The historical record is clear. In hundreds of statements Ellen White endorsed the message and the messengers which the Lord sent in 1888.
However, since the Minneapolis Centennial in 1988, there has been a concerted effort to discount the message and the messengers even though it is agreed the church went through a crisis at the time. There is a persistent endeavor to classify the Adventist message as logical only when placed in the context of the "great basic truths of evangelical Christianity." The church is told that we "have had the loud cry message since 1888" and this with our distinctive doctrines needs to fit into "the great salvation truths of evangelical Christianity."[1] How do these so-called "truths" conform to the plea of John in Rev. 14:6-12, and 18:1-5? Is Babylon all that John says, "fallen," "the habitation of devils," "the hold of every foul spirit," a place God calls His people to come out of, to not partake of her sins? Surely the "voice from heaven" that spoke to John was true.
Our integrity will be measured as we consider the following:
1. The Holy Spirit Was Insulted at Minneapolis.
No matter what interpretation may be placed on our 1888 history, there are specific statements from Ellen White which cannot be denied or mis-interpreted. The message the Lord sent was sabotaged and heaven was held in contempt. Specifically we have been told:
"I stated that the course that had been pursued at Minneapolis was cruelty to the Spirit of God."[2]
"[The opposing brethren] were moved at that meeting by another spirit and they knew not that God had sent these young men to bear a special message to them, which they treated with ridicule and contempt not realizing that the heavenly intelligences were looking upon them. ... I know that at the time the Spirit of God was insultedl."[3]
"Sins ... are lying at the door of many. ... The Holy Spirit has been insulted, and light has been rejected."[4]
These alarming indictments are almost beyond belief. Here is the beginning of an answer as to "why the delay." Until that "insult" is made right the latter rain and the second advent will continue to be no more than conversation pieces among Adventists. The latter rain must come before the grain ripens, which means the Lord of the harvest cannot put in the sickle, cannot return, until the harvest is "ready." To "insult" the Holy Spirit is to reject the message and the very means which the Lord would have used to bring the harvest to fruition.
It remains equally impossible to receive the message and not receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, while clearly, even a hundred years cannot heal such an "insult." Mere time can never heal such a wound. The corporate body of the church must face the fact that the latter rain has not come, which is clear evidence that we have not received the message which the Lord sent to us.
2. Jesus Christ Was Spurned and Insulted.
The Word that was made flesh and dwelt among us has personal feelings even as we humans have them. Ellen White has told us clearly that the Lord had a plan in 1888 when He "in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones."[5] As the Lord has through all history, so in our time He chose that time to bring more prominently before the world His message of the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. But God's plans ran counter to our plans and "we" voted to accept our plans.
The Lord's messenger was painfully frank with the church as she set forth the truth of what happened. Not only were the men whom the Lord sent despised, but He who sent them was spurned: "If you reject Christ's delegated messengers, you reject Christ."[6]
The grandest eschatological opportunity of the ages was "in a great degree" rejected in our 1888 era. What was despised was an intimate heart reconciliation with Christ such as a bride feels for her bridegroom. It was not a cold doctrine that was misunderstood, nor was it a clash of personalities, but it was a turning of the back and not the face to the Lord. Heaven was sad "over the spiritual blindness of many of our brethren"[7]. A most serious appraisal and perhaps the crowning indictment is found in the following:
"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."[8]
We all know how Christ was treated by the Jews--and "we" did the same thing! Could anything be more significant to explain "why the delay?" How can the Saviour of the world come back until He is sure His people want Him? His "great disappointment" was in 1888, a disappointment beyond description.
3. Ellen White's Ministry Was Disparaged.
The attitude of leadership toward Ellen White's support of the 1888 messengers and the message was a severe trial to her. It is clear she felt deep pain and grief. Only a few days after the session she said:
"I have not had a very easy time since I left the Pacific Coast. Our first meeting was not like any other General Conference I ever attended. ... such prejudice. ... It was more after the order developed by the priests and rulers and Pharisees in the days of Christ. ... My testimony was ignored, and never in my life experience was I treated as at that [1888] conference."[9]
Her appraisal of the treatment she received was explained further a few days later when she wrote a 27-page manuscript about Minneapolis. Her concern is beyond question:
"When men in high positions of trust will, when under pressure, say that Sister White is influenced by any human being, they certainly have no more use for messages that come from such a source. This was freely spoken at the Minneapolis meeting. ... Why were not these men, ... afraid to lift their hand against me and my work for no reason except their imagination that I was not in harmony with their spirit and their course of action?"
On January 18, 1889, she wrote a 13-page letter to one of the leading brethren. The whole Minneapolis experience was fresh in her mind and she made plain the attitude that prevailed against her:
"There can be no harmony in our work when our brethren are so completely blinded that they cannot recognize the Spirit of God as it worked through me at Minneapolis."[11]
A week later she wrote on January 26, 1889:
"In the Conference at Minneapolis. ... Again and again did I bear my testimony to those assembled, in a clear and forcible manner, but that testimony was not received. ... Since some of my brethren hold me in the light they do, that my judgment is of no more value than that of any other, or of one who has not been called to this special work, and that I am subject to the influence of my son Willie, or of some others, why do you send for Sister White to attend your camp-meetings? I cannot come"[12]
To read the record is to know that Ellen White carried a heavy burden, not unlike God's servants in ages past. Lip service and respect for her as a speaker prevailed but her counsel was disparaged. More than a year and a half after Minneapolis, on May 14,1890, she continued to speak the concern of her heart:
"Brethren, you are urging me to come to your camp meetings. I must tell you plainly that the course pursued toward me and my work since the Gen. Conf. at Minneapolis--your resistance of the light and warnings that God has given through me--has made my labor fifty times harder than it would otherwise have. ... It seems to me that you have cast aside the word of the Lord as unworthy of your notice. ... My experience since the conference at Minneapolis has not been very assuring. I have asked the Lord for wisdom daily, and that I may not be utterly disheartened, and go down to the grave broken-hearted as did my husband."[13]
Her anxiety and deep distress for the disregard shown her and the message and messengers the Lord sent to Minneapolis was not kept bottled up in her heart. She went public. At the Ottawa, Kansas camp meeting, in May 1889, she told the people exactly what had happened and the running battle with leadership:
"God gave me meat in due season for the people, but they refused it. ... Elders Jones and Waggoner presented precious light to the people, but prejudice and unbelief, jealousy and evil-surmising barred the door to their hearts. ... Thus it was in the betrayal, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus ... the Satanic spirit took the control. ... The servants whom the Lord sent were caricatured, ridiculed, and placed in a ridiculous light. The comment ... passed upon me and the work that God had given me to do was anything but flattering."[14]
Notes: