The Laodicea Message and Adventist History Presented to the Gospel Study Group, April 27, 2018 Fred Bischoff

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1 The Laodicea Message and Adventist History Presented to the Gospel Study Group, April 27, 2018 Fred Bischoff Summary The Laodicean Message is best seen in its location as the seventh message to the churches, the final in a historical sequence. This gives it special application to the events and individuals living in the final segment of history. The Advent Movement of the 19 th Century saw itself living in that portion of time, with their identity and mission outlined in the end-time passages of scripture, from those of Jesus and the apostles, to those of the final prophecies of Daniel and John. The angel messages of Revelation 14 and 18 especially depicted their end-time work. But there were two other messages especially for the end-time messengers, to prepare them to give to others what they were given. The lessons of the parable of ten virgins of Matthew 25, and of the message to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans in Revelation 3, confronted the Advent Movement, and continues to confront, to this day, as necessary for the presence of Jesus through His Spirit represented by the Latter Rain, that alone can empower the final Message. Introduction This study is a historical and interpretive examination within Adventist history of key elements of Jesus message unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans. 1 It does not intend to be an exhaustive review of the developing understanding of that message, as all the 1 Revelation 3:14 1

2 pieces of that historical puzzle have not been studied for this paper. 2 The blend of broad strokes with some details will hopefully provide a compelling, if not complete picture. The author s goal is to examine some elements of the biblical and historical setting of this message from Jesus, to consider its significance, to point out some key observations and connections, to encourage further study, and to hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, enabling Jesus to bring us His victory, that His presence through the Spirit will result in our overcoming, even as [He] overcame. 3 In considering the Laodicean message, the author has attempted to follow the following historicist principles: 1. The history of the great conflict between good and evil, from the time it first began in heaven to the final overthrow of rebellion and the total eradication of sin, is also a demonstration of God's unchanging love God revealed to Daniel and John various series of events that in their fullness carried from the time then present to God s everlasting kingdom on earth after the eradication of sin and all individuals and systems built on it. The series of seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 is one example of this historical progression, focused on the individuals embracing (responding positively to) God s love. 2 The extensive digital resources of the original material have been instrumental in accessing the pieces of the puzzle assembled herein. Though located at a web site ( ) and in apps (EGW Writings) labeled with Ellen White s initials, the documents provided include the Adventist Pioneer Library which contains extensive collections of non-ellen White authors books and periodicals contemporary with her, as well as some key works of later authors who have reviewed the history of that time. 3 Revelation 3:21, 22; John 16:33 4 Ellen White, Patriarchs and Prophets, page The also refers to this previous sentence: Every manifestation of creative power is an expression of infinite love. The sovereignty of God involves fullness of blessing to all created beings. (33.2) (Note that all non-biblical references if not attributed to an author are from Ellen White s writings.) 2

3 3. There are expressions and applications of the eternal principle of unselfish love (unselfishness) that apply to specific times in history the present truth. 5 The messages to the churches, in Jesus commendations and rebukes, reveal this specificity. 4. The lessons from the past apply also to the present. Paul illustrated this truth in reviewing the history of Israel. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 6 Thus the messages to the seven churches have a cumulative importance, with the previous points still having a pertinence to later generations, with later generations being responsible for the lessons of the past. This principle rests on the following observations: a. There is no new thing under the sun. 7 b. Though there are different degrees of development, sinful human nature remains the same. All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. 8 The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. 9 The flesh profiteth nothing. 10 c. Belshazzar was held accountable for what Nebuchadnezzar had learned. 11 d. History repeats itself Peter 1:12; see also Colossians 1:5, Corinthians 10:11 7 Ecclesiastes 1:9 8 Romans 3:23 9 Romans 8:22, John 6:63 11 Daniel 5: Signs of the Times, November 8, 1899 par. 10 3

4 5. There is a movement in God s dealing with sin that repudiates an impersonal uniformitarianism. Peter addressed the scoffing, willing ignorance that would embrace such a view that God is not the moral governor of the universe. 13 The same word of God seen in creation will function in judgment, holding His intelligent creatures responsible for the unselfish love He has showered on them. This is the trajectory of both Daniel and Revelation, and of the seven churches, leading to Laodicea, the people judged/vindicated. Messages of the Advent Interest in the Bible passages that people of the late 18 th and early 19 th centuries understood as pointing to the Second Coming of Jesus originated the Advent Movement. This understanding included Jesus return being the judgment of the world. In some passages, the element of time is connected to the final judgment. When time is mentioned, some places simply refer to an uncertainty of the time of Jesus coming, requiring a constant watching. 14 In other locations there is an indication of a nearness in time (in relation to the time of the writer, or to certain signs). 15 And again, some specific time intervals are described that appeared to lead to His coming or related events. 16 The movement had global elements in its early years, but developed extensively in the United States. As Seventh-day Adventists trace back to their beginnings, we see in North 13 2 Peter 3: For example, Matthew 24: Hebrews 10:37; Revelation 22:10; Luke 21:31 16 Daniel 7:25; 8:14. This paper is not an attempt to show that these are not contradictory time concepts, if the details of how the judgment unfolds, and how Bible time is portrayed, are adequately considered. 4

