Ellen G. White and Her Critics

The Argument Against Mrs. White

The argument against her is as follows: The only reason Mrs. White would say: “Some appeared to have been really converted, so as to deceive God’s people,” is that Mrs. White believed that the salvation of all sinners was past, and that for anyone to be converted would prove that the shut-door theory was wrong. Mrs. White is here making a blanket indictment of all reformations. Yet at the very time she was writing, the mighty evangelist Finney, for example, was doing a great work for God; hence how blindly did Mrs. White follow a false interpretation of the shut door. EGWC 222.6

This argument sounds plausible, but let us look at the full record. The vision is notable, first, because it is the initial presentation of the shut door in relation to Revelation 3:7, 8, which declares that there is an open door as well as a shut door. EGWC 223.1

After explaining the significance of the open door she goes on to deal very specifically with the activity of Satan. She says she saw that Satan “was at work in mighty power, to keep the minds of as many as he possibly could unsettled, and wavering on the truth.” Nor is she dealing in general terms regarding Satan’s activity, for she follows immediately with these words: “I saw that the mysterious knocking in N. Y. and other places, was the power of Satan; and that such things would be more and more common, clothed in a religious garb, to lull the deceived to more security.” EGWC 223.2

She is referring here to the beginnings of modern Spiritualism, the mysterious rappings in connection with the activities of the Fox sisters at Hydesville, New York. From those small but sinister beginnings has grown the whole modern cult of Spiritualism, or as we more lately say, Spiritism. No one in 1849 dreamed that a far-flung cult would develop from “the mysterious knocking in N. Y.” There were scarcely any who saw in those rappings an evil relationship to Satan. Mrs. White saw it and spoke out boldly. She did not say that the knockings were, or would be, the only manifestation of Satan. She saw the knockings simply as one concrete exhibit. EGWC 223.3

At the same time there was a worldwide interest in hypnotism, or mesmerism, as it was generally called, from the name of its chief promoter, Mesmer. The newspapers of those days had much to say on the subject. Mrs. White saw a certain relationship between the activities of Satan and the endeavors of mesmerists to gain control of the minds of men. ^* EGWC 223.4

Now, it is the activities of Satan and the evil results of mesmerism that Mrs. White is discussing at length in this vision. Note the relationship she builds between Satan’s activity and that of certain ministers: “I saw that Satan was working through agents, in a number of ways. He was at work through ministers, who have rejected the truth, and are given over to strong delusions to believe a lie that they might be damned.” These colorful words are not really her own, but are paraphrases of Scripture. EGWC 224.1