George Storrs:  Enigmatic and Ambivalent Polarizer of Adventism

Original text by Richard Martin Rawe – Edited by Barbara Anderson

INTRODUCTION

No person in mid-nineteenth century Evangelical Adventism had a greater impact on that movement and its resultant twentieth-century counterparts than George Storrs.

[caption id="attachment_2312" align="alignright" width="213"] George Storrs[/caption]

This essay will focus especially on the views espoused by Storrs concerning the Second Coming of Christ, the Millennium associated with this event, and the major respects in which his views differed from those of others during this period.

It will also try to show that underlying these specific differences in millenarian and eschatological doctrine, were a number of more fundamental differences relating to broader “theological” issues, such as the attributes of God, the redemptive role of Christ, the Trinity, the immortality of the soul, hellfire, and other “theological” matters. The essay will also briefly examine the position of Storrs on several issues relating to the “organizational” side of the Christian enterprise, trying to show that Storrs was a champion of freedom in the area of church organization just as he was a bold seeker of truth.