The Background of this Traumatic Experience

To understand better what was happening, we should review a bit. The Adventists in their experience of expectation in 1844 had absolute confidence that Jesus would come on October 22. They allowed not one doubting thought. No mental reservation allowed for the question “What if Jesus does not come?” So certain were they that crops of hay, grain, and potatoes were left unharvested in the fields. There was a certainty that all things earthly would end sometime on Tuesday, October 22.1BIO 67.6

But Christ did not come. Wrote Ellen White:1BIO 67.7

The time again passed unmarked by the advent of Jesus. Mortality still clung to us, the effects of the curse were all around us. It was hard to take up the vexing cares of life that we thought had been laid down forever. It was a bitter disappointment that fell upon the little flock whose faith had been so strong and whose hope had been so high. But we were surprised that we felt so free in the Lord, and were so strongly sustained by His strength and grace.—Life Sketches of James White and Ellen G. White (1880), 189.

As the weeks stretched into months, a wedge began to separate the Adventists. Some continued to hold that prophecy was fulfilled on October 22. A much larger group took the position that they were mistaken in the date; the events that they had thought would transpire in the fall of 1844 they now felt were all in the future.1BIO 68.1

Adventists of the smaller group, having cut loose from church creeds and church discipline, avowed their purpose to find their guidance in God's Word alone. The evidences of God's leading and providences in their experience for the past year or two had been too great to deny. The embryo of God's remnant church was in this group.1BIO 68.2

But in the vulnerable period in the early months of 1845, when they were reaching out to ascertain their position and responsibilities as sheep without a shepherd, Satan, the great adversary, made his inroads. Not yet perceived by the little flock, this had been clearly portrayed in the prophecy of Revelation 12:17: “The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed.” Satan certainly did make war on the believers, intent to thwart, if possible, the very purposes of God by destroying at the outset the remnant church of prophecy.1BIO 68.3

Following what they interpreted to be the biddings of God's Word, but without proper leadership and lacking balance and a true understanding of what it meant to follow Christ, a relative few (but including some of the most trusted believers) became involved in strange and sometimes wild fanaticism. “These men and women,” wrote Ellen White, who was personally acquainted with some, “were not bad, but they were deceived and deluded.” She commented, “In the past they had been blessed with a consciousness that they had a knowledge of the truth, and they had accomplished much good; but [now] Satan was molding the work.”—Letter 132, 1900.1BIO 68.4

These fanatical teachings and actions on the part of some divided the little group who were clinging to their confidence that prophecy had been fulfilled on October 22. There were those who patiently awaited the dawning of light that they might gain a true understanding of their position and their work. These became the spiritual forefathers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.1BIO 69.1

But a few others found it hard to wait and were soon swept off their feet by the teaching that there was a spiritual coming of Christ. Christ came, they declared, on October 22, 1844. We are now in the kingdom, they asserted. Every tenet of belief and every activity of those involved was molded by this concept of the spiritual coming of Christ. In this were seeds that soon yielded a harvest of fanatical and shameful activities.1BIO 69.2

It was into this scene that 17-year-old Ellen Harmon was cast. The December vision revealed to her that God had led His people in their October 22 experience, and that if they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus they would safely reach the heavenly reward.1BIO 69.3

It was this young woman who in midwinter was bidden by God to go into the field and present to the people the messages that He gave to her. The beginning made at Poland, Maine, assured her that God was leading and that she must trust fully, casting herself on the Lord, ready to follow His directions.1BIO 69.4