Fourth International Bible Conference

Rome, Italy
June 11-20, 2018

“THE FOOTSTEPS OF AN APPROACHING GOD”: REFLECTIONS

ON ELLEN G. WHITE’S END-TIME ESCHATOLOGY

Alberto R. Timm
Ellen G. White Estate, Inc.

Abstract: This article provides a general overview of end-time biblical eschatology as

described by Ellen White. After highlighting (1) some major end-time philosophical and
religious challenges, the discussion deals specifically with White’s views of (2) the great
cosmic controversy between good and evil; (3) the cataclysmic “signs” of Christ’s
Second Coming; (4) the conditional imminence of His appearing; (5) the end-time
scenario that culminates with that glorious event; and (6) God’s absolute and final
victory over sin and all impenitent sinners, eradicating them completely and forever from
the universe. A clear understanding of White’s eschatological expositions can help us to
better appreciated God’s triumphant leading of human affairs and loving care for each
one of us.
_______________________

The winds of the Cold War were still blowing, and there was much fear and
uncertainty about the future. In 1970 Hal Lindsey’s book, The Late, Great Planet Earth
(Zondervan) came off the press suggesting that the United States would “cease being
the leader of the West”; the Russian confederacy would play a crucial role in the then-
expected near Armageddon; and the Vatican would be out of the overall picture.1 That
book became an absolute best-seller and contributed significantly to the rise of the so-
called “apocalypse industry.”2 No wonder that even some Seventh-day Adventist
preachers tried to “enrich” Ellen White’s eschatology with some of Lindsey’s
speculations.3
Yet, as time went by, the political influence of the Vatican increased significantly
and even played a crucial role with the United States in the disruption of the Soviet
1
Hal Lindsey with C. C. Carlson, The Late Great Planet Earth (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1970),
59-71, 95, 167, 184-185, etc.
2
Jerry Lembcke, “The Apocalypse Industry,” in https://www.counterpunch.org/2013/11/13/the-
apocalypse-industry/ (posted on Nov. 13, 2013); Boyer, “Apocalypticism Explained: America’s Doom
Industry,” in https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/apocalypse/explanation/doomindustry.html
(accessed May 15, 2018). See also Cortney S. Basham, “Hal Lindsey’s The Late, Great Planet Earth and
the Rise of Popular Premillennialism in the 1970s” (M.A. thesis, Western Kentucky University, 2012); Erin
A. Smith, “The Late Great Planet Earth Made the Apocalypse a Popular Concern,” Humanities 38/1
(Winter 2017), in https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2017/winter/feature/the-late-great-planet-earth-made-
the-apocalypse-popular-concern .
3
See e.g., Cesar Augusto Costa, Como Afinal Será o Fim? Revisão Analítica da Escatologia
Apocalíptica (Sorocaba, SP, Brazil: Cesar Augusto da Costa, 2000). Cf. Alberto R. Timm, “Resenha crítica
do livro Como Afinal Será o Fim? de Cesar Augusto da Costa,” Parousia (Brazil), 1/2 (2nd semester 2000):
3-30.
 2

Union (USSR).4 In November 1978, less than a month after the election of Pope John
Paul II, the former Jesuit scholar Malachi Martin (1921-1999) wrote an insightful article
entitled, “John Paul II: How He Will Surprise Us—and the Reds.”5 Martin suggested that
the new pope, as a Polish citizen, would play a crucial role in undermining both
communism and capitalism. In his 734-page book, The Keys of This Blood: The
Struggle for World Dominion between Pope John Paul II, Mikhail Gorbachev and the
Capitalist West (1990),6 Martin confirmed and expanded on what he predicted 12 years
earlier. Indeed, the world scenario was moving slowly away from Lindsey’s military
speculations and closer to what Ellen White had described back in the nineteenth
century.
After the Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the formal dissolution of the Soviet
Union (1991), I wrote a personal letter to Hal Lindsey. I first told him that I had written
my M.A. thesis on his dispensational-futuristic eschatology,7 and then I questioned him,
“How do you harmonize your own previous view on the decline of the United States and
the strengthening of communism (Russia and the Soviet Union) with the recent collapse
of communism and the strengthening of the United States as a unique political super-
power in the world?”8 Lindsey’s secretary acknowledged having received my letter, but I
never got any response to my question. Perhaps I was expecting too much from him! At
any rate, many Adventists inquire today, to what extent are Ellen White’s own
eschatological views still accurate and relevant for us who live more than a century
away from her time?
This article provides a general overview of end-time biblical eschatology as
described by Ellen White. After highlighting (1) some major end-time philosophical and
religious challenges, the discussion deals specifically with White’s views of (2) the great
cosmic controversy between good and evil; (3) the cataclysmic “signs” of Christ’s
Second Coming; (4) the conditional imminence of His appearing; (5) the end-time
scenario that culminates with that glorious event; and (6) God’s absolute and final
victory over sin and all impenitent sinners, eradicating them completely and forever from
the universe. A clear understanding of White’s eschatological expositions can help us to
better appreciated God’s triumphant leading of human affairs and loving care for each
one of us.

1. Major End-time Challenges

4
Bret Baier, with Catherine Whitney, Three Days in Moscow: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of the
Soviet Empire (New York: William Morrow, 2018), 302-305.
5
Malachi Martin, “John Paul II: How He Will Surprise Us—and the Reds,” NY Daily News (USA), Nov.
12, 1978, 7, 33.
6
Malachi Martin, The Keys of This Blood: The Struggle for World Dominion between Pope John Paul
II, Mikhail Gorbachev and the Capitalist West (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990).
7
Alberto R. Timm, “Uma análise crítica da escatologia dispensacionalista de Hal Lindsey” (M.A.
thesis, Instituto Adventista de Ensino, São Paulo, Brazil, 1988). See also Samuele Bacchiocchi, Hal
Lindsey’s Prophetic Jigsaw Puzzle: Five Predictions that Failed (Berrien Springs, MI: Biblical Perspectives,
1985).
8
Alberto R. Timm to Hal Lindsey, Feb. 13, 1992 (italics in the original). See also W. Ward Gasque,
“Future Fact? Future Fiction?” (interview with Hal Lindsey), Christianity Today, April 15, 1977, 40.
 3

