The Shaking of Adventism
Geoffrey J. Paxton

Part II - Adventism and the Reformation before 1950

Introduction to Part II

We have tried to understand the Adventist as he understands himself, and the resulting picture is quite different from many portrayals of Adventism from outside the movement. The Adventist sees himself as especially chosen by God to bring the arrested Reformation of the sixteenth century to its God-designed close. Such a task will involve a proclamation of the gospel in "latter rain" power such as is not possible with any other religious body.

We then turned our attention to the heart of the Reformation to refresh our understanding of the gospel of Luther and Calvin. The object was to give us a clear grasp of the norm by which we are to measure the way that Adventists have executed their task and made good their astonishing claim.

In Part II of this book we shall trace their execution of that task from the inception of the movement to the year 1950. As the 1950-1977 era is the main focus of this work, there will be no attempt to treat the earlier period exhaustively.

Two additional preliminary remarks: The desire of this author is to be a sympathetic investigator, for it is believed that such a one makes the best critic. Also, Adventism is being viewed as a dynamic movement, so final judgment will be reserved for the movement at the point of its most mature expression.

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