Chapter One

1888: WHEN HEAVEN CAUGHT US UNPREPARED

1888! What mysterious attraction draws our eyes to this century-old date? Why can’t we shake it off and forget it? Why does it rival 1844 in our consciousness?

Why celebrate the centennial of a tiny General Conference session where there were less than 90 delegates? Why does 1888 lure Seventh-day Adventists decade after decade to ponder anew its significance? No other General Conference session in our history has elicited such attention.

For a hundred years that gathering in the unpretentious Minneapolis church in the fall of 1888 has been the spotlight focus of denominational interest. At the 1893 General Conference session it loomed over all other issues as the supreme topic of discussion. The tension of “Minneapolis” excitement pervaded the conference.

It also formed the backdrop of the great 1901 session, again magnetizing the interest of speakers and delegates. Until her death in 1915, Ellen White kept pleading for the recovery of the spiritual experience that she often said eluded us in 1888.

Throughout the 1920s it surfaced repeatedly in our church consciousness, dominating Review and Herald articles, weeks of prayer, and sermons at ministers’ meetings. Testimonials and reminiscences of then-aging veterans of the 1888 session were collected. No other event in our church’s history merits such a search for precious eyewitness accounts.

In the 1950s came a crescendo of concern. The unprecedented 1952 Bible Conference held in the Sligo church claimed the 1888 message as the supreme topic of “practically every speaker from the first day onward, … spontaneous.”¹

Since then our denominational publishing houses have produced book after book about 1888 totalling more than 4000 pages, published to satisfy the deep curiosity of Seventh-day Adventists worldwide about this strange conference.

Why does this story of 1888 surpass even 1844 in interest?

A Built-in Mystery

The answer to our questions is that the Lord Himself has invested 1888 with a compulsive, mysterious interest. Even if time were to last for a thousand years (which it won’t), His Spirit would keep that memory alive for an important reason: 1888 is the story of a divine confrontation with this people.

There was an awareness of an eschatalogical crisis looming beyond the shadows of that portentous event. We are attracted to it because we sense, perhaps subliminally, that the key to solving our denominational lukewarmness can be found there. Even the never-ending controversies that swirl around the 1888 history are fascinating.

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.”²

The delegates at this leadership session unexpectedly came face to face with Christ, 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.”³

Of course, it was not a literal second coming; it was a test appearance. He revealed Himself in a special message and in specially “delegated messengers.”⁴ He loves His people too much to appear in a literal second coming before they are prepared to welcome Him. They must experience a special heart preparation in order to endure His holy presence. In mercy He must first reveal Himself in a message of holiness. Their reaction to that message would determine what would be their reaction to Him personally if He were to return literally.

In numerous clear-cut statements Ellen G. White has disclosed that a rare fulfillment of Bible prophecy occurred at that unpretentious 1888 gathering. For the most part, the delegates were unaware of what was happening, as the people of Bethlehem were unaware of the event in the stable the night that Christ was born.

According to Ellen White’s prophetic insight, Heaven came near in 1888 to impart a blessing unprecedented since the grand event of Pentecost. The story of 1888 is the “beginning” of the latter rain.

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.⁵ Thus Pentecost and 1888 are linked by a common divine purpose. The Lord intended the Minneapolis conference to be the launching pad for the last phase of that world evangel pictured in Revelation 18—lighting the earth with the glory of the fourth angel’s message.⁶

How could such a stupendous event take place in a humble gathering of less than 100 delegate-ministers? Surely something as far-reaching as a complement to Pentecost deserves a more auspicious debut! Why didn’t the Lord wait until we had one of our glittering panoramas on spot-lighted stages in some vast arena seating 100,000 people? A splendid modern General Conference session that convenes in one of the world’s greatest cities would give the loud cry message a great send-off.

Why the Humble Circumstances of 1888?

One reason is that Heaven couldn’t wait. The Lord Jesus was eager to return to claim His bride. His love was real. He had promised concerning those who saw the first signs of the last-day times that “this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled” (Matthew 24:34). The time had come for the glorious finishing of the work of God, and He was eager for it.

Even events in the world demonstrated how a ferment of the human spirit demanded that Heaven’s final message of grace be sounded quickly. The American Congress has never come so close to passing a national Sunday law as during the 1888 era of Senator Blair and his proposed religious legislation.⁷ The end was nearer in 1888 than many think it is now. The two young messengers who brought the message to the Minneapolis conference, A.T. Jones and E.J. Waggoner, were also instrumental in opposing intolerant religious legislation that almost passed the American Congress and Senate. Clergymen were thirsting to control the government of this republic and violate the principles of our First Amendment by demanding that Congress pass a national Sunday law.

Congress has never been more ready to do so than it was then. Americans are indebted to those obscure, humble 1888 messengers for this continuing century of religious liberty, because a national Sunday law in violation of the American Constitution would have opened the floodgates for persecution and consequent failure of the American dream of liberty and prosperity.

God has entrusted to Seventh-day Adventists His last message of more abounding grace for the world. This message must supply a final cure for the problem of deep-rooted sin. It must produce a beautiful change in believing humanity, and thus give evidence that the sacrifice of Christ was not in vain. The “most precious message” the Lord sent us a century ago was not a thunder-and-light-ning denunciation of sin abounding; it was a heart-warming message of much more abounding grace.

