The Return of the Latter Rain - Book Review
by Andrew Michell January 14, 2014, updated Nov 26, 2015
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This book is a must read for any Seventh-Day Adventist who is:
1. Serious about understanding SDA theology 2. Serious about understanding SDA history 3. Looking for understanding about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit 4. Wanting to know why we have failed to finish the Great Commission 5. Sincerely desiring to hasten the Second Coming |
The video above contains interesting material not included in this article.
I am very thankful to have read this book by author Ron Duffield. Initially I had zero interest in reading this book as I thought myself to have a sufficient grasp of the basic history of the SDA church. And honestly I do not believe I would have read this book except for page 11 when the author explained that people in our church have very different views on the Latter rain. Basically, the one prevailing view tells people to just sit and wait and Jesus will finish the Great Commission. The other view will lead people to participate now. This immediately piqued my interest because I have found from experience how difficult it is to promote foreign missions. After all, why are people so intensely interested in the Second Coming of Jesus so slow to engage missions and take the gospel to the unreached groups? Seems to me like a no-brainer but clearly there are different views. (If you do not know what an unreached group is I recommend visiting JoshuaProject.net)
Jesus will not return until the Great Commission is finished. There is no way to circumvent or runaway from that truth. If the people to whom God has given this work believe that they will not really do the work until some special event in the future, then those currently perishing in Christless graves and unevangelized lands have little hope of knowing Jesus before that "outpouring." If you wanted to explain this to a child you could say "All the Christians are waiting for God but God and the lost are all waiting for the Christians." As a result of this theology almost no Christians have a desire to reach the unreached with the gospel. When the significance of this issue is appreciated one can stand from a missional perspective and see this body of believers splitting at at a Y in the road. Is that Y in the road the issue of the Latter rain and 1888 message? The author makes a strong case in the affirmative.
What I concluded after reading the book:
Much of the theology today towards missions has roots in the acceptance or rejection of the 1888 message. From my perspective as a lay person the 1888 issue seemed abstract, insignificant, and irrelevant. It looked to be some kind of hairsplitting done among theologians. However it was not until spending several years in missions and facing head-on the enormous resistance to missions that I began to question: "From where comes this strange theology of inaction and indifference?"
You see, for those Christians that attend church and sit in the pew every week 1888 is so far away and irrelevant because it has no direct bearing or benefit in their lives. However, it has tremendous and eternal significance for the unreached people groups who have no witnesses for Christ. Ultimately the millions and billions of Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists will suffer the most as a result of the theology coming from 1888. Not only the billions of unreached today but the billions that have lived and died since 1888. Nobody went to them then and nobody wants to go to them today. Why? Because everybody....is.......still.......sitting..... around.....waiting. From time to time preachers get up and speak against indifference and apathy towards evangelism and missions but if the root theology is not addressed (hint: 1888) all things will continue as before. Same root, same fruit.
The #1 most common objection is "but we did receive the 1888 message." The author nails this on the head on p.166 with the JUGULAR question "...if that message was accepted, regardless of the numbers in each group, why are we still here waiting for the Lord to return?" Bingo. The message was never accepted but purposefully rejected and the most compelling, conclusive and undeniable evidence for this is a powerless message and total inability to finish the Great Commission. Nothing is more revealing than over 100 years of utter failure to reach the Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists for Christ. We live in the period of the consequences of rejection. If you do not want to read all 500 pages of this author's retelling of SDA history concerning the 1888 message then all you need to do is remember this one question. It is the jugular question.
How can it be that a book which addresses the most important issues in the world (and universe) today is so ignored? Isn't that bizarre?! It is as if there is no priority whatsoever to hastening the return of Jesus. People WANT to stay in this world of sin and suffering and don't really want Jesus to return.
Jesus will not return until the Great Commission is finished. There is no way to circumvent or runaway from that truth. If the people to whom God has given this work believe that they will not really do the work until some special event in the future, then those currently perishing in Christless graves and unevangelized lands have little hope of knowing Jesus before that "outpouring." If you wanted to explain this to a child you could say "All the Christians are waiting for God but God and the lost are all waiting for the Christians." As a result of this theology almost no Christians have a desire to reach the unreached with the gospel. When the significance of this issue is appreciated one can stand from a missional perspective and see this body of believers splitting at at a Y in the road. Is that Y in the road the issue of the Latter rain and 1888 message? The author makes a strong case in the affirmative.
What I concluded after reading the book:
Much of the theology today towards missions has roots in the acceptance or rejection of the 1888 message. From my perspective as a lay person the 1888 issue seemed abstract, insignificant, and irrelevant. It looked to be some kind of hairsplitting done among theologians. However it was not until spending several years in missions and facing head-on the enormous resistance to missions that I began to question: "From where comes this strange theology of inaction and indifference?"
You see, for those Christians that attend church and sit in the pew every week 1888 is so far away and irrelevant because it has no direct bearing or benefit in their lives. However, it has tremendous and eternal significance for the unreached people groups who have no witnesses for Christ. Ultimately the millions and billions of Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists will suffer the most as a result of the theology coming from 1888. Not only the billions of unreached today but the billions that have lived and died since 1888. Nobody went to them then and nobody wants to go to them today. Why? Because everybody....is.......still.......sitting..... around.....waiting. From time to time preachers get up and speak against indifference and apathy towards evangelism and missions but if the root theology is not addressed (hint: 1888) all things will continue as before. Same root, same fruit.
The #1 most common objection is "but we did receive the 1888 message." The author nails this on the head on p.166 with the JUGULAR question "...if that message was accepted, regardless of the numbers in each group, why are we still here waiting for the Lord to return?" Bingo. The message was never accepted but purposefully rejected and the most compelling, conclusive and undeniable evidence for this is a powerless message and total inability to finish the Great Commission. Nothing is more revealing than over 100 years of utter failure to reach the Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists for Christ. We live in the period of the consequences of rejection. If you do not want to read all 500 pages of this author's retelling of SDA history concerning the 1888 message then all you need to do is remember this one question. It is the jugular question.
How can it be that a book which addresses the most important issues in the world (and universe) today is so ignored? Isn't that bizarre?! It is as if there is no priority whatsoever to hastening the return of Jesus. People WANT to stay in this world of sin and suffering and don't really want Jesus to return.
Below are a few of my thoughts and favorite quotes from the book. Be sure to check out Ron Duffield's footnotes, they are sometimes more interesting and informative than the chapters. I counted over 945 footnotes.
If you are interested you can also listen to an audio review of the book here by Jerry A. Moon PhD, Chair, Church History Department, Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University, who did an oral review of the book on October 14, 2011. He called the book a "gold mine."
If you are interested you can also listen to an audio review of the book here by Jerry A. Moon PhD, Chair, Church History Department, Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University, who did an oral review of the book on October 14, 2011. He called the book a "gold mine."
p9 "But one of the greatest possible hindrances to unity, sadly enough, is over the issue of the latter rain and the loud cry itself..."
This is a very interesting and insightful comment. How many lay people would ever guess or detect that lack of unity could come from here?
p13 "Rather than signifying a change in the way a person is saved, the investigative judgment announces the culmination of the plan of salvation--the judgment hour message-- which is to help prepare those living for the return of Christ"
I like the way this is written because it makes it simple to show that the investigative judgment does not change the WAY a person is saved. The investigative judgment is just a chronological point on the timeline of the plan of salvation. This helps me explain it to others.
p47 Ellen White is quoted as saying "the prayers of the Lord's people availed in my behalf.."
The story is written that God performed the miracle of healing but EGW gives the credit to the praying people. I conclude that if the people were not praying God would not have healed EGW. What is God not doing today because his people will not pray? How do you motivate non-praying people to pray? That is the question of the hour.
p63 "But the latter rain will never refresh and invigorate indolent souls, that are not using the power God has already given them."
This is more important than the Latter Rain in one sense because nobody will benefit from the Latter if they are not striving to get the Early; that's my understanding anyway. Nobody has any interest in the 10/40 window because they are waiting for the Latter rain but the Latter rain won't benefit anyone not interested in the 10/40 window's salvation right now. Dear God if this is true send someone to preach it!
p156..."..one can seldom advance a new idea without having some appearance of pride..."
p.163 "Ever since the 1888 experience, there has been a tendency among us as a people to credit ourselves with accepting and experiencing the message of righteousness by faith."
I was baptized as a SDA in 2005 and every time I have ever heard a reference to 1888 it was always with stated with certainty and historical fact. I find this statement to be true simply from experience. However the author in this book provides more than sufficient evidence that we are entertaining a grossly distorted view of 1888.
p. 178 "Truth is only truth to you when you live it in daily life."
p215...ANOTHER JUGULAR question..."But this creates a problem. Why did the Lord send Jones and Waggoner when there was a living prophet already present unless they had a message to give?"
Another Bingo.
I had no idea that so many SDAs see the same event from polar opposite positions. It looks like they can be grouped in to two camps: 1888 is AN event and 1888 is THE event.
This is a very interesting and insightful comment. How many lay people would ever guess or detect that lack of unity could come from here?
p13 "Rather than signifying a change in the way a person is saved, the investigative judgment announces the culmination of the plan of salvation--the judgment hour message-- which is to help prepare those living for the return of Christ"
I like the way this is written because it makes it simple to show that the investigative judgment does not change the WAY a person is saved. The investigative judgment is just a chronological point on the timeline of the plan of salvation. This helps me explain it to others.
p47 Ellen White is quoted as saying "the prayers of the Lord's people availed in my behalf.."
The story is written that God performed the miracle of healing but EGW gives the credit to the praying people. I conclude that if the people were not praying God would not have healed EGW. What is God not doing today because his people will not pray? How do you motivate non-praying people to pray? That is the question of the hour.
p63 "But the latter rain will never refresh and invigorate indolent souls, that are not using the power God has already given them."
This is more important than the Latter Rain in one sense because nobody will benefit from the Latter if they are not striving to get the Early; that's my understanding anyway. Nobody has any interest in the 10/40 window because they are waiting for the Latter rain but the Latter rain won't benefit anyone not interested in the 10/40 window's salvation right now. Dear God if this is true send someone to preach it!
p156..."..one can seldom advance a new idea without having some appearance of pride..."
p.163 "Ever since the 1888 experience, there has been a tendency among us as a people to credit ourselves with accepting and experiencing the message of righteousness by faith."
I was baptized as a SDA in 2005 and every time I have ever heard a reference to 1888 it was always with stated with certainty and historical fact. I find this statement to be true simply from experience. However the author in this book provides more than sufficient evidence that we are entertaining a grossly distorted view of 1888.
p. 178 "Truth is only truth to you when you live it in daily life."
p215...ANOTHER JUGULAR question..."But this creates a problem. Why did the Lord send Jones and Waggoner when there was a living prophet already present unless they had a message to give?"
Another Bingo.
I had no idea that so many SDAs see the same event from polar opposite positions. It looks like they can be grouped in to two camps: 1888 is AN event and 1888 is THE event.
Now what? Now that I have read the book and understand that the 1888 was a significant message, what am I to do? According to the book of James there must be a practical application. You hear a message and then you have to do something with that message. At this point, I can only conclude the importance of continuing to share Christ with the unreached and make a special effort to learn more about the 1888 message itself. Now, what exactly did Jones and Waggoner say? Let's find out :)
Comments?