The 1888 General Conference session is an event in the SDA Church’s history that has left a split within the movement. It was this event that stamped Alonzo T. Jones and Ellet J. Waggoner into SDA history, two of the editors for the Adventist publication Signs of the Times.
As SDA historian George R. Knight documents:
By the late 1880s Adventism needed a course correction in its theology. Two relatively young preachers from California—Alonzo T. Jones and Ellet J. Waggoner—would trigger that adjustment. The young men came to prominence because of their teachings on the identification of the ten horns of Daniel 7 and the nature of the law in Galatians.
George R. Knight, A Search for Identity: The Development of Seventh-day Adventist Beliefs, pg. 91
Waggoner’s contention was that the book of Galatians included all of the law, both ceremonial and moral. This was something the SDA Church staunchly opposed. A.T. Jones took umbrage with the SDA Church’s understanding of prophetic interpretation regarding Daniel 2 and 7 and believed that the Alemanni were a better fit than the Huns as one of the ten tribes of Western Europe that they believe the “ten horns” refer to.
The then president of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, G.I. Butler caught wind of this, as well as Uriah Smith who was his secretary at the time. The two began to oppose Jones and Waggoner and counteracted their teachings by writing articles that were published in the church’s paper, The Review & Herald. This resulted in both of the church’s publications, the Signs of the Times and The Review & Herald, to be pitted against one another which resulted in Ellen White having to step in and claim God showed her that both parties were in the wrong.
Eventually, things got heated during the General Conference session of 1886 when G.I. Butler put out his Law in Galatians: Is It The Moral Law or Doest It Refer To That System Of The Law Peculiarly Jewish tract which was a clear response to the influence of E.J. Waggoner and served as a formal rebuttal. This led to the General Conference appointing a nine-member committee to review the book of Galatians. Waggoner and Jones branded their message as “righteousness by faith,” which is what formed the basis for the SDA Church’s current understanding of the term.
But fast forward two years to the General Conference Session of 1888 where Ellen White claimed to be shown by God “that the terrible experience at the Minneapolis Conference is one of the saddest chapters in the history of the believers of present truth.”
Some individuals in the movement thought that Jones and Waggoner were trying to do away with the law entirely while others embraced their proposed belief—such as Stephen N. Haskell who was a pioneer of the SDA Church in the South Pacific.
However, G.I. Butler and Uriah Smith were not amused which even led to Smith questioning Ellen White and her prophetic gifting. After receiving a divine rebuke, Uriah Smith apologized to Mrs. White. Eventually Jones and Waggoner’s message received the blessing of Ellen White and the message began to spread throughout the movement. However, interestingly enough, both Jones and Waggoner went on to leave the Seventh-Day Adventist church entirely. Some claiming it was due to the opposition they faced by the denomination.
It is the 1888 General Conference Session that many modern Seventh-Day Adventists seek to point to when presenting evidence that the Seventh-Day Adventist Church reformed and now rightly understands the gospel. But as can be seen in other articles on the site, this is simply not the case. The Adventist Church has borrowed Christian language—in this case “righteousness by faith”—and have nestled underneath that a definition that is ultimately informed by the Great Controversy Theme, the governing paradigm of the Seventh-Day Adventist movement.
