Light bearers to the remnant : denominational history textbook for Seventh-Day Adventist college classes

537 Pages·2000·1.79 MB·English

by  Schwarz

Preface
To The First Edition
When Edward Gibbon began his “candid but rational inquiry into the progress and
establishment of Christianity”, he posed the question as to how its “remarkable” victory over
the prevailing religious systems of the day could be explained. With tongue in cheek, Gibbon
made ironic obeisance to the “obvious but satisfactory answer” that this was due “to the
convincing evidence of the doctrine itself, and to the ruling providence of its great Author”
(Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1, pp. 507, 508). Then followed over fifty pages
devoted to explaining the rise of the Christian church solely in the light of social, intellectual,
and political currents of the first centuries after Christ.
In spite of his skeptic’s orientation Gibbon had a point. It seems easier for historians to
explain the past on the basis of tangible events: the interaction of men, institutions, economic
forces, social groups, even the intellectual “climate”, than to discover “behind, above, and
through all the play and counterplay of human interests and power and passions, the agencies
of the all-merciful One, silently, patiently working out the counsels of His own will” (E. G.
White, Education, p. 173).
Trained to be critical, to prefer several eyewitnesses and documents produced by impartial,
competent observers close to an event, the historian reaches for certainty about the past in
terms of things he knows, things that can be seen, heard, and read. He may be confident, as
was the ancient prophet Daniel, that the God of heaven “changeth the times and the seasons:
he removeth kings, and setteth up kings” (Dan. 2:21). He may, with Nebuchadnezzar, be
certain that the Most High “doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the
inhabitants of the earth” (Dan. 4:35). Yet to inject this all-powerful God into his interpretation
of past events requires an act of faith in the Unseen and seemingly Intangible which runs
counter to his training as a historian. It is frequently more comfortable to follow Gibbonian
reason and package an explanation of the past in terms of “the will and prowess of man. ... his
power, ambition, or caprice” (White, ibid.).
Faced with this dilemma, the Seventh-day Adventist historian must frankly recognize that he
is not only a historian, he is also a Seventh-day Adventist Christian. As he approaches the
past, and particularly the past of his own church, he does so in this dual role — and finds that
it is not always easy to keep the two roles separate. Many things he will find easy to explain
in terms of human passions, social forces, and psychological “insight”. Yet he must also be
conscious that his theological beliefs color his selection and interpretation of facts. These
beliefs provide, in essence, the “glasses” through which he views the past.
In the following interpretation of the origins, development, and spread of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church, a conscious effort has been made to heed Leopold von Ranke’s famous
injunction to “tell it as it actually happened”. Yet there has been the constant realization that
to do so would require much more information and insight than is available. At the same time
the writer has tried to heed the warning of an outstanding European church historian. “Men
are so much in love with their own opinions”, wrote Fra Paolo Sarpi, “that they persuade
themselves that God favors them as much as they do themselves” (quoted in P. Burke, ed.,
Sarpi, p. xxxii).
While attempting to portray the rise and development of the Seventh-day Adventists as
accurately as possible, this account also seeks to avoid a dogmatic interpretation of events as
occurring “because God ordained them so”. This should not be taken to mean that there are
not many aspects of Seventh-day Adventist history which can be fully understood only in the
light of the great controversy which continues to rage between Christ and Satan. To the
Seventh-day Adventist historian the existence of that controversy provides the real key to a
true understanding of all history, including that of his own church. The student is challenged
to keep this continuing conflict constantly in mind and thus to develop his own insights into
the divine leadings in our past history.
Richard W. Schwarz
Preface
To the Revised Edition
Between the appearance of Light Bearers to the Remnant in 1979 and this revised edition, the
Seventh-day Adventist denomination has grown from approximately 3,000,000 to more than
10,000,000 members. This growth has taken place primarily in what we have variously called
the third world, the developing world, or its more recent term, the two-thirds world,
descriptions that are not precisely equivalents, but approximations of each other. During the
years of this growth, four General Conference sessions have occurred and three different men
have been elected to the General Conference presidency. Adventists have revolutionized their
conceptualization of mission processes and reorganized the representational system of their
governance; General Conference leaders have moved into a new world headquarters office
building. The church has also passed through some of its most serious challenges to doctrine
and authority. At the same time it has coped with social issues that seemed so remote in 1960
as to be unlikely.
