Arise and Shine for Thy Light Has Come
After Ellen White’s Sunday morning talk at the Kansas campmeeting in May of 1889, a break finally came. Many bore testimony of the great blessings they received and of their newfound experience. That same afternoon, Ellen White attended a meeting where, “after Brother Jones had spoken upon faith, there were many [more] free testimonies borne. As many as six and eight were on their feet at a time, and they seemed like starved sheep who were feeding upon meat in due season.” Writing of the events of the day to her children, Ellen White expressed her joy and innermost desire: “I pray that this good work may go on and that Zion may arise, because her light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon her. Let the individual members of the church humble themselves before God, and accept the message which will bring healing to her bruises and wounds.” Ellen White recognized that the Lord had visited His people with the very light that would heal them and enable them to arise and shine forth to the world around them.The response to the message sent through Jones and Waggoner was varied. While many of the people were receiving a great blessing and a new religious experience that they had never known before, others saw the message as dangerous heresy. What is interesting to note, however, is that not all agreed on what heresy it was that Jones and Waggoner were supposedly teaching. Ellen White was joyful because she recognized the message they were presenting as a complete message of both law and the gospel combined, which had powerful results. But of those who opposed the message, some went away thinking Jones and Waggoner did away with the law in favor of an antinomianism or cheap grace, while others felt that they were undermining the gospel, teaching some kind of perfectionism.
Opposition from Both Sides
Both G. I. Butler and Uriah Smith felt Jones was belittling the law and wrote rebuttals to his campmeetings sermons in the Review. In the May 14 issue of the Review, Butler wrote on Romans chapter 7 and 8, and titled his article; “The Righteousness of the Law Fulfilled By Us.” In contrast to Jones’ sermons, where he described one aspect of sin as missing the mark, Butler emphasized that the moral law was given “to show what God regards as right, everything which violates its sacred principles is wrong,—is sin. … ‘Sin is the transgression of the law.’ 1 John 3:4.” Toward the end of his article Butler summarized his concerns:If there is any one thing in which the third angel’s message is designed to correct the teachings of this age more than another, it is upon this very point,— the necessity of obedience to the law of God. “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12. … There is a sentiment prevailing almost everywhere, and it comes in most pleasing guises, and is made to sound most plausible, that it is not necessary to obey these commandments, or that they cannot be obeyed in this world. An easy way of religion is taught. “Only believe in Christ, and you are all right.” The heart is not examined; the conscience is dormant; there is little sense of the guilt of sin, little thoroughness in studying the demands of God’s law, little self–examination, little abhorrence of sin. Jesus does it all. It is one of the most dangerous heresies in the world. …
Multitudes are calling themselves Christians today, claiming Christ has done the work for them, who know nothing of his pardoning love, because they have never felt the sinfulness of sin, and make no thorough work of repentance. The work is wholly superficial. So these hide under the shadow of Christ, as they suppose, while really carrying their sins along with them. Thus they make Christ a minister of sin. …
It will be a sad day for us as a people, if we ever discard the light God has given us relative to our duty to keep, in spirit and in letter, the moral law of God.
Butler wrote eloquently defending the law against the apparent attacks of Jones, while at the same time he himself was disregarding counsel from the Lord’s servant, Ellen White. Smith’s rebuttal came in a June 11 article titled, “Our Righteousness.” Uriah Smith was more abrasive than Butler, suggesting that the current teaching—by inference that of Jones and Waggoner—was leading down the same path as the “bitter opposers of our cause,” who were doing away with the law. He even made a thrust toward Ellen White, stating that anyone “acquainted with Bro. White can imagine about how long it would take him to demolish such an objection”:
Some of our correspondents are beginning to drop remarks leaning very suspiciously toward the view that any attempt on our part to keep the commandments, is simply an attempt to make ourselves better, which we can never do; that it is an attempt to be righteous, which is simply to cover ourselves with filthy rags. … Just how much they intend to express, we are unable to determine; but it seems to us that they are unconsciously turning their steps toward a position held by a class of bitter opposers of our cause and work, and who draw largely on this line of thought for their material. …
Perfect obedience to it [the law] will develop perfect righteousness, and that is the only way any one can attain to righteousness. … Christ comes in and closes up the gulf between us and God by providing a sacrifice to cancel past sin … [and] to bring us back into harmony with the law. … Here is where our Methodist friend made a mistake … not perceiving that the whole object of Christ’s work for us is to bring us back to the law, that its righteousness may be fulfilled in us by our obedience to it. …
[W]e are not to rest on the stool of do-nothing, as a mass of inertia in the hands of the Redeemer. …
But it is asked, if a man undertakes to keep the law in his own strength and work out his own righteousness, can he do it? Is he not clothing himself with filthy rags? To what class of people such a query would apply, we do not know. We do know, however, that there is not a Seventh-day Adventist in the land who has not been taught better than to suppose that in his own strength he could keep the commandments. … We doubt if even the Pharisees rested their self-righteousness on the perfection of their personal obedience to the ten commandments. …
There is a righteousness we must have, in order to see the kingdom of heaven, which is called “our righteousness;” and this righteousness comes from being in harmony with the law of God. … And “our righteousness” cannot in this case be filthy rags.
