p. 1 | SAVING FAITH by James White

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 16, 1869

SAVING FAITH.

By James White

BY ELD. JAMES WHITE.

TEXT.—“Cast not away therefore your confidence,” which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Heb. x, 35-39.

I KNOW of no better subject for this occasion than that which sets forth the position of those who have prepared this house of worship.

“Cast not away therefore your confidence.” Somebody has had great confidence.

“Which hath great recompense of reward.” This confidence is not to be condemned. It is approved of high Heaven, and will meet its reward.

“For ye have need of patience.” Those who have had this confidence are brought into a position of extreme trial, calling for patience.

“That, after ye have done the will of God.” Here they have the assurance that they have done the will of God, notwithstanding their disappointments and trials.

“That ye might receive the promise.” It is important that they retain their confidence. It is their privilege and duty to hold fast the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end, that they may receive the promise of God.

I believe that this portion of Scripture applies to Adventists. I believe that it clearly delineates their hopes, their disappointments, their trials, their present position, and their present duties. Do you ask me why I apply this scripture to Adventists, and to this time? Let the next verse, which I have already read in your hearing, answer the question:

“For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” The subject of the apostle’s remark is evidently the Coming One. “Cast not away therefore your confidence” in the Coming One. “For ye have need of patience,” being disappointed in reference to the time of the appearing of the Coming One.

“That ye might receive the promise.” “For yet a little while.” Time is not long, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.”

“Tarry.” Why this word introduced into the text, unless there was to be disappointment and delay? The time had passed to which they were looking anxiously and joyfully for the return of the Coming One. The time already past, they no longer looked to a future point of time. Once it was a matter of mathematical calculation. Then they walked as it were by sight. But now the time has passed, and the just live by faith.

“But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” Draw back from what? His advanced position in reference to the Coming One. Such apostasy is extremely offensive to God.

“But we are not of those who draw back to perdition.” Fearful words! God pity the apostate.

“But of those that believe to the saving of the soul.” Believe in what? What is the subject? Answer, The Coming One. During the delay, following the disappointment, the faith of believers is to be exceedingly tried. Many were to draw back. Some were to hold fast. God approves those who hold fast their confidence, and continue to the end, and sets before us the extreme danger of apostatizing and drawing back after having been called out to look for the Coming One. God save us.

We do not expect this entire congregation to appreciate our views upon this subject. Some of you will; others will not. To many of you they will appear inconsistent. Millerism, you say, is a mistake. The doctrine was all blown up when the time past; and to talk of holding fast our faith, looks to you one of the greatest inconsistencies.

We think, however, that the matter is explainable. It is consistent. We believe that in the great Advent movement, illustrated by these three figures, the three angels upon this chart are explainable.

Prophecy has been fulfilled in our disappointments, as well as in our most joyful expectations. And here again we appear inconsistent. Prophecy fulfilled, and yet we mistaken! We acknowledge our disappointment, and yet we believe prophecy has been fulfilled in the great Advent movement.

Do you say this can not be? Do you take the position that when Providence fulfills prophecy in any class of men

there can be no mistake connected with it? Go back with me, if you please, more than eighteen centuries. Behold the Master riding into Jerusalem, while the shouting multitudes are crying, Hosanna. They expected that he would then, and there, ascend the throne of David, and be king. In a few days, however, he was nailed to the cross, and with him the hopes of the disciples, died. Their expectations utterly failed, yet they fulfilled prophecy.

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy King cometh unto thee. He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.” Zech. ix, 9. This was fulfilled when Christ meekly rode into Jerusalem, followed by the devoted twelve, and the shouting multitude. They spread their outer garments in the way that he was to pass, cut off the branches of the beautiful palm trees, and carpeted his pathway as he rode meekly along. They cried, “Hosanna to the King of David.” Some of the prudent ones came to the Lord and said, “Master, rebuke thy disciples.” He approvingly said, “If these should hold their peace, the stones would cry out.”

Prophecy had gone forth, and unless the multitude had cried, Hosanna, God would have put a tongue into the very stones. The crowd supposed Christ was then to take the throne. They had no doubt of it. And they became excited and enthusiastic at the prospect. They were filled with the spirit of the time, and of the occasion. They cried hosanna in full expectation that Christ was there to take the throne. Did they fulfill prophecy? They did. Were they disappointed? They were. They were disappointed in every particular.

