When this message first began in the early days, there was a very definite experience among the believers in this fundamental principle of righteousness by faith. They followed that truth further, and it led them into these other truths. It was this that led them on to proclaim the second advent of Christ; but when they did that, instead of casting aside their experience of righteousness by faith, their experience of salvation from sin through a definite personal Saviour, they were brought into a fuller realization of that same truth.
After that, came the light concerning the sanctuary truth, and the other truths which followed in connection with the Sabbath—those truths which have become fundamental to us in this work. But those who received them did not cast aside the very foundation principle of this gospel. It was not to them a mere matter of mental assent to the new truths which were presented to them; it was a further deepening of their experience in the fundamental truth of the gospel,—salvation from sin,—that fundamental thing, righteousness by faith in Christ. But as a new generation grew up, and as it is always easier4to teach intellectual truths than to convey spiritual truth, it came to pass, after a while, that there was a teaching of intellectual truth which did not convey with it that same depth of experience in spiritual truth. In due time this grand fundamental truth which must always be fundamental in the gospel of Christ—the experience of righteousness by faith through a laying hold upon Christ as a personal Saviour—that experience became dim, and a form of truth was being presented with too little living Christ in the truth.
Then came to this people that experience which many will remember. As in former experiences the Lord laid a burden upon some men, impressing some minds with truth that had been neglected, or with truth that had been entirely overlooked for a long time, but had become due to the world; so in our experience God impressed the minds of men to bring to this people, and to put back into this movement again, in its proper place, this truth of righteousness by faith.
But mark this,—and I think it will possibly explain some of our later experiences,—when that truth was brought again to this people to be put in the place where it belonged, instead of putting it in the place where it belonged, as the life of the teaching of the second coming of Christ, the Sabbath truth, the truth concerning the nature of man,—all those phases of truth,—and instead of their being taught as simply the outgrowth of this fundamental experience of righteousness by faith, there was a tendency to make a new message out of that teaching, apart from the other special settings of the truth. I am just as free to say, so far as my own experience is concerned, that that was the way it affected me; that was the way it affected my teaching at that time, and I can see very clearly why. It was because I had not for myself made that study of those fundamental truths of this message from this foundation that led me to see that they were simply a definite teaching and a definite application of that very truth. And so, without any antagonism, or any purpose to work against those truths, there was an emphasizing of that phase of experience of righteousness apart from the other truths. What was the consequence of that? Was not the consequence the fact that those truths began to lose their vital power to us, and began to lose really their preciousness to us, while we were absorbed in the teaching of this one and only great fundamental truth of the gospel, but apart from them? Now such a course will destroy this message. I do not say that it will necessarily and at once destroy one's Christian experience, but it does seem to me that to take even that one fundamental truth of the gospel which is the foundation of all, and in this generation to attempt to teach it apart from the experience which should come with it in this generation, in the definite application of the truths that belong to this generation, will undermine the special work for this generation.
Now what effect does that have? The effect seems to me to be something like this: in this special setting of the work for this generation, which God gave in those truths which were brought out under the special guidance of his Spirit, and which were sealed by the spirit of prophecy, there is something that is, to those who receive it, a shield, a protection, against the special deceptions and delusions that will be brought in to overthrow that work. When there is such a special work to be done to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord, you know that the most determined effort will be made on the part of the enemy of God's truth to overthrow that work.
But in the truth itself which God gives for a special time, in the very setting of the truth which he gives, in the experience which he will give with that truth, there is something that will discover those deceptions, and will guard against them. Is not that clear? Is not that right? The thing itself will constitute a discoverer, a detector of error, and a protection against error. But when we allow ourselves to lessen the emphasis that should be placed upon those truths which are the foundation of this movement, those principles which must stand out with clearness and power, and in which, and through which, there must be brought to those receiving it the definite, personal experience of salvation from sin, of acceptance in Christ,—when we allow ourselves to more or less turn from that, and to place in the forefront, and to emphasize in our teaching, even this truth of righteousness by faith apart from those experiences, we let down our defense. We weaken our own message.
There are some here surely who will remember that statement which it seems to me must have been burned into many minds when it was made through the spirit of prophecy in 1897: “The people to whom God has entrusted eternal interests, the depositaries of truth pregnant with eternal results, the keepers of light that is to illuminate the whole world, have lost their bearings.” More than seven years ago the people to whom had been committed the light that was to lighten the world, and the truth that was to prepare the way for the Lord, had lost their bearings, and, having lost their bearings, the definiteness of the message and the convicting power that belongs to this present truth were to a large degree lost.
Some have been unwise enough in looking back over these years at different times to say, Wrong teaching was given at Minneapolis, and there was brought in at that time something that upset this whole movement. But should not that truth of righteousness by faith have been declared at that time? It was the truth of God, the fundamental truth of the gospel of Christ, but there seemed to be, at least on the part of some of us, a failure to put that truth back into its proper place, and to give to it again its proper setting; and we attempted to teach that doctrine regardless of the special time and experience of this generation. This was a mistake. Just as that question of definite time, a definite message of the soon coming of Christ, was fundamental in the first message, it is also fundamental now. Just as the interpretation of those periods and their application formed a framework for the teaching of the truth at that time, they constitute the same thing now. The Sabbath truth and the law of God can not now be set aside, they can not be taken out of the gospel message for this time, and it be given as he wants it given. When we become specialists, and take one development of that truth and make it the truth, we can not, on that basis, give the third angel's message, although we may have much that is true and good. But when it comes to giving the message, we must have all these truths that are brought out. There must be a teaching of the whole gospel of Christ,—salvation from sin,—righteousness by faith through Christ,—which will give to the people of this time the experience that belongs to them in view of the fact that this is the last generation.
Now just as truly as Noah was a preacher of righteousness, so we must be; but Noah could not preach righteousness without preaching the flood and the ark. John the Baptist taught the gospel of repentance for sin, and of salvation, but he could not teach the gospel of repentance and salvation from sin without teaching definitely that the time was fulfilled, and that the kingdom of God was at hand. If he had left that out of his teaching of the gospel of righteousness by faith, he would have lost his gospel. So we must be preachers of righteousness in this generation; but if we attempt to teach righteousness in this generation without its being a definite presentation to the world of the truth for this generation, we shall lose our gospel of righteousness by faith. And that gospel of righteousness by faith will be found to be long enough and broad enough to take in every phase of the truth that it is necessary to teach in order to make a people prepared for the coming of the Lord.