Ellen White began her prophetic ministry in 1844, a crucial time when God and
His Word were being severely challenged by humanistic ideologies.9 Coincidence or
not, that very same year Charles Darwin finished the basic sketch of his “species
theory” by natural selection.10 For him, the Old Testament portrayed a “manifestly false
history of the world.”11 In the same year, Karl Marx wrote his Economic & Philosophic
Manuscripts of 1844 (also known as The Paris Manuscripts), proposing that God should
be left out of the capital-labor-wages discussions, “for the more man puts into God, the
less he retains for himself.”12 In June 1844, the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith Jr.
(1805-1844) was imprisoned in Carthage, Illinois, and then killed by an armed mob. For
Smith, the ancient faulty Bible needed to be superseded by his own modern and more-
reliable inspired writings.13 In May 1844, Báb, the forerunner of Baha’u’llah the founder
of the syncretic Baha’i Faith, announced that he was the Bearer of Divine Knowledge to
transform the spiritual life of humanity.14
Still in 1844, two very influential individuals were born in Germany. One was the
biblical scholar and orientalist Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918), who questioned the
authorship of the Pentateuch through his famous “documentary hypothesis.”15 He raised
the historical-critical rereading of the Old Testament to its full expression. The other
individual also born in 1844 was Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), who surpassed all
previous philosophers in trying to “rescue the honor of the devil”16 and blaming God as
“the father of evil.”17 At the early age of 12, he concluded that the Trinity was comprised
of God-Father, God-Son, and God-Devil (German Gott-Teufel). This, he claimed, was
9
See Jerome L. Clark, 1844. 3 vols. Nashville, TN: Southern Publishing Association, 1968.
10
Charles Darwin, The Foundations of the Origin of Species: Two Essays Written in 1842 and 1844,
ed. by Francis Darwin (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1909). Cf. C. R. Darwin to
Emma Darwin, July 5, 1844, in https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-761.xml (accessed on
May 28, 2018).
11
The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809-1882: With Original Omissions Restored, ed. by Nora
Barlow (London: Collins, 1958), 85.
12
Karl Max, Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, transl. by Martin Milligan (2009), 29; in
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Economic-Philosophic-Manuscripts-1844.pdf
(accessed on May 28, 2018).
13
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith: Taking from His Sermons and Writings in the History of
the Church and Other Publications, compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith (N.p.: n.p., 1924), 9-10, 310;
Joseph Smith, in History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret
News, 1904), 2:52, in https://archive.org/details/historyofchurcho02robe. A helpful comparison between
the Bible and the Book of Mormon is provided in Marvin W. Cowan, Mormon Claims Answered, rev. ed.
(N.p.: N.p., 1989), 27-76.
14
“The Life of the Báb,” in http://www.bahai.org/the-bab/life-the-bab (accessed on May 28, 2018).
For a more in-depth study of the meaning of the year 1844 for the Baha’i Faith, see e.g. William Sears,
Thief in the Night, or The Strange Case of the Missing Millennium (Oxford: George Ronald, 1961); John
Able, Apocalypse Secrets: Baha’i Interpretation of the Book of Revelation (N.p.: John Able Books, 2011),
31-40.
15
J[ulius] Wellhausen, Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels, 2nd ed. (Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1883);
published in English as Prolegomena to the History of Israel, transl. by J. Sutherland Black and Allan
Menzies (Edinburgh: Adam & Charles Black, 1885).
16
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power, trans. Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale (New York:
Vintage, 1968), 524 (par. 1015). See also Ernst Bertram, Nietzsche: Attempt at a Mythology, trans.
Robert E. Norton (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 121-133.
17
Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality, trans. Carol Diethe (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2006), 4-5.
 4

the beginning of his philosophizing.18 In his last book, titled Ecce Homo (1886),
Nietzsche even stated sacrilegiously, “It was God himself who at the end of his day’s
work lay down as a serpent under the tree of knowledge: thus he rested from being
God... He had made everything too beautiful... The devil is merely God’s idleness on
that seventh day...”19 Nietzsche died in 1900, but his nihilist postulates left a profound
and lasting influence on Western thought.
In 1848, while the Sabbatarian Bible Conferences were taking place in New
England and upstate New York,20 modern Spiritualism was starting in the house of the
Fox family in Hydesville, New York. At the Hydesville Memorial Park (site of the Fox
home), one can see a foundation stone with the inscription, “The birthplace and shrine of
modern Spiritualism.”21 Since that small beginning, Spiritualism and mysticism have grown
astronomically, assuming many different forms and taking over much of the entertainment
industry of the Western world.
We could enrich our list with many more contemporary incidents. But these
examples can help us realize how, in the 1840s, anti-biblical political, philosophical, and
religious concepts were reshaping the Western culture. Within that challenging context,
the Adventist preaching of the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14:6-1222 began to
warn the world, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has
come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water” (v.
7).23 In addition, God called Ellen Harmon (later White) as a prophetic voice to keep us
faithful to God and His abiding Word.24

2. The Great Controversy Framework

In the unstable and unsafe world in which we live (2 Tim 3:1-8; 4:3-4), many
people are trying to understand the meaning of time,25 the flow of history, the purpose of
life, and especially the problem of evil. As insightful as some attempts have been,26 no
18
Friedrich Nietzsche, NF-1884, 26[390], in http://www.nietzschesource.org/#eKGWB/NF-1884,26
(accessed on May 22, 2018).
19
Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One Is & The Antichrist: A Curse on
Christianity, trans. Thomas Wayne (New York: Algora, 2004), 80.
20
See Gordon O. Martinborough, “The Beginnings of a Theology of the Sabbath among American
Sabbatarian Adventists, 1842-1850” (M.A. thesis, Loma Linda University, 1976), 122-151; Alberto R.
Timm, The Sanctuary and the Three Angels’ Messages: Integrating Factors in the Development of Seventh-
day Adventist Doctrines, Adventist Theological Society Dissertation Series, vol. 5 (Berrien Springs, MI:
Adventist Theological Society Publications, 1995), 62-63; Merlin D. Burt, “The Historical Background,
Interconnected Development, and Integration of the Doctrines of the Sanctuary, the Sabbath, and Ellen G.
White’s Role in Sabbatarian Adventism from 1844 to 1849” (Ph.D. diss., Andrews University, 2002), 352-
363.
21
The significance of the 1848 Fox sisters’ experience for modern Spiritualism is acknowledged, e.g., in
Centennial Book of Modern Spiritualism in America (Chicago: National Spiritualist Association of United
States of America, 1948), 8-12.
22
Timm, The Sanctuary and the Three Angels’ Messages, 37-48, 79-87, 174-196.
23
Except otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version (NKJV).
24
Alberto R. Timm, “Ellen G. White: Prophetic Voice for the Last Days,” Ministry, Feb. 2004, 18-21.
25
See Scientific American 27/2 (Summer 2018), special edition on “A Matter of Time.”
26
See e.g., Gregory A. Boyd, God at War: The Bible & Spiritual Conflict (Downers Grove, IL: IVP
Academic, 1997); idem, Satan and the Problem of Evil: Constructing a Trinitarian Warfare Theodicy
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001).
 5

