This public “confession” is made in response to a duty solemnly enjoined upon the authors of a private document. After twenty-two years of silence they are now required to speak publicly, though they would prefer to remain silent.
Their duty to “confess” is made clear by demands upon them published in Movement of Destiny and endorsed by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. (See Movement of Destiny (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association 1971), pages 358, 364, 445, 451, 686, etc.) It is a duty the authors dare not evade. The Church will expect a sincere response to such an authoritative public charge. Truth requires it.
Twenty-two years ago in the autumn of 1950 the authors prepared for the attention of the General Conference Committee a private manuscript entitled 1888 Re-examined. Without the authors’ consent or approval, this document with some 600 Ellen G. White exhibits was by others placed in the hands of an ever-widening circle of Seventh-day Adventist readers around the world. This is what has now been responsible for this public call to make “an explicit confession … due the Church.”
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We said in 1950 that there is a neglected but essential preparation to make before the final outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Latter Rain can possibly come to enable the Church to finish God’s work on earth. That most necessary preparation is recognition of and repentance for the misunderstanding and rejecting the “beginning” of the Latter Rain and the Loud Cry. This “beginning,” according to Ellen G. White, was a message brought by two young ministers to the 1888 General Conference Session. Nearly one hundred times in her writings she endorses this message and the messengers in language never used at any time about any other message or messengers.
For us now as a people to beg Heaven to give us the Latter Rain, without recognizing this obvious fact, is just as unreasonable as for the Jews to keep on begging the Lord to send them the Messiah without recognizing how He kept His promise and did send Him two thousand years ago.
Here are two examples of Ellen G. White’s typical endorsement of the message:
The, Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones. This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. . . . It is the third angel’s message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure.—TM 91, 92.
The time of test is just upon us, for the loud cry of the third angel has already begun in the revelation of the righteousness of Christ, the sin-pardoning Redeemer. This is the beginning of the light of the angel whose glory shall fill the whole earth.—R&H, November 22, 1892.
Since the imperative demand was made in Movement of Destiny that we make a public “confession,” we have spent much time in thought and prayer, considering what our response should be. We love the remnant church, we are a part of it, and our confidence in its ultimate triumph is strong. For the twenty-two years since we presented the original document to the General Conference Committee we have remained missionaries and ministers and have earnestly tried to carry out whatever assignments the church organization has given us, whether in Africa or in our homeland. We are grateful that the Review and Herald could say of us: “There has been no question on the part of the church leadership of the loyalty and sincerity of Elders Wieland and Short. . . . They firmly support the organization and unity of the church.”—R&H, May 8, 1969, pages 5, 6.
We have never supported or approved of any offshoot movement or disloyal element. It has been and is still our prayer that God’s grace will sustain us in loyal service to Christ and His Church until He comes again.
There are many Seventh-day Adventists who have known little or nothing about that “beginning of the Latter Rain and Loud Cry” in 1888 or the real reason why the finishing of God’s work has been delayed so many decades since. We are grateful that Movement of Destiny has told the church of the great importance of the 1888 Conference. We hope it enjoys wide readership. And we are especially glad that for the first time in history a major volume clearly confesses that the Lord gave through Elders Jones and Waggoner what was in reality “the beginning of the Latter Rain” (see pages 262, 318, 321, 322, 325, 345, 570, 667, etc.). We see in this published call for us to make “an explicit confession” an indication of duty the Lord Himself has laid upon us. Through the years He has providentially placed in our hands a remarkable collection of unpublished Ellen G. White material that bears directly on the subject matter of this “confession.” We believe that publication of this epochal volume by the Review and Herald Publishing Association will prove to be a major step toward bringing about those final events which will result in the finishing of God’s work in this generation. We have waited many months beyond the publication of this book for the world field to have a chance to become acquainted with what it says. Now we must respond to its call.
What we said twenty-two years ago is brought into sharp focus and challenged by this book. As Movement of Destiny says the 1888 Re-examined position is either “true, or not true.” No compromise position is possible:
If true, there should surely be some clear-cut historical evidence to definitely establish its validity. If it is true, there should be solid support for such a serious contention in the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy. But if it is merely personal opinion, or impression, or conjecture, it should be discounted and denied.—Page 358.
Surely this is a fair, right, and honorable approach to a serious problem. To this we agree. We also concur with the following:
The facts are accessible. They are neither hidden nor ambiguous. The records of the time [1888 and since] are open and available. Our entire published literature is on record. . . . And letters, diaries, and other communications have their bearing, together with decisive Spirit of Prophecy testimony. The latter constitute the determining factor.—Idem.
The authors certainly agree that “decisive Spirit of Prophecy testimony” must “constitute the determining factor.” Though all men may speak otherwise, in the end the final judgment must be a “thus saith the Lord.” And He “abhors indifference and disloyalty in a time of crisis in His work. The whole universe is watching with inexpressible interest the closing scenes of the great controversy between good and evil.”
True Seventh-day Adventists have confidence in the writings of Ellen G. White. Therefore the inquiry must be put to them: Why has the finishing of God’s work been so long delayed if the Latter Rain and the Loud Cry began in 1888? Did the Lord intend that world population should outgrow our witnessing efficiency? On January 9, 1893, the Lord’s messenger said in very clear context that the work of God could have been finished then had the 1888 message been truly and heartily accepted:
The Spirit of God has been present in power among His people, but it could not be bestowed upon them, because they did not open their hearts to receive it. . . .
The Lord designed that the messages of warning and instruction given through the Spirit to His people should go everywhere. But the influence that grew out of the resistance of light and truth at Minneapolis tended to make of no effect the light God had given to His people through the Testimonies. . . .
... If every soldier of Christ had done his duty, if every watchman on the walls of Zion had given the trumpet a certain sound, the world might ere this have heard the message of warning. But the work is years behind. What account will be rendered to God for thus retarding the work? —General Conference Bulletin, 1893, page 419.
Let it be clearly understood that this statement is not quoted for the purpose of questioning the Lord’s presence and blessing with His people for the past 80 years. He has been with them as truly as He was with Israel during their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. The purpose of quoting this statement is to show that the finishing of God’s work has been long delayed. And “we,” not the Lord, are responsible!
We turn now to the subject matter of this “explicit confession” required from us.