The 1888 Message: An Introduction

"What has gone wrong?" asks the devout orthodox Jew in his anguish and bewilderment at the Wailing Wall.

Even today as he pores over the ancient predictions the Lord made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he is perplexed. "When will the God of our fathers awake and fulfill his long-delayed promise to send our Messiah to Israel? When will he make Jerusalem the joy of the whole earth? Or have our grand hopes been only in vain?"

Those Jews fortunate enough to get close to their one remaining holy place in Jerusalem gather at their ancient Wailing Wall at the southwest corner of the old temple site. There they pour out their complaints and entreaties to the God of their ancient patriarchs.

I would like to tap them on the shoulder and say, "Friends, I have good news for you. You may stop your wailing! The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has not been asleep nor is he uncaring. He has kept his promise. He did faithfully send the true Messiah—in Jesus of Nazareth. The problem is that your ancestors failed to recognize him when he came, and they crucified him."

I would also add: "Now please repent and accept him, and enjoy all the blessings He brought you!"

Do devout Seventh-day Adventists also have their own Wailing Wall?

The latter rain would consist, they understood, of an ultimate gift of the Holy Spirit to ripen the gospel grain for the "harvest," even as the second Palestinian rains fulfilled the fanner's dreams. The early rain fell in the autumn, and the latter in the spring. So there is a latter rain of the Holy Spirit at the opposite end of the Christian era from Pentecost.

It will lead into the loud cry of the third angel's message—the final glorious enlightening of the world. All will hear the message and will take either the seal of God or the mark of the beast. And then, according to Ellen White and the founders of this church, the Lord will come in power and great glory.

Why haven't these pleading petitions of over a century been answered?

These are questions that thoughtful people can't help but ask, especially youth. Why consecrate yourself to a life of sacrificial toil if the second coming hopes that nourished the pioneers seem so remote to us now? Many of our youth are losing interest in the second coming of Christ. It fades further into the shadows of uncertainty. Now we're digging in for the 21st century, adding buildings to buildings, feathering our nests for what looks like a long future. Like the devout Jews wailing for the coming of their Messiah, many hope against dim hope that the forefathers weren't really mistaken after all. We were told in 1850 that "time is almost finished." In truth, the honor of the God of the pioneers is involved. Is he faithful? Is he even alive?

Surely some heavenly beings would like to tap us on the shoulder and say: "The pleadings of many years were answered—the Lord did keep his promise to the pioneers. He has already given the beginning of the latter rain and the loud cry. But like the Jews, your forefathers failed to recognize the heavenly gift. They rejected it as did those who rejected their Messiah two thousand years ago".

Such news would be as startling to most Seventh-day Adventists today as our proposed announcement would be to the Jews at the Wailing Wall.

But it is true.

"Following up this innocuous lead, we turn to the statement cited:

The time of test is just upon us, for the loud cry of the third angel has already begun in the revelation of the righteousness of Christ, the sin-pardoning Redeemer. This is the beginning of the light of the angel whose glory shall fill the whole earth.

This is no mere obscure, localized blessing given at some little country prayer meeting. God's bright promises cherished by the Advent pioneers in 1851 were at one time fulfilled—at least the "beginning" of them—at a General Conference Session.

When and why did Ellen G. White make this earth-shaking announcement?

The seismic impact of that word is unprecedented, for never before or after did she say that about any other message she heard.

This raises some painful questions that will never go away, even if we stay here another century. If the inspired messenger had the insight to see the real meaning of the 1888 message, why has a century dragged on since? Three brief years before the 1888 message began to sound, she said that when the latter rain and the loud cry should at last begin, "the work will spread like fire in the stubble." Later she said: "The final movements will be rapid ones." But people on Planet Earth are being born faster than we know how to reach them with the message we have. Each passing year leaves us with a bigger witnessing task.

We may think we are making great progress "on schedule," but most candid Seventh-day Adventists confess a sober conviction that the world is simply not yet lighted by the glory of that "other angel's" loud-cry message. And if we baptize billions of people and all settle down to be as lukewarm as we are, that would not hasten the coming of the Lord.

What can solve the impasse?

An unwillingness to yield up preconceived opinions, and to accept this truth [the law in Galatians is especially the moral law], lay at the foundation of a large share of the opposition manifested at Minneapolis [1888] against the Lord's message through Brethren [E. J.] Waggoner and [A.T.] Jones. By exciting that opposition Satan succeeded in shutting away from our people, in a great measure, the special power of the Holy Spirit that God longed to impart to them. The enemy prevented them from obtaining that efficiency which might have been theirs in carrying the truth to the world, as the apostles proclaimed it after the day of Pentecost. The light that is to lighten the whole earth with its glory was resisted, and by the action of our own brethren has been in a great degree kept away from the world.

Let us analyze this statement made in 1896:

1. "The special power of the Holy Spirit" that God wanted to impart to our people in 1888 was Pentecostal in its dynamic scope. That means the blessing was complementary to the original gift of the Holy Spirit to the early apostles.

2. The message would have provided "efficiency" in carrying the Seventh-day Adventist truths "to the world". This must include the Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and pagan portions of the world. It would have enabled the fledgling Adventist Church, weak in numbers and material resources, to have enjoyed the kind of success the early apostles experienced after Pentecost, "conquering, and to conquer" (Revelation 6:2). There was spiritual dynamite in the message itself.