other non-canonical author has ever developed those matters so perceptively as did
Ellen White in the five volumes of her “The Conflict of the Ages Series.”27 Actually, the
“great controversy” motif flows throughout all her writings, providing the basic framework
to understand reality in all its expressions.28
As I mention elsewhere,29 the great controversy is a currently ongoing cosmic
conflict that had a beginning and will have an end. Its mysterious beginning in the
heavenly courts was foreseen but not ordained by God, who “made provision to meet
the terrible emergency.”30 After losing his gratitude to God and becoming increasingly
jealous of Him (Isa 14:12-14; Ezek 28:12-17), Lucifer began to spread his apostasy in
the heavenly courts. “God in His great mercy bore long with Lucifer,”31 but there came a
time when the rebellion was consolidated, and Lucifer (who became Satan) and his
angels were “cast to the earth” (Rev 12:7-9). With the fall of Adam and Eve (Gen 3),
earth became the battlefield between good and evil.
But what distinguishes the Seventh-day Adventist understanding of that
controversy from all other religious and philosophical explanations of it? It is precisely
that the whole cosmic controversy gravitates around God’s character as expressed in
His moral law. Throughout history Satan developed different strategies to distort
people’s relationship with that law. In Old Testament times, up to the Babylonian exile,
God’s people were always tempted to transgress the law by idolatry. After the exile, the
pendulum went to the opposite extreme of legalism, when the law was considered an
end in itself for salvation. On the cross of Calvary, God manifested His saving grace to
humanity (John 3:14-18) and condemned Satan (John 19:30; Rev 12:10-11). “It was
because the law was changeless, because man could be saved only through obedience
27
Ellen G. White’s first major exposition of the great cosmic-historical controversy between good and
evil was published in her book Spiritual Gifts, [vol. 1]: The Great Controversy between Christ and His
Angels, and Satan and His Angels (Battle Creek, MI: James White, 1858). She expended significantly the
subject first in her 4-volume series titled, The Spirit of Prophecy, 4 vols. (Battle Creek, MI: Steam Press of
the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association and Review and Herald, 1870-1884), and finally into
the following 5 volumes of her “The Conflict of the Ages Series”: Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy
between Christ and Satan, as Illustrated in the Lives of Patriarchs and Prophets (Oakland, CA: Pacific
Press, 1890); idem, The Story of Prophets and Kings as Illustrated in the Captivity and Restoration of
Israel (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1917); idem, The Desire of Ages (Mountain View, CA: Pacific
Press, 1898); idem, The Acts of the Apostles in the Proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Mountain
View, CA: Pacific Press, 1911); idem, The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan during the
Christian Dispensation. Oakland, CA: Pacific Press, 1888, revised 1911).
28
Helpful analyses of the great controversy theme in Ellen White’s writings are provided by W. E.
Read, “The Great Controversy,” in Our Firm Foundation: A Report of the Seventh-day Adventist Bible
Conference Held September 1-13, 1952, in the Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church, Takoma Park,
Maryland (Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1953), 2:237-335; Joseph J. Battistone, The Great
Controversy Theme in E. G. White[’s] Writings (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1978);
Richard Rice, “The Great Controversy and the Problem of Evil,” Spectrum 32/1 (Winter 2004): 46-55;
Herbert E. Douglass, compiler, The Heartbeat of Adventism: The Great Controversy Theme in the
Writings of Ellen White (Nampa ID: Pacific Press, 2010); Alberto R. Timm, “The ‘Great Controversy’:
Perspectives of H. L. Hastings and Ellen G. White,” in Gerhard Pfandl, ed., The Great Controversy and
the End of Evil: Biblical and Theological Studies in Honor of Ángel Manuel Rodríguez in Celebration of
His Seventieth Birthday (Silver Spring, MD: Biblical Research Institute, 2015), 109-116.
29
The content of the following paragraphs is based on Alberto R. Timm, “The Battle Is On:
Understanding the Great Controversy,” Adventist World, May 2010, 20-21.
30
White, The Desire of Ages, 22.
31
White, The Great Controversy, 495.
 6

to its precepts, that Jesus was lifted up on the cross. Yet the very means by which
Christ established the law Satan represented as destroying it.”32 So, in the post-
apostolic period, the cross began to be regarded as having abolished God’s moral law.
Meanwhile, the unconditional commitment to the law by God’s end-time remnant people
places them under the special fury of Satan (Rev 12:17).
The end-time preaching of the “everlasting gospel” to the whole world (Rev
14:6) will polarize humanity eventually into those who worship “the beast and his
image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand,” on one side, and “those
who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Rev 14:9-12), on the
other side. Meanwhile, Satan tries to convince God’s people that “the requirements of
Christ are less strict than they once believed, and that by conformity to the world they
would exert a greater influence with worldlings.”33 But in his final attempts to deceive
humanity, “Satan himself will personate Christ,”34 and demons will “personate” the
apostles of Christ, disclaiming the New Testament teachings.35 “Through the two great
errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people
under his deceptions.”36
No wonder that after the close of probation and prior to the Second Coming, God
will vindicate His own law in a supernatural way. A heavenly hand will appear holding
against the sky “two tables of stone” with the precepts of the Decalogue, so plainly
written “with a pen of fire” that all can read them.37 Then, at the end to the millennium
(Rev 20), Christ will be coronated in the presence of all the human beings and
demoniac hosts that ever existed. He will hold in His hands the tables of the divine law,
so that all the wicked can see “the statutes which they have despised and
transgressed.”38
The pagan theory of natural immortality of the soul, accepted today by most
Christians as well as by many other religions, suggests that sin had a beginning but will
never come to an end. By contrast, the Bible teaches that sin and sinners finally will be
destroyed, and the universe will be restored to its original perfection and harmony.
Through God’s timely design of the plan of salvation (Gen 3:15; Rev 13:8) Christ’s
triumph over Satan, sin, and death (John 12:31; 14:30; 19:30; Rev 1:18) is assured.
This great controversy will be concluded with the final destruction of Satan, his angels,
and all the wicked (Mal 4:1; Jude 5-7).
Right now, all humanity is involved in a great controversy between Christ and
Satan regarding the character of God, His law, and His sovereignty over the universe.
According to Paul, “We have been made a spectacle [Greek theatron] to the whole
32
White, The Desire of Ages, 763.
33
White, The Spirit of Prophecy, 4:339-340; republished in idem, Testimonies to Ministers and
Gospel Workers (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1923), 474.
34
White, The Great Controversy, 624.
35
Ibid., 557.
36
Ibid., 588.
37
Ibid., 639. About the expected end-time finding of the Ark of the Covenant, see 2 Maccabees 2:1-
8; Ellen G. White Estate, “The Ark of the Covenant: Will It Be Found?” in
http://ellenwhite.org/content/file/ark-covenant-df-
232?numFound=45&collection=true&query=ark%20of%20the%20covenant&curr=8&sqid=1304995111#d
ocument (accessed on May 31, 2018).
38
White, The Great Controversy, 668-669.
 7

universe [Greek kosmos], to angels as well as to human beings” (1 Cor 4:9, NIV). And
Ellen White adds, “The world is a theater; the actors, its inhabitants.”39 “Our little world is
the lesson book of the universe.”40 “The whole universe is watching with inexpressible
interest the closing scenes of the great controversy between good and evil.”41

