“LIGHTENED WITH HIS GLORY”

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT THE 1888 MESSAGE

Robert J. Wieland

Chapter 1

Questions About the 1888 Message

Why is the gospel so important?

A true understanding of the gospel is precisely what this sin-cursed world desperately needs to know. After Christianity has professed to proclaim the gospel for two thousand years, the agony and evil in the world appear to be getting worse. Millions who want to believe in God feel forced to doubt that He exists or that He cares. Could it be that the pure gospel has not yet been proclaimed as it should be?

Surprising as it may be, there is more than one gospel: (a) the pure truth that Paul and the apostles preached which he calls “the grace of Christ,” and (b) there is a counterfeit gospel which he says is “another gospel: which is not another,” but a perversion of “the gospel of Christ.” According to Paul’s strong words, “any other gospel” than the true one Christ gave ends up being a “curse” (Galatians 1:6-9).

The reason why the enemy of Christ specializes in perverting the gospel is because he knows that the true one is “the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16), just as good food is healthful nourishment to one’s body. But a little arsenic mixed in one’s diet is lethal. In the final judgment all will see that the world’s continual agony has been the direct result of a perversion of the gospel which “Babylon” has foisted on mankind (Revelation 18:24).

Do Seventh-day Adventists have something special to do in recovering that pure gospel?

Many of us have rather assumed that the popular Evangelical churches proclaim the gospel to the world, and our special task is to proclaim the law. The idea has been that if we add to their “gospel” our unique understanding of the ten commandments along with the sabbath, then we come up with the “third angel’s message.” In other words, Seventh-day Adventists are just one church among many with no distinct message other than a special list of things people must learn to do if they wish to be saved.

The truth is that the Lord has given us a special message of Good News people must learn to believe . The Lord never called Seventh-day Adventists to preach legalism to the world. Our special commission is to recover and proclaim the precise Good News that is already “the salvation of God” and which prepares a people for the second coming of Christ. In fact, the message of the three angels of Revelation 14:6-12 is in a unique sense “the everlasting gospel” for the last days. It must be the best Good News the world has ever heard.

How does the 1888 message fit in with our special task?

“The Lord in His great mercy sent” it as “the beginning” of the loud cry message of Revelation 18:1-4 (Testimonies to Ministers, pp. 91-93; Review and Herald, November 22, 1892). Ellen White often recognized this as its true identity (cf. Letter B2A, 1892; MS. 15, 1888, etc). Never did she say that it was a mere re-emphasis of what the pioneers had always believed, or of what the Protestant Evangelical churches teach.

She also identified the 1888 message as “showers of the latter rain from heaven” (Special Testimonies, Series A, No. 6, p. 19). She had already stated that the latter rain would come either as a preparation for the loud cry or simultaneously with it (Early Writings, p. 271; MS 15, 1888). Never did she identify any other message at any other time as the latter rain. She could not have said that the loud cry began with the 1888 message unless the latter rain had come at the same time.

The latter rain and the loud cry are to the church today what the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem was to the Jews. For many decades we have been praying for the Lord to give us this gift of the latter rain, as the Jews prayed for their Messiah to come. They were to find the fulfilment of their destiny in Him. But they did not receive Him (John 1:11). Likewise this church is to find the fulfillment of its destiny in the latter rain and the loud cry that began more than a century ago.

What is meant by “loud cry” and “latter rain”?

The three angels of Revelation 14:6-12 proclaim a worldwide message, but the original Greek gives the picture of their flying “in the midst of heaven” like a helicopter flying over the tree-tops. The past 150 years of history indicate to a candid observer that their message has so far attained only a limited penetration of the world.

But the fourth angel of Revelation 18 comes down “having great power, and the earth [is] lightened with his glory.” This angel comes like a great space ship with light that envelopes the whole world. He cries “mightily with a strong voice.” Here at last is total, final penetration with the message.

Because God is love and must be fair to everyone, His Good News message must go everywhere before Christ can return. An inspired messenger tells us that the mark of the beast “is to be presented in some shape to every institution and every individual” (Selected Messages, Book 3, p. 396). To be fair, God must see to it that the warning message has equal penetration.

The “latter rain” is the final outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It will empower God’s people to be His witnesses in the last conflict of the ages. Although the “former rain” at Pentecost was glorious, we are told that the final outpouring will be far greater in scope.

What is the most important subject of the 1888 message?

It is primarily a “revelation of the righteousness of Christ, the sin-pardoning Redeemer” (Review and Herald, November 22, 1892). It proclaims “justification through faith in the Surety, … the righteousness of Christ” (Testimonies to Ministers, pp. 91, 92).

In reading through the hundreds of Ellen White’s endorsements of the message from 1888 through 1896 (see APPENDIX), one is impressed with her overwhelming conviction that it was “the beginning” of a final revelation of the gospel of righteousness by faith. It was to be more clear and powerful than our people (or the world) had heard, at least since the days of Paul.

One statement goes so far as to say that it was the beginning of light not clearly seen since before Paul’s day, that is, since Pentecost (Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 473; cf. Review and Herald, June 3, 1890). In other words, even Paul could learn something from “the third angel’s message in verity.”

There were other ancillary aspects of the message, such as health reform, educational and organizational reform, etc. But what rejoiced Ellen White’s heart repeatedly was the much more abounding grace in its righteousness by faith. It’s easy to see that her hundreds of endorsements are overwhelmingly concerned with that aspect of the message.

I have heard it often said that the 1888 message was only “a re-emphasis” of the preaching of Martin Luther, John Calvin, the Wesleys, and the popular evangelists of the 19th century such as Dwight L. Moody and Charles Spurgeon. Is this true?

