Waggoner the Pantheist
The General Conference of 1897
E. J. Waggoner first expressed his pantheistic ideas in 1894. In 1895
and 1896 he did not significantly develop these ideas but repeated his
thoughts on justification, the atonement and the incarnation. Then in
1897 Waggoner returned to the United States from England for the General
Conference session.1
Here he presented a series of studies on the
book of Hebrews. He ignored those chapters so vital to Adventist
theology—apparently because he no longer believed in a literal
sanctuary in heaven nor in its "cleansing" through the
intercession of Christ.2
Rather than provoking a confrontation on
something so vital to historic Adventism, however, Waggoner focused on
the earlier chapters of Hebrews. We are tempted to say he used this
scripture to promote his pantheistic sentiments.
Amazingly, none of the General Conference delegates or leaders of the
church protested Waggoner's pantheism. In fact, his remarks were
apparently well received. Furthermore, Robert Haddock is the only
scholar we know who has detected Waggoner's pantheism at the 1897
General Conference session. Froom notes that Waggoner spoke at the
session but makes no mention of his pantheism. He accuses Kellogg,
however, of then introducing the theories which later had their effect
on Waggoner.
In his lecture on February 11, 1897, Waggoner said:
All things stand by his Word. He spoke, and it was. So when we look
abroad on the things of nature, we see evidences of his power. When we
look over the meadow, we see the Word of God made grass. God spake,
and, lo! that Word appeared as a tree, or as grass.....
As the last act of creation, God made man. And as in all creation we
see the Word of God made trees, grass, etc., in man we see the Word of
God made flesh....
So just as God made man, and crowned him with glory and honor, we now
see the man Jesus, that Man who is in every man crowned with honor and
glory; and he added all things unto him.3
In his following address Waggoner continued:
When God made Adam by his Word, the Word was made flesh. As God spoke
all things into existence, his words went forth, and, lo! the earth
appeared. His Word went forth; he spoke; he said, Trees, and they were
there; he said, Grass, and it was; so that all these things that grow
over the ground are visible manifestations of the Word. It is the Word
of life, and these are simply some of the various forms of the life of
the Word. And so with man formed there in the beginning. There we see
the Word manifested as flesh. The power by which this was done was
God's power, and so God was in the Word, and the Word was in Adam, so
that this power could be manifested in him, God dwelling in him and
working in him; God taking this dust and using it to do these
wonderful things. It is God that worketh in you to will and to do his
good pleasure. Now, if God is there, and I am here, that is altogether
too far away. It is God that worketh in me. The Word was made flesh,
and the life of Adam was the life of God. He has no other life. Now
the blessedness of this is, when man fell, the Word was made flesh.
But suppose God had forsaken him, and had not been willing to make the
Word flesh; what would have become of him? — He would have returned
to dust. But God continues his life to man. So when man fell, God goes
right down there with him. Is that so, or is it some fancy? Did God
continue life to man, notwithstanding he had sinned? We are here, are
we not? We are sinners. We are living, are we not? Whose life is it
manifested in us?—It is God's life. Then God continues his life to
sinful men. When sin entered, death came; so when man sinned, death
came upon him. God stayed with him; therefore, in that he stayed with
man, although man had sinned, God took upon himself sinful flesh. And
so he took upon himself death, for death had passed upon all the
world.
Now, let us see further. All creation is continued until now
"by the same Word." Everything in this world is kept by the
same Word. Although everything is cursed, and everybody can see that,
it is yet a fact that it continues; it is an evidence that God is
there, Christ is there, the divine Word is there bearing the curse.
But in what thing does Christ endure the curse? Where is that point
where the curse falls upon Christ?—Sinful flesh. Not only sinful
flesh, but that which stands as the symbol of the curse that falls
upon Christ—the cross. What is the evidence that he bears the
curse?—' 'Accursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Death
and the cross both together mean the curse; therefore wherever there
is anything, there is the curse. Nevertheless, wherever there is
anything, there is Christ. Wherever there is anything, then, that
exists and bears the curse, there is Christ. But where Christ has the
curse upon him, he bears the cross. Then do you not see the
truthfulness of that statement which appeared from Sister White about
a year ago, that "the cross of Christ is stamped upon every leaf
in the forest?" And a little later than a year ago there appeared
in a first-page article of the Review and Herald a statement
that the very bread we eat is stamped with the cross. There is
something wonderful in that. Perhaps when you read that in every
blade, and every leaf, there is the cross of Christ, some of us read
it over without thinking about it, and some of us simply said, with
Nicodemus, how can this be? How soon do we find Christ crucified,
then?—Just as soon as there was any curse. And he is risen again as
well, because if you preach Christ crucified, his resurrection
necessarily goes with that.
Now, see how God has proclaimed the gospel for our encouragement
everywhere. People are inclined to get discouraged; Christians are
likely to think, Well, the Lord has forgotten us. Did you ever think
that way, as though the Lord didn't care for you;—that he has left
you alone? Is there any one who has not felt that way, discouraged, in
short? I am not of much importance in this world, we sometimes say; I
am of no consequence; I am only one very insignificant and despised,
and justly despised; I could drop out, and it wouldn't make any
difference. He said that not a sparrow can fall to the ground without
his notice; and why?—Because the life of God is there, and there is
nothing that can come upon anything in this world that God does not
feel. It touches him personally, because his life is all the
sensibility that there is in this world. You are struck, you are
beaten; you feel it. What makes you feel it? If you were dead you
wouldn't feel it. Why do you feel it?—Because you are alive. Where
do you get life?—It comes from God. It is God's own life isn't it?
Then is it possible for a human being to be touched, just
touched—not beaten, bruised, or despised—and the Lord not feel it?
Can it be so, whether saint or sinner? Can anything happen to any
creature in this world does God not feel? Whither shall I go from his
presence, and where shall I go to be away from the presence of God? We
cannot get away, because God's power is in everything; and therefore a
sparrow cannot fall to the ground without the Lord knowing it. We live
with all these infirmities. That is Christ in the flesh, then. Do you
suppose that Christ would have endured all this, and stayed here all
these years, with all this infirmity and wickedness and weakness and
sin upon him, and then by and by step out and let it all drop? If he
was to do that, he would have let it drop in the beginning; but the
fact that he came in fallen humanity is an evidence of God's presence,
and his presence to give life. And so God on everything has put the
stamp of the cross,—upon every leaf, upon every blade of grass, upon
everything that we have to do with. He simply means that everywhere we
go, and everything we have to do, and everything we eat, and the air
we breathe,— through these he is simply preaching the gospel to us,
giving the gospel to us. Encouragement, strength, salvation!4
Waggoner's presentation on February 15 revealed the link between his
pantheism and his view of the incarnation. He said:
Christ has come in the flesh, my flesh. Why? Is it because I am so
good?—O, no; for there is no good flesh for Christ to come into.
Christ has come in the flesh, in every man's flesh. "That was the
true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."
The life is the light, and lights every man. In other words, every man
in this world lives upon the grace of God. "It is of the Lord's
mercies that we are not consumed;" and that is true of the man
who blasphemes God. Where did that man get his breath?—From God. God
continues breath to him in his wickedness, in order that the gift may
reveal God's goodness and he repent: for it is the goodness of God. He
is kind to the evil and the good; he sends rain upon the just and the
unjust; that is God.5
Waggoner then removed the distinction between the Holy Spirit and the
breath from God given to all mankind in creation.
Now, there is one thing we need all the time to keep our lives going.
It is air. Did you make this air? Where did you get the air you
breathe? It is God's air; it is the breath of God.
