Chapter 6—The Shut Door

For a time the pioneers believed that the door of mercy was shut in 1844. Was Ellen White specifically shown in vision that this was the case? ^{1The White Lie, pp. 37-43.}

The shut door era in Adventist history is a fascinating but involved one. To understand it clearly requires a thorough knowledge of the events of 1844 and the years immediately following. The fact that early Adventists at first concluded that probation closed for the world on October 22, 1844, and that Ellen White’s first vision seemed to support this view has for more than a hundred years been used against her by people who seek to impair confidence in her work.TAWL 11.1

Immediately after the passing of the time in 1844, those Adventists who believed prophecy had been fulfilled could only conclude that probation for the world had closed on Oct. 22. The sacrilegious scoffing and sarcasm of worldly people lent credibility to this conclusion. Although the youthful Ellen Harmon at first apparently believed that her visions confirmed the shut door position, she later realized that this was not the case. She did consistently maintain, however, that the door was shut against those individuals who had resisted their honest convictions by rejecting the message of warning. Meanwhile, references in her very first vision to the 144,000 gave a broad hint of a yet future evangelistic thrust.TAWL 11.2

In 1874, in answering charges made on this point, she declared, “I never had a vision that no more sinners would be converted.” ^{2Ellen G. White, Selected Messages 1:74.} Pioneer writers were clear on this as well. For instance, Uriah Smith wrote two years later:TAWL 11.3

The visions have never taught the end of probation in the past, or the close of the day of salvation for sinners, called by our opponents the shut-door doctrine. ^{3Uriah Smith, “‘Wroth with the Woman.’ Revelation 12:17.” The Review and Herald, August 17, 1876, p. 60.}

The dawning of the light, in early 1845, on the transfer of the ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary which occurred in 1844 ultimately provided a solution to the problem. The pioneers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, seeking light, saw a door that closed and another which was opened as Christ took up His ministry in the Most Holy Place in the sanctuary in heaven. This unfolding truth enabled our forefathers to maintain their confidence in God’s leadings in their past experience, even as they grasped the concept of a great mission yet before them.TAWL 11.4

Ellen White, who passed through the experience, explains this transition of understanding in her 1884 book, The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, in the chapter titled “An Open and a Shut Door” and in The Great Controversy, published a few years later, in a chapter titled “In the Holy of Holies.” Reading the setting of the experience in chapter 22, “Prophecies Fulfilled,” and chapter 23, “What Is the Sanctuary?” provides an illuminating background. Ellen White also gave helpful explanations in 1883 in a document reproduced in Selected Messages, book 1, chapter 5, “An Explanation of Early Statements.”TAWL 11.5