From the beginning of Adventism, temperance has been an important part of its doctrinal teaching. Although generally “temperance” refers to the matter of alcoholic beverages, to Seventh-day Adventists it has a broader context.
Temperance, meaning self-control, is a spiritual foundation to the life, restored and provided by the Holy Spirit (see Gal. 5:22 , 23 ). Temperance pictures a life of victory over every harmful and defiling practice. It causes the believer to have a distinct separation from the allurements of idolatry, lust, and pride (see 2 Cor. 6:14–18 ), making the body a living temple of dedication to God. Therefore, Ellen White wrote in 1874: “Temperance alone is the foundation of all the graces that come from God, the foundation of all victories to be gained” ( Te 201). For contrast she wrote, “Intemperance lies at the foundation of all the evil in our world” ( ibid. 165).
Alcohol, with its devastating effects on the individual and society, was early recognized by Seventh-day Adventists as opposed to the development of Christian experience and faith. Joseph Bates, one of the pioneers in modern Adventism, was the founder of a temperance society at Fairhaven, Maine, in 1827 and had given up alcohol and tobacco many years before his association with the development of the church. Other pioneers, such as James White and John Andrews, had never taken alcohol or tobacco. John Loughborough, who began smoking cigars on recommendation of his physician as a means to deaden the pain of a certain infection, discarded this habit on the eve of his conversion, throwing a partly smoked cigar into the river. Joseph Waggoner stopped smoking when he became a Seventh-day Adventist.
Writing in the Review and Herald (36:165, Nov. 8, 1870), James White recalled that “it was twenty-two years ago [1848] the present autumn, that our minds were called to the injurious effects of tobacco, tea, and coffee, through the testimony of Mrs. White.” Three years later, on Dec. 14, 1851, Ellen G. White answered the question of whether it was “wrong to use tobacco” in the following terms: “I have seen in vision that tobacco is a filthy weed, and that it must be laid aside or given up. Said my accompanying angel, ‘If it is an idol it is high time it was given up, and unless it is given up the frown of God will be upon the one that uses it, and he cannot be sealed with the seal of the living God’” (letter 5, 1851).
It appears that no special effort was made through Seventh-day Adventist publications to urge Sabbathkeeping Adventists to discontinue the use of tobacco until the latter part of 1853. In the Dec. 13, 1853, issue of the Review and Herald (4:178), James White, the editor, included a “selected” article that said in part: “Religion, for its full development, demands all our mental powers. . . . This drug [tobacco] impairs them. It accordingly must follow, that, in proportion to their derangement, will be the defect of their action; so that, in this sense, it may be said with truth, that the person that uses tobacco cannot be as good a Christian as he could be without it.”
As time went on, the objection to tobacco was stated more positively. Thus James White said: “Among those who profess faith in the Third Message are probably no less than 1,000 families who have left (or should immediately leave) the use of tobacco and tea. The average expense to each family could not be less than $10, yearly, making in all the round sum of $10,000 saved (or should be) by the friends of present truth in leaving the poisonous (to say nothing of the extremely filthy character of tobacco) weeds of tobacco and tea. This sum would be sufficient to sustain thirty Missionaries in new fields of labor. What a shameful fact, that there are those among us, professing much zeal in the cause, who are too poor to pay for their paper, or help the preacher who may visit them. Yet they contrive to raise the cash to purchase tobacco and tea!” ( ibid. 8:24, May 1, 1856).
In the preface to an article by George Trask dealing with tobacco, which appeared a few months later, the editor observed that “the subject of the use of Tobacco is engaging the attention of many of our brethren, in different places” ( ibid. 7:62, Oct. 16, 1855). On Oct. 15, 1855, a general meeting of SDA s was held at Morristown, Vermont, at which the delegates voted: “That the use of Tobacco by any member, is a serious and bitter grief, and greatly lamented by the Church; and after such members have been labored with, and properly admonished, as long as duty seems to require, if they do not reform, the Church will then deem it their duty to withdraw from them the hand of fellowship” ( ibid. Dec. 4, 1855).
This attitude is essentially the current Seventh-day Adventist position on the use of tobacco by members. See Church Manual (1990), p. 160.
The use of alcoholic beverages by church members was never a major issue among SDA s. In fact, when the church was in its formative stages, the anti-alcohol movement had well permeated most religious groups. But SDA s went further than many of the popular temperance groups in making it clear that abstinence also included wine and hard cider.
Tea and coffee were almost universally used, but as the injuriousness of these beverages, as well as tobacco, was taught, they were listed as harmful practices of intemperance.
Repeated mention was made by Ellen White of what she called the “twin evils,” referring to liquor and tobacco. She made clear that for church members the only safe course to follow is “to touch not, taste not, handle not,” and that “total abstinence is the only platform on which God’s people can conscientiously stand.” She gave emphasis to liquor as a major factor in many problems of society, including crime, accidents, juvenile delinquency, and poverty, even describing it as the greatest cause of God’s present judgments on mankind: “Because of the wickedness that follows largely as the result of the use of liquor, the judgments of God are falling upon our earth today” ( CH 432).
Long before medical and research specialists found smoking to be a cause of lung cancer and other fatal diseases, SDA s were told that “tobacco is a poison of the most deceitful and malignant kind, having an exciting, then a paralyzing influence upon the nerves of the body” ( 4SG 128). “Its effects are more difficult to cleanse from the system than those of liquor” ( 3T 569).
Because of the impact of these destructive habits on society, the church was urged to “bear a clear, decided testimony against the use of intoxicating drinks and the use of tobacco” (Ms 82, 1900).
Positive instruction from the biblical base showed “that the Bible is full of history bearing upon temperance, and that Christ was connected with the work of temperance, even from the beginning. It was by the indulgence of appetite that our first parents sinned and fell. Christ redeemed man’s failure. In the wilderness of temptation He endured the test which man had failed to bear” ( Te 267). This meant for SDA s that temperance, self-control, and restoration entirely depended upon the work of Christ. The declaration was that “however strong the passion or appetite, we can gain the victory, because we may have divine strength to unite with our feeble efforts. Those who flee to Christ will have a stronghold in the day of temptation” ( ibid. 267, 268).
Temperance, then, depended upon the right choice of man to work in cooperation with God for the development of the physical, mental, social, and spiritual life. This included right diet, the habits of study, dressing, working, seeing, and all social conduct. “We are to be temperate in all things, because an incorruptible crown, a heavenly treasure, is before us” ( ibid. 213).
The importance of early temperance instruction in the home and the right example of parents is emphasized. Of paramount importance in this regard is for the church and the home to make temperance (self-control) an attractive, positive, rewarding alternative to the false dependencies of intemperance with all their allurement. “The Word of God does not condemn or repress man’s activity but tries to give it a right direction,” wrote Ellen White ( ibid. 193), who found temperance her favorite subject and stated her divine call, “I was also to speak on the subject of temperance, as the Lord’s appointed messenger” ( ibid. 259).
Referring to the experience of Christ’s manner in meeting the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well and offering her the water of life, she said, “This is an illustration of the way in which we are to work. We must offer men something better than that which they possess, even the peace of Christ, which passeth all understanding” ( ibid. 132). Thus temperance means counteracting evil with good, presenting a vigorous warning against intemperance and by precept and example showing a better way. ( See also: Breathe Free: the Plan to Stop Smoking ; Diet ; Five-Day Plan to Stop Smoking ; Listen ; American Health and Temperance Association .)