1888 RE-EXAMINED, 1950 EDITIONROBERT J. WIELAND AND DONALD K. SHORT

1October 17–November 4, 1888, Minneapolis, Minnesota

CHAPTER TITLES

• Chapter 1—Introduction

• Chapter 2—Leaving the First Love

• Chapter 3—The Loud Cry To Come in a Surprising Way

• Chapter 4—Was the Message of 1888 Accepted?

• Chapter 5—What Was the Message Presented in 1888?

• Chapter 6—The Grave Seriousness of the 1888–92 Reaction

• Chapter 7—An Examination of the “Confessions”

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CHAPTER TITLES

• Chapter 8—The 1893 General Conference Session

• Chapter 9—Did Jones and Waggoner Apostatize?

• Chapter 10—Warnings of Subtle, Internal Apostasy

• Chapter 11—Predictions of Infatuation with a False Christ

• Chapter 12—The True Christ vs. The False Christ (In Modern Babylonian Teachings)

• Chapter 13—The True Christ vs. The False Christ (In Contemporary Seventh-day Adventist Teaching)

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FOR ADDITIONAL STUDY

• Letter from the General Conference to Wieland and Short

• Further Appraisal of the Manuscript “1888 Re-Examined” by the General Conference

• An Answer to “Further Appraisal of the Manuscript ‘1888 Re-Examined’” by Wieland and Short

• Wieland-Short Manuscript Committee Report As Received by the Officers: Principal Contentions of Brethren R. J. Wieland and D. K. Short

• Two letters to W. R. Beach by Wieland & Short

• Letter by Wieland to Short

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CHAPTER 1—INTRODUCTION

• The Advent Movement has not made progress consistent with its destiny; the world has not been stirred by the three angels’ messages, and we have not understood why.

• God could not bring the movement to a triumph without making past denominational wrongs right.

• This book indicates there have been some serious misunderstandings about our history.

• The cleansing of the sanctuary can never be complete until the Minneapolis incident is fully understood and the tragic mistake rectified.

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CHAPTER 2—LEAVING THE FIRST LOVE

• After 1844, the remnant church exhibited a weakness in understanding the three angels’ messages, not doctrinally, but spiritually. Jesus was precious to those who had passed through the great disappointment. They had all looked for his imminent return. They drew together in love for Jesus. After the disappointment, the few who did not give up their faith drew even closer, but this warmth gradually was replaced with a half-awake condition, a lukewarmness, caused by a love of self taking the place of a true love for God.

• The church had left her first love, but the church was growing numerically, financially, and in prestige.

• “The primary end and purpose of the Advent movement in world history was the attainment by a remnant church to a perfect character which would completely vindicate the sacrifice at Calvary. No other community of ‘saints’ in all history had attained to such a maturity of experience.’”

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• Consequent to this primary objective was a secondary purpose—world evangelism: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14).

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CHAPTER 3—THE LOUD CRY TO COME IN A SURPRISING WAY

• “In the last solemn work few great men will be engaged” (EGW 5T 80).

• “Unless those who can help in New York are roused to a sense of their duty, they will not recognize the work of God when the loud cry of the third angel shall be heard. When light goes forth to lighten the earth, instead of coming up to the help of the Lord, they will want to bind about His work to meet their narrow ideas.” (EGW Lt5–1885.5)

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• “Let me tell you that the Lord will work in this last work in a manner very much out of the common order of things, and in a way that will be contrary to any human planning….God will use ways and means by which it will be seen that He is taking the reins in His own hands. The workers will be surprised by the simple means that God will use to bring about and perfect His work of righteousness.” (EGW Lt5–1885.5)

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• The Lord often works where we least expect him; he surprises us by revealing his power through instruments of his own choice, while he passes by the men to whom we have looked as those through whom light should come. God desires us to receive the truth upon its own merits,—because it is truth. (GW92 126.1)

• Those who have not been in the habit of searching the Bible for themselves, or weighing evidence, have confidence in the leading men, and accept the decisions they make, and thus many will reject the very messages God sends to his people, if these leading brethren do not accept them. (GW92 126.4)

• The Lord will raise up men who will give the people the message for this time. (GW92 126.5)

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• EJW—at a meeting at camp meeting when he experienced a light far more brilliant than noonday, and he saw Christ hanging on the cross and knew he was crucified for him, knew that God loved him, that Christ died for him, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to him, and it changed him.

