Birth of a Reformation; Or, The Life and Labors of Daniel S. WarnerByers, A. L. (Andrew L.)
Religion
Birth of a Reformation; Or, The Life and Labors of Daniel S. Warner
Byers, A. L. (Andrew L.)
Church of God (Anderson, Ind.) -- History; Warner, D. S. (Daniel Sidney), 1842-1895
A year later, just before the annual meeting of the Eldership
(October, 1881), the Fishers and others, thinking to get the
Eldership to accept holiness and thus make good the claim of being
the true church, started a holiness meeting at Carson City, where
the Fishers lived, and again had Brother Warner present. This was
right after the meeting in Indiana where Brother Warner had declared
his separation from the Northern Indiana Eldership. The situation
was similar to what it had been in Indiana. Brother Warner had been
preaching on the true church and setting forth its divine government,
and the hope of these Michigan saints was that if they could get the
Eldership to accept holiness they might get them to do away with the
human machinery and fill the true church requirement. In this they
were disappointed. Before the holiness meeting was over the Eldership
showed its opposition. Upon this the Fishers and a good number of
others, nearly twenty in all, withdrew from the Eldership.
[Illustration: Joseph C. and Allie R. Fisher]
[Illustration: Group of Michigan saints, some of the first to declare
their freedom from sectarian relations. Above, Mr. and Mrs. Frank B.
Reeves; center, Mrs. C. E. Reeves; below, Mr. and Mrs. John T. Lyon]
Thus there were two centers where a stand of independence with regard
to the Eldership and human ecclesiasticism had been taken. These
two congregations of saints--at Beaver Dam, (Ind.), and Carson City,
(Mich.),--were the earliest in the United States (so far as the
author knows) who had stepped completely out of Babylon and had taken
for their basis that of the New Testament church alone. An annual
camp-meeting was established at each place.
The Michigan saints in order to express in definite form their
position and intentions drew up the following resolutions:
Whereas we recognize ourselves in the perilous times of the last
days, the time in which Michael is standing up for the deliverance
of God's true saints (Dan. 12:1), the troublesome times in which
the true house of God is being built again, therefore,
=Resolved=, That we will endeavor by all the grace of God to live
holy, righteous, and godly in Christ Jesus, "looking for, and
hastening unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ," who we believe
is nigh, even at the door.
=Resolved=, That we adhere to no body or organization but the
church of God, bought by the blood of Christ, organized by the Holy
Spirit, and governed by the Bible. And if the Lord will, we will
hold an annual assembly of all saints who in the providence of God
shall be permitted to come together for the worship of God, the
instruction and edification of one another, and the transaction of
such business as the Holy Spirit may lead us to see and direct in
its performance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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