101 Questions on the Sanctuary and on Ellen White

66. The Parable of the Ten Virgins

Ford states that Ellen White’s application of Matthew 25:1-12 to the Millerite Movement in The Great Controversy is “one of principle rather than one of exegesis,” but he refers to this application as an “erroneous position” and says it is “not Scriptural.” He maintains that, “While in Great Controversy Ellen G. White equated Daniel 8:14 with Matthew 25:1-13, and pointed to 1844 as the fulfillment of both, in later writing on Matthew 25:1-13 she omitted that application entirely, and pointed rather to the end of the world for the fulfillment” (Ford, pages 596, 544, 659). Is there any truth to this allegation? QSEW 61.1

Ellen white applied the parable of the ten virgins to the Millerite movement in The Spirit of Prophecy 4:248-250, published in 1884, and in The Great Controversy, published in 1888 and 1911. She applied the parable to the church that lives just before Christ’s Second Coming in Christ’s Object Lessons, published in 1900. It is significant that while she made some changes in the 1911 edition of The Great Controversy, as noted, she did not change her interpretation of the parable of the ten virgins. She obviously still believed that it was valid. So it is not correct to say that after 1900, “she omitted that application entirely.” Who is to say that of these two applications of the parable one must be erroneous? Matthew 24:4-14 has a dual application. Why not Matthew 25:1-12 as well? QSEW 61.2