Ellen White's Prophecy of 1892

Its Relation to the Feast of Trumpets and a Second, Little-Known Prophecy

All heaven is represented to me as watching the unfolding of events. A crisis is to be revealed in the great and prolonged controversy in the government of God on earth. Something great and decisive is to take place, and that right early. If any delay, the character of God and his throne will be compromised. The armory of heaven is open; all the universe of God and its equipments are ready. One word has justice to speak, and there will be terrific representations upon the earth of the wrath of God. There will be voices and thunderings and lightnings and earthquakes and universal desolation. Every movement in the universe of heaven is to prepare the world for the great crisis. {Ms 27, 1892, par. 5}

Introduction

The above quote from Ellen White is pertinent to us today for more than one reason.

This prophecy, which is unfamiliar to most Adventists, is the heart and substance of a letter that Sister White carefully transcribed for the two main leaders of the church, the General Conference President, O. A. Olsen, and the head of the health work, Dr. J. H. Kellogg, directing them to keep it safe for their use in an emergency. When I found this statement on July 6, 2025, I was amazed that this prophecy had remained buried for over a century.

Granted, it was published in Special Testimonies, Series A, in the late 1800s, but that series was soon out of print, and it was never widely read or circulated then or when it was republished in the early 1960s. In my studies of all of her letters and manuscripts, this is the only one I’m aware of in which she gave explicit directions to the two main leaders of the church to safeguard this particular prophecy for immediate reference in a crisis. Notice what she says at the start of the letter, especially the italicized portion:

Dear Brother Olsen:

This is the first opportunity we have had to get a copy of this matter. [In other words, the content is transcribed from a manuscript or letter she had written earlier, probably to J. H. Kellogg.] Marian thinks that Dr. Kellogg has had a copy of this; but through changes of workers I fear that this may not be; therefore, I have had Emily do her first practicing. It is well done. I send it to you, that you may . . . be ready at any time to lay your hand on it in an emergency. I want you should have a copy of it. This has cost me much labor in writing it out in this early morning hours, while others were asleep. {Ms 27, 1892, par. 1}

Significantly, in the letter, Ellen White applies the seventh trumpet of Revelation 11:15-19 and parallel passages that speak of voices and thunderings and lightnings (Rev 4:5, 8:5, 16:17, 18), not to the return of Christ or close of probation, but to the judgments of God that mark the start of the latter rain. The letter is a concise emergency roadmap for those who will participate in Earth’s great final events.

She says, “All heaven is . . . watching the unfolding of events . . . There will be voices and thunderings and lightnings and earthquakes and universal desolation. Every movement in the universe of heaven is to prepare the world for the great crisis.” {Ms 27, 1892, par. 5}. Her statement parallels her prophecies of a “great terror” that will soon confront humanity as an “overwhelming surprise”.¹ It also aligns with and parallels her prophecy that God will bring forth the Ten Commandments from their hiding place where Jeremiah stowed them and the Ark of the Covenant before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. She says that these tables of stone will be revealed by God to the world when the temple of heaven is opened at the start of the final gospel harvest.

In fact, Ellen White applies the opening of the temple in heaven and the parallel passages that speak of voices, lightnings and thunders to all three events which align and are coincident to each other: 1) The initial outpouring of God’s wrath causing great terror and an overwhelming surprise, 2) the revelation of the stone tables, and 3) the start of the final harvest under the latter rain. She states:

When God’s temple in heaven is opened, what a triumphant time that will be for all who have been faithful and true! [Note that she is referring to Rev 11:15 to 19, which says that when this occurs there will be “lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail”.] In the temple will be seen the ark of the testament in which were placed the two tables of stone, on which are written God’s law. These tables of stone will be brought forth from their hiding place, and on them will be seen the ten commandments engraved by the finger of God. These tables of stone now lying in the ark of the testament will be a convincing testimony to the truth and binding claims of God’s law. {Lt47-1902.13}

Her statement above indicates that probation has not closed, that people will be convinced of the “truth and the binding claims of God’s law.” She develops the same thought in the following statement.

The time has come when the law of God is to be proclaimed with strong, decided utterance. The world is to be warned, and I beseech those who know the truth to do all in their power to sound the warning, “Prepare to meet thy God.” [Amos 4:12.] The temple of God was opened in heaven in answer to the prayers of His people, and by terrible things in righteousness will He reveal His power. [Note that she is again referring to Rev 11:15 and linking it to when the warning is sounded with power, “Prepare to meet thy God.” This is shortly before the close of probation, during the latter rain.]

“It is time, O Lord, for Thee to work,” David said; “for they have made void Thy law.” [Psalm 119:126.] “They have made void Thy law,” he says. The well-nigh universal scorn thrown on God’s law did not change his sentiments in regard to it. “Therefore I love Thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.” [Verse 127.] . . .

Soon there is to be an awakening of His displeasure, and who then can stay His wrath? {Ms 166, 1902, pars. 9, 10, 12}.

Regarding this time of wrath which is just before the close of probation, in an early vision (1847), God showed her the following:

I saw that God had children who do not see and keep the Sabbath. They have not rejected the light upon it. And at the commencement of the time of trouble, we were filled with the Holy Ghost as we went forth and proclaimed the Sabbath more fully. . . I saw the sword, famine, pestilence, and great confusion in the land. The wicked thought that we had brought the judgments upon them, and they rose up and took counsel to rid the earth of us, thinking that then the evil would be stayed. {EW 33.2}

All of the above begs the question: When will this “overwhelming surprise” happen? Adventists and other Christians who have studied the prophecies know that God uses His calendar to mark the important events of sacred history. Ellen White, after noting how the spring feasts were fulfilled by Christ, states, “In like manner the types which relate to the second advent must be fulfilled at the time pointed out in the symbolic service.” {GC 399-400}. The question that all Bible students should be asking is: Which of the holy feasts marks the start of the final gospel harvest? I suggest the front-running candidate for that is the Feast of Trumpets.

Below, I make the case that the Feast of Trumpets is indeed the launching pad of end-time events, the transition from grace to wrath, the start of both judgment day and the latter rain. In my opinion, there is abundant evidence in Scripture and the writings of Ellen White to corroborate this, but in addition to these two sources, I’ve discovered a third, the last vision of Gad. Some of you may be asking: Uh, the vision of Gad? Let me explain:

Background to the Vision of Gad

Gad and Nathan were prophets during the reign of King David. Interestingly, both wrote books about David’s reign:

Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer. (1Ch 29:29).

Of the three books mentioned, it was thought until recently that only the book of Samuel survived to modern times. But in 2015, an English translation of the Book of Gad suddenly appeared, published by a Jewish scholar, Prof. Meir Bar-Ilan at Hebrew University in Israel, who obtained a copy of the manuscript from the Cambridge Library. This English translation is copyrighted, but recently Dr. Ken Johnson released his translation as public domain, free of charge, here.

The obvious question is whether the book is authentic, and the test, of course, is, does it agree with Scripture.

Personally, I think it does, but there is one additional way to tell, which is whether Gad’s last vision of the Feast of Trumpets proves true. Here is the vision:

1And it came to pass on the first day of the seventh month, at the beginning of the year, in the four hundred and seventy-eighth year after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the second year of King Solomon’s reign over Israel, I had a vision from the LORD, when I was upon the Gihon spring. 2And I raised my eyes, and lo, the heavens rolled back like a scroll, and I saw the glory of the LORD, sitting on an extremely high throne. 3And here is the appearance of the throne: twelve stairs led up to the throne (six of gold and six of silver), and there was a square back to the throne, like a sapphire stone. 4And at its right side were three chairs and at its left side were four chairs near the throne, like the seven that see the king’s face, covered with gold and silver and precious stones. 5And the glory of the LORD had the appearance like that of the rainbow, His covenant. 6And the host of heaven were standing before Him on His right hand and on His left, and Satan was standing by them, but behind them.

7And then a man dressed in linen brought before the glory of the LORD three books that contained the records of every man. 8And he read the first book and it contained the just deeds of His people, and the LORD said, “These are granted eternal life.” 9And Satan said, “Who are these guilty people?” And the man dressed in linen cried to Satan like a ram’s horn saying, “Silence! This day is holy to our Lord.” 10And he read the second book, and it contained the unintentional sins of His people, and the LORD said, “Put that book aside, but save it, until one third of the month passes by, to see what they will do.” 11And he read the third book, and it contained the wicked deeds of His people. 12And the LORD said to Satan, “These are your share. Take them and do what you want with them.” 13And Satan took the wicked to a waste land to destroy them there.

14And the man dressed in linen cried like a ram’s horn, saying: 15“Blessed are the people who know the joyful shout, O LORD, who walk in the light of Your countenance.” 16And I heard the voice of the host of heaven rejoicing and saying, “Master of Justice, the LORD of hosts, the whole heaven and earth is full of Your glory.”

