In 1900, the Seventh-day Adventist Church was clustered in Battle Creek, a town in south central Michigan. The church’s main institutions were all in that town.
Early in the morning of February 18, 1902, a fire broke out at the Battle Creek Sanitarium and spread rapidly throughout the wooden structure. The building was a total loss, but miraculously only one man lost his life, a man who had escaped the building but ran back in to try to recover a cache of cash that constituted his life savings.
Sadly, the fire began a chain of events that led to Dr. Kellogg being disfellowshipped and taking the Battle Creek Sanitarium out of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination.
The old Sanitarium burns
Before the ashes were cold, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, the force behind the sanitarium, was planning to re-build. But Ellen White counseled for decentralizing the health work among several smaller institutions spread out around the country. Kellogg ignored her counsel and planned a new facility even larger than the sprawling four story Sanitarium building that had burned.
In order to help fund the rebuilding of the Sanitarium, Kellogg wrote a book called “The Living Temple,” which incorporated the principles of health he had learned and espoused over the course of his career.
But Kellogg’s book strayed from Christian orthodoxy by subtly insinuating the Eastern concept of pantheism, the belief that God is in all things, and hence that all things are divine. Pantheism blurs the distinction between creator and creature. Kellogg provided the manuscript for church leaders to review but, some did not discern the subtle errors. One who did was William A. Spicer, who had worked as a missionary in India for several years, and was familiar with Eastern beliefs. Another who saw the problems was W.W. Prescott, who joined Spicer in raising the alarm about the book. It was finally decided that the Review & Herald would not publish the book, but Kellogg nevertheless paid out of his own pocket to have the book printed.
Ellen White wrote that the book had errors:
“The subtle errors in this book were surrounded by many beautiful truths. . . . The seductive fallacies of Satan undermined confidence in the true pillars of the faith, which are grounded on Bible evidence. Truth is sustained by a plain ‘Thus saith the Lord.’ But there has been a weaving in of error, and the use of scriptures out of their natural connection, in order to substantiate fallacies, which would deceive, if possible, the very elect . . .” This Day with God, 126
In a private letter to Dr. Kellogg, she bluntly stated: “When you wrote that book, you were not under the inspiration of God,” leaving open the possibility that he was inspired by another power. Kellogg’s publication of “The Living Temple” prompted Ellen White to write her own response, “The Ministry of Healing.”
The rift between Kellogg and the SDA Church, and his former mentor and friend Ellen White, widened until, after years of church non-attendance, he was finally disfellowshipped in 1907. The last time he had renewed the corporate charter of the San, he had made it non-denominational and effectively severed its ties to the Adventist Church, so when he left, the San left with him.
It seemed at the time that the church was losing its brightest light, and its whole health reform arm, but the church weathered that storm became even stronger.
UPDATE 2/19/20
On this day in 1906, the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company was incorporated by Will Keith Kellogg, younger brother of John Harvey Kellogg.
The idea for Kellogg’s Corn Flakes came from John Harvey Kellogg, but the task of figuring out how to manufacture them fell to W.K. Kellogg. Originally, corn flakes were served only at the Sanitarium, and there was no thought of commercially marketing them. But eventually, the demand for corn flakes from former patients of the San became so great that a separate facility had to be built to bake the corn flakes and fill all the orders. W.K. Kellogg was put in charge of the corn flakes business, but for only 25% of the profits (as opposed to 75% for J.H.).
Eventually, W.K. decided to go into business for himself. Although he licensed the rights from J.H., the friction between the brothers grew severe, and W.K. decided to make a total break from his older brother. The brothers litigated against each other for several years, but the courts ultimately decided in favor of W.K. So the “Kellogg’s” name on the cereal box refers to W.K. Kellogg.
Meanwhile, Charles William Post, who had been a patient at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, had already decided, back in 1895, to go into business making breakfast cereals. Post invested $78 in his initial equipment and supplies and set up manufacturing in a barn on what was known as the 'Old Beardsley Farm', near Battle Creek. His first product was Postum, a roasted grain alternative to coffee, made from wheat and molasses. Post’s first breakfast cereal, “Grape-Nuts,” was brought to market in 1897, followed by “Elijah's Manna” in 1904, which was later renamed “Post Toasties.”
So now you know how the breakfast cereal industry got started. Today, Americans eat 2.7 billion boxes of cereal every year, and worldwide breakfast cereal sales are over $40 billion annually.