This revised edition seeks to depict the denomination as a truly global organization by
narrating its growth and commenting on the changes that growth has fomented. Because the
church has become a world entity it can no longer deal with questions as though they are
primarily North American issues. They have become world issues. More than ever before
Adventists have become aware that while their church emerged within North America, its
growth has produced an international body — a process that has required changes in
governance and an appreciation for the impact of its cosmopolitan character on faith and
practice.
These changes give rise to a second underlying theme, that of the nature of the challenges
Adventism experienced regarding its doctrine and authority. As the church became larger,
much of its activity and many of its programs became more sophisticated. In part this
reflected global trends unrelated to religion, but church growth paralleled by increased
professionalism was not a mere coincidence in Adventism. The struggles over faith, practice,
and authority that affected much of the Adventist world during the last quarter of the
twentieth century stemmed not only from questions that remained from an earlier era but also
from a well-educated, philosophically-inquisitive generation that wanted to understand the
church’s identity in the context of a milieu far removed from the nineteenth century and its
aftermath.
A third theme also appears in this revision. Changes notwithstanding, the Seventh-day
Adventist Church has preserved a remarkable continuity since its origins in the Millerite
movement. Adventists still hold as strongly as ever the conviction that their message is firmly
established on biblical foundations and that they are fulfilling a divine commission to carry
this gospel to a perishing world. Adventism at the end of the twentieth century retains the
apocalyptic urgency of 1844 blended with the pastoral sensitivity that a tortured world needs.
Many similarities to the first edition remain in this revision, but readers of this book will
quickly detect differences. The most obvious change is its format. This revised edition
consists of four parts. The first three are both chronological and topical, but the fourth is
genuinely topical — a sweeping view of the denomination. This changed format represents
several aspects of revision — updating some chapters, adding new chapters, and rearranging
some of the material so that it better reflects the denomination at the end of the twentieth
century as compared to the mid-1970s.
I have made only scant change in chapters 1 through 15 of the first edition. In this revised
edition these chapters constitute Part I and the first three chapters of Part II. Beginning with
chapter 16 of the first edition, I revised by condensing chapters in order to make room for new
material. Chapters 16 through 26 of the first edition have become chapters 16 through 23 in
the revised book, with material from chapter 24 reassigned to Part IV
The most serious revisions began with chapter 24 of the first edition and continued in chapters
27 through 36. Chapters 29 and onward in the first edition received my close attention
because they discussed questions that are still pertinent to the church. In their updated form
these chapters make up the bulk of Part III. This section also includes four new chapters: 28,
31, 32, and 34. Approximately half of the material in the revised chapters in Part III is new;
the other half is condensed from its original form.
Chapters 37 and 38 of the first edition are a final statement which Part IV of the revised book
replaces. I formed this last section by combining material from chapters 24, 27, and 28 of the
first edition and adding extensively to produce two new chapters, 36 and 37 of the revised
edition.
One of the more serious difficulties I encountered was that of handling the fast-moving events
in the church, especially when describing growth in membership and institutions, and satellite
telecasting. Some of the data were outdated even before publication. Also, regarding
theological discussions in the church, new books appeared too late for me to comment upon.
My revisions taper off with events after 1995, but some references to events, publications, and
personalities appear as late as 1999.
Many of the sources I consulted for my revisions do not fit the conventional definition of
history, but they become historiographically significant because they contributed to the
Adventist mindset that, in a sense, was on public trial from the 1970s onward. The literary
spectrum of pertinent material to which I referred ranged from issues discussing the perennial
arguments between science and Scripture, to theological hair-splitting and the debate about
the nature of inspiration, and on to light reading such as stories by missionaries. The
Adventist mind fed on all these topics, as well as others, and thus all of Adventist literature
became the forum in which the twentieth-century discussions about the centrality of
Adventism took place. It is my belief that no one can understand Adventism on the threshold
of the twenty-first century without first understanding the Adventist mentality, hence this
literature looms in importance. It is worth repeating that the globalization of Adventism on the
one hand and its internal conflicts and successes on the other are somehow inextricably
mixed, perhaps in ways that we are just beginning to fathom.
