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Vol. 190, No. 28

Three Killed in Van Rollover

ellen White’s burden

hope and Peace

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October 10, 2013

WHAT HAppened? And why should you care 125 years later?

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“Behold, I come quickly . . .” Our mission is to uplift Jesus Christ by presenting stories of His matchless love, news of His present workings, help for knowing Him better, and hope in His soon return.

16 What Happened in 1888?GeorGe r. KniGht

A General Conference session in Minneapolis that’s still teaching us important lessons 125 years later.

24 The Faith of Jesus: The Doctrinal Legacy of 1888Merlin Burt

Discovering doctrinal truth that brings spiritual freedom

28 The Theological Issues: Another PerspectiveBill and Shawn Brace

What, exactly, should we take away from those discussions of 125 years ago?

32 Bird 9-1-1lee Schappell

The little creature would die within minutes, unless . . .

34 Ellen White’s BurdendeniS Fortin

It was more than a matter of who was right.

38 Sabbath Afternoon Talkellen G. white

It’s not truth unless it changes our lives.

4 Letters

7 Page 7

8 World News & Perspectives

13 Give & Take

15 Cliff’s Edge

23 Introducing the Why

41 Searching the Obvious

42 Session SnapshotsanGel Manuel rodríGuez

alBerto tiMM

Stephen Bauer

46 Testimony

47 Reflections

16 34 6

What Happened in 1844?The second coming of Christ was front-page news, until it wasn’t.

DEPARTMENTS 6 Bill Knott

Citizenship Test

7 e. edward zinKeMission Without a Message

FEATURE ARTICLES EDITORIALS

NExT WEEk

Publisher General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists®, Executive Publisher Bill Knott, Associate Publisher Claude Richli, Publishing Board: Ted N. C. Wilson, chair; Benjamin D. Schoun, vice chair; Bill Knott, secretary; Lisa Beardsley-Hardy; Daniel R. Jackson; Robert Lemon; Geoffrey Mbwana; G. T. Ng; Daisy Orion; Juan Prestol; Michael Ryan; Ella Simmons; Mark Thomas; Karnik Doukmetzian, legal adviser. Editor Bill Knott, Associate Editors Lael Caesar, Gerald A. Klingbeil, Coordinating Editor Stephen Chavez, Online Editor Carlos Medley, Features Editor Sandra Blackmer, Young Adult Editor Kimberly Luste Maran, KidsView Editor Wilona Karimabadi, News Editor Mark A. Kellner, Operations Manager Merle Poirier, Financial Manager Rachel Child, Editorial Assistant Marvene Thorpe-Baptiste, Marketing Director Claude Richli, Editor-at-Large Mark A. Finley, Senior Advisor E. Edward Zinke, Art Director Bryan Gray, Design Daniel Añez, Desktop Technician Fred Wuerstlin, Ad Sales Glen Gohlke, Subscriber Services Steve Hanson. To Writers: Writer’s guidelines are available at the adventist review Web site: www.ad-ventistreview.org and click “About the Review.” For a printed copy, send a self-addressed envelope to: Writer’s Guidelines, adventist review, 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904-6600. E-mail: [email protected]. Web site: www.adventistreview.org. Postmaster: Send address changes to adventist review, 55 West Oak Ridge Drive, Hagerstown, MD 21740-7301. Unless otherwise noted, Bible texts in this issue are from the holy Bible, new international Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Unless otherwise noted, all photos are © Thinkstock 2013. The Adventist Review (ISSN 0161-1119), published since 1849, is the general paper of the Seventh-day Adventist® Church. It is published by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists® and is printed 36 times a year on the second, third, and fourth Thursdays of each month by the Review and Herald® Publishing Association, 55 West Oak Ridge Drive, Hagerstown, MD 21740. Periodical postage paid at Hagerstown, MD 21740. Copyright © 2013, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists®. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. Vol. 190, No. 28

Subscriptions: Thirty-six issues of the weekly adventist review, US$36.95 plus US$28.50 postage outside North America. Single copy US$3.00. To order, send your name, address, and payment to adventist review subscription desk, Box 1119, Hagerstown, MD 21741-1119. Orders can also be placed at Adventist Book Centers. Prices subject to change. Address changes: [email protected]. OR call 1-800-456-3991, or 301-393-3257. Subscription queries: [email protected]. OR call 1-800-456-3991, or 301-393-3257.

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Vol. 190, No. 24

Pakistani Adventist

Receives Life Sentence

Coming to Our Senses

Companions Along the Way

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August 22, 2013


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MARtIN DOBLMEIER:

Filmmaker

Letters FrOm Our readers

inboxTell ’Em About the Dream

» Bill Knott’s editorial “Tell ’Em About the Dream” (Sept. 12, 2013) is one of the most refreshing articles I have read in a long time. I’m embarrassed to say that after some “door-shutting” expe-riences I just gave up on my White fellow believers. My solace has been the thought that the time of trouble would force us together and we would discover the joys of unity in Christ as persecu-tion would necessitate. I have since then discarded my resentment that led me to give up my struggle with my own prejudice, as it stood in the way of my salvation. It is comforting to know that all is not lost and that there is hope for all of my family in Christ. Congratulations to Knott for this bold perspective.

S. PETER CAMPbELL

via e-mail

God and the Movies » My wife and I, along with

most of my relatives, work in

the health-care field. So imagine our surprise when our daughter, Summer, expressed no interest what-soever in pursuing a career in this field. Instead, what started out as a “fun hobby” has become her choice of career: filmmaking!

Not knowing a whole lot about this industry except that going to theaters was forbidden because I was told our “guardian angel stayed outside,” we were a bit apprehensive about her pro-fession of choice.

But during the past couple years God has been reassur-ing us that He needs godly Christian filmmakers in this industry. We’ve gotten to know Maranatha Volunteers International’s filmmakers, Christine Lloyd and David Brillhart, on our last two family summer projects. We attended this year’s SON-screen Film Festival, where we saw Christians active in this industry. Loma Linda University’s Media Depart-ment won several Emmy awards for their documenta-ries. We’ve read Columbia Pictures Vice President of Production DeVon Franklin’s autobiography about how being a faithful Sabbath-keeper can be an advantage in the cutthroat world of Hollywood. Then, to top it off, two Adventist Review’s cover stories, “What if God

Made Movies,” by Lynelle Ellis, and “Martin Doble-meier: Filmmaker,” by Ste-phen Chavez, in the August 15 and August 22, 2013, edi-tions, were on movies!

Maybe God is reassuring us that He wants to use Sum-mer’s creative talents to “paint pictures of God” for others to enjoy, and hope-fully, lead others to a closer relationship with Him. Isn’t that just as important as my profession, helping people live healthier lives, or my wife’s profession, educating a future generation of Chris-tian nurses? We think so!

ERNIE MEDINA, JR.

Loma Linda, California

» Thanks for printing Lynelle Ellis’ article “What if God Made Movies.” While not a moviemaker, I have done about 70 different first- person Bible and historical characters, and can abso-lutely support the reality

that telling a good story in a compelling way has lasting impact. Indeed, as the author says, “Creating is a God-given pleasure and . . . reaches its highest potential . . . when it is informed by God’s own revelations.” I have had people remind me of seeing a first-person pre-sentation they experienced years earlier and sharing amazing recall of details. In one setting the mother of a 7-year-old boy was apprecia-tive of how her usually squirmy son listened and remembered the presenta-tions, and a Th.D. Bible teacher chimed in that he learned things too. Yes, cre-ative modalities are a posi-tive way to share the gospel and Bible truths. Let’s con-tinue to promote and appre-ciate the widest range of creative endeavors that move hearts toward the kingdom.

DICk STENbAkkEN

Loveland, Colorado

Money Management » I am writing in regard to

Dan Serns’ article “Teach Your Children Money Man-agement” (Aug. 15, 2013). I thought it might be of inter-est how I taught my three

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A u g u s t 1 5 , 2 0 1 3

Vol. 190, No. 23

Consensus statement Voted

for “Theology of Ordination”

The Clock’s Running

God Likes secrets Too

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“Creative modalities are a positive

way to share the gospel and Bible

truths. Let’s continue to promote and

appreciate the widest range of cre-

ative endeavors that move hearts

toward the kingdom.” —DICk STENbAkkEN, Loveland, California


ity for the human race to continue. Christ’s sacrifice saved the human race from extinction.

DENNIS PRIEbE

Galt, California

One Step at a Time » My thanks go to Darin

Patzer, for writing “One Step at a Time” (June 13, 2013), an article about his dad, Jere. A few months before Jere died I became one of his prayer partners, even though we never met. I don’t remember how I got his name, but I wrote an e-mail prayer to him every week. Jere was always very faithful in writ-ing back.

After Jere died, I continued praying for Darin’s mother, whom I never met either, and any member of his family,

which means I was also pray-ing for Darin and his brother. I am glad to know Jere had two sons.

Oh, yes, it will be wonder-ful on the resurrection morn-ing for the Patzers to be reunited with Jere; and I will be reunited with my husband and my youngest son. Yes, God is teaching me to take it “one step at a time” too.

VIRGINIA COLLINS

Alvaton, Kentucky

children at age 3. I gave them a dollar a week allowance in dimes, nickels, and one quarter.

I set up four little glass jars on their dresser. Jar one

was for a dime for tithe; number two was for the quarter for Sabbath school offering; number three was for a savings account, and number four was for 60 cents—left for them to spend.

All three children are mar-ried now and good money managers.

IMOGENE ShEFFIELD

Apopka, Florida

NAD Responds to Supreme Court Rulings

» I am highly encouraged by the official response of the North American Division by Dan Jackson concerning the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage (“The North American Division Responds to Supreme Court Rulings,” posted online July

1, 2013; see www.adventist review.org/article/6426/archives/issue-2013-1518/18-cn-nad-responds-to-the-u-s-supreme-court-decision-on-doma). The world church of Seventh-day Adventists is often viewed through the lens of North America, and it should always uphold bibli-cal standards. Kudos.

GAIUS ANONAbA

Lagos, Nigeria

Forgiveness » I hardly have words ade-

quate to express how much I appreciated Roy Gane’s arti-cle “Forgiveness: Seven Accomplishments of Christ’s Sacrifice” (June 27, 2013). If we do not understand what was given to the human race apart from choice and what was offered or provided to individuals dependent on their choices, we will make serious mistakes regarding the plan of salvation. As Gane clearly pointed out, Christ’s sacrifice took legal control of the world back from Satan and granted legal amnesty to all human beings (freedom from automatic condemna-tion because of Adam’s sin). If legal forgiveness had not been provided at the moment of Adam’s sin, there would have been no possibil-

We welcome your letters, noting, as always, that inclusion of a letter in this section does not imply that the ideas expressed are endorsed by either the editors of the Adventist Review or the General conference. Short, specific, timely letters have the best chance at being published (please include your complete address and phone number—even with e-mail messages). letters will be edited for space and clarity only. Send correspondence to letters to the editor, Adventist Review, 12501 old columbia pike, Silver Spring, Md 20904-6600; internet: [email protected].

history LessonsOctober is an important month in Adventist Church history—this fall our October editions will contain feature articles on some key events in our church’s past. This issue, a 48-page special on the significance of 1888 (Oct. 10), will be followed by a special cover package on 1844 (Oct. 17); and a cover article on Guide, the church’s youth magazine that is celebrating 60 years of publication (Oct. 24). Look for these in print and online at www.adventistreview.org.

“Christ’s sacrifice took legal con-

trol of the world back from Satan and

granted legal amnesty to all human

beings.” —DENNIS PRIEbE, Galt, California


Editorials

Bill Knott

Editorials

Citizenship testThe wolf did with lambkin dwell in peaceHis grim carnivorous nature there did ceaseThe leopard with the harmless kid laid downAnd not one savage beast was seen to frownThe lion with the fatling on did moveA little child was leading them in love.

When nineteenth-century Quaker artist and preacher Edward Hicks embellished the frame of one of his early paint-ings of The Peaceable Kingdom with a versified paraphrase of Isaiah 11:6, he certainly wanted his viewers to both read and see the sermon.

At first glance, Hicks’ portrait of the future seems foolishly utopian: a heifer nuzzles the back of a full-maned lion, whose head is brushing the arm of a confident, rosy-cheeked child. Wolf and lamb lie together in a meadow, while a full-grown ram seems carelessly inattentive to the leopard at his back. There is no fear; there are no predators in Hicks’ holy vision.

But your eye inexorably moves to the back and left of the painting, where Hicks has rendered a this-worldly image of Quaker leader William Penn’s famous 1682 treaty with the Delaware Indians. The shimmering river behind the carefully balanced treaty group (four Friends and four chiefs) tells us how the negotiations proceeded and what resulted from their covenant—one of the few respectful dialogues between Whites and Native Americans in the whole history of the continent. Equality reigns; conversation continues.

The preacher in the artist has made his point: the future in the foreground emerges from the peacemaking of the past.

Intriguingly, art historians tell us that Edward Hicks painted at least 61 different versions of The Peaceable Kingdom in his lifetime—all with similarly irenic animals and people, but sometimes with subtle differences in shading or posture. Never fully satisfied that he had captured the peacemaking connection between this world and the world to come, he kept working at it—adjusting the palette, warming the hues.

Peacemaking takes work, close attention, and continual adjustments.Which is a sermon we could all stand to hear more often.Seventh-day Adventists are, by history, a contentious people. Conceived in the wonderfully contrarian Millerite

movement of the 1830s and 1840s, this denomination was born in the 1860s—in the midst of America’s Civil War—and learned to argue at an early age. When Lincoln called for volunteers to fight, Adventists refused and stayed home—and loyal to the sixth commandment. When nineteenth-century “robber barons” built their massive monopo-lies on the backs of workingmen and -women, Review editors excoriated them in full-cry editorials. When the National Reform Association called for Sunday law legislation in the 1890s, Adventists rallied thousands to oppose and defeat the threat to religious liberty. And when early-twentieth-century America was awash in alcohol and its resulting social misery, Adventists marched into the public square with an unrelenting call for Prohibition.

As useful as that public combativeness was in identifying Seventh-day Adventists as a people known for spiritual and social reform, it has proved less helpful within this faith. We are, theologically, also a quarrelsome lot—about justification and sanctification; about the sanctuary doctrine; about the nature of Christ; about the role of Ellen White; about the meaning of 1888; about the ordination of women to ministry.

Truth is, we don’t have a history—or a vision—of peacemaking among us, in part because of our very commitment to truth. Our story seems to teach us that being right is more important than being kind, that negotiation is the sport of those who can’t compete. We prefer the laurel wreaths of victory to the olive branches of peacemaking on any day. The memory verse is “Put on the whole armor of God” (Eph. 6:11).* Not one in 10 remembers that Paul also wrote: “If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Rom. 12:18).

It’s time for that to change—within this movement, through this movement, and for this movement. Declare your-self a citizen of the peaceable kingdom. Make the case for dialogue, not winning. Speak kindly to those we once called “Brother” and “Sister.”

