Defending Truth Without Losing Christ

Christian communities do not develop their beliefs in a vacuum. They are shaped not only by Scripture and conviction but also by dialogue, criticism, misunderstanding, and sometimes outright opposition. In response, believers naturally feel compelled to explain, clarify, and defend what they believe. Apologetics—reasoned argument in defense of faith—has therefore always played an important role in Christian history. Yet apologetics carries a subtle danger: When our theology is shaped primarily in reaction to critics, the questions asked by others begin to define the boundaries of our own thinking. Over time, what we emphasize, how we speak, and even what we neglect may be determined less by Scripture’s full witness than by the pressures of controversy.

This tension is not unique to our time. It is woven into the fabric of Seventh-day Adventist history. A close look at several episodes from the late nineteenth century reveals how Adventists wrestled with the challenge of defending distinctive doctrines while remaining centered on Christ and the gospel. These stories offer sobering lessons for us today.

A Steamer, a Minister, and a Misrepresentation

In June 1878 Ellen G. White was traveling by steamer from San Francisco to Portland. As was her custom, she distributed Adventist literature among fellow passengers. At some point she overheard a minister addressing a small group, responding critically to the tracts she had given out. His charge was blunt and familiar: Adventists, he claimed, were obsessed with the law and believed salvation depended on keeping it.

“Mrs. White is all law, law,” he asserted. “She believes that we must be saved by the law, and no one can be saved unless they keep the law. Now I believe in Christ. He is my Saviour; Christ alone can save us, and without Him we cannot be saved.”[1]

Ellen White initially tried to remain silent. She had no desire for a public confrontation. But the misrepresentation became unbearable. Finally she spoke up—not as a combative debater, but as a witness correcting a falsehood.

“That is a false statement,” she declared. “Mrs. White has never occupied that position. I will speak for myself and for our people. We have always taken the position that there was no power in the law to save a single transgressor of that law. The law convicts and condemns the sinner, but it is not in its province to pardon the least or greatest sin. If we sin we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”[2]

She then explained the relationship between law and gospel and concluded with a simple but pointed appeal: that he would “never again make the misstatement that we do not rely on Jesus Christ for salvation, but trust in the law to be saved.”[3]

The episode is revealing. The minister’s accusation was not new, nor would it be the last. But it raises a deeper question: Why did such misrepresentations gain traction at all?

Evangelism, Emphasis, and Unintended Impressions

Part of the answer lies in the pragmatic style of Adventist evangelism in the nineteenth century. In public preaching, Adventist ministers typically devoted extended attention to their distinctive doctrines—especially the Sabbath, the law, prophecy, and the sanctuary. The goal was not to minimize Christ or salvation by grace, but to lead hearers to a decision regarding “present truth.”

When we are defined primarily by what makes us different, we may unintentionally obscure what gives all doctrine life: the crucified and risen Christ.

Yet this approach carried unintended consequences. By foregrounding doctrinal distinctives and backgrounding shared gospel convictions, Adventist preaching could leave the impression that assurance of salvation rested primarily on doctrinal correctness or proper behavior. Over time the dynamics of evangelistic debate—constantly answering objections about the law and Sabbath—risked fostering a climate in which grace through faith was assumed rather than proclaimed. This concern did not go unnoticed among some early Adventist leaders.

James White’s Unease

In the spring of 1880 James White recounted an incident that troubled him. A Methodist elder passing through Battle Creek attended Sabbath School at the Dime Tabernacle. Seven years earlier the same man had visited, and this time, to his surprise, he found that the lesson appeared to cover the same subject again: end-time prophecy.

James White doubted that the lesson was literally identical, but he acknowledged a deeper issue. “It is very possible,” he admitted, “that the prophecies, the sanctuary, and the [three angels’] messages have occupied time in our Sabbath-schools, a portion of which could have been improved to better advantage in teaching the practical lessons given by Jesus Christ and His holy apostles.”[4]

Repeatedly covering the same doctrinal ground, he feared, could leave ministers “destitute” of the life and power inherent in the “great scheme of human redemption.”[5] A few months later he pressed the point further. Adventists, he insisted, needed to write more about “Christ the Way of life from Paradise lost to Paradise restored.”[6] If others disagreed, he added pointedly, “What is that to thee? Follow thou me.”

By October 1880 James White spoke even more candidly. In the early years, he acknowledged, pioneers such as Joseph Bates, J. N. Andrews, J. H. Waggoner, and Uriah Smith had rightly defended the law, Sabbath, sanctuary, and prophetic message against opposition. But over time, Adventists may not have made the importance of Christ sufficiently clear, leaving the impression that “the law and the prophets [were] of greater importance than Christ.” His conclusion was unequivocal: “Let Him be exalted from the pulpit and from the press.”[7]

Art, Publishing, and a Christ-Centered Vision

To that end, ambitious publishing plans were laid. One was a large volume on the life and teachings of Christ by Ellen White, drawn from Spirit of Prophecy, volumes 2-4. Another was a book on redemption through Christ, containing “a rich engraving entitled Christ, the Way of Life, from Paradise Lost to Paradise Restored.”[8] Though James White died in 1881 before these plans were fully realized, the vision endured.

In January and February of 1881 James White met the renowned landscape painter Thomas Moran, widely regarded as one of the finest artists of his time, and reviewed engraving work that exceeded his expectations. The result was a striking lithograph, drawn by Moran and engraved by William Wellstood, printed in August 1883.[9]

The image was theologically rich and visually arresting. Christ hangs on the cross, absorbing into Himself both the tree of life and the Ten Commandments—presented not as competing symbols but as realities fulfilled in Him. Ellen White fittingly named the lithograph Christ, the Way of Life, leaving no doubt that salvation comes through Christ, not through religious performance.

Although the image did not explicitly reference distinctive Adventist doctrines—the Sabbath, the state of the dead, or the sanctuary—its message was unmistakable: All doctrine finds its meaning at the cross.

Luther, Looking Away From Self

At the same time, Ellen White was developing similar themes in print. From May to November 1883, Signs of the Times published 19 articles on the life and work of the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther.[10] These articles, apparently written in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Luther’s birth, highlighted the cosmic conflict and Luther’s role in turning people back to Scripture and the gospel, underscoring the rediscovery of justification by faith and the assurance of salvation in Christ.

Central to her portrayal was Luther’s spiritual struggle and the counsel of his confessor, Johann von Staupitz. Luther sought peace through discipline, penance, and spiritual exercises, but found none. Finally Staupitz urged him to “look away from himself”—from his efforts and his fear of punishment—and to “look to Jesus, his sin-pardoning Saviour.”[11]

The lesson was clear. True reform, Ellen White showed, begins not with human striving but with trust in Christ.

“Look and Live”: The 1883 General Conference Session

That same year, at the General Conference Session in November 1883, Ellen White delivered what may have been the clearest gospel presentations Adventists had heard in decades. Over 14 sermons she confronted legalism, doubt, and fear head-on.[12]

When ministers expressed uncertainty about their salvation, she challenged them: “Have you followed your Guide? You must dispense with Him before you can lose your way; for the Lord has hedged you in on every side.”[13] When testimonies reflected anxiety rather than assurance, she said plainly that such words “express only unbelief and darkness.”[14]

Reactionary Christianity narrows our vision. Christ-centered faith enlarges it.

Her most searching appeal came as she addressed the very heart of legalism: “Are you expecting that your merit will recommend you to the favor of God, and that you must be free from sin before you trust His power to save? . . . As the brazen serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so was Christ lifted up. . . . All who looked . . . were healed; so in our sinfulness, in our great need, we must ‘look and live.’ ”[15]

Again and again she urged believers to look away from self to the Lamb of God. Doubt, she warned, is not humility but unbelief. Christ is Savior today, pleading for us now.

Reception and Resistance

Not everyone was immediately comfortable with this emphasis. Some Adventists wondered what connection Christ, the Way of Life had with “present truth.” Should members even purchase a lithograph that did not explicitly teach distinctive doctrines?[16]

S. N. Haskell responded decisively. The image, he said, impressed the mind with divine things. He and his wife hung two copies in their home—one by their bed and one in the sitting room—so that the cross of Christ would be the first thing they saw in the morning and a natural topic of conversation with visitors. Such images, he believed, had a refining and elevating influence on the mind.

Interestingly, Methodist, Baptist, and Christian pastors praised the lithograph as a powerful union of art and biblical truth.[17]

Lessons for Today

The tensions of the 1880s still resonate. Adventists cherish distinctive doctrines, and rightly so. Yet history warns us of the danger of allowing reactionary apologetics to distort our emphasis. When we are defined primarily by what makes us different, we may unintentionally obscure what gives all doctrine life: the crucified and risen Christ.

James and Ellen White, Haskell, and a few others recognized that the cross is not one doctrine among many, but the center from which all doctrine draws meaning and power. Adventists long for the Second Advent, not of an abstract figure, but of the One who was lifted up for our salvation.

Perhaps the enduring lesson is this: faithfulness requires openness to the whole counsel of Scripture, not merely the points under debate. Reactionary Christianity narrows our vision. Christ-centered faith enlarges it. When we truly look to Him, we not only defend truth—we live it.

[1] Ellen G. White, “Incidents on the Voyage to the North Pacific,” Signs of the Times, July 18, 1878.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] James White, “Beasts, Heads, and Horns,” Review and Herald, Apr. 1, 1880, p. 216.

[5] Ibid.

[6] James White, “Present and Future: And What Shall This Man Do?” Review and Herald, Sept. 23, 1880, p. 216.

[7] James White, “Law, Prophets, Christ: What Our Opponents Think of S. D. Adventists,” Review and Herald, Oct. 14, 1880, p. 248; James White, “Five Hundred Canvassers Wanted,” Review and Herald, Oct. 14, 1880, p. 256.

[8] J. White, “Five Hundred Canvassers Wanted.”

[9] James White to W. C. White, Jan. 19, 1881; James White to Ellen G. White, Feb. 4, 1881; James White to Ellen G. White, Feb. 7, 1881; “Now Ready: The New Steel-Plate Engraving Entitled Christ, the Way of Life,” Review and Herald, Oct. 30, 1883, p. 687.

[10] With a few exceptions, the articles appeared consecutively in Signs of the Times from May 31 to November 1, 1883.

[11] Ellen G. White, “Martin Luther: His Character and Early Life,” Signs of the Times, May 31, 1883, p. 242.

[12] The addresses were intermittently published in the Review and Herald from March 4 through July 22, 1884.

[13] Ellen G. White, “The Christian’s Refuge,” Review and Herald, Apr. 15, 1884, p. 242.

[14] Ellen G. White, “Effectual Prayer,” Review and Herald, Apr. 22, 1884, 257.

[15] Ibid.

[16] S. N. Haskell, “ ‘The Way of Life,’ ” Signs of the Times, Jan. 17, 1884, p. 43.

[17] “Testimonials for the ‘Way of Life,’ ” Signs of the Times, Aug. 21, 1884, p. 510.