Seventh-day Adventist Church Pioneer
The Seventh-day Adventist Church pioneers were members of Seventh-day Adventist Church, part of the group of Millerites, who came together after the Great Disappointment across the United States and formed the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In 1860, the pioneers of the fledgling movement 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 Adventistswas formed and the movement became an official organization.
Overview
TheSeventh-day Adventist Church had its roots in the Millerite movement of the 1830s and 1840s, during the period of the Second Great Awakening, and was officially founded in 1863. Prominent figures in the early church included Hiram Edson, James Springer White and his wife Ellen G. White, Joseph Bates, and J. N. Andrews.
Many of the Adventist pioneers first began their work when they were teenagers. When the Seventh-day Adventist Church was newly formed, it was teenagers and young adults who held many leadership positions and helped to build up the church. Pioneers such as Ellen Harmon White, John Loughborough, J. N. Andrews, and Uriah Smith were teenagers and young adults when they began making an impact in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, many starting even before in the Advent movement started by William Miller.
William Miller was a farmer, and Baptist preacher, who, from 1831 to 1844 began the Millerite movement, preaching the imminent return of Christ. After the War of 1812 he was converted and began a systematic study of the Bible and in the process he discovered the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, especially Daniel 8, which seemed to predict that Christ would soon return to earth. Hundreds of ministers and laymen joined in preaching the message. By the expected time for Christ's return, Miller had between 50,000 and 100,000 followers, commonly known as Millerites. After the disappointment of October 22, 1844, which Miller and many of the leaders of the first movement accepted as the date, groups of Millerites formed what later became the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Pioneer Ellen White has written positively about Miller in The Great Controversy and elsewhere. She heard him preach, and accepted his teachings, going through the disappointment at age 16. She believed that his preaching fulfilled the prophecies of Scripture, and saw him being guided by the Lord.
Pioneers
- J. N. Andrews
- Joseph Bates
- John Byington
- Merritt E. Cornell
- Bourdeau brothers
- O. R. L. Crosier
- Hiram Edson
- J. N. Loughborough
- Uriah Smith
- Stephen N. Haskell
- Ellen G. White
- James Springer White
Main article: Seventh-day Adventist theology
The early Adventists emphasized the concept of "present truth"—see 2 Peter 1:12 (NKJV). James White explained, “The church [has] ever had a present truth. The present truth now, is that which shows present duty, and the right position for us…” ”Present truth is present truth, and not future truth, and the Word as a lamp shines brightly where we stand, and not so plainly on the path in the distance.” Ellen White pointed out that “present truth, which is a test to the people of this generation, was not a test to the people of generations far back.” This view is echoed in the preamble to the 28 Fundamentals. "...Revision of these statements may be expected at a General Conference session when the church is led by the Holy Spirit to a fuller understanding of Bible truth or finds better language in which to express the teachings of God's Holy Word." The founders of the SDA church had a dynamic concept of what they called present truth, opposed to creedal rigidity, and had an openness to new theological understandings that built upon the landmark doctrines that had made them a people.
Yet, the possibilities of dynamic change in Seventh-day Adventist beliefs were not unlimited. Those landmarkdoctrines were non-negotiables in Adventist theology. Collectively they had provided the Seventh-day Adventists with an identity. In their eyes the pillars of their faith—the Bible doctrines that defined who they were as a people—had been thoroughly studied out in the Scripture and had been attested to by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. As Ellen White put it, "When the power of God testifies as to what is truth, that truth is to stand forever as the truth. ... Men will arise with interpretations of Scripture which are to them truth, but which are not truth. The truth for this time, God has given us as a foundation for our faith. Robert Johnston noted, “Without repudiating the past leading of the Lord, it [the Seventh-day Adventist church] seeks even to understand better what that leading was. It is always open to better insights to learn—to seek for truth as for hid treasure. … Adventists are still pilgrims on a doctrinal journey who do not repudiate the way marks, but neither do they remain stopped at any of them.”
Ellen White wrote,"There is no excuse for anyone in taking the position that there is no more truth to be revealed, and that all our expositions of Scripture are without an error. The fact that certain doctrines have been held as truth for many years by our people, is not a proof that our ideas are infallible. Age will not make error into truth, and truth can afford to be fair. No true doctrine will lose anything by close investigation."
These pillars, landmarks, way marks,are the investigative judgment, the sanctuary that brings this judgment to light, the three angel's messages of Revelation, the law of God, the faith of Jesus, the Sabbath, the state of the dead, and the special gift of prophecy.
