Pioneers and the changing of the fundamental beliefs

George R. Knight is professor of church history at the Theological Seminary, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan.

Most of the founders of Seventh-day Adventism would not be able to join the church today if they had to subscribe to the denomination's Fundamental Beliefs. ¹

More specifically, most would not be able to agree to belief number 2, which deals with the doctrine of the Trinity. For Joseph Bates the Trinity was an unscriptural doctrine, for James White it was that "old Trinitarian absurdity," and for M. E. Cornell it was a fruit of the great apostasy, along with such false doctrines as Sunday-keeping and the immortality of the soul.²

In like manner, most of the founders of Seventh-day Adventism would have trouble with fundamental belief number 4, which holds that Jesus is both eternal and truly God. For J. N. Andrews "the Son of God ... had God for His Father, and did, at some point in the eternity of the past, have beginning of days." And E. J. Waggoner, of Minneapolis 1888 fame, penned in 1890 that "there was a time when Christ proceeded forth and came from God,... but that time was so far back in the days of eternity that to finite comprehension it is practically without beginning." ³

Neither could most of the leading Adventists have agreed with fundamental belief number 5, which implies the personhood of the Holy Spirit. Uriah Smith, for example, not only was anti- Trinitarian and semi-Arian, like so many of his colleagues, but also like them pictured the Holy Spirit as "that divine, mysterious emanation through which They [the Father and the Son] carry forward their great and infinite work." On another occasion, Smith pictured the Holy Spirit as a "divine influence" and not a "person like the Father and the Son." ⁴

Such misconceptions during the 1890s a decade in which the work of the Holy Spirit and the indwelling power of Christ were being emphasized by such writers as Ellen White, E. J. Waggoner, and W. W. Prescott helped pave the way for the pantheism that Waggoner and J. H. Kellogg taught around the turn of the century. Those misconceptions also probably helped set some Adventists up for the holy flesh heresy by the end of the 1890s.⁵ 

1 The fundamental beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists may be found in the annual Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook and in the denomination's Church Manual.

2 Joseph Bates, The Autobiography of Elder Joseph Bates (Battle Creek, Mich.: Seventh-day Adventist Pub. Assn., 1868), pp. 204, 205; James White, "The Faith of Jesus," Review and Herald,
August 5,1852, p. 52; M. E. Cornell, Facts for the Times (Battle Creek, Mich.: M. E. Cornell, 1858),
p. 76. See also Erwin Roy Gane, "The Arian or Anti-Trinitarian Views Presented in Seventh-day Adventist Literature and the Ellen G. White Answer" (M.A. thesis, Andrews University, 1963); Russell Holt, "The Doctrine of the Trinity in the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination: Its Rejection
and Acceptance" (Term paper, Andrews University, 1969). 

3 J. N. Andrews, "Melchizedec," Review and Herald, September 7,1869, p. 84; E. J. Waggoner, Christ and His Righteousness (Oakland, Calif.:Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1890), pp. 21, 22; see also pp. 9, 19, 20.

4 Uriah Smith, "The Spirit of Prophecy and Our Relation to It," General Conference Daily Bulletin, 1891, p. 146; Uriah Smith, "In the Question Chair," Review and Herald, October 28,1890, p. 664.

5 See George R. Knight, Angry Saints: Tensions and Possibilities in the Adventist Struggle Over Righteousness by Faith (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1989), pp. 76,77; Richard W.Schwarz, John Harvey Kellogg, M.D. (Nashville: Southern Pub. Assn., 1970), pp. 184-186; Richard W. Schwarz, Light Bearers to the Remnant (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1979), pp. 446-448.                    Ministry Magazine