Ellen White’s contribution

In early spring 1847, more than six months after she and James White began to keep the Sabbath, Ellen White received her first vision on the Sabbath. In her Sabbath halo vision of April 7, 1847, at the home of Stockbridge Howland, she saw Jesus ministering in the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary. But her vision added evangelistic dimensions even beyond what Bates had presented regarding the eschatological importance of the Sabbath. She saw Jesus open the ark in the Most Holy Pace and remove the Ten Commandments. She observed that the fourth commandment “shone above them all” and had a “halo of glory” all around it. ^{28EGW, “Dear Bro. Bates” broadside, A Vision, April 7, 1847, 1.} She then saw that “God had children, who do not see and keep the Sabbath. They had not rejected the light on it” Then God’s people “went forth” and “proclaimed the Sabbath more fully.” ^29Ibid.UEGW 172.1

This evangelistic call further prepared the way for an understanding of the sealing message and the final collapse of the “probation closed for sinners” view. The Sabbath halo vision so impressed Bates that he published it in a broadside. ^30Ibid. It is probable that this vision helped him orient his views on the sealing message and the need to proclaim it throughout the world.UEGW 172.2