“I am often referred to the parable of the ten virgins”
News travels fast even in an age before telecommunication. Following the close of the 1890 Ministerial Institute, participants who had come from across the country returned to their homes to once again take up their labors. Despite the glowing reports published in the Review, many sensed from the reports of the participants themselves that all had not gone well. J. S. Washburn, who was unable to attend the meetings because of “sickness in the family,” was one minister who felt a deep concern for the condition of the church. He had been richly blessed the year before during the campmeeting revival at Ottawa, Kansas, and was still living under that blessing. As reports came back from Battle Creek, he began to “think it was in a measure ‘Minneapolis’ over again.” In a desire to find out the truth about the matter and to inquire what exactly the Lord was seeking to do for His people, Washburn sent a letter to Ellen White:Dear Sister White … I was in the Ottowa Kansas last May attending the Institute there and I was most deeply impressed by the sermons of Eld. A. T. Jones on the righteousness of Christ and by the talks I had with you. I have been thinking since that time … that among our people before the end of time a special work on true holiness would be brought out. I have thought that now in fear of the counterfeit holiness [we] have missed very much of God’s special blessing in fact have failed to experience true holiness. … It seems to me God is just holding over our heads a great blessing, but is waiting for us to be ready for it before bestowing it upon us. And that this blessing is true holiness and that when we shall come up to our duties and privileges in this matter then our work shall go with the “loud cry.” Is this true or is it a mistake? … I am straining my eyes into the future for light on this subject. Is there light for us? It does seem to me as I never realized it before that we are in the condition spoken of in Rev. 3:14-17 and that our experience at Minneapolis and other places and times is evidence that we did not know it. And that there and since Christ is counseling us to buy the gold and white raiment and anoint our eyes with the eye salve, Is this so? … If out of the multitude of your cares and burdens you can find time to answer these questions your answer will be most gratefully received.
Although Ellen White was still suffering exhaustion from the stressful Ministerial Institute and from carrying a heavy workload, she took the time to respond to Washburn’s letter. It was with pleasure that she read his letter, “for the thought that the work of the Spirit of God wrought upon your heart at the Kansas meeting has so far not been effaced, is of great satisfaction.” Washburn had received “a glimpse of the righteousness of Christ” which he had not lost as “others did when they came in contact with those who did not appreciate this blessed truth.” Ellen White challenged Washburn that if he had “been permitted to stand in the presence of the Sun of Righteousness” it was not that he might “absorb and conceal the bright beams,” but that he might “become a light to others.” Then in page after page, Ellen White poured out her concern for the church she loved:
When the third angel’s message is preached as it should be, power attends its proclamation, and it becomes an abiding influence. … I am often referred to the parable of the ten virgins, five of whom were wise, and five foolish. This parable has been and will be fulfilled to the very letter, for it has a special application to this time. …
The enemy has men in our ranks through whom he works, that the light which God has permitted to shine upon the heart and illuminate the chambers of the mind may be darkened. There are persons who have received the precious light of the righteousness of Christ, but they do not act upon it; they are foolish virgins. … Satan uses those who claim to believe the truth, but whose light has become darkness, as his mediums to utter his falsehoods and transmit his darkness. They are foolish virgins indeed choosing darkness rather than light and dishonoring God. … Those who have despised the divine grace that is at their command, that would have qualified them to be the inhabitants of heaven, will be the foolish virgins. …
The state of the church represented by the foolish virgins, is also spoken of as the Laodicean state. … Since the time of the Minneapolis meeting, I have seen the state of the Laodicean Church as never before. I have heard the rebuke of God spoken to those who feel so well satisfied, who know not their spiritual destitution. … Like the Jews, many have closed their eyes lest they should see; but there is as great [a] peril now … as there was when He was upon earth. …
Those who realize their need of repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, will have contrition of soul, will repent for their resistance of the Spirit of the Lord. They will confess their sin in refusing the light that Heaven has so graciously sent them, and they will forsake the sin that grieved and insulted the Spirit of the Lord.
The new 1888 edition of The Great Controversy contained several chapters mentioning the parable of the ten virgins and its prophetic fulfillment in the midnight cry of 1844—“behold the Bridegroom cometh.” In the summer of 1844 “the two classes represented by the wise and foolish virgins were … developed.” The wise virgins “had received the grace of God, the regenerating, enlightening power of the Holy Spirit, which renders His word a lamp to the feet and a light to the path.” Through earnest study following the great disappointment, those with the heavenly oil came to realize that Christ had begun his work in the most holy place where the marriage was to take place, and they “went in with Him.”
