Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Not Lost, but “Misguided Souls”

Let us note two or three statements in this quotation. Arnold does not say that there is no intercessor after 1844, but that Christ’s intercessory work is carried on in a new place, the Most Holy place of the sanctuary. The knocking at the door, as in the marriage parable, is here described as a knocking at the door of the first apartment. But those who knock are not described as lost, doomed souls, but as “misguided souls.” EGWC 600.3

Arnold sets before those who have come to the years of accountability since 1844 the same opportunity of salvation “as those who had sinned and received pardon.” EGWC 600.4

The “professed conversions” give him no reason for believing that Christ has not shut the door of the first apartment and moved into the second. Further, Arnold observes that these “professed converts” have not been converted to present truth and are therefore simply a part of the “misguided souls” that mistakenly seek Christ in the first apartment when He has gone into the second. EGWC 600.5

Arnold applies, in this connection, a statement from Hosea 5:6, 7. We shall meet that statement again. EGWC 601.1

Note, finally, that Arnold reflects the interpretation that Mrs. White had already given to Revelation 3:7, 8, thus involving an open door with the shut door. EGWC 601.2