Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 17 (1902)

Ms 241, 1902

Diary/False Ideas of Sanctification

March 20, 1902

Previously unpublished.

[Not sent.] 17LtMs, Ms 241, 1902, par. 1

I have had strong things presented to me in regard to Brn. A. & W. [The names of “Eld. Waggoner and Bro. Prescott” are scratched out by EGW in the original.] Their faith was strongly carried in some lines. There is danger, brethren, in your misrepresenting sanctification, and your receiving ideas that will certainly lead to strange interpretations of what constitutes sanctification. Some things you embrace in the idea of sanctification is your [own] definition of it—which is nothing less than sanctifying sin. This is [a mere] human translation and is at first the harmless Alpha, but grows into prominence [as] the outgrowth of a mind that is as far from being sanctified as the east is far from the west. 17LtMs, Ms 241, 1902, par. 2

When sanctification is true and all that the name signifies, the mind is strictly in obedience to the commandments of God. The married man or the married woman will not approach the breaking of the marriage covenant because they have come to love another [with] their minds continually on transgression, even if the action does not follow. There would be a very satanic order of sanctification that would embrace an action of adultery in their code of sanctification. 17LtMs, Ms 241, 1902, par. 3

Sanctification is of the devil's creating if the law of marriage is disregarded and, under the plea of sanctification, they [claim they] cannot sin. As Christ interprets it, [one who] looks upon a woman and lusts after her is committing adultery with her in mind and in heart. All this fallacy I met in my past labors among the people in many places. There were some after the passing of the time who claimed to be sanctified, who were breaking the seventh commandment. [It] was a lovesick sentimentalism which progressed to the transgression of the seventh commandment. There cannot be a more fatal delusion upon the human mind than thus sanctifying sin. Sanctification becomes to some a great deception, furnishing much hay, wood, and stubble to place on the foundation under the name of sanctification. This is a self-righteousness and self-confidence that is inspired of Satan. 17LtMs, Ms 241, 1902, par. 4

Some exalt their views of faith and are ready to pronounce against anyone who differs with them in their ideas of what constitutes faith. They spurn those who do not regard faith in the light that they regard it. The bare belief of what they term “truth” embraces too much. Truth believed never steps her delicate feet upon premises owned by another or claims to have that sanctified faith that makes it no sin to love another woman and give her his affections. When he is thus imbued with satanic impressions he is under the control of Satan's seducing spirit and he will not have that faith that works by love and sanctifies the soul. This is Satan's sanctification in the indulgence of sin. Ministers of the gospel who are entertaining these beautifully dressed-up theories had best repent before God and forever walk humbly before Him, [abandoning] their strong, strange boasting of their sanctification in Satan's practices. It is the time now when some will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, claiming to have advanced truth. 17LtMs, Ms 241, 1902, par. 5

Let all who have light consider the words of Christ to His disciples, spoken before a large audience. Matthew 5, the first two verses, in [Christ's] Sermon on the Mount, reads, “And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him.” It was always their place to be in the inner circle where they could be nigh the Great Teacher, for they were charged to give attention to every word, which was spoken slowly and distinctly, so that not one idea should be lost or misinterpreted. They were to be prepared to be His messengers to all people, to receive the truth from His lips and impart the truth to others who knew it not. The promise, after His resurrection from the sepulcher of Joseph, was, “Lo, I am with you.” “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you ... even unto the end of the world.” [Matthew 28:19, 20.] His disciples went everywhere teaching the people these precious truths, so plainly specified. These ten verses, [Matthew 5:3-12], embrace so much that is indeed the science of practical godliness. When this science has thoroughly been understood and appreciated, there is a vast field [beyond] to be understood. This whole chapter is a lesson given for the believers in every age to bring into their practical life. How fully is the science of saving, practical godliness defined! These verses, from 10 to 20 are of the greatest importance to be kept before the people to whom the message is to be borne. This lesson, verse 27, read and understand, also verse 28. Had we not better understand by practical purity and by possessing that faith that works by love and purifies the soul? 17LtMs, Ms 241, 1902, par. 6

Let all who have blundered in their spiritual perception and have dared to claim sanctification come to understand what Christ means in the Sermon on the Mount. Read the whole lesson. This lesson is now needed in plain exposition. Shall we appreciate the lesson given? Those who talk of their faith and exalt their faith, yet entertain at idea that is entirely contrary to this teaching of Christ, working away from the truth, give to unbelievers evidence that far from being sanctified they are in need of being converted and need to have their sins washed away in the blood of the Lamb before they can be acknowledged as the children of truth. 17LtMs, Ms 241, 1902, par. 7

Those who would begin the Alpha of allowing their minds to dwell upon women, married or unmarried, when their pledged marriage vow has been made to the one they have chosen, and anyone who will accept the favors unbecoming a married man, are surely in need of repenting and being converted before they can be reckoned as believing the truth or of being sanctified through the truth. What is the grounds of your confidence in God? Where is the clinging to the cross, the resting of the soul in the purity and love of Jesus Christ, and through the sanctification of the [truth], the preparing of the soul to be one with Christ? 17LtMs, Ms 241, 1902, par. 8

All who are self-righteous and proud of their knowledge and are giving the thoughts and minds to corrupting their own bodies and uniting in sinful practices with another poor soul, are placing themselves with the unrighteous who know not the Lord Jesus Christ. [They are] self-deceived, self-righteous, listening to the seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. All this spiritualistic love is a mysticism that saints will not for one moment allow their minds to be drawn away to—considering the presumptuous thought of sanctifying adultery to become lawful. 17LtMs, Ms 241, 1902, par. 9

We all need now to come to a knowledge of saving truth by a living, daily, proved experience of the sanctifying of the soul through the truth. Coming to Christ in living surrender of the soul is the coming to a personal Saviour to be a partaker of His divine nature, having overcome the corruption that is in the world through lust. It is by the Holy Spirit's direct guidance that each believing soul may sanctify himself through love of the pure principles of the truth. This is the lesson to be received from Christ and is to be made as simple as possible. It is the result of the Holy Spirit's direct and all-quickening power. Let all who would become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King, bear in mind that it is not possible to become children of God unless lustful thoughts and sinful practices are determinedly resisted. We all have no need to be deceived in regard to our hope and faith. Throw no hindrances in the way of the sinner by your claims to be a follower of Christ and yet sinning against the law of God in practice. 17LtMs, Ms 241, 1902, par. 10

John 17:11-19. “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are” one. Here is a science it would be well and profitable for all to become sufficiently interested in to make it their daily business to practice in the world, which is our fitting-up place for heaven, “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” 17LtMs, Ms 241, 1902, par. 11