On the surface it may appear that the prehistory of the 1888 Minneapolis Conference, the conference itself, and the subsequent 1890 ministers' institute, was an intra-church conflict over the law, justification by faith, and the covenants. In fact, it was the heart-stirring truth of God's love reaching all the way to sinful humanity, and through the cross, and the high priestly ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, effecting an atonement that would, by their individual choice, unanimously bring a body of believers into harmony with God and the foundation of His government-the ten commandments. The law and the gospel, the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, are united. They are the promise of God's everlasting covenant. Calvary at Sinai expresses this unity.
The years preceding the 1888 Minneapolis Conference were filled with mission outreach; both domestic and foreign for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The primary target audience for evangelism were evangelical Christians. The relationship between the law and the gospel were constant challenges. The evangelical antinomians interpreted the Scriptures in such a way as to abolish the law at the transition point between the old covenant and the new covenant; namely, the death of Christ upon the cross.
Seventh-day Adventist evangelistic apologetics used the Scriptures for one purpose; that is, to prove the perpetuity of the ten commandment law following the cross. They taught the biblical paradigm of typological covenant dispensationalism. In other words, the law of types and ceremonies, priesthood, and sacrifices, etc., were abolished with the old covenant when Christ died upon the cross; but, the new covenant which Christ instituted, had for its basis the law of ten commandments. This doctrinal-polemical understanding of the relationship between the two covenants and the two laws in Scripture tended to move the denomination in the direction of covenant nomism; i.e., legalism. The law must be preserved at all costs. at all costs.
The law without the gospel of Jesus Christ is legalism. The law without the faith of Jesus results in an old covenant heart experience. That which drives such evangelism is fear. When the great truth of God's love recedes, the motivation of fear fills the vacuum. Of course, fear is the common lot of sinful humanity. Losing the gospel focus tinctures the message with the toxic self-motivation of fear. Obey and live. Disobey and die.
The law and the covenant crisis of 1888 went to the very heart of Seventh-day Adventist's evangelistic message and its own personal heart experience of that message. It was not primarily a polemical message focused on the law of God. It was a message that was to be characterized and known for its emphasis upon the gospel of Jesus Christ and His cross. Seventh-day Adventists would become known foremost as those who proclaimed the cross and the atoning ministry of Christ in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary.
This shift was beginning to take place in the 1888 era, with E. J. Waggoner's emphasis upon the equally biblical paradigm of the old covenant and the new covenant as two distinct heart experiences. These two experiences, he characterized, as being two dispensations-the old and the new. They were parallel and timeless, running from the fall to the second coming of Christ.
Justification by faith which was God's promise in the everlasting covenant was what Jesus taught Nicodemus, "Ye must be born again." This continuing, life-long, subjective Christian fellowship with Christ produces absolute loyalty to Him.
For eighteen hundred years Jesus ministered in the holy place of the heavenly sanctuary where Christians looked to Him for the forgiveness of their sins based upon His shed blood at Calvary. Thus Jesus' ministry prepared such Christians to die, awaiting the resurrection of the just at the second coming of Christ.
However, Jesus' high priestly ministry since 1844 in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, was the fulfillment of God's everlasting covenant to "put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people . . . and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more" (Hebrews 8:10, 12). This is what the apostle Peter spoke of on the day of Pentecost when he prophesied "that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ" (Acts 3:19, 20). Notice these events were to take place before the Lord sent Jesus, an obvious reference to His second coming.
The blotting out of sins was the cosmic Day of Atonement heart experience of individuals spontaneously joining together as the body of Christ in repentance for sin. "The times of refreshing" is what produces such repentance. The Holy Spirit convicts the heart by using the law of God. He convicts of sin; both known and unknown; whatever enmity against God which separates the soul from Him. The repentant heart comes into agreement with the Holy Spirit and responds, I would rather have Jesus than that sin. Here, take it, and cleanse me from all unrighteousness.
Thus, when Jesus has effected the individual atonement in hearts which have been the source of the heavenly sanctuary's pollution, then He can finish the cleansing of the cosmic tabernacle. This is the heart experience of justification by faith promised by God in the everlasting covenant. This was the motivating message of Revelation 18:1 that was essential in order for the third angels' message of Revelation 14 to complete its evangelistic mission. Ellen White had seen this message of Revelation 18 coming in at just the right time, joining with and as an addition to the third angels' message.
May the unity of the law and the gospel be effected by the focus of God's people upon Calvary at Sinai.