Seventh-day Adventist Church

• 1. A Day Nothing Happened

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  The Seventh-day Adventist Church began with a day on which nothing happened. Followers of the preacher William Miller had come to believe that Jesus Christ would return to Earth on the 22nd of October 1844. He did not, and the episode became known as the Great Disappointment. Out of that letdown grew a denomination that today counts over 24 million baptized members and maintains a missionary presence in over 215 countries and territories. How does a failed prediction turn into a worldwide church? Why do its members worship on Saturday? And what do breakfast cereal, a Michigan sanitarium and unusually long lives in California have to do with any of it?

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• 2. After the Disappointment

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  Hiram Edson did not accept that Miller's arithmetic had failed. He and other Millerites believed the calculations were sound but that the reading of Daniel 8:14 was flawed. Miller had assumed the verse described Christ coming to cleanse the world. Edson's circle concluded instead that it described Christ entering the most holy place of a sanctuary in heaven.

  Over the next few decades, that heavenly sanctuary grew into the doctrine of the investigative judgment. It describes a process that began in 1844, in which every person is examined to verify their eligibility for salvation. Through it, God's justice is confirmed before the universe. These Adventists still held that Christ's return was imminent. Yet they resisted setting further dates, citing Revelation 10:6 and its words "that there should be time no longer."

  Joseph Bates became the foremost champion of Sabbath-keeping as the early Adventists consolidated their beliefs. Bates met the idea through a tract by the Millerite preacher Thomas M. Preble. Preble had himself been influenced by Rachel Oakes Preston, a young Seventh Day Baptist. The message was accepted gradually. It became the subject of the first edition of the church publication The Present Truth, which appeared in July 1849. That edition was the work of James White, who would become one of the movement's three most prominent figures.

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• 3. Becoming a Church

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  For about 20 years, the Adventist movement was a small, loosely knit group of people drawn from many churches. Their main link was James White's periodical, The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald. They shared belief in the Sabbath, the heavenly sanctuary reading of Daniel 8:14, conditional immortality and a premillennial return of Christ. Ellen G. White came to hold a central role. Her many visions and spiritual leadership convinced her fellow Adventists that she possessed the gift of prophecy.

  The 21st of May 1863 marks the official founding of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, in Battle Creek, Michigan. The headquarters later moved to Takoma Park, Maryland, where they remained until 1989. The General Conference then relocated to its current home in Silver Spring, Maryland.

  The 1870s brought a turn toward evangelism through missionary work and revivals. Membership tripled to 16,000 by 1880, and a presence beyond North America took root late in the century. By 1901 the church had 75,000 members. It also ran two colleges, a medical school, a dozen academies, 27 hospitals and 13 publishing houses. By 1945 it estimated 210,000 members in the United States and Canada, a budget of $29 million and 140,000 students in its schools. Another 360,000 members lived elsewhere, so by then more Adventists lived outside the United States and Canada than inside them.

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• 4. Doctrine Under Scrutiny

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  A brief statement titled A Synopsis of Our Faith, printed in Battle Creek in 1872, was the church's first published account of its beliefs. Reaching agreement was hard. A number of early leaders came from churches that held some form of Arianism, although Ellen G. White was not among them. That background, together with other theological views, led conservative evangelical Protestants to regard the movement as a cult.

  Adventist scholars say White's writings gradually pulled the church from semi-Arian roots toward the Trinity. Adventists mostly credit her with a fuller awareness of the Godhead during the 1890s. Her husband claimed that her visions did not support the Trinitarian creed. After continued Bible study and a decades-long debate, the denomination concluded that Scripture teaches a triune God. It adopted Trinitarian theology early in the 20th century. Mainstream scholars remain unconvinced that she was a Nicene Trinitarian.

  The church's official teaching is set out in its 28 Fundamental Beliefs. The General Conference adopted the statement in 1980 and added belief number 11 in 2005. Almost all of it matches other evangelical Protestant denominations. Evangelicals consider three Adventist positions heterodox: worship on Saturday, the gift of prophecy attributed to White, and the sanctuary doctrine.

  The 1950s brought meetings and discussions between Adventists and evangelicals. In 1956 Eternity, a conservative Christian magazine edited by Donald Barnhouse, asserted that Adventists are Christians. Billy Graham then invited Adventists to take part in his crusades. In 1960 Walter Martin published The Truth About Seventh-day Adventists, which marked a turning point. He wrote, "It is perfectly possible to be a Seventh-day Adventist and be a true follower of Jesus Christ despite heterodox concepts."