3. But the "victory" was "won" in reverse gear. Pentecost was replayed backwards. "In a great measure" and to "a great degree" "Satan succeeded", not Christ. To that extent "the enemy" prevented our people from receiving the light, and kept it away from the world. This simple fact accounts for the century plus that has dragged on, bringing world wars and agonies unspeakable for millions of people. As Jeremiah laments, "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?" (The rapid growth of Third World baptisms enlarges the spiritual problem, for the same lukewarmness that characterizes the homeland church is now spreading to the world church. If the latter rain is spiritual moisture, the lack of it has to be spiritual drought. The solution as a spiritual "refreshing" must come to the heart of the world work).

4. The agents whom Satan employed to accomplish his purpose were not the Roman Catholics or persecuting Protestants, but "our own brethren". Their attitude became an "action," a deliberate choice, a resistance and rejection. In all fairness it should be recognized that these were primarily the general and local conference leadership of the day, "acting" in behalf of the church as did the Jewish leaders who acted in behalf of their nation in rejecting their Messiah. Over a hundred times Ellen White reiterated this "just-like-the-Jews" insight.

How to handle these disturbing realities is a problem that has occupied decades of discussion, and has been addressed in thousands of pages of books. But in most cases, reality has not been clearly faced. Inquiring minds are now demanding the full disclosure of truth.

For many centuries the Jews have had a similar problem.

The world church can never be motivated to finish the world gospel task unless we understand why the coming of the Lord has been so long delayed. Unearthing the simple, honest reality will accomplish what committee resolutions or high-tech promotional drives can never do. It will renew the bright second coming confidence that motivated the pioneers.

To be sure, a long list of depressing reasons for the mysterious delay can be compiled. But the simple solution to all of them was to have been provided in the truly Pentecostal outpouring of the latter rain of 1888. Therefore that rejection is the one basic cause of the long delay. Thus it merits the special attention of this generation, just as the one basic problem that has afflicted the Jews for the past two thousand years has been their rejection of their Messiah.

This comparison is not farfetched. From the time of the 1888 Conference itself and for years that followed, Ellen White seemed obsessed that we were re-enacting their tragedy. Here is a brief example:

When I have been made to pass over the history of the Jewish nation and have seen where they stumbled because they did not walk in the light, I have been led to realize where we as a people would be led if we refuse the light God would give us. Eyes have ye but ye see not; ears, but ye hear not. Now, brethren, light has come to us and we want to be where we can grasp it... I see your danger and I want to warn you...

If the ministers will not receive the light [spoken at the 1888 Conference itself], I want to give the people a chance; perhaps they may receive it.... Just like the Jewish nation.

Eight days later she repeats the theme:

When the Jews took the first step in the rejection of Christ, they took a dangerous step. When afterward evidence accumulated that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, they were too proud to acknowledge that they had erred... Just like the Jews, they [the brethren] take it for granted they have all the truth, and feel a sort of contempt for anyone who should suppose they had more correct ideas than themselves of what is truth. All the evidence produced they decide shall not weigh a straw with them, and they tell others that the doctrine is not true, and afterward, when they see as light evidence they were so forward to condemn, they have too much pride to say "I was wrong"; they still cherish doubt and unbelief, and are too proud to acknowledge their convictions....

It is not wise for one of these young men [Jones or Waggoner] to commit himself to a decision at this meeting, where opposition, rather than investigation, is the order of the day.

By 1890 Ellen White dares to take the case of “just like the Jews” over the heads of the General Conference leadership, appealing to the people themselves:

Those to whom Christ has entrusted great light, whom he has surrounded with precious opportunities, are in danger, if they do not walk in this light, of being filled with pride of opinion and with self-exaltation as were the Jews.

We should not be found quibbling, and putting up hooks on which to hang our doubts in regard to the light which God sends us. When a point of doctrine that you do not understand comes to your attention, go to God on your knees, that you may understand what is truth, and not be found, as were the Jews, fighting against God...

For nearly two years we have been urging the people to come up and accept the light and the truth concerning the righteousness of Christ, and they do not know whether to come and take hold of this precious truth or not.

How long will those at the head of the work keep themselves aloof from the message of God?

What should we say to help the Jews at the Wailing Wall?

So, let's study the extant records of the content of the 1888 message itself. Let's permit its glorious light to shine into our own hearts. We'll find mind-stretching concepts that are almost wholly unknown by this present generation.

Then, once we have done our homework and thoroughly understand what was "the beginning" of the latter rain and the loud cry, we'll be prepared to understand current history, to avoid counterfeit deceptions, and to give a healing message for mankind that will prepare many millions to welcome the return of our Lord.

That message is what we're searching to understand.

As we proceed, we do not want to give the false or fanatical impression that we regard the 1888 messengers as infallible or impeccable—perfect in their every expression of truth (neither are any of us today!). We agree with Ellen White: “Do I say that they will not make a statement or have an idea that cannot be questioned or that cannot be in error? Do I say so? No, I do not say any such thing. Nor do I say that of any man in the world. But I do say God has sent light, and do be careful how you treat it.”