Were Adventists disappointed in 1844? They were. Then I ask, may not prophecy be fulfilled in their experience, although they were disappointed, as well as in the experience of disciples who lived eighteen centuries ago, when Christ rode into Jerusalem?

But, my friends, I am prepared to show that where the shouting multitudes, eighteen centuries since, were disappointed in every particular, Adventists, in 1844, were mistaken in only one out of four leading points of their faith.

The leading points in the Advent faith were these: First, the personal, not spiritual, coming of Christ. Second, the application of the prophetic symbols which are here represented upon this chart, namely, the great image of Daniel ii, the four beasts of Daniel vii, and the symbols of Dan. viii, &c. The third point was prophetic time. The fourth point was the event to take place at the termination of the prophetic periods. These are the four great points of their faith. On three of these we maintain that we were right. On one, we were mistaken.

I repeat, the consecrated twelve and the shouting multitude fulfilled prophecy, and were disappointed in every particular. It was an entire failure. But the Adventists of 1844, who were joyfully looking for the coming of the King of kings, were disappointed in one point, while in three other leading points they were right. To these four points I wish to call your attention:

First, the personal coming of Christ. When Wm. Miller and his associates went forth to lecture publicly and scatter publications everywhere, the churches were holding the doctrine of the temporal millennium, or spiritual coming and reign of Jesus Christ. This was not the old established doctrine in the church. He who undertook to trace it back to the apostles, could go no further than Daniel Whitby, of the eighteenth century, as the first to teach the spiritual second advent and reign of Christ. It had, however, in this short time, become very popular in all the churches, and, with few exceptions, the individual members received the sentiment.

The Low Hampton farmer came out upon the doctrine of the literal personal advent of Jesus Christ at the resurrection of the just, and met this popular error of the world’s conversion and the spiritual reign of Christ, with the word of God. He presented the words of Christ himself: “And ye shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

He also relied upon the declaration of the angels who stood by, at the ascension of Christ, and said to the disciples, as they gazed earnestly to catch the last glimpse of their ascending Lord, “Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” They saw him after his resurrection. Thomas even placed his finger in the prints of the nails in his hands and feet, and of the spear in his side; and as he saw these tangible evidences of his personality, he exclaims, “My Lord and my God.”

“Mary,” said the Master, “touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father.” And he afterward said to his disciples, “A spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have.”

He ate of the broiled fish and of the honeycomb. It was this personal Christ that led his disciples up upon the Mount of Olives, and there ascended in their sight. And the angels bore testimony that this same Jesus, not another, that ye see go into heaven, shall so come, in like manner, as ye see him go into heaven. This is the best kind of testimony. Language cannot be formed to give stronger evidence of the literal return of the Son of God.

In language equally plain, the Revelator says: “Behold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him.” And the great apostle says: “For the Lord himself [not another, but himself, lest we should make a mistake and think that the second advent was the advent of the Spirit, or conversion, or death, or something else] shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.”

I might go to the prophets. I might read to you what Job says: “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.”

With this view of the subject, the book of God appears harmonious. It appears beautiful and clear, as the testimony of Christ, of the angels, of the apostles, and of the prophets, all harmonizing in the clearest terms to impress us with the fact that He who ascended up in a tangible form, and personally went up to the throne of the Father, will come again a personal Christ, to reign King over his people forever. On this point, Adventists are right.

On the second point, the application of the prophetic symbols, Wm. Miller has the majority of commentators with him. I need not dwell upon this point. All Protestants agree, with very few exceptions; and Wm. Miller only repeated that which had been consented to in the past, as to the application of these great prophetic symbols.

The third point, the time, the termination of the prophetic periods. Here it was said that Wm. Miller was treading upon forbidden ground. It was asserted that he had no business with prophetic chronology. Then I answer that it had no business in the Bible. This book professes to be a revelation. We take it as such. The God of the Bible has not troubled the church with non-essentials out. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable.”

But there is no book in the Bible that contains more of the grand pillars that bear up Christianity against Infidelity, than the book of Daniel. It is the Christian’s stronghold. And in that book are the prophetic measurements. They, as well as other portions of that book, are profitable.

