Why I Believe in Mrs. E. G. White

Chapter Three—Saved, From the Folly of Time Setting

The year is 1845. Ellen Harmon—soon to become Mrs. James White—had only begun traveling to various post-Millerite groups with her messages that she believed were from God. Nor had any sharply distinguishing lines developed as yet between the little segment who were soon to be most openly marked by their Sabbathkeeping and the remainder of the Millerites. Indeed, in 1845 this small segment had not yet freed themselves completely from the persuasive idea that a definite time might be set for the coming of Christ. As already stated, the majority of the Millerites eased the pain of their disappointment on October 22, 1844, by reasoning that they had simply made a slight error in calculation. As 1845 rolled on there were those who expressed the idea that an error of just one year had been made and therefore Christ would come in October, 1845—or to use the phrasing they borrowed from the Jewish reckoning of months, “the 7th month, 1845.” WBEGW 23.1

Now, time setting appeals to the imagination, and if the young woman, Ellen Harmon, is to be dismissed simply as someone with an overwrought imagination, or worse, we should expect to see her in the forefront of the campaign to prepare everyone for Christ’s advent in October, 1845. Actually, James White, whom she married in 1846, was looking hopefully toward this new date for the Advent. But before it arrived he changed his mind. Why? Let him speak for himself. Recounting, in 1847, certain experiences, he declared: WBEGW 23.2

“It is well known that many were expecting the Lord to come at the 7th month, 1845. That Christ would then come we firmly believed. A few days before the time passed I was at Fairhaven, and Dartmouth, Mass., with a message on this point of time. At this time, Ellen [Harmon] was with the band at Carver, Mass., where she saw in vision, that we should be disappointed, and that the saints must pass through the ‘time of Jacob’s trouble,’ which was future. Her view of Jacob’s trouble was entirely new to us, as well as herself.”—A Word to the Little Flock, 22. WBEGW 24.1

And so James White, who soon was to become a pillar in the slowly forming Seventh-day Adventist Church, turned his mind completely and forever from all time setting, to devote himself to the solemn work of preparing men for the day of God, which he ever after declared would be at a date known only to God. WBEGW 24.2