11. Ellen White falsely claimed that time was short, that she would be living when Christ returned, and still later that some in the audience to whom she was speaking would be alive when Christ returned.


Answer: Time was always presented to Ellen White in vision as being very short, so there was no reason why she would not expect to be living when Christ returned. However, the conditional nature of prophecy when human response is involved must be kept in mind. See item 9 above. Also Revelation 22:7, 12, 20.


Resources:

Francis D. Nichol, Ellen G. White and Her Critics, 1951, pp. 102-111.

Herbert E. Douglass, Messenger of the Lord, 1998, pp. 487-488.

Deuteronomy predicted that the exile (i.e. Babylonian exile was to be THE LAST DAYS) Jesus said that some of the people listening to him would see the kingdom of God. Yes we look for other ways of streaching the prediction to fit somewhat, but Jesus did indeed mean the second coming, and he did indeed connect the fall of Jerusalem to the second coming.

Isaiah 40 - 55 (or there about) predicts that the Messiah was just about to come and lead home a second great exodus from the exile. These were not predictions of some long in the future date.

Every Bible writer saw themselves as either able to live to see the Messiah, or to prepare the next generation to be the last generation. Prophets all believed that time was short.

In 1Thess . 4:15 Paul speaks as if he also believed that he would be alive when Christ returns. Does 1 John 2:18 prove that John was a false prophet when he said two thousand of years ago that he was living in the last days? How about Revelation 1:3 and Revelation 22:2, both of which were written almost 2,000 years ago? Jesus Christ said at that time, "Yes, I am coming soon." Would it have been better if God had told those people that the Second Coming would not take place for over 2,000 years? We know that the Second Coming could not take place before the end of the fulfillment of the 2300 Day/Year prophecy, which ended in 1844. Does that mean Jesus and God the Father are liars? Isn't that what people mean when they say Christ will not come again or that he will not come "soon"? Jim

Actually the 2300 evenings-mornings prophecy is cyclic time, which meant different possibilities, the LONGEST being years. The original setting in Daniel 8:14 was about 2300 litteral days before the end of Babylon, which according to Deuteronomy, should have been the end of the world.

Daniel 9 re-applies the prophecy to the decree to rebuild and restore Jerusalem, and again was seeing the possibilities as being shorter.

Daniel 1-6 expects Deuteronomy to be fulfilled and the exile to be the last days. (exile brought to the ancient Hebrew's mind the same idea that Sunday Law brings to the typical Adventist mind)

Daniel 7-8 still sees the possibility of the exile being the last days but holds open the possibility that they will not be, Daniel 7 leaing towards it being fulfilled, Daniel 8 seeing the fulfilment possible but less likely. Daniel 9-12 is that it was not going to be the last days so what is Israel supose to do since time was continuing, and it tells what would have happened had Jesus been accepted