1. We confess the truth of our Lord’s words: “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing [the authors acknowledge that this appeal is specifically directed to the ministry and the leadership of the Laodicean church] ; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Revelation 3:17. We believe that our Lord here refers primarily to “our” pride in our understanding of the gospel, “our” vaunted assumption that “we” “understand” “righteousness by faith.” An example in point is the conclusion of the book Through Crisis to Victory which almost wholly exonerates us as ministers today and lays the blame for the unfinished task upon the laity:
Anyone who takes the time to examine Seventh-day Adventist books, papers, pamphlets, and tracts will discover that this glorious truth has been printed time and time again. …
Representative books by Seventh-day Adventist authors that have issued from denominational presses in North America—not to mention those published in other lands—and that have dealt with the subject of righteousness by faith, are many. …
Through the years since 1901 and before, Seventh-day Adventists have published numerous tracts on righteousness by faith, and from time to time this theme has been covered in Sabbath school lessons. The various phases of salvation through faith in Christ have been taught with power and clarity over the radio for a number of years and more recently on television. This subject has been made prominent in different courses of Bible correspondence lessons. Adventist pastors and evangelists have announced this vital truth from church pulpits and public platforms, with hearts aflame with love for Christ. And through the monthly journal, The Ministry, Seventh-day Adventist preachers and writers have constantly been urged to make Jesus Christ and His righteousness as the Saviour, the center of all their teaching. …
Many Seventh-day Adventists still seem ignorant of this all-important doctrine. Much of this lack of awareness results from their failure to read Adventist books and periodicals presenting the gospel in clear, forceful language. …
We fear that to many church members the message of righteousness by faith has become a dry theory instead of a living reality in their daily experience.
They have neglected the light that God in His love and mercy has caused to shine upon them. They have failed to exchange the worthless garments of their own self-righteousness for the spotless robe of Christ’s righteousness. In the sight of God their poor souls are naked and destitute. Unless they heed the counsel of the True Witness to buy of Him the white raiment, that the shame of their nakedness may not appear, they will soon be rejected by their Lord.—Pages 233-239, italics supplied.
Yes, the ministry are “rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” Yet it can be shown clearly that the fundamental concepts of the 1888 message are largely absent from most of this teaching with the exception of the Ellen G. White publications! What is commonly understood to be “righteousness by faith” is the popular Protestant, Evangelical view, and it is assumed that if we tack onto their understanding of “righteousness by faith” our own “peculiar doctrines,” lo, we have Adventism.
The above quotation seeks to find in the laity some “scapegoat” to account for the long delay in the finishing of the church’s gospel commission. The Spirit of Prophecy clearly upholds the principle of “like priest, like people:” “The members of our churches are not incorrigible; the fault is not so much to be charged upon them as upon their teachers. Their ministers do not feed them.”—Special Testimonies, No. 10, November, 1890.
2. We confess a brighter hope than this despairing view affords. If we as leaders are right and yet the church members will not follow the light, where is there any hope that the church will ever get ready for the coming of the Lord—even if we wait another eighty years? We believe the full truth and the understanding of the tragic failures of our past denominational history give the brightest hope for a speedy finishing of the work in glorious victory in our generation. Why? Because knowing the full truth will clear our minds and the minds of our membership and the minds of our youth of all lingering doubt that perhaps the Lord Himself has delayed His coming and is unresponsive to our prayers. If our prayers are not yet answered, we can either doubt the Lord’s faithfulness, which is pure despair; or else recognize our own unfaithfulness and confess it, which is a positive solution. If the Lord is unfaithful there is nothing that can be done about it. If we are, surely repentance will enable us to do something about that!
3. We confess that we understand our Lord’s words in Revelation 3:19 to be a clear call to denominational repentance: “Be zealous therefore, and repent.”
(a) He addresses the message to “the angel of the church of the Laodiceans.” Verse 14. “The angels of the seven churches” are “the seven stars” in Christ’s “right hand.” Verses 16, 20. “God’s ministers are symbolized by the seven stars.”—GW 13. They are “the teachers in the church—those entrusted by God with weighty responsibilities,” especially “those in the offices that God has appointed for the leadership of His people.” (Compare AA 164, 586.) Therefore Christ’s call to “repent” is directed primarily to the leadership of His Church.
