Ellen White’s Integrative Themes

The Second Coming

The Second Coming was of central importance to Ellen White from the time of her conversion in the Millerite experience of the 1840s. The reality of the nearness of the Advent dominated her life and shaped her writing career. As such, it tied in with each of the other six themes we are discussing. Thus the Second Coming is a focal point of truth in the Bible, it is the climax of salvation in Christ, it signals the beginning of the end of the great controversy between good and evil, it is a supreme expression of God’s love, it is the point of the three angels’ messages, and it provides an incentive for living the Christian life. The Second Coming left no part of Ellen White’s thinking unaffected. EWIT 117.4

She taught that the Second Advent must be at the center of Seventh-day Adventist teachings and activities. “All the discourses that we give,” she said, “are plainly to reveal that we are waiting, working, and praying for the coming of the Son of God. His coming is our hope. This hope is to be bound up with all our words and works, with all our associations and relationships.”—Evangelism, 220 EWIT 118.1

For Ellen White the return of Christ was not only a future reality, but it had a sense of immediacy that demanded urgency in preaching its message to all the world in as short a time as possible. “Sound an alarm through the land,” she wrote. “Tell the people that the day of the Lord is near, and hasteneth greatly. Let none be left unwarned.... We have no time to lose.... The coming of the Lord is nearer than when we first believed. The great controversy is nearing its end. Every report of calamity by sea or land is a testimony to the fact that the end of all things is at hand. Wars and rumors of wars declare it.... The Lord is coming. We hear the footsteps of an approaching God.... We are to prepare the way for Him by acting our part in getting a people ready for that great day” (Evangelism, 218, 219). It was the truth of the Advent and the nearness of that event that set the stage for Adventist mission outreach. EWIT 118.2

Ellen White closely related her focus on the Second Advent and its mission outreach corollary to the apocalyptic books of Daniel and the Revelation. Those books and the end-time picture they set forth found a special place in her teaching and writing. “There is need of a much closer study of the Word of God,” she wrote in 1896; “especially should Daniel and the Revelation have attention as never before in the history of our work” (Evangelism, 577). Again, she urged, “there should be a closer and more diligent study of the Revelation, and a more earnest presentation of the truths it contains—truths which concern all who are living in these last days.”—Evangelism, 197 EWIT 118.3

Ellen White’s own writings on the Second Advent demonstrate that she followed her own injunction to study Daniel and the Revelation. Her writings are seasoned throughout with treatments of and allusions to those two apocalyptic books. EWIT 118.4

Mrs. White wrote some of her most inspiring prose in connection with the cluster of events surrounding the Second Advent. Picturing the Second Advent itself, she writes: “By the people of God a voice, clear and melodious, is heard, saying, ‘Look up,’ and lifting their eyes to the heavens, they behold the bow of promise. The black, angry clouds that covered the firmament are parted, and like Stephen they look up steadfastly into heaven and see the glory of God and the Son of man seated upon His throne.... EWIT 119.1

“The wicked look with terror and amazement upon the scene, while the righteous behold with solemn joy the tokens of their deliverance. Everything in nature seems turned out of its course.... In the midst of the angry heavens is one clear space of indescribable glory, whence comes the voice of God like the sound of many waters, saying: ‘It is done.’ Revelation 16:17. EWIT 119.2

“That voice shakes the heavens and the earth. There is a mighty earthquake.... The firmament appears to open and shut. The glory from the throne of God seems flashing through.... The proudest cities of the earth are laid low.... Prison walls are rent asunder, and God’s people, who have been held in bondage for their faith, are set free.”—The Great Controversy, 636, 637 EWIT 119.3

Ellen White’s description of the resurrection of the righteous is equally encouraging. “Amid the reeling of the earth, the flash of lightning, and the roar of thunder, the voice of the Son of God calls forth the sleeping saints.... Throughout the length and breadth of the earth the dead shall hear that voice, and they that hear shall live.... EWIT 119.4

“The living righteous are changed ‘in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.’ At the voice of God they were glorified; now they are made immortal and with the risen saints are caught up to meet their Lord in the air.... Little children are borne by holy angels to their mothers’ arms. Friends long separated by death are united, nevermore to part, and with songs of gladness ascend together to the City of God.”—The Great Controversy, 644, 645 EWIT 119.5

Of all of Ellen White’s depictions of experiences related to the Second Advent, perhaps those of life in the new earth are the most heartening. “There,” she writes, “immortal minds will contemplate with never-failing delight the wonders of creative power, the mysteries of redeeming love.... Every faculty will be developed, every capacity increased.... There the grandest enterprises may be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations reached, the highest ambitions realized; and still there will arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of mind and soul and body.”—The Great Controversy, 677 EWIT 119.6

As we can see from the above quotations, not only did the cluster of events related to the Second Advent form a major integrating theme in Ellen White’s writings, but her sense of the reality of those events burned within her soul. That thematic cluster provided direction for her writings and an orientation for her life. EWIT 120.1

Intimately tied to Mrs. White’s understanding of the Second Advent is a sixth theme that helps us comprehend her life and writings. That theme is the message of the three angels of Revelation 14:6-12 and the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. EWIT 120.2