The 1901 General Conference Session
Thoroughness requires that we
examine another attempt to promote self-satisfaction regarding our
assumed acceptance of the 1888 message. This is the theory that
the 1901 General Conference "reorganization" canceled
the 1888 unbelief and undid the tragic effects of the rejection of
the 1888 message.67 There is no question that the
"re-organization" was a blessing and has resulted in
stability and progress for the work of the church ever since.68
But did the Latter Rain and the Loud Cry go forth with power after
the 1901 Conference? Again, we must let Ellen White speak:
His [the Lord’s] power was
with me all the way through the last General Conference
[1901], and had the men in responsibility felt one quarter of
the burden that rested on me, there would have been heartfelt
confessions and repentance. A work would have been done by the
Holy Spirit such as has never yet been seen in Battle Creek.
…
The result of the last General
Conference has been the greatest, the most terrible sorrow of
my life. No change was made. The spirit that should have been
brought into the whole work as the result of that meeting, was
not brought in because men did not receive the testimonies of
the Spirit of God. As they went to their several fields of
labor, they did not walk in the light that the Lord flashed
upon their pathway, but carried into their work principles
that had been prevailing in the work at Battle Creek.69
What historians assume took place
after the 1901 Conference Ellen White spoke of only as "what
might have been."70 At the time of her death in 1915, she
still regarded the repentance, revival, and reformation she longed
for as something yet future.71
The
Failure of Jones and Waggoner
NOTES:
-
See
TCV 7. The title is revealing: Through Crisis to
Victory 1888-1901. [Return
to text]
-
The
reorganization secured the survival and unity of the world
movement (see TCV 175-199), but did not bring the gift of
the Latter Rain. [Return
to text]
-
Letter
to Judge Jesse Arthur, Jan. 15,1903. [Return
to text]
-
8T
104-106. [Return
to text]
-
See
TM 513-515 (1913); 8T 250; Letter from W. C. White,
Elmshaven, Feb. 24,1915. [Return
to text]
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