There is confusion among current writers over the difference between Age to Come /Literalist belief and Adventism because both groups are millennialist in outlook. Their doctrines are totally different. Age to Come believers are not world-burners where Adventists are. Age to Come saw the earth as man's proper home. Adventists wanted it turned to a cinder. There are other differences as well. Significant differences. And Literalist belief predates Adventism by centuries.
From Separate Identity:
Defining the Difference
As disappointed adherents returned to their previous belief systems, Millerites saw the need to
define the difference between Literalist (Soon to be called “Age-to-Come” belief in America) and
Millerite belief. Writing in the May 1844 issue of Advent Shield, J. V. Himes defined the differences
this way:
THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN ADVENTISTS AND MILLENNARIANS, is, – THE
MILLENNARIANS believe in the pre-millennial advent of Christ, and his personal reign
for a thousand years before the consummation or end of the present world, and creation
of the new heavens and earth, and the descent of the New Jerusalem. While the
ADVENTISTS believe the end of the world or age, the destruction of the wicked, the
dissolution of the earth, the renovation of nature, the descent of NEW JERUSALEM, will
be beginning of the thousand years. The Millennarians believe in the return of the Jews,
as such, either before, at, or after the advent of Christ, to Palestine, to possess that land
a thousand years, while the Adventists believe that all the return of the Jews to that
country, will be the return of all the pious Jews who have ever lived, to the inheritance
of the new earth, in their resurrection state. When Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with all
their natural seed who have been of the faith of Abraham, together with all pious
Gentiles, will stand up together, to enjoy an eternal inheritance, instead of possessing
Canaan for a thousand years.
THE MILLENNARIANS believe a part of the heathen world will be left on the earth, to
multiply and increase, during the one thousand years, and to be converted and governed
by the glorified saints during that period; while the Adventist believe that when the Son
of Man shall come in his glory, then he shall be seated on the throne of his glory, and
before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from the other,
13 G. Storrs: The Return of the Jews, The Midnight Cry! February 17, 1843, page 1. (Pages are not
numbered in this issue.)
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as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. He shall set the sheep on his right hand,
and the goats on his left. That one part will go away into everlasting (eternal)
punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. They cannot see any probation for any
nation, either Jew or Gentile, after the Son of Man comes in his glory, and takes out his
own saints from among all nations. They also believe “God will render indignation and
wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, to the Jew first
and also to the Gentile, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men.”
The Millennarians believe that the saints must have mortal men in a state of probation,
for a thousand years, as their subject, in order for them to reign as kings; for, say they,
how can they reign without subjects? To which the Adventists reply, If it is necessary
for them to have such subjects for a thousand years to reign, by the same rule they must
have them eternally; for “they shall reign forever and ever.” – Rev. xxii:5.14
The Age-to-Come movement was not monolithic but composed of many independently-minded
believers and congregations, each with their own doctrinal system. Historians of these movements tend
to point to the founders of each church system as the originator of the doctrines. In fact, most of the
beliefs seen as unique and developed by or rediscovered by the “founders” were previously believed by
others including their contemporaries. Age-to-Come belief was the norm prior to the Millerite
movement. Though L. E. Froom (Prophetic Faith of our Fathers) was anxious to hide the fact, most of
the prophetic expositors he describes as forerunners to the Millerite movement believed Literalist, Ageto-
Come doctrine. The most we can ascribe to Joseph Marsh, the Wilsons, John Thomas and others like
them is a return to or an adaptation of views held by others for centuries before the Millerite movement.
Russell had some interaction with most Age-to-Come groups. He was drawn to and associated
with individuals and congregations who centered on The Restitution, a newspaper most clearly
identified with Joseph Marsh’s work and with Benjamin Wilson and his tribe of relatives. He would
write to, visit, preach with, and identify with many of the most prominent of those who wrote for or
preached in association with The Restitution. Many of these congregations adopted names such as One
Faith, Church of God, Church of Christ, or compromise names such as The Second Advent Church of
God. The Restitution was brought to birth by Thomas Wilson in 1871, and by 1872 he was calling it the
“organ of Servants of Jesus Christ.”15 In 1873 Wilson described the paper as “the recognized organ of a
religious society known as Marturions.”16 There were many independent congregations who disagreed
on minor and sometimes major points of doctrine. Because names were variable and changeable we will
describe them most generally as One Faith.
