by D.E. Robinson 

“The Captain of our salvation leads His people on step by step, purifying and fitting them for translation, and leaving in the rear those who are disposed to draw off from the body, who are not willing to be led, and are satisfied with their own righteousness. ‘If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.’ No greater delusion can deceive the human mind than that which leads men to indulge a self-confident spirit, to believe that they are right and in the light, when they are drawing away from God’s people, and their cherished light is darkness.”—Testimonies for the Church 1:333. SDACBB 1.1

Previous to and since the time when these words were written in 1861, many and varied movements have arisen that have resulted in detaching from the Seventh-day Adventist Church groups of people who, for some reason, have become dissatisfied either with the doctrines or the practices of the church. SDACBB 1.2

Without exception these movements have been feeble, and in most cases shortlived. The organized body, however, has continued to increase in strength. This disparity in numbers and power is said by those drawing away from the body to be in harmony with the divine program, each dissenting company believing itself to be that “little flock” that is to enter the kingdom. The teaching of the leaders of these offshoots—“reform movements,” as they sometimes call themselves—is thus set forth by Mrs. E. G. White in an article written in 1863 entitled, “The Cause in the East,” published in Testimonies for the Church 1:417, 418: SDACBB 1.3

“There are little companies continually arising who believe that God is only with the very few, the very scattered, and their influence is to tear down and scatter that which God’s servants build up. Restless minds who want to be seeing and believing something new continually are constantly rising, some in one place and some in another, all doing a special work for the enemy, yet claiming to have the truth. They stand separate from the people whom God is leading out and prospering, and through whom He is to do His great work. They are continually expressing their fears that the body of Sabbath keepers are becoming like the world, but there are scarcely two of these whose views are in harmony. They are scattered and confused, and yet deceive themselves so much as to think that God is especially with them.”—Testimonies for the Church 1:417. 

In contrast to the vagaries of these deceived souls, God’s purpose for a strong, united people, through whom He will finish His work in the earth, is set forth in the same connection: SDACBB 1.4

“God is bringing out a people, and preparing them to stand as one, united, to speak the same things, and thus carry out the prayer of Christ for His disciples: ‘Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me’”—Ibid. 

The leaders of some of these earlier movements of separation from Seventh-day Adventists rejected and denounced the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy. This was logical, for they were not in harmony with their teaching. SDACBB 1.5

Most of these movements, however, in more recent times have claimed to be in harmony with the Testimonies. Their speakers and writers have freely quoted such portions as they could use in condemning their former brethren, and in upholding themselves in any differences they may have with the church. SDACBB 1.6