The History of
the 1888 Message?

George Santayana wisely said, "A nation that does not know its history is fated to repeat it."1 We could well paraphrase him to say that a denomination that does not know its own history "is fated to repeat it." We must know it before the gospel commission can be finished: "The Lord has declared that the history of the past shall be rehearsed as we enter upon the closing work."2

If the time is near for "the closing work", as we hope, we may also believe that the time is here when the "history of the past" must be faithfully, honestly "rehearsed." "We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history."3 For once in history we must not repeat history.

Ancient Israel failed on the borders of the Promised Land, to turn back for forty years of wandering. The New English Bible says that Moses sent twelve "leading men" to "explore" the Canaanites’ land, "whether it is easy or difficult country in which to live." Ten "explorers" thought it was "difficult," and two thought "it is easy. … Let us go up at once and occupy the country."4

Seventh-day Adventists understand this episode as a "type," and our 1888 history and its aftermath as the "antitype." The Lord sent two "messengers" to "explore" the finishing of the gospel commission, who brought a report that it is "easy" rather than "difficult if only we believe the word of the Lord; and He sent the message first to "leading men" at the 1888 General Conference Session.5

Throughout her seven decades of service as special messenger to the remnant church, Ellen White revealed more than human ability to discern true issues beneath the surface. Never is her prophetic gift more clearly enhanced than in her comprehension of the 1888 message and its history. For example:

The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders [A. T.] Jones and [E. J.] Waggoner. … This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world, … proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure.6

The "Beginning" of the Fourth Angel's Message

NOTES:

1. Quoted by Edith Hamilton in Saturday Evening Post, Sept. 27,1958. [Return to text]
2. 2SM 390 (MS 129,1905). [Return to text]
3. LS 196, emphasis supplied. [Return to text]
4. Num. 13:3, 16, 18, 30 NEB. [Return to text]
5. E.J. Waggoner communicated his convictions to the General Conference president, George I. Butler, in a letter dated Feb. 10,1887, and published "nearly two years later" (The Gospel in Galatians), p. 1. The opportunity to accept the light was given the "leading men" at an official session of the church. [Return to text]
6. TM 91, 92. [Return to text]