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ACCOUNT 'l'RE :\DVENT THE 'S INSPlr~TION A IS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GORDON--CONWELL 'rHEOLOGICAL SEMINARY CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLI IN PARTIAl", FUI..FlLL~1ENT OF REQUIREMI:NTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF MINISTR"i BY ROBERT JA~ES MAYER APRIL 5, 997 To Renee' wtth great appreciation ind love Preface ntroduct Of, Resto tionlsts, Mode nlsts. he St (Je: ntaUs Chr H 1a RH nse to he F nd mental s - 9 ni '0011c 4 A D1v p t tan)8 Com t s I~r 1 F\f~wr j c SouJ tlan Enga D vtded ProtestantS leval~nd and Montreat: De ta. and Decision 7 b to 1 tiam i to the Chris: an hir five years ago in seQ, Cali nla. 1ike many Advent lstlans trace thedr :relationship to denolWl nat one or more t none of ~y ancestors was associated with the t istian ren. My associat -"tn a ppr i.tion for this aenOill1l1natlonal s grown from he f. ~t that. it waf, through t t t] firs hea the go pel of Jesus hI' st a lear t Chris ian faith. During the mid-1960 , I discovered t t Advent r1 tians JOT te over t nature of the Bib e its 0 e 1 hurch. I alse dlscove t t much of t to er arou d the two i t Christian-related colleges. It became obvlou that Adv 'nt r1stians, at east n !'Iy part of t country. had stron~ opinions and even some diVIsion within theIr ranks. Since that time, 1.'ve rem ined fasclnat with the Advent Christian te over t Bible's insplnH10n, Community rch, t. Advent r i t 1an r tlcn jn San Francisco, was trle place re IHJCO of ~y lev9 and ppreclation r t Adven en. H1 ~ colle9Gl h t Re jnto i. t 1 yger ""e) ld of eVI:) Ucal !'Hil Un 1n1 Youn f , Pen uta Bible tl n 10 Alto, ;j t rIilon ri tlan t f{; C(~nt U their influence, I sensed God's calling to Christian ministry and entered FUller Theological Seminary. I continue to be grateful for the pra:ound influence of these congregations and ministries both on my theologjcal pilgrimage and my Christian life. There are a number of people to whom I must express appreciation. I'm grateful to the Advent Christian pastors and leaders who agreed to be interviewed for this project, and who took time to respond to the survey connected with this thesis. Three of those I want to specifically mention because during the last year, while I have busily engaged in researching and writing this dissertation, they have fallen asleep in Christ. Dr. Clyde Hewitt, Dr. Carlyle Roberts. and Dr. Roland Griswold await the resurrection. They influenced the Advent Christian Church in important ways and I am privileged to have known each of them. George Waterman, Jim Smith, Louia Granseo, and Clio Thomas have encouraged me, hath intellectually and spiritually, for well over twenty years. Jim Lee, Frank Hall, Dane Frost, and Rodney Brittain have been friends and colleagues for the past several years and have graciously given of their time in helping with an important component of this research. Freeman Barton has gone above and beyond the call of duty several times 1n providlng valuable research help. Than~ you, Freeman. Dorothy Crouse, the widow of Dr. Moses Crouse, prOvided me with coples of Dr. Crouse's M.A. and Ph.D. theses. Without her help, completion of this project would have been much more difficult. Oral Collins provided valuable insights into the Cleveland Conference. David A. Dean graciously read each of the chapters and has offered valuable guidance over the last thref~ years. I m grateful for his I friendship and scholarly insight. My mo;";her, Nova Mayer. instilled in me a love for reading and learning that I will always appreciate. My wife, Renee, has not only helped with typing and proofreading, she has patiently encouraged me to continue on when the stress of work and research seemed almost insurmountable. It is to her that I dedicate this work. I hope that this work will reflect the appreciation and love that I have for the two movements that have shaped my Christian pilgrimage--evan~elicalismand Adventism. Some view them as mutually exclusive. I do not, and I am grateful that God has used both of them in my life. iv INTRODUCTION Until recently, most church historians seemed to have viewed the controversies between fundamentalist~ and modernists as largely focused in time (1910-1930) and place (a80ng Baptists and Presbyterians). During the last twenty years, however, that perspective has been changing. Some have begun to see the long-running debate over the Bible's inspiration and authority as a war that has been fought throughout the century with battles