The Battle Creek Fires

There is something strange about your SDA fires, with the water poured on acting more like gasoline,” declared Fire Chief Weeks of Battle Creek, Michigan.

Why had the Battle Creek Fire Department been so unsuccessful in fighting the 1902 Adventist fires? In the early twentieth century, much turmoil was going on while Dr. John H. Kellogg was spreading his pantheistic view that nature is an extension of God. Kellogg and his associates attempted to control the whole church.

Battle Creek had become an overcrowded center of church activities and problems. The town housed the General Conference headquarters, the Review and Herald Publishing Association, the huge Battle Creek Sanitarium, the Battle Creek College, and the large Dime Tabernacle. Ellen White was much concerned about the centralization and advised church leaders to move the General Conference and other institutions to different locations. In November 1901, she warned, “Unless there is a reformation, calamity will overtake the publishing house, and the world will know the reason.” But her counsels were ignored. In the early morning of February 18, 1902, the Battle Creek Sanitarium burned down. Instead of envisioning many smaller health-reform institutions in different locations, Kellogg decided to rebuild the sanitarium on an even larger scale.

To help fund construction, he ordered five thousand copies of his book The Living Temple to be printed by the Review and Herald Publishing Association.

Before they did so, however, the publishing house was also destroyed by a fire of unknown origin on December 30, 1902. On January 5, 1903, Ellen White wrote to the brethren in Battle Creek, “Today I received a letter from Elder Daniells regarding the destruction of the Review office by fire. I feel very sad as I consider the great loss to the cause. . . . But I was not surprised by the sad news, for in the visions of the night I have seen an angel standing with a sword as of fire stretched over Battle Creek.” God often uses tragedies to wake up His people. But what a blessing it would be if, without any disciplinary measures, we would proactively follow His prophetic word!