Just prior to the 1888 General Conference, Ellen White was informed through a dream that “the time had come when the temple and its worshipers had to be measured;” all heaven was in activity. Time and again since the Minneapolis conference Ellen White had tried to help the brethren understand that God was seeking to prepare a people to stand in that day when He would return “from the wedding” (Luke 12:36). God was seeking their cooperation in the final work of atonement and sent a “most precious message” that “invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God.” God desired to impart that heavenly oil which is not only a “symbol of the Holy Spirit;” that “oil is the righteousness of Christ. It represents character.”
But alas, that very message was being despised and rejected. It is no wonder that Ellen White stated that the parable of the ten virgins had been and would be fulfilled to the very letter, for it had special application to that very time. Those who “have despised the divine grace,” who “claim to believe the truth, but whose light has become darkness,” and those who “received the precious light of the righteousness of Christ, but … do not act upon it,” are all alike “foolish virgins.” They were responsible for bringing about the Laodicean condition. Ellen White warned Washburn that Satan was seeking to bring in confusion through false ideas of salvation. Even the “gospel of truth” was being “contaminated”:
Are we wise virgins, or must we be classed among the foolish? … That which passes with many for the religion of Christ, is made up of ideas and theories, a mixture of truth and error. Some are trying to become good enough to be saved. … Penances, mortifications of the flesh, constant confession of sin, without sincere repentance; fasts, festivals, and outward observances, unaccompanied by true devotion,—all these are of no value whatever. The sacrifice of Christ is sufficient. … A failure to appreciate the value of the offering of Christ, has a debasing influence … it leads us to receive unsound and perilous theories concerning the salvation that has been purchased for us at infinite cost.
The reason why the churches are weak and sickly and ready to die, is that the enemy has brought influences of a discouraging nature to bear upon trembling souls. He has sought to shut Jesus from their view as the Comforter, as one who reproves, who warns, who admonishes them saying, ‘This is the way, walk ye in it.’ … Satan has achieved his greatest success through interposing himself between the soul and the Saviour.
Confusion Nothing New
Conflicting views on salvation and the resulting confusion were nothing new to Ellen White. Soon after Waggoner was prevented from presenting on the covenants during the earlier part of the 1890 Ministerial Institute, Ellen White realized the Minneapolis episode was about to be repeated. As was the case with the law in Galatians question, the real issue at the heart of the covenant question was how mankind is saved. She began to attend many of the meetings, speaking every day for three weeks with but one or two exceptions.Were Jones and Waggoner teaching some kind of heresy? Did not man have a part to play in his salvation? For several days Ellen White addressed this important issue during her morning talks. She wasted no time getting to the heart of the question—what are the conditions of salvation?
The question will come up, How is it? Is it by conditions that we receive salvation? Never by conditions do we come to Christ. And if we come to Christ, then what is the condition? The condition is that by living faith we lay hold wholly and entirely upon the merits of the blood of a crucified and risen Saviour. When we do that, then we work the works of righteousness. But when God is calling the sinner in our world, and inviting him, there is no condition there; he is drawn by the invitation of Christ and it is not, “Now you have got to respond in order to come to God.” The sinner comes, and as he comes and views Christ elevated upon that cross of Calvary, which God impresses upon his mind, there is a love beyond anything that is imagined that he has taken hold of. And what then? … And there is repentance toward God; and what then?—why, faith toward our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that can speak pardon to the transgressor. …
The devil has been working for a year to obliterate these ideas—the whole of them. And it takes hard work to change their old opinions. They think they have to trust in their own righteousness, and in their own works, and keep looking at themselves, and not appropriating the righteousness of Christ and bringing it into their life, and into their character.
Yes, man has a part to play in his salvation. He is not to fight off the drawing invitation of the cross of Calvary. By beholding he is to become changed, and by a living faith he takes hold “wholly and entirely” upon the merits of Jesus Christ. Instead of looking for merit in his own righteousness, man is to look to the merits of Christ.
