Teresa and Arthur Beem are former SDAs who
are now Roman Catholics. They wrote an interesting book, It’s Okay Not to be
a Seventh-Day Adventist which contained a very good discussion of the “Investigative
Judgment” and how, being honest, it is an absolutely ghastly doctrine with no
biblical or historical foundation at all. They also had a number of chapters
refuting the SDA understanding of the Sabbath vis-à-vis the New Covenant.
In the book, they had a discussion of
William Miller’s failed 1844 prophecy and some failed prophecies of Ellen G.
White. I represent them here as a contrast to the contingent prophecies one
finds in the Bible (e.g., Mic 3:12 [cf. Jer 26:18-19] and those of Joseph Smith [see Resources on Joseph Smith’s Prophecies]):
Was Miller Another Jonah?
Adventists
argue that Miller’s prophecy about 1844 was like Jonah’s. It was a conditional prophecy;
its fulfillment resting on the obedience or disobedience of its audience. But
are the two scenarios alike? A comparison shows that Miller denied God had
commanded him to preach; Jonah was commanded. Nineveh was spared because of the
genuine repentance; the relieved people glorified God. When the people of God
repented and listened to Miller, there was only tragedy and disappointment—loss
of faith, even suicides. Why would God punish those who had sincerely turned to
Him and given all for Him? Miller’s prophecy did not bring glory to God.
Jonah
never recanted that God had spoken to him and given him a message. Miller and
many of his followers agreed that they had been mistaken.
There is
yet a greater message in the story of Jonah that gives a specific purpose for
God’s wrath not to have been poured out upon the Ninevites. Jonah was a symbol
of Christ. The three days and nights in the tomb of darkness were the ante-type
(precursory symbol) of Christ’s experience in the tomb. Repentant Nineveh,
symbolizing the gentiles, was spared the damning prophecy just as the new
Covenant of grace is extended to the gentiles after the cross. This broader
meaning of this story is the purpose of the unfulfilled prophecy of wrath. The
Great Disappointment had no broader message than pain. (Teresa Beem and Arthur
Beem, It’s Okay Not to be a Seventh-Day Adventist: The Doctrine that
Attempts to Repair the Temple Veil [North Charleston, S.C.: BookSurge
Publishing, 2008], 49)
Several
of Ellen’s predictions failed. Most apologists for Ellen will tell you that her
prophecies did not come true because they were conditional prophecies like Jonah’s
warning to Nineveh (Note: they already used that excuse for Millers’ failed
prophecy). This in no way can cover all of Ellen’s failed prophecies. Also,
White proponents mitigate her mistakes with the anticipatory “they just haven’t
occurred yet.” You can easily see that excuse could linger forever.
Below are a few of the faulty premonitory visions:
Pestilence. “Soon
the dead and dying will be all around us” (Present Truth, Sept. 1849, p.
10). That prophecy was made in 1849. We are not aware, nor is any reference in
history that there was a mass pestilence during that time.
New
Dates. Lucinda Burdick, Ellen’s friend, recorded that the prophetess made more
predictions of apocalyptic dates following the disappointment of 1844. These
are not found among Ellen’s published writings by the SDA church, but can be
found in the Advent Christian Publishing Society. Burdick claims Ellen told her
that God said He would come in June of 1845. When that date again failed, she
declared the vision had been in the “language of Canaan” and she had
misunderstood—the real date was September of that year. Again, failure. Then
came the year 1856 prediction that failed. Ellen finally gave up date setting.
Ellen warned Lucinda Burdick that they would soon meet with trouble and be
thrown in prisons when they visited the coast of Maine. When that did not
happen, many of Ellen’s supporters began to doubt the validity of her visions (Grant,
Miles, Examination of Mrs. Ellen White’s Visions. Advent Christian
Publication Society, Boston, 1877).
Time
Short. “I saw that the time for Jesus to be in the most holy place was nearly
finished, and that time can last but a very little longer” (Early Writings
58). An angel told her in 1850 that “Time is almost finished-get ready, get
ready, get ready.” She was also shown that in a matter of months the seven last
plagues would begin (Early Writings 64, 67).
Appearance
at Slave Emancipation. In an early vison Ellen wrote she saw the
black slaves received their freedom at the same time as the Second Coming (Early
Writings 35). She also claimed that in vision God told her the slaveholder
will be held accountable for his slave’s sins. “God cannot take to heaven the
salve who has been kept in ignorance and degradation, knowing nothing of God
and the Bible, fearing nothing but his master’s lash, and holding a lower position
than the brutes. But he does the best thing for him that a compassionate God
can do. He permits him to be as if he had not been” (Early Writings
276). (So why is God freeing them at the Second Coming then?)
If
Adventists truly believe Ellen’s prediction, that would cut down considerably
the number of people who could be in heaven. Throughout history most civilizations
have had slaves. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt, Babylon and during the
Roman Empire. Perhaps she just meant hat God could not save the American black
slave. Again, the White apologists call this a conditional prophecy.
Slavery
in the South. “Slavery will again be revived in the Southern
States; for the spirit of slavery still lives. Therefore it will not do for
those who labor among the colored people to preach the truth as boldly and
openly as they would be free to do in other places” (Spalding and Mann
Collection 23). Adventists respond that she is speaking symbolically and
that the attitude of the slavery will return to the south. But she is speaking
of a literal taking of the Three Angels’ Message to southern blacks. The
Sabbath Message that could not be kept by a slave who had no freedom to rest
would bind them in guilt. She was against giving the new Sabbath Message to the
southern slave.
Literal slavery
has not returned—symbolic slavery is everywhere with everyone. So again, this
[is] a false prophecy.
Food for
Worms. This specious divination if the best known among Adventists. “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’” (Testimonies for
the Church 131/32 and Spiritual Gifts 208.2). Penned in 1856, we can
say with assurance that everyone attending that conference is now officially, “food
for worms.” None of them saw the seven last plagues, unless you want to argue
the state of the dead and say that they are all now in heaven and will see the
seven last plagues, which would put Ellen in a worse predicament as far as the
Adventist soul sleep doctrine.
We have
often heard people excuse this prophecy by saying that she related what she saw
at the Second Coming and it just appeared that some stayed alive to see it. The
problem is that Ellen is not recording what she saw but what the angel said.
He told her, “some will be alive and remain upon the earth to be translated at
the coming of Jesus.” Someone here is suspect of giving false information
because they all died. We must ask, did Ellen see the devil who “masquerades as
an angel of light?” (2 Corinthians 11:14).
There are
also guardians of the White legacy who would suggest that this vision was a conditional
one. But if you look at the context there are no words that suggest that the
angel was speaking based upon any conditions that needed to be met. (Ibid.,
90-92)
