Ellen G. White and Her Critics

She Warns Against Time Setting

According to the charge, she, along with her husband, gave up the seven-year theory a few months before the 1851 autumn date set by some for the Second Advent. But there is no evidence that she ever accepted the theory! We quote, now, from her Camden vision of June 21, 1851, ^* that warns against time setting. This vision is the basis, apparently, of the statement that “a few months before this seven years ended, Elder White and wife became convinced that this theory had to be given up.” In a four-page Review and Herald Extra, dated July 21, 1851, are found the following two paragraphs from Mrs. White’s pen that describe her Camden vision: EGWC 262.6

“Dear Brethren: The Lord has shown me that the message of the third angel must go, and be proclaimed to the scattered children of the Lord, and that it should not be hung on time; for time never will be a test again. I saw that some were getting a false excitement arising from preaching time; that the third angel’s message was stronger than time can be. I saw that this message can stand on its own foundation, and that it needs not time to strengthen it, and that it will go in mighty power, and do its work, and will be cut short in righteousness. EGWC 263.1

“I saw that some were making every thing bend to the time of this next fall—that is, making their calculations in reference to that time. I saw that this was wrong, for this reason: Instead of going to God daily to know their PRESENT duty, they look ahead, and make their calculations as though they knew the work would end this fall, without inquiring their duty of God daily. EGWC 263.2

“In hope. E. G. WHITE.” (Capitalization hers.) EGWC 263.3

There is nothing in this statement that suggests that Mrs. White is revising a belief she formerly held. When we remember that the seven-year theory had been set forth only in the preceding year, and when we have considered evidence in the remainder of this chapter as to how narrow were the limits of belief in that theory, there seems nothing strange in the fact that Mrs. White did not speak out against the theory till the summer of 1851. EGWC 263.4