It was during this same time that Ellen White wrote her Manuscript 36, 1890. This manuscript was most likely based on her morning talks given to the ministers gathered in Battle Creek during the Ministerial Institute. Her heart ached as she realized that the majority of the laborers “sent forth to labor” did not themselves “understand the plan of salvation and what true conversion is; in fact they need to be converted.” The ministers needed to be “enlightened” and “educated to dwell more particularly upon subjects which explain true conversion.” The problem was that “unconverted men have stood in the pulpits sermonizing.” They were trying to present truths that “their own hearts have never experienced.” And yet, when God sent a message that contained the divine remedy for the poor condition among the ministry, the brethren were responding with “trivial” remarks, and speaking “so unguardedly of the true ideas” of Jones and Waggoner. Ellen White could “but weep” as she thought of those under the “spell of Satan.”
Ellen White admonished those in a “fog of bewilderment” to heed the counsel of the true Witness: “they need the divine love represented by gold tried in the fire; they need the white raiment of Christ’s pure character; and they need the heavenly eyesalve that they might discern with astonishment the utter worthlessness of creature merit to earn the wages of eternal life.” The general state of the ministry was keeping the church from completing its task:
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. The law of God has been largely dwelt upon, and has been presented to congregations, almost as destitute of the knowledge of Jesus Christ and His relation to the law as was the offering of Cain. I have been shown that 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. The point which has been urged upon my mind for years is the imputed righteousness of Christ. …
There is not a point that needs to be dwelt upon more earnestly, repeated more frequently, or established more firmly in the minds of all, than the impossibility of fallen man meriting anything by his own best good works. Salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ alone. …
Let the subject be made distinct and plain that it is not possible to effect anything in our standing before God or in the gift of God to us through creature merit. … Here is an opportunity for falsehood to be accepted as truth. If any man can merit salvation by anything he may do, then he is in the same position as the Catholic to do penance for his sins. Salvation, then, is partly of debt, that may be earned as wages. If man cannot, by any of his good works, merit salvation, then it must be wholly of grace, received by man as a sinner because he receives and believes in Jesus. … And all this controversy is ended, as soon as the matter is settled that the merits of fallen man in his good works can never procure eternal life for him. …
Discussions may be entered into by mortals strenuously advocating creature merit, and each man striving for the supremacy, but they simply do not know that all the time, in principle and character, they are misrepresenting the truth as it is in Jesus. …
I ask, How can I present this matter as it is? The Lord Jesus imparts all the powers, all the grace, all the penitence, all the inclination, all the pardon of sins, in presenting His righteousness for man to grasp by living faith—which is also the gift of God. If you would gather together everything that is good and holy and noble and lovely in man, and then present the subject to the angels of God as acting a part in the salvation of the human soul or in merit, the proposition would be rejected as treason.
In order for the world to be lightened with the glory of Christ and His righteousness, there must first be an experiential knowledge on the part of those who would share that message. Yet, Ellen White said, “we hear so many things preached in regard to the conversion of the soul that are not the truth.” It was not the message presented by Jones and Waggoner that was the cause of the trouble, for “solid faith will not lead any one away into fanaticism or into acting the slothful servant. It is the bewitching power of Satan that leads men to look to themselves in the place of looking to Jesus”:
Men are educated to think that if a man repents he shall be pardoned, supposing that repentance is the way, the door, into heaven; that there is a certain assured value in repentance to buy for him forgiveness. Can man repent of himself? No more than he can pardon himself. …
There is danger in regarding justification by faith as placing merit on faith. When you take the righteousness of Christ as a free gift you are justified freely through the redemption of Christ. … [W]ho gave the understanding, who moved on the heart, who first drew the mind to view Christ on the cross of Calvary. Faith is rendering to God the intellectual powers, abandonment of the mind and will to God, and making Christ the only door to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
When men learn they cannot earn righteousness by their own merit of works, and they look with firm and entire reliance upon Jesus Christ as their only hope, there will not be so much of self and so little of Jesus. Souls and bodies are defiled and polluted by sin, the heart is estranged from God, yet many are struggling in their own finite strength to win salvation by good works. Jesus, they think, will do some of the saving; they must do the rest. They need to see by faith the righteousness of Christ as their only hope for time and for eternity.
