Practica Prophetica

The Lord has raised up Brother Jones and Brother Waggoner to proclaim a message to the world to prepare a people to stand in the day of God.

The world is suffering the need of additional light to come to them upon the Scriptures,—additional proclamation of the principles of purity, lowliness, faith, and the righteousness of Christ. This is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes. Many will be moved and humbled. After a time they will drink of the waters of life.

Jesus proclaimed himself the bread of life: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” John 6:51. (Ellen White, The Ellen G White 1888 Materials, Chap. 215)

Introduction

The “1888 Message” is named so because it first became widely known at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, in the year 1888, when two young ministers, Alonzo T. Jones and Ellet J. Waggoner, presented a message that was strikingly different and refreshing.

Seventh-day Adventists considered themselves to be raised up to proclaim the “third angel’s message,” the third message in the line of three special messages announced in Revelation 14:6-12. This was their “reason for being”. The message was generally understood to include such doctrines as: the Second Coming of Christ, the work of Christ in the Sanctuary in Heaven, the Sabbath and the Law, the State of the Dead, and so forth.

Because Adventists had come to associate doctrines and prophecies with the “third angel’s message”, they were surprised when E. J. Waggoner declared at the 1891 General Conference:

Perhaps some in the audience have not realized the fact that the lessons we have been studying for the last dozen evenings on the book of Romans, have been nothing but the third angel’s message. I wish to show you this evening that the third angel’s message is all summed up in the preaching of the apostle Paul, as described in 1 Corinthians 2:2. “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” (The General Conference Daily Bulletin, March 25, 1891, “Bible Study. Letter to the Romans. No. 16”)

Many thought, “How can this be?” So they wrote to Ellen White, saying, “Is this new teaching really the third angel’s message?” She replied:

Several have written to me, inquiring if the message of justification by faith is the third angel’s message, and I have answered, “It is the third angel’s message in verity.” (Review and Herald, April 1, 1890)

They had grown quite familiar with presentations on the prophecies, the Law and Sabbath, the image of the beast, and so forth, and called that the “third angel’s message”. A simple example of this is J. N. Andrews’ book, The Three Messages of Revelation 14:6-12. It was representative of what the average Adventist considered to be the message for that time. There is not a word of justification by faith in that book.

So there was something called “the third angel’s message” which was actually just the shell or container (laws, doctrines, prophecies), the vessel of the truth; and then there was the heart, or living gospel, that was the treasure. And when that treasure, “justification by faith,” was presented in its glory, it was not recognized.

Now for sure, the Adventists of that time, had a teaching that they called “justification by faith”, or “faith and works”. You can find articles prior to 1888 that taught forgiveness and justification, as you can also find articles from after that period. I read one just the other day in a Review from 1945. But these other articles do not carry the 1888 message. They do not bear a resemblance to the true message. A good way to see the difference is just to dwell on the true message.

Forgiveness is Life

In the following article, E. J. Waggoner makes it clear that justification is a living process, not just a legal transaction. He draws an example from healing:

Many think that the forgiveness of sins by the imputed righteousness of Christ, is something that exists only in the mind of God. Of course they acknowledge its reality, yet at the same time they do not realize it. There is always something unreal about it in their minds. The trouble is that they fail to grasp and to make real the living connection between Christ and them. There is between the true disciple and Christ a connection as real as that between the vine branch and the parent stock.

The forgiveness of sins is too often thought to be illustrated by the payment of a poor man’s debt by a rich friend. If a rich man pays the debt of a poor man, then the shopkeeper credits the poor man with the sum, and the record on the books shows that the debt is canceled. Of course the poor man is benefited, but he does not actually receive anything that will keep him in future. But it is different when God for Christ’s sake forgives his sins.

Christ “gave Himself for our sins.” Galatians 1:4. His life is given to be manifest in our mortal flesh. 2 Corinthians 4:11. Just as the sap flows through the vine to the farthest branches, and just as the life of Christ went into the poor, diseased woman, to make her perfectly well, so the sinless, endless, inexhaustible life of Christ flows into those who have faith in Him, to cleanse them from sin, and to make them walk in newness of life. (E. J. Waggoner, The Present Truth, May 31, 1894, “A Lesson from Real Life”)

This shows that when God “speaks” forgiveness, it is much more than just a legal transaction covering over some bad deeds written in a book somewhere in heaven. It is the living, creative, word of God which MAKES the person righteous. The first angel of Revelation 14 calls attention to the creative power of God, which is always to be linked with the Gospel.

