Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Major Differences Between Two Groups

Thus the difference between the large body of Adventists and this slowly emerging little group of Sabbathkeeping Adventists was all the difference between denying and affirming the divine guidance of the Millerite movement that had come to an apparently disappointing climax on October 22, 1844. As already stated, Adventists in general steadily maintained that every part of the distinctive teachings of the 1844 movement be squared with the premise that the sanctuary cleansing involves the Second Advent and the destruction of the earth by fire. The Sabbathkeeping group insisted that everything be squared with the premise that the 2300-day prophecy ended in 1844. EGWC 175.2

The logic of the larger body of Adventists required them to conclude that the midnight cry and shut door, which immediately precede the sanctuary cleansing, were still in the future. And, of course, the further they moved from October 22, 1844, the more sure they necessarily became that the door was not shut at that time. This is but another Way of saying that the further they moved from 1844, the more they were tempted to conclude that the tremendously stirring 1844 movement was simply a false excitement. EGWC 175.3

In contrast, the logic of the Sabbathkeeping group enabled them to maintain their faith in the 1844 movement in general and the seventh-month movement in particular. They could hold on to the belief that the 2300-day prophecy began in 457 B.C., and thus ended in A.D. 1844, and that the sanctuary cleansing began at that time. Their new light on the sanctuary enabled them to see how this cleansing could be taking place even though, contrary to their formerly held view, the earth was still untouched by judgment fires. What is equally evident, the logic of the position of this group also demanded that they believe that the midnight cry and its corollary in the parable, the shutting of the door, irrespective of what that shutting might signify, were in the past. Thus belief that the door in the parable was shut on October 22, 1844, carried with it the belief that the 2300-day prophecy had ended, that the sanctuary was being cleansed, and that the 1844 movement was unquestionably of God. EGWC 175.4