Adventist Position on Relation to War Established

Seventh-day Adventists, just moving into church organization, were, as the War Between the States opened, forced to find their way in a very difficult and sensitive area. They had no guidelines to follow. While the Ten Commandments prohibited the taking of life and the desecration of the seventh-day Sabbath, the history of God's people of old under the theocracy was not a paradigm. But God did not leave His remnant people to flounder. They prayed and studied, and when God gave counsel through His messenger Ellen White they listened. Yet the Lord did not, at the outset, make absolutely clear the path to follow. The last message of direction from Ellen's pen on record was given in January, 1863, before there was a draft. As time went on and situations worsened, the church found its way.2BIO 107.6

It may be thought that decisions could have been made without the guidance of Providence. But not so. For perhaps good reasons, better understood in the worldwide outreach of the church functioning in many lands, with governments of differing legal structures and political philosophies, no universal mandate was given through the voice or pen of Ellen G. White. One statement made twenty years later offers a satisfying assurance that the positions taken by church leaders in the early 1860s were in harmony with God's guidance and approval. This is found in a setting of another oppressive situation, in which the draft is named.2BIO 107.7

Writing to church leaders in 1886, Ellen White stated:2BIO 107.8

You inquire in regard to the course which should be pursued to secure the rights of our people to worship according to the dictates of our own conscience. This has been a burden of my soul for some time, whether it would be a denial of our faith and an evidence that our trust was not fully in God. But I call to mind many things God has shown me in the past in regard to things of a similar character, as the draft and other things. I can speak in the fear of God, it is right we should use every power we can to avert the pressure that is being brought to bear upon our people.—Letter 55, 1886 (see also Selected Messages 2:334, 335).

The Civil War came to a close too soon to test well the provisions made by the government to bring relief to drafted Seventh-day Adventists. But in World War I and subsequent military situations, the steps taken in 1864 and 1865 paved the way for relief of Seventh-day Adventists in the armed services.2BIO 108.1