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Lessons from Meeting the Sunday Law Crisis of late 1880's and early 1890's
Selected Messages, Book 3, Chapter 55:
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From the writings of Ellen G. White. Selected Messages, Book 3 pages 380 to 390
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Introduction written by EGW Estate
WITH THE FOCUS OF ADVENTISM ON THE RETURN OF CHRIST, THE CLIMACTIC LAST-DAY EVENTS ASSOCIATED WITH HIS SECOND COMING HAVE EVER BEEN A THEME OF MAJOR INTEREST TO SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS. IT COULD NOT BE OTHERWISE, FOR SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM SPRANG FROM A RELIGIOUS MILIEU, THE MILLERITE MOVEMENT, WHICH STRESSED ESCHATOLOGICAL EVENTS--THE RESURRECTION, THE LAST JUDGMENT, THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN AND SINNERS. {3SM 380.1}
THE VISIONS GIVEN TO ELLEN WHITE AT THE OUTSET OF HER MISSION BROUGHT THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SEVENTH-DAY SABBATH PROMINENTLY INTO VIEW AS THE TESTING TRUTH, WHICH IN THE LAST DAYS WOULD DIVIDE THE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH INTO TWO CLASSES--THOSE WHO OBEY GOD AND WILL BE ETERNALLY SAVED AND THOSE WHO REJECT HIS LAW AND WILL BE ETERNALLY LOST. THE ATTITUDE OF THE INDIVIDUAL TOWARD THE SEVENTH-DAY SABBATH WOULD BE THE DETERMINING FACTOR. {3SM 380.2}
THE CLOSING EVENTS OF THIS EARTH'S HISTORY HIGHLIGHTED THE LITTLE 219-PAGE GREAT CONTROVERSY PUBLISHED IN 1858, AND WERE THE CRUCIAL, CLIMATIC ISSUE OF THE GREAT CONTROVERSY DEPICTIONS IN THE BOOKS BEARING THAT TITLE ISSUED IN 1884, 1888, AND 1911. {3SM 380.3}
THE MAJOR PORTION OF THIS SECTION INCLUDES ESCHATOLOGICAL STATEMENTS WHICH FREQUENTLY PARALLEL THE PRESENTATION GIVEN IN THE GREAT CONTROVERSY, BUT WHICH JUST AS OFTEN PROVIDE NEW DETAILS AND NEW INSIGHTS. THESE MATERIALS HAVE BEEN DIVIDED INTO THREE MAIN AREAS, NAMELY: {3SM 381.4}
1. LESSONS FROM MEETING THE SUNDAY LAW CRISIS OF THE LATE 1880'S AND EARLY 1890'S. {3SM 381.5}
2. GENERAL COUNSELS APPROPRIATE FOR A PEOPLE APPROACHING THE END. {3SM 381.6}
3. INVOLVEMENTS OF "THE LAST GREAT STRUGGLE," WITH THE SABBATH-SUNDAY ISSUE AS THE CRUCIAL FACTOR. {3SM 382.1}
THE READER WILL NOTE THAT, WHILE ELLEN WHITE CALLS OUR ATTENTION TO TRYING EXPERIENCES AHEAD, WHICH WILL DOUBTLESS INCLUDE MARTYRDOMS, AND PREDICTS APOSTASIES IN OUR RANKS, SHE ALSO FORECASTS LARGE ACCESSIONS TO THE CHURCH AND GIVES ENCOURAGING ASSURANCE OF HEAVEN'S SUSTAINING GRACE TO GOD'S LOYAL PEOPLE. -- ELLEN WHITE TRUSTEES. {3SM 382.2}
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Assurance as the Clouds Darken in 1884
Great things are before us, and we want to call the people from their indifferent to get ready. . . . We are not now to cast away our confidence, but to have firm assurance, firmer than ever before. Hitherto hath the Lord helped us, and He will help us to the end. We will look to the monumental pillars, reminders of what the Lord hath done for us, to comfort and to save us from the hand of the destroyer. . . . {3SM 383.1}
| We can but look onward to new perplexities in the coming conflict, but we may well look on what is past as well as what is to come, and say, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us" (1 Sam. 7:12). "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deut. 33:25). The trial will not exceed the strength which shall be given us to bear it. Then, let us take up our work just where we find it, without one word of repining, imagining nothing can come, but that strength will come proportionate to the trials. . . . {3SM 383.2} |
Our present peace must not be disturbed by anticipated trials, for God will never leave nor forsake one soul who trusts in Him. God is better unto us than our fears. . . . {3SM 383.3}
Don't Borrow Trouble for a Future Crisis
| -- Many will look away from present duties, present comfort and blessings, and be borrowing trouble in regard to the future crisis. This will be making a time of trouble beforehand, and we will receive no grace for any such anticipated troubles. . . . When the scene of sore conflict comes, we have learned the lesson of holy confidence, of blessed trust, and we place our hands in the hands of Christ, our feet on the Rock of Ages, and we are secure from storm, from tempest. We are to wait on our Lord. Jesus will be an ever-present help in every time of need.-- Letter 11a, 1884. {3SM 383.4} |
