Ellen G. White and Her Critics

The Key Passage Scrutinized

Let us look closely at the key sentence in question: “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.” Lay alongside this sentence another statement by Mrs. White found in the same 1847 pamphlet. She is writing to Eli Curtis, and says: EGWC 212.2

“You think, that those who worship before the saint’s feet, (Revelation 3:9), will at last be saved. Here I must differ with you; for God shew[ed] me that this class were professed Adventists, who had fallen away, and ‘crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.’ And in the ‘hour of temptation,’ which is yet to come, to show out every one’s true character, they will know that they are forever lost; and overwhelmed with anguish of spirit, they will bow at the saint’s feet.”—A Word to the “Little Flock,” 12. EGWC 212.3

It is evident that Mrs. White is here referring to the same class as in her first vision—Adventists who fell away from the truth of the Advent, the truth that was most clearly symbolized by the light at the beginning of the road, called the midnight cry. In her letter to Eli Curtis she speaks of such persons as being “forever lost.” She rests her statement on the passage of Scripture that she quotes: “crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” Let us compare this passage of Scripture with the passage we quoted from her first vision. Paul writes: EGWC 212.4

“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” Hebrews 6:4-6. EGWC 212.5

In her first vision Mrs. White speaks of a “bright light” that “gave light for their feet.” Some “rashly denied the light” and denied that God “had led them out so far.” They “fell off the path” and it was “impossible for them to get on” again. The Bible speaks of those “who were once enlightened” who “crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh,” who “fall away.” “It is impossible to renew them again unto repentance.” EGWC 213.1

It is quite evident that Mrs. White, by her quotations from Paul in the Eli Curtis letter, has given us the key to the understanding of the debated passage in her first vision: “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.” We are not here required to provide an interpretation to the passage of Paul. We believe it sufficient if we show that Mrs. White is employing Scriptural language and conclusions in what she writes. Though commentators have been frankly perplexed as to exactly how Paul should here be understood, none of them have ever concluded that Paul taught that the day of probation for all sinners had ended. ^* EGWC 213.2