April 2003 marks the one hundredth anniversary of one of the most historic General Conference meetings ever held by the Seventh-day Adventists. Some people believe that the reason we are still here in this world is because of mistakes that were made in the 1903 General Conference. Other people believe that the 1903 General Conference paved the way for the very rapid finishing of God’s work in the world.
1901 General Conference
In order to understand what happened in the 1903 General Conference, we must first go back to the 1901 General Conference. We find at this Conference that the problems, which had developed up to that point, had been of long duration, as exhibited in a speech given by Ellen White on April 3, 1901:
“I feel a special interest in the movements and decisions that shall be made at this Conference regarding the things that should have been done years ago, and especially ten years ago, when we were assembled in Conference, and the Spirit and power of God came into our meeting, testifying that God was ready to work for this people if they would come into working order.”
Notice that already in 1901 action was ten years late! We should have come into a working order in 1891, so the Lord could use us as a people to finish His work in 1891, but it is obvious from Mrs. White’s statement that we did not do so. She goes on to talk about how certain leaders brought in elements of unbelief, and she said, concerning this General Conference in 1891, “It [the light God had given] was assented to, but no special change was made to bring about such a condition of things that the power of God could be revealed among his people.”
“Year after year,” she said, “the same acknowledgment was made, but the principles which exalt a people were not woven into the work. God gave them clear light as to what they should do, and what they should not do, but they departed from that light, and it is a marvel to me that we stand in as much prosperity as we do today.” She went on to talk about organization and about God’s Commandments. Concerning God’s Commandments, she said, “They are the wall which is built round his [God’s] people. There is to be no departure from his principles, no bringing in of worldly policy principles. No worldly customs or practices are to be brought in for this people who are to be representatives of Christ to follow. When we keep the commandments of God, we are in touch with God, and he is connected with us.” And then, after she had quoted from the first chapter of 1 Peter, she continued: “We are living in the last time. We are standing as it were on the very borders of the final conflict.” She quotes from 1 Peter again and then says, “Every soul in every Conference in every part of the Lord’s vineyard, has the privilege of knowing the truth. But truth is not truth to those who do not practice it. Truth is only truth to you when you live it in the daily life, showing the world what those people must be who are at last saved. . . .
“Why, I ask you, are men who have not brought self into subjection allowed to stand in important positions of truth and handle sacred things? They have grown to the stature of men, but they have brought with them their childish tendencies. God does not want any such thing. He has made provision for all to have in them the grace of Christ. No others will enter heaven. There has been one rebellion there, and there will not be another. We have been given an opportunity to get rid of every kind of rebellion.”
Then Mrs. White goes on to quote from 1 Peter and make the following comments: ” ‘As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.’ When you leave this meeting and go to your homes, be quick to hear and slow to speak. Keep yourselves under subjection to the Spirit of God. At the last Conference which I attended here, there was gossiping and controversy in every house. If the people had prayed instead of gossiping, if they had talked with God, the condition of things would have been very different.
“Many of you have been educating yourselves to talk with human beings instead of talking with God. You have built up barriers against the principles which should have been carried into every part of the Lord’s vineyard. . . .
“It only takes a word to fire up a man who has not made a practice of talking with God. This spirit is as contagious as the leprosy. One and another catch it, and thus dissension and strife and commotion are brought in. God is not in any of this work. Brethren, before we have finished, we shall know whether or not God is handling this Conference.
“Now, whatever the work done by men in responsible positions, its character will be testified to by its fruits. In the office of publication, the light that God has given me for years is that those in positions of responsibility there are to gather in the youth, to talk to them, to train them for the Lord’s service. Do not indulge a spirit of combativeness. Keep the unsanctified tongues under control. Do not blame and censure. Act just as you would want the overseers to act toward you were you in the position of these young people. . . .
“The men who have woven their own human passions into life and character, who have nurtured self all the way along, are not to think that they are qualified to deal with human minds. God wants every person to begin at home, and there live the Christ-life. . . .
“That these men should stand in a sacred place, to be as the voice of God to the people, as we once believed the General Conference to be,—that is past. What we want now is a reorganization. We want to begin at the foundation, and to build upon a different principle.”
