Meeting Offshoot Teachings

The day before the camp meeting opened, Ellen White addressed a letter to a Mr. Stanton in America, who had begun to teach that the Seventh-day Adventist Church had, through apostasy, become Babylon. She wrote:4BIO 80.5

Dear Brother Stanton, I address to you a few lines. I am not in harmony with the position that you have taken, for I have been shown by the Lord that just such positions will be taken by those who are in error. Paul has given us a warning to this effect: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.”4BIO 80.6

My brother, I learn that you are taking the position that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is Babylon, and that all that would be saved must come out of her. You are not the only man whom the enemy has deceived in this matter. For the last forty years, one man after another has arisen, claiming that the Lord has sent him with the same message. But let me tell you ... that this message you are proclaiming is one of the satanic delusions designed to create confusion among the churches. My brother, you are certainly off the track.—Letter 57, 1893.4BIO 80.7

Mr. Stanton had published a pamphlet titled “The Loud Cry of the Third Angel's Message.” In this he quoted freely from the Spirit of Prophecy messages of reproof and rebuke, forgetting that God had said, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten” (Revelation 3:19). He concluded that the testimonies of reproof constituted a message of rejection, and that those who would join in sounding the loud cry must withdraw from the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The church, he asserted, had become Babylon, and those who would finish God's work in the earth and meet their Lord in peace must separate from the body. His pamphlet of more than fifty pages was made up largely of misapplied E. G. White messages pieced together with the compiler's comments. It also contained a personal testimony from her that somehow had come into Stanton's hands. This he had employed in a less-than-honorable fashion.4BIO 80.8

As she wrote most earnestly to him, she touched on several points:4BIO 81.1

Do not seek to misinterpret and twist and pervert the testimonies to substantiate any such message of error. Many have passed over this ground, and have done great harm. As others have started up full of zeal to proclaim this message, again and again I have been shown that it is not the truth....4BIO 81.2

God has a church upon the earth, who are His chosen people, who keep His commandments. He is leading, not stray offshoots, not one here and one there, but a people. The truth is a sanctifying power, but the church militant is not yet the church triumphant....4BIO 81.3

It is our individual duty to walk humbly with God. We are not to seek any strange, new message. We are not to think that the chosen ones of God who are trying to walk in the light compose Babylon. The fallen denominational churches are Babylon. Babylon has been fostering poisonous doctrines, the wine of error. This wine of error is made up of false doctrines, such as the natural immortality of the soul, the eternal torment of the wicked, the denial of the preexistence of Christ prior to His birth in Bethlehem, and advocating and exalting the first day of the week above God's holy, sanctified day.—Ibid.4BIO 81.4

In the weeks that followed, Ellen White wrote at length warnings to the church concerning this new “message.” They appeared in a series of four articles published in the Review and Herald, from August 22 to September 12, under the title “The Remnant Church Not Babylon.” The first opened with these words:4BIO 81.5

I have been made very sad in reading the pamphlet that has been issued by Brother Stanton and by those associated with him in the work he has been doing. Without my consent, they have made selections from the testimonies, and have inserted them in the pamphlet they have published, to make it appear that my writings sustain and approve the position they advocate.4BIO 82.1

In doing this, they have done that which is not justice or righteousness. Through taking unwarrantable liberties, they have presented to the people a theory that is of a character to deceive and destroy. In times past, many others have done this same thing, and have made it appear that the testimonies sustained positions that were untenable and false....4BIO 82.2

In the pamphlet published by Brother Stanton and his associates, he accuses the church of God of being Babylon, and would urge a separation from the church. This is a work that is neither honorable nor righteous. In compiling this work, they have used my name and writings for the support of that which I disapprove and denounce as error. The people to whom this pamphlet will come will charge the responsibility of this false position upon me, when it is utterly contrary to the teaching of my writings, and the light which God has given me. I have no hesitancy in saying that those who are urging on this work are greatly deceived.—The Review and Herald, August 22, 1893 (see also Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 32-36).4BIO 82.3

It was in this connection that Ellen White made a statement that has brought assurance and comfort to many:4BIO 82.4

Although there are evils existing in the church, and will be until the end of the world, the church in these last days is to be the light of the world that is polluted and demoralized by sin. The church, enfeebled and defective, needing to be reproved, warned, and counseled, is the only object upon earth upon which Christ bestows His supreme regard.—The Review and Herald, September 5, 1893 (see also Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 49).4BIO 82.5

Ellen White closed the series of articles by publishing in full her letter of March 22 to Mr. Stanton, quoted at the beginning of this section. As the clear-cut warnings and assurances reached Seventh-day Adventists through the Review and Herald, the threatening offshoot movement was checked and soon forgotten.4BIO 83.1