3. The Cataclysmic Signs

Some of the most significant moments in salvation history are preceded by

earthquakes and cosmic signs in the sun, moon, and stars. For example, just before
Christ offered His atoning sacrifice on the cross, the sun refused to shine (Matt 27) and,
without any “eclipse or other natural cause,” there was complete darkness “as midnight
without moon or stars.”42 And shortly after, when He cried out, “It is finished!” a mighty
earthquake shook the ground and many saints were raised up from the dead, as
witnesses of His divine power (Matt 27:50-54). Actually, “an earthquake marked the
hour when Christ laid down His life, and another earthquake witnessed the moment
when He took it up in triumph.”43
Similar signs would occur also prior to Christ’s glorious Second Coming (Matt
24:29; Mark 13:24-26; Luke 21:15; Rev 6:12-17). Seventh-day Adventists have seen
those signs as already fulfilled in the Lisbon Earthquake of November 1, 1755; the Dark
Day of May 19, 1780, followed by the night when the moon looked like blood; and the
Meteor Shower on November 13, 1833.44 Some scholars have questioned the validity of
these identifications for being now too distant from the Second Coming.45 But William H.
39
Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1948), 8:27.
40
White, The Desire of Ages, 19.
41
White, Prophets and Kings, 30.
42
White, The Desire of Ages, 753.
43
Ibid., 780.
44
Classical Seventh-day Adventist expositions of the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century
occurrences of those cosmic signs appear, e.g., in Uriah Smith, Thoughts, Critical and Practical, on the
Book of Revelation (Battle Creek, MI: Steam Press of the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association,
1865), 107-117; Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan (Washington, DC:
Review and Herald, 1911), 304-309, 333-334. See also W. A. Spicer, Our Day in the Light of Prophecy and
Providence (Oshawa, Canada: Canadian Watchman Press, 1930), 79-102 Francis D. Nichol, ed., The
Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, rev. ed. (Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1980), 5:502;
7:779; C. Mervyn Maxwell, The Message of Revelation, God Cares, vol. 2 (Boise, ID: Pacific Press, 1985),
193-202; Richard P. Lehmann, “The Second Coming of Christ,” in Raoul Dederen, ed., Handbook of
Seventh-day Adventist Theology, Commentary Reference Series, vol. 12 (Hagerstown, MD: Review and
Herald, 2000), 903-908; Seventh-day Adventists Believe... A Biblical Exposition of Fundamental Doctrines,
2nd ed. (Silver Spring, MD: Ministerial Association, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 2005),
378-380; Ranko Stefanovic, Revelation of Jesus Christ: Commentary on the Book of Revelation, 2nd ed.
(Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2009), 249. See also Desmond Ford, Crisis! (Newcastle,
CA: Desmond Ford, 1982), 2:375-380.
45
Donald Casebolt, “Is Ellen White’s Interpretation of Biblical Prophecy Final?” Spectrum 12/4 (June
1982): 2-9; Ki Kon Kim, The Signs of the Parousia: A Diachronic and Comparative Study of the
Apocalyptic Vocabulary of Matthew 24:27-31, Korean Sahmyook University Monographs Doctoral
Dissertation Series, vol. 3 (Seoul, Korea: Institute for Theological Research, Korean Sahmyook
University, 1994); Hans K. LaRondelle, How to Understand the End-time Prophecies of the Bible: The
Biblical-Contextual Approach (Sarasota, FL: First Impressions, 1997), 51-52; Hans K. LaRondelle, “The
Application of Cosmic Signs in the Adventist Tradition,” Ministry, Sept. 1998, 25-27 (several critical reactions
 8

Shea pointed out that in the book of Revelation some cosmic signs will occur during the
seven last plagues (16:8-11, 17-21), but the sequence of the great earthquake, the
darkening of the sun, and the falling of the stars is related to the opening of the sixth seal
(6:12-14) and cannot be restricted to the Second Coming.46
In her classic book, The Desire of Ages (1898), Ellen White relates the fulfillment
of those cosmic sings with the end of the 1,260 days of papal persecution in 1798. She
states, “At the close of the great papal persecution, Christ declared, the sun should be
darkened, and the moon should not give her light. Next, the stars should fall from
heaven.”47 Still in the 1911 edition of The Great Controversy, published almost eight
decades after the falling of the stars (1833), Ellen White confirmed the above-mentioned
events48 as heralds of the impending “the time of the end” (Dan 8:17, 19, 26)49 and the
pre-Advent investigative judgment in the heavenly sanctuary (Dan 7:9-14; 8:9-14).
In regard to the statement, “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be
fulfilled” (Matt 24:34, KJV; cf. Mark 13:30; Luke 21:32), Mrs. White says, “Christ has
given signs of His coming. He declares that we may know when He is near, even at the
doors. He says of those who see these signs, ‘This generation shall not pass, till all
these things be fulfilled.’”50 According to the Sanctuary Review Committee (1980), this
quotation from Ellen White implies that “these special signs were all to occur within the
lifetime of a generation.”51
There is an obvious distinction in Ellen White’s writings between the cosmic signs
announcing the time of the end and the cosmic rearrangements for the pre-millennial
Second Coming and for the post-millennial coming down of the New Jerusalem to this
earth (Rev 21:2). In a vision she received on December 16, 1848,

The powers of heaven will be shaken at the voice of God. Then the sun, moon, and stars will be
moved out of their places. They will not pass away, but be shaken by the voice of God. / Dark, heavy
clouds came up and clashed against each other. The atmosphere parted and rolled back; then we
could look up through the open space in Orion, whence came the voice of God. The Holy City will
come down through that open space.52

In allusion to the seventh bowl of God’s wrath (Rev 16:17-21) just prior to the
Second Coming, Ellen White declared,

It is at midnight that God manifests His power for the deliverance of His people. The sun appears,
shining in its strength. Signs and wonders follow in quick succession. […] Everything in nature

to this article appeared in Ministry, Dec. 1998, 3, 29); Graeme Bradford, More Than a Prophet, Biblical
Perspectives, vol. 18 (Berrien Springs, MI: Biblical Perspectives, 2006), 137-150.
46
William H. Shea, “Cosmic Signs through History,” Ministry, Feb. 1999, 10-11.
47
White, The Desire of Ages, 632.
48
White, The Great Controversy, 304-308, 333-334.
49
For further study of the expression “time of the end” in the book of Daniel, see Gerhard Pfandl,
The Time of the End in the Book of Daniel, Adventist Theological Society Dissertation Series, vol. 1
(Berrien Springs, MI: Adventist Theological Society Publications, 1992).
50
White, The Desire of Ages, 632.
51
Sanctuary Review Committee, “Questions and Answers on Doctrinal Issues,” Ministry, Oct. 1980,
30.
52
[Ellen G. White], A Sketch of the Christian Experience and Views of Ellen G. White (Saratoga
Springs, NY: James White, 1851), 23-24; republished in idem, Early Writings (Washington, DC: Review
and Herald, 1945), 41.
 9

seems turned out of its course. The streams cease to flow. Dark, heavy clouds come up and clash
against each other. […] There is a mighty earthquake, “such as was not since men were upon the
earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.” The firmament appears to open and shut. The glory
from the throne of God seems flashing through. The mountains shake like a reed in the wind, and
ragged rocks are scattered on every side. There is a roar as of a coming tempest. The sea is lashed
into fury. There is heard the shriek of a hurricane like the voice of demons upon a mission of
destruction. The whole earth heaves and swells like the waves of the sea. Its surface is breaking up.
It’s very foundations seem to be giving way. Mountain chains are sinking. Inhabited islands
disappear. The seaports that have become like Sodom for wickedness are swallowed up by the
angry waters. […] Great hailstones, every one “about the weight of a talent,” are doing their work of
destruction.53

