Nigeria’s political and democratic development

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Chapter 3 The Seventh-day Adventist Church and Christian mission in democratic Nigeria

 Introduction

The Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church is introduced to the readers in this chapter. The focus of this thesis is the mission of this church in Nigeria. In order to understand the response of the SDA Church in Nigeria, it is important to put the Church in its global context starting from its origin. The SDA Church’s development in Nigeria has some similarities with Nigeria as a nation. The SDA Church began with missionary work in Nigeria in 1914, the year the Southern Protectorate and the Northern Protectorate were amalgamated under the leadership of the colonial governor, Lord Frederick Lugard. There is, however, no documentary evidence that the SDA Church deliberately planned the start of their missionary work to coincide with amalgamation of the two territories. A major challenge that has plagued Nigeria as a nation, as revealed in the political narratives in Chapter 2, is the challenge of development. All the tribes under the colonial administration struggled to have their own ethnic regions developed.
The aspirations of the people in the post-colonial period have also been linked to development. For example, the agitations by minority groups from independence to the post-democratic period are also rooted in the struggle for development. The Seventh-day Adventist Church, although having a different objective of reaching Nigeria with the Three angels’ message,14 had developmental objectives as an integral part of their operations in the country. Silvanus Chioma (2004:11), who was the General Secretary of the SDA Church in Nigeria (Nigeria Union Mission) in 2004 said, “Seventh-day Adventist missionaries are known for their ‘comprehensive package’ which, when fully executed, results in the complete transformation and development of the entire person and the community.”
It is important to emphasize that the growth of the SDA Church in Nigeria, or in any part of the world, has no direct or intended relationship with national development agendas. SDA missions are focused on how best to reach the world with the gospel while national aspirations are political, economic and social in nature. However, in order to be effective in spreading the Adventist messages, attention has to be paid to social issues. One of the concerns this thesis is expected to raise and comment on is the level at which the SDA Church needs to engage in social concerns in Nigeria. Most of the time, the SDA Church uses or adapts to the political structures set up by the country for administrative convenience of the church.
As the structure of the country changed in terms of regional governments and state creation, SDA churches created administrative structures that enabled it to perform its missionary tasks more efficiently. For example, the SDA mission in Nigeria developed through the regions created by the colonial government, namely the Western, Eastern and Northern Regions. Babcock established his station in Erunmu, close to Ibadan which was in the Western Region and the Church, starting from Erunmu, could reach all the communities in the Western Region. In the Eastern Region, Aba was the launching pad through which all the communities in the Eastern Region were reached over time. Jengre served the same purpose for the SDAs in the Northern Region. Back to the present, I must point out at this point that there is no indication that the administrative structure of the SDA Church and its operational growth pattern is designed to meet the national developmental aspirations. The SDA mission is not primarily to develop Nigeria or any part of the world socially, politically or economically. The mission of the Church, as stated earlier, is to prepare the world, including Nigeria, for the second advent of the Christ. However, in order to be more effective with their mission and be faithful to the message of Christ, SDA churches should utilize avenues for the social and economic development of their communities as essential components of evangelism and mission.

