believe he did.”
About
that time there appeared in the Voice of Truth a poem, entitled, “The Seventh
Month,” signed by C. S. M.
Upon the eternal rock among raging
waves, a remnant, held, as it were, by an unseen power, braved the storm. But in a wild attempt to save their lives:
“Some, that had been the
foremost in the train, Rushed o’er the beetling
verge of that high rock, And loudly called upon the
rest to turn.”
The
application is very evident from the protest of Editor marsh, which he
published on May 7 and 21, (Advent Review, Auburn, August, 1850, No. 2, pp.
607) against the proceedings of the Albany Conference forming a new sect, as
follows:
“From this fallen city, brethren, we have fled, in
obedience to the command, ‘Come out of her.’ Let us not go back to her polluted temples, nor build one of our own
after any of her patterns. Obey Christ
and his word, and you have nothing to fear; but if you depart from him, like
the examples before us, he will cast us off forever.”
That
S. S. Snow shared the views of Editor Marsh, we can infer from the title of his
own paper, The Jubilee Standard. But
what preposterous claims Snow put forth after his “True Midnight Cry” had
proved false, statements in his book, The Voice of Elias, or Prophecy Restored,
published August 5, 1863, clearly show. First regarding his own mission in the summer of 1844, then afterward,
as follows:
“But while they were slumbering on the subject of time,
which was then so important and not realizing the nearness of the great event;
in the summer of 1844, the midnight cry
was sounded -- ‘Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him.’ But who gave the cry? Not the virgins, wise and foolish, for they
were slumbering. It could have been no
other voice but that of Elias, the watchman, (Snow) who did not sleep upon his
post. The time as proclaimed by that
messenger, and proved by scripture and historical facts, was the tenth day of
the Jewish month – the day of atonement and of the sounding of the trumpet of
Jubilee in 1844. And true to that
appointed time, the bridegroom came to the marriage. Our Lord and Savior took the throne of his everlasting kingdom,
and is now the King of kings and Lord of lords. By the power of that cry the virgins were roused from their
slumber, and arose and trimmed their lamps. In other words, the adventists, as they were called, began to prepare
themselves, spiritually, for the Lord’s coming. While those elder brethren were
going to get ready, the Master of the house arose and closed the door of the
gospel dispensation. The only saving
grace that can be obtained by God, since the passing of the that great crisis
is through the dispensation of the fullness of times, or the restoration of all
things, in the mission of Elias.” (pp.
114-115.)
In
these words, Snow not only tried to vindicate his Midnight Cry as the true one,
but claimed that the bridegroom came to the marriage at the “appointed time,”
October 22, 1844, and that the adventists as wise virgins prepared themselves
“spiritually,” and with lamps trimmed went into the marriage, but the door was
henceforth “shut” for all the foolish.
This vision of December 22, 1844 is given in full in Elder
E. S. Ballenger’s reprint A Word to The Little Flock. Therefore, it suffices to take from it her statements, and to
quote the testimony of James White (p. 22) regarding the effect of her first
vision. William Miller had given a
second course of lectures in Portland, Maine, already in 1842, with great
success; and, among others, he won the hat-maker Harmon and his family, who had
been formerly Methodists. Their daughter,
Ellen, born November 27, 1827, being disabled by a stone in 1836, had but
little schooling. Being of an
hysterical nature, all the disappointments of 1843-44 had full effect upon her.[1] She had followed all the vindications of
Snow’s “True Midnight Cry” by various writers ever since November 7, and
considered them with her most intimate friend, Mrs. Haines. That the whole band at Portland lost faith
in Snow’s “Midnight Cry” is easy to understand; also how this hysterical girl,
reading these vindications, should again come under Snow’s influence. But that her fanciful vision, which this
seventeen year old girl claimed to have, while praying with four other women on
the morning of December 22, 1844, at Mrs. Haines’ home, should exert such an
influence upon the whole band, causes serious reflection. Notice the following points in her vision (A
Word to The “Little Flock.” 1847, p.
14):
1.
The
bright light, enlightening the Advent path ever since October 22, was according
to the statement of an angel, Snow’s midnight cry.
2.
She
makes use of Snow’s perversion of Mark 13: 32, as Bible proof that the Father,
with his own voice, will make known to the living saints the day and hour of
Jesus’ coming.
3.
In
harmony with Snow, only the 144,000 saints – including her – remaining on the
path to the city, will see Jesus coming without seeing death. Only these 144,000 are allowed to enter the
temple; their names only are engraved in letters of gold on tables of stone.
4.
Again, in full harmony with Snow’s teachings,
the 144,000 were “by this time all sealed and perfectly united.”
5.
But
the seal upon the whole evidence, James White furnishes in stating the result
of the vision, as follows (p. 22):
“When she received her first vision, December, 1844,
she and all the band in Portland had given up the midnight cry, and shut the
door, as being in the past. It was then
that the Lord showed her in a vision, the error into which she and the entire
band in Portland had fallen. She then
related her vision to the band, and about sixty confessed their error, and
acknowledged their seventh month experience to be the work of God.”
The
unexpected success of relating her fancied vision at Portland in reviving the
lost faith in Snow’s Midnight Cry, and the shut door, in the hearts of sixty
believers, naturally strengthened her own belief that “the power attending them
could only emanate from the divine,” and that she was the chosen instrument of
God to restore this confidence elsewhere. This is evident from her own statement under the heading “Call to
Travel,” as follows:
“I related this vision to the believers in Portland, who
had full confidence that it was from God.” “An unspeakable awe filled me that I, so young and feeble, should be
chosen as the instrument by which God would give light to his people.” “In a second vision, which soon followed the
first, I was shown the trials through which I must pass, and that it was my
duty to go, and to relate to others what God had revealed to me.” “The way providentially opened for me to go
to the eastern part of Maine … At Orrington, I met Elder J. White.” (Testimonies, Vol. I, pp. 62, 65.)
At
an early date, Mr. and Mrs. White supplied their biographies in various
books. Later, J. N. Loughborough wrote
a history of the Rise and Progress of The Seventh Day Adventists[2],
in which both Elder and Mrs. White play the prominent role; and finally,
Professor M. E. Olsen, under the careful supervision of Elder Spicer, has
filled a volume of 768 pages, describing the Origin and progress of the Seventh
Day Adventists. In this work is fully
stated that Elder White was born at Palmyra, Maine, August 4, 1821, that Miss Ellen
G. Harmon, who subsequently became his wife, met him during the early part
of 1845, at Orrington, Maine; also,
that in the spring of 1845, they had a wonderful experience together in the
house of Elder Curtis, in Topham, Maine; and that both traveled together a
great deal during 1845, in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.+
According
to Life Sketches, pp. 126-127, James White first met Miss Harmon in Portland in
1843. “Although but sixteen, she was a labourer
in the cause of Christ in public and from house to house. She was a decided Adventist. Our meetings were usually conducted in a
manner so that both of us took part. I
would give a doctrinal discourse, then Mrs. White could give an exhortation of
considerable length, melting her way into the tenderest feelings of he
congregation.”
By what means Snow extended the advent beyond October 22,
1844, his notes on Daniel 12: 11-12, show:
“Paganism was removed when the barbarians turned Christian
in name, and began to unite in giving their power in support of the
papacy. Clovis, the king of the Franks,
was the first of the kings who was baptized into the Romish religion. He was made consul of Rome by the pope in A.
D. 510, and from that time onward the kingdom of France had been called the
‘Eldest Son of the Church.’ Daniel 12:
12. This period dates from the same
point as the other, for that is the only point given. And from 510 A. D., the latter reaches to 1845. And what then? The next verse informs us what then begins; namely, the
manifestation of the Children of God, of whom there are two classes – the First
fruits, and the full ingathering of the harvest.” “This great work of manifestation began in the autumn of
1845, when the leader of the living church, who is sent in the spirit and power
of Elias to prepare the way of the Lord before him, was first made manifest to
the true Israel of God … A 144,000 living saints will stand on Mount Zion,
singing the new song, which none can
learn to sing but they; and all will be waiting for the blessed Jesus.” (The Voice of The Prophet Elijah, New York,
1864, pp. 79-80.)
Then
again, on p. 157, he says,
“Therefore this sealing process speedily followed the close
of the gospel age. Or, to be more
definite, all the times given in prophecy had closed in the seventh month of
1844 with the single exception of the 1335 days of Daniel 12: 12, which ended
at the commencement of the seventh Jewish month 1845. Within the year elapsing between those two points of time, the
sealing was accomplished; and then immediately began the manifestation of those
sealed ones who are to be alive and remain until our Lord’s personal
appearing.”
But
did James White, with many other Adventists, accept this view of Snow: and what
evidence does he simply give that he himself proclaimed such a message?
Note
the following:
“It is well known that many were expecting the Lord to come
at the seventh month, 1845. That Christ
would then come, we firmly believed. A
few days before the time, I was at Fairhaven and Dartmouth, Massachusetts, with
a message on this point of time.” (A
Word to The Little Flock, p. 22.)
