Seventh-day Adventists worldwide have cherished a favorite conviction: that the second coming of Christ is near. But they also realize that two immense events must happen before He can return:
(1) The heavenly gift of the "latter rain" must be sent from God and then be accepted by the church in order to prepare a people for the next event:
(2) The "loud cry" of the final message must "lighten the earth with glory." On God's agenda, this alone can catalyze humanity into two groups—those who receive the final "seal of God" and those who receive "the mark of the beast."
Because the Father still loves the world for whom He gave His only begotten Son, a message of much more abounding grace must be the "voice from heaven" that the apostle John heard will sound everywhere.1 God knows it wouldn't be fair for Jesus to come before everyone could hear the message of grace clearly proclaimed. The confusion of Babylon must be resolved in people's minds. That final message must therefore be a clearer understanding of true righteousness by faith.
A growing number of Seventh-day Adventists worldwide are coming to see how both of these grand events coalesced in a little known event that happened over a century ago: God sent us what is known as "the 1888 message."Our fascination with it now spans three centuries of Seventh-day Adventist existence.
Why Does the Interest Persist?
A gravitational pull lures us to this momentous event, rivaling 1844 in our corporate memory. Even a Centennial Celebration in 1988 could not bury the controversies swirling around what happened (or what didn't happen).That strange date still magnetizes us even in this new century. A General Conference session with less than 100 delegates in a humble little wooden church—shouldn't the story be buried in our attic dust? Why can't we forget it?
Could it be that God Himself won't let us? An image of past history intrudes itself into current history. For example, at the 1893 General Conference Session, the tension of "Minneapolis" excitement permeated the Daily Bulletins. It also formed the backdrop of the great 1901 Session, impressing speakers and delegates alike. Until her death in 1915, Ellen White kept pleading for the recovery of the spiritual experience that she often said eluded us in 1888 and afterwards.
After her death, throughout the 1920s "1888" surfaced repeatedly in our denominational consciousness, dominating Review articles, Weeks of Prayer, and sermons at Conference ministers' meetings. Testimonials and reminiscences of the few who had attended the 1888 session were collected. No other event in our church's history seems to have motivated such a search for rare eyewitness accounts.
The 1950s saw a crescendo of concern. The unprecedented 1952 Bible Conference claimed the 1888 message as the supreme topic of "practically every speaker from the first day onward,... spontaneous." The General Conference president even said that the message had been preached more powerfully than it was in 1888.2
Now in our day the keen interest continues. Our denominational publishing houses still pursue it, producing tome after tome trying to satisfy worldwide curiosity about a strange "most precious message" that has assumed a legendary mystique.
Is there a reason why that small gathering in Minneapolis in the fall of 1888 has held a spotlight focus on our denominational stage?
Does God Keep Bringing the Subject Up?
Something has invested "1888" with its compulsive interest. Even if sinful time were to go on for a thousand years (Heaven forbid!), God's Spirit would keep that memory alive for an important reason:"1888" was a divine confrontation with His people that can never be forgotten: it rivals Pentecost in significance.
This is because an eschatological crisis was looming beyond the humble event itself. We sense that the key to solving our denominational lukewarmness will be found only there. Even the seemingly never-ending controversies that swirl around the history presage an ultimate solution. Mystery cannot forever prevail.
Seventh-day Adventist historians have described the 1888 Conference as "epochal ... [standing] out like a mountain peak,""the most crucial of all our General Conferences,""a notable landmark in Seventh-day Adventist history... like crossing a continental divide into a new country,""a providence designed to initiate the beginning of a new era," "a new depiction of Christ delineated by dedicated new draftsmen. ""Minneapolis" and "1888""go together in Adventist history like husband and wife."3
A Second-Coming Experimental Test Case
The delegates at this leadership session came unexpectedly face to face with Jesus as our High Priest, and they were not prepared for the encounter. It was a fulfillment of an ancient prophecy, “The Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple,... [but] who can abide the day of His coming?"4
Of course, it was not a literal second coming; it was a divinely appointed test. Ellen White says that Christ revealed Himself in a message and in two specially "delegated messengers."5 He loves His people too much to appear in a literal second coming "in the glory of His power “before they are prepared, for they couldn't stand a personal confrontation; His brightness would "slay" them.6 They must experience a special heart preparation in order to endure His physical presence when He finally comes “in the clouds. "In mercy therefore He must first reveal Himself in a "special message" of righteousness. Their reaction to that message would determine what would happen if He were to appear in glory literally.