A study of the actual content of the 1888 message reveals very marked differences with that of the 16th century Protestant Reformers and the Evangelicals of the 19th century or even of today.

Ellen White recognized those differences. She said that the 1888 message of righteousness by faith is “the third angel’s message in verity” (Review and Herald, April 1, 1890). This is a problem to some of our people, for the general idea has been that there is only one kind of righteousness by faith, that which the Evangelicals teach.

But the problem can easily be solved by asking one simple question: did Luther, Calvin, the Wesleys, and the Sunday-keeping Evangelicals of her day proclaim “the third angel’s message”? If the answer is yes, we have no denominational foundation and there is no reason for this church to exist. Logically, the popular “re-emphasis” view says this, and has created the confusion which has caused many pastors and members to leave the church. If the Evangelicals preach the true gospel of righteousness by faith, why not join them?

So far as we know, Ellen White never took her pen to characterize the 1888 message as a “re-emphasis” of the gospel others had taught. In fact, she said it was “the first clear teaching on this subject from any human lips” that she had ever heard proclaimed publicly (MS 5, 1889).

Doubtless there were some minor aspects of the message that others had always proclaimed; but she recognized a new and distinct perspective never before clearly seen. Like a picture more sharply focused, “great truths that [had] lain unheeded and unseen since the day of Pentecost [began] to shine from God’s word in their native purity” (Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 473). This is why she identified the message as “the beginning” of the latter rain and the loud cry, light which had never before lightened the earth with glory.

If we accept the righteousness-by-faith message of the popular Sunday-keeping churches of today (“Evangelical Christianity”) will that not suffice as a substitute for the 1888 message?

If the 1888 message “is the third angel’s message in verity,” it is obvious that Evangelical concepts cannot substitute for it, because the popular Sunday-keeping churches are not proclaiming the message of the seal of God and the mark of the beast. In fact, the genuine justification by faith message of 1888 “is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God” (Testimonies to Ministers, p. 92). That must include observance of the fourth commandment! Yet the Evangelical churches have generally opposed the Sabbath and sanctuary truths for the entire period of Seventh-day Adventist existence. Something somewhere does not add up.

There are fundamental truths of the atonement, the cross, the meaning of genuine love and faith, the motivation to obedience, that are either absent from Evangelical “righteousness by faith” or are seriously distorted there. The very finest Evangelical minds are not wrestling with the real problem of the atonement. Why have 2000 years of history elapsed since the grand event of the cross which they say was the final victory? Other than by Calvinist predeterminism, they are helpless to explain why this long delay continues.

Ancient Israel was constantly tempted and enticed by the counterfeit doctrines of her neighbors. Those pagan ideas were superficially similar. One such was Baal worship. If the Lord has entrusted the third angel’s message to Seventh-day Adventists, we must also face in principle the same temptation to be confused by a counterfeit. Somehow a clearer truth of the cross of Christ must emerge than has been presented by the Sunday-keeping churches.

For many decades we have heard righteousness by faith preached in our churches, camp meetings, and workers’ meetings. How does the 1888 message differ from what we have already heard all these many years?

There are many fresh, beautiful truths in it that are not usually understood today. For example:

1. The revelation of the nearness of the Saviour. This is what Ellen White termed “the message of Christ’s righteousness.” Righteousness means something different than “holiness.” At His birth, He was “that holy thing” (Luke 1:35). But as He grew to manhood and finally came to His cross, Christ developed a character of “righteousness.” Holiness denotes the character of one who in a sinless nature is holy. Thus we read of the “holy angels.” Never do we read of “righteous angels.”

Righteousness denotes the character of one who has taken a sinful human nature but has resisted and conquered sin. Thus the phrase “Christ our righteousness” means that Christ “overcame” and “condemned sin” in the same fallen, sinful nature that we have. He came so close to us 2000 years ago and ever since that He has “condemned sin in the flesh” (cf. Revelation 3:21; Romans 8:3). Since the Father and the Son are one and the Father was in Christ during His incarnation experience, the Father is also spoken of as “righteous.”

Christ has made sin to become passé. There is no excuse for it any longer. He truly became one of us, 100% God, yet also 100% human. He “took upon His sinless nature our sinful nature” (Medical Ministry, p. 181), so He can save every one of us from our sins, not in them. He knows how we are tempted, for He was “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

This Good News grips human hearts. In it lies the truth that explains the reason for the 2000-year delay in the return of Christ that the popular churches do not comprehend.

2. Christ’s closing sanctuary ministry of the final atonement. Here is where the nature-of-Christ truth shines brightest and transcends sterile theological argument. The Book of Revelation shows us a people who at last are the “firstfruits” of Christ’s sacrifice and who stand before His throne “without fault” (ch. 14:5-12). The key to their victory lies in their overcoming even as He overcame (ch. 3:21).

Here the truth of the nature of Christ comes into its own. The High Priest’s ministry in the Most Holy Apartment since 1844 is a grand truth yet to lighten the earth and bring into sharp focus the closing issues of the great controversy (Evangelism, pp. 221, 222). Our Seventh-day Adventist identity rests on that sanctuary-truth foundation, yet it is common knowledge that it is all but lost in our contemporary preaching. And our Evangelical brethren teach no concept of that Day of Atonement ministry.

3. The 1888 message joins justification by faith to that special closing work of atonement. This is why Ellen White saw it to be distinctly and uniquely “the third angel’s message in verity.” She rejoiced to recognize the long-awaited connection.

In the early months of 1890 she wrote a series of articles in the Review that demonstrated how this message is the essence of the cleansing of the sanctuary truth (January 21 through June 3).

