Ellen G. White and the Shut Door Question

Ellen G. White’s Explanation

And then, of course, we have the explanation Mrs. White herself made in answering the charges of A. C. Long in 1883, quoted in part earlier in this document. This exhibit is of prime importance, for in it she deals directly with the point in question. She wrote: EGWSDQ 43.1

My attention has recently been called to a 16-page pamphlet published by C., of Marion, Iowa, entitled Comparison of the Early Writings of Mrs. White With Later Publications. The writer states that portions of my earlier visions, as first printed, have been suppressed in the work recently published under the title Early Writings of Mrs. E. G. White, and he conjectures as a reason for such suppression that these passages teach doctrines now repudiated by us as a people.... EGWSDQ 43.2

The first quotation mentioned by C. is from a pamphlet of 24 pages published in 1847, entitled “A Word to the Little Flock.” Here are the lines omitted in Experience and Views: EGWSDQ 43.3

“It was just as impossible for them [those that gave up their faith in the ‘44 movement] to get on the path again and go to the city, as all the wicked world which God had rejected. They fell all the way along the path one after another.” EGWSDQ 43.4

I will give the context, that the full force of the expressions may be clearly seen: EGWSDQ 43.5

“While praying at the family altar, the Holy Ghost fell on me, and I seemed to be rising higher and higher, far above the dark world. I turned to look for the advent people in the world, but could not find them—when a voice said to me, ‘Look again, and look a little higher.’ At this I raised my eyes and saw a straight and narrow path, cast up high above the world. On this path the advent people were traveling to the city, which was at the farther end of the path. They had a bright light set up behind them at the first end of the path, which an angel told me was the midnight cry. This light shone all along the path, and gave light for their feet so they might not stumble. And if they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus, who was just before them, leading them to the city, they were safe. But soon some grew weary, and they said the city was a great way off, and they expected to have entered it before. Then Jesus would encourage them by raising His glorious right arm, and from His arm came a glorious light which waved over the advent band, and they shouted Hallelujah! Others rashly denied the light behind them, and said that it was not God that had led them out so far. The light behind them went out, leaving their feet in perfect darkness, and they stumbled and got their eyes off the mark and lost sight of Jesus, and fell off the path down into the dark and wicked world below.” EGWSDQ 43.6

Now follows the passage said to be in the original work, but not found in Experience and Views nor in Early Writings: EGWSDQ 44.1