Measuring the Temple of God and Those Who Worship Therein
The 1880s were a solemn time in which to be living, not only because of what was happening in the world, but because of what was happening in the church, “the temple of God.” In light of the solemnity of the hour, Ellen White wrote many letters from Europe, counseling and warning the brethren in America. She also directed much of her attention and energies to her literary work. It was her intention to finish revising volume 1 of the Spirit of Prophecy series, which would later become Patriarchs and Prophets. However, her attention was soon turned to volume 4 of the Spirit of Prophecy series, now titled The Great Controversy. New plates were needed for the reprinting of the book, and being in the midst of Reformation history in Europe, it seemed a perfect time for its enlargement. By the time she was finished, more than two hundred pages were added to the book, including some new statements on the latter rain:As the “former rain” was given, in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the opening of the gospel, to cause the upspringing of the precious seed, so the “latter rain” will be given at its close, for the ripening of the harvest. [Hosea 6:3, Joel 2:23, Acts 2:17, 21 quoted]. The great work of the gospel is not to close with less manifestation of the power of God than marked its opening. … Here are “the times of refreshing” to which the apostle Peter looked forward when he said, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out [in the investigative Judgment], when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus [Acts 3:19, 20].”
Before returning home to America in 1887, Ellen White sent a copy of the enlarged manuscript of volume 4 to Jones and Waggoner requesting that they “give careful criticism to the corrections, and to the whole matter.” This opportunity may very well have given them added insights into the issue of religious liberty in which Jones, especially, would soon find himself engulfed as he would almost single-handedly take on Senator H. W. Blair’s national Sunday law bill. Unfortunately, because of the controversy surrounding Jones and Waggoner which soon erupted, many would be denied the opportunity of reading the Great Controversy, at least for a time.
1888 Conference Approaching
Several events took place during the spring and summer of 1888 that would have an effect on the Minneapolis Ministerial Institute and General Conference held in October. Early in 1888, W. C. White corresponded with Elder Butler about the Institute to precede the General Conference, and “proposed four or five lines of work; among which were the duties of church officers, new and advanced measures for carrying the message, the study of Bible doctrines, our religious liberty work, and one or two other lines.” In one of his letters of response, Butler wrote about the upcoming Institute, and “gave a list of the subjects which he said he supposed would come up for consideration.” Among these subjects “he named prominently the Ten Kingdoms, and the Law in Gal[atians].”In June, W. C. White met with other California ministers and workers from the Signs and Pacific Press, including Jones and Waggoner, for a few days of Bible study at “Camp Necessity,” in the mountains east of Oakland. Some time was spent reviewing the subjects of the Ten Kingdoms and the Law in Galatians, including Butler’s pamphlet that had been distributed at the 1886 General Conference, and Waggoner’s response to it, which had not yet been printed. W. C. White explains Waggoner’s question in regard to his response:
At the close of our study, Eld. Waggoner asked us if it would be right for him to publish his MSS [manuscript] and at the next Gen. Conf. place them in the hands of the delegates, as Eld. Butler had his. We thought this would be right, and encouraged him to have five hundred copies printed.
Because W. C. White thought the matter had been settled regarding the subjects to be discussed at the upcoming Institute and General Conference in October, he mentioned his correspondence with Butler to both Jones and Waggoner at the Bible studies held at Camp Necessity. But when Jones and Waggoner arrived in Minneapolis ready to present their subjects, Butler had “forgotten” his letter to W. C. White. It wasn’t long before the rumor was spread around that the subjects of discussion were a “surprise” to the men in Battle Creek and were being “pressed” by the men from California.
In September, just prior to the Minneapolis Ministerial Institute and General Conference, a campmeeting was also held in Oakland, California. Unlike the Bible studies held a few months earlier where ministers and workers had all studied together, a bitter spirit of opposition arose against Jones and Waggoner. W. C. White later described the situation:
At the Cal[ifornia] C[amp] M[eeting] a very bitter spirit was manifested by some toward Elds. Waggoner and Jones, instigated partly, I presume, by the personalities in Eld. Butler’s pamphlet; and arising partly from an old family grudge against Eld. Waggoner Senior. We had a ministers’ Council in which almost every utterance of these brethren bearing directly or remotely on the Gal. question was criticized. But the brethren who opposed their teachings would neither consent to a fair examination of the subject nor would they let it alone. They preferred the piecemeal picking process, which I dislike so much.
