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 />
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