4. The message is not a stern “get-ready-or-else” demand, but glorious Good News of how to get ready. It transforms Adventist imperatives into gospel enablings. It reveals the Saviour as a Divine Physician of souls, a “nigh-at-hand” Healer of every wound that sin has caused in the human psyche. He is the grand, effective Original of every stop-gap, 12-point program devised by experts to meet the desperate need of addicts of every kind from alcoholics to shopaholics. It is also the only hope for saints addicted to worldly lukewarmness.

It was Heaven’s intention that addicts of every kind “shall [find] deliverance … in the remnant” rather than in worldly programs (cf. Joel 2:32). Seventh-day Adventists were called to be “foremost” in uplifting a real Saviour who was tempted in all points like as every addict on earth is tempted, yet without sin. Thus He can save to the uttermost.

5. Assurance of salvation comes with the 1888 truth of justification by faith. Calvinism says that Christ died only for the elect. While Arminianism protests that He died for “all men,” it also says that He merely made a “provision” whereby it might be possible for “all men” to be justified if they take the initiative in doing something right first. If the sinner does not take advantage of the offer, then the death of Christ on the cross has done and will do him no good. This is the general idea our people have had.

The 1888 messengers saw that the cross accomplished far more than making a mere provision which is dependent on the sinner’s initiative. Christ has done something for every human being! “All men” owe even this present life to the sacrifice of Christ. Human salvation depends on God’s initiative, and damnation depends on man’s initiative. When the sinner hears the Good News and believes, he responds to God’s initiative, and thus he experiences justification by faith.

Here is where the 1888 idea of justification by faith exposes subtle legalism. In pure New Testament justification by faith “boasting … is excluded” (Romans 3:27), but in the popular view the key factor is the sinner’s initiative. He can say, “I took advantage of the offer, I accepted the provision, I made the decision that brings me to heaven. Christ’s sacrifice did me no good until I did something about it.” Thus an egocentric mindset is locked in, and a subliminal legalism remains.

Something is tragically missing in this idea. Christ actually tasted the second death “for every man,” and made propitiation for the “sins of the whole world” (Hebrews 2:9; 1 John 2:2). The sins of “all men” were legally imputed unto Him as He died so that no one has as yet had to bear the true burden of his guilt (Romans 5:16-18; 2 Corinthians 5:19).

Therefore “all men” live because He died for them, whether or not they believe (vss. 14, 15). Not only at Easter when people eat hot cross buns, but every loaf of bread is “stamped” with the cross. This means that both saints and sinners are “daily” equally nourished by the sacrifice of Christ (The Desire of Ages, p. 660). He has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Timothy 1:10). For whom has He brought life? For “all men.” For whom has He also brought immortality? For those who believe.

Therefore, since “all men” live because their trespasses were imputed unto One who died in their place, it is correct to say that a legal justification has been effected for all men. (Some prefer the term “corporate justification” or “temporary universal justification.” The truth is the same.) As “all men” are under legal “condemnation” “in Adam” by birth, so Christ has become the “last Adam” in whom the entire human race are legally acquitted (1 Corinthians 15:22; Romans 5:16-18, N.E.B.). This is the “in Christ” idea of the New Testament.

This does not mean that “all men” will be saved against their will. The gift Christ has given “every man” can be despised and refused. He will not force anyone. But the 1888 messengers maintained that when the sinner hears and believes this Good News, his experience of justification by faith forthwith makes him “obedient to all the commandments of God,” including the Sabbath commandment. This is the only possible result of a sinner laying hold of Christ’s righteousness by an intelligent, informed faith. No wonder Ellen White rejoiced when she first heard the message.

Thus the 1888 message recognizes what truth there is in both Calvinism and Arminianism, but goes far beyond both. As Calvinism rightly discerns, the sinner’s salvation is due entirely to God’s initiative. As Arminianism rightly discerns, all men have an equal possibility of salvation. But as neither discerns, Christ has borne the sins of “all men,” and has died the second death for “every man.” He has taken the initiative to save “every man.” The only reason any sinner can be lost therefore is because he has taken the initiative to despise and reject the justification already given him and placed in his hands (see John 3:16-19; 12:48).

Thus the 1888 message sees sin in a far more serious light than most Adventists see it. It is not a passive do-nothingness. Sin is so terrible that it constantly resists and rejects the saving grace of God. The sinner doesn’t realize what he is doing, and must be told. Only in this light can repentance be seen and appreciated in its true dimensions.

6. The Holy Spirit is far more powerful than we have thought. When one understands and believes how good the Good News is, then he sees that it is easy to be saved and hard to be lost.

Salvation is not dependent on our seeking and finding God (the root element of every pagan religion in the world), but on our believing that He is seeking and has found us. The Holy Spirit is stronger than the flesh (Galatians 5:16, 17), and grace much more abounds than abounding sin (Romans 5:20).

7. In other words, the 1888 message lifts the love of God as Saviour far above the merely-provisional category. The 1888 message does not present Him as casually giving the sinner a take-it-or-leave-it offer, “Too bad for you if you don’t take advantage of the bargain.” Christ is seen as a Good Shepherd who is actively seeking His lost sheep “until he find it” (Luke 15:4). The sinner must hear the Good News.

God’s love is immeasurably clarified by the Biblical concepts in the 1888 message. The only possible result: a replacement of dead works by a heart-felt service of faith, a devotion that knows no limit. Lukewarmness becomes impossible to one who understands and believes that pure gospel.

