It is amazing for me to see that our German SDA leaders have apologized for how they treated the brethren in World War 1 who refused to bear arms in the war.    Sadly, the church's action then directly resulted in the largest split of the Seventh-day Adventist Church to date, as the Reform group got started then.  I've always had a soft spot for the Reform group because of that, but have never supported their action of breaking away and starting another denomination (plus their leaders seem to be as much or more corrupt than the SDA leaders, and their only apparent reason for existence is to steal members away from the SDA church).

Anyway, recently the German SDA leaders publicly apologized.  Here is the article in its entirety:

From APD, May 12, 2014

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Germany has published a statement pertaining to actions it took in the context of the outbreak of World War I. The denomination's Southern and Northern German Union Conferences voted the statement on April and published it in German in the May edition of the Church magazine Adventisten heute under the title Guilt and Failure.

The presidents of both union conferences, Pastors Johannes Naether and Günther Machel recall that many Adventists at the time saw the outbreak of World War I as a sign of the end of the world. Before the war, a number of Adventists had served in the military but refused to carry out duties on Sabbath, risking potentially severe penalties. Others considered it part of their preparation for the imminent return of Jesus to refuse to carry weapons or to participate in the military.

However, shortly after the general mobilization on August 2, 1914, the leadership of the denomination's Central European Division in Hamburg issued an open letter recommending that enlisted Adventists fulfill our military duties wholeheartedly and with joy," bear arms and also to serve on the Sabbath.

The statement and other publications provoked a complex protest in Adventist congregations, leading to tensions and divisions within the denomination. In 1915 this state of affairs led to the formation of a separate organization, the self-designated Reform Movement, which accused its mother church, the greater church of a Babylonian apostasy from the true Advent faith.

"Today we recognize and concede," said the two German leaders, "that during these disputes our fathers often did not act in the spirit of love and reconciliation demonstrated by Jesus." Out of concern for the survival of the denomination in Germany, advice contradicting the Word of God was given which led to division and profound hurt. The former Adventist leadership did not adequately fulfill their responsibility to the Church. They unjustly accused members who contradicted them of having fallen from the truth, and in individual cases went as far as having people pursued by the authorities.

During post-war negotiations with the Reform Movement on June 21 to 23, 1920, in Friedensau, Germany, Pastor Arthur G. Daniells, president of the denomination's General Conference (GC), objected to the position of the German church administrators regarding military service and emphasized, "We would not have made such a declaration." At a pastors meeting which took place immediately prior to the negotiations in Friedensau, those directly responsible for the documents had rescinded their statements as "erroneous" and on January 2, 1923, again expressed regret "that such documents had ever been released."

Today, Pastors Naether and Machel again apologized in the name of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. "Even though none of those directly involved are still alive, we ask their descendants and relatives along with the still existing groups of the Reform Movement for forgiveness for our failings. From these painful experiences we have learned that the children of God are called to be people of peace, and to reject every form of violence against the innocent. We believe that disciples of Jesus are truest to the statements of the Holy Scriptures when they act as ambassadors for peace and reconciliation."
 

The two Church Leaders recall the "Declaration of Peace" released by the GC in June 1985: In a world full of fighting and hatred, a world of ideological and military conflicts, Seventh-day Adventists want to be known as peacemakers, and want to advocate for global justice and peace under Christ as the head of a new humanity.
 

The Adventist Reform Movement
 

In August 1914 as the First World War began and 3,000 of the 15,000 German Adventists were called up to military service, many came to different conclusions when considering how to behave in response to the crisis. While the majority followed the directives in the open letter circulated by denominational leaders in Germany and became fully-fledged military servicemen, critics of this decision clearly expressed their disapproval.
 

From amongst these critics, some of whom explained their opposition by their expectation of Jesus return in the early summer 1915, a group established itself over the course of the year. Some later found a place back in an established Adventist congregation, but the majority of the objectors remained part of the Seventh-day Adventist Reform Movement which rejected any form of military service altogether.
 

The withdrawal of the open letter and other post-war attempts at reconciliation failed. As a result, two Adventist denominations existed during the time of the Weimar Republic, the original Adventists and the newer Reformed denomination, which subsequently divided into a number of further smaller groups due to internal conflicts.
 

Most of the splinter groups had come to an end prior to the Nazi regime, and the remaining groups soon came to the attention of the new rulers, since they refused to participate in elections. In 1936 the Gestapo dissolved the Reform Movement. Most of the smaller groups were outlawed in the same year, the remainder in 1937 and 1942.

Today, the Seventh-day Adventist denomination is comprised of more than 18 million adult, baptized members around the world and perhaps as many as 30 million adherents. In Germany there are around 35,000 members. The Reform Movement experienced a schism in 1951, and since then exists as two groups, each with about 30,000 members worldwide. In Germany, the Seventh-day Adventist Church Reform Movement, International Missionary Society (IMS) reports 350 members. The Seventh-day Adventist Reform Movement (SDARM) is slightly smaller with about 200 members in Germany. More information is available from several published and Internet sources about the Reformed Seventh-day Adventist denominations.

The Adventist News Agency (APD) is operated from Basel, Switzerland, on behalf of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination's organizations in Europe.

Hopefully this will give impetus to those in the Reform groups to come back to the SDA church.

May we always be willing to be humble and admit our sins.  Of course even better would be to always follow the words of God in the first place.