The fourth commandment in the decalogue is to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Ellen claimed God showed her in vision that before 1844, people were not accountable to keep the law of the Sabbath because they did not have enough understanding until 1844, when her visions began and her writings began. She claimed that because of this, believers in previous generations were not accountable to be obedient to this commandment until the year 1844 and after. According to her, the scriptures did not explain the Sabbath well enough, and her visions given to her by God in 1844 were the instruction needed for people to understand and honor it.

 

If the Sabbath is still one of God’s commandments for today, scripture should be utilized by a believer for the basis of that understanding. Long before Ellen’s writings, the apostles are recorded continuing to acknowledge the Sabbath after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Additionally, the number of Christians still resting on Sabbath over three centuries after Jesus' death was significant enough that the Catholic Church felt the need to outlaw the Sabbath completely, even threatening excommunication. The Catholic Church openly claims responsibility and authority to change the sanctity of the Sabbath to Sunday, and endorses that the scripture give no authority to do this; because of this it claims it is a mark of the Papal authority over scripture. Ever since the Protestant Reformation made the Bible available to laypeople, the scriptures have been accessible. Anyone with access was able to read what God said regarding His Sabbaths. Although most of modern Protestant Christianity embraces Sunday sacredness, as a set apart by the Papacy, there are multiple Christian groups and denominations throughout history who have kept Sabbath based on their interpretation of scripture and not from a knowledge or understanding of Ellen’s visions. 

 

Due to the major emphasis Ellen and the Seventh Day Adventist organization places on the Sabbath, and in order to accurately examine the Sabbath in its scriptural context, below is a fairly close look into the sabbath in the early church, the Papacy's alteration of it, and what is written in scripture. 

 

History of Sabbath in the Christian Church

 

1st-2nd Century AD: History and biblical references listed below demonstrate that Early Jewish and Gentile Christians were observing the Seventh Day Sabbath, shifting to Sunday worship as Papal Rome demanded the observance of Sunday, and embracing a rejection of the seventh day rest.

• “If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death.” St. Ignatius, Epistle to the Magnesians, 98-117 AD

 

4th Century

• “On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed.” Emperor Constantine I of Rome,  March 7, 321 AD

 

• “Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians.  But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.” Council of Leodicea, Canon 29, 365 AD

 

• Socrates said almost all churches celebrated worship on Saturday in the 4th century with the main exceptions being in Rome and Alexandria: “For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this. The Egyptians in the neighborhood of Alexandria, and the inhabitants of Thebais, hold their religious assemblies on the Sabbath, but do not participate in the mysteries, in the manner usual among Christians in general: for after having eaten and satisfied themselves with food of all kinds, in the evening making their offerings, they partake of the mysteries.” Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, Book V, Ch 22

 

• Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church established in 4th century has since then honored Saturday as sabbath, and Sunday as resurrection day. 

 

7-12th Centuries - records show some Celtic Christians in Britain/Ireland still rested on Saturday up to the 12th century, eventually merging with Roman practice on Sunday. This could have been due to pressure from Papal Rome, not being allowed to rest on Sabbath or to even read scripture for themselves since the Papacy forbade scripture to be translated into common languages for laypeople.

 

17th Century

• 1651-1658 some christians formed Sabbatarian meetings in London, England. They formed as a denomination adopting the name "Seventh Day Baptists" in 1660.  They brought their denomination to America and in 1664 an English immigrant named Stephen Mumford established the first American congregation in Newport. 

 

 20th Century - Present

• By 1844, there is estimated to have been 1,000-1,500 Seventh Day Baptists in the United States. A seventh Day Baptists woman named Rachel Oakes Preston attended the Christian Church of Washington, New Hampshire and challenged the minister there named Frederick Wheeler after he had preached a sermon on obeying all of God's commandments while he himself did not keep the Sabbath commandment. He was persuaded and began keeping the sabbath in the Summer of 1844, along with other members of their church. A man named Thomas M. Preble came into contact with the New Hampshire church and became persuaded on the Sabbath. Preble was a Freewill Baptist preacher who was also preaching William Millers message on the expected coming of Jesus in 1844. Miller did not include the Sabbath as part of his message and never became a Sabbath keeper. Preble  became the first Millerite to advocate for the Sabbath, and in 1845 he published  an article in the "Hope of Israel paper in Portland, Maine, titled "The Seventh Day Sabbath a Perpetual Sign." A retired Sea Captain named Joseph Bates read Preble's article, became persuaded on the Sabbath, and published his own tract in 1846 titled "The Seventh Day Sabbath, a Perpetual Sign." Wheeler, Preble, and Bates openly advocated for the Sabbath, leading to the growth of Sabbatarians. Bates personally shared the message on the Sabbath with Ellen and James White, who adopted the Sabbath in the Autumn of 1846. The Whites were influencial in founding the Seventh Day Adventist Church, which officially organized in 1863. The Adventists who rejected the prophetic authority of Ellen White separated and formed an independent denomination in 1866 called the "Church of God (Seventh Day)".  The Seventh Day Pentecostal church in Brazil formed in 1917, Messianic movements in the 1970s, and Hebrew Roots movements in the 1990’s. All of these Sabbatarian groups, with the exception of Seventh Day Adventists, organized separate from the influence of Ellen’s writings, and observe the Sabbath based on their independent interpretation of scripture. 

