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What Is The Authority Of...
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July 24 - What Is The Authority Of The General Conference?-1

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By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you authority to do them? Mark 11:28, RSV.

By what authority?

A good question. One that we ought to ask and think through, not only in relationship to Christ but to the leadership of His church on earth.

Not everyone was happy with the newly formed General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in the 1860s. The most active objections were the first president and secretary of the recently organized Iowa Conference-B. F. Snook and W. H. Brinkerhoff.

They opposed a strong church organization and conducted a campaign of criticism and disaffection against the general leadership of the church, especially James and Ellen White. In July 1865 the Iowa Conference constituency replaced Snook with George I. Butler. Subsequently Snook and Birnkerhoff left the denomination, taking some of the members with them to form the Marion Party. Unlike most offshoots from Seventh-day Adventism, the Marion Party did not disappear. Today we know it as the Church of God (Seventh Day).

While not all were happy with the 1861/1863 organization, it seems to have been serving its purpose during the years after the establishment of the system. The Marion rebellion would be the last significant schism in the denomination until early in the twentieth century.

Ten years after the founding of the General Conference, James White continued to praise the results of organization: "When we consider the small beginning, and in how obscure a manner this work commenced, the rapidity and great work it has already accomplished. . .When we look at all these things, and see how God has prospered us, we that are connected with this work can say, 'What hath God wrought!'"

Yet, in spite of the accolades, all was not well. Tensions existed in the Adventist camp over the nature and extent of the authority of the General Conference, especially in relation to the state conferences. Those tensions came to a head in 1873.

And they have not disappeared more than 130 years later. It therefore behooves us to take a look at the topic in Adventist history.

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Thank You, Lord, for wills to serve and for heads to think and for heats to care. Help us to use all of them to their full capacity as we relate You and the church.
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