Thus, it would seem, we have a biblical model set before us on the need to adjust our expectations of the fulfillment of prophecy appropriate to the age in which we live. God's purposes will be fulfilled; but how and when can undergo development and change.
"In North American Adventism, however, an Essene-style approach to Adventist mission tends to postpone the felt need for re-interpretation. Adventists who know only Adventists and who live in their own American sub-culture do not concern themselves with relevance and adaptation. They are convinced that their interpretation of Adventist eschatology has been God's plan from the foundation of the earth. . . . the delay of the Advent means re-interpretation with a vengeance. . . . Israel's history should inform us that if we delay long enough, a radical re-ordering could be in order."
Tim Crosby writes regarding the need to see truth as having a moment in time when it becomes relevant and may be termed "present truth." He builds upon a statement made by Ellen White and applies the principle of reinterpretation to theology, prophecy and Christian standards of living. He takes seriously the principle stated by Ellen White in one of her sermons at Minneapolis where some people were upset that she appeared to be taking a different understanding on the use of the term "law" in Galatians. The statement she made is, "That which God gives His servants to speak today would not perhaps have been present truth twenty years ago, but it is God's message for this time."
This does not mean that we shall act as some, during World War I and II, by running with every wind of political event and seeing in them the fulfillment of prophecy. It does mean that we should keep in mind that there is a moral purpose in prophecy. It was given to help us maintain our hold on Christ.263 Correctly understood and interpreted it leads us to trust in Christ and understand His purpose for our lives.
Jonathan Butler describes how Ellen White related to the situation of her age: "Within her own lifetime, Mrs White allowed for the conditional nature of prophecy. Christ might have come 'long ere this,' she remarked. He might have come in the Civil War era when slavery was the sign of a failing democracy and an imminent Second Coming. He might have come about 1888 when a beleaguered Adventist minority in Tennessee chain gangs and jails indicated America's doom and the world's demise. In both cases, the prophetess spoke eschatologically with one eye on the morning newspaper. She inspired a sense of relevance or 'present truth.' Like other prophets before her, Mrs White implied the conditional nature of earlier prophecies my making more current applications. This continual reapplication of Adventism of new times and places was vital to her prophetic ministry, and remains absolutely essential to the life of the movement since her time. This is the way the 'Spirit of prophecy' operates in every era.
In Ellen White's day Adventism was confined almost entirely to North America. It would be natural for Adventists to think in terms of Bible prophecy being fulfilled largely in their country. Adventists were caught up in the spirit of their country, for they saw North America in terms of a type of Israel. They saw their country as one giving new hope to the world. Not surprising, then, that they would see Bible prophecy being primarily fulfilled in their nation just as it was to be for Israel, when it was God's chosen nation. A discerning reader will notice how often in The Great Controversy Ellen White writes of the end times in the present tense. The end times, to her, were primarily focused on the immediate future in North America.
Adventists were worried, as were other Protestants, that the purity of the nation and its destiny was being lost. They, along with others, saw their nation gone astray as the second beast power coming up out of the earth. Gordon Balharrie shows that this concept was first developed by the Baptist historian Isaac Backus (1724-1806). It was later taken up by Adventist leaders including James White and John Andrews.267 From Andrews the idea became a part of The Great Controversy.
http://www.sdanet.org/atissue/books/bradford/prophet-17.htm
