Two Amazing Visions
In our own time Ellen White was given a view of final, end-time events. Her most complete scenario is to be found in her book The Great Controversy, as we have noted in chapter 5.GVEGW 124.2
But not all the important events are therein described. Two of her most interesting and significant visions (in view of our present-day knowledge of nuclear physics) are to be found in other works.GVEGW 124.3
1. On Friday night, July 1, 1904, at Nashville, Tennessee, Ellen White was given a view of apocalyptic doom. The next morning, toward the close of a sermon in the chapel of the Southern Publishing Association, she made a brief, if oblique, reference to it: “Last night a scene was presented before me. I may never feel free to reveal all of it, but I will reveal a little.” 2Ms 102, 1904, p. 9.GVEGW 124.4
Four months later, writing in the Review and Herald, she elaborated upon this “very impressive scene“:GVEGW 124.5
“I saw an immense ball of fire falling among some beautiful mansions, causing their instant destruction. I heard someone say, ‘We knew that the judgments of God were coming upon the earth, but we did not know that they would come so soon.’ Others said, ‘You knew? Why then did you not tell us? We did not know.’ On every side I heard such words spoken.” 3The Review and Herald, November 24, 1904; cf. Testimonies for the Church 9:28, 29.GVEGW 124.6
2. Two years later, at Sanitarium [St. Helena], California, in the early-morning hours of Friday, August 24, 1906, she had a similar dream. Again she characterized it as “a very impressive scene” of “a terrible conflagration.” 4Letter 278, 1906, p. 1; cited in Evangelism, 29. In her diary that morning she wrote:GVEGW 124.7
“In the night I was, I thought, in a room not in my own house. I was in a city, where I knew not, and I heard expression after expression. I rose up quickly in bed, and saw from my window large balls of fire. Jetting out were sparks, in the form of arrows, and buildings were being consumed, and in a very few minutes the entire block of buildings was falling and the screeching and mournful groans came distinctly to my ears. I cried out, in my raised position, to learn what was happening.... Then I awoke. But I could not tell where I was, for I was in another place than home. I said, O Lord, where am I and what shall I do? It was as a voice that spoke, ‘Be not afraid. Nothing shall harm you.’GVEGW 124.8
“I was instructed that destruction had gone forth upon cities. The word of the Lord will be fulfilled. Isaiah 29:19-24 was repeated. I dared not move, not knowing where I was. I cried unto the Lord, What does it mean? These representations of destruction were repeated. Where am I? [Said the Lord,] ‘In scenes I have represented that which will be; but warn My people to cease from putting their trust in men who are not obedient to My warnings and who despise My reproof, for the day of the Lord is right upon the world when evidence shall be made sure. Those who have followed the voices that would turn things upside down will themselves be turned where they cannot see, but will be as blind men.’GVEGW 125.1
“These words were given me from Isaiah 30: [verses 8-15 quoted].” 5Ms 126, 1908, p. 2.GVEGW 125.2
Three days later, in making reference to these words, she added: “I was instructed that light had been given me and that I had written under special light the Lord had imparted.” 6Evangelism, 5.GVEGW 125.3
Writing to her son, W. C. White, on August 27, Mrs. White added, concerning these “fiery arrows” that “were flying in every direction” from these multiple “balls of fire“: “It was impossible to check the fires that were kindled, and many places were being destroyed. The terror of the people was indescribable. After a time I awoke and found myself at home.”GVEGW 125.4
She concluded the letter with this cryptic remark: “I have had many things opened to me, but it is not my duty to reveal all that will surely come to those who manifest a spirit to walk contrary to the way God has marked out for them. Everyone will be rewarded as his work shall be.” 7Letter 278, 1906, p. 2; cited in Evangelism, 29.GVEGW 125.5
Were these “balls of fire,” which Ellen White witnessed twice in the space of two years, thermonuclear explosions? It is impossible today to give a dogmatic answer. But a “ball of fire” is one of the most obvious identifying characteristics of atomic explosions—of which the first man-made one was yet some 40 years in the future!GVEGW 125.6
On July 16, 1945, elements literally did “melt with fervent heat” in a spectacular predawn explosion when the first atomic bomb was experimentally detonated on the white sands of the desert near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The highly secret “Manhattan Project” was a success. And though that first A-bomb was crude by standards of measurement a half century later, it nevertheless exploded with a force of 20,000 tons of TNT! 8World Book Encyclopedia (1960), vol. 1, p. 710.GVEGW 125.7
Less than one month afterward, on August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, dropped a similar device over Hiroshima, Japan. Exploding over the city at a height of 600 meters, this bomb killed 70,000 people, injured almost as many more, and flattened nearly five square miles of the city.GVEGW 126.1
Three days later, on August 9, a much more advanced A-bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing 40,000, injuring another 40,000, and destroying one and one-half square miles. The result was that World War II came to a precipitous halt. 9Evangelism, 713.GVEGW 126.2