What was the 1888 Message?

The Essentials of the Jones-Waggoner Message

  1. In every aspect, the 1888 message was predominantly "good news," and thus "the everlasting gospel" for these last days. Both messengers felt constrained to declare that it is "easy" to be saved and "hard" to be lost if one understands the pure "truth of the gospel" unadulterated with the "mixture of poisonous error.74 Discouragement and defeats are not normal Christian experience in its truest sense; they are always the result of a lack of faith.75 God loves you actively and persistently; He will not let you be lost unless you insist on crucifying Christ afresh.76 The Holy Spirit is constantly striving against the evil impulses of our sinful nature, the "flesh," so that the believer "cannot do the [evil] things" that his sinful nature prompts him to do."77

This is not "quietism," nor is it passive manipulation which over-rides the free will of the human agent; it is justification by faith in which "faith works by love and purifies the soul."78 The believer is "crucified with Christ," so that his will is constantly surrendered to God through faith in the blood of Christ.79 The gospel becomes for him "the power of God unto salvation."

The believer is not to worry about his personal salvation because the Lord will finish what He started. In fact, as the believer "sees" Christ "just as He is," all insecurity rooted in egocentric concern is transcended by the larger concern he now feels for the honor and vindication of Christ in the "great controversy" The church feels a concern for Him similar to that of a bride for her husband.80

Both "messengers" taught a beautiful view of the "two covenants." The "old covenant" experience is inspired solely by self-centered concern and is our vain promise to do what is right.

Theologians assume that God makes bargains with men in which both parties pledge mutual obligations, but God never makes bargains with men for He knows they cannot keep their promises in human strength (which is nothing.)81 Therefore the "new covenant" is founded on "the better promises" of God Himself; it is His promise to write the law in the heart of the believer.82 Our salvation therefore does not depend on our keeping our vain promises to God (which would be impossible) but upon our believing His promise to us "in Christ."83 Several statements exist in which Ellen White says she was "shown" that Waggoner’s view of the two covenants is correct.84

(The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary and Bible Dictionary both present the view of those who opposed the 1888 message. And the Sabbath School lessons as recently as the second quarter of 1986 likewise perpetuated the 1890s opposition.)

The possibility of sinless living in sinful flesh made the 1888 message
a true heart preparation for the coming of Christ.

Notes:

  1. 7 BC 942 Jones: RH Sept. 1,1896 (this series of articles is relevant; RH Sept. 18,1900; The Everlasting Covenant, p. 66. [return to text]
  2. CHR 58, 69-84. Compare James Buchanan, The Doctrine of Justification, p. 388 where he teaches that "declension and backsliding—marred and defiled by remaining sin—obscured and enveloped in doubt by clouds and thick darkness" is the normal "case of a believer." In complete contrast, Jones and Waggoner taught that "faith is the victory," even in tribulation. See Waggoner, ST Mar. 25, 1889; Feb. 27, 1896; GT 42, 43, 96, 97. [return to text]
  3. Waggoner: ST Nov. 21,1895; The Glad Tidings p. 89; ST Jan. 1896; Mar.12, 1896; Aug. 6, 1896; Jones: RH Sept.22,1896; Ellen G. White: SC 27; DA 58, 403; OHC 11, 26; GC 543. [return to text]
  4. Acts 26:14; Gal. 5:17. Jones: RH Sept. 18, Oct. 2,1900. [return to text]
  5. Waggoner: CHR 29, 30; ST Mar. 12, 1896; Jones: RH Sept. 22, 29, Oct. 13, Nov. 10, 1896; CW 123-125; GCB 1893, pp. 207, 208, 402, 403; GCB 1895, pp. 447, 350. [return to text]
  6. Jones: GCB 1893, pp. 257-266; RH July 18, 25, Aug. 1,1899; Waggoner. GT 42-48. [return to text]
  7. See Rev. 19:6-9 and Eph. 5:23-32 for "the bride of Christ" theme clearly stated. Jones and Waggoner did not forcefully enunciate this particular theme but did break away from the egocentric radius to a larger concern for the honor and glory of Christ. See CW 120-122; and GCB 1901, pp. 146-149 where the thought is implicit in Waggoner’s presentation. Jones: GCB 1903, pp. 42, 43; GCB 1895, pp. 395-398. [return to text]
  8. For Waggoner, see GT 71-78, 98-104. For Jones, see his series on Galatians in RH beginning Aug. 29, 1899; GCB 1895, p. 475, 477. [return to text]
  9. Jones: GCB 1895, p. 348. Waggoner: GT 76, 77. [return to text]
  10. Waggoner: CHR 74, 75; GT 104; see Jones GCB 1895, p. 217, 479, 480, 494, 495. [return to text]
  11. Letters 30, 59, 1890; see PP 370-373 for EGW’s view, which agrees with Waggoner. [return to text]
 
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