Further down in this speech, she says, “There are those who always take a negative position. This counts nothing toward building up the work.” Then she says later, “We talk of the Holy Ghost; we preach of the Holy Ghost; but we need to understand better what the office of the Holy Ghost is. We need to understand that we must co-operate with God in every sense or God can not co-operate with us. . . .
“According to the light that has been given me—and just how it is to be accomplished I cannot say—greater strength must be brought into the managing force of the Conference. But this will not be done by intrusting responsibilities to men who have had light poured upon them year after year for the last ten or fifteen years, and yet have not heeded the light that God has given them. The word of God is to be our guide. Have you given heed to the Word? The Testimonies are not by any means to take the place of the Word. They are to bring you to that neglected Word, that you may eat the words of Christ, that you may feed upon them.”
She goes on: “The men that have long stood in positions of trust while disregarding the light that God has given, are not to be depended upon. God wants them to be removed. . . . Some have served on committees here and committees there, and have felt free to dictate just what the committee should say and do, claiming that those who did not carry out these ideas were sinning against Christ. When the power of God is manifest in the church and in the management of the various departments of his work, when it is evident that the managers are themselves controlled by the Holy Spirit of God, then it is time to consider that you are safe in accepting what they may say, under God. But you must know that you are guided by the principles of the Word of the living God. The Great General of armies, the Captain of the Lord’s host, is our leader.”
No Kingly Power
Mrs. White talks about the children of Israel desiring to have a king so that they could be like the other nations, and then says, “Now I want to say, God has not put any kingly power in our ranks to control this or that branch of the work. The work has been greatly restricted by the efforts to control it in every line.” She said later in the speech, “The time has come when this people are to be born again. Those that have never been born again, and those that have forgotten that they were purged from their old sins, and can not see afar off, and have practiced their old habits of talking, prejudicing others, hindering the work, and being generally in the way of its advancement, would better be converted. God wants you to be converted, and may he help, that this work may go forward. He is a power for his people when they come into order. There must be a renovation, a reorganization; a power and strength must be brought into the committees that are necessary.”
She goes on to say something very interesting: “Let me tell you that the sick will be healed when you have faith to come to God in the right way,” and she talked about medical missionary work.
At the close of this speech she says, “God help us to restrain our tongues. The voice is a precious talent, and it is to be used to a purpose. It is not lent to you that you may swear; but every one who gives way to an unholy temper might just as well swear. God help us to submit to Jesus Christ, and to have his power right here and now.”
Not in God’s Order
It is evident, from just a casual reading of this speech that Ellen White gave at the 1901 General Conference, that a crisis had been reached in our work. The work of Seventh-day Adventists had become centralized, with a few people in Battle Creek attempting to manage the work all over the world.
A couple of days later, on April 5, 1901, Ellen White said the following at this General Conference: “I am thankful that there is to be a time when the mists will be cleared away. I hope that this time has begun here. We want the mists here to be cleared away. I want to say that from the light given to me by God, there should have been years ago organizations such as are now proposed. When we first met in Conference, it was thought that the General Conference should extend over the whole world. But this is not in God’s order.”
She later on in these remarks gave an illustration of what she was talking about: “While on my journey to Battle Creek, as I have visited different places, I at Los Angeles, asked, Why do you not do this? and Why do you not do that? And the response has been, ‘That is what we want to do, but we must first get the consent of the Board, the members of which are in Oakland.’ But I asked, have you not men here with common sense. If you have not, then by all means transport them. You show great deficiency by having your Board hundreds of miles away. That is not the wisdom of God. There are men right where you are who have minds, who have judgment, who need to exercise their brains, who need to be learning how to do things, how to take up aggressive work, how to annex new territory. They are not to be dependent on a Conference at Battle Creek or a Board at Oakland.”
Later on she says, “The workers in the South are not to depend upon the Conference at Battle Creek. They are to hang their helpless souls on Jesus Christ.”
She said, “We want to understand that there are no gods in our Conference. There are to be no kings here, and no kings in any Conference that is formed. ‘All ye are brethren.’ [Matthew 23:8.]”
