Lest We Forget (from One Note)

Author: George Knight

RETROSPECT ON MINNEAPOLIS

Thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins.

Matt. 1:21.

The 1888 General Conference session was one of the great turning points in

Seventh-day Adventist history. We cannot have the slightest doubt about its accomplishments. It directed the church back to the Bible as the only source of authority in both doctrine and practice, it uplifted Jesus and placed salvation by grace through faith at the center of Adventist theology, it contexted the proper role of the law within the gospel of grace, and it led to a restudying of the topics of the Trinity, the full divinity of Christ, and the personhood of the Holy Spirit. And perhaps most important, it gave Adventism a fuller understanding of the third angel's message in Revelation 14:12—the central text in Seventh- day Adventist self-understanding. Not only did that passage identify them as Adventists as they patiently waited for their Lord while keeping all of God 's commandments, but it also set before them the gospel message in the fact that God's last message to the world before the Second Advent (verses 14-20) would center on having faith in Jesus. In short, the 1888 message transformed the way Adventists thought about their message. That's the good news.

The bad news is that the devil is always out to make sure that we forget or neglect the good news. Thus it is that some Adventists in the 1890s and beyond continued to focus on the law rather than the gospel, while others used the message of Jones and Waggoner as a new gate into the old legalism and human perfectionism that they had been raised up to stand against. The whole story of the Minneapolis saga brings to mind two of the greatest facts on earth. First, the utter perversity of human beings. Second, the unbounded grace of God. Looking back on the history of the church in the Minneapolis era, what comes to my mind are the words of John Newton's great hymn: "Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!"

"Amazing grace" is the only kind there is. Those two words sum up the message and meaning of the 1888 event.

MEET W. W. PRESCOTT

Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten; so be zealous and repent.

Rev. 319, RSV.

One of the most forceful leaders of late-nineteenth-century Adventism was

William Warren Prescott. But forceful individuals are not always spiritual

leaders. So it was with the early Prescott, who had become president of

Battle Creek College in 1885.

The turning point in his life came in late 1890, when he read a special

testimony entitled "Be Zealous and Repent" before the Battle Creek Tabernacle. "The Lord," it said, "has seen our backslidings.... Because the

Lord has, in former days, blessed and honored" the Adventist Church, "they

flatter themselves that they are chosen and true, and do not need warning

and instruction and reproof."

But, "the True Witness says, 'As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be

zealous therefore, and repent'" or else "'I will come unto thee quickly, and

will remove thy candlestick out of his place.' ... The displeasure of the Lord is against his people. In their present condition it is impossible for them to represent the character of Christ. And when the True Witness has sent them counsel, reproof, and warnings because he loves them, they have refused to receive the message.... What does it mean that such amazing grace does not

soften our hard hearts? ...

"There is to be in the churches a wonderful manifestation of the power of

God, but it "ill not move upon those who have not humbled themselves

before the Lord, and opened the door of the heart by confession and

repentance.... Talent, long experience, will not make men channels of light,

unless they place themselves under the bright beams of the Sun of

Righteousness....

"Light is to shine forth from God's people in clear, distinct rays, bringing

Jesus before the churches and before the world.... One interest will prevail,

one subject will swallow up every other—Christ our righteousness.... All who venture to have their oval way, who do not join the angels who are sent

from heaven with a message to fill the whole earth "with its glory will be

passed by. The work will go forward to victory "without them, and they will

have no part in its triumph" (RH Extra, Dec. 23, 1890).

While reading, Prescott felt so moved that several times he stopped

because of tearful emotion. His life would never be the same. He had been an

Adventist, but that day he had met Christ as his Savior. Thereafter he linked

arms with Ellen White, Jones, and Waggoner in preaching Christ and His
love. Prescott had taken seriously the counsel to repent and be zealous.

THE BAPTISM OF ADVENTIST EDUCATION—I

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and

opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Rev. 320, RSV.

In December 1890, as we saw yesterday, Christ came to William Warren

Prescott and knocked on the door of his heart. The young educator opened it.

