R EH 4 17 : S D A

C h u r c h H is t o r y
LECTURE 6:
Further Doctrinal & Organizational
Development
By 1848, there were a number of Adventists convinced
of the truth of one or more of the three distinctive
Sabbatarian Adventist doctrines, but as Knight points
out, these believers “lacked a common consensus.” As
Hewitt states, “The stage was now set for the melding
of the sanctuary, the Sabbatarian, and the Spirit of
Prophecy beliefs.”
Knight, Millennial Fever, 319.
Hewitt, Midnight and Morning, 185.
Hence, in 1848, a series of six conferences were held
in Connecticut, New York, Maine, and Massachusetts.
This first series was followed by six more in 1849, and
ten in 1850. The purpose of these conferences was
outlined by James White as being the “uniting [of] the
brethren on the great truths connected with the
message of the third angel.”
James White, The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, May 6, 1852, 5.
Both James and Ellen White took on a strong
leadership role, working to convince the Adventists
who attended of the truth as they saw it. Ellen White
reported following the second meeting in Volney, New
York:
“There were about thirty-five present, all that could be
collected in that part of the State. There were hardly
two agreed. Each was strenuous for his views,
declaring that they were according to the Bible. All
were anxious for the opportunity to advance their
sentiments, or to preach to us. They were told we had not
come so great a distance to hear them, but we had come to teach
them the truth.”
White, Spiritual Gifts, 97. Italics added.
James White’s letter to a Bro. Howland following the
first conference in Rocky Hill, Connecticut explains
the result:
“Friday morning the brethren came in till we
numbered about fifty. They were not all fully in the truth. Our
meeting that day was very interesting. Bro. Bates
presented the commandments in a clear light, and
their importance was urged home by powerful
testimonies. The word had effect to establish those already in
the truth and to awaken those who were not fully decided.”
Quoted in White, Spiritual Gifts, 93. Italics added.
In addition to their acceptance of the doctrines of the
sanctuary and the Sabbath, and their recognition of
Ellen White as a prophet, these groups came to
embrace the doctrine of conditional immortality.
Knight points out that as Millerism was viewed as a
“one-doctrine movement,” conditional immortality was
not widely promoted—in fact, in April 1844, Josiah
Litch began publishing a periodical in opposition to
Storrs called The Anti-Annihilationist.
George R. Knight, A Search for Identity, 72.
Methodist minister George
Storrs was the first prominent
Millerite to promote the
doctrine of conditional
immortality. In 1841—prior to
his acceptance of Millerite
beliefs in 1842, Storrs
published An Enquiry: Are the
Souls of the Wicked Immortal? In
Three Letters. This work was
expanded a year later into An
Inquiry: Are the Souls of the Wicked
Immortal? In Six Sermons.
Acceptance was again increased when Ellen White
responded favourably. Later she reflected:
“My mind had often been disturbed by its efforts to
reconcile the immediate reward or punishment of
the dead, with the undoubted fact of a future
resurrection and Judgment. If the soul, at death,
entered upon eternal happiness or misery, where
was the need of a resurrection of the poor
mouldered body?
But this new and beautiful faith taught me the
reason that inspired writers had dwelt so much upon
the resurrection of the body, it was because the
entire being was slumbering in the grave.”
Thus, by early 1848, a group—the Sabbatarian
Adventists—had formed with basic agreement on
five doctrines:
• The original Millerite belief in the personal,
visible, premillennial return of Christ was
retained.
• To this was added the new explanation for the
October 22, 1844 disappointment: the two-
phase ministry of Christ in the heavenly
sanctuary developed by Edson and Crosier.
• The doctrine of the seventh-day Sabbath was
accepted—and it’s end-time importance noted.
• Ellen White’s ministry was recognised
Given the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s present
hierarchical, highly organized church structure; it is
difficult to believe that the majority of early Adventists
opposed any form of church organization beyond the
level of the local congregation. In 1844, the Millerite
George Storrs expressed the position of many when
he stated that “no church can be organized by man’s
invention but that it becomes Babylon the moment it
is organized.”
George Storrs, The Midnight Cry, February 15, 1844, 238.
As a result of these attitudes, for the first fifteen years
of their existence, the Sabbatarian Adventists “were a
movement without any formal organization.”
The group was held together by the leadership of
James and Ellen White, Joseph Bates, and Hiram
Edson; and by the publishing of journals like The
Present Truth and The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald.
Ingemar Linden, The Last Trump (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1978), 106.
The need to maintain orthodoxy was one driving
force towards the establishment of a formal
organization. Some individuals had been
excommunicated because of “dangerous errors in
the field of eschatology” and “fanciful views of
unfulfilled prophecies.” Another contributing force
was the need for some sort of legal entity in which
to register property such as the new church building
and publishing house built in Battle Creek, Michigan
in 1855.
Linden, The Last Trump, 106, 108. (These buildings were originally
registered in James White’s name.)
In 1859 James White strongly advocated formal
organisation in an editorial published in the Advent
Review and Sabbath Herald on July 21. “We lack system.
And we should not be afraid of that system which is
not opposed by the Bible, and by sound sense. The
lack of system is felt everywhere.”
James White, The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, July 21, 1859, 68.
Those opposed to a centralized organization pointed
to the lack of explicit biblical support for such an
organization. Apocalyptic arguments were also used
by some opponents, with Roswell F. Cottrell
expressing the belief that the two-horned beast of
Revelation 13 was the United States, and that the
horns themselves represented the twin evils of
slavery and a denominational organization.
Linden, The Last Trump, 108.
A “General Conference” was called by Sabbatarian
leaders for September 28 to October 1, 1860. At the
meeting—despite the impassioned pleas of the anti-
organisation group, those delegates present voted to
incorporate the publishing house and also adopted
the name, “Seventh-day Adventist.”
Knight, A Brief History of Seventh-day Adventists, 63.
Anderson points out that “In the months following its
adoption, the name “Seventh-day Adventist” began
appearing regularly in announcements and notices in
the Review and Herald. Individual churches officially
adopted the name, usually by unanimous vote.”
Anderson, “Sectarianism and Organisation, 1846-1864,” 48-49.
Not everyone was comfortable with the decision
however, and a number of Sabbatarians left the
organisation. Their feelings are typified by those
expressed by Waterman Phelps, who wrote in a
letter to the editor of the Advent Review and Sabbath
Herald:
“Advent people are very dear to me. I have felt that
their trials have been my trials, and their prosperity
has been my prosperity. But I have not that unison
of feeling at present. I feel that the union is broken,
for I do not sympathize with the body of Adventists in
relation to organizing under the name, Seventh-day
Adventists, and enrolling names under that head. As
I feel, I never could consent to have my name
enrolled on any class-book, or church-book, under
any sectarian name.”
Organisation began slowly, but continued steadily—
the publishing house was formally incorporated on
May 3, 1861, and in October of that year the first
“conference”—the Michigan Conference of Seventh-
day Adventists—was formed, with other areas
following in 1862. In May 1863 representatives from
these conferences met and formed the General
Conference of Seventh-day Adventists with John
Byington as the first president. At this time the
Seventh-day Adventist Church had about 3,500
members and about 30 ministers.
Knight, A Brief History of Seventh-day Adventists, 64.
John Byington - First
SDA GC President.
 G EN ER AL C O N FER EN C E