From the previous statements, we conclude that at the Second Coming will be
preceded not by a mere repetition of the above-mentioned cosmic sings, but rather by
cosmic rearrangements and cataclysmic events of an unprecedent scope and
magnitude.54

4. The Conditional Imminence

The New Testament speaks of a literal and visible second coming of Christ to
occur in the near and not-so-near future.55 From the near perspective, Christ stated, for
instance, that “you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man
comes” (Matt 10:23); “there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they
see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom” (Matt 16:28; cf. 2 Pet 1:16-18); “this
generation will by no means pass away till all things take place” (Luke 21:32); and
“‘Surely I am coming quickly’” (Rev 22:20). The apostle Paul reflected the same view in
the inclusive expression, “we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord” (1
Thess 4:15).
From the not-so-near perspective, Jesus mentioned some general signs of the
times, and then warned, “but the end is not yet” (Matt 24:4-6). To this He added, “And
this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the
nations, and then the end will come” (Matt 24:14). In a similar tone the apostle Paul
stated that the Second Coming would occur only after the great “apostasy” and the
manifestation of “the man of lawlessness” and “the son of destruction” (2 Thess 2:1-12,
NASB).
Several scholars—including Johannes Weiss and Albert Schweitzer—suggested
that Christ intended to return still in the Apostolic era, but His plans were frustrated and,
consequently, His coming was delayed.56 But this theory is loaded with serious
theological implications. If this view is right, then we have to admit that Jesus made up a
53
White, The Great Controversy, 636-637.
54
Cf. Spicer, 102; Maxwell, 214.
55
The content of the following paragraphs is based on Alberto R. Timm, “Longing for His Appearing,”
Ministry, July-Aug. 2015, 6-9.
56
Johaness Weiss, Jesus’ Proclamation of the Kingdom of God, transl. by Richard H. Hiers and
David L. Holland (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1971), 73, 85, 86; Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical
Jesus, transl. by W. Montgomery (Mineola, NY: Dover, 2005), 356-358, 363. See also Don F. Neufeld,
“‘This Generation Shall Not Pass,’” Adventist Review, Apr. 5, 1979, 6; Desmond Ford, Daniel 8:14, the
Day of Atonement, and the Investigative Judgment (Casselberry, FL: Euangelion, 1980), 92-102, 307-345,
passim.
 10

promise to His disciples “that He did not keep.”57 And more, if Jesus was mistaken
about the central purpose of His own mission, then it is difficult also “to understand how
the other elements in his religious message remain trustworthy.”58 But this is not the
case!
Ellen G. White harmonizes the above-mentioned near and not-so-near
statements by means of a twofold understanding of the kingdom of God. She pointed
out that the expression “kingdom of God” is employed in the Bible to designate both the
kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory. The proclamation, “The time is fulfilled, the
kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15) referred to the kingdom of grace “established by
the death of Christ” and characterized by “the work of divine grace upon the hearts of
men.” But the kingdom of glory (see Matt 25:31, 32) is yet future and will not be installed
before the second coming of Christ.59 So God’s children are still in the world without
being of the world (John 17:14-16). In Christ they already dwell “in the heavenly places”
(Eph 2:6)60 and experience “the powers of the age to come” (Heb 6:4; cf. 2 Cor 5:17;
Gal 1:4; Col 1:13, 14).
Christ was neither mistaken nor ignorant about His own mission and the
establishment of His kingdom. As He foretold about His future death on the cross (Matt
16:21; 17:22-23; 20:17-19; John 3:14; 12:23-24; etc.), Christ also warned His disciples
that He would not return before all the expected signs would be fulfilled (Matt 24:6; Luke
21:33). Ellen White explained that between the two major eschatological evets asked
about by the disciples—the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Coming (Matt
24:3)—Christ foresaw “long centuries of darkness, centuries for His church marked with
blood and tears and agony. Upon these scenes His disciples could not then endure to
look, and Jesus passed them by with a brief mention.”61
And what about the time element in regard to the Second Coming? Can we
speak about a delay of that event? Based on the time-prophecy of the seventy weeks of
Daniel 9:24-27, as related to Christ’s First Coming (cf. Gal 4:4), Ellen White affirmed
that “like the stars in the vast circuit of their appointed path, God’s purposes know no
haste and no delay.”62 But she did not say the same in regard to the Second Coming.
For her, all major time-prophecies ended with fulfillment of the 2,300 evenings and
mornings of Daniel 8:14 in the autumn of 1844, after which there could be “no definite
tracing of the prophetic time.”63 Consequently, Christ’s Second Coming could not have
taken place before the end of the 1,260 years of papal supremacy in 1798.64 But that
57
Norman R. Gulley, Systematic Theology, Vol 4: The Church and the Last Things (Berrien Springs,
MI: Andrews University Press, 2016), 494.
58
George E. Ladd, The Presence of the Future: The Eschatology of Biblical Realism (Grand Rapids,
MI: Eerdmans, 1974), 125.
59
White, The Great Controversy, 346-347. The wording goes back to the 1888 edition.
60
For a further study of the meaning of the expression “in the heavenly places,” see Carmelo
Martines, “Una re-evaluación de la frase ‘en los lugares celestiales’ de la carta a los Efesios,”
DavarLogos 2/1 (2003): 29-45.
61
White, The Desire of Ages, 630-631.
62
Idem, 32.
63
Ellen G. White, in The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, rev. ed. (Hagerstown, MD:
Review and Herald, 1980), 7:971.
64
White, The Great Controversy, 356.
 11

event could have occurred sometime after 184465 and even after 1888.66 Since Christ
did not return in any of those occasions, Mrs. White could speak of a “delay” of the
Second Coming (cf. Matt 25:5).67
Thus, for Ellen White, God knows the time of the Second Coming (Matt 24:36),
but that knowledge is quite dependent on the human behavior. She emphasized a
healthy imminence without any time-settings.68 In her own words, “Christ’s coming is
nearer than when we believed. Every passing day leaves us one less to proclaim the
message of warning to the world.”69 “Every day that passes brings us nearer the end.
Does it bring us also near to God?”70
With this in mind, we turn now to a few reflections on the end-time scenario as
described by Ellen White.

