1889 Ministerial Institute
The following winter at the 1889-1890 Ministerial Institute in Battle Creek, Ellen White would summarize the results of both the 1888 and 1889 General Conferences: "I know that [Christ] has a blessing for us. He had it at Minneapolis, and He had it for us at the time of the [1889] General Conference here [in Battle Creek]. But there was no reception. Some received the light for the people, and rejoiced in it. Then there were others that stood right back, and their position has given confidence to others to talk unbelief, and cherish it." [1]
Controversy continued through the 1890 Ministerial Institute where the topics of the Covenants and Law in Galatians had once again come into question. Two special meetings were held with explanations given by Ellen White, Jones, and Waggoner, which sought to bring about reconciliation and resolve the controversy that had existed since before Minneapolis and had even caused doubt in the Testimonies themselves. The meetings had limited success. [2] While some came to see matters differently, many continued their wayward course. Ellen White described to those gathered there the end results of the first meeting: "In the chapel hall [yesterday] the power of God was all ready to fall upon us. I felt for a little time as though I could look right into glory; but the spirit that was there drove it away." [3] Months later she would express the outcome of the second meeting in a letter to Uriah Smith, Review and Herald editor and key opponent of the message: "Then the second meeting on the Sabbath in the office chapel was held when the Spirit of the Lord came nigh to us. Christ knocked for entrance but no room was made for him, the door was not opened and the light of His glory, so nigh, was withdrawn." [4]
In a Review article published two months after the Ministerial Institute, Ellen White continued to encourage people to make a full surrender for Christ. It was time to choose between Christ and Baal, not "wavering between dependence upon the righteousness of Christ, and dependence upon your own righteousness." God had sent a message of "truth and righteousness" and was calling all to "lift up Jesus." Yet many where turning from the message and criticizing the messengers, Jones and Waggoner, which without a change would bring frightening results:
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. [5]*
Writing to General Conference president O. A. Olsen the summer of 1890, Ellen White shared what she had been shown of the evils that existed in many of the conferences across the country. The spirit of resistance that had been exhibited "in presenting the righteousness of Christ as our only hope has grieved the Spirit of God," she explained. It had caused her great sadness 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" were standing as sentinels to bar the way. Satan saw that it was "time to make a strike," and those who should have been standing for the light of truth opposed the very message sent of God. Indeed, the very message sent through A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner was "seen to be wrong by very many, and they cry 'Danger, fanaticism,' when there is no heresy and fanaticism." [6]
The 1890-1891 Ministerial Institute brought better results, as some confessions were made (although not long-lasting for many). Ellen White rejoiced that during this "season of close searching of the Scriptures" the hearts of the attendees "were not barred with iron, lest rays of light should penetrate the darkened chambers of the mind, and the sanctifying power should cleanse and refine the soul temple." She testified that during the special study times at the Institute there were times "where there was not a question with the class but that the Comforter, the Holy Spirit of God, was doing His work." Many of the students bore precious testimonies and "went forth to labor, trusting to be made efficient by the agency of the Holy Spirit." [7]
E. J. Waggoner rejoiced with Ellen White as well, in early January, 1891, stating "that there was an entirely different atmosphere pervading the meetings than was in the ministerial institute" the year before. [8] Yet that very same night Ellen White was shown by the Lord "many things being transacted in Battle Creek, right here at the heart of the work, that are contrary to the principles plainly defined by the word of God." A confederacy was being formed, which would hinder His divine plan, to which Ellen White declared: "God is insulted." [9] Thus Satan was working to undo that which the Lord was seeking to do through the manifestations of the Holy Spirit.
