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Wolves Among The Sheep
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May 16  Wolves Among The Sheep

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I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples. Acts 20:29, 30, NIV.

The major problem the Sabbatarians faced in the early 1850s was that they had no systematic defense against impostors. Almost anybody who wanted to could preach in Sabbatarian congregations. Large sectors of Adventism had no checks on ministerial orthodoxy or even morality as it faced the crisis of a self-sppointed ministry.

That problem had become evident to all of the ex-Millerite denominations before they organized during the late 1850s and early 1860s. One letter to a first day Adventist paper, for example, complained that the writer's congregation in 1850 had "again been troubled with what we consider to be false teaching. . . About three weeks since, a man by the name of Joseph Bates arrived here by stage, professing to be an Advent preacher. . .We had an interview with him, and found his 'message' was the Sabbath, or seventh day, and shut door."

Himes, the editor, replied: "Capt. Bates is an old personal friend of ours, and, so far as we know, is better as a man than most of his associates; but we have no confidence in his teaching-He should not be tolerated for a moment."

The real problem that all of the ex-Millerite religious bodies faced was that of boundaries. If Bates felt free to do evangelism among first-day congregations, they were more than eager to return the favor. Worse yet were those insincere impostors whose primary aim was to fleece the saints financially.

The year 1853 would see the Sabbatarians take two steps to pretect their congregations from "false" brethren. First, the most prominent Sabbatarian ministers adopted a plan whereby approved preachers received a card "recommending them to the fellowship of the Lord's people everywhere." Two recognized leaders signed and dated the cards. The one received by John Loughborough in January 1853 carried the names of James Whtie and Joseph Bates.

The second method utilized by the Sabbatarians to certify their leaders was ordination. By late 1853 they had begun regularly ordaining both traveling preachers (ministers assigned to specific congregations did not yet exist) and deacons, who appear to have been the only local church officers at that early period.

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Thank You, Father, for building protective mechanisms into Your church on earth for our safety.
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