I have not time to go into the arguments on prophetic chronology. I was stating Wm. Miller’s position in regard to the prophetic times. He claimed that the 2300 days were so many years; that they commenced, not from any point in the eighth chapter, but that the ninth chapter is a key that explains the eighth. The 70 prophetic weeks, or 490 years, were to be determined or cut off from the 2300. The 70 weeks were to date from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, which went forth 457 years before Christ. This being the case, the whole period of 2300 days would reach to A. D. 1844.

This position stood the test of the most rigid criticism. Said Prof. Bush, who stood at the head of New England Presbyterianism, Millerism is a mistake; but he who touches Wm. Miller on chronology, touches him on the strongest point. Miller is right as to time; but he is mistaken in the event. He says that Christ is coming, and that the world is to be burned, whereas the true event is the spiritual reign of Christ, and the temporal millennium. This great man taught the people that the temporal millennium was coming about the year 1844. Did not Prof. Bush make a mistake? Has the temporal millennium come, friends? If we have been enjoying it since 1844, may the Lord save us from the balance.

Wm. Miller believed that the prophetic periods terminated in 1844, and that Christ would then come, and the resurrection of the just take place. Wm. Miller was mistaken; Prof. Bush was also mistaken. To err, even in matters and events pertaining to the great God and the events of prophecy, is human. Everything beneath the sun is marked with imperfection, with a lack of foresight. God only is supremely great and supremely wise. But why not let Wm. Miller rest in the grave without reproach, as well as Prof. Bush. Both of these great men sleep; but who thinks of reproaching Prof. Bush because the temporal millennium has not come? But who will plead the cause of Wm. Miller? The good man rests. God bless him! In the resurrection morning he will come forth.

The shouting multitude eighteen centuries ago were utterly mistaken, when they were fulfilling prophecy. Wm. Miller and his associates were right on three points out of four. They were mistaken in only one leading point. Time has rolled on, and given us chance to search our Bibles with a little more care and prayerfulness, until the matter is now all perfectly explainable.

The mistake of these two great men, Miller and Bush, was in not rightly understanding the subject of the Sanctuary and its cleansing. I have already referred to the 2300 days. Allow me to quote the words of the angel to Daniel: “Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”

Says Prof. Bush, “The sanctuary is the church. The church is to be cleansed, and the world converted; and it is all to take place at the end of the 2300 days, about 1844.” But the church has not been cleansed yet. Said Wm. Miller, “The sanctuary is the earth. That good and truly great man, when he searched the word of God, and saw blazing light shine forth from this precious book in reference to the coming of Christ, saw that one object of that coming was to cleanse and purify the earth. And as the old earth was cleansed by being washed by the waters of the flood, so the present was to be cleansed by the fires of the last day. He inferred that the sanctuary to be cleansed at the end of the 2300 days was the earth. He made a great mistake; and there is the secret of the whole disappointment.

The earth God’s sanctuary? Never, since man stepped his foot out of Eden. Once God walked and talked with man in Eden. Sin entered. The blight and mildew of sin rests everywhere, and moral darkness and iniquity have covered the earth. The primary signification of sanctuary is, a holy place, a sacred place, the dwelling-place of the most high God. Neither this earth, nor any part of it, has been such a place since man left Eden.

Two things only God acknowledges in the Scriptures as his sanctuary: First, the tabernacle built by Moses; second, the sanctuary which is represented here upon this chart. Said God to Moses, “Make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among you.” Moses obeyed. There God placed his name, manifested his glory, and held converse with the high priest relative to the welfare of Israel. That was a holy place. It was the dwelling-place of God.

The second place that God acknowledges as his sanctuary is that of which the apostle speaks in Hebrews: “Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the Heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.”

The man, Moses, pitched the earthly tabernacle. The Lord pitched the heavenly. Men of infirmity were priests under the typical system, and officiated under the shadow, in the earthly sanctuary. But Christ ascended up to the great antitypical sanctuary in Heaven, to plead his own precious blood.

The Jewish sanctuary was but the shadow, the type, the pattern. The great reality is in Heaven. There is the sanctuary of the new covenant.

The sanctuary of the old covenant long since passed away. Unto two thousand three hundred days, years, reaching down near the close of this dispensation, and then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. But does Heaven need cleansing? Wait, friends, your ideas are altogether too gross upon the subject of the cleansing of the sanctuary as spoken of by the prophet. We cleanse rooms in this world with sand, soap, and water. But would we get a clear idea of cleansing as applied to heavenly things, let us look at the cleansing of the typical sanctuary.