  Criticism continued all the same. The evangelical Anthony Hoekema argued that the annihilationist view of hell, the investigative judgment, soul sleep and the Sabbath were heterodox. He also claimed that Adventist doctrine suffers from legalism. Others point to the Adventist claim to be the remnant church, which they say is exclusivist. Adventist theologians reply that the remnant doctrine concerns institutions and does not deny genuine Christians in other denominations.

  The sharpest dispute concerns Ellen G. White herself. Walter T. Rea and Ronald Numbers helped popularize the charge that she plagiarized other authors. In the early 1980s, an independent lawyer specializing in plagiarism, Vincent L. Ramik, concluded that her writings were unplagiaristic. The General Conference also commissioned Fred Veltman, who examined 15 randomly selected chapters of The Desire of Ages. He concluded that on average 31.4 percent of the text was dependent to some extent on literary sources.

  Christianity Today, in its issue of the 22nd of January 2015, described the Seventh-day Adventist Church as the fifth-largest Christian communion worldwide.

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• 5. The Sabbath Day

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  Friday is a day of preparation for many Adventists, who may spend part of it cooking meals and tidying their homes. Some gather that evening for worship called vespers, which welcomes the Sabbath in.

  Saturday is the day the church says God rested after a recent six-day creation. The main weekly service typically begins with Sabbath School, a structured time of small-group Bible study at church. Adventists follow an officially produced Sabbath School Lesson, which treats a particular biblical text or doctrine each quarter.

  After a brief break, the congregation gathers again for a service in a typical evangelical format. A sermon is the central feature. Corporate singing, Scripture readings, prayers and an offering that includes tithing are also standard. The instruments and forms of worship music vary greatly across the worldwide church.

  Holy Communion is usually open and takes place four times a year. It begins with foot washing, called the Ordinance of Humility and based on John 13. The ritual imitates Christ washing his disciples' feet at the Last Supper. It reminds participants to serve one another humbly. They usually separate by gender into different rooms. Afterward they return to the main sanctuary for the Lord's Supper, which consists of unleavened bread and unfermented grape juice. Some congregations allow married couples to wash each other's feet, and families are often encouraged to take part together.

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• 6. Table and Longevity

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  Since the 1860s, the church has encouraged its members to follow a vegetarian diet. It also points them to the kosher foods described in Scripture, which means avoiding pork, rabbit, shellfish and other animals labeled unclean. The church discourages alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs. Some Adventists also avoid processed foods and caffeine.

  Protose was a seasoned patty of wheat gluten and peanuts, created by John Harvey Kellogg at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. With it, Kellogg started the meat alternative movement. The Battle Creek Food Company later sold it by mail order, making mostly meat alternatives for sanitarium guests. Will Keith Kellogg and John Harvey Kellogg invented corn flakes there by putting stale wheat berry between rollers and baking it. The brothers also invented bran flakes and Rice Krispies. In 1906 Will Keith Kellogg founded the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company in Battle Creek, Michigan.

  Special Foods was founded in Worthington, Ohio, in 1939 to make nut meat substitutes. After World War II it became Worthington Foods. In 1949 it introduced two canned meat alternatives, Soyloin Steaks and Meatless Wieners. In 1960 it bought the rights to Battle Creek Foods Company products after John Harvey Kellogg died. In 1975 it released frozen, soy-based meatless foods nationwide. In Australia and New Zealand, the church-owned Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing Company makes brands such as So Good, Up & Go and Weet-Bix.

  The Adventist Health Studies indicate that the average Adventist in California lives four to ten years longer than the average Californian. Researchers credit abstaining from smoking and alcohol, a weekly day of rest, and a low-fat vegetarian diet rich in nuts and beans. The closeness of Adventist social networks has also been proposed as an explanation. Dan Buettner named Loma Linda, California, a Blue Zone of longevity, citing its large concentration of Adventists.

  The Adventist Health Studies-2 followed 96,000 adults aged 30 to 112 in Canada and the United States from 2001 to 2007. Of these, 8 percent were vegans, 28 percent ovo-lacto vegetarians, 10 percent pesco-vegetarians and 6 percent semi-vegetarians. Another 48 percent were non-vegetarians. Some 98.9 percent were non-smokers and 93.4 percent abstained from alcohol. Vegetarians had a much lower risk of obesity, hypertension and hyperglycemia. They also had lower risks of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, coronary heart disease, lung cancer and prostate cancer. Vegans had a lower body mass index than vegetarians and meat eaters.

  In 1954, 2,200 Adventists volunteered as human test subjects in Operation Whitecoat. This biodefense medical research program had a stated purpose of defending troops and civilians against biological weapons.

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• 7. Governance and Ordination

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  Four levels of organization hold the world church together, in a representative system that resembles presbyterian church government. The base is the local church, where every baptized member has a vote. Above it sits the local conference, which covers churches within a state, province or territory. It appoints ministers, owns church land and organizes the distribution of tithes. Above that is the union conference, which gathers a number of local conferences. At the top stands the General Conference, made up of 13 Divisions across geographic regions, with its head office in Silver Spring, Maryland.

  Authority flows upward from the membership. Each level is governed by a general session, and representatives chosen at one level vote for those at the next. The General Conference elects its executive committee and officers, and its president is elected at a session held every five years.

  Tithes never stay with the congregation that collects them. They pass up to the local conferences, which then distribute them to various ministry needs. Ministers are neither elected nor employed by the local churches. Local conferences appoint them to a single church or a group of churches. Elders and deacons are different, since a local church business meeting or an elected committee chooses them. Elders serve mainly in administrative and pastoral roles, while deacons help the church run smoothly and look after its property.

  Ordination has been the most contested question in this system. In most parts of the world, women may not be given the title ordained, though some are employed in ministry and commissioned. In 1990, delegates at the General Conference Session voted 1,173 against and 377 in favor of ordaining women. Supporters came from Europe and North America, while delegates from Africa, Asia and South America were strongly opposed. Five years later, the church turned down a request from the North American Division to let its local conferences ordain women.

  On the 29th of July 2012, the Columbia Union Conference, headquartered in Maryland, voted 80 percent in favor of ordaining women. On the 19th of August 2012, the Pacific Union Conference, headquartered in California, voted 79 percent to 21 percent in the same direction. World church leaders were disappointed and considered the actions out of harmony with the world church.

  In San Antonio, Texas, on the 8th of July 2015, the General Conference Session voted again. Delegates rejected the ordination of women as pastors, 1,381 against and 977 in favor. Western Adventists opposed to the ban say it keeps them from functioning in their culture, while supporters of the ban cite the Bible. Ted N. C. Wilson, who was re-elected that year for a second five-year term as president, voted no, while former president Jan Paulsen voted yes.

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• 8. Reach and Reputation

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  The church operates 7,598 schools, colleges and universities, with more than 1,545,000 students and about 80,000 teachers. Only the Roman Catholic Church runs a larger school system. Its largest medical institutions in North America are Loma Linda University, Loma Linda University Medical Center and AdventHealth Orlando. AdventHealth is the largest not-for-profit Protestant health care provider in the United States, with 56 hospitals in nine states.

  For over 50 years, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, known as ADRA, has carried out humanitarian work in 125 countries and areas. The United Nations Economic and Social Council has granted it General Consultative Status. ADRA employs over 4,000 people to provide relief in crises and development where poverty is entrenched.

  Adventist media began on paper. Until J. N. Andrews was sent to Switzerland in 1874, Adventist global efforts consisted entirely of mailing tracts to various locations. H. M. S. Richards' radio show Voice of Prophecy was first broadcast in Los Angeles in 1929. In March 1965, It Is Written, founded by George Vandeman, became the first religious program on color television. It was also the first major Christian ministry to use satellite uplink technology.

  Adventist World Radio began in 1971 by renting its first shortwave station in Portugal, and later built its own on Guam. It reaches listeners in over 100 languages, including through more than 1,700 AM and FM stations. The Hope Channel, the church's official television network, launched in October 2003.

  The church's 150th anniversary in April 2013 found it with over 17,000,000 members. By 2019 it had 21,000,000 baptized members. In 2020 the pandemic held growth to 803,000 new members, the lowest annual increase in 16 years and the first time since 2004 that it fell below 1 million. A 2013 report found that the church had lost one in three members over a fifty-year period. The Adventist minister and researcher Monte Sahlin said people leave primarily because of "personal trouble like marital issues and unemployment."

  In 2015 the church was the most racially diverse denomination in the United States. The breakdown was 37 percent white, 32 percent black, 15 percent Hispanic, 8 percent Asian and 8 percent another or mixed background.

  Film has also taken notice. Hacksaw Ridge depicts the life of Desmond Doss, an Adventist conscientious objector and Medal of Honor recipient. The Road to Wellville is based on a novel about John Harvey Kellogg, director of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. A Cry in the Dark, about the death of Azaria Chamberlain, shows the prejudice her parents faced because of misconceptions about their religion. In 2020, Iraqi Post released a set of eight commemorative stamps honoring the Christian churches in the country, including a photograph of the Baghdad Seventh-day Adventist Church.

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