What are the pillars of our Adventist faith? They are as follows: The Investigative Judgment. The sanctuary service or a broader understanding of the"heavenly sanctuary". The spirit of prophecy The Three Angels' Messages(exposing the papacy, Babylon, ecumenism, explaining the Sabbath-Sunday-question, exalting the law of God, etc.) The state of the dead and the exposure of spiritualism
The Investigative Judgment understanding came about from the application of the day-year principle of prophetic interpretation by William Millerand spread among his followers in the Millerite Adventist movement. Who were expecting Jesus Christ to return to earth on October 22, 1844. They arrived at this date from an interpretation of the Bible verse Daniel 8:14. They understood the 2300 days to represent 2300 years (according to the day-year principle of prophetic interpretation), a time period stretching from the biblical era to the nineteenth century. However Miller had not been the first to arrive at this interpretation, as he himself emphasized. Others had earlier concluded that a prophetic period of 2300 years was to end "around the year 1843" (Miller's earlier estimate).
When Jesus did not return as expected ( an event Adventists call the "Great Disappointment") several alternative interpretations of the prophecy were put forward. The majority of Millerites abandoned the 1844 date, however some members ( including Hiram Edson and O. R. L. Crosier) concluded the event predicted by Daniel 8:14 was not the second coming, but rather Christ's entrance into the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary. Edson claimed to have a vision in a cornfield the day after the Great Disappointment, which resulted in a series of Bible studies with other Millerites to test the validity of his solution.
This became the foundation for the Adventist doctrine of the sanctuary, and the people who held it became the nucleus of what would emerge from other "Adventist" groups as the Seventh-day Adventist Church. From scripture, such as "And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments therefore, even so shall ye make it." Exodus 25:8-9. "And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament." Revelation 11:19, they came to an understanding that there is a temple in heaven of which the earthly sanctuary was a pattern. This heavenly sanctuary is composed of two apartments; the first is the holy place, the second the most holy place. The revelation was greatly encouraging for the [Seventh-day] Adventists. As Ellen White wrote later, "The scripture which above all others had been both the foundation and the central pillar of the advent faith, was the declaration, 'Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.'" (quoting Daniel 8:14) She also predicted that criticism of the belief would come.
They believed that Christ's first apartment (holy place) ministry began at His ascension and continued until October 22, 1844 at the end of the 2300 days/years when He entered into the second apartment (most holy place) to begin His final mediatorial work of intercession, atonement, and investigative judgment to cleanse the heavenly sanctuary as our High Priest. Many of the Adventist Church pioneers came out of the Methodist or Wesleyan/Arminian branches of Protestantism which tended to have a view of emphasis on sanctification and the possibility of moral perfection in this life. Ellen White in The Great Controversy wrote the following of the perfection of those saints who stand at the end while Christ still intercedes in the Most Holy Place, and what would happen when His work was done:
“Now, while our great High Priest is making the atonement for us, we should seek to become perfect in Christ. Not even by a thought could our Saviour be brought to yield to the power of temptation. . . . This is the condition in which those must be found who shall stand in the time of trouble” (GC 623).
The urgency for attaining perfection comes from the knowledge that the remnant must live perfectly during the time of trouble at the end to prove to the universe that fallen human beings can keep the law of God. Ellen White states, “When He leaves the sanctuary, darkness covers the inhabitants of the earth. In that fearful time the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor.” (GC 614).
And explains this is necessary because the “earthliness” of the remnant must be cleansed that the image of Christ may be perfectly reflected: "God’s love for His children during the period of their severest trial is as strong and tender as in the days of their sunniest prosperity; but it is needful for them to be placed in the furnace of fire; their earthliness must be consumed, that the image of Christ may be perfectly reflected."(GC 621).
The Adventist Pioneers held to the belief of overcoming sin and all who will can be overcomers, and "that the final generation would become perfected, or sinless, men." Ellen White wrote "Our Saviour does not require impossibilities of any soul. He expects nothing of His disciples that He is not willing to give them grace and strength to perform. He would not call upon them to be perfect if He had not at His command every perfection of grace to bestow on the ones upon whom He would confer so high and holy a privilege." and "Our work is to strive to attain in our sphere of action the perfection that Christ in His life on the earth attained in every phase of character. He is our example. In all things we are to strive to honor God in character.... We are to be wholly dependent on the power that He has promised to give us." In addition to the many writings of Ellen White there were many others that wrote on the Great Controversy theme and how Christ withstood temptations and conquered the same as we may conquer. One of the most well known was A. T. Jones a Seventh-day Adventist known for his impact on the theology of the church, along with his friend and associate Ellet J. Waggoner. Both of who were key participants in the 1888 Minneapolis General Conference Session a landmark event in the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In addition to the message of righteousness by faith, A. T. Jones held that Christ was made "in all things" like unto us, or the fallen nature of mankind after Adam and yet overcame sin as our example and the perfection of character, is the Christian goal. and was also our example and there must be a moral and spiritual perfection of the believers before the end time. In the Consecrated Way, he wrote:
"Sanctification is the true keeping of all the commandments of God. In other words, this is to say that the will of God concerning man is that His will shall be perfectly fulfilled in man. His will is expressed in His law of ten commandments, which is "the whole duty of man." This law is perfect, and perfection of character is the perfect expression of this law in the life of the worshiper of God. By this law is the knowledge of sin. And all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God—have come short of this perfection of character....In His coming in the flesh—having been made in all things like unto us and having been tempted in all points like as we are—He has identified Himself with every human soul just where that soul is. And from the place where every human soul is, He has consecrated for that soul a new and living way through all the vicissitudes and experiences of a whole lifetime, and even through death and the tomb, into the holiest of all at the right hand of God for evermore....Perfection, perfection of character, is the Christian goal—perfection attained in human flesh in this world. Christ attained it in human flesh in this world and thus made and consecrated a way by which, in Him, every believer can attain it. He, having attained it, has become our great High Priest, by His priestly ministry in the true sanctuary to enable us to attain."
The Sabbath truth they felt was from God Himself, who after six days of creationary work, blessed, sanctified, and rested on the seventh day as His only Sabbath (Genesis 2:2-3). This was a sacred day of rest requiring abstinence from all unnecessary labor and secular work, and the performance of sacred and religious duties.
The Adventists embraced the Three Angels messages, starting with the first in Revelation 14:6-7, which changed the thinking of many denominations who today embrace the pre-millennial and literal Second Coming of Christ instead of a thousand years of peace and prosperity that was taught back in the early 19th century. Here are the verses of the Three Angels messages:
"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."
— Revelation 14:6-7.
The first angels message was a warning message to the world: to fear God, our Creator to worship only Him, and give glory to Him for the hour of investigative judgment (first for the dead and then for the living) has come, and to proclaim the Everlasting Gospel, which involves the plan of redemption, and salvation from all sin through Jesus Christ the only Mediator between God and man.
"And there followed another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." Revelation 14:8.
The second angels message was on Babylon or the false church which had fallen because they rejected the light of truth sent to them from heaven as proclaimed in the First Angel's Message.
"And the third angel followed them saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Revelation 14:9-12.
"And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." Revelation 18:1-5.
According to their interpretation of these passages, this angel proclaims a chance for repentant sinners to accept the righteousness of Christ by faith. It also warns all mankind against worshiping the beast (Papacy), or his image (apostate Protestantism), or receiving the mark of the beast which is false worship. They also believed that It also warns all of God's people to willingly separate themselves from all unclean apostate, harlot churches of Babylon.
Adventist came to understand from scripture that death is a state of silence, inactivity, and entire unconsciousness, referred to in the Bible as "sleep". The investigative judgment determines whether the dead will awaken at Christ's second coming being raised in the first resurrection to inherit everlasting life, or remaining in the grave until the second resurrection to be consumed in the lake fire which is the second death, according to their interpretation on Revelation 20:12-15.
The teaching about the non-immortality of the soul, while it may seem at odds with the majority of Protestants, it nonetheless represents their interpretation that immortality is only possible through Christ. This doctrine supports the teaching of the resurrection and thus it is a very important part of the Adventist eschatological model.[citation needed]
Health reform
Ellen White expounded greatly on the subject of health and nutrition, as well as healthy eating and a balanced diet.[39][40] At her behest, the Seventh-day Adventist Church first established the Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1866 to care for the sick as well as to disseminate health instruction. Over the years, other Adventist sanitariums were established around the country. These sanitariums evolved into hospitals, forming the backbone of the Adventists' medical network and, in 1972, forming the Adventist Health System.