Others, besides Butler and Smith, felt the same way about the Ottawa, Kansas meetings. However, before we look at more complaints, we need to take a close look at what was most likely the sermon that brought so much criticism. On Friday, May 17, 1889, Jones finished his series on righteousness by faith in a sermon titled, “Keeping the Commandments.” Because so much has been made of Jones’ comments, both in 1889 and today, we will include his sermon in its entirety as printed in the Topeka Daily Capital:
2 Corinthians 5:17. We have seen how we are brought into Christ and how this says if any man is brought into Christ he is a new creature. Gal. 6:15; 5:6, nothing avails but this and faith that works by love of God, being made a new creature by faith. Romans 5:1, 2, 5; 1 John 5:3—then keeping the commandments comes in after we are new creatures, so then we must be made good, be made righteous, before we can do good or do righteousness; 1 Corinthians 7:19— that is the aim set before us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:8-10. We are created unto good works; made new creatures in him, his righteousness counting for our unrighteousness. The good works God’s creatures are created in Christ to do are the good works we could not do before. So a new creature will aim constantly to keep the commandments.
James 2:1, 9. We do not have the faith of Christ with the transgression of the law. Christ did not come to set us free for that, because if we turn from a single point of the law our faith will not avail. But our intent is accepted and ignorant sins are forgiven, yet willful refusal to accept points of truth presented will cause us to lose all the righteousness we ever had. This explains the fast growing evil in the popular churches of today. Years ago the churches were religious—even when the third angel’s message started they were accepted of God but when they refused to comply with the requirements of the message, then they lost all the righteousness they had and have had to invent all manner of means by which to keep the congregations together, by entertainments. This is the philosophy of the degeneration of the churches.
James 2:14. No more does faith profit unless it is kept alive by these works. God has provided, Num. 18, let us show our faith by our works. Faith is the anchor that holds the craft in the right place to work and the storms beat us nearer home. Verses 21, 23. Abraham was counted righteous when he believed and without works, the other righteousness came in twenty-five years after, so he was not counted righteous by works, that scripture was spoken when he believed and more than twenty-five years after James says the scripture was fulfilled. If he had refused to offer Isaac, his former righteousness would have disappeared, so the obedience of his faith completed his righteousness that he had by faith. Then our keeping of the commandments is not to become righteous, but because we are righteous. Romans 8:26 shows that we can not even pray aright, but the spirit does it for us, so our prayers are acceptable only through the intercession of Christ and the merits of his blood.
Rev. 8:3, 4. Here is the intercession in the sanctuary making intercession for us and God looks upon Christ, his wounds and his sacrifice and accepts them. Christ was perfect before he came to earth, and his absence makes our prayers acceptable, God imputing his prayer for us to us. How is his righteousness imputed to us? Are our acts righteous as far as they go and is his righteousness applied to finish out the work? No. Christ’s righteousness starts at the beginning and makes the action what it ought to be.
Romans 1:16. Is not our faith greater than when we came here? Do we not see more of his righteousness than we did? How is it we have more faith and see more of his righteousness? Why our faith has grown. So it is day by day. We came daily for greater supply of faith. And we finally have so much of Christ’s divine nature in us that we can draw the bow strongly enough to hit the mark, and then we will be keeping the commandments of God. Then is it not Christ’s work from the beginning and all his divine power? Where, then, do our works come in? Nowhere. Why then do we strive so hard to keep the commandments, if it avails not? It is only by faith in Christ that we can say we are Christians. It is only through being one with him that we can be Christians, and only through Christ within us that we keep the commandments—it being all by faith in Christ that we do and say these things.