Revelation 14
⁶ And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
⁷ Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

Waggoner linked the new birth to forgiveness in this statement:

Notice in the above account that the taking away of the filthy garments is the same as causing the iniquity to pass from the person. And so we find that when Christ covers us with the robe of His own righteousness, He does not furnish a cloak for sin but takes the sin away.

And this shows that the forgiveness of sins is something more than a mere form, something more than a mere entry in the books of record in heaven, to the effect that the sin has been canceled. The forgiveness of sins is a reality; it is something tangible, something that vitally affects the individual.

And so the full and free forgiveness of sins carries with it that wonderful and miraculous change known as the new birth, for a man cannot become a new creature except by a new birth. This is the same as having a new, or a clean, heart. (Christ and His Righteousness, p. 66)

Ellen White made a similar statement:

The religion of Christ means more than the forgiveness of sin; it means taking away our sins, and filling the vacuum with the graces of the Holy Spirit. It means divine illumination, rejoicing in God. It means a heart emptied of self, and blessed with the abiding presence of Christ.

When Christ reigns in the soul, there is purity, freedom from sin. The glory, the fullness, the completeness of the gospel plan is fulfilled in the life. The acceptance of the Saviour brings a glow of perfect peace, perfect love, perfect assurance. The beauty and fragrance of the character of Christ revealed in the life testifies that God has indeed sent His Son into the world to be its Saviour. (Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 420)

Is it any wonder that Ellen White said “every fiber of my heart said, Amen” when she finally heard some other ministers bearing the same message that she had been laboring to bring to the people for so many years?

I have had the question asked, What do you think of this light that these men are presenting? Why, I have been presenting it to you for the last forty-five years—the matchless charms of Christ. This is what I have been trying to present before your minds.

When Brother Waggoner brought out these ideas in Minneapolis, it was the first clear teaching on this subject from any human lips I had heard, excepting the conversations between myself and my husband. I have said to myself, It is because God has presented it to me in vision that I see it so clearly, and they cannot see it because they have never had it presented to them as I have. And when another presented it, every fiber of my heart said, Amen. (Ellen White, Sermon, Rome, New York, June 19, 1889)

Justification Makes Us Righteous

Waggoner and Jones both often interpreted the word “righteousness” or “justified” as “to be MADE righteous”:

Therefore being justified [made righteous] by faith [by expecting, and depending upon, the word of God only], we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1. That is so, bless the Lord! And feeding upon this blessed thing is cultivating faith. (A. T. Jones, Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, January 17, 1899, “Editorial”)

Now we may read Romans 3:23-25, and find that it is not so very difficult: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified [that is, made righteous, or doers of the law] freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission [sending away] of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” (E. J. Waggoner, The Bible Echo, November 1, 1893, “The Power of Forgiveness“)

This again shows how they viewed “righteousness by faith”. It was a living power that changed people.

An Exchange of Life

But the 1888 message was not just the “third angel’s message in verity”, it was also the Laodicean message:

The message given us by A. T. Jones, and E. J. Waggoner is the message of God to the Laodicean church, and woe be unto anyone who professes to believe the truth and yet does not reflect to others the God-given rays. (Ellen White, Manuscript Releases, no. 1152)

The Laodicean message is the message of Christ to the last of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. Part of it says:

Revelation 3
¹⁸ I counsel you to buy of me…white raiment, that you may be clothed.

The “white raiment” offered the Laodiceans is the righteous character of Christ. It is a free gift offered to them, but can only be had by an exchange for the “filthy garments” of the old character:

Zechariah 3
³ Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
⁴ And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with change of raiment.

The problem with the modern so-called gospel is that there is no exchange. The prospective church member is urged to “give their heart to Christ”. But it’s not an exchange. They surmise that somehow, if they are willing, Christ will use them and work in and through them. They think Christ will accept their good intentions and work through that. I know this, because that is the experience I went through. I “willed” to serve Him, and asked for Him to forgive me, to strengthen me, to guide me. But there was no exchange of the old life for the new life. I did not understand that, therefore I did not ask for it, therefore I did not receive, for:

Matthew 7
⁸ Everyone that asks, receives.

