Fortunately the message itself has been largely preserved in the archives along with the story of how it was received. A number of scholars have dug deeply into the research. The actual message which Jones and Waggoner sought to proclaim is in their books, prolific articles, and sermons delivered at subsequent General Conference Sessions taken down in shorthand. Also, sometimes their contemporaries give us valuable insights. By the principles of motif analysis, a reasonable understanding of the actual "1888 message" emerges.
It turns out that it is distinctly different from what is commonly understood widely as "righteousness by faith." Here is a brief summary of the most outstanding elements of the message:
(1) The most amazing feature of the message stands out: the gospel is wondrously better Good News than popularly understood.
For example, although both "special messengers" firmly supported obedience to God's law, they declared that it is easy to be saved and hard to be lost if one understands and believes that pure gospel. This is a tectonic shift in Adventist thinking.
They saw the Ten Commandments in a different perspective-as ten promises. (Ellen White says that God gave Waggoner a unique but clear understanding of the two covenants.) They saw the Good News preamble in Exodus 20 as necessary before we can begin to understand the law itself. Without that preamble, the law becomes distorted. With it, it is transformed into Good News: "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage [past tense]" (vs. 2, KJV). Before we hear even the first commandment, here is the News of what Christ has already accomplished in our deliverance from sin.
- The Savior is for us, not against us.
- The roadblocks and difficulties are strewn in the pathway to hell, not in the pathway to heaven.
- Those who think the opposite have just not understood "the third angel's message in verity."
The dragon who is at war with Christ has begun by frustrating His Good News. Jesus says, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. … My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matt. 11:28-30). The Savior does not stand back idly unconcerned if you go the wrong way. He takes you by the hand and says, Come, let's go to heaven! "I am with you; … I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. … I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand" (Isa. 41:10, 13). "He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways" (Psalm 91:11).
He won't force anyone, but if you lose your way and take a wrong path, He will do for you what He did for Saul of Tarsus who was hell-bent on going the wrong way. The Lord set up roadblocks to make the wrong way "hard" for him. Reports the apostle, now changed in heart: "I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads'" (Acts 26:14). No way does the Lord permit any souls to be lost without confronting them every step of the wrong way!
The Savior's love is stronger than to let even one perish unprotested. This is a totally different view than what many believe. Youth have often been taught that the way to heaven is difficult and the way to hell is easy. The confusion involves a mistaken view of God's character.
The confusion engendered by the lack of this "most precious message" has also led many, young people especially, to think that Ellen White herself majors in portraying devotion to Christ as difficult. And boring.
Yes, there is self-denial required every step of our way, but what Paul calls "the truth of the gospel" makes self-denial become the joyous choice of anyone who appreciates Jesus' choice of selfdenial in our behalf.
Identifying with Him by faith changes self-denial into a delight for us as it was for Him when He said, "I delight to do Your will, O My God." His love actually motivates us to kneel with Him in Gethsemane; we join Him when He prays, "Not as I will, but as You will." Imagine the surprise of youth to discover how different Ellen White is than often supposed. She strongly supports the bold Good News ideas of the 1888 "messengers":
"Do not therefore conclude that the upward path is the hard and the downward road the easy way. All along the road that leads to death there are pains and penalties, there are sorrows and disappointments, there are warnings not to go on. God's love has made it hard for the heedless and headstrong to destroy themselves" (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 139; 1896).
(2) In harmony with this primary Good News idea comes a clearer view of what the Son of God accomplished on His cross. It supplies a new motivation for following Him.
Jones and Waggoner understood that the Bible teaches that Christ accomplished much more than making an offer of salvation to "every man." He has given the gift to all. They saw that the death Christ died was equivalent to the second death and that He actually "tasted [the second] death for everyone" (Heb. 2:9). He paid the price of the sins of the whole world. "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isa. 53:6):
"The gift of God is not to be compared in its effect with that one man's [Adam's] sin; for the judicial action, following upon the one offence, issued in a verdict of condemnation, but the act of grace, following upon so many misdeeds, issued in a verdict of acquittal. … It follows, then, that as the issue of one misdeed was condemnation for all men, so the issue of one just act is acquittal and life for all men" (Rom. 5:16, 18, NEB).
Commenting, Waggoner said:
"The faith of Christ must bring the righteousness of God, because the possession of that faith is the possession of the Lord himself. This faith is dealt to every man, even as Christ gave himself to every man. Do you ask what then can prevent every man from being saved? The answer is, Nothing, except the fact that all men will not keep the faith. If all would keep all that God gives them, all would be saved (Waggoner On Romans, p. 69; 1896).
"'By the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.' There is no exception here. As the condemnation came upon all, so the justification comes upon all. Christ has tasted death for every man. He has given himself for all. Nay, he has given himself to every man. The free gift has come upon all. The fact that it is a free gift is evidence that there is no exception. If it came upon only those who have some special qualification, then it would not be a free gift." (Ibid., p. 101).