How the Message Is Easily Misunderstood Today

It is easy to think that we understand the message when in reality we are mired in a do-it-yourself works program that is essentially legalism while it professes to be righteousness by faith. We can be obsessed with the 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,” ad infinitum.

As it was a century ago, many join the Jews who asked, “What shall we do that we might work the works of God?” They don’t listen to that divine answer, “This is the work of God, that ye believe ….” There is a latent fear of salvation by faith lest our program of works suffer. 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.⁸

But a distorted righteousness by faith can produce only luke-warmness, and widespread lukewarmness testifies to that prevailing distortion.

The reason Ellen White was overjoyed with the 1888 message is because it revealed a faith which works. For the first time in many centuries here was a message that transcended fear and truly cast it out. And it would have finished the gospel commission because it replaced legalistic imperatives with gospel enablings.

The Lord meant that the last message should go triumphantly to the world through a revelation of His grace in the “third angel’s message in verity,” righteousness by faith. This was to lighten the earth with glory before the horrors of World Wars I and II, before walls and iron curtains should isolate billions from hearing it, and before the tragic disintegration of the social fabric that has so corrupted the western 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.”

Another reason for the suddenness of the 1888 encounter is that God’s way of doing things always catches us by surprise. He has an out-sized sense of humor. Think of His Messiah being born at Bethlehem in a stinking stable with cows, chickens, and goats, instead of in Caesar’s or at least the high priest’s palace. No one wanted to offer Him a room. Seldom if ever has any other 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 profoundly different is that this time many Seventh-day Adventist ministers and leaders joined the householders and innkeeper at Bethlehem in saying to Jesus, “No room here!”

According to the little lady who discerned motivations that others could not readily perceive, the astounding truth is that our brethren did worse than that. In scorning His special messengers whom He sent in 1888, Ellen White says they rivaled the Jewish rulers who shamefully treated Christ.⁹ Unbelievable as it may appear, she adds that the bulk of the delegates actually insulted the Holy Spirit.¹⁰

Whereas the twelve apostles eagerly accepted and welcomed the initial early rain outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, most of our own dear brethren were not happy to welcome the beginning of the final latter rain outpouring of the same Spirit.

Heaven Was Astonished

This surprised the angels and disappointed the Lord Jesus. In chapters to follow, we shall let Ellen White have her say, with documentation. The 1888 conference stands out in heroic proportions because of two complementary but contrasting phenomena:

1. The message of grace presented there was unique in its pristine New Testament purity, a recovery of truth unprecedented since apostolic times, a message that carried the sixteenth-century Reformation to greater heights than Luther or even the Wesleys could anticipate.
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 truth. Ellen White 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.”¹¹ “I was never more alarmed than at the present time.”¹²

Some say this is of little importance because as long as sin and Satan exist there is bound to be conflict between darkness and light, falsehood and truth. It is true that since its inception in the early nineteenth century, the Advent movement has realized the fulfillment of the prophecy in Revelation, “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.”¹³ Our pioneers had to meet that opposition from sources both outside and inside the church. So what’s new?

Something very significant: the dragon’s opposition took a new turn at the Minneapolis conference, for ministers and leaders for the first time took a stand on the wrong side.

This is why the 1888 story is arresting and sobering. Like ancient Bethlehem that was “little among the thousands of Judah,” the Seventh-day Adventist Church is a little family among the many millions of Christian church members in hundreds of denominations in the world. There is only one way to understand why the Lord should honor a humble gathering of Seventh-day Adventist leaders with the beginning of the long-awaited latter rain, the final “Pentecost.” It is not because this church is any more worthy than others. It is the story of ancient Israel. The Lord was true to them, not because they were more deserving than other nations, but because of His honor in the divine election of Abraham’s descendants. Heaven is involved in a similar crisis today.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church was raised up as a fulfillment of prophecy and thus has been given a special divine mandate. But because of that singular honor the Lord has the right both to confront this church with a solemn call to discharge her responsibility and to confer on her the means of grace to enable her to succeed in her vast world task. Here we see the fundamental significance of what He did in 1888.

This divine confrontation has been an on-going crisis now for a hundred years. The 1888 story is closely interwoven with Christ’s last message to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, and validates its present significance. With deep reverence we can wonder if by now Christ must be tempted to impatience. Surely the angels are waiting impatiently. And the Lord’s love for a perishing world must be stronger than His indulgence of our spiritual lethargy.

Can we be sure that Heaven is content to let “business as usual” continue much longer?

Read chapter 2 — The Search for Meaning Within Adventism

NOTES:

1. William H. Branson, in Our Firm Foundation, Vol. 2, p. 616.
2. 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; Arthur G. Daniells, Christ
   Our Righteousness, p. 56; Mervyn Maxwell, Tell It to the World, p. 232.
3. Malachi 3:1.
4. Testimonies to Ministers, p. 97.
5. Cf. Review and Herald, March 22, November 22, 29, 1892; General Conference Bulletin, 1893, pp. 38, 39, 243, 377, 463.
6. Letter B2a, 1892; Selected Messages, Book 1, p. 234, 235.
7. Cf. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, p. 1273.
8. Cf. l John 4:17-19.
9. 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.
10. Cf. MS 9,1888; Olson op. cit., pp. 290, 291; MS 30,1889; Letter S24,1892; Testimonies to Ministers, p. 393.
11. Letter 82, 1888; Selected Messages, Book 3, p. 178.
12. MS 9,1888.
13. Revelation 12:17.

Read chapter 2 — The Search for Meaning Within Adventism

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