The beginnings of this health ministry are found in a vision that White had in 1863. The vision was said to have occurred during a visit by James and Ellen White to Otsego, Michigan to encourage the evangelistic workers there. As the group bowed in prayer at the beginning of Sabbath, Ellen White reportedly had a vision of the relation of physical health to spirituality, of the importance of following right principles in diet and in the care of the body, and of the benefits of nature's remedies—clean air, sunshine, exercise and pure water. Previous to this vision, little thought or time had been given to health matters in the church, and several of the overtaxed ministers had been forced to become inactive because of sickness. This revelation on June 6, 1863 impressed upon the leaders in the newly organized church the importance of health reform. In the months that followed, as the health message was seen to be a part of the message of Seventh-day Adventists, a health educational program was inaugurated. An introductory step in this effort was the publishing of six pamphlets of 64 pages each, entitled, Health, or How to Live, compiled by James and Ellen White. An article from White was included in each of the pamphlets. The importance of health reform was greatly impressed upon the early leaders of the church through the untimely death of Henry White at the age of 16, the severe illness of Elder James White, which forced him to cease work for three years, and through the sufferings of several other ministers.
Early in 1866, responding to the instruction given to Ellen White on Christmas Day in 1865 that Seventh-day Adventists should establish a health institute for the care of the sick and the imparting of health instruction, plans were laid for the Western Health Reform Institute, which opened in September, 1866.While the Whites were in and out of Battle Creek from 1865 to 1868, James White's poor physical condition led them to move to a small farm near Greenville, Michigan.
White's idea of health reform included vegetarianism in a day and age where "meat and two vegetables" was the standard meal for a typical North American. Her health message inspired a health food revolution starting with John Harvey Kellogg in his creation of Corn Flakes. The Sanitarium Health Food Company as it is now known was also started by this health principle. It is also based on White's health principles that Kellogg differed from his brother's views on the sugar content of their Corn Flake breakfast cereal. The latter started Kellogg Company. White championed a vegetarianism that was intended to be spiritually helpful and with regard to the moral issues of the cruel treatment of animals.
Her views are expressed in many of her writings such as Important Facts Of Faith: Laws Of Health, And Testimonies, Nos. 1-10 (1864), Healthful Living (1897, 1898), The Ministry of Healing (1905), The Health Food Ministry (1970), and Counsels on Diet and Foods (1926).
The early Adventists emphasized the concept of "present truth"—see 2 Peter 1:12 (NKJV). James White explained, “The church [has] ever had a present truth. The present truth now, is that which shows present duty, and the right position for us…” ”Present truth is present truth, and not future truth, and the Word as a lamp shines brightly where we stand, and not so plainly on the path in the distance.” Ellen White pointed out that “present truth, which is a test to the people of this generation, was not a test to the people of generations far back.” This view is echoed in the preamble to the 28 Fundamentals. "...Revision of these statements may be expected at a General Conference session when the church is led by the Holy Spirit to a fuller understanding of Bible truth or finds better language in which to express the teachings of God's Holy Word." The founders of the SDA church had a dynamic concept of what they called present truth, opposed to creedal rigidity, and had an openness to new theological understandings that built upon the landmark doctrines that had made them a people.
Yet, the possibilities of dynamic change in Seventh-day Adventist beliefs were not unlimited. Those landmarkdoctrines were non-negotiables in Adventist theology. Collectively they had provided the Seventh-day Adventists with an identity. In their eyes the pillars of their faith—the Bible doctrines that defined who they were as a people—had been thoroughly studied out in the Scripture and had been attested to by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. As Ellen White put it, "When the power of God testifies as to what is truth, that truth is to stand forever as the truth. ... Men will arise with interpretations of Scripture which are to them truth, but which are not truth. The truth for this time, God has given us as a foundation for our faith. Robert Johnston noted, “Without repudiating the past leading of the Lord, it [the Seventh-day Adventist church] seeks even to understand better what that leading was. It is always open to better insights to learn—to seek for truth as for hid treasure. … Adventists are still pilgrims on a doctrinal journey who do not repudiate the way marks, but neither do they remain stopped at any of them.”
Ellen White wrote,"There is no excuse for anyone in taking the position that there is no more truth to be revealed, and that all our expositions of Scripture are without an error. The fact that certain doctrines have been held as truth for many years by our people, is not a proof that our ideas are infallible. Age will not make error into truth, and truth can afford to be fair. No true doctrine will lose anything by close investigation."
These pillars, landmarks, way marks,are the investigative judgment, the sanctuary that brings this judgment to light, the three angel's messages of Revelation, the law of God, the faith of Jesus, the Sabbath, the state of the dead, and the special gift of prophecy.
