Further Study: Read Ellen G. White, “Can Our Dead Speak to Us?” pp. 551-562; “God’s People Delivered,” pp. 635-652 in The Great Controversy.
During the early years, many of our pioneers became imbalanced in their preaching of the law. Hence, wrote Ellen White in 1890: “As a people, we have preached the law until we are as dry as the hills of Gilboa that had neither dew nor rain. We must preach Christ in the law.”—Review & Herald, March 11, 1890. At the 1888 Minneapolis General Conference session, E. J. Waggoner and A. T. Jones did just that. The burden of their message was “to affirm the truth that the only way righteousness can be obtained is through a living faith in the Lamb of God, whose blood was shed on Calvary’s cross as a propitiation for the sins of the world. No one can enter the kingdom of God without being clad in the spotless robe of Christ’s righteousness. This robe can neither be purchased with silver or gold nor earned by good works. This message was a clarion call to make Christ and His righteousness the center of all our living and our preaching. It placed special emphasis on righteousness by faith as a real personal experience rather than a mere theory.”—A. V. Olson, Through Crisis to Victory 1888-1901 (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publ. Assoc., 1966), pp. 35. Waggoner also taught that mankind’s obedience never can satisfy God’s law, that Christ’s imputed righteousness alone is the basis of our acceptance by God, and that we constantly need the covering of Christ’s righteousness, not just for our past sins. Ellen White strongly supported Waggoner. She called his presentations “a most precious message.” —Testimonies to Ministers, p. 91.
Discussion Questions: 
Is there any teaching of the Seventh-day Adventist Church that is based on anything other than our understanding of the Bible? That is, is there any doctrine that comes from Ellen White rather than the Bible? Though we believe in the gift of prophecy, why must we as a people make sure that we know all our teachings from the Bible and the Bible alone? What problems are created if we lean on Ellen White to create our doctrines? At the same time, why is she so helpful to us in clarifying and understanding teaching that we have gotten from the Bible?
Dwell on the idea that Sabbathkeeping is an expression of the rest we have in Christ, in that our salvation is based on His works for us, not on our own. How does this help answer the spurious charge that by keeping the Sabbath, we are denying the gospel of God’s grace?
Even critics of Ellen White admit that she played a big role in moving the Adventist Church away from legalism toward a more Coss-centered view of salvation, which is a strange thing for a false prophet (what many of these same people refer to her as) to do, is it not? How is the inconsistency of these critics revealed by their view that, though a false prophet, she nevertheless guided the church away from legalism?
I N S I D E Story
The Eavesdropper
by DAVID VIKAS PAN
Chhabi stood in the shadows, straining to hear the visitor talking to her brother-in-law about a God named Jesus.
Several weeks earlier Chhabi had heard her brother-in-law say, "Something good is in this Jesus." She wondered who this Jesus was and why her brother-in-law was interested in Him. Chhabi wanted to learn more about this Jesus, but her husband forbade her to join the Bible study on the veranda. So when the Global Mission pioneers, David and Swarna, visited their home, Chhabi eavesdropped on the Bible studies being held on the family's veranda.
Chhabi found Swarna's telephone number and called her. She told Swarna, "I want to know about Jesus, but my husband won't allow it. Please pray to your God that He will cause my husband to allow me to search for the true God," she begged. The two women began meeting secretly to study the Bible while Chhabi's husband was at work.
One day when the women were studying, Chhabi's daughter rushed in to tell her that Father was coming! Fearing what he would say, Chhabi asked Swarna to pray before he entered the house. When he arrived, he sat down to listen to their study. Chhabi asked her husband why he was home early, and he said that he was not feeling well. Swarna prayed for him, and soon he said he felt better. After that, Chhabi's husband allowed her to study the Bible with Swarna.
Chhabi learned to pray and began praying for her husband. He didn't argue when she wanted to attend church a bold step for an Indian woman, and in time she was baptized. Men don't allow their wives to teach them, but Chhabi encouraged him to read certain passages in the Bible and decide for himself whether he was going to worship the idols or the living God. Chhabi's husband read the passages, and soon he joined her in the faith. Today Chhabi's family and three of her husband's brothers and their families have become Adventists.
Then Chhabi turned to her own family. She is encouraging her mother, a widow who lives in another area, to follow Jesus. She is praying that her two brothers will also consider following Jesus. But there are no Adventists in their village, and some villagers are pressuring them to reject Christianity.
Our mission offerings support Global Mission pioneers in India and around the world as they share the gospel and plant churches where the name of Jesus is not known.
DAVID VIKAS PAN is a district pastor and Global Mission supervisor near Kolkota (Calcutta), India.
Produced by the General Conference Office of Mission Awareness.
email: info@adventistmission.org website: www.adventistmission.org
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