Genesis of the Seventh-day Adventist Church

The Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church began in the United States of America in the mid-nineteenth century. Although it has its direct root in the Millerite15 movement of the 1840s, it is actually a product of the Great Awakening of the eighteenth century. This was the milieu of religious fervency and an attraction to Bible studies, Bible prophecies and other religious activities in North America and parts of Europe. Some of the features of this period were the founding of some denominations, the spiritualism phenomenon, and the development of the missionary movement. Other developments include the Sunday school movement, Abolition movements, feminist reformers, and so on. Part of the fever that gripped religious communities was the sense of urgency in expecting the second advent of Jesus Christ. This was the milieu that produced the movement that would become the Seventh-day Adventist Church (Schwarz 1979:13-23; Alalade 2008:9).
The birth of the SDA Church through the Millerite Advent movement cannot be divorced from the millennial hope of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The millennial hope was the anticipation of a better life of a thousand years which would commence in the nearby future. The millennial thought influenced the religious realm of society to the end, namely that through faith in God, there is an expectation of a perfect community of people to be ushered in by God. Whilst some of the Protestants were pre-millennialists, others held on to post-millennialism. The pre-millennialists refer to the return of God on earth (either physically or spiritually) to establish a peaceful and prosperous reign that ushers in a thousand years of peace and prosperity. The post-millennialists teach that God will return to the earth after the one thousand prosperous years. William Miller was influenced one way or the other with the millennial paradigm (Thomas 1976:3-6). One could therefore conclude that millennialism, and the urge to inform the world to prepare for it, was a driving force for the missionary paradigm for many Christian groups at that time.
William Miller, at that time from the Baptist denomination, was himself greatly and intensely attracted to the various teachings on eschatology and prophecy (apocalyptic writings of the Bible). There was an increasing interest in the study of biblical apocalyptic books, especially Daniel and Revelation, which Christians who were attracted to eschatological subjects interpreted as containing information that could lead to knowing the exact dates Christ would return to earth. This passion for eschatology became a strong basis for the missionary outlook of Christians both in America and in Europe. Some of those who preached the Second Advent believed that their missionary effort was a fulfilment of the biblical prophecy of Revelation 14:6-7: “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people saying with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters’” (King James Version 2013:948). Many who found comfort in the belief of the advent of Christ in the near future, believed and taught that the advent of Christ would be in the mid-1800s, based on their interpretation of these apocalyptic portions of the Bible – especially Daniel Chapters 7 and 8 (Schwarz 1979:24- 27).
The task of letting the world know about this imminent advent of Christ formed the basis for the Millerite Adventists in spreading this message to the entire world. Those who believed and taught this imminent return of Christ were generally called Adventists; they were not initially a distinct denomination or sect, rather they were Christians from diverse denominations (such as Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and so forth.) with the common belief in the imminent return of Jesus Christ. Miller himself became a preacher of the Advent after coming to the conviction about Christ’s return to earth. Another man who believed and taught the imminent Second Advent was Joshua V. Himes; he was the one who, through his extensive influence among Adventists in various denominations, created a wider platform for William Miller to proclaim the message throughout North America. It was later on that another Advent preacher by the name of Charles Fitch began to preach that those (churches) who rejected the advent message were the apocalyptic Babylon, and true believers should leave those churches as required by the Bible in Revelation 18:2-4. Fitch’s interpretations gave the theological basis for forming a new religious group and eventually signalled the beginning of the Millerites who viewed themselves as a distinct group. The expelling of William Miller from the Low Hampton Baptist Church and other Millerites by their various churches for holding the advent view left them with no choice, really, than coming together to form a new group and identity (Knight 2004:16-20).
The SDA philosophy of mission naturally grew upon the foundation of the Advent movement and the Millerites’ approach to mission. Adventists found the message of the imminent second coming of Christ compelling, thus sharing it from one church or congregation to the other. They also had meetings in big tents where Advent preachers shared their convictions about the imminent return of Christ. Those who had been in contact with the Advent message invited Advent preachers to their local churches so that those who were not familiar with the Advent message could hear and understand it. Many Christians embraced the Advent teachings and some became evangelists of the new message. Along the way, as their conviction about the Advent grew, Adventists became more and more convicted that Christ would return in the autumn of 1844 (Knight 2004:21-22).
October 22, 1844 is an important date to the Millerite Adventists. After a long period of Bible studies, especially in their interpretation of prophecies, a leading member of the group, S. S. Snow, convinced fellow Millerite Adventists that Christ’s return was not only soon, it would be on October 22, 1844 (Schwarz 1979:49-50). This conclusion about the date by Adventists made other Protestants and Catholics ridicule Adventists. But due to the fervency of the Adventist preachers, many other Protestants and Catholics also got converted to Adventism. When Christ did not come as proclaimed by Adventists, they were disappointed and embarrassed (Schwarz 1979:50-51).
The Millerite Adventists broke up into three major factions. Each group came up with theological explanations why Christ did not return on the set date. One group totally abandoned the Advent teaching, while another group believed that Christ indeed returned on October 22, 1844 as expected. William Miller held on to the Advent belief, but he stopped attaching any dates to the event of Christ’s return. In turn, the group that would eventually become the Seventh-day Adventists also came from the disappointed Millerite Adventists, although Miller himself did not belong to this new group (Knight 2004:25-26; Schwarz 1979:53-55).
Those who formed the group that became the SDA Church began to develop their set of beliefs after the October 1844 disappointment. A very central and critical doctrine developed from this disappointment and became the explanation of what happened to those who belonged to the Advent movement in the autumn of 1844. Hiram Edson, a Methodist and a member of the Advent movement, claimed to have received the interpretation in a vision. He said that what they had interpreted as the return of Christ to the earth was actually the entering of Christ into the holy of holies in heaven and part of the judgment (Knight 2004:30-32). This is according to Judaic ritual pertaining to the Day of Atonement (Exodus 29; Leviticus 23:26-32; Hebrews 9:11-12). Following the teachings of Edson, Adventists believed that this entry into the holy of holies in the heavenly sanctuary was part of the important events that prepare Christians for the final judgment during the return of Christ. Still at the centre of their belief was the imminent return of Christ, although this time no dates were set, but they still believed the coming was really imminent (Knight 2004:39-40).
The set of beliefs or doctrines of this group were arrived at through intensive Bible studies leading to consensus on certain issues. Apart from the imminent return of Christ, this group came to believe that Saturday was the true and Biblical Sabbath and the day of worship which would remain binding on Christians. The early members of the group got introduced to Saturday Sabbath by a Seventh-day Baptist group (Knight 2004:39-40), especially by a lady called Rachael Oaks who introduced the doctrine to Frederick Wheeler, a Methodist farmer who was also involved in Advent preaching. Wheeler believed the Advent message and was also teaching it in churches around New Hampshire. He then began to keep the Saturday Sabbath having been taught by Oaks (Schwarz 1979:58). All these doctrines were so fundamental in the opinion of Adventists that they sensed a need to let the whole world know about it in the preparation for the coming of the Lord.
George Knight (2004:43-44) records that as the small Sabbath-keeping Adventist group began to settle down into their new identity, they studied the Bible intensely and felt compelled to share their beliefs with other people. By 1848 they had five basic beliefs that gave them their identity and separated them from other Millerite Adventists. They expected the personal, visible and premillennial appearing and return of Jesus, and they believed that the heavenly sanctuary was cleansed when Jesus entered it on October 22, 1844. In addition, they held that the gift of prophecy was present with them, especially manifesting in one of them, Ellen White. They taught and believed that Saturday was the Sabbath and binding on Christians and, finally, they believed that humans were not inherently immortal; belief in Christ was the only way of receiving immortality. These sets of beliefs, which distinguished them from other Christians, were held in addition to many doctrines that were believed by other Christians.

