Aviva Directory » Faith & Spirituality » World Religions » Abrahamic Religions » Christianity » Church Divisions » Protestant » Denominations » Adventist

Adventists, or Adventism, is a branch of Protestantism that began with the teachings of a Baptist preacher by the name of Walter Miller in the 1830s.

Sometimes known as the Apocalyptic Movement, the Adventist Movement took place during the Second Great Awakening in the United States. In 1831, Miller began to preach on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, predicting that He would return sometime between 1843 and 1844. Prompted by a large meteor shower in November of 1833, and a comet in March and April of 1843, many people were attracted to his teachings.

Miller's system of predicting the Second Coming was based on a set of easily dated events in biblical history, as well as using an interpretive principle that a prophetic day was equal to a year.

The Millerites then formed the group that became the Adventists.

By the time the predicted date approached, a large group had formed around Miller's teachings. His intentions were not to create a new denomination but, before too long, Baptist and other denominational leaders became hostile to his ideas, and church members who adhered to them were expelled or asked to withdraw from their former congregations.

When Christ did not return in 1843, or in the following year, which was an alternative date considering a possible miscalculation between BC to AD, the Millerites experienced what became known as the Great Disappointment. Miller, himself, lost faith in his own speculations and withdrew from the movement that had grown up around him.

His followers had severed their connections with their former congregations. Discouraged, the majority of his followers left Christianity forever. Some joined other denominations, but others were committed to the imminent return of Christ. Over the years, several new denominations had sprung from the ideas that had begun with Walter Miller.

Ellen G. White proposed the idea that Jesus had returned as predicted, but that the purpose of His return had been misunderstood. In 1843, she said, He had returned to cleanse the heavenly sanctuary. Once finished, He would return to earth fully visible. Her ideas grew into the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

A generation later, another group formed around Charles Taze Russell, who had been introduced to Adventism at the age of sixteen. He formed a group known as the Millennial Dawn. After his death, led in large part by an associate named Joseph Rutherford, this group evolved into the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Another Adventist leader, Herbert W. Armstrong, rejected the authority of Ellen White and her teachings, and formed the Radio Church of God in 1933, as it began with his radio ministry. This group became the Worldwide Church of God in 1968, and is now sometimes known as Grace Communion International.

Throughout the 19th century, the Adventist Movement split into several major divisions, and in the 20th century these divisions splintered into several groups, most of which have remained very small. However, the three that grew to be denominational giants are the Seventh-day Adventists, the Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Worldwide Church of God. The Worldwide Church of God has since splintered into several groups.

The Adventists were formed by a Baptist, but soon developed leaders from the Methodists, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists. As a byproduct of the Great Disappointment, however, its members became open to a variety of theological alterations, such as a seventh-day Sabbath. Among some factions, doubts about the traditional view of the Trinity emerged, as well as the incorporation of various Jewish traditions.

Denominations that can be reasonably categorized as being Adventist in origin or practice include the Advent Christian Church, Branch Davidians, Celestial, Christadelphians, Christian Millennial Fellowship, Church of God, Church of God (Seventh Day), Church of God and Saints of Christ, Creation Seventh-day Adventists, Davidian Seventh-day Adventists, Dawn Bible Students Association, Epiphany Bible Students Association, Independent Churches of God, Intercontinental Church of God, Jehovah's Witnesses, Laodician Home Missionary Movement, Living Church of God, Philadelphia Church of God, Seventh-day Adventists, Seventh-day Adventist Reform Movement, Seventh-day Church of God, True and Free Adventists, Unification Association of Christian Sabbath Keepers, United Church of God, United Sabbath-day Adventists, United Seventh-day Brethren, Worldwide Church of God (Grace Communion International), World Insight International, and probably some others.

Topics related to Adventism in general, or to any of these denominations, or to others closely related to the Adventists, are appropriate for this category or subcategories. In most cases, topics related to specific local churches should be listed in the corresponding Local & Global subcategory.

Categories

Christadelphians

Church of God, a Worldwide Association

Davidians

Grace Communion International

Jehovah's Witnesses

Seventh-day Adventists

 

 

Feature Article


Who Are The Adventists?


Central to the history of Christianity is the anticipation of Christ's return. In fact, near the end of the Gospel of John, in chapter 21, beginning in verse 19, the resurrected Jesus has been telling his apostles about his coming again, and Peter asks him about John. Curiously, Jesus replies, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?" Due to this, the early Christians believed that Jesus would return before the Apostle John died, and it is generally believed that John was the last of the twelve apostles to die, surviving the others by many years.

As the last of the original apostles died without the Second Coming, hope in the immediate return of Christ diminished, and the church gradually adjusted to a belief in a delayed return of Christ at some undetermined future date. Nevertheless, when the New Testament canon was sealed in the fourth century, it included several passages referring to the last days, and the Second Coming of Christ, most significantly the book of Revelation, believed to have been written by John. Along with passages from Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, several apocalyptic statements made by Christ that are recorded in the gospels, the Old Testament book of Daniel, and others, the book of Revelation provides ample information to feed the imaginations of Christians.

The hope that Jesus Christ would return to rule the world was especially strong in the United States in the years following the American Revolution, with the belief that Christ would return to begin the New World in the Americas. Without a professional army, the colonists had defeated Britain, which was then the world's greatest military power, throwing off the rule of the king, creating a new nation. Many, including John Adams, believed that the Millennial Age was at hand, and that Christ would soon return to take his rightful place. A series of revivals, known as the Second Great Awakening, swept across the Western frontier in the early 1800s, providing evidence of the workings of the Holy Spirit in the New World.

This was the time in which the Adventist churches were born. Although, today they are generally viewed as conservative Protestants, the Adventists were originally seen as dangerous radicals because of their unwavering focus on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, also known as the Second Advent, from which they took their name. By 1844, they were recognized as a distinct Christian body, but the Adventists began as an inter-church movement, largely following the teachings of William Miller, a New York veteran of the War of 1812, who became a convert to evangelical Christianity during the Second Great Awakening in 1816.

A fervent student of Scripture, Miller focused on the End Times prophecies in Daniel and Revelation. Interpreting the symbolic day of Bible prophecy as representing one year, Miller calculated that Christ would return on or within one year following March 21, 1843. His predictions caught on, and Miller went on a speaking tour, using elaborate charts and chronologies to support his predictions.

When March and April passed, without the return of Christ, some of his followers left to return to their former churches. Many remained, however, and a second date was proposed; based on Old Testament typology, October 22, 1844 was to be the great Day of Atonement prefigured in Mosaic Law. When this date also passed without event, a large number of Adventists left the movement, with some abandoning the Christian faith altogether. Many, however, had burned their bridges with their previous churches, or continued to believe the basic concepts of prophetic history, although conceding that the calculations had been incorrect. Those who remained were divided over the relevance of Miller's interpretations, giving rise to new Adventist bodies, which later became major divisions.

Today, these bodies are incorporated as denominations, which include the Advent Christian Church, Branch Davidians, Christadelphians, Church of God, Grace Communion International, Jehovah's Witnesses, Philadelphia Church of God, Seventh-Day Adventists, and United Church of God.



Recommended Resources


Search for Adventist on Google or Bing