Immigrants in the Early Advent Movement

For a deeper dive into this topic, consider reading the articles listed below, as this article is adapted from previous publications.[1]—Editors.

The story of God’s people in both literal and spiritual ways is that of displacement, exile, migration, and wandering. After the creation of all things, Genesis 3 records how Adam and Eve were exiled and forcibly displaced from their home in the Garden of Eden. Since then the overarching narrative is that this earth and all its inhabitants, human and nonhuman, are groaning and longing for our heavenly home and the new earth, where we will dwell for eternity with the Godhead and all the redeemed. But between Eden and Eden restored we are but exiles, both spiritually and physically, looking and longing for home.

The theme of migration in Scripture threads its way through nearly every story and book. It captures God’s covenant love and commitment to protecting the stranger (Deut. 10:17, 18), alongside the command to love the foreigner in the land (Lev. 19:33, 34). Caring for the stranger is akin to caring for Jesus, and failing to do so brings God’s judgment and condemnation in the end (Matt. 25:34-46).

Yet even within this overarching narrative of caring for immigrants as a reflection of the love and justice of God, the presence of the immigrant, foreigner, or stranger is prominent in God’s plan throughout salvation history.

And not just in Scripture, but in early Adventist history, the presence and role of immigrants in the Adventist Church is central to understanding God’s call for the Advent movement to be the global phenomenon that it is today.

A Brief Review of Advent History

One cannot talk about the Sabbatarian Advent movement without first covering a brief history of how the Advent movement came about. As William Miller preached far and wide across New York and New England, other preachers joined him, and the movement swelled as part of the culmination of the Second Great Awakening taking place in North America. In 1844 came the Great Disappointment for Advent believers who had waited earnestly for Christ’s return. The birth of the Sabbatarian Advent believers occurred shortly after this event.

There are three things that are important to note in this period. First, the band of Sabbatarian Adventists believed in the closed-door theory, which, in short, was the idea that probation had closed and would remain closed because Jesus was coming soon and the saved had already been sealed by October 22, 1844. This belief persisted for several years, until the late 1840s, when the study of Scripture led to a transition away from this theory.[2]

Second, Ellen White had a vision in November 1848 in which she saw “streams of light . . . clear round the world,” indicating that the Advent movement was to have a global impact.[3] This suggested that the offer of salvation did not end in 1844 but was to continue to be extended around the world.

Third, leading up to the 1840s, there were significant movements of migration into North America. Earlier waves of migration were often from Northern and Western Europe, while later waves came from Asia and Southern and Eastern Europe. Human migration continued, often with a net gain in the millions each decade, until immigration restrictions were first enacted in 1882 with the Chinese Exclusion Act and again in 1924 with the Johnson-Reed Act, which set immigration quotas biased against Eastern and Southern Europeans and fully barred the entry of persons from Asia. Adventist work among immigrants continued until after World War II, when it began to adjust into a different ministry model.[4]

The landscape of America was changing as a result of the impact of religious movements and immigration. It is within this context that the Sabbatarian Adventists lived as they sought to publish widely and grow their movement in North America.

1850s: Early Beginnings

By 1854 the Sabbathkeeping Advent movement transitioned away from the closed-door theory to a different understanding: that a person’s probation ended when they rejected the Advent message.[5]

A new movement in ministry began in 1856 when the French-speaking Bourdeau family who immigrated from Canada became Adventist. Two family members were A. C. and D. T. Bourdeau, who became pioneer French workers and had established three French-speaking Adventist congregations in North America by 1873. It was in 1857 that the first Sabbathkeeping Advent publications were translated, printed, and shared in French and German. These early publications were then distributed among the French- and German-speaking communities in North America.

1860s: A Growing Presence and Influence

In 1861 the first Irish convert to Adventism in Ireland was recorded. What is significant about this international growth is that it was a convert in North America who sent literature to Ireland, resulting in the first Advent believer there.[6] This is just one example of what would become increasingly common in the growing Advent movement. Converts in North America, often immigrants themselves, would send Adventist publications abroad to their kinship networks, resulting in the establishment of small companies of believers in Europe.

Later in the 1860s, tracts began to be published in Danish and Norwegian. One prominent family, the Olsens, was reached by these tracts. O. A. Olsen, part of this family, served as General Conference president from 1888 to 1897 and later became the lead administrator for the North American Foreign Department from 1909 until his death in 1915.[7] Another prominent figure was J. G. Matteson (1835-1896) who, in 1863, became an Adventist and was an earnest preacher on the Northwest frontier, where he formed groups and churches of Advent believers among the Scandinavians and Danes.[8]

Holding on to the roots of our Adventist heritage ought to encourage the church in the twenty-first century to recognize that immigrants—whether in North America or in any part of the world—are not a threat to society but an opportunity to fulfill God’s missional purpose.

One more immigrant story worth sharing from the 1860s is that of M. B. Czechowski, who was converted in 1857. He was an immigrant from Poland and a Catholic. After arriving in North America, he encountered the Advent message and became a Sabbatarian Adventist. He had a deep burden for preaching the Advent message in Europe and was successful in ministering to the French, Germans, Polish, Italians, and Swedes.[9] There were concerns about him among Seventh-day Adventist leadership, and they declined to support his return to Europe. Czechowski then found sponsorship elsewhere and returned to Europe, where he preached the Sabbatarian Advent message. Although largely forgotten in Seventh-day Adventist mission history, Czechowski, an immigrant, played a significant role in preaching the Advent message in Europe and laid the foundation for Adventist mission there before the sending of J. N. Andrews in 1874.

1870s: Shaping Global Mission

Adventist mission has been central to Adventist identity since 1874. There are countless stories of sacrifice, divine providence, and the great efforts of individuals and institutions who worked tirelessly to plant the Advent message in nearly every country around the world.

This, however, was not the view of the fledgling Seventh-day Adventist Church prior to the mid-1870s. Uriah Smith wrote in 1859 that it may not be necessary to proclaim the message beyond the United States, “since our own land is composed of people from almost every nation.”[10] By 1872 it was noted that Adventists had largely believed Protestant missions would fulfill the Great Commission and that the Advent message was not associated with the global spread of the gospel as a sign of the end.[11]

This understanding began to shift when a call from Switzerland arrived at the General Conference, requesting a missionary to instruct and guide the growth of the small Adventist church plants beginning to form across Europe.

The Mattesons, Olsens, Bourdeau brothers, and many other immigrant converts were working tirelessly across North America, reaching the various immigrant populations spreading across the continent. By the end of the 1870s there were Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and at least three French-speaking congregations in North America.

Ellen White’s Pressing Call to Immigrant Ministry

On December 10, 1871, Ellen White penned a message urging the growing Advent movement to further extend the work of God. In this letter she makes specific mention of how “men of other tongues” had been converted and brought close to the publishing work for the purpose of producing papers in other languages to raise “an interest and the spirit of inquiry among other nations.”[12]

Again, in 1874, Ellen White wrote her first article highlighting the prominent and important role of immigrants in God’s mission of declaring the Advent message to the world. She writes:

“We are far behind other denominations in missionary work, who do not claim that Christ is soon to come, and that the destiny of all must soon be decided. . . . We are not keeping pace with the opening providence of God. Jesus and angels are at work. This cause is onward, while we are standing still and being left in the rear. If we would follow the opening providence of God, we should be quick to discern every opening, and make the most of every advantage within our reach, to let the light extend and spread to other nations. God, in His providence, has sent men to our very doors and thrust them, as it were, into our arms, that they might learn the truth more perfectly, and be qualified to do a work we could not do in getting the light before men of other tongues. We have too often failed to discern God’s hand, and we have not received the very ones God had provided for us to work in union with, and act a part in sending the light to other nations.”[13]

By the mid-1870s Ellen White was already stating that, in doing the work of God, the Seventh-day Adventist movement was far behind both God’s providence and other denominations in missionary work. The providence of God in bringing men and women who could preach the Advent message in other languages had been missed, and she urged the church to take action in working with the immigrants in North America whom God has brought. And indeed, by the 1880s, immigrant converts in North America were active in working among their fellow kinsman in North American and beyond, by sending publications far and wide and preaching the Advent message wherever immigrants were gathered, both on the frontier and in the big cities.

These were among the first urgent appeals for reaching those who spoke other languages in North America. White issued similar calls for 40 years, culminating in her most comprehensive summary of the matter in 1914, just before her passing.[14]

The Key Point

Immigrants played a leading role in sending publications and pioneering ways for sharing their faith among their language groups, both in North America and abroad. They were vital to the growth and understanding of Adventist mission. If it were not for immigrants, Adventist mission would have taken longer to develop and take root within the movement. Seven years before J. N. Andrews was sent as the first Adventist missionary, M. B. Czechowski went to preach the Advent message. European immigrants extended Adventist mission by sending publications abroad and working for their fellow countryfolk in North America. Embedded in the effort to reach immigrants in North America was a precursor to Adventist mission, for immigrants were able to extend the Advent message beyond the English-speaking world.

Although this article touches only on the beginning phases of ministry among immigrants in the early Advent movement and Seventh-day Adventist Church, what can be learned is that God had been urging the Advent leaders to take note not only of their global mission responsibility but also of the immigrants residing in North America as playing a crucial role in the movement. Holding on to the roots of our Adventist heritage ought to encourage the church in the twenty-first century to recognize that immigrants—whether in North America or in any part of the world—are not a threat to society but an opportunity to fulfill God’s missional purpose. They help declare the Advent message to men and women of other tongues who can more effectively share God’s truth within their own language groups. White encouraged in her day the use of the pen, the press, the purse, energy, the voice, and the sanctified affections of the heart to bring the light of God before those of other tongues.[15]

It was the presence of immigrants in North America that prompted Advent mission and publication in other languages. It was the presence of immigrants that helped shape missionary thinking. God’s providence in bringing immigrants to North America was His way of advancing the Advent message into every corner of the globe. God’s purpose and providence have not changed. May the missionary spirit of our immigrant forebears, who pioneered Adventist mission, never be forgotten, but rather held and treasured as a model to inspire renewed earnestness for advancing God’s truth in the world today.

[1] William Wells, “Foreigners in America: A Study of Migration, Mission History, and Ellen G. White’s Missional Model,” Journal of Adventist Mission Studies 15, no. 2 (2020): 185-199.

[2] Richard W. Schwarz and Floyd Greenleaf, Light Bearers (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 2000), pp. 51-67.

[3] Ellen G. White, Life Sketches (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1915), p. 125.

[4] William Wells, “Seventh-day Adventist Mission to Immigrants From 1920 to 1965: An Exploration of Immigration Trends, Laws, and the Church’s Missional Response,” Journal of Adventist Mission Studies 19, no. 2 (2023): 89-111.

[5] Schwarz and Greenleaf, p. 67.

[6] Arthur W. Spalding, Origin and History of Seventh-day Adventists, vol. 2 (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1962), p. 195; “The Sabbath in Ireland,” Review and Herald, Nov. 19, 1861, p. 198.

[7] Gilbert M. Valentine, “Olsen, Ole Andres (1845-1915),” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, Feb. 28, 2020, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=29WR.

[8] Yvonne Johansson Öster, “Matteson, John Gottlieb (1835-1896),” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, Jan. 28, 2020, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=5CPX.

[9] Schwarz and Greenleaf, p. 87.

[10] David Trim, A Voice to Rouse the Nations (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 2024), chaps. 1-4.

[11] E. G. White, p. 203.

[12] Ibid., p. 205.

[13] Ellen G. White, “Other Nations,” The True Missionary, Jan. 1, 1874.

[14] Ellen G. White, “The Foreigners in America,” Review and Herald, Oct. 29, 1914.

[15] Ibid.