And he would never be the same. And neither would Uriah Smith. One result

of Prescott's conversion was a ministry to Smith that led to his public confession and a healing between him and Ellen White. And so it is that the message of Christ changes lives and reshapes them. But in the case of Prescott the reshaping not only affected individual lives but also had a mighty impact on Adventist education.

You see, Prescott was not merely the president of Battle Creek College—he was also the head of the Seventh-day Adventist Educational Association and would soon be the president of both Union College and Walla Walla College. Being leader of the association and president of three colleges at the same time, the articulate Prescott was in a position to make serious changes in Adventist education.

He would initiate the transformation of Adventist education at an educational convention he sponsored at a little place called Harbor Springs in northern Michigan during July and August 1891. Up to that point Adventist education had struggled with its mission and identity. Although Adventists had founded it to be distinctively Christian and to prepare ministers and missionaries, from its beginning at Battle Creek College in 1874 it had been held captive to the pagan classics and the study of Latin and classical Greek. Some reforms had been attempted, but most yet remained to be accomplished.

That would begin to change with the conversion of Prescott. The truth of Prescott's story is that God uses people to change His church. But He can

only work through those willing to let Him use them. That is where you and I come in. God wants to take our lives and shape us in such a way that He can use us to reach out and affect others and the larger church.

Now, I know that some of you are saying that you have no influence. Not so! Each of us touches other people in some small way every day. It is through bits and pieces of such influence that the snowball of change eventually comes about.

THE BAPTISM OF ADVENTIST EDUCATION—2

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Rev. 3:22, RSV.

The Holy Spirit had a great deal to say to the church and its educational program during the 1890s. Not only were Ellen White, A. T. Jones, and E. J. Waggoner taking the message of Christ and His righteousness to the churches and camp meetings, but the General Conference had also established an annual ministers' institute, in which Adventist clergy could meet for several weeks each year to study the Bible and the plan of salvation.

The newly energized Prescott decided to do the same for the denomination's educators during the summer of 1891 at Harbor Springs. W. C. White described the sessions in terms of spiritual revival, stressing the emphasis on spontaneous personal testimonies. He noted that each day began "with one's expositions of the book of Romans. Ellen White also spoke on such topics as the necessity of a personal relationship with Christ, the need for spiritual revival among the educators attending the convention, and the centrality of the Christian message to education.

Prescott asserted at the 1893 General Conference session that Harbor Springs had marked the turning point in Adventist education. "While the general purpose up to that time," he claimed, had been "to have a religious element in our schools, yet since that institute, as never before, our work has been practically rather than theoretically) upon that basis, showing itself in courses of study and plans of work as it had not previously." Before Harbor Springs the teaching of Bible had held a minor place in Adventist education. The convention, however, adopted a recommendation calling for four years of Bible study for students in Adventist colleges.

Specifically, the delegates decided that "the Bible as a whole should be studied as the gospel of Christ from first to last." The convention also recommended the teaching of history from the perspective of the biblical worldview.

There is a side lesson of great importance as we think of the changes brought about in Adventist education at Harbor Springs. That is, when we really understand the centrality of Christ to our lives, it will affect everything we do as both individuals and as a denomination. Educationally, if our salvation depends on Christ, we had better get to know Him.

THE "ADVENTIZING" OF ADVENTIST EDUCATION: THE AVONDALE EXPERIMENT—I

It is written in the Prophets: "They will all be taught by God." Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. John 6:45,

The first step in the transformation of Adventist schools took place at the Harbor Springs educational institute in the summer of 1891. The next one began when Ellen White and her son W. C. White sailed for Australia in November 1891. Remaining there until 1900, they would have opportunity to work with some of the most responsive of Adventism's reform leaders.

One of the most important endeavors of the Adventists in Australia in the 1890s was the founding of the Avondale School for Christian Workers (today known as Avondale College). Australia had the advantage of being beyond the reach of the conservative Adventist leadership in the United States. In addition, it was a new mission field for Seventh-day Adventists. Thus the fledgling denomination there had no established traditions to contend with.