8. The heart-changing power of the two-covenants truth. This unique 1888 concept is not understood well in the church today, nor in modern Evangelicalism. Ellen White “was shown” that the Lord gave the 1888 messengers the correct view (Letters 30, 59, 1890).

This again is not a theological puzzle. It is practical godliness. Paul says that a wrong idea of the covenants “gendereth to bondage” (Galatians 4:24). Not knowing what we are doing, we have taught children and youth the old covenant ideas for decades. It results in many losing their way spiritually. When the 1888 view of the two covenants is compared with the view generally taught among us today, it is no wonder that 70% of our youth don’t understand the gospel according to the Valuegenesis Survey, and that we lose so many of them.

Again, like an inadequate view of justification, the non-1888 view opens the door to a self-centered motivation—the essence of legalism. We are not saved by making promises to God, but by believing His promises to us. (A re-discovery of the 1888 idea of the two covenants was the spark that generated the present revival of interest in this message).

9. A correct motivation for serving Christ is another term for the dynamic of genuine justification by faith. The legal justification was achieved at the cross for “all men;” this is objective. The experience of justification by faith motivates the believer to complete devotion to Christ; this is subjective. All self-centered motivation involves legalism. To be “under grace” is to realize the higher motivation imposed by a heart appreciation of the grace of Christ. This delivers from the lesser motivations of fear of hell or hope of reward (cf. Romans 6:14, 15; The Desire of Ages, p. 480).

While the 1888 message is glorious Good News to those who appreciate the cross of Christ, it opens up the possibility of very Bad News for Adventists who are unconscious of their true spiritual condition. To be “under the law” is the opposite of being “under grace.” This is why legalism is the true essence of all motivation imposed by fear of being lost or desire for reward. But there is a remedy. “Perfect love (agape) casteth out fear” (1 John 4:18).

Our superficial “assurance-of-salvation” concern appears childish in comparison, but the 1888 concept of grace makes possible a deliverance from this deeper root of selfishness. It enables the believer to share a total closeness with Christ, to be “incorporate” with Him, the ego being “crucified with Him.” Paul frequently addresses the “believers incorporate in Christ Jesus.” He says that “we have become incorporate with him in a death like his” (Ephesians 1:1; Romans 6:5, NEB., etc.).

Anything short of this is an immature “righteousness by faith,” suitable only for the flower girl at the wedding. A true bride has a higher concern—the honor and vindication of her Bridegroom, for she has at last become “incorporate” in him.

10. Thus the 1888 idea of “perfection” is not a fear-oriented grasping for security, but a Christ-centered concern for Him to receive His reward. No longer is overcoming degraded to a topic for theological arguments, forcing Ellen White’s words into mind-twisting contradictions.

Granted, a true “under grace” motivation is impossible for any sinful human apart from the revelation of Christ’s sacrifice. But to “glory in the cross” is an experience that is possible for any sinner who will behold and believe. A people can be prepared for the coming of Christ!

Should we claim “verbal inspiration” for Jones and Waggoner?—or “fixate” on their words?

No, neither can a claim of “verbal inspiration” be made for the actual words of the Bible or of the Spirit of Prophecy writings. The value of a message is the light that is in it, the concepts that illuminate truths of the everlasting gospel that have been so lost sight of. No one claims any more for Jones and Waggoner than Ellen White herself claimed for them. She said that they were “the Lord’s delegated messengers” who had “heavenly credentials” (see APPENDIX).

The message of Jones and Waggoner as found in their available books and articles contains its own credentials. It appeals to people today because its basic concepts are so refreshingly different that they still come as “new light.” And they were only “the beginning” of the “loud cry” light that must eventually penetrate everywhere.

Although we need fresh servings of “the bread of life” for today, when Jesus fed the 5000 He told His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost” (John 6:12). If the Lord “sent” the 1888 message, we must gather up the “fragments” that His providence has left for us. Surely the time has come for God’s people around the world to think seriously. Is it not irreverent for us to demand of the Lord more light when we criticize and reject what He has already sent us?

The 1888 message spoke to a different culture than we face today. How can this century-old message help us meet the needs of secular-minded people who no longer believe in God or the Bible?

Modern man has encased himself spiritually in a subterranean bunker with secular walls 12 feet thick. But the Holy Spirit has one cruise missile that can penetrate those walls: the agape message of the cross of Christ.

This does not mean that other aspects of the Adventist message are no longer valid. It is still true that health reform is the “right arm of the message,” and helps to break down prejudice. Church fellowship helps to meet people’s social needs. Church-sponsored education provides (at least to some extent) a refuge for children and youth. Our 27 fundamental beliefs give cohesion to our religious philosophy. But persuading modem secular man to join our religious club is not lighting the earth with the glory of the gospel. The same ego-orientation can prevail within our “club” as without.

What is needed is Good News that will lighten a world dark with misapprehension of God, and reconcile alienated secular hearts to Him.

That message is an understanding of the love of God that transcends the concepts of modern Babylon. “The third angel’s message in verity” that came to us in 1888 is the “beginning” of that message. In essence it is a revelation of a love beyond usual understanding. Nothing less than the full disclosure of that love in its “breadth, and length, and depth, and height” can suffice. The “loud cry” will not be a terror’ inducing appeal to raw fear but a last-days “revelation of [God’s] character of love” (Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 415).

For example, if we make the reality of agape clear to an atheistic evolutionist, we can ask him where he thinks such a totally radical idea could have come from. He will have to answer—its only origin is a cross on a lonely hill at a place called Calvary.

