Ellen G. White: The Early Years: 1827-1862 (vol. 1)

View of Heaven and Other Worlds

The visions clarifying certain points and confirming others were at this time quite frequent. In 1851 as Ellen White assembled the materials for her first book, she placed immediately following the vision that was just quoted an article titled “God's Love for His People,” relating a vision that carries no date but is filled with encouragement and information: 1BIO 156.1

I have seen the tender love that God has for His people, and it is very great. I saw angels over the saints with their wings spread about them. Each saint had an attending angel. If the saints wept through discouragement, or were in danger, the angels that ever attended them would fly quickly upward to carry the tidings, and the angels in the city would cease to sing. Then Jesus would commission another angel to descend to encourage, watch over, and try to keep them from going out of the narrow path.—Ibid., 39. 1BIO 156.2

After being shown the order there is in heaven, she was given a view of other worlds. She wrote of the experience: 1BIO 156.3

Wings were given me, and an angel attended me from the city to a place that was bright and glorious. The grass of the place was living green, and the birds there warbled a sweet song. 1BIO 156.4

The inhabitants of the place were of all sizes; they were noble, majestic, and lovely. They bore the express image of Jesus, and their countenances beamed with holy joy, expressive of the freedom and happiness of the place. I asked one of them why they were so much more lovely than those on the earth. The reply was, “We have lived in strict obedience to the commandments of God, and have not fallen by disobedience, like those on the earth.”—Ibid., 39, 40. 1BIO 156.5

She observed much of interest and significance on this seeming visit to another planet: 1BIO 156.6

Then I saw two trees, one looked much like the tree of life in the city. The fruit of both looked beautiful, but of one they could not eat. They had power to eat of both, but were forbidden to eat of one. Then my attending angel said to me, “None in this place have tasted of the forbidden tree; but if they should eat, they would fall.”—Ibid., 40. 1BIO 156.7

There she met “good old Enoch.” In conversation with him she asked if this was the place to which he was taken from the earth. He replied, “It is not; the city is my home, and I have come to visit this place.” Ellen observed that he moved about as if perfectly at home. Entranced with the planet she was visiting, she made a most natural request of her accompanying angel: 1BIO 157.1

I begged of my attending angel to let me remain in that place. I could not bear the thought of coming back to this dark world again. Then the angel said, “You must go back, and if you are faithful, you, with the 144,000, [Note: the wording is “you with the 144,000,” not “you as one of the 144,000.”] shall have the privilege of visiting all the worlds and viewing the handiwork of God.”— Ibid. 1BIO 157.2