If we bow down before the Lord, and ask Him to bring forth the fruits of righteousness, but we do not have the exchange of the old life for the new, it is like asking God to bring forth apples from a thorn tree. He won’t do it, as it is against the Law. We must “be righteous” before we can “do righteousness”.

The Bible uses many illustrations to illustrate the old and new natures:

• the good and evil tree,
• the old and new man,
• the carnal and spiritual mind,
• the lamb and the wolf,
• the sweet and bitter water,
• the stony heart and the heart of flesh,
• the old and new birth.

Well-meaning Christian teachers do not realize that both cannot co-exist and so they teach us to “starve the old man” and “feed the new”. George Vandeman, in the booklet, How to Live With a Tiger, likened the Christian life that way, saying that there is a lamb nature and a wolf nature within the Christian, both at the same time!

But how contrary was that view to the view expressed by Meade MacGuire, a man who grasped the 1888 Message, and presented it in his lovely book, Lambs Among Wolves:

Is there any way that the little wolf could actually become a lamb? Perhaps you would unhesitatingly say, No, that is impossible. But there really is a way. God could re-create the wolf and make it a lamb. (Meade MacGuire, Lambs Among Wolves, ch. 1, “The New Life”)

And what does the Bible say?

Zechariah 3
⁴ Take away the filthy garments from him…I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with change of raiment.

Ezekiel 36
²⁶ I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.

Romans 6
⁶ Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed…

There is an exchange: one for the other. Both do not co-exist. Romans 7:1-4 makes it clear that Christ will not marry the human until the old marriage is dissolved first. A. T. Jones taught the same principle:

Now Romans 8:6-7: “For to be carnally minded is death…Because the carnal mind is enmity with God.” Cannot the Lord make that which is enmity against Him—can’t He make it love for Him? [Congregation: “No.”] There is the point: If it were at enmity, then it might be reconciled, because the thing that would make it at enmity would be the source of the trouble….We are at enmity, but when He takes the enmity away, we are reconciled to God.

In this matter of the carnal mind though, there is nothing between; it is the thing itself. That is the root. Then it cannot be subject to the law of God. The only thing that can be done with it, is to destroy it, uproot it, banish it, annihilate it. (A. T. Jones, 1893 General Conference Daily Bulletin, “Third Angel’s Message #12”)

Let us come back to the example of healing. Suppose Jesus came to the man at the pool of Bethesda, put His arm around the man, lifted him up, and supported him so that they could hobble around together. Suppose Jesus would say to him:

“Now just hold on to me, and as long as you do that we can walk together, but if you let go, you will be back on the ground again.”

Would that illustrate the gospel? Of course not, for that is not what Jesus did. Yet that is often the way the gospel is taught. But it does not fit the pattern that Jesus gave. What Jesus actually did was transfer His life into the man. The sickness or disease was taken away, the decayed flesh was rebuilt, and the man was able to get up and walk with the new life that had passed into him. That is an illustration of the power of the gospel to heal us from sin.

From the simple Bible account of how Jesus healed the sick, we may learn something about how to believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins. Let us turn to the story of the paralytic at Bethesda. The poor sufferer was helpless; he had not used his limbs for thirty-eight years. Yet Jesus bade him, “Rise, take up your bed, and walk.” The sick man might have said, “Lord, if You will make me whole, I will obey your word.” But, no, he believed Christ’s word, believed that he was made whole, and he made the effort at once; he willed to walk, and he did walk. He acted on the word of Christ, and God gave the power. He was made whole.

