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Hindsight Seventh-day Adventist History in Essays and Extracts Written and compiled by Dave Fiedler To Clarissa, and to all who enjoy both stories and wisdom. Copyright © 1996 by Dave Fiedler 10/12 Zapf Caligraphic Academy Enterprises 6200 Academy Lane Harrah, OK 73045 Printed by Review and Herald Graphics 55 West Oak Ridge Drive Hagerstown, MD 21740 HE Lord directed Moses to recount to the children of Israel His dealings with them in their deliverance from Egypt Tand their wonderful preservation in the wilderness. He was to call to mind their unbelief and murmuring when brought into trial, and the Lord's great mercy and loving-kindness, which had never forsaken them. This would stimulate their faith and strengthen their courage. While they would be led to realize their own sin and weakness, they would realize also that God was their righteousness and strength. It is just as essential that the people of God in this day should bear in mind how and when they have been tested, and where their faith has failed; where they have imperiled His cause by their unbelief and also by their self-confidence. God's mercy, His sustaining providence, His never-to-be-forgotten deliver- ances, are to be recounted, step by step. As God's people thus review the past, they should see that the Lord is ever repeating His dealings. —Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, 210 Table of Contents Preface ...................................................................................... 7 1. Fearless! ................................................................................... 9 2. The New York Reporter and the Great Tent ..................... 16 3. When the Books Were Opened ......................................... 18 4. Sabbath Problems ................................................................. 23 5. John Norton Loughborough: Beginning Labors ............ 30 6. The "Letters" Page and Brother Rapp .............................. 33 7. James White on Laodicea .................................................. 35 8. Revive Us Again ................................................................. 37 9. The Need of Revival ........................................................... 43 10. The Medical Mission ........................................................... 45 11. David Paulson on Hydrotherapy ...................................... 50 12. Organizing Churches ........................................................ 52 13. The People of the Book ........................................................ 55 14. The Mystery of Minneapolis ............................................ 69 15. Alonzo Trevier Jones on Minneapolis .............................. 77 16. Arthur Grosvenor Daniells on Minneapolis ..................... 79 17. The Peril of Power .............................................................. 81 18. Ellen G. White on Pluralism ............................................... 88 19. Adventist Chain Gangs ..................................................... 90 20. James T Ringgold on Religious Liberty ........................... 97 21. How Could It Be?................................................................... 101 22. Ellen G. White on Her Call to Australia ........................... 110 23. Convenient Instruction ..................................................... 113 24. Drury Webster Reavis on Dudley Marvin Canright 119 25. After Harbor Springs ........................................................... 122 26. The "Foolishest Nonsense" ............................................... 131 27. S. G. Huntington on "The Son of Man" ........................... 140 28. A Time of Change .............................................................. 144 29. The Rise of Spiritualism ..................................................... 164 30. Moses Hull and the Spiritualists ...................................... 166 31. The Omega .......................................................................... 168 32. Ellen White—Member of the Board ................................ 174 33. Edward Alexander Sutherland on Madison Graduates 184 34. Exercises in Futility .............................................................. 187 35. Anonymous Letter to Ellen G. White .............................. 192 36. With Friends Like These .................................................... 195 37. Considerations on the Work at Loma Linda .................. 199 38. Warren Eugene Howell on Adventist Education ............ 205 39. Through Opened Doors .................................................. 207 40. William Henry Branson on Academic Accreditation 224 41. Adventism and Walter Martin ......................................... 235 42. Just Before ............................................................................. 264 43. Vindication!............................................................................. 272 44. But Where's the Evidence? ............................................... 279 Index ...................................................................................... 284 Preface ESPITE its subtitle, this is not a "History book." To call it such would be a Dserious overstatement. There are simply too many gaps in its coverage, too many issues and events and personalities entirely absent from its pages for it to qualify as a history text of Seventh-day Adventism. Instead, it is a resource book, an attempt to glean from our past scattered pieces of wisdom, inspira- tion, encouragement, challenge, and—occasionally—even entertainment. Others would select differently than I have; I encourage them to do so. And when they have chosen that in which they see greatest value, have researched and written and compiled and documented, I trust I shall gain as great satisfaction from their efforts as I hope they will from mine. It should be understood that there are two differing categories of material in this volume. As noted in the subtitle, these are "Essays" and "Extracts." The former are mainly my words; the latter have been selected from a variety of original source materials, usually stemming from the time period under consideration. In an effort to minimize any confusion of these two categories, they have been typeset each in their own format. Essays appear in single columns, extracts in double. In its overall features the book is arranged primarily with reference to chronology. Still, the reader will find that the attraction of related subject matter has drawn certain of the extracts decades away from their roots. Some care should be exercised that this not be lost sight of. I have sought to provide easily accessible references so readers may find more context should they have an interest to do so. This has not always been possible, of course, because much of the material in this volume was selected precisely because it is not commonly available. It was the wish to make these materials "easily accessible" to the Adventist reading public which inspired this book in the first place. —Dave Fiedler CHAPTER ONE Fearless! NE of the most familiar of Ellen White's many encouragements to God's Opeople is found on page 196 of the book Life Sketches. Many, if not the majority, of Seventh-day Adventists could recite from memory—"We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history." "Nothing to fear." What a relief that would be to many troubled minds! And yet, broad as the assurance is, it comes tied to a condition—we must not forget. Which raises a disturbing question: What if we have never known the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history? Surely this statement applies, in one sense, to each person's own experi- ence, the way the Lord has led and taught us individually. Yet the statement's context, and the words "our past history," clearly show that Ellen White spoke as well of the denomination as a whole. At the time she wrote these words Ellen White could speak of having personally "traveled over every step of advance to our present standing.", We cannot say that today; we are far too young. Thus it seems that, for the promise of Life Sketches, 196, to be fulfilled to us, we must take it upon ourselves to first learn that which we must never forget. There are, of course, those episodes of our church's past that have become the legends of Adventism. These are well-known, often referred to. For this we may be glad. But all heaven is saddened at every recurrence of the mistakes of the past. Simply put, we should know better We would know better, many times, had we the benefit of an acquaintance with "the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history." "Our past history" covers a span of more than a century and a half, not counting the Old and New Testaments and the many lessons to be learned from God's true church through the ages of persecution and the years of the Reformation. From such a storehouse of information one could easily draw lesson upon lesson of tremendous value for God's people today. And while Ellen White certainly employed illustrations from each of these time periods, there is one on which she places unique emphasis: the Advent Awakening and the Midnight Cry of 1844. To sum up as concisely as possible the promi- nent characteristics of those years, one could do little better than the two words, "earnestness" and "enthusiasm." Surely these are not aspects of our past that we can afford to forget! 10 Hindsight Passing over, for now, the deeper and sometimes more technical subjects