he sixteenth century saw a world in transition from medieval to modern. In the years just preceding 1500, two events occurred which changed the world forever. Gutenberg's successful use of movable metal type in 1454 opened the way for the increase of knowledge spoken of by the Prophet Daniel: "But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase" (Dan. 12:4). The first book printed by the new process was a Bible. With Columbus' voyage to America 38 years later, the history of the New World became inexorably linked to that of the Old. These two remarkable events, printing and the opening of the New World for European settlement, set the stage for a new period in the history of the Church of God.
By the end of the 1500s, congregations that the world labeled "Sabbatarian Anabaptists" had appeared and were growing in Central Europe, Germany and England. They were termed Sabbatarian because they taught and observed the seventh-day Sabbath. They were called Anabaptists, meaning re-baptizers, because they refused to accept as Christians those who had merely been sprinkled as babies. They taught that baptism was only for adults who had come to believe the Gospel and had repented of their sins (cf. Acts 2:38).
As the world underwent the transformation from medieval to modern, what about the Church that Jesus Christ had built? What was it doing? The fascinating story that traces the history of the people of God from Europe to America sets the stage for the emergence of the endtime Work of God in the twentieth century.
The Story of the "Anabaptists"
In the early sixteenth century, a group of people labeled by outsiders as "Anabaptists" emerged from remnants of the Waldenses in Central Europe. Among them were some remarkable men, Oswald Glaidt, Andreas Fischer and Andreas Eossi. Their area of ministry was primarily in Germany, Poland, Hungary and parts of what later became known as Czechoslovakia and Romania. They all taught obedience to the Sabbath and Holy Days as well as a rejection of infant baptism and the Trinity. God used them to strengthen the faithful remnant and to provide a witness of the Truth as the turbulent Protestant Reformation was sweeping the same area.
Oswald Glaidt and Andreas Fischer met during a trip up the Danube River in 1527. They both wrote books in defense of the Sabbath. In response to those who accused him of trying to earn salvation because he taught that obedience to the Ten Commandments was necessary, Oswald Glaidt responded, "The moral law says, 'Do not murder,' yet nobody would argue seriously that this is no longer in effect, nor would anyone argue that simply to refrain from murder is an attempt to achieve salvation on the basis of 'works'" (Daniel Liechty, Sabbatarianism in the Sixteenth Century, p. 31). Glaidt was executed in Vienna in 1546. Shortly prior to his death he told his accusers, "Even if you drown me, I will not deny God and His Truth. Christ died for me and I will continue to follow Him and would die for His Truth before I would give it up" (p. 35).
Books and tracts on the Sabbath and other related subjects were published in the late 1500s by Andreas Eossi, a Hungarian of noble birth. Eossi, who got his theology straight from the Bible, was also a critic of the methods of teaching theology in the seminaries of his day. Much emphasis was placed by the "scholastics," who governed the seminaries, on the study of ancient Greek philosophy and logic. Eossi said of the respected Catholic and Protestant theologians who were his critics, "They ask me in vain where I discovered the true way of salvation, since I sojourned neither at Padua nor at Paris. As if salvation consisted of knowing many heathen writings and many heathen languages" (Prof. W. Bacher, The Sabbatarians of Hungary, quoted in Dean Blackwell's A Handbook of Church History, p. 253).
By the mid-1600s remnants of the Church in Central Europe were being increasingly persecuted by a resurgent Catholic Church which was regaining control there after the turbulence of the Reformation. True Christians were faced with either severe persecution or emigration to an area that offered greater freedom to practice their beliefs. The remote Trans-Carpathian mountain area, which was already home to Waldensian remnants, became a sanctuary for many. In the eighteenth century most of the few remaining German Sabbath-keepers migrated to Pennsylvania. There were also a number of people who were associated with the "Anabaptist movement," but who accepted other Protestant teachings of the Reformation. From those descend such modern-day groups as the Baptists, Mennonites and Amish.
In the meantime, remnants of the true Church had come into England. The scene was set for the fifth stage in the history of the Church of God, characterized by the Church at Sardis. Our first clear records of Sabbath-keeping church congregations in England date from the 1580s. By the early 1600s a public debate was being waged over whether the biblical Sabbath was still in effect. Quite a few books were written on the subject of the law of God and the Sabbath during this period, many of which still survive.
John Traske was one of the first to publish a book in England dealing with the Sabbath. Writing around 1618, he was imprisoned for his efforts. Some credit him with raising up the Mill Yard Church in London, the oldest known Sabbath-keeping church still functioning and parent of later Sabbatarian churches in America. Though some other historians date the founding of Mill Yard to the 1580s, well before Traske's time, he certainly pastored the church in the early seventeenth century. John Traske was later arrested and put in prison. While there, he seems to have recanted his teachings in order to gain release. His wife, however, refused to do so, remained faithful to the Truth and spent the rest of her life, about 15 years, in prison.
In 1661 John James, another Church of God minister in the London area, was arrested for preaching the Truth.
In his final words to the court he simply asked them to read the following scriptures: Jeremiah 26:14-15 and Psalm 116:15... after his execution his heart was taken out and burned, the four quarters of his body fixed to the gates of the city and his head set up on a pole in Whitechapel opposite to the alley in which his meeting-house stood. Such was the horrible price that some were prepared to pay for obedience to God in seventeenth century England [Ivor Fletcher, The Incredible History of God's True Church, Giving and Sharing Publishing, Neck City, MO, p. 176].
Another remarkable leader was Francis Bampfield, a copy of whose autobiography, The Life of Shem Acher, has been preserved in the British Museum Library. From 1662 until his death in 1683, he spent most of his time either in prison or on the run from the English authorities. Even when he was detained at Dorchester Prison, people flocked there to hear him preach. It was at this time of persecution that an event of far-reaching implications happened: Stephen Mumford and his wife, members of the Church, left England for the New World and came to Rhode Island in 1664. By the early 1700s the Church of God in England was virtually dead. Most of the ministers at that time, in addition to preaching on the Sabbath, were now pastoring churches on Sunday to make extra money. Compromise took its toll.
The Church in Early America
Upon arriving in Rhode Island, the only American colony founded upon the principle of religious liberty, the Mumfords began to fellowship with Baptists in Newport. They weren't quiet, however, about their belief in the Sabbath. In 1665, within the first year of the Mumfords' arrival, Tacy Hubbard started keeping the Sabbath with them, becoming the first convert in America. Shortly afterward, her husband Samuel joined her. In 1671 the first Sabbath-keeping church in America officially began with seven members. William Hiscox was the first pastor of the church, serving from 1671 until his death in 1704.
In 1708 a second church was officially organized in Westerly, Rhode Island (later renamed Hopkinton). Throughout the eighteenth century, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and New Jersey seem to have been the main areas of Sabbath-keeping churches. During this time, German Sabbath keepers immigrated to Pennsylvania. Peter Miller was the best known minister of the German Sabbath-keepers in Pennsylvania and was a friend of Benjamin Franklin.
The time of the American Revolution was a difficult period for many of God's people. The history of that era also demonstrates how spiritually dead many of the ministers and members were. Several congregations were greatly divided on the issue of warfare and political involvement. Jacob Davis, pastor of the Shrewsbury, New Jersey, Church of God, joined the Continental Army as a chaplain. Many of the members followed his example and enlisted also. One member, Simeon Maxson, boldly objected and labeled any church members who supported carnal warfare as "children of the devil" (Richard Nickels, Six Papers on the History of the Church of God, p. 60). He was put out of the congregation because of his stand.
Sabbath-keepers in the Shrewsbury area were impoverished and divided by the War. Many relocated to Pennsylvania after the Revolution and, prior to 1800, most of those moved to Salem, Virginia (later West Virginia). The area around Salem became one of the major centers of God's people from about 1800 on into the twentieth century. The history of God's people in this area is not, however, the story of unity and of a great work being done. It is the story of division, apostasy and spiritual lethargy on the part of the majority. Much of this was furthered by the influence of the prominent Davis family which produced many of the leading ministers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The vast majority of the brethren appear to have been so spiritually dead that they blindly followed apostate ministers into Protestantism.
Much false doctrine came into the Church in America at an early time through the influence of William Davis. Born in Wales in 1663, he went from the Church of England to the Quakers and then became a Baptist. In 1706 he accepted the Sabbath and applied for membership in the Newport church. He was initially rejected for membership because he held wrong doctrines. Finally, in 1710, he was accepted for membership and, in 1713, was authorized to preach and to baptize. Yet, he believed in the Trinity, the immortality of the soul and in going to heaven, totally contrary to the doctrines taught by the Church at that time! For the rest of his life, Davis was "in" and "out" of fellowship with the Church. "Davis played a powerful role in shaping the future of Sabbatarian Baptists. It has been stated that William Davis has never lacked a direct descendant as a Seventh-Day Baptist minister" (Nickels, p. 55).
In the earliest days no special thought was given to an official church name. The congregations in their correspondence with one another referred to themselves as "the Church of Christ which is at Newport" or "the Church of God living in Piscataway." Most members simply called it "the Church." Outsiders referred to them as Sabbatarians or Sabbatarian Baptists. When the church in Newport received an official state charter in 1819 (it had been established in 1671, but legal requirements were changing), it was registered under the name "Seventh-Day Baptist Church of Christ."
In 1803 a general conference was organized by eight Sabbath-keeping congregations in the Northeast in order to coordinate their evangelistic efforts and cooperate in the publication of literature. In 1805 they adopted the name "The Sabbatarian General Conference." By 1818 the name was changed to Seventh-Day Baptist General Conference and the organization had grown to include Sabbath-keeping congregations outside the Northeast.
The Church was undergoing many changes during this time. We can note their progression from non-Trinitarianism to the Trinitarian position championed by the Davis family and others. A statement written in 1811 upheld the traditional teaching of the Church noting "that Sabbatarian Baptists believed the Holy Ghost to be the operative power or spirit of God... there are few... who believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are three absolute distinct persons, coequal... and yet one God" (Nickels, p. 91). Just 22 years later, in the 1833 Expose of Sentiments, however, the official position was, "We believe that there is a union existing between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that they are equally divine and equally entitled to our adoration" (Nickels, p. 91). Even as late as 1866, it was acknowledged that some of the ministers still possessed a strong aversion to using the word "Trinity."
During this time many ministers and members had gotten so far from the Truth that they were now merely Protestants who met on Saturday. The November 18, 1983, edition of The Westerly Sun newspaper described the anniversary celebration of the oldest Sabbath-keeping church in the United States with this headline: "Church Will Celebrate 275 Years Marked with Change." The article in the newspaper said the "church will celebrate its 275th anniversary this weekend--an experience which has been marked by change from societal pressures, despite its Sabbath-keeping custom."
The changes that have occurred have been marked by a steady erosion of the Truth and a move into mainstream Protestantism. In fact, the Seventh-Day Baptist churches in Rhode Island have long since ceased housing the living Church of God. They are merely old buildings, museums of where the Truth was once taught and the Work of God was once carried on. The congregations that now meet there believe in the Trinity, observe Christmas and Easter, and have even gone back and built steeples--definite pagan symbols--onto some of the old buildings. They simply followed their leaders and stayed in the church [buildings]!
While the bulk of Sabbath-keepers were getting further and further from the Truth, there were individual members and congregations which remained faithful. We find records of the South Fork, West Virginia, Church which observed the Passover and avoided unclean meats in the early 1800s. This little group was forced to withdraw "fellowship from the General Conference and all other Seventh-Day Baptist organizations, because of doctrinal differences" (Nickels, p. 68). By the 1870s another generation was on the scene and, eventually, most of the South Fork Church accepted the Seventh-Day Baptist organization. By 1885 they had even ordained a woman minister, totally contrary to God's instructions in 1 Timothy 2:12!
Another group, calling itself the Church of God at Wilbur, was organized in 1859 by Elder J. W. Niles from Pennsylvania. It was still functioning in the 1930s and was called by Andrew Dugger, in his book, A History of the True Religion, "the oldest true Church of God now functioning in the state of West Virginia" (p. 311).
The Adventist Movement
In the 1830s a movement arose among Protestant churches in western New York that focused on the return of Jesus Christ to this earth and the establishment of a literal Kingdom. This message, which first began to be forcefully proclaimed by William Miller, was totally different from accepted Protestant doctrine. His teachings on prophecy attracted much interest and stirred increasing attention as his predicted 1844 date for the return of Christ drew near. After what was termed "the great disappointment," confusion set in among these Protestant Adventists. Ridiculed by mainline Protestants, some became disillusioned and gave up religion altogether. Others continued to search the Scriptures to see where they had gone wrong. The stage was being set for a strengthening of the Truth.
Around the beginning of 1844, Mrs. Rachel Oakes, a widow and member of a Seventh-Day Baptist Church in Verona, New York, came to Washington, New Hampshire, to visit her daughter. Her daughter attended a church pastored by Frederick Wheeler, a Methodist who had accepted the Adventist message (Second Coming of Christ and the literal establishment of His Kingdom). Hearing Mr. Wheeler call upon his congregation to obey God and keep His commandments in all things, Mrs. Oakes confronted him following the service with the truth that Sabbath-keeping played a vital part in obeying God's commandments. Taken aback, he promised to study the subject. Within weeks he was convinced of the truth of the Sabbath and began to proclaim it. The truth of the Sabbath spread like wildfire among disillusioned Adventists. Many hundreds of others responded as well to the simple truth of the real Gospel and of obedience to all of God's commandments.
