“Sabbath halo” vision published as a broadside. Bates published the letter with appended comments. This vision confirmed the eschatological importance of the Sabbath based on Jesus’ work in the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary. What follows is an unmodified transcription of the published text.1EGWLM 112.3

Dear Brother Bates:—Last Sabbath we met with the dear brethren and sisters here, who meet at Bro. Howland's [Stockbridge Howland].²

Ellen White's “Sabbath halo” vision occurred in the home of Stockbridge and Louisa M. Howland in Topsham, Maine. She had a similar vision on March 6, 1847, in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. The Howland home was the location of several significant early Sabbatarian Adventist meetings. The only known record of the March 6 vision is Joseph Bates's mention of it in his remarks found later in this broadside.

Ellen Harmon was at first resistant to the idea of the continuing validity of the seventh-day Sabbath, as urged by Joseph Bates. However, soon after their marriage on August 30, 1846, James and Ellen White became convinced of the biblical evidence for its observance through the reading of Bates's first Sabbath tract.

See: Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, pp. 75, 76; Joseph Bates, The Seventh Day Sabbath: A Perpetual Sign. For Bates's influence in connection with the historical and theological significance of the “Sabbath halo” vision, see Merlin Burt, “Sabbatarian Adventism From 1844 to 1849,” esp. pp. 276-301.

1EGWLM 112.4

We felt an unusual spirit of prayer. And as we prayed, the Holy Ghost fell upon us. We were very happy. Soon I was lost to earthly things, and was wrapped up in a vision of God's glory. I saw an angel swiftly flying to me. He quickly carried me from the earth to the Holy City. In the city I saw a temple, which I entered. I passed through a door before I came to the first veil. This veil was raised, and I passed into the Holy Place. Here I saw the Altar of Incense. Before the altar was the table, on which was the candlestick, with seven lamps, and the showbread, &c. After viewing the glory of the Holy, Jesus raised the second veil, and I passed into the Holy of Holies.³

Allusions to the existence of a two-apartment heavenly sanctuary are found already two years earlier in the vision of February 1845 (Lt 1, 1846 [Feb. 15]).

1EGWLM 112.5

In the Holiest I saw an ark; on the top and sides of it was purest gold. On each end of the ark was a lovely Cherub, with their wings spread out over it. Their faces were turned towards each other, and they looked downwards. Between the angels was a golden censor. Above the ark, where the angels stood, was an exceeding bright glory, that appeared like a throne where God dwelt. Jesus stood by the ark. And as the saints’ prayers came up to Jesus, the incense in the censor would smoke, and He offered up the prayers of the saints with the smoke of the incense to His Father. In the ark, was the golden pot of manna, Aaron's rod that budded and the tables of stone which folded together like a book. Jesus opened them, and I saw the ten commandments⁴

The connection made here between the Ten Commandments, including the fourth, and the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary affirms Joseph Bates's studies of Revelation 11:19, first published some months earlier in January 1847.

See: Joseph Bates, The Seventh Day Sabbath: A Perpetual Sign, 2nd ed., pp. iii, iv.

written on them with the finger of God. On one table was four, and on the other six. The four on the first table shone brighter than the other six. But the fourth (the Sabbath commandment,) shone above them all; for the Sabbath was set apart to be kept in honor of God's holy name. The holy Sabbath looked glorious—a halo of glory was all around it. I saw that the Sabbath was not nailed to the cross. If it was, the other nine commandments were; and we are at liberty to go forth and break them all, as well as to break the fourth.^{5
This counterargument to the claim that the Sabbath commandment was “nailed to the cross,” together with the arguments that follow regarding the change of the Sabbath, reflect traditional lines of reasoning of the Seventh Day Baptists that were subsequently adopted by early Sabbatarian Adventists such as T. M. Preble and Joseph Bates.
See: Merlin Burt, “Sabbatarian Adventism From 1844 to 1849,” pp. 278-281.} I saw that God had not changed the Sabbath, for He never changes. But the Pope had changed it from the seventh to the first day of the week; for he was to change times and laws.^{6
Cf. Dan. 7:25.}1EGWLM 113.1

