Joseph Bates: The Real Founder of Seventh-Day Adventism
Shanghaied by the British in 1810, Joseph Bates spent the next five years as a British sailor and prisoner, surviving the Dartmoor massacre. Soon he was captain of his own ship, forcing his sailors to swear off liquor and talking pirates out of their prey. Scrupulously honest, he once turned his ship around to return money overpaid him.\ In 1824 Bates was converted and signed "a solemn covenant with God." After amassing a small fortune, he retired at age 36 and joined the Christian Connexion,...
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Shanghaied by the British in 1810, Joseph Bates spent the next five years as a British sailor and prisoner, surviving the Dartmoor massacre. Soon he was captain of his own ship, forcing his sailors to swear off liquor and talking pirates out of their prey. Scrupulously honest, he once turned his ship around to return money overpaid him. In 1824 Bates was converted and signed "a solemn covenant with God." After amassing a small fortune, he retired at age 36 and joined the Christian Connexion, who took the Scriptures as their "only rule of faith and practice." Then his life began to get interesting. This biography by historian George Knight makes use of previously unavailable letters and logbooks to shed new light on the first theologian and real founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Bates gave his estate to the Advent movement and spent the rest of his life in unpaid service. Knight examines his writings, his social and health reforms, his key role in bringing the Sabbath and great controversy theology to Adventism, and his conflict and partnership with James White. Knight's biography strips away the veneer of history to reveal new textures in the life of this most colorful Adventist pioneer.
A Word to the ReaderixIA Travelin' Man15IIThe Captain Gets Religion28IIIReformer on the Loose44IVThe Ultimate Reform: Millerism58VBates Gets the Sabbath77VICatalyst for a Movement92VIISabbatarian Adventism's First Theologian: Theology as History (Part 1)107VIIISabbatarian Adventism's First Theologian: Theology as History (Part 2)119IXSabbatarian Adventism's First Historian: History as Theology135XPatriarchs in Conflict and the Transfer of Leadership152XISabbatarian Adventism's First Missionary172XIISenior Statesman191XIIIAnd What Is Retirement?205Index215