When the day comes that we actually keep the commandments of God, we will never die, because keeping the commandments is righteousness, and righteousness and life are inseparable—so, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God and faith of Jesus,” and what is the result? These people are translated. Life, then, and keeping the commandments go together. If we die now, Christ’s righteousness will be imputed to us and we will be raised, but those who live to the end are made sinless before he comes, having so much of Christ’s being in them that they “hit the mark” every time, and stand blameless without an intercessor, because Christ leaves the sanctuary sometime before he comes to earth.
Now some say, “I will live better; I will try to build myself up into that place where God can accept me.” If a child tries to do something to build up himself that you may think more of him, and falls, you say it was selfishness and pride, and serves him right; but if a child tries to do something simply to please you, even though bunglingly done, you commend him and praise him. So with us, if we strive to please our God, no matter how bunglingly we do it, he is so glad to put Christ’s righteousness upon us and all heaven rejoices over it. How often a child tries to help mother and she lets it go on, although mother has to do it all over again—yet she delights in the effort of the child to please her. Now like as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.
So then we can say with David: “I delight to do thy law, oh, my God.” Why? Because the love of God was shed abroad in his heart. Now let me read a few texts about pleasing God: Hebrews 11:6. The aim of faith is to please God, because he is so good. Romans 8:8. Again 2 Cor. 5:14. The love of Christ draws us and we get that love through faith. But can we love God if we cannot keep the commandments of God? No. We can do neither until we become new creatures. 1 John 3:21-22. Now let us read Col. 1:9-10. We should be able to walk pleasingly before him. 1 Thess. 4:1. This then is the root and motive in keeping the commandments—to please God, and not to make ourselves righteous. God makes and keeps us righteous and then we keep the commandment to please God who has done so much for us. As then it is the power of Christ through which we keep the commandments now, and it will be his power through which we shall live forever in the new earth. His name to us is what? Jeremiah says it is “the Lord our Righteousness.” Jer. 23:5-6.
General Conference secretary Dan Jones, who often opposed Jones and Waggoner, wrote to O. A. Olsen the following Spring complaining that he had to meet with “badly discouraged” ministers in the Kansas conference. “They had got the impression that there were new views coming out that unsettled the old positions we have held, and they were not certain that the new positions were correct. … [They] had got the idea some way that the doctrine of justification by faith practically did away with the law.”
While some of the brethren felt that the law was being done away with by Jones’ and Waggoner’s teaching on justification by faith, others felt that “exaggerated ideas” on the subject were being taught in regard to overcoming sin. Dan Jones reported to O. A. Olsen, in regard to the same meetings, that some ministers were “under a cloud and going into discouragement. This arose from exaggerated ideas they had received of what our brethren taught on the subject of justification by faith; they had got the idea that the position is now taken that we should stand in a position where we do not sin, that all sin should be put away entirely, and that if we are not in that position we are not converted, etc.” The fact that both Jones and Waggoner were teaching that Christ had come to this earth, taking upon His sinless nature our sinful nature, and overcoming sin in our flesh that we might overcome as well, was to some very upsetting. But how did Ellen White see these two responses to their message? Did she suggest that Jones and Waggoner were causing confusion by doing away with the law or teaching perfectionism?
Ellen White’s Response
While Uriah Smith, G. I. Butler, Dan Jones and others were blaming Jones and Waggoner for teaching two opposite extremes in regard to justification by faith, Ellen White, who had been personally present at the campmeetings, saw the real cause for the confusion. She pointedly told Uriah Smith some time later, that “the many and confused ideas in regard to Christ’s righteousness and justification by faith are the result of the position you have taken toward the man and the message sent of God.” In a talk given a few months after the 1889 campmeetings, Ellen White stated that “the danger has been presented to me again and again of entertaining, as a people, false ideas of justification by faith. I have been shown for years that Satan would work in a special manner to confuse the mind on this point.” She didn’t blame this on Jones and Waggoner, however, but on those who had presented largely on the law of God, “almost destitute of the knowledge of Jesus Christ and His relation to the law as was the offering of Cain. … Many have been kept from the faith because of the mixed, confused ideas of salvation, because the ministers have worked in a wrong manner to reach hearts.”But Ellen White also gave warning to those who felt the present message was calling for too high a standard and that it was not possible for Christ to have taken upon himself man’s fallen nature:
The trials of the children of Israel, and their attitude just before the first coming of Christ, have been presented before me again and again to illustrate the position of the people of God in their experience before the second coming of Christ. How the enemy sought every occasion to take control of the minds of the Jews, and to-day he is seeking to blind the minds of God’s servants, that they may not be able to discern precious truth. …
Christ came to the world to meet these false accusations, and to reveal the Father. We cannot conceive of the humiliation He endured in taking our nature upon himself. …
The Jews had been looking for the advent of the Messiah, but they had thought He must come in all the glory that will attend his second appearing. Because He did not come with all the majesty of a king, they utterly refused Him. But it was not simply because He did not come in splendor that they refused Him. It was because He was the embodiment of purity, and they were impure. … Such a character in the midst of degradation and evil, was out of harmony with their desires, and He was abused and despised. …
Letters have been coming to me, affirming that Christ could not have had the same nature as man, for if he had, he would have fallen under similar temptations. If he did not have man’s nature, he could not be our example. If he was not a partaker of our nature, he could not have been tempted as man has been.
