In issue features Ellen White indicates a Landmark that has been neglected; and A. T. Jones preaches the Faith of Jesus; the Supplement insert contains a reprint of chapters 21 and 22 from "The Great Nations of Today," by A. T. Jones.
1888 -- The Faith of Jesus
Neglected Landmark--Core of the 1888 Message
Compiled by Fred Bischoff.
Introduction
"Stand by the landmarks." Elder G. I. Butler telegraphed the delegates to the 1888 Minneapolis General Conference Session. He erroneously believed that the traditional view of the law in Galatians was an old landmark. In 1890, however, Ellen White revealed the mistake in such thinking in the manuscript entitled "Peril in Trusting in the Wisdom of Men." She declared, "The law in Galatians is not a vital question and never has been. Those who have called it one of the old landmarks simply do not know what they are talking about. It never was an old landmark, and it never will become such. These minds that have been wrought up in such an unbecoming manner, and have manifested such fruits as have been seen since the Minneapolis meeting, may well begin to question whether a good tree produces such evidently bitter fruit."--EGW 1888 Materials, p. 841.
The year after Minneapolis Mrs. White wrote an entire manuscript on the topic, "Standing by the Landmarks."
Notice how she lists in order what the SDA pioneers had been led to discover in scripture. "The passing of the time in 1844 was a period of great events, opening to our astonished eyes the cleansing of the sanctuary transpiring in heaven, and having decided relation to God's people upon the earth, [also] the first and second angels' messages and the third, unfurling the banner on which was inscribed, 'The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.' One of the landmarks under this message was the temple of God, seen by His truth-loving people in heaven, and the ark containing the law of God. The light of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment flashed its strong rays in the pathway of the transgressors of God's law. The nonimmortality of the wicked is an old landmark. I can call to mind nothing more that can come under the head of the old landmarks. All this cry about changing the old landmarks is imaginary."--Ibid., p. 518.
The "faith of Jesus" is the neglected landmark found in the heart of this list. This is part of the banner of the third angel's message. This neglected landmark the 1888 message was to bring to the world. Note here more important references by Ellen White to this landmark.
Looking Back at Minneapolis, December 1888
"The faith of Jesus has been overlooked and treated in an indifferent, careless manner. It has not occupied the prominent position which it was revealed to John. Faith in Christ as the sinner's only hope has been largely left out, not only of the discourses given but of the religious experience of very many who claim to believe the third angel's message. At this meeting I bore testimony that the most precious light had been shining forth from the Scriptures in the presentation of the great subject of the righteousness of Christ connected with the law, which should be constantly kept before the sinner as his only hope of salvation. ...--Ibid., p. 212.
"The third angel's message is the proclamation of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ. The commandments of God have been proclaimed, but the faith of Jesus Christ has not been proclaimed by Seventh-day Adventists as of equal importance, the law and the gospel going hand in hand. I cannot find language to express this subject in its fullness."--Ibid., p. 217.
"What constitutes the faith of Jesus, that belongs to the third angel's message? Jesus becoming our sin-bearer that He might become our sin-pardoning Saviour. He was treated as we deserve to be treated. He came to our world and took our sins that we might take His righteousness. Faith in the ability of Christ to save us amply and fully and entirely is the faith of Jesus."--Ibid.
Experience Following the Minneapolis Conference, June 1889
"The message that was given to the people in these meetings presented in clear lines not alone the commandments of God--a part of the third angel's message--but the faith of Jesus, which comprehends more than is generally supposed. ... If we proclaim the commandments of God and leave the other half scarcely touched, the message is marred in our hands."--Ibid., p. 367.
"God was working with me to present to the people a message in regard to the faith of Jesus and the righteousness of Christ."--Ibid., p. 370.
"The Lord is not pleased to have man trusting in his own ability or good deeds or in a legal religion, but in God, the living God. The present message that God has made it the duty of His servants to give to the people is no new or novel thing. It is an old truth that has been lost sight of, just as Satan made his masterly efforts that it should be. The Lord has a work for every one of His loyal people to do to bring the faith of Jesus into the right place where it belongs--in the third angel's message. The law has its important position but is powerless unless the righteousness of Christ is placed beside the law to give its glory to the whole royal standard of righteousness. 'Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.'" (Rom. 7:12)--Ibid., p. 375.
Counsels to Ministers, September 1889
"The soul-saving message, the third angel's message, is the message to be given to the world. The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus are both important, immensely important, and must be given with equal force and power. ... The faith of Jesus is not comprehended. We must talk it, we must live it, we must pray it, and educate the people to bring this part of the message into their home life. 'Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.'" (Phil. 2:5)--Ibid., p. 430.
To Brethren in Responsible Positions, December 1890
"Let Jesus be our theme. Let us with pen and voice present, not only the commandments of God, but the faith of Jesus. This will promote real heart piety as nothing else can. ... Through patience, faith, and hope, in all the changing scenes of life, we are forming characters for everlasting life. Everything shall work together for good to those that love God."--Ibid., p. 728.
1888 -- Elder A. T. Jones on "The Faith of Jesus"
Through the years, Elder A. T. Jones continued to emphasize the Faith of Jesus. Here are some chronological excerpts from his writings. [Original italics removed to highlight the "Faith of Jesus".]
1888 -- The "Abiding Sabbath and the 'Lord's Day,'" p. 128
The word of God is truth. All his commandments are truth. (Ps. 119:151) ..." It shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God as he hath commanded us." Nothing is obedience but to do what the Lord says, as he says it. He says, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work." To disregard the day which God has commanded to be kept, is disobedience. And the disobedience is not in the slightest relieved by the substitution of another day for the one which the Lord has fixed, even though that other day be styled "Christian." The fact is that the seventh day is the Sabbath; and in the fast-hastening Judgment the question will be, Have you kept it? God is now calling out a people who will keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. Nothing but that will answer. Neither commandment of God nor faith of Jesus ever enjoined the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week. Both commandment of God and faith of Jesus show the everlasting obligation to keep the seventh day, the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. Will you obey God? Will you keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus?
1891 -- The Two Republics of Rome and the United States of America, p. 715
... If ever men become moral, it must be by some other means than even the moral law, and much less could this result ever be brought about by civil law or any other human process.
Yet such means has been supplied, not by man, but by the Author and Source of morality. For, "Now the righteousness [the morality] of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness [the morality] of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference; for all have sinned [made themselves immoral], and come short of the glory of God." Rom. 3:21-23. It is by the morality of Christ alone that men can be made moral. And this morality of Christ is the morality of God, which is imputed to us for Christ's sake; and we receive it by faith in him who is both the author and finisher of faith. Then by the Spirit of God the moral law is written anew in the heart and in the mind, sanctifying the soul unto obedience -- unto morality. Thus, and thus alone, can men ever attain to morality; and that morality is morality of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ; and there is no other in this world. Therefore, as morality springs from God, and is planted in the heart by the Spirit of God, through faith in the Son of God, it is demonstrated by proofs of Holy Writ itself, that to God alone pertains the promotion of morality.
1893 -- The Third Angel's Message -- No. 10
Obedience is the service of love, and Jesus tells us to buy of Him gold tried in the fire, which is faith and love, the faith which works by love, the genuine article of faith. What is it that is to be tried with severe fiery trials? Your faith which is more precious than gold, though it be tried in the fire. Then, you see, as every man's faith is to be so tried, he needs the faith that has stood the trial. Then we have the testimony: "Here are they which keep the commandments of God and" -- have faith in Jesus? No. The have is not in there. They keep the commandments of God and [keep] the faith of Jesus. That is the genuine article; that is the faith which, in Him, endured the test. That is the faith which met every fiery trial that Satan knows, and all the power that Satan could rally, that faith endured the test. So then, He comes and says to us, "You buy of me that faith that has endured the test, "gold tried in the fire." So, in the expression "buy of me that faith that has endured," is not that the same line of thought that we have learned in "Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus"?
When that mind is in me that was in Him, will not that mind do in me precisely what it did in Him? How is it that we serve the law of God, anyhow? "With the mind I serve the law of God." (Rom. 7:25) Christ in this world, every moment served the law of God. How did He do it? With the mind. By what process of the mind did He do it? By faith. Then, does He not tell you and me to buy of Him the faith of Jesus? Did not the faith of Jesus keep the commandments of God perfectly, all the time? And is not that the faith that works by love? Love is the fulfilling of the law. Then is not that the third angel's message, when He says, "Come and buy of me gold tried in the fire, (love and faith) and white raiment (righteousness of Christ) that thou mayest be clothed, that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear"? So, we see how it is now that the mind that was in Christ will stand all of the trials that this world can bring. Is not the mind of Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever? Will the mind of Christ in Him do differently from the mind of Christ in me or in any other man? No. The mind of Christ was whose mind? [Voice: "The mind of God."] God was in Him in the flesh.--General Conference Bulletin, pp. 205, 206. A. T. Jones' Sermons
1893 -- The Third Angel's Message -- No. 18
Then that faith which He gives, which He enables us to keep--the faith of Jesus which enables us to keep the commandments of God-- there is the love of God by a faith unfeigned. Oh then the message of the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ, brings us to, and brings to us, the perfect fulfillment of the law of God, does it not? [Congregation: "Yes."] Then that is the object and the aim and the one single point of the third angel's message, is it not? [Congregation: "Yes."] That is Christ. Christ in His righteousness. Christ in His purity. Christ in His love. Christ in His gentleness. Christ in His entire being. Christ and Him crucified. That is the word, brethren. Let us be glad of it; let us be glad of it. [Congregation: "Amen."]--General Conference Bulletin, p. 412.
1893 -- The Third Angel's Message -- No. 22
We have found in our study that the work today stands exactly as it did where the apostles left it.
Well then, when that promise of the Spirit came upon the people in that day, God manifested His own power, in His own way, at His own will, upon those who were His. That is the way He will do it again.
Let us read that verse again now. "God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts." Don't forget it. Well, how can we forget it. It is so, is it not? "To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Then we found in the lesson last Friday night that we were to obtain the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, by looking into the face of Jesus, and while we look there, receiving that righteousness more and more, being molded more and more into His image, the law of God stands there in all its glory witnessing that that is the way to look. We found that that was the occupation of the angels also in heaven. "Their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven." Well, then, brethren, when we go into the company of angels, looking where they look, to receive what they are looking there to receive, and the law witnesses that it is our own, then why shall not that blessed canopy cover us? And that is the covering of God drawn over His people. So then the requisite to this is the faith that lifts up the face to the face of Jesus, and it is not because of our goodness but because of our need.
Prof. Prescott then stood and read the following statement by Ellen G. White from Bible Echoe, December 1, 1892: "The hand of the Infinite is stretched over the battlements of heaven to grasp your hand in its embrace. The mighty Helper is nigh to help the most erring, the most sinful and despairing. Look up by faith, and the light of the glory of God will shine upon you."
Elder Jones then continued his talk:
I did not know that that was there, but brethren, we can be thankful that the Spirit of God guides us to it here. And do not forget this passage that we have been wanting to get to so long and now it comes in just exactly: "Now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. ... Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. For there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
We have studied this before--that the righteousness of God without the law is manifested by the law. There is another phrase: "Being witnessed by the law and the prophets." Do not forget for a moment or fail to remember always that where the righteousness of God is, which is obtained by faith of Jesus Christ, the prophets of God will stand in that place and witness to that man that he has it. [Congregation: "Amen!"] That means at this time, for he is coming to us now. So, I am glad that the Spirit of God has led us to it in His way and His prophet stands and witnesses that that is true and that we have the truth in that thing as it is in Jesus Christ and as shining from His holy face. [By request the quotation was read again.]
Then, brethren, look up. Then, when we see the signs in the sun, moon, and stars, and upon earth distress of nations, then look up; lift up your heads. Rejoice, for your redemption draweth nigh. Look up, because that comes alone by looking up in the face of Him that has said it. We need to look up, for that brings the righteousness, the glory of Jesus Christ, and it is that glory which makes us immortal. But it is the same glory that consumes. We are to look up. He wants us to look up in order to receive it. And He wants us to look up before that great day in order that we may look up in that day.--General Conference Bulletin, pp. 496, 497.
1895 -- The Third Angel's Message -- No. 17
... We are tempted, we are tried, and there is always room for us to assert ourselves and we undertake to make things move. There are suggestions which rise that such and such things are "too much for even a Christian to bear," and that "Christian humility is not intended to go as far as that." Some one strikes you on the cheek or breaks your wagon or tools or he may stone your tent or meetinghouse. Satan suggests, "Now you send those fellows up. You take the law to them. Christians are not to bear such things as that in the world; that is not fair." You answer Him: "That is so. There is no use of that. We will teach those fellows a lesson."
Yes, and perhaps you do. But what is that? That is self-defense. That is self-replying. No. Keep back that wicked self. Let God attend to the matter. "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." That is what Jesus Christ did. He was spit upon; he was taunted; he was struck upon the face; his hair was pulled; a crown of thorns was put upon his head and in mockery the knee was bowed, with "Hail King of the Jews." They blindfolded Him and then struck Him and cried: "Prophesy, who is it that smote thee?" All that was put upon Him. And in His human nature He bore all that, because His divine self was kept back.
Was there any suggestion to him, suppose you, to drive back that riotous crowd? to let loose one manifestation of His divinity and sweep away the whole wicked company? Satan was there to suggest it to Him, if nothing else. What did He do? He stood defenseless as the Lamb of God. There was no assertion of His divine self, no sign of it--only the man standing there, leaving all to God to do whatsoever He pleased. He said to Pilate: "Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above." That is the faith of Jesus. And that is what the prophecy means when it says, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." We are to have that divine faith of Jesus Christ, which comes to us in the gift of the mind which He gives. That mind which He gives to me will exercise in me the same faith it exercised in Him. So we keep the faith of Jesus.
So then there was He, by that self-surrender keeping back His righteous self and refusing ever to allow it to appear under the most grievous temptations--and the Spirit of Prophecy tells us that what was brought upon Him there in the night of His betrayal were the very things that were the hardest for human nature to submit to. But He, by the keeping back of His divine self, caused human nature to submit to it by the power of the Father, who kept Him from sinning. And by that means He brings us to that same divine mind, that same divine power, that when we shall be taunted, when we shall be stricken upon the face, when we shall be spit upon, when we shall be persecuted as He was--as shortly we shall be--that divine mind which was in Him being given to us will keep back our natural selves, our sinful selves and we will leave all to God. ...--General Conference Bulletin, pp. 330, 331. A. T. Jones' Sermons
1899 -- Review and Herald,December 19, 1899
The work is done. "He hath redeemed us from the curse." Thank the Lord. He was made a curse for us, because He did hang upon the tree.
And since this is all an accomplished thing, freedom from the curse by the cross of Jesus Christ is the free gift of God to every soul on the earth. And when a man receives this free gift of redemption from all the curse, that roll still goes with him; yet, thank the Lord, not carrying a curse any more, but bearing witness to "the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference." (Rom. 3:21,22) For the very object of his redeeming us from the curse is "that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ." That blessing of Abraham is the righteousness of God, which, as we have already found in these studies, can come only from God as the free gift of God, received by faith.
1900 -- Review and Herald, October 2, 1900
In Christ the battle has been fought on every point, and the victory has been made complete. He was made flesh itself--the same flesh and blood as those whom He came to redeem. He was made in all points like these; He was "in all points tempted like as we are." If in any "point" he had not been "like as we are," then, on that point he could not possibly have been tempted "like as we are."
He was "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," because He "was in all points tempted like as we are." When He was tempted, he felt the desires and the inclinations of the flesh, precisely as we feel them when we are tempted. For "every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts [his own desires and inclinations of the flesh] and enticed." (James 1:14) All this Jesus could experience without sin, because to be tempted is not sin. It is only "when lust hath conceived," when the desire is cherished, when the inclination is sanctioned--only then it is that "it bringeth forth sin." And Jesus never even in a thought cherished a desire or sanctioned an inclination of the flesh. Thus in such flesh as ours He was tempted in all points as we are and yet without a taint of sin.
And thus, by the divine power that he received through faith in God, He, in our flesh, utterly quenched every inclination of that flesh and effectually killed at its root every desire of the flesh and so "condemned sin in the flesh." And in so doing He brought complete victory and divine power to maintain it to every soul in the world. All this He did "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit."
This victory in its fullness is free to every soul in Christ Jesus. It is received by faith in Jesus. It is accomplished and maintained by "the faith of Jesus," which He has wrought out in perfection and has given to every believer in Him. For "this is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith."
1900 -- Christian Patriotism or Religion and the Faith of Jesus, p. 27
From that day to this, it has been made plain to all people that faith in God, the faith of Jesus Christ, the original principle of the Gospel and of the church, means the absolute separation of Church and State; the renunciation of the throne and power of earthly dominion; the total separation of religion and the State; and that uniting with the church of Christ means separation from the State and countries of this world.
And this is what faith in God, the faith of Jesus Christ, the fundamental principle of the Gospel and of the church, means to all people in the world to-day.
1903 -- The Place of the Bible in Education, p. 47
Surely there is needed, and sorely needed, today, an educational reform. And, since the educational process of today is one in which doubt is the beginning the course, and the end, it is certain that the only true educational reform for today is one in which faith is the beginning, the course, and the end: and that faith, the faith of Jesus Christ, the faith which enables him who exercises it to comprehend, to understand, and to know, the truth, and only the truth -- the truth as it is in Jesus.
1905 -- The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection, p. 26
His name is called Emmanuel which is "God with us." Not God with Him only but God with us. God was with Him in eternity and could have been with Him even though He had not given Himself for us. But man through sin became without God, and God wanted to be again with us. Therefore Jesus became "us" that God with Him might be "God with us." And that is His name, because that is what He is. Blessed be His name.
And this is "the faith of Jesus" and the power of it. This is our Saviour--one of God and one of man--and therefore able to save to the uttermost every soul who will come to God by Him. ...
The Catholic doctrine of the human nature of Christ is simply that that nature is not human nature at all, but divine: "more sublime and glorious than all natures." It is that in His human nature Christ was so far separated from mankind as to be utterly unlike that of mankind, that His was a nature in which He could have no sort of fellow-feeling with mankind.
But such is not the faith of Jesus. The faith of Jesus is that "as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same." The faith of Jesus is that God sent "His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh." The faith of Jesus is that "in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren."
The faith of Jesus is that He "Himself took our infirmities" and was touched "with the feeling of our infirmities," being tempted in all points like as we are. If He was not as we are, He could not possibly be tempted "like as we are." But He was "in all points tempted like as we are." Therefore He was "in all points" "like as we are."
The faith of Rome as to the human nature of Christ and Mary and of ourselves springs from that idea of the natural mind that God is too pure and too holy to dwell with us and in us in our sinful human nature; that sinful as we are, we are too far off for Him in His purity and holiness to come to us just as we are.
The true faith--the faith of Jesus--is that, far off from God as we are in our sinfulness, in our human nature which He took, He has come to us just where we are; that, infinitely pure and holy as He is, and sinful, degraded, and lost as we are, He in Christ by His Holy Spirit will willingly dwell with us and in us to save us, to purify us, and to make us holy.
The faith of Rome is that we must be pure and holy in order that God shall dwell with us at all.
The faith of Jesus is that God must dwell with us and in us in order that we shall be holy or pure. ...
And this is the faith of Jesus: this is the point where the faith of Jesus reaches lost, sinful man to help him. For thus it has been demonstrated to the very fulness of perfection, that there is no man in the wide world for whom there is not hope in God, no one so lost that he can not be saved by trusting God in this faith of Jesus. And this faith of Jesus, by which in the place of the lost, He hoped in God and trusted God for salvation from sin and power to keep from sinning--this victory of His it is that has brought to every man in the world divine faith by which every man can hope in God and trust in God and can find the power of God to deliver him from sin and to keep him from sinning. That faith which He exercised and by which He obtained the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil--that faith is His free gift to every lost man in the world. And thus "this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith;" and this is the faith of which He is the Author and Finisher.
This is the faith of Jesus that is given to men. This is the faith of Jesus that must be received by men in order for them to be saved. This is the faith of Jesus which, now in this time of the Third Angel's Message, must be received and kept by those who will be saved from the worship of the "beast and his image," and enabled to keep the commandments of God. This is the faith of Jesus referred to in the closing words of the Third Angel's Message: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."--Ibid., page 124.
The present time being the time when the coming of Jesus and the restitution of all things is at the very doors and this final perfecting of the saints having necessarily to precede the coming of the Lord and the restitution of all things, we know by every evidence that now we are in the times of refreshing--the time of the latter rain. And as certainly as that is so, we are also in the time of the utter blotting out of all sins that have ever been against us. And the blotting out of sins is exactly this thing of the cleansing of the sanctuary; it is the finishing of all transgression in our lives; it is the making an end of all sins in our character; it is the bringing in of the very righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, to abide alone everlastingly.--Ibid., page 124.