The 7 year period (also known as the Shut Door period) was the time between 1844 and 1851 (but really ran to 1854)—immediately after The Great Disappointment—where the Little Flock (the early Seventh-Day Adventists) claimed the door of mercy had been shut and the world outside of their small little band was lost and salvation was no longer a possibility. They also, by way of Ellen G. White’s “visions”, claimed Jesus would return during this period on multiple different occasions.
This theory was initially proposed by SDA pioneer Joseph Bates who wrote it down in a paper that Ellen White eventually saw (claiming she never did) and then claimed to have visions confirming what Bates stated in his paper. These are some of her worst failed prophecies.
A number of these failed prophecies included being shown by God multiple different times the day and hour of Jesus’s return, that anyone who left their little flock had fallen off the path and into the wicked world that God had rejected, that time was up and salvation was no longer possible, and that Adventists shouldn’t pray or sympathize with the lost world because Jesus was no longer sympathizing and praying for them anymore.
The Adventist Church has tried to distance themselves from this period by appealing to later statements from Ellen White where she lied in 1874 and said that she never claimed to be shown in vision that the wicked world was lost as well as in 1883 where she claimed her first vision corrected these errors. The exact opposite is true. Her “visions” cemented in the error.
She would later go on to claim that Revelation 10:6 KJV says that 1844 was the final time prophecy and no more time setting for the return of Christ should be done by God’s people—despite the fact that years prior she had violated this multiple times by claiming God showed her the day and hour multiple times between 1844 and 1851.
For a detailed breakdown on all of this, watch our stream dedicated to it.
