SWYC 2011: Lest We Forget

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GYC Southwest

Dave Fiedler

Adventist History Nugget: Issues from 1888

Issues from 1888, Part 1

Issues from 1888, Part 2

Issues from 1888, Part 3


Let's move the slide ahead. Some of you may be new, weren't here an hour or so ago. I have 3 brief snippets about 1888, and this is the second 1. By the way, if you are interested in that sort of thing, I'd ask you to come to the Chaparral room at the breakout session, and then to give a generous donation to AudioVerse for providing you the privilege of hearing the other speakers at your leisure later on. Or vice versa.

Okay. We hoped, And the question is, would another coming out be needed? The General Conference session of 1888 is not a simple event to understand. A lot of people have spent time doing that. I think it's safe to say that no 1 has it all figured out.

Perhaps we should not feel too bad about that. Even Ellen White, who was there herself and obviously had more insight into the thinking and the actions and whatnot of individuals than anyone else, she described it like this. She said it was an incomprehensible tug of war. So it's no surprise that we have a hard time understanding what all happened back then. Many things happened, and so this is just going to be, as I say, a snippet.

Let's just note that Ellen White did have many sort of unflattering things to say about the turn of events there. We have spirit of persecution, un-Christ-likeness, false ideas, forsake, prejudice, and criticism. People were out of line, they were cultivating hatred, there was a satanic work, it was a latest in church, and they did despot to the spirit of grace. This is a problem, and if nothing else, it tells us that there is plenty of tension and literary conflict in the story. Right now, I want to focus on 1 comment that Ellen White wrote actually about 7 months, 6, 7 months, something like that, after the Minneapolis Conference.

She wrote this. I was confirmed in all I had stated in Minneapolis that a reformation must come through the churches, must go through the churches, excuse me. Reforms must be made for spiritual weakness and blindness whereupon the people who had been blessed with great light and precious opportunities and privileges. As reformers, they had come out of the denominational churches, but they now act apart similar to that which the churches acted. We hoped that there would not be the necessity for another coming out.

She's talking about her experience at Minneapolis and then also in the church at Battle Creek following the conference. Obviously, it's the last sentence there that catches your attention, right? What does she mean by another coming out? Was she really implying that the Seventh-day Adventist Church was in danger of losing its standing of God's unique church? Was she saying that a purer group of believers might have to separate from it?

Well, in context, it's really pretty hard to understand the comment to be any other way. She talks about how they had come out from the denominational churches. And then she says, uses the exact same terminology later on, she says, we hope there would not be another coming out. In fact, that's the way the White estate understands the comment. When that particular manuscript was used in the book, Last Day Events, they inserted an explanatory note which says, this is the only known statement from the Pan of Ellen White indicating that she might have lost confidence in the Seventh-day Adventist church organization.

The doubt which she expressed here was never repeated during the remaining 26 years of her life. Well, by and large, I agree with him. I think that's pretty accurate. I don't have any qualms to make with that. But There is a little bit more to the story, which we can toss in here.

In 1888, there were actually 2 series of meetings. There was a 10-day ministerial institute, which preceded the general conference session proper. Elder Dr. Wagner had his presentations on Galatians began during the 10-day Ministerial Institute. And the problems erupted rather quickly coming out of that.

On the last day of that ministerial institute, Ellen White spoke, and she made a very strongly worded statement that indicates something at least a little bit like her coming out statement that she made some months later. This is what she said. Now, speaking to the assembled ministers, she says, now this is the last ministers meeting we will have, unless you wish to meet together yourselves. If the ministers will not receive the light, I want to give the people a chance. Perhaps they may receive it.

Well, that's not exactly the same as the another coming out comment, but it's unusual enough in its own regard. It seems to me that she is, I don't really like the word, so I'll put it in quotes, you know, but she's threatening, if you wish, to bypass the organizational structure of the church, to go around the unreceptive ministering and make an effort to reach the rank and file church members directly. Well, in fact, that's pretty much what she did. For a year and a half after the Minneapolis meeting, Ellen White traveled from place to place with Jones and Wagner, holding meetings wherever they seemed to be welcome and there was not obvious resistance. And all the time she was doing that dealing with, what should we say, kind of opposition coming from Battle Creek, okay.

Now, in order to appreciate the magnitude of Ellen White doing what she did in bypassing the ministry, you have to remember all the effort that she and her husband James had put into trying to get the church organized in the first place. Organization is 1 of those things that ideally you don't notice until it goes bad and then it's bad. But if you don't have it at all it's bad. From the passing of the time in 1844 until the church was organized in 1863, it was 19 years. That's a long time.