5 America a flow of history in which various individuals with the Advent interest were interwoven with Bible study and exposition, dreams and visions, meetings and publishing, a remarkable natural phenomenon, a signal fulfillment of a prophecy decoded with historicist principles, and revivals with the markings of the genuine Spirit of God a Christ-centered message and experience, with changed lives. These individuals identified a series of Bible passages that predicted such a movement as theirs, just before Jesus return, passages containing messages predicted to have global extent. 17 These messages would go to the entire world by means of individuals who would fulfill the final expression of the gospel commission Jesus gave at the end of His earthly ministry. 18 Among the Advent believers there were those whose conviction came to focus on four main pictures that comprised these messages, all in Revelation 14:6-12 and 18:1-4. Those in the first chapter became known as the First Angel s Message, the Second Angel s Message, the Third Angel s Message, and the final one, as the Loud Cry of the Third Angel. 19 Out of the Great Disappointment of October 1844, there developed a group with the following beliefs: (1) God had been leading in the Advent movement in the first two messages. 17 This is in contrast to the scale of Jesus first coming, which in His own words to His disciples, was restricted to the house of Israel (Matthew 10:5, 6). This local mission and its outcome for the end of the nation of Israel has distinct and significant parallels to the global mission leading to the end of the world in its current form. See the author s "The Local 70 Weeks as a Template for the Global Evening-Morning 2300, With Revelation Events. 18 Matthew 28:19, 20; compare Mark 16:15 with Revelation 14:6. 19 See for example, for the first three, see The Third Angel s Message, The Present Truth, April 1850, pages 65-69; and Our Present Position, Second Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, December 1850, page 14. For some early mentions of the fourth, see The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, November 29, 1853, page 166; April 11, 1854, page 96; December 26, 1854, page

6 (2) The disappointment was due to misunderstanding the Bible sanctuary s Day of Atonement. (3) The third message was present truth that had within it all the missing elements of understanding, 20 and was to be proclaimed with a loud voice as strong as the first, 21 though its beginnings were as small as the first in its early years. (4) The testimony of Jesus Himself was guiding them through the Holy Spirit s gift of prophecy in Ellen Harmon White. The third message in its context depicted a communication of global extent and supernatural power leading to a ripening of earth s harvest for the Second Coming. 22 This maturing produced two crops: (1) The wicked harvest of counterfeit worship mentioned in the third message would result from Babylon s wine involving all nations as addressed in the second message. This harvest will be the result of rejecting or distorting God s unselfish love. (2) But the everlasting gospel conveyed by divinely-ordained messengers would lead to a godly harvest of genuine worship outlined in the first and third 20 These came to be called the landmarks, and included the sanctuary opened under the seventh trumpet (Revelation 11:19) to the ark containing the commandments of God and revealing the faith of Jesus ; the Sabbath of the fourth commandment all opposed by the beast power, its image, and its mark; and the nonimmortality of the wicked, demonstrated in the wrath of God and the eternal smoke. See Standing by the Landmarks (Manuscript 13, 1889, in The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, page 518.2; hereafter abbreviated EGW1888.) 21 The first and third angel both speak with a loud voice (Revelation 14:7, 9). 22 Revelation 14:6-20 6

7 messages. This harvest is the result of loving God in true reciprocity because He first loved us. 23 Ellen White was explicit in her later accounts of the Advent Movement, recorded in the book The Great Controversy, that the First Angel s Message had dated to the preaching of William Miller who began his public ministry in The start of the Second Angel s Message she placed during the summer of And she recorded in her early great controversy vision that Jesus sent the Third Angel to earth upon His entry into the Most Holy Place in October. 26 In the same vision, she saw the Loud Cry was still future, and would join the third message. 27 However, there were two other passages, also understood as applying to the end of current earthly history, but given in other Bible settings, with other imagery, and having a narrower target audience. The first of these was the parable of the ten virgins Jesus gave in His address on the signs of His coming. 28 He ended the parable with the explicit application to the issue of preparation for when the Son of man cometh. This parable contained, just prior to the Bridegroom s arrival in the story, a cry that went forth at midnight. Throughout the early years of the Advent Movement they used this midnight cry in a general way, even for titles of publications, for the announcement of Jesus coming. 29 Eventually this title was especially connected with the specific study and proclamation in 1844 that pointed to the date for the 23 1 John 4:19 24 The Great Controversy, pages 330.2; This is in both the 1888 and 1911 editions. 25 Ibid., page Early Writings, page 254.1; compare 243.2, Ibid., pages , in a 4-paragraph-long chapter entitled The Loud Cry. 28 Matthew 25: See The Midnight Cry, P. G. Damsteegt, Foundations of the Seventh-day Adventist Message and Mission, pages 40-44, 54. 7

