The ministerial institute opened on Wednesday, October 10 and lasted through the 16th, in the church at 4th Avenue South and Lake Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was held in the basement of the church. It continued until the beginning of the General Conference whose opening meeting was on October 17.
As the institute was opening, Ellen White wrote of Elder Butler's diatribe-filled letter addressed to her. She said to her daughter-in-law, Mary White:
Elder Butler has sent me a long letter, a most curious production of accusations and charges against me, but these things do not move me. . . . Elder Smith and Butler are very loathe to have anything said upon the law in Galatians, but I cannot see how it can be avoided. . . . Tomorrow noon the law in Galatians is to be brought up and discussed.
Saturday evening, October 13, a long letter from Elder Butler was read to the delegates which kept them up until ten o'clock. Ellen White wrote to Mary White: "The letter written by Eld. Butler was a good thing to open this question so we are in for it."
On Monday, October 15, E. J. Waggoner began a series of nine lectures on the law and the gospel. He delivered his seventh lecture on Thursday, October 18, at 9 o'clock. He spoke on the law in Galatians.
There was no doubt about the subject matter of Waggoner's presentations. They dealt with the relationship between justification by faith and the moral law. Furthermore, the law and the covenants of Galatians 3 were presented as interrelated with justification. Their proper understanding constituted the third angel's message of Revelation 14:12.
On Friday, October 19, Waggoner's seventh lecture quoted Galatians 3:17:
"And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect."
Then he compared "the Covenant with Abraham with the Second Covenant." By this he meant that the everlasting covenant was one and the same with the second covenant promise God made to Abraham through Christ.
On Sunday, October 21, Waggoner delivered lecture eight:
At 9 a.m. Elder Waggoner continued his lessons on the law and gospel. The Scriptures considered were the fifteenth chapter of Acts and the second and third of Galatians, compared with Romans 4 and other passages in Romans. His purpose was to show that the real point of controversy was justification by faith in Christ, which faith is reckoned to us as to Abraham, for righteousness. The covenant and promises to Abraham are the covenant and promises to us.
Evidently at one point during the conference, Waggoner took up the covenant allegory of Sarah and Hagar in Galatians 4:21ff. and maintained that the old covenant (Hagar) was a condition of workssalvation that still existed running concurrently with the new.
According to the recollections of R. T. Nash, who was a delegate in 1888, Elder Morrison in rebuttal to Waggoner made the point that Adventists had always believed in justification by faith and were children of the free woman in the covenant allegory of Galatians 4.
On Monday, October 22, Elder Waggoner delivered lecture nine. It was "a discussion of law and Galatians, or Justification by Faith, that lasted an hour and a half." Another source reporting the same meeting wrote, "Elder Waggoner spoke at the early morning session on the subject of 'Two Covenants, and Their Relation to the Law.'"
On Tuesday, October 23, there was rebuttal time given to Uriah Smith, R. M. Kilgore, and J. H. Morrison who lectured on the law in Galatians. Elder Morrison had been appointed by the General Conference to present the traditional viewpoint of the ceremonial law in Galatians. This day was to be a turning point for Ellen White.
Elder R. M. Kilgore made some statements that day to which Ellen White referred in her "Morning Talk" on October 24. She said:
Had Brother Kilgore been walking closely with God he never would have walked onto the ground as he did yesterday and made the statement he did in regard to the investigation that is going on. That is, they must not bring in any new light or present any new argument notwithstanding they have been constantly handling the Word of God for years, yet they are not prepared to give a reason of the hope they have because one man is not here. Have we not all been looking into this subject?
Ellen White represented Brother Kilgore as saying that this "new light" on the moral law in Galatians 3 should not be presented by E. J. Waggoner because Elder Butler is not present at the meeting.
W. C. White, in his notes from the 1888 Conference, provided some detail as to Elder Kilgore's remarks. Representing the General Conference delegation Kilgore said:
I opposed bringing up the question, especially when it was said that Dr. W [Waggoner] was misrepresented. I considered it an unfortunate matter to come up here. If W [E. J. Waggoner] had been sick I would have opposed its coming up. It is cowardly. There has never been an opportunity as Dr. W.[aggoner] has had. Another thing has troubled me. The experience of 16 yrs ago. Report "A Test. to Eld. [J. H.] Waggoner."
Elder Kilgore felt the discussion of the law in Galatians was out of order because Elder Butler was not present. If Elder E. J. Waggoner had been in a similar state of sickness as was Elder Butler, Kilgore would have objected to the discussion on the law in Galatians because of his absence from the meeting. Because Elder Butler was absent this gave an unfair advantage to Elder Waggoner to discuss his beliefs with the delegates. Had not the Testimonies already denounced the moral law interpretation of Galatians given to Elder J. H. Waggoner sixteen years prior?
On Wednesday, October 24, Ellen White addressed the delegates about Elder Kilgore's attempt to get a resolution passed by the Conference which would close off the discussion of the law in Galatians. Ellen White related:
And then to take the position that because Elder Butler was not here that that subject should not be taken up. I know this is not of God. . . . Well, one says, "Your prayers and your talk run in the channel with Dr. Waggoner." I want to tell you, my brethren, that I have not taken any position; I have had no talk with the doctor nor with anyone on this subject, and am not prepared to take a position yet. . . . If Elder Waggoner's views were wrong, what business has anyone to get up and say what they did here yesterday? If we have the truth it will stand. These truths that we have been handling for years-must Elder Butler come and tell us what they are?
. . . Elder Kilgore, I was grieved more than I can express to you when I heard you make that remark, because I have lost confidence in you.
Clearly Ellen White placed confidence in God's ability to lead His people when they placed their confidence in the Scriptures and not upon the views of even the most eminent men.