As a result, it piloted several innovations in Australia during the nineties that would have been much more difficult to experiment with in the United States. The church forged a new type of Adventist school at Avondale. By the end of the century Ellen White was so impressed that she referred to Avondale as an "object lesson," a "sample school," a "model school," and a "pattern" (LS 374; CT 349). In 1900 she categorically stated that "the school in Avondale is to be a pattern for other schools which shall be established among our people" (MS 92, 1900).

Milton Hook, the historian of Avondale, concluded that two main goals undergirded the Avondale School. The first was the conversion and character development of its students. "Higher education," as defined at Avondale, was that which prepared individuals for eternal life. The second goal was the training of denominational young people for Christian service both in the local community and in worldwide mission outreach. Both goals reflect a distinct move away from the strictly academic orientation of Battle Creek College and the schools that came under its influence.

Here's a question that we still need to ask: Why do we value Adventist Christian education? The only important answer is that it makes a difference in the lives of our children. Its primary purpose is to introduce them to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. When it does so, Adventist education has a value beyond money.

THE "ADVENTIZING" OF ADVENTIST EDUCATION: THE AVONDALE EXPERIMENT—2

All your sons shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the prosperity of your sons. Isa. 54:13, RSV.

As we noted yesterday, Ellen White spent a great deal of her time during the 1890s working closely "with the development of the Avondale School in Australia as a pattern, whose principles the church could apply to other institutions. In early 1894 she wrote that "our minds have been much exercised day and night in regard to our schools. How shall they be conducted? And what shall be the education and training of the youth? Where shall our Australian Bible School be located? I was awakened this morning at one o'clock "'with a heavy burden upon my soul. The subject of education has been presented before me in different times, in varied aspects, by many illustrations, and with direct specification, now upon one point, and again upon another. I feel, indeed, that we have much to learn. We are ignorant in regard to many things" related to education (FE 310).

Mrs. White was giving serious thought to the proposed Australian facility because she saw the possibility of developing a school outside the sphere of influence of Battle Creek College. In her keynote testimony regarding it she set the tone for thinking about a new type of Adventist school. It would be a Bible school that emphasized missionary activities and the spiritual side of life. In addition, it would be practical, teach young people how to work, and have a rural location.

After 20 years of trial and error, Ellen White was more convinced than ever regarding the type of education that the church needed. From her growing understanding of her own testimonies during the past two decades, she had already explicitly affirmed that the Bible must be at the center and that Adventist schools should not follow the false leads of classical education. It had, she wrote, "taken much time to understand what changes should be made" to establish education on a "different order" (6T 126), but the process of understanding and implementing that understanding would develop rapidly between 1894 and 1899.

As we have noted again and again during the past few months, God leads His people step by step. He does not give all understanding at one time. God directs us to the next step at the proper time. So it was in the field of education. By the 1890s Adventism was ready for an educational revolution.

THE "ADVENTIZING" OF ADVENTIST EDUCATION: THE AVONDALE

EXPERIMENT—3

All shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest. Heb. 8:11, RSV.

Part of the new covenant experience reflected upon in Hebrews 8 is

educational. Central to the new covenant is knowing God and His will. With

that in mind, it is no accident that the post-Minneapolis revolution that had

begun to transform Adventist thinking on the place of Christ and the Bible in

Adventism would also mightily shape the denomination 's educational

philosophy.

It was in the light of the Avondale experiment that Ellen White wrote that

"human productions have been used as most essential" in prior Adventist

education "and the word of God has been studied simply to give flavor to

other studies" (FE 395)•

That model, she asserted, must come to an end. "The Bible should not be

brought into our schools to be sandwiched in between infidelity. The Bible

must be made the groundwork and subject matter of education.... It should

be used as the word of the living God, and esteemed as first, and last, and

best in everything. Then will be seen true spiritual growth. The students will develop healthy religious characters, because they eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God. But unless watched and nurtured, the health of the soul decays. Keep in the channel of light. Study the Bible" (FE 474).