8 Jewish Day of Atonement that year, October 22, the 10 th day of the 7 th month by Bible reckoning. 30 The other passage was the message to the angel of the church of Laodicea. With its being directed to the last of the seven churches, the Advent believers also saw this as applying to their day. This message did not appear to come to have as specific a time application as did the Midnight Cry, but how it was viewed was varied. We will do a review of some references to it, and ask the question, what relation was eventually seen by those embracing the Third Angel s Message between that and the Laodicean Message and the Third Angel s Message, and especially the Loud Cry. Early Advent Views of Laodicean Message The early Adventists recognized that they were in the time of the Laodicean Message. However, it appears they consistently viewed the message as addressing the condition of the church in general 31, and especially those rejecting the doctrine of the Advent near 32 and the midnight cry Leviticus 23:27; see Samuel Snow s study in his periodical The True Midnight Cry, August 22, 1844; see also Ellen White s description of this 1844 application of this title to that specific time, the reasons behind it, the connections to Matthew 25 as the source of its title, and especially the description of the character and effect of that Seventh-Month Movement, as it was also called. Her description is found in The Great Controversy, pages , and that name for the movement is used in Himes Signs of the Times, January 1, 1845, page See also Damsteegt, op. cit., page 104 ff. 31 William Miller, Evidences from Scripture and History of the Second Coming of Christ About the Year A. D. 1843, and of His Personal Reign of 1000 Years, 1833, page 5.1. Also see Signs of the Times [Himes, ed.] April 15, 1840, page J. V. Himes, Signs of the Times, March 15, 1841, page Charles Fitch, Signs of the Times, December 21, 1842, page See also the views of J. Weston that Damsteegt reviewed (Op. Cit., page 84.1&2). 8

9 The application of the Laodicean Message came a little closer home as the small group explored the light of the sanctuary and the Sabbath in the Third Angel s Message. Apparently the first reference to the Laodicean message by Ellen White was in 1850, six years after she became a messenger of God. She had a vision on December 24, and the next day wrote it out in 12 paragraphs. 34 In paragraph 8 she referred to the message in general for God s people: I saw that the burden of the message now was the truth. The Word of God should be strictly followed and held up to the people of God. In the next paragraph she was more specific: I saw the burden of the message should be the first, second, and third angel s messages, and those who had any hope in God would yield to the force of that truth. How mighty and glorious it looked to me. O what a privilege is ours, that of being among the children of God and believing the mighty truth a poor, despised company, but how honored of God. In the events of the late 1840s the majority of the Adventists had rejected the combined light of all three messages, leaving it with the poor, despised company. In the final paragraph of her manuscript, Ellen White saw the condition of these Laodiceans rejecters: Then I saw Laodiceans. They will make a mighty effort. Will they get the victory? One who has the truth will chase a thousand, and two will put ten thousand to flight. They are coming to conclusions that bring them into close quarters, and they can not tell where they be themselves, for they are lost in the foggy, terrible fear that takes hold of them. Anguish of spirit will seize them. Dare they admit that the door is shut? The sin against the Holy Ghost was to ascribe to Satan what belongs to God or what the Holy Ghost has done. They said the shut door was of the devil and now admit it is against their own lives. They shall die the death. Look ye at the Pattern. Follow Him, for He is meek and lowly in heart. Shut your eyes to everything but the present, saving truth Manuscript 11, 1850 (December 25) 35 For more on the separation of the larger Laodicean Adventist body from this small group, see Damsteegt, Op. Cit., pp. 147, 148; [James White], The Seven Churches, Review, Oct. 16, 1856, p. 189; Brother Miller s Dream, Present Truth, May 1850, p. 74, also published in James White, ed., Brother Miller s Dream. For more on the shut door issue, see The Shut Door and Ellen White s Visions in The Ellen G. White Encyclopedia, s.v. Shut Door. 9

10 In 1852 in her 5 th article in James White s recently launched periodical The Advent Review, and Sabbath Herald, Ellen White addressed a piece To the Brethren and Sisters. In the second paragraph she continued to apply the Laodicean label to Adventists themselves. As I have of late looked around to find the humble followers of the meek and lowly Jesus, my mind has been much exercised. Many who profess to be looking for the speedy coming of Christ, are becoming conformed to this world, and seek more earnestly the applause of those around them, than the approbation of God. They are cold and formal, like the nominal church, that they but a short time since separated from. The words addressed to the Laodicean Church, describe their present condition perfectly. See Revelation 3: They are "neither cold nor hot," but "lukewarm." And unless they heed the counsel of the "faithful and True Witness," and zealously repent, and obtain "gold tried in the fire," "white raiment," and "eye-salve," he will spue them out of his mouth. She saw that the Adventists were becoming cold and formal, Laodicean, like the non- Adventist Christians ( nominal ), and were treating earnest believers like they had been treated by nominal Christians, considering those eager to follow the new light, who were differing from them in doctrine and worship, as deluded and having mesmerism as fanatics. Let those who break God's law and teach others to do so, denounce us as fallen from grace because we keep all ten of his immutable precepts, it will not harm us. Think ye that the commandment-keepers will be sorry, and mourn when the pearly gates of the Golden City of God are swung back upon their glittering hinges, and they are welcomed in? No, never. They will then rejoice, that they are not under the bondage of the law, but that they have kept God's law, and therefore are free from it. A More Corporate Identity A necessary step in appreciating even more closely the significance and application of the Laodicean Message occurred in 1856, as evidenced by James White s publishing a short inquiry article, Watchman, What of the Night? in the Advent Review, and Sabbath Herald. In it he simply opened with three sentences. 10

11 The inquiry is beginning to come up afresh, "Watchman, What of the night?" At present there is space for only a few questions, asked to call attention to the subject to which they relate. A full answer, we trust, will soon be given. 36 He then posed 11 questions that build a line of logic in interpreting the meaning of the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3, and focused in on the Laodicean church. In question 6 he asked, Does not the state of the Laodiceans (lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot) fitly illustrate the condition of the body of those who profess the Third Angel's Message? His further questions suggested that it would be the nominal churches, and the nominal Adventist, (as bodies,) that would be considered cold. By his silence White excluded any group from being hot. Then he closed with the appeal, motivation, plea, and promise of Jesus recorded in verses He continued the theme in the next issue in an article on the seven churches. In addressing the Sabbath-keeping Adventists, he wrote: The word "hot," represents the fervency, zeal and good works which are in accordance with the scriptures. This is not our condition; yet the feeble efforts put forth by us as a people are such that we cannot be said to be "cold." We are "lukewarm." We may not have boasted of our gold, silver, or of this world's goods; but have we not had, more or less, an exulting and an exalted spirit, in view of our position on plain Bible truth? Our positions are fully sustained by an overwhelming amount of direct scriptural testimony; and certainly a theory of divine truth is indispensable; but we, as a people, have evidently rested down upon a theory of truth, and have neglected to seek Bible humility, Bible patience, Bible self-denial, and Bible watchfulness, and sacrifice, Bible holiness, and the power and gifts of the Holy Ghost, which the church may enjoy, according to the plain testimony of the Bible. 37 White made a moving appeal to consider Jesus position and condition. Dear brethren, read and weep over the touching language from His lips which follows. It is to you. He has been slighted and shut out by you till his locks are wet 36 Advent Review, and Sabbath Herald, October 9, 1856, page Advent Review, and Sabbath Herald, October 16, 1856, page

12 with the dew of night. O, open your hearts to him. Let your hard hearts break before him. O, let him in. A deep work of consecrating yourselves and all you have to him, will be necessary to prepare the way for him to come in and sup with you and you with him. We dwell with pleasure upon this affectionate, this touching figure. What an illustration of communion with Christ! Who would not joyfully spread the table, and open the door for the dear Saviour to partake with them the last meal of the day, were he now a pilgrim on earth as at the first advent? This we cannot do; but we can do those things required of us, and prepare the way of the Lord in our own hearts. Covetousness, pride, selfishness, and love of the world must be put out of the heart before the Saviour will come in. O, be not deceived. Take the declarations of Christ and the apostles, which point out your duty as Christians, especially those which apply to you in the last stage of the church, while waiting for the coming of the Son of man, and let that word, like a two-edged sword, pierce your heart. O, ye Laodiceans, our mouth is open unto you. Be not deceived as to your real condition. Christ will spue you out of his mouth unless you are zealous and repent. Are you honoring the Lord with your substance, or are you covetous and worldly? Are you laying up treasure on earth, or in heaven? Is your love for the cause, and the salvation of your fellow-men increasing? or is it waning away? Are you more watchful of your words, and the spirit you manifest? or are you growing careless, and losing your power to watch? Are you dying daily, so that pride is put out of your heart? or does it find a rich soil and flourish there? If the latter be your case in all these questions, no marvel that the dear Saviour is shut out, and now knocks for admission. 38 The response can be seen in many letters of agreement and confession published in the weeks and months that followed, including one from 23-year-old Stephen Haskell who had been studying the topic for three months. 39 Haskell confessed, I firmly believe that the loud cry to the Message is right upon us, and the knocking of Christ at the door of our hearts is begetting in us a cry which will result in the loud cry of the Message. 40 In the correspondence and articles of that time, a growing understanding of the activity of Jesus in the pre-advent judgment began to grow, in the context of the Laodicean Message Ibid., page , Notice White s allusion to Song of Solomon 5:2. 39 See Arthur White, Ellen G. White, Volume 1, pages 344, Advent Review, and Sabbath Herald, November 6, 1856, page In the next paragraph he also uses Song of Solomon 5:2 language. 41 Arthur White, op. cit., pages 353,

