Dear Elder Fagal,

Thank you for your excellent answers and the time you spent in writing. Your explanations make reasonable sense to me. In your experience it is clear to me that you have found that Mrs. White's descriptions of something happening in the future would be much more precise if, for example, the vision was about the Twin Towers. I thought her statement about the fire trucks matched with the fact that many trucks were buried under the debris and thus could not be used. I thought her statement about the pitch was how one would describe jet fuel burning. I thought her understanding about what she saw was not necessary precise, nor the words she used precise. Apparently I was wrong about that. That would mean her words about being in other planets and her descriptions of the streets of gold must be very precise. I have thought that when Bible prophets such as Ezekiel described God's throne with all the eyes, they were using their own words and were not able to be precise.

Keep up the good work. Thanks again,
God Bless,
Brother ___________

Dear Brother ___________,

Thank you for your kind words. I'm glad if something I said may have been of some use.

Regarding descriptions that inspired writers give of heavenly things, I would not be so confident of "precision," due to the nature of the subject matter. How does one describe the scenes of heaven? We can only do so in earthly terms, but they may be quite inadequate. I get the feeling that this is happening in John's attempted descriptions of heaven, don't you? When he says, for instance, that "the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass," he seems to me to be struggling to find words to describe what he has seen. How can gold be like transparent glass? I don't know. So this makes me cautious about insisting on the "precision" of the description.

Symbolism is another factor in such things. Do the eyes you referred to on the throne have literal or symbolic value? One has to ask such questions before drawing conclusions.

I don't find these factors as likely to be operative in the kinds of descriptions Mrs. White gave in those passages in Vol. 9 that we were discussing. They seem to be a fairly straitforward description of events of the kind known to us here on earth.

I hope this is helpful. God bless!

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William Fagal, Director
Ellen G. White Estate Branch Office
Andrews University
Berrien Springs, MI 49104-1400 USA
Phone: 616 471-3209
FAX: 616 471-2646
Website: www.WhiteEstate.org or www.egwestate.andrews.edu
E-mail: egw@aubranch.egwestate.andrews.edu