This
short statement, purporting to be a proof in favor of Mrs. White’s visions,
never appears after May 30, 1847, in any of the books or papers published by
the Seventh Day Adventists. According
to it, Eld. James White, in full harmony with Snow, was announcing in Dartmouth
and Fairhaven (where Bates lived) that within a few days all those who awaited
the Lord would see their expectation realized. His beloved Ellen is relating, at the same time, her visions at Carver,
Massachusetts, with the usual success. Only “a few days” remain before this new date would expire. But no voice of God had thus far announced
the definite day to the saints, no special tribulation had befallen them; and,
in view of all this, she dares to inform him that he would, with all the many
other Adventists, again be disappointed! Why did she not, long before this, tell him and all those others who
were again deceived by Snow that the Saviour had denounced time-setting? Simply because she herself believed that
Snow’s perversion of Mark 13: 32 was justifiable. Even as late as May 30, 1847, James White endorsed Snow’s statement
in the “True Midnight Cry” of August 22, 1844, as follows:
“I believe the above, to be a fair and correct view of the
subject, and that the Father will make known the true time of the advent
without the agency of men, angels, or the Son.” (A Word to the Little Flock, p. 5.)
When,
in spite of all the results of her pretended visions – which were published by
Jacobs in January, 1846, she found herself in this new dilemma; it was then and
there that Crozier, by his hypothesis in the Day-Star of February 7, 1846,
supplied the much desired remedy.
Beginning
with February 18, 1845, E. Jacobs, of Cincinnati, changed the title of his
paper, which had been The Western Midnight Cry. On the strength of 2nd Peter, 1: 19, he henceforth
called it The Day-Star. In this first
number, he published his letter to Elder G. Storrs, one of the advent leaders,
who was extensively known for his six sermons on conditional immortality. He chided Storrs for suddenly turning about
after the disappointment, and pronouncing the fixing of a definite day or year
for the advent, a delusion. At that
time, Jacobs himself, with others, still clung to the idea that the delay of
the advent might be explained by the tarrying of the year of jubilee. In his number of April 15, 1845 (p. 36), he
writes, as follows:
“The first number of a second Advent paper has come to
hand, called the Day-Dawn. It is
published at Canandiagua, N. Y., by Franklin B. Hahn, and edited by O. R. L.
Crozier. It is written in a good
spirit, -- the sentiments differing but a little from those of Br. Hale, The
Jubilee Standard, and The Hope of Israel.”
My
research in the library at Canandiagua, in August, 1930, brought no result, not
a copy of the Day-Dawn could be found. But the favorable editorial of Jacobs concerning the first number
justifies the conclusion that , in the beginning of 1845, Crozier’s train of
thought coincided with that of Hale, Marsh, Snow, and White. This is confirmed by the fact that, as late
as 1850, White and Edson published in the Advent-Review all these “Thrilling
testimonies,” as they also published Jacobs’ letter to Storrs, all to justify
their own view. After the
disappointment in the fall of 1845, many were tempted to “believe that Christ’s
second coming at the end of 2300 days was a spiritual coming.” (Loughborough, p. 108.) Among these, was E. Jacobs, also, who gradually
turned Shaker. In their Testimony of
Christ’s Second Appearing, the Shakers teach that Christ was incarnated in
their prophetess, Ann Lee, who called herself “Ann the Word.” The Shakers practice celibacy, and have
formed a number of settlements in Mount Lebanon, Oneida, etc.
To this pertinent question, James White gives the desired
answer in his pamphlet (p. 13) of May 30, 1847, as follows:
“The following vision was published in the Day-Star more
than a year ago. By the request of
friends, it is republished in this little work, with scripture references, for
the benefit of the little flock.”
Ellen
G. Harmon, evidently a reader of the Day-Star, and perceiving that E. Jacobs,
in his paper, showed a tendency towards Shakerism, sent her first vision (which
she had on December 22, 1844) to him, hoping that thereby she might influence
him to believe her visions, rather than those of, “Mother Ann.” It was altogether a private matter. She had not the least thought that her, thus
far, unpublished vision would be printed by Jacobs in the Day-Star, of January
24, 1846, and thus any future
change of the wording would be detected at once. But how little effect her first vision had upon Bro. Jacobs as a
“Testimony from God,” her own words (Early Writings, pp. 66-67) demonstrate, as
follows:
“I have frequently been falsely charged with teaching views
peculiar to spiritualism. But before
the editor of the Day-Star ran into that delusion, the Lord gave me a view of
the sad and desolating effects that would be produced upon the flock by him and
others, in teaching the spiritual views. I have often seen the lovely Jesus, that he is a person. I asked him if his Father was a person and
had a form like himself. Said Jesus, ‘I
am in the express image of my Father’s person.’ “I have often seen that the spiritual view took away all
the glory of Heaven, and that in many minds the throne of David and the lovely
person of Jesus have been burned up in the fire of spiritualism.”
This
statement is very strange indeed; because, in her first vision which she sent
to Jacobs on December 24, 1845, she does not reprove him in any wise, nor point
out “the sad and desolating effects of his spiritualism.” Her pretension to have “often” seen that
Jesus is a “person,” written so shortly after sending him her first vision, is
surely exaggeration. But when she
directed her closing words to the “Dear Reader” in 1851, the editor of the
Day-Star had already become a Shaker; for, since the fall of 1846, his paper
had appeared in the Shaker settlement of Oneida, not far from Canandiagua; and
he had succeeded in drawing after him a considerable number of Adventists. Thus, in 1851, she clothes her first vision
with the appearance of a testimony for Jacobs, of which not the least trace exists. Barely had she sent her first vision to
Jacobs to enlighten him; and scarcely had he, altogether unexpected by her,
printed it in the Day-Star of January 24, 1846, when, on February 7, following,
to her great embarrassment, the hypothesis of Crozier appeared in the same
paper, suggesting an altogether different solution of the disappointment of
1844-1845.
Strange
things happen also in the religious world. A simple Bible study demonstrates, that when Christ did reconcile the
sin-cursed world with one sacrifice at the cross, and ascended to the right
hand of the divine majesty as Lord and high priest after the everlasting order
of Melchisedek, the most holy in the heavens was forever cleansed and
justified. (Lev. 16: 15-19; Dan. 9: 24; Hebr. 9: 26; 10:
19-20). This was the general belief of
all sincere Christians. When in Great
Britain, after the expiration of the 1260 years, about 1793, and also the
expiration of the 2300 years about 1844, were urged, it was ever in the sense
that the sanctuary would be “justified”, its honor saved against perverted use
(niphal from tsdak, to be made righteous; see Melchisedek, king of
righteousness). William Miller, on the
other hand, not knowing Hebrew, taught that in 1843 the world would be cleansed
by fire. As that prophecy failed, S. S.
Snow taught that on October 22, 1844, Christ would come, after having entered
the most holy at that time. As 50,000
Adventists erred in 1844/45, finally Mrs. White, in her letter to Eli Curtis,
on April 21, 1847, made this wild assertion as an infallible vision:
“I believe the sanctuary, to be cleansed at the end of the
2300 days, is the New Jerusalem Temple, of which Christ is a minister. The Lord shew me in vision, more than one
year ago, that Bro. Crozier had the true light, on the cleansing of the
sanctuary etc.; and that it was his will, that Br. C. should write out the view
which he gave in the Day-Star, Extra, Febr. 7, 1846. I feel fully authorized by the Lord, to recommend that Extra to
every saint.” (A Word to The “Little
Flock”, p. 12).
After
such an introduction, under the conviction that the reprint in the Review was
“reliable and quite complete”, as editor of the German Seventh Day Adventist
Adventbote, I published it during the winter of 1929-30. When, in the second reprint, I found one
important paragraph missing, I notified Eld. W. C. White of the fact, who in
1931, sent out, from “The Elmshaven Office”, St. Helena, California, this
reprint with this paragraph as “The Article Unabridged.” But some omissions marked by stars towards
the end caused me to hunt for the original, but in vain. However I found other important material,
also Crozier’s photograph, and in article written by him as late as 1900. Encouraged by my researches, Eld. L. E.
Froom (editor of The Ministry, Advent Review Office, Washington, D. C.), having
more time, finally succeeded in finding an original copy in the library at
Cleveland, Ohio.
From
Elder Froom, I learned the following important facts about Crozier’s life:
“O. R. L. Crozier was born February 2, 1820, at
Chapinville, Ontario County, New York. He attended the Genesee Academy two years, the Wesleyan Seminary at Lima
two years, and the University of Rochester two years. He became a teacher, holding different positions until he joined
the Miller movement. Following 1846, he
preached in New York, Canada, Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana, at various
times. This information is based upon
the story of his life that he wrote ten years before his death, which occurred
in 1913.”