• ATJ—a private in the Army, not a product of schools, but studied night and day in history and in the Bible, keen intellect, simple child-like faith, a mighty power in preaching

• The Spirit of God was preparing these two men to be the agents in heralding the message which was to have been the beginning of the long awaited “loud cry.”

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CHAPTER 4—WAS THE MESSAGE OF 1888 ACCEPTED?

• Contradictory views—statements in the 1950s that the message was joyfully and enthusiastically received; other statements published by the denomination that the message was never properly received.

• ATJ—I can’t name anyone who accepted the truth at that 1888 meeting openly (besides Ellen G. White, of course).

• ATJ—Others would favor it, but when the spirit of persecution was strong, instead of standing nobly in the fear of God, and declaring in the face of the attack, “it is the truth of God, and I believe it in my soul,” they would begin to yield…

• EGW—In Minneapolis God gave precious gems of truth to His people in new settings. This light from heaven by some was rejected with all the stubbornness the Jews manifested in rejecting Christ.

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• EGW held revival meetings following 1888 into 1890, with Jones and Waggoner, which turned the tide for the people, but not necessarily for the leaders.

• For nearly two years we have been urging the people to come up and accept the light and truth concerning the righteousness of Christ… (EGW R&H, March 11, 1890).

• The brethren turned the Minneapolis meeting into a defeat. (W/S)

• The time of test is just upon us, for the loud cry of the third angel has already begun in the revelation of the righteousness of Christ, the sin-pardoning Redeemer. This is the beginning of the light of the angel whose glory shall fill the whole earth. (EW; RH November 22, 1892, par. 7)

• When the loud cry comes, says John the Revelator, it is to be a light which will lighten the earth with its glory…(W/S)

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CHAPTER 5—WHAT WAS THE MESSAGE PRESENTED IN 1888

• Is it the historic Protestant doctrine of justification by faith? If this were so, that the message of 1888 was the doctrine of the Reformers, it would require our belief that Luther and Wesley and others of pre-1844 time preached the third angel’s message.

• W/S: The message of 1888 was neither a restatement of the doctrine of Luther and Wesley, nor a re-emphasis of the teaching of the Adventist pioneers but a more mature conception of the “everlasting gospel” than had ever been perceived by any previous generation. It was the third angel’s message in verity, an understanding of righteousness by faith parallel to and consistent with the Adventist doctrine of the cleansing of the sanctuary, a message which would prepare a people to meet the Lord without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

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• W/S: EGW regarded the message of 1888 as advanced light, the beginning of the latter rain and loud cry.

• PA: The message of 1888 was threefold—righteousness by faith, religious liberty, and church government/organization; in other words, how the believer relates in three main areas—the relationship with God, with one another, and with the government.

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CHAPTER 6—THE GRAVE SERIOUSNESS OF THE 1888–1892 REACTION

• The Holy Spirit was insulted.

• Jesus Christ was spurned and insulted—the issue of 1888 was not over a doctrine (righteousness by faith) but over “What think ye of Christ?”.

• ATJ explains—“Twenty years ago God sent to the SDA denomination the message of the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ to deliver them from any appearance of liability to the charge of legalism. This righteousness of God, which is by faith, was then treated with contempt by the administration of the organized work of the denomination. By the then president of the General Conference it was flouted as “the much vaunted doctrine of justification by faith.” At Minneapolis, in 1888, the GC administration did its very best to have the denomination committed by a vote of the GC to the covenant of “Obey and Live,” to righteousness by works. The attempt failed then;

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• but from that day till this, that spirit and that element have never ceased that endeavor; though when they found that they could not accomplish it just then, they apparently and professedly accepted righteousness by faith. But they never did accept it in the truth that it is. They never did accept it as life and righteousness from God; but only as a “doctrine” to be put on a list or strung on a string with “other doctrines,” and preached as a “subject,” with other doctrinal subjects. (ATJ, The Everlasting Gospel of God’s Everlasting Covenant, p, 31)

• W/S explain it this way:

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• “Whenever the Lord has a special work to do among his people, when he would arouse their minds to contemplate vital truth, Satan will work to divert the mind by introducing minor points of difference, in order that he may create an issue concerning doctrines that are not essential to the understanding of the point in hand, and thus bring about disunion, and distract attention from the essential point.” (EGW, RH October 18, 1892, par. 14)

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MRS. WHITE’S MINISTRY WAS SERIOUSLY QUESTIONED.

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