Concerning a conference in 1856 Ellen White declared: "I was shown the
company present at the conference. Said the angel, 'Some food for worms, some
subjects of the seven last plagues, some will be alive and remain upon the
earth to be translated at the coming of Jesus.' " All who were alive then are
now dead. Does this prediction mean that Mrs. White is a false prophet?
Numerous statements made by
Ellen White in the decades following the 1856 vision demonstrate her clear
understanding that there is an implied conditional quality to God's promises
and threatenings--as Jeremiah declared--and that the conditional feature in
forecasts regarding Christ's Advent involves the state of heart of Christ's
followers. The following statement, written in 1883, is especially relevant on
this point:
"The angels of God in their messages to men represent time as very
short. Thus it has always been presented to me. It is true that time has
continued longer than we expected in the early days of this message. Our
Saviour did not appear as soon as we hoped. But has the Word of the Lord
failed? Never! It should be remembered that the promises and the threatenings
of God are alike conditional. . . .
"It was not the will of God that the coming of Christ should be thus
delayed. God did not design that His people, Israel, should wander forty years
in the wilderness. He promised to lead them directly to the land of Canaan, and
establish them there a holy, healthy, people. But those to whom it was first
preached, went not in 'because of unbelief.' Their hearts were filled with
murmuring, rebellion, and hatred, and He could not fulfill His covenant with
them.
"For forty years did unbelief, murmuring, and rebellion shut out ancient
Israel from the land of Canaan. The same sins have delayed the entrance of
modern Israel into the heavenly Canaan. In neither case were the promises of
God at fault. It is the unbelief, the worldliness, unconsecration, and strife
among the Lord's professed people that have kept us in this world of sin and
sorrow so many years" (Ms 4, 1883, quoted in Evangelism, pp. 695,
696).
We can better understand Mrs. White's prediction of 1856 by examining it
in the light of the conditional character of prophetic promises found in the
Scriptures. For further study on this topic see
"The Predictions of
the 1856 Vision," in the
Reference
Library.