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Seventh-Day Adventists an Apocalyptic Christian Movement in Search for Identity

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Seventh-Day Adventists an Apocalyptic Christian Movement in Search for Identity chapter 17 Seventh-day Adventists An Apocalyptic Christian Movement in Search for Identity Christian Feichtinger Introduction The Seventh-day Adventists (henceforth sda, although the church advises against the use of this abbreviation for its ambiguity) are a Protestant Christian denomination with a strong apocalyptic emphasis. They are one of the fastest- growing and most widespread churches worldwide, with an estimated number of nearly eighteen million baptised members, which means a doubling of membership since the 1990s (see Lockhart and Bull 2007: 155; Kellner 2013). This remarkable growth is due to their missionary success in developing coun- tries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It is owed to a combination of strong missionary efforts, doctrinal clarity and broad supply of educational and health institutions that are especially attractive to people in poorer regions as they help to improve everyday life and educational opportunities. Their doc- trine, although clearly rooted in the tradition of Protestantism, features a vari- ety of unique teachings, such as the observation of Sabbath, the ‘heavenly sanctuary’, the ‘investigative judgment’, and the prophetic role of Ellen G. White (1827–1915). This chapter will give an outline of Adventist history, an explanation of the core teachings, an overview of organisational and practical features, and a discussion of current debates and international developments. Church History The sda have their roots in nineteenth century us-American Protestantism in the context of the Second Great Awakening and the Restoration Movement, the latter a campaign to restore a purer form of ‘original’ Christianity based on the authority of the Bible alone. In this period of increased religious attentiveness, William Miller (1782–1849), a Baptist farmer from Low Hampton, New York, cal- culated Christ’s Second Coming to occur during the years of 1843/44 by using passages from the biblical book of Daniel. His findings provoked a massive response across the various Protestant denominations. Inspired by his public lectures and his tract Evidence from Scripture and History of the Second © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���6 | doi �0.��63/97890043�0780_0�9 <UN> Seventh-Day Adventists 383 Coming of Christ, about the Year 1844 (1842), ‘Millerism’ rapidly evolved from an “obscure, regional movement into a national campaign” (Rogers 1991: 110). With the year 1843 approaching, tensions between Millerites and non-Millerites among the churches and denominations grew stronger. Against Miller’s own will, his follower Charles Fitch provoked a separation between the Millerites and their churches of origin, urging all believers to leave their congregations, which in Fitch’s opinion resembled the eschatological Babylon. By the end of the Jewish year in April 1844, the obvious failure of Miller’s prophecies seemed to be the end of the movement. Then, fellow preacher Samuel Snow believed to have found a hint for the Lord’s delay in Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins and their “delayed” bridegroom in Matthew chapter 25. At a camp meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire, Snow finally set the date of the Second Coming to be October 22, 1844. When the day arrived, noth- ing visible happened, and the day came to be known as the ‘Great Disap- pointment’. A vast number of former Millerites now returned to their parishes, and others ceased to believe at all. Some smaller groups, however, opted for a theological explanation of the situation and thus provided the basis for the development of the sda: “Like every other millenarian movement, Millerism met with obvious failure, and yet out of this failure eventually emerged another of the American sectarian success stories” (Butler 1993: 190). The leaders of one of these post-Millerite groups, which was to grow into the Seventh-day Adventists, favoured Hiram Edson’s (1806–1882) idea that all cal- culations had been correct, but that the term “cleansing of the sanctuary” in Daniel 8:14 had been misinterpreted. While Miller identified “sanctuary” with the earth and was expecting Christ’s triumphant return to it, Edson related the term to the “heavenly tabernacle” in which Christ serves as a High Priest according to Hebrews 8. Edson was convinced that the event expected in 1844 had occurred in heaven, not on earth: Christ’s Second Coming was still immi- nent, but first he “had a work to perform in the Most Holy” (Nichol 2000: 458), this work being an ‘investigative judgment’ on all Christians’ worthiness of sal- vation. This concept of a heavenly prelude to the Second Coming proved to be a convincing explanation for the Great Disappointment. In the meantime, fel- low post-Millerites J.N. Andrews (1829–1883) and Joseph Bates (1792–1872), “the real founder of Seventh-day Adventism” (Knight 2004), had adopted the prac- tice of observing the Sabbath as God’s true holy day. Bates then linked together his Sabbath observance with Edson’s apocalyptic concept by making the Sabbath the symbol of true faith in the wake of Christ’s Second Coming. These sabbatarian Adventists now developed a huge sense of mission, they, “came to see themselves as fulfilling what the Protestant reformation had begun, <UN>.
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