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Ellen White supported Waggoner and his
view as seen in this excerpt for Desire of Ages:
When the law was proclaimed from
Sinai, God made known to men the holiness of His character, that by
contrast they might see the sinfulness of their own. The law was given
to convince them of sin, and reveal their need of a Saviour. It would
do this as its principles were applied to the heart by the Holy
Spirit. This work it is still to do. In the life of Christ the
principles of the law are made plain; and as the light of Christ
reveals to men their need of His cleansing
blood and His justifying righteousness, the law is still an agent in
bringing us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith.82
Sister White connected the
"schoolmaster" law in Galatians with the covenant issue. But
this statement also reveals her belief that what happened at Sinai was a
Holy God offering spiritual life to a people, who, through receiving Him
as their Lord in their hearts, would become a peculiar treasure and a
kingdom of priests, a holy nation. The brethren opposing Waggoner did
not see this because they were caught up in defending the law, and
especially the Sabbath, from all attacks. The stand that they had taken
on the law in Galatians would constantly blind them to what Waggoner was
really saying. Thus Ellen, White's repeated rebukes to Smith and Butler
concerning their, "weighing every precious heaven-sent testimony by
your own scales as you interpret the law in Galatians"83;
repeating the "same piece that was manifested by the Jews"84,
of Christ's time; and, "cherishing a hobby as to usurp the place of
Christ"85,
reveal a problem of the heart of man in accepting God as Lord.
Waggoner's presentation was totally committed to remedying this problem.
Because of this basic difference, the two groups would never really
communicate on the same level throughout the whole discussion.
After setting the basis of the
covenants upon the response of the heart to the sovereignty of God,
Waggoner went on to show that the means by which Israel received pardon
and salvation was the same promised in the new covenant. His argument
went like this: 1)the difference between the old and new covenants was
the promises upon which they were founded: 2)the promises of the new
covenant were to cause the law to become a part of the people's minds so
that they would "delight in it and acknowledge its holiness",
that it would become the rule for all actions through love; 3) those
whose hearts had the law within would not sin, and would delight in
doing God's will: 4) the characteristics of those who had the law
written upon their hearts would be, according to Paul, exactly what God
offered the Israelites at Sinai, to be a peculiar people, zealous of
good works.86
In this manner, Waggoner connected the salvation of the Gospel in New
Testament times with that of the Old. In addition to this, he showed
that the covenant made with Abraham was nothing less than the new
covenant which was then the everlasting covenant.87
God had one single plan in mind for the restoration of man to God from
the beginning to the end. By defining salvation in terms of the
everlasting covenant, righteousness by faith became more that merely a
transaction or a contract; it included a heart response in which the
believer gave his affections as well as his mental consent to God. By
including both, man was able to receive the transformation needed to
redeem him from the bondage of sin.
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