The King James Version translates these verses, And [the angel Michael] sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

Commenting on the end of Revelation 10:6 ("there should be time no longer"), Ellen White makes the following statement:

"This time, which the angel declares with a solemn oath, is not the end of this world's history, neither of probationary time, but of prophetic time, which should precede the advent of our Lord. That is, the people will not have another message upon definite time. After this period of time, reaching from 1842 to 1844, there can be no definite tracing of the prophetic time. The longest reckoning reaches to the autumn of 1844" (MS 59, 1900).

Some have referred to this as proof that there is no time prophecy after 1844. If there is no time prophecy after 1844, then those passages in Revelation that mention time prophecies (such as the 1,260 days of the two witnesses) must be only historical, because there cannot be any time prophecies in the future. Thus an interpretation of the two witnesses such as is presented on this Web site can be rejected without further examination, because it involves a concept that is assumed to be false.

Let's take a closer look at Ellen White's statement and also compare it with the context of Revelation 10:6-7. One of the first things to notice is that she says, "the people will not have another message upon definite time." This does not preclude future time prophecy: it merely indicates that there will be no message regarding definite time after 1844. In fact, if we are open to see it, the Bible indicates that there are a number of time prophecies after 1844; however, we don't know when they begin or end and so cannot give a definite reckoning of them.

Second, is it clear that Ellen White is referring to prophetic time in general, rather than simply to the 2,300 evenings-mornings? She refers to the period from 1842 to 1844 and says that after that, there can be no definite tracing of the prophetic time--that the longest reckoning reaches to the autumn of 1844. Is it possible that she is referring specifically to the time prophecy that ended in 1844?

Third, what is the angel Michael saying in this passage? "There will be no more delay, but in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished." In other words, the time of waiting is over, and the mystery of God will soon be accomplished. The passage does not indicate that Michael is speaking about prophetic time; nor, even if he is speaking of prophetic time, does it indicate that his words apply only from 1844 to the time of the second coming.