Articles, scans, and other resources from early Adventism
“During 1895 and 1896, no less than seventh-six Seventh-day Adventists were prosecuted in the United States and Canada for existing Sunday laws. Of these, twenty-eight served terms of various lengths in jails, chain-gang, etc., aggregating 1,144 days, or nearly three and one-half years for a single person.”
Review and Herald May 8, 1900 Download Table with Modern Comparisons ‘The Controverted Name’
An excerpt reporting Sunday law persecution taking place c. 1896
“The prosecuting attorney, Mr. J.H. Lewis, is reported as saying that he now proposed to drive Adventists into the Mississippi River.”
“We believe in true civil and religious liberty. . . We are opposed, therefore, to a union of church and state. By this we mean not simply the union of some particular church with some particular state, but a union of any religion, or church, or any combination of churches, with any state or form of civil government whatever.”
Early Adventists had principled reasons for protesting the Sunday Law beyond simply “Mrs. White said.” These writings are reproduced to educate and inspire modern readers regarding the same principles, that they may be prepared to take the same stand today on all such religious legislation.
And here, as an introductory inquiry, we raise the question, Who, or what, is it that persecutes the true church? It is the false or apostate church. What is it that is ever warring against true religion? It is false and counterfeit religion. Who ever heard of the civil power, merely, of any nation, persecuting the people of God? Governments may war against other governments, to avenge some wrong real or imaginary, or to acquire territory and extend their power; but governments do not persecute (mark the word)–do not persecute, people on account of their religion, unless under the control of some opposite and hostile system of religion.
