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On Tuesday, May 7, 1889 at eight o'clock in the evening, Ellen G.
White arrived at the Ottawa Kansas Camp Meeting, where combined
meetings for organization, delegations and conference work was
being done. This Camp Meeting took place approximately six months
after the historic 1888 General Conference at Minneapolis and the
passionate sermons given by Alonzo T. Jones, Mrs. White, and others
have given clearer insights to the 1888 message.
The following 26 sermons were given by A.T. Jones at the General
Conference of 1895 and presented to a live audience of ministers,
as recorded in the General Conference Bulletins. This material has
been reformatted, but not re-edited for the reader's enjoyment. The
spelling, punctuation, and grammar remain unchanged. Chapter titles
have been added to provide a brief summary of each sermon. The
first seven sermons present the Righteousness of Christ in the
context of Religious Liberty. To provide some contextual
background, in 1888 the religious freedom of America came under
threat with the introduction of the Blair Bill. The intent of the
Blair Bill was to recognise Christianity as the religion of the
nation and Sunday as the Sabbath. A devout Bible student, Alonzo T.
Jones astutely identified this as a major step towards the union of
church and state in direct fulfilment of Revelation 13:15 in Bible
prophecy. Jones commented that "when this is done, its influence in
favour of the papacy will be inestimable." Although the Blair Bill
was not officially passed in Congress, the ruling in the case of
the World Trade Fair set an irreversible precedent which placed the
Government in the hands of the churches. Conscientious Americans
became concerned as they saw the protective framework of the 1st
Amendment corrode away. Jones draws an interesting parallel between
the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 67A.D. and the spiritual siege of
America in 1892 through the World Trade Fair. He identified that
although the Roman siege of Jerusalem subsided for a time, the
armies returned with a vengeance. EXTRACTED FROM THE PREFACE
The year 1893 was an important year in the history of Protestant
America, and hence also for the church. The world had been invited
to attend the "World's Columbian Exposition" or commonly known as
the "World fair" which was a showcase of the world's leading
technologies and manufactures. During the six months in which it
was open, being the 1st of May until the 30th October, 27,000,000
visitors had paid the 50 cent admission price, which means that
nearly half of the American population at that time had travelled
to Chicago to see the fair. The Presbyterian churches and other
religious groups saw the Fair as an opportunity to promote the
principles of their faith, and through petitions signed by millions
of people, they lobbied the US Government to close the Fair on
Sundays. The Senate conceded, and passed legislation stipulating
that the appropriation of funds which the Government would provide
to the Chicago World Fair would be contingent on the Fair being
closed to the public on Sundays. This was a direct violation of the
1st Amendment of the Constitution which stated that "Congress shall
make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." Protestant
churches within America had successfully gained a controlling
influence over the Government of the United States of America.
Jones had been active representing the cause of religious liberty
to the Senate in direct opposition to the Presbyterians. But a few
months later, during the 1893 General Conference, he confessed the
reality of the matter: "The government of the United States is now
in the hands of a hierarchy and no longer in the hands of the
representatives of the people. Government as our forefathers
established it, is gone, irretrievably gone now. Government of the
people, by the people and for the people is gone. The authority of
the government from the people, expressed in the Constitution, and
the government to be conducted according to the Constitution is
gone. The constitution has been overridden, and now it is
ignored... "That action has put the government of the United States
into the hands of the churches. It has established the mark of the
beast as the Sabbath of the nation and for all the world, and it
has done it in place of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment in
express words in the legislation. "And what is this now in our own
nation? The image of the papacy." (Chapter 3 of this book) This
fact is established in the first few chapters of this book as Jones
gives the account of his representation before the Senate. These
first discourses may at first seem a bit dry, and you may be
tempted to pass them by, but we encourage you to persevere in their
reading that you may become familiar with the historical context in
which these important studies were given. If it was imperative that
the church received these messages in the year 1893, how more
readily should we be welcoming them into our hearts and lives
today? If you will read the following pages with a teachable spirit
and a willing heart, they will change your life. Our experience
today is no different to that of Seventh-day Adventists in the
years surrounding 1888. We are either making too much of the law
and becoming legalistic Pharisees trying to save ourselves by our
own works, and busily looking over our shoulders in judgment upon
our fellow men, and either living in constant fear of the
condemnation of God or exalting ourselves as "holier than thou"; or
we have become altogether blase about our accountability before God
and His requirements. Jones presents faith and works as a
synergistic means of salvation with a harmonious balance that is
greatly lacking in the ministries of the churches of today. Whilst
setting men free from the condemnation of the law by the gift of
the righteousness of Jesus Christ, Jones shows how it is that
through that same gift, we may meet its claims in our practical
lives. EXTRACTED FROM THE FOREWORD
A thorough study on the book of Galatians which appeared in "The
Adventist Review and Sabbath Herald" between July 25, 1899 through
November 13, 1900.
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