God put his own breath into man's nostrils, in order that he might
live. That is the way we continue to breathe. It is the breath of God
that keeps us alive, the Spirit of God in our nostrils. Well, that man
must acknowledge what is so patent that he cannot help but acknowledge
it; namely, that he did not bring himself into existence, and that he
cannot perpetuate his existence for one instant. He is brought face to
face with the power of God in him, keeping him alive. It is Christ in
fallen man, it is Christ in cursed man, it is Christ with the curse on
him, it is Christ crucified. Christ taking fallen, sinful humanity
upon him, is Christ crucified. Do not say in your heart, Who will
ascend up into heaven to bring Christ down to me, that is to be
crucified? No; he is here in the flesh.
"If thou wilt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus." What
is it to confess him? To confess a thing is not to make it so, but it
is to acknowledge that the thing is so. Now the fact that we are to
confess is, that Christ is come in the flesh. 0, let me read a word
here. Rom. 1:18-20: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold down the
truth in unrighteousness." What is the truth? Christ says,
"I am the truth." Thus the truth that is stated is that
"the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men" who hold back Christ in them.
"Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for
God hath shewed it unto them;" for ever since the creation of the
world, the invisible things of God are clearly seen, "being
understood by the things that are made."
Look at the trees; we see the power and the divinity of God in the
trees and grass, and in every thing that God has made, and see it
clearly, too. But I read that text for years, and forgot that I was
one of the things that God made. Am I not one of the things of the
creation, just as well as a tree? Then what is seen and understood in
the things that God has made, even man not excluded?—His eternal
power and divinity. So we are without excuse. Now if thou wilt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, that he is in your flesh,—but do not
stop with that confession,—"and shalt believe in thy heart that
God has raised him from the dead," lifted him up to his own right
hand in the heavenly places, "thou shalt be saved." That is
Christ crucified, and raised in every man. When he will confess the
truth, and believe the truth, then he has Christ in him, crucified and
risen, with the resurrection power, to do whatsoever God says.6
The next day Waggoner continued:
Yes, believe on the Lord. But, what? Where is he? Where may I find the
Lord? How can I know about Christ crucified and risen? It does not say
that. The Word is Christ. Now do not say, Who came to bring the Word
to us, or Christ to us, in order that we might be made righteous to
keep the law. No; what saith it?—The Word is in them. It is in thy
mouth. Or, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, literally.
What is the word of faith which we preach?—"That if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved." Now, what is the great fact, the great truth, about the
Lord Jesus that is to be confessed with the mouth? Why, that the Word
was made flesh—that is the thing to be confessed, Confess the Lord
Jesus. Why confess Christ?—Because to confess a thing is to say it
is so. To confess the Lord Jesus in the flesh, is to confess that
Christ is the power of God; and that is to confess that this is not of
men at all. This life I have is not my life. It is God's.
It is God's in the most absolute sense. The breath of God, and the
Word—these are even in thy mouth. It is the manifestation of God's
power. Then when a man confesses that, he simply gives up, he
renounces all his assumptions to power, and of right to rule; all
ownership of himself that he has claimed to have, he gives up, and he
is the Lord's because this life is the life that God has given. It is
the breath that God has lent. I am living upon his bounty; not only
so, but it is his life within.
Knowing that fact—that Christ, the Lord, the power of God, is in my
flesh—now I will believe in my heart that God has raised him from
the dead; that is, gives him the victory over the infirmity of the
flesh, even over death. Then I have Christ crucified and risen again
in the flesh, and when I believe in that Christ risen to the right
hand of God, that lifts me up so long as I believe. With the heart man
believeth unto righteousness....
We often speak of the third angel's message going with power, or with
a loud voice, "the loud cry." What have we
here?—"Lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not
afraid." Then this is the loud cry of the third angel's message.
This is what we have here in the fortieth chapter of Isaiah. It is the
last message going with a loud cry, saying, "Say unto the cities
of Judah, Behold your God." Where? says one. I cannot see him;
where is he? Get your eyes open then. That is the last message, Behold
your God. Where? — In the things which he has made.
We may learn lessons from the grass. How often we have gone out just
as the grass or the Indian corn was beginning to spring forth, and as
we passed along we noticed a big clod of earth detached and rising up.
It might weigh several pounds. And then we had the curiosity to look
under it; and what did we see?—just a little blade of grass, perhaps
a blade of wheat, so tiny and small it had no color to it yet;—just
a little white mass of fiber and water; that is all, nothing to it. It
was just standing upright, and not only standing upright under that
clod of earth, but it was steadily pushing it out of the way, and was
just keeping its place and going right along, regardless of this clod.
It is safe to say that a blade of grass pushes away a weight ten
thousand times its own weight. If a man had as much power according to
his size and weight, he could lift a mountain; he could take up Pike's
Peak, and throw it off as a lad would a football.
But when you take it out of there, it will not hold itself up. It just
yields—it is gone. If you even remove the clod, it cannot stand.
That blade of grass is not such a little thing after all, but it is
undeniable that there was a wonderful power manifested in that blade
of grass. But what was that power?—God's own life, his own personal
presence there, doing in the grass just what he designed for the
grass; it was God that was working in it, both to will and to do of
his own good pleasure....
What life therefore is manifested everywhere in the universe?—The
life of Christ. Christ in the flesh crucified and risen, Christ in the
flesh crucified in me, because if Christ is crucified some distance
from me, even though it be close beside me, it is far away. I cannot
make the connection. But when I know that that life which was offered,
and which was powerful enough to gain the victory over sin and death,
that very same life is in me, and confess it and believe it,
everything that that life can do is mine....
So we see that the law is one, and that it is God's life, and it is
not an arbitrary arrangement, but God is the author and source of
life, and his life works in all his creatures so far as they let him.7
On February 17 Waggoner completely dehistoricized the atonement and
replaced it with the sin bearing of Christ in every man.
Now what we want is to stop trifling. If the Lord is so near, and to
be found, we want to find him; and he says: Seek ye the Lord while he
is near. While he may be found, call upon him. While he is near, 0, so
near that you do not have to go across the room; you do not have to go
anywhere at all but here; he is within you. He was so near me all
those years that I did not know anything about him, and he was bearing
my sin. Why?—Because the Lord Jesus is in everything that he has
made. He upholds all things, because he is in them. He is cohesion
even to inanimate nature. It is the personal, powerful presence of God
that keeps the mountains together, and the stones from crumbling to
pieces; because God is there with his personal power. And we saw
yesterday about the grass, and the trees, and the rootlets,—that
they take up the nourishment that is adapted to them, and leave to one
side that which is not fitted for them. That fine discrimination which
takes what is necessary for them, and leaves the other aside, we saw
was nothing but the power of God doing for them just what we say is
instinct in the animals; and when it comes to man, we call it reason.
That is God's personal presence. Now if we acknowledge that he is in
us, that we are as grass and plants, and acknowledge that as truly as
the grass itself does, then this power of God will lead us to make
just the same right choice as does the grass, the rootlet, and the
tree, in choosing that which is necessary for them....
When we believe that all flesh is grass, we simply allow God in us to
choose for us as he chooses in the rootlet and the plant, to select
that thing which is necessary. The rootlet will go a long distance in
search of what it needs, and will find it every time. It will go a
long distance to find moisture, and leave the dry place alone. It is
passive in the hands of the Lord, and the Lord chooses for it, and it
is simply right.
We are to learn this truth, to behold God in the things he has made.
Thus we are to behold God in us....
Crucified and risen in the flesh, in every man's flesh, I carry to the
people that message, Behold your God, crucified and risen, not far
from you, but in your mouth and heart; believe that he is your life,
that he was crucified and has risen to deliver you from death and sin.
When we recognize that, then he will fill us.8
On February 18 Waggoner continued:
What is air, then?—It is God's breath. If we knew this not only
physically, but spiritually, we should be much more alive than we
are....
The life that God breathed into man was God, and so long as man
continued to acknowledge that his life, his breath, came from God, he
remained good.9
Waggoner logically combined his pantheism with his view of
sanctification.
What is righteousness? Doing right. Then many shall do right; that is
clear. And how will many do right?—By the obedience of One. Well,
then, if I am made righteous by his obedience, if I do right by his
obedience, where does he obey?—In me. What am I doing?—Letting
him, submitting to the righteousness of God....
Then, when Christ in us obeys,—mark, when Christ in us obeys,—how
much power has the devil against us?— None. When we allow Christ to
fill us through the Spirit, so that we are filled with all the
fullness of God, then we have power "over all the power of the
enemy." What is our part? — Submission.
Now, that same work of submission is enough for you and me all the
rest of our lives. To submit, to give up, and to keep giving up, or
rather, to keep given up, as new experiences arise, is all we have to
do; and it will occupy all our time. There is work enough for us,
then, to hold still, and let the Lord fill us with his Spirit, and
work us. That does not mean laziness; it is passive activity, if you
please; it means being just as active as the Lord himself was; because
Christ himself living in us will be just the same as he was when he
was here on the earth..
Then God will live in us, and will choose for us just the same as in
the tree. We do not know anything, but he will think for us....
... but he will think in us everything that he desires us to think,
and will work in us perfectly to will and to do his good pleasure.
Then we will be organized, reorganized, made new. It is God thinking
and acting in us.10
Here pantheism, quietism and perfectionism were all blended. The
distinction between the Creator and His work, on the one hand, and the
creature and his work, on the other, was lost. Waggoner's theology
blurred all important distinctions. Like the great Eastern religions, it
finally removed the distinction between the Creator and the creature.
Many people rather innocently express an extreme view of sanctification
which sounds very pious and spiritual but which in reality is
pantheistic. How familiar is this pantheistic statement from Waggoner on
February 21, 1897!
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.11
On March 2 Waggoner declared: "God himself is personally present in
all his works. He himself is the energy that is manifest in all
creation. God himself is force, the force that is manifest in all
matter."12
Waggoner expressed his pantheistic perfectionism in a sermon to the
conference on Sabbath morning, March 6.
If anything less than the fullness of God be in us, we cannot witness
for him. God's faithful witnesses, seen in the starry heavens, bear
continual testimony to his glory; but they speak no word. So with us.
The strongest witness we can bear to the character of God, is a life
that is consistent with that character. And this is not true of the
preachers only, but of every child of God. And this life can only be
lived through the power of the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us....
The power of God is in the truth. We do not seek for miracles, but we
should seek for the transforming power of the Spirit of God. The power
of God in us seeks for utterance and expression. It has been too long
repressed. The Lord still waits for us. He does not become impatient
with us; and bears with us because he has his character at stake. The
only way in which he can demonstrate the perfection of his character,
and take away his reproach, is in perfecting a people to his praise.
He is able to accomplish this in us. Shall we let God have a chance?
Shall we let the people know that God is with us, that they may see
him and know him?13
The General Conference of 1899
E. J. Waggoner was a key speaker at the General Conference again in
1899.14 Here he carried his pantheism into the area of health reform.
On February 19 Waggoner affirmed that the energy and cohesion in the
natural world is "the life of the Lord Jesus Christ,—the Spirit
of God."15
On the morning of February 21 Waggoner confessed that in the last few
months the Lord had taught him "how to live forever."16
Then he announced, "I expect to live forever."17 He was not
talking about possessing eternal life by faith but about possessing it
in reality. Waggoner had lost the distinction between faith and reality.
If Christ lived in our sinful flesh just as He had lived in Palestine,
the life of Christ in us would live as sinlessly and as free from
disease as when He lived in Palestine. Thus Waggoner's reasoning was
consistent with his extreme view of sanctification and perfectionism. He
said:
Just as you can not conceive of Jesus' losing a day's work from
sickness, so it ought not to be conceivable of Seventh-day Adventists'
losing a day's work from sickness.... Then if the life of Jesus is
manifest in our mortal flesh, we shall be in this world the same as he
was.18
Again, Waggoner removed any real distinction between the unique Christ
and the believer. In his theology the incarnation goes on happening all
the time.
In the afternoon of February 21 Waggoner began to argue that simple
health agencies like air, water and food have healing power because they
contain the life—or blood—of Jesus Christ by which sin is cleansed
and disease overcome. Waggoner said the breath of life which God gives
to every man is the Holy Spirit. If a man will only believe that God's
life is in the air, he will surely be filled with the Spirit.
There was One about whom the devil could not taunt God, and that was
Jesus Christ. When we ourselves see, and get other people to see, that
this is God's life,—that it is his Spirit which fills all space;
that air is a means of conveying his Spirit to us; and that it is
God's own life,— then we see that air is the power of God to purify,
to give life. You take in the life, and live by it; thus we see the
power of the blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanses from all sin. He
gives us life, to keep us going. So then, if we shut out the air, we
shut out, unconsciously, the fullness of the Spirit of God. But if we
receive it,—let the air come in full and free, and take it as the
gift of God,—we get life. It is God that gives us this life, and we
live by him. It is the same with eating. We live by the food that he
gives to us; but it is his own life that he gives to us, and there is
no other. If we take that by faith,—and "the just shall live by
faith,' '—we are receiving the life of God.19
Waggoner removed the distinction between figurative speech and literal
speech. When the Bible uses air to represent the Spirit, Waggoner
understood the passages literally. He removed the distinction between
atmospheric air and the Holy Spirit.
Waggoner argued that the life of Christ is literally in food. When
Christ said, "The seed is the Word," Waggoner removed the
distinction between a figure of speech and literal speech. When corn is
sown, he said, the Word of God is sown. Christ's life—His Word, His
blood—is in the corn. So when Christ said of the sacramental bread,
"This is My body," Waggoner claimed it was literally true.
Here Waggoner introduced a view on the words of institution of the
Supper which he later repeated in his book, The Everlasting Covenant.
He said the papacy pretended to change the bread into the body of
Christ. Waggoner argued that the bread was already the body of Christ.
In fact, all food contains the body of Christ. Waggoner acknowledged,
however, that it is better to eat good food because it contains the body
of Christ in a purer form.
A voice: Is the life of God in the bread?
E. J. Waggoner: Yes.
A voice: What is the difference, then, between this and the position
taken by the priest?
E. J. Waggoner: They are diametrically opposite. Christ said, when he
took bread, and broke it, "This is my body;" but the priest
says, "I will take this bread, and make it the body." The
priest denies the truth of God. The Lord's Supper is simply the model
meal. Christ is the bread of life,—the bread that came down from
heaven. But when I said that, I was not speaking of manna. The Jews
said: "Our fathers had manna." What did God say before he
gave the Israelites manna?—He said, "I will rain bread from
heaven for them." "I am the bread that came down from
heaven." Yet in that day they said to Jesus, We would like to see
a miracle. What had he done?—He had brought the bread from heaven
for them. He had given them bread,—himself,—and they had all been
feeding upon spiritual meat.
Christ took the piece of bread, and said, "This is my body."
Whoever really recognizes Christ in the bread, ought to cut off
everything from his table that which is not purely of Christ, and that
does not have the pure life of Christ in it. He should cut off
everything from it that is corrupted, because Christ is a Lamb without
blemish or spot.
Then we are to take that by faith unto life. Are we to live by
faith?—"This is my body." But let every man stop, and
examine himself. "He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth
and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's
body." What was the trouble with the Jews in the desert?—They
had spiritual meat; but the very best food in the world will not save
a man if he does not see the Lord in it. The infidel can not preach
the gospel of health, because when one takes these things apart from
Christ, he is not made the underlying principle.
What do we put into the ground when we want corn?— We plant the
seed. But what did God put there to bring forth the first corn?
"The seed is the word of God." He sowed the seed of his own
word. Now when you have a handful of good seed, that seed has the life
of God in it.
