It was by faith," wrote Ellen White, "I ventured to cross the Rocky Mountains for the purpose of attending the General Conference held in Minneapolis."--Manuscript 24, 1888. In some areas in California she had been meeting resistance to her special work of warning and nurturing the church. Little did she realize that such was but a foretaste of what was before her as Satan stealthily prepared to steal a march on the church at Minneapolis. "In the fear of God," she wrote, "I had counseled, warned, entreated, and reproved when under the influence of the Spirit of God, but the testimony had been unheeded." Unbelief and resistance to reproof was becoming widespread.
"The brethren," she declared, "did not seem to see beyond the instrument." She continued:
I had been instructed in regard to many evils that had been coming in among us while I was in Europe, and had written what was the mind of the Lord in reference to them. I had also been told that the testimony God had given me would not be received, because the hearts of those who had been reproved were not in such a state of humility that they could be corrected and receive reproof....
The evil one was determined to cut off the light which God had for His people, that every man might walk in his own light and follow his own judgment, and no voice be heard saying, "Why do ye so?" A strong, firm resistance was manifested by many against anything that should interfere with their own personal ideas, their own course of action. This laid upon me the heaviest burdens I could possibly bear.--Manuscript 2, 1888.
Overwhelmed with discouragement, she was overtaken by sickness at her home in Healdsburg. "I felt no desire to recover," she later wrote. "I had no power even to pray, and no desire to live. Rest, only rest, was my desire, quiet and rest. As I lay for two weeks in nervous prostration, I had hope that no one would beseech the throne of grace in my behalf. When the crisis came, it was the impression that I would die. This was my thought. But it was not the will of my heavenly Father. My work was not yet done."--Ibid. Then word came that those assembled in a week-long workers' meeting just preceding the camp meeting in Oakland were earnestly pleading with God that she might be spared and that she might bear her testimony before those who would soon assemble there. "I tried to walk out by faith as I had done in the past," she wrote (Manuscript 21, 1888). Her mind turned back seven years to that day when she sat by the bedside of her dying husband.
The solemn vows I there made to stand at my post of duty were deeply impressed upon my mind--vows to disappoint the enemy, to bear a constant, earnest appeal to my brethren.... I never can express with pen or voice the work that I discerned was laid out before me on that occasion when I was beside my dying husband. I have not lost the deep views of my work.... I have tried to fulfill my pledge.--Ibid.
This she now determined to do in response to the pleas from Oakland that she come to the campground. Of the experience she wrote: "To walk out by faith against all appearances was the very thing that the Lord required me to do."--Manuscript 2, 1888. As she placed herself in the path of duty, the Lord gave her strength and grace to bear her testimony before the people. Day by day she found herself growing stronger.
October 2, the day the camp meeting closed, she, with a number of friends and fellow workers, and accompanied by Sara McEnterfer and Willie, was on the train bound for the East. To her disappointment, she found that in her reduced strength it was necessary to keep to her berth for most of the journey to Minneapolis. She could neither knit nor visit, but she did look over some "exchange papers" and clipped out some items for her scrapbooks. She noted that "Willie and the ministers have had their Bible readings and searchings on the law. I did not even listen, for I wanted rest of mind and body."--Letter 80, 1888.
The Matter of "The Law in Galatians"
The apostle Paul, in Galatians 3, wrote of the "added law" in verse 19, and of the "schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ," that in verse 24. Among Seventh-day Adventists for two years there had been controversy over which law he meant.
This was not a new subject of interest to Seventh-day Adventists. J. H. Waggoner, in his book The Law of God: An Examination of the Testimony of Both Testaments, published at the Review office in 1854, took the position that the "added law" of verse 19 and the "schoolmaster" of verse 24 was the moral and not the ceremonial law. He took the controversial stance that "not a single declaration" in Galatians "referred to the ceremonial or Levitical law" (page 24).
According to Uriah Smith, "Sister White ...had a vision in which this law question was shown her, and she immediately wrote J. H. Waggoner that his position on the law was wrong," and the book was taken off the market (Uriah Smith to W. A. McCutchen, August 6, 1901). This settled the matter for a number of years. Then the question was raised as to whether the counsel given to Waggoner referred to the doctrinal positions in the book or to the matter of publishing conflicting views.
In the mid-1880s E. J. Waggoner (son of J. H.), associate editor of the Signs of the Times in Oakland and teacher of Bible at the Healdsburg College, was moved by an Ellen G. White address read at a camp meeting. He seemed to see Christ hanging on the cross as a sacrifice for his sins. He determined to delve into a study of this saving truth, a truth he felt he must make known to others (R. W. Schwarz, Light Bearers to the Remnant, p. 185). Records are meager, but the matter of the law in Galatians was discussed by a group of leading workers at the time of the General Conference session in Battle Creek in 1886 (Selected Messages 3:167).
"That conference [1886]," wrote Ellen White to G. I. Butler, "was presented to me in the night season."--Letter 21, 1888.
My guide said, "Follow me, I have some things to show you." He led me where I was a spectator of the scenes that transpired at that meeting. I was shown the attitude of some of the ministers, yourself in particular, at that meeting, and I can say with you, my brother, it was a terrible conference. My guide then had many things to say which left an indelible impression upon my mind. His words were solemn and earnest....
He stretched out his arms toward Dr. Waggoner and to you, Elder Butler, and said in substance as follows: "Neither have all the light upon the law; neither position is perfect."--Ibid.
In another account of this experience she told of how, while in Europe, she was shown what took place in Battle Creek at the 1886 General Conference session:
Two years ago Jesus was grieved and bruised in the person of His saints. The rebuke of God is upon everything of the character of harshness, of disrespect, and the want of sympathetic love in brother toward brother. If this lack is seen in the men who are guardians of our conferences, guardians of our institutions, the sin is greater in them than in those who have not been entrusted with so large responsibilities.--Manuscript 21, 1888.
As controversy smoldered, articles in the Signs of the Times kept the issues alive. Ellen White made a fruitless search for what she had written earlier to J. H. Waggoner. Then on February 18,1887, writing from Basel, Switzerland, she earnestly admonished E. J. Waggoner and A. T. Jones that the writers for the journals of the church should avoid coming before the public with divided or contradictory views:
We must keep before the world a united front. Satan will triumph to see differences among Seventh-day Adventists. These questions [in regard to the law] are not vital points.... Twice I have been shown that everything of a character to cause our brethren to be diverted from the very points now essential for this time should be kept in the background.--Letter 37, 1887. [See the full presentation in the chapter "on publishing conflicting views" in Counsels to Writers and Editors, 75-82.] (Italics supplied.)
The angel guide, who in vision took Ellen White to the Tabernacle in Battle Creek at the time of the 1886 General Conference session, declared:
"The Spirit of God has not had a controlling influence in this meeting. The spirit that controlled the Pharisees is coming in among this people, who have been greatly favored of God."
Ellen White continued:
I was told that there was need of great spiritual revival among the men who bear responsibilities in the cause of God. There was not perfection in all points on either side of the question under discussion. We must search the Scriptures for evidences of truth.
"There are but few, even of those who claim to believe it, that comprehend the third angel's message, and yet this is the message for this time. It is present truth." ...
Said my guide, "There is much light yet to shine forth from the law of God and the gospel of righteousness. This message, understood in its true character, and proclaimed in the Spirit, will lighten the earth with its glory. The great decisive question is to be brought before all nations, tongues, and peoples. The closing work of the third angel's message will be attended with a power that will send the rays of the Sun of Righteousness into all the highways and byways of life."--Manuscript 15, 1888 (see also A. V. Olson, Thirteen Crisis Years, p. 305.)
Thus, two years before the 1888 General Conference session, Ellen White was given a view of what was yet before the church in the matter of dealing with divisive issues. In the meantime, those who heard Waggoner on the subject of justification by faith found their hearts warmed.
Ellen White in Minneapolis in 1888
Arriving at Minneapolis Wednesday morning, October 10, at about ten o'clock, Ellen White, Willie, and Sara found that they were to be treated royally:
We ...were pleasantly located in two good hired rooms, richly furnished with plush chairs and sofas. Willie's room was next to ours. But it did not look just in place to pile all our trunks and bundles in these nicely furnished rooms....
We decided to find other rooms, and we found rooms in the boardinghouse, hired for that purpose, and we have, Sara and I, one room, plainly furnished, but it has the blessing of a fireplace, which is of value, you well know, to me. Will has a chamber above with stove in his room. Two brethren sleep in a bed in the same room. Then they have a small room to do their writing in, and Willie is just as pleased with this as he can be.--Letter 81, 1888.
