Sacred Sod, keyed to the spiritual movement of the ''hour, has been the invariable support and the indispensable accessory to every great religious awakening. Israel had her songs of old; the early church Advance Strides in had hers; and the Music of the Message Waldenses had theirs —sung in the mountain fastnesses. The Protestant Reformation sang its way through the strongholds of Rome into the hearts of the people, as verily as the sermons of the Reformers reached their goal. Charles Wesley's songs were the indispensable parallel to John Wesley's preaching in the great Wesleyan revival. Hand in hand they moved the people toward God and away from fatal formalism. And in the advent awakening of the nineteenth century, the great advent theme burst forth in song with an impulse that could not be gainsaid.
Before the close of the century recently ended, the distinctive third angel's message had brought forth a creditable group of characteristic hymns of praise and special songs, some worthy and some not so worthy. The worthy should be retained, and the cheap and unrepresentative be allowed to lapse. As this message strikes its stride in the great final expansion of the loud cry, it should have many noteworthy accessions to its list of songs and hymns, special and congregational. These are to be as distinctive, as characteristic, and as compelling as are its sermonic messages and its literature—different from that of the nominal Protestantism that surrounds us.
No Adventist would, upon reflection, agree to the premise that the great Biblical and prophetic truths brought forth in Reformation times—heaven blessed as they were for that hour—are sufficient for these days of advanced light and of the required completion of the arrested Reformation. Not even those advances of the great Wesleyan revival will suffice. We are required to take giant strides forward. No more than can the Methodist, Baptist, or Presbyterian sermons and literature of past or present meet the distinctive needs and advances of the hour in this movement, can the lyric of their hymnology or special songs adequately convey our distinctive message for today. This is simply not found in the songs of the nominal churches, and never will be.
Music keyed to the hour, written by trained and talented men and women in whose hearts this message flames, and whose product passes the sympathetic but exacting scrutiny of competent committees—comparable to the regime followed by the appointed book committees of our publishing houses—that is the manifest need of the hour. Such, we contend, must and will assume its rightful place as the increasingly indispensable handmaiden of the loud cry. And this means, of course, that compositions that are unworthy and unfit musically should not see the light of day any more than inferior literature should have the approval and release of our publishing houses.
The great judgment hour, our divine High Priest, the swiftly coming King, the fulfilling signs, the resurrection morn, the call out of Babylon, the Sabbath seal, the commandment-keeping remnant, the Holy City descending—these and many other related themes form the basis for the greatest sacred song lyrics this world can possibly have. Into these themes our best poets should pour their consecrated effort, and the result be set to gripping score that will stir the hearts of multitudes.
We esteem it a real privilege and a distinct contribution to help make possible a new impulse in the special music of the Message through an extension of past plans, which are elsewhere described and publicized in this issue.
L. E. F.
Advent Research Values—No. 4
8. Presents Positive Evidence to Answer Critics
In addition to "truing up" our own concepts, the sources correct mistaken notions which spring from enemies and misguided friends. The writings of apostate critics, with their charges, formerly gave some concern until the entire evidence of the period and the subject involved could be painstakingly studied in the setting of surrounding circumstances. Then all was seen to be clear, plain, and harmonious.
Two illustrations must suffice. One was the contention from one source overseas that the third angel's message was heralded in the Old World by Luther and his associates back in Reformation times. This would, of course, automatically make impossible—were such a contention true—the initiation of the third angel's message in the New World following the disappointment of 1844, as is the actuality. Upon this point, our invaluable sources reveal that this temporary contention of early Reformation times was based wholly upon the iniquitous Augustinian theory of the millennium, which was dominant throughout Christendom from the fifth to the seventeenth centuries, and was about the last hangover to be discarded by the Reformers.
This medieval theory maintained that the thousand-year period of Satan's binding was a then present reality, consequent upon Christ's first instead of His second advent, and affirmed that the resurrection was simply the spiritual turning of men to righteousness in this present life. Given a Protestant turn, it placed the thousand years, chronologically, between the conversion of Constantine and his restraint of paganism in the fourth century, and Wycliffe in the fourteenth century, who, as the alleged "first angel," preached again "the everlasting gospel." Wycliffe was followed, in turn, by Huss—said to be the "second angel"—who declared the moral fall of papal Babylon. And finally Luther appeared as the "third angel," inveighing against the mass and other papal iniquities.
Such was the setting and involvement of this brief "Luther-the-third-angel" fallacy. To have the setting and involvements is to have the answer. So we are not in the least disturbed by it—particularly when the Reformers themselves later repudiated this Catholic, Augustinian theory, and thrust the millennium back into the future in its rightful chronological position, bounded by the two literal resurrections and introduced by the second advent. And these incontrovertible facts are all in addition to the fact that Luther never understood or gave the stipulated content of the third angel's message. Nor was there ever any concept or attempt to give the "everlasting gospel" to all nations, tongues, and peoples in Wycliffe's, Huss's, or Luther's time. It simply could not have been prior to the great world missionary awakening that came for the first time to the Christian church at the dawn of the nineteenth century. Thus the contention dissolves under scrutiny when the spotlight of historic truth is turned upon it. Such is the defensive value of the Reformation sources.
Another mistaken notion cleared up was the matter of charges arising in the New World concerning the "shut door" following the disappointment of 1844. When the full circumstances, revealed by the contemporary source documents from 1844 to 1854, are likewise studied, the full significance of the terms "open door" and "shut door" is disclosed. "Open door" then stood for the denial by the majority of former Adventists, of the ending of the 2300-year period On October 22, 1844, and progressively for the rejection of the clarifying and explanatory light on the sanctuary, the Sabbath, and the Spirit of prophecy. It likewise involved a time-setting program by those Adventists who rejected the Sabbath, the sanctuary, and kindred truths, who fixed upon date after date, following 1844, as the terminus of the 2300 years. It denied any change in the relationship of Christ to the world, to the saints, or to the heavenly sanctuary.
On the contrary, the "shut door" position. held by our spiritual forefathers for a brief decade following the great disappointment in the autumn of 1844, stood first of all for loyalty to the autumnal "midnight cry" movement through which they had just passed, and for loyalty to the integrity of the October 22, 1844, date as the true and demonstrated close of the 2300 years. It progressively came to stand for the acceptance of the Sabbath; the sanctuary truth that explained the nature of the disappointment and of the actual event of 1844, sealing it more firmly and incontestably than ever; and the Spirit of prophecy and its guidance. So it came to stand for a new relationship by Christ to both the world and His people, consequent upon His new relationship to the final ministry of the heavenly sanctuary. Thus the transition was effected in the meaning and use of the term "shut door."
The emergence from the 1844 experience was a close parallel to the temporary misunderstanding of the disciples, after our Lord's ascension, when they had been commanded by Christ to leave Jerusalem and the Jews and go everywhere preaching to the Gentiles the gospel concerning Christ's resurrection and entrance upon the first phase of His priestly ministry. It took a heavenly vision for Peter, and persecution for all, to scatter the apostles and thus to fulfill the specific command to witness everywhere to the Gentiles. This was their "shut door"—their hesitancy, and their slow perception and action, the same being recorded in Scripture for the learning of those perplexed over the 1844 experience.
So we find that the advent leaders, following the great disappointment, faced a world embittered and hostile, yes, adamant, because of the apparent fiasco of October 22. The great majority of Adventists who had been in the 1844 movement refused to accept the Sabbath and the sanctuary truths, which alone explained the third angel's message still to be given, and made plain the misunderstood nature of the cleansing of the sanctuary.
Our pioneers but slowly perceived that they must testify again, this time to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples, concerning Christ's entry upon the second phase of His priestly ministry in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary. They would sometimes go hundreds of miles, at first, to convey the Sabbath and the sanctuary truths to those who had been in the former message, having no burden as yet for the world at large because of its rejection of the first message. They believed that, as High Priest, Christ bore on His breastplate the names of all for whom He now ministered, and that such had been in the former message, which ended October 22, 1844. Virtually a decade passed before it all became clear, and they got their full bearings and made their adjustments, just as did the apostle band.
Such, in brief, are the simple facts regarding the "shut door," which really are not strange and do not have to be concealed or defended, and of which we need not be ashamed or apologetic. Thus the difficulty vanishes under a frank scrutiny of the facts. All that is needed is the full facts and simple candor—and the facts are all provided through these incomparable sources.
9. Makes Adequate Adventist Apologetic
This movement owes to the world an adequate apologetic for our existence as an organization, more cogent and invulnerable than any now available. It becomes increasingly incumbent upon us to show that we are not a new, strange, peculiar innovation, an excrescence upon the modern religious world. We owe to the masses of mankind a different concept of adventism from that which commonly obtains. We must show beyond dispute that we really constitute the restorers and continuators of the thwarted and distorted advent hope of the ages, with our spiritual ancestry reaching back through centuries past to apostolic times.
We must, with our God-given message for today, establish a sound historic continuity, as the seventh and final division of God's true witnesses spanning the ages. Thus we shall be recognized not as new, but as old, not as the innovators, but as the conservators and consummators of God's changeless, timeless truth. With our cardinal beliefs demonstrated as reaching back through the centuries to the early Christian Era, and tied likewise into the great Reformation revival of those same truths that had been distorted, dormant, and hidden through the period of medieval darkness, our true relationship to past, present, and future will become appealingly apparent.
Set forth in definite conformity with the historical or scientific method recognized and demanded in these days, and in its definitely logical progression, such a treatise strategically placed in public, institutional, and private libraries wherever English is read—and possibly translated into several other leading languages—should exert a pronounced influence upon the thinking world about us. It should correct the utterly false impressions current, break down hampering prejudices, and offer a set of credentials bound to commend themselves to the multitude of honest in heart whom we must reach. This is an inescapable debt that we owe to the thinking world about us, to whom the sound historical approach must surely make appeal. And this the advent sources, in proper form of presentation, will aid us in effecting.
10. Invaluable for Denominational Reference
This unique source collection, comprising more than seven thousand documents secured from several continents, cannot be matched or even approached in any other single collection or location. Nothing like it exists anywhere, save in our source vault.' Aside from the tangible assets of the material collection itself, it provides:
First, the documentary evidence to be used in the already authorized advent source book, or docu mented history, for its several possible purposes reading course, reference work, college text, etc.
Second, it provides our General Conference leadership with incomparable facilities for reference in aiding the field, not only in answering questions, but in larger matters necessitating the comprehensive knowledge of a given period, and should also prove of especial help to the teachers in our colleges and the editors in our publishing houses.
Third, it is so housed, in proximity to our General Conference Theological Seminary, •that when it has served its initial purpose of furnishing the documentary data for the forth-coming source book, it will continue to provide priceless material for graduate research in our seminary—a work vital to our cause, and not possible from any other single collection or center.
Fourth, as previously suggested, it will serve us instead for dependable reference when critics tirade, or when workers or people need important information within the scope of its compass.
Such are some of its simplest and most obvious immediate values and future uses. Its potential values thus immeasurably transcend the relatively modest financial investment involved.
L. E. F.
