| Author | Message | ||
| Jorgfe Registered user Username: Jorgfe Post Number: 816 Registered: 11-2005 |
Gilbert Jorgensen It has been 162 Years, 10 Months, and 26 Days since October 22, 1844 | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 6815 Registered: 12-2003  |
Well, all I can say is that He has discovered to me the delights of Black forest ham! Colleen | ||
| Jorgfe Registered user Username: Jorgfe Post Number: 817 Registered: 11-2005 |
This is a really great site with lots of good information on James and Ellen White. It makes for some fascinating historical reading about the early beginnings of James and Ellen White, that Seventh-day adventist history books seem to miss. The nice thing about this site is that it is neither for, nor against, Seventh-day Adventism. It is about the History of the Seventh-day Church of God. James and Ellen tried to run everything and eventually split off from the Church of God and formed their own group called the Seventh-day Adventists. There is a wealth of first-hand material here that you won't find anywhere else, and the White Estate sure is not going to tell you! http://www.giveshare.org/churchhisto...cog/index.html http://www.giveshare.org/churchhisto...index.html#toc http://www.giveshare.org/churchhisto.../history4.html (The Question of Ellen G. White's Visions) http://www.giveshare.org/churchhisto.../history5.html (The Michigan Church of God) http://www.giveshare.org/churchhisto.../history6.html (The Church of God in Marion, Iowa) History of the Seventh Day Church of God covers the controversial history of the Sabbath-keeping Churches of God from the 1850s to the 1990s. Those who never accepted the visions of Mrs. Ellen G. White, founder of the Seventh-day Adventists, became known as the Church of God. From Michigan to Iowa to Missouri, they continued to promote the seventh day Sabbath from a loose coalition that frequently endured splits and divisions. Jacob Brinkerhoff, Andrew N. Dugger, John Kiesz, and Herbert W. Armstrong were the most famous Church of God ministers, whose writings have been preserved to this day. This book serves to preserve the history of the Church of God for future generations. Here is a fascinating section from chapter 6: The Pork Question A brother and sister Curtis were intimate friends of Carver in Iowa for many years. Mrs. Curtis, long before the Whites believed pork to be injurious, tried to banish it from her table. She was a sincere believer in Ellen G. White's visions, and wrote to Mrs. White for instruction in the matter. Ellen replied: "I believe you to be in error. The Lord showed me two or three years since that the use of swine's flesh was no test. Dear sister, if it is your husband's wish to use swine's flesh, you should be perfectly free to use it." Mrs. White further stated that it was "fanatical" to "deprive yourselves of nourishing food." At the time of the 1865 Pilot Grove conference, Curtis had Mrs. White's letter and promised Snook a copy. James White admitted to Carver at this conference that the Whites had just downed a 200-pound porker. Strangely enough, with all this and other evidence to the contrary, Uriah Smith, an apologist for Ellen G. White, later reported that Mrs. White's visions never taught that swine's flesh was good and nourishing food.38 Mrs. White was soon to have a vision contrary to her first one concerning pork. In Spiritual Gifts, Volume 4, page 124, she claims a vision against the use of pork: "God never designed the swine to be eaten under any circumstances." Thus, "divine inspiration" was claimed for opposite doctrines. and Controversy and Confusion It was difficult for Sabbath Adventists to remain faithful to their original beliefs and not get swallowed up by the White Party. Other churches besides Marion faced the same thing. After entering a church covenant adopting "the Bible alone," a "tutoring process" began to prepare the members for a change in name and organization. In the words of Church of God historian Monroe, "Everywhere the remnant remained, there was suffering and pressure of the Adventists to accept the 'more perfect way' - loyalty to the new General Conference, which according to Mrs. White, was God's highest authority on earth; the visions and claims for [the divine inspiration of] Mrs. White; and other non-Biblical doctrines that were beginning to show up in Seventh Day Adventism."9 and Sabbath Adventists and the Name "Church of God" Ellen G. White and her followers - the White Party - were distinctly against the use of the name "Church of God." Loughborough reports that she had a vision that the movement should be called "Seventh-Day Adventist" and that to use the term "Church of God" would be to excite suspicion, conceal absurd errors, and be a mark of fanaticism.1 But apparently the White party themselves used the name Church of God in several instances. Ellen G. White used the name frequently in her spiritual gifts.2 James White published a hymn book in 1855 called "Hymns for those who keep the commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus." The preface to the hymnal read "this work is prepared for the use of the Church of God scattered abroad . . . . To the Church of God waiting for the coming and kingdom of Christ, is this book commended."3 That the Sabbath Adventists were originally termed Church of God is shown in a December 18, 1860 article in the Advent Review and the Sabbath Herald (page 40): S.W. Rhodes of Habbardsville, New York announced his resignation as a minister to Sabbath-keeping brethren, "in my ministration of the 'Third Angel's message' and the Church of God, during eleven years past . . . ."4 This would mean that Rhodes began his ministry for the Church of God in the year 1849. Joseph Marsh, in the Voice of Truth, May 21, 1845, objected to the 1845 Albany Conference of Adventists "because the proceedings as whole looked like forming a new sect under a sectarian name, instead of coming to the order of the New Testament under the name there given to the true church . . . ." James White wrote a commendation at the end of the article, when it was reprinted in the August, 1850 Advent Review, showing he agreed with Marsh's sentiments.5 Roswell F. Cottrell wrote in the May 3, 1860 Review, "I do not believe in popery; neither do I believe in anarchy; but in Bible order, discipline, and government in the Church of God."6 and Changing the Church Name The high pressure campaign led by the Whites to organize Sabbath Adventists under the name "Seventh-Day Adventists" was ostensibly conducted with the purpose of holding church property in a corporation instead of being deeded to individuals. Michigan had recently passed a law allowing churches to organize, and an "official" organization was said to be an encouragement for increasing the membership.10 The Battle Creek, Michigan Conference on legal organization, on September 26 October 1, 1860, officially chose the name "Seventh-Day Adventist" and rejected "Church of God." It was decided to legally organize as a church with the covenant as follows: "We the undersigned hereby associate ourselves together as a church, taking the name Seventh-Day Adventists covenanting to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ." It was at this point that the separation of Sabbath Adventists into two opposing groups became permanent. On the one side were those supporting the visions of Ellen G. White and the name Seventh-Day Adventist. And on the other side were those opposing Mrs. White and adhering to "Church of God." and Reason for Mrs. White's Visions According to the Seventh-Day Adventists, Mrs. White's visions were to "perfect the church and bring them to the unity of the faith Ephesians 4:13."2 The visions were said to correct members from wrong practices or beliefs. Early opposers to the Whites, including the Church of God in Marion, Iowa, saw the visions in a different light: they were primarily feigned to enable the Whites to gain control of the church. D.M. Canright, an early Seventh-Day Adventist, was a close associate of the Whites. Canright left them in the 1880's because he saw that "Elder and Mrs. White ran and ruled everything with an iron hand. Not a nomination to office, nor a resolution, not an item of business was ever acted upon in business meetings till all had been first submitted to Elder White for his approval. . . . [and Mrs. White's] revelations always favored Elder White and herself. If any dared question their course, they soon received a scathing revelation [based on a vision] denouncing the wrath of God against them." Canright painted a picture of a "coldly legalistic" Seventh-Day Adventist church governed by the fear of going against the "divine testimonies" of its "prophetess."3 Canright too was the victim of its iron rule, forced to confess that he had been "blinded by Satan" for opposing the Whites' will. For years, Canright maintained, in the late 1860's, the main business at important meetings was the complaints of Elder White against leading ministers. Jacob Brinkerhoff, a Church of God leader, one time editor of the Bible Advocate, expressed a less critical view of the reason for her visions: they were the product of an unhealthy mind and body.4 From her childhood, when she was struck in the head by a rock and was in a coma for days, until later life, Mrs. White suffered nervous and physical disorders. Later, when her health improved, her visions were less frequent and not as intense. Regardless as to the cause - and the source - of Ellen G. White's visions, their content naturally led to controversy. The content of many of them was to prove a constant source of embarrassment, and potential source of opposition to Seventh-Day Adventists. And even more were Mrs. White's visions a source of conflict among Sabbath Adventists in the 1850's and 1860's by those who never accepted them in the first place but were subjected to extreme pressure to accept the "gifts of the Spirit" from a woman "prophetess," or be forever out of the "true Church" and bereft of salvation.5 This is one of the most fascinating historical accounts of the beginning of James and Ellen's work that I have read. Once I started it was hard to put it down! Gilbert Jorgensen It has been 162 Years, 10 Months, and 26 Days since October 22, 1844 |
