October 4, 2017

Before or After?

What did Ellen White know? And when did she know it?

Ellen G White

Was 1888 a turning point in Ellen White’s understanding of righteousness by faith? Which of the following statements did she make prior to the Minneapolis General Conference session, and which were after? Check the word “before” or “after” as it relates to the 1888 session. Answers may be found at end of article, as well as relevant statements from Ellen White.


1“Adam sinned, and the children of Adam share his guilt and its consequences; but Jesus bore the guilt of Adam, and all the children of Adam that will flee to Christ, the second Adam, may escape the penalty of transgression. Jesus regained heaven for man by bearing the test that Adam failed to endure; for He obeyed the law perfectly, and all who have a right conception of the plan of redemption will see that they cannot be saved while in transgression of God’s holy precepts. They must cease to transgress the law and lay hold on the promises of God that are available for us through the merits of Christ.”

BEFORE ↔ AFTER


2“God has given us the rule of conduct which every one of His servants must follow. It is obedience to His law, not merely a legal obedience, but an obedience which enters into the life, and is exemplified in the character. God has set His own standard of character for all who would become subjects.”

BEFORE ↔ AFTER


3“We may rest upon God, not because of our own merit, but because the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us.

BEFORE ↔ AFTER


4“God requires perfection of character from His children. He demands that His law be remembered and meditated upon, that unswerving obedience be rendered to its requirements.”

BEFORE ↔ AFTER


5“Implicit obedience is the condition of salvation. God’s law must be obeyed in every particular. It is our salvation to make His law our rule, His life our pattern, His glory our chief aim. To keep ourselves in the love of God, to be bound to obedience by His requirements, this is to be free in Christ.”

BEFORE ↔ AFTER


6“In these dreadful hours we must learn to trust, to depend solely upon the merits of the atonement, and in all our helpless unworthiness cast ourselves upon the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour. We shall never perish while we do this—
never!”

BEFORE ↔ AFTER


7“Man’s destiny will be determined by his obedience to the whole law.”

BEFORE ↔ AFTER


8“No deep-seated love for Jesus can dwell in the heart that does not see and realize its own sinfulness. . . . A view of our own sinfulness drives us to Him who can pardon. . . . As our substitute, He takes our guilt on His own soul, and imputes His righteousness to the sinner. When the soul, realizing its helplessness, reaches out after Christ, He will reveal Himself in power.”

BEFORE ↔ AFTER


9“Such is the infinite goodness of God that through Jesus Christ’s merits He not only spares but pardons and justifies us, and through the righteousness of Christ imputes righteousness to us, and exalts and ennobles us by making us children of His adoption.”

BEFORE ↔ AFTER


10“The Lord requires at this time just what He required of Adam in Eden—perfect obedience to the law of God. We must have righteousness without a flaw, without a blemish.”

BEFORE ↔ AFTER


11“The ministers must be converted before they can strengthen their brethren. They should not preach themselves, but Christ and His righteousness.”

BEFORE ↔ AFTER


12“The same law that was engraved upon the tables of stone is written by the Holy Spirit upon the tables of the heart. Instead of going about to establish our own righteousness we accept the righteousness of Christ. His blood atones for our sins. His obedience is accepted for us.”

BEFORE ↔ AFTER


13“We are nothing, but Christ is all and in all. We may unite our ignorance to His wisdom, our weakness to His strength, our imperfections to His merits, our frailty to His enduring might. Oh, yes, He is our all. Upon His merits we may rely, and through His merits we may have access to our heavenly Father and thus be closely connected with heaven.”

BEFORE ↔ AFTER


14“We can do nothing, absolutely nothing, to commend ourselves to divine favor. We must not trust at all to ourselves or to our good works; but when as erring, sinful beings we come to Christ, we may find rest in His love. God will accept every one that comes to Him trusting wholly in the merits of a crucified Saviour.”

BEFORE ↔ AFTER

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