Chapter 16—(1845-1852) The Shut and the Open Doors

The past two chapters have told the story of the turning in the tide in the beginning days of the remnant church. On the eastern tour in the late summer of 1852, even when speaking to large audiences of those newly come to the message, James White did not hesitate to refer freely to the Advent experience of eight or ten years earlier and lead his listeners into an understanding of the “shut door.” It is very clear from the context of his many references to the shut door that the term in 1851 and 1852 had quite a different connotation from what it did in 1844, 1845, 1846. In the intervening years it had undergone a gradual but important change in significance. 1BIO 256.1

Because the development of an understanding of the matter was gradual, statements made in retrospect put the shut door in an easily grasped setting. A knowledge of the experience of the pioneers through the years 1844 to 1851 places the question in its true light. 1BIO 256.2