One of the most active independent ministries in the church is the 1888 Message Study Committee, under the leadership of Robert Wieland. Their activities have divided churches and created doctrinal confusion in several parts of the world. We have tried to alert church members and pastors concerning the dangers of their soteriology (the teaching of salvation) through seminars and articles on our website. Their teachings on the meaning of the death of Christ do have a negative impact on several of our doctrines. The soteriology one embraces will determine what one believes in other areas of Christian doctrine.

We have occasionally received letters from church members who had been involved in the activities of that group, thanking us for those materials and indicating that they have come back to the message proclaimed by the world church. We are now sharing with you the testimony of a person who was president of the 1888 Message Study Committee for five years, who decided to examine carefully the teachings that he was supporting and, to his surprise, found them to be erroneous. He authorized us to print his letter, addressed to me, in the BRI Newsletter. We do this in order to keep you informed about what is taking place in this particular independent ministry and hopefully to encourage our workers not to proclaim the message of a particular group within the church, but the biblical message God has entrusted to our global church.