In like manner you are a sinner. You cannot atone for your past sins; you cannot change your heart and make yourself holy. But God promises to do all this for you through Christ. You believe that promise. You confess your sins and give yourself to God. You will to serve Him. Just as surely as you do this, God will fulfill His word to you. If you believe the promise,–-believe that you are forgiven and cleansed,–-God supplies the fact; you are made whole, just as Christ gave the paralytic power to walk when the man believed that he was healed. It is so if you believe it. (Ellen White, Steps to Christ, p. 51)

Forgiveness and Cleansing

Notice that she mentions two problems: forgiveness (past sins), and cleansing (the evil heart). Real forgiveness addresses both problems: it covers the past sins, and changes the inner man. This is also brought out in the well-known promise:

1 John 1
⁹ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

One action of confession brings two results: forgiveness and cleansing. This is because there are two facets to the sin problem: the fruit (deeds), and the root (corrupt life). This means that a true confession must confess not just the deeds, but the evil root. One is forgiven, the other is cleansed. If you only ask for forgiveness for past deeds, then you are not confessing the root of the problem and therefore will not obtain the cleansing that you need.

When I first became an Adventist (and was not truly born-again), Romans was a most difficult book, especially chapters 6-8. I remember especially puzzling over this verse:

Romans 6
⁷ For he that is dead is freed from sin.

I knew that I needed freedom from sin within, for I was struggling and failing badly in the temptations within the heart and imaginations. I knew that if a man was physically dead, then he wouldn’t sin anymore…but that is obviously not what the chapter meant, for it was talking about people (who were still alive) being “free from sin” (vs. 18). But what was this “death”? And how was I to experience it? And wasn’t it presumptuous, or even heresy, to believe, as the apostle stated, that people could be “free from sin”?

What helped me was to understand that sin is not just “what I do”, it is “what I am”. The fountain must be purified before the streams can be pure. Waggoner clearly understood that sin was not just “actions”:

The erasing of sin is the blotting of it from our natures, so that we shall know it no more. “The worshipers once purged”–-actually purged by the blood of Christ–-have “no more conscience of sin,” because the way of sin is gone from them. Their iniquity may be sought for, but it will not be found. It is for ever gone from them,–it is foreign to their new natures, and even though they may be able to recall the fact that they have committed certain sins, they have forgotten the sin itself–-they do not think of doing it any more. This is the work of Christ in the true sanctuary, which the Lord pitched, and not man, the sanctuary not made with hands, but brought into existence by the thought of God. (E. J. Waggoner, The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, September 30, 1902, “The Blotting Out of Sin“)

Deliverance from Bondage

When sin is ruling in the heart, a man needs more than forgiveness for past wrong deeds, he needs deliverance from the bondage of that hard master. Jesus said:

John 8
³⁴ Whoever commits sin is the servant of sin.

In this example, sin is not just an evil action, it is a slave-master who rules the person.

What this bondage and captivity are has already been shown. It is the bondage of sin–-the slavery of being compelled to sin, even against the will, by the power of inherited and acquired evil propensities and habits. Does Christ deliver from a true Christian experience? No, indeed! Then the bondage of sin, of which the apostle complains in the seventh of Romans, is not the experience of a child of God, but of the servant of sin.

It is to deliver men from this captivity that Christ came; not to deliver us, during this life, from warfare and struggles, but from defeat; to enable us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, so that we could give thanks unto the Father “who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son,” through whose blood we have redemption. (E. J. Waggoner, Bible Echo, April 1898, “Bond-servants and Freemen”)

The struggle in Romans 7 describes a man who has not yet been delivered from that bondage. He says:

Romans 7
¹⁴ I am carnal, sold under sin.
²⁴ …who shall deliver me?

If he prays for forgiveness for his evil deeds, this will not solve the problem, for he is still under that master, and will only be forced to do more evil. The solution is death. The old nature must be given up.

Galatians 2
²⁰ I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live!

This need for deliverance was clearly portrayed in the Passover service, instituted at the time when the Israelites were delivered from Egyptian bondage. This was an object lesson of redemption:

The deliverance of Israel from Egypt was an object lesson of redemption, which the Passover was intended to keep in memory. (Ellen White, The Desire of Ages, p. 77)

There were six steps in this service:

1. They were circumcised.
2. They chose the Lamb.
3. They killed the Lamb.
4. They sprinkled the blood.
5. They ate the Lamb.
6. The firstborn of Egypt died.

These steps have their spiritual counterpart:

1. We put off our own works to save ourselves.
2. We choose Christ.
3. We trust in His death for us.
4. We stand beneath His blood.
5. We feed on His word.
6. Our first-born, the carnal mind, dies.