The History of the Jews Re-visited
In numerous clear-cut statements Ellen White discloses that a rare fulfillment of Bible prophecy occurred at that small gathering. For the most part, the delegates were unaware of it, as the people of Bethlehem were unaware of what happened in the stable the night Christ was born.
According to her prophetic insight, Heaven came near to impart a blessing unprecedented since Pentecost. It was the "beginning" ofthe loud cry of Revelation 18, and it had to be also the beginning of the latter rain.7
The initial early rain of the Holy Spirit launched the world gospel evangel. According to Ellen White, "1888" marked the "beginning" of the final outpouring of the same Holy Spirit—for the completion of that world mission.8 Thus Pentecost and "1888" are linked by a common divine purpose. The Lord intended the Minneapolis Conference to be the launching of the last phase of the world movement pictured in Revelation 18—to lighten the earth with the glory of the fourth angel's message of much more abounding grace.9
How could a stupendous event like that take place in such a humble gathering? Something as far-reaching as a complement to Pentecost deserves a more auspicious debut! Why didn't the Holy Spirit wait until we could meet in one of our glittering sessions on a spotlighted stage in a vast arena seating 100,000 people? A splendid modern General Conference session convening in one of the world's great cities would give the loud cry message a proper sendoff.
Why the Humble Circumstance of That Event?
One reason is the personality of the Lord Jesus. He apparently didn't want to wait; should He not be eager to return to claim His bride? He sensed that the time for “the marriage of the Lamb has come" (Revelation 19:7). His love was real. He had promised concerning those who saw the first signs of the "time of the end" that "this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."The time had come for the finishing of the work of God, and Jesus, still human as well as divine, was eager for it. It was to be the holy trysting place, the betrothal dramatized in the Song of Solomon. The message which He "sent" was to do its work and prepare that generation to meet Him at His literal second coming. The message itself was to be the means of "the Bride [making] herself ready."
The Convergence of a Unique National Event
Even American national history demonstrated how a ferment of the human spirit demanded that Heaven's final message of grace be sounded quickly. Roman Catholicism and Protestantism in general were being alerted to hear the message, some to accept joyfully, others to oppose conclusively. The American Congress has never yet come so close to passing a national Sunday law as during the era of Senator H. W. Blair and his proposed religious legislation.10 The climax that all Christians wait for was nearer then than many think it is now. Other nations would have been ready to follow the American lead in fulfillment of the Revelation 13:11 -16 prophecy of religious persecution. The dragon was ready to roar.
The two young messengers who brought the message to the Minneapolis Conference were instrumental in opposing intolerant legislation that almost passed the American Congress. Clergymen were thirsting to violate the principle of the First Constitutional Amendment by demanding that Congress pass national religious legislation in a Sunday law.
Americans are indebted to those two obscure messengers for this continuing century and more of religious liberty. If people only knew, they would erect a statute to them on the Mall. A national Sunday law in violation of the American Constitution would have opened floodgates of intolerance and consequent failure of the American dream of liberty and prosperity. A national crisis was looming.
But there was more involved than religious politics. No one can read our history and doubt that God has entrusted to this people His last message of grace for the world. It was ordained to supply a final cure for the problem of deep-rooted sin, producing a beautiful change in believing humanity, evidence that the sacrifice of Christ was not in vain. He defeated Satan at the cross, but now He must be glorified in His people. Satan's accusations must be forever silenced.
The "most precious message" the Lord sent us was more than a thunder-and-lightning denunciation of sin abounding; it was a heart-warming revelation of grace much more abounding, a final reconciliation of alienated human hearts to God and to His holy law. It would capture the full devotion of every honest heart worldwide. The righteousness Christ accomplished in Himself would be displayed again in a generation of people who would "follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth."11
How the Message can be Misunderstood Today
The problem is that the popular Sunday-keeping churches also have their version of "righteousness by faith" which since then has infiltrated Seventh-day Adventist thinking. In our human minds without our realizing what has happened, it can replace the essential elements of the unique "most precious message" heaven "sent" to us.
The message that God "sent" was healing balm for the sickness of soul that the old covenant produces. Throughout our decades we have been obsessed with the deeply rooted old covenant idea that "we-must-do-this,""we-must-do-that,""we-must-be-more-faithful," "we-must-get-the-victory," "we-must-study-more," "we-must-pray-more," "we-must-witness more," "musts" almost ad infinitum. As it was millennia ago, many ask with the Jews, “What shall we do that we might work the works of God?" There can be a real but latent fear of something too good to be true—salvation by grace alone; our program of doing "obedience" might appear to suffer.
