The World in Which Adventism Began

L I G H T

B E A R E R S

HISTORY
OF THE
SEVENTH-DAY
ADVENTIST
CHURCH

R I C H A R D
F L O Y D

W .
S C H W A R Z
G R E E N L E A F

Pacific Press Publishing Association

Nampa, Idaho
Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
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LIGH T B E A RERS

Designed by Tim Larson

Cover photo Copyright 1995 PhotoDisc, Inc.

Copyright 1979 by General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Department of Education, Silver Spring, Maryland.
Revised edition copyright 2000 by General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Department of Education, Silver Spring, Maryland.
Printed in the United States of America by Pacific Press Publishing Association. All rights
reserved.

www.pacificpress.com
ISBN 13: 978-0-8163-1795-0
ISBN 10: 0-8163-1795-X

09 10 11 5 4 3

The World in Which Adventism Began

C O N T E N T S

Preface to the first edition

Preface to the revised edition

P a r t O n e
Origins and Formative Years, 1839-1888
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12

. he World in Which Adventism Began................................... 13

T
.The Great Advent Awakening................................................. 23
.The Millerite Movement, 1839-1844...................................... 35
.After the Disappointment........................................................ 51
.Using the Printed Page............................................................ 69
.Organizational Birth Pangs..................................................... 83
.Becoming Health Reformers................................................. 100
.Starting an Educational System............................................ 114
.Worldwide Outreach, 1868-1885.......................................... 130
.Organizational Developments, 1864-1887............................ 146
.Doctrinal Developments, 1849-1888.................................... 160
.Righteousness by Faith: Minneapolis and Its Aftermath....... 175

P a r t T w o
Years of growth and Reorganization, 1888-1945
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23

. he Expansion of Institutions, 1877-1900............................ 191

T
.Mission Advance, 1887-1900................................................ 207
.Entering the American South: A Neglected Field................. 225
.Troubles Lead to Reorganization.......................................... 241
.New Beginnings Amid Crisis................................................ 259
.The Beginnings of Globalization.......................................... 273
.New Challenges, New Institutions........................................ 293
.Organizational Refinements.................................................. 313
.Giving the Trumpet a Certain Sound..................................... 332
.The Final Years and Legacy of Ellen White.......................... 348
.Two World Wars Affect a World Church............................... 364
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P a r t T h r e e
The Globalization of the Church, 1945-2000

Chapter 24 Developing a Professional Ministry...................................... 387

Chapter 25 Facing Financial Pressures.................................................... 401
Chapter 26 The Church Confronts the Secular World............................. 420
Chapter 27 Relationships With Other Christians..................................... 442
Chapter 28 The Social Conscience of Adventism................................... 458
Chapter 29 The Health Movement........................................................... 478
Chapter 30 Unity and Diversity............................................................... 499
Chapter 31 Adjusting to International Adversities.................................. 518
Chapter 32 Membership Increases in the Developing World.................. 539
Chapter 33 Evangelism and Global Mission........................................... 564
Chapter 34 Internationalizing Church Polity........................................... 583
P a r t F o u r
Maintaining a Biblical Message

Chapter 35 Doctrinal Discussions and Dissidence.................................. 607

Chapter 36 The Twentieth-Century Debate Over Fundamentals............. 627
Chapter 37 After a Century and a Half.................................................... 648

Chronological Data
Bibliography
Index

The World in Which Adventism Began

P r e f a c e

t o

t h e

F i r s t

E d i t i o n

When Edward Gibbon began his candid but rational inquiry into the progress and
establishment of Christianity, he posed the question as to how its remarkable victory over the prevailing religious systems of the day could be explained. With tongue
in cheek, Gibbon made ironic obeisance to the obvious but satisfactory answer that
this was due to the convincing evidence of the doctrine itself, and to the ruling providence of its great Author (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1, pp. 507,
508). Then followed over fifty pages devoted to explaining the rise of the Christian
church solely in the light of social, intellectual, and political currents of the first centuries after Christ.
In spite of his skeptics orientation Gibbon had a point. It seems easier for historians to explain the past on the basis of tangible events: the interaction of men, institutions, economic forces, social groups, even the intellectual climate, than to discover
behind, above, and through all the play and counterplay of human interests and power
and passions, the agencies of the all-merciful One, silently, patiently working out the
counsels of His own will (E. G. White, Education, p. 173).
Trained to be critical, to prefer several eyewitnesses and documents produced by
impartial, competent observers close to an event, the historian reaches for certainty
about the past in terms of things he knows, things that can be seen, heard, and read. He
may be confident, as was the ancient prophet Daniel, that the God of heaven changeth
the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings (Dan. 2:21). He
may, with Nebuchadnezzar, be certain that the Most High doeth according to his will