Again, "higher education is an experimental (i.e., experiential) knowledge

of the plan of salvation, and this knowledge is secured by earnest and

diligent study of the Scriptures. Such an education will renew the mind and

transform the character, restoring the image of God in the soul. It "ill fortify the mind against ... the adversary, and enable us to understand the voice of God. It "will teach the learner to become a coworker "with Jesus Christ.... It is the simplicity of true godliness— our passport from the preparatory school of earth to the higher school above.

"There is no education to be gained higher than that given to the early

disciples, and which is revealed to us through the word of God. To gain the

higher education means to follow this word implicitly, it means to walk in

the footsteps of Christ, to proclaim His virtues. It means to give up

selfishness and to devote the life to the service of God" (CT 11).

Now, there is the platform of revolutionary education for a Christian life.

THE "ADVENTIZING" OF ADVENTIST EDUCATION: THE AVONDALE EXPERIMENT—4

You are yourselves taught by God to love one another. 1 Thess. 4:9, REB.

Spiritual revival in the church and its teachings had led in the 1890s to a call fora similar reformation in Adventist education. The denomination 's schools were to be both more specifically Christian and Adventist than they had been in the past.

Ellen White's numerous testimonies on education during her Australian years continued to give direction to the Avondale School. Furthermore, living adjacent to the campus during its formative stages, she was able to take part in developing the institution in a way that was unique in her experience.

Beyond that, W. W. Prescott, who had collected and edited the manuscripts for Christian Education (1893) and Special Testimonies on Education (1897), spent several months on the campus in the mid 1890s. During that period, he and Ellen White had extended conversations on Christian education. They both benefited by being able to come to a fuller grasp of the implications of the testimonies and how one might implement their principles. She wrote to her son Edson that Prescott drew out her mind and thoughts as her husband had done earlier. Their conversations, she claimed, enabled her to clarify her thinking and to say more than otherwise. "We could see some matters in a clearer light" (MS 62, 1896). Not only did the Avondale experiment help place the Bible, student spirituality, missions, and service to others at the focal point of Adventist education, it also urged it to be rural wherever possible.

Thus in place of the few acres at the edge of town that had sufficed for Battle Creek College, the new institution would be established on the 1,500-acre Brettville estate in a rural location. The acreage and rural location not only allowed the students to be away from the problems of the city and close to nature, but it also provided the school ample room for the teaching of practical skills for the world of work. Adventist education would never be the same after the establishment of Avondale. Not only did the denomination now have a massive amount of material on educational ideals from the pen of Ellen White, but it had a real-world model that it could pattern after in other parts of the world.

Given the importance of education to the church, we who are older need to take a larger interest in our young people and our church schools. We not only must support them with our funds, but also help them become what they can and should be.

THE RISE OF ADVENTIST ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS—I

And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children. Deut. 6:6, 7, RSV.

One of the most exciting developments in Adventist education in the 1890s was the elementary school movement. Up through the middle 90s Adventists had largely neglected elementary education except at localities where they had a college or secondary school. That indifference would change by the end of the decade, and Adventists have ever since supported a strong system of local church (elementary) schools.

The General Conference had called in 1887 and 1888 to begin a system of elementary schools, but nothing had come from the resolutions. In 1897, however, Ellen White challenged the church with a renewed demand for elementary schools. The Australian situation had alerted her on the topic. "In some countries," she asserted, "parents are compelled by law to send their children to school. In these countries, in localities where there is a church, schools should be established if there are no more than six children to attend. Work as if you were working for your life to save the children from being drowned in the polluting, corrupting influences of the world.

"We are far behind our duty in this important matter. In many places schools should have been in operation years ago" (6T 199). Again she WT0te: "Wherever there are a few Sabbath keepers, the parents should unite in providing a place for a day school where their children and youth can be instructed. They should employ a Christian teacher who, as a consecrated missionary, shall educate the children in such a way as to lead them to become missionaries. Let teachers be employed who will give a thorough education in the common branches, the Bible being made the foundation and the life of all study?' (ibid., 198).

Those words proved to be some of the most important and most influential counsel in all of her long ministry. In the next few years Adventist churches around the world established schools, even if they had only five or six children to attend. Their salvation and future became a focal point of Seventh-day Adventism as the church took seriously its evangelistic responsibility to prepare its own children for God's kingdom.

From such a perspective, education was evangelism. That is an insight that we dare not lose.

THE RISE OF ADVENTIST ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS—2

I have singled Abraham) out so that he will direct his sons and their families to keep the way of the Lord and do what is right and just. Gen. 18:19, NLT.

Education for the faith has a long history in the Judeo/Christian realm. In fact, God chose or singled out Abraham, the father of the faithful, because of his willingness to educate his family in the ways and teachings of the Lord. But old though the command to educate one's children in the faith may have been in the Bible, it was a late comer in Seventh-day Adventism. The denomination would be more than 50 years past the Great Disappointment of 1844 before it began to develop an elementary education system.

The stimulus, as we saw yesterday, came from Ellen White's summons in far-off Australia to form local church schools even if a congregation had but six to attend.

Such individuals in America as Edward Alexander Sutherland and Percy T. Magan, the reform leaders who would move Battle Creek College into the country in 1901, took that admonition to heart. Years later Sutherland recalled with some exaggeration, "Magan, Miss DeGraw, and myself practically at the end of every week would pick up a teacher and go out and establish three schools before Monday morning."

Exaggeration or not, the statistics on Adventist elementary education shot practically straight up beginning in the second half of the 1890s. Watch the curve: In 1880 the denomination had one elementary school with one teacher and 15 students; in 1885 it had three schools with five teachers and 125 students; in 1890 7 schools with 15 teachers and 350 students; in 1895 18 schools with 35 teachers and 895 students; and in 1900 220 schools with 250 teachers and 5,000 students. And the growth didn't stop there. By 1910 the numbers had swollen to 594 schools with 758 teachers and 13,357 students. In 2006 the figures stood at 5,362 schools, 36,880 teachers, and 861,745 students.

The elementary school movement also stimulated expansion in the church's secondary and higher education. In part that growth came about because of the increased need for Adventist elementary teachers. But, more importantly, the elementary movement gave publicity to the belief that every Adventist young person should have a Christian education.

Thank You, Lord, for our school system. Help me to do my part to help every young person in my congregation to have an education that will fit each for eternity.

EDUCATIONAL EXPLOSION

From childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 2 Tim. 315, NÄSB.

We might call the 1890s the decade of Adventist education. Beginning with the revival at Minneapolis in 1888 and running up through the start of the educational reformation at the Harbor Springs Convention in 1891 and flowing into the Avondale experiment and the elementary school movement, the 1890s would shape Adventism educationally for the rest of its stay on And we haven't even yet talked about the mission explosion of the 1890s that took Adventism and its educational system quite literally to every corner of the globe. Nor have we explored the impact of the Avondale model on Adventist schools in other parts of the world.

One small aspect of that influence was the making of Adventist education at the secondary and higher education levels into a largely rural system. E. A. Sutherland and P. T. Magan, for example, transferred Battle Creek College from its restricted campus to the "wilds" of Berrien Springs, Michigan, where it became Emmanuel Missionary College in 1901. Likewise, the directors of Healdsburg College moved the institution during the early twentieth century to the top of Howell Mountain, where it became Pacific Union College. Not only were the institutions isolated from the problems of the city (as students at Pacific Union College in the early 1960s we quipped that the school was located 10 miles from the nearest known sin), but they were both built on hundreds of acres of land.

And so it was "with Adventist education around the world. The reverberations from Avondale have never ceased. And they have had some interesting side effects. As population increases have expanded the cities and pressured land prices, Seventh-day Adventist schools often find themselves on priceless property holdings that they could never hope to purchase in today’s market.

God has led His people in unique and special ways. When we survey the various aspects of the Adventist program around the world we can only praise His name for the guidance He has given in our past history. Now we need to pray that we might have the conviction and the courage to follow His direction in present history.

Father, help us to be as responsive to Your leading as the reformers of past eras.

TURNING EDUCATION ON ITS HEAD

If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all. Mark 9:35•

Our ideas of education take too narrow and too low a range. There is need of a broader scope, a higher aim. True education means more than the pursual of a certain course of study. It means more than a preparation for the life that now is. It has to do "with the whole being, and with the whole period of existence possible to man. It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual powers. It prepares the student for the joy of service in this world and for the higher joy of "wider service in the world to come" (Ed 13).

Thus read the opening words of the book Education, one of Ellen White's most important contributions to Adventism. It is no accident that the book came off the press in 1903. After a decade of thinking and writing on the topic of education, she was ready in the early years of the new century to develop a book that would give direction to one of the denomination's most important sectors. Education provides the Adventist school system with its philosophical marching orders. And in the process it sets forth ideals of education quite at odds with traditional programs.

Whereas traditional education aimed at preparing people for a successful life here on earth, Education, while not denying that important function, claimed that such a preparation was not enough. More vital yet was preparing students to live with God for eternity. Whereas traditional education tended to focus on developing the mental aspects of its students, Education called for the improvement of the whole person. And whereas traditional education prepared people to position themselves advantageously for getting ahead in the world, Education argued for the goal of service to God and others. The service theme brackets the book. On its last page we read that "in our life here, earthly, sin-restricted though it is, the greatest joy and the highest education are in service. And in the future state, untrammeled by the limitations of sinful humanity, it is in service that our greatest joy and our highest education will be found" (ibid., 309).

The book Education turned traditional education on its head. And in the process it put forth a philosophy of education and life that we need both to understand and to live. It is a philosophy that puts into practice the values of the One who said, "if any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all."

EDUCATION EVANGELISM

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Gen. 1:27, RSV.

Ellen White's book Education takes the topic of pedagogy out of the realm of the mundane and transfers it to a crucial issue in the great controversy. On its second page it provides Adventist education with its ultimate purpose. "In order to understand what is comprehended in the work of education," we read, "we need to consider both (1) the nature of man and 12) the purpose of God in creating him. We need to consider also L3J the change in man's condition through the coming in of a knowledge of evil, and God's plan for still fulfilling His glorious purpose in the education of the human race" (Ed 14, 15).

At that point the book begins to treat those four points, indicating that (1) God created human beings in His image to be like Him, and (2) that they had infinite potential. Next it gets very specific and quite pertinent to the human situation. "But 13) by disobedience this was forfeited. Through sin the divine likeness was marred, and well-nigh obliterated. Man's physical powers were weakened, his mental capacity was lessened, his spiritual vision dimmed. He had become subject to death. C4J Yet the race was not left without hope. By infinite love and mercy the plan of salvation had been devised, and a life of probation was granted. To restore in man the image of his Maker, to bring him back to the perfection in which he was created, to promote the development of body, mind, and soul, that the divine purpose in his creation might be realized—this was to be the work of redemption. This is the object of education, the great object of life" (ibid., 15, 16).

Later in the book Ellen White puts it even more bluntly when she notes that individuals "can find help in but one power. That power is Christ. Cooperation with that power is man's greatest need. In all educational effort should not this cooperation be the highest aim? ... In the highest sense the work of education and the work of redemption are one." The "teacher's first effort and his constant aim" is to introduce students to Jesus and His principles (ibid., 29, 30).

With those thoughts in mind, it is no wonder that Adventists have supported Christian education for both their own children and those of others through sacrificial giving. They have recognized the truth that education is in actuality evangelism.

DMU Timestamp: March 29, 2019 18:11

General Document Comments 0