During this same time period, Ellen White wrote of the great need amongst Adventists to search the scriptures for themselves, not only that they might know the truth, but that they might practice it. On August 5, she sent a circular letter to the “Brethren who shall assemble in General Conference.” She wasted no time stating the importance of the upcoming meeting, nor of the great dangers facing the church:
We are impressed that this gathering will be the most important meeting you have ever attended. This should be a period of earnestly seeking the Lord, and humbling your hearts before Him.
All selfish ambition should be laid aside, and you should plead with God for his Spirit to descend upon you as it came upon the disciples who were assembled together upon the day of Pentecost. …
My brethren, you are Christ’s soldiers, making aggressive warfare against Satan and his host; but it is grievous to the Spirit of God for you to be surmising evil of one another, and letting the imagination of your hearts be controlled by the power of the great accuser.
But in order for this latter rain outpouring of the Holy Spirit to take place, as it had “upon the day of Pentecost,” there had to be unity among the brethren. This would be accomplished when they searched the Bible together and lived up to the light revealed to them:
I hope you will regard this [upcoming Conference] as a most precious opportunity to pray and to counsel together. … Truth can lose nothing by close investigation. Let the word of God speak for itself. …
It has been shown me that there are many of our ministers who take things for granted, and know not for themselves, by close, critical study of the scriptures whether they are believing truth or error. … [They] are willing others should search the scriptures for them; and they take the truth from their lips as a positive fact. … Let every soul now be divested of envy, of jealousy, of evil surmising, and bring their hearts into close connection with God. …
Our people individually must understand Bible truth more thoroughly, for they certainly will be called before councils. …
It is one thing to give assent to the truth, and another thing, through close examination as Bible students, to know what is truth. We have been apprised of our dangers … and now is the time to take special pains to prepare ourselves to meet the temptations and the emergencies which are just before us. If souls neglect to bring the truth into their life, and be sanctified through the truth, that they may be able to give a reason of the hope that is within them, with meekness and fear, they will be swept away by some of the manifold errors and heresies, and will lose their souls. … Many, many will be lost because they have not studied their Bibles upon their knees, with earnest prayer to God that the entrance of the word of God might give light to their understanding. …
We are not to set our stakes, and then interpret everything to reach this set point.
God was seeking to prepare those who would attend the General Conference for the great blessings He had in store. Yet within a month after this counsel was sent, Ellen White sank into a state of “discouragement” which she felt she would “never rise above.” What caused this depression that lasted for over two weeks? Since her time in Europe, the Lord had been laying burdens upon her, not only for individual cases, but for the Church in general. She “felt remorse” and lost her “desire to live” for not being able to arouse her “brethren and sisters to see and sense the great loss they were sustaining in not opening their hearts to receive the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness.” Her “courage was gone” and she hoped no one would pray for her recovery:
I had been instructed in regard to many evils that had been coming in among us while I was in Europe … I had also been told that the testimony God had given me would not be received. … Satan had been at work east of the Rocky Mountains as well as west, to make of none effect the messages of reproof and warning, as well as the lessons of Christ, and the messages of consolation. The evil one was determined to cut off the light which God had for his people. … A strong, firm, resistance was manifested by many against anything that should interfere with their own personal ideas. … This laid upon me the heaviest burdens I could possibly bear.