“… the unparalleled love of Christ, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, will bring conviction and conversion to the hardened heart” (Christ Our Righteousness, p. 61). In a previously unknown statement Ellen White adds: “For years I have seen that there is a broken link which has kept us from reaching hearts, this link is supplied by presenting the love and mercy of God” (Remarks to Presidents, March 3, 1891; General Conference Archives).

No other people can lift up the cross as can Seventh-day Adventists if we will humble our hearts to receive the light that the Lord sent us. This is because no other people have an understanding both of the nature of man and of the nature of Christ as the Lord has wanted to give that understanding to us.

Secular people living in this last century of the Christian era need the same message that the Lord sent to the pagans during its first century—Christ and Him crucified. The apostles spoke the language of their day; we shall speak the language of our day. But that same proclamation of the cross still challenges the thinking of modern man, and penetrates the defenses in which he has encased his worldly heart.

“Historic Adventism” generates fear of the investigative judgment. Does me 1888 message provide a solution to this problem?

It is true that such fear has shadowed the church for decades. Roger L. Dudley documents among academy youth its recurring idea (Why Teenagers Reject Religion, Review and Herald, 1978, pp. 9-21). Marvin Moore in The Refiner’s Fire (Pacific Press, 1990) recognizes how general is the problem, and sincerely seeks a solution.

The apostle John declares that wherever we find fear, its presence betrays the absence of agape, for “perfect love [agape] casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). It would be impossible for such fear to grip our youth in the 1990’s if we had accepted “the most precious message” in the 1888 era and since. That special love, agape, is the basic idea of the message.

The solution to the problem of fear is revealing the true Christ who came in the “likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” The liberating truth is seen thus: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14, 15).

But how does this message deliver from fear?

All its aspects focused on the reality of what happened on the cross. That “revelation” was like the sun’s rays passing through a glass—it ignited fire that burns fear out of human hearts.

A distinct contribution of Adventism to the message of the cross is that Christ died the equivalent of the second death, the death in which He surrendered all hope of resurrection (cf. Desire of Ages, p. 753). When fear-filled human hearts see the true Christ in that “revelation” of agape, they identify with Him in such a way that self is “crucified with Christ,” and the believer becomes “incorporate” in Him, as Paul says. The union is as close as that of a bride with her husband. We “let this mind be in [us] which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). The believer becomes one with the crucified Lord.

Realizing, seeing, the reality of His descent into hell in order to save our souls, how He faced that utter annihilation of hope, how He chose to go down into eternal darkness, to endure the eternal hiding of His Father’s face in order to redeem us—this union with Him stretches our dwarfed human hearts outsize so that we can begin to understand the price that it cost Him to save us. We can never duplicate His sacrifice, but we can appreciate it. We “survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of glory died.” This eradicates fear from the heart.

The reason is this: since no fear can be as great as the fear of hell, if that fear is conquered by appreciating His sacrifice through fellowship with Him on His cross, all lesser fears have to be dissipated.

For example, how could the penitent thief on the cross ever again be tormented with fear? For anyone else who has been “crucified with Christ,” the same deliverance must take place. There is no fear left in the entire universe that can survive a heart-union with Him in that hour of the cross. But again it must be said that the true dimensions of that sacrifice are comprehended only in the light of “the third angel’s message in verity.”

This was the impact of the 1888 message. It recovered Paul’s grand obsession: “The [agape] of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead” (2 Corinthians 5:14). How can one who knows he is “dead” ever again be afraid of anything? How can one who has already been to hell (through being crucified with Christ) ever again fear anything less than hell?

But isn’t the Adventist fear of the investigative judgment precisely that—the fear of hell?

Yes, without the 1888 idea it is dominated by that fear. For “self” to be crucified with Christ does not mean a human effort to torture ourselves by an agonizing do-it-yourself crucifixion. It is always “with Christ.” The message of the cross “constrains … henceforth” to a life of service to Christ free from fear: “He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again” (verse 15).

When Paul says “I am crucified with Christ” he is not saying, “See what a strong Christian I am! I am nailing nails through my hands and feet, I am crucifying myself!” Rather he is saying,

When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.

He is saying, “My proud self is already ‘crucified with Him.’ Self cannot live and reign any longer because His agape has annihilated the love of self. And since self is now crucified with Him, fear is gone because fear always feeds on the love of self.”

The 1888 message focused the doctrine of the investigative judgment into its proper perspective, introducing a concern for Christ rather than for our own personal salvation. This is why Ellen White united the 1888 message of justification by faith with the investigative judgment truth in that special series of articles in the Review and Herald during the early months of 1890.

But here is an Ellen White quotation that has always worried me—The Great Controversy, p. 425. Why did Ellen White say such a fearful thing?

Perhaps you have misunderstood the statement. Let us see what it actually says:

Says the prophet: “Who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” Malachi 3:2,3. Those who are living upon the earth when the intercession of Christ shall cease in the sanctuary above are to stand in the sight of a holy God without a mediator. Their robes must be spotless, their characters must be purified from sin by the blood of sprinkling. Through the grace of God and their own diligent effort they must be conquerors in the battle with evil. While the investigative judgment is going forward in heaven, while the sins of penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, there is to be a special work of purification, of putting away of sin, among God’s people upon earth. This work is more clearly presented in the messages of Revelation 14.

True, this paragraph has occasioned much fear among Seventh-day Adventists because they have missed the Good News in it. In an effort to lessen the fear, some writers and teachers have tried to get around its obvious meaning by lowering the standard of being “spotless” and “purified.” They contradict it by saying that one’s character need not be either. All that is needed is a legal imputation of external righteousness.

Efforts are made to evade the problem by saying that the spotless Christ must continue to substitute for, and thus cover, our continued sinning. This must continue, they say, after “[His] intercession … shall cease in the sanctuary above.” Again, this denies the statement, for it says the opposite.

