In 1904, Ellen White wrote about an experience she had; “I was in the night season called upon to behold buildings rising story after story toward heaven. These buildings were warranted to be fireproof, and they were erected to glorify the owners and builders. Higher and still higher these buildings rose, and in them the most costly material was used…As these lofty buildings went up, the owners rejoiced with ambitious pride that they had money to use in gratifying self and provoking the envy of their neighbors. Much of the money that they thus invested had been obtained through exaction [an excessive or harsh demand, especially for money], through grinding down the poor. They forgot that in heaven an account of every business transaction is kept; every unjust deal, every fraudulent act, is there recorded.” [Counsels for the Church 37.4].
The World Trade Center opened in 1973 and consisted of seven large buildings in the financial district of New York City. It was destroyed on September 11, 2001. The towers hit by the planes were, at one time, the tallest in the world and symbolized the economic prosperity of the U.S. One of the world’s largest deposits of gold and silver, owned by various banks and earned through charging interest on loans and through various fees, was stored under the WTC, and the falling debris led to the destruction of the Center’s five other large buildings. You can decide if the way banks earn their enormous profits is right or wrong, but it is estimated that the total economic loss from those attacks was around $83 Billion (in 2001 dollars). The stock market also experienced a sharp decline, resulting in a loss of $1.4 trillion in value.
EGW went on to write, “The scene that next passed before me was an alarm of fire. Men looked at the lofty and supposedly fireproof buildings and said: ‘they are perfectly safe.’ But these buildings were consumed as if made of pitch. The fire engines could do nothing to stay the destruction”.
In 1993, Eric Nadler did an interview with John Skilling who was head structural engineer of the WTC. Skilling’s people did a study showing the Twin Towers could withstand being hit by a large Boeing 707 airplane and while he felt there would be a large fire from such a hit, “The building structure would still be there.” And, as we know, the buildings disintegrated into dust.
Perhaps she hoped that the wealthy would be more considerate of the poor once this awful event occurred. Perhaps she wanted to warn us of what was to come upon the earth as we passed through the last days so we would not have to feel alarmed. We can’t know for certain because she did not identify the buildings by name, but I believe her vision could have been about the Twin Towers.