Two years later Ellen White would repeat these same thoughts. Christ did not have an advantage over mankind when it comes to facing temptation. But grace and power is given to all who receive Him, as He is by faith:
We need not place the obedience of Christ by itself as something for which He was particularly adapted, by His particular divine nature, for He stood before God as man’s representative and tempted as man’s substitute and surety. If Christ had a special power which it is not the privilege of man to have, Satan would have made capital of this matter. The work of Christ was to take from the claims of Satan his control of man, and he could do this only in the way that He came—a man, tempted as a man, rendering the obedience of a man. …
Bear in mind that Christ’s overcoming and obedience is that of a true human being. In our conclusions, we make many mistakes because of our erroneous views of the human nature of our Lord. When we give, to His human nature, a power that it is not possible for man to have in his conflicts with Satan, we destroy the completeness of His humanity. His imputed grace and power He gives to all who receive Him by faith. The obedience of Christ to His Father was the same obedience that is required of man.
Williamsport, Pennsylvania
With some difficulty because of recent flooding, Ellen White and A. T. Jones traveled from Kansas to Pennsylvania for a campmeeting held June 5-11, 1889. E. J. Waggoner joined them from California to help with the meetings which were “eagerly welcomed” by the people. The Minneapolis spirit of unbelief had come into the Kansas meetings, but at Williamsport, the people “did not seem to possess a spirit of unbelief and resistance to the message the Lord had sent them.” Ellen White described the positive results of the meetings a few months later in a Review article:Our meetings were well attended, and in the early morning meeting, so many were desirous of bearing testimony, that it was difficult to close the meeting at the appointed time. … The Lord has worked for his people, and they have received the light with joy as meat in due season. Their souls have craved spiritual food, and they have been supplied. …
[A]s the precious message of present truth was spoken to the people by Brn. Jones and Waggoner, the people saw new beauty in the third angel’s message, and they were greatly encouraged. They testified to the fact they had never before attended meetings where they had received so much instruction and such precious light. … They felt that they now understood better how to win souls to Christ. …
In every meeting which we attend, we find many who do not understand the simplicity of faith. … They need to have Christ set forth before them. They need to have courage and hope and faith presented to them. They ask for bread, and shall they receive a stone? Shall the youth in our ranks say, “No man careth for my soul”? Shall we not give light to the souls that are groping in darkness?
In the same Review article, Ellen White addressed more specifically the present truth message that Jones and Waggoner were sharing. It was the third angel’s message, the grand message of justification by faith, proclaimed with the law of God. It was the message of the Lord our righteousness:
There are grand truths, long hidden under the rubbish of error, that are to be revealed to the people. The doctrine of justification by faith has been lost sight of by many who have professed to believe the third angel’s message. The Holiness people have gone to great extremes on this point. With great zeal they have taught, “Only believe in Christ, and be saved; but away with the law of God.” This is not the teaching of the word of God. There is no foundation for such a faith. This is not precious gems of truth that God has given to his people for this time. This doctrine misleads honest souls. …
God has raised up men to meet the necessity of this time who will cry aloud and spare not, who will lift up their voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins. Their work is not only to proclaim the law, but to preach the truth for this time, the Lord our righteousness.
