Adventist teaching: Yes
Biblical teaching: No
Ellen G. White, who the SDA Church upholds as divinely inspired and correcting of inaccurate interpretations of scripture, claimed to be shown in vision from God that the trip to heaven for the redeemed will take seven days. We have even heard some Adventists appeal to this vision to try and support Ellen White’s claims that no one will pass through the pearly gates of heaven without bearing the signet mark of God’s government—the seventh day sabbath. They say this seven day trip will include everyone stopping along the way to keep the sabbath so even those who never observed it while they lived will observe it at least once before entering heaven.
The Bible nowhere says this. The evidence they try to use to support it can be found in SDA pioneer Uriah Smith’s book Daniel & Revelation where he claims that Revelation 8:1 says that after the seventh seal there was “silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.” They then claim that the length of this period of silence, if we consider it prophetic time, would be about seven days. Since there is “silence in heaven” during this period, it supposedly lasts 7 days, and they connect it with the second advent, they say the angels are coming with Jesus and conclude that it will take seven days for them to arrive and seven days to return.
The reality is, Ellen White claimed to see this in vision so they had to search the Bible and find a place to try and insert it somewhere to claim it’s biblical. This is insight into how the SDA Church views Ellen White’s writings. They are the “lesser light” that sheds extra details onto the “greater Light” (ie: the Bible) that aren’t actually found in the Bible.
This is what we call an “Advent-ism.”