Ellen White elaborated on these ideas in a Review article published shortly after the Ministerial Institute. Many had “erroneous ideas in regard to the nature of repentance.” They were under the impression that one “cannot come to Christ unless they first repent, and that repentance prepares them for the forgiveness of their sins.” Only those who have a “broken and contrite heart” will “feel the need of a Saviour. But must the sinner wait until he has repented before he can come to Jesus? Is repentance to be made an obstacle between the sinner and the Saviour?” Repentance is as much a gift to be received as is forgiveness. It is Christ who is “constantly drawing men to Himself, while Satan is as diligently seeking by every imaginable device to draw men away from their Redeemer.” This is exactly what Satan was seeking to do to the message that was to lighten the earth with its glory:
Some of our brethren have expressed fears that we shall dwell too much upon the subject of justification by faith, but I hope and pray that none will be needlessly alarmed; for there is no danger in presenting this doctrine as it is set forth in the Scriptures. … Some of our brethren are not receiving the message of God upon this subject. They appear to be anxious that none of our ministers shall depart from their former manner of teaching the good old doctrines. We inquire, Is it not time that fresh light should come to the people of God, to awaken them to greater earnestness and zeal? … [Satan] has cast his own dark shadow between us and our God, that we may not see the true character of God. …
Several have written to me, inquiring if the message of justification by faith is the third angel’s message, and I have answered, “It is the third angel’s message in verity.” The prophet declares, “And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.” Brightness, glory, and power are to be connected with the third angel’s message, and conviction will follow wherever it is preached in demonstration of the Spirit. How will any of our brethren know when this light shall come to the people of God? As yet, we certainly have not seen the light that answers to this description. God has light for his people, and all who will accept it will see the sinfulness of remaining in a lukewarm condition; they will heed the counsel of the True Witness.
The message of justification by faith presented by Jones and Waggoner was the “third angel’s message in verity” that was to be attended with “brightness, glory, and power” from that angel of Revelation 18 and lighten the earth with glory. But how would the brethren recognize this light if they continued in a “lukewarm condition”? They were in such a state that they could not see “the light that answers to this description.” As a result, Ellen White would solemnly state earlier. “This I do know, that our churches are dying for the want of teaching on the subject of righteousness by faith in Christ, and for kindred truths.”
Law and Gospel Combined
One of the greatest concerns the brethren had with what Jones and Waggoner were teaching was that the moral law was being undermined, thus doing away with the Sabbath, the third angel’s message, and the very reason for the Church’s existence. Ellen White, however, was just as sure that the message of Jones and Waggoner was not doing away with the law, but rather combined the law and the gospel in a way that if understood would “lighten the earth with its glory.” Many times she referred to this vital combination as the answer to all the confusion and extremes both inside and outside of the church. In Ellen White’s Manuscript 36, mentioned earlier, she addressed this important issue. The “absence of devotion, piety, and sanctification of the outer man,” came not as a result of Jones’and Waggoner’s teaching, but “through denying Jesus Christ our righteousness”:While one class pervert the doctrine of justification by faith and neglect to comply with the conditions laid down in the Word of God—“If ye love Me, keep My commandments”—there is fully as great an error on the part of those who claim to believe and obey the commandments of God but who place themselves in opposition to the precious rays of light—new to them—reflected from the cross of Calvary. The first class do not see the wondrous things in the law of God for all who are doers of His Word. The others cavil over trivialities and neglect the weightier matters, mercy and the love of God. …
On the one hand, religionists generally have divorced the law and the gospel, while we have, on the other hand, almost done the same from another standpoint. We have not held up before the people the righteousness of Christ and the full significance of His great plan of redemption. We have left out Christ and His matchless love, brought in theories and reasoning, and preached argumentative discourses.
Ellen White penned similar words in her Review article of May 27, 1890. “The relation of Christ to the law” was but “faintly comprehended.” The brethren were shrinking “from the presentation of justification by faith.” Yet Ellen White added, “just as soon as Christ is discovered in His true position in relation to the law, the misconception that has existed on this important matter will be removed. The law and the gospel are so blended that the truth cannot be presented as it is in Jesus, without blending these subjects in perfect agreement. The law is the gospel of Christ veiled; the gospel of Jesus is nothing more or less than the law defined, showing its far-reaching principles.”
These thoughts were not only shared publicly, but Ellen White later contemplated their significance in her diary: “The law and the gospel go hand in hand. The one is the complement of the other. The law without faith in the gospel of Christ cannot save the transgressor of law. The gospel without the law is inefficient and powerless. The law and the gospel are a perfect whole. … The two blended … produce the love and faith unfeigned.”
