Now, A Close Look at the “Shut Door”

To understand well the shut door question, as noted earlier, calls for a good knowledge of the great Advent awakening culminating in the disappointment on October 22, 1844. We approach the question on the basis of four presuppositions.EGWSDQ 6.1

(1) That the great Advent awakening of the early 1840s was a movement of God’s providence, marked by the work of the Holy Spirit. The participants and witnesses establish this point. Out of this experience has grown the Seventh-day Adventist Church. To take any other position is to remove one of the foundations of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.EGWSDQ 6.2

(2) That Ellen Harmon White was chosen by God as His messenger and her work embodied that of a prophet. She served in this prophetic office from 1844 until 1915. There are no situations or experiences which would in any way impair this presupposition. Seventh-day Adventists have witnessed the many evidences which give full support to Ellen White’s prophetic call and her work.EGWSDQ 6.3

(3) That as a sincere, dedicated Christian and a prophet, Ellen White would not and did not falsify. Therefore, we may accept her statements on their face value. Her witness, then, relating to the experience of 1844-1851 may be accepted as presenting a true picture of conditions, of positions taken, and work done.EGWSDQ 6.4

(4) Likewise the witness of those who passed through the experience of 1844 as fellow-believers with Ellen White may be accepted as true and correct to the best of the memory of the individuals who reported. The united testimony of various individuals over quite a period of time provides compelling evidence. Considering the character of the witnesses, their wide geographical separation, and the separation in time, it is most unlikely that collusion could occur, even if this were attempted.EGWSDQ 6.5

Were this statement prepared for those without an Adventist background, considerable introductory material would be called for. This has been traced in such eye-witness accounts as presented by Ellen G. White in eight chapters in The Great Controversy dealing with the great advent awakening and its aftermath. (See pages 299-432). Also illuminating is George I. Butler’s series on “Advent Experience” in Review and Herald articles published from February 10 to April 14, 1885. ^{1Note: See also James White’s review of the experience in Life Incidents (1868), pages 184-186. The whole matter of the “shut door” question is carefully presented with documentation by F. D. Nichol in his book, Ellen G. White and Her Critics (1951). See pages 161-252, 598-642. See also SDA Encyclopedia, article on Millerite Movement; Open and Shut Door, available in facsimile form from the Ellen G. White Estate.}EGWSDQ 7.1

As Seventh-day Adventists generally accept and hold to the presuppositions enumerated above we can come directly to the points of question. (1) What was Ellen White shown in vision? (2) What did she say in oral statements at the time? (3) What did she say in published statements and unpublished statements which give us documentation, both immediately and in later years? (4) In what way were the people influenced who accepted her testimony in the years of 1844-1851? (5) Did she through these years teach on the basis of the visions that probation closed for all the world on October 22, 1844? (6) What was the meaning of the term “shut door” as used in November, 1844, in January, 1845, in 1846, in 1847, in 1848, then on through the years to 1851 and even subsequently? Did the term convey the same meaning at all times, and how was it understood by various individuals during this critical period?EGWSDQ 7.2

The term “shut door” is employed by Ellen White in certain statements appearing in her first book A Sketch of the Christian Experience and Teachings of Ellen G. White, material now found in Early Writings. It is used by her in her 1884 Spirit of Prophecy, volume 4, with a chapter entitled “An Open and a Shut Door,” and it is used in her Great Controversy published in 1888, the type for which was reset in 1911 with some minor changes. The term “shut door” is also used in materials appearing in the James White pamphlet “A Word to the Little Flock” published in 1847, and in certain articles appearing in the Present Truth in 1849 and 1850, and in issues of the Advent Review published in 1850. The question is also discussed by Adventist writers down through the years in articles which have appeared in the Review and Herald. Did it always mean the same thing?EGWSDQ 8.1

The church has reproduced in facsimile form publications in which this term is freely used, as “A Word to the Little Flock,” the issues of the Present Truth (1849-1850) and the Advent Review (summer of 1850), giving all who wish to do so an opportunity to examine carefully the various statements relative to the shut door. The documents now currently available firmly substantiate that Seventh-day Adventist pioneers did for some time hold shut door views. What the careful student soon discovers is that the meaning and significance of the term “shut door” underwent a marked change between 1844 and 1851. The point at issue is not, Did the pioneers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church hold to a shut door for a few years after 1844. That is a matter of historical record. The point is, Did the term as it was so used during a seven-year period mean that these pioneers held that probation for all mankind closed on October 22, 1844, and further, did E. G. White teach on the basis of the visions that probation for all mankind closed on October 22, 1844?EGWSDQ 8.2