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# The Book of Daniel - Number One-Hundred

The Ongoing Struggle for Justification by Faith: A Historical Analysis of Apostasy in Protestantism

Author

Jeff Pippenger

Published

February 29, 2024

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Key Takeaways

- Apostate Protestantism’s doctrine postulates that Christ’s death on the cross covers sin but does not remove it until the Second Coming, undermining the transformative power of His sacrifice.
- The rebellion of 1957, marking the formalization of apostate Protestantism’s doctrine within Laodicean Adventism, reflects a culmination of resistance to the true gospel message.
- The rejection of the message of justification by faith, initially brought by Elders Jones and Waggoner in 1888, highlights a recurring pattern of resistance to truth within the church.
- Justification by faith encompasses not only forgiveness of sin but also the restoration and sanctification of human nature, a truth often overlooked or distorted.
- The rejection of Habakkuk’s two tables, representing the original “faith of the just,” in favor of a corrupted definition of justification, symbolizes a departure from foundational truths.
- The intertwined nature of justification and sanctification underscores the necessity of the Holy Spirit’s presence in the believer’s life for both processes to occur.
- Historical parallels, such as the transition from Millerite Adventism to Laodicean Adventism, highlight the ongoing struggle between truth and apostasy within the church.

The message brought by Elders Jones and Waggoner in the rebellion of 1888, was the message of justification by faith in verity. Apostate Protestantism argues that the justification provided by Christ’s death on the cross covers a man in his sins, but that His blood does not actually remove his sins. This false doctrine places the removal of sin at the Second Coming, when sinners are then magically transformed. Apostate Protestantism and officially since 1957, Laodicean Adventism, claim that Christ is exclusively our Substitute, but not our Example. A year before 1888, Sister White penned the following.

> “‘A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you.’ I believe with all my heart that the Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the world, and those who have had great light and opportunities and have not improved them, will be the first to be left. They have grieved away the Spirit of God. The present activity of Satan in working upon hearts, and upon churches and nations should startle every student of prophecy. The end is near. Let our churches arise. Let the converting power of God be experienced in the heart of the individual members, and then we shall see the deep moving of the Spirit of God. Mere forgiveness of sin is not the sole result of the death of Jesus. He made the infinite sacrifice not only that sin might be removed, but that human nature might be restored, rebeautified, reconstructed from its ruins, and made fit for the presence of God….

> “Christ is the ladder which Jacob saw whose base rested on the earth and whose topmost round reached the highest heavens. This shows the appointed method of salvation. We are to climb round after round of this ladder. If any one of us shall finally be saved, it will be by clinging to Jesus as to the rounds of a ladder. Christ is made unto the believer wisdom and righteousness, sanctification, and redemption….

> “There will be some terrible falls by those who think they stand firm because they have the truth; but they have it not as it is in Jesus. A moment’s carelessness may plunge a soul into irretrievable ruin. One sin leads to the second, and the second prepares the way for a third and so on. We must as faithful messengers of God, plead with Him constantly to be kept by his power. If we swerve a single inch from duty we are in danger of following on in a course of sin that ends in perdition. There is hope for every one of us, but only in one way—by fastening ourselves to Christ, and exerting every energy to attain to the perfection of his character.

> “This goody-goody religion that makes light of sin and that is forever dwelling upon the love of God to the sinner, encourages the sinner to believe that God will save him while he continues in sin and he knows it to be sin. This is the way that many are doing who profess to believe present truth. The truth is kept apart from their life, and that is the reason it has no more power to convict and convert the soul. There must be a straining of every nerve and spirit and muscle to leave the world, its customs, its practices, and its fashions….

> “If you put away sin and exercise living faith, the riches of heaven’s blessings will be yours.” Selected Messages, book 3, 155.

The false “goody-goody religion” of apostate Protestantism was established as an official doctrine at the outset of the fourth generation of Adventism in 1957. It presented a definition of justification that “encourages the sinner to believe that God will save him while he continues in sin.” The cross, teaches that “forgiveness of sin is not the sole result of the death of Jesus,” for “He made the infinite sacrifice not only that sin might be removed, but that human nature might be restored, rebeautified, reconstructed from its ruins, and made fit for the presence of God.”

The rebellion of 1957, demonstrates that the seed of the rebellion that was planted in 1863, and that then sprouted in 1888, and which was thereafter watered by the counterfeit message represented by the book published in 1919 (The Doctrine of Christ), had ultimately brought forth the fruit of an open pronouncement that the original “faith of the just” represented by Habakkuk’s two tables, was now removed and replaced with the corrupted definition of “justification by faith” that exists in apostate Protestantism. The disobedient prophet from Judah, had returned to the assembly of mockers and eaten with the lying prophet of Bethel.