In a diary entry written just prior to the 1891 General Conference, Ellen White again emphasized these important points. There was a fear “that there was danger of carrying the subject of justification by faith altogether too far, and of not dwelling enough on the law.” Yet she herself saw “no cause for alarm,” when the subject was based “not on the ideas and opinions of men, but on a plain ‘Thus saith the Lord:’”
Many remarks have been made to the effect that in our campmeetings the speakers have dwelt upon the law, the law, and not on Jesus. This statement is not strictly true, but have not the people had some reason for making these remarks? … Many of our ministers have merely sermonized, presenting subjects in an argumentative way and scarcely mentioning the saving power of the Redeemer. … Why is not He presented to the people as the Living Bread?—Because He is not abiding in the hearts of many of those who think it their duty to preach the law. …
The law and the gospel, revealed in the Word, are to be preached to the people; for the law and the gospel, blended, will convict of sin. God’s law, while condemning sin, points to the gospel, revealing Jesus Christ. … In no discourse are they to be divorced. …
Many have been teaching the binding claims of God’s law, but have not been able to see to the end of that which was abolished. They have not seen that Jesus Christ is the glory of the law. … Many of our brethren and sisters do not discern the wondrous things that are seen in God’s law. …
The religion of many is very much like an icicle—freezingly cold. … They cannot touch the hearts of others, because their own hearts are not surcharged with the blessed love that flows from the heart of Christ. … They dwell upon stern duty as if it were a master ruling with a scepter of iron—a master, stern, inflexible, and powerful—devoid of the sweet, melting love and tender compassion of Christ. Still others go to the opposite extreme, making religious emotions prominent, and on special occasions manifesting intense zeal. …
Many commit the error of trying to define minutely the fine points of distinction between justification and sanctification. Into the definitions of these two terms they often bring their own ideas and speculations. Why try to be more minute than inspiration on the vital question of righteousness by faith? Why try to work out every minute point, as if the salvation of the soul depended upon all having exactly your understanding of this matter? … You are making a world of an atom, and an atom of a world.
Only a few weeks later Ellen White spoke before the General Conference and those who were “indulging skepticism and infidelity,” refusing the message God had sent: “When we speak of the grace of God, of Jesus and His love, speak of the Saviour as one who is able to keep us from sin, and to save to the uttermost all who come unto Him, many will say, ‘O, I am afraid you are going where the holiness people go. I am afraid you are going after the Salvation Army.’Brethren, you need not be afraid of the plain teachings of the Bible. … Do not let any man or woman, or any council or party, lead you to suppress the precious light that God has permitted to shine from heaven in regard to the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus.”
The result of divorcing the law and the gospel always brings extremes and false doctrine. The “religionists,” or “holiness people,” or dispensationalists, had separated the law from the gospel, failing to recognize “the wondrous things in the law of God.” Yet their understanding of the gospel was not correct either. They claimed with “great zeal … ‘Only believe in Christ, and be saved; but away with the law of God’” and just as zealously proclaimed they were “holy” and “sinless.” Many Adventists, “on the other hand, [had] almost done the same from another standpoint.” They had failed to see the full significance of the “righteousness of Christ and … His great plan of redemption.” Neither had they understood the immensity of the law; otherwise they would not have “thought that their own merits were of considerable value.” Both extremes had a false idea of what constituted true holiness.
The “most precious message” sent through Jones and Waggoner was not a combination of two false extremes but the truth of the law and the gospel combined: “There is much light yet to shine forth from the law of God and the gospel of righteousness. This message, understood in its true character, and proclaimed in the Spirit, will lighten the earth with its glory.” Those who turned away from the message often gave conflicting views; some attributing it to perfectionism, others to antinomianism. Notwithstanding, the true message was a clearer understanding of both the law and the gospel and their great power when combined. This was a complete message which was to be grasped by a genuine living faith that would inevitably work by love. The message led neither to liberalism or legalism, to antinomianism or perfectionism.