5. The End-Time Scenario

Our appreciation of Ellen White’s eschatological writings should be guided by

some foundational principles. One of them is that although the language used by Ellen
White is occasionally time-and-placed conditioned, the basic concepts carried are still
valid and relevant.71 In the Scriptures, the end-time scenario is portrayed largely in
apocalyptic-symbolic narratives, as evident in the books of Daniel and Revelation. Yet,
Ellen White decodifies that pictographic language into historical or prophetic concrete
descriptions. Obviously, she used the language of her own days to describe future
developments. For instance, echoing Isaiah 54:17 (“No weapon formed against you
shall prosper”), she stated, “Some are assailed in their flight from the cities and villages;
but the swords raised against them break and fall powerless as a straw.” Although the
kind of assault-weapons to be used may change considerably, the concept of
persecution remains.
Another important principle is that we should realize that our appreciation of
Ellen White’s end-time scenario is largely shaped by our hermeneutical lenses. For
instance, if someone reads her writings from a historical-critical perspective, without any
room for God’s supernatural revelation, then her descriptions of the end-time scenario
seem to be just a blend of nineteenth-century cultural elements with human conjectures
about the future. In this line, Jonathan Butler claimed in 1979 that Mrs. White’s
“predictions of the future appeared as projections on a screen which only enlarged,
dramatized and intensified the scenes of her contemporary world” characterized by a
strong anti-Catholic spirit. For him, her eschatology envisioned only “the end of her
world.”73
65
Ellen G. White, Evangelism (Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1946), 695.
66
Ellen G. White, Selected Messages (Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1946), 1:362-363.
67
See White, Evangelism, 694-697.
68
Some of Ellen White’s most important warnings against time-settings for the Second Coming are
found in her book Selected Messages, 1:185-192.
69
White, Testimonies for the Church, 5:88.
70
White, Testimonies for the Church, 9:27.
71
See Alberto R. Timm, “Divine Accommodation and Cultural Conditioning of the Inspired Writings,”
Journal of the Adventist Theological Society 19/1-2 (2008): 161-174.
73
Jonathan Butler, “The World of E. G. White and the End of the World,” Spectrum 10/2 (Aug. 1979):
10 (italic in the original); restated in similar terms in idem, “Second Coming,” in Terrie D. Aamondt, Gary
 12

It is apparent that Butler’s rationalistic view differs radically from the persuasion
of those who still believe that God exists, that He reveals Himself through His prophets,
and that Ellen White was a genuine noncanonical prophet. From this perspective, we
realize that in a vision “all world history passes before his [the prophet’s] spirit like a
film,”74 and that the same happens in regard to the future. We can also recognize Ellen
White’s eschatology as a trustworthy expression of God’s absolute but not-causative
foreknowledge.75 Ellen White’s prophetic expositions shed light on our path and help us
to better understand the overall flow of history.
Some reliable studies have outlined the end-time events as presented by Ellen
White,76 and there is no need to replicate them here. Even so, I would like to highlight
some glimpses from her writings, which we should take into consideration in our
contemporary eschatological assessments.77 For instance, back in 1884, a time when
North American Protestants and Evangelicals still nourished a strong anti-Catholic and
anti-Spiritualist spirit, Ellen White already predicted,

Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring
the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of Spiritualism, the latter
creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. Protestantism will yet stretch her hand across the gulf to
grasp the hand of Spiritualism; she will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power;
and under the influence of this threefold union, our country will follow in the steps of Rome in
trampling on the rights of conscience.78

Two years later (1886), Ellen White explained that this religious union will occur not
because of “a change in Catholicism; for Rome never changes. She claims infallibility. It
is Protestantism that will change. The adoption of liberal ideas on its part will bring it
where it can clasp the hand of Catholicism.”79
Noteworthy, the Roman Catholic ecumenical dialogues are not intended for the
so-called “Mother Church” to compromise her own dogmas and embrace the Protestant,
Evangelical, or Orthodox postulates. Those dialogues should actually bring all
separated Churches “back” to full fellowship with her. So, the Second Vatican
Ecumenical Council (1962-1965) was aimed to restore “unity among all Christians,” for
“Christ the Lord founded one Church and one Church only,” and the full blessing of

Land, and Ronald L. Numbers, eds., Ellen Harmon White: American Prophet (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2014), 186.
74
Gerhard von Rad, Old Testament Theology, transl. D. M. G. Stalker (Harper & Row, 1965), 2:313.
75
Alberto R. Timm, “A Presciência Divina—Relativa ou Absoluta?” O Ministério Adventista (Brazil),
Nov.-Dec. 1984, 13-22.
76
See especially Ellen G. White, Last Day Events: Facing Earth’s Final Crisis (Boise, ID: Pacific Press,
1992). See also Fernando Chaij, Preparation for the Final Crisis (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1966);
Gerhard Pfandl, The Gift of Prophecy: The Role of Ellen White in God’s Remnant Church (Nampa, ID:
Pacific Press, 2008), 88-95.
77
Some issues involved in the contemporary Adventist eschatological debates are addressed in Jiří
Moskala, “Misinterpreted End-Time Issues: Five Myths in Adventism,” Journal of the Adventist Theological
Society 28/1 (2017): 92-113.
78
White, The Spirit of Prophecy, 4:404-405; republished in idem, The Great Controversy, 588.
79
Ellen G. White, “Visit to the Vaudois Valleys,” Review and Herald, June 1, 1886, 338; republished
in idem, Last Day Events: Facing Earth’s Final Crisis (Boise, ID: Pacific Press, 1992), 130.
 13

salvation can be obtained “only through Christ’s Catholic Church.”80 And the Declaration
Dominus Iesus on the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church
(2000) adds,

Therefore, there exists a single Church of Christ, which subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by
the Successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him. The Churches which, while not
existing in perfect communion with the Catholic Church, remain united to her by means of the closest
bonds, that is, by apostolic succession and a valid Eucharist, are true particular Churches. Therefore,
the Church of Christ is present and operative also in these Churches, even though they lack full
communion with the Catholic Church, since they do not accept the Catholic doctrine of the Primacy,
which, according to the will of God, the Bishop of Rome objectively has and exercises over the entire
Church.81

The “Joint Statement by the Lutheran World Federation and the Pontifical
Council for Promoting Christian Unity on the conclusion of the year of the common
commemoration of the Reformation, 31st October 2017,” included a 2016 statement by
both Pope Francis and Bishop Munib A. Younan, then President of the Lutheran World
Federation, affirming that the goal of their ecumenical endeavors was to have eventually
the members of their respective communities “receive the Eucharist at one table, as the
concrete expression of full unity.”82 Actually, the ecumenical movement is assuming
more and more the overall configuration foreseen by Ellen White.
A third foundational principle in our appreciation of Ellen White’s eschatological
writings is that we should emphasize the larger picture, without falling into newsletter
approach of trying to see her writings as being fulfilled in all single events around us.
Already in 1877, James White alerted,

But in exposition of unfulfilled prophecy, where the history is not written, the student should put forth
his propositions with not too much positiveness, lest he find himself straying in the field of fancy. There
are those who think more of future truth than of present truth. They see but little light in the path in
which they walk, but think they see great light ahead of them.83