Jones was in full agreement. It is probably safe to say that no one since Luther had spelled it out quite so clearly: (a) As our "second Adam," Christ has justified every person legally" by His blood" (Rom. 5:9). (b) But "everyone" is free to despise, sell, throw away, reject, what Christ has already given him. (And that is the only reason why anybody will at last be lost.) Multitudes do as Esau who "despised" and "sold" his precious birthright which had already been given him, just as Christ has given the birthright to "every man" by virtue of His shed blood.
This of course raises a question immediately. It's true, that's what John 3:16 says; but does Ellen White agree with under-standing the Good News idea in such a simple way?
When she heard Jones and Waggoner, she listened, and she learned. In a book written shortly after she heard them, she wrote for the first time:
"The sinner may resist this love, may refuse to be drawn to Christ; but if he does not resist he will be drawn to Jesus; a knowledge of the plan of salvation will lead him to the foot of the cross in repentance for his sins, which have caused the sufferings of God's dear Son" (Steps to Christ, p. 27; 1892).
(3) The widely prevalent view is that Christ's sacrifice merely makes possible an "offer" of salvation to everyone.
This ill-founded view is contingent on the sinner taking the initiative first to believe. Thus it becomes logical to conclude that our salvation is initially due to what we do. In other words, we help save ourselves.
In contrast, this "most precious message" declares that our salvation is 100% due to Christ's initiative, and by faith we let Him do it. We stop resisting Him. And conversely, the loss of our souls is due to our initiative in dis-believing the Good News. It about takes one's breath away, but there it is-the gospel. The only way to be lost is to resist and reject what Christ has already accomplished for us, and is constantly doing for us by His Holy Spirit. In other words, unbelief. What is our part? It's correspondingly simple: believing, or faith. A heart response, a heart appreciation, of what He did for us by His sacrifice.
That's what we read: "The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead: and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again" (2 Cor. 5:14, 15; KJV). In other words, such faith makes it impossible to go on living a selfish life! The gospel is infinitely more than good advice; it is "the power ["dynamite," Greek] of God to salvation" (Rom. 1:16).
Too Good to Be True?
That's precisely what our dear opposing brethren thought over a century ago.
Maybe you are beginning to see why Ellen White was so happy when she heard this message. It fulfilled, or at least it began to fulfill, the dreams of her youth. Here was the beginning of what would grip hearts in Islam, Buddhism, paganism, Roman Catholicism, yes, it would "lighten the earth with glory."
We Could Go On and On
The 1888 message makes practically every page of the Bible glow with new light:
- The Savior's nearness to us is what the alcoholic, the drug addict, yes, every sinner, needs to see. He took upon His sinless nature our fallen, sinful nature that He might know how to succor us who are tempted. He "was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15). We may be tempted likewise but we don't have to give in to sin!
- The Roman Catholic Church traditionally opposes every aspect of the "most precious message," and has invented a counterfeit for each point. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception (proclaimed 1854) declares that the Virgin Mary in the first instant of her conception was "exempt" from receiving genetically the human nature of the fallen Adam; thus she gave to her Son a sinless nature. All human flesh is sinful in nature; therefore their view of Christ declares that He took only the sinless, unfallen nature of Adam before the fall. That brings the apostle's warning into focus: "Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist" (1 John 4:3).
- The 1888 message reclaims the sanctuary message from the confusion so prevalent today. It becomes thrilling Good News because the cleansing of the sanctuary is seen as not what we do, but what we let the High Priest do for us. We stop resisting Him. While Jesus works in the sanctuary above, the Holy Spirit works in every human heart that will permit Him. Before the sanctuary cleansing can be declared finished, sins will be not only forgiven but they will be blotted out from human hearts that have been sinful from birth. Sinners will be cleansed, characters changed or transformed; a miracle of grace, and a demonstration never seen prior to the great cosmic Day of Atonement (unless two men, Enoch and Elijah, are exceptions).
You don't have to stop sinning before you come to Jesus; come as you are. His business is accepting sinners and saving them from sin. He is continually drawing you; respond!
It's not that the sinful nature is blotted out-God's people retain that until glorification when Jesus comes (confusion there discourages people). They are still tempted, as Jesus was tempted. But while they still have a sinful nature, it doesn't have to continue to be a sinning nature. "The grace of God … teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age" (Titus 2:11, 12, NIV; the NIV is very forceful here). Simple, and it works! That Teacher gives every student in His class an "A" who will stay in the class and let Him teach. Not one will fail.
And, wonderful Good News! "The marriage of the Lamb" is on the way. "The Lord in His great mercy sent" that 1888 message in order to help the Bride-to-be"make herself ready" for the wedding (Rev. 19:1-9).
Conclusion
The purpose of this little booklet is not to feed you but to make you hungry. By now you want to know more. There is a staff waiting to consider your questions, which are always welcome, or what may be confusing or perplexing about "the most precious [1888] message" or its history. Please contact us.