You have got the same thing that God put into the ground when corn
first grew. When this is made into bread, life is in it still. We do
not see the life, but it is there, and it is the life of God. It is
his body, and we take his body and get life. But if we take it, not
discerning his body, we reject that, and really say we can live
without him. We do not pay attention to his laws, and so die. But if
you see in it his body, then in every meal to which we sit down, we
see the body of Christ; and we take it, and we live by it. In every
meal we eat without recognizing the Lord's body, we eat and drink
condemnation to ourselves.20
In a discourse on February 21, Waggoner applied the same reasoning to
water. Just as the Holy Spirit is imparted through the air and the
body—or life—of Christ is imparted through the food, so God's
life—or blood—is conveyed to us in the water. "Sparkling water
. . — is God's own life flowing from his throne."21 Waggoner
continued:
Thank the Lord that the river of God is full of water, and never runs
dry. It is always running. Do you not see? The rain comes down from
heaven, filters down from the river of God. You and I have drunk from
the rock, and have forgotten God the Rock. We have been drinking from
the life of God all our lives, and have not known it. . .
We have a drink of water here,—living water. Where does it come
from?—The throne of God, where Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain, is. It
flows from his heart. It is the blood of Christ, which cleanses from
all sin. The blood of Christ is a real thing.
That water which flows from the throne of God is his life, and his
life is the light. "If we walk in the light as he is in the
light, we have fellowship with one another; and the blood of the Son
of God cleanses us from all sin." Is that a real thing? or is it
only a figurative expression,—a mere form of words? Can we actually
bathe in the blood of Christ, and live by it?—Yes; for what is the
blood?—It is the life. The life is in the blood. By whatever means
Christ conveys the life to us, that is the blood, the life. He gives
it to us. It does not necessarily have to be always in one form. There
are innumerable forms in which life is conveyed to us; but it is all
the one life. Remember, the Spirit and the water and the blood agree
in one; they all come to one.
Water is life, and it has life-giving powers.22
Waggoner attained the height of fantastic pantheistic drivel when he
exclaimed:
O, I delight in drinking water, as I never have before; I delight in
bathing. Why, I come right to the throne of God. A man may get
righteousness in bathing, when he knows where the water comes from,
and recognizes the source. The world is a good deal nearer the gospel
than it knows anything about when it says that "cleanliness is
next to godliness." Ah, but cleanliness is godliness. "Now
ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you."
Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might purify
it and cleanse it by a "water-bath in the word." That is the
way it reads in the Danish, and that is literal, too. Just bathe in
the word. That is not figurative, that is not sentimental; God wants
his people to live now as seeing the Invisible, so that they will walk
in the sight of the river of God, and drink from the throne of God,
and all they do will be eating and drinking in his presence....
Let us drink in the water every day. Then we are living in the
presence of God.23
In 1889 Waggoner first lost the vital distinction between the
righteousness of faith and sanctification. Being logical to his premise,
he proceeded to remove every vital distinction in every area of his
theology. By 1899 he had lost the distinction between figure and fact.
He could see no difference between literal water and spiritual water. He
had become thoroughly mystical. For him all the great objective truths
of Christianity, such as the incarnation and atonement, were
dehistoricized and internalized.
Waggoner's heresy at the General Conference of 1899 was so outrageous
that someone should have exposed it. But there is little evidence that
any of the leading brethren were alarmed. In fact, W. W. Prescott was
moving in Waggoner's current.24 Although A. F. Ballenger seemed
troubled by the direction he felt Waggoner was taking,25 the only
significant indication of concern was a letter Ellen G. White sent from
Australia to be read at the session. She warned the delegates of subtle
theories about God and nature.26
The General Conference of 1901
Waggoner was a speaker at the General Conference again in 1901. Mrs.
White had returned from Australia and was present. W. A. Spicer had also
returned from India and was alarmed to find Kellogg and others talking
like Hindus. Spicer described the crisis as follows:
Where is heaven? I was asked. I had my idea of the center of the
universe, with heaven and the throne of God in the midst, but
disclaimed any attempt to fix the center of the universe
astronomically. But I was urged to understand that heaven is where God
is, and God is everywhere in the grass, in the trees, in all creation.
There was no place in this scheme of things for angels going between
heaven and earth, for heaven was here and everywhere. The cleansing of
the sanctuary that we taught about was not something in a far-away
heaven. The sin is here (the hand pointing to the heart), and here is
the sanctuary to be cleansed. To think of God as having a form in the
image of which man was made, was said to be idolatry....
It seemed to me these ideas set all earth and heaven and God swirling
away into mist. There was in it no objective unity to lay hold of.
With scripture terms and Christian ideas interwoven, it seemed the old
doctrine of the Hindus—all nature a very part of Brahma, and Brahma
the whole.27
Waggoner continued his pantheistic theme in his presentations at the
General Conference. In his address on April 11 he restated his view that
the life of Christ is immanent in all creation.28 He said the life of
God is in all the air, water, food and light that blesses this world.
Here in 1901 he himself stated that he made no distinction between
figurative and literal speech.
Let us see some of the ways in which this life is manifested, so that
we can lay hold upon it. Right here in this chapter, we have it,
"God is light." I believe that. I do not have any
explanation to make; I do not trouble my brain in thinking about
"spiritual" or "literal" or figurative language,
or anything of that kind. The Bible says, "God is light,"
and I believe it. Believing that to be so, has revealed to me many
things that I never would have known if I had not believed it. Is it
the glory of God that he has placed upon the heavens? The heavens
declare it. The sun, the moon, and the stars give light to this earth;
but whose light are they giving?—The light of God. Christ is the
light of the world, and when, on one occasion, he made that statement,
he immediately demonstrated it so that we can see how real his light
is, because he found a man born blind, and made him see. Then when
your eyes look out on such a day as today, and see the light covering
the whole earth as with a garment, what are you looking at?—Life.
Whose life?—Why, the only life there is—God's life; we are seeing
his life. We are too much afraid of coming into touch with realities.
Let it be fixed in our minds everlastingly, that when we look out and
see this glorious light, we are seeing God's face,— really seeing
the light that shines from God's face.
Light is one manifestation of God's life, but in the first chapter of
John we have reference to a cleansing fluid as well. We have something
that cleanses us from all sin, and that is the life of the Lord, for
we are "saved by his life." Turn to the thirty-sixth psalm:
"How excellent is thy loving kindness, 0 God! therefore the
children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They
shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou
shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasure. For with thee is
the fountain of life; in thy light shall we see light."
So here we have water, the fountain of life. But life is light, and
the river of life, clear as crystal, that flows sparkling from the
throne of God, is but another manifestation of that life which is
light. And so we have water as a manifestation of that one life. Water
cleanses impurity; and by the daily washing of our hands, by the
washing of our clothes, by the water that washes the impurities from
the earth and carries them away to the sea, by that running water
which will take impurities that are cast into the stream and
swallowing them up, so that in the course of a few miles' running, the
water will be pure again, the Lord is showing us the cleansing power
of his life, so that we may know that if we simply let ourselves be
lost in that life, we shall be cleansed and kept free from sin. This
is a reality.29
Waggoner then repeated his fantastic views on the institution of the
Supper—"This is My body"—and on the air conveying the
personal life of God. Waxing spiritually romantic, he said:
Some time ago, when I was out taking my morning walk, and the soft
refreshing breeze was fanning my cheek, I remembered that the breeze
that blew was the breath of God's nostrils. He was blowing his own
breath upon my face. You have often thought of the wind kissing the
cheek, and then that scripture came to my mind, "Let him kiss me
with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine."
What a grand thing to know that one is in such close connection with
it. [Voice: Amen!] This is happiness. To awaken in the morning, and to
feel that life through the whole body, and to know that I am in
personal connection with it, to know that God is not only in that
room, round about me, but that his life is in me.30
In this address Waggoner acknowledged that some regarded his views as
pantheistic. But he denied the charge.31
It is true that his views were
not the cruder kind of heathen pantheism which identifies the created
thing with the Creator. They were a more refined pantheism that saw God
as immanent in all creation so that the work of God was confused with
the work of the creature.
By 1901 Waggoner had so internalized the Christian religion that he had
lost sight of the transcendent God.
The throne of God was man.32 Waggoner's concept of the human nature
of Christ was prominently bound to his pantheistic sentiments.33 He
obviously did not understand the error in Rome's doctrine of the
"immaculate conception." He thought Rome mistakenly attributed
a sinless human nature to Christ.34 In reality, however, this is the
faith of historic Christianity. Rome erroneously ascribes Christ's
sinless nature to the supposed sinlessness of Mary rather than to the
power of the Holy Spirit which sanctified Christ's human nature in the
womb of the virgin.
One more point in Waggoner's thought of 1901 must be noted because it
represents a prominent school of thought we will again encounter in this
decade of the 1970's. That is Waggoner's perfectionism applied to the
final generation.
Waggoner again expressed his extreme view of sanctification, which he
linked to his view on "Christ in sinful flesh." Christ has
demonstrated, he said, that God can live a sinless life in sinful flesh.
We cannot live a sinless life, but God can do it in us just as He did it
in the historic Jesus. This is what God will do in the final generation.
Then Waggoner added:
What is man made for?—For the dwelling-place of God.
When man, who is the throne of God, has the Spirit of God fully
dwelling in him, that one universal, undivided Spirit thinks God's
thoughts in him, just the same as when my brain thinks, my foot
moves....
The perfect man is the man who does not think for himself, but lets
God do his thinking for him.35
This extreme view of sanctification is essentially pantheistic. It blurs
the distinction between what God does and what the creature does. Man is
a person. Union with God does not mean God does everything in man. A
man's acts of believing, obeying, praying and working are really his
own acts, and we must not lose sight of this. Although it may be
given man of God to do these things, they are man's own acts. Even the
expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself.36
To say believers today live exactly the same life that Jesus lived
removes the distinction which must ever remain between Christ and the
believer. We may copy Christ's life, but we can never equal it. His
sinless life of infinite perfection may be faintly reflected by the
saints. But His unique life cannot be duplicated. Waggoner's view of the
final generation would make 144,000 little Christs. He said:
When God has given this witness to the world of his power to save to
the uttermost, to save sinful beings, and to live a perfect life in
sinful flesh, then he will remove the disabilities and give us better
circumstances in which to live. But first of all this wonder must be
worked out in sinful man, not simply in the person of Jesus Christ,
but in Jesus Christ reproduced and multiplied in the thousands of his
followers. So that not simply in the few sporadic cases, but in the
whole body of the church, the perfect life of Christ will be
manifested to the world, and that will be the last crowning work which
will either save or condemn men; and greater testimony than that there
is not, and can not be, because there is none greater than God. When
God is manifest among men, not simply as God apart from man, but as
God in man, suffering all that man suffered, subject to everything
that man is subject to, what greater power can be manifested in the
universe than that?37
This theology of reenactment is the spirit of antichrist. Christ's
incarnation, life, death and resurrection are unique. They are
unrepeatable events of salvation history. The church is called to
rehearse these events—to represent what has happened once and for all
in Jesus Christ. But the church is never called to reenact the finished
work of God in Jesus Christ.
In Waggoner's thinking, as in Romanism, the incarnation is extended
throughout the church. It is then said we are not saved by faith in the
historical acts of God in Christ but by a reenactment of these events in
mystical experience. The historical Jesus merely serves as a Model of
what God wants to do now and will do again in the final generation. One
struggles in vain to find any real distinction between the sinless
Christ and the final-generation saint. Waggoner was determined to remove
all such distinctions. That is why he had to logically and inevitably go
into pantheism.
Waggoner's The Glad Tidings
In 1900 the Pacific Press Publishing Association published Waggoner's
commentary on Galatians under the title, The Glad Tidings. The
material appeared originally as a series of articles in the Signs of
the Times between November 24, 1898, and May 17, 1899. These
articles on Galatians contained all the principal ingredients of
Waggoner's declining theology:
1. Justification was confounded with sanctification as in Roman
Catholicism.38
2. An extreme sanctification had God or Christ or the Spirit doing the
believing and obeying in and for the believer.39
3. It was said that Christ not only came in sinful flesh, but is come in
sinful flesh—all sinful flesh.40
4. In a mystical view of the atonement, Christ was said to be crucified
and risen in every man. A man only has to confess what is already a fact
within him in order to be saved.41
5. The Glad Tidings was the product of a pantheistic theology.
In 1972 the Pacific Press republished The Glad Tidings with a
foreword by R. J. Wieland. The foreword and the comments on the book
cover promote a dangerous myth about this book. They present The Glad
Tidings as a true representation of the 1888 message with the
theological endorsement of Ellen G. White. Wieland even makes the
amazing claim that "the message of this book was in reality a
transcript of studies that Dr. Waggoner gave personally to a gathering
of ministers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the fall of 1888."42
The fact is that The Glad Tidings was written over ten years
after 1888. There is a vast difference between Waggoner's theology in
this book and the theology of his first treatise on Galatians written in
1887 in answer to Elder Butler and published in December, 1888. In 1888
Waggoner taught that justification was forensic. When he wrote The
Glad Tidings, he had abandoned the Protestant doctrine entirely.
For Wieland to say The Glad Tidings reflects Waggoner's theology
presented ten years earlier is bad enough. For him to claim it was a
transcript of Waggoner's presentation in 1888 is even worse. There is no
transcript of Waggoner's presentation at the conference of 1888. And
Wieland has produced no evidence to support his claim that The Glad
Tidings is an authentic representation of Waggoner's 1888 lectures.
We protest the garbling of historical facts to support the tenuous claim
that The Glad Tidings is an "Adventist Classic"
containing the 1888 message endorsed by Ellen G. White.
Too many have failed to look objectively at Waggoner's history because
they have theories of the incarnation, perfectionism and effective
justification which coincide with his later teachings. They are really
appealing to Waggoner, and through Waggoner to Ellen G. White, to
support their theories. They are like the liberal Protestants and Roman
Catholics now appealing to the early Luther of 1515-1516 for support in
repudiating the Protestant doctrine of forensic justification.43 The
early Luther was a Roman Catholic not yet purged of his Catholic ideas
on justification. It is a grievous error to project the theology of the
early Luther into the teachings of the mature Luther. Likewise, it is a
monumental mistake for Adventists today to project the theology of the
later Waggoner into the theology of the early Waggoner. It would be just
as consistent for Wieland to take the pantheism of The Glad Tidings
and project it back on the Waggoner of 1888.
Does Wieland realize that The Glad Tidings contains pantheism?
Yes, in private correspondence he does.44 And in preparing his
revised edition of The Glad Tidings he editorially removed
Waggoner's more blatant pantheistic statements.45 See chart below in
footnotes.) In his foreword, however, Wieland gives no hint that he has
done this.
By his editing Wieland implicitly admits we cannot project Waggoner's
pantheism back to 1888. Then how does he know we can project Waggoner's
views on effective or Roman Catholic justification, the sinful human
nature of Christ and sanctification by faith alone back to 1888?
Careful historical investigation establishes a vast difference between
Waggoner's theology of 1888 and his theology of 1898. Wieland cannot
truly claim that Waggoner's pantheism in The Glad Tidings was
only a parasite rather than a vital and inherent part of his basic
understanding of righteousness by faith.46 We believe we have clearly
demonstrated that Waggoner's thinking on justification, sanctification,
the atonement and the incarnation was integral to his pantheism.