Take olive branches to the next church business meeting. n

* Bible texts are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission.

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Mission Without a MessageThE MISSION OF ThE SEVENTh-DAy ADVENTIST ChURCh IS ThE proclamation of the everlasting gospel, salvation provided by Jesus Christ. This mission includes a desire to share all that God has been pleased to reveal about Himself in the Bible.

God’s call includes healing the sick, caring for widows and the fatherless, and binding the wounds of the brokenhearted. Caring for the physical needs of humanity is closely connected to the proclamation of God’s Word. It is the right arm of the gospel, for it has the potential of open-ing recipients to the message of the gospel.

But it is all too easy to retreat into a social gospel, where caring for physical needs becomes an end in itself, a mission without a message. In this view, mission is complete when the physical needs of individuals are cared for.

This view may come from a fear of intruding into the lives and cultures of others, or a fear of rejection. It may also come from loss of belief in the relevancy or truth of God’s Word.

God invites each individual to enter a personal relationship with Him based upon a knowledge of Him as the only true God (see John 17:3). God has chosen to partner with us in sharing His love with the world, both in ministry and proclamation. We have the privilege of teaching all the world the message of the everlasting gospel before the return of Christ (see Matt. 28:19, 20; 24:14; Rev. 14:6, 7). Why would we desire to bring only physical healing, which is temporal, when it is within our scope to share the gospel of eternal life?

Jesus said, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words . . . , the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when He comes” (Mark 8:38). n

E. Edward Zinke

*GC stands for General Conference.

Before or After? Was 1888 a turning point in Ellen White’s understanding of righteousness by faith? Which of the following statements do you think were made by Ellen White prior to the Minneapolis session and which were after? Circle the word “before” or “after” as it relates to the 1888 session. Then turn the page upside down for the answers as well as to read a relevant statement from Ellen White.

“Man’s destiny will be determined by his obedience to the whole law.”

Ellen White said in 1889: “I have had the question asked, ‘What do you think of this light that these men [Waggoner and Jones] are presenting?’ Why, I have been presenting it to you for the last 45 years—the matchless charms of Christ. This is what I have been trying to present before your minds. When Brother Waggoner brought out these ideas in Minneapolis, it was the first clear teaching on this subject from any human lips I had heard, excepting the conversations between myself and my husband.”

—Sermons and Talks, vol. 1, pp. 116, 117.

“We must learn to trust, to depend solely upon the merits of the atonement, and in all our helpless unworthiness cast ourselves upon the merits of the crucified and risen Savior. We shall never perish while we do this —never!”

“The Lord requires at this time just what He required of Adam in Eden—perfect obedience to the law of God. We must have righteousness without a flaw, without a blemish.”

“We may rest upon God, not because of our own merit, but because the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us.”

“We can do nothing, absolutely nothing, to commend ourselves to divine favor. . . . God will accept every one that comes to Him trusting wholly in the merits of a crucified Savior.”

Answers (from left to right): (top row) after, Faith and Works, p. 89 (1890); before, Testi-monies, vol. 1, pp. 309, 310 (1862); before, Gospel Workers (1892 ed.), p. 427 (1883); (bottom row) before, Faith and Works, p. 39 (1883); after, The Desire of Ages, p. 498 (1898)

before after before after before after

before after before after


n N O RT H E R N A S I A- PAC I F I C

“Go Into Harvest Field,” Wilson tells Northern Asia seventh-day AdventistsBy MARk A. kELLNER, news editor, reporting from Jeju Island, Republic of Korea

ON whAT was the brightest and balmi-est day of the four-day event, Seventh-day Adventists attending morning worship at the 2013 Northern Asia-Pacific Division International Mission Conference were challenged to “go for-ward into the harvest field” and tell the world about Jesus and His soon coming. Ted N. C. Wilson, General Conference president, issued the appeal in a Sabbath, August 31, 2013, sermon heard by more than 4,000 gathered at the Jeju Interna-tional Conference Center off the south-ern coast of the Republic of Korea.

There was much to recall from the morning’s varied activities: a Sabbath school lesson, songs from two choirs, a sand “painting” done on a lightbox in front of the congregation, and a spirited performance by young children “who told us about Abraham’s faith,” and a “wonderful testimony from China about the faithfulness of the people of the division.” Wilson praised the efforts, but said these were but a pre-lude for the congregation.

“All of this is pointing to God’s call to you and to me, people who accept God’s commandments and the faith of Jesus to go forward into the harvest field, all

through the power of the Holy Spirit,” Wilson said.

“We have had quite a display of human activity and creativity during this congress, and we thank God for the skills and the creativity,” he noted, add-ing, “But I want to tell you, brothers and sisters, none of this is possible without the power of the Holy Spirit.”

In an impassioned message Wilson discussed the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14 and their link to today’s world. He implored his hearers to lov-ingly and cheerfully share these messages with others to help “call out” those atten-tive to God’s Word at the end of time.

He tied the first angel’s message, a summons to worship the Creator of the

MOTIVATING MISSION: Jairyong Lee, Northern asia-Pacific division president, at left, motivates delegates to the International Mission Conference in Jeju Island, Korea, to answer the call to missionary service.

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World News & Perspectives


universe, and to the keeping of the Bible Sabbath: “The call to worship God as the Creator automatically places upon peo-ple the responsibility to observe the day that honors His creative act,” Wilson said. “A created being cannot honor his Creator while defying the command to keep Saturday, the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, holy, which God Himself set aside as a memorial of His creation.”

Wilson added that this first message is also tied to the issue of origins: “To worship God as the Creator means there must be a willingness to reject false the-ories about the origin of life, such as evolution,” he said. “It is impossible to believe in evolution and say that God is Creator of heaven and earth and all the life they contain. The two concepts do not mix. In essence, evolution is not a science; it is a false form of religion.”

The Adventist leader noted that the second angel’s message is a plea to abandon a dead, false, and fallen reli-gious system: “God’s people who are still in Babylon are called out so they will not be guilty of participating in her sins and will not receive the plagues that are to be poured out upon her,” Wilson said. “Therefore, Babylon is con-stituted by churches that teach many of the theological errors passed down through the church of the middle ages.”

Wilson added, “In order for God’s people who are still in Babylon to understand the urgency of getting out, they must understand the sins and errors of Babylon. This puts a tremen-dous responsibility upon God’s rem-nant people.”

Noting that those who reject the Sab-bath will be angered by Adventists and others who advocate for the biblical day of rest, part of the third angel’s mes-sage, Wilson said a time of testing will follow.

“We are so grateful for the religious freedom that is available in many countries around the world. Thank God for it; we need to use our religious liberty to defend religious liberty,” he told the congregation. “However,

according to Bible prophecy, the time is coming when religious freedom will be reduced and churches will so control the government that the government will pass laws that will fulfill the wishes of the apostate churches. Any-one who disagrees with this church/state relationship will be persecuted. Don’t be afraid of that day. Lean on Jesus today, and you will lean on Him in the future.”

Wilson noted, “Apostate religious leaders will not be able to refute scrip-tural evidence for the sacredness of Sat-urday, and this will fill them with anger.

As a result, Sabbathkeepers will be per-secuted and imprisoned.”

He told his hearers, in remarks streamed over the Internet throughout the division and worldwide: “The time will come when people do not want to hear the truth, but preach the truth any-how. Live like the Lord is coming soon, because He is!”

A period of prayer and dedication fol-lowed for the thousands in the confer-ence center’s main hall. The service also featured an offering for the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s work in and for the people of North Korea. n

YES, MY LORD: Youngsters retell the story of abraham, who answered God’s call with a “Yes, my Lord.” They performed during sabbath school at the International Mission Conference.

n N O RT H A m E R I C A

three Dead, 13 Injured in Florida Church Vehicle AccidentCrash occurred en route to district meeting in TampaBy MARk A. kELLNER, news editor

ThREE MEMbERS of a Seventh-day Adventist congregation in Florida are dead and 13 more are injured follow-ing a September 14 accident on Inter-state 75 near Fort Myers, media reports indicate. The Florida Confer-ence has expressed sympathy over the deaths and injuries.

The Florida Highway Patrol said the accident occurred on an overpass when a church van’s tire exploded and the vehicle flipped several times before coming to rest on its roof. The Maranatha French (Mission Group) Seventh-day Adventist Church in Lau-derhill, Florida, operated the van, which was en route to a Haitian Ad-

ventist convocation in Tampa.Nostra Damas, 20, of Lauderhill,

apparently died at the scene of the crash. Osee Elian, 22, and Gertha Petit-Frere, 62, both of Sunrise, Flor-ida, succumbed to their injuries the next day.

“Our hearts at Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists continue to be saddened from the news of two additional deaths as a result of the van accident,” a statement from the conference said. “We continue our prayers for the families of the victims who died and pray for God’s healing on those still recovering from the accident.” n


World News & Perspectives

n R E Pu b l I C O F KO R E A

For taiwan’s People, Adventist seeks a Better LifeTaiwan Adventist Foundation has “healthier life” as a goal.By MARk A. kELLNER, news editor, reporting from Jeju Island, Republic of Korea

ALThOUGh TAIwAN is viewed by many as a hub of global prosperity—the island is home to global powers ASUS, Acer, and Eva Air, among others—there are pock-ets of poverty, suffering, and disadvan-tage waiting for the touch of compassion that a Christian hand can bring.

Jane Lin happens to possess just those hands.

Lin is executive officer of the Taiwan Adventist Foundation, a registered char-ity operating on the island and reaching its most underserved peoples, includ-ing indigenous farmers who are often exploited by larger agricultural firms buying their produce; students in ele-

mentary schools of fewer than 28 pupils; and Tai-wan’s poor, whose homes are sometimes in great disrepair.

“Our vision is to moti-vate and empower people in Taiwan society to live a healthier life,” Lin said, reciting the group’s credo. This is done through sponsoring proj-ects aimed at helping those in need.

“God has blessed us very much,” Lin said,

recalling her first year at the foundation.For the farmers, it means helping

them reach consumers directly at out-door markets, and encouraging them to grow organic produce. This “creates another market” for the farmers, who she says are often “exploited” when sell-ing to the larger concerns.

“If the farmers get better pay” for their crops, she said, “it means a better standard of living.” She said the group is also helping the farmers to post pic-tures of their crops on Pinterest, the Internet-based social network, to help create demand for those goods.

Although Taiwan’s educational sys-tem is highly regarded, some students there—as in other parts of the world, including the United States—have fewer resources than their counterparts in larger schools. To help these stu-dents, Taiwan Adventist Foundation supplies a “Happy Craft Kit” of various pieces of colored wool. These are then made into small coasters, giving the students a different kind of craft, and a sense of having made something with their own hands.

“If the children like to use their hands to make something,” Lin explained, “they will use their hands to take care of others later in life.”

HELPING HANDS: Jane Lin, executive officer of the Taiwan adventist Foundation, displays a “happy Craft Kit” provided by the group to students in some of the island’s smallest elementary schools.

CHARTING PROGRESS: display posters show the number of schools needing craft kits so that students have an alternative to “coloring, coloring, coloring, and more coloring,” as Lin said of those school’s limited arts and crafts activities.

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And for those in poor living condi-tions, the Taiwan Adventist Foundation uses volunteer labor to help clean, repair, and even rebuild dwellings where needed.

“No one helps them, and no one cares,” Lin said of these poor people. Other charities are beginning to call on the Taiwan Adventist Foundation, ask-ing them to help families in need.

Sometimes, Lin said, all that’s neces-sary is a simple housecleaning and instruction in running a household, something that may have been neglected. “The target is to help people’s homes have basic functions, safe and clean,” she said.

Much of the funding for the Taiwan Adventist Foundation comes from the Northern Asia-Pacific Division. The

group’s board is chaired by Stanley Wai Chun Ng, assistant to the Northern Asia-Pacific Division president for China affairs. But the group accepts outside funds and hopes to become self-sufficient, Lin said, noting they hope to have a facility to accept credit-card donations soon.

More information on the group can be found online at www.twaf.org.tw. n

n N O RT H A m E R I C A

Adventists Help Flood-ravaged Colorado CommunitiesThree members lose homes; prayer meeting becomes “work bee” to repair basementBy MARk bOND, communication director, Rocky Mountain Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, reporting from Denver.

SEVENTh-DAy ADVENTIST members and congregations are assisting as massive amounts of rain have caused exten-sive flooding along the Front Range of Colorado. Boulder and adjacent communities have fared the worst, but there has also been flooding in many communities. Estes Park, Louisville, Longmont, Loveland, and Aurora are some of the hardest hit.

According to Craig Carr, ministerial director for the Rocky Mountain Conference, three members of the Boulder Sev-enth-day Adventist Church have lost their homes; one cou-ple from Lyons and an individual who lives in Jamestown lost theirs as well. Both Lyons and Jamestown were com-pletely cut off from emergency access because of roads being washed out by floodwaters.

There was minor damage to the Boulder church. There is also some reported damage in the basement at the Estes Park Seventh-day Adventist Church, but the extent is not yet known.

Blake Jones, pastor of the Twin Peaks Adventist Church in Louisville, shared that the flooding began in their area dur-ing prayer meeting last Wednesday evening. Approximately 20 members had gathered for prayer meeting when water started flooding into the church and filling the basement.

The head elder called a phone tree alerting members, and within minutes about 50 people were at the church, build-ing a makeshift dam to divert the river of water that was flooding the church.

Before they could divert all the water, about two inches had accumulated in the basement of the church. One mem-ber with an industrial shop vacuum was able to get most of the standing water out of the basement, while other

members rushed to rent carpet cleaners.By the time the wet, weary church members left, they had

been able to extract the rest of the water from the down-stairs carpet, but there was considerable dampness left behind. Jones called a restoration company to dry out their carpets with fans and dehumidifiers. They were told that they would be added to a list, since there were more than 800 calls in ahead of them.

On Friday, with many of the roads impassable because of flooding, Jones headed out to see if it was even possible to drive to the church. He spotted a restoration company van parked on the side of the road. He spoke to the driver and told him about the Twin Peaks church basement. The driver said, “It’s the weekend, and this is the Lord’s house, so I’ll come set up some fans and a dehumidifier for you right now.” Because of that little miracle, the Twin Peaks church basement is back to normal already and won’t even have to report an insurance claim.

“If we hadn’t had a good attendance at our prayer meet-ing,” says Jones, “we would have certainly had the entire basement flooded!” He continues, “But that prayer meeting turned into the fastest ‘church work bee’ in history! I’m so thankful for all the members who showed up to help us avoid a major calamity.”

Cathy Kissner, Rocky Mountain Adventist Community Services and Disaster Response (ACS/DR) director, reports emergency supplies are being positioned near the Colorado flood areas for distribution. Donations may be made to the ACS/DR effort by visiting http://bit.ly/acs-colorado online, or by calling 800-381-7171. n

hiStory LeSSon: quiCk BitS on 1888

poem

Sermon in Seven

adventiSt Life

It came to me one day: “Hay-stacks” can be considered the Sev-enth-day Adventist equivalent of the Israelite’s “manna.” Why? In most Adventist churches (at least in the U.S.) almost everyone knows what “haystacks” are, but if you tell someone of a different faith you had or are going to have “hay-stacks,” they ask, “What is that?”—MARTHA LEDBETTER, GraySVille,

tenneSSee

A haikuIn this green hollowMy heart is a cathedralEach footfall a prayer.