Many so-called gospels taught in our world today stop at Step 5. But there were TWO deaths required to free the Israelites from bondage: the death of the Lamb, and the death of the firstborn. If the firstborn of Egypt had not died, they would not have been free. Likewise there are TWO deaths required to free us from the bondage of sin: the death of Christ and the death of our firstborn. Notice both deaths in this passage:

Romans 6
⁶ Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Christ is crucified, and our old man is crucified; it is crucified “with Him.” Thus there are two deaths. After that, a man is born again. This is a one-time death, that is not repeated daily.

Romans 6
¹⁰ …he died unto sin ONCE…
¹¹ Likewise reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin [i.e. ONCE].

The Israelites did not go back into Egypt every time they sinned, and the firstborn of Egypt did not need to die over and over. When Jesus washed the disciples feet, He said:

John 13
¹⁰ He that is washed [in baptism] needs not [to be baptized again] save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and you are clean, but not all.

I mention this because people mix up the one-time death of the old man, the root of sin, with “dying daily”. They think that the stony heart will be with us through our whole life, and consequently do not ask for it to be cleansed. If they don’t ask, then they don’t receive. Hence they remain married to the old spiritual nature, and their whole experience is one of struggle and defeat, over and over. They ask the Lord to work in their lives, but He cannot free them from the power of sin, because they are still married to the old man.

1. There is a one-time death, symbolized by baptism in the New Testament, and the death of the firstborn of Egypt in the Old Testament.
2. There is a daily death, which is an active choice to lay all my gifts, strength, talents, and choices, on the altar every day, symbolized by the daily offerings in the Old Testament sanctuary.

These two are separate and distinct.

Heart Work

Now this state of being “free from sin” (Romans 6:18) must obviously apply to a particular part of the person, and not the whole man, for we shall have a sinful body until the resurrection. Here is another related verse:

2 Corinthians 5
¹⁷ Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

ALL things become new? But we still have our old bodies! Clearly, in order to make sense, this statement must be applied to a particular part of the human, and not the whole man. In one area of man, he becomes “free from sin”, and “old things pass away” and “all things become new”. This can only be in the innermost part of man: the spiritual area, the heart. This is the counterpart of the Most Holy Place of the Old Testament Sanctuary, as applied to the temple of man’s body. Here there is a complete cleansing. The old is removed. And as Ellen White stated (Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 420), God “fills the vacuum” with the graces of His Spirit. These graces come via the life of Jesus (for the Holy Spirit only brings the things of Jesus to us), which is transplanted into us, thereby making us His children.

Galatians 3
²⁹ If you be Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

It is in this area that a person can know and experience “freedom from sin”, and “victory over sin”.

Christ Gives Us the Victory

Some cautious Christians feel that it is not proper to say: “I have overcome”. They think that this will make us self-confident and self-righteous. In the larger picture of the whole lifetime, this is true. To claim immunity from future sins would be presumptuous. But it is wrong to apply these cautions to the regeneration that Christ offers in justification. Here, we should, and must know, the power of Christ to overcome sin.

By the transforming agency of His grace, the image of God is reproduced in the disciple; he becomes a new creature. Love takes the place of hatred, and the heart receives the divine similitude. This is what it means to live “by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”. This is eating the Bread that comes down from heaven. (Ellen White, The Desire of Ages, p. 391)

We can say, “thanks be to God who gives us the victory” (1 Corinthians 15:57), because by receiving the life of Christ in place of the old corrupt seed of sin, we have within ourselves a power that has been tested and tried, and is able to resist every sin. We do not “go out to get the victory over sin”, we “get the victory” by getting Christ’s life, and then we go out, with that all-sufficient power within us.

I hope you can understand the difference. We cannot claim to “have the victory” over the beast and his image yet, for that is in the future. But the only way we will have the victory then, is by having within ourselves, before that time, a power that is stronger than the power of Satan, which will be working through the beast and the image in the future. So when the image comes, and we go out to meet it, we go out with the victory within, and then it will be manifest without. David had a power greater than Goliath before he even met Goliath on the field. And when he slew the giant, that power was revealed. But it had been there already, and was shown in the faith he expressed before the battle.