On the closing night of the Institute, Ellen White spoke on "matters that were deeply impressing my mind." She referred to the fear expressed by some who had not attended the Institute, that "there was danger of carrying the subject of justification by faith altogether too far, and of not dwelling enough on the law." But she could see "no cause for alarm" and that such fears "were not warranted." The Bible and the Bible alone had been the subject of investigation in the Institute. Yet among those who had not attended, many had a "freezingly cold" religion; the "hearts of not a few are still unmelted, unsubdued." [10]
1891 General Conference
Ellen White carried the same burden with her into the 1891 General Conference, which ran from March 5th through the 24th. Speaking to a large assembly at the Tabernacle in Battle Creek, Ellen White referred to the "increased light" God had for them and the great blessings that "come with the reception of this light." Yet when she saw her own brethren "stirred with anger against God's messages and messengers," she thought of "similar scenes in the life of Christ and the reformers." Sadly, "the reception given to God's servants in past ages is the same as the reception that those today receive through whom God is sending precious rays of light. The leaders of the people today pursue the same course of action that the Jews pursued." Drawing a parallel between the Jews' treatment of Christ and the way that the 1888 message and messengers had been treated, Ellen White spoke of the sin against the Holy Spirit and of the sad results of attributing His work to fanaticism:
[Christ] tells his hearers that all manner of sin and blasphemy may be forgiven if done in ignorance. In their great blindness they might speak words of insult and derision against the Son of man, and yet be within the boundary of mercy. But when the power and Spirit of God rested upon his messengers they were on holy ground. To ignore the Spirit of God, to charge it with being the Spirit of the devil, placed them in a position where God had no power to reach their souls. No power in any of God's provisions to correct the erring can reach them.
Some in Battle Creek will surely reach this point if they do not change their course. They will place themselves where none of God's ordained means will be able to set them right. ... To speak against Christ, charging His work to Satanic agencies, and attributing the manifestations of the Spirit to fanaticism, is not of itself a damning sin, but the spirit that leads men to make these assertions places them in a position of stubborn resistance, where they cannot see spiritual light. Some will never retrace their steps, they will never humble their hearts by acknowledging their wrongs, but like the Jews will continually make assertions that mislead others. ...
In this time light from the throne of God has been long resisted as an objectionable thing. It has been regarded as darkness and spoke of as fanaticism, as something dangerous, to be shunned. Thus men have become guide-posts pointing in the wrong direction. They have followed the example set by the Jewish people. ... If all those who claim to believe present truth had opened their hearts to receive the message, and the spirit of truth, which is the mercy and justice and love of God, they would not have gathered about the darkness so dense that they could not discern light. They would not have called the operations of the Holy Spirit fanaticism and error. [11]
On the last night of the General Conference session, Ellen White again picked up the same theme. Some had been manifesting "a spirit of Pharisaic prejudice and criticism," and as soon as this was indulged, "the holy angels depart." Ellen White observed that they possessed "in a large degree the same spirit that was revealed in the Conference at Minneapolis." The deception that was upon their minds in 1888 still existed in 1891. Many were still "indulging skepticism and infidelity" and refusing to accept the message God had sent. Ellen White now addressed the claim that the message was itself fanaticism:
In the revival work that has been going forward here during the past winter we have seen no fanaticism. But I will tell you what I have seen. I have seen men who were so lifted up in themselves, and so stubborn, that their hearts were enshrouded in darkness. All the light that Heaven graciously sent them as interpreted to be darkness. ...
The bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, if received, would have illuminated the soul-temple, and driven out the buyers and sellers, the pride of opinion and the lust of the flesh. But there are some who have criticized and depreciated, and even stooped to ridicule, the messengers through whom the Lord has wrought in power. [12]
Such negative attitudes toward the message of 1888 spilled over into the area of church organization. Ellen White was shown the dangers that would threaten the church through "the formation of a confederacy that would make Battle Creek, like Rome," and thus affect the work around the world. [13] Men in responsible positions who would not "walk in the light" that God was sending "brought disaster upon the cause and reproach upon the people" through their baleful influence. [14]
Ten years later Ellen White would look back at the 1891 General Conference and record how "the Spirit and power of God came into our meeting, testifying that God was ready to work for this people if they would come into working order," yet the brethren only "assented to the light." There were those "connected with our institutions, especially with the Review and Herald Office and the [General] Conference, who brought in elements of unbelief, so that the light that was given was not acted upon." This brought about such a condition of things that the power of God could not be revealed among His people. [15]
Amidst Ellen White's calls to accept the message of 1888 and reconsider organizational changes needed at the 1891 General Conference, a plan was born to send her--along with her workers and her son W. C. White--to Australia. [16] Years later, she would make it clear that the Lord was not in their leaving America. But powerful forces at the heart of the work were very willing to have them leave. As is always the case, the Lord did not force His hand but allowed His people to choose their own way:
The Lord was not in our leaving America. He did not reveal that it was his will that I should leave Battle Creek. The Lord did not plan this, but he let you all move after four own imaginings. The Lord would have had W. C. White, his mother, and her workers remain in America. We were needed at the heart of the work, and had four spiritual perception discerned the true situation, you would never have consented to the movements made. But the Lord read the hearts of all. There was so great a willingness to have us leave, that the Lord permitted this thing to take place. Those who were weary of the testimonies borne were left without the persons who bore them. Our separation from Battle Creek was to let men have their own will and way, which they thought superior to the way of the Lord. [17]*
In Ellen White's absence, not only would the rebellion against the 1888 message continue for years to come among many in key leadership positions, but also against her heaven-sent counsel regarding almost every other area of the advent movement. Such disregard for heaven-sent counsel would result in enormous challenges to the church soon after Ellen White's return to American in 1901.
Not all was darkness, however, at the 1891 General Conference. As with the 1888 and 1889 Conferences, the Holy Spirit was brooding over the remnant people of God, seeking to enlighten and empower them for troublous times soon to come upon them and to prepare them to share the loud cry message with the world. Early morning meetings for the ministers were held from 5:30 to 6:30 each day. The Daily Bulletin announced that most who attended went away "feeling that they had received a special blessing from God, and that they could go out to their fields of labor with the assurance that more of the power of his Spirit would attend their labors in the future than in the past." Such evidence seemed to indicate that God was "waiting to greatly bless his people, that as soon as they place themselves in right relations to him, such showers of divine grace will fall upon them as will make the heart tender and give power in proclaiming the truths of the gospel." [18] Truly God wanted to pour out the latter rain to enlighten and empower His people.
Ellen White felt the same way, attending all but three of the early morning meetings and being able to speak "to the ministers with great freedom." She confidently declared that the Lord had been in their midst and that they had "seen of His salvation." In fact, she felt she had never attended meetings "where there was manifested as much of the Spirit of the Lord in the study of His word, as on this occasion." These meetings "were of a solemn character. There was depth of feeling, thanksgiving and praise, offered to God for His precious blessing bestowed in the searching of His word." [19] Some who had come to learn bore testimony of how they had finally come to believe that Christ had indeed "forgiven their sins." Ellen White expressed joy that even though it was "the eleventh hour to learn that," it was not too late for "wrongs to be made right." She admonished all to "put away every fiber of the root of bitterness" that had been "planted in so many hearts," primarily since the Minneapolis Conference. [20]
Other meetings were also held where the present truth message was intended to be shared. Because so many had been blessed through the Ministerial School held during the months before the General Conference, all Conference attendees where now invited to attend a one-hour Bible study each day "in order to give as large a number as possible some of the benefits of such a school." [21] W. W. Prescott and E. J. Waggoner were to be the primary presenters, which were scheduled to present at 9:00 A.M. each morning. However, because "so much interest was manifested on the part of the Battle Creek church, the students of the College, the helpers at the Sanitarium, and hands in the Review Office," the time was changed to 7:00 P.M., "in order to accommodate all." [22]
W. W. Prescott presented a series the first week on "the subject of the Bible as the inspired word of God." His emphasis was that "there can be no degrees of inspiration. We accept the entire word as coming alike from God." Prescott would go on to show that "as soon as we decide that one portion of the Scripture is more inspired than another, we have a man-made Bible, which is really no standard of right and wrong." Such a defective view of Scripture was leading to "a doubting faith," and robbing people of their "source of strength." [23]
Prescott was obviously responding to the false teachings of, among others, the former General Conference president G. I. Butler, who had not only written a series of articles in the Review, where he presented the concept that only portions of the Scriptures were fully inspired [24] but had also taught the same views at Battle Creek College. [25] Such erroneous concepts had also been applied to the Spirit of Prophecy, the writings of Ellen White, divesting them of their full inspiration and authority. Ellen White had responded by stating that "the Lord did not inspire the articles on inspiration published in the Review, neither did He approve their endorsement before our youth in the college." [26] The rejection of the counsel given by God at Minneapolis through Ellen White was due in part to such theories, which were "making them of none effect." [27]
The Beginning of the Loud Cry
Waggoner's sixteen presentations on the book of Romans followed Prescott's series and extended to the end of the General Conference. His theme was "justification by faith," based on the first eight chapters, "which were taken up in consecutive order." W. A. Colcord felt the "Bible study was much appreciated by all present, and was a very profitable feature of the Conference." [28]
In his last lecture on the book of Romans the closing night of the Conference, Waggoner proclaimed that "the power of the word of Christ also works righteousness in us. The preaching of the cross of Christ presents life and immortality to men. It is the preaching of the cross of Christ that warns men of destruction. It delivers us from the snares of the world, and gives us access into the grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." This had been his theme throughout his sixteen lectures--presenting Christ in all of Adventism's distinctive doctrines:
While we are loyal to the third angel's message, and to all the doctrines that make us distinct from the world, let us determine to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. It is the power of God unto salvation. It is the everlasting gospel, which shall prepare men for the judgment which is even now set. And oh, if that first angel declared, "Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come," how much more should we declare that message--the everlasting gospel--now, when that judgment is not only come, but even now nearly done.
I thank God that he is revealing the truths of his word to us, and that he has shown us that the third angel's message is the whole gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. Why do we know so much more about the word of God? Because God is revealing Christ to us, and in us. All we know of the power of Christ we know from the word, and by this we are made clean from sin. Our faith lays hold of Christ, and he becomes a reality in our own hearts and in our lives.
When we have strong faith that Christ is abiding in us, we can go forth to work for others with power, and join our voices with those of the angels in heaven, and then the message will go with a loud cry. The reason that it has not gone with a loud cry is because we have not grasped it in its fullness. In the past many of us have not had that kernel of the message that it is all Christ.
When we have Christ, we have everything, and we know the power that there is in him. Then we submit ourselves to him, and the power will rest upon us, and the word that we preach will go with power, and the loud cry of the third angel's message will be here. I rejoice to night in the belief that the loud cry is now beginning. [29]
Waggoner gave the true meaning of the message "it is all Christ"--a message that has been distorted in the modern mantra of "Jesus. All!" [30]* He believed that an Adventist church filled with members rejoicing in and experiencing the message of righteousness by faith would be a church enlightened and empowered to give the same message with a loud cry to the world. This would only take place through the outpouring of the latter rain, which was in essence the result of an accumulation of the early rain experience. [31] Waggoner could rejoice in March of 1891 in the belief that the loud cry was then beginning.