Moreover, historical theology proves that the ideas Waggoner taught in
all these areas logically lead to pantheism. His theology of 1898-1899
was so thoroughly contaminated that nothing could possibly be salvaged
from it. Yet the Pacific Press presents it today as though it contained
the holy delicacies of 1888 itself.
Wieland is not alone in this historical misunderstanding of Waggoner.
The myth extends to men like A. G. Daniells, who commended E. J.
Waggoner's book, The Everlasting Covenant, as one which would
"place a flood of light in the homes of our people."47
Furthermore, The Glad Tidings had to pass official editorial
inspection in 1900. So Wieland is not the only one who could see little
wrong and much to laud in the book.
Waggoner's The Everlasting Covenant
In 1900 the International Tract Society, a Seventh-day Adventist
publishing house in London, published Waggoner's largest work, The
Everlasting Covenant. Most of the book first appeared as a series of
articles in the British Present Truth, beginning in May, 1896. In
some respects it was the later Waggoner's best work. It dealt largely
with gospel lessons from Abraham and the history of Israel. Waggoner's
concept of the unity of God's covenant was probably a first in Adventist
literature. It did not forcefully appear again until Dr. Edward
Heppenstall's work on the one everlasting covenant in the 1950,s.48
Waggoner's work, however, was thoroughly marred by pantheism. He
repeated in great detail his pantheistic ideas on the life of Christ in
all creation and in all men.49 He declared that ordinary bread is the
real body of Christ50
and that the real presence of Christ is in
ordinary water.51 He spiritualized the temple of God "in
heaven" and said it is composed of living people.52 Of course,
this involved an understanding of "the cleansing of the
sanctuary" entirely contrary to historic Adventism.53 Waggoner
also repeated Westcott's theory of the mystical atonement.54
The Everlasting Covenant is devoid of the great biblical and
Protestant doctrine of forensic justification—a salvation by
imputation, representation and substitution. Salvation is reduced to a
purely subjective process. The book is entirely consistent with the
other material of Waggoner's declining years.
One statement in The Everlasting Covenant should be familiar to
those acquainted with certain concepts taught in Adventism in the
1970's. It expresses Waggoner's perfectionism relating to the final
generation. He said:
Before the end comes, and at the time of the coming of Christ, there
must be a people on earth, not necessarily large in proportion to the
number of inhabitants of earth, but large enough to be known in all
the earth, in whom "all the fullness of God" will be
manifest even as it was in Jesus of Nazareth. God will demonstrate to
the world that what he did with Jesus of Nazareth He can do with
anyone who will yield to Him.55
This was directly related to Waggoner's view that Christ came in sinful
human nature. So he could say, "The Lord wants all to understand
that the new birth puts men in the same position that Christ occupied on
this earth, and He will demonstrate this before the world."56
In his book, Through Crisis to Victory, A. V. Olson quotes from a
letter written by A. G. Daniells to W. C. White on May 12, 1902. In this
letter Daniells stated: "I am deeply convinced that something ought
to be done to place a flood of light in the homes of our people. I know
of no better book to do this, outside of the Bible, than Brother
Waggoner's book."57
It is uncertain whether Daniells was referring to Waggoner's The Glad
Tidings or to his book, The Everlasting Covenant, since both
were published about this time. Olson assumes Daniells was referring to The
Everlasting Covenant since the covenants were an issue at that time.
Olson, however, wrongly ascribes its authorship to J. H. Waggoner, E. J.
Waggoner's father. Apparently Olson overlooked the evidence that The
Glad Tidings was the work to which Daniells referred in his letter
to W. C. White.
Early in 1902 three articles by William Brickley appeared in the Review
and Herald. These articles upheld the view that the ceremonial law
was the law that Paul considered in the book of Galatians. This view
created some agitation. Writing to Butler on April 11, 1902, Daniells
stated that these articles, published with Uriah Smith's approval,
"were openly and squarely against the message that came to this
people at Minneapolis and that has been embraced by thousands of our
people and openly and repeatedly endorsed by the Spirit of prophecy.
These articles," he continued, "have caused a great deal of
trouble and dissatisfaction among our brethren in different
States."58
For our present purposes it matters little whether Daniells was
referring to The Glad Tidings or The Everlasting Covenant.
It is disturbing, however, that either of Waggoner's works should have
received unqualified endorsement by such leading brethren.
Waggoner's View of the Blotting Out of Sin
On September 30, 1902, the Review and Herald published Waggoner's
article entitled "The Blotting Out of Sin."59 In recent
years this article has often been cited by those holding views similar
to Waggoner's.
Waggoner's article is consistent with the tenor of his later theological
thinking. It shows he had entirely lost the forensic categories of
biblical thought. Like a Roman Catholic, he regarded sin primarily as a
disease. He said sin is blotted out by being erased from the nature.
Waggoner had lost the true Protestant faith that views sin primarily as
guilt. Guilt is not erased by inner renewal. It is a legal debt. It can
be erased only by Christ's substitutionary death and the application of
the merits of that blood by the high-priestly intercession of Christ.
But Waggoner made no distinction between the work of the interceding
priest in heaven and the work of the Spirit in the heart. Mediatorial
cleansing by blood is instantaneous and complete, for it is a judicial
cleansing (1 John 1:9) done for the believing sinner. This is
justification. The cleansing of the Holy Spirit is a process which
begins at conversion. This is sanctification, which is never complete
until glorification.
Waggoner's statement on the blotting out of sins significantly
illustrates that blurring the distinction between justification and
sanctification leads to blurring the distinction between the Creator and
the creature. That is to say, it leads to pantheism. Waggoner wrote:
Truth is implanted in the heavens and earth; it fills the stars, and
keeps them in their places; it is that by which the plants grow, and
the birds build their nests; it is that by which they know how to find
their way across the sea. When Moses broke the tables of stone, the
law was just as steadfast as it was before. Just so, though all the
record of all our sin, even though written with the finger of God,
were erased, the sin would remain, because the sin is in us. Though
the record of our sin were graven in the rock, and the rock should be
ground to powder,—even this would not blot out our sin.60
The Closing Years
In 1903 Mrs. White expressed the hope that Waggoner would escape the
snare of pantheism and regain his former power. There is no evidence he
did so. Neither theology nor human life can be in harmony with God
unless it preserves the distinctions ordained by God. One of the vital
distinctions in human existence is the distinction between male and
female. And along with that, there is the distinction between a man's
relationship to his wife and all other women. Tragically, Waggoner lost
that distinction too.
When Waggoner attended the General Conference of 1901, he apparently
voiced certain views on "spiritual affinity" which he had
espoused earlier in Great Britain. In essence these views stated that
although one is not rightfully a marriage partner in this life, a
present spiritual union is allowed on the basis that he or she might be
married in the life to come. Later, in 1908, Ellen
G. White called these views "dangerous, misleading fables" she
had been forced to confront following 1844. She clearly recognized that
"Dr. Waggoner was then departing from the faith in the doctrine he
held regarding spiritual affinities."61
We do not sit in judgment on Waggoner's character or destiny. To his
credit he behaved himself like a gentleman in the face of bitter
opposition. He never showed bitterness against the church or his former
brethren. Waggoner appeared to be a humble man, and his last Confession
is written in the spirit of a Christian believer. His faith was
certainly not perfect, but we fondly believe he died trusting in a
perfect Saviour. If that be the case, Waggoner's decline was not the end
of the story. Although his great enemy must have rejoiced at his fall,
that fall was not the final end. "Do not gloat over me, my enemy!
Though I have fallen, I will rise" (Micah 7:8, NIV).
