Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Charge Number 2

A second, and closely related charge, may be stated thus: EGWC 337.1

Mrs. White did not expect that slavery would be abolished, for she declared that the slave masters would suffer the seven last plagues. “The slave-holders are all dead. Will they be resurrected to pass through the seven last plagues?” Quite evidently she could not see a little time ahead to the day when slavery would be abolished in the United States and in all the world. EGWC 337.2

This charge is based on the words of Mrs. White that follow immediately the passage already quoted, as will be evident: EGWC 337.3

“He [God] lets him [the ignorant slave] be as though he had not been; while the master has to suffer the seven last plagues, and then come up in the second resurrection, and suffer the second, most awful death. Then the wrath of GOD will be appeased.” EGWC 337.4

A further statement by Mrs. White, which was made in 1847, may possibly also serve as a basis for this charge: EGWC 337.5

“Then commenced the jubilee, when the land should rest. I saw the pious slave rise in triumph and victory, and shake off the chains that bound him, while his wicked master was in confusion, and knew not what to do.”—Broadside, A Vision, Topsham, Maine, April 7, 1847. ^* EGWC 337.6

The Bible prophets provide us with many illustrations of scenes, separated by greater or less periods of time, which seem to be merged together so that we need to read additional statements in the Bible in order to separate the two or more parts. Isaiah prophesied of the work that Christ would do at His first advent. Christ read from the prophecy in Isaiah 61 and added: “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Luke 4:21. But He stopped short in the middle of what appears in Isaiah to be a continuing passage. Isaiah 61:2 reads: “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.” Why did He stop before the phrase: “and the day of vengeance of our God”? Because that day was still ahead. But one would not discover that fact if he confined his eyes to the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah. EGWC 337.7