And I saw that if God had changed the Sabbath, from the seventh to the first day, He would have changed the writing of the Sabbath commandment, written on the tables of stone, which are now in the ark, in the Most Holy Place of the Temple in heaven; and it would read thus: The first day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. But I saw that it read the same as when written on the tables of stone by the finger of God, and delivered to Moses in Sinai, “But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” I saw that the holy Sabbath is, and will be, the separating wall between the true Israel of God and unbelievers;⁷

The vision depicts the composition of “the true Israel of God” as not yet fixed but enlarging as individuals respond positively to the light of the Sabbath truth. “God's chosen” included those “who do not see and keep the Sabbath,” who “had not rejected the light on it,” and who in the future “came out and endured the persecution with us.”

and that the Sabbath is the great question, to unite the hearts of God's dear waiting saints. And if one believed, and kept the Sabbath, and received the blessing attending it, and then gave it up, and broke the holy commandment, they would shut the gates of the Holy City against themselves, as sure as there was a God that rules in heaven above. I saw that God had children, who do not see and keep the Sabbath. They had not rejected the light on it. And at the commencement of the time of trouble,^{8
An examination of A Word to the “Little Flock,” published the following month, shows that James and Ellen White believed in a three-phase “time of trouble”: first, the early time of trouble that began after October 1844, when Jesus began His high-priestly ministry in the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary; second, the time of trouble after the close of human probation, when Jesus leaves the Most Holy Place and the seven last plagues are poured out; third, the time of Jacob's trouble, which occurs before the voice of God delivers His people immediately preceding the Second Coming. Evidently, the time of trouble referred to in this paragraph is the first phase—after 1844 and before probation closes—since God's people “proclaimed the Sabbath more fully.” In the next paragraph Ellen White moved on to describe the events during the great time of trouble after probation closes.
See: James White, “The Time of Trouble” and “The Time of Jacob's Trouble,” in A Word to the “Little Flock,” pp. 8-10; EGWEnc, s.v. “Time of Trouble.”} we were filled with the Holy Ghost as we went forth, and proclaimed the Sabbath more fully. This enraged the church, and nominal Adventists, as they could not refute the Sabbath truth. And at this time, God's chosen all saw clearly that we had the truth, and they came out and endured the persecution with us.^{9
Although in earlier vision accounts a radical shut-door stance is denied by implication in several places, this is perhaps the first time that a qualified “open door” position is explicitly asserted. It seems justified to infer from this passage that in the future, persons from mainline churches as well as from non-Sabbatarian Adventist bodies would join the Sabbathkeeping Adventists. For Damsteegt this passage is “the first reference that more specifically described the future mission among non-Adventists.” Poehler, despite some caveats, agrees. “There can be no question that, as Damsteegt has pointed out, this vision ‘contributed significantly to the development of a new theology of mission.’” For a contrasting position, see Lindén, p. 60.
See: P. Gerard Damsteegt, Foundations of the Seventh-day Adventist Message and Mission, p. 152; Rolf J. Poehler, “‘… and the Door Was Shut,’” pp. 114, 115; Ingemar Lindén, 1844 and the Shut Door Problem, p. 60.} And I saw the sword, famine, pestilence, and great confusion in the land. The wicked thought that we had brought the judgments down on them. They rose up and took counsel to rid the earth of us,^{10
This section of the vision, dealing with the role of the Sabbath in the end-time persecution of the saints, confirms the conclusions of Joseph Bates's Bible study that he had first published three months earlier in the revised edition of his pamphlet The Seventh Day Sabbath: A Perpetual Sign. However, it should be noted that the core prediction that God's people would undergo violent persecution just prior to the Second Advent had first appeared among future Sabbatarian leaders in Ellen [Harmon] White's earliest vision of December 1844, with further details given in the vision of October 1845 (Lt 1, 1845 [Dec. 20], note 12, and Lt 1, 1846 [Feb. 15], last paragraph). Thus when it comes to this important aspect of Seventh-day Adventist eschatology (the “great controversy” motif) it seems likely that the original impetus for Bates's 1847 pamphlet came from the visions of 1844 and 1845. The same can be said for James White's articles appearing in the seminal pamphlet A Word to the “Little Flock,” published in May 1847. His articles, entitled “The Seven Last Plagues,” “The Voice of God,” “The Time of Trouble,” and “The Time of Jacob's Trouble,” all serve the purpose of examining the biblical case for the predictions of end-time troubles found in the earliest visions. Although it is generally true that in the early development of Seventh-day Adventist doctrine the visions served to confirm prior biblical research, in this case it would seem the opposite was the case.
See: Joseph Bates, The Seventh Day Sabbath: A Perpetual Sign, 2nd ed., pp. 58, 59; James White, ed., A Word to the “Little Flock.” For a divergent position on the contribution of Joseph Bates to the origins of the “great controversy” concept, see George Knight, Joseph Bates, pp. 114-117.} thinking that then the evil would be stayed.1EGWLM 113.2