———————————
1 Held in College View, Lincoln, Nebraska. [back]
2 E. J. Waggoner, A "Confession of Faith, "pp. 14-15.
[back]
3 E. J. Waggoner, "Studies in the Book of Hebrews," no. 3, General
Conference Daily Bulletin 1, no. 3 (16 Feb. 1897): 345. [back]
4 E. J. Waggoner, "Studies in the Book of Hebrews," no. 4, General
Conference Daily Bulletin 1, no. 3 (16 Feb. 1897): 45-6. [back]
5 E. J. Waggoner, "Studies in the Book of Hebrews," no. 6, General
Conference Daily Bulletin 1, no. 5 (18 Feb. 1897): 70-71. [back]
6 Ibid., pp. 71-2. [back]
7 E. J. Waggoner, "Studies in the Book of Hebrews," no. 7, General
Conference Daily Bulletin 1, no. 6 (19 Feb. 1897): 85-9. [back]
8 E. J. Waggoner, "Studies in the Book of Hebrews," no. 8, General
Conference Daily Bulletin 1, no. 7 (22 Feb. 1897): 101-2, 104. [back]
9 E. J. Waggoner, "Studies in the Book of Hebrews," no. 9, General
Conference Daily Bulletin 1, no. 10 (25 Feb. 1897): 158. [back]
10 Ibid., pp. 156-57, 159. [back]
11 E. J. Waggoner, "Studies in the Book of Hebrews," no. 10, General
Conference Daily Bulletin 1, no. 13 (2 Mar. 1897): 210. [back]
12 E. J. Waggoner, "Studies in Hebrews," no. 18, General
Conference Bulletin 2, no. 1 (First Quarter, 1897): 13. [back]
13 E. J. Waggoner, "Witnesses for God," General Conference
Bulletin 2, no. 1 (First Quarter, 1897): 55, 57. [back]
14 Held in South Lancaster, Massachusetts. [back]
15 E. J. Waggoner, in Daily Bulletin of the General Conference 8, no. 5
(21 Feb. 1899): 42. [back]
16 E. J. Waggoner, in Daily Bulletin of the General Conference 8, no. 6
(22 Feb. 1899): 53. [back]
17 Ibid. [back]
18 Ibid. Cf. "Suppose a man recognized that fact, and therefore
let God have his own way in controlling the human body, so that he might
fill it with his life. What disease could affect him? Would he not ward
off all disease, as he did in Christ himself?—Certainly (E. J.
Waggoner, in Daily Bulletin of the General Conference 8, no. 7
[23 Feb. 1899]: 58). [back]
19 Waggoner, Daily Bulletin, 8, no. 7. p. 58. [back]
20 Ibid. [back]
21 E. J. Waggoner, "The Water of Life," Daily Bulletin of
the General Conference 8, no. 8 (24 Feb. 1899): 79. [back]
22 bid., p. 80. [back]
23 Ibid. [back]
24 W. W. Prescott, in Daily Bulletin of the General Conference
8, no. 7 (23 Feb. 1899): 58-60. [back]
25 Albion F. Ballenger, in Daily Bulletin of the General Conference
8, no. 7 (23 Feb. 1899): 58. [back]
26 Ellen G. White, "Special Testimony,' Daily Bulletin of the
General Conference 8, no. 16 (6 Mar. 1899): 157-60. [back]
27 W. A. Spicer, "How the Spirit of Prophecy Met a Crisis,"
p. 20; cited in Robert Haddock, "A History of the Doctrine of the
Sanctuary in the Advent Movement: 1800-1905," pp. 335-36. [back]
28 E. J. Waggoner, "Bible Study," General Conference Bulletin
4, no. 10 (14 Apr. 1901): 220-24. [back]
29 Ibid., p. 221. [back]
30 Ibid., p. 222. [back]
31 Ibid., p. 223. [back]
32 E. J. Waggoner, "Sermon," General Conference Bulletin 4,
no. 6 (9 Apr. 1901): 145-50. [back]
33 E. J. Waggoner, "Sermon," General Conference Bulletin 4,
no. 17 (223 Apr. 1901): 403-8. [back]
34 Ibid., p. 404. [back].
35 Waggoner, "Sermon," General Conference Bulletin 4, no. 6,
p. 148. [back]
36 See Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 466. [back]
37 Waggoner, "Sermon," General Conference Bulletin 4, no. 17,
p. 406. [back]
38 "The meaning of the word 'justified' is 'made righteous.' This
is the exact term that appears in other languages, which are not
composed of foreign terms. The Latin word for righteousness is justitia.
To be just is to be righteous. Then we add the termination fy, from the
Latin word, meaning 'to make,' and we have the exact equivalent of the
simpler term, 'make righteous"' (E. J. Waggoner, The Glad
Tidings, 1900 ed., p. 77). [back]
39 "Christ alone is righteous; He has overcome the world, and He
alone has power to do it; in Him dwelleth all the fullness of God,
because the law—God Himself—was in His heart; He alone has kept and
can keep the law to perfection; therefore, only by His faith—living
faith, that is, His life in us—can we be made righteous. . . "It
follows, then, as a matter of course that, believing in Christ, we are
justified by the faith of Christ, since we have Him personally dwelling
in us, exercising His own faith. All power in heaven and earth is in His
hands, and, recognizing this, we simply allow Him to exercise His own
power in His own way" (ibid., pp. 80-81). [back]
40 "To believe on His name means simply to believe that He dwells
personally in every man—in all flesh. We do not make it so by
believing it; it is so, whether we believe it or not; we simply accept
the fact, which all nature reveals to us" (ibid.). [back]
41 "'Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended
first into the lower parts of the earth?' Eph. 4:9. The risen Saviour is
the crucified Saviour. As Christ risen is in the heart of the sinner,
therefore, Christ crucified is there. If it were not so, there would be
no hope for any. A man may believe that Jesus was crucified eighteen
hundred years ago, and may die in his sins; but he who believes that
Christ is crucified and risen in him, has salvation. "All that any
man in the world has to do in order to be saved, is to believe the
truth, that is, to recognize and acknowledge facts, to see things just
as they actually are, and to confess them. Whoever believes that Christ
is crucified in him, which is the fact in the case of every man, and
confesses that the crucified Christ is also risen, and that He dwells in
him by and with the power of the resurrection, is saved from sin, and
will be saved as long as he holds fast his confession. This is the only
true confession of faith. "What a glorious thought that, wherever
sin is, there is Christ, the Saviour from sin! He bears sin, all sin,
the sin of the world. Sin is in all flesh, and so Christ is come in the
flesh. Christ is crucified in every man that lives on earth. This is the
word of truth, the Gospel of salvation, which is to be proclaimed to
all, and which will save all who accept it.... "He is not our
substitute in the sense that one man is a substitute for another, in the
army, for instance, the substitute being in one place, while the one for
whom he is substitute is somewhere else, engaged in some other service.
No; Christ's substitution is far different. He is our substitute in that
He substitutes Himself for us, and we appear no more. We drop out
entirely, so that it is 'not I, but Christ.' Thus we cast our cares on
Him, not by picking them up and with an effort throwing them on Him, but
by humbling ourselves into the nothingness that we are, so that we leave
the burden resting on Him alone. Thus we see already how it is that He
came" (ibid., pp. 87-8, 169). [back]
42 Robert J. Wieland, Foreword to E. J. Waggoner, The Glad Tidings,
1972 ed. [back]
43 See Lowell C. Green, "Faith, Righteousness and Justification:
New Light on Their Development under Luther and Melanchthon," Sixteenth
Century Journal 4, no. 1 (Apr. 1973): 65-86. Also deserving of
careful study is Uuras Saarnivaara, Luther Discovers the Gospel.
A weakness of this work, however, is its attempt to identify Luther's
evangelical discovery with the problematic "tower experience."
