Andrews University Digital Library of Dissertations and Theses

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ABSTRACT THE ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT, AND HISTORY OF THE NORWEGIAN SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH FROM THE 1840s TO 1887 by Bjorgvin Martin Hjelvik Snorrason Adviser: Jerry Moon ABSTRACT OF GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH Dissertation Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary Title: THE ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT, AND HISTORY OF THE NORWEGIAN SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH FROM THE 1840s TO 1887 Name of researcher: Bjorgvin Martin Hjelvik Snorrason Name and degree of faculty adviser: Jerry Moon, Ph.D. Date completed: July 2010 This dissertation reconstructs chronologically the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Norway from the Haugian Pietist revival in the early 1800s to the establishment of the first Seventh-day Adventist Conference in Norway in 1887. The present study has been based as far as possible on primary sources such as protocols, letters, legal documents, and articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers from the nineteenth century. A contextual-comparative approach was employed to evaluate the objectivity of a given source. Secondary sources have also been consulted for interpretation and as corroborating evidence, especially when no primary sources were available. The study concludes that the Pietist revival ignited by the Norwegian Lutheran lay preacher, Hans Nielsen Hauge (1771-1824), represented the culmination of the sixteenth- century Reformation in Norway, and the forerunner of the Adventist movement in that country. Thus Adventism in Norway was a direct outgrowth of Norwegian Pietism. Adventism was essentially pietistic in its emphasis on the Bible only as the rule of faith, and its insistence that biblical doctrine must be not only believed, but practiced in the life. The best evidence suggests that the discovery of the seventh-day Sabbath by four families of southern Norway, who became the nucleus of Norwegian Adventism, did not result from any contact with other Sabbath keepers, but was derived directly from their own study of the Bible, and their faith in the Bible as the binding word of God as advocated by Hans Nielsen Hauge. Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary THE ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT, AND HISTORY OF THE NORWEGIAN SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH FROM THE 1840s TO 1887 A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by Bjorgvin Martin Hjelvik Snorrason July 2010 © Copyright by Bjorgvin Martin Hjelvik Snorrason 2010 All Rights Reserved To my wife Hallgerður Ásta the love of my life iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................... ix PREFACE .................................................................................................................. xi Background of the Problem ........................................................................... xi The Rise of Divergent Forms of Christianity .......................................... xi The Celtic Church .............................................................................. xiii The Roman Catholic Church in Norway ........................................... xvii The Reformation in Norway .............................................................. xvii Rise of Pietism in Norway ................................................................ xviii The Enlightenment ................................................................................... xviii Hans Nielsen Hauge, Norwegian Pietist Reformer .................................. xix Statement of the Problem ............................................................................... xxiv Purpose and Delimitations ............................................................................. xxiv Review of Prior Research and Primary Sources ............................................ xxv Prior Research .......................................................................................... xxv Primary Sources ....................................................................................... xxix Methodology .................................................................................................. xxxi Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ xxxvi Chapter 1. BACKGROUNDS AND BEGINNINGS ........................................................ 1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 1 Christianity in Norway before the Arrival of Seventh-day Adventism ........ 3 The Celtic Christian Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Norwegians, from the Ninth Century to 1537 ................................... 3 The Reformation in Denmark-Norway 1536/1537–1797 ........................ 16 The Reformation in Norway 1536/371897 ............................................ 19 Hans Nielsen Hauge (1771-1824) .................................................................. 27 Hauge‟s Impact on Norwegian History ................................................... 28 Hauge‟s Life: From Infancy to Manhood (1771-1796) ........................... 29 The Preaching and Writing Years (1796-1804) ....................................... 36 Hauge‟s Prison Years (1804-1814) .......................................................... 42 Hauge‟s Last Years (1814-1824) ............................................................. 44 Introduction of Sabbath-keeping Christianity in Norway, 1839-1850 .......... 46 Seven Families Change Their Beliefs ...................................................... 46 The Family of Ola Sørenson Øvland ................................................. 47 The Family of Søren Olson Øvland ................................................... 48 iv The Family of Bertor Olson Øvland .................................................. 48 The Family of Tarald Jensen Fiskaa .................................................. 48 The Family of Andrew Olsen ........................................................... 52 The Family of Ola Sørenson Fleskåsen Heggland ............................. 55 The Family of Halvor Olsen Øvland Øfre ......................................... 57 The Emigration (1849-1856) ......................................................................... 58 The Reason for the Emigration of the Seven Families ............................ 61 First Probable Awareness of the Seventh-day Sabbath in Finsland in 1839............................................................................. 64 The Sabbath Message at Fiskaa ............................................................... 67 Possible Source of the Sabbath Message in Vågbygd and Finsland ........ 70 Infant Baptism Declined .......................................................................... 73 Summary ........................................................................................................ 74 2. DEVELOPMENTS AT OAKLAND, WISCONSIN ........................................ 76 Why Norwegians Chose Wisconsin............................................................... 76 Oakland, Wisconsin: “Here Began Our Christian Experience” ..................... 81 The Reappearance of the Sabbath Question in Oakland .......................... 87 Lutheran Reactions to Seventh-day Sabbath Observance in Wisconsin ............................................................. 99 The Role of Gustaf Mellberg ............................................................. 101 Dissension in Wisconsin Caused by “Age-to-Come” Preachers: Stephensen and Hall ................................................... 106 The Messenger Party.......................................................................... 112 Tragedy in Oakland, Wisconsin ............................................................... 116 Baptism by Immersion Introduced........................................................... 117 Organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Oakland, Wisconsin .................................................... 123 The Need for a Scandinavian Minister .............................................. 127 Summary ........................................................................................................ 127 3. JOHN G. MATTESON ..................................................................................... 131 The First Twenty Years of Matteson‟s Life ................................................... 132 Onward to a Better Life in the New World.................................................... 135 Matteson‟s Initial Years in the New World ................................................... 138 Matteson‟s Conversion ............................................................................ 140 Education and Marriage ........................................................................... 148 The Sabbath-keeping Adventist Connection ................................................. 149 The First Adventist Periodical in Danish-Norwegian .............................. 162 Matteson and the SDA Church in Oakland, Wisconsin ........................... 165 Matteson‟s Move to Oakland and Ordination .......................................... 168 Matteson‟s Relationship to James and

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