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Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers
the heralding of the third angel’s message, the need for organization
developed, and in January, 1850, Ellen White was shown that the
Sabbath-keeping Adventists should bring their work into order, for
“everything in heaven was in perfect order.”—
Manuscript 11, 1850
.
Earnest efforts to bring about church organization spanned the
decade of the 1850’s. They culminated in 1860 in the choice of
the name “Seventh-day Adventists,” And, in 1861, in plans for the
organization of local churches and state conferences. Then in 1863,
the state conferences were bound together in the General Conference.
Painstaking care was exercised to avoid the first step in forming a
creed, for it was apparent that the church could not have creedal
stakes firmly Driven, and at the same time be free to follow God’s
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opening providences as revealed through a study of the word of God
and the revelations of the Spirit of prophecy. An excellent statement
reviewing God’s providence in instituting church order appears on
pages 24-32
.
At the time of the organization of the General Conference in
1863, a General Conference Committee of three men was chosen.
The major interests of the church consisted of the several state con-
ferences and a publishing house located at Battle Creek, Michigan.
In the evangelistic field, increasing success came to Seventh-day
Adventist ministers. Their work consisted mainly in preaching the
distinctive truths of the gospel message, including the Sabbath, the
state of the dead, the second advent, and the sanctuary. Many of the
men were drawn into discussions and debates involving the law of
God and other vital Bible truths. Imperceptibly, not a few of those
who engaged in such discussions became self-reliant, and there de-
veloped in their hearts a spirit of sureness, self-dependence, and
argumentativeness. In time this bore unwholesome fruit
.
Institutional Development
Institutional development followed quickly on the heels of the
organization of the General Cnference. In the vision given to Ellen
White in December, 1865, a medical institution was called for, and in
response the leaders opened a small health institute in Battle Creek
in September, 1866. Less than a decade later, in the messages which
came from the pen of Ellen White, a school was called for. In 1874,