A periodical founded at a mass meeting of conditional immortality Adventists at Lowell, Massachusetts in January 1854, who "decided to establish a paper to give currency to their views." First issued from Lowell that March, the paper relocated to Boston in February 1856, where it remained for the rest of the century. Its founders and readers were the same conditional immortality Adventist remnant that organized formally as the Advent Christian denomination in 1860, six years after the paper began.
Facts
Subject Matter
Religious Subject MatterExisted to give voice to conditional immortality, the doctrine that the soul sleeps in death and the wicked are ultimately destroyed rather than tormented forever, the same doctrinal reading that distinguished the movement organizing as the Advent Christian denomination in 1860 from the Seventh-day Adventist Church that split from the same Millerite remnant. 1 Scholarly ReceptionThe paper's own founding is tied to a specific failed prediction rather than to a settled doctrine: it was launched at Lowell in March 1854 by advocates of Jonathan Cummings' claim that Christ would return that year, after the existing Adventist press refused to carry the argument. When 1854 passed without the event, the paper had, in the words of a contemporary reference account, to confess the error of its position on the date, yet the doctrinal differences that had already separated its readership from the mainstream Adventist press kept it from simply rejoining it. It went on instead to become one of the movement's principal papers under Miles Grant's two decades as editor, its credibility built after, not despite, that public retraction. 1 Production
Publication Year AuthorSourced to the subject's own accountFounded by Advent Christian advocates of conditional immortality at Lowell, Massachusetts in 1854; edited by Miles Grant from 1856 to 1876. 2 Place of OriginLowell, Massachusetts, from March 1854; Boston, Massachusetts, from February 1856 onward. 1 Learn More
The Paper That Outlasted the Date It Was Founded to Explain
Most new religious periodicals exist to defend a single argument, and The World's Crisis was no exception when a group of Adventists met at Lowell, Massachusetts in January 1854 and, in the words of the reference work that recorded it, "decided to establish a paper to give currency to their views." Their view was conditional immortality: that the soul does not survive death on its own, and that the wicked will ultimately be destroyed rather than tormented without end. It was a minority reading even among people who agreed Christ was coming soon, and they wanted a printing press to make the case for it.
The paper outlived the argument's novelty by decades. It moved from Lowell to Boston in February 1856, "where it has remained ever since," according to the same nineteenth century record, and stayed there through the rest of the century. Miles Grant, an Adventist preacher who had joined the conditional immortality camp two years earlier, took over as editor that same year and held the post for twenty years, 1856 to 1876.
What makes the paper worth recording here is timing more than content. It began publishing in 1854, six years before the readers it served organized themselves formally as the Advent Christian Association in 1860. The denomination did not create the paper. The paper's readers created the denomination. By the time the Advent Christian Church existed as an organized body, it inherited an outlet that had already been arguing its case in print for the better part of a decade, which is as direct a claim on a religious movement's own voice as a periodical can make.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Boston, Cities This source names Boston directly: "that March, the paper relocated to Boston in February 1856, where it remained for the rest of the century."
This source names Massachusetts directly: "immortality Adventists at Lowell, Massachusetts in January 1854, who "decided to establish a paper to give currency to their views." First issued from Lowell that March, the paper relocated to..."
Belongs to Tradition
Founded in 1854 by advocates of the conditional immortality doctrine that distinguished the movement, six years before the Advent Christian Association organized as a denomination in 1860 out of that same readership. Edited from 1856 to 1876 by Miles Grant, later an Adventist preacher of standing within the movement. A work of the tradition's own voice rather than an outside depiction of it, in the same pattern already used elsewhere in this atlas for COGIC's own devotional and institutional works.
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