Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Key Clause Lifted?

But it may be protested that we are lifting this key clause out of its context. In a sense yes, but no more so than we lift out, or remove chronologically, a clause in a Bible prophecy from the immediate moment of the prophet’s description of a current event to the future event of the last judgment. We see in this passage from Mrs. White an illustration of one of those generalizations of inspiration that do not wait for qualifying time clauses, but hasten to the central truth, in this instance the truth that fearful judgment awaits a particular class of sinners, the slave masters. EGWC 339.5

We think that Mrs. White followed a practice of the prophets of old; she merged a mid-nineteenth century state of slavery with a last-day state of bondage in which many will find themselves, and moved in her description from one to the other without indication of transition. EGWC 340.1