"Truth about Ellen White Writings"

Unfallen Worlds – 3

1. Planet with seven moons

Ellen White (1827-1915): “In a vision, [Ellen White] began to talk about the stars, giving a glowing description of rosy-tinted belts which she saw across the surface of some planet….and said, “I see seven moons.” Elder Bates exclaimed, she is describing Saturn”” (1Bio, p. 113, 1846). “….then a wonderful description of the “opening heavens” with its glory, calling it an opening into a region more enlightened. Elder Bates said her description far surpassed any account he had ever read from any author….it is ahead of anything I ever read on the subject” (Ibid., 113-114).

Rev. Thomas Dick (1774-1857): “Connected with the planet Saturn, we find scenes still more august and diversified, besides seven large moons, two resplendent rings of vast extent surround the body of the planet, producing the most sublime and diversified phenomena…” (Sidereal Heavens, p. 289, 1840).

Note: As of Ellen White’s time, the astronomers had discovered only seven moons on Saturn. And it probably was a common knowledge of the people that time. According to the present discoveries, Saturn has 62 moons, not 7!  The question may be asked as to why the prophet could not see beyond the scientists of her time or why God did not reveal to her the actual number of moons on Saturn.

2. Beings on the other planets are of different sizes

Ellen White (1827-1915): “The Lord has given me a view of other worlds. …The inhabitants of the place were of all sizes; they were noble, majestic, and lovely. They bore express image of Jesus… Then my attending angel said to me, ‘None in this place have tasted of the forbidden tree; but if they should eat, they would fall’” (EW, pp. 39, 40).

Rev. Thomas Dick (1774-1857): “These [intelligent beings] may differ in size and form in different planets; … In some worlds the inhabitants may be as large as mountains, and in others as small as emmets” (Sidereal Heavens, p. 290, 1840).

Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772): “Insamuch as, by the Divine mercy of the Lord, things interior are open to me, which appertain to my spirit, and thereby it has been granted to me to discourse not only with spirits and angels who are near our earth, but also with those who are near other earths; and whereas I had a desire to know whether other earths exist, and what sort they are, and what in nature and quality of their habitations, therefore it has been granted me of the Lord to discourse and converse with spirits and angels who are from  other earths, with some for a day, with some for a week, and with some for months; … wherefore he whose interiors are opened by the Lord, may discourse with them, as man with man; which privilege has been granted me now for twelve years daily” (Miscellaneous Theological Works Of Emanuel Swedenborg [1758],  p. 327, 1850).

3. Inhabitants of other worlds are sinless

Ellen White (1827-1915): “She then said, ‘The inhabitants [of Saturn] are a tall, majestic people, so unlike the inhabitants of earth. Sin has never entered here’” (From the letter of Mrs. M. C. Truesdail, January 27, 1891).

Thomas Dick (1774-1857): “It is probable that the greater part of the inhabitants of all worlds are in a state of innocence, or, in other words, that they remain in that state of moral rectitude in which they were created… without any natural bias to moral evil” (Sidereal Heavens, p. 303, 1840).

4. Tree of life and the tree of knowledge and evil in other planets

Ellen White (1827-1915): “The Lord has given me a view of other worlds….Then I saw two trees, one looked much like the tree of life in the city. The fruit of both looked beautiful, but of one they could not eat….Then my attending angel said to me, “None in this place have tasted of the forbidden tree….” (EW, pp. 39-40, 1882).

Thomas Paine (1737-1809): “…they say, one man and one woman had eaten an apple! And, on the other hand, are we to suppose that every world in the boundless creation had an Eve, an apple, a serpent, and a redeemer?” (The Age of Reason, chapter XVI, 1794).

5. Saints sat under the Tree of Life

Ellen White (1827-1915): “We all went under the tree, and sat down to look at the glory of the place, when brothers Fitch and Stockman, who had preached the gospel of the kingdom, and whom God had laid in the grave to save them, came up to us and asked us what we had passed through while they were sleeping. We tried to call up our greatest trials, but they looked so small compared with the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory that surrounded us, that we could not speak them out, and we all cried out Hallelujah, heaven is cheap enough, and we touched our glorious harps and made heaven’s arches ring” (Broadside 1,  April 6, 1846).

Robert Pollok (1798-1827): “These other [saints], sitting near the tree of life, in robes of linen flowing white and clean, of holiest aspect, of divinest soul, angels and men, into the glory look of the Redeeming Love, and turn the leaves of man’s redemption o’er, the secret leaves, which none on earth were found worthy to open; and as they read the mysteries of salvation, wrought by God’s incarnate Son, they humbler bow before the Lamb, and glow with warmer love. These other, there relaxed beneath the shades of yon embowing palms, with friendship smile, and talk of ancient days, and young pursuits, of dangers past, of godly triumphs won; and sing the legends of their native land, less pleasing far than this their father’s home” (The Course of Time, pp. 222, 223, 1828).

6. Description of Orion

J. N. Loughborough (1832-1924): He related the Astronomical vision of Ellen White as Bates told it to him[1846] as follows: “Next came the description of Uranus, with its six moons; then a wonderful description of the “opening heavens” [nebula of Orion] with its glory, calling it an opening into a region more enlightened. Elder Bates said her description far surpassed any account of the heavens he had ever read from any author….It is ahead of anything I ever read on the subject” (1Bio, pp. 113-114).

Rev. Thomas Dick (1774-1857): “One of the most remarkable nebulae in the heavens is that which is found the constellation of Orion….When a common observer looks at that constellation, the first object that arrests his attention is the three brilliant stars equidistant from each other in a straight line, which is called the belt of Orion. Immediately below these, hanging down, as it were, from the middle of the belt, three small stars at nearly equal distance are perceived, which are termed the sword….The first who discovered this phenomenon was the celebrate Huygens, who gave the following description of it: …. “Astronomers place three stars close to each other in the sword of Orion; and when I viewed the middle –most with a telescope in the year 1656, three appeared that almost touch each other, and four more besides appeared twinkling as through a cloud, so that the space about them seemed much brighter than the rest of the heavens, which appearing wholly blackish, by reason of the fair weather, was seen as through a certain opening, through one had a free view into another region which was more enlightened. I have frequently observed the same appearance in the same place without any alteration; so that it is likely that this wonder, whether it may be in itself, has been there from all times;  but I never took notice of anything like it among the rest of the fixed stars” (Sidereal Heavens, pp. 198, 201, 1840).

Ellen White’s extra-biblical information on Orion: “Dark, heavy clouds came up and clashed against each other. The atmosphere parted and rolled back; then we could look up through the open space in Orion, whence came the voice of God. The Holy city will come down through that open space” (EW, p. 41, 1882).