I saw all that “would not receive the mark of the Beast, and of his Image, in their foreheads or in their hands,” could not buy or sell. I saw that the number (666) of the Image Beast was made up;¹¹

What Ellen White meant by the number of the image beast being made up is not clear. The parenthetical (666) is most likely an explanatory insertion by the publisher, Joseph Bates. In 1847 James White similarly identified the number 666 with the image beast described in Revelation 13:11-18, though he would later argue (1860) that it was the number of the first (papal) beast. Nowhere in her writings does Ellen White elaborate on the meaning of the number 666.

For an overview of early Adventist interpretations of the number of the beast, see P. Gerard Damsteegt, Foundations of the Seventh-day Adventist Message and Mission, pp. 205-207.

and that it was the beast that changed the Sabbath, and the Image Beast had followed on after, and kept the Pope's, and not God's Sabbath. And all we were required to do, was to give up God's Sabbath, and keep the Pope's, and then we should have the mark of the Beast, and of his Image.1EGWLM 115.1

In the time of trouble, we all fled from the cities and villages, but were pursued by the wicked, who entered the houses of the saints with the sword. They raised the sword to kill us, but it broke, and fell, as powerless as a straw. Then we all cried day and night for deliverance, and the cry came up before God. The sun came up, and the moon stood still. The streams ceased to flow. Dark heavy clouds came up, and clashed against each other. But there was one clear place of settled glory, from whence came the voice of God like many waters, which shook the heavens, and the earth. The sky opened and shut, and was in commotion. The mountains shook like a reed in the wind, and cast out rugged rocks all around. The sea boiled like a pot, and cast out stones upon the land. And as God spoke the day and hour of Jesus coming,¹²

See: Lt 1, 1845 (Dec. 20), note 8.

and delivered the everlasting covenant to His people, He spoke one sentence, and then paused, while the words were rolling through the earth! The Israel of God stood with their eyes fixed upwards, listening to the words as they came from the mouth of Jehovah, and rolled through the earth like peals of loudest thunder! It was awfully solemn. At the end of every sentence, the saints shouted, Glory! Hallelujah! Their countenances were lighted up with the glory of God; and they shone with the glory as Moses’ face did when he came down from Sinai. The wicked could not look on them, for the glory. And when the never ending blessing was pronounced on those who had honored God, in keeping His Sabbath holy, there was a mighty shout of victory over the Beast, and over his Image.1EGWLM 115.2

Then commenced the jubilee, when the land should rest. I saw the pious slave rise in triumph and victory, and shake off the chains that bound him, while his wicked master was in confusion, and knew not what to do;¹³

Millerites and early Adventists often drew parallels of different kinds between the year of jubilee as the climax of the ancient Jewish calendar (Lev. 25) and the climax of earth's history at the coming of Christ and the millennium. Thus, the instruction given that all Hebrew slaves were to be freed in the jubilee year (Lev. 25:10) was seen by William Miller as “typical of the redemption of the people of God from all captivity, bondage, or death into the glorious liberty of the sons of God; Rom. viii.21; and is also typical of the times of the restitution of all things. Acts iii. 21.” Likewise J. H. Waggoner, writing in 1859, saw “the fiftieth year, or jubilee … [when] bondmen went free … [as] typifying the final redemption of God's people … now groaning under the curse.” It is possible that the passage about “the pious slave” in this vision should be given a similar typological interpretation rather than a literal one. Most readers, however, have assumed that the slave statement should be understood literally. Dudley Canright, archcritic of Seventh-day Adventism, classifies it with “other mistakes” that Ellen White made: “In 1849 she foretold what would happen when Jesus came, and said: ‘I saw the pious slave rise.’ But now there are no slaves. She had not then dreamed of the abolition of slavery.” Considerable discussion of this charge has ensued over the years.

