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    Organization and Unity

    Being the messenger, however, meant that she was often ahead of the church’s leaders, not only in theological insights and their practical applications, but also in her continual insistence on unity and organization. In comparing other contemporary millenarians such as the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, historians and sociologists consider “remarkable” the rapid transition from the post-Millerite instability to the “largely stable, uniform organization” achieved by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.MOL 183.1

    Five reasons are suggested for this phenomenon in the development of Sabbatarian Adventists: (1) they separated themselves from other post-Millerite groups and millenarians “after the reformulation of ideas“: (2) they “not only preached the Advent but the conditions for it“: (3) “these conditions were validated by divine inspiration, whereby the group acquired an independent source of inspiration, apart from the Scriptures“: (4) they “established a professional ministry which opened the way to other specialized agencies“: and (5) they developed an “accretion of concerns for education, diet, medical care, religious liberty, and Sabbatarianism [that] further advanced its denominationalization both ideologically and institutionally.” 8Jonathan Butler, “The Making of a New Order,” in The Disappointed, pp. 199, 200.MOL 183.2

    None of these five components would have resulted in a worldwide religious movement without Ellen White’s presence and messages. Her messages to the church were far-reaching. On one hand, she covered the whole range of the salvation story; on the other, she dealt with civil government, the home, and questions of race relations, health, and education. The striking point is that all this instruction was creative: whenever followed faithfully, schools and hospitals, publishing houses and ministerial institutes, temperance and welfare societies sprang up worldwide. Even more striking is that this woman, without a church office and without formal training in any one of the many areas of her profound instruction, was the leading inspiration in molding all these various interests into a united organization.MOL 183.3

    The Seventh-day Adventist Church did not develop out of a crisis in some previous church wherein a charismatic leader arose to lead his/her followers into a new organization, such as John Wesley and the Methodists. Nor did it arise because of a doctrinal quarrel, similar to the beginnings of the various Lutheran or Presbyterian churches existing today.MOL 183.4

    The Seventh-day Adventist Church was born in a profound spiritual awakening known as the Millerite movement. Fellowship created by belief in the “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13), one of the central New Testament themes, held the young group together. This fellowship, this sense of “family,” is the open secret of the church’s worldwide cohesiveness. With its leaders and members under conviction that the movement was raised up to prepare the way for the return of Jesus (Revelation 14), sinners were rescued, backsliders were reclaimed, and young and old were motivated to realize their potential as they joined in a worldwide evangelistic movement.MOL 183.5

    Beneath all this motivation and the sense of belonging to a worldwide “family” has been the inspiring challenge and clear direction of Ellen White. She and her husband knew early that motivation and fellowship had to be unified and organized. Without a unifying organization, the warmest feelings soon fray out into frustration and tangled relationships. Throughout her writings, Ellen White made clear that personal religion and organized religion are the two sides of a coin that we call “the church.” 9“In all this period the testimonies to the church which came through Mrs. White deal often, very understandably, with this unstable state in men and movements. Without this gift of the Holy Spirit, as was proved over and over, the ties of brotherhood would not have sufficed to bind the movement together.... The fact stands out to us now, that in that early time, when there was no church organization and no ecclesiastical authority among the Sabbathkeeping Adventists, the Spirit of prophecy in Ellen G. White and the faith of the believers in her divine commission constituted the sole disciplinary agent of the body, the one rallying point of the faithful, the final court of appeal. Yet how modestly, with what godly fear, in what travail of soul, did she bear her testimony! No other agency could have so united while purifying. The outcome was a nuclear body comparatively clean, disciplined, and directed, for which later generations have every reason to be grateful.” Spalding, Origin and History, vol. 1, p. 293.MOL 183.6

    In the early years of the Adventist experience, the lack of organization led to various problems and disillusionment. Self-appointed ministers preached what they pleased; even the “appointed” traveled without salary or paid expenses. Divisions arose in the scattered groups of believers, and no method for dealing with divisive heresies existed. 10Errors included time-setting for the return of Jesus, perfectionism (fully sanctified and could not sin), spiritual union (violators of the seventh commandment), saints have yet to go to old Jerusalem before Jesus returned, etc.—See James White, The Review and Herald Extra, July 21, 1851, Aug. 19, 1851, Nov. 25, 1851; Ellen White, Early Writings, 101; Bio., vol. 1, pp. 216, 217. Whatever church properties they used were held in the name of some individual member; when the member died, the property passed to relatives, some of whom were not church members. By 1853, James and Ellen White were urging church organization to eliminate “uncredentialed” ministers and to establish a stable basis for owning church property.MOL 183.7

    But this plea for organization was met with strong resistance. Organization for many was a “return to Babylon.” 11George Storrs wrote in 1844: “Take care that you do not seek to manufacture another church. No church can be organized by man’s invention but what it becomes Babylon the moment it is organized.” The Midnight Cry, Feb. 15, 1844, cited in David Arthur, “Millerism,” in Gaustad, Rise of Adventism, p. 168. Opposers to organization still felt the sting of the organized churches that refused the Millerite call. The religious freedom that Adventists had been enjoying for a few years, they did not want to exchange for the cold blanket of an organized church. Organization, for them, was inconsistent with the freedom of the gospel. 12Godfrey T. Anderson, “Sectarianism and Organization, 1846-1864,” in Land, Adventism in America, pp. 36, 46, 47; Jonathan Butler, “Adventism and the American Experience,” in Gaustad, Rise of Adventism, pp. 177, 179.MOL 184.1

    In 1853, James White, the “father of our present church order,” 13Christian, Fruitage of Spiritual Gifts, p. 119. wrote five editorials in the Review and Herald 14The Review and Herald, December 6, 13, 20, and 27, 1853. on organization, with little or no positive response. But Ellen White’s quiet, firm, counsel eventually caught the attention of church leaders and they were led to see the common sense and urgency of her husband’s call for organization. 15In Sept., 1852, Ellen White had a vision that prompted an article that was published in late 1853, in which she said, “The Lord has shown that gospel order has been too much feared and neglected. Formality should be shunned; but, in so doing, order should not be neglected.... Men whose lives are not holy and who are unqualified to teach the present truth enter the field without being acknowledged by the church or the brethren generally, and confusion and disunion are the result.... These self-sent messengers are a curse to the cause.... I saw that this door at which the enemy comes in to perplex and trouble the flock can be shut. I inquired of the angel how it could be closed. He said, ‘The church must flee to God’s Word and become established upon gospel order, which has been overlooked and neglected.’ This is indispensably necessary in order to bring the church into the unity of the faith.” Early Writings, 97-100; “As our numbers increased, it was evident that without some form of organization there would be great confusion, and the work would not be carried forward successfully. To provide for the support of the ministry, for carrying the work in new fields, for protecting both the churches and the ministry from unworthy members, for holding church property, for the publication of the truth through the press, and for many other objects, organization was indispensable.” Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 26; see Testimonies for the Church 1:210-216.MOL 184.2

    Many meetings were held as leaders studied the need and method of organization. One of the first considerations was a name for this new body of Adventist believers. On October 1, 1860, the name finally chosen was, “Seventh-day Adventists.” 16Throughout the meetings Ellen White stayed in the background, but as soon as the name was chosen she sent out the following endorsement: “No name which we can take will be appropriate but that which accords with our profession and expresses our faith and marks us a peculiar people. The name Seventh-day Adventist is a standing rebuke to the Protestant world.... The name Seventh-day Adventist carries the true features of our faith in front, and will convict the inquiring mind. Like an arrow from the Lord’s quiver, it will wound the transgressors of God’s law, and will lead to repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Testimonies for the Church 1:223, 224. Another name considered was “The Church of God.” See Damsteegt, Foundations, pp. 254, 255.MOL 184.3

    But that act appeared to be the most that could be decided on at the time. Now that they had a name, the leaders found it easier to incorporate the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association on May 3, 1861, than to organize churches! However, the manner in which local churches would organize and unite in some kind of federation was finally settled on October 4 and 5, 1861, at least for Battle Creek and the newly formed Michigan Conference, the first conference to be organized. In 1862 six other state conferences followed. One year later the General Conference was organized, on May 20-23, 1863. 17Godfrey T. Anderson, “Make Us a Name,” Adventist Heritage, July, 1974, pp. 28-34. C. Mervyn Maxwell, Tell It to the World, pp. 125-146; Spalding, Origin and History, vol. 1, pp. 291-311; Schwarz, Light Bearers, pp. 86-103; Bio., vol. 1, pp. 420-431, 445-461; SDAE, vol. 10, pp. 880, 1046.MOL 184.4

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