Many persons merit my thanks because of their assistance in technical and supportive ways.
My first word of gratitude is to Humberto Rasi, General Conference Director of Education,
who approached me about this project and guided me through it with wise counsel, especially
at crucial points. His secretary, Silvia Sicalo, was always willing to add my ever-growing list
of requests to her already full schedule. John Fowler, also from the Department of Education
of the General Conference, and Russell Holt of Pacific Press, provided valuable comments
and suggestions.
During a long evening session of the Association of Seventh-day Adventist Historians in
Portland, Oregon, in April 1998, my fellow historians expressed both confidence and
encouragement and made numerous helpful suggestions. From among them I should
specifically note Ben McArthur, Eric Anderson, Brian Strayer, and Arthur Patrick who were
especially generous with ideas. Gary Land, chair of the History Department at Andrews
University and Richard Osborn, Vice President for Education of the North American
Division, deserve special thanks for their careful attention to my manuscript and their incisive
critiques.
Many conversations were the source of impressions and ideas that eventually found
themselves in the revision. Cherie Smith, at the time a member of the pastoral staff of the
Collegedale Church, rendered valuable counsel regarding women’s ministries. David
Mansfield, a friend and neighbor, acquired a packet of papers for me from the Trans-
European Division that provided information about Adventist relationships to labor unions in
Britain; and Sarah Holmes, a student in denominational history at Andrews
University offered me ideas about Adventist lifestyle. Bruce Norman, former faculty member
at the Adventist Institute of Advanced Studies in the Philippines, shared relevant information
with me about Adventism in Asia. From Norman Gulley, whose roots are in England and who
directed the first graduate program in theology in the Philippines, I gleaned insights about the
British Union’s biracial reorganization as well as information about Adventist education in
the Far East.
Carl Currie, career missionary to China and a one-time member of the East Asia Association,
provided candid descriptions about Adventist work in China. A. C. McClure, president of the
North American Division, gave me a first-hand account of the evolution of that division from
its “special relationship” with the General Conference to its contemporary status. Joel
Tompkins, a former union president, discussed with me issues of church administration.
I had virtually free access to the resources of the McKee Library in Collegedale, Tennessee,
where Peggy Bennett, the head librarian, and Shirley Bennett of the periodical section, went
out of their way to make information acquisition easy for me. In the Heritage Room at the
James White Library, Andrews University, James Ford and Carlota Brown provided all the
assistance that I needed for successful searches.
Richard Coffen and Gail Hanson of the Review and Herald Publishing Association
generously accommodated my requests for illustrative material, as did Tim Poirier in the
White Estate. Bert Haloviak and John Wycliffe in the General Conference Archives were
tireless in their support of my search for pictures and other materials. Tanya Holland of the
Adventist Review provided invaluable service by preparing the illustrative materials for
publication.
My own experience has also contributed to this revision. Some of my conversations about
denominational matters occurred during trips before I undertook this project. I talked to
several members of the Kulakov family and other church workers during visits to Russia, and
to Robert Wong, Eugene Hsu, Robert Folkenberg, Jr., and Daniel Peek, an ESL teacher at the
University of Beijing, during a trip to China. Conversations with fellow Adventists and visits
to Adventist centers during earlier journeys to Europe and Latin America gave me a context
of understanding for denominational affairs in those regions, and notes that I made as a
participant in the General Conference sessions of 1990 and 1995 were useful to me.
Although the help I received enabled me to produce extensive revisions, I cannot overlook the
towering influence that the original author, Richard Schwarz, still exerts in this new edition.