The General Conference session was to be held in the newly constructed Minneapolis church, opening Wednesday evening, October 17. A ministerial institute was to precede the session by a full week. It was not till the date for the General Conference session was announced in the Review and Herald of August 7 that the plans for an institute had begun to develop. Butler wrote: "Leading brethren had suggested the holding of an institute to precede the General Conference the present year, and have presented many forcible reasons in its favor."--The Review and Herald, August 28, 1888. A week later the Review announced the institute plans as definite. Butler added:
We cannot pretend to say what will be the exact order of exercises, or what subjects will be especially considered.... A week's time spent in instruction on important features of church and conference work, and in calmly considering and carefully studying perplexing questions relating to the Scriptures, as well as in seeking God earnestly for heavenly wisdom, will most likely be of vast benefit.--Ibid., September 4, 1888
It seems that W. C. White, one of the "leading brethren" who suggested the institute, had something more specific in mind.
There was the question of the law in Galatians, which had been introduced at the session in 1886, and also the identity of the ten horns, or kingdoms, of the beast of Daniel 7. Views on these points, held by Signs of the Times editors E. J. Waggoner and A. T. Jones, were in conflict with the traditional views held quite generally, and particularly by Butler and Smith. White also had in mind the Sunday movement, duties of church officers, and the education of home and foreign laborers.
In his report of the opening of the institute Smith listed:
The subjects proposed to be considered in the hours for Biblical and historical study are, so far, a historical view of the ten kingdoms, the divinity of Christ, the healing of the deadly wound, justification by faith, how far we should go in trying to use the wisdom of the serpent, and predestination. Other subjects will doubtless be introduced.--The Review and Herald, October 16, 1888.
Concerning the first hours of the institute, he wrote:
At seven-thirty last evening Elder Haskell made stirring remarks upon the work of the message in foreign lands. At 9:00 A.M. today [the eleventh] a Bible reading was held by A. T. Jones, on the advancement of the work of the third angel's message. The point brought out was that personal consecration must lie at the foundation of all our success in this work.--Ibid.
The Institute Opens
In his editorial report written on the second day Smith informed the Review readers that about one hundred ministers were present when the institute opened at 2:30 P.M. Wednesday, October 10. As Butler was detained in Battle Creek because of illness, S. N. Haskell was selected to chair the meetings. F. E. Belden was chosen secretary. The daily program was a full one, beginning with a morning devotional meeting at seven-forty-five and continuing through the day and evening. Smith reported:
Sister White is present, in the enjoyment of a good degree of health and strength. Much disappointment and regret is expressed by the brethren that Elder Butler is unable to be present on account of sickness. He is remembered fervently in their prayers. The prospect is good for a profitable meeting.--Ibid.
As Ellen White spoke at the Thursday morning devotional she was surprised at the large number of new faces in her audience. Many new workers had joined the forces in the three or four years since she had attended a General Conference session held east of the Rocky Mountains.
The meetings at 10:00 A.M. and 2:30 P.M. were occupied by Elder A. T. Jones in an examination of the subject of the ten kingdoms. At 4:00 P.M. Dr. E. J. Waggoner [both an ordained minister and physician], by arrangement, took up, in the form of a Bible reading, the duties of church officers....
This evening further instruction will be given on the subject of our missionary work.--Ibid.
In writing of the institute to Mary, at the Health Retreat, Ellen White reported:
Today, Friday [October 12], at nine o'clock, I read some important matter to the conference and then bore a very plain testimony to our brethren. This had quite an effect upon them.
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. I believe it was my duty to come. I worry nothing about the future, but try to do my duty for today.--Letter 81, 1888.
Butler had dictated a thirty-nine-page letter in which, among a number of other things, he attributed his five-month-long illness largely to the manner in which Ellen White had counseled in dealing with the question of the law in Galatians. She had not condemned Waggoner for his positions, although they were in direct conflict with those held by Butler and Smith.
