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

Criticism of Deletions from the First Vision

As already noted, the record of Ellen White's first vision appeared in several forms before taking its place in her first book in 1851. As first written out by her on December 20, 1845, in a personal letter to Enoch Jacobs, editor of the Day-Star, she stated that it was not written for publication in his journal but for his personal benefit. However, at the request of friends he published it in the issue of January 24, 1846. James White and H. S. Gurney took it from the Day-Star and had it printed in a broadside on April 6, 1846. On May 30, 1847, James White included it in his little pamphlet A Word to the “Little Flock,” adding Scripture references. From there it was drawn into the Review Extra of July 21, 1851, and then in her first book, Experience and Views, published in August, 1851. It was introduced in the two 1851 printings by her significant statement that “more recent views have been more full. I shall therefore leave out a portion and prevent repetition.—Page 9. 1BIO 267.4

The major deletion is of materials descriptive of what she saw in heaven, especially the temple, a description similar to that of the vision of April 3, 1847, in which the Sabbath was confirmed. The other deletion, one that has attracted attention, relates to those who took their eyes off Jesus and fell from the path to “the wicked world below.” At this point in her letter to Jacobs, editor of the Day-Star, she wrote: 1BIO 267.5

It was just as impossible for them to get on the path again and go to the City, as all the wicked world which God had rejected. They fell all the way along the path one after another.” (See also A Word to the “Little Flock,” p. 14.) [A facsimile copy of this little pamphlet is currently available at adventist book centers, and the text is reproduced in F. D. Nichol's Ellen G. White and Her Critics, pp. 561-584.] 1BIO 268.1

It was not until some thirty years after the publication of Experience and Views in 1851 that question was raised concerning the deletion, in a pamphlet published by a group made up of those who had withdrawn from Seventh-day Adventists because of church organization and the Spirit of Prophecy. These formed the Church of God (Seventh Day), in Marion, Iowa. In this pamphlet Ellen White was accused of suppressing materials she did not wish to come before the public. Not often did she turn aside from her routine work to answer her critics, but on this occasion she did, in a statement on file as Manuscript 4, 1883, now found in Selected Messages 1:59-73. She introduced her explanation of the charges thus: 1BIO 268.2

My attention has recently been called to a sixteen-page pamphlet published by C [A. C. Long], of Marion, Iowa, entitled Comparison of the Early Writings of Mrs. White With Later Publications. The writer states that portions of my earlier visions, as first printed, have been suppressed in the work recently published under the title Early Writings of Mrs. E. G. White, and he conjectures as a reason for such suppression that these passages teach doctrines now repudiated by us as a people.... 1BIO 268.3

The first quotation mentioned by C is from a pamphlet of twenty-four pages published in 1847, entitled A Word to the “Little Flock.” Here are the lines omitted in Experience and Views: 1BIO 268.4

“It was just as impossible for them [those that gave up their faith in the ‘44 movement] to get on the path again and go to the City, as all the wicked world which God had rejected. They fell all the way along the path one after another.” ... It is claimed that these expressions prove the shut-door doctrine, and that this is the reason of their omission in later editions. But in fact they teach only that which has been and is still held by us as a people. 1BIO 268.5

It is in this setting, as noted earlier in this chapter, that she explained that “all who saw the light of the first and second angels’ messages and rejected that light were left in darkness” and also those who later “renounced their faith and pronounced their experience a delusion, thereby rejecting the Spirit of God.” These she contrasted with “those who did not see the light” and “had not the guilt of its rejection.” Then she declared: 1BIO 269.1

These two classes are brought to view in the vision—those who declared the light which they had followed a delusion, and the wicked of the world who, having rejected the light, had been rejected of God. No reference is made to those who had not seen the light, and therefore were not guilty of its rejection.—Manuscript 4, 1883 (see also Ibid., 1:59-64). (Italics supplied.) 1BIO 269.2

As attention is focused on phrases in the first written account of the vision, it is proper to point out that in the letter that Jacobs published Ellen would naturally condense the presentation and confine the written statement to just the essential features. At the same time, she would write with much less painstaking than would ordinarily be required in preparing material for publication. This she soon discovered, as is evidenced by her explanations that she added to her first book in 1852. She had discovered that in writing for print great care must be taken to phrase the message in such a way that none might misunderstand the intent. 1BIO 269.3

A point of considerable significance must not be overlooked, and that is, a few months before these words were penned, Ellen Harmon in Paris, Maine, had made it clear that from what God had shown her there was opportunity for the salvation of a person who had not heard and rejected the first angel's message. This, and the absence of statements declaring the extreme shut-door position, would guard against reading into the phrases in question the interpretation of probation's close for the world generally in 1844. 1BIO 269.4