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The Golden Chain - Robert J. Wieland

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who knows Ellen White's forthright openness.<br />

(e) No one knows (to date) for sure what Baker<br />

was teaching that elicited this letter. He, not Jones<br />

and Waggoner, was the one teaching or in danger<br />

of teaching wrong ideas. He may have been<br />

tempted to lapse into an extreme manner of<br />

presenting the truth of Christ's humanity. Inasmuch<br />

as Ellen White does not condemn Baker or urge<br />

him to leave the ministry but in fact encourages<br />

him to clarify his teaching, it is possible that he<br />

was overreacting to criticism of the 1888 message<br />

and in his youth or inexperience was in danger of<br />

muddying the waters by imprecise expressions. It<br />

is interesting that she made no move to publish this<br />

letter or even to incorporate portions of it in<br />

volumes of the Testimonies at the time. If Ellen<br />

White had felt that Jones's and Waggoner's<br />

Christology was faulty or dangerous, she would not<br />

have hesitated to publish her letter to Baker in the<br />

messages that comprise our volumes of the<br />

Testimonies for the Church.<br />

112

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