When rewriting and condensing chapters in the first edition I developed a new appreciation of
his capacity to synthesize and to sequence his material effectively. It was with more than a
little trepidation that I broke into his chapters. Throughout my revisions I attempted to retain
his pertinent thoughts and, as space would permit, his phraseology. Although the title of the
book has changed, and despite my work, he remains the principal author of this book.
Floyd Greenleaf
PART ONE
ORIGINS AND FORMATIVE YEARS, 1839-1888
These were the years of origin and formation, 1839 to 1888. They began with a sense of
buoyancy and excitement and hope, followed quickly with bitter disappointment after the
pent-up emotions of Adventists dissipated following October 22, 1844. Their belief that Jesus
would come on a specific date that they mistakenly identified from their biblical studies
forced them back to the Bible to find their error. Forty-four years later they struggled over
their understanding — and misunderstanding — of the relation of law and obedience on the
one hand and forgiveness and grace on the other, wrapped up in the phrase, righteousness by
faith. It was the first major doctrinal battle for Adventists after they had developed their body
of teachings.
During the years immediately following the Great Disappointment, Adventists studied their
way to a set of doctrines that included, among others, conditional immortality, the seventh-
day Sabbath, the presence of the Spirit of Prophecy in the church, a broader understanding of
the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14, and a belief in the priestly ministry of Christ in
the heavenly sanctuary.
In 1860 Adventists chose a name that incorporated their two defining beliefs, and over the
next three years formally organized congregations, conferences, and the General Conference.
In the years that followed they established institutions to support their mission. Schools,
healthcare establishments, and publishing enterprises became institutional benchmarks of
Adventism. They also began to sense their responsibility to the world and formed a mission
board to oversee sending workers to other countries.
Until after the American Civil War, the Seventh-day Adventist Church was primarily a church
of the northern part of the United States. Adventists began in the northeastern states and
spread westward, settling in Battle Creek, Michigan, as their headquarters. They survived the
Civil War by setting precedents for the relationship of their church with the state. After that
conflict Adventists ventured southward, somewhat cautiously. For them it was almost a
mission to a foreign land.
During these formative years both Joseph Bates and James White, two of the founders of the
church, died. The remaining voice from among the founders was Ellen White, who continued
to guide the fledgling denomination. In the 1880s she spent time in Europe, helping to
establish Adventism abroad. Ministers, eager to perpetuate the church’s beliefs, preached
boldly, if not virulently at times, on prophecy, Sabbath observance, and the soon return of
Jesus. Two younger men, just as vehemently, preached new ideas about the relation of the law
to obedience and forgiveness and grace. For some it was a shock to think that in their
emphasis on biblically based doctrines they had neglected the most basic of all, faith in the
atoning blood of Jesus. A confrontation developed, and at Minneapolis in 1888 the church
thrashed it out, leaving wounds that festered a long time.
The church was not the same afterwards. It was no longer an innocent body. Doctrinally, it
passed through acute soul-searching. For Adventists, it was a time of new beginnings for self-
understanding.
CHAPTER 1
The World in Which Adventism Began
Seventh-day Adventists believe that their roots in history go back a long way. Back, not only
to the Millerite movement of the 1830s and 40s, but farther: to Wesley and the eighteenth
century Evangelical revivalists, to the great Protestant Reformers and to such earlier
dissenting groups as the Lollards and Waldenses. Back to the primitive Celtic Church of
Ireland and Scotland, the persecuted church of the first three centuries after Christ, back to
Christ and the apostles themselves. Yet it is obvious that modern Adventism developed in the
great advent awakening which took place in the early years of the nineteenth century.
Events in Europe
As that century began, much of the Western world was preoccupied with the activities of
Napoleon Bonaparte. This Corsican adventurer, who had recently been propelled to the
leadership of Europe’s dominant state, busied himself in remaking the map of Europe. Even
that could not satisfy his restless quest for power. He determined to carve out a position of
influence in areas as widely separated as the ancient Near East and the Western Hemisphere.