After
a carefully corrected copy of Crozier’s pamphlet was finally found, Elder
Ballenger kindly supplied me with a photographic reprint of it. It is found as “Extra” in Vol. IX of the
Day-Star, pp. 37-44. Upon each page
there are 3 columns, but upon the last page only 2. Instead of being headed “Sanctuary”, it is headed: “The Law of Moses, Mal. 4: 4.” As the Day-Star of Jacobs had a far greater
circulation than the small sheet the Day-Dawn, Crozier, after finishing the
manuscript on January 17, sent it on to Jacobs, who published it as a Day-Star,
Extra, on February 7. Note the
following:
“Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant, which I
commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and
judgements.” Malachi 4: 4. “The Law should be studied and ‘remembered’ as a simplified
model of the great system of redemption, containing symbolic representations of
the work begun by our Savior at his first advent when he ‘came to fulfil the
law’ and to be completed in ‘the redemption of the purchased possession unto
the praise of his glory.’ Redemption is
deliverance purchased by the payment of a ransom, hence it can not be complete
till man and the earth shall be delivered from the subjection and consequences
of sin; the last act of deliverance will be at the end of 1000 years. To this the shadow of the law extended. That the significancy of the Law reaches
beyond the first advent is evident from these considerations: “1. The cleansing
of the sanctuary formed a part of the legal service (Leviticus 16: 20, 33) and
its antitype was not to be cleansed till the end of the 2300 days, Daniel 8:
14.” “2. The Sabbaths
under the Law typify the great Sabbath, the seventh Millennium. Hebrews 4: 3.” “3. The Jubilee
typifies the release and return to their possessions of all captive Israel;
this can not be fulfilled till the resurrection of the just.” “4. The autumnal
types were none of them fulfilled at the first advent.” “5. The legal tenth
day atonement was not, neither could it be, fulfilled at that time. Although he blotted out the handwriting of
ordinances that were against us … and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross, yet, after his resurrection, both he and his apostles made use of the
law in proof of his Messiah-ship. He
was buried and arose, and shed down the Holy Ghost in direct fulfillment of the
types.”
After
showing the fulfillment of the vernal types, Passover and Pentecost, in the
days of Christ, he next claims that the period of the fulfillment of autumnal
types “must constitute a dispensation of many years,” the principal fulfillment
taking place in the “age to come” during the millennial reign of Christ with
his saints upon this earth. Imbued
already with the false premises of the whole Miller movement, that the time
prophecy in Daniel 8: 14 was identical with the typical annual cleansing of the
earthly sanctuary, he draws from it his false hypothesis: That at the end of
2300 evenings and mornings the final atonement and cleansing would take place
as antitype; but links with it the idea that with the first resurrection the
jubilee year would set in, and the millennial reign of Christ upon this
earth. With these false premises,
Crozier began his arguments, from which he drew his false conclusion at the
end, if all the autumnal typical Sabbaths did not meet their antitype until
many years after, even in the “age to come,” then so also would the Sabbath of
atonement. It was a 11 or none! Crozier had, with his article in the
Day-Star of February 7, 1846, found a way out of the dilemma, but on such a
questionable hypothesis that James White and Hiram Edson, in 1850, had to cut off
its head and tail before it suited their perverted purpose!
On
January 24, 1846, Jacobs published the first vision of Ellen G.
Harmon-White. On February 7, following,
he published Crozier’s hypothesis, and on February 15, Miss Ellen G. Harmon, in
consultation with her fiance, James White, had fully decided how to word the
document which should save her reputation as a prophetess, in the eyes of
Jacobs and the readers of the Day-Star. As valid proof, I publish in full her second letter which she sent to
Jacobs. I found it after a second visit
to Cincinnati, September 24, 1932, in the Archaeological Library
(University). In order that it may be
easily seen how Mrs. White later mutilated part of that letter, making an
actual vision, but without date (Experiences and Views, pp. 45-46), out of it,
the omissions are in black fact type, her reprint in the usual type!
“Bro. Jacobs, “My vision which you published in the Day-Star was written
under a deep sense of duty to you, not expecting you would publish it. Had I for once thought it was to be spread
before the many readers of your paper, I should have been more particular and
stated some things which I left out. As
the readers of the Day –Star have seen a part of what God revealed to me, and
as the part I have not written is of vast importance to the Saints; I humbly
request you to publish this also in your paper. God showed me the following, one year ago this month: I saw a
throne and on it sat the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. I gazed on Jesus’ countenance and admired
his lovely person. The Father’s person
I could not behold, for a cloud of glorious light covered him. I asked Jesus if his Father had a form like
himself. He said he had, but I could
not behold it; for, said he, if you should for once see the glory of His
person, you would cease to exist. Before the throne was the Advent people, the Church and the World. I saw a company bowed down before the
throne, deeply interested, while most of them stood up disinterested and
careless. Those who were bowed down
before the throne would offer up their prayers and look to Jesus, then he would
look up to his Father and appeared to be pleading with him. Then a light came from the Father to his Son
and from him to the praying company. Then I saw an exceeding bright light come from the Father to the Son and
from the Son it waved over the people before the throne. But few could receive this great light. Many came out from under it and immediately
resisted it. Others were careless and
did not cherish the light and it did move off from them. Some cherished it and
went and bowed down before the throne with the little praying company. This company all received the light, and
rejoiced in it, as their countenances shone with its glory. Then I saw the Father rise from the throne
and in a flaming chariot go into the Holy of Holies within the vail, and did
sit. There I saw thrones which I had
not seen before. Then Jesus rose up
from the throne, and most of those who were bowed down rose up with him. And I did not see one ray of light pass from
Jesus to the careless multitude after he rose up, and they were left in perfect
darkness. Those who rose up when Jesus
did, kept their eyes fixed on him as he left the throne, and led them out a
little way, then he raised his right arm and we heard his lovely voice saying,
Wait yet, I am going to my Father to receive the kingdom; keep your garments
spotless and in a little while I will return from the wedding and receive you
to myself. And I saw a cloudy chariot
with wheels like flaming fire. Angels
were all about the chariot as it came where Jesus was; he stepped into it and
was borne to the Holiest where the Father sat. Then I beheld Jesus as he was before the Father a great High
Priest. On the hem of his garment was a
bell and a pomegranate. Then Jesus
showed me the difference between faith and feeling. And I saw those who rose up with Jesus send up their faith to
Jesus in the Holiest and praying: Father, give us thy spirit. Then
Jesus would breathe on them the Holy Ghost. In the Breath was light, power and much love, joy and peace. Then I turned to look at the company who were
still bowed before the throne. They did
not know that Jesus had left it. Satan
appeared to be by the throne trying to carry on the work of God. I saw them look up to the throne and pray:
My Father give us thy spirit. Then
Satan would breathe on them an unholy influence. In it there was light and much power, but no sweet love, joy and
peace. Satan’s object was to keep them
deceived and to draw back and deceive God’s children. I saw one after another leave the company who were praying to
Jesus in the Holiest, go and join those before the throne and they at once
received the unholy influence of Satan. “About four months since, I had a vision of events, all in
the future. And I saw the time of
trouble, such as never was, -- Jesus told me it was the time of Jacob’s trouble
and that we should be delivered out of it by the voice of God. Just before we entered it, we all received
the seal of the living God. Then I saw
the four angels cease to hold the four winds. And I saw famine, pestilence and sword rose against nation, and the
whole world was in confusion. Then we
cried to God for deliverance day and night till we began to hear the bells on
Jesus’ garment. And I saw Jesus rise up
in the Holiest, and knew our High Priest was coming out. 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. Then the saints were free,
united and full of the glory of God, for he had turned their captivity. And I saw a flaming cloud come where Jesus
stood and he laid off his priestly garment and put on his kingly robe and took
his place on the cloud, which carried him to the east where it first appeared
to the saints on earth, a small black cloud, which was the sign of the Son of
Man. While the cloud was passing from
the Holiest to the East which took a number of days, the synagogue of Satan worshipped at the Saints’ feet. “Ellen G. Harmon.”
The
first original letter of Miss Ellen G. Harmon to Jacobs is contained in Elder
E. S. Ballenger’s reprint (A Word to The Little Flock, pp. 14-16), where also
all later omissions are shown in different type. She had her first vision of a heavenly sanctuary on December 22,
1844; and, according to this vision of February 15, 1846, the Father and Son
had moved their thrones from the holy to the most Holy already on October 22;
and, according to the later visions, the solemn investigative judgment was in
full operation. But somehow Jesus had
ample time to take her about the City, to lift the curtain hiding the most
Holy. There she beholds two bright
angels over the ark, Jesus lifts the cover. She sees nothing but manna and various well tasting fruits, which, after
Jesus bore a part to the City, was fully replaced! That such a tale sent by her to Jacobs on December 20, 1845, and
published by him in the Day-Star of January 24, 1846 did need a supplement from
her pen on February 15, after Crozier’s article had appeared on February 7,
nobody doubts! She was in a great
predicament, and her second original letter shows how quickly, with the counsel
of her fiance, she found a way out. By
calling attention to several different points, the examination will be helped,
as follows:
1.
The decisive vision, entitled “End of the 2300 Days,” does, not only lack the date,
but appears among visions of as late a date as September, 1850. Only the finding of the date in the original
print enabled me to ascertain that, at the earliest possible moment after
reading Crozier’s article, she wrote the supplement, and sent it to Jacobs at
once. Not only was the date omitted
later; but every clue, also, that it was indeed a supplement.