Chapter 1 Introduction to the study
1.1 Background and rationale
1.2 Research problem and objectives
1.3 Research design and methodology
1.4 Relevance of the study
1.5 State of research and literature review
1.6 Limitations of the study
1.7 Ethical considerations
1.8 Chapter outline
Chapter 2 A brief history of Nigeria’s political and democratic development
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Nigeria’s political and democratic development
2.3 A brief history of religion in Nigeria
2.4 Conclusion
Chapter 3 The Seventh-day Adventist Church and Christian mission in democratic Nigeria
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Genesis of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
3.3 Becoming a missionary church
3.4 The administrative and governing structure of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
3.5 Becoming a missionary church in Africa
3.6 Seventh-day Adventist mission in Nigeria
3.7 The Seventh-day Adventist mission and socio-economic development in Nigeria: a historical review
3.8 The SDA Church and national development aspirations
3.9 Conclusion
Chapter 4 Transformational development as mission: Challenge to the Nigerian church
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Nigeria’s developmental strategies: a historical overview
4.3 The morality challenge in the successful implementation of national development policies
4.4 Toward understanding of the concept of development
4.5 Transformational development: a response of faith
4.6 Mission and transformational development
4.7 Ecumenical movement and national development in Nigeria
4.8 Exploring potentials in the SDA Church and ecumenism for national transformation
4.9 The Seventh-day Adventist Church and national transformation
4.10 Conclusion
Chapter 5 Case study: The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nigeria – an empirical perspective
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Methodology and description of sample
5.3 SDA members’ perception of the church’s identity and mission
5.4 Evaluation of the SDA Church’s mission
5.5 SDA mission and the Nigerian society
5.6 SDAs’ attitude to interfaith relationships and dialogue
5.7 The public’s perception of the SDA Church and the relevance of religion in the development of Nigerian society
5.8 Need for removing the limitations placed by SDA eschatological orientation
5.9 Conclusion
Chapter 6 Becoming a catalyst for transformational development: Concluding perspectives on the Seventh-day Adventist Church and its mission in democratic Nigeria
6.1 Introduction
6.2 SDA theology and transformational development
6.3 Conclusion
References
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