For there must be also heresies among you,
that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.
1 Corinthians 11:19
"Around the year 1900 a revival took place in the state of Indiana that many contemporaries considered as a special outpouring of the Pentecostal power of the Holy Spirit. However, quite a number of Adventists, including Ellen White, were disturbed and shocked from what the saw or heard. In emotionally charged, out of control worship services people were yelling prayers and praises accompanied by erratic playing of musical instruments. She viewed it as a counterfeit revival and throughout the years many Adventists were afraid of new worship and music choices since she had predicted a resurgence of these elements in the Seventh-day Adventist Church near the close of probation.Ellen White nicknamed the movement “Holy Flesh movement” whereas its advocates called it “the cleansing message.” She warned not to pick up any points of that doctrine and call it truth. The presenter, Katrina Blue, pointed out that while White’s response to the movement is well documented, the arguments and views of its proponents, especially of its main leaders (S. S. Davis and R. S. Donnell), have been shrouded due to a lack of primary source material. It was not until 2010, when the estate of the deceased William Grotheer (who had owned such primary sources for many decades but consistently refused to allow anyone access to these documents) forwarded these materials to the Center for Adventist Research at Andrews University, that primiary sources became available. Blue stated that it was the purpose of her presentation to provide an overview and to analyze these newly-found primary sources.
S. S. Davis
S. S. Davis was the principal instigator of the movement. As a worker in Indiana he participated in 
Eyewitness Accounts
However, eyewitnesses described divisions in the church, a widespread confusion, false teachings, and people being carried off to an insane asylum. Through the use of musical instruments they worked up a high pitch of excitement. They shouted, prayed, and sang until someone in the congregation prostrated from his seat. That person was then dragged to the rostrum and there a group of people gathering around the individual started to sing, shout, and prayed, all at the same time. When the individual regained consciousness, he was reckoned among those who had experienced Gethsemane, received holy flesh and translation faith. It was claimed that they could not sin and would never die.The most extensive accounts stem from the Muncie camp meeting, which Donnell did not even consider as powerful as the other meetings. Hetty and S. N. Haskell had written to Ellen White who was in Australia at the time. They had witnessed a divisive impact of the movement although they admitted that the conference had grown through the influence of this movement. And while the Haskell’s admitted that the movement was accompanied by a “great power,” they attributed it to the devil. They had witnessed how people had become insane during those meetings and had to be carried off to the insane asylum. G. A. Roberts, another eyewitness, had seen how Donnell’s arms became fixed and rigid when holding them out over the congregation. Roberts recollected Donnell’s own report of feeling great power run through his arms and pass through his fingers to the congregation.
New Material: S. S. Davis’
“The Two Adams and the Two Covenants”
In this publication Davis laid down his main thesis about the two covenants. The old covenant began before the fall, was broken by Adam, and renewed at Mt. Sinai, representing all unsuccessful attempts to keep the law in the sinful flesh. The new covenant began with Adam after his fall and centered on the indwelling of Christ’s life in the human heart by faith, resulting in the ability to sin no more and thereby achieving the state necessary for translation at Christ’s Second Coming. Davis believed that at the end of time everyone who wants to be saved must achieve this state of sinless perfection. Thus since the beginning there were two classes of people—those that were controlled by the flesh and Satan, and those that had control of the flesh and were under the control of Christ.Davis suggested that Adam’s mind was simply an extension for God’s mind. Thus Adam was the instrument through which God carried out his will and purposes on earth. The Spirit would, by the electric current, control man’s thoughts and speak to him and through him. He eventually concluded that in the Garden of Eden the animals came to worship humans.
Davis’ treatise presents a weak concept of the free will of humans, both before and after the fall, when compared with the traditional and modern Adventist advocacy of a free will. Davis presented humans either as conduits for God prior to the fall or as conduits for Satan after the fall.
New Material: R. S. Donnell’s
“The Nature of Christ and Man”
Donnell took this co-joint rulership of humanity a step further. His document was a letter that he sent to Davis some years after the events. Donnell stated that when Adam sinned, he lost the nature that God had given him and received the nature and mind of Satan. Sanctification was God’s work of restoring the spiritual nature in humans and cleansing them from all sin. He also suggested that Christ lived his earthly life in order to demonstrate what humans could become when they receive the divine mind. Donnell made the striking statement that God wants to make Gods out of us so that we cannot be even tempted to sin. Donnell went even further by claiming that humans through Christ’s indwelling in them would become members of the Godhead.
Ellen White’s Response
Ellen White was clear that the creation of a “din of noise” was not in harmony with the Holy Spirit’s working. Therefore the Holy Flesh movement was, as Blue pointed out, a combination of
*false doctrine,
*unorthodox practices,
*and the presence of a delusive satanic, spiritual power to create a counterfeit revival." MeaningMemory&Faith
