Time of Jacob’s Trouble

The Time of Jacob’s Trouble vision in August 1845, saved some ardent, extreme shut-door advocates such as James White from another colossal disappointment. While Ellen Harmon was in Carver, Massachusetts, in August, James White, now 24 years of age, in nearby Fairhaven and Dartmouth, was proclaiming the imminence ^{33“Imminence” refers to a Second Coming that could happen at any moment in contrast to “nearness” which indicates that certain specific events must yet take place before Jesus returns, such as the Latter Rain, the Loud Cry, the Seven Last Plagues, etc. Seventh-day Adventists emphasize “nearness,” not “imminence.”} of the Advent, one year after October 22, 1844.MOL 504.1

After hearing Ellen Harmon’s vision, James wrote a letter to a shut-door periodical describing the impact of her message: “Many were expecting the Lord to come at the 7th month [October], 1845. That Christ would then come we firmly believed.” ^{34Day Star, Sept. 20, 1845, reprinted in A Word to the Little Flock (May 30, 1847), reproduced in Knight, 1844, p. 171.}MOL 504.2

Continuing in that same article, he wrote: “At this time, Ellen was with the band at Carver, Mass., where she saw in vision, that we should be disappointed, and that the saints must pass through the ‘time of Jacob’s trouble,’ which was future. Her view of Jacob’s trouble was entirely new to us, as well as [to] herself.”MOL 504.3