Book: General Conference Committee, A Statement Refuting Charges Made by A. T. Jones Against the Spirit of Prophecy and the Plan of Organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination (Washington, DC: General Conference Committee, 1906). HTML, Scan.
Contents: Refutes charges made by A. T. Jones after he had united with J. H. Kellogg in undermining the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Chapter 6: The Alleged Campaign Against Dr. Kellogg
Pages 24-29 of this leaflet are devoted to what Elder Jones terms “the campaign against Dr. Kellogg.” He says: “I told you in the very beginning of it that I would never take any part in, it.”
We might dispose of this charge by saying, there is no such campaign. It has been repeatedly asserted that the General Conference was waging a warfare upon Dr. Kellogg. The real issue has thus been brushed aside, and continued representations have been made that the controversy which has been on for some time, is merely a wrangle between the leaders of the medical work and the officers of the General Conference.
But this is a false issue. There is no warfare being waged against Dr. Kellogg, or any other man, as such; and we have never asked Elder Jones or any one else to unite with us in any such work. We have neither the time nor the disposition to step aside from the sacred work committed to us, and engage in a contest with men. Let it be understood by all for all time that this is not our mission.
That the denomination has been passing through a sad and most trying experience during the past four years, we freely admit. But the controversy has been one concerning vital and fundamental principles,—a controversy between truth and error. The fundamental principles of our message have been assailed. Besides this, a policy of administration has been contending for the mastery which is destructive of all organization, and, if allowed to secure the supremacy, would bring anarchy and ruin. It is against these things, and these only, that we have been contending. And against these evil things we expect to contend to the end. Men are involved in the contention only as they are the champions of opposing principles. If [p. 37] the men who are now leaders in the strife which is in our midst should step aside, and others take their places, and the apostasy and wicked spirit of domination should continue to assert themselves, the warfare would still continue. Once more let us say, that it is against wrong principles, and not men, that we are contending.
That man is a hireling who, when he sees the flock in danger, flees and leaves them to be devoured. That watchman who, while standing on the walls of Zion, fails to blow the trumpet, and warn the city when the enemy is approaching, is unfaithful; and the blood of those who perish in the overthrow will be required at his hands.
In a recent Testimony the watchmen have been instructed as follows:—
“Few can see the meaning of the present apostasy. But the Lord has lifted the curtain, and has shown me its meaning, and the result that it will have if allowed to continue. We must now lift our voices in warning.”
This is a complete explanation of the trouble and contention which have been taxing the energies of this denomination for several years. There is an apostasy developing. It is against this evil that we are contending, and not against some man or combination of men. We are here bidden to lift our voices in warning. This we have done the best we have known how.
This apostasy is further described as follows:
“I was shown a platform, braced by solid timbers,—the truths of the Word of God. Some one high in responsibility in the medical work was directing this man and that man to loosen the timbers supporting this platform. Then I heard a voice saying, ‘Where are the watchmen that ought to be standing on the walls of Zion? Are they asleep? How can they be silent? This foundation was built by the Master Worker, and will stand storm and tempest. Will they permit this man to present doctrines that deny the past experiences of the people of God? The time has come to take decided action!’”
[p. 38]
The very work here described has for some time been going on in our midst. The leader is described as a man “high in responsibility in, the medical work.” He is represented as directing a movement to pull down and destroy the platform of this message. And he is not alone in this destructive work; for he is “directing this man and that man to loosen the timbers.” In alarm the question is asked, “Where are the watchmen?” “Are they asleep?” Our whole effort has been and still is to maintain the fundamental truths which have made us a people. In as Christian a manner as we knew how, we have endeavored to hinder this perilous and destructive work. How could we remain silent when we are told that the time had come to take “decided action”?
But when men endeavor to lift up a warning voice as God has commanded them to do, sympathizers with the apostasy call it persecution, and a “campaign against Dr. Kellogg.” But must men be denounced because they stand in defense of the “faith which was once delivered unto the saints”? Must we allow the seeds of doubt and unbelief to be sown broadcast, and make no effort to uproot their baneful influence, because some certain man or men happen to be champions of error? Must some Goliath be permitted to defy the armies of the living God, and all Israel remain in their tents, lest a cry be raised that “warfare” is being waged against somebody? The cry of apostasy has ever been, “Ye have killed the people of the Lord.” It claims the right to carry on its destructive work without opposition. With it, opposition is persecution.
But the church of God has been set for the defense of the truth, and it can not sit idly by while men wreck the hopes of sincere, confiding hearts for time and for eternity. Elder Jones may boast, if he wishes, that he will “never take any part” in this campaign against error; and so far as we know he has not. Instead, however, he has, to all appearances, allied himself with this [p. 39] apostasy, has become a part of it, and now stands forth as its most prominent champion. Of this, the leaflet under review is indisputable evidence. Its whole tendency is to destroy confidence in the spirit of prophecy, and to erect a standard around Which all the disorganized atoms within the denomination can rally. Which will be the better in the day of God, to have been found a silent watchman on the walls of Zion, while the enemy sought to capture the city, or to have lifted the trumpet and sounded a warning against the deceptive workings of error, the Word of God clearly reveals.
There are other causes for the trouble which has disturbed us as a denomination, and which has given rise to the false cry of a “campaign against Dr. Kellogg,” than the subtle, dangerous philosophy which has been seeking to usurp the place of the fundamental truths of this message. The false sentiments of theology against which we are forced to contend, constitute but a part of the difficulty. Plans of organization and administration have been urged upon the denomination which would make the medical missionary work the body instead of the arm, and give to a central board of management, and to a single individual, a controlling, dominating power which would utterly pervert God’s plan of organization.
Instead of the medical missionary arm being willing to be directed by the body, the arm has been endeavoring to direct the body. The following warning against this abnormal condition makes this matter clear: “Medical missionary work is in no case to be divorced from the gospel ministry. The Lord has specified that the two shall be as closely connected as the arm is with the body. Weaken this union, neither part of the work is complete. . . . But God did not design that the medical missionary work should eclipse the work of the third angel’s message. The arm is not to become the body.”
“The leaders in our medical work at Battle Creek have endeavored to bind our medical institutions fast, in [p. 40] accordance with their plans. Notwithstanding the many warnings given them that this should not be done, they have desired to bind up these institutions in some way so that all our medical work shall be under their control.”
We deem it unnecessary to take more space in giving quotations from the Testimonies regarding this question. For years this arbitrary, dominating spirit has been seeking to control and turn aside the work of this denomination. The ministry has been belittled, and the third angel’s message itself has largely been ignored, and its truths “blanketed.” The effort of the body to resist the domination of the arm, and keep the truths of this cause to the front, is one of the chief causes of our present difficulties. We well know the real animus which underlies this warfare which is being made upon our denominational organization. It is not a new thing. Disorganization has had its champions in our midst from the beginning of our history. The cry of “popery” has been raised before.