—L. L. kELLOGG, parK city, illinoiSWe are looking for brief submissions in

these categories:Sound Bites (quotes, profound or

spontaneous)Adventist Life (short anecdotes, espe-

cially from the world of adults)Camp Meeting Memories (150 words

or less)Jots and Tittles (church-related tips)Please send your submissions to Give &

Take, adventist review, 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904-6600; fax: 301-680-6638; e-mail: marank@gc. adventist.org. Please include phone number, and city and state from which you are writing.

Share with uS

Many people go on mission trips. Most, if not all, go with good intentions. So what do you think of this?

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The General Conference assembled at Minneapolis on Wednesday, October 17, 1888. About 90 delegates represented 27,000 church members. What many Adventists likely hold as important from those meetings is that “the Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones. . . . It presented justification through faith in the Surety [Christ]; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God.”1

After the Minneapolis meetings A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner took the message of righteousness by faith to the churches. With Ellen White joining them, they crossed the U.S., visiting camp meetings, workers’ meetings, and Bible schools. In 1889 White wrote: “I have never seen a revival work go for-ward with such thoroughness, and yet remain so free from all undue excitement.”2

Minneapolis 1888 can be seen as a turning point in the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. With the teaching of Waggoner and Jones, and support from Ellen White, the church gained a clearer understanding of the gospel.

1 Ellen G. White, testimonies to Ministers and Gospel workers (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1923), pp. 91, 92.

2 Ellen G. White, in review and herald, Mar. 5, 1889.

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the truth Behind the LieIT’S ONE ThING FOR SECULAR ThINkERS TO ARGUE ThAT TRUTh IS RELATIVE, contingent, cultural. But to hear Christians spout similar sentiments? Though the Lord and Master of their faith says, “Whoever is not with me is against me” (Luke 11:23) and “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matt. 7:14) and “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6), His professed followers argue for moral, theological, even ontological relativism? Go figure.

Relativism is intellectually incoherent anyway. The claim that “all truth is relative” must include that specific claim itself; hence, why should anyone take the claim that “all truth is relative” seriously?

One shouldn’t, but for more reasons than its own self-immolation. This relativism undercuts itself in another, even more powerful way. However vehemently the most radical relativists denounce the existence of absolute truth, none denies the existence of lies.

Yet how can lies exist without truth? Take the statement “Mitt Romney won the 2012 presi-dential election in the United States.” Truth or lie? It’s a lie. But how could it be a lie without the truth behind it, which is that Barak Obama, not Mitt Romney, won the 2012 United States presidential election?

How about “2 + 2 = 31.7447”? A lie, but why? Because we know that 2 + 2 = 4; thus, “4” is the truth that makes the first statement false.

What about “The sun orbits the earth every day”? Truth or lie? It’s a lie because of the truth, which is that the earth spins on its axis, making the sun appear to move from horizon to horizon daily.

Some would argue that these are trivial examples, because we know the correct answers (i.e., the truth behind the lies). But what makes the statement “The center of Jupiter is made of creamy peanut butter” a lie? Certainly not because of anyone’s knowledge about the consistency of Jupi-ter’s core. A lie remains a lie even if we don’t know the truth that makes it one. You don’t have to have a correct answer, or any answer, in order to detect a false one. Yet it’s false only because the truth about the center of Jupiter, whatever it is, exists.

Most would agree that the statement “The torture of babies is morally justified” is wrong, even if we might disagree why. Whatever the arguments against that statement, they presup-pose that truth must exist behind it, which is that it’s not morally justified to torture babies. Otherwise, how could the position that it is justified be a lie? How could any position, on any subject, be a lie or an error without the truths that make lies lies and errors errors?

“The world order,” wrote Czech author Franz Kafka, “is based upon a lie.” Fine, but it is a lie only because the truth about the world order, whatever it is, makes it a lie.

Some things are relative, contingent, cultural. Driving on the right side of the road is hardly absolute moral truth. If, however, one does it in England, it becomes “wrong” (and can even take on a moral tone because it could lead to an accident), but only because there’s the truth (that in England people drive on the left side), which makes driving on the right side wrong.

On the other hand, someone says, “The Flying Spaghetti monster created the universe, and She alone determined human morality.” You wouldn’t necessarily have to know who or what created the universe and determined human morality in order for that statement to be a lie. It’s a lie only because of the truth, which is that something or someone else, not the Flying Spaghetti monster, created the universe and determined human morality.

How ironic that professed Christians deny the reality of truth, but not of lies, even though lies—whether about the small stuff or the grand metaphysical stuff—cannot exist without truth, either about the small stuff or the grand metaphysical stuff. Hence every claim declaring absolute truth a lie automatically refutes itself. n

CLIFFORD GOLDSTEIN IS EDITOR OF THE adult SaBBath School BiBle Study Guide. HE IS ALSO FEATURED ON THE WEB SITE

1844MADESIMPLE.ORG.

Cliff’s Edge

Cliff Goldstein


Heart and Soul: Theology

W H A T I NH A P P E N E D

1888


a hIsToRICaL aCCouNT oF a VeRY hIsToRIC eVeNT

1 8 8 8

Dear Brethren Who Shall Assemble in General Conference: We are impressed that this gathering will be the most important meet-ing you have ever attended. This should be a period of earnestly seeking the Lord, and humbling your hearts before Him.”1

Such were the words of Ellen White on August 5, 1888, in a letter circulated to the delegates who would be attending the forthcoming session of the General Conference in October at Minneapolis, Minnesota. She not only high-lighted the importance of the meetings but also hinted at tensions among the delegates and their need for serious and faithful Bible study.

by GEORGE R. kNIGhT

?

TENSION IN ThE CAMPThe tension didn’t take long to surface.

“Elder Smith,” A. T. Jones blurted out early in the meetings, “has told you he does not know anything about this mat-ter. I do, and I don’t want you to blame me for what he does not know.” Ellen White responded with “Not so sharp, brother Jones, not so sharp.”2 Unfortu-nately, such harsh words and pompous attitudes provided part of the backdrop

for the conflict that characterized the 1888 General Conference session.

Jones had no monopoly on the harsh-words front. Ellen White repeatedly faulted General Conference president George I. Butler and Review and Herald editor Uriah Smith for what she labeled as the spirit of the Pharisees. Those leaders and their friends repeatedly expressed an attitude that “burdened” her, being “so unlike the spirit of Jesus.”

Its sarcastic, critical, self-righteous aspects, she noted, stirred up “human passions” and “bitterness of spirit, because some of their brethren had ven-tured to entertain some ideas contrary to the ideas that some others . . . had entertained, which were thought . . . to be inroads upon ancient doctrines.”3

ThE “MEN” OF MINNEAPOLIS

The battle lines of the 1888 session had arisen earlier in the decade over two theological points, and involved certain major participants. On one side were the two young editors of the Cali-fornia-based Signs of the Times—Ellet J. Waggoner and Alonzo T. Jones [see fuller biographies on pages 20, 21]. A trained physician who preferred the work of gospel ministry, Waggoner was probably the most gentle and sophisti-cated of the major male leaders in the struggle. His colleague, A. T. Jones, had been a sergeant in the United States Army and had all the attributes of his first profession. Jones never ran away from a battle, whether it be a frontier confrontation or one in the halls of Con-gress over church/state issues or with his fellow church leaders.

Of somewhat the same mold were George I. Butler and Uriah Smith, presi-

1 8 8 8


concluded that Smith’s published list was incorrect on the identity of the tenth kingdom, with Jones asserting it was the Alemanni rather than the Huns. The difference of opinion mattered, because getting prophecy right mat-tered to Adventists anticipating the world’s imminent end. Throughout the 1880s Adventists were being arrested in such states as California, Tennessee, and Arkansas for the “crime” of working on Sunday. Some Adventist ministers in the American South were even serving on chain gangs with hardened crimi-nals. The tension would build on the Sunday front until the spring of 1888, when H. W. Blair introduced a bill into the United States Senate to promote the observance of “the Lord’s day” “as a day of religious worship.”6 Blair’s national Sunday bill was the first such legisla-tion to go before Congress since the establishment of the Adventist movement in the 1840s. The denomination con-nected that move with the forming of the image to the beast of Revelation 13 and the giving of the mark of the beast. The end was clearly near, and accurate prophetic interpretation was clearly crucial.

Smith argued aggressively that if Adventists began to change their understanding on points of prophetic inter-pretation that had stood for 40 years, “thousands would instantly notice the change. . . . ‘If we give you time enough,’ they would then say, ‘you will probably come to acknowledge finally that you are mistaken on everything.’ ” Jones shot back that it was more important to be right than to maintain a faulty position that would be exposed publicly by the denomination’s enemies.7

CRISIS OVER ThE LAw IN GALATIANS

But if the crisis over the 10 horns was intense, the issue of the identity of the law referred to in the book of Galatians was literally explosive. With the Sunday

crisis right upon them it was bad enough to be tinkering with the validity of Adventist prophetic interpretation, but to be making major changes in the denomination’s theology of the law could spell total disaster.

An important text that Adventists had to deal with was the “added” law of Galatians 3:19-25. For three decades the denomination had interpreted that law as the ceremonial law. Such an interpre-tation, Adventist leaders held, was important in guarding the perpetuity of the Ten Commandments. After all, did not Galatians 3:25 plainly teach that once an individual had faith, he or she was “no longer under a schoolmaster”?

The law in Galatians had become a controversial issue between 1884 and 1886, when Waggoner began to teach that Galatians had the Ten Command-

ments in mind rather than the ceremo-nial law. That understanding was met head on by Butler and Smith, who held that the new interpretation under-mined Adventism’s traditional position on the end-time importance of the law of God. As might be expected, the national Sunday crisis heightened the importance of the topic.

Butler sought to solve the problem at the 1886 General Conference session, but failed. His next move was to block Jones and Waggoner from presenting their views at the 1888 session. But Ellen White outmaneuvered him by publicly coming to the support of the younger men. The stage at that point was set for

dent and secretary, respectively, of the General Conference. Smith was also edi-tor of the Michigan-based Review and Her-ald and the denomination’s authority on the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. Butler and Smith viewed themselves as defenders of traditional Adventism, especially in the face of the new ideas being set forth by Jones and Waggoner.

A fifth major participant in the Minne-apolis meetings was Ellen G. White, Adventism’s prophetic voice. At first it appears that she sought to remain neu-tral in the developing struggle. But by April 1887 she had come out openly in support of the younger men from the West. She not only realized that they had something to say that the denomination desperately needed to hear, but she also had concluded that they were being wrongly treated in a very unequal strug-gle. She would dedicate herself to mak-ing sure that Jones and Waggoner and their ideas would get a fair hearing at the forthcoming General Conference session.

CONTROVERSy OVER ThE hORNS IN DANIEL

The rumbles of disharmony had begun in the early 1880s along two lines that would build in intensity as the denomination rolled toward the Minne-apolis meetings. The first point of con-tention formed up around the seemingly minor topic of the identity of the 10 horns of Daniel 7. The 1884 Gen-eral Conference session had commis-sioned Jones to “write a series of articles gathered from history on points that showed the fulfillment of proph-ecy,”4 a task that led him to study the book of Daniel.

Smith initially expressed joy over the idea of Jones having the time to under-take a more complete examination of the 10 kingdoms, but suggested that it would be a difficult task—somewhat like “hunting the pieces of a building” after it had been “struck by a hundred pounds of dynamite.”5

The cordial relationship between the newcomer to the study of Daniel and the established author of Daniel and Rev-elation rapidly deteriorated after Jones


the controversial Minneapolis meetings.

ThE MINNEAPOLIS MEETINGSThe 1888 General Conference session

convened in the newly constructed Ad-ventist church from October 17 through November 4. A ministerial institute last-ing from October 10 to 16 preceded the formal conference session. The agenda contained two categories of items: busi-ness matters and theological concerns. While official action on the business items was restricted to the official ses-sion, action and reaction on the theo-logical issues flowed from the institute into the regular session as if they were one meeting.

As expected, the major issues of sub-stance in the conference centered on three issues—two controversial and one agreed upon. In the latter category were Jones’ lectures on church and state in relation to the Sunday law crisis. The conference voted to publish his presen-tations. They came off the press, with some editing, in 1889 as Civil Government and Religion, or Christianity and the Ameri-can Constitution.

In the controverted realm, Jones and Smith each spoke several times on the 10 horns and related prophetic topics. But the major subject of contention and importance was the lectures of E. J. Waggoner on righteousness by faith. Interestingly enough, his focal point was not on the law in Galatians (although he did not neglect that topic) but on issues related to salvation. For him the connection between the law in Galatians and righteousness by faith is the fact that experientially the 10 com-mandments point out sin and lead indi-viduals to Christ as Savior.

Contrary to Waggoner’s approach, J. H. Morrison (who stood in for the emotionally exhausted Butler who was too ill to attend the meetings) presented at least eight lectures focused on the nature of the law in Galatians.

Ellen White joined Waggoner in his focus on Christ and issues in salvation. “My burden during the meeting,” she wrote, “was to present Jesus and His love before my brethren, for I saw marked

Alonzo T. Jones to Uriah Smith, Dec. 3, 1886.8 Ellen G. White manuscript 24, c. November or

December, 1888, in 1888 Materials, p. 216.9 Ellen G. White manuscript 9, Oct. 24, 1888, in 1888

Materials, p. 153.10 Ellen G. White manuscript 8a, Oct. 21, 1888, in

1888 Materials, p. 139.11 For a fuller discussion of Ellen White on the place

of law and gospel in the third angel’s message, see George R. Knight, Angry Saints (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1989; Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 2013), pp. 52-60.

AN ExPERT ON 1888 ISSUES, CHURCH

HISTORIAN GEORGE kNIGHT HAS

WRITTEN THREE HISTORICAL BOOKS

ON THE TOPIC (a. t. JoneS; anGry

SaintS; AND a uSer-Friendly Guide

to the 1888 MeSSaGe).

evidences that many had not the spirit of Christ.”8 On October 24 she cried out: “We want the truth as it is in Jesus. . . . I have seen that precious souls who would have embraced the truth have been turned away from it because of the man-ner in which the truth has been handled, because Jesus was not in it. And this is what I have been pleading with you for all the time—we want Jesus.”9

Three days before she noted that “the Lord desires us all to be learners in the school of Christ. . . . God is presenting to the minds of men divinely appointed pre-cious gems of truth, appropriate for our time. God has rescued these truths from the companionship of error, and has placed them in their proper framework.”10 That proper framework, she would note in other connections, was the third angel’s message, which united both the law of God and righteousness by faith.11

CONCLUSIONAt Minneapolis in 1888, Seventh-day

Adventists locked horns over biblical interpretation in a way that threatened to lock out the spirit of graciousness that gives evidence of the presence and control of Christ. But truth has pre-vailed and grace continues to conquer. The most important teaching to flow out to posterity from those sessions was the emphasis on Christ and faith in Him as Savior and Lord. That teaching and its implications for the end-time message of the third angel is what gives the Minneapolis meetings their ongo-ing significance.

