Angry Saints

If the loud cry began in the late 1880s, why is the church still on earth?

Have we fallen into the same spiritual trap as our forebears? 

For more than 100 years, Seventh-day Adventists have looked back at the 1888 General Conference Session as a milestone in the church’s history, a turning point in its theological development. But Adventists still sharply disagree over the meaning and significance of the righteousness by faith message expounded in 1888 and the decade following. Some regard Minneapolis as a major victory, while others view it as the denomination’s greatest tragedy. George R. Knight believes it was a mixed blessing—a tragedy that contained the seeds of unending possibility.

            Angry Saints is about the people and struggles that existed more than 100 years ago. And even though the specific characters and surface issues have changed, most of the problems, opportunities, dynamics, personality traits, and bedrock controversies portrayed are remarkably contemporary.

            Angry Saints brings us to the sobering realization that it is possible to be an Adventist without being a Christian and reveals that belligerence not only fails to solve theological difficulties, it places us in a dangerous position.

So, what will it take to change us into a translation-ready church in which Christ’s character is fully reproduced? Learning and applying the lessons of Minneapolis may well hold the key to our future.