The message that Jones and Waggoner were presenting placed the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus in their proper framework, and wonderful were the results. Ellen White made it clear that the doctrine of justification by faith had been lost sight of in the Adventist church, as leaders and members depended on a mere legalistic form of religion. The third angel’s message that Adventism was to proclaim to the world was not a message of salvation by works. Neither was it the liberal perversion of the reformation doctrine of justification by faith which the holiness preachers taught. The Adventist message was the third angel’s message in verity—the law and the gospel combined—which went beyond the message the Reformers taught. It was the message of righteousness by faith built on the foundation of the Reformation, but taught in the context of the final judgement and the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary.
In the 1888 edition of The Great Controversy, Ellen White wrote about the Reformation and “the great doctrine of justification by faith, so clearly taught by Luther.” But she also stated in the same book, that “the Reformation did not, as many suppose, end with Luther. It is to be continued to the close of this world’s history. Luther had a great work to do in reflecting to others the light which God had permitted to shine upon him; yet he did not receive all the light which was to be given to the world. From that time to this, new light has been continually shining upon the Scriptures, and new truths have been constantly unfolding.” There was a “present truth in the days of Luther,—a truth at that time of special importance,” but, Ellen White exclaimed, “there is a present truth for the church today.”
In Ellen White’s article about the Williamsport campmeeting, she described the great blessings received by those who accepted the present truth messages on righteousness by faith, and then turned her attention to those who were still wavering over whether to accept the message. She warned those in Battle Creek, who themselves were sinning against great light, that it was time for them to choose between Baal and the Lord:
The Spirit of God is now withdrawing from the people of the earth. …
The terrible destruction of life and property at Johnstown and Williamsport … call for most serious reflection. … But we are not to think … [they] were more deserving of punishment than are other cities. … There are those who are living under the very shadow of our institutions, who are sinning against greater light than were the people of Johnstown … and they will more certainly fall under the wrath of God’s retributive judgments. …
The curse of Meroz will be upon those who do not now come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty. Well may the question be asked in the spirit of Elijah. “How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”
All heaven is interested in the work that is going on upon the earth. But there are those who see no necessity for a special work at this time. While God is working to arouse the people, they seek to turn aside the message of warning, reproof, and entreaty. Their influence tends to quiet the fears of the people, and to prevent them from awaking to the solemnity of this time. … If they do not change their course … the same reward will be apportioned to them as to those who are at enmity and in open rebellion against God.
Ellen White wrote to H. W. Miller, a minister from the Michigan conference, just prior to the Williamsport campmeeting, stating that “some of our leading brethren” have “intercepted themselves between the light and the people.” She told Miller that she “had repeatedly presented before [him] and others that there would come a shaking time.” In view of the continued rejection of the outpouring of the Spirit of God, she could state unabashedly “we are now entering upon that time.”
Rome, New York
From Williamsport the campmeeting speakers traveled to New York, where the Rome campmeeting ran from June 11 to 18. Ellen White felt “anxious that the grace of Christ should come upon our brethren.” Her hopes were not disappointed: “The Lord sent them special messages of mercy and encouragement.” Once again she recognized the message for what it was:The Lord would have his church arise and shine; for the brightness of the light of God has shone upon his people in the message of present truth. If all will heed the precious words given them from the Great Teacher through his delegated servants, there will be an awakening throughout our ranks, and spiritual vigor will be imparted to the church. We should all desire to know the truth as it is in Jesus. …
I felt anxious that the light of heaven might shine upon the people of God in this Conference, that they might zealously repent of their sins. … We felt thankful to our Heavenly Father that his message of hope and courage and faith could come before our brethren and sisters in New York, and we deeply regretted that there were not many others present to share the important instruction that was given. …
As the servants of the Lord brought forth things new and old from the treasure house of his word, hope came to the hearts of these old soldiers in the truth. They knew that the message was what they needed, and felt that it came from God. …
There is great need that Christ should be preached as the only hope and salvation. When the doctrine of justification by faith was presented at the Rome meeting, it came to many as water comes to the thirsty traveler. The thought that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, not because of any merit on our part, but as a free gift from God, seemed a precious thought. The enemy of man and God is not willing that this truth should be clearly presented; for he knows that if the people receive it fully, his power will be broken. If he can control minds so that doubt and unbelief and darkness shall compose the experience of those who claim to be the children of God, he can overcome them with temptation.
