A Word to the Little Flock - James S. White

"It is claimed that these expressions prove the
shut door doctrine, and that this is the reason of
their omission, in later editions. But in fact they
teach only that which has been and is still held by
us as a people, as I shall show.
The Shut Door Defined
"For a time after the disappointment in 1844, I
did hold in common with the Advent body, that the
door of mercy was then forever closed to the
world. This position was taken before my first
vision was given me. It was the light given me of
God that corrected our error, and enabled us to see
the true position.
"I am still a believer in the shut door theory,
but not in the sense in which we at first employed
the term or in which it is employed by my
opponents.
"There was a shut door in Noah's day. There
was at that time a withdrawal of the Spirit of God
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