17And I was shocked by the vision since I did not know what the LORD had done for me. 18Then one of the cherubs flew up to me and he put an olive leaf on my mouth, and said, “Lo, this has touched your mouth, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven. 19And this law that you have seen is a statute for Israel, and a law to the God of Abraham, and peace unto Isaac your father. 20And the LORD will bless your people in the trial with everlasting peace.” 21And I said, “Amen. May the LORD our God do this for us forever and ever.” 22And the angel answered, “Amen and Amen.” (Gad 14:1-22).

Enthronement of the Lamb

Contrary to what many Adventists believe, Ellen White tells us plainly that the seven seals and trumpets are future.² If that’s true, then the introduction to the seals in Revelation 4 and 5 is also in the future. Just as Christ was crowned and honored at Pentecost and the Spirit poured out, soon the Lion-Lamb will be honored a second time at the latter rain as king of kings, with full authority to break open the seals that determine the destiny of humanity. In the parallel passage of Revelation 11 (which Ellen White again places in the future) loud, joyful voices reverberate throughout creation proclaiming Christ’s sovereign rule as He is crowned a second time and the Spirit is poured out.

And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever . . . And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. (Rev 11:15, 19 KJV).

Notice in the vision of Gad that the prophet received this revelation on the first day of the seventh biblical month, the Feast of Trumpets, and that the vision describes a man in linen whose powerful voice sounds like a ram’s horn or trumpet. (Gad 14:9, 14). Notice further how the vision parallels the throne room scene of Revelation 4 to 7 and the seven trumpets of Revelation 8 to 11. In both of these, there are “lightnings and thunderings and voices” that proceed out of the throne. (Rev 4:5, 8:5, 11:19, 16:17, 18).

In Revelation 4 and 5, as in Gad’s vision, when the court of heaven convenes, the Ancient of Days takes His seat with a scroll or book in His right hand and, after a universal search for someone worthy to break the seals and open the book, a Lion-Lamb comes forward, takes the book, and breaks its seals one by one.

When the Lion-Lamb breaks the sixth seal, the sky departs like a scroll and the throne of God is revealed to humanity, like in the vision of Gad. This is followed by a profound, brief silence (the seventh seal) which is followed by the sounding of the seven trumpets. The point is that the visions agree that when the books of judgment are opened, it will not be done quietly as it was in 1844, it will be announced globally by joyful shouts, trumpet judgments and by “lightnings and thunderings and voices”.

As Ellen White graphically describes it:

One word has justice to speak, and there will be terrific representations upon the earth of the wrath of God. There will be voices and thunderings and lightnings and earthquakes and universal desolation. Every movement in the universe of heaven is to prepare the world for the great crisis. {Ms 27, 1892, par. 5}

God’s Calendar

Some Adventists, like other Christians, either have no opinion on the feasts or see no relevance. That is dangerous indifference. Fortunately, other Adventists and Evangelicals do see the feasts as prophetic and, like Ellen White (see GC 399-400), place the fall feasts in the future as prophecies of end-time events.

What does the first of the fall feasts, the Feast of Trumpets, typify? As suggested, it represents the announcement of the final gospel harvest just before Christ’s return.

Timing of the Vision

One test we can use to help authenticate the Book of Gad is to see whether this vision occurs on the Feast of Trumpets. If so, it would not only demonstrate the reliability of both the books of Gad and Revelation, but it would also focus the world’s attention (and dread) on the rest of the end-time prophecies of Scripture.

What will the fulfillment look like? Following the rule that Scripture should be understood literally unless it is clearly symbolic, we should look first for a literal fulfillment; that is, the prophecy will be fulfilled just as it reads, and we will witness the same things that the prophets Gad and John saw.

That said, we should not rule out a symbolic fulfillment. If it is symbolic, the vision represents a transition, like in 1844, to the final phase of Christ’s ministry when judgments begin to fall on those who have, according to Gad’s vision, aligned themselves with Satan by their malicious deeds. It also apparently marks the start of the “loud cry” of the angel of Revelation 18 and the start of the midnight cry in Christ’s parable of the ten virgins, the five unwise virgins being like those in Gad’s vision, who are abandoned to Satan for having grieved away the Holy Spirit.

In either case, if the vision is true, it foretells earth-shaking events, literal and/or symbolic, starting on the Feast of Trumpets, if not this year, the next, or later. But it can’t be far off.

