Predictions Fulfilled

The history of the Civil War is today so well known by Americans that documentation of the fulfillment of her first two points seems superfluous. Concerning the third, Loughborough reports two incidents in which he was personally involved, which are both interesting and germane.GVEGW 82.1

1. Almost exactly one year after the Parkville church dedication, Loughborough returned there for another speaking engagement. Present with him were two men who had heard Ellen White’s prediction of a certain, long war, with local SDA families suffering casualties. Their immediate reaction to her words had been total disbelief. Now, a year later, they simply sat there with their heads in their hands sobbing aloud, as Loughborough reminded the congregation of the earlier prediction.GVEGW 82.2

Only six weeks previously one of these men had buried his only son, a victim of the war. The man sitting beside him had lost a son in the war and had a second one facing an extremely doubtful future in a rebel prisoner of war camp. ^{27The General Conference Bulletin, 1893, 60.}GVEGW 82.3

2. In the autumn of 1883, more than 20 years following Ellen White’s prediction of war and tragedy, Loughborough again returned to Parkville, this time to seek out the layman who had served as local elder in 1861 and who was present at the dedication.GVEGW 82.4

“Do you remember her prediction?” he inquired.GVEGW 82.5

“Yes.”GVEGW 82.6

“Will you tell me how many you know who were in the house that day who lost sons in the war?”GVEGW 82.7

Whereupon the elder briefly reflected, and then named five families who had so suffered, adding that if he had recourse to his records, which were at home, he thought there might be an additional five families in this category. ^{28RPSDA 238, 239.}GVEGW 82.8

In 1891, in preparation for publication of his first history of the SDA Church, Loughborough sought out Martha V. Ensign, then living in Wild Flower, Fresno County, California. From her Loughborough obtained a signed affidavit attesting to the veracity of his account of the prediction and its tragic subsequent fulfillment. Signed on January 30, 1891, the affidavit was published in chapter 21 (“The Civil War in the United States”) of the Rise and Progress of the Seventh-day Adventists. ^{29The General Conference Bulletin, 237.}GVEGW 82.9

As the Civil War progressed, Ellen White was given more visions dealing with that conflict.GVEGW 83.1