American Seventh-Day Adventism (1860s)

C. Mervyn Maxwell, Tell It To The World:

The Story Of Seventh-Day Adventists

(Boise, Idaho: Pacific Press Publishing Assoc.; 1977), pp. 125, 126.

‘Many early Sabbath-keeping Adventists opposed denominational organization. In and of itself, this was scarcely unusual in [the 1860s].

American Protestants still debated energetically as to whether the Holy Spirit worked best through independent congregations or through denominations united by presbyteries, conferences, and general assemblies.

Methodists and Presbyterians believed in broad denominational cooperation, but Baptists and Congregationalists argued equally strongly for the autonomy of local congregations.

‘In the 1850s James and Ellen White and others [had] urged a presbyterial form of denominational organization, but not all their brethren at first agreed with them.

In particular, the establishment of a new denomination was feared by many who had once been Millerites.

They had belonged to the established Protestant denominations of the day and, in fact, had been among the most dedicated members. But the church they loved had turned against them, ridiculed their Advent hope, and cast them out.

‘In their bewilderment, the Millerites had sought an explanation in Scripture and had discovered this in Revelation 14: 6-8. Subsequent to the first angel’s message about the judgment hour, which they were then proclaiming, they noticed the second angel’s message, quotation “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.”

They linked this to Christ’s appeal in Revelation 18: 1-4, “Come out of her [Babylon], my people,” and with other passages elsewhere in Daniel and Revelation. The conclusion seemed inescapable.’

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