1919 Bible Conference
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Seventh-day Adventist Church
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ...
conference or council held from July 1 to August 9, 1919, for denominational leaders, educators, and editors to discuss theological and pedagogical issues. The council was convened by the General Conference Executive Committee led by A. G. Daniells, the President of the General Conference, and included the first major discussion of the inspiration of Ellen G. White
Ellen G. White
Ellen Gould White was a prolific author and an American Christian pioneer. She, along with other Sabbatarian Adventist leaders, such as Joseph Bates and her husband James White, would form what is now known as the Seventh-day Adventist Church.Ellen White reported to her fellow believers her...
’s writings after her death in 1915, and the far-reaching theological scope of the discussions would generate considerable controversy.
Historical setting
The 1919 Bible Conference occurred during the height of a series of prophetic conferences held in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
by conservative evangelicals
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
toward the end of and soon after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. These prophetic conferences drew attention to the imminent second coming
Second Coming
In Christian doctrine, the Second Coming of Christ, the Second Advent, or the Parousia, is the anticipated return of Jesus Christ from Heaven, where he sits at the Right Hand of God, to Earth. This prophecy is found in the canonical gospels and in most Christian and Islamic eschatologies...
of Jesus, but most Adventists who attended these meetings could not accept their dispensationalist
Dispensationalism
Dispensationalism is a nineteenth-century evangelical development based on a futurist biblical hermeneutic that sees a series of chronologically successive "dispensations" or periods in history in which God relates to human beings in different ways under different Biblical covenants.As a system,...
views. Out of these prophetic conferences a coalition of militant evangelicals would coalesce into what has become known historically as the Fundamentalist
Fundamentalist Christianity
Christian fundamentalism, also known as Fundamentalist Christianity, or Fundamentalism, arose out of British and American Protestantism in the late 19th century and early 20th century among evangelical Christians...
movement reaching its heyday during the 1920s. Despite obvious eschatological
Christian eschatology
Christian eschatology is a major branch of study within Christian theology. Eschatology, from two Greek words meaning last and study , is the study of the end of things, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, or the end of the world...
(end-time) differences, at the outset of the 1919 Bible Conference Adventist leaders would cite the example of these other prophetic conferences as an inspiration for their own meeting.
Introduction
All together there were 65 individuals in attendance accompanied by between 7 and 9 stenographersShorthand
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed or brevity of writing as compared to a normal method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek stenos and graphē or graphie...
. The Conference was the first academic Bible Conference of its kind where a significant number of participants had advanced training in theology, history, and biblical languages. The meeting was by invitation only so that those present could “exercise care and good judgment” while discussing varying viewpoints.
Debate concerning Ellen White
While not on the original agenda, other historical and theological issues would be incorporated into the conference—-most significantly, the inspiration and role of Ellen White and how Adventist viewed her. George B. Thompson, field secretary of the General Conference, noted: “If we had always taught the truth [regarding Ellen White] we would not have any trouble or shock in the denomination now”. Thompson’s statement represents a growing rift between participants over the nature and role of inspiration. Much of the debate revolved around problems in prophetic interpretation. Many of those present at this conference were personally acquainted with Ellen White and tried to correct the view that her writings were inerrant (that inspired writings contain no mistakes) as advocated by Fundamentalists (see Biblical inerrancyBiblical inerrancy
Biblical inerrancy is the doctrinal position that the Bible is accurate and totally free of error, that "Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact." Some equate inerrancy with infallibility; others do not.Conservative Christians generally believe that...
). A. G. Daniells
Arthur Grosvenor Daniells
Arthur Grosvenor Daniells was a Seventh-day Adventist minister and administrator, most notably the longest serving president of the General Conference....
, W. W. Prescott
W. W. Prescott
William Warren Prescott was an influential administrator, educator, and scholar in the early Seventh-day Adventist Church.- Biography :Prescott's parents were part of the Millerite movement.W. W...
, and H. C. Lacey would publicly denounce the concept of inerrancy in relationship to Ellen White’s writings, but differentiated her writings from those of the Bible which they argued were inerrant.
The suggestion that Ellen White’s writings might not be inerrant appears to have met with hostility, especially by Benjamin G. Wilkinson
Benjamin G. Wilkinson
Dr. Benjamin George Wilkinson was a Seventh-day Adventist missionary, educator, theologian and the Dean of Theology at the Seventh-day Adventist Washington Missionary College which is located in Takoma Park, Maryland, near Washington, D.C.-Biography:Wilkinson is an obscure figure today, and is...
. Some of these younger leaders bucked against older church leaders. Interestingly, much of the debate on inspiration revolved around historical revisions in the 1911 edition of Great Controversy
The Great Controversy (book)
The Great Controversy is a book written by Ellen G. White, one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and held in esteem as a prophet of God among SDA members. It describes the "Great Controversy theme" between Jesus and Satan, as played out over the millennia from its start in heaven,...