(b) What should we repent of? Our spiritual pride and self-sufficiency! Revelation 3:17. We do not sense our need of “the message of Christ’s righteousness.” We assume that we have the message and therefore understand it. We commend ourselves for faithfully proclaiming it to the world, especially in recent decades. Yet in fact we honestly do not know our destitution! We are sincere in supposing that we understand “righteousness by faith” as presented in the 1888 message when we have lost or never understood the fundamental dominant feature that gave that message its vital power. What we proudly assume is “righteousness by faith” as we practically understand it consists of themes and concepts borrowed either from the great Reformers of the sixteenth century or from modern Evangelicals. In a similar way the Jews “had” the Sabbath for millenniums but it is obvious from the words of our Lord that they did not understand it, or appreciate its true significance or in any way truly “keep” it. Our spiritual ignorance parallels theirs. “Thou knowest not …” is an accurate depiction of our condition generally. Jesus says it!
(c) To recognize in our denominational history an echo of Christ’s call to the “angel” or leadership of the church to “repent” is not in any way disloyalty or subversion, although it has often been so interpreted by offended individuals. For millenniums, offense has been taken at calls to repent. A typical example is that of the “priests and the prophets” who accused Jeremiah to “the princes and to all the people, saying. This man is worthy to die; for he hath prophesied against this city.” Jeremiah 26:11. Yet from our modern perspective it is clear that Jeremiah was in reality “prophesying” for the commonweal of the “city.”
We “confess” that recognizing in our history a clear call to “repent” is for the good of modern Israel as well as for the vindication of our Lord. There is therefore no need of apologizing for proclaiming His call as found in His Word and as illustrated in our history. “As many as I love,” He says, “I rebuke and chasten.” Such “chastening” does not require the personal services of another living prophet to take the place of Ellen G. White. All that is required is to know the full, unvarnished, whole truth of our denominational history. Honest hearts will immediately respond.
(d) Such repentance will in no way weaken the authority or lesson the respect due to official church leadership. We “confess” with insistence that leadership in denominational repentance will immediately increase the genuine respect the world-church will have for the General Conference.
4. We confess that a repentance on the part of this generation for the failures of a past generation is highly in order.
(a) It is biblical. “If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and that also they have walked contrary unto Me; and that I also have walked contrary to them …” Leviticus 26:40, 41. King Josiah accepted what Moses said, recognized that the sins of his “fathers” were in reality his sins, and confessed: “Great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book.” 2 Kings 22:13. Nehemiah also recognized the same principle of corporate identity with the previous generations: “Both I and my father’s house have sinned.” Nehemiah 1:6. There are many Old Testament examples. (See Appendix A for a fuller treatment of this subject.)
If the Lord held Israel in Ezekiel’s day responsible for the sins of her “youth” (see Ezekiel 16, the whole of the chapter), how can “we” disclaim responsibility for the sins of “our” youth? “Denominational repentance” is simply what the Lord calls for throughout His Word. The “final atonement” we have been talking about for so long comes simply from recognizing the full truth of “our” position before the Lord and the watching universe. Those who will humble their hearts in honest recognition of the truth are the “woman” who will in contrition prepare to be the Lamb’s “wife.”
(b) Christ appealed to the Jewish nation of His day for a denominational repentance. “From that time began Jesus to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17. He upbraided “the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done, because they repented not.” Matthew 11:20. “These three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none.” Luke 13:6-9. Jesus’ last public discourse was a final appeal to the Jewish leadership at Jerusalem to repent, and a heart-broken lament for their refusal to do so (Matthew 23:13-27).
(c) Jesus appealed to the repentance of Nineveh as a “model” for the Jewish leaders to follow in denominational repentance. “The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented.” Luke 11:29-32. This “model” repentance is an example for us to follow, too: “The people of Nineveh believed God . . . from the greatest of them to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him . . . and caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles.” Jonah 3:3-7. One might say that Nineveh’s repentance was led by their “General Conference Committee.”
