As the printing in “A Word to the Little Flock” was the last printing of the full account of the vision, we will compare the 1851 printing with that. Already we have presented Mrs. White’s explanation concerning deletions. The reasons were valid, for with economy in mind, the pamphlet printing was planned as being 64 pages—to a printer, even “signatures” of 16 pages each—(which in those days, would require four sheets of paper). The vision in “A Word to the Little Flock” fills 130 lines. Of these 130 lines, 25 were omitted in the 1851 E. G. White book. This is 19% of the text. But it is the omission of three lines only upon which attention is focused. They read:EGWSDQ 40.1

“It was just as impossible for them to get on the path again and go to the City, as all the wicked world which God had rejected. They fell all the way along the path one after another.”EGWSDQ 40.2

It is asserted that these lines were omitted to suppress what are said to be “shut door” teachings of the vision. The argument of suppression is seriously undermined by the inclusion in this same first book, Experience and Views, of the account of the vision of March 24, 1849, carrying even stronger expressions. That particular chapter from the time of its first printing carried the title “The Open and the Shut Door.” (Early Writings, 42-45. See Exhibit 4.) The closing sentence reads:EGWSDQ 40.3

“My accompanying angel bade me look for the travail of soul for sinners as used to be. I looked, but could not see it; for the time for their salvation is past.” Early Writings, 45 ^{7Note: Commenting on this particular phrase in 1853, Ellen White declared: “This does not, however, relate to those who have not heard and rejected the first and second messages.” (Notes of explanation inserted in Experience and Views. See also p. 55.)}EGWSDQ 40.4

At this juncture it would be well to take a close look at the key words in the three-line phrase in question from the first vision penned in December, 1845—“All the wicked world which God had rejected.” The statement itself does not declare that probation had closed for all the world. It referred to “all the wicked world which God had rejected.” In speaking of an experience which was in the near past, it would be reasonable to assume that isolated phrase might be subject to two interpretations:EGWSDQ 41.1

(1) That God had rejected for all time all the wicked world; or (2) That there was a segment which because of their course of action, had been rejected by God. In a situation of this kind the careful student would investigate the historical setting, that is, what were the declarations and actions before the writing, at the time of the writing, and subsequently. He would search for comparable statements made at about the same time; and he would seek for other declarations over a period of time, either in support or in explanation.EGWSDQ 41.2

Let us look at the historical setting of the writing on December 20, 1845, the date of the letter to Enoch Jacobs carrying the first known written record of the first vision given in December the year before.EGWSDQ 41.3

First, as already noted, we can but conclude that what she wrote in this letter presented only the high points of what was shown to her in the December vision, for in relating it in early 1845 at a meeting in Poland, Maine, she spoke for two hours telling what God had shown her. Obviously, in writing a letter she would condense the presentation and confine the written statement to just the essential features.EGWSDQ 41.4

At the same time, she would write with much less painstaking than would be ordinarily required in preparing material for publication. She soon discovered—as is shown in some notes of explanation which in 1853 she added to her first book—that an author must be very careful to write for print in a way that none may misunderstand the intent.EGWSDQ 41.5

But as pointed out, a few months before these words were penned, Ellen Harmon at Paris, Maine, had made it clear that from what God had shown her there was opportunity for the salvation of a person who had not heard and rejected the first angel’s message. This and the absence of statements declaring the extreme shut door position, would guard the careful student from reading into the phrase in question the interpretation of probation’s close for the world generally in 1844.EGWSDQ 42.1

Then, it may be asked, why were the three lines omitted from the printing of the vision in Mrs. White’s first book? In introducing it she gives a very general reason for all omissions in the account as published in 1851, but beyond this, the author herself had the right, yea more, the responsibility, to choose that which she would present in her book in order to correctly convey what was revealed to her. If there were phrases which were capable of distortion or interpretation to mean that which she did not intend to teach, she had the privilege and even the duty of handling the matter in such a way that that what was printed should correctly reflect her intentions.EGWSDQ 42.2

Again, one must take into account Ellen White’s reference to “the 144,000 living saints” and her later statement of what she meant by the “shut door.” One must be alert to other evidences which we have indicating that she did not hold the extreme view of no salvation for sinners, either at the time she wrote the letter to Enoch Jacobs on December 20, 1845, or in 1851 when her first book was published.EGWSDQ 42.3

Significant in this connection is the two-page item titled “Notes of Explanation” which was tipped into copies of Experience and Views in early 1853. She deals with a number of points and tells exactly what she meant for it is clear that some readers had reached other conclusions.EGWSDQ 42.4

The First Vision as Published in Mrs. White’s First Book

Ellen G. White’s Explanation