1 John 5
⁴ For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.

“Cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished.” Here is something that is to be told to the people–Your warfare is accomplished. Does that mean that men may now sit down and have an easy time?–Oh, no; far from it; it means action. It means the taking of the victory that has been gained. Christ has accomplished the warfare; therefore what are you to do?–Rejoice in it. How can you rejoice in it?–By faith. Well, what is meant by that–by having victory in Him? We get victory because His victory is our victory. His victory is our victory, because He gained it for us, and we get the benefit of it by allowing Him to dwell in us in His fullness. The enemy is just as powerless against Christ in us, as he was against Christ eighteen hundred years ago.

Christ has gained the victory,–complete, perfect, absolute. He did no sin. He did not know sin in the sense of doing it; but He knew it in the power of it. Christ knows the power of sin better than anybody in this house, because He resisted to the utmost, and we have not.

Now when one sets out to resist sin to the utmost, he will know the power of sin as he never knew it before, because if he lets himself be swept along, he will never know the power at all; but when he sets out to resist sin to the utmost extent, he will know the full power of it.

Christ knows the power; He has gained the victory, complete, spoiled principalities and powers, and taken the weapons from the enemy. If we are in bondage, then, what are we in bondage to?–Sin. What is it that puts us in bondage?–Fear.

There is no need of it, because liberty has been proclaimed, and when the Lord proclaims liberty, there is liberty. The Lord stands and cries to the captives, “Liberty”. Now when the Lord cries, Liberty, there is liberty. But to how many has He proclaimed liberty?–To all that are bound. Christ has brought liberty, absolute freedom.

Men were in bondage to sin; Christ has brought absolute freedom from sin to every individual in the world; and He has taken the one who had the power of sin, the author of sin, the originator of sin, and spoiled him, made a show of him; so that he had no power at all in Christ’s hand. With Christ how much power has Satan?–None at all; his power is gone. In any contest with Christ he has no power at all; he is helpless. (E. J. Waggoner, 1897 General Conference Daily Bulletin, “Studies in the Book of Hebrews No. 10”)

Cleansing of the Sanctuary

It is by the ministry of Christ in heaven that these miraculous changes take place in man during justification and sanctification. Christ’s ministry in the Sanctuary in heaven has power to make the “comers thereunto perfect”. Hebrews 10:1.

I am surprised that most Adventists today seem to think that the cleansing of the sanctuary is just an erasure of written records. This is wrong. It is sin, the corrupt life, that is taken from us and placed in the sanctuary, and it is that power, which is removed when the sanctuary is cleansed.

The sanctuary is not defiled by written records, any more than the Bible is, since it also contains the written records of sin and will stand to all eternity. Certainly, when the sin is transferred from the person to the sanctuary, or from the Sanctuary to the scapegoat, the records are updated to reflect the change. But the cleansing of the Sanctuary is the removal of the SINS that are there, not the records of sin.

A. T. Jones summed up nicely the work of the gospel and the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary in this statement:

The cleansing of the sanctuary, as to the sanctuary itself, was the taking out of and away from the sanctuary all the transgression of the people which, by the service of the priests, had been taken into the sanctuary during the service of the year. And this stream must be stopped at its fountain in the hearts and lives of the worshipers, before the sanctuary itself could possibly be cleansed. (The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection, ch. 15, “The Cleansing of the Sanctuary”)

First, the gospel “makes an end” of sin within the believers who are purified by Christ’s priestly ministry. When that stream of sin into the sanctuary ceases, then the sanctuary itself can be cleansed. And that marks the end of the gospel work, so far as man’s personal salvation is concerned.

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So these thoughts are a few of the facets of the 1888 Message that have blessed me. I originally wrote this out for an acquaintance of mine, but have reproduced it here for others who might also benefit, especially since there is much confusion today about what the 1888 Message actually is.

There is, of course, more to the thousands of pages that Waggoner and Jones wrote than these few thoughts. But I have tried to faithfully present the heart of the “everlasting gospel” which they both clearly taught, especially dwelling on those points that distinguish their message from what is commonly taught today as the “gospel”.

I encourage you to go beyond this small introduction, and actually read their writings for yourself.

Isaiah 55
³ Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

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Other articles by Frank Zimmerman:

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