1 Ellen G. White to Dear Brethren, Aug. 5, 1888, in Ellen G. White, The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials (Wash-ington, D.C.: Ellen G. White Estate, 1987), p. 38.

2 A. T. Robinson, “Did the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination Reject the Doctrine of Righteousness by Faith?” (unpublished manuscript, Jan. 30, 1931); R. J. Wieland and D. K. Short, “An Interview With J. S. Washburn,” June 4, 1950.

3 For more on the spirit of Minneapolis, see George R. Knight, A. T. Jones (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 2011), pp. 46, 47, 75-77.

4 Alonzo T. Jones to Uriah Smith, Dec. 3, 1886.5 Alonzo T. Jones to Uriah Smith, June 3, 1885.6 See my treatment of the Sunday law issue in

George R. Knight, A User-friendly Guide to the 1888 Message (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald, 1998), pp. 30-33.

7 Uriah Smith to Alonzo T. Jones, Nov. 8, 1886;


Bio

ellet Joseph Waggoner (1855-1916),* son of prominent Ad-ventist “pioneer” editor and revivalist Joseph H. Waggoner (1820-1889), was educated at

Battle Creek College and then studied med-icine at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and Long Island College Hospital of Brooklyn, New York, graduating in 1878.

In October 1882, Waggoner experi-enced a “visionary” turning point in life when he “saw Christ crucified for me, and . . . that God loved me, and that Christ gave Himself for me personally.” The young doctor was convicted to ded-icate his talents to full-time gospel min-istry. As coeditor with A. T. Jones, of the Signs of the Times, he would play a major role in the subsequent revival of “righ-teousness by faith,” and the memorable 1888 General Conference session.

During the four years following the 1888 Minneapolis event, Waggoner, Jones, and Ellen White traveled widely, spreading the message of “Christ our righteousness” to North American Adventism. Then, from the spring of 1892, Waggoner served in Europe and spent the next 11 years editing the Brit-ish missionary journal Present Truth.

He returned to the United States in the fall of 1903 and, against Ellen White’s counsel, eventually settled in Battle Creek. While he was there, his first marriage ended in divorce, and he left the ministry of the Seventh-day Ad-ventist Church and lost his member-ship. He remarried in 1907 and died in 1916, leaving behind a distressing per-sonal and theological legacy.

At FirstIn an important statement in 1896,

recorded in Testimonies to Ministers, pages 91-93, Ellen White laid out a wonderful

assessment of the message of Waggoner and Jones, and its significance as affirm-ing (1) the uplifting of Christ as Savior (not just lawgiver); (2) justification by faith in Jesus; (3) the connection between the righteousness of Christ and obedience to God’s commandments; (4) the need for Adventists to focus on Jesus and the importance of faith in His sacri-fice; (5) that Christ’s righteousness, or “righteousness by faith,” has an inti-mate relationship to the third angel’s message of Revelation 14:9-12; (6) that Jesus has special “covenant blessings” for His children; (7) that Adventists had been emphasizing the law but neglect-ing Jesus; and (8) that God had raised up Jones and Waggoner to redirect the gaze of Adventists to Jesus, to faith in His sac-rifice and merits.

but ThenHow could the bearers of such a mes-

sage end up in apostasy? The answer is instructive for the most gifted among us.

Their tragedy may be linked directly to the effective rejection of prophetic coun-sel. Along with this, Waggoner’s teaching came to involve extremely mystical and excessively subjective interpretations. He adopted an explicit “post-Fall” view of the humanity of Christ in early 1889, and later repudiated the “penalty/substitu-tion/satisfaction” model of the atone-ment. His adoption of the mystical view of the atonement led him to understand justification as a subjectively “effective” experience. A believer is declared justi-fied because the mystically indwelling Christ makes them truly righteous in character. This is similar to the Roman Catholic view as defined at the Council of Trent.

Waggoner’s heretical and morally compromising theology issued from this decline into subjectivity. He came to an extreme view of perfection, strong opposition to church organization—since individuals were to follow the Holy Spirit directly with no need for formal organization, false views on faith healing, a rejection of the traditional sanctuary doctrine, and ultimately to pantheistic views that led him to a spe-cies of mystical spiritualism that opened the door to personal moral fail-ure. His tragedy was not inevitable. He might have listened to God’s messenger: “Believe his prophets, so shall ye pros-per” (2 Chron. 20:20, KJV). n

* See the definitive biography at Woodrow W. Whidden, E. J. Waggoner: From the Physician of Good News to Agent of Division (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 2008).

WOODROW WHIDDEN IS EMERITUS

PROFESSOR OF RELIGION, ANDREWS

UNIVERSITy.

e. J. Waggoner: The Man and His Legacyby wOODROw w. whIDDEN

1888


by MERLIN bURT

In 1870 hazel-eyed, brown-haired, 20-year-old Alonzo Trévier Jones (1850-1923) left the home of his parents, Grammer and Ingaby Jones, and his work as a clerk at a

dry goods store, to join the United States Army. He served from 1870 to 1875 and attained the rank of sergeant. He participated in the Modoc war in northern California in 1873.1 Arthur Spalding remembered Jones during the 1890s as a “towering, angular man, with a loping gait and uncouth posturings and gestures.”2

Baptized by Isaac Van Horn on August 8, 1874, in Walla Walla, Washington (then a territory), he emerged from the water exclaiming with upraised hands, “Dead to the world, and alive to thee, O my God!”3

Jones subsequently assisted I. D. Van Horn with evangelism in Oregon and Washington and became a minister. On April 15, 1877, he married Frances E. Pat-ten, the younger sister of Van Horn’s wife, Adelia. Although he wanted an education, the pressing needs of minis-try interfered.

In 1884 he began editorial work with the Signs of the Times and the Sabbath Sen-tinel in Oakland, California. He also served as pastor of the Healdsburg Col-lege church, and as a Bible teacher at the college. In a few short years Jones went from relative obscurity to being one of the denominations most prominent workers, partnering with E. J. Waggoner in an important role at the 1888 Minne-apolis, Minnesota, General Conference session. Ellen White identified them as sharing “a most precious message” of righteousness by faith.

In December 1888 Jones testified against the Blair Sunday law bill before the Senate Committee on Education and Labor. He remained on the national stage, and his views were widely noticed in newspapers. Jones also became pastor of the Battle Creek Dime Tabernacle and presented lengthy and dynamic sermons

at the General Conference sessions dur-ing the 1890s that brought dramatic spiritual revival. From 1897 to 1901 he was editor of the Review and Herald.

During the 1901-1903 reorganization of the General Conference he took a strong stand against “kingly power” and argued against the administrative position of “president.” After 1903 he became more closely aligned with J. H. Kellogg in organizational intrigues, and harbored a critical attitude. By 1906 he had lost most of his influence with Sev-enth-day Adventists. His ministerial credentials were removed in 1907 and his membership in 1909. Tragically, his last years were spent in opposition to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He participated with the Ballenger broth-ers in the establishment of their dissi-dent movement and paper, The Gathering Call.

To the end of his life he professed to believe and preach the third angel’s

message and righteousness by faith. He also continued to publish a religious liberty paper The American Sentinel (not a Seventh-day Adventist periodical).4

Jones died on May 12, 1923, at his home in Battle Creek, Michigan. n

1 United States Federal Census Records for 1850, 1870, and 1900; Alonzo T. Jones Passport Application, Aug. 23, 1895; United States Army Register of Enlist-ments: 1798-1914; “A Tribute to the Life and Labors of the Late Alonzo T. Jones,” American Sentinel of Religious Liberty, July 1923, pp. 1-8.

2 Quoted in George R. Knight, A. T. Jones: Point Man on Adventism’s Charismatic Frontier (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 2011), p. 18. Some other details in this account are drawn from George Knight’s book.

3 Adelia P. Van Horn, “A Sabbath in Walla Walla, W. T.,” Review and Herald, Aug. 25, 1874.

4 G. E. Fifield, “In Memoriam: Elder A. T. Jones,” The Gathering Call, June 1923.

MERLIN BURT IS DIRECTOR OF THE

CENTER FOR ADVENTIST RESEARCH,

ANDREWS UNIVERSITy.

Cover Feature

A. t. Jones

1888


Allure of the ChurchFOR OUR ONE-yEAR wEDDING ANNIVERSARy NATALIE AND I DECIDED TO GO on a cruise, something neither of us had ever done. In early September we set out on a Royal Caribbean seven-day sail that included stops in the Bahamas, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten.

The ship itself was . . . big. Occupied by more than 6,000 passengers and 2,300 crew members, the vessel had at least 20 restaurants, a Broadway theater, an ice-skating rink, and a boardwalk that could make any oceanside town jealous. And that’s just the beginning.

What really made the aptly named Allure of the Seas unique was the staff personally assigned to each traveler. If you’ve been on a cruise, you know it’s much different than staying at a hotel. Each stateroom has the same attendant throughout the entire voyage. Not only does this person clean and freshen your room, they’re available to assist with everything from dry cleaning to restaurant advice. As a bonus, each night fresh towels are provided in the shape of exotic animals (think balloon animals, but with towels).

The dining room features a similar personalized setup. Each couple is assigned to a table of six, attended by the same waiter and assistant waiter every evening. What’s neat is that you really get to know the workers on a personal level. For example, in chatting with our headwaiter, Kemar, I learned that he’s planning to leave Royal Caribbean after seven years to open a restaurant in his native country of Jamaica.

On our last night in the dining room Kemar asked for feedback on the dining room service. Think-ing I was delivering a compliment, I told him that the service had been “really good.”

As politely as ever, he expressed his gratitude for my kind words, but added something I’ll never forget. “Mr. Phillips, for us ‘really good’ is not good enough. We want your experience to be excellent in every way possible.”

Setting the barAs I filled out the guest satisfaction survey later that night, I gave Royal Caribbean high marks. Our

experience was truly excellent, but not for the obvious reasons. The food was good, but I’ve certainly had better. The stops were nice, although our preplanned snorkeling excursion in St. Thomas was rained out. The ship was great, but even a self-contained city at sea has its limitations.

What made our adventure so memorable and worry-free was the staff stationed throughout the ship. Every crew member on board was helpful, pleasant, and prompt, from those we interacted with every day to those we encountered just once. Most important, from departure to docking each staff member seemed to have a shared but personal mission to ensure that our experience was truly excellent.

Their calling, on behalf of Royal Caribbean, is not unlike the charge given to us. Paul says it plainly: “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us” (2 Cor. 5:20).

In light of such a clear mandate, here’s my question, posed both to you and back at me: When visitors step inside our churches, do we feel personally accountable to ensure that their experience is truly excellent? If not, shouldn’t we? After all, we’re after much more than repeat business and tips; our endgame is to be conduits for the Holy Spirit to save souls.

The mission of an ambassador is to perfectly represent the wishes and values of the one on whose behalf he or she is sent. Imagine the power that would exude from our churches if each of us came on Sabbath morning with this sole focus. It might change the way we build our programs, maintain the grounds, and dress. More important, it would affect the way we act toward those we don’t recognize, those who look as though they don’t belong, or those who are obviously struggling.

In the cruise industry there’s something called the Crown and Anchor Society, an exclusive membership level for repeat guests. The “crown society” I want to join is in heaven. If I live as God’s earthly ambassador, perhaps others will want to come too. n

JIMMY PHILLIPS ([email protected]) WRITES FROM BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA, WHERE HE IS DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND

COMMUNICATIONS FOR SAN JOAqUIN COMMUNITy HOSPITAL. VISIT HIS WEB SITE: INTRODUCINGTHEWHy.COM.

Introducing the Why

Jimmy Phillips


by MERLIN bURT

eventh-day Adventist doctrine and theology today is directly

influenced by the teaching and experience that grew out of

1888 and the 1890s. Those years have yielded three significant

and foundational developments: A new clarity on the role of

the Ten Commandments in relation to salvation, reframing the

third angel’s message of Revelation 14 in terms of righteousness by faith

in Jesus, and a shift toward a biblical Trinitarian understanding.

The Role of the Law in Salvation“Wherefore the law was our school-

master to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster” (Gal. 3:24, 25, KJV). This text launched the new emphasis on righteousness by faith for the Seventh-day Adventist Church leading up to the

1888 Minneapolis, Minnesota, General Conference session. It had been contro-versial through much of the history of the church. The fundamental question was whether the law referred to was the Ten Commandments or was it the sys-tem of sacrifices and ceremonies con-nected to the earthly sanctuary service?

An important point for this discus-

Heart and Soul: Theology1888

JesusFaithof

The

JesusFaithof

The

JesusFaithof

The


trust in themselves, and seek for justi-fication by personal obedience, instead of seeking to the Savior for it.”3

Waggoner unfortunately took an additional step and excluded the cere-monial law from Galatians. “Respecting [the] letter to the Galatians,” he wrote, “not a single declaration has been found therein which can be referred to the cer-emonial or Levitical law.”4 This was awkward for Seventh-day Adventist ministers who, in debate with other Protestant ministers, had argued that the ceremonial, and not the moral law, was a shadow that pointed us to Christ.

Waggoner’s book was withdrawn, and the position in print over the next 30 years presented the ceremonial law as the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The conflict grew during the mid-1880s when Waggoner’s son E. J.

Waggoner presented in the Signs of the Times that the law in Galatians 3:24, 25 was the moral law. Church leaders G. I. Butler and Uriah Smith saw this as an attempt to revive an old argument that had been debunked.

Tragically, many in the church were legalistic in their approach to the Ten Commandments. Ellen White would write in 1890: “As a people, we have preached the law until we are as dry as the hills of Gilboa that had neither dew nor rain.”5 Waggoner, like his father, presented the gospel in relation to the Ten Commandments. The law con-demns us, and drives us to Jesus as the only Savior who can forgive our sins.

The surface issue in 1888 was the law in Galatians. But the real problem was indifference to righteousness by faith. Butler and Waggoner both published

sion is that righteousness by faith was not a new idea in 1888. During the early 1850s Adventist leaders such as James White and J. N. Andrews had taught that the moral law pointed us to Jesus. In an 1851 tract Andrews wrote: “How is the law a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ? Answer. The law shows our guilt and just condemnation, and that we are lost without a Savior.”1 A year later James White wrote: “Those who repre-sent Sabbathkeepers as going away from Jesus, the only source of justifica-tion, and rejecting His atoning blood, and seeking justification by the law, do it either ignorantly or wickedly.”2

But J. H. Waggoner’s 1854 tract shows that the matter continued to require address. He admonished readers that “if it were even possible for them to keep [the law], it would lead them to

JesusFaithJesusFaithJesusFaith


tracts with their respective positions on the law in Galatians.6 In his conclusion Waggoner lamented Butler’s reference to “the much vaunted doctrine of justifi-cation by faith,” and continued: “[your] theory leads inevitably to the conclusion that men are justified by the law. . . . I conclude that it is impossible to overesti-mate the doctrine of justification by faith.”7

Ellen White’s response on the law in Galatians eventually bridged the two views: “ ‘What law is the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ?’ I answer: Both the ceremonial and the moral code of the Ten Commandments. Christ was the founda-tion of the whole Jewish economy.”8

In the end, Adventists accepted that the law represented in Galatians was both the moral and ceremonial law, with a particular relevance for the moral law.