Misplacing the Blame
Ellen White was clear that the confusion coming into the church was the result of refusing heaven-sent blessings. Others, however, were not so sure. The week that Washburn wrote to Ellen White inquiring about what was taking place, Dan Jones was attending a Minister’s Institute in Kansas City, some sixty miles north from where the revival meetings took place in Ottawa Kansas the year before. He found that “some of the best ministers in the state” were under “a cloud and going into discouragement.” Dan Jones attributed the cause for such discouragement to the “exaggerated ideas they had received of what our brethren [Jones and Waggoner] taught on the subject of justification by faith.” The brethren 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.”Strangely enough, not only were some confused on the genuine results of true faith that works by love, others “had got the idea some way that the doctrine of justification by faith practically did away with the law.” Of course, Dan Jones stated that he “explained the position that we do take on the subject of justification” with the endorsement of Bro. Covert and Eld. Farnsworth, which made the brethren feel “much better.” Reporting to R. C. Porter a few days later, Dan Jones shared more of his concerns and whom he felt was to blame:
There is a rumor afloat,—how much credit to give to it I can not tell,—that Sister White is coming out in a testimony against Bro. Smith and Bro. Butler, that stirs up the Captain [Eldridge]. I hope this may prove to be only a rumor, and that everything will conspire to let this matter of the covenant question and the Minneapolis matter rest for awhile until it dies out of the minds of the people. From what I can learn, there has been a great deal of discouragement all over the field, especially on the part of ministers (It may be just as extensive among lay brethren, but we have not had opportunity to ascertain that yet), that has grown out of the Sabbath school lessons, and the discussions that have been had on the covenant question, and the law in Galatians. Some of our best ministers do not seem to know what to believe, and they are all broken up. … [T]he reason for the discouragement was that new doctrines were coming in, and our people were becoming unsettled as to the old landmarks, and they did not know what to preach as they went out to the field. … [A]s they were throwing away old and accepted doctrines, and taking up new ones, they thought there was not much assurance that those which we now hold might not be thrown away in the future, and new theories accepted in their place. I find the agitation on the covenant question and justification by faith has lost none of its force as it has gone out to different parts of the field, but has rather gathered strength and taken on objectionable features, until they see it now in a much worse light than it really is. How I wish our leading brethren could get together and settle all these things among themselves, and not bring them before the public where the influence will go out and discourage the brethren in all parts of the field, and weaken their hands in the work which God has given them to do.
Rather than hope the brethren would repent, Dan Jones hoped the Testimonies would remain silent. He wished they could get together and settle the matter not realizing that the two special meetings held in Battle Creek would have done so if hearts were open to receive the evidence. Dan Jones had clear enough vision to see that there were problems throughout the field, but darkness created by the sparks of his own kindling blinded him to the real cause. He felt there was a “marked contrast” between the second quarter Sabbath school lessons (written by J. H. Waggoner) and those they had used during the winter (by E. J. Waggoner): “The lessons now [by J. H. Waggoner] are full of hope and faith and courage. I enjoy them exceedingly, and know that they contain meat for our people everywhere. How unfortunate, it seems to me, that the others [by E. J. Waggoner] should not have been of the same character … What we get in this world is a mixture of good and evil, usually with the evil very much predominating. I have come to the conclusion that even among Seventh-day Adventists it is necessary for us to heed the injunction of the Apostle, ‘Try all things; hold fast that which is good.’ … [I]f it does not stand the test, it should be rejected.”
By late summer, Dan Jones was willing to admit to E. W. Farnsworth that although every man claimed to believe in justification by faith, many were in fact fighting against it. He was also honest enough to admit that feelings of jealousy had cropped up as a result of seeing so many hungry people take in a special message they had never fully heard or understood before:
I too have thought a good deal about this matter and my mind has been exercised much the same as your own. I have thought it over and over and have come to the conclusion that the position held by those that did not fully indorse the view on justification by faith, while they claim to believe fully in that doctrine, has been practically one of opposition to it. I know there is not a man that would say that he did not believe in justification by faith. We all believe it and claim to endorse it fully; but, as you say, we have not felt in sympathy with those who have been making a specialty of presenting this subject to the people, and it has really been almost mortifying to us to see the hungry people take it in as it has been presented to them. I am free to confess that I have not felt just right on this matter.
No sooner had Dan Jones made this confession, however, than he began to make excuses for his own feelings and actions. He was “not ready to say yet” that he had done “wrong, and that Dr. Waggoner did right” in the matter of the covenant question: “What I have criticized most in the course of those who have pushed the subject of justification and some other questions, is the spirit in which it has been done. I cannot believe that it is done in the spirit of Christ. All along I have had more objection to that than to the matter itself. But … perhaps we have looked more at the men that were doing the work and the manner in which it was done, than at the work itself.”
No Heresy, No Fanaticism!
