The 1919 Bible Conference was a Seventh-day Adventist Church conference or council held from July 1 to August 9, 1919, for denominational leaders, educators, and editors to discuss theological and pedagogical issues. The council was convened by the General Conference Executive Committee led by A. G. Daniells, the President of the General Conference, and included the first major discussion of the inspiration of Ellen G. White’s writings after her death in 1915, and the far-reaching theological scope of the discussions would generate considerable controversy.
The 1919 Bible Conference occurred during the height of a series of prophetic conferences held in the United States by conservative evangelicals toward the end of and soon after World War I. These prophetic conferences drew attention to the imminent second coming of Jesus, but most Adventists who attended these meetings could not accept their dispensationalist views. Out of these prophetic conferences a coalition of militant evangelicals would coalesce into what has become known historically as the Fundamentalist movement reaching its heyday during the 1920s. Despite obvious eschatological (end-time) differences, at the outset of the 1919 Bible Conference Adventist leaders would cite the example of these other prophetic conferences as an inspiration for their own meeting.
All together there were 65 individuals in attendance accompanied by between 7 and 9 stenographers. The Conference was the first academic Bible Conference of its kind where a significant number of participants had advanced training in theology, history, and biblical languages. The meeting was by invitation only so that those present could “exercise care and good judgment” while discussing varying viewpoints.