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Hearts of Faith

How We Became Seventh-day Adventists

by David Trim

Expectation, exultation, bewilderment, and despair—these were the emotions amid which the Seventh-day Adventist Church was conceived. Hearts of Faith recounts the story of the transition from the weeping that followed the Great Disappointment of October 22, 1844, to the hopeful emergence of the infant Seventh-day Adventist Church 19 years later.

Though the story of the SDA Church’s history has often been told, this critical span has been largely ignored, as if the church was an inescapable outcome of the Great Disappointment. This book argues, however, that the 19-year interval was both crucial and did not have a predetermined outcome. The choices the pioneers made shaped the denomination they would go on to establish and its impact on the world for generations.

Hearts of Faith briefly reviews the Millerite Adventist movement, explores the history of Sabbatarian Adventists, and pores over the vital development of a common identity among those who still held on to the blessed hope of Christ’s soon return.

Get to know the roots of this prophetic community of faith and develop a renewed awe for how God has harnessed the passion of His people to accomplish His work, near and far.

A Fire Is Kindled
Miller and the “Millerites”
The Expectant
The Disappointed
The Sabbatarian Adventists
Pressing Together
Westward Movement
Connecting the “Scattered Flock”
The 1860 General Conference
First Steps Toward Organization
Establishing the Seventh-day Adventist Church
An End—and a Beginning

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Publisher: Pacific Press

ISBN: 9780816368679

Format: Paperback

STATUS: AVAILABLE TO ORDER (item is either in stock or quickly/soon obtainable from supplier)

Pages: 128

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Many Adventists are familiar with stories of the pioneers of our church: the stories of William Miller, Joseph Bates, James and Ellen White, and their contemporaries. But less known are the circumstances by which a collection of scattered and confused believers was brought together and organised into a mission-focused church. Beginning with the Millerite movement, Hearts of Faith follows the subset of “Second Adventists” who gradually coalesced around several distinctive beliefs, eventually becoming the Seventh-day Adventist Church. While other books about this period tend to focus on the leaders and the development of doctrinal consensus, Dr David Trim explores key events within the social landscape of the United States in the 1840s and 1850s: what it was like to live in the aftermath of the Great Disappointment, a time of raging fanaticism and theological ferment; the role of publications in uniting believers around common doctrines; the westward push and growth of the movement; and the process of overcoming opposition to organisation and “gospel order.” Currently serving as director of Adventist Archives, Statistics and Research at the General Conference, Dr Trim combines his expertise as an early modern historian with unique resources and photographs from the archives in this short book, which will appeal to anyone interested in Adventist history. He contends that while many think of the founding of the Seventh-day Adventist Church as “the natural if not inescapable outcome of the years after the Great Disappointment,” we should not take for granted how remarkable this milestone was. God was working, yes; but He was working with free agents under conditions that required them to struggle, study, reason, influence and persevere. When we understand the context within which these developments took place, we better appreciate the hearts of those who founded this movement—and the type of hearts needed to see it through. Indeed, the title of the book is taken from a passage in Ellen White’s Prophets and Kings, “The records of sacred history are written, not merely that we may read and wonder, but that the same faith which wrought in God’s servants of old may work in us. In no less marked manner will the Lord work now, wherever there are hearts of faith to be channels of His power.” In a year that marks the 160th anniversary of the founding of the General Conference, it is an appropriate time to reflect on our past and whether these same “hearts of faith” are ours. — Lauren Webb, assistant book editor, Signs Publishing