That's older than some of the people out here. 19 years, And Ellen White lived through every disorganized episode during that time period, okay? She knew the value of organization. Looking back on those earlier days, she summed it up like this. As our numbers increased, you know, church members increased, it was evident that without some form of organization, there would be great confusion.

And the work would not be carried forward successfully. To provide for the support of the ministry, for carrying the work in new fields, for protecting both the churches and the ministry from unworthy members, for holding church property, for the publication of the truth through the press, and for many other objects, organization was indispensable. Ellen White valued organization, there's no question on that. That's why it's pretty amazing when she talked about, and actually did to some degree, bypass and go around an element of that. Even after 30 years of time from the organizing period of the church, shall we say, she had this to say, we had a hard struggle in establishing an organization.

So to be seen pulling away from the ministry or bypassing the ministry as a class had to be what we would call a big deal to her. This is not something she did lightly. But evidently, because she was a logical person and didn't do things foolishly on a whim, the issues she saw coming out of Minneapolis were significant enough that she unhesitatingly took the route that she did when she spent that year and a half. That's important to note. It provides a sense of scale and perspective to the conversation, the whole exploration of 1888 that sometimes gets lost in theology.

Okay? So, quick review. That was a mistake. I'm going to back up. There we go.

Do a quick review here. Ellen White wrote, we hoped that there would not be a necessity for another coming out. That's the only time she said something like that. But she also spoke of bypassing the ministers and taking a populist approach. And in fact, she spent a year and a half doing that.

Okay, now here's where it gets interesting. It turns out that though she never again spoke of another coming out, there was 1 more situation in which she spoke of bypassing not only ministers, but even conference presidents. More interestingly, it was not something simply that she was going to do, but something which she said laymen should do. She said, There is enough wealth in your conference, writing to a conference president, There is enough wealth in your conference to carry forward this work successfully. And shall the prince of darkness be left in undisputed possession of our great cities because it costs something to sustain missions?

Let those who would follow Christ fully come up to the work, even if it be over the heads of ministers and president. What she's talking about here is a failure of some leaders to take up and encourage what she called gospel medical missionary evangelism in the large cities within our conferences. Here's another statement in which Ellen White first addresses the leaders and then rank and file church members on the same subject here, gospel, medical, missionary, evangelism. She says, if you feel no interest in the work that is going forward, if you will not encourage medical missionary work in the churches, it will be done without your consent. For it is the work of God, and it must be done.

My brethren and sisters, take your position on the Lord's side, and be earnest, active, courageous co-workers of Christ, laboring with Him to seek and save the lost. Now there's a subtle indication here of the gravity of this issue in the comment there to take your position on the Lord's side. You recognize that phrasing? Comes from Exodus. It's Moses talking to the camp of Israel, standing, oh, someplace in the proximity of a golden calf.

He said, who is on the Lord's side? The tribe of Levi came forward and they were commanded to take their swords and go through the camp and slay those who were still attached to the calf, right? I'm not suggesting Ellen White was trying to promote homicide. But she clearly placed medical missionary work on a very high priority. As a matter of interest, I notice that this comment in volume 8 of the testimonies is an adaptation of a letter to specific individuals.

Here's how the original looked. She says, time is short and there is a great work to be done. If you feel no interest in the work that is going forward, if you will not encourage medical missionaries to work in the churches, they will do it without your consent. For this work must and will be done. Brother blank, brother blank, brother blank, and brother blank.

In the name of the Lord, I call upon you to take your position on the Lord's side. Do not be found fighting against the Lord." So what she's saying here in this very direct personal testimony to Brethren Blank. She's saying, Gospel medical missionary work is the Lord's side, resisting it is fighting against God. So now we found 2 issues, the issue of righteousness by faith and support for medical missionary work, both of which justified this, I call it sanctified insubordination. Now, why?

Why those 2? Here's why. I'm short on time. Notice, go to the bottom of this. Actually, we're going to skip that screen just for the sake of time, and we'll go to the bottom of this 1, the second paragraph.

The Lord will give you success in this work, for the gospel is the power of God into salvation when it is interwoven with the practical life, when it is lived and practiced. Notice this last sentence. The union of Christ-like work for the body and Christ-like work for the soul is the true interpretation of the gospel. Righteousness by faith is the gospel. The combination of Christ-like work for the body and the soul is the singular, definite, article, interpretation of the Gospel.

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Issues from 1888, Part 1

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