Into the holy place went the high priest once every year to cleanse the sanctuary. Did he go in there with water, soap, and sand to cleanse it? Was it because that building was unclean as this house might be by bringing dirt and filth into it? There was no such uncleanness in the typical sanctuary. The priests were required to wash their feet before going into the sanctuary, lest some particle of dust should cling to their feet and they should thus leave it in that place. But there was moral uncleanness transported to the sanctuary. The people brought their sin-offerings, confessed their sins, and the priest bore in before the Lord the sins of the people. They were thus taken from the people and conveyed to the sanctuary. It was sin that polluted the sanctuary. It was sin conveyed in figure from the people to that sanctuary which made its cleansing by blood necessary. Hence on the tenth day of the seventh month, the last day of that yearly service, the high priest went into the most holy place to cleanse the sanctuary. He came out bearing the sins of the people, and confessed them on the head of the scapegoat, which is then sent away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. All this is done in shadow, and the goat is borne away into the land of separation. This is the way in which the typical sanctuary was cleansed.

Now, how with the antitypical? Every sinner, who has found pardon of his sins, has looked up to Jesus, and to him has confessed his sins. Jesus reaches down his arm to save him. He accepts his confessions of sin, and thus, shall I say, through the intercession of Christ, the sins of the sinner are conveyed to the heavenly sanctuary. Hence at the close of his ministration, Jesus goes into the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, and bears out these sins and confesses them upon the head of the great antitypical scapegoat, which we think is the Devil. And as the goat in

the type was by the hand of a fit man sent away into the wilderness, so the Devil is at this time bound by the mighty angel. This is our idea of the cleansing of the sanctuary of the new covenant.

The grand period of 2300 prophetic days reached from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, B. C. 457, to A. D. 1844, when Christ, our great high priest, entered the most holy place, where, by virtue of his own blood, he is to remove the sins of his people from the heavenly sanctuary.

This view of the subject explains the nature of the disappointment of Adventists, and helps define their present position. It was a part of God’s great plan in dealing with the people of our time to arouse the sleeping churches and the world by the proclamation of the time of the Lord’s coming. In order for this it seems necessary that the present clear light upon the sanctuary, and the nature of its cleansing should remain hidden till after the passing of the time. Since the disappointment, how forcible the words of the text:

“Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompense of reward.”

Adventists had great confidence in the proclamation that the Lord would come in 1844. Are they reproved, or approved for this confidence? Hear while I quote the text again; and may God impress you with its true meaning: “Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience [God knows that we have had need of patience], that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the promise; for yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”

Faith, my friends, unshaken faith in this great question yet. We see no reason for doubting on this great question. Our faith has never been stronger in the personal coming of our Lord, in the application of the prophetic symbols, in prophetic chronology. We were mistaken in the event. Time has rolled on to fulfill this prophecy, and these declarations about the tarrying and the waiting time. What use should we have for them if we had not had just such a disappointment?

In our waiting position, we have had opportunity to correct our mistakes. And here we stand, with increased light upon this great question.

Believers should follow down the track of prophecy, and see God’s providential hand still leading. Those who stand in the light are to-day stronger than at any other point in our Advent history.

This is saving faith—faith in God and in his word; faith in the great second Advent movement which has been wrought out in harmony with the word and Spirit of God; faith in our advanced position in the third message, keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus; faith that in a little while, He that is to come will come, and will not tarry. Here is saving faith. God save us from drawing back to perdition.

May God bless this dear congregation. May these truths of such tremendous importance, oh, may they find a place in all your minds and hearts.

I thank God that our friends, though few, have prepared so comfortable and fitting a place of worship. With cheerful hearts and ready hands have they done this; and now open their doors for worship. We are disappointed this morning at having so large a representation from this community to address. God bless you, dear friends. May his Spirit come down upon us, and may this be the place where God’s honor shall dwell, and his servants shall be free; and may they ever have in their bosoms the love and compassion of Christ.

This house has not been built with feelings of ambition to maintain a party feeling; but has been erected for Christ’s cause. May all the members of this church be the servants of Jesus Christ, conducting themselves in humility and love. And may this be the place where the people shall ever love to come to hear the plain word of God. And may his blessing ever rest upon us while we meet in earthly courts to pray, and praise his holy name. And when these scenes shall close may it be our happy lot to meet in the mansions above. Amen.