Further Counsel in 1854

Four years after her second vision dealing with spiritualism (1850), Ellen White wrote “An Explanation” to clarify and amplify some of her earlier statements relative to the visions of 1849 and 1850 on this subject.GVEGW 55.8

She started out by stating that many of the things shown in 1849 had now, five years later, already been fulfilled “beyond the expectations of anyone.” ^{44Early Writings, 86.}GVEGW 55.9

Then she went into a detailed plea for Seventh-day Adventists not to allow their minds to be “taken up with the things around us,” but rather to be “occupied with the present truth and a preparation to give a reason of our hope with meekness and fear.” ^{45Early Writings, 87.}GVEGW 55.10

Specifically, Adventists were in dire need of “a thorough understanding of present truth, which they will be obliged to maintain from the Scriptures. They must understand the state of the dead; for the spirits of devils will yet appear to them, professing to be beloved friends and relatives, who will declare to them that the Sabbath has been changed, also other unscriptural doctrines. They will do all in their power to excite sympathy and will work miracles before them to confirm what they declare.” ^46Ibid.GVEGW 56.1

Ellen White foretold that Satan’s evil angels would impersonate the apostles and other writers of Scripture (as well as ordinary persons) and cause them to declare that what they had written in the Bible was in error. Now allegedly on “the other side,” they have “learned better.” They claim that what they wrote in the Bible was “adulterated,” and that Christians should now listen to these spirits of the departed patriarchs and prophets rather than to follow what they wrote anciently in the Word of God: ^{47Early Writings, 90.}GVEGW 56.2

“The apostles, as personated by these lying spirits, are made to contradict what they wrote at the dictation of the Holy Spirit when on earth. They deny the divine origin of the Bible, and thus tear away the foundation of the Christian’s hope and put out the light that reveals the way to heaven. Satan is making the world believe that the Bible is a mere fiction, or at least a book suited to the infancy of the race, but now to be lightly regarded, or cast aside as obsolete.” ^{48The Great Controversy, 557.}GVEGW 56.3