Chapter Two—Truth, Stranger Than Fiction

That is the explanation of the survival and growth of Seventh-day Adventism? Why was it that a little religious group, apparently foredoomed to continuing obscurity, if not disintegration and speedy dissolution, became a far-ranging and ever more vigorous segment of Christendom? Some might speak up quickly and say that the group grew because its teachings were true and of God. We heartily agree they were true. But that is not an adequate answer. The hard facts of history reveal that there have been groups in the past who held the true doctrine of the literal coming of Christ, only to vanish from the scene. Then there were the heroic Seventh Day Baptists who proclaimed the Bible truth of God’s holy Sabbath. Yet they have dwindled almost to the vanishing point. We would not minimize for a moment the fact that the little segment of post-Millerites we are discussing held great truths from God. We only say that that in itself hardly provides a satisfying answer to the question before us: Why did this Sabbathkeeping group grow strong instead of die?WBEGW 14.1

Now comes the most incredible part of all. At first blush, the very answer we are about to give would seem to be the best reason for the speedy dissolution of this Sabbathkeeping subsection of Millerism, rather than its phenomenal growth. But, as the saying goes, truth is stranger than fiction. Certainly it is in this case. Let us explain. Picture a small group of Millerites at a meeting in Portland, Maine, in December, 1844. They were seeking to cheer one another and steady their hearts after the crushing disappointment of just two months before. Different ones expressed their convictions. Then, to their astonishment, there rose up in their midst a frail young woman in her teens to declare that God had given to her a vision.WBEGW 14.2

This statement in itself was sufficient to astound them, and when they remembered the warnings that William Miller and others had given, they were not only astounded but filled with skeptical questioning. It is a matter of record that Miller, who had ever warned against fanatical people, had particularly warned against those who might claim that they had received visions. Now here was this little Portland company confronted with someone in their circle who declared that she had had a vision. They had no occasion to challenge her personal life; it was blameless. But her prophetic claim in itself was enough to put them on their guard, if not to make them hopelessly skeptical. If ever a company of people had been conditioned to doubt prophetic claims, they were that company. We would stress this point; in fact, we are tempted to write it in large, bold capital letters.WBEGW 15.1

The young woman was Ellen Harmon, though she is known in Adventist circles as Ellen G. White, for in 1846 she married a Millerite minister, James White. She was not only frail in health, she was also shy and diffident in manner. She declared that what God had revealed to her was not simply for her own guidance but for the guidance of the company in Portland and like companies elsewhere. And so she began to travel to relate her Portland visions, and others she received. But everywhere she went the question arose: Is she what she claims to be, one to whom has truly been given the gift of the spirit of prophecy, or is she self-deluded, or perhaps worse, a designing fraud?WBEGW 15.2