Purpose of the Testimonies – Heterodoxy of “Age to Come” Movement
Situational information
- Addressed to: “Brother O.”.
- No information about location or any specifics.
Key concepts
- Purpose of the Testimonies.
- The “Age-to-Come” heterodoxy (see notes below)
- The concept of “partial believers”, and a “mixed faith”.
Contents
- A message to an individual enmeshed with a heterodox movement and militantly advocating discordant views in the church. Also poor use of his resources.
- Testimonies were written to specific individuals, but they’re addressed to all the curch members who heed the admonitions.
Salient Excerpts
- “Those who do not really wish to know themselves will allow the reproofs and warnings to pass to others.” 2T688
- “The object of publishing the testimonies is that those who are not singled out personally, yet who are as much in fault as those who are reproved, may be warned through the reproofs given to others.” 2T687
- “We may not, in this life, be able to explain the meaning of every passage of Scripture; but there are no vital points of practical truth that will be clouded in mystery.” 2T692
- “Sufficient light has been given to this generation, that we may learn what our duties and privileges are …” 2T693
Related to
- TBD
Structure of the Testimony
Additional Information about the contents
“Age to Come” heterodox movement
- Salient features: perpetually splitting caused by an essentialist refusal to organization and centrifugal leaders; peculiar Arrianism; similar to Jehovah Witnesses but each split brought about adoption of a mix of beliefs; very few in number since inception.
- Influence: negligible really at the larger scale of the US; and possibly not in high esteem. However, very relevant for the future Seventh-Day Adventist movement as it was proselyting members of the church who found the prospect of non-organization appealing and the Second Coming of Christ imminent.
- Names: It received numerous names because of the leaders’ persistent and strong opposition to organization. It was initially called Evangelical Society. In 1851 Joseph Marsh, the key founder (d.1863) a minister from the Christian Connection, called it “Age to Come“. They were also called “Restitutionists“. Plagued with a series of splits, in 1870 Marsh was succeeded by Thomas Newman, and after him, Thomas Wilson who seems to have called his group “One Faith“. Dr. John Thomas, another of the key men, founded his own denomination known as the Christadelphians in 1870. In 1888-1892 they finally merged all the dispersed but afine factions into the The General Conference of the Churches of God in Christ Jesus in Philadelphia (Stilson, Encyclopedia, 556) and had roughly 2,872 members as per census, compared with 28,991 Seventh-Day Adventists (Carroll, 13). In the early 1900 the group split once again into the “Church of God (Holiness)” which adopted a strongly Pentecostal element which still exists today with minimum number of members, and the “Church of God (Abrahamic Faith)” also small. In 1910 there was a failed attempt at organization. Finally, in 1921 they organized as the “Church of God General Conference“. In 2010 they had roughly 3,800 members in the United States.
- Beliefs (see reference to Marsh (1851) below): very similar to the modern Jehovah Witnesses (C. T. Russell preached at the Age-to-Come meetings in 1895 see chart below) with a component of Dispensationalism.
- Structural: The movement was organized mainly around an eschatological axis. This divided history in four great ages, the “Mosaic age” until the death of Christ; the “gospel age” until the second advent of Christ; a millennium on this earth, not the eternal earth, called the “age to come”— during which time Christ would reign with his saints; and finally the “eternal age”. Arthur (1970) p.225.
- Seventh-Day Sabbath: No.
- Kingdom of God established on earth; restoration of Jews to Israel to rule in Jerusalem before the Second Coming.
- Ontological: the “ontological” belief about the nature of the soul, non-immortality; “; that the dead will have a literal resurrection, the righteous to receive the blessings of immortality and the wicked to be destroyed; and that eternal life comes only through Christ” Carroll, 13
- Moral and Ethical: “acceptance of the gospel, repentance, immersion in the name of Christ for the remission of sins, are conditions of forgiveness of sins, and that a holy life is essential to salvation.” Carroll 13
- Trinity: a peculiar Arrianism.
- Dates: 1851 – to present.
- Locations: originally mostly western New York, southern Canada, and Ohio.
- Main People: Joseph Marsh (founder; d.1863); George Storrs; O.R.L. Crozier; Dr. John Thomas.
- Organization and missions: opposed to organization which led to a chaotic and unsustainable situation. Later congregationalist.Members: but with less than 4,000 members possibly throughout their history.
- Papers: The Harbinger, The Advocate (until 1854?), Prophetic Expositor and Bible Advocate (1854-) and many more (see below).
References
- Arthur, D. (1970). “Come out of Babylon”: A Study Separatism and Denominationalism, 1840-1865. PhD dissertation. Department of History. University of Rochester.
- Carroll, H. (1893). The Religious Forces of the United States. The Christian Literature Co. Link.
- Marsh, J. (1851). The Age to Come; Or, Glorious Restitution. Rochester, NY. Published at the Advent Harbinger Office. Link
- Stilson (2001). An Overview of the Leadership and Development of the Age to Come in the United States: 1832-1871. A Journal from the Radical Reformation. 10,1
- Stilson, J. (2002) The Development of the Church of God Abrahamic Faith: 1845 – 1921. JRR, 11,1 LINK.
- Stilson, J. (2011). Biographical Encyclopedia: Chronicling the History of the Church of God Abrahamic Faith 19th & 20th Centuries. Word Edge.