After a decade and a half of almost incessant warfare Bonaparte was at last confined to a tiny
South Atlantic islet, and Europe tried to rebuild an orderly society, free from the excesses for
which the French Revolution was held responsible. Drawing inspiration from the writings of
Edmund Burke and under the astute leadership of Austria’s Prince Metternich, European
statesmen set out to encourage institutions that would bring stability to the ordered society
they desired. Among these was the Roman Catholic Church, whose influence and prestige
gradually increased from the nadir of the preceding revolutionary decades.
Yet many eyes had seen the indignities heaped upon the priests of Rome; indignities which
reached their height when Colonel General Louis Berthier established the Roman Republic in
1798 and took Pope Pius VI off to die in exile in France. A new interest was sparked in the
prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation, particularly the 1260-day period, which many
interpreters now believed had come to an end with the dramatic events of 1798. This rebirth
of prophetic interest would soon move on to closer consideration of the longest time period in
biblical prophecy — the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14.
Religious Diversity
Meanwhile, Protestantism was also experiencing a renaissance, particularly in Great Britain
and the United States, where the work of the Wesley’s was coming to fruition in the rapid
growth of Methodism. In America frontier camp meetings took on an interdenominational
hue, and soon sedate Congregationalists and Presbyterians were feeling the call to a more
personal and emotional religious experience.
The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were rich in religious diversity. New sects
proliferated. Rejecting established churches and dogma, proclaiming their return to Bible-
oriented primitive Christianity, some of these groups developed into religious communes with
beliefs and practices later shared by Seventh-day Adventists. Drawn from the uneducated,
lower socioeconomic groups of Europe, such communities were held together principally by a
strong leader, their confidence in divine intervention in the current affairs of men, and their
belief in the imminence of the second advent of Jesus. They sought a pure religious life in
rural frontier communities away from the evils of “the world”.
America had long been a promised land for religious dissidents. Although the Pilgrim Fathers
are best known, certainly one of the most intriguing is the German Community of the Woman
in the Wilderness, which was established near modern Philadelphia in 1694. It was also in
Pennsylvania, among the German Dunkers (Baptists), that Conrad Beissel became convinced
of the continued sacredness of the seventh-day Sabbath. Rejected in his community, Beissel
withdrew to form the Ephrata Cloister, whose members, in addition to observing the Sabbath,
denied the doctrine of eternal punishment, opposed all war and violence, and followed a two-
meal-per-day vegetarian diet. Other transplanted German communalistic societies having
deep religious motivations were the Rappites, the Separatists of Zoar, and the Amana Society.
In the year of America’s Declaration of Independence a homegrown prophetess appeared in
the person of Jemima Wilkinson. Following a thirty-six-hour trance Miss Wilkinson was
convinced that Christ’s Spirit now occupied her body, and would for a thousand years.
Calling herself the “Universal Friend”, she eventually established a community of her
followers near Seneca Lake in New York’s frontier Genesee County. Although a believer in
the seventh-day Sabbath, Jemima was willing to accept Sunday as a holiday and day of rest in
order to meet local prejudice. Her insistence on celibacy was a major factor in the swift
demise of the group after her death in 1819.
A more lasting religious community was created by “Mother” Ann Lee Stanley, who had
arrived in America from England in 1774 with eight followers. Officially called the
Millennial Church, Mother Ann’s converts were popularly labeled “the Shakers”. Stressing
celibacy and equality of the sexes (Mother Ann was believed to be an incarnation of the
female nature of God), the Shakers were also given to spiritualistic communications,
especially during the period of their greatest growth, 1837-1844. From Maine to Kentucky
they established successful communal colonies known for their industry and temperate living
as well as their strange religious dances.
It was left, however, for John Humphrey Noyes to develop a creed which emphasized the
development of perfect individuals in a perfect community. Converted during a Charles G.
Finney revival meeting, Noyes studied for the ministry but was denied ordination because of
his belief that at conversion a person became free of sin. He developed a truly communistic
society at Putney, Vermont, but in 1848 was forced to move his group to Oneida, New York.
His idea of “complex marriage”, which taught that every woman in the group must be married
to every man, brought Noyes’s followers into great disfavor. Later, under community
pressure, the Oneida group abandoned this concept.
