|
Again, Ellen White confirms this as the
message she heard and was so excited about. She wrote a special
testimony in 1896 to some at Battle Creek concerning her convictions in
regards to Waggoner's message. The reader is encouraged to carefully
examine the whole testimony found in Testimonies to Ministers and
Gospel Workers.
This is the testimony that must go
throughout the length and breadth of the world. It presents the law
and the gospel, binding up the two in a perfect whole, (see Romans 5
and 1 John 3:9 to the close of the chapter.) These precious scriptures
will be impressed upon every heart that is opened to receive them
"As many as receive Him, to them gave He to become the son of
God, even to them that believe on His name." These have not a
mere nominal faith, a theory of truth, a legal religion, but they
believe to a purpose, appropriating to themselves the richest gifts of
God
This is the very work which the Lord designs that the message
He has given His servants shall perform in the heart and mind of every
human agent. It is perpetual life of the church to love God supremely
and to love others as they love themselves. There was but little love
for God or man, and god gave to His messengers just what the people
needed.88
As for the interpretation of the new
covenant being present in the Old Testament, she was clear that the
Abrahamic covenant contained all there was needed for salvation. Nothing
more was to be added. Notice what she said in 1890 concerning the
entering of the "old covenant."
But if the Abrahamic covenant
contained the promise of redemption, why was another covenant formed
at Sinai?In their bondage the people had to a great extent lost the
knowledge of God and of the principles of the Abrahamic covenant. In
delivering them from Egypt, God sought to reveal to them his power and
his mercy, that they might be led to love and trust him.
But there was a still greater truth
to be impressed upon their minds. Living in the midst of idolatry and
corruption, they had no true conception of the holiness of God, of the
exceeding sinfulness of their own hearts, their inability, in
themselves, to render obedience to God's law, Saviour. All this they
must be and they must be taught.89
This was the core of Waggoner's
presentation on the subject of the covenants. It dealt with the proper
nature of God's covenant, stating that it was not a legal transaction as
humans perceive it; it was a relationship in which God promised and man
responded with heart and mind in believing that God would accomplish
what He had promised in His own strength and His own way. Waggoner also
showed that the same gospel was present in both the Old and the New
Testament times. This salvation of meant that the methods, means, and
goals of the men have been consistent from the original promise of
redemption God gave Adam and Eve after the Fall.
|