The message to the Laodicean church which was first presented to the movement of the Millerites in 1856, and then again to the Laodicean church in 1888, was rejected every step of the way. That message of Jones and Waggoner, which according to Sister White was both the message to Laodicea, and the message of justification by faith, was rejected, under the premise that the rebels who were rejecting it, were actually defending the old landmarks! The landmarks they were defending was a foundation of their own human construction, that is built upon sand.

The message of “justification by faith” that was presented by Jones and Waggoner in 1888, included the fact of the true gospel, which identifies that those who are justified, are also sanctified. It emphasized that to be justified was to “actually” be made holy, not simply to be legally “proclaimed” as holy. The message of Jones and Waggoner, which Sister White identified she had been presenting for years before the rebellion of 1888, identifies that when justification is imputed, sanctification is simultaneously imparted.

It cannot be otherwise, for both justification and sanctification are accomplished by the presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer. Justification and sanctification are simply two words that describe two elements of one work that is accomplished within the believer by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

It was the very message of Moses that Korah’s rebels rejected, that was again rejected in 1856, then again in 1888, and then publicly enshrined as the salvation theology of Laodicean Adventism in 1957. The continuous rebellion wearied God, for the people said, “Everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?”

They said “those that are sinning are justified by Christ’s blood, and God delights in them, even though they continue to sin.” This is the spiritual deception that is represented by the message to Laodicea (a people judged), for in spite of the fact that Christ identifies the Laodiceans as “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked,” they believe that they are “rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” And in that condition, they are actually on the verge of being spewed out of the mouth of the Lord.

The faithful of Millerite history who had persevered through the experience of the first disappointment in 1844, as represented by Jeremiah in chapter fifteen, verse fifteen through twenty-one, as the faithful builders of the temple, who had been promised that if they would not return to the “assembly of mockers,” that they would become God’s “mouth,” did return to “the assembly of mockers” (represented by the lying prophet of Bethel), and transitioned into Laodiceans, on the verge of being spewed out of God’s mouth, and they know it not.

The condition of Laodicean Adventism on September 11, 2001, was typified by the condition of the Protestants on August 11, 1840. Those two histories were typified by the quibbling Jews, when the Holy Spirit descended at the baptism of Christ. In each of the three histories a former chosen people were, and are in the process now, of being passed by. The Messenger of the Covenant in the time of John the Baptist, was to enter into covenant with those whom Peter identified as a “chosen generation.”

> But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. 1 Peter 2:9, 10.

Peter was identifying the new chosen people of his period, which then was the Christian church. They had been selected as a “chosen generation,” during a period when Christ and John the Baptist both identified the former chosen people, as a generation of vipers.

> O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Matthew 12:34.

The generation that is passed by, is a “generation of vipers,” which is a symbol of Satan—the reptile of Bible prophecy. The generation that is passed by had filled up their cup of probationary time, and through four generations they had settled into the character of the viper. They had developed the forehead of a whore. This is why the twenty-five ancient men in Ezekiel chapter eight, are willing to bow to the sun. They had formed the character of the papacy.

> “The third angel’s message has been sent forth to the world, warning men against receiving the mark of the beast or of his image in their foreheads or in their hands. To receive this mark means to come to the same decision as the beast has done, and to advocate the same ideas, in direct opposition to the Word of God.” Review and Herald, July 13, 1897.

The mark of the beast, is the mark of the man of sin, who is the pope of Rome and the earthly representative of Satan. To come to the same mind as the beast, is to come to the same mind as Satan, who is symbolized as a viper.

> “To secure worldly gains and honors, the church was led to seek the favor and support of the great men of earth; and having thus rejected Christ, she was induced to yield allegiance to the representative of Satan—the bishop of Rome.” The Great Controversy, 50.

In the last generation of a former chosen people, their character reflects the character of Satan. The “chosen generation” who in times past, were not the people of God, are chosen through a process of testing, purging and purification. Those that pass the testing process are chosen to be in a covenant relationship with God. The Lord entered into covenant with the Christian church, then again with Millerite Adventism, and He does so again with the one hundred and forty-four thousand.

When the Lord enters into covenant with the newly chosen people of God (who in times past were not the people of God), He comes to them as the Messenger of the Covenant. In each of the three histories that fulfill Malachi chapter three, there is a messenger who prepares the way for the Messenger of the Covenant. The first messenger was John the Baptist, who typified the second and third messenger. The second messenger was William Miller. Together the prophetic characteristics of John the Baptist and William Miller establish the characteristics of the messenger who prepares the way for the Messenger of the Covenant to come and enter into covenant with the one hundred and forty-four thousand.