Bind Us Together
But she said later that “New conferences must be formed. It was in the order of God that the Union Conference was organized in Australasia. The Lord God of Israel will link us all together. The organizing of new Conferences is not to separate us. It is to bind us together.”
Toward the end of these remarks she said, “No man is to say, ‘I am a god, and you must do as I say.’ From the beginning to the end this is wrong. There is to be an individual work. God says, ‘Let him take hold of my strength that he may make peace with me, and he shall make peace with me.’ [Isaiah 27:5.]
“Remember that God can give wisdom to those who handle his work. It is not necessary to send thousands of miles to Battle Creek for advice, and then have to wait weeks before an answer can be received. Those who are right on the ground are to decide what shall be done. You know what you have to wrestle with, but those who are thousands of miles away do not know.
“It is best for us to put our trust in the God of Israel.”
An Apostolic Organization
Clear back in 1896, Ellen White had written: “It is not wise to choose one man as president of the General Conference.” Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 342.
In the General Conference Bulletin from 1897 it was voted that: “The presidency of the General Conference Association, the presidency of the Mission Board, and the presidency of the General Conference work in North America, be placed on three different men.”
In other words, in the 1901 plan of reorganization, the leadership was to look to Christ. He was to be the Head of the church, and those human leaders of large conferences and various institutions were to stand as equals under Christ. We were to have an apostolic form of church government.
New Testament church organization does not work until after Pentecost, until a group of people have had an experience of receiving the Holy Spirit. This 1901 reorganization plan could only be put into effect as the church had a Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, this did not occur.
What Might Have Been
On January 5, 1903, Ellen White wrote what she had seen and heard while in vision. A few brief excerpts are given here: “One day at noon I was writing of the work that might have been done at the last General Conference if the men in positions of trust had followed the will and way of God. Those who have had great light have not walked in the light. The meeting was closed, and the break was not made. Men did not humble themselves before the Lord as they should have done, and the Holy Spirit was not imparted.
“I had written thus far when I lost consciousness, and I seemed to be witnessing a scene in Battle Creek.”
She then described the scene, revealed to her, in some detail: “The speaker turned to those who had been praying, and said: ‘We have something to do. We must confess our sins, and humble our hearts before God.’ He made heartbroken confessions and then stepped up to several of the brethren, one after another, and extended his hand, asking forgiveness. Those to whom he spoke sprang to their feet, making confession and asking forgiveness, and they fell upon one another’s necks, weeping. The spirit of confession spread through the entire congregation. It was a Pentecostal season. God’s praises were sung, and far into the night, until nearly morning, the work was carried on. . . .
“No one seemed to be too proud to make heartfelt confession, and those who led in this work were the ones who had influence, but had not before had courage to confess their sins. . . .
“Then I aroused from my unconsciousness, and for a while could not think where I was. My pen was still in my hand. The words were spoken to me: ‘This might have been. All this the Lord was waiting to do for His people. All heaven was waiting to be gracious.’ I thought of where we might have been had thorough work been done at the last General Conference, and agony of disappointment came over me as I realized that what I had witnessed was not a reality.” Testimonies, vol. 8, 104–106.
So we see from the Pen of Inspiration that the reorganization plan in 1901, which required New Testament church organization,—the apostolic plan for church organization, which could only take place through the operation of the Holy Spirit,—did not take place, because we did not have the needed outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which comes only as a result of confession of sins and making things right. Without the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the church drifted back into control by human agencies. Consequently, the church leaders felt that they were losing control and that something would have to be done to bring the work into harmony and control. So plans were made by some church leaders to have another reorganization at the General Conference in 1903.
Let us now review what happened at the General Conference in 1903.
Minority Position
We go directly to a speech made in the afternoon of April 9, 1903, by A. T. Jones. He said, “There has been presented to this Conference for adoption a constitution, when we already have one, and I have not heard a single word as to why the one we have is so altogether defective that we have got to have a new one, and it be so open on its face that everybody shall simply say, Amen, and let it go.”