(d) Jesus taught the principle of solidarity of His Jewish generation with their ancestors in their guilt: “Woe unto you … that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.” Matthew 23:29-36. (This Zacharias was murdered about 856 BC.) The principle here expressed in no way contradicts Ezekiel’s dictum that guilt is not genetically or legally inherited by the children (Ezekiel 18:20), but Jesus was expressing the principle of corporate guilt, not inherited guilt. “Whom ye slew,” He said, although the murdered man lived long before any of His hearers were born; and He charged upon them the guilt even of Abel’s blood. Why this corporate guilt? Because His hearers were actually guilty of Cain’s sin and the sin of Zacharias’ murderers. This they soon demonstrated in the murder of the Son of God. Ezra recognized the same principle of corporate guilt: “Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands.” Ezra 9:7. They were “one body” in guilt.
(e) The writings of Ellen G. White recognize the Bible principle of corporate and denominational guilt, and the need for corporate and denominational repentance. For example, the sin of Calvary is a sin for which we are all alike guilty, even though the sin of crucifying Christ took place nearly two thousand years before any of us were born. We can never be saved unless we individually participate in a corporate repentance for this sin of sins:
Let us remember that we are still in a world where Jesus, the Son of God, was rejected and crucified, where the guilt of despising Christ and preferring a robber rather than the spotless Lamb of God still rests. Unless we individually repent toward God because of transgression of His law, and exercise faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, whom the world has rejected, we shall lie under the full condemnation that the action of choosing Barabbas instead of Christ merited. The whole world stands charged today with the deliberate rejection and murder of the Son of God. The word bears record that Jews and Gentiles, kings, governors, ministers, priests, and people—all classes and sects who reveal the same spirit of envy, hatred, prejudice, and unbelief manifested by those who put to death the Son of God—would act the same part, were the opportunity granted, as did the Jews and people of the time of Christ. They would be partakers of the same spirit that demanded the death of the Son of God.—TM 38.
God’s law reaches the feelings and motives, as well as the outward acts. It reveals the secrets of the heart, flashing light upon things before buried in darkness. God knows every thought, every purpose, every plan, every motive. The books of heaven record the sins that would have been committed had there been opportunity.—ST, July 31, 1901; 5BC 1085.
That prayer of Christ for His enemies [“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”] embraced the world. It took in every sinner that had lived or should live, from the beginning of the world to the end of time. Upon all rests the guilt of crucifying the Son of God.—DA 745.
What is “corporate repentance”? It is repenting of sin which we may not have actually done, but which we would have committed had we had the opportunity or been under sufficient pressure. Already “the books of heaven record” these sins against our names. “God’s law reaches the feelings and motives.” Therefore we are already guilty of these sins that we would commit if we had the opportunity. Corporate repentance is recognizing this truth that as part of the “body” we share in the sins of the “body.”
Two examples of such repentance are obvious:
(i) Repentance for the sin of crucifying Christ. Although we weren’t even born when He was crucified, Inspiration says that aside from specific repentance for this sin, “we shall be under the full condemnation that the action of choosing Barabbas instead of Christ merited” (TM 38). This is what Paul meant when he said that “what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” Romans 3:19. In its fullest sense, “transgression of His law” is the murder of the Son of God. If we are sinners at all, it is that sin of which we are potentially guilty.
Therefore repentance for sin, not just for acts of sin, is essential. This is the very essence of New Testament “righteousness by faith.” When the apostles preached this mighty truth, this was its meaning. They charged upon the people their guilt in crucifying Christ, both Jews and Gentiles. All saw it. “Faith” was deep heart- sorrow for participation in the murder of the Messiah, and a heart-appreciation of His forgiving love. It is no wonder that Paul’s doctrine of “righteousness by faith” turned the world upside down! And it is no wonder ours is so tame—we lack the full truth. When Paul brought home to his hearers their guilt, even though they themselves may not have been physically present at Calvary, it was corporate repentance that they were experiencing.
(ii) Repentance for the sin of rejecting the “beginning of the Latter Rain” at and after 1888. This has delayed the coming of Christ for many decades. This sin also took place long before we were even born; but unless we had fully experienced the kind of corporate repentance mentioned above, we would have done the same thing in 1888 that our brethren did, had we been there. We are really no better than they. Corporate repentance is realizing that their sin is our sin. It is putting ourselves in their place and realizing how the books of heaven faithfully record that we are just as guilty as they. Our human nature is the same as theirs was. Only by this experience can the terrible stranglehold of Laodicean pride be broken forever!