Ellen White was not only concerned with worldly business practices that were coming into the church, but she was particularly concerned with the “want of love and the want of compassion one for another”:
I have been awake night after night with [such] a sense of agony for the people of God, that the sweat would roll off from me. Some things fearfully impressive were presented to me. … I saw there different names and characters and sins that were written down. There were sins of every description—selfishness, envy, pride, jealousy, evil-surmising, hypocrisy and licentiousness, hatred and murder in the heart, because of this envy and jealousy. These sins were right among the ministers and people. Page after page was turned. … And a voice said [that] the time had come when the work in heaven is all activity for the inhabitants of this world. The time had come when the temple and its worshipers had to be measured. … This is what I saw, … After this some things happened which caused me great sadness, and it was there I sunk under the burden.
The Lord still had a work for Ellen White to do. He raised her up in answer to a “special season of prayer” and required her to “walk out by faith against all appearances.” She was “strengthened” to make the trip to the campmeeting in Oakland and to give her testimony there. She was “urged by the Spirit of God to make strong appeals” to the brethren who would attend the General Conference. She “urged them to humble themselves before God and receive the assurance of his grace, to be baptized with the Holy Ghost, that they might be in a condition to impart light.” The “influence of the Spirit of God came into the meeting,” hearts were broken and confessions made. Unfortunately, not all was well at the camp meeting. Ellen White was unaware of the Ministers’ Council held during the camp meeting where, according to W. C. White, Jones and Waggoner received the “piecemeal picking process.” She was also unaware that W. M. Healey, a minister from California, had sent a letter to G. I. Butler warning him of a plot from the West Coast that would undermine the landmarks of the faith. Later Ellen White would comment:
Little did I think, when making these solemn appeals, that a letter had gone forth from one present at that meeting stating things he thought were true but were not true and which preceded us and built up a wall of difficulty, placing men prepared to fight everything those who crossed the Rocky Mountains should introduce. …
Satan used his influence to have that letter do a work which will prove to the loss of souls. … [I] asked Eld. Butler if Bro. [Healey] did not write to him certain things. He said he did. I asked if he would let me see the letter. I wanted to know what testimony was given to create such a state of things as we met at Minneapolis. He said he burned the letter, but the impress had made an indelible impression on his mind and on the minds of others. …
Thus the stage was set for the coming General Conference. How would the people of God “stand in the time of the latter rain?” This was the question, as we shall soon see, that was not only on the heart of Ellen White, but on the heart of all heaven.
Minneapolis 1888
On October 10, the Ministerial Institute began and continued for seven days. The General Conference followed and lasted until November 4. Attendees numbered perhaps as many as 500, including 96 delegates representing 27,000 church members around the world. Ellen White, who so recently had been brought back from the brink of death, arrived on time for the opening meetings. During the duration of the meetings, Ellen White would speak “nearly twenty times” to those gathered in the newly built Seventh-day Adventist Church in Minneapolis. Unfortunately, only eleven of her presentations are now extant.In his editorial report of the opening of the Institute, Uriah Smith listed the subjects that had been proposed for discussion: “a historical view of the ten kingdoms, the divinity of Christ, the healing of the deadly wound, justification by faith, how far we should go in trying to use the wisdom of the serpent, and predestination. Other subjects will doubtless be introduced.”
It did not take long for Ellen White to express the monumental importance of these meetings, which was based on what she had been shown since her time in Europe. God’s church had “far more to fear from within than from without” in hindering the outpouring of the latter rain. Satan’s greatest fear was that God’s people clear the way for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which God was ready to pour out. On Thursday, October 11, Ellen White gave the morning talk. She had “discerned at the very commencement” of the Institute a “spirit which burdened” her. Would those assembled study as true Bible believers and receive the Holy Spirit?
Now as we have assembled here we want to make the most of our time. … but we too often let [opportunities] slip away, and we do not realize that benefit from them which we should. …
If ever we needed the Holy Ghost to be with us, if we ever needed to preach in the demonstration of the Spirit, it is at this very time. …
The baptism of the Holy Ghost will come upon us at this very meeting if we will have it so. Search for truth as for hidden treasures. …
Let us commence right here in this meeting and not wait till the meeting is half through. We want the Spirit of God here now; we need it, and we want it to be revealed in our characters.
