The 1888 Minneapolis General Conference Session was a meeting of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in October 1888. It is regarded as a landmark event in the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Key participants were Alonzo T. Jones and Ellet J. Waggoner, who presented a message on Justification by Faith (Gal. 2:16; Rom. 3:28) supported by Ellen G. White, but resisted by leaders such as G. I. Butler, Uriah Smith and others. The session discussed crucial theological issues such as the meaning of "righteousness by faith", the nature of the Godhead, the relationship between law and grace, and Justification and its relationship to Sanctification.
Introduction
The Seventh-day Adventist Church General Conference Session of 1888 was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was one of the most significant meetings the denomination had ever had up to that time since it was formally organized on May 23, 1863. Church historians, theologians, and laypersons consider the session to be important. They differ in their own perspective and interpretation of the specific events, the message presented there, and the ensuing reactions. The "joint Minneapolis Institute and General Conference, of 1888, involved vastly more than appeared on the surface. It was the culmination of a whole series of developments that led up to it."LeRoy Edwin Froom. Movement of Destiny. Washington DC: Review and Herald, 1971; p. 239.
Foundational experience
The founding pioneers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church believed in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour and the Bible as their guide in life. Those who had come through the Millerite Movement had first-hand knowledge of disappointment and discouragement. As they studied the Scriptures concerning end time prophecy, the sanctuary types and their fulfillment, and the perpetuity of the law of God, they saw the necessity for organization as a means for proclaiming these truths to the world. The denomination was formally organized on May 23, 1863, in Battle Creek, Michigan.
The men and women who were a part of the development of this denomination came from various religious backgrounds, bringing with them into the new movement some beliefs peculiar to their former associations. Two significant hold-over theological views were semi-Pelagianism and semi-Arianism.Erwin Roy Gane. "The Arian or Anti-Trinitarian Views Presented in Seventh-day Adventist Literature and the Ellen G. White Answer," 1963. Masters thesis on file at James White Library, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan. The focus of the early Seventh-day Adventist Church tended more toward basic denominational organization and development, emphasis on obedience to the Ten Commandments, and efforts at evangelism and church growth during the anguish of the American Civil War and its aftermath. After its formation the doctrines of salvation and righteousness by faith were understood and accepted but stayed in the background, mostly because these truths were familiar to most churches, so bringing out of these and other specific theological points awaited later focus and discussion. Though their Biblical arguments brought many to the church, they had minimized the centrality of the indwelling Christ as the only power to obey the commandments and to keep the Sabbath, and self-satisfaction and complacency began to affect the church.
There was nothing wrong with such material progress... It was right and proper that institutes be established, that the work spread into new regions and churches everywhere be raised up. But ministers and laity alike mistook this growth for the true end and purpose of the Advent movement — a spiritual preparation for the return of Christ. Confusion resulted, and self-esteem and complacency began to surface in the weekly reports of 'the advance of the cause' as published in the Review.Robert J. Wieland and Donald K. Short. 1888 Re-Examined. Uniontown, Ohio: The 1888 Message Study Committee, 1987; p. 10.
Sources of the developing conflict
By the second generation of the movement, the denomination had spread across the United States and had mission fields around the world. As the church grew, so did opposition (and in some places, persecution), particularly regarding the seventh-day Sabbath. Emphasis on the Ten Commandments as a part of obedience to God was a firmly established and central tenet of the denomination by the 1870s. Sunday-keeping Christians claimed that keeping the seventh-day Sabbath was a sign of legalism or judaizing. Convinced of the Biblical correctness of the seventh-day Sabbath, Seventh-day Adventists turned to their Bibles to show the beliefs and doctrines from scripture and teach other Christians, prompting the moniker "People of the Book" to be applied to them, and not a few became decidedly legalistic.Gerhard Pfandl, "Minneapolis, 1888: An Adventist Watershed," Adventist World. Accessed 12-21-10. So at the 1888 General Conference Session in Minneapolis, the presentation of the message of Christ as the only source of righteousness by two young preachers was going to create conflict with some members including church leaders.
Defending Sabbath observance
Ministers and laypersons alike used scriptures in debating the beliefs of Adventist, including this particular issue, from Scripture. However, there was still much opposition to the Sabbath belief, and there were Christians that said that Seventh-day Adventists were indeed legalists who held strictly to the "letter of the law." All the work involved in developing and extending the denomination seemed to force attention upon what the individual could accomplish, opening the door to self-reliance in spiritual matters. The Christ-centered gospel was displaced by man's efforts.R. W. Schwarz. Light Bearers to the Remnant. Boise, Idaho: Pacific Press, 1979; p. 184.
