An offshoot movement beginning in Germany in 1915, which has had a following also in the Baltic states, Russia, Australia, and in the United States, mostly among persons of German stock. Although the original issue was over visions and time setting, the bone of contention through the years has been the stand taken by the Seventh-day Adventist Church concerning the duty of its members in military service.
The military question came to the front when the conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia exploded into World War I in early August 1914. At that time Seventh-day Adventist activities in all of Europe were under supervision of the denomination’s European Division, with headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, although most of the members of the division executive committee were then residing outside of Germany—in Denmark, England, France, Hungary, Russia, Switzerland, and Turkey. The European Division, as an administrative organization, was largely disrupted by the war and the consequent obstacles to travel and communications.
On the German mobilization in August 1914, the Seventh-day Adventists of that country were faced with the necessity of making an immediate decision concerning their duty to God and country when called into the armed forces ( see Noncombatancy ). After counseling with the few SDA leaders locally available at the time, the president of the East German Union Conference informed the German War Ministry in writing, dated Aug. 4, 1914, that conscripted SDA s would bear arms as combatants and would render service on the Sabbath in defense of their country. Most of the members, when drafted, acted accordingly, although many of them requested and were given assignments in noncombatant service in the medical corps or Red Cross units. Many declared themselves conscientious objectors, and in some cases suffered severe treatment for having done so.
One man, Joh. Wieck, drafted into the German Army, proved to be an extremist, claiming to have been shown in vision that probation for all would end that spring. Several other persons also made time-setting predictions. These alleged prophets denounced the SDA leaders for not giving credence to their predictions and for refusing to publish them.
As a result of unfavorable statements against the German government made by some of the fanatics, Seventh-day Adventist churches in the state of Saxony were closed by the public authority. Only when three SDA leaders at Hamburg, in a letter to the government in Berlin on Mar. 4, 1915, reasserted their stand on combatancy was the ban against Seventh-day Adventist churches in Saxony lifted.
Subsequently an SDA church elder in Bremen, who had aligned himself with the cause of the extremists, made this reassertion an occasion for accusing these denominational leaders of apostasy and for encouraging extremism and dissension among the believers.
Admittedly, the three SDA leaders in Germany took a stand concerning the duty of SDA s in military service that was contrary to the historic stand officially maintained by the denomination ever since the American Civil War (1861–1865). They took this stand on their own responsibility in a time of emergency, sincerely thinking that they were doing what was best under the circumstances, but it has never been approved or endorsed by any other committee or council of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
In 1919 representatives of several factions of the dissidents met together in Switzerland in order to achieve a semblance of unity and to prepare to present their demands at the Seventh-day Adventist council to be held in Germany in 1920.
When the “Reformist” delegation presented their case before the General Conference delegation at Friedensau Missionary Seminary, Germany, in July 1920, the first question asked was: “What stand does the General Conference take concerning the decision of the leaders here in Germany in regard to Sabbathkeeping in war, also in regard to the bearing of arms?” A. G. Daniells, president of the General Conference, replied that it did not approve of that declaration because “in it we find expressions that we greatly regret to see.” Moreover, during the subsequent workers’ meeting the three SDA leaders who had made the declaration publicly acknowledged that they had made an error and expressed their sincere regret for having done so.
They also voted with the others when, on Jan. 2, 1923, the committee of the reorganized European Division, in council at Gland, Switzerland, officially issued a “Declaration of Principles” in which the committee unanimously declared that they were fully in harmony with the worldwide denominational stand concerning the duty of Seventh-day Adventists serving in the armed forces. Besides, a special statement was made the same day by the representatives of the German Union conferences, affirming their assent.
Most of the individual “Reformists” returned to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, although some did not, objecting to the fact that the Seventh-day Adventist Church had never made its stand concerning military service a test of fellowship, but had granted to each church member the liberty to serve his or her country at all times and in all places in accord with the dictates of his or her personal conscientious convictions.
The Seventh-day Adventist Reform Movement never had a large following, and by 1937 it was divided into some 25 splinter groups in Europe alone. In the United States there are a few little groups. One of them, a remnant of the Reform movement, has its office in Denver, Colorado, and an offshoot that started from it in 1948 has its center in Sacramento, California. Their following is small.