The Divinely Appointed Remedies: "Gold"
Chapter 7 (continued — part 9)
- In the 1950’s we borrowed and
endorsed the Methodist missionary E. Stanley Jones’ concepts of
"righteousness by faith" and recommended them to our ministers
as "safe". Jones’ concepts "would enrich one’s
ministry", said The Ministry (February, 1950). Yet Jones’
preoccupation with the idea of the natural immortality of the soul causes
him to confuse telepathic communication with the dead with the reception
of the Holy Spirit, and also to confess that "Christ Himself has
deficiencies which are to be supplied by other faiths" (The
Message of Sat Tul Ashram, pp. 285, 291). It was Jones who coined the
slogan, "Share Your Faith", which we eagerly adopted; but Jones
meant that "this sharing means not only giving out what one has to
non-Christians, but the sharing of what they have in their own faiths …
Christ Himself has deficiencies" (Ibid.). What a source for our
"righteousness by faith"!
We find one lone, dissenting public voice
in the church paper at last protesting this borrowing from E. Stanley
Jones. Elder W.A. Spicer wrote an article for the Review which was
published during the summer of 1950, exposing the falseness of his ideas,
mentioning Jones by name. (In the spring of 1950 he had published an
article containing an oblique warning).
- The 1952 Bible Conference (September
1-13 in the Sligo Church) claimed to recover the 1888 message and even to
go beyond it. One prominent speaker said:
To a large degree the church failed to
build on the foundation laid at the 1888 General Conference. Much has been
lost as a result. We are years behind. … Long ere this we should have
been in the Promised Land.
But the message of righteousness by faith
given in the 1888 Conference has been repeated here. Practically every
speaker from the first day onward has laid great stress upon this
all-important doctrine, and there was no prearranged plan that he should
do so. … Truly this one subject has, in this conference "swallowed
up every other".
And this great truth has been given here
in this 1952 Bible Conference with far greater power than it was given in
the 1888 Conference because those who have spoken here have had the
advantage of much added light shining forth from hundreds of
pronouncements on this subject in the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy
which those who spoke back there did not have.
The light of justification and
righteousness by faith shines upon us today more clearly than it ever
shone before upon any people.
No longer will the question be,
"What was the attitude of our workers and people toward the message
of righteousness by faith that was given in 1888? What did they do bout
it?" From now on the great question must be, "What did we do
with the light on righteousness by faith as proclaimed in the 1952 Bible
Conference?" (W.H. Branson, Our Firm Foundation, vol. 2. pp.
616, 617).
Since then over three decades have passed
by — time enough to finish God’s work There was no official opposition
to the 1952 message. "Practically every speaker" proclaimed it,
and apparently everyone accepted it. And the speakers were the "angel
of the church of the Laodiceans" — the church leadership. If the
1952 message was a true recovery of the 1888 message, the work should have
been finished shortly afterward, for it was given "with far greater
power" than in 1888. The 1952 brethren were "richer" than
"any people" in world history! They had the "gold".
But a careful study of the 1952 messages
fails to disclose the basic motifs that made the 1888 message unique. Like
the 1926 messages on righteousness by faith, they present no light beyond what
the church has been preaching for many decades. Somehow the truths that
Ellen White endorsed in 1888 eluded our brethren of 1952. This is
understandable, for with the possible exceptions of one or two they had
very likely never actually studied the 1888 message in its original
context. (Even today few have).
Elder Branson claimed that in spite of
its lukewarmness the church had a "perfect system of truth". He
failed to see that "the gospel of Christ … is the power of God unto
salvation", and that if the church truly possessed the "gospel
of Christ" in its fullness, the "power" would be automatic.
Thus he failed to recognize the basic principle of "righteousness by
faith’ — that if one has the faith, the righteousness is sure to be
there too. He claimed we are rich in the very thing the True Witness says
we are poor in. He expressed no need on the part of the speakers to
understand true righteousness by faith, but claimed for them an
"impulse by the Spirit of God’ "far greater" than Ellen
White claimed for the messengers sent in 1888.
Careful motif analysis can demonstrate
that the messages of the 1926 and 1952 meetings prepared the way for the
current confusion of so-called "Reformationist" concepts of
justification by faith in place of the unique truths divinely entrusted to
Seventh-day Adventists.
If one will read through both volumes of Our
Firm Foundation, where "practically every speaker … laid great
stress upon this all-important doctrine [righteousness by faith]", he
will find an astounding fact emerge. Not one speaker recognized the danger
that the Lords servant warned of in the passage quoted
above (GC 464) nor did one discern that the popular churches’
interpretation of righteousness by faith is devoid of New Testament love.
No one discerned a relation between the ministry of the heavenly High
Priest in the Most Holy Apartment and an understanding of true
righteousness by faith. It is amazing that the following quotation from Early
Writings was not referred to once:
Those who rose up with Jesus would send
up their faith to Him in the holiest [the Most Holy Apartment], and pray,
"My Father, give us Thy Spirit". Then Jesus would breathe upon
them the Holy Ghost. In that breath was light power, and much love,
joy and peace.
I turned to look at the company who were
still bowed before the throne [who had not followed Christ by faith into
the Most Holy Apartment]; they did not know that Jesus had left it. Satan
appeared to be by the throne, trying to carry on the work of God. I saw
them look up to the throne, and pray, "Father, give us Thy
Spirit". Satan would then breathe upon them an unholy influence: in
it there was light and much power, but no sweet love, joy and peace (EW
55, 56).
The setting of this passage is critically
important, for it has a direct bearing on our understanding of the gospel
itself "The company who were still bowed before the throne" is
the group who rejected the sanctuary truth in the 1844 era. Although the
imagery is highly symbolic, it is clear Ellen White was referring to the
change in Christ’s ministry at the end of the 2300 years. Those who did
not appreciate the change exposed themselves to a lethal deception —
Satan masquerading as the "Christ" in a ministry which the true
High Priest had now "left."
This tragic deception
…
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