2.
If Miss Harmon had already seen in a vision a year previous, i.e., February,
1845, Christ entering the Most Holy, why did she withhold such important light
from her fiance and from all other Adventists, who expected their Savior anew
in October, 1845, and thereby avoided another bitter disappointment?
3.
Why does she mention this vision only in this original letter, in order to make Jacobs
think that she had the light on the sanctuary before Crozier, and yet in all
her numerous later writings never mentioned such an important vision at such an
early date? Simply because it was a
false vision, invented by her to fit the hypothesis of Crozier.
4.
Matters of vast importance to the Saints, which she withheld in the wording of
her first vision, had thus to be supplemented.
5.
Where is it written in the Levitical law that, while the service in the Holy Place
was going on, the mercy seat and God’s throne between the Cherubim (Exodus 25:
18-22) stood in the Holy Place; and then, on the day of atonement, were removed
by chariots to the Most Holy?
6.
That Satan could dare to take possession of the throne left empty, and could
deceive most of the Adventists, puts the Adventists in the worst light; for,
since Christ’s ascension, all Christians direct their petitions to a Saviour
who sits in royal majesty at the right hand of God. As king, priest, after the order of Melchisedek, since his
ascension, he wears the royal purple, and needs no change of garment.
7.
The real fact is, that Miss Harmon, with her fiance, ingeniously so mutilated
the wording of the original that, as a result, only a vision, entitled “End of
The 2300 Days,” was cut out, without date and without clue to the circumstances
of its peculiar origin. Immediately
following the second letter of Miss Harmon in the Day-Star of March 14, there
follows a letter written by Crozier under date of February 21, wherein he
acknowledges the receipt of the Day-Star Extra, and says, “We are suited. It however has several typographical
errors.”
As
both letters of Ellen G. Harmon-White, with her first vision and with the
additional vision in the supplement, had been printed in January and February,
1846, in the Day-Star, there existed no actual reason to publish 250 copies of
her first vision in April. From the
statement, however, of Brother Gurney, who shared the expense with James White,
made in the Review in 1891, it is evident that it was an experiment to settle
how the visions of his fiancée would be looked upon; and for such a test, the
contents of her first vision seemed the better adapted. H. S. Gurney stated,
“A small edition of about 250 copies was printed in
Portland, Me., on a foolscap sheet, and circulated among the few believers and
honest ones. The last page of the sheet
was left partly blank, so that those receiving this document should have a
place to write out their opinion of the same whether favorable, or unfavorable,
and then return to the publisher, if they wished. Eld. J. White was the publisher, and Br. H. S. Gurney (this
writer), now at Memphis, Mich., stood half of the expense of printing. (The total cost was $15.00.) “(Signed) H. S. Gurney.”
Whilst
the small circle was sounded by James White regarding their attitude to the
visions of his fiancée, Crozier wrote a letter to Jacobs from Oswego on March
31, showing great concern that his treatise might be correctly understood. Jacobs published his letter in the Day-Star
of April 18, as follows:
“Many seem not to have discovered that there is a literal
and a spiritual temple, the literal being the Sanctuary in New Jerusalem
(literal city); and the spiritual the church – the literal occupied by Jesus
Christ, our King and Priest (John 14: 2; Hebr. 8: 2; 9:11) – the spiritual by
the Holy Ghost (I Cor. 3: 17; 6: 19; Eph. 2: 20, 22). Between these two there is a perfect concert of action, as Christ
‘prepares the place,’ the Spirit does the people. When he came to his temple, the Sanctuary, to cleanse it; the
Spirit commenced the special cleansing of his people. Mal. 3: 1-3. It is no
marvel to my mind that many of our dear brethren and sisters in the absorbing
sweetness and glory of the latter house, have lost sight of the former. Yours in love, O. R. L. Crozier.”
How
near Crozier approached to the right explanation of Daniel 8: 11 ff.; 11: 30
ff., to the effect that the question at issue in Daniel 8: 14 was not an
antitypical atonement, answering to the typical of Leviticus 16, but the
cleansing of an earthly temple, polluted by idolatry, corresponding with 2nd
Chronicles, 29, is seen from that paragraph of his treatise which the Seventh
Day Adventists intentionally left out without any asterisks, as follows:
“In this sense this ‘politico-religious beast’ polluted the
Sanctuary (Rev. 13: 6) and cast it down from its place in heaven (Ps. 102: 19;
Jer. 17: 12; Hebr. 8: 1-2) when they called Rome the holy City, (Rev. 21: 2)
and installed the Pope there with the titles ‘Lord God the Pope,’ ‘Holy
Father,’ ‘Head of the Church,’ and there in the counterfeit ‘temple of God,’ he
professes to do what Jesus actually does in his Sanctuary; (2nd
Thess. 2: 1-8). The Sanctuary has been
trodden under foot (Dan. 8: 13), and the same as the Son of God has (Heb. 10:
29).”
How
anxiously Doctor Hahn, and Crozier still more, endeavored in April, 1845, to
impress the brethren with the continuation of all the ceremonial Sabbaths as
stressed on the first four pages of his treatise, and not only of the atonement
Sabbath, is attested by a letter which Doctor Hahn sent from East Hamilton, New
York, under date of April 15, as follows:
“Dear Br. Jacobs: If there is room in your little sheet, I
wish to lay before the brethren a few thoughts on the antitypes of the autumnal
type: the memorial of trumpets, the tenth day of the seventh month, the trumpet
of the jubilee on the 49th day of atonement, the jubilee year during
the 1000 years and the feast of tabernacles.”
Jacobs
fulfilled the wish in the Day-Star of May 16 (p. 46 f.). By August, 1846, Jacobs, on his way to the
Shakers, stopped at Canandiagua, where he was entertained by Dr. W. C.
Sweet. A meeting was called to consider
the difference between Jacobs and Crozier, to which "a number of brethren
came from a distance.” Doctor Hahn, as
chairman, stated that the meeting was free to all. Jacobs then pleaded for a union with the Shakers, causing quite a
split; but “most of the brethren stood upon the same ground with Crozier.” He then issued a second number of the
Day-Dawn, seemingly after a long interruption; and, in a lengthy article,
entitled “Visit to the Shakers,” warned against the pernicious influence of
Jacobs.
Two
leading motives guided Bates in publishing this pamphlet of forty pages in New
Bedford, Maine, by Lindsay.
First. The truth of God to encourage the believer; and
Second. To rebuke the spiritual views of Christ’s advent.
After
twenty-one years of observation and experience, but especially during the last
seven years as an associate of William Miller making great sacrifices, he felt
it his duty to send forth this tract, May 8, 1846, after having read Crozier’s
article in February, and after hearing of Jacob’s tendency to Shakerism. As a sea captain, he had become a lover of
astronomy. As to the contents of the
pamphlet, the following short survey will give us an insight, and the first
pages will demonstrate that he differed widely from the present views of
Seventh Day Adventists: Pp. 1-5. The
Opening Heavens proven from John 1: 51. Christ come from the same place as that he went to, and he stands in the
same place. He is now about to come
with the Holy City, the capital of his everlasting kingdom, and locate in the
‘midst’ of the promised land, where he was crucified. Pp. 6-12. Astronomical view: Ferguson,
Huyghens, William Herschel, Lord Rosse’s monster telescope. Pp. 12-23. Bible
view: “Then God and Christ and immortal
saints constitute the Temple in this glorious City of Zion.” Pp. 23-25. The
Heavenly Jerusalem. The City lies 1500
miles square. Before he begins to
consider the Sanctuary, pp. 25 onward, he recommends Crozier’s article, as
follows: “But allow me first to recommend to your particular attention, O. R.
L. Crozier’s article in the Day-Star Extra, for the 7th of February,
1846, from the 37-44th page. Read it again. In my humble
opinion, it is superior to anything of the kind extant.”
After
having considered the Daily and the 2300 days, he devotes nearly the whole of
p. 35 to the Sabbath question. He says,
“I wish here to ask a few questions on one of the greatest
errors that the world ever embraced, first established by Pope Gregory, A. D.
603. I mean the changing of God’s
seventh day Sabbath, (for it is sheer sophistry to call it the Jews’ Sabbath,
as Jesus, our divine Lord, says ‘it was made for man’), to the first day of the
week.”
In
closing, he declares that , when the sealing angel will have done his work, God
will roar out of Zion, and Jerusalem, according to Joel 3: 16-17,
“will be cleansed from every impurity. This, I think, will be the shaking of the
powers of heaven; for then will God’s people know that he dwells in Zion, not
in the Shakers’ camp, but in his heavenly sanctuary.” “This then is the capacious and glorious ‘golden city’;
‘the new Jerusalem’; ‘The heavenly Sanctuary’ . . . the Capital of our coming
Lord’s everlasting kingdom, which is now about to descend from the ‘third
heaven’ by way of the open door, down by the ‘flaming sword’ of Orion!”
