It Was Not of Our Doing
The Origins of the Remnant Church Testify to God’s Leading
s Seventh-day Adventism has circled the globe, bringing millions of believers into a worldwide fellowship of truth, the story of God’s leading in the launch of this movement has sometimes been obscured. More than 75 years ago, then General Conference president W. A. Spicer penned a compelling narrative of the origins of Adventism entitled Certainties of the Advent Movement (Review and Herald, 1929). A key figure in the church’s “second generation” of leaders, Spicer had personal knowledge of the men and women who led in the early decades, as well as a keen sense of the needs of the church as it moved into the twentieth century. What follows is a remarkable excerpt from that book that we believe will be both informative and faith-building for millions of believers today.—Editors.
The launching of the movement of the prophecy in 1844 was not by any human foresight or devising. It was not that any body of men came together and decided that the time was ripe to start a movement in fulfillment of the prophecy.
The group of Adventist believers in the mountains of New Hampshire [a small northeastern state in the United States] who in 1844 began to keep the commandments of God, had not the remotest idea that they were forming the nucleus of a distinctive people and movement to come. They had found the light of the Sabbath truth, and were walking in the light to save their own souls, expecting soon to see the Lord come in glory.
That group of believers in the western part of the State of New York who, after the disappointment of October 1844, were led to study into the truth regarding the cleansing of the sanctuary, had no thought that they were contributing a key factor to a new movement fulfilling prophecy. They, with others, had expected the coming of the Lord at the close of the long prophetic period of 2300 years. The prophecy had declared, “Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” All had supposed that this meant the coming of Christ to cleanse the church and the earth. But the disappointment came. Then it was that the group of believers in New York were led into the truth about the cleansing of the sanctuary, and knew by the sure word of prophecy that when the hour of the prophetic period came, in 1844, the hour of God’s judgment had indeed come. It was not Christ’s appearing on earth, however, but His appearing before the Ancient of days in the heavenly sanctuary, in that scene described by Daniel the prophet: “The judgment was set, and the books were opened” (Dan. 7:10).
It was a great discovery of truth, so plain that one must wonder why a student of prophecy had not seen it before. But this group to whom the light came, had no thought at the time that they were contributing their part to the movement of the prophecy.
The groups of Adventist believers in Maine and Massachusetts [northeastern states in the United States], among whom appeared the gift of the Spirit of prophecy in those days of 1844 and 1845, had not as yet the light on the Sabbath truth, and they had not the light as to the judgment hour and the meaning of the cleansing of the sanctuary. In general they had decided that there was some error in computing the 2300-year period, and were looking for the appearing of Christ very shortly, with no idea of any special movement to prepare the way.
Then began to come messages to them through the Spirit of prophecy. The first view, given in 1844, described a large work yet to be done—the gathering out of many thousands of believers to be made ready for the coming of the Lord.
Even those who accepted the experience of the youthful agent through whom the Spirit of prophecy spoke, had no idea of another movement to carry a message to the world. So firmly fixed in their minds was the idea that Christ would shortly appear, that they did not understand what was plainly revealed in the first message of the Spirit of prophecy—that a great soul-winning work was yet to be done.
Thus it was that the pioneering factors in the Advent Movement did not themselves understand what they were beginning. They did not meet together and say, “Now the time has come for the movement of the prophecy to begin; let us launch it.” Such an idea was not in the thoughts of any of them.
But the Lord had declared that when the hour of the prophecy should come in 1844, a people keeping the commandments of God would appear, lifting up the Sabbath of the Lord and warning against the mark of the great apostasy. The gift of the Spirit of prophecy would appear in this commandment-keeping “remnant” church. In a worldwide movement a message of reform was to be carried to men with the proclamation, “The hour of His judgment is come.”
As the hour came, the various pioneer factors were led into the light regarding the distinguishing features of the message of the prophecy; and as these various groups were brought together in counsel and study, each contributing its part, they came to understand that here was a message, a great system of truth, the everlasting gospel of Revelation 14:6-14, which they were bound to carry to men. They saw that the time had come, the time of the prophecy. The message of the prophecy had been placed in their hands. Dimly foreseeing even then the full scope of the work, they yet saw that these truths were to make ready a people prepared for the Lord, and they set their faces to carry out the commission which God Himself by His own providence laid upon them.
The Advent Movement did not rise by the oversight and planning of men. The Lord made ready the human agents, and led them into the light, as the time came, in a way that precluded any possible suggestion that a group of men could have met together in the days of 1844 and after, and devised a program to meet the demands of that prophecy of Revelation fourteen. The Lord Himself, who foretold the rise of the movement by the prophets, brought it forth when the hour of the prophecy came.
–William Ambrose Spicer (1865-1952)
was a missionary, editor, and administrator who served the Seventh-day Adventist Church for nearly seven decades. He wrote continuously for the Review and Herald (now the Adventist Review) for 50 years, and authored numerous books.
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