What are the pillars of our Adventist faith? They are as follows: The Investigative Judgment. The sanctuary service or a broader understanding of the"heavenly sanctuary". The spirit of prophecy The Three Angels' Messages(exposing the papacy, Babylon, ecumenism, explaining the Sabbath-Sunday-question, exalting the law of God, etc.) The state of the dead and the exposure of spiritualism
The Investigative Judgment understanding came about from the application of the day-year principle of prophetic interpretation by William Millerand spread among his followers in the Millerite Adventist movement. Who were expecting Jesus Christ to return to earth on October 22, 1844. They arrived at this date from an interpretation of the Bible verse Daniel 8:14. They understood the 2300 days to represent 2300 years (according to the day-year principle of prophetic interpretation), a time period stretching from the biblical era to the nineteenth century. However Miller had not been the first to arrive at this interpretation, as he himself emphasized. Others had earlier concluded that a prophetic period of 2300 years was to end "around the year 1843" (Miller's earlier estimate).
When Jesus did not return as expected ( an event Adventists call the "Great Disappointment") several alternative interpretations of the prophecy were put forward. The majority of Millerites abandoned the 1844 date, however some members ( including Hiram Edson and O. R. L. Crosier) concluded the event predicted by Daniel 8:14 was not the second coming, but rather Christ's entrance into the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary. Edson claimed to have a vision in a cornfield the day after the Great Disappointment, which resulted in a series of Bible studies with other Millerites to test the validity of his solution.
This became the foundation for the Adventist doctrine of the sanctuary, and the people who held it became the nucleus of what would emerge from other "Adventist" groups as the Seventh-day Adventist Church. From scripture, such as "And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments therefore, even so shall ye make it." Exodus 25:8-9. "And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament." Revelation 11:19, they came to an understanding that there is a temple in heaven of which the earthly sanctuary was a pattern. This heavenly sanctuary is composed of two apartments; the first is the holy place, the second the most holy place. The revelation was greatly encouraging for the [Seventh-day] Adventists. As Ellen White wrote later, "The scripture which above all others had been both the foundation and the central pillar of the advent faith, was the declaration, 'Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.'" (quoting Daniel 8:14) She also predicted that criticism of the belief would come.
They believed that Christ's first apartment (holy place) ministry began at His ascension and continued until October 22, 1844 at the end of the 2300 days/years when He entered into the second apartment (most holy place) to begin His final mediatorial work of intercession, atonement, and investigative judgment to cleanse the heavenly sanctuary as our High Priest. Many of the Adventist Church pioneers came out of the Methodist or Wesleyan/Arminian branches of Protestantism which tended to have a view of emphasis on sanctification and the possibility of moral perfection in this life. Ellen White in The Great Controversy wrote the following of the perfection of those saints who stand at the end while Christ still intercedes in the Most Holy Place, and what would happen when His work was done:
“Now, while our great High Priest is making the atonement for us, we should seek to become perfect in Christ. Not even by a thought could our Saviour be brought to yield to the power of temptation. . . . This is the condition in which those must be found who shall stand in the time of trouble” (GC 623).
The urgency for attaining perfection comes from the knowledge that the remnant must live perfectly during the time of trouble at the end to prove to the universe that fallen human beings can keep the law of God. Ellen White states, “When He leaves the sanctuary, darkness covers the inhabitants of the earth. In that fearful time the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor.” (GC 614).
And explains this is necessary because the “earthliness” of the remnant must be cleansed that the image of Christ may be perfectly reflected: "God’s love for His children during the period of their severest trial is as strong and tender as in the days of their sunniest prosperity; but it is needful for them to be placed in the furnace of fire; their earthliness must be consumed, that the image of Christ may be perfectly reflected."(GC 621).