Into the fellowship of these zealous Sabbatarian adventists came Roswell Cottrell, a long-time minister and Sabbath-keeper.
His family had been among the earliest members of the Church of God in Rhode Island, but the Cottrell family withdrew from the fellowship of what was then being called the Seventh-Day Baptist Church over doctrine. This was the time when such changes as the Trinity and the immortality of the soul were being adopted as official Seventh-Day Baptist doctrine. About 15 years after coming into the fellowship of the Sabbatarian Adventists, he found himself once again embroiled in controversy. Elder James White, who had emerged as the main leader among the Sabbath-keeping, Adventist Churches of God, was pushing for an organizational conference and an official name, Seventh-Day Adventist Church. There were those who opposed this change as unscriptural and also opposed giving credence to the visions of Elder White's wife, Ellen G. White. Roswell Cottrell opposed Mr. White's organizational moves. He wrote, in the May 3, 1860, Review and Herald, "I do not believe in popery; neither do I believe in anarchy; but in Bible order, discipline, and government in the Church of God" (Nickels, p. 162).
In October 1860, at a conference in Battle Creek, Michigan, the overwhelming majority of those present rejected the name "Church of God" and adopted the name Seventh-Day Adventist as a name descriptive of their beliefs. This was the name being pushed by the Whites. Mrs. White's visions were increasingly being advanced as "new truth" for the Church.
Throughout the 1860s, the split between the majority who followed the Whites and the scattered remnant who didn't became more and more decisive. During the War Between the States (American Civil War), Church of God members took a firm stand as conscientious objectors, in contrast to the Seventh-Day Adventists under the Whites' leadership. A delegation from the Church of God met with President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 in order to establish conscientious objector status for young men in the Church.
A quotation from a circular letter from brethren in Marion, Iowa, published in the September 7, 1864, issue of The Hope of Israel, the Church's publication, gives a flavor of what was happening at the time:
On the 10th of June, 1860, something over 50 of us adopted a form of a church covenant, drawn up by [M. E. Cornell].... Nearly a year and a half afterward, the same messenger held up, publicly, some other volumes by the side of the Bible... and urged us to adopt their teaching also, as a rule of faith and discipline. A portion of us were unwilling to accept these new planks in the platform of our Church.... The result was, about one half of the Church decided to receive these volumes as a valid Scripture, and drew off from us, or rather repelled us from them, denouncing us as rebels.... As it regards us being rebels, we boldly assert that we are not rebels. We have not rebelled against the constitution which we adopted, for we stand firm on it yet... so the charge of rebellion reflects with shame on them, who have made it, they being the ones who have departed from their first position and have adopted a new one [Robert Coulter, The Story of the Church of God Seventh Day, p. 16].
In August 1863, the small church paper called The Hope of Israel began to be printed in Michigan. It started with less than forty subscribers. In 1866 it was relocated to Marion, Iowa, and in 1888 moved again to Stanberry, Missouri. Over the years the paper underwent several name changes, ultimately being called The Bible Advocate.
One of the most prominent figures in the Church of God during this time was Jacob Brinkerhoff. He edited the paper from 1871 until 1887 and again from 1907 until 1914. In 1874 A. F. Dugger Sr. of Nebraska entered the full-time ministry of the Church of God. From the 1870s until the years just prior to World War I, Elders Brinkerhoff and Dugger contributed many of the articles that helped to clarify and solidify doctrine in the Church. Articles on prophecy, clean and unclean meats, tithing, proper observance of the Passover and what it means to be born again filled the pages of The Bible Advocate during those years.
As early as 1866 articles on prophecy taught that the Jews would be restored to a homeland in Palestine. There was some truth restored and taught but, all in all, the efforts of the Church were weak and only reached small numbers of people, primarily in rural parts of the Midwest.
The phase of Church history we have focused on in this chapter is best described by Christ's message to the Church at Sardis recorded in Revelation 3:1-6. This Church was told that while it had a name that it was alive, it was really spiritually dead. "Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die" (Rev. 3:2). While this Church as a whole is spiritually lethargic or even dead, there are a few among them who Christ says "have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy" (v. 4).
During these four turbulent centuries, there were men and women who remained faithful to God despite what was happening around them. While many people who claimed to be the people of God ("You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead" Rev. 3:1) simply drifted along, there were those who heeded Christ's warning to hold fast, and will be in the first resurrection (v. 3).
There are many lessons that God's people today can learn from the experiences of this stage of the Church. Let's make sure we heed Christ's admonition at the end of His message to Sardis: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Rev. 3:6).