 

The Papacy Claimed Authority to Abolish Sabbath and Sanctify Sunday

 

• "Sunday (day of the sun) as the name of the first day of the week is derived from Egyptian astrology." Catholic Encyclopedia, Art. Sunday.

 

• “Jesus rose from the dead on the “first day of the week.” Because it is the “first day” the day of Christ’s resurrection recalls the first creation. Because it is the “eighth day” following the sabbath, it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ’s resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord’s Day - Sunday: “We all gather in the day of the sun, for it is the first day [after the Jewish Sabbath, but also the first day] when God, separating matter from darkness, made the world; and on this same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead.” - St Justin. Sunday is expressly distinguished from the Sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians, its ceremonial observance replaces that of the Sabbath. In Christ’s Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish Sabbath and announces man’s eternal rest in God…Sunday worship fulfills the moral command of the Old Covenant, taking up its rhythm and spirit on the weekly celebration of the Creator and Redeemer of his people.” Catechisms of the Catholic Church - p. 523-529

 

• “The authority of the church could therefore not be bound to the authority of the Scriptures, because the Church had changed…the Sabbath into Sunday, not by command of Christ, but by its own authority.” Canon and Tradition, p. 263

 

• “The Bible says remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day. The Catholic church says No! By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day and command you to keep holy the first day of the week. And lo the entire civilized world bows down in reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic church.” American Sentinel, Father Enright, June 1893

 

• “The church is above the Bible; and this transference of this observance from Saturday to Sunday is proof of that fact.” The Catholic Record, 1923, p.2

 

• “Not the Creator of Universe, in Genesis 2:1-3, but the Catholic Church can claim the honor of having granted man a pause to his work every seven days.” S. C. Mosna, Storia della Domenica, 1969, pp. 366-367

 

• Converts Catechism:

Q: “What is the Third Commandment?”

A: “The Third Commandment is: Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.”

Q: “Which is the Sabbath day?” 

A: “Saturday is the Sabbath day.” 

Q: “Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?” 

A: “We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, on the council of Laodicea (A.D. 336), transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.”

Q: “Why did the Catholic Church substitute Sunday for Saturday?” 

A:  “The church substituted Sunday for Saturday, because Christ rose from the dead on a Sunday, and the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles on a Sunday.”

Q: “By what authority did the Church substitute Sunday for Saturday?”

A: “The Church substituted Sunday for Saturday by the plenitude of that divine power which Jesus Christ bestowed upon her.” 

Q: “What does the third commandment command?” 

A: “The third commandment commands us to sanctify Sunday as the Lord’s Day.” 

Converts Catechism - by Father Peter Geiermann, p. 65-66, year 1946

 

• The Douay Catechism - The Third Commandment Expounded:

Q: “How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days?”

A: “By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church.” 

Q: “How prove you that?”

A: “Because by keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the church’s power to ordain feasts, and to command them under sin; and by not keeping the rest [of the feasts] by her commanded, they again deny, in fact, the same power.” 

Rev. Henry Tuberville, D.D. (R.C.), 1833

 

• A Doctrinal Catechism, On the Obedience Due to the Church:

Q: “Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?”

A: “Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her. She could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.” 

Rev. Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism, On the Obedience Due to the Church, chap. 2, p. 174. Imprimatur, John Cardinal McCloskey, archbishop of New York, 1851

 

 

Sabbath in Scripture:

 

Sabbath Before/During Time of Jesus:

• “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.” Genesis 2:2-3

 

• “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, so that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily…Moses, then he said to them, “This is what the Lord meant: Tomorrow is a Sabbath observance, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.” So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not stink nor was there a maggot in it. Then Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.” Yet it came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My instructions? See, the Lord has given you the Sabbath; for that reason He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain, everyone, in his place; no one is to leave his place on the seventh day.” So the people rested on the seventh day.” Exodus 16: 4-5, 23-30

 

• “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; for that reason the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Exodus 20:8-11

 

• “Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27 
  • When God said in Exodus 20 that he had blessed the sabbath and made it holy on the seventh day of creation, Jesus said he did this for man. The sabbath in the old testament was for man just as it was for man when Jesus said this  

 

• “You must keep My Sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, so that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.” Exodus 31:12

 

• “Also I gave them My Sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, so that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them.” Ezekiel 20:12 
  • Resting was given as a sign to God that his people acknowledge He is God and that He is the one working to sanctify them. People do not sanctify themselves by working but are sanctified by completely resting in God’s work alone. He makes us holy, and he restores us to His presence through His own sacrifice of the Messiah.

