Third Quarter 2004 Adult Sabbath School Lessons:
"Religion in Relationships"

Insights to Lesson 12:
Supporting Our Leaders
September 11-17

(Produced by the Editorial Board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)

This Sabbath School Lesson is particularly relevant for those who understand the significance of the 1888 message of Christ’s righteousness “The Lord in His great mercy sent” it to us. As those who have believed that the world church needs this “most precious message,” we have interfaced with our General Conference leadership for some 55 years.

Our Lesson very wisely enjoins upon all church members the duty of loyalty to leadership. But Friday’s Lesson boldly asks if there is ever some point where “a person [should] stand up and openly challenge leadership?” The answer the Bible gives is “yes.” But such a challenge must be made in loyalty to the organization of the church, recognizing that its true Head is the Lord Jesus Himself. His word is ultimate authority.

The General Conference recognize that the 1888 Message Study Committee is thoroughly loyal to church leadership, and has been so every step of our way. We have always believed that the corporate, denominated Seventh-day Adventist Church is the one mentioned in Revelation 12:17 and 14:12 as “the remnant” which “keep the commandments of God” and “the faith of Jesus,” and “have the testimony of Jesus Christ” which is “the spirit of prophecy” (19:10). Because of this firm conviction, we believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is calling upon “the angel of the church,” its human leadership, to “be zealous therefore, and repent” (3:19). The church and the world need that “most precious message” of 1888; it is distinctly, uniquely related to the truths of the Day of Atonement and the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary that created this church in its beginning. The reason that the Lord “sent” the 1888 message was to prepare that generation for translation at the second coming of Christ. But the unbelief of church leadership frustrated the Lord’s purpose. Tragically so.

To express this conviction has been interpreted by some as disloyalty to human church leadership.

The problem was this: General Conference and White Estate leadership had maintained that church leadership in the 1888 era accepted that “most precious message” and have proclaimed it clearly, powerfully ever since: “The rank and file of Seventh-day Adventist workers and laity accepted the presentations at Minneapolis and were blessed. Certain leading men there resisted the teaching” (General Conference published document, Takoma Park, Washington D. C., September, 1958, p. 11).

Providence permitted two of our young researchers to have access to a large amount of hitherto unpublished Ellen White material in her letters and diaries that firmly and consistently declared the opposite. They concluded (rightly, it turned out) that General Conference leadership had never seen that buried material. (Much of what has now been published in the 1821 pages of the four volumes of Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, was included in what these two young men found in 1949 and the 1950s.) By bringing this material to the attention of the General Conference Committee, the two were regarded as challenging the traditional views of grey-haired leaders.

The two considered themselves counterparts to the poor “four leprous men” of Elisha’s day who discovered resources of materiel unknown to the king of Israel (2 Kings 7:3-11). They said, “We do not well, . . . therefore come, that we may go and tell the king’s household.” Even “lepers” can recognize their duty!

The Ellen White quotation on Friday’s lesson page from Acts of the Apostles, pages 163, 164, figures in this half century of tension (we are “to respect the counsel and highly esteem the judgment . . . of those in the offices that God has appointed for the leadership of His people”). A former General Conference president cited this repeatedly in an effort to motivate the original principals of the 1888 Message Study Committee to retract their convictions, to agree that church leadership accepted the message, or at least to say nothing.

Our current Sabbath School Lesson makes clear that it is not disloyalty to human church leadership to tell them of information they may not have known. Ellen White was deeply concerned that the 1888 message of Christ’s righteousness was (1) the “beginning” of the “loud cry” of Revelation 18, (2) initial “showers from heaven of the latter rain,” (3) and “Satan succeeded in shutting [it] away from our people, in a great measure,” (4) and it “has been in a great degree kept away from the world” (Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 234, 235). This is alarming, critically important information! To maintain these basic positions of Ellen White is the essence of loyalty to Seventh-day Adventist Church leadership. It’s being true to Jesus Christ, the Head of His Church.

Our Lesson for September 18 recognizes that even if leaders make a mistake, our duty is to cooperate with them “as much as possible” within the bounds of enlightened conscience. Wise leadership will always recognize the Protestant principle of “the priesthood of all believers.” And every believer should be a faithful “protest-ant” whose loyalty to truth is uppermost in his/her life.

Finally, our Lesson challenges us all to seek for “historical precedents” of a sanctified “challenge [to] leadership.” If ever in 6000 years God has needed humans to respond to His leading, it is now. Some who challenged the leadership of the true church of their day are: Joseph, David, Elijah, Jeremiah, Jesus Himself (even as a Boy!), Paul confronting Peter at Antioch and the “certain [emissaries who] came from James,” the church “president” of that day (Gal. 2:9-14ff.). May we re-consecrate ourselves (1) to be absolutely loyal to Christ and to the Holy Spirit, (2) to let our human leaders see that we are loyal to them and His organized church. We cannot join any “new organization.” The love (agape) of Christ “constraineth us” to total dedication to Him, even as a bride is dedicated to her husband.

—Robert J. Wieland

Read the study notes for lesson 13