In the months and years ahead, Ellen White would refer several times to the baptism of the Holy Spirit that fell upon the Disciples at Pentecost, and that God longed to impart at Minneapolis. This “baptism of the Holy Spirit” was just another term for the “latter rain”:
What we need is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Without this, we are no more fitted to go forth to the world than were the disciples after the crucifixion of their Lord. Jesus knew their destitution, and told them to tarry in Jerusalem until they should be endowed with power from on high.
Today you are to have your vessel purified that it may be ready for the heavenly dew, ready for the showers of the latter rain; for the latter rain will come, and the blessing of God will fill every soul that is purified from every defilement. It is our work today to yield our souls to Christ, that we may be fitted for the time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord—fitted for the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
We are to pray for the impartation of the Spirit as the remedy for sin-sick souls. The church needs to be converted, and why should we not prostrate ourselves at the throne of grace, as representatives of the church, and from a broken heart and contrite spirit make earnest supplication that the Holy Spirit shall be poured out upon us from on high? …
Just before he left them, Christ gave his disciples the promise, “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: …”
The disciples returned to Jerusalem … and they waited, preparing themselves … until the baptism of the Holy Spirit came.”
On Friday night, October 12, “at the commencement of the Sabbath,” the delegates gathered once again at the church in Minneapolis, to hear Elder Farnsworth speak. He preached “a most gloomy discourse telling of the great wickedness and corruption in our midst and dwelling upon the apostasies among us and there was no light, no good cheer, no spiritual encouragement in this discourse. There was a general gloom diffused among the delegates to the conference.”
On Sabbath afternoon, October 13, Ellen White was given a “testimony calculated to encourage.” She spoke on the “importance of dwelling upon the love of God much more” and letting “gloomy pictures alone.” She heartily exclaimed: “Do not talk of the iniquity and wickedness that are in the world, but elevate your minds and talk of your Saviour.” She admonished her listeners that “while we may have to bear plain testimony to separate from sin and iniquity, we do not want to be hammering upon that string forever.” The effect of her sermon “was most happy” for both “believers and unbelievers bore testimony that the Lord had blessed them.”
On Sunday and Monday, October 14 and 15, Ellen White spent time responding to a thirty-nine page letter she received from G. I. Butler the previous Friday. In his letter, Butler mentioned that he had been on his sick bed many times in the past eighteen months from “nervous exhaustion,” which he blamed on Ellen White’s April 5, 1887 letter to him, where she cautioned he and Smith over their treatment of Jones and Waggoner. Now Butler felt he would never recover until he expressed his “feelings fully.” He went into great detail rehearsing his chief concern to Ellen White, the whole history of the Law in Galatians controversy from his point of view, dating back to the 1850s. As far as he could see, there were “simply two views” on the added law; his view being the ceremonial law and Waggoner’s being the ten commandments. He described Jones and Waggoner as “young fledglings” who were causing problems all over the country. They were “breaking down” the people’s faith in the work of the church and opening the door for “old positions of faith” to be discarded. Their work would not only lead to the loss of “confidence” in the “testimonies themselves,” it would lead to the loss of souls who would “give up the truth because of this.”
Butler then mentioned a letter he had just received a few weeks before, from “two prominent members of the State Conference Committee of one of the Northern Pacific Conferences,” stating that if Jones’ and Waggoner’s views were to be taught at Healdsburg College “their young men … would be sent elsewhere.” Butler pushed the point home, telling Ellen White: “the way this matter has been conducted will tend to seriously affect the prosperity of your Healdsburg College.
Ellen White viewed the letter as “a most curious production of accusations and charges” against her, but she could calmly write: “these things do not move me. I believe it was my duty to come [here].” In her letters she reminded Butler of the history of the controversy over the Law in Galatians from the point of view given her from heaven, including the “terrible conference” of 1886. She reminded him that her heavenly guide had warned of the trial just before them and of the great evils that would result from the “Phariseeism” that had “taken possession” of those who occupied “important positions in the work of God.” She pointed out that trying to control God’s work would result in hindering it:
The spirit and influence of the ministers generally who have come to this meeting [1888] is to discard light. …
The spirit which has prevailed … is not of Christ. … Let there be no such oppression of conscience as is revealed in these meetings. …
From this night’s work there will arise false imaginings, cruel and unjust misunderstandings, that will work like leaven in every church, and close hearts to the striving of the Spirit of God. … [T]he influence of this meeting will be as far-reaching as eternity. …
Those who have marked out a certain course in which the light must come will fail to receive it, for God works in His own appointed way.