The 1888 message was “the beginning” of the answer to the problem:

1. Christ’s sacrifice on His cross secured a legal justification for “all men.” It was then that He became our Substitute. Because their “trespasses” were all “imputed” unto Him, a “spotless” garment was thus legally accounted to “all men.” They have received their present life only by virtue of His dying in their place. Thus “all men” have been “elected” to salvation.

All fear of being lost is annihilated by a heart-appreciation of His accomplishment on His cross. In the last hours of human history a people will at last “comprehend” what it means. As High Priest, Christ will accomplish everything He died to accomplish not only for His people but in them, if we will stop hindering Him.

2. The above statement clearly says that it is Christ who “shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them.” It is His “blood of sprinkling” that purifies them. The cleansing of the sanctuary is not the work of the people; it is the work of the High Priest. It is due to His divine initiative; His people indeed have something to do, but their work is to cooperate with Him, to let Him do it (cf. Phil. 2:5; 3:15; Colossians 3:15, etc.).
3. The cleansing of the sanctuary is the “final atonement,” the fruition of all that Christ accomplished on His cross. He is the “Saviour of the world.” We are not anybody’s saviour, least of all our own.

But wait a minute! The statement says it is by “their own diligent effort [that] they must be conquerors.” My lack of “diligent effort” is what makes me afraid.

Read it again. It says, “through the grace of God and their own diligent effort …” Which comes first?

Again the thought is clear that the High Priest will do this work if we don’t hinder Him. Our own “diligent effort” is the same as the “constraint” of agape which motivated Paul to live unto Christ and not unto self. “The love of Christ” imparts a new “under grace” motivation that takes the place of the “under the law” motivation imposed by fear. Our “own diligent effort” is never the work of our own initiative; it is always a response to the initiative of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter who is called to abide with us forever.

The thought of our robes being “spotless” should not paralyze us with fear any more than a bride worries about her wedding dress being “spotless” for her bridegroom to see. What motivates her is solely her love and respect for him, not fear that he will reject her. The reason why the Lord sent the 1888 message was that it might arouse in His people a concern for Christ like that of a bride for her husband. It is a totally different idea than the usual childish concern for our own personal security. In such “union with Christ,” self-centeredness shrivels into the nothingness it is.

But how could such a “union” purify us from sin?

Because deliverance from self-concern through union with Christ always purifies from sin. The result that the 1888 message would have accomplished (had it not been hindered!) is set forth in Revelation 19:7, 8:

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

There is the “robe” that is “spotless.” And “blood” has done the cleansing, because the Bridegroom is the Lamb who was slain.

But none of the ransomed ever knew

How deep were the waters crossed,

Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through

Ere He found His sheep that was lost.

Ah, but at last there is a people who have learned to appreciate how deep were those waters crossed, how dark was the night that the Lamb went through! “The blood of sprinkling” is the essential element of the often-feared “investigative judgment.” How tragic that the bride has held back for over a century, resisting our Lord “in His office work,” to borrow Ellen White’s phrase (Review and Herald, January 21, 1890). How doubly tragic that we have been fearful of the most blessed ministry ever achieved for us!

Imagine a woman’s true lover seeking to woo her heart to surrender. But while she endlessly worries about spots on her wedding dress, she resists him and delays the wedding because she cannot understand or appreciate how much the bridegroom-to-be actually loves her.

Do you mean to say then that sin doesn’t matter? That we don’t have a lot of work to do in order to overcome?

Of course sin matters, and we do have a lot of work to do. The 1888 message simply says that the true glory of God is revealed in the blinding light of the cross. And sin cannot exist in that light. “Faith works by love and purifies the soul.”

It is not we who purify the soul; it is faith which does the work. Over and over the dear Lord has tried to impress upon His people the 1888 truth that righteousness is by faith, not by works. It is not by doing that we wash our robes, but by believing in that blood of the Lamb.

And that is not cheap grace. It is terribly expensive grace. Only in the last hours of time do God’s people at last learn to sense how expensive it is. And sin is forever vanquished because self-love is vanquished, and the great controversy is finally closed.

Yes, we have a lot of work to do: “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent” (John 6:29). Our endless “work” is to learn what it means to believe!

It’s impossible for any believing soul to go on in transgression of the law of God if he or she has a heart that, however cold and hard, has been melted by the sight of that “blood.”

But how can one learn to “delight” in the law of God, the ten commandments?

What teaches us to say “No!” to ungodly lusts and all the compulsive addictions and perversions the devil can throw at us is not fear of punishment or hope of reward, but seeing that wondrous cross. The grace of God has actually brought salvation to all men, and it teaches us how to say that word “No” (see Titus 2:11, NIV).

Like an ugly chrysalis metamorphosing into a beautiful butterfly, the ten commandments cease to be ten prohibitions, and become ten glorious promises. The Lord says in effect that if we will but appreciate what it cost Him to redeem us, how He has brought us out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, He promises that we will never steal, lie, commit adultery, etc. (see Ellen G. White, Bible Commentary, Vol. 1, p. 1105). This is because the Holy Spirit becomes a stronger motivation to the believer than the promptings of his sinful nature (cf. Galatians 5:16-18).

Do we as a church need the blessings of the 1888 message? “The Lord in His great mercy” sent it to us. Isn’t it being rather arrogant to say that we don’t need what the Lord sends us? What can Heaven think of us for neglecting it?

How does the 1888 idea of justification by faith, solve the problem of so many Adventists who lack “assurance of salvation”?