 

• “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.” Deuteronomy 7:9

 

• “From long ago I have known from Your testimonies, that You have founded them forever.” Psalm 119:152

 

• “And he said to them ‘What man shall there be among you, who shall have one sheep, and if it falls into a pit in the sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.” Matthew 12:11-12 
  • Jesus clarified how to rest on sabbath the way God intended, but he did not discuss whether the rest was abolished or not.

 

• “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let the reader understand— then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains…Moreover, pray that when you flee, it will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.” Matthew 24:15-20
  • Jesus was speaking with the expectation that his followers would be acknowledging the sabbath day after His death. If the holiness and sanctity of the sabbath day was going to be done away with, what purpose would Jesus have had to include this detail in this prophecy? A question worthy of contemplating.

 

Sabbath Day Acknowledged by Apostles and Christian's After Jesus’ Death:

• “And a man named Joseph, who was a member of the Council, a good and righteous man (he had not consented to their plan and action), a man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God— this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain. It was a preparation day, and a Sabbath was about to begin. Now the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how His body was laid. And then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.” Luke 23:50-56
  • During His ministry, Jesus did not teach His followers that the commandment of the sabbath was done away with; if He had, they would not have rested “according to the commandment” after His death.

 

• (14) “on the sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.” -Paul and his companions…(42) “And as Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next sabbath.”...(44) “And the next sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of God.” Acts 13:14, 42, 44
  • Instead of speaking to the people the next day, on the first day of the week, Paul waited a week to preach to them on the next Sabbath.

 

• “Therefore it is my judgment, that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but that we write to them, that they abstain from things, contaminated by idols, and from fornication, and from one to strangled and from blood. For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.” Acts 15:19-21
  • The apostles recommended gentiles to abstain from four certain practices immediately if they wanted to be in fellowship, and then expected them to attend synagogues on sabbaths to learn everything else that was written in the Hebrew scriptures.

 

• “And we were staying in this city (Philippi) for some days. And on the sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. and a certain woman, named Lydia, from the city Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.” Acts 16:12-14
  • The apostles continued to gather on the sabbath day to worship. 

 

• “Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And according to Paul’s custom, he visited them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and a significant number of the leading women.” Acts 17:1-4

 

• “After these events Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them, and they worked together, for they were tent-makers by trade. And Paul was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.” Acts 18:1-5
  • Until Silas and Timothy joined him, Paul worked as a tent maker, only resting from his work on sabbath days to go to the synagogue.

 

• “Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food and drink, or in respect to a festival or a new moon, or a Sabbath day— things which are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ”…”When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in Glory.” Colossians 2:16-17, 3:4
  • Sabbath and God’s festivals are described here as a shadow of Christ’s glory that is still to come in the future. Only the Spring feasts have been fulfilled, but the Fall feasts have yet to be fulfilled at Jesus’ second coming.

 

• “Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As on the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers put Me to the test, And saw My works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with this generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they did not know My ways’; As I swore in My anger, ‘They certainly shall not enter My rest.’” Take care, brothers and sisters, that there will not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another every day, as long as it is still called “today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we keep the beginning of our commitment firm until the end, while it is said, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.” For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. Therefore, we must fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also did; but the word they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united with those who listened with faith. For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “As I swore in My anger, They certainly shall not enter My rest,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; and again in this passage, “They certainly shall not enter My rest.” Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who previously had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, He again sets a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. Consequently, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let’s make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience…For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace in time of need.” Hebrews 3:7-4:11, 15-16
  • In this passage, God’s rest is equated to obedience to “My ways”, and disobedience causes God to keep people from entering His rest. Disobedience is equated here to unbelief. If the same rest “remains” for people today which was given to the Israelites in the wilderness, then people must consider the type of rest God was calling them into.
  • The passage states that God said “concerning the seventh day,” that his people “shall not enter My rest.” And also “concerning the seventh day,” God again set a certain day, “‘Today,’ saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, ‘Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.’” This is a quote directly from Psalm 95, where David begins the Psalm with calling God’s people to worship God as Creator: “Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods; In whose hand are the depths of the earth; The peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it; and His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before God our Maker. For he is our God…Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts…” (Psalm 95:2-8). Interestingly, the sabbath given to Israel was calling people to honor God specifically as the Creator, and in this Psalm, David also calls people to worship God as Creator and not to harden their hearts “today” in order to enter into God’s rest.
  • The same rest which is being spoken of at the time of David is the same rest being referred to in this passage to be applied to all believers. Many Christians teach that the “today” being spoken of in this passage refers to the new rest people find in Jesus, and as a result, the seventh day sabbath rest has been done away with. However, if this is true, then when David said “today,” the Israelites in his day could have entered that same rest which is found in Jesus, and their seventh day sabbath rest would have been done away with as well, centuries before Jesus was born.
  • If the passage says God’s people are to rest “as God did from His,” and says “God rested on the seventh day,” then perhaps God is still calling His people to remain resting on the seventh day on His sanctified sabbaths, just as he was calling the Israelites to obedience in the wilderness as well as in David’s time saying “today.” If Jesus’ rest is automatically imputed to people through faith after his death, then why must people make every “effort” to enter that rest? If people are being called not to fall into “the same example of disobedience” which Israel committed in the wilderness and in David’s time, then it appears God may still be calling his people into obedience to the same rest which “remains” from the past. A rest which He made as a memorial of His Creatorship, as well as a sign that his people acknowledge they are sanctified through him alone and not through their works. Humanity is still looking forward to an eternal rest that will not be fulfilled until Jesus returns and sin and suffering is destroyed.
  • The passage ends by expressing how Jesus can sympathize with our “weaknesses” and “temptations” to “sin”, and that we can draw near to him in our “in time of need.” Again, if Jesus’ is the believer’s rest and it is automatically imputed to people based on mere belief apart from obedience, then it seems unnecessary to encourage people in this passage to resist the temptation of sin in order to enter God’s rest).