13 James White in a January 1, 1857 article, Cause and Effect tied the message to the Loud Cry, but without using Revelation 18 concepts. 42 In the Review volume spanning from November 1856 to April 1857, there were 21 references to the Loud Cry. In April Ellen White published an article Be Zealous and Repent. 43 She addressed in particular the bane of selfishness, and touched on the need for life and order in the services of the believers. This practical application of the message will continue as the great controversy theme is expanded in her messages. In the spring of 1857 James and Ellen White made a tour East and related, This was a discouraging tour. The testimony to the Laodicean church was generally received; but some in the East were making bad use of it. Instead of applying it to their own hearts, so as to be benefited by it themselves, they were using the testimony to oppress others. It resulted in a narrowing up of the work of the third message. She said, These things have had a blighting influence, and have caused us to lay down our testimony on the subject almost entirely. The design of the message to the Laodiceans was to rid the church of just such fanatical influences; but the effort of Satan has been to corrupt the message, and destroy its influence. 44 However, in November Ellen White appealed in one testimony for each [to] have an experience for himself in this message of the True Witness to the Laodiceans. 45 That month she had a vision that was published in the Review December 31, 1857, entitled The Future and included in Spiritual Gifts, Volume 1 as The Shaking. It began with the words, I was 42 Advent Review, and Sabbath Herald, January 1, 1857, page In Testimony No. 3, now in Testimonies for the Church, Volume 1, pages Spiritual Gifts, Volume 2, pages 222.1, Testimonies for the Church, Volume 1, page

14 shown the people of God, and saw them mightily shaken. I saw some with strong faith and agonizing cries, pleading with God. A few paragraphs later she penned: I asked the meaning of the shaking I had seen. I was shown that it would be caused by the straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans. It will have its effect upon the heart of the receiver of the testimony, and it will lead him to exalt the standard and pour forth the straight truth. This straight testimony, some will not bear. They will rise up against it, and this will cause a shaking among God's people. I saw that the testimony of the True Witness has not been half heeded. The solemn testimony upon which the destiny of the Church hangs, has been lightly esteemed, if not entirely disregarded. This testimony must work deep repentance, and all that truly receive it, will obey it, and be purified. 46 The rest of the vision portrayed a transformation of the believers, and had allusions to the events leading to Acts 2, as well as imagery from Revelation 18, including the believers reflecting the light and glory of heaven and manifesting great power in evangelism. She related, I asked what had made this great change. An angel answered, "It is the latter rain. The refreshing from the presence of the Lord. The loud cry of the Third Angel. 47 These paragraphs described the then present lack of the Laodicean Message, and what will happen when it was heeded. The agony appears to tie the wretched condition of the addressees of the message with the experience of Paul in Romans 7:24, O wretched man that I am. 48 The burden of Jesus was clearly to bring His messengers into the experience of the message to enable the supernatural empowering of the Spirit for the final Loud Cry. 46 Review and Herald, December 31, 1857, paragraphs 5 and 6 47 Ibid., paragraph 9 48 Revelation 3:17 and Romans 7:24 are the only two occurrences of talaiporos. Ellen White later will connect the experience of Isaiah 6:5 Woe is me to this sanctuary message. See A Lesson from the Sanctuary Review, December 22,

15 In March of 1858 Ellen White received her great controversy vision, and in writing it up, included the above picture of the shaking, and its connection to the Laodicean Message, the Latter Rain, and the Loud Cry. In her chapter entitled The Loud Cry she noted This message seemed to be an addition to the third message, joining it as the midnight cry joined the second angel's message in The glory of God rested upon the patient, waiting saints, and they fearlessly gave the last solemn warning. 49 James White in October 20, 1859, published an article, The Loud Cry of the Third Angel and apparently for the first time clearly ties this Loud Cry to the pictures in Revelation 18, echoing again the unity of Acts 2 that will be seen in the final message. However, there is no indication of connections to the Laodicean Message of preparation. His emphasis was on the law of God and the Sabbath, with no mention of the faith of Jesus portion of the Third Message. At the same time, throughout the 1850s, many letters to the Review express a longing for the Loud Cry. James White repeated the above article in the April 26, 1860 issue, and placed an edited version of it in the June 6, 1861 issue. Of interest, the April 26 issue had an article by Myrta E. Steward of Mauston, Wisconsin, entitled Message to the Laodiceans in which she described the love that is the fulfilling of the law, and the inability in our own strength to love God with all our being and our neighbor as ourselves. She brought the truths of Romans 7 of our wretchedness into the picture, and pointed to the power of God s word, and the blood of Jesus, to cleanse us from dead works to serve the living God. She highlighted the need of faith to take God at his word. She implied the power of the message in evangelism in noting that God 49 Early Writings, page

16 will fill our hearts with love for himself, and loving him so deeply, you cannot fail to love all his creatures. You stand on a footing with them, and hence love them as yourself. Making the connection the angel had shown Ellen White, she pointedly asked, Do you desire to receive of the latter rain? 50 In 1862 Ellen White published a testimony entitled The Future in which she addressed the need of a maturing before Loud Cry, and the subsequent time of trouble. As the members of the body of Christ approach the period of their last conflict, "the time of Jacob's trouble," they will grow up into Christ, and will partake largely of His spirit. As the third message swells to a loud cry, and as great power and glory attend the closing work, the faithful people of God will partake of that glory. It is the latter rain which revives and strengthens them to pass through the time of trouble. Their faces will shine with the glory of that light which attends the third angel. 51 With the previous connections to the Laodicean Message with its shaking leading to the Loud Cry, the implicit connection to that message must be seen, while the power and glory are clear references to Revelation 18:1. In 1865, after her first vision on health two years before, she connects health reform to the Third Angel s Message, to the preparation for the Loud Cry of that message, and the fitting for translation. 52 The health reform, I was shown, is a part of the third angel's message and is just as closely connected with it as are the arm and hand with the human body. I saw that we as a people must make an advance move in this great work. Ministers and people must act in concert. God's people are not prepared for the loud cry of the third angel Advent Review, and Sabbath Herald, April 26, 1860, pages 178, Testimonies for the Church, Volume 1, page Ibid., page Ibid., page

17 The practical results of health reform were stated to be essential, in a way that appears to parallel the eyesalve of the Laodicean Message. If their moral and intellectual faculties are beclouded, they cannot appreciate the value of the atonement or the exalted character of the work of God, nor delight in the study of His word. 54 She called for a home for the sick, and the next year, the Western Health Reform Institute was opened. In 1867 she sounded a warning that was an implicit statement of the importance of the work of the Laodicean Message, again in the context of reform, especially of health. I was shown that if God's people make no efforts on their part, but wait for the refreshing to come upon them and remove their wrongs and correct their errors; if they depend upon that to cleanse them from filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and fit them to engage in the loud cry of the third angel, they will be found wanting. The refreshing or power of God comes only on those who have prepared themselves for it by doing the work which God bids them, namely, cleansing themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. {1T 619.1}. In other words, the Latter Rain, while it empowers the Loud Cry, is not the preparation for it. We can say the Early Rain s work does that, as shown in the previous connection of the testimony of the True Witness causing the shaking, out of which those receiving the witness can receive the Latter Rain and Loud Cry, in order to give it. Six years later Ellen White published a 40-page testimony, The Laodicean Church in Testimony No. 23, and a 4-part series in the Review, September 16, 23, 30, and October 7, She tied the solemn message to the Laodiceans with the history of the Third Angel s Message, and extensively reviewed the history of Elijah and Mt. Carmel, with repeated references to the lack of rain then. The implication for the lack of Rain for the Advent mission 54 Ibid., page

18 seems obvious. She addressed the spirit of opposition to the work of the Spirit. She again pointed out the plague of selfishness with its covetousness as a major symptom of this unbelief. 55 Ten years later Ellen White published an article Be Zealous and Repent that began with these words: "Be zealous and repent," is the admonition of Jesus to the Laodicean church. There is something to repent of. Worldly-mindedness, selfishness, and covetousness have been eating out their spiritual life. While they flatter themselves that they are rich, and increased with goods, and in need of nothing, Christ declares them to be "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." 56 She again addressed selfishness and covetousness. In 19 paragraphs she reviewed the need for self-denial and self-sacrifice. In December 1888, on the heels of the Minneapolis Conference, in a 21-paragraph article Our Duties and Obligations she addressed the ongoing need. It begins with: A great work is to be done in a short time. There is power in the present truth; but Satan is working in every conceivable way to keep the light away from the people. We must individually draw near to God, repent of our sins, our lukewarmness, our selfishness. The Laodicean message is applicable to the people of God at this time. Another grievous sin existing in our midst, is self-sufficiency,-- Pharisaism,--feeling that we are righteous, and all our acts are meritorious, when we are far from cherishing the right spirit toward God or toward our brethren. It is a spirit of wanting to be first. It is through his righteousness that we are saved, and his truth, as an abiding principle in the soul, sanctifies the man. The gospel of Christ is to be wrought into our every-day experience. The mind must be in a state to appreciate the divine claims of the gospel This testimony is found in Testimonies for the Church, Volume 3, pages Review and Herald, September 4, 1883 paragraph 1 57 Ibid., December 18,

19 Two years later she picked up the familiar appeal in an 22-paragraph article Be Zealous and Repent. She addressed even more pointedly the heart issues of the messengers, and their effect on God. She opened with: The Lord has seen our backslidings, and he has a controversy with his people. Their pride, their selfishness, their opening of the mind to doubt and unbelief, are manifest in his sight, and grieve his heart of love. 58 She noted that the True Witness of the Father says, I have prepared a way for the unrepressed tide of his love to flow to men. She repeats the lessons the messengers need. The road to paradise is not one of self-exaltation, but of repentance, confession, humiliation, of faith and obedience. The message to the Laodicean Church is appropriate to the church at this time. The heart of the message, highlighted in a way since 1888 never before so clearly understood and stated, is made plain. God will give additional light, and old truths will be recovered, and replaced in the frame-work of truth; and wherever the laborers go, they will triumph. As Christ's ambassadors, they are to search the Scriptures, to seek for the truths that have been hidden beneath the rubbish of error. And every ray of light received is to be communicated to others. One interest will prevail, one subject will swallow up every other,--christ our righteousness. 59 Two years later from Australia she wrote to Uriah Smith in one of her many letters of counsel and warning to him during those years about the immediacy and agency of how God was repeating the 30-year-old message, and of his need of eyesalve. 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. Elder Smith, had you been unprejudiced, had not reports affected you and led you to bar your heart against the entrance of what these men presented; had you, like the noble Bereans, searched the Scriptures to see if their testimony agreed with its instruction, you would have 58 Ibid., December 23, 1890, paragraph 1 59 Ibid., paragraph 19 19

20 stood upon vantage ground, and been far advanced in Christian experience. If you had received the truth into a good and honest heart, you would have become a living channel of light, with clear perception and sanctified imagination. Your conceptions of truth would have been exalted, and your heart made joyful in God. God would have given you a testimony clear, powerful, and convincing. But the first position you took in regard to the message and the messenger, has been a continual snare to you and a stumbling block. 60 Later that year, in what may be her most passionate letter on record, she addressed the need of the those who are in essence the angel of the church of the Laodiceans while not naming the message explicitly. Her letter to the General Conference president O. A. Olsen, drawing on imagery from the Midnight Cry, revealed The Need of a Converted Ministry after years of ministerial institutes attempting to give the messengers the message that they needed to give others. We need a converted ministry; but you, my brother, must not feel that you are all out of the way, because you see so little likeness to Christ in some who preach the truth to others. If they pass on year after year, in the same foolish-virgin way, the only course you can pursue is to let them out of the ministry. Anything, anything but men who have had all the privileges of the ministerial institutes, and yet do not absorb the truth, and therefore cannot give the truth to others. The truth we have set before us for the past few years, is immense in its importance, reaching into heaven and compassing eternity. Satan and his confederacy of evil have made every effort to cover up, to confuse minds, to make of none effect the precious, glorious truths of God's word. 61 In the late 1890s, addressing the importance and the place of health reform, she laid out the narrow path between rejecting it, and making too much of it. The health reform is as closely related to the third angel's message as the arm to the body; but the arm cannot take the place of the body. The proclamation of the third angel's message, the commandments of God, and the testimony of Jesus, is the burden of our work. The message is to be proclaimed with a loud cry and is to go to 60 EGW1888, page Appeal and Suggestions to Conference Officers (Pamphlet No. 2), page 24.1;

21 the whole world. The presentation of health principles must be united with this message, but must not be independent of it or in any way take the place of it. 62 Three years later she addressed again the tragic results of the over-emphasis of the medical missionary work: The third angel s message, in the place of swelling into a loud cry, is being smothered. Discouragements have come in. But the work is not to stop thus. It is to increase in the power of the Spirit of God. The time has come when the whole earth is to be lightened with the glory of the angel which came down from heaven. 63 In the General Conference Session of 1901, the first after Ellen White returned from Australia, W. W. Prescott reviewed in a sermon on April 15 the importance of the message of righteousness by faith before the destruction of Jerusalem in Daniel s day (Habbakuk 2:4), before the destruction of Jerusalem in John s day (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38, all quoting Habakkuk), and before the global destruction at the Second Coming of Jesus. He referred to when thirteen years ago at Minneapolis, God sent a message to this people to deliver them out of the faltering reform of the Advent Movement with that very same message. He then walked the listeners from 1888 right into the Laodicean Message. What has been the history of this people and this work since that time? Where do we stand now with reference to this message? How far has that truth been received--not simply assented to, but actually received?--not far, I tell you. How far has the ministry of this denomination been baptized into that Spirit?--Not far, I tell you. For the past thirteen years this light has been rejected and turned against by many, and they are rejecting it and turning from it to-day; and I say to every such one, "Beware lest that come upon you which was spoken of the prophets, Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish." What is the remedy?--the very same as of old, and no other,--repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. When John the Baptist came to prepare the way of the Lord under those circumstances that I have set forth, what was his message? "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." When Christ himself appeared, and began his work, what did he say? --"The time is fulfilled, and 62 Manuscript Releases, Volume 16, page 332.2, Letter 17, 1896 (May 27, to J. H. Kellogg) 63 Manuscript Release 311, page 47.1, Manuscript 177, 1899 (May 10) 21

