A View of the Agelong Controversy in its Broad Sweep

In one brief paragraph Ellen White introduced what is thought of today as the principal topic of the March 14 vision!1BIO 370.7

In this vision at Lovett's Grove, most of the matter of the great controversy which I had seen ten years before was repeated, and I was shown that I must write it out.—Ibid.1BIO 370.8

Most likely it was scenes from this vision that she dwelt upon as she addressed the people in the schoolhouse after the funeral was over. She reported that “great solemnity rested upon those who remained.”—Ibid., 2:271. And it was a solemn experience to Ellen White herself, for she was shown, in connection with the instruction to write out the vision of the controversy, that “I should have to contend with the powers of darkness, for Satan would make strong efforts to hinder me, but angels of God would not leave me in the conflict, that in God must I put my trust.”—Ibid., 2:270.1BIO 371.1

What did this mean? She was to learn before ever she reached home. Monday the Tillotsons drove them in their comfortable carriage to the railroad station at Freemont, where the next day they took the train for Jackson, Michigan. At this point Ellen White picks up the account:1BIO 371.2

While riding in the cars we arranged our plans for writing and publishing the book called The Great Controversy immediately on our return home. I was then as well as usual.1BIO 371.3

On the arrival of the train at Jackson, we went to Brother Palmer's. We had been in the house but a short time, when, as I was conversing with Sister Palmer, my tongue refused to utter what I wished to say, and seemed large and numb. A strange, cold sensation struck my heart, passed over my head, and down my right side. For a while I was insensible; but was aroused by the voice of earnest prayer.1BIO 371.4

I tried to use my left arm and limb, but they were perfectly useless. For a short time I did not expect to live. It was the third shock I had received of paralysis, and although within fifty miles of home, I did not expect to see my children again. I called to mind the triumphant season I had enjoyed at Lovett's Grove, and thought it was my last testimony, and felt reconciled to die.—Ibid., 2:271.1BIO 371.5

As earnest prayer was continued in her behalf, she soon felt a prickling sensation in her arm and leg, and she praised God that she could move them a little. Writing of it, she declared, “The Lord heard and answered the faithful prayers of His children, and the power of Satan was broken.” Three months later in a vision given to her in Battle Creek there was opened up to her what was really behind the distressing experience suffered in the Palmer home.1BIO 371.6

I was taken off in vision. In that vision I was shown that in the sudden attack at Jackson, Satan designed to take my life to hinder the work I was about to write; but angels of God were sent to my rescue, to raise me above the effects of Satan's attack. I saw, among other things, that I should be blest with better health than before the attack at Jackson.—Ibid., 2:272.1BIO 372.1

The night after the stroke was one of great suffering, but the next day she seemed sufficiently strengthened to continue the journey by train to Battle Creek. On arrival home, she was carried up the steep stairs to the front bedroom in their Wood Street home. She reported:1BIO 372.2

For several weeks I could not feel the pressure of the hand, nor the coldest water poured upon my head. In rising to walk, I often staggered, and sometimes fell to the floor. In this condition I commenced to write The Great Controversy.1BIO 372.3

I could write at first but one page a day, then rest three; but as I progressed, my strength increased. The numbness in my head did not seem to becloud my mind, and before I closed that work, the effect of the shock had entirely left me.—Ibid.1BIO 372.4

As she wrote of the vision in her 1860 autobiographical work My Christian Experience, Views, and Labors in Connection With the Rise and Progress of the Third Angel's Message, she stated that in the Lovett's Grove vision “most of the matter of the great controversy which I had seen ten years before was repeated.” Is this a reference to a particular vision in 1848, as it seems to imply? Or does it refer to phases of many visions received in the late 1840s, in which she witnessed segments of the conflict between Christ and His angels and Satan and his angels? A number of these presented the ultimate triumph of the righteous and the final destruction of sin and sinners. The absence of a contemporary reference to a specific, all-inclusive great controversy vision in 1848 would seem to point to the latter. Many of the visions of the late 1840s gave glimpses and at times rather detailed accounts of controversy and the triumph of God's people over the forces of Satan.1BIO 372.5