The Origin, Development, and History of the Norweigian Seventh-day Adventist Church from the ...

513 Pages·2016·10.21 MB·English

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Dissertations Graduate Research
2010
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Bjorgvin Martin Hjelvik Snorrason
Andrews University
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Snorrason, Bjorgvin Martin Hjelvik, "The Origin, Development, and History of the Norwegian Seventh-day
Adventist Church from the 1840s to 1889" (2010). Dissertations. 144.
https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dissertations/144
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ABSTRACT

THE ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT, AND HISTORY OF THE
NORWEGIAN SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH
FROM THE 1840s TO 1887

by
Bjorgvin Martin Hjelvik Snorrason

Adviser: Jerry Moon
ABSTRACT OF GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH

Dissertation

Andrews University

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Title: THE ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT, AND HISTORY OF THE NORWEGIAN
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH FROM THE 1840s TO 1887

Name of researcher: Bjorgvin Martin Hjelvik Snorrason

Name and degree of faculty adviser: Jerry Moon, Ph.D.

Date completed: July 2010

This dissertation reconstructs chronologically the history of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church in Norway from the Haugian Pietist revival in the early 1800s to the
establishment of the first Seventh-day Adventist Conference in Norway in 1887.
The present study has been based as far as possible on primary sources such as
protocols, letters, legal documents, and articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers
from the nineteenth century. A contextual-comparative approach was employed to
evaluate the objectivity of a given source. Secondary sources have also been consulted
for interpretation and as corroborating evidence, especially when no primary sources
were available.
The study concludes that the Pietist revival ignited by the Norwegian Lutheran lay
preacher, Hans Nielsen Hauge (1771-1824), represented the culmination of the sixteenth-
century Reformation in Norway, and the forerunner of the Adventist movement in that
country. Thus Adventism in Norway was a direct outgrowth of Norwegian Pietism.
Adventism was essentially pietistic in its emphasis on the Bible only as the rule of faith,
and its insistence that biblical doctrine must be not only believed, but practiced in the life.
The best evidence suggests that the discovery of the seventh-day Sabbath by four families
of southern Norway, who became the nucleus of Norwegian Adventism, did not result
from any contact with other Sabbath keepers, but was derived directly from their own
study of the Bible, and their faith in the Bible as the binding word of God as advocated
by Hans Nielsen Hauge.
Andrews University

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

THE ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT, AND HISTORY OF THE
NORWEGIAN SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH
FROM THE 1840s TO 1887

A Dissertation

Presented in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

by

Bjorgvin Martin Hjelvik Snorrason

July 2010
© Copyright by Bjorgvin Martin Hjelvik Snorrason 2010
All Rights Reserved
To my wife
Hallgerður Ásta
the love of my life
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................... ix

PREFACE .................................................................................................................. xi

Background of the Problem ........................................................................... xi
The Rise of Divergent Forms of Christianity .......................................... xi
The Celtic Church .............................................................................. xiii
The Roman Catholic Church in Norway ........................................... xvii
The Reformation in Norway .............................................................. xvii
Rise of Pietism in Norway ................................................................ xviii
The Enlightenment ................................................................................... xviii
Hans Nielsen Hauge, Norwegian Pietist Reformer .................................. xix
Statement of the Problem ............................................................................... xxiv
Purpose and Delimitations ............................................................................. xxiv
Review of Prior Research and Primary Sources ............................................ xxv
Prior Research .......................................................................................... xxv
Primary Sources ....................................................................................... xxix
Methodology .................................................................................................. xxxi
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ xxxvi

Chapter
1. BACKGROUNDS AND BEGINNINGS ........................................................ 1

Introduction .................................................................................................... 1
Christianity in Norway before the Arrival of Seventh-day Adventism ........ 3
The Celtic Christian Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the
Norwegians, from the Ninth Century to 1537 ................................... 3
The Reformation in Denmark-Norway 1536/1537–1797 ........................ 16
The Reformation in Norway 1536/371897 ............................................ 19
Hans Nielsen Hauge (1771-1824) .................................................................. 27
Hauge‟s Impact on Norwegian History ................................................... 28
Hauge‟s Life: From Infancy to Manhood (1771-1796) ........................... 29
The Preaching and Writing Years (1796-1804) ....................................... 36
Hauge‟s Prison Years (1804-1814) .......................................................... 42
Hauge‟s Last Years (1814-1824) ............................................................. 44
Introduction of Sabbath-keeping Christianity in Norway, 1839-1850 .......... 46
Seven Families Change Their Beliefs ...................................................... 46
The Family of Ola Sørenson Øvland ................................................. 47
The Family of Søren Olson Øvland ................................................... 48
iv