Battle Creek Letters

W—172-1903

“Elmshaven,” Sanitarium, Calif.

August 4, 1903

Dear son Willie,

I wish to address a few lines to you. I am instructed to say that all the preliminaries connected with the management of the medical missionary work are not to proceed from Dr. Kellogg. It is the deceptive power of the enemy of all righteousness that leads Dr. Kellogg to endeavor to bring all our medical institutions under the control of one organization. Certainly such an effort is not inspired of the Lord. The medical missionary work is God's work, and in every church we are to take a decided stand against every phase of this kind of proceeding. BCL 72.1

After I received the letter in regard to the excellent meeting of confession and unity that had been held in Battle Creek, I was writing in my Diary, and was about to record the thankfulness I felt over the fact that there was a change, when my hand was arrested, and there came to me the words: “Write it not. No change for the better has taken place. The Doctor is ensnared in a net of specious deception. He is presenting as precious the things that are turning souls from the truth into by and forbidden paths—things that lead human agents to act in harmony with their own inclination and to work out their unsanctified purposes; things that result in destroying the dignity and the power of God's people, because these things obscure the light that would otherwise come to them from God through His appointed agencies.” BCL 72.2

The doctor is endeavoring to bind the medical institutions fast in accordance with his word, as Satan worked in the heavenly courts to bind up the angels who he induced to unite with his party to work to create rebellion in heaven. Who has authorized him to lay all these plans to try in one way, and then in another way, and then in still another way, to bring about his purpose. These sanitariums are not his at all, and yet he desires to tie them all up in some way so that they will be under his control. BCL 72.3

Let every cord now be broken. Let our sanitariums refuse to be tied up with the Sanitarium in Michigan. BCL 72.4

This selfish, underhand work I was going to bring out in Oakland, but I thought we would give the Doctor another chance. But I have been instructed to write to him no letters that he would have in his hands to use; and to have no conversation with him; for he would not remember what I did say, because a deceptive power is controlling his whole being. BCL 72.5

Every man needs now to take his position on the old-true foundation, to be led by God, and not allow Dr. Kellogg's dictated propositions to find favor. God has not ordered any such thing. I have seen that history would be repeated, and that the specious working of Satan would be revealed by human agents. We must work discreetly and determinedly to right up things. This recent effort to present binding propositions to God's people, as if man were God, is the last one he should be permitted to make without our voice being raised in protest. Not another step toward the acceptance of such propositions, is to be taken, lest we be fastened in a snare. BCL 73.1

Firmly take your position now. In justice to our churches, we must now decide this matter, and not sell our people into the enemy's hand; for we have a great work to do. I am now instructed to prepare for publication the messages of warning that have been given over and over again for years to keep Dr. Kellogg from following another leader, but the messages have had no influence, after he decided to drive through his own inventions and plans. He is to be pitied, but he has worked, and will continue to work deceptively. We must now determine that every medical institution shall stand in its own individual right. We must leave the poor man in the hands of God, who understands this matter. BCL 73.2

I shall now be prepared to say to our brethren, cut loose cut loose! After taking your position firmly, wisely, cautiously, just as a summer evening, but just as fixed as the everlasting hills, make not one concession. By conceding, you would be selling our whole cause into the hands of the enemy. It is not John Kellogg that you are dealing with; it is a being who once figured in the courts of heaven as an exalted angel. The poor Doctor is not in his right mind. BCL 73.3

My mind is now clear. I was in an agony of distress, thinking that I must take this position at the General Conference and rebuke him before the whole assembly. But now I am fully settled in mind that I must take my stand, and not be diverted from it by anything. Let the Lord be honored and glorified. The Lord wants no such workings in His cause, as Dr. Kellogg has sanctioned. The Doctor has sold our people into the hand of the enemy, and now the enemy has thought that he could possess the man altogether. The cause of God is not to be traded away. We must now take hold of these matters decidedly. I have many things that I have not wanted to say, but now my way is clear to speak and to act. BCL 73.4

I am sorry for you, Willie. I wish not to be in Battle Creek. But stand stiffly for the truth. BCL 73.5

I copy out of my diary the following words, written November 28, 1902: “Oh how sad it is that man will allow himself to be so wrought upon by the enemy that he will dare venture to exalt his finite judgment in opposition to God's plans and purposes! Once the Doctor would present his plans to me, to ascertain if I had any counsel to give, but not a word of counsel has he asked of me, to find out whether his plans are in accordance with the light God has given me. BCL 73.6

“I am sorry to be compelled to take the position that I am forced to take in behalf of God's people. In taking this position, I am placed under the necessity of bearing the heavy burden of showing the evil of the plans that I know are not born of heaven. This is the burden that many times in the past the Lord has laid upon me, in order that His work might be advanced along right lines. How much care and anxiety, how much mental anguish and wearing physical labor might be saved me in my old age. But still I am under the necessity of going into the field of battle, and of discharging in the presence of important assemblies the duty that the Lord has laid upon me,—the duty of correcting the wrong course of men claiming to be Christians but who are doing a work that will have to be undone at a great loss both financially and in the shaking of the confidence of the people. BCL 74.1

“If I act conscientiously, I must meet the crisis; for I believe that the precepts that the Lord has given concerning His work in the past and at the present time, point out the right way, and His plans, His thoughts, are much higher than man's plans, man's thoughts, as the heavens are higher than the earth. God's voice is to be heard; His wisdom is to guide us. We must not be broken up by any human wisdom or devising. God has outlined His plan in His Word, and in the Testimonies He has sent to His people. BCL 74.2

“Man's authority bears the signature of man. We are not to permit the rank and file of our people to come under the generalship of the weak, mixed-up sentiments of man. God's authority is to stand supreme in its moral dignity and power. And I must call upon the people of God to recognize His authority, and authority which bears the evidence of its divine origin, and which is commendable and acceptable in the sight of His children on the earth and in the whole heavenly universe. Every soul is called upon to connect himself inseparably with God's authority. BCL 74.3

“In doing the Lord's work, we are to stand on the foundation on which the truth has always been based. God's foundation is sure, and all are to stand on it and work from this platform. His words reveals His design, and only the work that is carried on in accordance with the principles of the Word will stand fast forever, approved both by the heavenly host and the adopted family living on the earth during the remnant of time remaining before the close of this earth's history. This higher aim finite man, when he yields to Satan's devising, can easily lose sight of; for by yielding to temptation he loses his powers of discernment. It is the work of every Christian to strive to be a laborer together with God.” BCL 74.4

I will not write any more now. Tomorrow I will begin in earnest to write in regard to principles that are sound. BCL 75.1