Latter-day Saints
Although all of these religious communities believed that they had been divinely led to a
rediscovery of ancient Christian truths and practices, none developed a successful
proselytizing program. It was a different story with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, organized in 1830. In the process its founder, Joseph Smith, Jr., did more to focus
attention, and suspicion, on the idea of a modern prophet receiving direct revelations than any
of his contemporaries. Smith, the son of itinerant parents who finally located in western New
York, possessed little formal education, but he had an active imagination and considerable
skill in influencing others. At the age of fourteen Joseph claimed to have received his first
visions, in which he was instructed that none of the existing religious denominations was
correct in its theology and practices. Several years later an angel named Moroni supposedly
directed him to a neighboring hill. Here, in a stone box, Smith claimed to have found
inscribed golden plates, together with a breastplate and the Urim and Thummim, two crystals
set like spectacles in a silver bow.
By 1830 Smith had produced the Book of Mormon, a purported translation of the golden
plates. According to Smith, God had called him to preach a restoration of original Christianity
in order to prepare the world for the soon return of Jesus, who would establish His kingdom
on an earth restored to its original state. Among the doctrines the new Saints taught were
baptism by immersion, tithing, and temperance. They held that a recent divine revelation
authorized the keeping of the first day of the week rather than the seventh as the Sabbath.
Smith failed to develop much of a following in his home district, but his fortunes increased
following a series of moves to Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. Converts came in the wake of
frontier revivals, and an active missionary program was begun both at home and in Great
Britain.
Within several years Smith built a virtual state within a state around Nauvoo, Illinois. Then in
1844 disaffection within his church over the practice of plural marriage by the prophet and
other church leaders, combined with the fears of non-Mormon leaders, led to Joseph Smith’s
destruction. State officials were alienated by Smith’s announcement of his candidacy for the
presidency of the United States. Upon order from Governor Thomas Ford, Smith and his
brother Hyram were charged with treason and detained in the Carthage, Illinois, jail. On June
27 the brothers were killed during the storming of the jail by a mob. Subsequently Brigham
Young led the Mormon faithful westward to establish a new Zion in the valley of the Great
Salt Lake.
Spiritualism
Just as the emotionalism of revivals helped plow the ground in which the seeds of
Mormonism sprouted, so the philosophical teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg, which
experienced a considerable vogue in America in the early nineteenth century, helped prepare
the way for spiritualism. In Swedenborg’s view the Second Advent foreseen by John in the
Revelation occurred through God’s disclosure to him of the true spiritual meaning of the
Bible. He maintained that he experienced visions in which he conversed with famous men of
the past ages.
In 1844 an eighteen-year-old New York cobbler, Andrew Jackson Davis, had a trance in a
country graveyard during which he believed he met and received messages from the ancient
Greek physician, Galen, and from Swedenborg. It was Davis who popularized clairvoyance
and the spiritualistic trance; in effect he was America’s first popular medium. Scholars
generally credit him with supplying the vocabulary and suggesting the theology of modern
spiritualism. Four years later the mysterious rappings interpreted by the Fox sisters at
Hydesville, New York, gave wide publicity in America to communication with spirits.
Spiritualism did not develop a strong separate denominational organization. Instead its
believers retained their connection with established churches, particularly of the Universalist-
Unitarian variety. The number of mediums increased. For the year 1859 one scholar has
identified seventy-one in New York, fifty-five in Massachusetts, and twenty-seven in Ohio.
Some 350,000 New Yorkers were estimated at this time to be believers in communion with
the dead.
Conventional Protestantism was displaying increasing vigor at the same time that it was
becoming more fractionalized. In Great Britain, which emerged from the Napoleonic Wars as
a dominant world power, the Wesleyan revival continued to stir thousands to a new interest in
humanitarian crusades and missionary endeavor. The Great Awakening of the 1740s and a
century later the Finney revivals provided a similar stimulus in the United States. This new
energy led to a greatly expanded interest in carrying the gospel to the non-Christian world.
