The Ellen G. White Letters and Manuscripts: Volume 1

Spiritualizers

Another Millerite Adventist, Orlando Squires, began publication of the Voice of the Shepherd in Utica, New York, during March 1845. This paper spiritualized almost every tangible aspect of Christian belief. These included rejecting a literal heaven,³⁶ a literal destruction of the world by fire,³⁷ a literal resurrection,³⁸ a literal “body of Jesus in the universe of God,” and a literal Second Coming.³⁹ The Voice of the Shepherd proposed that all of these were accomplished in a spiritual sense within the Christian's own experience. This spiritual “Second Coming” they understood to have occurred at the time of the disappointment in the fall of 1844. 1EGWLM 927.2

Ellen White's third major vision, in which she was shown the new earth (spring 1845), directly countered the spiritualizing view. She was transported to the future and walked with Jesus and the saints in the earth made new. There were literal trees, grass, animals, and food. Jesus was a real person, as were the resurrected saints.⁴⁰ She and others who became Sabbatarian Adventists did all in their power to oppose the spiritualizers. 1EGWLM 927.3