That the president of the General Conference, who had stood loyally through the years in her support, was writing "accusations and charges" against her was disheartening. It reflected the widening tide of negative attitudes toward the messages God was sending through His messenger to His people. Butler was deeply suspicious of the work of Jones and Waggoner, and from reports that had come to him he felt certain Ellen White was in their camp. Thus the omens were beginning to appear of what was before them in the more than three weeks of the institute and the conference. To Mary she wrote:
Elders Smith and Butler are very loath to have anything said upon the law in Galatians, but I cannot see how it can be avoided. We must take the Bible as our standard and we must diligently search its pages for light and evidence of truth.--Ibid.
The Friday evening service, October 12, cast a cloud over the worker group. Ellen White wrote of it:
At the commencement of the Sabbath Elder Farnsworth preached a most gloomy discourse telling of the great wickedness and corruption in our midst and dwelling upon the apostasies among us. There was no light, no good cheer, no spiritual encouragement in this discourse. There was a general gloom diffused among the delegates to the conference.--Ibid.
She had the meeting Sabbath afternoon, and she used the opportunity to try to turn things around. She wrote:
Yesterday was a very important period in our meeting. Elder Smith preached in forenoon upon the signs of the times. It was, I think, a good discourse--timely. In the afternoon I spoke upon 1 John 3.
"Behold, what manner of love," et cetera. The blessing of the Lord rested upon me and put words in my mouth and I had much freedom in trying to impress upon our brethren the importance of dwelling upon the love of God much more and letting gloomy pictures alone.
The effect on the people was most happy. Believers and unbelievers bore testimony that the Lord had blessed them in the word spoken and that from this time they would not look on the dark side and dwell upon the great power of Satan, but talk of the goodness and the love and compassion of Jesus, and praise God more.....
The Lord gave me testimony calculated to encourage. My own soul was blessed, and light seemed to spring up amid the darkness.--Ibid.
Writing on Sunday morning, she noted: "Today they have a Bible reading upon predestination or election. Tomorrow noon the law in Galatians is to be brought up and discussed." She added this observation: "There is a good humble spirit among the delegates as far as we can learn. The letter written by Elder Butler was a good thing to open this question, so we are in for it.--Ibid.
And they were "in for it," indeed.
Unfortunately, the discussion on the ten kingdoms, whether the Huns or the Alemanni constituted one of the kingdoms, took on the form of a debate and dragged over a period of several days. Jones held for the Alemanni, and Smith stood for the Huns, as in his original list published in Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation. Feelings ran high. Cutting speeches were made over a rather inconsequential matter. It polarized the group and laid the foundation for bitter debate of subjects to follow--particularly on the law in Galatians and on justification by faith.
Perhaps at this juncture we should pause for a description of the two younger men from the Pacific Coast who were leading out in innovative presentations. A. W. Spalding, who knew both, provides such a description:
Young Waggoner was not even like his father [J. H. Waggoner], tall and massive; he was short, stocky, somewhat diffident. Jones was a towering, angular man, with a loping gait and uncouth posturings and gestures. Waggoner was a product of the schools, with a leonine head well packed with learning, and with a silver tongue. Jones was largely self-taught, a convert found as a private in the United States Army, who had studied day and night to amass a great store of historical and Biblical knowledge. Not only was he naturally abrupt, but he cultivated singularity of speech and manner, early discovering that it was an asset with his audiences.
But these two caught the flame of the gospel together, and they went forth supplementing and reinforcing each other in their work of setting the church on fire.--Origin and History of Seventh-day Adventists, vol. 2, p. 291.
Points Worthy of Note
For Seventh-day Adventists generally, the 1888 General Conference session in Minneapolis, and the ministerial institute that preceded it, brings to mind a matter of great importance--the message of righteousness by faith and the considerable resistance that met its presentation. Before the history of Ellen White's work at that crucial meeting is reviewed, certain points of background and developments should be considered:
1. Although as we look back, the subject of righteousness by faith is seen as one of great importance, it was but one of many pressing matters that called for attention of the delegates who met in Minneapolis for the twenty-seventh annual session of the General Conference and the ministerial institute that preceded it. "There was much business to be done," wrote Ellen White. "The work had enlarged. New missions had been opened and new churches organized."--Manuscript 24, 1888 (see also Selected Messages 3:166). The routine business of the session, while vitally important, presented only a few features of unusual interest. Steps were taken to place in operation a missionary ship to serve the work of the church in the South Pacific; there was also consideration of measures to counter the Blair Sunday bill before the United States Congress.