The very message that was shining upon them was the “glory of the Lord” spoken of in Isaiah 60:1; truths both “new and old.” If accepted, it would bring an “awakening throughout” the church. Satan did not want this message “clearly presented,” for he knew that if the “people receive it fully, his power will be broken.” Thus he set out to “control minds” with “doubt and unbelief” that he might “overcome them with temptation.” The most effective way he could do this was through those in leadership positions.
During the campmeeting in Rome, Ellen White responded to Smith’s June 11 Review article, writing him a personal letter. She had been awakened in the night and saw the case of Smith as most discouraging:
I saw you walked upon the path that almost imperceptibly diverged from the right way. A noble personage stood beside me and said, “Uriah Smith is not on the brink of a precipice but he is in the path that will shortly bring him to the brink and if he is not warned now it will soon be too late. He can now retrace his steps. He is walking like a blind man into the prepared net of the enemy but he feels no danger because light is becoming darkness to him and darkness light. …”
This morning I have read your article in [the] Review. Now there was no call whatever for you to write as you did. You place Elder Jones in a false position just as Elder Morrison and Nicola and yourself and others placed him in at Minneapolis.
Christ and the Law
Church members at the Rome campmeeting, where both Jones and Waggoner were preaching, read Uriah Smith’s June 11 article in the Review. On the last day of the meetings, Ellen White took opportunity to set things straight. In her sermon “Christ and the Law,” she explained how Christ revealed to the Jewish people, “old light in new settings” in regard to the law. But the “moment He does that, there arises a resistance against that light. … It was not as they had taught it. … [T]heir thoughts were that He did not make the law as prominent as they had done. … They saw trees as men walking.” Ellen White then drew a comparison, asking her listeners how they would respond to heaven’s light?What is God going to do for His people––leave them with no new light? “Ye are,” says He, “the light of the world.” Then we are to get more light from the throne of God, and have an increase of light. Now, we do not tell you in the message that has been given to you here and in other places that it is a grand new light, but it is the old light brought up and placed in new settings. …
Just prior to the coming of the Son of man, there is and has been for years a determination on the part of the enemy to cast his hellish shadow right between man and his Saviour. And why? So that he shall not distinguish that it is a whole Saviour, a complete sacrifice that has been made for him. Then he tells them that they are not to keep the law, for in keeping that law man would be united with the divine power, and Satan would be defeated. … Notwithstanding man was encompassed with the infirmities of humanity he might become a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Now here is the redemption.
If you could see what Christ is, one that can save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him, then you would have that faith that works. But must works come first? No, it is faith first. And how? The cross of Christ is lifted up between heaven and earth. …
“Then,” says one, “you cannot be accepted unless you repent.” Well, who leads us to repentance? Who is drawing us? … Christ is drawing us. Angels of God are in this world, at work upon human minds, and the man is drawn to the One who uplifts him, and the One who uplifts Him draws him to repentance. It is no work of his own; there is nothing that he can do that is of any value at all except to believe. …
This is the victory––even your faith, feelings, and good works? Is that it? No; “This is the victory … even your faith”. … We are not following cunningly devised fables, no indeed; but we have been revealing Christ our righteousness.
Ellen White told her hearers that a “self–sufficiency” had been coming in among them. She read the message to the Laodicean church, stating that it was “applicable to us.” She then defined the remedies for the Laodicean condition as that found in the very message that God had been pleased to send them:
Now what is the difficulty? “Tried in the fire.” Christ had such love for us that He could go through all that trying of the crucifixion, and come off conqueror. And the white raiment, what is that? Christ’s righteousness. “Anoint thine eyes with eyesalve”––spiritual discernment, that you may discern between true righteousness and self-righteousness. Now here is the work. The heavenly merchantman is passing up and down before you saying: “Buy of Me. Here are heavenly goods; buy of Me.” “Will you do it? It is ‘Me’ you are to buy of.” There is no other source in heaven from which we may receive liberty and life but through Jesus Christ our righteousness.
Then He says, “Be zealous therefore, and repent.” That message is to us. We want the brethren and sisters in this conference to take hold of this message, and see the light that has been brought to us in new settings.
God has opened to us our strength, and we need to know something about it and be prepared for the time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation. But here is our strength, Christ our righteousness.
