Introduction

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 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.

Major End-time Challenges

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 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

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 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 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 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

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. 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 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

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 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 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.

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.”⁷² 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

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

Noteworthily, 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 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 a 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. Over the years a lack of balance has characterized 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.
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

The Victorious Outcome

And what about heaven? How real should 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 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 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 advocated 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 day and every moment for heaven, which has to be the main purpose of our whole existence!