The Feast of Trumpets on the Gregorian Calendar

Regarding the timing of the Feast, the first day of the seventh biblical month falls between mid-September and mid-October on our calendar. It is calculated as the seventh New Moon after the spring equinox.³ This year, the Feast falls on the evening of September 21 to the following evening, according to my calculations, or from the evening of September 22 to 24 according to the Jewish rabbis.

For easy reference, here is the law of the Feast:

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. (Lev 23:23-25).

The Spring vs. the Fall Feasts

Whereas the spring feasts - Passover, First Fruits and Pentecost - were fulfilled at the crucifixion, resurrection and the gospel harvest under the early rain, the fall feasts point us to the greater harvest and the final atonement and blotting out of sins by Christ under the latter rain.

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on Leviticus 23:23-32 states:

The blowing of trumpets represented the preaching of the gospel, by which men are called to repent of sin, and to accept the salvation of Christ, which was signified by the Day of Atonement. Also it invited to rejoice in God, and become strangers and pilgrims on earth, which was denoted by the Feast of Tabernacles, observed in the same month. At the beginning of the year, they were called by this sound of trumpet to shake off spiritual drowsiness, to search and try their ways, and to amend them. The day of atonement was the ninth day after this; thus they were awakened to prepare for that day, by sincere and serious repentance, that it might indeed be to them a day of atonement. The humbling of our souls for sin, and the making our peace with God, is work that requires the whole man, and the closest application of mind. On that day God spake peace to his people, and to his saints; therefore they must lay aside all their wordly business, that they might the more clearly hear that voice of joy and gladness.

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (1834) states that “a memorial of blowing of trumpets” properly signifies “a memorial of triumph or shouting for joy.”

Recognizing the Joyful Shout

One of the great contributions of the vision of Gad is that it describes for us this future joyful shout of praise that reverberates through the Earth and universe:

14And the man dressed in linen cried like a ram’s horn, saying: 15“Blessed are the people who know the joyful shout, O LORD, who walk in the light of Your countenance.” [This is a quote of Psalm 89:15.] 16And I heard the voice of the host of heaven rejoicing and saying, “Master of Justice, the LORD of hosts, the whole heaven and earth is full of Your glory.”

17And I was shocked by the vision since I did not know what the LORD had done for me. 18Then one of the cherubs flew up to me and he put an olive leaf on my mouth, and said, “Lo, this has touched your mouth, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven. 19And this law that you have seen is a statute for Israel, and a law to the God of Abraham, and peace unto Isaac your father. 20And the LORD will bless your people in the trial with everlasting peace.” 21And I said, “Amen. May the LORD our God do this for us forever and ever.” 22And the angel answered, “Amen and Amen.” 2

Notice that the joyful shout is directly linked to the anointing of the lips of the prophet. Like Isaiah, whose lips were cleansed by a live coal from the golden altar, (Isa 6:1-7) Gad’s lips are cleansed by the oil of the Spirit, and he is anointed and commissioned to bear the divine message. The parallel passage in Revelation 8 teaches that when God’s people petition Him with all their hearts for His Spirit, He will, in answer to their prayers, anoint His people with the sacred fire from Heaven’s altar, and the seven trumpets will sound in fulfillment of the Feast.

The Lord invites and tenderly urges us today to be among those who petition Him, pray for, and receive the divine cleansing. These recognize the joyful shout of the everlasting gospel summarized in the three angel’s messages, so that when God asks, “Who will go for us?”, like Isaiah, we will eagerly say: “Here am I! Send me!”

Friends, the best days of the church are straight ahead.

O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth. God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. (Psa 47:1, 2, 6-8).

---

---

Endnotes:

1. “Shall we allow the signs of the end to be fulfilled without telling people of what is coming upon the earth? … Unless we ourselves do our duty to those around us, the day of God will come upon us as a thief. Confusion fills the world, and a great terror is soon to come upon human beings. The end is very near. We who know the truth should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise.

As a people, we must prepare the way of the Lord, under the overruling guidance of the Holy Spirit. The gospel is to be proclaimed in its purity. The stream of living water is to deepen and widen in its course. In fields nigh and afar off, men will be called from the plow, and from the more common commercial business vocations, and will be educated in connection with men of experience.” {RH November 22, 1906, par.6}.

2. For more on Ellen White’s understanding of the seals, trumpets, thunders and the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation generally, click here.

3. There are two main schools of thought on how the first of the year is calculated in the biblical calendar. Some believe the ripeness of the barley harvest determines the start of the year, but the Scriptures say that the movements of the sun and moon are the heavenly timekeepers, which God assigned as our celestial clock at creation. (Gen 1:14).