Already the first tract of Bates deals (p. 35) with the
Sabbath question. According to the
admission of Seventh Day Adventists (Loughborough, p. 109; Olsen[3],
pp. 182 ff.), Sabbath tracts distributed by a Seventh Day Baptist sister among
the Adventists in the spring of 1844, were the first cause. Throughout the Christian Era, there have
always been Christians, who in the light of their Bibles felt under obligation
to keep the Sabbath instituted by Christ at creation.
During
the Reformation, a considerable number of Baptists began to defend the Sabbath
truth in spite of the most severe persecution. After some of them had found a place of refuge in Rhode Island, the
first Seventh Day Baptist Church in America was founded in Newport, on December
21, 1671, (Old Style). German believers
began to observe the Sabbath in Germantown, Pennsylvania, as early as
1694. In 1728, the first German tract
on the Sabbath was printed by Beissel, in Philadelphia. About the year 1800, there were 1200 Seventh
Day Baptists in the eastern states; but, by 1841, their numbers had increased
to 5319 members (Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America, Vol. II, p. 1312),
and they were so active that , in 1843, it was voted to “send an address to our
brethren of the Baptist denomination, urging them to examine the subject of the
Sabbath,” and, in 1844, “to all First-day Evangelical denominations in
America.” In March, 1844, Rachel
Preston, a Seventh Day Baptist, visited her brother-in-law, C. Farnsworth, in
Washington, New Hampshire, and her Sabbath tracts caused forty Adventists to
keep the Sabbath. On February 23, 1843,
in Hope of Israel, the Adventist preacher, T. M. Preble, began to defend the
Sabbath, as did J. B. Cook in Advent Testimony about the same time; but both
soon ceased such efforts. However, J.
Bates had his attention directed, by Preble’s article, to Tract No. 4,
published by the Seventh Day Baptist Tract Society. Finding that Pope Gregory had urged the change of the Sabbath, he
touched upon the Sabbath in his first tract, Opening Heavens, and led out in
its defense. He tells how he related
himself to the visions of Ellen G. Harmon, (A Word to The Little Flock, p. 21),
as follows:
“It is now about two years since I first saw the author,
and heard her relate the substance of her visions as she has since published
them in Portland (April 6, 1846). Although I could see nothing in them that militated against the word,
yet I felt alarmed and tried exceedingly, and for a long time unwilling, to
believe that it was anything more than what was produced by a protracted
debilitated state of her body.” “During
the number of visits she has made to New Bedford and Fairhaven since, while at
our meetings I have seen her in vision a number of times, and also in Topsham,
Me.; and those who were present during some of these exciting scenes know well
with what interest and intensity I listened to every word, and watched every
move to detect deception or mesmeric influence.”
In
August, 1846, Bates published a treatise of 48 pages, wherein, in detail, he
considered the institution of the Sabbath in paradise, its continuation, and
the difference between the Moral and the Ceremonial Law. In this treatise he also touches the
three-fold message, (p. 24) in the following statement:
“In Rev. 14: 6-11, he saw three angels following each other
in succession: 1. One preaching the
everlasting Gospel (Second Advent doctrine); 2. Announcing the fall of Babylon;
3. Calling God’s people out of Babylon by showing the awful destruction that
awaiteth all such as did not obey.” “Now it seems to me that the seventh day Sabbath is more clearly
included in these commandments than Thou shalt not steal, kill, nor commit
adultery, for it was the only one that was written at the Creation or in the
beginning. He allows no stopping place
this side of the gates of the City.”
On
p. 32, Bates stresses that the Sabbath begins at 6 o’clock in the evening; and
that this day might also have its full twenty-four hours, the time must be
established “from the center of the earth, the equator, where the sun rises and
sets at 6 o’clock.” As a result the
Seventh Day Adventists, for quite a number of years, thus kept the Sabbath,
differing from the Seventh Day Baptists, who keep it from sunset to
sunset. On p. 34, he expresses his
great regret that Father Miller, from whom he had received such a flood of
light, should have declared in his lecture on the great Sabbath, “That the
proper Creation Sabbath to man comes on the first day of the week.” On p. 40, he states that Brother Marsh, in
his Voice of Truth, takes the ground with the infidel that there is no Sabbath. After having on p. 36 shown what a strange
position Snow took in 1845 in his Jubilee Standard, he reveals his character,
on p. 40, thus:
“Br. S. S. Snow of N. Y., late editor of the Jubilee
Standard, publishes to the World that he is the Elijah, preceding the advent of
our Saviour, restoring all things: (the
seventh day Sabbath must be one of the all things), and yet he takes the same
ground with Br. Marsh.”
Shortly
after the publication of this Sabbath pamphlet, James White and Ellen G. Harmon
were married, on August 26, 1846. At
that time scarcely one hundred Adventists kept the Sabbath. How she related herself to the Sabbath at
first, her own words prove (Testimonies, Vol. I, p. 76), as follows:
“Eld. Bates was keeping the Sabbath, and urged its
importance. I did not feel its importance,
and thought that Eld. Bates erred in dwelling upon the fourth commandment more
than upon the other nine. But the Lord
gave me a view of the heavenly sanctuary.”
From
the above statement, one might conclude that, not until after her vision of the
heavenly sanctuary, on April 3, 1847, with her husband she began to keep the
Sabbath. But in reality, both began to
keep the Sabbath in the fall of 1846, as the result of Brother Bates’
efforts. There is a constant attempt to
ascribe to her visions that honor, which is only due to God’s word as the only
rule of faith.
Bates
had succeeded in convincing both the Whites of the Sabbath by the Bible. Now came their turn, to create faith in her
gift of prophecy by her visions. Both
had made a number of visits to the home of Bates, both were well acquainted
with his love for astronomy, and both had also learned that, in May, he devoted
his first publication to reviewing the sanctuary question in the light of
astronomy, and thereby touched the Sabbath. Knowing all this, they proceeded. The tract was fully sufficient to give them the necessary knowledge for
a description of the planets and the wonderful opening in heaven; and to make
full use of it in a feigned vision. She
could readily deny that she had ever studied astronomy, and he could profess
ignorance as to who Lord Rosse was. In
November, 1846, she had her vision in the home of Eli Curtis, at Topsham.
Loughborough (pp. 125-128) furnishes the
details, but never says one word about the tract Opening Heavens.
When she saw four moons, Bates, himself,
exclaimed, “She is viewing Jupiter”; on her seeing eight moons, he said, “She
is describing Saturn;” and when she then described the glory of the opening
“into a region more enlightened,” he excitedly exclaimed, “O how I wished Lord
Rosse was here tonight.” James White
could easily dupe him with the question, “Who is Lord Rosse?”
As astronomy was Bates’ leading theme, Mrs.
White, with other sisters, did gain sufficient knowledge from his own words and
writings for their purpose, as the very letter of an eye witness, Mrs.
Truesdail, written under date of January 27, 1891, gives us to understand:
“We all knew that Capt. Bates was a great lover of
astronomy, as he would often locate many of the heavenly bodies for our own
instruction. When Sr. White replied to
his questions, after the vision, saying that she had never studied or otherwise
received knowledge in this direction, he was filled with joy and
happiness. He praised God, and
expressed his belief that this vision concerning the planets was given that he
might never again doubt.”
Bates
was ensnared, even though Mr. and Mrs. White had to make him believe that they
had no knowledge of his tract, published six months before. But in this deception, Loughborough shared
by never mentioning the tract; and also Professor M. E. Olsen, who reproduces,
on p. 190, of Origin and Progress, the title page of the pamphlet printed by
Bates, in August, 1846, and writes on the bottom “Our first Sabbath
Tract.” The tract Opening Heavens he
does not mention until p. 199, withholding the month of its issue, also the
fact that this tract was Bates’ first challenge regarding the true
Sabbath. When, in 1930, I found this
tract of Bates’, with the exact date, in the fire-vault of the Seventh Day
Adventist General Conference Office, light dawned on my mind as to how both the
Whites, after having read the tract, had ensnared Bates, by their pretended ignorance,
and why both Loughborough and Olsen avoided mentioning the exact date, even
thought they had to suppress the fact of Bates’ challenge about the true
Sabbath. Since that time, more powerful
telescopes have demonstrated the fact that Jupiter has nine moons and Saturn
ten; but Mrs. White’s knowledge was confined to the tract of Bates, mentioning
four and eight moons! [for more on this subject, see the article
Those "Tall People" of Jupiter]
During
1846-1847, James White received, from a number of Adventists, the requested
opinions concerning his wife’s visions. In order to meet their objections, and to bring her statements into
apparent harmony with the Bible, he not only published several of her first
visions, on May 30, 1847, but he himself, under eight different headings,
undertook their defence in A Word to the Little Flock. How fully Bates was ensnared by Mrs. White
by that time, becomes evident from the fact that, after hearing her relate her
vision of April 3, 1847, in the home of Brother Howland, at Topsham, regarding
the Sabbath in the heavenly sanctuary, he published it in a special
fly-leaf. Quite different from her
first vision, in which she saw the temple above the city, she now saw it in the
city; and, instead of again seeing Manna, Aaron’s rod, and fine tasting fruit
in the ark; now, since keeping the Sabbath herself, in harmony with Bates, she
sees “the tables of stone, which folded together like a book” in the ark. She says:
“Jesus opened them, and I saw the ten commandments written
on them with the finger of God. On one
table are 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.”
One
part of this vision is taken from the Bible and from 2nd Esdras; but
the main part from the Sabbath tract of Bates. Though she adduces here again as proof, Mark 13: 32, “That God spoke the
day and hour of Jesus’ coming,” yet the most important factor is, not Miller
nor Snow, but the keeping of the Sabbath-commandment, in harmony with
Bates. The next day after, April 7,
1847, she reports the whole vision to Bates. He at once writes out his “remark” and bears this testimony:
“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 ‘peeled people,’ since the
closing up of our work for the world in Oct. 1844. … I believe her to be a self-sacrificing, honest, willing child
of God, and saved, if at all, through her entire obedience to his will.” … “It
may be said that I send this out to strengthen the argument of my late work on
the Sabbath. I do it in the sense above
stated.” (A Word to The Little Flock,
p. 21.)
He
had already sent this out in April, as a fly leaf; but James White, writing his
tract solely for the purpose of proving the divine origin of the visions of his
wife, and to answer all the objections sent to him, found this fly-leaf of
Bates so all important that he embodied its contents in his tract. Of the 250 copies sent out by James White in
April, 1846, there is not a copy left. James White quotes, however, one brother whose statement in every way
fits the case:
“I think what she and you regard as visions from the Lord,
are only religious reveries, in which her imagination runs without control upon
themes in which she is most deeply interested. While so absorbed in these reveries, she is lost to everything around
her. Reveries are two kinds … in either
case, the sentiments, in the main, are obtained from previous teachings, or
study.” (A Word to The Little Flock, p.
22)
Snow’s
views and perversion of Mark 13: 32, caused her first vision, of December 22,
1844; her success in Portland caused her next, by the end of December;
Crozier’s tract of February 7, 1846, caused her vision of February 15; Bates’
Opening Heavens, in May, 1846, caused her vision in November, regarding
astronomy; and his Sabbath tract, of August, 1846, and her own Sabbath-keeping
caused her last vision of April 3, 1847, when she saw the Sabbath on the Tables
of Stone, surrounded by a halo of light. To what extent James White, as a determining factor, influenced her, his
own articles – preceding and a succeeding her visions – are sufficient
evidence, and it is quite significant that the first article is entitled “The
seven last plagues.”
The
open letter which Mrs. White addressed to Eli Curtis (A Word to The Little
Flock, pp. 11, 12), furnishes additional evidence. She had several of her first visions in Curtis’ home at Topsham,
and yet it is he who dares, on the strength of Revelation 3: 9, in articles published
in Crozier’s Day-Dawn (Vol. I, Nos. 10,11), to question that shut door of mercy
to all fallen Adventists, as taught by Mrs. White in her first visions. As Crozier published Curtis’s articles in
two numbers of the Day-Dawn, he also knew about the doubts which Curtis as an
eye-witness entertained about her visions. For months she delayed her answer; and then gave it in printed form,
referring to her visions as evidence. She says,
“I have been much interested in your writings in the Dawn,
and Extra; and fully agree with you on some points, but on others we widely
differ.” “You think that those who
worship before the saints’ feet (Rev. 3: 9), will at last be saved. Here I must differ with you; for God showed
me that this class were professed Adventists, who had fallen away and
‘crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.’ And in the ‘Hour of temptation,’ which is yet to come, to
show out everyone’s true character, they will know that they are forever lost;
and overwhelmed with anguish of spirit, they will bow at the saint’s feet. You also think, that Michael stood up, and
the time of trouble commenced in the spring of 1844. The Lord has shown me in a vision, that Jesus rose up, and shut
the door, and entered the Holy of Holies in the seventh month, 1844, but
Michael’s standing up … is in the future.” “I believe the Sanctuary to be cleansed at
the end of the 2300 days, is the New-Jerusalem’s Temple, of which Christ is a
minister. The Lord showed me in vision,
more than one year ago, that Br. Crozier had the true light, on the cleansing
of the Sanctuary; and that it was his will that Br. C. should write out the
view which he gave us in the Day-Star Extra, Febr. 7, 1846. I feel fully authorized by the Lord, to
recommend that Extra, to every saint.”
Writing
this letter on April 21, 1847, the time “more than one year ago” exactly fits
to February 15, 1846, when she sent the supplement to her first vision to
Jacobs. In response to her recommendation
of Crozier’s Extra, neither White’s library, nor any other Seventh Day
Adventist library, has one single unabridged copy! From James White’s introductory remarks to A Word to The Little
Flock, it is apparent that, after a short life, Crozier’s Day-Dawn ceased to
appear, in 1847. White says,
“The following articles were written for the Day-Dawn. But as that paper is not now published, and
as we do not know as it will be published again, it is thought best by some of
us in Maine, to have them given in this form.”
Already
the first Protestant commentary on the Apocalypse, which Purvey wrote, in 1390,
in prison, following the lectures of Wycliffe, applied Revelation 14: 6-12, to
the principal task of the, then, commencing Reformation; namely, the
proclamation of the everlasting gospel in its purity, and to establish the law
by faith. Showing the perversion of
gospel and law by Papal Rome, it urged men to come out of the Roman Babylon,
and warned against honoring the pope as God, and against the adoration of the
wafer in the mass. Luther, receiving
the manuscript from a friend, had it printed in 1528, and added quite a
significant preface. Many sealed this
testimony regarding the threefold message, with their own blood. The world-wide proclamation of the gospel in
all tongues, and among all the heathen nations in our generation is the
culmination of the fulfillment of Revelation 14: 6-12. By the end of April, 1847, Bates published a
third pamphlet, of eighty pages, bearing the significant title of “Second
Advent Waymarks and High Heaps; or a connected view of the fulfillment of
prophecy by God’s peculiar people, from the year 1840-1847.” (Jeremiah 31: 21). Miller’s proclamation of
the advent of Christ about the year1843, he calls the first waymark; the
tarrying until March, 1844, the second; then S. S. Snow’s request to come out
of the fallen Protestant churches, the third; and his mid-night cry from August
22 to October 21, 1844, the fourth:
“We have already shown that the tarrying time for the
bridegroom by the prophetic periods, was six months, beginning the 19th
of April down to the 22nd Oct., 1844. The midnight of this dark stupid time would be about July 20th. S. S. Snow gave the true Midnight Cry in the
Tabernacle in Boston at this time, and it was received by the virgins in a
different light from what it ever was before … Now it began to move with rapid
progress … Christ is coming on the tenth day in the seventh month! Time is short, get ready! In a few weeks this waymark, like a beacon
to the tempest-tossed mariner, was clearly seen in our pathway throughout New
England, and onward into other parts as it moved by camp meetings, conferences
and papers. Here S. S. Snow published the
true midnight cry (10,000 Extras of the Voice of Truth – Aug. 22, 1844). “ ‘Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps,’
General excitement looking with awful and unparalleled interest to a definite
point. What a striking and perfect
fulfillment.”
On
p. 55, Bates stressed the shut door for all Non-Adventists; and, referring to
the Sabbath closed his false interpretation; which, through the visions of Mrs.
White, has been fixed as a fundamental truth among Seventh Day Adventists.
The
Day-Star, Extra caused a correspondence between Bates, White and Crozier. Bates, on the other hand, convinced him and
Edson, in 1847, to keep the Sabbath. His own conviction, Crozier furnished in the Day-Dawn, December,
1845. The review of May 6, 1852, (p.
8), contains the reprint, as follows:
“But we must take notice of the differences between the
seventh-day Sabbath and the Jewish festival Sabbaths. The former originated at creation; the latter at Mt. Sinai. The former existed prior to, and independent
of, the law; the latter were a part of, and inseparable from it. The incorporation of the Sabbath into the
legal ceremonies does not destroy its primitive authority: it may survive the
doing away of those ceremonies in all its original importance, leaving with
them only what the ‘School-Master’ and ‘tradition’ had added to it. This is the only light in which I can see a
harmony upon this subject. With this
view it appears clear: and the Sabbath can be kept without being ‘subject to
ordinances’ (Colossians 2: 20). All who
set apart one day in seven as a day of rest, confess their belief in the
necessity of the Sabbath, still. The
keeping of the first day of the week as a Sabbath is without the authority of
divine or apostolic command or example. The disciples met on the first day of the week to break bread; but there
is no evidence that they kept that day as a Sabbath. The Bible records no such change. Therefore, if there be a Sabbath, ‘the seventh day is the
Sabbath.’ Our Saviour said, ‘The Sabbath was made for man.’ If made for him, he needed it; and unless
his constitution is changed, he still needs it. To this all agree. Which
day of the seven then shall we thus keep: Any one that we please; that which
rests only on the authority of human tradition and legislation; or that which
has the sanction of the great example of God, when, after he had created the
world in six days, he rested on the seventh and hallowed it? The last, most certainly, is the safest;
especially as it is most expressly enjoined by one of the ten commandments,
through neither of which will any Christian dare to drive a nail. Its continuance into the Gospel
dispensation, as a law which existed from the original constitution of the
world, and needed no re-enactment, is recognized by our Saviour, not only in
the declaration that it ‘was made for man,’ but also in directing his disciples
to pray that their flight from Jerusalem at the time of its destruction, 37
years this side of the cross, might not be on ‘the Sabbath day.’ He speaks of the Sabbath as though it would
then exist of course, as much so as ‘winter.’ (Matthew 24: 20.) Whatever
reason they had for praying thus, does not affect the case in hand; the Sabbath
then existed, and here received the sanction of our blessed Lord.” (Day-Dawn, December, 1846.)
In
April, 1848, Edson invited Bates and White to pay a visit to western New York;
but gave them to understand that the brethren there could bear only a part of
the expense. Edson met the visitors at
Volney, where the first meeting was held, whence they journeyed to Port
Gibson. Here the meeting was held in
Edson’s barn, August 27-28. There is no
mention made, whatever, of Crozier. By
1848, he must have given up the Sabbath, stressing also that the day of
atonement, with the other autumnal Sabbaths, would not meet their antitype
until the millennium, as witness his own statements:
“My views have been somewhat changed on the subject of the
‘sanctuary’ since 1845, when I wrote the article on the law of Moses, from
which Sabbatarian Adventists quote so often. The above named persons appear to me insincere in quoting from that
article, because they know that it was written for the express purpose of
explaining, and proving, the doctrine of the shut door, which they do now, I
understand, disclaim. I think we have
no means of knowing the precise time when the antitype of the ancient tenth day
of the seventh month service did, or will, begin: but we have evidence that it
will not close the ‘door of mercy’ against all the previously impenitent.” (Advent Review of March 17, 1853, p. 176,
taken from the Harbinger of March 5.) “Eld. Canright: -- I kept the seventh day nearly a year,
about 1848. In 1846, I explained the
idea of the sanctuary … the object of that article was to support the theory
that the door of mercy was shut, a theory which I, and nearly all Adventists
who had adopted W. Miller’s views, held from 1844-48.” (Life of Mrs. E. G. White, pp. 106-107.)
Mrs.
White, in her shrewdness, endorsed, as light from God, only that inner part of
Crozier’s article “Law of Moses,” which related to the cleansing of the
sanctuary. The premises, on which
Crozier based his whole argument and his conclusions, they omitted in the very
first reprint, rejecting the main part as heretical; and thus are rightly
charged by Crozier as being insincere in quoting him.
According
to Mrs. White’s own statement (Testimonies, Vol. I., p. 86) “hardly two were
agreed” during their meetings in Western New York. She says,
Her
visions gaining in influence, she feigned one on November 18, 1848, while a few
were met in Dorchester, near Boston. Different
opinions had arisen regarding the sealing message in Revelation 7, between
Brother Bates and some of the brethren, concerning the expression “ascending
from the rising.” Bates took it in a
literal sense, “the sealing message going at first from the borders of the
Atlantic West and North.” But she, in a
feigned vision, gave it quite a different turn, applying it to the Sabbath
truth, as it grows in power like the rays of the sun. This is quoted by, and for, Bates out of The Seal of The Living
God, p. 24-26:
“Let thine angels teach us where the light broke out! It commenced from a little, then thou didst
give one light after another. The
testimonies and the commandments are linked together, they can not be
separated; that comes first, the Commandments by God … The commandments never
would be struck against, if it were not to get rid of the Sabbath commandment …
Out of weakness it has become strong from searching its word. The test upon it has been but a short
time. All who are saved will be tried
upon it in some way. That truth arises
and is on the increase, stronger and stronger. It’s the scal! It arises, commencing from the rising of the sun. Like the sun, first cold, grows warmer and
sends its rays … The time of trouble has commenced, the reason why the four
winds have not let go, for the saints are not all sealed … Yea, publish the
things that thou hast seen and heard and the blessing of God will attend. Look ye, that rising is in strength, and
grows brighter and brighter. That truth
is the seal that why it comes last. The
shut door we have had. God has taught
and taught, but that experience is not the seal and that commandment that has
been trodden under foot will be exalted. And when we get that, you will go through the time of trouble.”
Not
only Bates should publish what she had shown him in vision, but also her
husband.
The
words in the foregoing heading are quoted from a vision which Mrs. White had on
February 5, 1849, in the home of Belden, in Rocky Hill, Connecticut. This vision, its unabridged form, appeared
shortly after in a newspaper. When, in
July, 1849, James White began to publish Present Truth, in Middletown, eight
miles from Rocky Hill, Mrs. White, in the August number (pp. 21-24), related
this vision, but this most important paragraph was left out by the editor,
here, and also in 1851, from which the first quotation is made. At first, she described some Adventists who
had trodden the Sabbath under foot, and would be wanting on judgment day; and
afterward, in the left out paragraph, another class acknowledging present
truth, but discarding the visions. She
said,
“I saw that Jesus would not leave the most holy place,
until every case was decided either for salvation or destruction. Then I was shown a company who were howling
in agony. On their garments was written
in large characters, ‘Thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting.’ I asked who this company were. The angel said, ‘these are they who once
kept the Sabbath, and have given it up.’ “I saw the state of some who stood on present truth, but
disregarded the visions, the way God has chosen to teach in some cases, those
who have erred from Bible truth. I saw
that in striking against the visions they did not strike against the worm – the
feeble instrument that God spake through; but against the Holy Ghost. I saw it was a small thing to speak against
the instrument, but it was dangerous to slight the words of God. 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 … Then in the time of trouble I heard them cry
to God in agony – ‘Why didst thou not show us our wrong, that we might have got
right and been ready for this time?’ Then an angel pointed to them and said –‘My Father taught, but you would
not be taught. He spoke through
visions, but you disregarded his voice, and he gave you up to your own ways, to
be filled with your own doings.’ ”
This
is the first positive evidence that, as early as August, 1849, James White, as
editor of the small sheet Present Truth, felt fully qualified to withhold some
of her strongest statements – in which she placed her visions on a par with the
Holy Spirit.
What
James White seemingly withheld, Bates, on the other hand, abundantly supplied
in his pamphlet of 72 pages, in which, faithful to the charge given him by Mrs.
White as feigned prophetess, he wrote out what he heard her say in the vision
of November 18, 1848, in Dorchester. Already in his preface to the little flock, he stressed that the very
words of our Saviour in Luke 12: 52, were about to be realized in the Seventh
Day Adventists, having the law of God in their hearts and keeping the testimony
of Jesus:
“For having these distinctive marks ‘they are set at naught
by the world.’ ‘Thrust at,’ ‘pushed,’
and ‘scattered abroad’ by the ‘shepherds,’ that they once confided in. They are for signs, and wonders in
Israel. The time has now emphatically
arrived in their history to mark and number them for the kingdom … Rev. 14: 12
is without the shadow of doubt the present truth. This is that which brings us into the sealing with a seal of the
living God; the receiving of which will bear us through the time of trouble,
and forever turn our captivity at the voice of the almighty God.”
His
arguments applying Revelation 7 and Ezekiel 9 to the very work done by Seventh
Day Adventists at that time, are quite crude in some parts; but, in substance,
the same as that which the Seventh Day Adventists claim as their specific work
up to the present day. It seems strange
when, on pp. 4 and 40, he applied the four messengers to symbolic powers,
representing Great Britain, France, Russia, and the United States, and the
sealing messenger to represent “those now under the third angel’s message, the
true Sabbath-keepers now on earth.” As
to the seal, “the sabbath is the sign, a mark, which all may see.” In May, 1849 (Advent Review II, 9, p. 72),
in a small tract, Synopsis of the Seal, he corrected this part and applied it
to five literal angels. But his main
endeavor was to apply “the ascending from the rising of the sun, figurative as
explained in connection with Ellen G. White’s Bible visions” (p. 40). To call attention to her and her vision, on
pp. 31-32 he makes this statement:
“More than two years are now passed since I proved them
true. Therefore I profess myself a firm
believer in her visions as far as I have witnessed, and I have seen her have
many.” “As this Sr. is not known by
many who read her visions and may read this sealing message, I have without her
knowledge given the foregoing arguments and statements, to satisfy my readers
respecting the truth of this recorded vision; and especially to give God the
glory for all the light he gave us on that memorable occasion.”
On
the strength of Bate’s testimony, claiming Mrs. White’s visions as sure
evidence from God, the Seventh Day Adventists, ever since, teach, as
fundamental truth, that they are the 144,000 first fruits, who are to see
Christ’s advent, and bearing, as a visible seal on their foreheads, the
Sabbath. But, already, voices were not
even then lacking who saw in the angel from the sun-rising the sunlight of the
pure gospel which, in the fullness of time, dawned in the Orient; and, since
the day of Pentecost, has illuminated thousands of Jews, who, as first fruits,
were baptized in the name of Christ, and were sealed by the Holy Spirit in a
relatively quiet time as the precious purchase of the Lamb of God. In the centuries since then, the everlasting
gospel has, under great tribulations, made its circuit around the earth,
whereby a countless number of heathen have been sealed as the property of the
Lamb.
