Lesson 1: The Gospel From Patmos
What is the relationship between Revelation and the 1888 Message?
Ellen White says there is a very close relationship between the 1888 message of Christ's righteousness and the general features of the prophecies of Revelation.
There may be "matters of minor importance that call for careful study and corrections," she says; but "the great waymarks of truth, showing us our bearings in prophetic history, are to be carefully guarded, lest they be torn down, and replaced with theories that would bring confusion rather than genuine light." [1]
Why Was Ellen White So Concerned in 1896 About Adventist Futurism?
It was apparent to her then that the "most precious message" of the 1888 era was "in a great degree" meeting with determined resistance and rejection. [2] In her understanding, the basic prophetic understandings of our people at that time were correct and properly conceived so as to lighten the earth with the glory of the loud cry message if only our brethren had accepted the further light of the 1888 message of Christ's righteousness.
In other words, combined with the prophetic understanding of our people at that time, the proclamation of the 1888 message could have finished the gospel commission in that generation. At no time did Ellen White express a need for a new interpretation of Daniel and Revelation. Rather, she pleaded for a much more diligent comprehension of the prophecies as "the chain of truth in the prophecies" was searched out by the diligent, prayerful study of our pioneers.
Her warnings of false doctrines creeping in became more insistent after 1888. We see the justification for these warnings in the present prophetic confusion in this church. The prospect of an utterly disunited "pluralism" wreaking further confusion is disheartening to anyone who longs for the church to "press together."
It is general knowledge that there is vast confusion today regarding these prophecies. Where is the "genuine light"? We are told:
"Especially should Daniel and the Revelation have attention as never before in the history of our work. ... When we as a people understand what this book [Revelation] means to us, there will be seen among us a great revival. ... When the books of Daniel and Revelation are better understood, believers will have an entirely different religious experience. ... The Lord will bless all who will seek humbly and meekly to understand that which is revealed in the Revelation." [3]
These solemn calls for deeper study of the prophecies do not imply that we need a new model of interpretation which must either deny or supplant the understanding that the Holy Spirit gave to our pioneers.
It was during the 1888 crisis that Ellen White said, "Many things intended to deceive will come, bearing some of the marks of truth. Just as soon as these shall be set forth as the great power of God, Satan is all ready to weave in that which he has prepared to lead souls from the truth for this time." [4]
According to Ellen White's inspired counsels, nothing would please the enemy more than to see Seventh-day Adventists inventing new schemes of interpretation of Daniel and Revelation, splintering themselves off into fragments, reapplying the time prophecies, and thus creating confusion and hindering the work of soul-winning. New members would be devastated if novel theories are urged upon them and they encounter prophetic confusion in the church!
Tampering with the "great waymarks of ... our bearings in prophetic history" will produce "confusion." "A sleepless adversary" is at work to distort those prophetic understandings. "Faith ... is undermined" when these "events in the train of prophecy that had their fulfillment away in the past are made future." Acknowledging that these past understandings were correct for their time but applying them again "to the future" is also an example of confusion.
What Is the Best Hope For Resolving Our Prophetic Confusion?
In the light of Ellen White's clear counsels, how could any new invention of prophetic interpretation find general worldwide acceptance in this our generation? It will be impossible to convince the world church to scuttle The Great Controversy, which will continue in a convincing way to refute all new interpretations and re-applications of the prophecies. The Holy Spirit has set a seal of approval on that book.
Our disunity should lead us to be deeply embarrassed to the point of fasting, prayer, and corporate humiliation. Our only hope is to "press together" in a deeper appreciation for the "great prophetic waymarks" that have built this Seventh-day Adventist Church from its earliest days.
Numerous attempts by those who say, "This is truth. I have new light." are fueled by a sense of bewilderment at the long delay in the return of Christ. "We need a new interpretation of the prophecies" is the cry. But the true key to understanding this long delay, far beyond when the generation that saw "signs" in the heavens should have witnessed His return, is explained by the 1888 history.
No honest mind can read Matthew 24:34, Mark 13:30, and Luke 21:32 without recognizing that the Lord's original intention was that the same generation which experienced the Great Disappointment of 1844 should witness the fruition of "the blessed hope." The rejection of the 1888message was totally contrary to Heaven's gracious plan, and to the expectations of angels.
The prophetic scenario which prevailed in the 1888 era has again come back into place on the stage of current history. A 70-year detour wherein Russian Communism appeared to displace the Papacy as the "beast" of Revelation 13 has now come to an end. The principal characters again occupying center stage in the world's spotlight are a revived Romanism as the "first beast," a powerful United States as the two-horned beast (a Protestantism sidling ever closer to Rome), a renascent Islam, and exploding Spiritualism. It is prophetic deja vu.
It's time once more that "a most precious message" at last come into its own as the Lord intended. It must go unsuppressed and unopposed to the world church, and thence to enlighten the world at large.
--Paul E. Penno
Endnotes (Ellen G. White):
[1] Selected Messages, book 2, p. 101.
[2] Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 234, 235.
[3] Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, pp. 112-114.
[4] Selected Messages, book 2, p. 92 (1894).
Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: https://youtu.be/u2u_g7CyP1s
"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888message.org/sst.htm
| RR |
