That which had brought the most darkness into the church was the turning away from heaven-sent light and consequently attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to fanaticism. Of all those who had taken a leading role in such a stance ever since the Minneapolis Conference, Archibald R. Henry and Harmon Lindsay stood among those in the forefront. A. R. Henry joined the Adventist church in 1882 and shortly thereafter was called to assist in the financial management as treasurer of the SDA Publishing Association in Battle Creek. His responsibilities soon multiplied as he held positions during the ensuing years as treasurer of the General Conference; president, vice-president, auditor and treasurer, as well as a trustee and member of the executive committee of the General Conference Association. But he also was simultaneously "a member of the governing boards of nearly all early SDA medical and educational institutions in the Central and Western States."[1]
Harman Lindsay, also a financial administrator, served in very similar capacities alongside A. R. Henry, for the General Conference and many other Adventist institutions during the 1880s and 1890s.[2] Although neither Lindsay nor Henry were pastors or theologians, their influence, for good or for bad, had an enormous impact on the church at large following the Minneapolis Conference because of the multitude of positions they held. Their influence impacted the decisions made in the areas of finance, management, education, publishing, colporteuring, medical work, evangelism, general organization, as well as theological issues that faced the church during their years in office. The fact that they both doubted the Testimonies and prophetic calling of Ellen White, all the while carrying on an almost constant undermining influence against the Minneapolis message and messengers A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner, made their cases the more serious.
At the General Conference in 1891, A. R. Henry was placed on the General Conference Association Executive Board, a committee of twenty-one, which would have charge of the work around the world. Ellen White had warned for years against setting up a "confederacy" that would take the church in the wrong direction, and she had done so most forcefully at the 1891 session.[3] Within ten days of the close of the General Conference, the Board of Foreign Missions would vote to send Ellen White, along with her workers and W. C. White, to Australia.[4]
Before leaving Battle Creek for the last time, previous to heading off to Australia, Ellen White placed in the hands of General Conference president O. A. Olsen, Testimonies that addressed the "existing evils" at the heart of the work. Now in November of 1894, she reminded Olsen that she had enjoined upon him "to have a most faithful work done in reading the Testimonies to those concerned." But Olsen "did not follow the directions, and the same things went on accumulating in their objectionable features" in the Councils and Board meetings of the Church:
[Y]ou did not read the Testimonies to those concerned and decidedly point out their errors. Here you failed to do your duty as President of the General Conference. You were presented to me in Council meetings, listening to the statement and decisions of strong minded and hard-hearted men who were not under the controlling influence of the Spirit of God. You knew that these decisions were not according to God's order, yet you did not protest against them, and thus suffered them to pass as having received your sanction. Thus things have been going according to the will and impulse of men who are opposed to God's will and are bringing in an order of things that God cannot accept or sanction.
You thought that you would deal with these matters in your discourses by dwelling upon general principles, and hoped that this would prove the best method of correcting the wrongs. But you should have spoken in the Board and Council meetings. The wrong principles advanced should not have been permitted to take form in wrong practice because you held your peace or gave such a feeble protest that those who were pursuing the wrong course thought you were with them. The sanction which you gave by your silence strengthened their hands in an evil work.[5]
Ellen White's burden for the conditions in Battle Creek and those at the head of the work seemed only to increase when the next year rolled around. Writing once again to O. A. Olsen in 1895, Ellen White would continue to express her concerns regarding the direction the General Conference was being led:
A net has been spread to involve the Conference--a net that the people know not of, and that very few suspect the existence of. The condition of things is binding your hands and hindering the work. The crisis will soon be reached. The state of things is not fully revealed to me, but this much I know: to a great degree the management of finances has been conducted on wrong principles. While all is supposed to be prosperous, there is peril.
You have connected with you men who have no living connection with God. You fear to exercise your judgment, lest there shall be an explosion. This is why I feel so sad. I have written out matters that I dared not send to you unless there were persons of a firm, decided character who would stand by your side as true yoke fellows to sustain you. The two men [A. R. Henry and H. Lindsay] who have been especially associated with you should, in their present spiritual condition, have no part in planning and carrying forward the work of God in any of its various lines. If they were to see themselves as God sees them, and fall upon the Rock and be broken, a decided change would appear in them. Confessions would be made to free their souls from every corrupting influence.