And Gerhard F. Hasel added, “In regards to unfulfilled prophecy, there is always the
danger for the interpreter to speculate or to subtly become a prophet himself.”84
A fourth foundational principle is that we should take into consideration and try to
harmonize the different nuances a given topic may have. A lack of balance has
80
“Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redingratio” (1964), pars. 1 and 3, in
http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-
ii_decree_19641121_unitatis-redintegratio_en.html (accessed on June 8, 2018).
81
“Declaration Dominus Iesus on the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the
Church” (2000), par. 17, in
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000806_domin
us-iesus_en.html (accessed on June 8, 2018).
82
“Joint Statement by the Lutheran World Federation and the Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity on the conclusion of the year of the common commemoration of the Reformation, 31st
October 2017” (2017), in
http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2017/10/31/171031a.html (accessed on
June 8, 2018).
83
James White, “Unfulfilled Prophecy,” Review and Herald, Nov. 29, 1877, 172.
84
Gerhard F. Hasel, “Foreword,” in Hans K. LaRondelle, Chariots of Salvation: The Biblical Drama of
Armageddon (Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1987).
 14

characterized over the years many Adventist discussions about the so-called “Last
Generation Theology” (LGT). Largely influenced by M. L. Andreasen, the proponents of
this view usually believe that the Second Coming will occur only when God’s remnant
people will fully vindicate His character to the universe (1 Cor 4:9, NIV) by living a life of
sinless perfection (Matt 5:48; cf. Luke 6:36).85 For Andreasen, the stage of “perfection to
which Paul said he had not attained” (cf. Philip 3:12-15) will be finally reached by the
144,000 (Rev 7:1-8; 14:1-5).86 By contrast, others argue that this ideal will never be fully
reached until the Second Coming, “when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and
this mortal has put on immortality” (1 Cor 15:53).87 Even so, there are different
emphases within the overall discussion. In this context, one might ask where Ellen
White actually stands on these controversial matters.
Avoiding the “either-or” approach, we should recognize that, on one side, Ellen
White emphasized a special preparation for translation. She saw both Enoch (Gen 5:24;
Heb 11:5)88 and Elijah (2 Kgs 2:1-11)89 as types of the final generation that will be taken
to heaven without facing death (1 Cor 15:53). She declared, “God is leading out a
people who are peculiar. He will cleanse and purify them, and fit them for translation.
Every carnal thing will be separated from God’s peculiar treasures until they shall be like
gold seven times purified.”90 And she adds, “Are we hoping to see the whole church
revived? That time will never come. There are persons in the church who are not
converted, and who will not unite in earnest, prevailing prayer.”91
On the other side, she warned,

Sanctification is not the work of a moment, an hour, a day, but of a lifetime. It is not gained by a
happy flight of feeling, but is the result of constantly dying to sin, and constantly living for Christ. […]
So long as Satan reigns, we shall have self to subdue, besetting sins to overcome; so long as life
shall last, there will be no stopping place, no point which we can reach and say, I have fully attained.
Sanctification is the result of lifelong obedience.

85
E.g., M. L. Andreasen, The Sanctuary Service, 2nd ed., rev. (Washington, DC: Review and Herald,
1947), chapter 21—“The Last Generation”; Herbert E. Douglass, “Men of Faith – The Showcase of God’s
Grace”, in Herbert E. Douglass et al, Perfection: The Impossible Possibility (Nashville, TN: Southern
Publishing Association, 1975), 9-56; C. Mervyn Maxwell, “Ready for His Appearing”, in ibid., 137-200; Herbert
E. Douglass, Why Jesus Waits: How the Sanctuary Doctrine Explains the Mission of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church (Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1976); idem, Faith: Saying Yes to God (Nashville,
TN: Southern Publishing Association, 1978); idem, The End: Unique Voice of Seventh-day Adventists about
the Return of Jesus (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1979).
86
M. L. Andreasen, The Book of Hebrews (Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1948), 467.
87
E.g., Hans K. LaRondelle, Perfection and Perfectionism: A Dogmatic-Ethical Study of Biblical
Perfection and Phenomenal Perfectionism, Andrews University Monographs, vol. 3 (Berrien Springs, MI:
Andrews University Press, 1971); Edward Heppenstall, “‘Let Us Go on to Perfection,” in Douglas et al,
Perfection, 57-88; Hans K. LaRondelle, “The Biblical Idea of Perfection,” in ibid., 89-136; Ángel M.
Rodríguez, “Theology of the Last Generation and the Vindication of the Character of God: Overview and
Evaluation,” in The Word: Searching, Living, Teaching, ed. Artur A. Stele (Silver Spring, MD: Review and
Herald, 2015), 205-228; Jiří Moskala and John Peckham, eds., God’s Character and the Last Generation
(Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2018); George R. Knight, End-Time Events and the Last Generation: The
Explosive 1950s (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2018).
88
White, Patriarchs and Prophets, 85-86; idem, Testimonies for the Church, 2:121-122.
89
White, Patriarchs and Prophets, 227-228; idem, Education (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press,
1952), 59; idem, Gospel Workers (Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1915), 270.
90
White, Testimonies for the Church, 1:430.
91
White, Selected Messages, 1:122.
 15

None of the apostles and prophets ever claimed to be without sin. Men who have lived the
nearest to God, men who would sacrifice life itself rather than knowingly commit a wrong act, men
whom God has honored with divine light and power, have confessed the sinfulness of their nature.92

In this case, what can we say about the end-time vindication of God’s character?
Undeniably, every converted individual is a “spectacle” of God’s transforming grace to
the universe (1 Cor 4:9, NIV), and we should not expect less from the final generation of
God’s remnant people. But we should never forget that “we have only one perfect
photograph of God, and this is Jesus Christ.”93 This means that the supreme vindication
of God’s character should always remain Christ-centered and cross-centered (John
12:32; Gal 6:14), and never anthropocentric or final-generation centered (cf. Luke 18:9-
14). After all, “the cross of Christ will be the science and the song of the redeemed
through all eternity. In Christ glorified they will behold Christ crucified.”94

6. The Victorious Outcome

And what about heaven? How real can it be considered? On this matter, I still
remember a conversation I had several years ago, with an elderly taxi driver. When I
asked him about his acquaintance with the Seventh-day Adventist message he told me
that he had received excellent Bible studies from a well-known Adventist theology
professor. But after studying about “a new heaven and a new earth” (Rev. 21:1), he
questioned the priest of his own church about the heavenly city with real buildings,
streets of gold, a river, and many trees. The priest stated that such concepts were just
illusions; that we have to enjoy this life, because there is no eternal life; and that we
perpetuate ourselves only by generating children. My spontaneous reaction was, “If
eternal life is assured just by generating children, then your priest, who holds for
celibacy, at least at the official level, does not have eternal life whatsoever!”95 And that
was the end of our conversation on this matter.
Why do many alleged Christians distort and even deny the reality of heaven?
Several reasons could be mentioned, but a very foundational one has to do with how
someone views reality. From a dichotomic perspective, a real and tangible heaven does
not make much sense for those who see heaven as a mere spiritual and unmaterial
place to where unbodied souls flee after dead. And as stated by Ellen White, “A fear of
making the future inheritance seem too material has led many to spiritualize away the
very truths which lead us to look upon it as our home.”96
From a biblical perspective, heaven is much more than the “Elysium” of Greek
mythology or the utopic Tibetan “Shangri-la” of James Hilton’s novel Lost Horizon
(1933).97 Heaven is, indeed, as real and concrete as this world, but without the
presence of sin that degenerates things, and with a new dimension of time that no
92
White, The Acts of the Apostles, 560-561.
93
Ellen G. White, “Laborers Together with God,” Ms 70, 1899; published in Seventh-day Adventist
Bible Commentary, 7:906.
94
White, The Great Controversy, 651.
95
Alberto R. Timm, “Lift Up the Trumpet: Reflections on the Second Coming,” Adventist Review,
Dec. 9, 2010, 20.
96
White, The Great Controversy, 674.
97
James Hilton, Lost Horizon (London: Macmillan, 1933).
 16

