p. 3 | Significant Changes

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Dec 22, 1904

Significant Changes

It is plain to all that this advent movement has been passing through a crisis during the last two or three years, and we hope it is equally plain that there has been a positive and marked return to first principles in the face of an effort to bring in a new theology. It has been a turning-point in the history of this message. A failure to recognize and repudiate this perversion of the truth would have involved this denomination in the same experience that has come to nearly all the older and more popular denominations—a departure from its original platform, and an acceptance of human philosophy as a greater gospel.

The change which has come as a result of this experience is for the better. The evil which threatened has been plainly pointed out, and the vital and fundamental principles of this closing message have been more clearly defined. The hope of the immediate coming of the Lord, which had become almost a forlorn hope with many, has been revived, and there has been a most encouraging

response to the rallying call for means and messengers to carry the threefold message quickly “unto every nation and tribe and tongue and people.” Although this experience has been a trying one in some of its details, yet, when viewed from the right standpoint, there is encouragement in it. God gave a message to those people to give to the world, and the message as he gave it, and not a perversion of that message, must be proclaimed in order to meet the purpose of God. The original message is designed to meet the needs of this generation, and to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. As “the word of God came to John,” the forerunner of Jesus at his first advent, and as it was the preaching of the pure word of God as against tradition and perversion which prepared the way for the first advent, so it is to-day. Tradition and human speculation have supplanted the pure word of God. There is a scientific interpretation of the Scripture which robs it of its life and power. In this message the Lord gave the pure word again to the people, and it was necessary that it should be freed from any perversions or false interpretations before the real power of the truth could be revealed, and the message accomplish its work. This is the meaning of this experience. It is a sign of the nearness of the end and a preparation for cutting the work short in righteousness. It therefore only needs to be rightly understood in order to afford encouragement to those who are earnestly longing for the triumph of this truth.

While this significant change has come in the recent history of this denomination, there has also come an equally significant change to other denominations. For nearly twenty years the leading Protestant churches have been in conflict with the advocates of the new theology and the higher criticism. There was at first a disposition to repudiate the new teaching as subversive of the truth of the gospel, but so much tradition and speculation had already been mingled with the Word of God, and so much weakness had resulted from the persistent rejection of the advent messages that the defenses against error were largely broken down. The new school of interpretation rapidly gained influence and adherents, until now it has practically taken possession of the theological seminaries and the pulpits of Christendom. The situation is well stated in the following declaration by one of the leading organs of the movement, as its deliberate conclusion after a review of the twenty years’ conflict:—

Liberty to think and teach in the terms of the new theology, and to interpret the Bible in the terms of the new criticism, is no longer denied in the Protestant churches.

This is the change which has come to the other denominations. Read the extract a second time and a third time. It announces the surrender of Protestantism by the Protestant denominations. In the struggle with sophistry and skepticism they have been vanquished, and they will never be able to recover their ground. The original platform of Protestantism, as established by the Reformers, has been practically repudiated, and the authority of human reason and speculation has been accepted in place of the authority of God’s Word. Some of the results of the apparent triumph of false teaching are already discernible, and others will soon follow. It is also a sign of the nearness of the end.

The special significance of this change within this denomination and this change in the other denominations is worthy of our serious consideration. We have known for years that we were in the time of the loud cry of this message, and we have been sorely grieved because of the delay, but recently we have been comforted with the assurance that “there shall be delay no longer.” The time has fully come for this promise to be fulfilled. These changes have prepared the way. In calling his people back to the original message as he gave it to them, the Lord is getting them ready to co-operate with heavenly agencies in the final scenes of the conflict. In repudiating the original platform of Protestantism the churches as a body are taking that further step described in the prophecy: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and is become a habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird.” Now must be sounded with a loud cry the call, “Come forth, my people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” This is the message of the angel of Rev. 18:1. “The work of this angel comes in at the right time to join in the last great work of the third angel’s message, as it swells to a loud cry. . . . This message seemed to be an addition to the third message, joining it as the midnight cry joined the second angel’s message in 1844.”

These are truly stirring times, but we shall miss their real meaning to us, and shall be deprived of the experience which we ought to have individually, unless we recognize God’s working and respond to his call. O for eyes to see and hearts to appreciate the significance of our position at the present time! Surely there would then be a new consecration to God and his service. Some will respond to the call of the hour. Some will have a part in the loud cry of this message. And the time is at hand.