The “Faith of Jesus” and the Third Angel’s Message

The new emphasis on Jesus and sal-vation was soon linked to a core theo-logical foundation of the Seventh-day Adventist Church—the third angel’s message. “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the com-

ence with Jesus. Just before a praise meeting he said, “ ‘Justified by faith’ . . . we shall see the whole law of God writ-ten in the heart and shining in the life, and the words: ‘Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.’ All . . . is reflected and shines in Jesus Christ.”11 Ellen White emphatically supported the gospel connection to the “faith of Jesus,” writing, “It is the third angel’s message in verity.”12

This critical development made the gospel the heart of the third angel’s mes-sage. It placed the law of God in a correct relationship to a living faith in Jesus. The three angels of Revelation 14 are framed with the gospel. They begin with the “everlasting gospel” to the entire world and end with the “faith of Jesus.”

The Divinity of Jesus and the Godhead

Up to the 1890s most Seventh-day Adventists were anti-Trinitarian. They viewed God the Father as God in every way, the Son as divine but begotten and having a beginning, and the Holy Spirit reduced to merely a manifestation of either the Father or the Son. Today we have a biblical doctrine of the Godhead in part because of the emphasis on Jesus and the plan of salvation as pre-sented after 1888.

During the 1890s Jones played an important role in presenting the eternal deity of Jesus. During his 1895 series on the third angel’s message, he returned repeatedly to Colossians 2:9. Christ was the “fullness of the Godhead bodily.” “The eternal Word consented to be made flesh. God became man.”13 Two days later, speaking of Christ, Jones said: “In view of eternity before and eternity after, thirty-three years is not such an infinite sacrifice after all. But when we consider that he sank his nature in our human nature to all eter-nity—that is a sacrifice.”14

mandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12, KJV).

Early Adventists understood the “faith of Jesus” as something that needed to be kept. It was descriptive of Jesus’ faith that we emulate. It included “the New Testament requirements, such as repentance, faith, baptism, Lord’s Supper, washing the saints’ feet, etc.”

that Jesus practiced.9 This position coun-tered those in the Protestant world who considered those requirements to be the “commandments of God.” By identify-ing them as the “faith of Jesus,” Adventists distinguished and preserved the peren-nial imperatives of the Ten Command-ments and the Sab-bath. Waggoner and Jones’ interpretation seemed to some to be supporting the anti-

Sabbatarian Protestant position. Ellen White recognized that Advent-

ists’ original interpretation had weak-ened the living power of the gospel when she wrote: “The commandments of God have been proclaimed, but the faith of Jesus has not been proclaimed by Seventh-day Adventists as of equal importance, the law and the gospel going hand in hand.”10

Waggoner and Jones constantly emphasized the “faith of Jesus” in the third angel’s message. A. T. Jones titled his lengthy series of sermons in the Gen-eral Conference Bulletin of 1893 and 1895, “The Third Angel’s Message.” A careful reading reveals that much of the presen-tation was focused on the “faith of Jesus” in Revelation 14:12. He inter-preted it as an active and living experi-


1851), p. 22.2 [James White], “Justified by the Law,” Review and

Herald, June 10, 1852.3 Joseph H. Waggoner, The Law of God: An Examina-

tion of the Testimony of Both Testaments (Rochester, N.Y.: Advent Review, 1854), pp. 93, 94.

4 Ibid., p. 74; see also pp. 80, 81, 98, 108.5 Ellen G. White, “Christ Prayed for Unity Among

His Disciples,” Review and Herald, Mar. 11, 1890.6 George I. Butler, The Law in the Book of Galatians: Is It

the Moral Law, or Does It Refer to That System of Laws Pecu-liarly Jewish? (Battle Creek, Mich.: Review and Herald Pub. House, 1886); Ellet J. Waggoner, The Gospel in the Book of Galatians: A Review (Oakland: n. p., 1888).

7 E. J. Waggoner, The Gospel in the Book of Galatians, pp. 70, 71.

8 The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 6, p. 1109.

9 [James White], “The Third Angel’s Message, Rev. xiv 9-12,” Present Truth, April 1850; see also Uriah Smith, Thoughts, Critical and Practical, on the Book of Reve-lation (Battle Creek, Mich.: Seventh-day Adventist Pub. Assn., 1881), p. 301.

10 Ellen G. White manuscript 24, 1888, in Ellen G. White, Ellen G. White Manuscript Releases (Silver Spring,

Md.: Ellen G. White Estate, 1990-1993), vol. 12, p. 193.11 Alonzo T. Jones, “The Third Angel’s Message—No.

19,” General Conference Bulletin, Feb. 27, 1895; see also E. J. Waggoner, The Gospel in the Book of Galatians, p. 70.

12 Ellen G. White, “Repentance the Gift of God,” Review and Herald, Apr. 1, 1890.

13 Alonzo T. Jones, “The Third Angel’s Message— No. 17,” General Conference Bulletin, Feb. 25, 1895.

14 Alonzo T. Jones, “The Third Angel’s Message— No. 20,” General Conference Bulletin, Feb. 27, 1895.

15 Alonzo T. Jones, “Editorial,” Review and Herald, Jan. 10, 1899.

16 Ellen G. White, “An Appeal to the Ministers,” Review and Herald, Aug. 8, 1878.

17 Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1898), p. 530.

18 Ibid., p. 671.

MERLIN BURT IS DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR ADVENTIST RESEARCH, ANDREWS UNIVERSITy.

In 1899, as editor of the Review and Her-ald, he wrote of the Godhead in a Trini-tarian way: “God is one. Jesus Christ is one. The Holy Sprit is one. And these three are one: there is no dissent nor division among them.”15 Though Jones gave par-ticular emphasis to the eternity of Jesus, Ellen White is probably the first to point to Jesus’ eternity. During the 1870s she described Jesus as the “eternal Son of God.”16 During the 1890s she would write some of the clearest statements on the Godhead and divine nature of Jesus. In 1898 she wrote, “In Christ is life, origi-nal, unborrowed, underived.”17 She also affirmed the personhood and divinity of the Holy Spirit who was “the Third Per-son of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the full-ness of divine power.”18

ConclusionWe can be grateful for each of these

important doctrinal developments that are now part of Seventh-day Adventist faith. As a result of careful Bible study, through the leadership of Waggoner, Jones, and White, we rediscovered the emphasis on righteousness by faith during the 1890s. As God’s command-ment-keeping remnant we cherish the role of the law in both showing us our sin and pointing us to Jesus as our only Savior. As bearers to the whole world of God’s truth for these last days, we com-mit to sharing the three angels’ mes-sages as a proclamation of the gospel in light of the Sabbath, sanctuary, and soon coming of Jesus. And as we worship Him who made heaven and earth, and the sea and the fountains of waters, I pray that this adoration may be repre-sentative of the God whose love and character are revealed in a biblical understanding of the Trinity. n

1 John N. Andrews, Thoughts on the Sabbath, and the Perpetuity of the Law of God (Paris, Maine: James White,



by bILL AND ShAwN bRACE

1888

early 125 years ago Ellen White offered a courageously orienting decla-

ration of Adventism’s true calling. Writing in 1890, she boldly pro-

claimed, “One interest will prevail, one subject will swallow up every

other—Christ our righteousness.”1

This was Ellen White’s singular focus.

For much of her ministry, however, both before and after the 1888 General Conference

session, sadness overwhelmed her heart as she realized that this subject was scarcely

acknowledged. This is why, when she heard that same message proclaimed by two

young upstart preachers, Alonzo T. Jones and Ellet J. Waggoner, she recounted that “every

fiber of my heart said, Amen.”2 What they heralded she called a “most precious mes-

sage.” It was to go to every church and “given to the world.”3 In fact, she proposed, it was

the “loud cry” of Revelation 18 that was to “lighten the whole earth with its glory.”4

But what made it “most precious”—to the point that Ellen White eagerly traveled

with the two young men, heralding its beauty?

another Perspective


tude toward humanity; an attitude of faith and confidence in what His grace could accomplish in the lives of sinners. “His practiced eye saw in you great pos-sibilities,” Waggoner wrote in 1890, “and He bought you, not for what you were then or are now worth, but for what He could make of you.”9

Waggoner’s logical conclusion of this idea was that Christ must have there-fore justified the existence of all humankind at Calvary. “As the condem-nation came upon all, so the justifica-tion comes upon all,” he wrote.10 Indeed, “the judgment will reveal the fact that full and complete salvation was given to every man, and that the lost have deliberately thrown away their birthright possession.”11 Thus, Christ’s death actually accomplished something for everyone—even if that accomplish-ment does not end in every person enjoying eternity.

Ellen White echoes this concept in affirming that “for every human being, Christ has paid the election price. No one need be lost. All have been redeemed.”12

An Effective SaviorWriting in 1890, Ellen White passion-

ately highlighted a critical component of this message: “There is not a point that needs to be dwelt upon more earnestly, repeated more frequently, or established more firmly in the minds of all, than the impossibility of fallen man meriting any-thing by his own best good works.”13

This was the crux of the problem. Many were trying to save themselves by their own good works. These feeble attempts, however, were not only mani-fested in trying to earn God’s forgive-ness through obedience, but also by trying to produce obedience in one’s life after conversion. Both were futile.

At the root of Jones’ and Waggoner’s understanding was their unique insight into the covenants. The old and new covenants didn’t necessarily speak of time periods, they proposed, but the experiences of those living in any age.

“The first [old] covenant,” Jones sub-mitted, “rested upon the promises of the people, and depended solely upon the efforts of the people. The second [new] covenant consists solely of the promise of God, and depends upon the power and work of God.”14

It was within this context that souls were invited to receive by faith Christ’s righteousness—both its imputed and imparted aspects.

A Complete SaviorPerhaps the greatest achievement of

their message was its balance between the law and gospel—which, according to Ellen White, must always go “hand in hand.”15 It avoided the ditch of legalism by giving the assurance of forgiveness; and it avoided the ditch of “cheap grace” by showing that a faith-filled life results in complete obedience. As Ellen White wrote in 1895, receiving Christ’s righ-teousness is “made manifest in obedi-ence to all the commandments of God.”

This is because White, Jones, and Waggoner appreciated the ability of the gospel, when fully understood and embraced, to change one’s heart and save him or her from sin—not in sin. This is all accomplished through “an appreciation of the cost of salvation.”16

This was, after all, the goal of the gos-pel and the ultimate goal of Jones’ and Waggoner’s ministry. “The Lord has raised up Brother Jones and Brother Waggoner,” Ellen White declared in 1893,

JOnes’ and WaggOner’s

“MOST PRECIOUS MESSAGE”

FlOWed FrOm their emPhasis

On the centrality OF

Jesus.

Perhaps the most succinct explanation is her summary from 1895: “This mes-sage,” she wrote, “was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Savior, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It presented justifica-tion through faith in the Surety; it invited people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedi-ence to all the commandments of God. Many had lost sight of Jesus. They needed to have their eyes directed to His divine person, His merits, and His changeless love for the human family.”5

An Uplifted SaviorJones’ and Waggoner’s “most pre-

cious message” flowed from their emphasis on the centrality of Jesus. Prior to this, Adventists were guilty of preaching “the law until we are as dry as the hills of Gilboa.”6

But the two lifted up Jesus—both His divinity and humanity. Concerning the former, they sought to herald His full divinity, maintaining, contrary to the pre-vailing Adventist sentiment, that Christ was not created but was eternal. For, Wag-goner proposed, “no one who holds this view [that Christ was created] can possi-bly have any just conception of the exalted position which Christ really occupies.”7

This was held in tension with Christ’s humanity. One could be appreciated only in light of the other. Thus, Wag-goner declared that one of the “most encouraging things in the Bible” was to realize that “Christ took on Him the nature of man” in its sinful condition, and that “His ancestors according to the flesh were sinners.”8 This remained a central part of their proclamation throughout their ministries.

A Universal SaviorIn Ellen White’s 1895 summary she

mentioned that a core component of the message was Christ dying as “the sacri-fice for the sins of the whole world.”

This teaching stemmed from a unique understanding of Christ’s atti-


sacrifice, and showing what God will accomplish in the lives of those who embrace His love—was a much fuller explanation of the gospel than existed both within and without Adventism.

This message has still not been given the fullest expression it deserves. Rec-ognizing our own need, we appeal to all to proclaim this powerful message that has been ordained to “lighten the whole earth with its glory.”20 n

1 Ellen G. White, in Review and Herald, Dec. 23, 1890.2 Ellen G. White, The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials

(Washington, D.C.: Ellen G. White Estate, 1987), p. 349.3 Ibid., pp. 1336, 1337.4 Ibid., p. 1575.5 Ibid., p. 1336.6 Ellen G. White, in Review and Herald, Mar. 11, 1890.7 Ellet J. Waggoner, Christ and His Righteousness (Oak-

land: Pacific Press Pub. Co., 1890), p. 20.8 Ibid., p. 61.9 Ibid., p. 72. Compare with Ellen G. White, Christ’s

Object Lessons (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1900), p. 118.

10 Ellet J. Waggoner, in Present Truth, Oct. 18, 1894.11 Ellet J. Waggoner, The Glad Tidings (Oakland: Pacific

Press Pub. Co., 1900), pp. 22, 23. They saw their grow-ing views on what some label as “universal justifica-tion” as the logical outworking of their understanding of Christ’s faith in humanity.

12 The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 7, p. 944.

13 E. G. White, 1888 Materials, p. 811.14 Alonzo T. Jones, in Review and Herald, July 24, 1900.15 Ellen G. White, in Review and Herald, Sept. 3, 1889.16 Ibid., July 24, 1888.17 E. G. White, 1888 Materials, p. 1814.18 E. J. Waggoner, Christ and His Righteousness, pp. 65, 66.19 Ellet J. Waggoner, in Signs of the Times, Dec. 28, 1888.20 E. G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 228.

BILL AND SHAWN

BRACE ARE

SEVENTH-DAy

ADVENTIST

MINISTERS IN THE

SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND

CONFERENCES, RESPECTIVELy. TOGETHER THEy EDIT

THE MAGAZINE new enGland paStor.

“to proclaim a message to the world to prepare a people to stand in the day of God.”17 This was in the context of the cleansing of the sanctuary and the third angel’s message.

