(Daniel 2:35)
King Nebuchadnezzar saw the kingdoms against the saints as a great image that was struck by a stone during the Reformation. That stone was the Spirit of Christ. Daniel said, “The wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found.”1Dan 2:35
But when did these earthly powers no longer control the saints?
In the Holy Roman Empire, the Lutheran Church was not officially recognized until the Peace of Augsburg of 1555. Calvinism was not recognized until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.
There was more religious freedom in the British commonwealth, where the Church of England was established by King Henry VIII. Dissenters who were dissatisfied with the Church of England began new denominations to pursue the apostolic truth. In 1617, Sabbath keeping began at the Mill Yard Seventh Day Baptist Church in London. The Quakers pursued a Pentecostal experience. Edward Burrough, who died in 1663, wrote, “We spoke with new tongues as the Lord gave us utterance and His Spirit led us.”2Burrough, Edward (1831) [1659]. “Epistle to the Reader” in Fox, George. The great mystery of the great whore unfolded; and Antichrist’s kingdom revealed unto destruction. The Works of George Fox. 3. p. 13
All these new denominations were persecuted. The Seventh Day Baptists in England were fined for not keeping Sunday rest. The Quakers were sent to prison because they refused to fight against other Christians. As a result, many believers went to America to find greater religious freedom.
In the United States, many more denominations were born, including the Seventh Day Adventists and Pentecostals. Most of these new denominations had non-Trinitarian beginnings, and they believed themselves to be the true elect of God.
In 1844, Ellen White became a driving force of the Seventh Day Adventist Church when she began seeing visions during church services. She believed that those who kept holy the Sabbath day were the end-time saints in the Book of Revelation “who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.”3Rev 14:12
In 1906, at Azusa Street in California, thousands reported receiving a spiritual gift of speaking in other tongues.
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