Miller
and Snow, in their delusive belief that Christ would surely return in 1843-44,
used Matthew 25: 10 as proof that then the door of mercy would be forever
shut. After Mrs. White had read
Crozier’s tract, in a similar way she misapplied Revelation 3: 7 to a shut door
of grace in heaven. In her letter to
Eli Curtis, in 1847, she misused this text in this sense regarding Fallen away
Adventists; but, in her vision of March 24, 1849, she emphasized it as applying
to all future revival efforts. All such
efforts were in vain, the success being only apparent, the Sabbath question was
now the great test. (Present Truth,
August, 1849, p. 21-22; all in italics left out in Early Writings, p. 37):
“There I was shown that the commandments of God, and the
testimony of Jesus Christ, relating to the shut door could not be separated … I
saw that Jesus had shut the door in the holy place, and no man can open it; and
that he had opened the door into the most holy, and no man can shut it (Rev. 3:
7, 8), and that since Jesus has opened the door in the most holy place, which
contains the ark, the commandments have been shining out to God’s people, and
they are being tested on the Sabbath question … I saw that the mysterious
sights and wonders, and false reformations would increase and spread. The reformations that were shown me, were
not reformations from error to truth; but from bad to worse; for those who
professed a change of heart, had only wrapped about them a religious garb,
which covered up the iniquity of a wicked heart. Some appeared to have been really converted, so as to deceive
God’s people; but if their hearts could be seen, they would appear as black as
ever. 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.”
What
a strange contrast appears between the visionary misapplication of Revelation
3: 7 by Mrs. White to a shut door of grace in heaven about 1844, and the right
application of sane prophetic students in Great Britain, that God at the end of
the prophetic time had, in harmony with 1st Corinthians 16: 9; 2nd
Corinthians 2: 12, granted Philadelphia, indeed, an open door on earth into the
wide heathen world, removing all barriers! On the one hand, a vision even discrediting all revival efforts; on the
other hand, the grand “Mission Century” as the glorious result!
On
the heels of this vision, she had another, in 1849, entitled “Duty in view of
the time of trouble” (Early Writings, pp. 47-49), in which she exhorted all
saints to sell their property and to devote their means “to advance the cause
of present truth.”
“Houses and land will be of no use to the saints in the
time of trouble, for they will then have to flee before infuriated mobs, and at
that time their possessions cannot be disposed of to advance the cause of
present truth.” “I saw that the time
for Jesus to be in the most holy place was nearly finished, and that time can
not last but a very little longer.” “Live and act wholly in reference to the coming of the Son of man. The sealing time is very short, and will
soon be over.”
At
the time when she wrote out that vision, they had not even furniture of their
own; but lived with some of the brethren, and often changed their abode and
also their place of printing. After
nearly a century, we may well ask, Is this very short service in the most holy
place still going on?
In
answer to the charge of his wife to publish, James White from July, 1849,
onward, published five numbers of a small eight-page sheet with the above title
at Middletown, Connecticut, whilst they lived at Rocky Hill. Love and duty compelled him to send it out
free.
“The keeping of the fourth commandment is all-important
present truth; but this alone will not save any one. We must keep all ten of the commandments, and strictly follow all
the directions of the N. T., and have living, active faith in Jesus. This little sheet is free for all. Those who are interested in Present Truth,
and esteem it a privilege, are invited to help pay the expense. I shall send out 1000 copies. (p. 6.)
From
Nos. 4, 6, and 7 of the Seventh Day Baptist publications of The New York
Sabbath Tract Society, he made long extracts concerning the biblical and
historical development of the Sabbath, and also of its change, in fact all his
articles dealing with the Sabbath and the Law, besides a few of the visions of
Mrs. White. Invited by Hiram Edson, in
December, 1849, James White moved to Oswego, New York; where, from December
till May, following, Nos. 6-10 appeared.
It
is rather strange how reticent Seventh Day Adventist editors can be when one of
their brethren, desiring to know only the truth, asks them a straight question
about early Seventh Day Adventist history. This the present writer found out, when having heard that J. Bates
expected the Lord about 1851, he put the question to F. M. Wilcox. Though his lady secretary seemingly spent
several days in research, no information could be gained. Scarcely an hour’s research in the Review on
my part, furnished ample evidence that Mrs. White, Hiram Edson, and J. Bates
shared this conviction. I have in my
possession a sermon written by Edson, a second edition of which was published
in Auburn in 1849, entitled, The Time of The End; Its Beginning, Progressive Events and Final Termination, in
which he tried, on p. 15, to fix the time:
“We heard the sound of his going in, in 1844. Behold the bridegroom cometh. And now, with all the confidence and
positiveness with which we proclaimed the midnight cry in 1844, yes with
tenfold more confidence and positiveness, we now declare that we are now
beginning to hear the sound of our high priest coming out, 1810 years Jesus was
employed in the holy place receiving penitent sinners, forgiving sins. The idea is plausible that he will be in the
most holy as many days as he was years in the holy, which was 1810, which would
be a little short of 5 years, and would terminate before the tenth of the 7th
month 1849. And our past and present
experience and inspiration, and the signs of the times, all conspire to declare
that Michael is just on the point of standing up. But before he stands up the servants of God must all be sealed
and their sins be blotted out, -- the plan and work of redemption he completed.”
When
October passed, in January, 1850, Bates then published as his fifth tract
“Explanation of The Typical and Antitypical Sanctuary by The Scriptures.’
” After considering the 2300 days and
their ending October, 1844, he declares:
“Here his work ceased: Ministering and meditating for the
whole world forever; and he like the pattern in the type, entered the most holy
place, hearing upon his breast plate of judgement the twelve tribes of the
house of Israel … to set in judgment; first to decide who is, and who is not
worthy to enter the gates of the holy city, while the Bridegroom, High Priest,
Mediator and crowned King of Israel stands before him, advocating the cause of
all presented on his breast plate of judgment. As Daniel now sees it, the judgment is now set and the books open.” “The seven spots of blood on the golden altar, before the
mercy seat, I fully believe represent the duration of the judicial proceedings
on the living saints in the most holy, all of which time they will be in their
affliction, even seven years, God by his voice will deliver them. For it is the blood that maketh atonement
for the soul (Leviticus 17: 11). Then
the number seven will finish the day of atonement, (not redemption). Six last months of this time, I understand,
Jesus will be gathering in the harvest with his sickle, on the white
cloud. As soon as the day of atonement
is ended, seven angel’s come out of the temple with the seven last plagues. This is the duration of the third angel’s
message in Revelation 14: 9-13.”
By
this time, Bates had the utmost confidence in her visions as from God, and Mrs.
White had equal confidence in his statements as based on scripture; hence her
positive statement, made on June 27, 1850, in her vision concerning the “Mark
of the Beast” (Early Writings, pp. 54-57), that Christ’s coming was but a
matter of months, was but the logical result of her former visions and Bates’
positive statements:
“My accompanying angel said, ‘time is almost finished … get
ready, get ready, get ready’ … I saw that there was a great work to do for
them, and but little time in which to do it.” “Said the angel: ‘Deny self; you must step fast.’ 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.”
In
these arguments of Bates, the positive, infallible statements of angels given
in several visions of Mrs. White, confirmed the expectation of a certain small
number of Seventh Day Adventists that, in the beginning of 1851, the long
expected Son of man would appear on the white cloud; and, with his sharp
sickle, reap the harvest of his saints.
Miller,
Snow, James White, and Edson were disappointed. Bates and Mrs. White shared the same fate! The “few months” in 1851 now increased to
cover a thousand! Miller died without
witnessing Christ’s advent. Snow ended
in mad ambition, of which his two tracts published in New York, in May, 1848,
are the sad evidence:
1. “The Overflowing Scourge, S. S. Snow, Premier of King
Jesus.” 2. “By the Special Ambassador and Minister Plenipotentiary
of Jesus Christ -- Proclamation. Be it
known 6000 years are ended. As his
Prime Minister I demand of all Kings, Presidents, Magistrates and rulers, civil
and ecclesiastical, a full surrender of all power and authority unto my hands
on behalf of King Jesus, the Coming One.”
In
May, 1850, as editor of Present Truth, James White attests (p. 74):
“S. S. Snow professing to be ‘Elijah the
Prophet.’ This man in his strange and wild career, has also acted his part in this
work of death, and his course has had a tendency to bring the true position for
the waiting saints into disrepute, in the minds of many honest souls.”
Then
in July, 1852, as editor of the Advent Review (p. 40), he testified, as to the
Shaker, Jacobs, and as to Snow: “Those who have read our publications know that we have not
the least sympathy for Shakerism or the heretical teachings of S. S. Snow.” As
to Eli Curtis, in Present Truth (p. 80), May, 1850, Mrs. White gave this
warning: |