1835–1896
Summary
John Gottlieb Matteson was the pioneer Seventh-day Adventist missionary to Scandinavia and a Danish-American minister, editor, and gospel singer. Born in Langeland, Denmark, on April 2, 1835, he emigrated to America with his family in 1854, was converted to Christianity in 1859, ordained as a Baptist minister in 1862, and embraced the seventh-day Sabbath in 1863. He produced the first Adventist literature in Danish-Norwegian — beginning with Liv og Død (Life and Death) in 1867 — and in 1877 returned to Denmark as the first Adventist missionary to Scandinavia. He died at Battle Creek on March 30, 1896, at the age of sixty.
From Langeland to Wisconsin (1835–1863)
Per the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists (Yvonne Johansson Öster), Matteson was born in Langeland, Denmark, on April 2, 1835. He emigrated to the United States in 1854 with his parents, two sisters, and a group of twenty others — Matteson serving as their leader because of his English. The family settled at New Denmark, Brown County, Wisconsin. He was converted to Christianity in 1859, entered Douglas Baptist Theological College in Chicago in 1860, and was ordained a Baptist minister in 1862. He married Anna Sivertsen of Tromsö, Norway. In 1863, at Poy Sippi, Wisconsin, he learned the seventh-day Sabbath from his neighbor P. H. Cady; after a six-month series of meetings explaining the new conviction, his entire Baptist congregation — except one family — became Sabbatarian Adventists.
The First Danish-Norwegian Tract — Liv og Død (1867)
Loughborough’s Great Second Advent Movement records the founding moment of the Adventist publishing work in Scandinavian languages: “In the year 1866, Elder John Matteson applied to the managers of the Review and Herald office to ascertain if they would print, for the use of the Scandinavians, pamphlets and tracts in their language. He was informed that a lack of funds at the office forbade their doing so; but there were persons of his nationality in Wisconsin and Minnesota who were so anxious to have the truth printed in their mother tongue that, although they were in moderate circumstances, and numbered less than fifty, they raised $1,000 in cash, and placed it in his hands for that purpose” (The Great Second Advent Movement, p. 413, par. 3; refcode GSAM 413.3).
The same paragraph records the moment when Matteson read his Danish-Norwegian manuscript aloud in English to the publication committee: “With this money and a quantity of neatly prepared manuscript, Elder Matteson came to Battle Creek, and again made application for printed books. As he was prepared to meet the objections previously made, his desires were granted, and March 18, 1867, he began the reading of his manuscript, prepared for his book, Liv og Dog, (Life and Death) to Elder J. N. Andrews and myself, who were then members of the committee on publication. In other words, he told us in English what his manuscript said in Danish-Norwegian” (The Great Second Advent Movement, p. 413, par. 3; refcode GSAM 413.3).
Matteson’s Dream and Ellen White’s Vision (1860s)
In a dark season of her own ministry — Ellen White had been so discouraged that she told her husband she was “afraid that I shall become an infidel” — a letter arrived from John Matteson in Wisconsin containing a dream. Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, records the moment: “We had appointments at Bushnell, but I told my husband that I could not go. He soon returned from the post office with a letter from Brother Matteson, containing the following dream” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, p. 596, par. 3; refcode 1T 596.3).
Ellen White’s response, in the same volume: “This dream gave me some encouragement. I had confidence in Brother Matteson. Before I saw him with my natural eyes, his case was shown me in vision” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, p. 599, par. 1; refcode 1T 599.1). She added, in the same paragraph: “Brother Matteson was shown me as one who possessed humility, and who, if he maintained his consecration, would be qualified to point souls to the Lamb of God.” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, p. 599, par. 1; refcode 1T 599.1).
Mission to Scandinavia (1877–1896)
Loughborough’s Great Second Advent Movement records the opening of the Scandinavian mission: “The mission to the Scandinavian people was opened by Elder John Matteson in the year 1887. On the 6th day of June he arrived in Vejle, in Jyeland, Denmark. When he went to that country there were a few who had begun the observance of the Sabbath through the reading of papers and tracts sent to them by friends of America” (The Great Second Advent Movement, p. 413, par. 1; refcode GSAM 413.1). (The Loughborough text gives the year as 1887, but per ESDA the actual departure was 1877.)
Per ESDA, in Scandinavia Matteson founded the Danish-Norwegian Tidernes Tegn (Signs of the Times) at Christiania (Oslo), Norway, established Sabbath-keeping companies and conferences in Denmark and Norway, organized the Danish-Norwegian Conference in 1880, and translated several of Ellen White’s books into Danish-Norwegian. He returned to America in 1888 in declining health and continued in editorial work at Battle Creek.
Death (1896)
Per the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, Matteson died on March 30, 1896, at Battle Creek, Michigan, at the age of sixty-one.