As Ellen White came to the end of her talk, she responded to Smith’s article in the Review. She described him in the same condition as that of the Jews. She defended Jones and Waggoner, and her husband, against Smith’s misrepresentations. She made it clear that she was in full support of the message being given and that it was not contrary to what she had “been trying to present” before their minds. Speaking to the congregation in no uncertain terms, she identified the message for what it was; their “light” had come:
Brethren, do not let any of you be thrown off the track. “Well,” you say, “What does Brother Smith’s piece in the Review mean?” He doesn’t know what he is talking about; he sees trees as men walking. … [H]e takes those [texts] that have been placed in false settings and he binds them in a bundle as though we were discarding the claims of God’s law, when it is no such thing. It is impossible for us to exalt the law of Jehovah unless we take hold of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
My husband understood this matter of the law, and we have talked night after night until neither of us would sleep. And it is the very principles the people are striving for. They want to know that Christ accepts them as soon as they come to Him. …
I have had the question asked, “What do you think of this light that these men 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. I have said to myself, It is because God has presented it to me in vision that I see it so clearly, and they cannot see it because they have never had it presented to them as I have. And when another presented it, every fiber of my heart said, Amen. …
I ask you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth to arise and shine, for thy light has come. … Now, you have had light here, and what are you going to do about it? … How I long to see the tidal wave pouring over the people! And I know it can be, for God gave us all heaven in one gift, and every one of us can accept the light, every ray of it, and then we can be the light of the world.
Smith’s response was anything but repentance. He wrote a second article in the Review entitled “Our Righteousness Again.” He stated that his first article seemed “to have been misapprehended by some,” and he wrote again “in hope of making it so plain that none can misunderstand it.” His stance, however, didn’t change. He was concerned that “in exalting the faith side of this question, which is all right in itself, … many have come to think that the [law] is obsolete and the other [obedience] of no consequence.”
Looking Back
Several weeks later Ellen White wrote of the campmeeting at Rome. She encouraged those who had “received” light to let it “shine in the various churches of which they” were members, for if they neglect to communicate the light, they would “be left in darkness.” She warned those who were criticizing the message that had “divine credentials” that Satan was not only trying to make void the law of God, he was also seeking to trample on the “faith of Christ as our righteousness.” If the “present message,” which brought with it divine power, was not valued, “false theories” would take minds captive and Christ and His righteousness would be “dropped out of the experience” and Satan would “overcome [them] with his temptations”:The present message—justification by faith—is a message from God; it bears the divine credentials, for its fruit is unto holiness. Some who greatly need the precious truth that was presented before them, we fear did not receive its benefit … they have suffered great loss. …
It is perilous to the soul to hesitate, question, and criticize divine light. Satan will present his temptations until the light will appear as darkness, and many will reject the very truth that would have proved the saving of their souls. Those who walk in its rays will find it growing brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. …
It has been necessary to exalt the great standard of righteousness, but in doing this, many have neglected to preach the faith of Jesus. If we would have the spirit and power of the third angel’s message, we must present the law and the gospel together, for they go hand in hand. As a power from beneath is stirring up the children of disobedience to make void the law of God, and to trample upon the faith of Christ as our righteousness, a power from above is moving upon the hearts of those who are loyal to exalt the law, and to lift up Jesus as a complete Saviour. Unless divine power is brought into the experience of the people of God, false theories and erroneous ideas will take minds captive, Christ and his righteousness will be dropped out of the experience of many, and their faith will be without power or life. … [I]f they do not zealously repent, they will be among those who are represented by the Laodiceans, who will be spewed out of the mouth of God. …
Our present position is interesting and perilous. The danger of refusing light from heaven should make us watchful unto prayer, lest we should any of us have an evil heart of unbelief. When the Lamb of God was crucified on Calvary, the death knell of Satan was sounded; and if the enemy of truth and righteousness can obliterate from the mind the thought that it is necessary to depend upon the righteousness of Christ for salvation, he will do it. If Satan can succeed in leading man to place value upon his own works as works of merit and righteousness, he knows that he can overcome him by his temptations, and make him his victim and prey.
Message Silenced?
