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    Chapter 19—Evangelism, Local and Global, and Race Relations

    “Your conception of the work needs to be greatly enlarged.” 1Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 289.MOL 210.1

    Sabbatarian Adventists in the 1840s were largely devoted to helping their little band understand better the meaning of the Disappointment of 1844. 2Probably the Sabbatarian Adventists numbered no more than 100 in 1849. By 1852, numbers increased to 250; by 1863, when the Seventh-day Adventist Church was organized, members numbered 3,500.—Bull and Lockhart, Seeking a Sanctuary, pp. 111, 112. Early leaders encouraged other Millerites not to deny their past Advent experience. They energetically set forth their new understanding regarding Christ’s ministry in the heavenly sanctuary and the connection of the seventh-day Sabbath within the larger context of the messages of the three angels in Revelation 14. Understandably, their sense of mission was frustrated by hostile reactions from both the general public after the “embarrassment” of October 22, 1844, and by Sunday-keeping Millerites who bitterly rejected the new Saturday-Sabbath emphasis. It seemed that an ice curtain now isolated early Sabbatarian Adventists, leading to the conviction that, in some way, the door of mercy had been closed to those who had rejected the deeper implications of the Millerite message of 1844. 3Damsteegt, Foundations, pp. 163, 164.MOL 210.2

    But the sense of mission involving Adventist responsibility to share their message with the world soon changed. The force and clarity of young Ellen White was the primary reason for the shift from the “shut door” mentality of early Sabbatarian Adventists to that of responsibility for the completion of the gospel commission. In fact, “the views of E. G. White had a profound influence on the new theological interpretations as well as the emerging missionary consciousness, making doubtful that without her influence the early Sabbatarian Adventists would have survived this period of turmoil.” 4See Chapter 44, “The Shut Door—a Case Study.”MOL 210.3

    The developing Adventist sense (theology) of mission moved on from (but not forsaking) (1) reaffirming the Advent experience of 1844, to (2) restoring certain neglected Bible doctrines that needed to be reset in “the everlasting gospel,” to (3) recognizing that this restored gospel was to be preached to all the world before Jesus returned. 5Damsteegt, Foundations, p. 295.MOL 210.4

    Coupled with Adventism’s consistent proclamation of the nearness of the Advent was its motivating and driving principle of restoration. 6Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 295. This principle involved more than a theological integration of restored Biblical teachings; it included “the context of man’s spiritual and physical restoration as necessary preparation for Christ’s return.” 7Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 296. “In this mission of restoration the concept of God’s mission was recognized while man’s function was placed in the context of a divine-human cooperation.” Ibid. Ellen White was the foremost spokesperson for the restoration principle shaping Adventist eschatology. 8Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 270.MOL 210.5

    This theological emphasis on restoration differentiates Seventh-day Adventists from other religious groups that emphasize the nearness, or even imminence, of the Second Coming. Adventist theology of the Advent continues to attract those who want “to make sense of their own lives.” In an Institute of Church Ministry (Andrews University) research study, “seventy percent of new believers in the Georgia-Cumberland Conference survey said that they were most attracted to the church by ‘the truth and beauty of its teachings.’ ... Few people are attracted to churches in which theology is hedged around by qualifications. Adventism’s evident ideological appeal may also be a function of the church’s apparent theological certainty.” 9Bull and Lockhart, Seeking a Sanctuary, p. 117.MOL 210.6

    In the early years, Adventists took their “world” assignment seriously but interpreted it less than globally. At first they believed that “if the third angel’s message were preached throughout the United States, it would thus have been preached to all the world.” 10Spalding, Origin and History, vol. 2, p. 194; Gottfried Oosterwal, “Continuity and Change in Adventist Mission,” in Vern Carner and Gary Stanhiser, The Stature of Christ (Privately published, Loma Linda, CA, 1970), pp. 45-57.MOL 211.1

    How could this be? Uriah Smith, struggling with the concept, concluded that, though “we have no information that the Third Message is at present being proclaimed in any country besides our own ... our own land is composed of people from almost every nation.” 11The Review and Herald, February 3, 1859, p. 87. Even until 1872 Adventists generally believed that Matthew 24:14 was being fulfilled in the rapid expansion of Protestant missions generally. 12The Review and Herald, April 16, 1872, p. 138; The Review and Herald, July 16, 1872, p. 36.MOL 211.2

    But Ellen White was being used by God to lift the vision of the emerging Adventist denomination. In her 1848 Dorchester, Massachusetts, vision she told her husband James that he should start a paper and “from this small beginning it was shown to me to be like streams of light that went clear round the world.” 13Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 125. Such a concept seemed preposterous to contemporaries. 14Spalding, Origin and History, vol. 2, p. 195; Loughborough, GSAM, p. 275.MOL 211.3

    During the 1850s Adventists with European family or friends were sending literature to them, and soon pockets of Sabbath keepers could be found in the “old” world. In 1864 M. B. Czechowski, an Adventist since 1858, left for Europe with his newfound convictions. This eventually led to a company of Sabbath keeping believers in Tramelan, Switzerland. 15Maxwell, Tell It to the World, pp. 158-164; Schwarz, Light Bearers, pp. 142-144; SDAE, vol. 10, p. 428.MOL 211.4

    Prompted by this European interest, the 1874 General Conference sent the J. N. Andrews family, the denomination’s first official foreign missionaries, to Switzerland. Ellen White later commented that Andrews was “the ablest man in our ranks.” 16Maxwell, Tell It to the World, pp. 165-173; Schwarz, Light Bearers, pp. 144-147. Three years later the John G. Matteson family was sent to Scandinavia to follow the literature that had been developing interest in the messages of the three angels. 17Schwarz, Light Bearers, pp. 147-148. By 1890 Adventist missionaries were in about 18 countries, including various European nations, Africa, Russia, Australia, India, and South Africa.MOL 211.5

    During this time Ellen White had been educating the church. In 1871, in a message based on a December 10 vision, she appealed: “Young men should be qualifying themselves by becoming familiar with other languages, that God may use them as mediums to communicate His saving truth to those of other nations.... Missionaries are needed to go to other nations to preach the truth in a guarded, careful manner.” 18Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 204.MOL 211.6

    In 1874 she had “an impressive dream” of “giving the third angel’s message to the world.” In the dream she was told that Adventists were “entertaining too limited ideas of the work for this time. You are trying to plan the work so that you can embrace it in your arms.... Many countries are waiting for the advanced light the Lord has for them.... Your conception of the work needs to be greatly enlarged.” 19Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 208-209.MOL 211.7

    Driven by her own sense of mission, Ellen White spent two years in Europe, 1885-1887. These years are well chronicled in Ellen G. White in Europe, 1885-1887. 20D. A. Delafield, Ellen G. White in Europe, 1885-1887 (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1975). Just as she was closely involved in the development of the Advent movement in North America, she now had much to do with establishing the work in Europe on firm principles. Not easy, working with many nationalities and languages, but her instruction at that time in bringing unity and good will has been most salutary for international and intercultural relationships since that time. 21“Some who have entered these missionary fields have said: ‘You do not understand the French people; you do not understand the Germans. They have to be met in just such a way. But I inquire, Does not God understand them? Is it not He who gives His servants a message for the people? ... Though some are decidedly French, others decidedly German, and others decidedly American, they will be just as decidedly Christlike.... Let no one think that there need not be a stroke placed upon him. There is no person, no nation, that is perfect in every habit and thought. One must learn of another. Therefore God wants the different nationalities to mingle together, to be one in judgment, one in purpose. Then the union that there is in Christ will be exemplified.... Look to Jesus, brethren; copy His manners and spirit, and you will have no trouble in reaching these different classes. We have not six patterns to follow, nor five; we have only one, and that is Christ Jesus.... I warn you, brethren and sisters, not to build up a wall of partition between different nationalities. On the contrary, seek to break it down wherever it exists.” Testimonies for the Church 9:179-181.MOL 211.8

    L. H. Christian, an administrator in Europe, 1922-1936, wrote: “The advent movement in Europe would never have been the same if it had not been for her visit.” 22Christian, Fruitage of Spiritual Gifts, pp. 161, 162. “For many, many years, our members and their children in England, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, never tired of telling about Mrs. White. And when now and then in later years a few disloyal ones ridiculed and belittled the gift of prophecy and the servant of God, our people said: ‘We know better. We heard her speak. We have seen her humble, godly, inspiring life. We have her books, and they agree with the Bible and deepen our love for Jesus.’”MOL 212.1

    Ellen White was a globalist. The “how” of fulfilling Matthew 24:14 she left up to God: “God will do the work if we will furnish Him the instruments.” 23Testimonies for the Church 9:107. She who saw the “streams of light” going “clear round the world” in 1848 when there were fewer than one hundred Sabbatarian Adventists, never gave up that vision of a world enlightened with the messages of the three angels. She prompted the church to develop its message, and prodded it to reach out to fulfill its staggering mission. 24Maxwell, Tell It to the World, pp. 174-183; Emmet K. VandeVere, “Years of Expansion, 1865-1885,” in Land, Adventism in America, pp 87-94; Schwarz, “The Perils of Growth, 1886-1905,” in Land, Testimonies for the Church 9:116-119; Spalding, Origin and History, vol. 2, pp. 191-212.MOL 212.2

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