The sin of Calvary and the sin of 1888 are both revelations of the deep sinfulness of our own hearts. We all partake of a common humanity, and this sin of sins is our basic human common-denominator. Corporate repentance is individually repenting as though what apparently is the sin of others were really our own (as it is! ).
What then is “denominational repentance”? It is this glorious individual experience of corporate repentance and true faith permeating the entire denomination from the top to the bottom. It is a repentance exactly like that of Nineveh of old, which began at the king’s palace and extended throughout the empire. It is recognizing our responsibility as a people that we have delayed the coming of the Lord all these many decades. What sufferings this has caused unnecessarily only these same “books of heaven” can record. We know that two World Wars are included, and how many others and how much more only Heaven knows. Denominational repentance is recognizing and acknowledging our true position as we stand “miserable” and “naked” before the watching eyes of the heavenly universe. It is not an experience legislated by committees and promoted by departments amidst organizational fanfare. Denominational repentance will be individual corporate repentance permeating the denomination, starting with the General Conference. This principle may be studied further by reference to additional Spirit of Prophecy writings. The 1888 sin of rejection of the message was a specific manifestation of the same sin that led the Jews to reject Christ. This is stated many times. For some examples, see TM 96, 97; FE 472; Review and Herald, May 27, 1890; April 11, 1893; etc. The barren fig-tree represents not a mere mass of individual unrepentant Jews, but the corporate body of the nation which rejected Christ (DA 582; COL 308; AA 78, 79). Their corporate sin was accomplished through the action of their “religious leaders,” which bound the nation to corporate ruin (COL 305). Only a national repentance could therefore have saved the Jewish nation from the impending ruin which their corporate sin invoked upon them (AA 247). As already noted, Ellen G. White clearly recognized that the 1888 guilt was incurred by “the brethren,” “the heart of the work,” “our brethren,” etc., generic terms denoting far more than a scattered few individuals. The rejectors bound the denominational leadership to “communicating” “the disease at the heart of the work which poisons the blood” “until it has tainted and corrupted the whole” and “imbued” even foreign workers “with the spiritual leprosy of Battle Creek” (Letters, August 27, 1896; May 31, 1896). The process by which this guilt operated was as real as that by which the Sanhedrin led the Jewish nation to reject Christ (TM 64-77; Review and Herald, March 18, 1890; MS. 13, 1889; Through Crisis to Victory, page 292). The need is expressed as follows:
Many have accepted the theory of the truth, who have had no true conversion. I know whereof I speak. There are few who feel true sorrow for sin; who have deep, pungent convictions of the depravity of the unregenerate nature. The heart of stone is not exchanged for a heart of flesh. Few are willing to fall upon the Rock, and be broken.
No matter who you are, or what your life has been, you can be saved only in God’s appointed way. You must repent; you must fall helpless on the Rock, Christ Jesus.-5T 218.
We are told in Movement of Destiny that this principle of corporate and denominational repentance is wrong, citing “a paralleling case” as evidence. Here is the statement in full context as presented in Movement of Destiny:
There is yet another basic principle involved in this matter of confession that must never be forgotten. It is the fundamental truth that those of us who live today are not accountable for the sins of our spiritual ancestors. They themselves must bear that blame. Mrs. White sets forth this principle in a paralleling case:
“Those who live in this day are not accountable for the deeds of those who crucified the Son of God.” (E.G.W., R&H, April 11, 1893, p. 226.)
It is the actual “soul that sinneth” who “shall die” (Eze. 18:4, 20) for his own sin—if he does not repent. And, in harmony with this obviously just principle, there is not a line on record in all the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy calling upon the Church—the present General Conference leadership and denominational body as a whole, of today—to confess the sins of the individuals comprising the “some” who sinned back there at Minneapolis. We cannot do that.—Movement of Destiny, page 368.
Turning to the R&H article of April 11, 1893 as quoted above, it will be noted that the Ellen G. White statement cited is less than one-fourth of a sentence. Can it be possible that in this fragment of a sentence she contradicts the clear and consistent teaching of Holy Scripture and the balanced import of dozens of her other statements in context? It is important to look at the article in context, citing passages that show the true thought of the article. Then the mutilated sentence must be noted in its entirety, intact in italics and which was written after the “revivals” took place and most of the “confessions” came in:
O how few know the day of their visitation! … How few there are who are truly humble, devoted, God-fearing servants in the cause of Christ. … Today there are few who are heartily serving God. The most of those who compose our congregations are spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. … The sweetest melodies that come from God through human lips—justification by faith, and the righteousness of Christ [the 1888 message] —do not bring forth from them a response of love and gratitude. … They steel their hearts against [Christ] make a profession, but deny the power of true godliness. … What more can I say than I have said to impress upon our churches, and especially upon the church at Battle Creek [the church leadership], the eternal loss they are liable to in not arousing and putting to use the executive ability that God has given them? … How many more messages of reproof and warning must the Lord send to His chosen people before they will obey? … The people have been convinced that they should be laborers together with God, but have they been converted to the idea? … It has been clearly shown that in the righteousness of Christ is our only hope of gaining access to the Father. … Would greater evidence, more powerful manifestations, break down the barriers that have been interposed between the truth and the soul? —No. I have been shown that sufficient evidence has been given. Those who reject the evidence already presented would not be convinced by more abundant proof. They are like the Jews. … Often the outward manifestation of selfishness is done away for a time, but its hateful fruit will again appear as do the leaves of a tree that has been cut down, but whose root remains. If a fiber of selfishness is left, it will spring forth again, and bear a harvest after its kind. … The Lord is at work seeking to purify His people, and this great work is retarded by unbelief and stubbornness. … Light has been shining upon the church of God, but many have said by their indifferent attitude, “We want not Thy way, O Lord, but our own way.” … Think how great light was given to the Jews, and yet they rejected the Lord of Life and glory. … There is less excuse in our day for stubbornness and unbelief than there was for the Jews in the days of Christ. … Many say, “If I had only lived in the days of Christ, I would not have wrested His words, or … rejected and crucified Him as did the Jews,” but that will be proved by the way in which you deal with His message [1888] and His messengers today. … Those who declare that if they had lived in the days of Christ, they would not do as did the rejectors of His mercy, will today be tested. Those who live in this day are not accountable for the deeds of those who crucified the Son of God; but if with all the light that shone upon His ancient people, delineated before us, we travel over the same ground, cherish the same spirit, refuse to receive reproof and warning, then our guilt will be greatly augmented, and the condemnation that fell upon them will fall upon us, only it will be as much greater as our light is greater in this age than was their light in their age.—Ellen G. White, R&H, April 4 and 11, 1893.
The context is very clear. In a similar way the word of Ezekiel 18:4 and 20 cannot be used to contradict the numerous texts that call for one generation of leadership to confess and repent because of the sins of their “fathers.” Ezekiel is talking about individual sins which are not inherited legally or genetically. For us to recognize that the Church leadership of a previous generation rejected the “beginning of the Latter Rain,” and thus delayed the coming of Christ for many decades, is an entirely different matter! Church leadership affects “the body.” It is more than individual responsibility.
When church leadership is carefully weighed it need not be considered so impossible and strange that the leadership of eighty years ago rejected the truth of the 1888 message. Sacred history is abundantly clear that it was the leadership, the priests and rulers that rejected Christ at His first coming and thus deceived the people and led to their rejection of the Saviour. Men dare not seek counsel of men to know eternal truth. When the tragedy of that experience dawned upon the hearts of God’s people, they were pricked and cried, “What shall we do? “ The answer was clear, “Repent! “ The heavenly illumination, the divine power that followed made hearts understand truths that had heretofore been uncomprehended. Light broke forth! A faith and assurance sprung up that never had been known before. At the end of time, this and more must be accomplished. (See AA 35-46.)
