Not one event in our history can we change. But we can read the record and know the truth and then repent.
Our history as it has been recorded tells us that the message was for end-time Israel and was "the message that God commanded to be given to the world."[1] It was not by human invention of any sort. Rather, the Lord "sent" it through "His servants." But our in-house leadership rejection stands as one of the most amazing developments in the history of God's work through 6000 years. Our brethren were sincerely unaware of a heart attitude which prompted an unholy reaction against the most glorious light which had ever shone upon this church. But we dare not accuse our brethren for they are no worse than we are by nature, for we are one body with them.
Leadership's unknown enmity against the message more than one hundred years ago is no different than the current resentment against the message and the messengers and the entire 1888 crisis. Prevailing sentiment in published material suggests a note of joy that the Centennial as observed by the church in 1988 is past and slated to be forgotten. We can now put the matter in the archives, for after all, it is said, "enough had accepted [the 1888 message] sufficiently for the denomination to move on its primary mission--preaching the gospel to the world at large."[2]
Significantly, books and other published material dwell on the assumed non-relevance of 1888 in relation to teachings about the humanity of Christ and perfection. The church is told that the "post-Fall view of Christ's humanity and the issue of perfection is becoming more suspect with advancing research."[3] Amazingly, we read that "one searches the 1888 comments of Ellen White in vain for statements that emphasize the humanity of Christ and perfection as major Minneapolis issues."[4] Whether defined as "major" or minor issues, the fact remains that "1888 represented a theological crisis" which cannot be solved without a clear understanding of justification by faith which is established by the truths of the incarnation.
On the contrary, when a search is made of the Ellen G. White 1888 Materials for insights that emphasize the human nature of Christ and the perfection of His people, it is not "in vain." In the context of her rehearsal of the 1888 episode her teaching is clear regarding Christ taking our fallen human nature, and there is ample reference to "clothing His divinity with humanity. ... He was found in fashion as a man. ... God humbled Himself and became a man."[5]
In her Minneapolis sermon, Sabbath, October 20, 1888, she used 2 Peter 1:1-12 as her text which sets up the glorious promise that we through the "exceeding great and precious promises ... might be partakers of the divine nature." She asks the congregation: "Do you mean ... that there is not sufficient grace and power granted us that we may work away from our own natural defects and tendencies, that it was not a whole Saviour that was given us?"
She responds with God's answer:
"I sent My Son Jesus Christ to your world to reveal to you My power, My mightiness; to reveal to you that I am God, and that I will give you help in order to lift you from the power of the enemy, and give you a chance that you might win back the moral image of God."
To make her point abundantly clear she continues:
"His long human arm encircles the race, while with His divine He grasps the throne of the Infinite. ... He took human nature upon Himself and fought the battles that human nature is engaged in. ... Up to the time when Christ died, though He was human, He was without sin, and He must bear His trials as a human being. ... Jesus Christ ... imparts His righteousness to us. ... We can be filled with the fullness of God. Our lives may measure with the life of God."[6]
To read the record is to be impressed that Christ took human nature with all its liabilities and that He imparts His righteousness to us in order that our lives may measure with the life of God--could any truth be more profound than this? Ellen White presented such thoughts at Minneapolis and it requires no vain search to see this in the 1888 record.
The next day she asked the delegates:
"Did the Saviour take upon Himself the guilt of the human race and impute to them His righteousness in order that they might continue to violate the precepts of Jehovah? No, no! Christ came because there was no possibility of man's keeping the law in his own strength. He came to bring him strength to obey the precepts of the law."[7]
The 1888 Materials bring to the church the fact that Ellen White many times joins the human nature of Christ with the calling of God's people to perfection of character and although these truths may not be "major Minneapolis issues," yet they permeate her presentations like yeast permeates bread.
In volume one of these 1888 Materials, a cursory check indicates that these truths of Christ taking our fallen nature are mentioned at least nine times. The question is, why is there a concerted effort to cast aspersions on this part of the 1888 message which the Lord "sent"? In these two truths, the human nature of Christ and the perfection of the saints, is found the power and the glory of the gospel.
Let us stand in awe as she proclaims:
"Christ could have done nothing during His earthly ministry in saving fallen man if the divine had not been blended with the human. ... Man is privileged to be partaker of the divine nature. ... Divinity took the nature of humanity, and for what purpose?--That through the righteousness of Christ humanity might partake of the divine nature. ... Man must be a partaker of the divine nature in order to stand in this evil time, when the mysteries of satanic agencies are at work."[8]
Notes: