Messenger of the Lord

The Final Shaking—a Prediction

One of Ellen White’s unfulfilled predictions relates to future events. Key words that describe the forces that will focus on Seventh-day Adventists are “sifting” and “shaking.” MOL 537.9

Human beings have been sifted by trials and temptations ever since the Garden of Eden, but Ellen White foresaw a time prior to the close of probation when special circumstances will test and sift every Adventist. The special sifting is often called the “shaking” time. Sometimes she uses the term “shaking” to refer to the process ¹⁹ by which all church members will be tested; at other times she refers to the profound shaking that will prevail during the Seven Last Plagues. ²⁰ MOL 537.10

Some of the causes of the final shaking within the Adventist Church will be: MOL 538.1

Persecution from outside the church. ²¹ MOL 538.2

Erroneous doctrines within the church. ²² MOL 538.3

Prevailing worldliness caused by not having experienced “the love of the truth,” or being “sanctified through obedience to the truth.” ²³ MOL 538.4

Resistance to the “straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans.” ²⁴ MOL 538.5

Specific rejection of the sanctuary doctrine involving the significance of the pre-advent judgment and the relationship between the cleansed sanctuary and cleansed people. ²⁵ MOL 538.6

Rejection of the ministry of Ellen White. ²⁶ MOL 538.7

The impact of the shaking on Seventh-day Adventists will be enormous: MOL 538.8

Defections among church leaders. ²⁷ MOL 538.9

Apostasies of ministers who have preached false doctrine. ²⁸ MOL 538.10

The church will seem about to fall. ²⁹ MOL 538.11

An impressive number of church members will leave. ³⁰ MOL 538.12

New converts will take the place of the defectors. ³¹ MOL 538.13

Preparation for the crisis involves developing habits of enthusiasm, courage, and loyalty. ³² MOL 538.14