Manuscript Releases, vol. 15 [Nos. 1136-1185]

MR No. 1140—Image to the Beast Formed Before Close of Probation

(Written August 6, 1890, presumably from Petoskey, Michigan, to “Brother and Sister Garmire.”)

Since visiting your house Sabbath afternoon, August 23, some things have rested on my mind to say to you. I have no hesitancy in saying that Anna's visions are not of God. The dreams that the members of your family have had are a deception of Satan. Will the Lord give light through an impure, corrupt channel? No. 15MR 12.1

This wonderful interpretation of Scripture which you have accepted, came from a man who was wholly deceived. Such ideas as he advanced, such interpretation of the third angel's message and other Bible truths, such corrupting, sensual things, could come only from a mind defiled. My pen refuses to trace his blasphemous pretensions. Here is where you received your light. 15MR 12.2

Anna's visions have no higher source than the ideas you accepted from the blind man Jones. Can an impure foundation send forth pure water? Never. The imagination of the man was wholly defiled, and yet he presented his error as solemn, sacred truth. Think you the Lord would pass by His people, who are striving to do His work, and impart light to one corrupt in heart, whose theories would lead to moral pollution and defilement of soul and body? No, indeed no. 15MR 12.3

Satan saw that he could work upon your fruitful imagination, and lead you, with others, into his net. Did God give you that time message? No; for no such message comes from the true source of light. You present your calculations and figures, as many First Day Adventists have, but your reckoning is founded on false premises. In the little leaflet you sent out you speak of “the judgment” coming in one hour, and that God will work “His strange work” and “cut it short in righteousness” and seal to Himself a remnant, in fifteen days. 15MR 13.1

On page 8 you present Anna's vision in regard to a certain woman as a confirmation of your theory that probation would end in October, 1884. There is nothing to this. Probation is not yet closed; the saints are not yet sealed. In the next paragraph you give Anna's dream in regard to her father. Neither has this any weight, nor the dream your wife has had. They are all false. 15MR 13.2

I quote from your tract: “The Lord plainly tells you the literal days He will be pleading with you, in Hosea 5:7—for fifteen days on the testimony, and fifteen more days on the laws, in the loud cry. I shall not be able to get this tract before any of you more than thirty days before the time is accomplished.” 15MR 13.3

You say, “Hundreds will be in the Tabernacle; and as they have rejected the Lord, He will reject them, and send them strong delusions, that they may believe a lie.” Who was it that was deluded? Who was it that believed a lie? Then you make quotations from Sister White to substantiate your false theories. 15MR 13.4

Forty thousand of these leaflets were sent out. One of your party prevailed upon a young man who was naturally conscientious, to steal the mailing list of the Review and Herald, from which to obtain names to whom to send your falsehoods. This was a State's prison crime. Such work in no sense bears the divine mark. Time has proved you to be a false prophet, and Anna's visions false exercises. God never works in this way. 15MR 14.1

Satan has other and stronger delusions prepared for you. You will claim, if you have not already done so, that you have a work to do in connection with Anna's visions, corresponding to that of the mighty angel that came down from heaven, whose glory lightened the earth. Satan sees that your mind is all ready to be impressed with his suggestions, and he will use you to your own ruin, unless in the name of the Lord you break the shackles that bind you. 15MR 14.2

The parable of the call to supper has no bearing on your theories. It is a lesson given by Christ to reach to the close of probation. You dwell on this parable, and call in the Scripture, when you have wholly perverted and misapplied its meaning. 15MR 14.3

You and your wife and Sister Eastman have said, “Show us from the Bible that we are in error, and we will give it up.” But how can I prove your error by Scripture when you misinterpret and misapply it as you do? 15MR 14.4

It was this same spirit in the Jews which called forth the words of Christ, “Ye are ignorant both of the Scriptures and of the power of God.” They entertained the idea that Christ at His first advent was to break the Roman yoke from off their necks, and that He would then honor Israel by placing them above every other people on the earth. And they produced Scripture to sustain them; but they were deceived. The Old Testament prophecies which relate to the glorious second appearing of Christ, they applied to His first advent, and many, even the wise and educated, were deceived. Their error was fatal. 15MR 14.5

Several times during our conversation, in which you become very much in earnest, you repeated the sentence, “O consistency, thou art a jewel!” I repeat the same with decided force to you. You say that Anna's visions place the forming of the image of the beast after probation closes. This is not so. You claim to believe the testimonies; let them set you right on this point. The Lord has shown me clearly that the image of the beast will be formed before probation closes; for it is to be the great test for the people of God, by which their eternal destiny will be decided. Your position is such a jumble of inconsistencies that but few will be deceived. 15MR 15.1

In Revelation 13 this subject is plainly presented; [Revelation 13:11-17, quoted]. 15MR 15.2

This is the test that the people of God must have before they are sealed. All who prove their loyalty to God by observing His law, and refusing to accept a spurious sabbath, will rank under the banner of the Lord God Jehovah, and will receive the seal of the living God. Those who yield the truth of heavenly origin, and accept the Sunday sabbath, will receive the mark of the beast. What need will there be of the solemn warning not to receive the mark of the beast, when all the saints of God are sealed and ticketed for the New Jerusalem? “O consistency, thou art a jewel!” 15MR 15.3

You have taken the history of the disobedient prophet, as given in the Old Testament, and applied it to Sister White. You say she is perfectly honest, but the deceived prophet. For this reason the testimonies of the Spirit of God can have no effect on you. Has the Lord opened to you or your daughter, your wife or your children, the disobedience of Sister White? If she has walked contrary to God, will you show in what? My duty is to make plain statements of my position; for you misinterpret my testimony, wrench it from its true meaning, and ring in my name whenever you think it will enforce whatever you have to say. But when the testimonies do not harmonize with your theories, I am excused, because I am the false prophet! There are many ways of evading the truth. 15MR 15.4

You seem to have special bitterness against Elder [Uriah] Smith, and some others of our brethren, and you have talked out these feelings in your family, thus leavening them. The Lord has seen fit to counsel Elder Smith, to give him words of reproof because he had erred; but is this an evidence that God has forsaken him? No. “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” [Revelation 3:19]. The Lord reproves wrongs in His people, but is this an evidence that He has rejected them? No. There are errors in the church, and the Lord points them out by His own ordained agencies, not always through the testimonies. Now, shall we seize these reproofs and make capital of them, and say that God is not imparting to them His light and love? No. The very work that God is trying to do for them shows that He loves them and wants to draw them away from paths of danger. 15MR 16.1

God has spoken in reference to yourself. That which you term light from heaven, He has pronounced darkness, and the visions born of this error, He calls a delusion. Will you believe this testimony? Will you heed what the Lord has spoken through Sister White, or will you cast the word of the Lord behind you? Will you quote this testimony as readily, and make capital of it, as you have of testimonies of reproof given your brethren who have erred in some things? “O consistency, thou art a jewel!”—Letter 11, 1890. 15MR 16.2

Ellen G. White Estate

Washington, D. C.,

May 2, 1985.

Entire Letter.