The powerful gospel message that Waggoner presented wasn't lost on those alone in Battle Creek, but through the pages of The General Conference Daily Bulletin round its way around the world. A. G. Daniells later testified that "it was at the Conference of 1891, when the ministers who were preaching that message gave such stirring sermons," that the "mighty pulsations of four meeting here in this Tabernacle were felt all around the globe." The power of the message was felt in Australia, and when they got the Bulletins and began to read, their "hearts were stirred." Daniells recalled how he had "seen our brethren sit and read those messages with the tears streaming down their cheeks; I have seen them fairly convulsed with the power there was in the message, even though only printed in the Bulletin." But it wasn't his fellow workers alone who experienced life changes--Daniells himself was truly blessed:
I felt it myself. Just before the Bulletins came, my mind was very powerfully called to this ninth chapter of Romans. "What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law." That scripture was sent to my mind for days and days before the first Bulletins came. It was all the time before me, and when the Bulletins came, and we began to read the message, O, how that message took hold of us. Our brethren used to get up very early in the morning, long before daylight, and take the Bulletins, and study those talks and Bible studies. Although they had not had their attention called to the message before, as they read the Bulletins, they went down on their knees, and round the righteousness which is of faith. [32]
In June of 1891, W. W. Stebbins encouraged readers to subscribe to the Review and "as many more of our periodicals as possible" and to "pray without ceasing; drink in the latter rain; help swell the loud cry of the third angel's message in its onward march around the world." He also encouraged his brethren to attend the upcoming camp-meetings and institutes, because, he stated, "It is reasonable to believe that in the very near future, at some of our general gatherings, when we are 'all with one accord in one place,' the latter rain will drop upon us in a marked degree. Indeed, there can be no question but that a 'sound from heaven' has already been heard, a glad herald of a glorious reviving." He knew that it was at these gatherings where church members could "catch more and more of the spirit of the message as it is today." [33]
But it wasn't just in the United States where it was evident that the power of God was at work. As P. T. Magan saw Christians in Russia breaking away from the traditions of the Orthodox Church at that very time and seeking for greater light from the Scriptures, he knew it was only by the power of God which was enabling them to take such forward steps. "Surely," he declared, "the closing work of the gospel begins to go with a 'loud cry,' and it soon will be cut short in righteousness." [34]
S. McCullagh wrote that "it seemed as though we were beginning to receive some of the showers of the latter rain" at some of the impressive meetings being held in New Zealand. And "why should we not receive great blessings now?" he asked: "We shall, if we will come where Jesus is calling us." [35]
Several camp-meetings scattered across the United States were characterized that summer "as the largest gathering" ever held among Adventists. At the Ohio camp-meeting held in late August, J. N. Loughborough, an early Adventist pioneer, shared "graphic pictures of earlier days, and of the power of God which attended the proclamation of the first message." A. T. Jones and W. W. Prescott also led out in the meetings, and the "subject of righteousness by faith was the one great and central theme of the meeting."
L. A. Smith reported that they had never "seen a camp so permeated and pervaded by the sentiment of praise to God. At the early morning meetings, at family worship, at all other meetings of a social nature, it was the theme of every testimony and the thought of every heart." [36] Loughborough, who had participated in the midnight cry of the Millerite movement, bore witness "that Ohio camp-meeting was the nearest approach to a pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit of God I have witnessed since 1844. Praise be to His holy name! As this dear people arose in response to the call of God's word, to dedicate themselves to Him, He indeed drew very near." [37]
The year 1891 had not even passed into the history books, when Ellen White declared that the loud cry had begun. Preaching at the Lansing, Michigan, camp-meeting in early September, she proclaimed that "the third angel's message is swelling into a loud cry, and you must not feel at liberty to neglect the present duty, and still entertain the idea that at some future time you will be the recipients of great blessing." "Today," she admonished, "you are to have four vessel purified that it may be ready for the heavenly dew, ready for the showers of the latter rain." [38]
O. A. Olsen felt the Lord gave Ellen White "great freedom and much power in speaking to the people." In fact, he didn't think he had "ever heard her speak with more force, clearness, and the power of God, than on this occasion." E. J. Waggoner and others also labored for the people, and "many who came to the meeting with an uncertain experience, went away rejoicing in the love of God." Yet, Olsen observed, "there was no special excitement in any way, but every heart was deeply affected, and there seemed to be a sense of God's presence that was remarkable." [39]
Adventists in Michigan were encouraged to attend general meetings during the winter months, where valuable instructions, "fitted for the present time," would be given. Considering world events taking place at the time, J. O. Corliss would suggest that they were then "being driven rapidly toward the time when the latter rain is expected, and it would not be surprising if some drops of it would be felt at these gatherings." [40] J. F. Ballenger expressed similar ideas in November 1891, asserting that drops of the latter rain seemed "to be already falling," and praying that the "Lord increase our faith." [41]
Notes: