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And What Happened To All Millerites? 1

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Dec. 20 - And What Happened To All Millerites? 1

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Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. James 5:8, NKJV.

We have spent nearly a year meditating on the Lord's leading of the Advent movement. During it we have seen Seventh-day Adventism expand from nothing to some 16 million members worldwide. The pathway between zero and maturity was not a straight one.

Nor was it one without difficulties. But step by step truth was uncovered and preached "to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people" (Rev. 14:6).

But what does it all mean? What lessons can we glean from Adventist history? And what might those lessons mean for the future of the movement? It is to such questions that we turn in the final few days of our journey through Adventist history.

The first thing we will do in our quest for perspective is to look at the post-Millerite denominations. Between 1844 and 1848, we noted some months ago, three diverse strands of Adventism evolved. The first was the spiritualizers, who gave up the literal interpretation of Scripture and spiritualized the meaning of even concrete words. Thus they could claim that Christ came into their hearts spiritually on October 22, 1844.

The second group was the Albany Adventists, who organized in 1845 to create distance between themselves and the fanatical spiritualizers. The group's proponents eventually abandoned any firm belief in Miller's prophetic scheme.

A third group, the Sabbatarians, continued to hold to a literal Second Advent (unlike the spiritualizers) and to Miller's principles of prophetic understanding (unlike the Albany Adventists). Thus the Sabbatarians came to see themselves as the only true heir of pre-Disappointment Adventism.

Between 1844 and 1866 six denominations arose out of the three branches of Millerism.

The Albany group gave birth to four: The American Evangelical Conference (1858), the Advent Christians (1860), the Church of God (Oregon, Illinois) (1850s), and the Life and Advent Union (1863). The Sabbatarian movement resulted in two: the Seventh-day Adventists (1861-1863) and the Church of God (Seventh Day) (1866).

The spiritualizers, with their diversity, extreme individuality, and lack of organization, formed no permanent bodies. Various spiritualizers eventually gravitated to other "isms" or more stable Adventist groups, or vanished back into the larger culture.

But what happened to the rest? And why? Those questions lead directly to important thoughts on the meaning of the Adventist journey through time.


 

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The Lord permits trials in order that we may be cleansed from earthliness, from selfishness, from harsh, unchristlike traits of character. He suffers the deep waters of affliction to go over our souls in order that we may know Him and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, in order that we may have deep heart longings to be cleansed from defilement, and may come forth from the trial purer, holier, happier. Often we enter the furnace of trial with our souls darkened with selfishness; but if patient under the crucial test, we shall come forth reflecting the divine character(COL 175).

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