22 the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel." When he sent out his disciples, the apostles, in his stead, to carry on his work after he ascended, what did they preach?--"repent ye therefore, and be converted." What are the messages to the churches?--repent, repent, repent. What is the message to the Laodicean church?--"be zealous therefore and repent." 64 Later that year, in an address at the Church School Teachers Institute, Ellen White addressed the same theme of the messages to the churches. While drawing from the lessons of Sardis, the call to repentance to Laodicea is powerfully implicit. The life we live is to be one of continual repentance and humility. We need to repent constantly, that we may be constantly victorious. When we have true humility, we have victory. The enemy never can take out of the hand of Christ the one who is simply trusting in His promises. If the soul is trusting and working obediently, the mind is susceptible to divine impressions, and the light of God shines in, enlightening the understanding. What privileges we have in Christ Jesus!... As we see souls out of Christ, we are to put ourselves in their place, and in their behalf feel repentance before God, resting not until we bring them to repentance. If we do everything we can for them, and yet they do not repent, the sin lies at their door; but we are still to feel sorrow of heart because of their condition, showing them how to repent, and trying to lead them step by step to Jesus Christ. Let us tell them that His arms are open to receive them, and that His promise is, Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. 65 Three years later, Ellen White published an article in the Review, A Call to Repentance that was an edited version of a 1902 manuscript. Spanning from the lessons of the message to Ephesus in the first church of Revelation, to those of Laodicea, she makes a strong appeal based on the need that was now over 50 years old. Leaving the first love is represented as a spiritual fall. Many have fallen thus. In every church in our land, there is needed confession, repentance, and reconversion. The disappointment of Christ is beyond description. Unless those who have sinned speedily repent, the deceptions of the last days will overtake them. Some, though they do not realize it, are preparing to be overtaken. God calls for repentance without delay. So long have many trifled with salvation that their spiritual eyesight is 64 General Conference Bulletin, April 18, 1901, page SDA Bible Commentary, Volume 7, page 959.9, 960.2; complete in Manuscript 92, 1901, paragraphs 6 & 8 22

23 dimmed, and they can not discern between light and darkness. Christ is humiliated in his people. The first love is gone, the faith is weak, there is need of a thorough transformation. My brethren and sisters, humble your hearts before the Lord. Seek him earnestly. I have an intense desire to see you walking in the light as Christ is in the light. I pray most earnestly for you. But I can not fail to see that the light which God has given me is not favorable to our ministers or our churches. You have left your first love. Self-righteousness is not the wedding-garment. A failure to follow the clear light of truth is our fearful danger. The message to the Laodicean church reveals our condition as a people. 66 In her beautiful chapter on the disciple John, published in 1911, Ellen White left the Seventh-day Adventist church (and the world) with the essence of the Laodicean Message as our only hope, the theme she used almost 60 years before as she lifted before those early Adventists The Hope of the Church. When one connects the theme of repentance through the lessons of Romans 7 to Revelation 3:17, 19, one cannot miss the gospel appeal of the True Witness in these words. None of the apostles and prophets ever claimed to be without sin. Men who have lived the nearest to God, men who would sacrifice life itself rather than knowingly commit a wrong act, men whom God has honored with divine light and power, have confessed the sinfulness of their nature. They have put no confidence in the flesh, have claimed no righteousness of their own, but have trusted wholly in the righteousness of Christ. So will it be with all who behold Christ. The nearer we come to Jesus, and the more clearly we discern the purity of His character, the more clearly shall we see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the less shall we feel like exalting ourselves. There will be a continual reaching out of the soul after God, a continual, earnest, heartbreaking confession of sin and humbling of the heart before Him. At every advance step in our Christian experience our repentance will deepen. We shall know that our sufficiency is in Christ alone and shall make the apostle's confession our own: "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing." "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Romans 7:18; Galatians 6: Review and Herald, December 15, 1904, paragraphs 8 and 9 (edited from Manuscript 166, 1902, found in Manuscript Releases, Volume 18, pages ) 67 Acts of the Apostles, page 561.1&2 23

24 Closing Reflections In 1857 Ellen White wrote of the blighting influence of misusing the Laodicean message. And in 1899 she recorded how an imbalanced development of a church ministry was causing the Loud Cry to be smothered. Can we see any lessons for today from these and the other stories of our past? Can we see the vital nature of the message we have considered? Can the final messages go to the world with Jesus outside our door? Can a foolish virgin, lacking the filling experience of walking in the Spirit, enter the wedding and call others there? The Laodicean Message is the one message that probes to the depths of the issues of the law of sin and death 68 which Jesus overcame. As we seek and allow the infilling of the Spirit by opening the door to a knocking Jesus, only then can we, like Daniel, be able to translate the handwriting on the wall of the Three Angel s Messages and their Loud Cry. Consider in closing the significance of the themes of the two messages for the messengers. 1. Message and Messenger theme: The messengers must give the 4 angel messages to the world. But we need the 2 messages from the ultimate Messenger Jesus before the 4 go in final power. 2. Two Principles theme: The 2 principles of unselfishness and selfishness lead to the drastically different destinies (a future and no future) of the harvest of 2 crops, of the stability of 2 cities, and of the marital status of 2 women, showing one principle 68 Romans 8:2 24