You inquire in regard to the course which should be pursued to secure the rights of our people to worship according to the dictates of our own conscience. This has been a burden on my soul for some time, whether it would be a denial of our faith, and an evidence that our trust was not fully in God. But I call to mind many things God has shown me in the past in regard to things of a similar character, as the draft [during the American Civil War] and other things. I can speak in the fear of God, it is right we should use every power we can to avert pressure that is being brought to bear upon our people. . . . {3SM 384.1}
[We are] not to provoke those who have accepted the spurious sabbath, an institution of the Papacy, in the place of God's holy Sabbath. Their not having the Bible arguments in their favor makes them all the more angry and determined to supply the place of arguments that are wanting in the Word of God by the power of their might. The force of persecution follows the steps of the dragon. Therefore great care should be exercised to give no provocation. And again, let us as a people, as far as possible, cleanse the camp of moral defilement and aggravating sins. . . . {3SM 384.2}
All the policy in the world cannot save us from a terrible sifting, and all the efforts made with high authorities will not lift from us the scourging of God, just because sin is cherished. If as a people we do not keep ourselves in the faith and not only advocate with pen and voice the commandments of God, but keep them every one, not violating a single precept knowingly, then weakness and ruin will come upon us. . . . {3SM 384.3}
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Appeals of No Avail Without Working of the Holy Spirit -- All the struggles to carry our appeals to the highest authorities in our land, however earnest and strong and eloquent may be the pleas in our favor, will not bring about that which we desire, unless the Lord works by His Holy Spirit in the hearts of those who claim to believe the truth. We may struggle as a mighty man in swimming against the current of Niagara, but we shall fail unless the Lord pleads in our behalf. God will be honored among His people. They must be pure, they must be divested of self, steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. . . . {3SM 385.1} |
Laws to Exalt the False Sabbath -- We are to be ready and waiting for the orders of God. Nations will be stirred to their very center. Support will be withdrawn from those who proclaim God's only standard of righteousness, the only sure test of character. And all who will not bow to the decree of the national councils, and obey the national laws to exalt the sabbath instituted by the man of sin to the disregard of God's holy day, will feel, not the oppressive power of popery alone, but of the Protestant world, the image of the beast. . . . {3SM 385.2}
The great issue so near at hand will weed out those whom God has not appointed and He will have a pure, true, sanctified ministry prepared for the latter rain. . . . {3SM 385.3}
A new life is proceeding from satanic agencies to work with a power we have not hitherto realized. And shall not a new power from above take possession of God's people? -- Letter 55, 1886. {3SM 385.4}
We must soon wrestle with the powers of the land, and we have every reason to fear that falsehood will gain the mastery. We shall call upon our churches in the name of the Lord to view this struggle in its true light. [SEE TESTIMONIES, VOL. 5, PP. 711-718, "THE IMPENDING CONFLICT" (1889).--COMPILERS.] It is a contest between the Christianity of the Old and New Testaments, and the Christianity of human tradition and corrupt fables. {3SM 385.5}
This contest is to decide whether the pure gospel shall have the field in our nation, or whether the popery of past ages shall receive the right hand of fellowship from Protestantism, and this power prevail to restrict religious liberty. . . . The message must go broadcast, that those who have been imperceptibly tampering with popery, not knowing what they were doing, may hear. They are fraternizing with popery by compromises and by concessions which surprise the adherents of the papacy. . . . {3SM 386.1}
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God's Children in Other Churches -- God has children, many of them, in the Protestant churches, and a large number in the Catholic churches, who are more true to obey the light and to do [to] the very best of their knowledge than a large number among Sabbathkeeping Adventists who do not walk in the light. The Lord will have the message of truth proclaimed, that Protestants may be warned and awakened to the true state of things, and consider the worth of the privilege of religious freedom which they have long enjoyed. {3SM 386.2} |