LO C AL C O N F E R E N C E S

L O C A L C H U R C H C O N G R E G A T IO N S

1 8 6 3 O R G A N IZ A T IO N A L S T R U C T U R E
Day to day decision making was in the hands of the
GC President, Secretary, and Treasurer and in an
additional three members of the Executive
Committee. General Conference Sessions were to
be held annually.
According to Barry Oliver, this form of church
government and organization occurred “more by
accident than design.”
Barry Oliver, SDA Organizational Structure: Past, Present, and Future, 70.

It incorporated and adapted elements from the

episcopal, congregational, and presbyterian forms of
By 1888, institutionalization was well under way.
There were thirty organized conferences, with 889
organized churches, 227 ordained, and 182
licensed ministers. In addition, there were six
publishing houses, 3 tertiary colleges, and two
medical institutions.
In addition, a number of auxiliary (somewhat
independent) organizations existed including the:
• SDA Publishing Association
• General Tract and Missionary Society
• General SS Association
• Health and Temperance Association
• General Conference Association
REFEENCES:
Godfrey T. Anderson, “Make Us a Name.” Adventist
Heritage 1:2 (1974), 28-34.
Godfrey T. Anderson, “Sectarianism and
Organization 1846-1864.” In Adventism in America
(Revised ed.) Gary Land (Ed.) (Berrien Springs:
Andrews University Press, 1998), 29-52.
George R. Knight, A Search for Identity: the development
of Seventh-day Adventist Beliefs (Hagerstown: Review
and Herald, 2000).
George R. Knight, Organizing to Beat the Devil: the
development of Adventist church structure. (Hagerstown:
This PowerPoint presentation has been produced by
Jeff Crocombe for a class on SDA Church history at
Helderberg College in Semester 1, 2008. It should not
be used without giving credit to its compiler, nor
reproduced in any way without permission.
You may contact Jeff Crocombe at:
crocombej@hbc.ac.za