Appendix B: Ellen G. White and Religious Enthusiasm in Early Adventist Experience1

This article is based on a paper first presented at the Ellen G. White Estate Historical/Theological Consultation held June 17-19, 1998, at the Seventh-day Adventist General Conference office in Silver Spring, Maryland. The term Adventist in this article refers to the wider body of those who had been a part of the Millerite movement, in distinction from the later- emerging “Seventh-day Adventist” denomination.

Merlin D. Burt^{*Merlin D. Burt, Ph.D., is director of the Center for Adventist Research and the Ellen G. White Estate Branch Office at Andrews University.}1EGWLM 917

During the years immediately preceding the 1844 disappointment, and to a lesser degree in the next few years, Ellen (Harmon) White²

Ellen Harmon married James White on August 30, 1846. Her maiden name is sometimes used in this article when referring to her pre-1846 experiences.

and other early Adventists were involved with intense charismatic-like experiences. These experiences included outbursts of spiritual rapture in the form of shouted exclamations of praise, prayer, and testimony; physical prostration under the influence of the Holy Spirit; and on at least one occasion, holy laughter. In Ellen White's experience, shouts of praise and physical prostration were often the precursors of visions or physical healing. Such physical manifestations were familiar occurrences up until about 1860. For Ellen White and many other Adventists, physical demonstration was a part of their spiritual heritage. Methodists, Christian Connectionists, Baptists, and many frontier groups frequently had dramatic physical and emotional activity as a part of their worship of God.1EGWLM 917.1