Sunday Amendment in the United States -- This land has been the home of the oppressed, the witness for liberty of conscience, and the great center of scriptural light. God has sent messengers [A. T. JONES AND OTHERS.] who have studied their Bibles to find what is truth, and studied the movements of those who are acting their part in the fulfilling prophecy in bringing about the religious amendment which is making void the law of God and thus giving ascendancy to the man of sin. And shall no voice be raised of direct warning to arouse the churches to their danger? Shall we let things drift, and let Satan have the victory without a protest? God forbid. . . . {3SM 386.3}
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Many Not in Our Ranks to Come to the Front -- There are many souls to come out of the ranks of the world, out of the churches -- even the Catholic Church -- whose zeal will far exceed that of those who have stood in rank and file to proclaim the truth heretofore. For this reason the eleventh hour laborers will receive their penny. These will see the battle coming and will give the trumpet a certain sound. When the crisis is upon us, when the season of calamity shall come, they will come to the front, gird themselves with the whole armor of God, and exalt His law, adhere to the faith of Jesus, and maintain the cause of religious liberty which reformers defended with toil and for which they sacrificed their lives. . . . {3SM 386.4} |
A Spurious Sabbath the Issue -- A spurious sabbath is presented to be legislated into power, compelling the observance of a sabbath which God has not enjoined upon man. The persecutions of Protestants by Romanism, by which the religion of Jesus Christ was almost annihilated, will be more than rivaled, when Protestantism and popery are combined. . . . {3SM 387.1}
Our own land is to become a battlefield on which is to be carried on the struggle for religious liberty -- to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience. Then can we not discern the work of the enemy in keeping men asleep who ought to be awake, whose influence shall not be neutral, but wholly and entirely on the Lord's side? Shall men cry, Peace and safety, now, when sudden destruction is coming upon the world, when God's wrath shall be poured out? -- Manuscript 30, 1889. {3SM 387.2}
America Can Become the Place of Greatest Peril -- America, . . . where the greatest light from heaven has been shining upon the people, can become the place of greatest peril and darkness because the people do not continue to practice the truth and walk in the light. . . . {3SM 387.3}
The more nearly we approach the closing scenes of this earth's history, the more pronounced will be the work of Satan. Every species of deception will take the lead to divert the mind from God through Satan's devices.--Letter 23c, 1894. {3SM 387.4}
An Early View of Sabbath Importance
[See also Early Writings, 32-34, for the vision in 1847 on the importance of the Sabbath.] |
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I saw that we sensed and realized but little of the importance of the Sabbath, to what we yet should realize and know of its importance and glory. I saw we knew not what it was yet to ride upon the high places of the earth and to be fed with the heritage of Jacob. But when the refreshing and latter rain shall come from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power, we shall know what it is to be fed with the heritage of Jacob and ride upon the high places of the earth. Then shall we see the Sabbath more in its importance and glory. { 3SM 388.1} |
But we shall not see it in all its glory and importance until the covenant of peace is made with us at the voice of God, and the pearly gates of the New Jerusalem are thrown open and swing back on their glittering hinges, and the glad and joyful voice of the lovely Jesus is heard richer than any music that ever fell on mortal ear bidding us enter.—Letter 3, 1851. { 3SM 388.2}
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We must take a firm stand that we will not reverence the first day of the week as the Sabbath, for it is not the day that was blessed and sanctified by Jehovah, and in reverencing Sunday we should place ourselves on the side of the great deceiver. The controversy of the Sabbath will open the subject to the people, and an opportunity will be given that the claims of the genuine Sabbath may be presented.... { 3SM 388.3} [see LDE 133.2 ]