At this same meeting P. T. Magan made the following comments: “I am conscientiously opposed to the proposed new constitution. I have always felt that the hardest place that any man could be put in in this life is to have to stand conscientiously opposed to what the majority of his brethren believe to be right. . . . The minority report expresses in a word the feelings which actuated the minority in making the report, because we believe that the constitution proposed by the majority of the committee appears to us to be so subversive of the principles of organization given to us at the General Conferences of 1897 and 1901. Those principles were given to us by the Spirit of God. In my judgment, and in the judgment of the minority of the committee, this constitution is absolutely subversive of those principles.
“Further, the proposed new constitution reverses the reformatory steps that were taken, and the principles which were given, and which were adopted as the principles of reorganization, at the General Conferences of 1897 and 1901, and which were incorporated in the constitution of 1901.
Papal Principles
“Now I am not here for a moment,” Magan continued, “to state that the constitution of 1901 is a perfect one. To my mind, in many respects, it is very imperfect. To my mind, in many respects, it is very clumsily drawn. But I have learned this, that all reforms come gradually, and in that constitution, clumsy though you may call it, defective though you may mark it, there are principles of reformation and reorganization for the head of this work which are right; and those principles are absolutely subverted and swept aside in the proposed new constitution.”
Then he says, “I want to say to you that any man who has ever read ‘Neander’s History of the Christian Church,’ Mosheim’s, or any of the other of the great church historians,—any man who has ever read those histories can come to no other conclusion but that the principles which are to be brought in through this proposed constitution, and in the way in which they are brought in, are the same principles, and introduced in precisely the same way, as they were hundreds of years ago when the Papacy was made.” Then he says, “I say that, as far as the head of the thing is concerned, as far as the general administration of things is concerned, though not couched in the same words, though not hedged about with the same identical language, they are precisely the same principles which governed us up to two years ago, and that the moment you vote this constitution, which I do now believe you are ready to do, yet, when you understand this, the moment you vote it you vote yourselves right back where we were two years ago and before it.
“Another point: It is a fact which I do not believe anyone in this house will deny, but that for many years every General Conference that we have come to has been more or less of a crisis over the question of the progress of the General Conference and the General Conference administration. Beginning with the General Conference at Oakland, fifteen or sixteen years ago, whenever it was, and passing through Minneapolis down through one or two Conferences at Battle Creek to the General Conference held at College View, and then to the last General Conference held in Battle Creek, every one we have come up to has involved, to a greater or less extent, a crisis over this question.” Then he says, “The adoption of this [new constitution] means the rejection of the principles of organization given us by the Spirit of God two years ago, and the discussion of each provision of this, and of the major provisions of this will abundantly reveal that that is so, when read in connection with the writings given at that time, and with the discussions of that period.”
Then A. T. Jones added: “I believe, with the minority report, that this proposed constitution is subversive of the principles of organization given to us at the General Conference of 1897 and that of 1901. I believe that it reverses the reformatory steps that were taken, and the principles which were given and adopted as the principles of reorganization of the General Conferences of 1897 and 1901, and are embodied in the present constitution, and this is stated.”
Later on in his speech Jones quoted the following from the Spirit of Prophecy: “Then follow the words ‘These principles are so foreign to God’s principles that God cannot bless those who work upon them. What must be done is to bring in other minds. Those who have been at work in the same channels for years have been discouraged and confused. We cannot entrust to such as these the tremendous responsibilities which are now to be handled.’ [The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, vol. 4, 1728.] Two years ago we were called away from following wrong principles that were followed before 1901. The constitution proposed to-day simply carries us back to these wrong principles.”
Spirit of Papacy
At this same meeting, A. T. Jones also made another speech, which contained the following statement: “When we get our organization to that point where it shall be Christian and Scriptural, elders of every church and the members put their faith in God, and call these elders when they are sick, we shall have the presence and the power of God in our organization, and Christ will have a chance to be the Head. So much for the church organization. Then a number of churches of this kind organize themselves into a conference, and that conference is to govern itself, and not the churches. Self-government is in the conference, and self-governing conference committees. But the trouble has been to get them back to this old order of things, that the conference committees wanted to control the churches and everybody in them, and then the General Conference wanted to control the conferences, and everybody in the world. Nothing could be done on the other side of the earth unless they must first write to Battle Creek and get permission of the General Conference committee. You know it went that way. But God called us away from that.”
