The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

XI. Jets of Light to Encircle the Earth

While some of Mrs. White’s forecasts were predictions of coining calamity, there were greater and more frequent predictions of a glorious gospel work that will close the age. She consistently stressed a world-wide missionary program for the everlasting gospel, destined to close in a blaze of triumph. This Mrs. White constantly called the “loud cry” (Revelation 18:1, 2), or “latter rain” of the Holy Spirit, just as Pentecost was denominated the “early” or “former rain.” Thus she said: PFF4 1013.2

“There is before the church the dawn of a bright, glorious day.” “The outpouring of the Spirit in the days of the apostles was the ‘former rain,’ and glorious was the result. But the latter rain will be more abundant.” ⁵⁴ PFF4 1013.3

“The time is coming when there will be as many converts in a day as there were on the day of Pentecost, after the disciples had received the Holy Spirit.” ⁵⁵ PFF4 1013.4

“In heathen Africa, in the Catholic lands of Europe and of South America, in China, in India, in the islands of the sea, and in all the dark corners of the earth, God has in reserve a firmament of chosen ones that will yet shine forth amidst the darkness, revealing clearly to an apostate world the transforming power of obedience to His law.” ⁵⁶ PFF4 1013.5

These counsels have helped to give Adventists an inspiring hope and an irrepressible optimism such as perhaps no other church possesses. That is one reason why Seventh-day Adventists consider themselves true optimists in a world now generally shrouded in gloom and pessimism. PFF4 1013.6

Mrs. White’s early utterances began to urge the pioneer leaders to world-wide missionary planning and action. At that time it seemed incredible. In the very first view given through this gift, in December, 1844, the journey of God’s faithful people to the city of God is described, with the world, spread out before her, lying in darkness. However, in those early days she also saw “jets of light” springing up amid the darkness and encircling the globe, increasing in number and brilliance, and growing stronger and stronger, until they lightened the world—a remarkably vivid portrayal of world missions given in figure. Here it is in Ellen White’s own words: PFF4 1013.7

“In my very girlhood the Lord saw fit to open before me the glories of heaven. I was in vision taken to heaven, and the angel said to me, ‘Look, I looked to the world as it was in dense darkness.... PFF4 1014.1

“Again the word came, ‘Look! ye.’ And again I looked intensely over the world, and I began to see jets of light like stars dotted all through this darkness; and then I saw another and another added light, and so all through this moral darkness the star-like lights were increasing. And the angel said, These are they that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and are obeying the words of Christ. These are the light of the world; and if it were not for these lights, the judgments of God would immediately fall upon the transgressors of God’s law. PFF4 1014.2

“I saw then these little jets of light growing brighter, shining forth from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, and lighting the whole world. Occasionally one of these lights would begin to grow dim, and others would go out, and every time that this occurred there was sadness and weeping in heaven. And then some of the lights would grow brighter and brighter, and increase in brilliancy; and their light was far-reaching, and many more lights were added to it. Then there was rejoicing in heaven. I saw that the rays of light came directly from Jesus, to form these precious jets of light in the world.” ⁵⁷ PFF4 1014.3

This call to a world-wide work was hard for those pioneers to understand-with time seemingly so short and their numbers so pitifully few. To send out missionaries in sufficient numbers, from America to the remotest lands of earth, seemed beyond all possibility. But bold advances were called for that would embrace the world. On April 1, 1874, Mrs. White wrote, “The whole world ... is God’s great vineyard.” Then she set forth the cities and villages of earth as a beckoning challenge. The light must reach them. Never lose sight of the fact, she admonished, that this is to be “a world-wide message.” “You are not to localize the proclamation,” she admonished. And she declared that the PFF4 1014.4

“ideas of the work for this time are altogether too limited,” that the “light must not be confined to a small compass, put under a bushel, or under a bed; it must be placed on a candlestick, that it may give light to all that are in God’s house-the world.” ⁵⁸ PFF4 1015.1

Yet the total Seventh-day Adventist membership at this time was only 8,022. And again, on January 3, 1875, Mrs. White was given a view of the growth of the work to take place in foreign lands. She saw printing presses in many lands pouring forth periodicals, tracts, and books heralding the advent message ⁵⁹ Yet at the time there was only one denominational press, one health institution, and one college—and these all in Battle Creek, Michigan! And in 1892 the call was sounded to extend to all the great heathen lands and islands of the sea the very same work, with its institutional phase, that had been done in the homeland.” ⁶⁰ As a result, restricted views were abandoned and missionary training was undertaken in earnest. Then presses were started in Switzerland, Scandinavia, Australia, and so on, until there are, at this writing, 34 Seventh-day Adventist publishing plants outside of North America, 132 sanitariums, hospitals, and dispensaries, and 130 colleges and academies ⁶¹ in countries overseas. PFF4 1015.2

But it was when this Sabbatarian Adventist band numbered less than a hundred that Mrs. White was first shown that as the threefold message of Revelation 14 was faithfully presented to the world-with the commandments of God in inseparable relation to the faith of Jesus—it would meet with a welcome response. A great number would embrace it and it would spread to the ends of the earth. ⁶² Under such circumstances, such a conception seemed like an impossible fancy, a mocking mirage. Every contingent seemed to be against such an outcome. The prospect seemed well-nigh hopeless for the penniless little group that had withdrawn from the once large Adventist body, which had begun to disintegrate immediately following the Disappointment. PFF4 1015.3

The Sabbatarian Adventists were constricted by grinding poverty, ridiculed on every side, and harassed by annoying fanatics from without, seeking to intrude. And to the general condemnation that had descended upon all Adventists, was now added the harsh criticism of former brethren of the Millerite movement, because of the insistent emphasis on the seventh-day Sabbath. And all this was complicated by attempts of designing extremists determined to edge their way into their confidence, intent on bringing about division and disaster. Casual onlookers had simply dismissed the Sabbatarian Adventists as the “rumpled remnant” of a discredited movement, as aptly phrased. PFF4 1016.1

Yet that prediction is matched today by approximately one million Seventh-day Adventists scattered over every part of the world, and that despite their strict standard of church membership. And the membership of their Sabbath schools the world around considerably passes the million mark. Indeed, they are pressing their missionary and evangelistic endeavor in every continent with great vigor, as they seek to bear to all the earth the clarified message of preparation for Christ’s return. These mission endeavors are recognized as one of the wonders of the religious world, ⁶³ and their radio and Bible correspondence schools circle the globe.” ⁶⁴ So again remarkable fulfillment meets the demands of the prediction. PFF4 1016.2