*HOLY ARK Series*

Ellen (Harmon) White's Sanctuary Vision

Which she experienced on the Seventh Sabbath (Saturday) in a prayer meeting in a private house in Topsham, Maine in 1847

Before this Vision

Ellen Harmon, a teenager, along with her parents and

family had joined the Millerite Movement

and been disappointed by Jesus' failure to return on

Oct. 22, 1844

Her First Vision

and in which she had viewed, among other things, the actual "Second Coming of Christ"

exactly as the Millerites had imagined it would occur --

this vision had occurred to the unmarried teen-age Ellen in

Dec. 1844

Much Controversy

had occurred among her friends and fellow church-members because of

Ellen's unusual dreams and what some called "visions" that others called hysteria, self-hypnosis, and some even called "Devil Possession".

This was the situation before she had this later important "vision" in

March of 1847

Before these visions, Ellen Harmon was a sickly girl who had suffered a tragic childhood accident in which another child, a bully, threw a large rock at her, causing unconsciousness and a coma. Some have credited this "brain damage" with her later "visions". Ellen became very religious, and prayed a lot.
	Ellen Lost Consciousness of the world around her during these experiences -- many of which occurred during public meetings in which a lot of other people were watching her, and praying, and singing songs. Some were also having "visions" of their own. Ellen's visions often began with the sensation of flying -- a typical dream experience of many of us.
An Early "Pentecostal"-It seems obvious to those of us now who have had "Pentecostal- type" experiences that the youthful Ellen Harmon was having, in those early years in the early 1840s, typical "Holy- Ghost" possessions which resulted in unconsciousness and exotic dreams and mind- experiences. What was unusual in her case was that such experiences did not become common until 100 years later, in the 1950s and onward. No "Pentecostal" today would question Ellen Harmon's visions.

Before the vision began, the youthful Ellen Harmon was praying along with other believers in the Second Advent of Jesus at a house in Topsham, Maine. As Ellen remembers it, all those in the meeting were filled with the Holy Ghost and were "very happy".
	Writes Ellen of this experience, "Soon I was lost to earthly things and was wrapped in a vision of God's glory--" Ellen's visions often began with the sensation of flying -- a typical dream experience of many of us.
Recorded next in her recollections on page 32 of her later book "Christian Experience and Views of Mrs. E. G. White" are these words--"I saw an angel flying swiftly to me. He quickly carried me from the earth to the Holy City.".

Wrote Ellen Harmon:--"In the city I saw a temple, which I entered....I passed through a door before I came to the first veil. ..

The veil was raised, and I passed into the holy place. .. Here I saw the altar of incense, the candlestick with seven lamps, and the table on which was the shewbread. .. After viewing the glory of the holy, Jesus raised the second veil and I passed into the holy of holies.

....In the holiest I saw an ark; on the top and sides of it were purest gold. .On each end of the ark was a lovely cherub, with its wings spread out over it. Their faces were turned toward each other, and they looked downward. Between the angels was a golden censer. Above the ark, where the angels stood, was an exceeding bright glory, that appeared like a throne where God dwelt.

...Jesus stood by the ark, and as the saints' prayers came up to Him, the incense in the censer would smoke, and He would offer up their prayers with the smoke of the incense to His Father. In the ark was the golden pot of manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of stone which folded together like a book.

...Jesus opened them, and I saw the ten commandments written on them by the finger of God. On one table were four, and on the other six. The four on the first table shone brighter than the other six. But the fourth, the Sabbath commandment, shone above them all; ----[some interpretation by Ellen] --The holy Sabbath looked glorious -- a halo of glory was all around it." [This was the end of PART I of Ellen Harmon's vision, what she saw with her eyes in the HEAVENLY SANCTUARY -- though she doesn't stop here but goes on to interpret what this meant -- and make other "prophecies" extending to the END OF THE AGE, quite similar to the "prophecies" in her earlier "vision" of December, 1844, about 3 years earlier]

The Millerites of Ellen Harmon's group, later to become the "Seventh-day Adventists", already struggling with the teaching of Seventh-day Sabbath holiness as then being taught by Joseph Bates [who got this doctrine from the "Seventh-day Baptists"], were encouraged by Ellen's vision on this subject -- and more were likely to believe these were "genuine visions" such as Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and other Bible prophets had had long ago.

Other Visions of Ellen G. White:-Click Here!

More Ordinary visions of myself and others:-Click Here!

Return to main INDEX

Update 10-30-2010

Latest Update 8-1-2014