The truth of justification by faith in the 1888 message is the missing ingredient in both “historic Adventism” and the “new theology.” Both generally follow the Arminian view, which in effect makes the sinner’s salvation dependent on his own initiative.

This raises the question whether the believer can ever have a true assurance of salvation. Can he ever be totally sure that his cooperation or response has been sufficiently complete?

In contrast, assurance is locked in with the 1888 view. It recognizes that the sacrifice of Christ actually purchased justification for “all men.” All that the human race is “in Adam” has been totally reversed by all that the human race is “in Christ.” “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16). He tasted death (the second death) for “every man” (Hebrews 2:9). He is the propitiation for the sins of the believers, yes, but also for the “sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). No one is left out!

He is “the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe” (1 Timothy 4:10). He has borne and still bears the true guilt of “all men,” for “Christ died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:14, 15). Otherwise, “all” would already be “dead.” This is a legal or forensic justification effected, not merely offered as provisional, for “all men.”

Thus this gift is actually given to them “freely by His grace” (Romans 3:23, 24). Nothing can be a gift until it is given. “All men’s” physical life, their next breath, all they have, they enjoy solely by the grace of Christ. And yet they may never have realized the true Source of the “grace of life” which they have had. Christ is so generous and magnanimous that He freely lets His sun rise on the good and on the evil, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. In the same way He has encircled the world with an atmosphere of grace as real as the air we breathe (Steps to Christ, p. 68).

Believe that Good News, and your alienation from God is healed. Paul makes clear that we cannot be worried about assurance of salvation if we see the cross: “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

I have been told to beware of this Good News, for there is danger of Universalism in it.

This is not Universalism—far from it. Some people will be lost, not because God has predestined them to be lost, but because they choose to resist, reject, and despise this grace, and refuse to “breathe” it. Calvinism’s “irresistible grace” is not Biblical. “The sinner may resist this love, may refuse to be drawn to Christ; but if he does not resist, he will” be drawn all the way to repentance (Steps to Christ, p. 26). But if he does resist, he takes back on himself at last the full condemnation from which Christ has already saved him (John 3:16-18). Thus in the end his damnation is due solely to his own initiative (see The Great Controversy, p. 543).

How would you answer the objection of those who say this view lessens true obedience and strict adherence to high standards?

This is the precise objection that many of our dear opposing brethren raised at the 1888 Session. They initially rejected this “most precious message” because they were afraid that if our people fully appreciated how “grace did much more abound,” they would become lax in keeping the law.

But Paul could have calmed their fears: “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law” (Romans 3:31). There is no other way to obey truly than by such genuine faith. The superficial “only believism,” or “cheap grace,” of popular Christianity is not genuine faith. It does not understand the tremendous spiritual dynamite implicit in true justification by faith.

The reason is because popular Christianity generally believes in the natural immortality of the soul. If that doctrine is true, Christ could not have truly died on His cross. Thus many cannot appreciate the grand dimensions of the agape revealed there. Like a row of dominoes falling, certain results are inescapable. Consequently, their concept of faith falls short; and in turn, their devitalized faith cannot “work” to produce full obedience to all the commandments of God. The result is worldliness, pride, self-sufficiency, and continued disregard of the law of God.

This is the reason why so many have declined obedience to the fourth commandment. It involves bearing a cross, and they don’t know how to accept their own cross because they do not truly understand or appreciate Christ’s cross.

In the final test of the “mark of the beast,” all motivation to obedience which is based on either fear of being lost or hope of personal reward will prove to be self-centered. It will be “wood, hay, stubble” to be “revealed by fire” (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:12, 13). To change the metaphor, it will prove to be chaff blown away by the storm of the last days. The true “third angel’s message in verity” prepares a people for that test of fire and storm.

But there are many sincere, honest people in all religions, waiting only to hear “the third angel’s message in verity,” and they will respond gladly.

Someone told me that the 1888 message teaches that the sinful human race was made righteous against and without their will, that the heathen and Satan worshippers, murderers and thieves, are all righteous. Is this true?

This is a distortion of the message. It says nothing remotely like this. Paul also had to contend with those who distorted his message. The view of the 1888 messengers whom Ellen White supported is as follows:

As the condemnation came upon all [Rom 5:18], so the justification comes upon all. Christ has tasted death for every man. He has given himself for all. Nay, he has given himself to every man. The free gift has come upon all. The fact that it is a free gift is evidence that there is no exception. If it came upon only those who have some special qualification, then it would not be a free gift. It is a fact, therefore, plainly stated in the Bible, that the gift of righteousness [justification] and life in Christ has come to every man on earth (E. J. Waggoner, Signs of the Times, March 12, 1896; Waggoner on Romans, p. 101).

This is in harmony with John 3:16, 17; Romans 3:23, 24; 5:12-18; 1 Timothy 2:6; 4:10; 2 Timothy 1:10; Heb 2:9; 1 John 2:2.

But this is not justification by faith. It is purely a legal, “temporary” or “corporate” justification. But this does not make anyone to be experientially righteous unless and until he believes. It is the foundation on which justification by faith rests.

It is clear that the Bible teaches this beautiful truth. But does Ellen White agree?

Ellen White never disagrees with the Bible. But we sometimes read her with a veil of unbelief over our eyes in the same way the ancient Jews read the Old Testament, failing to see justification by faith therein.

