Coming Soon - Ellen G. White

1827–1915

William Miller had totaled up the prophet Daniel’s seventy weeks and checked all the biblical data, and it kept adding up the same way. Jesus was definitely returning in 1843. Or maybe 1844.

They called it the Great Disappointment. Anticipating a target date of October 22, 1844, many believers had quit their jobs and given away their stuff. Among those disappointed that day was sixteen-year-old Ellen Harmon, who was from a family that had been following William Miller for several years.

Newspapers mocked this false alarm. Many “Adventists” (also known as “Millerites”) abandoned the cause. Others, like Miller himself, sought new ways to figure out what God was doing. In December of that year, Ellen was praying with four other women when she had a vision that reassured her. Despite the disappointment, it seemed to say, Jesus was still coming soon. Over the next twenty years, Ellen reported another one hundred to two hundred visions guiding her as she developed her beliefs.

In 1846, after she had gone public with a few more visions, she married James White, an Adventist minister. In the following decades, Ellen White traveled and spoke at Adventist meetings throughout the country. She also became a prolific writer, penning many magazine articles as well as books and pamphlets. Much of her writing is basic evangelical fare, like her classic Steps to Christ.

In response to one vision, she adopted Saturday as the Sabbath, casting her lot with the Seventh-day Adventists, with whom she became a respected leader. Another vision in 1863 put her on a health kick. She began writing and speaking about the relationship between physical health and spirituality. Ellen was a driving force as the church established a health institute, a college, and ministry among African Americans in the South.

Ellen has always had her critics, primarily among those who doubt the authenticity of her visions, yet she’s a respected figure in the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, now more than ten million strong.

But let’s get back to where we started, the second advent of Christ. False alarms can tempt us to laugh off the whole matter, but Jesus did promise to come back. We don’t know when, but he did ask us to be ready. Are you?

He who is the faithful witness to all these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon!” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!

Revelation 22:20