LIGH T B E A RERS

in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth (Dan. 4:35). Yet to inject
this all-powerful God into his interpretation of past events requires an act of faith in
the Unseen and seemingly Intangible which runs counter to his training as a historian.
It is frequently more comfortable to follow Gibbonian reason and package an explanation of the past in terms of the will and prowess of man. . . . his power, ambition, or
caprice (White, ibid.).
Faced with this dilemma, the Seventh-day Adventist historian must frankly recognize that he is not only a historian, he is also a Seventh-day Adventist Christian. As he
approaches the past, and particularly the past of his own church, he does so in this dual
roleand finds that it is not always easy to keep the two roles separate. Many things he
will find easy to explain in terms of human passions, social forces, and psychological
insight. Yet he must also be conscious that his theological beliefs color his selection
and interpretation of facts. These beliefs provide, in essence, the glasses through
which he views the past.
In the following interpretation of the origins, development, and spread of the
Seventh-day Adventist Church, a conscious effort has been made to heed Leopold von
Rankes famous injunction to tell it as it actually happened. Yet there has been the
constant realization that to do so would require much more information and insight than
is available. At the same time the writer has tried to heed the warning of an outstanding
European church historian. Men are so much in love with their own opinions, wrote
Fra Paolo Sarpi, that they persuade themselves that God favors them as much as they
do themselves (quoted in P. Burke, ed., Sarpi, p. xxxii).
While attempting to portray the rise and development of the Seventh-day Adventists
as accurately as possible, this account also seeks to avoid a dogmatic interpretation of
events as occurring because God ordained them so. This should not be taken to mean
that there are not many aspects of Seventh-day Adventist history which can be fully
understood only in the light of the great controversy which continues to rage between
Christ and Satan. To the Seventh-day Adventist historian the existence of that controversy
provides the real key to a true understanding of all history, including that of his own
church. The student is challenged to keep this continuing conflict constantly in mind
and thus to develop his own insights into the divine leadings in our past history.
Richard W. Schwarz

The World in Which Adventism Began

P r e f a c e

t o

t h e

R e v i s e d

E d i t i o n

Between the appearance of Light Bearers to the Remnant in 1979 and this revised
edition, the Seventh-day Adventist denomination has grown from approximately
3,000,000 to more than 10,000,000 members. This growth has taken place primarily
in what we have variously called the third world, the developing world, or its more
recent term, the two-thirds world, descriptions that are not precisely equivalents, but
approximations of each other. During the years of this growth, four General Conference
sessions have occurred and three different men have been elected to the General Conference presidency. Adventists have revolutionized their conceptualization of mission
processes and reorganized the representational system of their governance; General
Conference leaders have moved into a new world headquarters office building. The
church has also passed through some of its most serious challenges to doctrine and
authority. At the same time it has coped with social issues that seemed so remote in
1960 as to be unlikely.
This revised edition seeks to depict the denomination as a truly global organization
by narrating its growth and commenting on the changes that growth has fomented.
Because the church has become a world entity it can no longer deal with questions
as though they are primarily North American issues. They have become world issues.
More than ever before Adventists have become aware that while their church emerged
within North America, its growth has produced an international bodya process that has
required changes in governance and an appreciation for the impact of its cosmopolitan
character on faith and practice.

LIGH T B E A RERS

These changes give rise to a second underlying theme, that of the nature of the
challenges Adventism experienced regarding its doctrine and authority. As the church
became larger, much of its activity and many of its programs became more sophisticated. In part this reflected global trends unrelated to religion, but church growth
paralleled by increased professionalism was not a mere coincidence in Adventism.
The struggles over faith, practice, and authority that affected much of the Adventist
world during the last quarter of the twentieth century stemmed not only from questions that remained from an earlier era but also from a well-educated, philosophicallyinquisitive generation that wanted to understand the churchs identity in the context of
a milieu far removed from the nineteenth century and its aftermath.
A third theme also appears in this revision. Changes notwithstanding, the Seventhday Adventist Church has preserved a remarkable continuity since its origins in the
Millerite movement. Adventists still hold as strongly as ever the conviction that their
message is firmly established on biblical foundations and that they are fulfilling a
divine commission to carry this gospel to a perishing world. Adventism at the end of
the twentieth century retains the apocalyptic urgency of 1844 blended with the pastoral
sensitivity that a tortured world needs.
Many similarities to the first edition remain in this revision, but readers of this book
will quickly detect differences. The most obvious change is its format. This revised
edition consists of four parts. The first three are both chronological and topical, but the
fourth is genuinely topicala sweeping view of the denomination. This changed format
represents several aspects of revisionupdating some chapters, adding new chapters,
and rearranging some of the material so that it better reflects the denomination at the
end of the twentieth century as compared to the mid-1970s.
I have made only scant change in chapters 1 through 15 of the first edition. In this
revised edition these chapters constitute Part I and the first three chapters of Part II.
Beginning with chapter 16 of the first edition, I revised by condensing chapters in order
to make room for new material. Chapters 16 through 26 of the first edition have become
chapters 16 through 23 in the revised book, with material from chapter 24 reassigned
to Part IV.
The most serious revisions began with chapter 24 of the first edition and continued
in chapters 27 through 36. Chapters 29 and onward in the first edition received my
close attention because they discussed questions that are still pertinent to the church.
In their updated form these chapters make up the bulk of Part III. This section also
includes four new chapters: 28, 31, 32, and 34. Approximately half of the material in
the revised chapters in Part III is new; the other half is condensed from its original
form.
Chapters 37 and 38 of the first edition are a final statement which Part IV of the
revised book replaces. I formed this last section by combining material from chapters
24, 27, and 28 of the first edition and adding extensively to produce two new chapters,
36 and 37 of the revised edition.
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The World in Which Adventism Began

One of the more serious difficulties I encountered was that of handling the fastmoving events in the church, especially when describing growth in membership and
institutions, and satellite telecasting. Some of the data were outdated even before publication. Also, regarding theological discussions in the church, new books appeared too
late for me to comment upon. My revisions taper off with events after 1995, but some
references to events, publications, and personalities appear as late as 1999.
Many of the sources I consulted for my revisions do not fit the conventional definition
of history, but they become historiographically significant because they contributed to
the Adventist mindset that, in a sense, was on public trial from the 1970s onward. The
literary spectrum of pertinent material to which I referred ranged from issues discussing the perennial arguments between science and Scripture, to theological hair-splitting
and the debate about the nature of inspiration, and on to light reading such as stories by
missionaries. The Adventist mind fed on all these topics, as well as others, and thus all
of Adventist literature became the forum in which the twentieth-century discussions
about the centrality of Adventism took place. It is my belief that no one can understand
Adventism on the threshold of the twenty-first century without first understanding the
Adventist mentality, hence this literature looms in importance. It is worth repeating
that the globalization of Adventism on the one hand and its internal conflicts and successes on the other are somehow inextricably mixed, perhaps in ways that we are just
beginning to fathom.
Many persons merit my thanks because of their assistance in technical and supportive
ways. My first word of gratitude is to Humberto Rasi, General Conference Director of
Education, who approached me about this project and guided me through it with wise
counsel, especially at crucial points. His secretary, Silvia Sicalo, was always willing to
add my ever-growing list of requests to her already full schedule. John Fowler, also from
the Department of Education of the General Conference, and Russell Holt of Pacific
Press, provided valuable comments and suggestions.
During a long evening session of the Association of Seventh-day Adventist Historians
in Portland, Oregon, in April 1998, my fellow historians expressed both confidence and
encouragement and made numerous helpful suggestions. From among them I should
specifically note Ben McArthur, Eric Anderson, Brian Strayer, and Arthur Patrick who
were especially generous with ideas. Gary Land, chair of the History Department at
Andrews University and Richard Osborn, Vice President for Education of the North
American Division, deserve special thanks for their careful attention to my manuscript
and their incisive critiques.
Many conversations were the source of impressions and ideas that eventually found
themselves in the revision. Cherie Smith, at the time a member of the pastoral staff of
the Collegedale Church, rendered valuable counsel regarding womens ministries. David
Mansfield, a friend and neighbor, acquired a packet of papers for me from the TransEuropean Division that provided information about Adventist relationships to labor
unions in Britain; and Sarah Holmes, a student in denominational history at Andrews
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LIGH T B E A RERS

University offered me ideas about Adventist lifestyle. Bruce Norman, former faculty
member at the Adventist Institute of Advanced Studies in the Philippines, shared relevant
information with me about Adventism in Asia. From Norman Gulley, whose roots are
in England and who directed the first graduate program in theology in the Philippines, I
gleaned insights about the British Unions biracial reorganization as well as information
about Adventist education in the Far East.
Carl Currie, career missionary to China and a one-time member of the East Asia
Association, provided candid descriptions about Adventist work in China. A. C. McClure, president of the North American Division, gave me a first-hand account of the
evolution of that division from its special relationship with the General Conference
to its contemporary status. Joel Tompkins, a former union president, discussed with me
issues of church administration.
I had virtually free access to the resources of the McKee Library in Collegedale,
Tennessee, where Peggy Bennett, the head librarian, and Shirley Bennett of the periodical section, went out of their way to make information acquisition easy for me. In the
Heritage Room at the James White Library, Andrews University, James Ford and Carlota
Brown provided all the assistance that I needed for successful searches.
Richard Coffen and Gail Hanson of the Review and Herald Publishing Association
generously accommodated my requests for illustrative material, as did Tim Poirier in
the White Estate. Bert Haloviak and John Wycliffe in the General Conference Archives
were tireless in their support of my search for pictures and other materials. Tanya Holland of the Adventist Review provided invaluable service by preparing the illustrative
materials for publication.
My own experience has also contributed to this revision. Some of my conversations
about denominational matters occurred during trips before I undertook this project. I
talked to several members of the Kulakov family and other church workers during visits
to Russia, and to Robert Wong, Eugene Hsu, Robert Folkenberg, Jr., and Daniel Peek,
an ESL teacher at the Unviersity of Beijing, during a trip to China. Conversations with
fellow Adventists and visits to Adventist centers during earlier journeys to Europe and
Latin America gave me a context of understanding for denominational affairs in those
regions, and notes that I made as a participant in the General Conference sessions of
1990 and 1995 were useful to me.
Although the help I received enabled me to produce extensive revisions, I cannot
overlook the towering influence that the original author, Richard Schwarz, still exerts in
this new edition. When rewriting and condensing chapters in the first edition I developed
a new appreciation of his capacity to synthesize and to sequence his material effectively.
It was with more than a little trepidation that I broke into his chapters. Throughout
my revisions I attempted to retain his pertinent thoughts and, as space would permit,
his phraseology. Although the title of the book has changed, and despite my work, he
remains the principal author of this book.

10

Floyd Greenleaf

The World in Which Adventism Began

P A R T

O N E

ORIGINS AND
FORMATIVE YEARS,
1839-1888
These were the years of origin and formation, 1839 to 1888. They began with a sense of
buoyancy and excitement and hope, followed quickly with bitter disappointment after the pent-up
emotions of Adventists dissipated following October 22, 1844. Their belief that Jesus would come
on a specific date that they mistakenly identified from their biblical studies forced them back to
the Bible to find their error. Forty-four years later they struggled over their understandingand
misunderstandingof the relation of law and obedience on the one hand and forgiveness and
grace on the other, wrapped up in the phrase, righteousness by faith. It was the first major doctrinal
battle for Adventists after they had developed their body of teachings.
During the years immediately following the Great Disappointment, Adventists studied their
way to a set of doctrines that included, among others, conditional immortality, the seventh-day
Sabbath, the presence of the Spirit of Prophecy in the church, a broader understanding of the
three angels messages of Revelation 14, and a belief in the priestly ministry of Christ in the
heavenly sanctuary.
In 1860 Adventists chose a name that incorporated their two defining beliefs, and over the
next three years formally organized congregations, conferences, and the General Conference.
In the years that followed they established institutions to support their mission. Schools, healthcare establishments, and publishing enterprises became institutional benchmarks of Adventism.
They also began to sense their responsibility to the world and formed a mission board to oversee
sending workers to other countries.
Until after the American Civil War, the Seventh-day Adventist Church was primarily a church
of the northern part of the United States. Adventists began in the northeastern states and spread
westward, settling in Battle Creek, Michigan, as their headquarters. They survived the Civil War by
setting precedents for the relationship of their church with the state. After that conflict Adventists
ventured southward, somewhat cautiously. For them it was almost a mission to a foreign land.
During these formative years both Joseph Bates and James White, two of the founders of the
church, died. The remaining voice from among the founders was Ellen White, who continued
to guide the fledgling denomination. In the 1880s she spent time in Europe, helping to establish
Adventism abroad. Ministers, eager to perpetuate the churchs beliefs, preached boldly, if not
virulently at times, on prophecy, Sabbath observance, and the soon return of Jesus. Two younger
men, just as vehemently, preached new ideas about the relation of the law to obedience and
forgiveness and grace. For some it was a shock to think that in their emphasis on biblically
based doctrines they had neglected the most basic of all, faith in the atoning blood of Jesus. A
confrontation developed, and at Minneapolis in 1888 the church thrashed it out, leaving wounds
that festered a long time.
The church was not the same afterwards. It was no longer an innocent body. Doctrinally, it
passed through acute soul-searching. For Adventists, it was a time of new beginnings for selfunderstanding.
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12

The World in Which Adventism Began

C H A P T E R

The World in Which

Adventism Began
Seventh-day Adventists believe that
their roots in history go back a long way.
Back, not only to the Millerite movement
of the 1830s and 40s, but farther: to Wesley and the eighteenth century Evangelical
revivalists, to the great Protestant Reformers and to such earlier dissenting groups
as the Lollards and Waldenses. Back to
the primitive Celtic Church of Ireland
and Scotland, the persecuted church of
the first three centuries after Christ, back
to Christ and the apostles themselves.
Yet it is obvious that modern Adventism
developed in the great advent awakening
which took place in the early years of the
nineteenth century.
Events in Europe
As that century began, much of the
Western world was preoccupied with the
activities of Napoleon Bonaparte. This

Corsican adventurer, who had recently

been propelled to the leadership of Europes dominant state, busied himself
in remaking the map of Europe. Even
that could not satisfy his restless quest
for power. He determined to carve out a
position of influence in areas as widely
separated as the ancient Near East and
the Western Hemisphere.
After a decade and a half of almost
incessant warfare Bonaparte was at last
confined to a tiny South Atlantic islet, and
Europe tried to rebuild an orderly society,
free from the excesses for which the
French Revolution was held responsible.
Drawing inspiration from the writings
of Edmund Burke and under the astute
leadership of Austrias Prince Metternich,
European statesmen set out to encourage
institutions that would bring stability to
the ordered society they desired. Among
these was the Roman Catholic Church,
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LIGH T B E A RERS

whose influence and prestige gradually

increased from the nadir of the preceding
revolutionary decades.
Yet many eyes had seen the indignities heaped upon the priests of Rome;
indignities which reached their height
when Colonel General Louis Berthier
established the Roman Republic in 1798
and took Pope Pius VI off to die in exile
in France. A new interest was sparked in
the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation, particularly the 1260-day period,
which many interpreters now believed
had come to an end with the dramatic
events of 1798. This rebirth of prophetic
interest would soon move on to closer
consideration of the longest time period
in biblical prophecythe 2300 days of
Daniel 8:14.
Religious Diversity
Meanwhile, Protestantism was also
experiencing a renaissance, particularly
in Great Britain and the United States,
where the work of the Wesleys was coming to fruition in the rapid growth of
Methodism. In America frontier camp
meetings took on an interdenominational
hue, and soon sedate Congregationalists
and Presbyterians were feeling the call to
a more personal and emotional religious
experience.
The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were rich in religious
diversity. New sects proliferated. Rejecting established churches and dogma,
proclaiming their return to Bible-oriented
primitive Christianity, some of these
groups developed into religious communes with beliefs and practices later
14

shared by Seventh-day Adventists. Drawn

from the uneducated, lower socioeconomic groups of Europe, such communities were held together principally by a
strong leader, their confidence in divine
intervention in the current affairs of men,
and their belief in the imminence of the
second advent of Jesus. They sought a
pure religious life in rural frontier communities away from the evils of the
world.
America had long been a promised
land for religious dissidents. Although the
Pilgrim Fathers are best known, certainly
one of the most intriguing is the German
Community of the Woman in the Wilderness, which was established near modern
Philadelphia in 1694. It was also in
Pennsylvania, among the German
Dunkers (Baptists), that Conrad Beissel became convinced of the continued
sacredness of the seventh-day Sabbath.
Rejected in his community, Beissel
withdrew to form the Ephrata Cloister,
whose members, in addition to observing the Sabbath, denied the doctrine of
eternal punishment, opposed all war and
violence, and followed a two-meal-perday vegetarian diet. Other transplanted
German communalistic societies having
deep religious motivations were the Rappites, the Separatists of Zoar, and the
Amana Society.
In the year of Americas Declaration
of Independence a homegrown prophetess appeared in the person of Jemima
Wilkinson. Following a thirty-six-hour
trance Miss Wilkinson was convinced
that Christs Spirit now occupied her
body, and would for a thousand years.
Calling herself the Universal Friend,

The World in Which Adventism Began

she eventually established a community

of her followers near Seneca Lake in New
Yorks frontier Genesee County. Although
a believer in the seventh-day Sabbath,
Jemima was willing to accept Sunday as
a holiday and day of rest in order to meet
local prejudice. Her insistence on celibacy
was a major factor in the swift demise of
the group after her death in 1819.
A more lasting religious community was created by Mother Ann Lee
Stanley, who had arrived in America from
England in 1774 with eight followers.
Officially called the Millennial Church,
Mother Anns converts were popularly
labeled the Shakers. Stressing celibacy
and equality of the sexes (Mother Ann
was believed to be an incarnation of the
female nature of God), the Shakers were
also given to spiritualistic communications, especially during the period of their
greatest growth, 1837-1844. From Maine
to Kentucky they established successful communal colonies known for their
industry and temperate living as well as
their strange religious dances.
It was left, however, for John
Humphrey Noyes to develop a creed
which emphasized the development of
perfect individuals in a perfect community. Converted during a Charles G.
Finney revival meeting, Noyes studied
for the ministry but was denied ordination
because of his belief that at conversion a
person became free of sin. He developed
a truly communistic society at Putney,
Vermont, but in 1848 was forced to move
his group to Oneida, New York. His idea
of complex marriage, which taught that
every woman in the group must be married to every man, brought Noyess fol-

lowers into great disfavor. Later, under

community pressure, the Oneida group
abandoned this concept.
Latter-day Saints
Although all of these religious communities believed that they had been
divinely led to a rediscovery of ancient
Christian truths and practices, none
developed a successful proselytizing
program. It was a different story with
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, organized in 1830. In the process
its founder, Joseph Smith, Jr., did more
to focus attention, and suspicion, on the
idea of a modern prophet receiving direct
revelations than any of his contemporaries. Smith, the son of itinerant parents
who finally located in western New York,
possessed little formal education, but he
had an active imagination and considerable skill in influencing others. At the
age of fourteen Joseph claimed to have
received his first visions, in which he
was instructed that none of the existing
religious denominations was correct in
its theology and practices. Several years
later an angel named Moroni supposedly
directed him to a neighboring hill. Here,
in a stone box, Smith claimed to have
found inscribed golden plates, together
with a breastplate and the Urim and
Thummim, two crystals set like spectacles in a silver bow.
By 1830 Smith had produced the
Book of Mormon, a purported translation of the golden plates. According to
Smith, God had called him to preach a
restoration of original Christianity in
order to prepare the world for the soon
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LIGH T B E A RERS

return of Jesus, who would establish

His kingdom on an earth restored to its
original state. Among the doctrines the
new Saints taught were baptism by immersion, tithing, and temperance. They
held that a recent divine revelation authorized the keeping of the first day of
the week rather than the seventh as the
Sabbath. Smith failed to develop much
of a following in his home district, but
his fortunes increased following a series
of moves to Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois.
Converts came in the wake of frontier
revivals, and an active missionary program was begun both at home and in
Great Britain.
Within several years Smith built a
virtual state within a state around Nauvoo, Illinois. Then in 1844 disaffection
within his church over the practice of
plural marriage by the prophet and other
church leaders, combined with the fears
of non-Mormon leaders, led to Joseph
Smiths destruction. State officials were
alienated by Smiths announcement of
his candidacy for the presidency of the
United States. Upon order from Governor Thomas Ford, Smith and his brother
Hyram were charged with treason and
detained in the Carthage, Illinois, jail.
On June 27 the brothers were killed during the storming of the jail by a mob.
Subsequently Brigham Young led the
Mormon faithful westward to establish
a new Zion in the valley of the Great
Salt Lake.
Spiritualism
Just as the emotionalism of revivals
helped plow the ground in which the
16

seeds of Mormonism sprouted, so the

philosophical teachings of Emanuel
Swedenborg, which experienced a considerable vogue in America in the early
nineteenth century, helped prepare the
way for spiritualism. In Swedenborgs
view the Second Advent foreseen by
John in the Revelation occurred through
Gods disclosure to him of the true spiritual meaning of the Bible. He maintained
that he experienced visions in which he
conversed with famous men of the past
ages.
In 1844 an eighteen-year-old New
York cobbler, Andrew Jackson Davis, had
a trance in a country graveyard during
which he believed he met and received
messages from the ancient Greek physician, Galen, and from Swedenborg. It was
Davis who popularized clairvoyance and
the spiritualistic trance; in effect he was
Americas first popular medium. Scholars
generally credit him with supplying the
vocabulary and suggesting the theology of modern spiritualism. Four years
later the mysterious rappings interpreted
by the Fox sisters at Hydesville, New
York, gave wide publicity in America to
communication with spirits. Spiritualism did not develop a strong separate
denominational organization. Instead its
believers retained their connection with
established churches, particularly of the
Universalist-Unitarian variety. The number of mediums increased. For the
year 1859 one scholar has identified
seventy-one in New York, fifty-five in
Massachusetts, and twenty-seven in
Ohio. Some 350,000 New Yorkers were
estimated at this time to be believers in
communion with the dead.

The World in Which Adventism Began

Conventional Protestantism was displaying increasing vigor at the same time

that it was becoming more fractionalized.
In Great Britain, which emerged from the
Napoleonic Wars as a dominant world
power, the Wesleyan revival continued to
stir thousands to a new interest in humanitarian crusades and missionary endeavor.
The Great Awakening of the 1740s and a
century later the Finney revivals provided
a similar stimulus in the United States.
This new energy led to a greatly expanded
interest in carrying the gospel to the nonChristian world.

The Sunday School Movement

The churches recognized that much
needed to be done in their own neigh-

The Missionary Movement

Many date the beginning of the modern
Protestant missionary movement to William Careys arrival in India in 1793. Two
years later the London Missionary Society
was established, followed the next year by
the establishment of a similar organization in New York. During the next few
years Robert Morrison went to China,
Henry Martyn to the Muslim Near East,
Adoniram Judson to India and Burma, and
Robert Moffat to South Africa. Enthusiastic support for this mission endeavor came
from the mushrooming Bible societies,
which sprang up in Europe, America, and
Asiasixty-three from 1804 to 1840. The
British and Foreign Bible Society and the
American Bible Society was particularly
active in sponsoring translation of the
Scriptures into new languages. The entire
Bible or parts thereof were translated into
112 languages and dialects between 1800
and 1844. This was more translation than
had been made in the preceding eighteen
centuries.

William Carey (1761-1834), whose missionary

career in India began in 1793, was an
important part of the Protestant missionary
movement prior to the Millerite era.

borhoods as well as in foreign lands.

Thousands of children and youth were
growing up in homes where the name of
Christ was used only in profanity. To reach
this group Robert Raikes inaugurated the
Sunday School Movement in England
in the late eighteenth century. Similar
schools were launched in New York and
Boston in 1816. Soon the Philadelphia
Sunday and Adult School Union was
shepherding 723 schools scattered among
the major Protestant denominations in
nearly twenty states. In 1826 the Congre17

LIGH T B E A RERS

gational, Presbyterian, and Reformed

Churches cooperated to establish the
American Home Missionary Society,
which for the next quarter century actively promoted Christian schools and
churches in the frontier states and territories.

and miners, weary from a twelve- to

sixteen-hour working day, were generally
lethargic toward spiritual things. Disillusioned over their chances for upward
mobility in English society, thousands
longed to emigrate to America, Australia,
or South Africa.

Economic Conditions

Reform Movements

Economic conditions in Great Britain and the United States contributed

greatly to the churches ability to finance missionary endeavors at home
and abroad. The advent of improved
technology in the textile industry and
the development of the steam engine
propelled Britain into the first industrial
revolution. Fortunes were developed in
manufacturing and in trade with a growing overseas empire. Much of this new
merchant wealth was given to support
overseas missionaries, perhaps in the
hope that a desire to purchase the products enjoyed by Christians would follow
the adoption of their religion. Others
whose consciences were troubled at
affluence acquired through nasty
ventures like the slave trade quieted
them by donating money to have Bibles
translated into Hindustani.
As factories mushroomed, so did the
population in urban areas. This concentration of population made it easier to
contact larger numbers in a short time.
Still, the Industrial Revolution proved a
mixed blessing for the Christian churches.
The increase in the variety and amounts
of material goods tended to stimulate the
acquisitive nature of the wealthy and to
arouse the envy of the poor. Factory hands

In both Britain and the United States

religious groups were soon involved in
the campaign to improve numerous aspects of society. Americas most famous
revivalist, Charles Grandison Finney,
preached not only salvation but reform.
Many who were converted under his
preaching became active in antislavery
and temperance societies.
Perhaps no reform movement exhibited more clearly the interweaving of
religious and secular motivations than
the crusade to promote temperance.
Hundreds of clergymen labeled intemperance and the liquor traffic as sinful.
William Miller exhorted his followers,
For your souls sake drink not another
draught, lest he [Christ] come and find
you drunken. Other temperance advocates were stimulated by more earthly
interests. If increasing numbers of citizens were to be given the vote, it was
essential that they be able to cast their
ballots with minds unmuddled by liquor.
Numerous causes designed to improve
the lot of disadvantaged groups attracted
the reform-minded. Thomas Gallaudet and
Samuel Gridley Howe campaigned for
education and understanding of the deaf
and the blind. Louis Dwight of Boston

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The World in Which Adventism Began

sought to arouse church members to the

miseries of prisons. Surely there was
much in the common methods of handling
criminals that needed reforming. Confinement in the stocks, whipping, and branding came to seem inhumanfit treatment
only for slaves! Surely counseling, education, and religious services were more
potent than corporal punishment for encouraging reformation.

of the church, but ignorant of politics,

economics, and legal matters. This viewpoint was vigorously attacked by Margaret
Fuller, Lucy Stone, and a score of others
who campaigned for equal rights to receive
an education, enter any profession, control
their own property, and make their voices
heard on public issues.

Educational Reform

A call to reform personal health

habits was urged by many, the best
known of whom was Sylvester Graham.
The great cholera epidemic of 1832 led
Americans to give an attentive ear to
Grahams call for a vegetarian diet which
placed a heavy reliance on coarse stoneground whole wheat and rye grains.

It was during these years that the

free public school system took shape in
the United States. Beginning in 1823,
when Samuel Hall called for better training for elementary teachers, the drive
for improved publicly funded schools
gained momentum after Massachusetts
appointed Horace Mann in 1837 as the
first state superintendent of education.
The next year New Jersey became
the first state to provide free primary
schooling for all children at public
expense. Soon, under the leadership of
Mann and Henry Barnard, of neighboring Connecticut, school buildings were
improved, the school term lengthened,
normal schools developed, and teachers
salaries increased.

Health Habits

Feminist Reformers
Many of the most active reformers
were women. A number crusaded for improvement in their own lot. Although along
the frontier it was common for women to
be accepted as near equals, in the older
areas of settlement they were expected to
be good housekeepers, strong in support

Among the early nineteenth-century American

reformers was Sylvester Graham (1794-1851)
who urged integrating natural foods into the
diet for improved health.
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LIGH T B E A RERS

Edward Hitchcock at Amherst College

and Reuben Mussey at Dartmouth promoted a more complete health regimen,
which stressed a moderate vegetarian
diet, cleanliness of person, proper sleep
and exercise, and abstinence from alcoholic beverages, coffee, tea, tobacco,
and foods prepared with large amounts
of grease. By the 1840s hydrotherapy
had been imported from Graefenburg,
Austria, where an uneducated peasant,
Vincent Priessnitz, had accidentally
discovered the effectiveness of cold
water in relieving pain and swelling. The
simplicity of water as a curative agent
appealed to many who were properly
skeptical of the poorly educated physicians of the day.
Abolition of Slavery

Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison (18051879), a New England editor, spoke out against
slavery as a moral wrong.

Gradually in America concern

over one particular evil became so allencompassing that it consumed practically the entire reform energies of the
nation. Slavery had long disturbed
many, but as it became more profitable,
following Eli Whitneys invention of
the cotton gin, Southern planters found
their consciences smothered by devotion to their pocketbooks. During the
first years of the nineteenth century,
advocacy of abolition was left principally to the Quakers. The 1830s were
different. Stirred by the strident tones of
William Lloyd Garrisons Liberator,
both encouraged and shamed by the
abolition of slavery in the British Empire and by the equation of slavery with
sin by evangelists like Finney and
Theodore Weld, thousands of Americans

from Massachusetts to Ohio enlisted in a

crusade to end forever the ownership of
one man by another.
The issue of slavery broadened to
include the rights of free speech and a
free press as antislavery advocates were
tarred and feathered in the South and
Postmaster General Amos Kendall approved the refusal of Southern postmasters to deliver abolitionist literature.
Politics seemed to some the only way
to fight the growing evil. This attitude
led to the birth of the Liberty Party in
1840. At the same time ex-President
John Quincy Adams was vigorously
fighting the gag rule, by which Congress had attempted to choke off antislavery petitions. Tempers rose. Not
only were Northern abolitionists pitted against Southern slave owners, but

20

The World in Which Adventism Began

neighbor disagreed with neighbor

throughout the North. Womens rights,
temperance, health reform all faded in
the heat of a controversy which was soon
to rend the nation and almost split it in
two.
Travel and Communication
In general these reform years were,
in the United States, years of prosperity. A seemingly inexhaustible supply
of good farmland promised that, barring economic disasters such as the
Panic of 1837 or severe physical
illness, almost any family willing to
work could develop the security of
becoming property holders. True, this
land must be wrested from the virgin
prairies and forests. It also required
a willingness to move constantly
westward, where land prices were
cheaper. Then, the cotton and wheat
produced must be moved to markets.
Small wonder that Americans during
these years pinned their faith on such
internal improvements as an expanding network of canals and turnpikes.
By 1811 steamboats were operating on
the Mississippi. Soon steam would be
used to propel cars down iron tracks
at what seemed extravagant speeds of
15 to 20 miles an hour.
Steam and electricity also provided
the power for more rapid transmission
of knowledge: in 1814 the London Times
installed the first steam cylinder press;
by the 1830s Samuel F. B. Morse had
harnessed electrical current to develop
the first successful telegraph. In May of
1844 Morse sent his first message over

the wire recently strung between Washington and Baltimore.

Democracy
It seems hardly coincidental that
Britain and the United States, the two
pillars of the growing evangelical Protestant outreach, should also be the two
countries most firmly committed to a
democratic form of government. There
had always been an affinity between
Protestantism and democracy. He who
demanded freedom to interpret Scripture
and order his religious practices as he
pleased was not generally willing to accept autocratic rule by kings or oligarchs.
In both countries the democratic impulse
was deepening during the 1820s and
30s. Jacksonian Democracy in America
heralded the age of the common man,
frontier egalitarianism, a broadened suffrage, mass participation in government,
and a commitment to education for all at
public expense.
Democratic and liberal ideas were
spreading throughout the European
continent as well. In spite of the diligent efforts of conservatives, popular
hopes for increased participation in
government and a larger piece of the
economic pie helped precipitate the
Revolutions of 1830 and 1848. In
several placesBelgium, Germany,
Polandthese outbreaks were coupled
with the spirit of nationalism. Nationalistic stirrings were also being felt
in Italy and Spanish America. In the
United States they flared up in the War
of 1812, the later conflict with Mexico,
and in disputes with Britain over the
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LIGH T B E A RERS

Canadian boundary in Maine and Oregon. Here, too, nationalism mutated

into an ugly antiforeign jingoism as
increasing numbers of Irish Catholics,
propelled by famine, began to arrive in
Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.
Catholic schools and churches were
burned, and proposals to make naturalization more difficult became increasingly popular among politicians.
The quarter of a century that followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars
was a period of ferment. A new technology based on steam and electricity

was in its infancy. A host of reforms,

from vegetarianism to the abolition of
slavery, stirred the emotions of thousands. There was an increased interest
both in acquiring the comforts of this
world and in preparing oneself and
others for the next. Religious ideas
and organizations were being born and
were dying at a rapid rate. Interest in
Bible prophecy and the establishment
of Christs kingdom of glory competed
for attention in this turbulent milieu.
Would this interest be sustained or
falter and die out?

Suggested Topical Reading:

General reform movement:
A. F. Tyler, Freedoms Ferment (1944), covers the religious and humanitarian reform
of the 1830s and 1840s in the United States.
Jerome Clark, 1844 (1968), a three-volume treatment of the milieu in which Adventism appeared.
Edwin Gaustad, ed., The Rise of Adventism (1974), includes essays about social
reform, communitarianism, and health reform.
Frederick Hoyt, Ellen Whites Hometown: Portland, Maine, 1827-1846, in The
World of Ellen G. White (1987), Gary Land, ed., pinpoints the mood of the times as they
affected the environment in which Ellen White grew up.
The religious mood:
B. A. Weisberger, They Gathered at the River (1958), chapter 4, describes Charles
G. Finneys revivalism in America.
K. S. Latourette, The Great Century (1941), chapters II and III, analyzes the expansion of Christian missions.
L. E. Froom, Movement of Destiny (1966), chapters 2 and 3, interprets the Christian
mission movement.
Jonathan Butler, When America Was Christian, in Land, ibid., describes the general Christian atmosphere of the United States at the time of the rise of Adventism.
22