The God-fearing, commandment-keeping people should be diligent, not only in prayer, but in action, and this will bring the truth before those who have never heard it.... { 3SM 388.4}
When the law of God has been made void, and apostasy becomes a national sin, the Lord will work in behalf of his people. Their extremity will be his opportunity. He will manifest his power in behalf of his church.... { 3SM 388.5}
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A Time to Witness — The Lord has enlightened us in regard to what is coming upon the earth that we may enlighten others, and we shall not be held guiltless if we are content to sit at ease, with folded hands, and quibble over matters of minor importance.... { 3SM 388.6} [ see LDE page 126 & 127 ]
The people must not be left to stumble their way along in darkness, not knowing what is before them, and unprepared for the great issues that are coming. There is a work to be done for this time in fitting a people to stand in the day of trouble, and all must act their part in this work. They must be clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and be so fortified by the truth that the delusions of Satan shall not be accepted by them as genuine manifestations of the power of God.... { 3SM 389.1}
It is a solemn time for God’s people, but if they stand close by the bleeding side of Jesus, he will be their defense. He will open ways that the message of light may come to the great men, to authors and lawmakers. They will have opportunities of which you do not now dream, and some of them will boldly advocate the claims of God’s downtrodden law.... { 3SM 389.2}
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Satan’s Strategy in the Final Conflict — There is now need of earnest working men and women who will seek for the salvation of souls, for Satan as a powerful general has taken the field, and in this last remnant of time he is working through all conceivable methods to close the door against light that God would have come to his people. He is sweeping the whole world into his ranks, and the few who are faithful to God’s requirements are the only ones who can ever withstand him, and even these he is trying to overcome.... { 3SM 389.3}
Go to God for yourselves; pray for divine enlightenment, that you may know that you do know what is truth, that when the wonderful miracle-working power shall be displayed, and the enemy shall come as an angel of light, you may distinguish between the genuine work of God and the imitative work or the powers of darkness.... { 3SM 389.4}
A world is to be warned, and when the third angel’s message goes forth with a loud cry, minds will be fully prepared to make decisions for or against the truth. The great change is to be made by Satan and his evil angels, united with evil men who will fix their destiny by making void the law of God in the face of convincing evidence from his Word that it is unchangeable and eternal. { 3SM 389.5} |
Loud Cry of Third Angel’s Message — The very time of which the prophet has written will come, and the mighty cry of the third angel will be heard in the earth, his glory will lighten the world, and the message will triumph, but those who do not walk in its light will not triumph with it.... { 3SM 390.1}
The solemn time has come when ministers should be weeping between the porch and the altar, crying, “Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach” ( Joel 2:17). It is a day when, instead of lifting up their souls in self-sufficiency, ministers and people should be confessing their sins before God and one another. { 3SM 390.2} |
| An Army of Believers Who Stand the Last Test — The law of God is made void, and even among those who advocate its binding claims are some who break its sacred precepts. The Bible will be opened from house to house, and men and women will find access to these homes, and minds will be opened to receive the Word of God; and, when the crisis comes, many will be prepared to make right decisions, even in the face of the formidable difficulties that will be brought about through the deceptive miracles of Satan. Although these will confess the truth and become workers with Christ at the eleventh hour, they will receive equal wages with those who have wrought through the whole day. There will be an army of steadfast believers who will stand as firm as a rock through the last test.... { 3SM 390.3} |
Increased light will shine upon all the grand truths of prophecy, and they will be seen in freshness and brilliancy, because the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness will illuminate the whole.... { 3SM 390.4}
