The Great Controversy by Ellen G. White [1858]

Ellen Gould White (1827-1915) was a 19th century American religious leader who started the movement which later became the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The Great Controversy, a narrative of immense cosmic conflict through Biblical times down to the 19th century, was written on the back of a stack of hat advertising flyers. In the wake of the Great Disappointment, where William Miller's prediction that the world would end on October 22, 1844, White had visions and prophesized that Jesus Christ would return to earth, and his believers would ascend to heaven with him. This book elaborates that worldview, written down as a narrative of a sequence of visions.

The source for this electronic text was downloaded from the Early SDA website. This was created from the first edition of 1858, which was substantially shorter and much different from the successive versions published in 1888 and 1911, which are available at The Ellen G. White Estate site.