Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Appendix H: From Shut Door to Open Door
A Supplement to Chapter 13

In chapter 13 we gave the initial statements on the shut door that were made by the leading pioneers, James White and Joseph Bates, after 1844. In the interests of brevity we then gave certain quotations from James White—a statement in the early 1850’s and his historical recital in 1868 that show approximately the time and the manner in which the Sabbathkeeping Adventists moved from their early view on the shut door to their later one on the open door. In this Appendix we wish to give a more fully documented account of the steps in the transition from 1849 onward. To the casual reader the array of passages cited will seem endlessly repetitious. But it is our duty, in the presentation of source material, to give, not easy, fast moving writing, but an accurate historical record. This Appendix is prepared for the student of this early period of Adventist history. EGWC 598.3

By the year 1849 the still very small group of Sabbathkeeping Adventists was beginning to have a sense of cohesion. Such men as Joseph Bates and James White felt that they represented not only ideas but companies of people who held those ideas. Furthermore, they felt that these ideas were now rather clearly outlined, well buttressed with Scripture, definitely interlocked, and prophetically timed as “present truth.” Those feelings, coupled with a vision given to Mrs. White regarding the importance of publishing a paper, led to the founding of The Present Truth, July, 1849. ^* EGWC 599.1