See: William Miller, A Trilogy, p. 31; D. M. Canright, Seventh-Day Adventism Renounced, p. 146; J.H.W. [J. H. Waggoner], “The Discussion—The Sabbath,” Review, Feb. 24, 1859, p. 110. For various views on the “pious slave” passage, see: “The Visions—Objections Answered,” Review, June 26, 1866, p. 26; “Will Slavery Be Again?” Review, July 16, 1901, p. 458; Stephen N. Haskell, The Cross and Its Shadow, pp. 250, 256, 257; Francis D. Nichol, Ellen G. White and Her Critics, pp. 337-341.

for the wicked could not understand the words of the voice of God. Soon appeared the great white cloud. It looked more lovely than ever before. On it sat the Son of Man. At first we did not see Jesus on the cloud, but as it drew near the earth, we could behold his lovely person. This cloud when it first appeared was the Sign of the Son of Man in heaven. The voice of the Son of God called forth the sleeping saints, clothed with a glorious immortality. The living saints were changed in a moment, and caught up with them in the cloudy chariot. It looked all over glorious as it rolled upwards. On either side of the chariot were wings, and beneath it wheels. And as the chariot rolled upwards, the wheels cried Holy, and the wings as they moved, cried Holy, and the retinue of Holy Angels around the cloud cried Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty. And the saints in the cloud cried Glory, Hallelujah. And the cloudy chariot rolled upwards to the Holy City. Jesus threw open the gates of the Golden City, and led us in. Here we were made welcome, for we had kept the “Commandments of God,” and had a “right to the tree of life.”^{14
Cf. Rev. 22:14: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”}1EGWLM 116.1

From your sister in the blessed hope,

E. G. White.

Remarks.¹⁵

Joseph Bates added these remarks to his publication of the vision, explaining why he accepted Ellen White's visions as a legitimate manifestation of the prophetic gift. At the same time, he remained firm on the Bible as the final authority for what he had written about the seventh-day Sabbath, concluding his remarks with the words: “There is no scriptural argument to move it.” Bates's comments were written from Fairhaven, Massachusetts, his longtime city of residence. The text has been italicized in this transcription to distinguish Bates's remarks from the text of the vision.

—I do not publish the above vision thinking to add or diminish from the “sure word of prophecy.” That will stand the test of men and wreck of worlds! “It is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Amen.1EGWLM 117.1

It is now about two years since I first saw the author, and heard her relate the substance of her visions as she has since published them in Portland (April 6, 1846). Although I could see nothing in them that militated against the word, yet I felt alarmed and tried exceedingly, and for a long time unwilling to believe that it was any thing more than what was produced by a protracted debilitated state of her body.1EGWLM 117.2

I therefore sought opportunities in presence of others, when her mind seemed freed from excitement, (out of meeting) to question, and cross question her, and her friends which accompanied her, especially her elder sister, to get if possible at the truth. During the number of visits she has made to New Bedford and Fairhaven since, while at our meetings, I have seen her in vision a number of times, and also in Topsham, Me., and those who were present during some of these exciting scenes know well with what interest and intensity I listened to every word, and watched every move to detect deception, or mesmeric influence. And I thank God for the opportunity I have had with others to witness these things. I can now confidently speak for myself. I believe the work is of God, and is given to comfort and strengthen his “scattered,” “torn,” and “pealed people,” since the closing up of our work for the world in October, 1844.¹⁶

While recognizing that others would yet respond to the proclamation of the three angels’ messages (see note 7 above), Bates still believed that the time had passed for evangelization of the unconverted.

The distracted state of lo, heres! and lo, theres! since that time has exceedingly perplexed God's honest, willing people, and made it exceedingly difficult for such as were not able to expound the many conflicting texts that have been presented to their view. I confess that I have received light and instruction on many passages that I could not before clearly distinguish. I believe her to be a self-sacrificing, honest, willing child of God, and saved, if at all, through her entire obedience to His will.1EGWLM 117.3

At a meeting in Fairhaven, 6th of the last month, I saw her have a similar vision, which I then wrote down. It may be said that I send this out to strengthen the argument of my late work on the Sabbath. I do in the sense above stated. Respecting that work I entertain no fears. There is no scriptural argument to move it.1EGWLM 117.4

The above vision can be had by application, post paid, to James White, Gorham, Me., or to the editor.1EGWLM 117.5

Joseph Bates.
Fairhaven, Mass.

Ms 1, 1846

Lt 2, 1847