 

• “And the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants… And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple.” Revelation 11:18-19
  • The only covenant within the ark of the covenant was the stone tablets with the words spoken by God and written with his finger, which included God’s sabbath. God decided to reveal His ark to John in the vision of Revelation, which appears at the time of God’s final judgment; this illustrates a level of significance God still places on the ark and His covenant within it.

 

• “For just as the new heavens and the new earth, which I make, will endure before me,” declares the Lord “So your offspring, and your name will endure, and it shall be from new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all mankind will come to bow down before me, says the Lord.” Isaiah 66:23

 

Ellen G. White:

According to Ellen, scripture does not contain enough light on the sabbath for it to be understood without the visions in 1844, despite everything scripture has said. Therefore, People were not accountable to honor the sabbath until after 1844. All throughout history, however, people have observed sabbath without relying on any new revelations in 1844 or any of Ellen’s visions.

• “The Holy Ghost was poured out upon us, and I was taken off in the Spirit to the City of the living God. There I was shown that the commandments of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ, relating to the shut door, could not be separated, and that the time for the commandments of God to shine out, with all their importance, and for God’s people to be tried on the Sabbath truth, was when the door was opened in the Most Holy Place of the Heavenly Sanctuary, where the Ark is, containing the ten commandments. This door was not opened, until the mediation of Jesus was finished in the Holy Place of the Sanctuary in 1844. Then, Jesus rose up, and shut the door in the Holy Place, and opened the door in the Most Holy, and passed within the second vail, where he now stands by the Ark; and where the faith of Israel now reaches. I saw that Jesus had shut the door in the Holy Place, and no man can open it; and that he had opened the door in the Most Holy, and no man can shut it (See Revelation 3:7, 8.): and that since Jesus has opened the door in the Most Holy Place, which contains the Ark, the commandments have been shining out to God’s people, and they are being tested on the Sabbath question. I saw that the present test on the Sabbath could not come, until the mediation of Jesus in the Holy Place was finished; and he had passed within the second vail; therefore, Christians, who fell asleep before the door was opened in the Most Holy, when the midnight cry was finished, at the seventh month 1844; and had not kept the true Sabbath, now rest in hope; for they had not the light, and the test on the Sabbath, which we now have, since that door was opened. I saw that Satan was tempting some of God’s people on this point. Because so many good Christians have fallen asleep in the triumphs of faith, and have not kept the true Sabbath, they were doubting about it being a test for us now. I saw that the enemies of the present truth have been trying to open the door of the Holy Place, that Jesus has shut; and to close the door of the Most Holy Place, which he opened in 1844, where the Ark is containing the two tables of stone, on which are written the ten commandments, by the finger of Jehovah.” Present Truth, Aug 1, 1849 

 

The date of this letter is significant. In this vision, Ellen G. White claimed to have knowledge given her of “the shut door” theory. After the Great Disappointment, 1844 evolved into the seven-year theory, which stated Christ’s return would be in 1851. This vision above took place during the seven-year period, at which time Ellen believed and taught that the close of probation had taken place in 1844, and that the door had been “shut” for everyone outside of “present truth.” Above, Ellen equates observance of the sabbath to be a test within this time frame just prior to the return of Christ (1851), but denies its validity before 1844. This brings Ellen’s vision entirely into question, as the timeline she stated was completely inaccurate. Jesus in fact did not come in 1851).