The Lord has presented before me that men in responsible positions are standing directly in the way of the workings of God upon his people, because they think that the work must be done and the blessing must come in a certain way they have marked out. …
I have not the least hesitancy in saying that a spirit has been brought into this meeting, not of seeking to obtain light, but to stand barricading the way, lest a ray should come into the hearts and minds of the people, through some other channel than that which you had decided to be the proper one.
Ellen White not only wrote her reply to G. I. Butler that Monday morning, October 15, being just two days before the General Conference started. It is very likely she once again expressed her concerns in a discourse to the delegates. She spoke of the “solemn burdens” she had carried since returning from Europe; how Jesus had described the condition of God’s people when He told her that “the time had come when the temple and its worshipers had to be measured.” She could honestly exclaim: “I feel horribly afraid to come into our conference.” Coming to the close of her talk, Ellen White made a solemn appeal:
It is high time that we were awake out of sleep, that we seek the Lord with all the heart, and I know He will be found of us. I know that all heaven is at our command. Just as soon as we love God with all our hearts and our neighbor as ourselves, God will work through us. How shall we stand in the time of the latter rain? Who expects to have a part in the first resurrection? You who have been cherishing sin and iniquity in the heart? You will fail in that day.
Heaven was waiting to pour out the latter rain through a most precious message, while the very people that were to receive it were asleep in iniquity and sin, and cherishing a spirit of strife.
Spirit of Strife at the Institute
Much of the contentious spirit Ellen White wrote about, which was coming into the meetings, had to do with a minor issue—the controversy over the ten horns. Back in 1884, the General Conference had commissioned A. T. Jones to “write a series of articles gathered from history on points that showed the fulfillment of prophecy.” This led Jones to a more in-depth study of the book of Daniel, and while examining the commonly held Adventist view on the ten kingdoms of Daniel 7 as printed in Uriah Smith’s Daniel and the Revelation, he found that one kingdom had been identified incorrectly. Jones wrote to Smith twice, asking him to send evidence for the historical view and requesting that he examine the recently discovered evidence. Smith did not reply to Jones’ first letter and when he finally responded to his second letter, he claimed he had a lack of time for the task. As a result Jones published his views in the Signs of the Times without Smith being able to critique them, and sent him a copy in October of 1886.Uriah Smith responded irately, telling Jones that he would have to counterattack through the Review since Jones had scattered his views “broadcast through the paper.” Smith was very fearful that thousands of Adventist opponents would “instantly notice the change” in a doctrine held for forty years and claim that, if given enough time, Adventists would acknowledge they were “mistaken on everything.” Jones responded by stating that the real battle for truth lay ahead. Soon, because of the Sunday crisis, “every point” of Adventist doctrine and beliefs would be “analyzed and challenged … by the greatest in the land.” Thus, when the three angel’s messages were being given, Adventists would need a “better reason” for their faith in Bible prophecy “than that ‘it has been preached for forty years.’”
To Jones’ credit, W. C. White, after listening to Jones’ position, spent some time in the summer of 1888 studying into the subject of the ten horns and came to the conclusion that “Eld. Jones had more historical evidence for his position than Eld. Smith.” This, however, made little difference, and as the subject was taken up at the 1888 Institute, a very hostile spirit emerged.