. Whereas Daniells and Prescott had been intimately involved in these revisions, some of the younger delegates were not, and there was the far more important question of how the denomination should go about making revisions now that she was dead. D. E. Robinson, who had been Ellen White’s secretary for 13 years, and who had also assisted on the 1911 revision, referred to some “slight inaccuracies in the historical work [Great Controversy]” and stated that Ellen White desired “to make everything accurate.” He said:
- “I know that Sister White appreciated the work of Brother Prescott and others in calling attention to some of these slight inaccuracies in the historical work; and when the plates were worn out and a new edition became necessary, she did instruct us as her workers to do everything we could to make everything accurate. I think that Brother [C. C.] Crisler and myself spent nearly six months in the study of Great Controversy. There were many points raised. I will say this, that not all the suggestions that were sent in by our brethren were followed. And as a personal testimony, I want to say that in all my experience with Sister White I had nothing that more distinctly confirmed my faith in the divine guidance than the work we did in the revision of Great Controversy. As Bible and history teachers, you know how hard it is to write history and how even the best historians err” (cf. Robert W. OlsonRobert W. OlsonRobert W. Olson was director of the Ellen G. White Estate from 1978 to 1990.- Biography :Olson was the first staff member who was not a direct descendant of Ellen G. White to run her estate and the first staff member to hold a Ph.D. He had a wide variety of pastoral and administrative posts before...
, “Historical Discrepancies in the Spirit of Prophecy”.
It is not clear what the consensus of the delegates was toward the inspiration of Ellen White. Some were concerned that church members would become “terribly upset if they should discover that Ellen White was fallible”. No decision was officially made as to what to do, and eventually it was decided not to publish the conference transcripts. One delegate, John Isaac, remarked: “The study was a wonderful help to me. I always believed the testimonies, but quite often when I was asked questions I had to say I don’t know, I don’t understand, but . . . [now] I have received wonderful help from these meetings”. Even Daniells remarked afterward, “I think I can truly say that at the close of this important meeting, we stand together more unitedly and firmly for all the Fundamentals than when we began the meeting”. Yet the suspicions of J. S. Washburn and Claude Holmes, among others, were aroused, and they saw “this Bible Institute” as one of “the most terrible thing[s] that has ever happened in the history of this denomination”. Together Holmes and Washburn would work to secure Daniells’ dismissal at the 1922 General Conference Session
General Conference Session
The General Conference Session is the official world meeting of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. The first session was held on May 20, 1863 with 20 delegates in attendance, and it is now held quinquennially ....
, as well as remove other key participants of the 1919 Bible Conference.
The conference was then nearly forgotten until 1975 when the Conference transcripts were discovered in the General Conference Archives. Transcripts excerpts were first published in 1979 by Spectrum
Spectrum (magazine)
Spectrum is the official publication of Adventist Forums, published four times a year. It was established "to encourage Seventh-day Adventist participation in the discussion of contemporary issues from a Christian viewpoint, to look without prejudice at all sides of a subject, to evaluate the...
, and are now available in their entirety from an official church website (see below).
See also
- 1888 Minneapolis General Conference1888 Minneapolis General ConferenceThe 1888 Minneapolis General Conference Session was a meeting of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists held in Minneapolis, Minnesota in October of 1888. It is regarded as a landmark event in the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Key participants were Alonzo T. Jones, Ellet J....
- 1952 Bible Conference1952 Bible ConferenceThe 1952 Bible Conference was a Seventh-day Adventist conference in the Sligo Church in Takoma Park, Maryland from September 1–13, 1952. There were 498 people listed as attending this meeting with worldwide representation...
- History of the Seventh-day Adventist ChurchHistory of the Seventh-day Adventist ChurchThe Seventh-day Adventist Church had its roots in the Millerite movement of the 1830s and 1840s, during the period of the Second Great Awakening, and was officially founded in 1863. Prominent figures in the early church included Hiram Edson, James Springer White and his wife Ellen G. White, Joseph...
- Inspiration of Ellen G. White
External links
- "Michael Campbell on the 1919 Bible Conference: New Light on a Persisting Controversy" by Arthur Patrick. SDANet AtIssue
- "Sifting Through the Past: The 1919 Bible Conference, and How It Still Shapes Our Church Today " by Michael W. Campbell. Adventist Review January 28, 2010, p16–19?
Transcripts of conference:
- Spectrum 10:1 (May 1979), p23-57. "The Bible Conference of 1919: Introduction" by Molleurus Couperus, p23-26; "The Use of the Spirit of Prophecy In Our Teaching of Bible and History: July 30, 1919", 27-44; "Inspiration of the Spirit of Prophecy As Related to The Inspiration of the Bible: August 1, 1919"
- Bert Haloviak with Gary Land, "Ellen White & Doctrinal Conflict: Context of the 1919 Bible Conference". Spectrum 12:4 (June 1982), p19–34
- The 1919 Bible and History Teachers Conference: Selected Materials from SDAnet AtIssue, including transcripts from July 30 and August 1