THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH

In 1844 a Baptist preacher named William Miller lead a movement that was centered around the second coming of Jesus Christ. According to Miller, based upon the prophecy of Daniel 8:14, Jesus Christ was scheduled to return on October 22, 1844. This prediction began one of the greatest "second advent awakenings" in Christianity. Many people gathered together on that day and anxiously awaited the return of Christ. However, on October 22, there was no return. Many people who followed Miller were disappointed, thus the name "The Great Disappointment" was applied to this event. With hope still alive, several individuals from this movement went back and reevaluated Daniel's prophecy and concluded that Miller was incorrect. What they did conclude was that in 1844, Jesus Christ would not return, but would begin a special Ministry in the heavenly sanctuary for His followers. They did however continue to look for Jesus Christ's second coming. Out of this small group of individuals arose James and Ellen White whose leadership would build the foundation of the Seventh-day Adventist Movement.

Mainly growing in New England, the Seventh-day Adventists became an official organization in 1863, with the name Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) chosen prior in 1860. Beginning strictly in North America, the Seventh-day Adventist Church quickly grew and soon its Ministries were reaching across the globe into Switzerland, India, Africa, China, the Pacific Islands, and Europe to name a few. With an initial membership of approximately 3,500, today the Seventh-day Adventist Church boasts over 8 million members worldwide. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is considered one of the fastest growing movements in the Christian world with 1 new member being baptized every 50 seconds.

One of the reasons why the Seventh-day Adventist movement is so successful is because of its communications network which puts the world in touch with their church. The Seventh-day Adventist Church has a CompuServe on-line forum where church members can communicate with church leaders and officials, download church news, and acquire inspirational materials. The Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1994 also started an official press agency, the Adventist News Network which communicates from the world headquarters. Besides these two sources, the SDA Church also has the Adventist Communication Network (ACN), broadcasting to over 800 churches in North America and the Adventist World Radio (AWR), broadcasting in 37 languages with several international transmitters. On top of this wealth of communication resources, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has over 5000 schools, colleges, and universities, over 600 hospitals, clinics, orphanages, and homes for the elderly. One of the main philosophies of the SDA Church is that of the "whole man". The SDA Church sees its work as not just addressing humanity’s spiritual needs, but they see a necessity to reach every aspect of the individual from his health to his education. The success of the SDA Church is due to this philosophy and its ability (through the above resources) to reach people of all nations and tongues. The Seventh-day Adventist Church proudly calls itself a "World Church".

Another reason for the success of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is that it is organized in such a way that the individual is the controlling power. The power lies in the church membership with responsibilities given to an executive body. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is organized on four levels:

1. The local church.
2. The local conference. An organized body of churches in a state, province, or territory.
3. The union conference. An organized body of conferences within a larger territory.
4. The General Conference. This is the largest unit of organization which encompasses all unions in the world.

The General Conference is the highest authority in the SDA Church. They handle all questions that pertain to doctrine and/or differences that may arise between the churches. Despite this governing body the other three levels function independently as far as outreach ministries are concerned. Each church is responsible for its own programs. Beside these four levels of administration, the SDA Church is also divided into 11 divisions:

1. Africa-India Ocean
2. Asia Pacific
3. Eastern Africa
4. Euro-Africa
5. Euro-Asia
6. Inter-American
7. North America
8. South America
9. South Pacific
10. Southern Asia
11. Trans-European

Alongside these 11 divisions, two other areas function directly under the world headquarters:

1. Middle East Union
2. Southern Africa Union

In the People’s Republic of China nearly 200,000 individuals direct their own program.

When it comes to religious beliefs the Seventh-day Adventist church uses the Bible as its official source. The Scriptures are infallible and are profitable for all doctrine and salvation. The Seventh-day Adventist Church sums up their beliefs in what is called the 27 Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Mostly all of the affiliated SDA congregations are in agreement with these 27 principles. However, individual members do have different opinions dealing with other areas of Scripture. For instance, as a whole the SDA Church does not keep the Feast Days i.e., Passover, Pentecost, Yom Kippur, etc. However, many individual members are beginning to celebrate these holidays individually on their own or in small groups. Besides this small difference and others, the SDA Church remains unified as whole and has not suffered any serious splits or breaks. Most of the major breaks were done after the "Great Disappointment" before the Seventh-day Adventist Church was formed. The SDA church is particularly distinctive from mainstream Christian groups in that they keep the seventh day, commonly known as Saturday as the Sabbath. Based upon Revelations 14:12 , the SDA church believes that along with faith in Christ, the keeping of the 10 Commandments which includes the Sabbath is still binding for Christians today. Today the SDA Church is one of the largest Sabbath-keeping groups in the world and it continues to grow with over 1,000 new members added daily.

Joe N. Savage Jr.
March 28, 1996

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