The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

II. Relationships of the Two Major Adventist Bodies

1. CONDITIONALISM ESTABLISHED IN ADVENT CHRISTIAN CHURCH

In the great North American Second Advent movement of the 1840’s some began to present the Conditionalist position in 1841 and 1842. Slowly the concept took root. Around 1845 the teaching that immortality is not a natural possession of the human soul, but is a gift of God through Christ alone, came to the fore and brought on a crisis. In 1841 Storrs had issued An Enquiry: Are the Souls of the Wicked Immortal? which he enlarged into his Six Sermons on Conditionalism in 1842. But these, which were now rather widely scattered, precipitated the crisis. CFF2 647.4

In the Midnight Cry of May 23, 1844, William Miller “disclaimed” any sympathy or support of Storrs’s views on the unconscious intermediate state of the sleeping saints, and the end of the wicked as that of utter destruction. Dr. Josiah Litch even issued his militant Anti-Annihilationist in protest. Joshua V. Himes, the great publicist and organizer, likewise opposed this development at first, but later embraced it. CFF2 648.1

The Albany, New York, Conference was convened in April, 1845, in the hope of formulating a bond of unity among the Adventists. But there seemed to be no effective “binding cord.” Storrs, estranged by the majority antagonism to his advocacy of Conditionalism, was not present. Several other prominent Adventists likewise absented themselves. As a result, the doctrine of unconsciousness in death and immortality only through Christ the Life-giver was avoided by the conference, with the vague statement that the righteous do not receive their reward until Christ comes. This issue brought the parting of the ways. The Advent Herald closed its columns to Conditionalism, so the World’s Crisis became the mouthpiece. But in time the dominant party, believing in the conscious state of the dead, disappeared. And the Advent Christian group, formally established a decade later, outgrew and superseded the parent body. Let us note it in greater detail. CFF2 648.2

2. ADVENT CHRISTIAN CHURCH ESTABLISHED IN 1861

By 1858 the dominant body became known as “evangelical Adventists,” distinguished by adherence to the doctrines of consciousness in death and an eternally burning Hell. However, they steadily declined in numbers and influence. J. V. Himes deserted them in 1864, and started The Voice of the Prophets, then joined the Advent Christian group, but finally took orders in the Episcopalian Church. CFF2 648.3

There were pitfalls aplenty. Conditionalist George Storrs had established his clear position in the Bible Examiner, in New York City. But one excess was advocated by John T. Walsh, who went so far in his advocacy of annihilationism as to teach that the wicked would never be raised again-that their first death was their last and that the millennium was in the past. This developed into a splinter movement called the “Life and Advent Union.” The “Age to Come” concept also sought entrance. So there were numerous perils. CFF2 649.1

But the major secession came under Jonathan Cummings, who started The World’s Crisis. In 1860 the Advent Christian Church was formed, and became the predominant body among the first-day Adventists, taking up the cudgels in the wake of the line of early nineteenth-century American advocates of Life Only in Christ-Smith, Grew, Stows, Fitch, and French-and matching their Old World counterparts-Constable, White, et cetera. CFF2 649.2

3. MAIN ADVENTIST GROUPS BOTH CHAMPION CONDITIONALISM

Thus it was that the first-day Adventists, principally the Advent Christian group, gave major emphasis to the nature and destiny of man, just as the Sabbatarian Adventists did to the Sabbath. As the main tenet of the former body, Conditionalism received special stress. They also developed an earlier Conditionalist literature, with remarkably large circulation, as, for example, Storrs’s Conditionalist Bible Examiner, and his Six Sermons, with a distribution of two hundred thousand copies. There were also the publications of H. L. Hastings, D. T. Taylor, and Isaac C. Wellcome, to name but three. Several were publishers, with extensive coverages. Stalwarts like C. F. Hudson and J. H. Pettingell were aligned with them. CFF2 649.3

Paralleling them in the time of their rise, the Seventh-day Adventists, as concerns Conditionalism, believed essentially the same as the Advent Christian group. But with the Sabbatarian Adventists this was but one of about seven coordinated fundamentals which they believed to be equally important, and due for emphasis. Conditionalism was held by all members as a matter of Bible-based faith. But as other doctrines were under greater fire, they received the greater immediate attention. However, Conditionalism was never submerged or weakened. Such were the relationships. CFF2 650.1

Together the witness of the two bodies was impressive in its impact. Furthermore, they had both received the Conditionalist teaching largely through the same channel-namely from George Storrs, who in turn derived it from Deacon Grew. ¹ Nevertheless, there were a number of ministers of the Christian Connection, and even of other persuasions, joining voices in the great Second Advent movement, who likewise held to Conditionalism. They did not, however, make an open issue of it at the time, because of majority opposition. But they nevertheless attested its truth. It was destined to come to the forefront. CFF2 650.2

But there is yet another aspect that needs to be borne in mind-momentous world conditions and subversive movements that had an inevitable bearing upon the outlook and developments. After noting them, we will take up the early Advent Christian witness. CFF2 650.3