After the Rome campmeeting Ellen White returned to Battle Creek “worn and exhausted.” She had to “refrain from speaking for a time” until her health improved. It was during this time that she wrote “Experience following the 1888 Minneapolis Conference.” She summarized the events following the General Conference, including some of the revival meetings that took place in the early spring, and sadly, the opposition that still remained strong. Using language from Isaiah 58, she described the interest of the universe in seeing “how many faithful servants are bearing the sins of the people on their hearts and afflicting their souls; how many are colaborers with Jesus Christ to become repairers of the breach … and restorers of the paths.” It was not just the Sabbath that needed restoration, but the “path of faith and righteousness.”In late June, Ellen White traveled to Wexford, Michigan, for another campmeeting held June 25 through July 2. Once again the “Spirit of the Lord was manifestly at work,” but many refused to be benefited by it. On July 23, Ellen White sent a forty-one page letter to “Elders Madison and Howard Miller,” both ministers in the Michigan conference. She rebuked them and others for not recognizing the movings of the Spirit, and for being “ever ready to question and cavil.” Some had an “unfortunate experience … at Minneapolis.” Others, in their present condition, would be “a hindrance in any meeting or counsel” just like the unfaithful spies, who had “no trouble in seeing and presenting obstacles that appeared insurmountable in the way of the advancement of the people of God.” She told them that “the Lord has committed to us a message full of interest, that is as far reaching in its influence as eternity. We have tidings to give to the people which should bring joy to their souls.” She told them that it was not for them “to choose the channel through which the light shall come. The Lord desires to heal the wounds of His sheep and lambs, through the heavenly balm of the truth that Christ is our righteousness.” Their actions were similar to that of the Jews; they were rejecting Christ “in the person of his messengers.” Yet they were “less excusable than were the Jews; for we have before us their example”:
It is a grievous sin in the sight of God for men to place themselves between the people and the message that he would have come to them (as some of our brethren have been doing). There are some who like the Jews, are doing their utmost to make the message of God of none effect. Let these doubting, questioning ones either receive the light of the truth for this time, or let them stand out of the way, that others may have an opportunity of receiving the truth. …
Those who live just prior to the second appearing of Christ, may expect a large measure of His Holy Spirit; but if they do not watch and pray, they will go over the same ground of refusing the message of mercy, as the Jews did in the time of Christ (If God has ever spoken by me, some of our leading men are going over the same ground). If they turn away from the light, they will fail to meet the high and holy claims of God, they will fail to fulfill the sacred responsibility that he has entrusted to them.
The character and prospects of the people of God are similar to those of the Jews, who could not enter in because of unbelief. Self-sufficiency, self- importance, and spiritual pride separate them from God.
Ellen White recognized that the brethren were following in the footsteps of the Jews. Many were looking “to their leaders” and asking: “‘If this message that Brother A. T. Jones has been giving to the church is the truth, why is it that Brother Smith and Brother Butler have not received it?’” A “similar guilt” to that which was incurred by the Jews was upon those leading brethren who were despising the message and messengers, and yet, Ellen White stated: “Their unbelief is no reason for others to do the same.” Coming to the close of her letter to Madison and Miller, Ellen White gave a final caution and plea:
There are many who have heard the message for this time and have seen its results, and they cannot but acknowledge that the work is good, but from fear that some will take extreme positions, and that fanaticism may arise in our ranks, they have permitted their imagination to create many obstacles to hinder the advance of the work, and they have presented these difficulties to others, expatiating on the dangers of accepting the doctrine. They have sought to counteract the influence of the message of truth. Suppose they should succeed in these efforts, what would be the result? The message to arouse a lukewarm church should cease, and the testimony exalting the righteousness of Christ would be silenced. …
The character, the motives and purposes of the workmen whom God has sent, have been, and will continue to be, misrepresented. …
The end is right upon us; and is it reasonable to think that there is no message to make ready a people to stand in the day of God’s preparation? … Is the third angel’s message to go out in darkness, or to lighten the whole earth with its glory? Is the light of God’s Spirit to be quenched, and the church to be left as destitute of the grace of Christ as the hills of Gilboa were of dew and rain?
Ellen White, and Jones and Waggoner, all attended several more campmeetings before the 1889 General Conference in late October, and the results were the same. Many people found a new experience as they heard the message presented, but many of the leading brethren, although claiming to believe in the message presented, continued to fight against what they perceived were flaws in the message and the messengers. Some years later, A. T. Jones summarized the events of the summer of 1889:
Then when camp meeting time came we all three visited the camp meetings with the message of righteousness by faith and religious liberty: sometimes all three of us being in the same meeting. This turned the tide with the people, and apparently with most of the leading men. But this latter was only apparent: it was never real, for all the time in the General Conference Committee and amongst others there was a secret antagonism always carried on.”
Were Jones’ observations correct? We will look into his claims in the chapters ahead.