Green's article offers a more plausible solution. [back]
44 "Before I ever opened the cover of The Glad Tidings back
in 1938, I had been warned by my teacher that there was pantheism in
it" (Wieland to Lowell Tarling, 14 July 1977). [back]
45
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45. Original 1900 edition of The Glad
Tidings
"To believe on His name is to believe that He is the Son
of God; to believe that He is the Son of God, means to believe
that He is come in the flesh, in human flesh, in our flesh,
for His name is 'God with us;' so to believe on His name means
simply to believe that He dwells personally in every man,—in
all flesh. We do not make it so by believing it; it is so,
whether we believe it or not; we simply accept the fact, which
all nature reveals to us.
|
Edited 1972 edition of The Glad Tidings
"To believe on His name is to believe that He is the Son
of God. To believe that He is the Son of God means to believe
that He is come in the flesh, human flesh, our flesh. For His
name is 'God with us.'
"So believing in Christ, we are justified by the faith of
Christ, since we have Him personally dwelling in us,
exercising His own faith. All power in heaven and earth is in
His hands" (p. 42).
|
|
"It follows, then, as a matter of course that, believing
in Christ, we are justified by the faith of Christ, since we
have Him personally dwelling in us, exercising His own faith.
All power in heaven and earth is in His hands" (pp.
80-81).
|
This statement was deleted in the 1972 edition.
|
|
"Thorns are the sign of the curse, the weakened,
imperfect condition of the earth (Gen. 3:17, 18; 4:11, 12);
and on the cross Christ bore the crown of thorns. Therefore,
all the curse, every trace of it, is borne by Christ,—by
Christ crucified. Wherever, therefore, we see any curse, or
wherever there is any curse, whether we see it or not, there
is the cross of Christ. This can be seen again from the
following: The curse is death, and death kills; the curse is
in everything, yet everywhere we see life. Here is the miracle
of the cross. Christ suffered the curse of death, and yet
lived. He is the only one that could do it. Therefore, the
fact that we see life everywhere, also in ourselves, in spite
of the curse which is everywhere, is positive proof that the
cross of the Crucified One is there bearing it. So it is that
not only every blade of grass, every leaf of the forest, and
every piece of bread that we eat has the stamp of the cross of
Christ on it, but, above all, we have the same. Wherever there
is a fallen, sin-scarred, miserable human being, there is also
the Christ of God crucified for him and in him. Christ on the
cross bears all things" (p. 85).
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"Thorns are a sign of the curse (Genesis 3:17, 18), and
Christ bore the crown of thorns. Every trace of the curse is
borne by Christ.
"Wherever we see a fallen, sin-scarred, miserable human
being, we ought to see also the Christ of God crucified for
him. Christ on the cross bears all things" (p. 44).
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"[Rom. 10:9 quoted.] What shall we confess about the Lord
Jesus?— Why, confess the truth, that He is nigh thee, even
in thy mouth and in thy heart, and believe that He is there
risen from the dead. 'Now that He ascended, what is it but
that He also descended first into the lower parts of the
earth?' Eph. 4:9. The risen Saviour is the crucified Saviour.
As Christ risen is in the heart of the sinner, therefore,
Christ crucified is there. If it were not so, there would be
no hope for any. A man may believe that Jesus was crucified
eighteen hundred years ago, and may die in his sins; but he
who believes that Christ is crucified and risen in him, has
salvation.
"All that any man in the world has to do in order to be
saved, is to believe the truth, that is, to recognize and
acknowledge facts, to see things just as they actually are,
and to confess them. Whoever believes that Christ is crucified
in him, which is the fact in the case of every man, and
confesses that the crucified Christ is also risen, and that He
dwells in him by and with the power of the resurrection, is
saved from sin, and will be saved as long as he holds fast his
confession. This is the only true confession of faith.
"What a glorious thought that, wherever sin is, there is
Christ, the Saviour from sin! He bears sin, all sin, the sin
of the world. Sin is in all flesh, and so Christ is come in
the flesh. Christ is crucified in every man that lives on
earth. This is the word of truth, the Gospel of salvation,
which is to be proclaimed to all, and which will save all who
accept it" (pp.
87-8).
|
"[Rom. 10:9 quoted.] What shall we confess about the Lord
Jesus? Confess the truth, that He is near you, even in your
mouth and in your heart, and believe that He is there risen
from the dead. The risen Saviour is the crucified Saviour. As
Christ risen is in the heart of the sinner, therefore Christ
crucified is there. If it were not so, there would be no hope
for any. A man may believe that Jesus was crucified two
millennia ago, and may die in his sins. But he who believes
that Christ is crucified and risen in him has salvation.
"All any man in the world has to do in order to be saved
is to believe the truth; that is, to recognize and acknowledge
facts, to see things just as they actually are, and to confess
them. Whoever believes that Christ is crucified in him, risen
in him, and dwells in him, is saved from sin. And he will be
saved as long as he holds to his belief. This is the only true
confession of faith" (p. 45).
|
|
"Note that our sins were 'in His body.' It was no
superficial work that He undertook. The sins were not merely
figuratively laid on Him, but they were actually in Him. He
was made a curse for us, made to be sin for us, and
consequently suffered death for us.
"To some this truth seems repugnant" (p. 117).
|
"Note that our sins were 'in His body.' It was no
superficial work that He undertook. Our sins were not merely
figuratively laid on Him, but were 'in His body.' He was 'made
a curse' for us, 'made to be sin' for us, and consequently
suffered death for us.
"To some this truth seems repugnant" (p. 62).
|
|
"[2 Cor. 5:21, R.V. quoted.] In the fullest sense of the
word, and to a degree that is seldom thought of when the
expression is used, He became man's substitute. That is, He
permeates our being, identifying Himself so fully with us that
everything that touches or affects us touches and affects Him.
He is not our substitute in the sense that one man is a
substitute for another, in the army, for instance, the
substitute being in one place, while the one for whom he is
substitute is somewhere else, engaged in some other service.
No; Christ's substitution is far different. He is our
substitute in that He substitutes Himself for us, and we
appear no more. We drop out entirely, so that it is 'not I,
but Christ.' Thus we cast our cares on Him, not by picking
them up and with an effort throwing them on Him, but by
humbling ourselves into the nothingness that we are, so that
we leave the burden resting on Him alone" (p. 169).
|
"[2 Cor. 5:21, R.V. quoted.] "In the fullest sense
of the word and to a degree seldom thought of when the
expression is used, He became man's substitute. That is, He
identifies Himself so fully with us that everything that
touches or affects us, touches and affects Him. 'Not I, but
Christ.' We cast our cares on Him by humbling ourselves into
the nothingness that we are and leaving our burden on Him
alone" (p. 91).
|
[back]
46 "The pantheism was not inherent in his understanding of RbF
[righteousness by faith], but a parasite. Hence I wished to restore the
message as nearly as I could to its original purity as he gave it in the
early 1888 era" (Wieland to Tarling, 14 July 1977). [back]
47 A. V. Olson, Through Crisis to Victory: 1888-1901, p. 231. [back]
48 Edward Heppenstall, "The Covenants and the Law," in Our
Firm Foundation, 1:435-92. [back]
49 E. J. Waggoner, The Everlasting Covenant, pp. 247-49. [back]
50 Ibid., pp. 254-59. [back]
51 Ibid., pp. 262-70. [back]
52 Ibid., pp. 357-64. [back]
53 Waggoner, Confession of Faith, pp. 14-15. [back]
54 Waggoner, Everlasting Covenant, p. 365. [back]
55 Ibid., p. 366. [back]
56 Ibid., p. 367. [back]
57 Olson, Crisis to Victory, p. 231. [back]
58 Ibid., p. 230. [back]
59 E. J. Waggoner, "The Blotting Out of Sin," Review and
Herald, 30 Sept. 1902, p. 8. [back]
60 Ibid. [back]
61 Ellen G. White, Letter 224, 1908; cited in Olson, Crisis to
Victory, p. 313. [back]
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