SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST HISTORY; (ADVENTIST HERITAGE) Credits to Adventist University of the Philippines Theology Students Reports, From the Class of Pastor Cadao From August - December 2018. - Report 1 (R1) - Report 23 (R23)

1. Dissidents,Within and
Without

2.  “When Simon saw that through the laying on
of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was
given, he offered them money, saying ‘Give
me this power also, that anyone on whom I
lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.’ But
Peter said to him, ‘Your money perish with
you ... Your heart is not right in the sight of
God. Repent therefore’” (Acts 8:18, 19, 20-
22).

3.  Most often in church-related activities a
conflict of motives arises either over the
misuse of power or over the allocation of
funds.The Battle Creek situation in the 1890s
provides a textbook case for dealing with
both problem areas.

4. Denominational debt had increased
dramatically due to the rapid expansion of
the sanitarium, the college, and the
publishing house.

5. For her, adding building to building did not
give the right “character to the work.”What
was needed was not more power and buildings
in Battle Creek but for church leaders to realize
that “their own characters needed the
transforming grace of Christ,” which would
enable them to represent Christ.

6. A. R. Henry - treasurer of the Review and Herald
Publishing Association
was a member of the governing boards
of nearly all the denomination’s medical and educational
institutions in the central and western states.
A. Harmon Lindsay - treasurer of the General
Conference
B. O. A. Olsen - General Conference President
a forbearing, gentle spirit, tried to
alleviate the “un-Christian speeches” and hard bargaining
that characterized denominational business.

7. “I fear and tremble for the souls of men who
are in responsible places in Battle Creek.... If
their works had no further influence than
simply upon themselves, I could breathe more
freely; but I know that the enemy is using men
who are in positions of trust, and who are not
consecrated to the work and who know not
what manner of spirit they are of.

8. When I realize that men who are connected with them
are also in blindness, and will not see the harm that is
being done by the precept and example of these
unconsecrated agents, it seems to me that I cannot hold
my peace. I have to write, for I know that the mold that
these men are giving to the work is not after God’s
order.”

9.  “I felt that you (Onsel) were being bound
hand and foot, and were tamely submitting
to it. “Things are being swayed in wrong
lines, that leading men were acting “as
though they were in God’s place, ... deal[ing]
with their fellow men as if they were
machines. I cannot respect their wisdom or
have faith in their Christianity.”

10. “The Lord has presented to me his [Henry’s]
dangers. I expect nothing else but he will say, as
he has always done. He has no faith in my
mission or testimony, and yet Brother Olsen
has made him his right-hand man.”

11.  In 1896 Elder Olsen made a serious effort to
change the widespread secularism prevailing
among Adventist workers in Battle Creek. In
the publishing house were A. R. Henry,
Clement Eldridge, and Frank Belden, and
others who pressed their secular ideas.

12.  Along with the secularism, Olsen was
“exercised” over the “disbelief, skepticism,
and indifference that are manifested by our
people with reference to the gift of prophecy.”

13.  The disproportionate salaries being paid to
publishing house executives (and more being
sought)
 the persistent refusal to provide merit
increases to workers
 the feeling of mistrust between workers and
management over piecework rates

14.  Failure to maintain a systematic training program
for apprentices,
 Failure to advance persons within the
organization,
 The appointment of supervisors without spiritual
qualifications,
 Failure to conduct evangelistic work among the
substantial number of non-Adventist workers, the
reduce the amount of commercial work or even
monitor the offensive jobs, and failure to provide
sanitary premises.

15.  “In the past, publishers have placed
themselves as God, to dictate, to control, to
manage as they pleased, and to lord it over
God’s heritage.They have done a deceptive
work in dealing with authors. I have been
taken into private councils, and have heard
the plans laid down.

16.  Men have managed to make an author believe that his
work is naught, and that they do not want to have
anything to do with the book.The author has no
means. He feels that his hands are tied. Men talk and
think over the whole process, and succeed in bringing
him to their terms, to take the royalty that they offer
on the book.

17.  “The dealing with Frank Belden was not true
and righteous in all its points. Justice was not
done to him.The effort made to grind down
Brother Bell and to obtain possession of
books, has made a most miserable showing,
driving him to an opposite extreme. Men’s
brains have been bought and sold.”

18.  “Let not authors be urged to either give away
or to sell their right to the books they have
written. Let them receive a just share of the
profits of their work; then let them regard
their means as a trust from God, to be
administered according to the wisdom that
He shall impart.”

19.  Case and Russell - (In 1853) the first
dissenters to arise from the emerging
Seventh-dayAdventist Church (seven years
before the first local conference was
organized in Michigan, 1861)

20.  Two charges against theWhites:
 (1) that they were getting rich off the church
paper, and
 (2) that EllenWhite was being placed above the
Bible.

21.  Offended at Mrs. White’s counsel directed at
them, they launched a new paper, Messenger of
Truth, in 1854, to supplant the Review and
Herald. In that paper they printed their allegations
against Mrs. White’s reliability. They also
charged James with using donations for private
enterprises and for profiting on church members
because he sold Bibles at a higher price than he
had paid for them (after buying them wholesale
and having them shipped from New York City!).

22.  In June of 1855, She told members at the
meeting that they should no longer be
distracted by the Messenger party, that soon
the dissidents would be fighting among
themselves, and that in a short while our own
membership would double.

23.  Stephenson and Hall – Leader ofAge-to-
Come group
- former ministers of the Millerite
Movement.These two men had revived a
doctrinal position held by some Millerites that
Christ, at His second advent, would reign for a
thousand years on earth, during which time
probation would continue while the Jews
played a leading role in the conversion of the
nations.

24.  In that vision she revealed how these two
men had earlier been convinced of the
integrity of her visions, but on further
examination they discovered that their Age-
to-Come theology did not agree with certain
visions. She saw behind their “smooth” words
and their deception. Her advice to the
growing church: “The church of God should
move straight along, as though there were
not such a people in the world.

25.  In 1858, Stephenson adopted further
strange doctrines, involved himself in “an
unsavory divorce,” and ended up in the
“poorhouse,” an imbecile at death.
 Hall went in to real estate investments and
eventual bankruptcy that terminated in
insanity.

26.  Hull - joined the church in 1858, and soon
became an influentialAdventist preacher,
often appearing in the general councils of the
church. But within a few weeks after
preaching an evangelistic sermon on
September 20, 1863, he joined the
Spiritualists.

27.  EllenWhite had been warning him regarding
his selfishness, covetousness, lack of
management skills, and overweening trust in
his own abilities. In 1862 he had been
debating publicly with Spiritualists, enjoying
his success as he turned some of his hearers
into espousing Christianity.

28.  But on one occasion, with no Adventists to
accompany him, he debated in Paw Paw,
Michigan, a strong Spiritualist center.
Overconfident of his own ability, he soon
found (in his own words) his “tongue ...
seemingly as thick as my hand, and what I
had often used before as an argument
seemed to me like nonsense. I was defeated.”

29.  Two weeks later, November 5, 1862, Hull
sensed his problem and asked for theWhites
and M. E. Cornell to come to his Battle Creek
home to pray for him.

30.  “I was shown the condition of Bro. Hull. He
was in an alarming state. His lack of
consecration and vital piety left him subject
to Satan’s suggestions.... He is as leep to his
own danger.... He was presented to me as
standing upon the brink of an awful gulf,
ready to leap. If he takes the leap, it will be
final; his eternal destiny will be fixed....
Never should one man be sent forth alone to
combat with a Spiritualist.”

31.  “When you should be studying your own
heart, you are engaged in reading books.
When you should by faith be drawing near
to Christ, you are studying books. I saw that
all your study will be useless unless you
faithfully study yourself....You lack sobriety
and gravity out of the pulpit....

32.  When treating upon the most solemn
subjects, you often bring in something
comical to create a smile, and this frequently
destroys the force of your whole discourse....
Be not flattered by remarks which unwise and
foolish brethren may make concerning your
efforts. If they praise your preaching, let it not
elate you.”

33. Stanton in Montana
While EllenWhite was in Australia, A.W.
Stanton, a worried Montana layman, published
a compilation of Mrs. White’s statements that
seemed to support his position that the
Adventist Church had apostatized and
become Babylon. He concluded that it was
time to stop supporting the organized church
financially and to “come out of her.”

34. “If you are teaching that the Seventh-day
Adventist Church is Babylon, you are wrong.
God has not given you any such message to
bear.... I presume that some may be deceived
by your message, because they are full of
curiosity and desire for some new thing.”

35.  In addition, she wrote four articles for the
Review entitled, “The Remnant Church Not
Babylon.”These were later republished in
Testimonies to Ministers. In this series of
articles Mrs.White made clear her distress
with those who took selections from her
writings, making them appear to endorse the
particular position of the compiler.

36. “Through making unwarrantable liberties, they
have presented to the people a theory that is of
a character to deceive and destroy. In times
past many others have done this same thing,
and have made it appear that theTestimonies
sustained positions that were untenable and
false.”

37. Then she reminded her fellow church members:
“There are matters in theTestimonies that are
written, not for the world at large, but for the
believing children of God.”

38. She agreed that evils exist in the church and
will continue until the end, yet
“the church in these last days is to be the
light of the world that is polluted and
demoralized by sin. The church, enfeebled and
defective, needing to be reproved, warned, and
counseled, is the only object upon earth upon
which Christ bestows His supreme regard.”