In July 1894 Ellen White sent a letter to the denomination's headquarters
church in Battle Creek, Michigan, in which she condemned the purchase and riding
of bicycles (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, pp. 50-53). At first
glance it appears strange that such an issue should be considered important
enough for a prophet to deal with. It seems especially odd when we note that the
bicycle issue had been specifically revealed in vision.
How should we apply such counsel today? Does it mean that Seventh-day
Adventists should not own bicycles?
In answering that question we first need to examine the historical context.
In 1894 the modern bicycle was just beginning to be manufactured, and a fad
quickly developed to acquire bicycles, not for the purpose of economical
transportation, but simply to be in style, to enter bicycle races, and to parade
around town on them. In the evening such parading included the hanging of
Japanese lanterns on the bicycles. Bicycling was the "in" thing--the
thing to do if you were anything or anybody on the social scale.
Extracts from an article entitled "When All the World Went Wheeling"
will help us get into the historical context of the bicycle counsel. "Toward
the end of the last century," we read, "the American people were swept
with a consuming passion which left them with little time or money for anything
else. . . . What was this big new distraction? For an answer the merchants had
only to look out the window and watch their erstwhile customers go whizzing by.
America had discovered the bicycle, and everybody was making the most of the new
freedom it brought. . . . The bicycle began as a rich man's toy. Society and
celebrity went awheel.
"The best early bicycle cost $150, an investment comparable to the cost
of an automobile today. . . . Every member of the family wanted a 'wheel,' and
entire family savings often were used up in supplying the demand" (Reader's
Digest, December 1951).
In the light of the historical context, Ellen White's statement in 1894
regarding bicycles takes on a new significance. "There seemed to be,"
she wrote, "a bicycle craze. Money was spent to gratify an enthusiasm in
this direction that might better, far better, have been invested in building
houses of worship where they are greatly needed. . . . A bewitching influence
seemed to be passing as a wave over our people. . . . Satan works with intensity
of purpose to induce our people to invest their time and money in gratifying
supposed wants. This is a species of idolatry. . . . While hundreds are starving
for bread, while famine and pestilence are seen and felt, . . . shall those who
profess to love and serve God act as did the people in the days of Noah,
following the imagination of their hearts?
"There were some who were striving for the mastery, each trying to
excel the other in the swift running of their bicycles. There was a spirit of
strife and contention among them as to which should be the greatest. . . . Said
my Guide: 'These things are an offense to God. Both near and afar off souls are
perishing for the bread of life and the water of salvation.' When Satan is
defeated in one line, he will be all ready with other schemes and plans which
will appear attractive and needful, and which will absorb money and thought, and
encourage selfishness, so that he can overcome those who are so easily led into
a false and selfish indulgence."
"What burden," she asks, "do these persons carry for the
advancement of the work of God? . . . Is this investment of means and this
spinning of bicycles through the streets of Battle Creek giving evidence of the
genuineness of your faith in the last solemn warning to be given to human beings
standing on the very verge of the eternal world?" (Testimonies for the
Church, vol. 8, pp. 51, 52).
Her counsel on bicycles is obviously dated. Within a few years bicycles
became quite inexpensive and were relegated to the realm of practical
transportation for young people and those without means, even as the larger
culture switched its focus and desires to the four-wheeled successor of the
humble bicycle.
While it is true that some of the specifics of the counsel no longer apply,
the principles on which the specific counsel rests remain quite applicable
across time and space.
And what are some of those principles? First, that Christians are not to
spend money on selfish gratification. Second, that Christians are not to strive
for mastery over one another by doing things that generate a spirit of strife
and contention. Third, that Christians should focus their primary values on the
kingdom to come and on helping others during the present period of history. And
fourth, that Satan will always have a scheme to derail Christians into the realm
of selfish indulgence.
Those principles are unchangeable. They apply to every place and to every
age of earthly history. Bicycles were merely the point of contact between the
principles and the human situation in Battle Creek during 1894. The particulars
of time and place change, but the universal principles remain constant.
Our responsibility as Christians is not only to read God's counsel to us,
but to apply it faithfully to our personal lives. The Christian's task is to
search out God's revelations and then seek to put them into practice in daily
living without doing violence to the intent of their underlying principles. That
takes personal dedication as well as sensitivity to the guidance of the Holy
Spirit.