1844: “A spirit of solemn and earnest prayer was everywhere felt by the saints. A holy solemnity was resting upon them. Angels were watching with the deepest interest the effect of the message, and were elevating those who received it, and drawing them from earthly things to obtain large supplies from salvation’s fountain. God’s people were then accepted of Him. Jesus looked upon them with pleasure, for His image was reflected in them.”5

That was truly a wonderful spiritual condition. But we are saddened to read that a change for the worse began taking place soon thereafter.

1852: “As I have of late looked around to find the humble followers of the meek and lowly Jesus, my mind has been much exercised. Many who profess to be looking for the speedy coming of Christ are becoming conformed to this world and seek more earnestly the applause of those around them than the approbation of God. They are cold and formal, like the nominal churches from which they but a short time since separated. The words addressed to the Laodicean church describe their present condition perfectly.”6

1856: “Oh, the pride that was shown me of God’s professed people! It has increased every year, until it is now impossible to designate professed advent Sabbathkeepers from all the world around them.”7

1860: “I was shown the low state of God’s people; that God had not departed from them, but that they had departed from Him, and had become lukewarm.”8

1865: “The people are overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life. They are entering deeper and deeper into a spirit of worldly enterprise. . . . Spirituality and devotion are rare.”9

1868: “I have stated before them that, from what was shown me, but a small number of those now professing to believe the truth would eventually be saved–not because they could not be saved, but because they would not be saved in God’s own appointed way.”10

1882: “As Jesus views the state of His professed followers today, He sees base ingratitude, hollow formalism, hypocritical insincerity, pharisaical pride and apostasy. . . . The church has turned back from following Christ her leader and is steadily retreating toward Egypt.”11

These were terrible revelations of the true condition of God’s professed people. Since God’s professed people were backsliding, the Lord tried to awaken the sleeping church through a special message of hope. In 1888, God chose two young men, Elders A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner, to deliver the message of Christ our Righteousness to the believers. These two brethren sought earnestly to motivate the church to a higher level of spirituality at the historic meetings in 1888 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The precious old light of redemption through Christ’s merits was the needed solution to the legalism and formalism that permeated the leadership.

Elder Waggoner had seen a vision of Christ hanging on the cross. This led him to study the Bible on the subject of “God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” In a letter, sister White wrote of these brethren: “The message given us by A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner is the message of God to the Laodicean Church.”13 She also wrote that “the Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones.”14

Through the message of justification by faith, God brought His people face to face with their greatest need. A 26-day institute and conference in Minneapolis were His ordained means of preparing the people to rightly proclaim the three angels’ messages.

Unfortunately, no positive spiritual reformation or revival took place during or after the Minneapolis conference session. Had the church accepted the divine message, she would have prospered spiritually, but history bears the sad record that the message of Christ our Righteousness was rejected. The Pen of Inspiration records clearly the results of turning away from God. “They began this satanic work at Minneapolis. Afterward, when they saw and felt the demonstration of the Holy Spirit testifying that the message was of God, they hated it the more, because it was a testimony against them. They would not humble their hearts to repent, to give God the glory, and vindicate the right.”15

After the 1888 Conference, there was no spiritual improvement, but a continual departure from the truth. The following quotations attest to this spiritual decline:
1893: “‘And thou, Capernaum

[Seventh-day Adventists, who have had great light], which art exalted unto heaven [in point of privilege], shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.’”16

1895: “The conviction is gaining ground in the world that Seventh-day Adventists are giving the trumpet an uncertain sound, that they are following in the path of worldlings.”17

1903: “Who can truthfully say: ‘Our gold is tried in the fire; our garments are unspotted by the world’? I saw our Instructor pointing to the garments of so-called righteousness. Stripping them off, He laid bare the defilement beneath. Then He said to me: ‘Can you not see how they have pretentiously covered up their defilement and rottenness of character?’ ‘How is the faithful city become an harlot! My Father’s house is made a house of merchandise, a place whence the divine presence and glory have departed!’”18

Despite the fact that in 1903 Ellen White wrote, “How is the faithful city become an harlot,” the Seventh-day Adventist Church was still God’s remnant people. God did not yet forsake or reject His beloved church. He gave them continuous warnings and opportunities to repent. However, there came a time when God finally had to reject them because of their continued lack of submission to His expressed will. Ultimately, the underlying criteria for acceptance or rejection by God is faithfulness.

There is one all-important question concerning Laodicea, which is perhaps in the minds of every true Adventist. Is it possible for the Laodicean Church to fall?
The Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy have the answer. “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”19 (The candlestick represents God’s visible church.) “Because they failed of fulfilling God’s purpose, the children of Israel were set aside, and God’s call was extended to other peoples. If these too prove unfaithful, will they not in like manner be rejected?”20