Our Denominational History and the
Laodicean Message
Chapter 6 (Continued — part 4)
This is the true remnant church, and its
future is indeed bright. The work will triumph. And the Lord has blessed.
And He will bless. But the point is that His version of the significance
of our denominational history is much safer for us to follow than that
opposed to it. The Laodicean message is still "present truth".
The Lord says we are in reality "wretched, and miserable, and poor,
and blind, and naked’. The great victory of the Church is still future
and lies on the other side of accepting the divinely recommended remedy
for our present condition—repentance. There is something that we can do and that is to do exactly
what our Lord says:
I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in
the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment that thou mayest be
clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint
thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I
rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. (Rev. 3:18, 19).
Of all our official histories, the most
pronounced — yet still unconscious — denial of our Lords message was
published in 1966. Utterly sincere and most earnest and devoted, the
author was desirous of defending the "angel of the church of the
Laodiceans." After his death, his publishers entitled his book Through
Crisis to Victory, 1888-1901. Thus they clearly advanced
the novel thesis that the 1901 General Conference Session undid the 1888
opposition to the message of Christ’s righteousness with all its
attendant organizational evils, and ushered in "victory".
This prestigious work has made a profound
impression on the world church. Any Ellen G. White statements that
contradict the basic thesis of the book are naturally assumed to be
suspect. “What they say in plain English cannot be true if this
authoritative book says the opposite. Some mysterious context must cancel
out the import of any statements that say that the 1901 Session was not
‘victory.’” So readers are understandably inclined to assume. (It
is significant that the book has been republished officially in 1981 under
a new title, but with its “rich and increased with goods” thesis
still intact, assuming that the 1901 Conference ended the “crisis” years in virtual
“victory”.)
Nevertheless, the clear facts indicate
that the results of the 1901 Session did not undo the tragic unbelief
manifested at the 1888 Session. A number
of Ellen G. White statements are consistent and emphatic:
What a wonderful work could have been
done for the vast company gathered in Battle Creek at the General
Conference [of 1901], if the leaders of our work had taken themselves in
hand. But the work that all heaven was waiting to do as soon as men
prepared the way, was not done; for the leaders closed and bolted the door
against the Spirit’ s entrance. There was a stopping short of entire
surrender to God. And hearts that might have been purified from all error
were strengthened in wrong doing The doors were barred against the
heavenly current that would have swept away all evil. Men left their sins
unconfessed. (Letter to Dr. J.H. Kellogg, Aug. 5, 1902).
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 had flashed upon their pathway, but carried into their work the wrong
principles that had been prevailing in the work at Battle Creek. … It is
a perilous thing to reject the light that God sends. (Letter to Judge
Jesse Arthur, Jan. 15, 1903).
If the men who heard the message given at
the time of the Conference — the most solemn message that could be given
— had not been so unimpressionable, if in sincerity they had asked,
"Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" the experience of the past
year would have been very different from what it is. But they have not
made the track clean behind them. They have not confessed their mistakes,
and now they are going over the same ground in many things, following the
same wrong course of action, because they have destroyed their spiritual
eyesight. …
If the work begun at the General Conference had been carried
forward to perfection, I should not be called upon to write these words.
There was opportunity to confess or deny wrong, and in many cases the
denial came, to avoid the consequence of confession.
Unless there is a reformation, calamity
will overtake the publishing house, and the world will know
the reason. I have been shown that there has not been a turning to God
with full purpose of heart. … God has been mocked by your hardness of
heart, which is continually increasing. (Testimonies, Vol. 7, pp.
93-96. "read to the Review and Herald Board in November, 1901".
The next testimony beginning on page 97 is entitled, "The Review and
Herald Fire").
As regards the 1888 message of Christ’s
righteousness, it must be hailed as "victory" even though the
"works" that followed the assumed "faith" led to the
divine rebuke in the disastrous tires that destroyed our Sanitarium and
publishing house in Battle Creek, clearly a rebuke from the Lord.
In the 1901 meeting the committee members
elected at that time were, as far as we can discover, men who fully
believed in this doctrine [of righteousness by faith], though some may not
have entered fully into the personal experience of surrender and faith.
… I have attended Adventist camp meetings, annual meetings, conference and
mission sessions, workers’ meetings, and other gatherings, and I can
truthfully say that in all this association with church workers and people
of different races, nations and tongues during my fifty-five years in the
Seventh-day Adventist ministry, I have never heard a worker or a lay
member- in America, Europe, or anywhere else — express opposition to the
message of righteousness by faith. Neither have I known of any such
opposition having been expressed by Seventh-day Adventist publications. (A.V.
Olson, Through Crisis to Victory 1888-1901, pp. 228-232: new
edition, pp. 234-238).
But our author was earnest and sincere
and deeply spiritual. Something was wrong, he clearly knew. The work was
years behind and the coming of the Lord was long delayed. This he could
not and would not deny. He frankly recognized the problem and advanced his
own sincere conviction as to why the church as a whole did not at this
late date understand and receive the truth of righteousness by faith so the
world work could be finished. Seldom has an official writer so graphically
yet unconsciously confirmed the truth of our Lords diagnosis in His
message to "the angel" of the Laodicean church, or so earnestly
and sincerely insisted that "the angel" is "rich and
increased with goods". The ministerial spokesmen for the church are
rich, the author maintains, in understanding and proclaiming the message.
He recognizes no need on their part, and lays the blame for the unfinished
task rather on the obtuse laity. They are the ones who are "wretched, miserable, poor, and
blind, and naked".
Note the very clear import of the conclusion of
the book:
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