VIII. Smith-Presents Case for Conditionalism for Seventh-day Adventists

URIAH SMITH (1832-1903), Seventh-day Adventist editor, author, and Bible teacher, turned away from a lucrative offer, in 1853, to join the meager editorial staff of the newly founded Advent Review and Sabbath Herald. He also taught Bible for a time in the denomination’s first college, at Battle Creek, Michigan. He similarly served as secretary of their General Conference for a while. His writings were therefore representative. In fact, Smith was editor in chief of the Review most of the time for nearly half a century. His best-known contribution was Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation (1867-1872), running through many editions and widely circulated even to this day. ^{8484) Its circulation totals some 600,000, with translations into various languages.} He was author of several other works, including Modern Spiritualism (1897). But it is his Man’s Nature and Destiny (1873) with a later title prefix, Here and Hereafter, that is of immediate concern to us. (Photo on page 673).CFF2 688.2

In the formative days of the church Smith joined James White, John Andrews, and others in a critical study of Bible doctrine in an endeavor to formulate and place the views of Seventh-day Adventists convincingly before the world. Smith’s pen was a potent instrument, for he had a logical mind and an incisive and graceful literary style. Polemics being the order of the day, he engaged in many a duel of pens, one in particular being a sharp exchange with the Spiritualists. Sometimes his rebuttals were devastating.CFF2 688.3

1. NOT AN ORIGINATOR BUT A PERPETUATOR

It cannot be too strongly stated that Smith was in no sense a pioneer in the field of Conditionalism. Nor did he consider himself such. Instead, he was simply a continuator and coordinator of principles, facts, and arguments that had been stressed hundreds of times by clear-thinking Bible students before him, presented in this form and that. He was not introducing something new, peculiar, or heterodox, but simply reiterating what had been enunciated by a galaxy of the ablest and most reverent scholars before him, spread over all faiths on both sides of the Atlantic.CFF2 689.1

There was not a major fact that Smith presented nor a vital principle set forth, nor an exposition of a text, nor explanation of a perplexing question that had not been put forth over and over again through the years. He was familiar with the names and writings of the leading Conditionalists back to Reformation times, for he cites more than a hundred and fifty of them by name. He was well aware of the antiquity of Conditionalism, and knew well the distinguished company with which he fellowshiped. He considered himself as simply carrying on the torch transmitted from their hands.CFF2 689.2

He was likewise persuaded that the hour had come for this minority view to come to the forefront and for the uncompleted Reformation to be completed in this area. To that end he made his contribution, based upon Scripture, buttressed with history and logic, and attested by the declarations of ecclesiastics, teachers, linguists, historians, editors, and pulpiteers. His was the representative voice of Seventh-day Adventists on this question for the latter quarter of the nineteenth century. Here is a digest of his thirty-seven-chapter, 443-page book.CFF2 689.3