The Predictions of the 1856 Vision

Chapter 7—No Failure in the Word of the Lord

Thus it is evident that if the free will of men and women is so vitally related to the second coming of Christ, both as regards the unbeliever and the professed children of God, any prediction concerning it would have to be tempered and qualified by that fact. 1856V 4.3

Numerous statements made by Ellen White in the decades following the 1856 vision demonstrate that she clearly understood that there is an implied conditional quality to God’s promises and threatenings—as Jeremiah declared—and that the conditional feature in forecasts regarding Christ’s Advent involves the state of heart of Christ’s followers. The following statement, written in 1883, is especially relevant on this point: 1856V 4.4

“The angels of God in their messages to men represent time as very short. Thus it has always been presented to me. It is true that time has continued longer than we expected in the early days of this message. Our Saviour did not appear as soon as we hoped. But has the Word of the Lord failed? Never! It should be remembered that the promises and the threatenings of God are alike conditional....

“It was not the will of God that the coming of Christ should be thus delayed. God did not design that His people, Israel, should wander forty years in the wilderness. He promised to lead them directly to the land of Canaan, and establish them there a holy, healthy, people. But those to whom it was first preached, went not in ‘because of unbelief.’ Their hearts were filled with murmuring, rebellion, and hatred, and He could not fulfill His covenant with them.

“For forty years did unbelief, murmuring, and rebellion shut out ancient Israel from the land of Canaan. The same sins have delayed the entrance of modern Israel into the heavenly Canaan. In neither case were the promises of God at fault. It is the unbelief, the worldliness, unconsecration, and strife among the Lord’s professed people that have kept us in this world of sin and sorrow so many years.”—MS. 4, 1883. (Quoted in Evangelism, 695, 696.)

These words from Mrs. White harmonize with what we have already discovered of the ways of God toward humanity, that free will plays an awesome part in the operation of the plans of God for this earth. We can better understand Mrs. White’s unfulfilled prediction of 1856 when it is examined in the light of the conditional character of prophetic promises found in the Scriptures. 1856V 4.5

Adapted from F. D. Nichol, “The Predictions of the 1856 Vision,” in Ellen G. White and Her Critics (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1951), pp. 102-111. Available from Adventist Book Centers (1-800-765-6955).