When the angel was about to unfold to Daniel the intensely interesting prophecies to be recorded for us who are to witness their fulfillment, the angel said, “Be strong, yea, be strong” ( Daniel 10:19). We are to receive the very same glory that was revealed to Daniel, because it is for God’s people in these last days, that they may give the trumpet a certain sound.—Manuscript 18, 1888. { 3SM 390.5}
When Christ shall come the second time, the whole world will be represented by two classes, the just and the unjust, the righteous and the unrighteous. Preceding the great sign of the coming of the Son of man, there will be signs and wonders in the heavens.... { 3SM 391.1}
Already sprinklings from the vials of God’s wrath have been let fall upon land and sea, affecting the elements of the air. The causes of these unusual conditions are being searched for, but in vain. { 3SM 391.2}
God has not restrained the powers of darkness from carrying forward their deadly work of vitiating the air, one of the sources of life and nutrition, with a deadly miasma. Not only is vegetable life affected, but man suffers from pestilence.... { 3SM 391.3} |
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Physical and Religious World to Be Shaken — These things are the result of drops from the vials of God’s wrath being sprinkled on the earth, and are but faint representations of what will be in the near future. { 3SM 391.4}
Earthquakes in various places have been felt, but these disturbances have been very limited.... Terrible shocks will come upon the earth, and the lordly palaces erected at great expense will certainly become heaps of ruins. { 3SM 391.5}
The earth’s crust will be rent by the outbursts of the elements concealed in the bowels of the earth. These elements, once broken loose, will sweep away the treasures of those who for years have been adding to their wealth by securing large possessions at starvation prices from those in their employ. { 3SM 391.6}
And the religious world too, is to be terribly shaken, for the end of all things is at hand.... All society is ranging into two great classes, the obedient and the disobedient....
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There Will Be Laws Controlling Conscience — The so-called Christian world is to be the theater of great and decisive actions. Men in authority will enact laws controlling the conscience, after the example of the papacy. Babylon will make all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Every nation will be involved. Of this time John the Revelator declares: { 3SM 392.1}
“The merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow” ( Revelation 18:3-7). { 3SM 392.2} [Original quote is 1MR 196. 4,5 - [ see LDE 136.4 ] |
One Universal Confederacy — “These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of Kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful” ( Revelation 17:13, 14). { 3SM 392.3}
“These have one mind.” There will be a universal bond of union, one great harmony, a confederacy of Satan’s forces. “And shall give their power and strength unto the beast.” Thus is manifested the same arbitrary, oppressive power against religious liberty, freedom to worship God according to the dictates of conscience, as was manifested by the papacy, when in the past it persecuted those who dared to refuse to conform with the religious rites and ceremonies of Romanists. { 3SM 392.4}
In the warfare to be waged in the last days there will be united, in opposition to God’s people, all the corrupt powers that have apostatized from allegiance to the law of Jehovah. In this warfare the Sabbath of the fourth commandment will be the great point at issue, for in the Sabbath commandment the great Lawgiver identifies Himself as the Creator of the heavens and the earth.... { 3SM 392.5}
In Revelation we read concerning Satan: “And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” ( Revelation 13:13-17).... { 3SM 393.1}
“And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the Kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame” ( chap. 16:13-15).... { 3SM 393.2}
Satan Will Appear to Succeed — All things in nature and in the world at large are charged with intense earnestness. Satan, in cooperation with his angels and with evil men, will put forth every effort to gain the victory, and will appear to succeed. But from this conflict, truth and righteousness will come forth triumphant in victory. Those who have believed a lie will be defeated, for the days of apostasy will be ended.—Manuscript 24, 1891. { 3SM 393.3}
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