No Mass Movement Toward Mrs. White

Thus early there began to crystallize in the thinking of this post-Millerite, Sabbathkeeping company the firm conviction that God had graciously restored the gift of prophecy to His people. They saw in this the fulfillment of Joel 2:28, 29. Furthermore, they saw this gift as given by God, not to teach a wide array of new, strange doctrines, not to lead to the discarding of the Bible for a new revelation, but rather to throw light upon the Holy Scriptures, and to counsel and direct the people of God in the midst of many deceptions that might lead them astray. In other words, Bates’s experience was increasingly duplicated by that of others. There was no mass movement toward accepting her, no feverish attempt on the part of a few leaders to promote and publicize her. That is evident from the record.WBEGW 18.1

Turn to the early volumes of their church paper, the Review and Herald, the one authentic medium of expression of the Sabbathkeeping Adventist positions and beliefs in the opening decades of their history. There was no superabundance of articles by Mrs. White or about her in those early volumes, rather the contrary. James White, her husband, was the editor. Naturally, he might be expected to be her most loyal disciple, and thus her chief advocate and the eager publisher of her views. Actually he hesitated to do any promoting of her as a possessor of the prophetic gift. He felt that time must establish for each of the believers a conviction on so weighty and far-reaching a matter as the unique claims of Mrs. White. For several years, so far as Mrs. White was concerned, he published little more than a scriptural defense of the belief that the prophetic gift would be restored in the last days. His first major endeavor along this line is found in a pamphlet he published in 1847, entitled A Word to the Little Flock. He quoted Joel 2:28-32, which is a prophecy that “in the last days” the gift of prophecy would be poured out. He reasoned from this that we should now expect to see the gift displayed. What gained acceptance for Mrs. White was the deep conviction, of which Bates’s testimony is a good exhibit, that took hold upon those who saw her in vision and who listened to the counsels that she set before the church,WBEGW 18.2