We find Ellen White repeatedly recognizing this truth. For example, consider Our High Calling, p. 52: “The mediatorial work of Christ commenced with the commencement of human guilt and suffering and misery, as soon as man became a transgressor.” The word “man” means “all men,” and Christ’s work for us “commenced” before we repented. Also consider The Desire of Ages, p. 660:

To the death of Christ we owe even this earthly life. The bread we eat [who is the “we? “all men”] is the purchase of His broken body. The water we drink is bought by His spilled blood. Never one, saint or sinner, eats his daily food, but he is nourished by the body and the blood of Christ. The cross of Calvary is stamped on every loaf.

Shortly before Ellen White wrote those famous words, she commented even more forcefully in an unpublished manuscript on the reality of a universal legal justification:

All blessings must come through a Mediator. Now every member of the human family is given wholly into the hands of Christ, and whatever we possess—whether it is the gift of money, of houses, of lands, of reasoning powers, of physical strength, of intellectual talents—in this present life, and the blessings of the future life, are placed in our possession as God’s treasures to be faithfully expended for the benefit of man. Every gift is stamped with the cross and bears the image and superscription of Jesus Christ. All things come of God. From the smallest benefits up to the largest blessings, all flow through the one Channel—a superhuman mediation sprinkled with the blood that is of value beyond estimate because it was the life of God in His Son (MS 36, 1890; The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, p. 814).

And consider Selected Messages, Book One, p. 343: “He took in His grasp the world over which Satan claimed to preside as his lawful territory, and by His wonderful work in giving His life, He restored the whole race of men to favor with God” (emphasis supplied).

Again: “Jesus, the world’s Redeemer, stands between Satan and every soul. … The sins of everyone who has lived upon the earth were laid upon Christ, testifying to the fact that no one need be a loser in the conflict with Satan” (Review and Herald, May 23, 1899). “All the judgments upon men, prior to the close of probation, have been mingled with mercy. The pleading blood of Christ has shielded the sinner from receiving the full measure of his guilt” (The Great Controversy, p. 629). Ellen White says that Paul’s opponents who came to Antioch from Jerusalem refused to believe that Christ died for “the whole world” and thus legally justified “all men” (see Sketches From the Life of Paul, p. 121).

“All men” would die in a moment if they had to bear the true guilt of their sins. So would Adam and Eve have died in the Garden of Eden had not a Lamb been slain for them “from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). This is what Paul means when he says that “the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life” (Romans 5:18). Ellen White believed it.

Can anyone be justified without obedience?

No sinner can be justified by faith without repentance and obedience; nor can he retain the experience of justification by faith without continued cooperation with the Holy Spirit, which is obedience.

If the unbeliever chooses to reject what Christ has already done for him and thrusts it from him, he takes the full burden of guilt back upon himself and must die the second death. But that is totally unnecessary except for his stubborn unbelief.

This is the 1888 idea of justification by faith. It upholds the law of God as nothing else can do. Writing under the blessing of the 1888 message, the Lord’s servant cleared up the problem of “conditions”:

The question will come up, How is it? Is it by conditions that we receive salvation? Never by conditions do we come to Christ. And if we come to Christ, what is the condition? The condition is that by living faith we lay hold wholly and entirely upon the merits of the blood of a crucified and risen Saviour. When we do that, then we work the works of righteousness. But when God is calling the sinner in our world, and inviting him, there is no condition there; he is drawn by the invitation of Christ and it is not, “Now you have got to respond in order to come to God.” The sinner comes, and as he comes and views Christ elevated upon that cross of Calvary, which God impresses upon his mind, there is a love beyond anything that is imagined that he has taken hold of. … Christ is drawing everyone that is not past the boundary (MS 9, 1890).

Is there a conflict between the apostle James and the apostle Paul over righteousness by faith? Does James weaken Paul’s gospel?

James (ch. 2:17-25) is not trying to contradict Paul. His point is that there are two kinds of faith—living and dead. There are also two kinds of people—living and dead. The dead people don’t work, and dead faith doesn’t work.

The kind of faith which the devils have when they “tremble” is a dead faith which does not appreciate the agape of Christ, and it does not produce works of righteousness. Paul is talking about a living faith which does appreciate the cross and moves us to willing and joyful obedience (Romans 13:10; Galatians 5:5, 6; 2 Corinthians 5:14-6:1).

The Jews said unto Jesus, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” Just the thing that we want to know. Mark the reply: “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” John 6:28, 29. Would that these words might be written in letters of gold and kept continually before the eyes of every struggling Christian. The seeming paradox is cleared up. Works are necessary; yet faith is all-sufficient, because faith does the work. …

The trouble is that many people in general have a faulty conception of faith. … Faith and disobedience are incompatible. No matter how much the law-breaker professes faith, the fact that he is a law-breaker shows that he has no faith. … Let no one decry faith as of little moment.

But does not the apostle James say that faith alone cannot save a man, and that faith without works is dead?

[Waggoner asks this question.]

Let us look at his words a moment. Too many have with honest intent perverted them to a dead legalism. “… If faith without works is dead, the absence of works shows the absence of faith; for that which is dead has no existence. If a man has faith, works will necessarily appear. …

Then how about James 2:14, which says: “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?”

[Waggoner asks this question.]

The answer necessarily implied is, of course, that it cannot. Why not?—Because he hasn’t it. What doth it profit if a man say he has faith, if by his wicked course he shows that he has none? Must we decry the power of faith simply because it does nothing for the man who makes a false profession of it? … Faith has no power to save a man who does not possess it (E. J. Waggoner, Bible Echo, August 1, 1890).

While it is true that James does not contradict Paul, people have tried to make him do so. His perspective is different. He never once mentions the cross or the blood of Christ. Somehow the Holy Spirit saw fit to let us have 14 letters from Paul in our New Testament, and only one from James.

Read Chapter 2—Practical Questins About the 1888 Message

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