on many different fronts, and each front with its own "-\;, generals, captains, foot-soldiers, and supply lines. This dissertation focuses on one of those fronts: a small denomination born out of the disgppo;ntment of its founder, William Miller, and his Adventist followers during the early 1840s. The Advent Christian Church was one of several denominations that grew out of the Gr,~at Disappointment of 1844, the failed prediction that Jesus Christ would return 1 personally and visibly during October of that year. One- hundred-and-twenty years after the Great Disappointment, this small denomination found itself locked in a controversy over the Bible's inspiration and authority. For a denomination that prided itself on its distinctive understanding of biblical 1 For accounts of the life of William Miller and the founding of the Advent Christian Church, see Clyde E. Hewitt, Midnight and Morning: ~n Accoynt of the Adventist Awa~~n!Dg and the.Founding of the Advent Chrl~tian DenQaination...t-.lll.11__ j860 (Charlotte: Venture Books, 1984), and George R. Knight, Millennial Fever and the End of the Worl~LlludY_9J; Millerite~dventism(Boise, Idaho: Pacific Press, 1993). truth,% it is perhaps ironic that it experienced the same struggles that had plagued Northern Baptists and Northern Presbyterians two generations earlier. What makes the Advent Christian controversy an important st~ry is not the size of the denomination. Other small denominations have faced similar struggles. The importance of the Advent Christian story rests in its historical context as a uniquely American denomination with roots firmly in the restorationism of America's Second Great Awakening. Studying 2 For an account of Advent Christian doctrinal distiuctives, see David A. Dean, Resurre~tion~ope (Charlotte: Venture Books, 1991). Advent Christians have h1storically maintained three distinctive doctrines that touch on the areas of anthropology and eschatology. The first, commonly called conditional immortality, is the belief that God alone is naturally immortal (see 1 Timothy 6:13-16) and that human beings do not necessarily possess immortality, but ultimately receive it by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, those without Christ will not suffer conscious eternal torment, but will be judged punished according to their sins, and ultlrr.ately 7 destroyed. The second distinctive, popularly called "soul-sleep," interprets the intermediate state between physical death and the return of Christ as a period of temporary unconsciousness. In their third distincti~e, Advent Christians interpret the last portion of Revelation as teaching that God will destroy the earth by f ire and establish his et3rnal kingdom on an earth made new. Advent Christians h4ve also taken pride in their heritage rooted in the Adventist movement of the 1830s and 1840s. While key followers of the founder of Adventism, Baptist l&y preacher William Miller, mistakenly predicted that Jesus Christ would return to earth on October 22, 1844 (8 view that Miller himself only accepted in early OCtober 1844); Adventists in general and Advent Christians in particular have continued to prea=h and teach an iaminent return of Christ. Miller's mistaken date combined with what interpreted as SOIle religious fanaticism, caused anuaber of churches to disenfranchise many of their Adventist members. Many who became part of the Advent Christian Church and other Adventist bodies were those who suffered this disenfranchisement. 3 the Advent Christian conflict over the inspiration and authority of the Bible can help us gain insight into the role and function of Scripture within a restorationist context. It can help us understand how denominations and associations of churches that combine non-creedal approaches toward Christian theology with a congregational form of church government resolve or fail to resolve important theological and organiz~tional differences. It can also provide lessons from which Christians of any ecclesiastical stripe can benefjt. In the pages that follow, we will focu~ on the Advent ChrIst ian coni1ict over the Bible s inspirat ion and authori ty. I We will explorp. the historical and theological roots of the Advent Christian Church and discuss ways that they impacted the controversy that emerged within the small denomination during the 1950s and early 1960s. We will address the mechanics of the conflict itself, medsuring its impact on the Advent Christ ian Church, and observing What lessons both evangelicals and Advent Christians today can learn from it.