(f) What can arouse the Church to complete harmony with Heaven in Christ’s final work of atonement? The Church needs a true motivation. The one that alone can do it is concern for Christ’s vindication rather than selfish concern for personal salvation. If as Ellen G. White says, “The disappointment of Christ is beyond description,” something should be done to ease that disappointment He feels. It is not fair to Him to perpetuate His sorrow:
Few give thought to the suffering that sin has caused our Creator. All Heaven suffered in Christ’s agony; but that suffering did not begin or end with His manifestation in humanity. The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its very inception, sin has brought to the heart of God.—Education, page 263.
There are literally scores of statements from the Spirit of Prophecy to the effect that 1888 and its aftermath, as well as the result of the 1901 Conference, were a keen disappointment and sorrow to our Lord. The God of Heaven, Ellen G. White says, was “ashamed.” “My grief is the same as Christ’s was [concerning 1888] … Every arrow in His quiver is exhausted. … It is something beyond anything I have ever seen in all my experience since I first entered in the work.” (See Letter, May 31, 1896, and MS. 2, 1890.)
If ever a people on earth needed a “final atonement,” it is “we.” But our popular understanding of the significance of our history, past and current, leaves no room for such a need. We plead for the sake of Christ, to come to a knowledge of the truth and let us seek and experience that “final atonement! “
5. We confess our complete confidence in the triumph of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the eventual denominational repentance for which we plead. The only question is, when? Both Scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy writings foretell a glorious denominational repentance which will make possible the finishing of God’s work and the coming of the Lord. That which was previously unconscious in history becomes open to perception and understanding. “I will pour upon the house of David [the leadership] and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem [the church] the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced. … In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.” Zechariah 12:10; 13:1. Ellen G. White’s allusions to this marvelous experience as yet future are numerous. Adventists should know of “the great reformatory movement among God’s people” witnessed “in visions of the night” (9T 126) and the “What Might Have Been” chapter of 8T 104-106, and the thrilling meeting seen in vision described in the Review and Herald of February 4, 1902. These things will come! The question is—when?
6. We confess our hearty appreciation of the glorious truths of the 1888 message itself as found in original out-of-print sources that we have had the privilege to see first-hand. As far back as 1938 we chanced on a copy of E. J. Waggoner’s book on Galatians, The Glad Tidings (Oakland: Pacific Press, 1900. See Movement of Destiny, pages 189, 200, 201.) Never before had we read anything quite so simple, clear and beautiful in explaining Paul’s idea of the gospel. And yet we had not an inkling of who the mysterious, and to us, unknown author might be, nor had we even heard of “1888” or the beginning of the Latter Rain at that time. But we felt about Waggoner’s book quite as John Wesley felt when he first heard Luther on Galatians: “I did feel my heart strangely warmed.” Ignorant that Ellen G. White had once said that “the Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people” through Elder E. J. Waggoner, we nevertheless recognized it immediately as indeed “most precious.” We copied as much of the rare book as we could on an old typewriter, thinking we might never again see one. We have “tasted” and seen that it is good! We are constrained to think that other sinners like ourselves will find a most precious message therein.
7. We confess ourselves to be the least and most unworthy of all the Lord’s servants. We have not an iota of superior wisdom or goodness. We have nothing and are nothing except by the grace of Christ. We have simply seen something that others have not seen. We are not necessarily guilty of the “sheer stubbornness” which Movement of Destiny charges upon us because we insist that we have seen what we have seen (page 686, No. 14). The most lowly person can see something! We would not be worthy of the eyes the Lord gave us unless we testified of what we have seen.
What we have seen is not by any special inspiration or revelation, but simply with our own eyes as we have read the 1888 message itself. It is strength for our souls. We believe it is of God. We believe its basic ideas were and will become again “the beginning of the Latter Rain and the Loud Cry.” We have seen what the servant of the Lord actually said about how it was received by a previous generation of Church leadership. Further, we have seen that what we are commonly presenting to the world today lacks that “most precious message,” and that because of our reading the Spirit of Prophecy with a “vail” upon our heart we have failed to discern this hidden lack. Our Laodicean pride has made us truly “blind” as our Lord has faithfully said. We have seen that His words are really true.
What can we do other than to tell what we have seen?
And then, having seen, point with joy to our Lord’s own inspired and wonderful solution, “Be zealous therefore, and repent”?
All this we confess!
Donald K. Short
Robert J. Wieland
October, 1972.