Right from the beginning, the problem of slavery stood at the center of the message impressed upon the young apocalyptic visionary, Ellen Harmon White. Narrating one of her earliest visions in a letter to Brother Joseph Bates, the twenty-year-old Ellen White depicts the liberation of slaves along with the vindication of those giving evidence of their allegiance to God by observing the controverted fourth commandment at Christ’s second coming.

A resolution passed on May 17, 1865 by the third annual session of the General Conference reflects a shift in attitudes prevailing among Adventists towards the political process as one in which believers might make an impact for justice, mercy and righteousness, and thereby be makers of peace (shalom).

I'm still recovering from a busy Easter weekend here - extra long church, SF anarchist book fair, watching the countrified Lafayette Flag Brigade team up with bikers to loudly proclaim their patriotism, out-of-town guests, ultimate Frisbee.

It was the first presidential election held after the organization of the Seventh-day Adventist church. And the stakes could not have been higher in the fall of 1864.

Soon after the exchange in the March 10, 1859 Review and Herald between abolitionist Anson Byington and editor Uriah Smith (see last week’s Peacemaking Heritage – 11), Byington weighed in again.

One faithful Review and Herald reader in the 1850s who dissented from editor Uriah Smith’s stance on the futility of political action to remedy social evils (see last week’s Religion and Politics – 1856) was Anson Byington of Vermont.* A brother of John Byington, who became the first president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in 1863, Anson had been a fervent antislavery reformer since the 1830s.

Peacemaking Heritage - 10

The election of 1856 presented abolitionists with a new possibility. For the first time in American history, one of the two major parties took a position antagonistic to the “slave power.” The new Republican party, with John C. Fremont as its presidential candidate, was united in opposition to the extension of slavery beyond the states where it presently existed. While this fell far short full abolitionism, it was a strong measure vehemently opposed by the pro-slavery forces.

Thus far our Peacemaking Heritage Series has concentrated on Adventism’s emergence in the 1830s and 1840s as an interdenominational renewal movement sparked by William Miller’s preaching on the near return of Jesus Christ. We turn now to the two decades following the “Great Disappointment” of 1844,

Gerrit Smith (1797-1874; pictured with James McCune Smith), one of the most influential and mercurial figures in the anti-slavery movement, became fully convinced by William Miller’s teaching that according to biblical prophecy, Christ would return “about 1843.” An extraordinarily wealthy landowner in upstate New York,

Our third and final installment from the Autobiography of Joseph Bates relates incidents from the risky mission to preach the Advent message in the slaveholding South that he undertook in 1843, as the anticipated time of Christ’s return drew near.

Please consider what these passages suggest about the following:

• Does the Second Advent message challenge the practice of slavery?