ADVENTISM

in

AMERICA

edited by

GARY LAND

Andrews University Press

Berrien Springs, Michigan, U.S.A.

Copyright © 1998 by Andrews University Press

213 Information Services Building

Berrien Springs, MI 49104

aupress@andrews.edu

All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Adventism in America: a history / edited by Gary Land.--Rev. ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-883925-19-3

1. Adventists—United States—History. 2. Seventh-day Adventists—United States—History. 3. United States—Church history.

I. Land, Gary, 1944–

BX6153.2.A38 1998

286.7'73--dc21

98-14095

CIP

Previously published by William B. Eerdamans Publishing Company

Studies in

Adventist History

Board of Editors

Godfrey T. Anderson, Senior Editor, Chair

Wm. Frederick Norwood, Senior Editor

Ronald L. Numbers, Secretary

Jonathan Butler

Vern Carner

Everett N. Dick

Gary Land

Richard W. Schwarz

Contents

Preface

Preface to the Revised Edition

1 The Millerite Movement, 1830–1845

by Everett N. Dick

2 Sectarianism and Organization, 1846–1864

by Godfrey T. Anderson

3 Years of Expansion, 1865–1885

by Emmett K. VandeVere

4 The Perils of Growth, 1886–1905

by Richard W. Schwarz

5 Shaping the Modern Church, 1906–1930

by Gary Land

6 The Church under Stress, 1931–1960

by Keld J. Reynolds

7 Coping with Change, 1961–1980

by Gary Land

Appendix 1 Seventh-day Adventist Statements of Belief

Appendix 2 Seventh-day Adventist Membership Statistics

Bibliographical Essay

Contributors

Index

Preface

Seventh-day Adventism emerged out of the social and religious turmoil of mid-nineteenth-century America, an era that also produced—directly or indirectly—the Latter-day Saints, Christian Scientists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Pentecostals. Like most of these groups, Seventh-day Adventism had a charismatic figure, Ellen G. White, who shaped its identity, and it has maintained its sectarian character into the twentieth century. And, like all but Christian Science, it carries on extensive mission efforts abroad.

In fact, despite what Sydney Ahlstrom calls its “made in America” character, the Seventh-day Adventist church has become perhaps the most widespread Protestant denomination.1 From a sect of about four thousand members when it organized in 1863, it had grown to about 3.5 million by 1980. When it began, Seventh-day Adventism was limited to the northeastern United States; by 1980,2 Seventh-day Adventists lived in 190 countries nurtured by approximately 3200 missionaries. As with most of its sectarian counterparts, the denomination’s recent growth has occurred in the emerging nations of the Third World rather than in its increasingly secular homeland.

Although a dynamic, if relatively small, entity on the religious scene, Seventh-day Adventism has a history that is neither well known nor well understood. This situation has come about largely because, until recently, Seventh-day Adventists, who look to an imminent Second Coming of Christ, took little serious interest in their ...