Powerful arguments were developed to establish [the law's] 'binding obligations.' Debaters and polemicists emerged, stressing the Sabbath, the Law, etc. — like lawyers arguing a case. Spirituality waned, and not a few became decided legalists... Cold intellectualism and dry theory increased. Christ often became secondary, and Righteousness by Faith largely lost sight of, through outward profession without inner experience. The majesty of the message and the law was magnified. But something was lacking. Discussions were logical and convincing, but not Christ-centered.
Non-trinitarianism and the atonement
A second issue that paved the way for the discussions at Minneapolis was the non-trinitarian view on the divinity of Christ. This was not an openly discussed theological perspective but was a view that many of the early church leaders had brought in from the churches they came from. Some prominent writers and speakers, such as Uriah Smith, long-time editor of the Church's chief publication, held on to them firmly eschewing the idea of a creed, the denomination made no attempt at developing a systematic declaration of fundamental beliefs, or "Fundamental Principles," until 1872. A declaration of the nature of the Godhead and Christ as the fully divine "Son of God" appeared at that time. After the 1888 Minneapolis General Conference, additions on these subjects were made to the Bible Readings for the Home Circle, published by the Pacific Press. Uriah Smith (1832–1903), long-time editor of the Review and Herald (now Adventist Review), the official organ of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, had expounded this position in his discourse on the Book of Revelation first published in 1865. Commenting on Revelation 1:4, Smith set forth a straight forward non-trinitarian position by claiming that the language of the verse was "applicable only to God the Father," and was "never applied to Christ."Uriah Smith. Thoughts on the Revelation. Battle Creek, Michigan: Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association, 3rd edition, 1885; p. 16.
Another Adventist pioneer who held to what has been called by some in the denomination, the "Arian" or non-trinitarian view was Joseph H. Waggoner (1820–1889), Ellet J. Waggoner's father. J. H. Waggoner was an early convert to the Advent movement, serving on the committee called in 1860 to form the legal organization of the denomination. In 1881, Joseph H. Waggoner succeeded James White as editor of the Pacific coast evangelistic magazine, Signs of the Times. Through his several books on the atonement, the elder Waggoner wrote that Christ was only God in "a subordinate sense." His main point of dispute was the Trinitarian concept of three divine persons forming one Divine being composed of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In his expanded volume on the atonement,Elder J. H. Waggoner. The Atonement; An Examination of a Remedial System in the Light of Nature and Revelation. Oakland, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1884; pp. 146-199. J. H. Waggoner devoted two chapters in his attempt to prove that the Trinitarian view was false because it inferred that Christ, being God, could not have died on the cross of Calvary, and thus full atonement for sin could not have been made.
Other church leaders composing the majority of the founding Pioneers who espoused the belief in only one Divine being called "God," with Christ being the Divine "Son of God", were: James S. White (Ellen White's husband), Joseph Bates, J. N. Andrews, J. N. Loughborough, S. N. Haskell, R. F. Cottrell, J. B. Frisbie, J. G. Matteson, M. E. Cornell and others. A representative statement from these leaders is given here: "The Scriptures abundantly teach the pre-existence of Christ and his divinity, but they are entirely silent in regard to a Trinity." (J. H. Waggoner, The Atonement, p. 173)
Church Founder and Prophet Ellen White wrote to clarify: "God is the Father of Christ; Christ is the Son of God. To Christ has been given an exalted position. He has been made equal with the Father. All the counsels of God are opened to His Son." {8 Testimonies p. 268.3 1904} This language and other such widely accepted statements strongly upheld the non-trinitarian foundation of the early Seventh-day Adventist Church. Still, more current SDA Church periodicals point out that the founding leaders of the Church are now regarded as in error on the topic of the Godhead since the SDA Church officially embraced the Trinity doctrine at the Dallas General Conference meeting held in 1980. One example of this is here: "Most of the founders of Seventh-day Adventism would not be able to join the church today if they had to subscribe to the denomination's Fundamental Beliefs... More specifically, most would not be able to agree to belief number 2, which deals with the doctrine of the Trinity." (Ministry Magazine, Oct. 1993, p. 10)
Open confrontation