History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church

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Contents 1 Foundations 2 Early History 2.1 Millerite Roots 2.2 An alternate explanation 2.3 Sabbath observance 2.4 The Present Truth 2.5 Formal Organisation 2.6 Worldwide Mission 3 Later History 3.1 1888 General Conference 3.2 Early 20th century 3.3 Mid 20th century 3.4 Late 20th century 4 References 5 Sources 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Foundations

The 19th Century was ideal for the development of a revival movement in the United States. Religious diversity was paramount and many minority movements were formed. Some of these movements held beliefs that would later be adopted by the Seventh-day Adventists.

With the Protestant Reformation not long past, an interest in prophecy was kindled and many Protestants began to point towards the arrest by the French General Louis Alexandre Berthier of Pope Pius VI in 1798 as the end of the 1260 day prophecy from the Book of Daniel.^[1][2] Protestants began to look at the 2300 day prophecy found in Daniel 8:14. In 1768, Calvinist pastor Johann Petri used the year-day principle of prophecy to calculate the end of this period as the year 1847. Hans Wood, an Irish layman reached the same conclusions as Petri, however, due to a different commencement date his calculations pointed to 1880.^[1] Interest in prophecy also found its way into the Roman Catholic church when an exiled Jesuit priest by the name of Manuel de Lacunza published a manuscript calling for renewed interest in the Second Coming of Christ. His publication created a stirring but was later condemned by Pope Leo XII in 1824.^[1]

As a result of a pursuit for religious freedom, many revivalists had set foot in the United States, aiming to avoid persecution.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Early History

[edit] Millerite Roots

Main article: Great Disappointment

The Seventh-day Adventist Church formed out of the movement known today as the Millerites. In 1831, a Baptist convert by the name of William Miller began to preach that the Second Advent of Jesus would occur somewhere between 1843 and 1844. A following gathered around Miller that included many from the Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and Christian Connection churches. After a number of revisions, October 22 was considered the most probable date that the return would occur. By 1844, over 100,000 people were anticipating what Miller had dubbed as the "Blessed Hope". On October 22 many of the believers were up late into the night watching, waiting for Christ to return and found themselves bitterly disappointed when both sunset and midnight passed with their expectations unfulfilled. This event later became known as the Great Disappointment.

[edit] An alternate explanation

After the upset of October 22 many of Miller's followers were left upset and disillusioned. One of the Adventists, Hiram Edson (1806-1882) wrote "Our fondest hopes and expectations were blasted, and such a spirit of weeping came over us as I never experienced before. It seemed that the loss of all earthly friends could have been no comparison. We wept, and wept, till the day dawn."^[3] However, a few remained in the church. These people gathered together and spent much time in devoted prayer and study of the Bible. On the morning of October 23, Edson, who lived in Port Gibson, New York was passing through his grain field with a friend where he claimed to have seen a vision. Edson later recounted:

"We started, and while passing through a large field I was stopped about midway of the field. Heaven seemed opened to my view, and I saw distinctly and clearly that instead of our High Priest coming out of the Most Holy of the heavenly sanctuary to come to this earth on the tenth day of the seventh month, at the end of the 2300 days [calculated to be October 22, 1844], He for the first time entered on that day the second apartment of that sanctuary; and that He had a work to perform in the Most Holy before coming to the earth."^[4]

Edson shared what he believed he saw with many of the local Adventists who were greatly encouraged by his account. As a result Edson began studying the bible with two of the other believers in the area, O.R.L. Crosier and Franklin B. Hahn, who published their findings in a paper called Day-Dawn. This paper explored the biblical parable of the Ten Virgins and attempted to explain why the bridegroom had tarried. The article also explored the concept of the day of atonement and what the authors called "our chronology of events".^[5][6]

The findings published by Crosier, Hahn and Edson led to a new understanding about the sanctuary in heaven. Their paper explained how there was a sanctuary in heaven, that Christ, the High Priest, was to cleanse. The believers understood this cleansing to be what the 2300 days in Daniel was referring to.^[7]

[edit] Sabbath observance

At about the same time, in New Hampshire, a young Seventh Day Baptist lady by the name of Rachel Oakes Preston introduced the principle of a seventh day Sabbath to a group of Adventists, who included a leading Millerite speaker by the name of Joseph Bates. Bates, who accepted Oakes' message, proposed that a meeting should be organised between the believers in New Hampshire and Port Gibson. At this meeting, which occurred sometime in 1846 at Edson's farm, Edson and other Port Gibson believers readily accepted the Sabbath message and at the same time forged an alliance with Bates and two other folk from New Hampshire who later became very influential in the Adventist church, James and Ellen G. White. Between April, 1848, and December of 1850 twenty-two "Sabbath conferences" were held in New York and New England. These meetings were often seen as opportunities for leaders such as James White, Joseph Bates, Stephen Pierce and Hiram Edson to discuss and reach conclusions about doctrinal issues.^[8]

While initially it was believed that the Sabbath started at 6pm, by 1855 it was generally accepted that the Sabbath begins at Friday sunset.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] The Present Truth

On November 18, 1848, the young lady Ellen White, claimed to have a vision in which God told her that her husband should start a paper. In 1849, James, determined to publish this paper, went to find work as a farm-hand to raise sufficient funds. After Ellen had another one of her visions, she told James that he was to not worry about funds but to set to work on producing the paper to be printed. James readily obeyed, writing from the aid "of a pocket Bible, Cruden's Condensed Concordance, and an abridged dictionary with one of its covers off." Thanks to a generous offer by the printer to delay charges, the group of Advent believers had 1000 copies of the first publication printed. They sent the publication, which was on the topic of the Sabbath, to friends and colleagues they believe would find it of interest.^[9][10]

[edit] Formal Organisation

In 1860, the fledging movement finally settled on the name, Seventh-day Adventist, representative of the church's distinguishing beliefs. Three years later, on May 21, 1863, the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists was formed and the movement became an official organization.

[edit] Worldwide Mission

In 1874 John Nevins Andrews became the first Adventist missionary to travel overseas. Working in Switzerland he sought to organise the Sabbath-keeping companies under one umbrella.^[11]

[edit] Later History

[edit] 1888 General Conference

Main article: 1888 Minneapolis General Conference

In 1888, a General Conference Session occurred in Minneapolis. This session involved a discussion between the then General Conference president, G. I. Butler; editor of the review, Uriah Smith; and a group led by E. J. Waggoner and A. T. Jones about the meaning of "Righteousness by Faith" and the meaning of the law in Romans and Galatians. Ellen G. White also addressed the conference.

[edit] Early 20th century

The early 20th-century brought with it new challenges to Adventist faith and practice. The death of Adventist prophetess Ellen G. White in 1915 brought new questions about how the church would continue without a living prophet. Adventist leaders participated in a variety of Fundamentalist prophetic conferences during and soon after World War I. The 1919 Bible Conference was a pivotal theological event that looked at how Adventists interpreted Bible prophecy and the legacy of Ellen White's writings for the church. The 1919 Bible Conference also had a polarizing influence on Adventist theology with progressives such as A. G. Daniells and W. W. Prescott pitted against traditionalists like Benjamin G. Wilkinson, J. S. Washburn, and Claude Holmes.

[edit] Mid 20th century

See also: Questions on Doctrine

The mid 20th century saw a series of conferences take place between Adventist leaders and evangelicals Walter Martin and Donald Barnhouse. These discussions led ultimately to the publication in 1957 of a doctrinal exposition called Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine. Questions on Doctrine together with the follow up book by Martin, The truth about Seventh-day Adventism (1960), convinced many Protestants that the Adventist church was not a cult but instead an orthodox Christian church. It also ignited a storm of controversy within Adventism, as M. L. Andreasen and others argued that the church leadership had seriously compromised historic Adventist theology.

[edit] Late 20th century

The 1970s and 1980s saw Ellen G. White's writings come under attack by Walter Rea and others, who charged the Adventist prophetess with plagiarism. At the same time, Adventist scholars such as Arthur Patrick intensely studied White's writings and concluded that White was not inerrant.^[12] This gradually changed the way that the church as a whole has used White's writings in matters of doctrine.

The 1980 General Conference session, held in Dallas, produced the church's first official declaration of beliefs voted by the world body, called the 27 Fundamental Beliefs. (This list of beliefs has since been expanded to the present 28 Fundamentals).

The year 1980 also saw the Adventist church become embroiled in a crisis over its investigative judgment teaching, known as the Glacier View controversy. This precipitated a major schism within the church, the effects of which have persisted well into the 21st century.^[13]

[edit] References

[edit] Sources

• October Morn by Howard Krug - a look at Hiram Edson on October 23 1844
• Our Roots and Mission by William G. Johnsson - A history of the Adventist Review
• Catholic.com article on Seventh-day Adventist Church
• South Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventist's History Page
• [1]
• Seventh-day Adventists: the Heritage Continues

[edit] See also

• Seventh-day Adventist Church
• Ellen G. White
• Millerites
• Sabbath
• William Miller (preacher)

[edit] External links

• Adventist Archives Search Historical Documents
• What is Adventist in Adventism? by George R. Knight.
• Prophetic Basis of Adventism by Hans K. La Rondelle.
• Uncovering the Origins of the Statement of Twenty-seven Fundamental Beliefs by Fritz Guy.
• Pathways of the Pioneers at the Ellen G. White Estate website