Waggoner and Jones both grasped this, with the former writing in 1890, “And so we find when Christ covers us with the robe of His own righteousness, He does not furnish a cloak for sin but takes the sin away. And this shows that the forgive-ness of sins is something more than a mere form, something more than a mere entry in the books of record in heaven. . . . And if [a person] is cleared from guilt, is justified, made righteous, he has certainly undergone a radical change.” Indeed, “the new heart is a heart that loves righteous-ness and hates sin.”18

He was simply echoing what he had written after the 1888 General Conference session: “When the Lord comes there will be a company who will be found ‘com-plete in him.’. . . To perfect this work in the hearts of individuals . . . is the work of the third angel’s message.”19

ConclusionLike Ellen White and her contempo-

raries, we have had our hearts strangely warmed by this message. We recognize there is a beautiful uniqueness to what Jones and Waggoner—along with Ellen White—proclaimed. Their message—explaining the depth of Christ and His


Story

by LEE SChAPPELL

here most of the day,” Elsa replied.From an immense yellow wrap-

around bill we heard a weak cheep.I remember a time in my life that I

had fallen from a lofty height, and the sudden stop at the bottom had knocked the wind out of me. I was broken, alone, and thoroughly exhausted from an extended, fruitless struggle to regain my footing. There appeared to be not a hint of hope on the horizon.

If we Don’t, who will? “Maybe I should move him to a

cooler spot; maybe in the grass over there in the shade,” I offered.

“We should at least give him some water,” Elsa suggested.

I gently picked up the little fellow, cra-dling him in my fingers. I laid him in the cool grass on the shady side of the build-ing. Then I trotted back inside the store, where a salesman filled a bottle with cool water. I pirated a small cardboard carton from the shipping department.

Seeking a delivery system for the water, I scanned the surrounding land-scape, and there it was: long and slim,

like a little bottle brush, with rows and rows of tiny blossoms on a three-inch-long head, perfect for

capturing and holding dozens of drop-lets of water. Dunking the weed into the bottle, I touched the tip to the bird’s bill, which immediately opened for me to shake in a shower of refreshing moisture.

Cheep! he said, which we interpreted as “Do it again, bub!” So I did, again and again. As I stood up Elsa and I looked at each other for a moment, then uttered in unison, “Well . . .”

Cheep! Cheep! came the frantic call from the ground.

Returning our attention to our dis-

On a particularly hot Friday afternoon, the beginning of Memorial Day weekend, most folk had already pulled the plug on busi-

ness activities and begun the mad rush to the mountains, the beach, the ball game, the hammock.

My New Earth Band had an upcoming concert, for which I had to swing by one of my musical apparatus suppliers to pick up an essential item. I was in the store but a moment, and as I emerged, my wife, Elsa, said, “There must be a fallen bird over there, because employ-ees leaving the building keep asking, ‘Is that bird still there?’ ”

I asked Elsa, “Would you like to take a look?”

“Sure,” she responded.Hunkered down on his little belly,

alone on that sizzling asphalt parking lot, was the tiniest baby bird I had ever seen. No bigger than a golf ball, he had no plumage, save a tuft of fuzz crown-ing his head, just a wisp atop each shoulder, and a teeny stub where he would eventually require a tail. I could

see blood vessels through his semi-transparent pink and purple flesh. His wings resembled miniature marimbas, merely two little racks of delicate bones. His eyes were closed in exhaustion, and he heaved slowly as he labored to breathe in the afternoon sun.

Scattered around him on the ground were pieces of a broken nest. Siblings or adult birds were nowhere in sight. The little dude was in a pickle.

“This little nipper is being slow-cooked on the tarmac!” I whispered.

“Yes, and he’s apparently been out

Bird 9-1-1HE WOuLdn’T MAkE IT On HIs OWn. AND hE STILL MIGhT Not.


cient delivery system: a medium-sized eyedropper. Rocky grasped its intended purpose at first sight, and promptly opened the hatch whenever he saw us approaching with that dropper in hand.

For Rocky’s first meal, Elsa prepared a concoction of crushed dry cat food, mixed with a little bit of raw egg, a gen-erous spoonful of wheat germ, and a goodly measure of a powdered food supplement, along with a small dash of milk. When mixed together, those ingre-dients morphed into a gritty, olive-green pudding. Aesthetics aside, it offered a powerhouse of nutrition, so I offered the earth-toned muck on the skinny handle of a spoon to the little guy.

Rocky was unable to hold his head up to take food. But in a delightfully inven-tive maneuver our unfeathered friend wobbled over to the side of the box, rested the bottom of his bill in the cor-ner, and propped his head in an upward-facing position. Immediately that enormous yellow beak opened wide, and Rocky proceeded to wolf down that gourmet dinner mixture!

We took turns feeding our scrawny guest every hour or two, with copious amounts of water interjected between his mealtime blitzes. In just a matter of a few days patches of downy fuzz began to appear on his wings and on his back. In addition, he was beginning to navi-gate around the box with ease, and soon was climbing up the front of my shirt to sit on my shoulder or nestle into the crook of my neck.

Time to FlyRocky, whom Ken identified as a

European starling, appeared to grow with each passing day. Just a week into his rehab he had outgrown his little car-ton. So one evening I built a spiffy two-square-foot cage furnished with a network of branches strategically posi-tioned to facilitate climbing, hopping, and fluttering around his new home. Rocky seemed to acquire these, and additional skills, one day to the next.

After three weeks Rocky had grown into a strong, healthy, great-looking super-starling. The bad news was that he loved that olive-drab pudding con-coction so much that he had no interest in insects, worms, and more conven-tional bird fare. Besides, Rocky had become so tame that he permitted us to scratch his belly and rub his head, and he even allowed Elsa to help him pick the dried food from his face!

We knew it was time to take the next step. I phoned a wildlife shelter in the adjacent county, told them our winged amigo’s story, and asked whether they would be willing to prepare him to return to the wild. It was a somber

90-minute ride in my pickup truck that afternoon. Rocky clung to my right hand most of the way, while I drove with my left. There’s no question it was the right thing to do.

Two weeks later we received an e-mail message from the people at the shelter, notifying us that Rocky had been released onto the grounds of the shelter, along with several other starlings, and that he seemed to be doing just fine.

I firmly believe that our heavenly Father led us to Rocky, then blessed us with this living experience so that we might gain a more complete under-standing of what He has done for us, and for Adam’s entire fallen race.

Elsa and I still talk and laugh about Rocky, respinning his saga, and showing our amazing photos of the little nipper. In fact, we readily agreed, right from the day we heard that Rocky had been set free, that, given the opportunity, we would do it all again, because of the tre-mendous satisfaction we received from rescuing a precious life from certain demise; and most of all, because Some-one had first done the same for us. n

LEE SCHAPPELL LIVES WITH ELSA

IN READING, PENNSyLVANIA.

tressed friend, we were pleased and sur-prised to see that he had risen from his hunkered-down posture and was now wobbling weakly on his toothpicklike legs.

Cheep! Cheep! translated to “More H2O, please!”

“If we leave him here, he’s sure to become somebody’s supper.”

“Do you want to take him home with us?” asked Elsa.

In the aftermath of my fall, a friendly face had been hard to find. There had been an occasional sympathetic look, a brief word of encouragement, then a rapid exit. My rescue finally came when I called on the One who promised never to leave me or forsake me. He took me in, cared for my needs, restored my strength, and set me on a brand-new path.

Down to businessI knew we were buying ourselves one

serious project, but still, how could we have closed our eyes and tried to sleep that night, knowing we had left the little guy defenseless on the ground? We pulled up fistfuls of grass and carefully lined that corrugated box to cradle its fragile occupant.

“We’ll call you Rocky,” I assured him as I lowered him into his makeshift nest, “because you’re one gnarly little scrapper.”

On the way home I used my cell phone to call some friends who are

knowledgeable about wild birds. Karin suggested we grind up some dry cat food for him, because it is high in protein. But her husband, Ken, said, “Nah,

he won’t make it.”Ken’s comment made me all the more

determined. I understood that I had elected to interfere with nature’s course, and I was fully aware of the responsibility I had placed on my wife and me. So what’s a guy to do in a situa-tion such as this? Well, he prays! We asked God’s guidance in caring for His precious little critter. Then we knuckled down to the task.

To replenish the water he had undoubtedly lost during his long day in the sun, we came up with a more effi-

“is that bird still there?”

HE WOuLdn’T MAkE IT On HIs OWn. AND hE STILL MIGhT Not.



ellenWhite’sBurden

whAT IS MOST

CRUCIALTO OUR

ChURCh’S MISSION

by DENIS FORTIN

My burden during the meeting was to present Jesus and His love before my brethren, for I saw marked evidences that

many had not the Spirit of Christ.”1

With these words Ellen White sum-marized her thoughts and feelings about what she perceived to be the real issue of what happened at the General Conference session in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the fall of 1888. She saw that many hardworking ministers of our church were not really in commu-nion with Christ and that our church was in grave danger of seeing its mis-sion derailed. Above all else, she per-ceived her ministry at the session to have been redemptive.

what happenedFor a few years before the eventful

session, ministers had been debating fiercely a few concepts among them-selves in the pages of the two most prominent publications of the church, the Review and Herald in Battle Creek, Michigan, and the Signs of the Times, in Oakland, California. The unsuspecting initiators of these acrimonious discus-sions were the two young editors of the Signs of the Times, A. T. Jones, and E. J.

1888

According to Ellen White’s family and friends, she considered this engraving of Christ “the most nearly correct of any picture she had ever seen” (W. C. White to Fred Harvey, April 25, 1935). The Ellen G. White Estate cautions that there is nothing in Ellen White’s writing regarding this picture.

“

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Waggoner. Jones, a self-educated Bible scholar and historian, taught that the northern European tribe of the Ale-manni, not the Asian Huns (as taught by Uriah Smith), was one of the 10 horns or kingdoms of Daniel 7. Waggoner, like his father, J. H. Waggoner, 30 years before, taught that the schoolmaster law Paul refers to in Galatians 3:24 should be understood as the moral law of the Ten Commandments. George I. Butler, current General Conference president, opposed Waggoner’s view.

This debate was characterized as the old guard defending the true teachings of the church against new heresies. Ellen White spent numerous sleepless nights worrying over the bitter religious conflict.

who Is Right?When E. J. Waggoner began to teach

views similar to what his father and other pioneers had taught 30 years ear-lier, Elders Butler and Smith were quick to point out that Ellen White had had a vision on the subject in 1854 and had written to J. H. Waggoner that the law in Galatians was the ceremonial law rather than the moral law. However, when asked to produce this document, Ellen White was unable to find it.

In a letter to Jones and Waggoner in February 1887 she recalled that she had written to J. H. Waggoner “that I had been shown [that] his position in regard to the law was incorrect,” but that she could not recall exactly what was incorrect about it. One thing was clear to her, however: the various posi-tions on the law in Galatians “are not vital points” and they should not be made a controversial and divisive issue.2

Two months later, in a letter to Butler and Smith, she again referred to the lost letter and pointed out that the counsel may not have been on doctrine at all. “It may be that it was a caution not to make

“While [christ’s] sPirit Pervades the sOul, then there Will be unity.”

P H OTO : E L L E N G. W H I T E ESTAT E


energy to attend the Minneapolis ses-sion and engage this issue in person. But remembering her words to her dying husband seven years earlier and her commitment to stand by her post of duty, she decided that “to walk out by faith against all appearances was the very thing that the Lord required me to do.”4 As she stepped out by faith, day by day she gained more strength.

Personal bible Study Ellen White insisted that she had not

been shown the answer to the question of the law in Galatians. The issue needed to be settled by prayerful Bible study. “Truth,” she claimed, “will lose nothing by investigation.”5 Some of Waggoner’s interpretations were incorrect, she found. But “the fact that he honestly holds some views of Scripture differing from yours or mine is no reason why we should treat him as an offender, or as a dangerous man, and make him the sub-ject of unjust criticism.”6 While she did not recall clearly what she had said in the 1850s, she did not want her opinion on the matter to settle this debate. Set-tling matters of biblical interpretations was not how she saw her ministry.

Instead she recommended a deep and humble study of Scripture.

“I take the Bible just as it is, as the Inspired Word,” she said at the session. “I believe its utterances in an entire Bible. . . . Men of humble acquirements, possessing but limited capabilities and opportunities to become conversant in the Scriptures, find in the living oracles comfort, guidance, counsel, and the plan of salvation as clear as a sunbeam. No one need be lost for want of knowledge, unless he is willfully blind. We thank God that the Bible is prepared for the poor man as well as for the learned man. It is fitted for all ages and all classes.”7

For her, Waggoner’s major contribu-tion was in building a bridge between the law and the gospel: “I see the beauty of truth in the presentation of the righ-teousness of Christ in relation to the law as the doctor has placed it before us” she told the assembly in Minneapolis.8

In the months following the session, Ellen White joined Waggoner and Jones in presenting this perspective on the law and the gospel. “Holding up Christ as our only source of strength, present-ing His matchless love in having the guilt of the sins of men charged to His account and His own righteousness imputed to man, in no case does away with the law or detracts from its dignity. Rather, it places it where the correct light shines upon and glorifies it. This is done only through the light reflected from the cross of Calvary.”9

Love in human RelationshipsIn her many communications with all

those involved in this bitter controversy, Ellen White’s goal was to bring people closer to Jesus and closer to one another. Her ministry sought for recon-ciliation and redemption. Human rela-tionships mattered a great deal to her, and her many counsels in her letters and sermons highlight her emphasis on the love of Jesus.

One such counsel was written to Wil-liam Healey, a pastor in California, who sided with Butler and Smith and likely instigated some of the rumors against Jones, Waggoner, and Ellen White her-self. She wrote to him shortly after the

his [J. H. Waggoner’s] ideas prominent at that time, for there was great danger of disunion.”3 In other words, she claimed that her ministry in regard to this issue in the 1850s had been pasto-ral rather than hermeneutical or exeget-ical, and she still claimed the same pastoral ministry in 1887.

Butler and Smith, however, disagreed with that recollection, holding that Ellen White had seen in vision that J. H. Wag-goner had been wrong theologically. Hence, in their view, not only was this issue posing a threat to the traditional Adventist teaching on the perpetuity and immutability of the Ten Command-ments, and the cherished doctrine of the Sabbath, but it also threatened Ellen White’s own prophetic ministry and reliability if she changed her mind on theological issues—that is, of course, if her ministry is understood as clearing up biblical uncertainties. Ellen White was thus caught in the middle of this conflict because she was not willing to decide who was right.

walking Out by FaithOverwhelmed with discouragement,

Ellen White felt she did not have the


end of the session. “I have [now] told you that my views are not changed in regard to the law in Galatians. But if we have had the truth upon this subject our brethren have failed to be sanctified through it; the fruits are not after Christ’s order, but bitter as gall.”10 Her counsels may be summarized as follows:

1. Let the Holy Spirit guide your mind. To Jones and Waggoner, many months before the Minneapolis session, as the conflict was taking speed, she coun-seled: “There is altogether too little of the love of Christ in the hearts of those who claim to believe the truth. While all their hopes are centered in Jesus Christ, while His Spirit pervades the soul, then there will be unity, although every idea may not be exactly the same on all points.”11 Thus the Holy Spirit desires unity in spite of variations of interpre-tation among believers.