2. The period of time the workers were together extended through four weeks, short two days. The eighteen-day-long session was preceded by a week-long ministerial institute called to give study to the responsibility of church officers, and certain theological and historical matters touching prophecy. The one session blended into the other.
3. The ministerial institute was well advanced before the subject of righteousness by faith was introduced, and the discussion of this important point continued at the Bible study hour during the early part of the session.
4. While the business of the conference, shown by the reports in the issues of the General Conference Bulletin, was broad and significant, the feelings and attitudes of those present were molded by the theological discussions.
5. Except for the references to situations found in the reports of nine of Ellen White's nearly twenty addresses, there is very little by way of a day-by-day record, for the practice had not yet been adopted of reporting all meetings. The editorial reports of the conference in the Review and Herald yield virtually nothing in the way of a record of the day-by-day activities.
6. Consequently, the information concerning just what took place at Minneapolis in the way of theological discussions has come largely from the E. G. White documents and the memory statements of a few who were present, as they looked back to the meeting.
7. As to establishing positions, no official action was taken in regard to the theological questions discussed. The uniform witness concerning the attitude toward the matter of righteousness by faith was that there were mixed reactions. These were described succinctly by Jones in 1893: "I know that some there accepted it; others rejected it entirely.... Others tried to stand halfway between, and get it that way."--The General Conference Bulletin, 1893, 185. Ellen White and others corroborate this. It is not possible to establish, from the records available, the relative number in each of the three groups.
8. The concept that the General Conference, and thus the denomination, rejected the message of righteousness by faith in 1888 is without foundation and was not projected until forty years after the Minneapolis meeting, and thirteen years after Ellen White's death. Contemporary records yield no suggestion of denominational rejection. There is no E. G. White statement anywhere that says this was so. The concept of such rejection has been put forward by individuals, none of whom were present at Minneapolis, and in the face of the witness of responsible men who were there. [These statements from A. T. Robinson, C. C. Mcreynolds, and W. C. White appear as appendix D of A. V. Olson's thirteen crisis years.]
9. The concept of denominational rejection, when projected, is set forth in the atmosphere of Ellen G. White statements made concerning the negative position of certain individuals--the "some" of Jones's report, above. The historical record of the reception in the field following the session supports the concept that favorable attitudes were quite general.
10. Without depreciating the importance of the vital truth of righteousness by faith, and it is a vital truth, it would seem that disproportionate emphasis has come to be given to the experience of the Minneapolis General Conference session. J. N. Loughborough, who authored the first two works on denominational history, Rise and Progress of the Seventh-day Adventists (1892), and a revision and enlargement in 1905, The Great Second Advent Movement, makes no mention of the session or the issues. True, he was not there, but if the matter was prominent at the time he wrote, he could not have overlooked it. Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, published in 1915, makes no reference whatsoever to the General Conference session of 1888. Dr. M. Ellsworth Olsen, in his comprehensive work Origin and Progress of Seventh-day Adventists, published in 1925, devotes eight lines to a mention of the Minneapolis session.
11. Later writers of standard historical works deal with the matter: (1) A. W. Spalding, in Origin and History of Seventh-day Adventists, (originally published as Captains of the Host by the Review and Herald in 1949), devoted a chapter to "The Issues of 1888"; (2) L. E. Froom, in Movement of Destiny (1971), goes quite into detail, devoting several chapters to the subject.
12. A careful review of contemporary documents reveals that while the issue of the doctrinal point of righteousness by faith was a prominent one in 1888, contention among leading ministers and negative attitudes toward Ellen White and the messages of the Spirit of Prophecy were vital points, as the great adversary attempted to steal a march on the church.
13. It has been suggested that the Minneapolis session marked a noticeable change in Ellen White's teaching on the law and the gospel. While Minneapolis brought a new emphasis in bringing to the front "neglected truth," the fact that there was no change in teaching is evidenced in the nineteen articles from her pen comprising the 122-page book Faith and Works, with six written before 1888 and thirteen written subsequent to the Minneapolis session.
14. The Minneapolis session and its problems did not become a topic to which Ellen White would often refer. It was one event among others in her life experience. She was not obsessed with the matter. She did occasionally refer to the loss to individuals and the church because of the attitudes of certain ones there. To Ellen White it was a matter of picking up and pressing on, not losing sight of the vital truths reemphasized at the session.