The Missionary Movement
Many date the beginning of the modern Protestant missionary movement to William Carey’s
arrival in India in 1793. Two years later the London Missionary Society was established,
followed the next year by the establishment of a similar organization in New York. During the
next few years Robert Morrison went to China, Henry Martyn to the Muslim Near East,
Adoniram Judson to India and Burma, and Robert Moffat to South Africa. Enthusiastic
support for this mission endeavor came from the mushrooming Bible societies, which sprang
up in Europe, America, and Asia — sixty-three from 1804 to 1840. The British and Foreign
Bible Society and the American Bible Society was particularly active in sponsoring
translation of the Scriptures into new languages. The entire Bible or parts thereof were
translated into 112 languages and dialects between 1800 and 1844. This was more translation
than had been made in the preceding eighteen centuries.
The Sunday School Movement
The churches recognized that much needed to be done in their own neighborhoods as well as
in foreign lands. Thousands of children and youth were growing up in homes where the name
of Christ was used only in profanity. To reach this group Robert Raikes inaugurated the
Sunday School Movement in England in the late eighteenth century. Similar schools were
launched in New York and Boston in 1816. Soon the Philadelphia Sunday and Adult School
Union was shepherding 723 schools scattered among the major Protestant denominations in
nearly twenty states. In 1826 the Congregational, Presbyterian, and Reformed Churches
cooperated to establish the American Home Missionary Society, which for the next quarter
century actively promoted Christian schools and churches in the frontier states and territories.
Economic Conditions
Economic conditions in Great Britain and the United States contributed greatly to the
churches’ ability to finance missionary endeavors at home and abroad. The advent of
improved technology in the textile industry and the development of the steam engine
propelled Britain into the first industrial revolution. Fortunes were developed in
manufacturing and in trade with a growing overseas empire. Much of this new merchant
wealth was given to support overseas missionaries, perhaps in the hope that a desire to
purchase the products enjoyed by Christians would follow the adoption of their religion.
Others whose consciences were troubled at affluence acquired through “nasty” ventures like
the slave trade quieted them by donating money to have Bibles translated into Hindustani.
As factories mushroomed, so did the population in urban areas. This concentration of
population made it easier to contact larger numbers in a short time. Still, the Industrial
Revolution proved a mixed blessing for the Christian churches. The increase in the variety
and amounts of material goods tended to stimulate the acquisitive nature of the wealthy and to
arouse the envy of the poor. Factory hands and miners, weary from a twelve- to sixteen-hour
working day, were generally lethargic toward spiritual things. Disillusioned over their chances
for upward mobility in English society, thousands longed to emigrate to America, Australia,
or South Africa.

William Carey (1761-1834), whose missionary career in India began in 1793, was an
important part of the Protestant missionary movement prior to the Millerite era.
Reform Movements
In both Britain and the United States religious groups were soon involved in the campaign to
improve numerous aspects of society. America’s most famous revivalist, Charles Grandison
Finney, “preached not only salvation but reform”. Many who were converted under his
preaching became active in antislavery and temperance societies.
Perhaps no reform movement exhibited more clearly the interweaving of religious and secular
motivations than the crusade to promote temperance. Hundreds of clergymen labeled
intemperance and the liquor traffic as sinful. William Miller exhorted his followers, “For your
soul’s sake drink not another draught, lest he [Christ] come and find you drunken”. Other
temperance advocates were stimulated by more earthly interests. If increasing numbers of
citizens were to be given the vote, it was essential that they be able to cast their ballots with
minds unmuddled by liquor.
Numerous causes designed to improve the lot of disadvantaged groups attracted the reform-
minded. Thomas Gallaudet and Samuel Gridley Howe campaigned for education and
understanding of the deaf and the blind. Louis Dwight of Boston sought to arouse church
members to the “miseries of prisons”. Surely there was much in the common methods of
handling criminals that needed reforming. Confinement in the stocks, whipping, and branding
came to seem inhuman — fit treatment only for slaves! Surely counseling, education, and
religious services were more potent than corporal punishment for encouraging reformation.
Educational Reform
It was during these years that the free public school system took shape in the United States.
Beginning in 1823, when Samuel Hall called for better training for elementary teachers, the