Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Adventists Oppose Delusive World-Conversion Idea

This world-conversion idea was most militantly attacked by Adventists in the great Advent Awakening under William Miller, and has been an object of attack by Seventh-day Adventists ever since. We believe, with the Bible, that the world is not growing progressively better, and that we do not face a millennium of peace and holiness on this earth. We have believed from the very earliest of Adventist preaching, that the world lies in wickedness, that wickedness will be rampant until the end of time, that there are few that will be saved, that indeed the righteous of God in the last days will be described as a “remnant.” EGWC 209.5

The Bible informs us that when the world was destroyed by a flood there were only eight persons saved. When Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed there was found only one righteous man, who took with him his immediate family out of the city. Of the great host of Israelites who started from Egypt to the Promised Land, all who were twenty or older died in the wilderness “save Caleb ... and Joshua,” as the Lord declared they would, because of their murmuring. (Numbers 14:29.) EGWC 210.1

Through all the history of the world, the words of the apostle John apply: “The whole world lieth in wickedness.” Either by rejecting light or by failing to walk in such light as it is possible for them to have, most of mankind, in all generations, have gone down to godless graves. World conversion does not belong in the Bible picture, though the ambassadors of God are to seek to make converts in all the world. How true of almost any clime and any generation are the words of Isaiah: “Darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people.” One cannot read the Scripture record without being impressed, perhaps even startled, by the fact that the Bible writers repeatedly declare that men may sin away their day of grace and close probation’s doors against themselves. EGWC 210.2