Just prior to the 1888 Institute, Butler had labeled Jones a troublemaker for bringing up an interpretation “contrary to the long-established faith of our people taken forty years ago.” During the Institute itself, Jones received an ever-increasing amount of criticism and false accusations leveled at him, and on Monday, October 15, the situation came to a head during the ten o’clock meeting. Smith declared it “utterly unnecessary” to look into the issue of the ten horns that tended only to evil. He said the old view had “stood the test for 40 years,” and Jones was “tearing up old truth.” He said that he, for one, “was not going to sit calmly by and see the foundation stones of our message taken out with ruthless hands.” Smith did not stop here; he continued speaking falsely by stating that he “was laboring at a disadvantage because he did not know the issue was coming up.” With a bit of irony, he then added that some “seem to have known and brought in libraries of source materials.”
Finally, on Wednesday, at the close of the Institute prior to the General Conference proper, Smith tried to force a vote to decide the issue of the ten horns. Waggoner blocked this vote suggesting it not be “settled until it had been thoroughly investigated.” Despite the blocked vote, Smith claimed victory for his view in his Review editorial claiming: “the sentiment of the delegates appeared … to be overwhelmingly on the side of established principals of interpretation, and the old view. Whether or not this will make any difference with those who are urging the new position, remains to be seen.” What Smith failed to mention was that the delegates had voted that “all should study the question faithfully during the year.” W. C. White saw Smith’s editorial as deceptive, and publicly announced that it “was calculated to mislead the people.”
It is understandable that after more than two years of misrepresentation and false accusations, Jones and Waggoner might seek to defend themselves. On Tuesday, October 16, Jones again took up the subject of the ten horns and replied to Smith “in no uncertain terms.” He told everyone why he had come with “libraries” of books. He discussed the letters that had passed between Smith, Waggoner and himself, proving that the topic of discussion was no surprise. To underscore his point he admonished the delegates “not to blame him for what Uriah Smith said he didn’t know.” Ellen White was present at the meeting and, being aware of the significance of what was taking place, cautioned Jones saying: “not so sharp, Brother Jones, not so sharp.”
Ellen White knew that a spirit that would reject “light” was controlling the brethren. Any misstep by Jones or Waggoner would only give the brethren an excuse to continue in their rebellious course. Jones’ statement was such a minor component in comparison to the whole controversy taking place that Ellen White never mentioned this incident in any of her writings; neither is there any written report from the 1888 Ministerial Institute that mentions Jones’ statement. W. C. White, who took notes of this very meeting, recorded Jones’ explanation of his research since 1884 and why he “came prepared with libraries.” But he did not record Jones’ suppositious statement or Ellen White’s presumed admonishment.
The Great Need
Before the week was over, Ellen White spoke several more times to those gathered in Minneapolis. She knew they were “losing a great deal of the blessing” that they might have received from the Institute, and it would “be an eternal loss.” They were “not to be satisfied” with their “own righteousness, and content without the deep movings of the Spirit of God”:Brethren and sisters, there is great need at this time of humbling ourselves before God, that the Holy Spirit may come upon us. …
May God help us that his Spirit may be made manifest among us. We should not wait until we go home to obtain the blessing of Heaven. … Those who have been long in the work have been far too content to wait for the showers of the latter rain to revive them.
But in order to be revived by the latter rain, God’s people needed a “right relation with Him.” There could be no holding onto “doubt and unbelief” or the enemy would “keep the control” of their minds which “always results in a great loss.” This Satan was seeking to do at the very time in which God was measuring His temple:
Christ is here this morning; angels are here, and they are measuring the temple of God and those who worship therein. The history of this meeting will be carried up to God; for a record of every meeting is made; the spirit manifested, the words spoken, and the actions performed, are noted in the books of heaven. Everything is transferred to the records as faithfully as are our features to the polished plate of the artist.
Ellen White spoke of “measuring the temple of God, and those who worship therein.” She used terminology from Revelation 11 and Ezekiel 4042, as well as the very words spoken to her in the dreams she had during the previous summer. Not only were individuals being measured, the Church was corporately being measured. We must ask ourselves what measurement heaven recorded during those solemn meetings? Were God’s people ready to stand?
The Ministerial Institute had ended and the General Conference had begun. Would its record be any different? We will seek to answer this question in the next chapter.