There followed a rebuttal by the skilled debater J. H. Morrison, president of the Iowa Conference. R. T. Nash recalled: ". . . the opposition selected a man to speak their minds in opposition. . . . Elder J. H. Morrison was their spokesman." He had a chalkboard set up with opposing propositions written: written:
(1) "Resolved-That the Law in Galatians Is the Ceremonial Law" with J. H. Morrison's name affixed.
(2) "Resolved-That the Law in Galatians Is the Moral Law."
"This last proposition was for Waggoner to sign. But he refused to do so, for he said, he had not come to debate."
Elder Morrison "opposed this coming up because no one is present who has given this subject special study." Then he spoke right to the issue of "the Law in Galatians. Is it trusting in keeping a Law that is right to keep, or is it trusting in a law that it is not right to keep"? For Morrison the law to which Paul addressed in Galatians that was "not right to keep" was the ceremonial law. "What sub(??) [subject] in Galatians. The Law of Moses. . . ." At one point he said the law in Gal. 5:3 was "another whole law of which circumcision is a part."
When he came to Galatians 3, Elder J. H. Morrison said, according to W. C. White's handwritten notes taken at the time-"Chap. 3 [Galatians] Paul's argument . . . Yoke of Bondage, The Cer. [ceremonial] Law. . . ." Morrison was championing the ceremonial law position in Galatians 3.
Elder J. H. Morrison spoke on Galatians 5:1. "What mean, Yoke of bondage & the Liberty. The Yoke was not the law of 10 Com. but cer [ceremonial] precepts."
E. G. White gave her assessment of the remarks of Elders R. H. Kilgore, Uriah Smith, and J. H. Morrison:
When they came into the meeting in the morning I was surprised to hear Elder Kilgore make the kind of speech he did before a large audience of believers and unbelievers-a speech which I knew could not be dictated by the Spirit of the Lord. He was followed by Elder Smith, who made remarks of the same order, before Brother Morrison began his talk, which was all calculated to create sympathy, which I knew was not after God's order. It was human but not divine. And for the first time I began to think it might be we did not hold correct views, after all, upon the law in Galatians, for the truth required no such spirit to sustain it.
This statement indicates that Ellen White held the view that Galatians 3 dealt with the ceremonial law. However, the pejorative speeches of Kilgore, Smith and Morrison slanted toward gaining the "sympathy" of the audience, caused her, "for the first time," to question whether the ceremonial law in Galatians 3 was the correct view.
It was the spirit during that meeting which caused her to reconsider. It would be some time before she would endorse Waggoner's view of the moral law in Galatians 3, but this was where her suspicions were raised as to the incorrectness of the ceremonial law view in Galatians 3. She began to doubt the traditionalist's view of the ceremonial law in Galatians because of the spirit of the manipulative spirit demonstrated in Kilgore, Smith and Morrisons' speeches. and Morrisons' speeches.
What kind of spirit did E. J. Waggoner demonstrate throughout his presentations? Ellen White said: "I insisted that there should be a right spirit, a Christlike spirit manifested, such as Elder E. J. Waggoner had shown all through the presentation of his views. . . ." Evidently he did not prejudice his audience by his personal demeanor.
On Sunday, November 4, the final day of the conference, Ellen White wrote to her daughter-inlaw Mary White:
This has been a most laborious meeting, for Willie and I have had to watch at every point lest there should be moves made, resolutions passed, that would prove detrimental to the future work.
There was a movement to force a vote establishing the correct position on the relationship of law and gospel.
A.T. Jones later (1907) recalled this effort at the conference:
At Minneapolis, in 1888, the G C "administration" did its very best to have the denomination committed by a vote of the GC to the covenant of "Obey and Live," to righteousness by works.
The attempt failed then; but from that day till this, that spirit and that element have never ceased that endeavor; though when they found that they could not accomplish it just then, they apparently and professedly accepted righteousness by faith. But they never did accept it in the truth that it is. They never did accept it as life and righteousness from God; but only as "a doctrine" to be put in a list or strung as a "subject" with other "doctrinal subjects."
There may have been several occasions when a vote was attempted. W. C. White noted-
. . . there is almost a craze for orthodoxy. A resolution was introduced into the college meeting, that no new doctrine be taught there till it had been adopted by the General Conf. Mother and I killed it dead, after a hard fight.
The evidence indicates that Waggoner presented justification by faith in the context of the everlasting covenant and the law in Galatians, Romans and Hebrews. Though the actual lectures of Waggoner were not recorded, eyewitnesses took notes, such as W. C. White. There were newspaper accounts, and the General Conference "daily bulletin," strengthen this conclusion. In addition, E. J. Waggoner's Signs articles and The Gospel in Galatians, written just prior to the Minneapolis Conference, indicate that this was the message he presented.
E. J. Waggoner's message of righteousness by faith was constructed in connection with his understanding of the law and the two covenants. To misunderstand, discount, or reject any aspect of this trio would be to distort the 1888 message. The law in Galatians 3 may never have been a landmark, but it was crucial for understanding God's plan of salvation for the ages.
The message of the law's true purpose in Galatians 3 within righteousness by faith was rejected at Minneapolis by many Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders. Ellen White remained open to the question, pending study of the Scriptures. The same was true regarding her understanding of the covenants. However, she completely endorsed the message of righteousness by faith.
I see . . . the beauty of the truth in the presentation of the righteousness of Christ in relation to the law as the Doctor has placed it before us. It harmonizes perfectly with the light which God has been pleased to give me during all the years of my experience.
The aftermath of the 1888 conference was doctrinal confusion on these points as well as irritable feelings between brethren. The church was in for a long journey to resolve these issues.