Raechel,
P----- H------ sent me a pdf of your 2014 book, A Separate Identity.
I have read everything with great interest (of course). You and Bruce
are excellent writers, and you have a way of digging out the whole truth
and explaining it in simple terms. I so appreciate your writings. I
have not found anyone who could differentiate between Adventism and ATC*
(except me), but Bruce did! I think that story needs to be repeated
until Church historians finally realize not every churchman in the 19th c who believed in the second coming was an Adventist!!
So,
Thank you for your monumental research and careful writing. P---- only
sent me 70 pages of the pdf, to the end of the first chapter!! I would
like to have a whole book, or whole file!!
*ATC = "Age to Come."
3 comments:
"I think that story needs to be repeated until Church historians finally realize not every churchman in the 19th c who believed in the second coming was an Adventist!!"
Amen to that!! And not just church historians, but believers and the public in general!!
(I know, I know; fat chance of that - but we can always dream, can't we? And we can each do our part.)
It is good that the distinction between 19th century Adventists and other believers in the second coming is gradually becoming apparent. Plymouth Brethren and Christadelphians held such expectations, while it might also be noted that dispensational and premillennialist ideas were held by many individuals from Baptist, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian and Methodist backgrounds. (See George M. Marsden's 'Fundamentalism and American Culture' which illuminates the background on this). No doubt many early readers of the Watch Tower retained their adherence to such groups while being attracted to the thinking of Russell, and others, on chronology.
Son of Ton
On a personal note, I'm trying to figure out the religious background of my maternal grandmother's family - the first ones to become Witnesses.
My late grandmother used to tell me that they were "United Brethren", which she defined as "German Methodist". My tentative research tends to indicate that the term "covers a multitude of sins" - from "Evangelical United Brethren" - which later merged with the United Methodist Church - to the two branches of "The United Brethren in Christ" - one of which was led by Bishop Milton Wright, father of Wilbur and Orville - to even possibly "Unitas Fratrum" - the Hussite Church.
Seems odd that my ancestors would end up in a denomination described as "German Methodist", since they were of Scots-Irish ancestry.
It seems that such distinctions may have been unclear even to the individual members - I remember reading somewhere once that many churches are named after their form of church government - which is mostly of interest to no one except church governors.
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