A fear of being lost is the bottom line because faith is not understood as a heart-appreciation of the heavenly love that casts out fear.12 Hungry souls and discouraged hearts are the fruit of an old covenant mindset.
The Result?
A thermostatic spiritual "balance" that is called "lukewarmness." A widespread spiritual illness testifies to a confusion about the message of Christ's righteousness. Enthusiastic new converts come in and after a few years for the most part imbibe the same spiritual illness, like an infusion of good blood soon becomes infected also. Even intense activity in "missionary work" is not the cure-all.
The reason Ellen White was overjoyed with the 1888 message was because it revealed a salvation by grace alone that is received through a faith which works. It was not legalism, but it produced real obedience to the law of God. She saw how proclaiming this unique justification by faith would lead people to accept the full message, including that of the Sabbath. For the first time here was a message that transcended fear and truly cast it out. And it would have finished the gospel commission because it broke through the fog, replacing legalistic imperatives with gospel enablings. Spiritual power was implicit within the message itself; but like electricity from the power plant it awaited a switch-on in order to complete the circuit.
The Lord meant that the message should go triumphantly to the world through a revelation of His grace in the "third angel's message in verity," which Ellen White said was the unique 1888 idea of justification by faith. Because of our humble numbers and lowly world image, the glory would all go to God. A message, not denominational pride, would be honored.
It would lighten the earth before the horrors of World Wars I and II, before walls should isolate billions from hearing it, and before the tragic disintegration of the social fabric that has corrupted the world in the last century. Through drug abuse, debauchery and disease, millions now seem beyond the capacity even to hear or understand the last-days "everlasting gospel." And millions more are now either ill with HIV, have died of AIDS while still young, or are locked in emotional terror of it.
Why the Message Was Such a Surprise When It Came
Another reason for the suddenness of the 1888 encounter is that God's way of doing things always catches us unexpectedly. He seems to have an out-sized sense of humor. Think of letting His Messiah be born at Bethlehem in a stinking stable with cows and goats instead of in Caesar's or at least the high priest's palace. No one would offer Him a room. Seldom if ever has any fresh intervention from heaven been recognized and acclaimed when first disclosed. God’s messengers have repeatedly been forced to "prophesy in sackcloth."
Our 1888 history is the same general story, with a significant innovation. What makes it different is this: for the first time Seventh-day Adventist ministers and leaders joined the innkeeper at Bethlehem in saying to Jesus, “No room here!"
According to the little lady who discerned motivations that others did not readily perceive, our delegates did even worse. In scorning God's "special messengers" whom He sent, Ellen White says over a hundred times that they rivaled the Jewish rulers in shamefully treating Christ.13 Unbelievable as it may appear, she adds that the bulk of them actually "insulted the Holy Spirit."14
And whereas the apostles eagerly accepted and welcomed the initial early rain outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, most of 'us' (in a corporate sense) felt compelled to resist the beginning of the final latter rain outpouring of the same Holy Spirit.15 It's a painful story to tell; and that of the Jews’ rejection of Christ is also painful to tell. But truth cannot be evaded, for the gospel is involved in history.
Heaven Was Astonished
What happened surprised the angels, while at the same time “the disappointment" of the Lord Jesus "was beyond description."16 (In chapters to follow, we shall let Ellen White have her documented say.) The 1888 Conference and its aftermath for about a decade stands out in heroic proportions because of two complementary, contrasting dimensions in the event: unprecedented blessings in the message itself, inspired by the Holy Spirit; and unprecedented opposition against it inspired by His opponent:
(1)The message of grace was unique in its pristine New Testament purity, a recovery of truth unprecedented since apostolic times, a message intended to carry the sixteenth-century Reformation to greater heights than Luther or even the Wesleys could anticipate. (The support for this is the simple fact that the message was the “beginning" of the final loud cry of Revelation 18 which is not noise but light.)17
(2) The reaction of our brethren to the message was likewise unique in the nature of its opposition. Never before had Seventh-day Adventist ministers and leaders formed a phalanx of resistance to Ellen White. She said at the time, "We have had the hardest and most incomprehensible tug of war we have ever had among our people.... My testimony has made the least impression upon many minds than at any period before in my history."18 "I was never more alarmed than at the present time."19
It's true that as long as sin and Satan exist there is bound to be conflict between darkness and light, falsehood and truth. And yes, since its inception in the early nineteenth century, the Advent movement has realized that "the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."20 Our pioneers had to meet that opposition from sources both outside and inside the church. So what's new?
Something significant: the dragon's opposition took a new turn. Now his voice found echoes inside the leadership of the remnant church, who sincerely, honestly did not discern what was going on.
Why the "1888" Story is Arresting and Sobering
Like ancient Bethlehem that was "little among the thousands of Judah, “the Seventh-day Adventist Church was "little" among the many millions of Christian people in hundreds of denominations in the world. In only one way can we understand why God should honor a humble gathering of our delegates with "the beginning" of the long-awaited latter rain, the final "Pentecost." It was not because this church is any more worthy than others, but it is the story of Israel repeated. The Lord was true to His ancient people, not because they were more deserving than other nations, but because of His honor in the divine election of Abraham's descendants. Many were shamefully unworthy, but God's loyalty endured. Heaven is involved in a similar crisis of identity with Seventh-day Adventist history.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church was raised up as a fulfillment of prophecy and thus has a special divine mandate. But because of that singular honor, God had the right to confront her with a solemn call to discharge her responsibility, and to confer on her the means of grace to succeed. Therein appears the double significance of "1888."
Has Heaven Backed Off From the Issues
The story is closely interwoven with Christ's last message to "the angel of the church of the Laodiceans. "In that light it makes sense.21 With deep reverence we can wonder if by now Christ may be tempted to impatience. Surely, we are told, the angels are impatient.
He shares all the pain of earth's suffering millions, for “in all their affliction He [is] afflicted."22 He cannot abandon a world that has never heard “the third angel's message in verity," its special validation of grace much more abounding. There are too many suffering and yearning humans crying in anguish, "Please, Heaven, hear us." They need a message, and it was entrusted to us. How can we balance God's love for a world with His indulgence of our spiritual lethargy?
Our radio, TV, and satellite evangelism has never been more widespread than today. Multitudes are flowing into the church.
But has that special message become passé that Jesus sends to the last of the seven churches?
Here joins the issue.
Notes:
- Revelation 18:1-4.
- William H. Branson, in Our Firm Foundation, Vol. 2, p. 616 (the General Conference president). Analysis of the printed messages in the two-volume set reveals that the essentially unique 1888 concepts seldom got through. Acceptance of the 1952 message was virtually total; if it was indeed a revival of the latter rain and the loud cry (as he claimed), would not the gospel commission have been completed in that generation? There was no opposition. The only answer is that which motif analysis demonstrates: there was not a revival of the 1888 message content.
- Cf. L. E. Froom, Movement of Destiny, p. 187; A. W. Spalding, Captains of the Host, pp. 583,602; L. H. Christian, The Fruitage of Spiritual Gifts, pp. 244,245; A. G. Daniells, Christ Our Righteousness, p. 56; Mervyn Maxwell, Tell It to the World, p. 232.
- Malachi 3:1.
- Testimonies to Ministers, p. 97.
- 2 Thessalonians 1:8,9.
- The angel informed Ellen White that the latter rain prepares the church to proclaim the loud cry message and must therefore precede it (Early Writings, p. 271). She also identified the 1888 message as initial "showers from heaven of the latter tarn" (Special Testimonies, Series A, No. 6, p. 19).
- Cf. Review and Herald, March 22, November 22, 29, 1892; General Conference Bulletin,)893, pp. 38,39,243,377,463.
- Letter B2a, 1892; Selected Messages, Book 1, pp. 234,235.
- Cf. Seventh-dayAdventist Encyclopedia, p. 1273.
- Cf. Romans 8:4; Revelation 19:8. In both texts "righteousness" is the Greek dikaiomata. Always, dikaiosune is Christ's righteousness; dikaiomata is translated “the righteousness of saints." It is Christ's dikaiosune "fulfilled" in them.
- Cf. 1 John 4:17-19.
- Cf. MSS 9,15,1888; Through Crisis to Victory, pp. 292,297,300; MS 13,1889; Review and Herald, March 4,11, August 26,1890; April 11,18,1893; Testimonies to Ministers, pp. 64,75-80.
- Cf. MS 9,1888; Olson op.cit, pp. 290,291 ;MS 30,1889; Letter S24,1892; Testimonies to Ministers, p. 393.