These men are saying in their hearts, "My Lord delayeth His coming," and the thought is expressed not only in action but in words.[6]
But not only were men living as if the Lord's coming was delayed, they were oppressing their fellow brethren all the while. Ellen White now picked up this theme in her letter to Olsen, of how the Minneapolis message and the two messengers, Jones and Waggoner, had been and were even then being treated: "Some have been cultivating hatred against the men whom God has commissioned to bear a special message to the world. They began this satanic work at Minneapolis. Afterward, when they saw and felt the demonstration of the Holy Spirit testifying that the message was of God, they hated it the more." Now these rejecters were "zealously declaiming against enthusiasm and fanaticism." Even the faith "that calls upon God to relieve human suffering, faith that God has enjoined upon His people to exercise, is called fanaticism." And how had the loud cry message brought about by the manifestations of the Holy Spirit been treated?
What is the message to be given at this time? It is the third angel's message. But that light which is to fill the whole world with its glory, has been despised by some who claim to believe the present truth. Be careful how you tread. Take off the shoes from off your feet; for you are on holy ground. Beware how you indulge the attributes of Satan, and pour contempt upon the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. I know not but some have even now gone too far to return and to repent. ...
Yet many have listened to the truth spoken in demonstration of the Spirit, and they have not only refused to accept the message, but they have hated the light. These men are parties to the ruin of souls. They have interposed themselves between the heaven-sent light and the people.[7]
Continuing her letter to Olsen, Ellen White referred him to the story of Achan, where one man's sin brought devastating results to the whole nation of Israel. Thus, Ellen White stated, "when you sanction or carry out the decisions of men who, as you know, are not in harmony with truth and righteousness, you weaken your own faith and lessen your relish for communion with God. You seem to hear the voice which was addressed to Joshua: 'Wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. ... There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel.'" The application seems obvious. By Olsen's keeping those in key positions in the work who were openly opposed to the messengers and the message sent from God, and by failing to pass on to them inspired counsel from heaven, he was allowing the sin of Achan in the camp. Would the result be any different?
Immediately after these comments, Ellen White shared one of her most well-known statements regarding the Minneapolis message, defining its significance and content, yet in contrast to the way the message was being treated:
The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones. This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It presented justification through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God. Many had lost sight of Jesus. They needed to have their eyes directed to His divine person, His merits, and His changeless love for the human family. All power is given into His hands, that He may dispense rich gifts unto men, imparting the priceless gift of His own righteousness to the helpless human agent. This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel's message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice [loud cry], and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure [latter rain].[8]
Ellen White could not have made it clearer! The "most precious message" was the very message of the loud cry, which was to be attended with the latter rain itself. Yet, as she continued her long letter to Olsen, which was directed to leaders in America, she unequivocally declared that even in 1895 the loud cry, latter rain message was still being treated with contempt:
I would speak in warning to those who have stood for years resisting light and cherishing the spirit of opposition. How long will you hate and despise the messengers of God's righteousness? God has given them His message. They bear the word of the Lord. There is salvation for you, but only through the merits of Jesus Christ. The grace of the Holy Spirit has been offered you again and again. Light and power from on high have been shed abundantly in the midst of you. Here was evidence, that all might discern whom the Lord recognized as His servants. But there are those who despised the men and the message they bore. They have taunted them with being fanatics, extremists, and enthusiasts. Let me prophesy unto you: Unless you speedily humble your hearts before God, and confess your sins which are many, you will, when it is too late, see that you have been fighting against God. Through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, no longer unto reformation and pardon, you will see that these men whom you have spoken against have been as signs in the world, as witnesses for God. Then you would give the whole world if you could redeem the past, and be just, zealous men, moved by the Spirit of God to lift your voice in solemn warning to the world; and like them, to be in principle firm as a rock. Your turning things upside down is known of the Lord. Go on a little longer as you have gone in rejection of the light from heaven, and you are lost. ...
If you reject Christ's delegated messengers, you reject Christ. Neglect this great salvation kept before you for years, despise this glorious offer of justification through the blood of Christ and sanctification through the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit, and there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation.[9]
At least one main theme seemed to be borne out in Ellen White's letters since Minneapolis to those who continued to oppose the light. They were still attributing the true work of the Holy Spirit to fanaticism, and baleful were the results.
Six months later, writing to "the brethren who occupy responsible positions in the work" in early 1896, Ellen White would once again write words of warning to those who were showing "contempt for the manifestations of His Holy Spirit." She reminded them that "the Comforter is to reveal himself, not in any specified, precise way that man may mark out, but in the order of God; in unexpected times and ways that will honor His own name." This was to be kept in mind because God had "revealed himself again and again in a most marked manner in Battle Creek," by pouring out the Holy Spirit upon them.