Many of those who opposed the message presented by Jones and Waggoner vacillated on the reasons for their opposition. At times the content of the message was the focus of their objections, while on other occasions the spirit of the messengers was held up as the reason for opposition. To both of these objections Ellen White gave an answer. In a Review article printed soon after the 1890 Ministerial Institute, Ellen White exposed the thinking of those who were objecting. Because many felt they could not accept the message of truth presented, they would turn to the messengers seeking to find flaws in order to excuse their doubts. To this Ellen White gave one of her strongest warnings; the loud cry would not be comprehended, the latter rain would be called a false light:Do not stand as many of you have done, apparently wavering between dependence upon the righteousness of Christ, and dependence upon your own righteousness. Deception has come upon some minds until they have thought that their own merits were of considerable value. …
All will come to a decision wholly for God or for Baal. God has sent to His people testimonies of truth and righteousness, and they are called to lift up Jesus, and to exalt his righteousness. Those whom God has sent with a message are only men, but what is the character of the message which they bear? Will you dare to turn from, or make light of, the warnings, because God did not consult you as to what would be preferred? God calls men who will speak, who will cry aloud and spare not. God has raised up His messengers to do his work for this time. Some have turned from the message of the righteousness of Christ to criticize the men and their imperfections, because they do not speak the message of truth with all the grace and polish desirable. They have too much zeal, are too much in earnest, speak with too much positiveness, and the message that would bring healing and life and comfort to many weary and oppressed souls, is, in a measure, excluded. … Christ has registered all the hard, proud, sneering speeches spoken against his servants as against Himself.
The third angel’s message will not be comprehended, the light which will lighten the earth with its glory will be called a false light, by those who refuse to walk in its advancing glory. The work that might have been done, will be left undone by the rejecters of truth, because of their unbelief. We entreat of you who oppose the light of truth, to stand out of the way of God’s people. … Messages bearing the divine credentials have been sent to God’s people. … We know that God has wrought among us. … [D]o not think that you have caught all the rays of light, that there is no increased illumination to come to our world.
Exactly three months later, Ellen White again clarified the reason for the confusion coming into the Church. It was not the message or the spirit of the messengers, but the spirit of those who were resisting:
The spirit of resistance that has been exhibited in presenting the righteousness of Christ as our only hope has grieved the Spirit of God, and the result of this opposition has required the delivery of this matter the more earnestly and decidedly, causing deeper searching into the subject and calling out an array of arguments that the messenger himself did not know was so firm, so full, so thorough upon this subject of justification by faith and the righteousness of Christ as our only hope. …
It has caused me great sadness of heart to see that those who ought to be giving the trumpet a certain sound … to prepare a people to stand in the day of the Lord, are in darkness and have stood as sentinels to bar the way that the confusion they create would bring confusion and misunderstanding. Satan sees it is his time to make a strike. Fanaticism and errors will prevail, and the men who ought to have stood in the light … were exercised on the wrong side to oppose that which was of God. … Their position [Jones and Waggoner] is seen to be wrong by very many, and they cry, “Danger, fanaticism,” when there is no heresy and fanaticism. …
Now the churches have a stumblingblock placed before their feet not easily removed, and if the ones who have been engaged in this do not see and realize where they have grieved the Spirit of God and make confession of their wrongs, darkness will surely gather more densely about their souls. They will be blinded and call light darkness and darkness light, truth error and error truth, and they will not discern the light when it shall come, and will fight against it.
In the book The Great Controversy, printed in the summer of 1888, Ellen White described the darkness that came into the Protestant churches who rejected the light of the first and second angel’s messages. Here a clear warning was given: “The spiritual darkness which falls upon nations, upon churches and individuals, is due, not to an arbitrary withdrawal of the succors of divine grace on the part of God, but to the neglect or rejection of divine light on the part of men. …
Where the message of divine truth is spurned or slighted, there the church will be enshrouded in darkness; faith and love will grow cold, and estrangement and dissension enter. Church members center their interest and energies in worldly pursuits, and sinners become hardened in their impenitence.”
The darkness that was settling upon many in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1890 was not the result of the message given by Jones and Waggoner, nor was it the result of an offensive spirit on their part, it was rather the direct result of spurning and slighting divine truth. Not only had “estrangement and dissension” entered the work, but also as we shall see in the next chapter, worldly policies were creeping in, blurring the vision and the message that was to be given to the world.