2. We will never understand all Bible truth. According to Ellen White, it is mistaken to assume that any one side in a conflict over interpretation understands and possesses

all the truth. To Jones and Waggoner she stated, “The Bible is but yet dimly under-stood. A lifelong prayerful study of its sacred revealings will leave still much unexplained.”12 And to Butler and Smith: “But let none feel that we know all the truth the Bible proclaims.”13 To the assem-bly in Minneapolis she acknowledged, “We are to be ever searching for the truth as for hidden treasures.”14

3. There can be dire consequences to inter-nal conflicts. The consequences of strife and contentions are tragic and eternal. “There has been a door thrown open for variance and strife and contention and differences which none of you can see but God. . . . The bitterness, the wrath, the resentment, the jealousies, the heart burnings provoked by controversies of

both sides of the question causes the loss of many souls.”15

4. We need a daily experience with Jesus. During the Minneapolis session Ellen White spoke a number of times. On Sab-bath afternoon, October 13, she felt led by the Lord to speak of the love of God. “The blessing of the Lord rested upon me and put words in my mouth and I had much freedom in trying to impress upon our brethren the importance of dwelling upon the love of God much more and let gloomy pictures alone. The effect on the people was most happy,” she wrote to her daughter-in-law. “Believers and unbelievers bore testi-mony that the Lord had blessed them in the word spoken and that from this time they would not look on the dark side . . . but talk of the goodness and the love and compassion of Jesus, and praise God more.”16

This became her major emphasis in the weeks and months following the session. Love for Jesus will produce love toward one another. Already to Wag-

goner and Jones she had written that “looking to Jesus, learning of Jesus, obtaining the love of Jesus” will melt hearts “in tenderness toward each other.”17 During

the conference she realized that a differ-ent spirit was animating most of the ministers. “We all know better than to do as we have done,” she wrote. “If Christ were abiding in the soul we could not but reveal Christ’s forbearance, Christ’s courtesy, and the love of Christ. All this hard, unkind, uncourteous spirit manifested toward brethren is regis-tered in the books of heaven as mani-fested toward Jesus Christ.”18

5. More than anything else, we must learn to let the love of Christ abide in our hearts. “The love of Christ must be an abiding principle in the heart, that will bear fruit in love and tenderness and respect for one another. The love of the truth, the doing of the words of Christ, would soften and subdue our hearts. The

purity and goodness and love of the great heart of Jesus must be reflected upon our hearts and revealed in our characters, that we may be partakers of the divine nature and have tender com-passion for each other.”19

ConclusionPerhaps the most compelling lesson

Ellen White would have us learn from the 1888 General Conference session and its famous doctrinal conflicts is that there is never a reason that justi-fies an un-Christlike spirit in our con-versations with brothers and sisters. Although we may not agree with each other on all points of teachings and interpretations, Christ’s Spirit must abide in our hearts. n

1 Ellen G. White manuscript 24, 1888, in Ellen G. White, The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials (Washington, D.C.: Ellen G. White Estate, 1987), p. 216.

2 Ellen G. White letter 37, Feb. 18, 1887, to E. J. Wag-goner and A. T. Jones, in Ellen G. White, Ellen G. White Manuscript Releases (Silver Spring, Md.: Ellen G. White Estate, 1990-1993), vol. 15, pp. 18-20.

3 Ellen G. White letter 13, Apr. 5, 1887, to George I. Butler and Uriah Smith, in Manuscript Releases, vol. 16, p. 281.

4 Ellen G. White manuscript 2, 1888, in 1888 Materi-als, p. 47.

5 Ellen G. White manuscript 15, 1888, in 1888 Mate-rials, p. 163.

6 Ibid., p. 164.7 Ellen G. White manuscript 16, 1888, in Ellen G.

White, Selected Messages (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1958, 1980), book 1, pp. 17, 18.



10 Ellen G. White letter 7, Dec. 9, 1888, to William M. Healey, in 1888 Materials, p. 189.

11 Ellen G. White letter 37, 1887, in 1888 Materials, p. 31.

12 Ibid.13 Ellen G. White letter 13, 1887, in Manuscript

Releases, vol. 16, p. 285.14 Ellen G. White manuscript 15, 1888, in 1888 Mate-

rials, p. 166.15 Ellen G. White letter 37, 1887, in 1888 Materials, p. 26.16 Ellen G. White letter 81, Oct. 9, 1888, to Mary

White, in 1888 Materials, pp. 67, 68. The letter was started on October 9 but finished on October 14.

17 Ellen G. White letter 13, 1887, in Manuscript Releases, vol. 16, p. 285.

18 Ellen G. White manuscript 21, 1888, in 1888 Materials, p. 181.

19 Ibid., p. 176.

DENIS FORTIN IS PROFESSOR OF

THEOLOGy AT THE SEVENTH-DAy

ADVENTIST THEOLOGICAL

SEMINARy OF ANDREWS

UNIVERSITy.

“i see the beauty OF truth in the PresentatiOn OF the righteOusness OF christ in relatiOn tO the laW as the dOctOr has Placed it beFOre us.”

| www.AdventistReview.org | October 10, 201338

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Spirit of Prophecy

sabbathAfternoon talk

by ELLEN G. whITE

We have seen of the grace of God since we met you last. Since last spring I have visited Lemoore, Fresno, and

Selma. I was at the Selma camp meeting. During my stay there I was introduced to a tall man—over six feet tall—and well proportioned. When he took my hand he seemed much affected and said, “I am so glad to meet you; I am thankful that I can speak with you.”

After going into the tent a brother came in and said, “That man has a his-tory.” Then he went on and told how a year before he had been converted; how he had once kept the Sabbath but had gone back, and how he claimed that he never had been converted. Then after he gave up the truth he went back into the company of hard cases, and Satan took

complete possession of him. Two or three were linked with him in his wick-edness—men who would not want it to be known that they were in such busi-ness. They stole and did wickedness in every way. . . . He did not care for the spoil of his robberies, but did it for the enjoyment he found in it.

Well, Elder [E. P.] Daniels was holding meetings, and he was speaking on con-fession. What was said seemed to take hold of this man’s mind, and he could not resist. He seemed to turn white, and then left the tent. He could not stand it. He went out and then he came back again. This he did three times; he looked as if he were going to faint away.

After the meeting had closed he said, “I must talk to you, sir.” He told Elder Daniels his condition and said, “Is there any hope for me? I am a lost man; I am undone; I am a sinner. Will you pray for me? I dare not leave this place to go home for fear the Lord will cut me down

in my sins.” He said he could not stay in the tent, and went out again and again, but did not dare remain outside for fear the power of the devil should fasten on him and that would be the last of him.

They prayed for him, and the man was converted right there. The defiant look was gone; his countenance was changed. “Now,” said he, “I have a work to do. I stole thirty-one sheep from that man in Selma, and I must go and confess to him.”

Elder Daniels was afraid to have it known for fear they would shut him up. He said he would rather go to prison and stay there than to think that Christ had not forgiven his sin. So he started, with a young man who before this was engaged with him in thefts, to go and see the man. He met the man on the road and stopped him. The man com-menced to shake like an aspen leaf. He was an infidel. Well, he got on his knees before them in the road and begged to be forgiven.

The man asked, “Where did you get this? What has brought you into this state? I did not know that there was any such religion as this.” They told him that they had been down to the camp meet-ing, and heard it preached there. “Well,” said he, “I will go over to that meeting.”

They confessed to having burned houses and barns. And they went to the grand jury and confessed to having sto-len here and there. Mind, they confessed to the authorities. They said, “We deliver

1888

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www.AdventistReview.org | October 10, 2013 | 39

ourselves up. Do with us as you see fit.”So the case was considered in court,

and they had a council over the matter. One suggested that they better put those men through. The judge looked at him and said, “What, put him through? Put a man through that God is putting through? Would you take hold of a man that God is taking hold of? Whom God’s forgiving power has taken hold of? Would you do that? No, I would rather have my right arm cut off to the shoul-der.” Something got hold of those men so that they all wept as children.

The report of that experience went everywhere. People thought that there was a power in this truth that was in nothing else—a power that shows that Jesus lives. We have seen the power of His grace manifested in many cases in a remarkable manner.

Now, whenever we can see anything encouraging, put it in the paper, and talk about it. Why talk of Satan’s great power and his wonderful works, and say nothing of the majesty and goodness and mercy of our God which falls to the

ground unnoticed? Pick these up, breth-ren, with consecrated hands, pick them up. Hold them high before the world. Talk of the love of God and dwell upon it; thank Him for it. Open the doors of your hearts and show forth your grati-tude and love. Clear away this rubbish which Satan has piled before the door of your heart and let Jesus come in and occupy. Talk of His good-ness and power.

You know how it was with Moses. He felt that he must have an answer to his prayer. He realized the responsibility of leading the people out of Egypt, but he did not go and pick up everything objectionable and dwell on it. He knew they were a stiff-necked people, and he said, “Lord, I must have Thy presence”; and the Lord said, “My presence shall go with thee.” You remember Moses went into the wilder-ness and stayed forty years, during

which time he put away self, and that made room so that he could have the presence of God with him.

He thought if he could have the pres-ence of God’s glory it would help him to carry on this great work. He says, “Shew me thy glory.”

Now that was a man of faith, and God did not rebuke him. God did not call it presumption, but He took that man of faith and put him into the cleft of the rock and put His hand over the rock and showed him all the glory that he could endure. He made His goodness to pass before him, and showed him His good-ness, His mercy, and His love.

If we want God’s glory to pass before us, if we want to have memory’s halls hung with the promises of love and mercy, we want to talk of His glory and tell of His power. And if we have dark and miserable days we can commit these promises to memory and take our minds off discouragement. It would please the devil to think he has both-ered us; but we want to talk of Jesus and His love and His power, because we have nothing better to talk of. n

THIS ARTICLE IS ExCERPTED FROM A

SERMON PREACHED SABBATH

AFTERNOON, OCTOBER 13, 1888 [SEE

ELLEN G. WHITE MANUSCRIPT 7,

1888, IN the ellen G. white 1888

MaterialS, PP. 81-83]. ELLEN G. WHITE, ITS AUTHOR,

WAS ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE SEVENTH-DAy

ADVENTIST CHURCH. HER LIFE AND WORK TESTIFIED

TO THE SPECIAL GUIDANCE OF THE HOLy SPIRIT.

there Was a POWer in this truth that Was in nOthing else—a POWer that shOWs that JESUS LIVES.

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Hope and PeaceIN ThE SILENCE, I AM IN AwE.

* * *I walk the greenhouse with my friend Angie. She talks about the different flowers she has planted: bro-

meliads, Chinese hibiscus, chenille plants, lilies, and orchids. She tells me that these flowers are OK, but her favorite are the African violets. “They take more care, more time, and they are fragile,” she says as her pros-thetic hand touches the leaves of a pink African violet she has called “Hope.” Hope. How perfect.

As the sun filters through the greenhouse, I help Angie check the labels on each of the African violet pots. These will soon be in a new home.

* * *As I pull into the driveway, I am not certain what I will see. It’s been 13 months since I visited

my friend Kathy. As I turn the engine off it seems like an invitation for memories to flood my mind. I remember. I remember finding Kathy in the surgical waiting room, her arm in a sling, bruises on her face, mumbling a prayer. I remember her tears as she told me her 14-year-old daughter, Angie, was in critical condition. I remember sobs as Kathy told me of the car accident, the drunk driver, and Angie’s ongoing surgery to try and save her left arm crushed by the impact. I remember the surgeon’s apologetic face. I remember Angie in the hospital bed asking “Why?” But nobody had answers.

A knock on my car window breaks me away from the past and returns me to the present. Angie. She smiles, and for a moment her resilience makes me forget she has ever suffered pain in her life.

“Come on!” she says. “I want to show you my greenhouse! Dad built it, but I’m in charge of the plants.”

I see Kathy at the door smiling and waving. Much has grown in this home in the past year.* * *

Kathy and I sit at the kitchen table watching Angie and her father load two small crates of African violets into a minivan. As we watch, Kathy tells me that after the accident, when Angie came home, she sat in this very chair, at this very table, and for the first time in her life she was speechless. When words finally found her, her prayer was simple: “Dear God, she is Your daughter. Help us get through this.”

I look at Angie, laughing with her father, then calling to us inside. It’s time to go. It’s time to deliver flowers.* * *

I ring the doorbell. Angie stands next to me holding Hope. I have been invited to participate in an activity that is now part of daily life: delivering flowers to homebound amputees. I hear footsteps coming to the door. Angie greets the woman at the door, then makes herself at home walking upstairs. She knows this family. “Shelly?” Angie calls as we turn the corner and enter the room.

The room is pink. It’s a child’s room! It’s a little girl’s room! Sitting on the bed is Shelly. I notice crutches next to her, and my heart breaks as I see Shelly’s bandages, her right leg amputated above the knee. Angie hugs Shelly and shares the gift: Hope. I smile as I hear Shelly squeal with joy. She is happy. Despite it all, she is happy.

I watch and listen as Angie talks with Shelly. This is more than a flower delivery. Angie explains how to care for the African violet, and I watch as she encourages Shelly to gently touch the leaves of Hope.

The room goes quiet for a moment, and in the silence I am in awe. I stand in awe amazed at all that God has done, from the healing of Angie, to the receptive heart of Shelly, to the creation of a flower. I welcome the peace of the Holy Spirit, knowing that God is watching.

* * *As we drive to the next home, Angie tells me she has decided to go into physical therapy. It’s a fitting choice. She

looks pensive for a moment and says: “I just hope it won’t cut into my time of delivering God’s flowers.” n

DIxIL RODRíGUEz, A UNIVERSITy PROFESSOR AND VOLUNTEER HOSPITAL CHAPLAIN, LIVES IN TExAS. JOIN THE CONVERSATION AT

[email protected].

Searching the Obvious

dixil rodríquez

42(922)

Snapshot

by ANGEL MANUEL RODRÍGUEZ

the theology of the last gen-eration was developed and popularized in the Ad-ventist Church by M. L. Andreasen (The Sanctuary

Service [Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1937; revised 1947]). Andreasen was building on insights from A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner. This theology introduced a strong element of legalism in some sectors of the church

by claiming that the character of God, maligned by Satan in the cosmic conflict, will be vindicated through the holy and perfect life of obedience of the last gen-eration of believers. This generation will reach a level of character development unequaled in Christian history, copying perfectly in their lives what God did in Christ. Once this happens, the Lord will return. This theology seeks to explain why the Lord has not returned and the nature and purpose of Christian perfec-tion. It is based primarily on a particular reading of the writings of Ellen G. White.

Christ and the Vindication of God: In the Bible and the writings of Ellen G. White the cosmic vindication of God is the exclusive result of the sacrificial death of Christ. He was the only one who could reveal who God is and therefore

vindicate Him in the cosmic conflict (John 1:18). White is also very clear: “By His life and His death, Christ proved that God’s justice did not destroy His mercy, but that sin could be forgiven, and that the law is righteous, and can be perfectly obeyed. Satan’s charges were refuted. God had given man unmistak-able evidence of His love.”1 What Christ accomplished does not need to be sup-plemented; it is more than enough.

Christian Perfection: God’s will for His people has always been the same: Vic-tory over the enslaving power of sin in their lives (Rom. 6:11-14; 8:5-8). Christ has always been the model for the Christian life. But true Christian perfec-tion cannot be separated from the eter-nal efficacy of the cross and our constant reliance on its forgiving power (1 John 2:1, 2). Christian perfection is a constant growth in grace accompanied by a constant reliance on God’s forgiv-ing grace. Notice how precise Ellen G. White is on this important theological topic: “As the penitent sinner, contrite before God, discerns Christ’s atonement in his behalf, and accepts this atonement as his only hope in this life and the future life, his sins are pardoned. This is justifica-tion by faith. Every believing soul is to

1888

conform his will entirely to God’s will, and keep in a state of repentance and contrition, exercising faith in the atoning merits of the Redeemer and advancing from strength to strength, from glory to glory.”2 We will perfectly reproduce the character of Christ in our lives through growth in grace and by absolutely rely-ing every day in Christ’s forgiving grace.

Safety in Heaven: Although it would be possible for sin to arise again in heaven, this will never happen in actuality. The reason is not found in the unique expe-rience of the last generation of believers but in the work of Christ on the cross. He, through the cross, reconciled the whole cosmos to God in a permanent bond of union (Col. 1:19, 20). Again, White is powerfully clear: “The angels ascribe honor and glory to Christ, for even they are not secure except by look-ing to the sufferings of the Son of God. It is through the efficacy of the cross that the angels of heaven are guarded from apostasy. Without the cross they would be no more secure against evil than were the angels before the fall of Satan”3 The perfection of creatures is not powerful enough to hold the cosmos together. Praise God for Christ! n

1 Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages (Mounatin View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1898), p. 762. (Italics supplied.)

2 The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 6, p. 1070. (Italics supplied.)

3 Ellen G. White, “What Was Secured by the Death of Christ,” Signs of the Times, Dec. 30, 1889.

ANGEL MANUEL RODRíGUEz,

RETIRED, WAS DIRECTOR OF THE

BIBLICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE,

GENERAL CONFERENCE.

theology of the Last Generation


by ALbERTO TIMM

early Seventh-day Adventist Christology was chiefly focused on Christ’s present heavenly sanctuary priest-hood (Heb. 4:14-16) and His

future second coming in the clouds of heaven (Rev. 1:7), and largely shaped by the anti-Trinitarian views of the pio-neers.1 As time went by, significant Christological issues emerged in regard to (1) the eternity of Christ, (2) His human nature during the Incarnation, and (3) whether His divine nature died on the cross.

George R. Knight’s exhaustive research indicates that “from all existing records it appears that the topic of the human nature of Christ had an extremely small role at the Minneapolis meetings. . . . That does not mean that the topic never sur-faced.”2 Whatever the case, Ellen White played a crucial role in correcting basic dis-

tortions related to issues of Christology.Against the theory that Christ was “the

first created being”3 and “proceeded forth” from God back “in the days of eter-nity,”4 White stated that “in Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived,”5 and that “from all eternity Christ was united with the Father.”6

Correcting the assumption that “Christ’s nature is precisely our nature,” without any “particle of differ-ence between him and you,”7 White acknowledged that “Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weak-ened by four thousand years of sin” and that He “took upon Him the infirmities of degenerate humanity . . . with the possibility of yielding to temptation.”8 But she also warned, “Be careful, exceedingly careful as to how you dwell upon the human nature of Christ. . . . He could have sinned; He could have fallen,

but not for one moment was there in Him an evil propensity.”9

In response to the idea that at the cross the divine nature of Christ also died,10 White declared, “When Christ was cruci-fied, it was His human nature that died. Deity did not sink and die; that would have been impossible.”11

Two main reasons have prevented those issues from settling down in some Adventist circles. One has been the primitivistic temptation of confus-ing faithfulness to the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy with loyalty to the views of the pioneers, regardless of what they were. The second reason has been the selective approach of empha-sizing one side of a given issue in detri-ment to the other side. The above- quoted corrective statements by Ellen White can help us to develop a well-rounded Christology.

1 See Jerry Moon, “The Adventist Trinity Debate,” two-part series in Andrews University Seminary Studies 41, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 113-129; 41, no. 2 (Autumn 2003): 275-292.

2 George R. Knight, A User-friendly Guide to the 1888 Message (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1998), pp. 152, 153.

3 Uriah Smith, Thoughts, Critical and Practical, on the Book of Revelation (Battle Creek, Mich.: Steam Press of the Seventh-day Adventist Pub. Assn., 1865), p. 59.

4 Ellet J. Waggoner, Christ and His Righteousness (Oak-land: Pacific Press Pub. Co., 1890), pp. 21, 22.

5 Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1898), p. 530.

6 Ellen G. White, Selected Messages (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1958, 1980), book 1, p. 228.

7 Alonzo T. Jones, “The Third Angel’s Message—No. 13,” Gen-eral Conference Bulletin, Feb. 19, 1895. See also [Ellet J. Waggoner], “God Manifest in the Flesh,” Signs of the Times, Jan. 21, 1889.

8 E. G. White, The Desire of Ages, pp. 49, 117.9 Ellen G. White letter 8, Feb. 9, 1895, to “Dear Brother

and Sister Baker,” published in The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 5, p. 1128.

10 [Joseph H. Waggoner], “The Atonement—Part II. The Doctrine of a Trinity Degrades the Atonement,” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Nov. 3, 1863; ibid., Nov. 10, 1863; idem, The Atonement: An Examination of a Remedial System, in the Light of Nature and Revelation [3rd ed.] (Oak-land: Pacific Press Pub. Co., 1884), pp. 165, 166, 173, 174.

11 Ellen G. White letter 280, Sept. 3, 1904, “To Minis-ters, Physicians, and Teachers,” published in The Sev-enth-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, vol. 5, p. 1113.

ALBERTO TIMM IS AN ASSOCIATE

DIRECTOR OF THE ELLEN G. WHITE

ESTATE.

Snapshot 1888

the Nature of Christ

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Snapshots

universal Legal Justification

by STEPhEN bAUER

the doctrine of universal legal justification (ULJ) expresses both admirable and problematic ideas.

Glorious TruthAs to the former, it celebrates a glori-

ous truth: The death of Christ secured access to God for all humans. Paul fre-quently calls this access “reconciliation.” For him, this reconciliation appears to be unilateral and unconditional, and something occurring prior to justifica-tion. “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Rom. 5:10).1

By contrast, for Paul, both justification and salvation are con-ditioned upon and preceded by personal faith/belief:2 “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” he says, “and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). Again, “with the heart one believes unto righteousness [justifica-tion], and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. . . . For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved’ ” (Rom. 10:10-13).3

Problematic IdeasULJ is based, I find, on a dualistic doc-

trine of man differing from the wholistic view of man that we find throughout Scripture. Humanity is depicted as a sin-gle corporate life; yet this single life is manifested through all human individu-als. This single, corporate life sinned in Adam, was assimilated into Christ, and paid the death penalty for its sin in Christ, on the cross. Corporate humanity was thus forgiven and justified in Christ, on the cross and therefore, all

individual manifestations of that humanity are now unilaterally, uncondi-tionally forgiven and justified in the legal sense. Each individual, however, has the ability to reject that universal justification and become personally lost.

Some proponents of ULJ dismiss the

associated concepts of vicarious atone-ment and the transfer of sin as illegal and unethical. The charge mirrors Roman Catholic objections to the Refor-mation position that sin and righteous-ness are transferred between the sinner and Christ our substitute. Proponents of ULJ have been known to espouse an alternate view of substitution some-times called “shared substitution.”

The Seventh-day Adventist Church was founded on an interpretation of the sanctuary that emphasizes the vicarious substitution of Christ for the sinner through the transfer of sin from sinner to substitute. To this extent, ULJ appears to stand in direct contrast to this pivotal Adventist understanding.

One attempt to support ULJ biblically involves a unique proposal for reading

Paul. The translation “having been justi-fied by faith, we have peace with God” (Rom. 5:1) is rejected in favor of “having been justified, by faith we have peace with God.” In this rendering believers have peace by faith, rather than justifi-cation by faith.

This would make for an exceptional reading of Paul, who nowhere else pack-ages “faith” and “peace” together. Rather, he speaks consistently of “justi-fication / righteousness” (a single word in Greek) “by faith.” A biblically solid belief should not require peculiar tex-tual re-readings to support it.

ConclusionLet us rejoice that all people, regard-

less of race, nationality, gender, and reli-gion have universal access to God and to the cross. And let us each be the preacher sent to bring the good news (Rom. 10:14, 15), so that all may hear, know in whom to believe, “call on the name of the Lord,” and be saved. n

1 The Greek grammatical structure here is one of sequence, in which reconciliation precedes justification. (Bible texts in this article are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.)

2 In Greek, “faith” and “believing” are noun and verb forms of the same verbal root. Lacking an English verb “faithing,” we use the verb “believe.”

3 Paul echoes the sequence given by Jesus in Mark 16:16: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.”

STEPHEN BAUER IS PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGy AND

ETHICS AT SOUTHERN ADVENTIST UNIVERSITy.

Let us rejoice that all people, regardless of race, nationality, gender, and religion have univer-sal access to God and to the cross.

1888


Testimony

the

by kELLy VEILLEUX

S T A T E M E N T O F O W N E R S H I P

Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation of the Adventist Review, pub-lished weekly at 55 West Oak Ridge Dr., Hagerstown, MD 21740. The names and addresses of the publisher, editor, and managing editor are: Publisher: General Confer-ence of Seventh-day Adventists, 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904; Editor: William Knott, 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904; Managing Editor: Stephen Chavez, 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904. The owner is the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904, a nonprofit, charitable corporation. There are no bondholders, mortgagees, or other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of the total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities.

Average number copies Single issue each issue during nearest to preceding 12 months* filing date*

Total number copies printed 25,000 25,939Paid circulation to term subscribers 22,600 23,117Free distribution 700 710Total number copies distributed 23,300 23,827

*These figures are U.S. postal figures only.

I certify that my statements above are correct and complete.Graham Barham, CFO

Prevailing Interest

1888

Growing up in the church has advantages and disadvantages. I’m very thank-

ful for the privilege of being raised in a fairly balanced Seventh-day Adventist home. Knowing that Jesus loves me was something I grew up with. But the depth of that love is just now beginning to take hold of my heart.

Somehow through my early years I never heard about “Christ our righteousness.” So “righteousness” was something that I tried to attain by obedience. I know some of my readers can relate to this. It seems a natural human response to think we have to “do something” to “get something.”

Then a pastor friend of mine introduced me to the “1888 message.” For two years I read everything I could on this subject and invited others to join me in this journey. The fog began to lift from my brain, and a warm settling into the truth began to take hold in my heart and life.

In 2010 the Holy Spirit moved on my heart so strongly and led me into the waters for rebaptism, fol-lowed by a prayer for the baptism of His Holy Spirit. From that moment on, one interest has consumed my heart and mind; one interest that shapes everything else I do and all that I am becoming; one interest that can only be defined as His agape love. Now I understand why God’s prophet said, “One interest will prevail, one subject will swallow up every other—Christ our righ-teousness” (Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Dec. 23, 1890).

I’m so thankful to be alive now to see the final move-ments take place. May we join together in unity to become the loud cry and the glory that will lighten this earth with the victorious agape love of Christ! n

kELLY VEILLEUx IS NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND

CONFERENCE PRAyER MINISTRIES LEADER AND INVERITy

PRAyER MINISTRIES COORDINATOR.

The fog began to lift from my brain, and a warm settling into the truth began to take hold in my heart and life.


Reflections

the Genius of DisunityhERESy IS OFTEN LESS IMPORTANT ThAN DISUNITy. DISUNITy CAN DO whAT heresy cannot. Heresy draws true believers together. They circle the wagons. They expel the heretic. But disunity does not necessarily require false doctrine. Only a little intemperance of spirit. Disunity works remarkably well with genuine conviction about genuine truth. This is because it is not logical rigor or theological precision that brings oneness. It is the spirit of the meek and lowly Jesus (John 16:33; James 3:16-18). So disunity, for the devil, can be better than heresy. For in disunity true believers stand their theological ground against one another.

Meanwhile, the archetypal “dis-uniter” knows that “if Christians were to act in concert, moving forward as one, under the direction of one Power, for the accomplishment of one purpose, they would move the world.”1 Why let that happen?

As I reflect on 1888, it seems that skepticism, cockiness, deep commitment, objectivity and detachment—all these or any one will do to smother meekness and facilitate disunity. Jesus, meek and lowly, will simply be run over by totally committed heretics; or dismissed by the skeptic as a spineless weakling; or evaluated by detached objectivity as deficient in leadership qualities; or simply shriveled to inconsequence by cocky wit. Being meek and lowly can be perilous to personal or corporate success. But it is essential to heavenly unity.

In February 1887 Ellen White wrote to A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner from Swit-zerland about material they were publishing in Signs of the Times: “I have no hesi-tancy in saying you have made a mistake here. You have departed from the positive directions God has given upon this matter, and only harm will be the result. This is not in God’s order. You have now set the example for others to do as you have done, to feel at liberty to put in their various ideas and theories and bring them before the public, because you have done this. This will bring in a state of things that you have not dreamed of.”2 Tell me about the voice of prophecy!

Correspondence with George I. Butler and Uriah Smith expresses the same concern: “Had you avoided the question . . . , it would have been more in accor-dance with the light God has seen fit to give to me.”3 She thought “the whole thing . . . not in God’s order.”4 Even the treatment of apostatizing D. M. Canright deserved reprimand: “God did not treat apostates in this way, and if you had anything to say, say it without putting such things in the paper. I tell you, brethren, I am troubled when I see you take positions that you forbid others to take and that you would condemn in others.”5 But because of saints who had to push their point of view at all costs Ellen White had to conclude, “I believe now that nothing can be done but open discussion.”6 Evidently, much of what we remember of the 1888 Minneapolis General Conference session is a history lesson on what happens when personal vindication—administrative, theological, or otherwise—triumphs over meek submission to counsel, and the bliss of harmony that Jesus says will prove to the world that He came from God (John 17:21).

It is not so much false doctrine the devil needs as disunity: Heresy is often less important than disunity. n

1 Ellen White, Testimonies for the Church (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1948), vol. 9, p. 221. 2 Ellen G. White letter 37, 1887.3 Ellen G. White letter 13, 1887.4 Ibid.5 Ibid.6 Ibid.

LAEL CAESAR, AN ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF adVentiSt reView, KEEPS FOCUSING ON JESUS’ HIGH-PRIESTLy PRAyER THAT WE

ALL MAy BE ONE.

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