The Adventist Pioneers held to the belief of overcoming sin and all who will can be overcomers, and "that the final generation would become perfected, or sinless, men." Ellen White wrote "Our Saviour does not require impossibilities of any soul. He expects nothing of His disciples that He is not willing to give them grace and strength to perform. He would not call upon them to be perfect if He had not at His command every perfection of grace to bestow on the ones upon whom He would confer so high and holy a privilege." and "Our work is to strive to attain in our sphere of action the perfection that Christ in His life on the earth attained in every phase of character. He is our example. In all things we are to strive to honor God in character.... We are to be wholly dependent on the power that He has promised to give us." In addition to the many writings of Ellen White there were many others that wrote on the Great Controversy theme and how Christ withstood temptations and conquered the same as we may conquer. One of the most well known was A. T. Jones a Seventh-day Adventist known for his impact on the theology of the church, along with his friend and associate Ellet J. Waggoner. Both of who were key participants in the 1888 Minneapolis General Conference Session a landmark event in the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In addition to the message of righteousness by faith, A. T. Jones held that Christ was made "in all things" like unto us, or the fallen nature of mankind after Adam and yet overcame sin as our example and the perfection of character, is the Christian goal. and was also our example and there must be a moral and spiritual perfection of the believers before the end time. In the Consecrated Way, he wrote:
"Sanctification is the true keeping of all the commandments of God. In other words, this is to say that the will of God concerning man is that His will shall be perfectly fulfilled in man. His will is expressed in His law of ten commandments, which is "the whole duty of man." This law is perfect, and perfection of character is the perfect expression of this law in the life of the worshiper of God. By this law is the knowledge of sin. And all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God—have come short of this perfection of character....In His coming in the flesh—having been made in all things like unto us and having been tempted in all points like as we are—He has identified Himself with every human soul just where that soul is. And from the place where every human soul is, He has consecrated for that soul a new and living way through all the vicissitudes and experiences of a whole lifetime, and even through death and the tomb, into the holiest of all at the right hand of God for evermore....Perfection, perfection of character, is the Christian goal—perfection attained in human flesh in this world. Christ attained it in human flesh in this world and thus made and consecrated a way by which, in Him, every believer can attain it. He, having attained it, has become our great High Priest, by His priestly ministry in the true sanctuary to enable us to attain."
The Sabbath truth they felt was from God Himself, who after six days of creationary work, blessed, sanctified, and rested on the seventh day as His only Sabbath (Genesis 2:2-3). This was a sacred day of rest requiring abstinence from all unnecessary labor and secular work, and the performance of sacred and religious duties.
The Adventists embraced the Three Angels messages, starting with the first in Revelation 14:6-7, which changed the thinking of many denominations who today embrace the pre-millennial and literal Second Coming of Christ instead of a thousand years of peace and prosperity that was taught back in the early 19th century. Here are the verses of the Three Angels messages:
"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."
— Revelation 14:6-7.
The first angels message was a warning message to the world: to fear God, our Creator to worship only Him, and give glory to Him for the hour of investigative judgment (first for the dead and then for the living) has come, and to proclaim the Everlasting Gospel, which involves the plan of redemption, and salvation from all sin through Jesus Christ the only Mediator between God and man.
"And there followed another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." Revelation 14:8.
The second angels message was on Babylon or the false church which had fallen because they rejected the light of truth sent to them from heaven as proclaimed in the First Angel's Message.
"And the third angel followed them saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Revelation 14:9-12.
"And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." Revelation 18:1-5.
According to their interpretation of these passages, this angel proclaims a chance for repentant sinners to accept the righteousness of Christ by faith. It also warns all mankind against worshiping the beast (Papacy), or his image (apostate Protestantism), or receiving the mark of the beast which is false worship. They also believed that It also warns all of God's people to willingly separate themselves from all unclean apostate, harlot churches of Babylon.
Adventist came to understand from scripture that death is a state of silence, inactivity, and entire unconsciousness, referred to in the Bible as "sleep". The investigative judgment determines whether the dead will awaken at Christ's second coming being raised in the first resurrection to inherit everlasting life, or remaining in the grave until the second resurrection to be consumed in the lake fire which is the second death, according to their interpretation on Revelation 20:12-15.
The teaching about the non-immortality of the soul, while it may seem at odds with the majority of Protestants, it nonetheless represents their interpretation that immortality is only possible through Christ. This doctrine supports the teaching of the resurrection and thus it is a very important part of the Adventist eschatological model.[citation needed]
Health reform
Ellen White expounded greatly on the subject of health and nutrition, as well as healthy eating and a balanced diet.[39][40] At her behest, the Seventh-day Adventist Church first established the Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1866 to care for the sick as well as to disseminate health instruction. Over the years, other Adventist sanitariums were established around the country. These sanitariums evolved into hospitals, forming the backbone of the Adventists' medical network and, in 1972, forming the Adventist Health System.
The beginnings of this health ministry are found in a vision that White had in 1863. The vision was said to have occurred during a visit by James and Ellen White to Otsego, Michigan to encourage the evangelistic workers there. As the group bowed in prayer at the beginning of Sabbath, Ellen White reportedly had a vision of the relation of physical health to spirituality, of the importance of following right principles in diet and in the care of the body, and of the benefits of nature's remedies—clean air, sunshine, exercise and pure water. Previous to this vision, little thought or time had been given to health matters in the church, and several of the overtaxed ministers had been forced to become inactive because of sickness. This revelation on June 6, 1863 impressed upon the leaders in the newly organized church the importance of health reform. In the months that followed, as the health message was seen to be a part of the message of Seventh-day Adventists, a health educational program was inaugurated. An introductory step in this effort was the publishing of six pamphlets of 64 pages each, entitled, Health, or How to Live, compiled by James and Ellen White. An article from White was included in each of the pamphlets. The importance of health reform was greatly impressed upon the early leaders of the church through the untimely death of Henry White at the age of 16, the severe illness of Elder James White, which forced him to cease work for three years, and through the sufferings of several other ministers.
Early in 1866, responding to the instruction given to Ellen White on Christmas Day in 1865 that Seventh-day Adventists should establish a health institute for the care of the sick and the imparting of health instruction, plans were laid for the Western Health Reform Institute, which opened in September, 1866.While the Whites were in and out of Battle Creek from 1865 to 1868, James White's poor physical condition led them to move to a small farm near Greenville, Michigan.
White's idea of health reform included vegetarianism in a day and age where "meat and two vegetables" was the standard meal for a typical North American. Her health message inspired a health food revolution starting with John Harvey Kellogg in his creation of Corn Flakes. The Sanitarium Health Food Company as it is now known was also started by this health principle. It is also based on White's health principles that Kellogg differed from his brother's views on the sugar content of their Corn Flake breakfast cereal. The latter started Kellogg Company. White championed a vegetarianism that was intended to be spiritually helpful and with regard to the moral issues of the cruel treatment of animals.
Her views are expressed in many of her writings such as Important Facts Of Faith: Laws Of Health, And Testimonies, Nos. 1-10 (1864), Healthful Living (1897, 1898), The Ministry of Healing (1905), The Health Food Ministry (1970), and Counsels on Diet and Foods (1926).
See also
Inspiration of Ellen G. White
List of Ellen White writings
Ellen G. White Estate
Prophecy in the Seventh-day Adventist Church
Seventh-day Adventist Church
Seventh-day Adventist theology
28 Fundamental Beliefs
The Pillars of Adventism
History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
Millerism
William Miller (preacher)
Adventist studies
List of Seventh-day Adventist hospitals
List of Seventh-day Adventist medical schools
List of Seventh-day Adventist secondary schools
List of Seventh-day Adventist colleges and universities
Ellen G. White
Teachings of Ellen G. White
Ellen G. White Estate
Seventh-day Adventist interfaith relations
Second coming
Premillennialism
Investigative judgment
Seventh-day Adventist eschatology
Sabbath in seventh-day churches
Sabbath in Christianity
Seventh-day Adventist worship
References
- Jerry Moon and Denis Fortin, editors. The Ellen G. White Encyclopedia(Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, forthcoming)
- The World of Ellen G. White edited by Gary Land, a historical background to White's writings without critically comparing the two
- R. E. Graham, Ellen G. White, Cofounder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (New York: Peter Lang, 1985)
- Ronald Graybill, "The Power of Prophecy: Ellen G. White and Women Religious Founders of the Nineteenth Century" (Ph.D. diss.: The Johns Hopkins University, 1983)
- "Prophecy, Gender, and Culture: Ellen Gould Harmon [White] and the Roots of Seventh-day Adventism" by Jonathan M. Butler. Religion and American Culture 1:1 (Winter, 1991), p3–29
- ^ a b Young Adventist PioneersArchived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine by Lynette Frantzen
- ^ "Ellen G. White Estate: Pathways of the Pioneers - William Miller". whiteestate.org.
- ^ a b c d e f "Ellen G. White Estate: Pathways of the Pioneers - John Andrews". whiteestate.org.
- ^ "Adventist Heritage : Footsteps of the Pioneers- Joseph Bates". 2002–2006. Retrieved 2006-03-07.
- ^ Bates, Elder Joseph (1868-05-01). "Chapter 1". In Elder James White (ed.). The Early and Experience And Labors of Elder Joseph Bates. Retrieved 2006-03-07.
- ^ Joseph Bates: The Seventh Day Sabbath, a Perpetual Sign, from the Beginning to the Entering into the Gates of the Holy City, According to the Commandment, 1846 (www.gutenberg.org)
- ^ "Ellen G. White Estate: Pathways of the Pioneers - Joseph Bates". whiteestate.org.
- ^ Loughborough, J.N. The Great Second Advent Movement, Review and Herald Publishing Assn., Washington, D.C., 1905
- ^ "Ellen G. White Estate: Pathways of the Pioneers - Uriah Smith". whiteestate.org.
- ^ "White, Ellen Gould (née Harmon)" in Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism" by Randall Balmer, p614–15
- ^ Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany Fellowship, 1965, p379
- ^ Arthur L. White (August 2000). "Ellen G. White: A Biography". Ellen G. White Estate.
- ^http://www.whiteestate.org/pathways/ewhite
- ^ Life Sketches, 1880 edition, 126, 127.
- ^ "Adventist Review". Seventh-Day Adventist Encyclopedia. Review & Herald Pub. Assn. pp. 25–29.
- ^ "Ellen G. White Estate: Pathways of the Pioneers - James White". whiteestate.org.
- ^ White, James, 1846, Present Truth, July, pg. 1 and 1857, Review and Herald, Dec 31, p 61; White, Ellen, Testimonies, vol. 2, p. 693; from Knight, George, 2000, A Search for Identity, Review and Herald Pub., pp. 19-20
- ^ "Beliefs :: The Official Site of the Seventh-day Adventist world church". www.adventist.org.
- ^ a b Knight, George, 2000, A Search for Identity, Review and Herald Pub., pp. 27
- ^ Knight, George, 2000, A Search for Identity, Review and Herald Pub., pp. 24
- ^ Knight, George, 2000, A Search for Identity, Review and Herald Pub., pp. 26
- ^ Johnston, R. 1983, Adventist Review, Sept, 15, p. 8, from Knight, George, 2000, A Search for Identity, Review and Herald Pub., pp. 28
- ^ Counsels to Writers and Editors, p35. Chapter, "Chap. 4 - Attitude to New Light"
- ^ "Chap. 3 - The Foundations, Pillars, and Landmarks" of Counsels to Writers and Editors by Ellen White
- ^ Venden, Morris, 1982, The Pillars, Pacific Press, pp. 12-13
- ^ Ellen White, Great Controversy, 1888 Edition, p.375 paragraph 3
- ^ Le Roy Edwin Froom, Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4, p403; as cited by Cottrell
- ^ Ellen White, Early Writings, p. XVII; as stated in the book's prefece written by the Ellen White Estate 1963
- ^ "Investigative Judgment" article in Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia (Review and Herald, 1996)
- ^ Ellen White, The Great Controversy, p409, 1888. See also her later statement, "The correct understanding of the ministration in the heavenly sanctuary is the foundation of our faith." White, Evangelism, p221. As cited by Cottrell
- ^ "Not one pin is to be removed from that which the Lord has established. The enemy will bring in false theories, such as the doctrine that there is no sanctuary. This is one of the points on which there will be a departing from the faith." Ellen White, Evangelism, pp.221, 224; as quoted by Cottrell
- ^ Great Controversy, p 352, 409, 412-22, 428, 480, 647-48; Spirit of Prophecy, vol 4, p 265-270, 431, 440; Early Writings, p 36, 54-56, 256; Testimonies, vol 6, p 364; vol 5, p 86, 575; Counsels to Writers and Editors, p 78; Testimony to Ministers, p 37, 445; Manuscript Releases, vol 12, p 392; Selected Messages, book 1, p 124-126, 232, 344; Notebook Leaflets, p 99, col 1; Battle Creek Letters, p 116-117; Review and Herald, January 21, 1890.
- ^ SINLESS SAINTS OR SINLESS SINNERS? by Rolf J. Poehler, page 2
- ^ [S.D.A. Bible Commentary Vol. 7, Page 974]
- ^ "A Review of the Seventh-day Adventist Message". www.presenttruthmag.com.
- ^ Our Father Cares, Page 214. TMK 130 (MS 148,1902)
- ^ The Consecrated Way – A.T Jones, pg 28
- ^ [The Consecrated Way, A.T Jones. Chapter 12, 43,45]
- ^ "The Ministry of Healing — Ellen G. White Writings". m.egwwritings.org.
- ^ "Counsels on Diet and Food - Christian Resource Centre (Bermuda)". www.crcbermuda.com.
- ^ "History of Adventist Health – FundingUniverse". www.fundinguniverse.com.
- ^ E.G. White, Review & Herald, Oct. 8, 1867; Counsels on Diets and Foods, p. 481.
- ^ Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, p.489
- ^ Battle Creek Sanitarium
- ^ Ministry of Healing pg. 315
