Early Beginnings

Millerite Roots

Main article: Great Disappointment

The Seventh-day Adventist Church formed out of the movement known today as the Millerites. In 1831, a Baptist convert by the name of William Miller began to preach that the Second Advent of Jesus would occur somewhere between 1843 and 1844. A following gathered around Miller that included many from the Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and Christian Connection churches. After a number of revisions, October 22 was considered the most probable date that the return would occur. By 1844, over 100,000 people were anticipating what Miller had dubbed as the "Blessed Hope". On October 22 many of the believers were up late into the night watching, waiting for Christ and found themselves bitterly disappointed when both sunset and midnight passed without the expected return. This event later became known as the Great Disappointment.

An alternate explanation

After the upset of October 22

"We started, and while passing through a large field I was stopped about midway of the field. Heaven seemed opened to my view, and I saw distinctly and clearly that instead of our High Priest coming out of the Most Holy of the heavenly sanctuary to come to this earth on the tenth day of the seventh month, at the end of the 2300 days , He for the first time entered on that day the second apartment of that sanctuary; and that He had a work to perform in the Most Holy before coming to the earth."

'Source:' F. D. Nichol, The Midnight Cry, p. 458.

Edson shared what he believed he saw with many of the local Adventists who were greatly encouraged by his account. As a result Edson began studying the bible with two of the other believers in the area, O.R.L. Crosier

A forgotten commandment

At about the same time, in New Hampshire, a young Seventh Day Baptist lady by the name of Rachel Oakes introduced the principle of a seventh day Sabbath to a group of Adventists, who included a leading Millerite speaker by the name of Joseph Bates. Bates, who accepted Oakes' message, proposed that a meeting should be organised between the believers in New Hampshire and Port Gibson. At this meeting, which occurred sometime in 1846 at Edson's farm, Edson and other Port Gibson believers readily accepted the Sabbath message and at the same time forged an alliance with Bates and two other folk from New Hampshire who later became very influential in the Adventist church, James and Ellen G. White. Between April and November of 1848 six "Sabbath conferences" were held in New York and New England.

The Present Truth

On November 18, 1848, the young lady Ellen White, claimed to have a vision in which God told her that her husband should start a paper. In 1849, James, determined to publish this paper, went to find work as a farm-hand to raise sufficient funds. After Ellen had another one of her visions, she told James that he was to not worry about funds but to set to work on producing the paper to be printed. James readily obeyed, writing from the aid "of a pocket Bible, Crudens Condensed Concordance, and an abridged dictionary with one of its covers off." Thanks to a generous offer by the printer to delay charges, the group of Advent believers had 1000 copies of the first publication printed. They sent the publication, which was on the topic of the Sabbath, to friends and colleagues they believe would find it of interest.

Formal Organisation

In 1860, the fledging movement finally settled on the name, Seventh-day Adventist, representative of the church's distinguishing beliefs. Three years later, on May 21, 1863, the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Church was formed and the movement became an official organisation.

Sources

- a look at Hiram Edson on October 23 1844

- A history of the Adventist Review