Then in what is perhaps one of the more significant statements Ellen White made in post-1888 history, she once again addressed the large donations made following the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in Battle Creek and the subsequent unbelief that soon followed; the most notable episode happening during the Anna Rice situation in late 1893. This statement is especially of interest based on some of the claims made today by some Adventist historians:
God has revealed himself again and again in a most marked manner in Battle Creek. He has given a large measure of his Holy Spirit to the believers there. It has come unexpectedly at times, and there have been deep movings upon hearts and minds; a letting go of selfish purposes, and a bringing into the treasury many things that you were convicted God had forbidden you to have. This blessing extended to large numbers, but why was not this sweet, holy working continued upon hearts and minds? Some felt annoyed at this outpouring, and their own natural dispositions were manifested. They said, This is only excitement; it is not the Holy Spirit, not showers from heaven of the latter rain. There were hearts full of unbelief, who did not drink in of the Spirit, but who had bitterness in their souls.
On many occasions the Holy Spirit did work, but those who resisted the Spirit of God at Minneapolis were waiting for a chance to travel over the same ground again, because their spirit was the same. Afterward, when they had evidence heaped upon evidence, some were convicted, but those who were not softened and subdued by the Holy Spirit's working, put their own interpretation upon every manifestation of the grace of God, and they have lost much. They pronounced in their heart and soul and words that this manifestation of the Holy Spirit was fanaticism and delusion. They stood like a rock, the waves of mercy flowing upon and around them, but beaten back by their hard and wicked hearts, which resisted the Holy Spirit's working. Had this been received, it would have made them wise unto salvation; holier men, prepared to do the work of God with sanctified ability. But all the universe of heaven witnessed the disgraceful treatment of Jesus Christ, represented by the Holy Spirit. Had Christ been before them, they would have treated him in a manner similar to that in which the Jews treated Christ.
What moved the people at Battle Creek when they humbled their hearts before God, and cast away their idols? In the days of Christ, when he proclaimed his mission, all bare witness, and wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. But the unbelief whispered by Satan began to work, and they said, "Is not this Joseph's son?"[10]
Even with the mistakes of Jones and Prescott in the Anna Rice episode, Ellen White did not excuse those who claimed the movements of the Holy Spirit were all the result of fanaticism. Yet today, 125 years later, even while we "celebrate" 1888, the same sentiments are echoed: This was only excitement; it was not the Holy Spirit, not showers from [11]* heaven of the latter rain.
Similar thoughts were also written by Ellen White to Harmon Lindsey, who in 1896, continued to war against the Minneapolis message while still under the wings of O. A. Olsen. Ellen White addressed heaven's words to him: "'[Harmon Lindsay] cannot now see the light of the Holy Spirit which he has quenched in his soul. He is left as blind as were the Jews, who closed their eyes lest they should see, and their hearts lest they should feel. He has called the manifestations of the spirit fanaticism. His finite lips have expressed sentiments that revealed the working of the power within him. His perception is so perverted that he calls light darkness, and darkness light.'"[12]
Writing to S. N. Haskell a month later, Ellen White declared that "the church needs to be converted," and that "representatives of the church" needed with contrite hearts to "make earnest supplication that the Holy Spirit shall be poured out upon us from on high." Nonetheless, they should also pray that they might "have discernment to understand that it is from God." Because, she admonished, "some have treated the Spirit as an unwelcome guest, refusing to receive the rich gift, refusing to acknowledge it, turning from it, and condemning it as fanaticism."[13]
In an article written a few days earlier on the history of the idolatry of Israel and the golden calf, Ellen White asked those at the heart of the work in America to "review the experience" of the past years and see if the words well done could be spoken: "Have you not been afraid of the Holy Spirit?" she asked. "At times it has come with all-pervading influence into the school at Battle Creek, and into the schools at other localities. Did you recognize it?" Then in a somewhat rhetorical declaration, she stated: "If you have in this way restricted and repulsed the Holy Spirit of God, I entreat you to repent of it as quickly as possible."
Ellen White knew "this heavenly guest," and that the "Holy Spirit was brooding over the youth." But some "hearts were so cold and dark ... the light of God was withdrawn." It's no wonder that she felt "indignation of spirit, that in our institutions so little honor has been given to the living God. ... The Spirit of God is not acknowledged and respected; men have passed judgment upon it, its operations have been condemned as fanaticism, enthusiasm, undue excitement."[14]
Notes: