Why Historic Adventism Isn’t the Answer
by Reinder Bruinsma | 1 May 2024 |
History has always fascinated me. But the more I read and study, the more I realize how little I actually know about the past.
In elementary school I learned how a Germanic tribe known as the Batavians floated down the Rhine River around 100 BC and settled along its shores. Some 50 years later, Roman troops first entered the region we now call the Netherlands. We learned about the people groups that followed the Batavians, and about the early rulers who were able to establish their authority over relatively small areas.
After that, our history lessons were mostly about counts, dukes, stadholders, and kings, and about the wars with the Spanish, the English, the French, and the Germans, and our colonial successes and challenges.
In secondary school, history classes were mostly concentrated on what we now refer to as West- and Central Europe. Again, it was mostly about dukes and archdukes, kings and emperors—in short, about power and the defense of land.
A bit later, at Newbold College in England, I took a class about American history and the same pattern repeated itself: presidents, wars, treaties, and economic developments.
In all these history classes I learned very little about the lives of the common people. Only later was I able to read books about “the people’s history.”
The study of church history presents us with a similar pattern. The focus is to a major extent on popes, cardinals, and bishops and the key leaders in the Protestant world. Add to that councils, schisms, and major doctrinal developments.
But it takes a lot more effort to also learn about the experience of the people in the pew, and about the religious impact on their everyday lives.
Adventist historical studies
We find something similar when we delve into the history of our own church. Adventist history emphasizes the role of leaders: William Miller, the “pioneers”– with Ellen White in a very special position – and the General Conference presidents. It gives a lot of attention for the development of the church’s doctrines, as well as the mission outreach of the church and its institutional successes. But it is rather difficult to get an accurate picture of the Adventism of the ordinary members around the globe.
This is true for contemporary Adventism, as well as for our past. Even though some information about what church members around the world think about the doctrines of the church—their habits of Bible reading, prayer, church attendance, beliefs, etc.—has been made available, and in spite of such extensive research projects as the renowned (but now rather dated) Valuegenesis Project, it remains difficult to appraise how the average member connects his/her faith with his/her daily life.
How much greater the challenge to get a clear picture of the religious life of ordinary Adventists in our first century!
The church has been working for a few years on an ambitious on-line encyclopedia of Adventism. It is work in progress, but it is already showing itself to be useful: it has a wealth of information about the key leaders of the church in the past, and about the history of administrative units and the church’s institutional network, besides containing numerous articles on important events and doctrinal matters.
The number of articles is steadily growing. But again, it is not the kind of resource that tells us much about the religious experience of individual church members, or about past and present religious trends in Adventist behavior in particular geographic regions.
The Pioneer Series
In the last twenty years a series of revealing biographies of Adventist pioneers has been in the making, beginning with Gerald Wheeler’s book about James White. Recently the fourteenth volume of this series (of a projected 30-plus) came off the press: the biography of George Ide Butler, one of the first General Conference presidents, written by Denis Fortin, professor of historical theology at Andrews University.
However, in this magnificent project, the focus again is on important leaders, with relatively little attention to the man, woman, and child in the pew.
I was asked to write a review of Fortin’s book—and indeed, it was a pleasurable learning experience to read the 680 pages of this biography that will no doubt be lauded as one of the best in the series.
Naturally, the emphasis of the book is on the career of George Butler as a church leader. However, more than most other books in this Pioneer Series, it is also rich information about the kind of church Butler served. The reader not only learns a lot about the rather authoritarian leadership style of Butler, but also of the leadership approach of other leaders in the Butler era.
The relationship with the White family—James and Ellen and their two sons, William and Edson—gets ample scrutiny. This relationship was often highly problematic (to say the least), and Butler was certainly not the only one to get the blame for this. This book reveals a surprising, and sometimes shocking, picture of the frequent internal squabbles between the leaders of the church in this period.
Controversies and toxicity
As the reader proceeds in the book, he/she gets frequent glimpses into the ways in which many of the small church communities functioned. Often the level of spirituality left much to be desired, and disagreements between the members of local groups, who were often related to each other by family ties, would poison the atmosphere. Church attendance could be quite meager, and disciplinary measures frequently unavoidable. The annual camp meetings tended to bring a measure of revival, with sessions of repentance and pledges to make amends.
In the larger churches—for instance, in Battle Creek, Michigan—doctrinal controversies and personal wrangles could divide the membership into factions, resulting in ugly polarization. Many of the institutions not only suffered from ill-conceived plans of expansion, but also from tensions between leaders and regular church workers.
This is only part of the total picture. Most of the leaders were dedicated, hardworking men and women, who sacrificed most of their limited means and much of their (often poor) health in their service for the church. And there was undoubtedly, on the part of the newly converted Adventists, true devotion, intense loyalty, and personal sacrifice to the work. Had that not been the case, the new denomination would soon have folded and would not have developed into the global movement it is today.
But this idealism and spiritual strength should not blind us to the fact that the Adventist past experience was marred by some regrettable episodes, including people who were driven by egotism and an unhealthy desire for power.
Why is it important to pay attention to both sides of the denominational coin—to the good and noble side, but also to the very human and, at times, downright ugly side? Because beyond what it tells us about early Adventism, it informs us about the church of the twenty-first century. There is much in the Seventh-day Adventist Church of today that is less than perfect.
Many are the voices that claim that perfection is possible, and that, therefore, change is needed. The challenges the denomination currently faces, and for the imperfections that must be addressed, the prescription is a return to historic Adventism.
Learning from the past
There is a lot in early Adventism that is praiseworthy. Perhaps Ellen White was overstating it a bit, however, when she said that we have nothing to fear for the future as long as we do not forget the way the Lord has led us in the past (Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, p. 31).
In fact, there are a number of things we must continue to fear. We may recognize a divine hand steered us in the past—but there were also moments when divine guidance was firmly resisted.
I fear for the future of the church if we idolize the denominational past—if we follow the proponents of “historic Adventism” in their view that past Adventism provides the perfect model for today’s Adventism. The truth is that historic Adventism was a mixed bag. This has always been the case, and it will remain so until the very end.
For Adventists in 2024, reading and learning about the past of their church has a dual purpose:
- Being inspired by the faith, the courage and energy of those who went before us and on whose shoulders we are privileged to stand—but also
- Learning from the discouragements, the lack of faith and the mistakes of those who, like us, were sinful, imperfect human beings.
We do well to learn about men such as George Butler, Uriah Smith, and Arthur G. Daniells, and about women such as Ellen G. White. We do well to learn about the strengths and the weaknesses of those who stayed with our movement throughout their life, but also of those who left us, as, e.g., John H. Kellogg, Dudley M. Canright, and Louis R. Conradi.
The ordinary people
However, we also need to know more about the elders and the deacons in the small rural churches in 19th-century America, and in the countries where Adventism slowly but surely established itself; about the women who organized themselves into Dorcas groups and the men who participated in the construction of simple houses of worship; about the ways in which these people worshiped and conducted their Sabbath schools; about the ways in which those were treated who did not fit into the patterns that developed; as well about the unique dynamic in the larger churches around the schools and health centers.
I look forward to the sixteen additional volumes in the series of Adventist Pioneers that are either in the planning or the writing stage. I hope that, like Fortin in his book on Butler, the authors will also tell us about the common people, not just the leaders.
And I hope that sometime one of our prominent Adventist historians will be asked to provide us with a truly comprehensive “people’s history” of Adventism. We need it to gain a correct perspective on historic Adventism.
Reinder Bruinsma lives in the Netherlands with his wife, Aafje. He has served the Adventist Church in various assignments in publishing, education, and church administration on three continents. He still maintains a busy schedule of preaching, teaching, and writing. He blogs at http://reinderbruinsma.com/.
