Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Public Visions End, but Prophet’s Work Continues

It is a most significant fact, as already stated, that though after many years the outward physical phenomena ended, the visions did not. And as a result of the night visions there continued to come forth from Mrs. White the same kind of counsel for individuals and for the church. EGWC 74.4

Those night visions required neither a multitude of people around her, nor “fainting spells,” the allegedly necessary stimuli. Now, it is a well-established maxim that like causes produce like results. If Mrs. White’s testimonies, counsel, and preaching continued the same throughout her life, then we are warranted in believing that the cause that provoked such a public ministry continued the same. Whatever was the source of the messages she received, as she declared, in visions, those messages continued the same. Whatever was the stimulation of her mind, it continued of the same character and nature, though the outward, physical phenomena were no longer manifest. EGWC 74.5

Does it not, therefore, follow that the visions cannot be explained on a physical basis? For on this basis the essential nature and character of Mrs. White’s singular experiences should have ended at mid-life. That would leave the last half of her remarkable life and all her night visions wholly unexplained! EGWC 74.6