May I say frankly, and at the very outset, that we are frequently asked the question, “What about Ellen G. White’s statement made in 1856 at the conclusion of a workers’ meeting, or conference, when she said, ‘There are some here who will be alive to see the coming of the Lord, and there are some here who will be food for worms’?”BHP 89.2

That statement was made in the year 1856, one hundred years ago. Since many have been trying by various means to figure out when Christ will return, it is to be expected that some good people would use this statement as a possible way of finding out the exact time.BHP 89.3

They have been disappointed of course, for, so far as we know, every one whose name was listed as having been present at that meeting in 1856 has now passed away. The White Publications office has received many letters asking about that prediction, calling attention to the fact that those people have all passed away, and asking why the Lord has not yet come. I can explain this unfulfilled prediction only by saying that it is a conditional prophecy. Man failed to do his part; therefore, the Lord has not done as He promised He would do.BHP 89.4

The conditional nature of all divine predictions which have to do with human actions or human response to God’s will is set forth clearly in the Bible.BHP 89.5

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God Himself explains it:BHP 90.1

“At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them” (Jeremiah 18:7-10).BHP 90.2

A good Bible illustration of God’s dealings with man on the basis of conditional predictions is the experience of Jonah at Nineveh:BHP 90.3

“So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord…. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.BHP 90.4

“So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them…. And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not” (Jonah 3:3-5, 10).BHP 90.5

Implicit in Jonah’s prophecy was the condition “if you do not repent.” The Ninevites repented, and therefore God changed His plan.BHP 90.6

It is true that some of God’s predictions are unconditional. For instance, Christ’s promise to return to this earth the second time for the salvation of His people is a declaration of God’s settled purpose. The plan of salvation would be incomplete without it. But the time of the Second Advent may be hastened or delayed by the decisions and actions of men.BHP 90.7

It is interesting to read in this connection some of the early documents penned by Ellen G. White. She always presented the Second Advent as very near, even at the door. For instance, in 1849 she wrote: “I saw that the time for Jesus to be in the most holy place was nearly finished and that time can last but a very little longer.”—Early Writings, 58. When in later years people asked her about the delay in the Lord’s coming and the meaning of her earlier statements, she wrote:BHP 91.1

“The angels of God in their messages to men represent time as very short. Thus it has always been presented to me. It is true that time has continued longer than we expected in the early days of this message. Our Saviour did not appear as soon as we hoped. But has the Word of the Lord failed? Never! It should be remembered that the promises and the threatenings of God are alike conditional….BHP 91.2

“Had the whole Adventist body [after the disappointment in 1844] united upon the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, how widely different would have been our history! It was not the will of God that the coming of Christ should be thus delayed.”—Manuscript 4, 1883, quoted in Evangelism, 695, 696. (Italics supplied.)BHP 91.3

In 1896 she wrote:BHP 91.4

“If those who claimed to have a living experience in the things of God had done their appointed work as the Lord ordained, the whole world would have been warned ere this, and the Lord Jesus would have come in power and great glory.”—The Review and Herald, October 6, 1896, p. 629.BHP 91.5

It is thus clear that God intended to bring the history of the world to a close very soon after 1844. The predictions in the vision of 1856 were a part of God’s intentions which were dependent upon the response of men to God’s will and purpose. Men failed God, and so God was forced to delay His plans. The failure is not to be charged upon God, for His promises and His threatenings are alike conditional.BHP 92.1

I am very glad to assure you that in view of the fact that so many other predictions have been fulfilled, I am not going to be disturbed by one that we can explain only on the basis of its being a conditional prophecy.BHP 92.2

Divine predictions fulfilled are a great test for any prophet. But the failure of a prediction to come true may not prove that the prophet is false.BHP 92.3

We must bear in mind that Ellen G. White’s work was not primarily that of making predictions. Her work was of a different nature.BHP 92.4

The Test of Fulfilled Predictions

The Test of Divine Guidance in Times of Crisis in the Advent Movement