The three messengers that prepare the way for Christ, who is the Messenger of the Covenant, to suddenly come to His temple, illustrate a work that is accomplished in the time of the investigative judgment, which concludes at the executive judgment.

> “In the last days of this earth’s history, God’s covenant with his commandment-keeping people is to be renewed. ‘In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and I will make them to lie down safely. And I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the Lord.’

> “‘And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.’ Hosea 2:14–23.

> “‘In that day, . . . the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, . . . shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.’ Isaiah 10:20. From ‘every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people’ there will be those who will gladly respond to the message, ‘Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.’ They will turn from every idol that binds them to this earth, and will ‘worship him at that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.’ They will free themselves from every entanglement, and will stand before the world as monuments of God’s mercy. Obedient to every divine requirement, they will be recognized by angels and by men as those that ‘keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.’ Revelation 14:6–7, 12.

> “‘Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again [reverse] the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God. Amos 9:13–15.’” Review and Herald, February 26, 1914.

Malachi chapter three, was fulfilled in the time of Christ, and in the time of the Millerites, and those two histories identify its fulfillment in the last days. Sister White aligns the fulfillment of Malachi chapter three, with Christ’s work of cleansing the temple.

> “In cleansing the temple from the world’s buyers and sellers, Jesus announced His mission to cleanse the heart from the defilement of sin,—from the earthly desires, the selfish lusts, the evil habits, that corrupt the soul. Malachi 3:1–3 quoted.” The Desire of Ages, 161.

The cleansing of the temple by Christ represented His work of cleansing the heart of the repentant sinner. In His ministry among men, He twice cleansed the earthly temple.

> “The prophet says, ‘I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils’ (Revelation 18:1, 2). This is the same message that was given by the second angel. Babylon is fallen, ‘because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication’ (Revelation 14:8). What is that wine?—Her false doctrines. She has given to the world a false sabbath instead of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and has repeated the falsehood that Satan first told Eve in Eden—the natural immortality of the soul. Many kindred errors she has spread far and wide, ‘teaching for doctrines the commandments of men’ (Matthew 15:9).

> “When Jesus began His public ministry, He cleansed the Temple from its sacrilegious profanation. Among the last acts of His ministry was the second cleansing of the Temple. So in the last work for the warning of the world, two distinct calls are made to the churches. The second angel’s message is, ‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication’ (Revelation 14:8). And in the loud cry of the third angel’s message a voice is heard from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities’ (Revelation 18:4, 5).” Selected Messages, book 2, 118.

In the fulfillment of Malachi chapter three, John the Baptist was the messenger who prepared for Jesus, as the Messenger of the Covenant, to suddenly come to His temple and twice cleanse it. In His ministry of three and a half years, He cleansed the temple at the beginning and ending of His ministry, thus identifying that the cleansing work has a beginning that represents the ending. Jesus always illustrates the ending with the beginning, and in agreement with His work as Alpha and Omega the three and a half years began and ended with a temple cleansing.

At the conclusion of the three and a half years, He shed the blood that confirmed the covenant that fulfilled the prediction of Daniel chapter nine that He would confirm the covenant with many for one week, in the midst of which He would be cut off.

> And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. Daniel 9:26, 27.

We will continue this study in the next article.

> “Page after page might be written in regard to these things. Whole conferences are becoming leavened with the same perverted principles. ‘For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.’ The Lord will work to purify his church. I tell you in truth, the Lord is about to turn and overturn in the institutions called by his name.

> “Just how soon this refining process will begin, I cannot say, but it will not be long deferred. He whose fan is in his hand will cleanse his temple of its moral defilement. He will thoroughly purge his floor. God has a controversy with all who practice the least injustice; for in so doing they reject the authority of God, and imperil their interest in the atonement, the redemption which Christ has undertaken for every son and daughter of Adam. Will it pay to take a course abhorrent to God? Will it pay to put upon your censers strange fire to offer before God, and say it makes no difference?

> “It has not been after God’s order to center so much in Battle Creek. The state of things now exists that was presented before me as a warning. I am sick at heart at the representation. The Lord gave warnings to prevent this demoralizing condition of things, but they have not been heeded. ‘Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.’

> “I appeal to my brethren to wake up. Unless a change takes place speedily, I must give the facts to the people; for this state of things must change; unconverted men must no longer be managers and directors in so important and sacred work. With David we are forced to say, ‘It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law.’” Special Testimonies, 30, 31.

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