longer wears out our existence. According to Peter, “For we did not follow cunningly
devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ” (2 Peter 1:16). And Paul warns, “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we
are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor 15:19, NRSV). As early as the spring 1845,
Ellen White was taken to the new earth, where she saw literal trees, flowers, grass,
rivers, animals, and people, and most glorious houses.98
Furthermore, heaven is not a place of loneliness and amnesia. Ellen White
explains with the following touching words,

In the Bible the inheritance of the saved is called “a country.” There the heavenly Shepherd leads
His flock to fountains of living waters. The tree of life yields its fruit every month, and the leaves of
the tree are for the service of the nations. There are ever-flowing streams, clear as crystal, and
beside them waving trees cast their shadows upon the paths prepared for the ransomed of the Lord.
There the wide-spreading plains swell into hills of beauty, and the mountains of God rear their lofty
summits. On those peaceful plains, beside those living streams, God’s people, so long pilgrims and
wanderers, shall find a home.99

On our family ties and social life in heaven, Ellen White affirms that “little children
are borne by holy angels to their mothers’ arms. Friends long separated by death are
united, nevermore to part…”100 “The redeemed will meet and recognize those whose
attention they have directed to the uplifted Saviour. What blessed converse they will
have with these souls!”101 And the guardian angels will unveil to each of us many
unexplained life events and circumstances of our life in this sinful world.102 But the
supreme privilege is to behold God Himself (Matt 5:8; 1 John 3:3; Rev 22:3, 4). As
stated by Ellen White, “And what is the happiness of heaven but to see God? What
greater joy could come to the sinner saved by the grace of Christ than to look upon the
face of God and know Him as Father?”103 In reality, “heaven is worth everything to us,
and if we lose heaven we lose all.”104

Concluding Remarks

In Ellen White’s writings one can find an overall balance between the warnings
about the final events and the end of our own life, on one side, and the joyfulness of
living a life of full surrender to Christ and His cause, on the other side. Among the
warnings, one can see for instance the following meaningful statement,

I saw that all heaven is interested in our salvation; and shall we be indifferent? Shall we be
careless, as though it were a small matter whether we are saved or lost? Shall we slight the sacrifice
that has been made for us? Some have done this. They have trifled with offered mercy, and the

98
Ellen G. Harmon, “Letter from Sister Harmon,” The Day-Star, Jan. 24, 1846, 31-32. Cf. Merlin Burt,
“Appendix B – Ellen G. White and Religious Enthusiasm in Early Adventist Experience,” in The Ellen G.
White Letters & Manuscripts with Annotations, Vol. 1 (1845-1859) (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald,
2014), 923.
99
White, The Great Controversy, 675.
100
Ibid., 645.
101
White, Gospel Workers, 518.
102
White, Education, 305.
103
White, Testimonies for the Church, 8:267.
104
Ellen G. White, Sons and Daughters of God (Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1955), 349.
 17

frown of God is upon them. God’s Spirit will not always be grieved. It will depart if grieved a little
longer. After all has been done that God could do to save men, if they show by their lives that they
slight Jesus’ offered mercy, death will be their portion, and it will be dearly purchased. It will be a
dreadful death; for they will have to feel the agony that Christ felt upon the cross to purchase for
them the redemption which they have refused. And they will then realize what they have lost—
eternal life and the immortal inheritance. The great sacrifice that has been made to save souls shows
us their worth. When the precious soul is once lost, it is lost forever.105

But such warnings as these do not mean that she exposed a so-called “theology
of fear” (Theologie der Angst).106 Actually, she has a solid theology of hope and
assurance in Christ (cf. 1 John 5:12), as evident in her classic books Steps to Christ
(1892) and The Desire of Ages (1898). In 1887, she stated,

Live the life of faith day by day. Do not become anxious and distressed about the time of trouble,
and thus have a time of trouble beforehand. Do not keep thinking, “I am afraid I shall not stand in the
great testing day.” You are to live for the present, for this day only. Tomorrow is not yours. Today you
are to maintain the victory over self. Today you are to live a life of prayer. Today you are to fight the
good fight of faith. Today you are to believe that God blesses you. And as you gain the victory over
darkness and unbelief, you will meet the requirements of the Master, and will become a blessing to
those around you.107

And the nearness of the Second Coming and our preparation for that glorious
event are stressed in the following words,

The coming of the Lord is nearer than when we first believed. The great controversy is nearing its
end. Every report of calamity by sea or land is a testimony to the fact that the end of all things is at
hand. Wars and rumors of wars declare it. Is there a Christian whose pulse does not beat with
quickened action as he anticipates the great events opening before us? The Lord is coming. We
hear the footsteps of an approaching God to punish the world for their iniquity.108

How can a Christian sleep in such an age as we are now living in? Knowledge is increased, and
facilities are increased for attaining great results for God and humanity. Then we see so many
harvest-fields of labor opening before us, inviting those of strong faith and hope and courage to enter
them. To sleep now is a fearful crime. The Lord is coming. We are appointed to prepare the way for
his coming by acting our part to prepare a people to stand in that great day. Is there one Christian
whose pulse does not beat with quickened action as he anticipates the great events already opening
before us? We hear the footsteps of an approaching God to punish the world for their iniquity.109

Actually, “we should watch and work and pray as though this were the last day
that would be granted us. How intensely earnest, then, would be our life. How closely
would we follow Jesus in all our words and deeds.”110 So, let’s not only prepare
ourselves for the Second Coming and/or the end of our own life, but be prepared every
105
White, Testimonies for the Church, 1:124.
106
Cf. Thomas R. Steininger, Konfession und Sozialisation: Adventistische Identität zwischen
Fundamentalismus und Postmoderne (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1993), 94 ff.
107
Ellen G. White, “The Light of the World,” Signs of the Times, Oct. 20, 1887, 625.
108
Ellen G. White, “Preparing for Christ’s Return,” Review and Herald, Nov. 12, 1914, 22;
republished partially in idem, Maranatha, The Lord Is Coming (Washington, DC: Review and Herald,
1976), 220; idem, Evangelism, 219.
109
Ellen G. White, Special Testimonies for Ministers and Workers—No. 11, p. 29; republished in
idem, Special Testimonies—Series A (???), ??.
110
White, Testimonies for the Church, 5:200.
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day and every moment for heaven, which has to be the main purpose of our whole
existence!