A.G. Daniels

23 In a letter of censure written by A.T. Jones to General Conference President, A.G. Daniels, dated January 26, 1906, dealing with the change in the Constitution in 1903, Jones summed up his feelings thus:

A.G. Daniels, General Conference President - Daniels was a close associate of the White family for over forty years.Despite that, he apparently had his own personal doubts about Ellen White and her testimonies.In 1919, he convened a secret conference with top SDA leaders to discuss the role of Ellen White in the church.Among his many comments he expressed some doubt regarding her health testimonies, "I have eaten pounds of butter at her table myself, and dozens of eggs.

Would you like to have A.G. Daniels' summery of this same time period in the Seventh-day Adventist church? This little pamphlet here published by the General Conference, Washington DC 1906- Here's the comment made by Elder A.G. Daniels on this General Conference that they wanted Sister White to come back to- and here's what it says, During the session of the General Conference however testimonies were read showing that wrong principles of dealing had permeated the entire cause..
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The men on the other side were Loughborough, A.G. Daniels and you list the rest of them.
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Daniels do not allow any changes in the organization, but Daniels cracked the whip harder than any president we have had before or after.He used this book, which was written in 1902 and said that he was the right man for the right job, that was when they put him in as a member of the General Conference committee, not as General Conference president.And he was one of the leaders on the General Conference committee but not… but then he was elected chairman but not General Conference president, there be not even any such job.It says in here he was the right man in the right place.

In 1902 he got himself voted in as General Conference president and in 1903 he made the wrong choice and was on the wrong side and rejected the minority report on organization.The whole thing is, friends, Daniels ruled with a rod of iron without making hardly any changes actually, officially in the organization.

I have the entire 1922 report of the General Conference committee in my file at home.That was the first General Conference after my father went into denominational work.My father, I do not think I ever heard him say one good thing about A.G. Daniels.
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So they put Daniels out in 1922 and it be a sad, dark story in the Seventh-day Adventist church.Newspaper headlines hit the street in San Francisco saying, A.G. Daniels, and W.A. Spicer in contention for control of the Seventh-day Adventist church.I have Daniels speech on it and he accused the brethren who do not vote for him of dirty politics.

And it was evidently so dirty and so wide spread that at that General Conference they passed a resolution condemning dirty politics, and again if the brethren say that there be not any than why did the General Conference in session vote a resolution against something that did not exist.

The next year friends, the brethren again, God leading them, attempted to start to rectify things so they published this marvelous book entitled Testimonies to Ministers which is a republication of certain pertinent portions of Series A and B special testimonies.And the brethren for reform, printed this book with its strong statements on organization and centralization and the desire to rule, or ruin and they were trying to then, again, reorganize the Seventh-day Adventist church.It was published the year I was born, so if you want to look that up you can tell how old I am.

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Daniels then as ministerial secretary of the General Conference got the ministerial department to authorize him to make a collection and compilation, the action says, on Sister White's statements on justification by faith.Which he promptly went to work on, and he must have started right after Testimonies to Ministers, because he had it done and ready to go to press but when the book came out from press, it was called Christ Our Righteousness'.And Daniel's view of Christ our Righteousness, which has nothing to do with reorganization or the practical application of the principles of 1888 has been sold to the church and consequently Daniels then used his position as ministerial secretary of the General Conference and the men with him, Meade McGuire etc. to go across the entire denomination preaching Daniels version of the 1888 message and that is what you are hearing today.

Testimonies to Ministers did not solve the problem because Daniels had the pulpit and he had some very good speakers.I used to listen to Meade McGuire and these men preach and they sold this new view so there was no reorganization as the result of the publication of these principles again in Testimonies to Ministers.But the church was in a steady slide to apostasy.Elder McElhany was a very sincere man . He was very concerned about the condition of backsliding in the church.And McElhany picked up J.N. Andrews' idea that a church manual would serve to unify and stop the apostasy.

He finally got it voted at the General Conference in 1930 to get a church manual out.Well committees do nothing, I found when I served on them, people do things and since it was J.L. McElhany's burden to write a church manual, he wrote the first one.And it was published in 1932.In the mean time they decided that they needed to specify and try to cure the problems of the church by rules and regulations.I found a very interesting thing voted in the General Conference of 1924, I can not quote it verbatim but I have one of these copies you make of the document at home.And it says, Because our institutions and our leaders and conferences have steadily piled up debts, contrary to the instruction in the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy WE therefore resolve….

Now I want you to think about that, what higher authority is there than the Bible? How about the Spirit of Prophecy? Now the leadership, in their action in 1924 said that the leadership were not paying any attention to this or this, so now there going to pass there own rules on debt regulation and they passed nine rules.

A.G. Daniels, who has been the General Conference President for 21 years, was chosen as the first Ministerial Secretary.

And in the next General Conference session in 1903, with A.G. Daniels as president of the General Conference, all pretense in following the plans of reorganization laid down at the 1901 General Conference session were done away with, and a new constitution was adopted.

The kingly papal power was officially brought back into the church, while the counsel and commands of God and the prophet was rejected.And these things were done in the eyes of everyone present, which represented the entire SDA church.

But not all were asleep to the serious ramifications and the inevitable end result which this action would lead to.

The order of the day under A.G. Daniels, President of the General Conference became "Rule or Ruin."