A New Conversion Needed

Sanitarium, Cal.,

December, 1903.

Dr. J. H. Kellogg, Sanitarium, Battle Creek, Michigan. My dear Brother:

I praise the Lord for the letters that I have recently received from you. I greatly desire that you may now make a thorough work of repentance for time and for eternity. So long have you been retrograding toward union with the world, that it is difficult for you to see where you might now be standing, had you constantly advanced heavenward. You have lost many blessings because you have not felt your need of light.SpM 341.1

If your faith in the word of God is strengthened, if you will fully accept the truths that have called us out of the world, and made us a people denominated by the Lord as his peculiar treasure, if you will unite with your brethren in standing by the old landmarks,—then there will be unity. But if you remain in unbelief, unsettled as to the true foundation of faith, there can be no more hope of unity in the future than there has been in the past.SpM 341.2

I am instructed to say that you need to be taught the first principles of present truth. You have not believed the messages that God has given for this time. Think you that while you remain in doubt and unbelief, you can be fully united with those who have stood for the truth as it is in Jesus, and who have accepted the light that God has given to us as a people?SpM 341.3

Ask yourself candidly whether you are bound in the faith. Do all in your power to come into unity with God and with your brethren. As a people, we can not receive the full measure of the blessing of God, while some who occupy leading positions are working against the truth that for years we have held sacred, and obedience to which has brought us what success we have had.SpM 341.4

“Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write: These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks: I know thy works and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil; and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars; and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.”SpM 341.5

If you had kept the faith, you would not have left your first love, and you would not have brought yourself into the unsettled condition in which you have been for years.SpM 342.1

“And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write: These things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars: I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die; for I have not found thy works perfect before God.SpM 342.2

These words point out your true spiritual condition. The warning comes: “Dr. Kellogg is not a converted man. Some of his associate physicians are so deceived by Satan that they are unable to distinguish between the true and the genuine, the false and the deceptive. They stand directly in his way, hindering him from making a thorough work of repentance.”SpM 342.3

You need an entire change of heart, before you can discern the error into which you have fallen. You have listened to the arch deceiver. You do not discern where the sophistries you have received will lead. Read carefully the fifth chapter of Hebrews. You have no time to lose. The angel of God calls, “Close up the ranks. John H. Kellogg, come into line.”SpM 342.4

A Bible institute should be held in some place where medical missionary workers and ministers may meet together to study the scriptures. Let the Bible explain its own statements. Accept it just as it reads, without twisting the words to suit human ideas, “What is the chaff to the wheat?”SpM 342.5