After some short dialogue with a couple of individuals, A.T. Jones went on with his speech and made the following comments: “Another thing: Brother Magan said something about church history. Please remember that was the first organization of the church. The elders met as equals. One was chosen chairman, and simply making the chairmanship perpetual is what bred the Papacy. That is the historical truth. It is proper to have a presiding officer, proper to have a chairman of the meeting, but when you perpetuate that thing, and that officer begins to claim it as his right, and, if you don’t elect him chairman next time, feels that you have dropped him, and so on, you have the spirit of the Papacy. . . . The making of that chairmanship perpetual is what bred that which is to-day the Papacy.”
Weighed in the Balances
Now we have just reviewed a few brief remarks, given at the 1903 General Conference, which were made by those in the minority position. Of course, the minority never carries the vote, and at the 1903 General Conference the reorganization of 1901 was rejected. A new constitution was set in place, which restored the work, or brought it back, to the same position it was before 1901. This took place in the first several days of April in 1903.
Just a few days after this Conference, on April 21, 1903, Ellen White penned the following words, as she was shown in vision: “Our position in the world is not what it should be. . . .
“In the balances of the sanctuary the Seventh-day Adventist church is to be weighed. . . .
“One who sees beneath the surface, who reads the hearts of all men, says of those who have had great light: ‘They are not afflicted and astonished because of their moral and spiritual condition.’ ‘Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations. I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before Mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.’ ‘God shall send them strong delusion, that they shall believe a lie,’ ‘because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved,’ ‘but had pleasure in unrighteous-ness.’ Isaiah 66:3, 4; 2 Thessalonians 2:11, 10, 12.
“The heavenly Teacher inquired: ‘What stronger delusion can beguile the mind than the pretense that you are building on the right foundation and that God accepts your works, when in reality you are working out many things according to worldly policy and are sinning against Jehovah? Oh, it is a great deception, a fascinating delusion, that takes possession of minds when men who have once known the truth, mistake the form of godliness for the spirit and power thereof; when they suppose that they are rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing, while in reality they are in need of everything.’ . . .
“Unless there is thorough repentance, unless men humble their hearts by confession and receive the truth as it is in Jesus, they will never enter heaven. When purification shall take place in our ranks, we shall no longer rest at ease, boasting of being rich and increased with goods, in need of nothing.
“Who can truthfully say: ‘Our gold is tried in the fire, our garments are unspotted by the world’? [See Revelation 3:18.] I saw our Instructor pointing to the garments of so-called righteousness. Stripping them off, He laid bare the defilement beneath. Then He said to me: ‘Can you not see how they have pretentiously covered up their defilement and rottenness of character? “How is the faithful city become an harlot!” [Isaiah 1:21.] My Father’s house is made a house of merchandise, a place whence the divine presence and glory have departed! For this cause there is weakness, and strength is lacking.’
“Unless the church, which is now being leavened with her own backsliding, shall repent and be converted, she will eat of the fruit of her own doing, until she shall abhor herself.” Testimonies, vol. 8, 247–250.
Conclusion
In 1903, we backslid; we went not forward but backward, back to the old ways that the Lord had told us we were to come out from. We went back to a form of church organization very similar to that form of church organization that eventually resulted in the Papacy. Several of our leading men, those in the minority committee who made the minority report, recognized this very thing, as has been documented in this article.
We are now at the one hundredth anniversary of this great apostasy where the Seventh-day Adventist Church went back into an apostate form of church government directly contrary to the counsels of the Spirit of Prophecy. A form of church government which eventually led in the past to that which we call today the Papacy.
How shall we relate to these things? Some people say if we would go back to the form of church organization that we had in 1901, then the Lord could finish the work very quickly. We will address some of these issues in future articles.
Editors Note: Unless otherwise cited, all references are taken from The General Conference Bulletin, Leaves of Autumn Books, Inc., Payson, AZ.
Pastor Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life Ministry and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas.