Seventh-day Adventists (SDA) are an American sect founded in 1843 by William Miller, who calculated (as he later admitted incorrectly) the date of the Second Coming of Christ.
Hence the name: Advent - from Lat. “adventus” - “appearance”, “adventus” - “at the threshold”, in the sense of the Coming. They still believe that Jesus Christ will come soon (“Second Coming”).
Advent
from lat. adventus - arrival, period of anticipation of Christmas
The seventh day - the last day of each week is revered, since God created the world for 6 days, and on the seventh he rested. The Bible calls it Saturday, not Sunday, so they honor it.
Differences:
- they do not believe in any canonical church traditions - only in the Bible and the “prophetic visions” of Ellen White;
- came up with two phases of the ministry of Jesus Christ in the heavenly temple (see below);
- they do not recognize saints, they do not believe in the torments of hell for sinners;
- do not eat “unclean meat”, strive for vegetarianism;
- they are baptized by complete immersion and only at a conscious age (like Baptists), and they first need to publicly preach their faith;
- they receive communion with “unleavened bread” and “unleavened wine” (grape juice) - once a quarter, everyone is allowed to attend services.
Positive features: they maintain hospitals, donate and collect donor blood. They are building colleges where they combine children’s education and work. They are engaged in the prevention of psychotropic substances among young people.
What is dangerous about the Seventh-day Adventist sect: only due to the excessive enthusiasm of the believer himself. It is fundamentally apolitical and does not call for anything radical.
In 1930 - 1950, she was persecuted by the authorities for refusing to fight for the Fatherland; now she leaves the issue of military and public service on the conscience of the believer.
It exists in 90 countries of the world, has several branches - “reformist movements” that disagree with certain provisions (for example: freedom of choice in terms of weapons). As of 2021, there are 25 million Day 7 witnesses in the world.
History of SDA: from the “Great Disappointment” to hospitals and universities
Main figures:
William Miller founded his faith when he was expelled from the Baptists
Ellen White (Harmon before her marriage) switched from the Methodist Church to the Millerites in 1840 - after the passionate preaching of William Miller himself
James White, along with William Miller and Joseph Bates, proclaimed the Second Coming. He became the first apostle of the Adventist Church and the husband of their main preacher, Elena Harmon.
Joseph Bates brought Sabbath worship to Adventists
Hiram Edson brought to Adventists the doctrine of the ministry of Jesus Christ in the heavenly temple
The main stages in the development of the Adventist Church:
| 1830s | In the USA, William Miller (Baptist, preacher) used the Bible to calculate the date of the Second Coming of Christ - October 22, 1844. All believers began to call themselves Adventists |
| January 1843 | W. Miller releases a small treatise with 15 proofs of the Second Coming - “The Evidence of Scripture and History for the Second Coming of Christ in 1844, Set forth in a Review of Reports” |
| October 22, 1844 | The Second Coming did not happen. The day went down in Adventist history as the “Great Disappointment.” Miller admitted his error in interpreting the Bible. Adventists no longer officially set exact dates for the advent. |
| December 1844 | 17-year-old Elena Harmon (by that time already an Adventist) received her first vision: on the day of the “Great Disappointment,” Jesus Christ entered the heavenly temple to cleanse it of sins and prepare it for the coming of people. Subsequently, over 70 years of ministry, Elena Harmon had over 2000 visions |
| 1845 — 1846 | A new trend among Adventists is the observance of the Sabbath (inherited from former Seventh-day Baptists, developed by Joseph Bates and Rachel Preston) |
| October 1, 1860 | The registered name of the organization is “Seventh-day Adventist Church” |
| May 1863 | A general governing body for all SDA churches has been created - the General Conference of the SDA (USA, Michigan). A single doctrine emerged - on health reform, spiritual gifts and justification by faith |
| World War I | Under pressure from Europe, the SDA Church allowed work and war even on Saturday. Anyone who refused was expelled from the church. |
| 1919 | Those expelled registered as the International Missionary Society of the SDA Reformation Movement. This is how the official SDA reformist movements appeared, and with them the “SDA Davidians”, who registered a little later |
Adventists have been building schools and universities around the world since the 1860s. There are already over 1,500 schools, on all continents, not only in English-speaking countries.
Universities - over 150 on all continents and on many southern islands + a dozen medical universities. There are 3,500 students from 100 countries studying there.
The first Adventist college, Battle Creek, is now called Andrews University (not to be confused with the Royal University of St. Andrews
There is an Adventist university in Russia - in the village of Zaoksky (Tula region)
Adventists have 150 of their own hospitals and mental health centers - mainly in the Americas, on the southern islands and in Asia (North Korea, Japan, China, India).
In 1990, they opened the first clinical center for proton therapy (irradiation of tumors with protons) in the United States and in the world.
1990
this year Adventists opened a proton therapy clinical center
They treat patients of any religion and themselves promote a healthy lifestyle. They donate blood themselves and organize campaigns to donate it.
According to SDA doctors, life expectancy in their Church is 6 years higher than average.
TV channel updates
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History of the SDA in Russia: a century and a half of struggle for life
The first preachers were Russian Mennonites who left for the USA, changed their faith to Adventist and returned to Russia to preach to non-Russians (Russians were not allowed by the law of the Russian Empire).
Then there were preachers from Switzerland, Germany, the USA - they were popular with the subbotniks.
Menno Simons founded a branch of Christianity named after himself - Mennoniteism. Here, on principle, they did not take up arms, so many emigrated and wandered around the world
| 1886 | The first SDA communities in Russia - in Crimea and the Volga region, among former Mennonites |
| 1890 | The first church of Russian Seventh-day Adventist Christians is in Stavropol. Head - Feofil Babenko |
| 1905 | Legalization, since it was emphasized that they did not interfere in politics |
| 1917 | 7 thousand ASD in Russia |
| 1920s | Split - disagreed about Soviet power and military service. Divided into the SDA Church, the “All-Union Church of Faithful and Free Seventh-day Adventists” and the “Russian Field of the Seventh-day Adventists of the Reformation Movement” (a branch of German reformists) |
| 1928 | They were forced to allow all their members to fight with weapons and serve the Fatherland like ordinary people |
| 1930s | Repression, exile, imprisonment |
| 1950s | The situation began to improve |
Biblical Foundations of Adventist Teachings
Main works:
- Holy Bible;
- the writings of Ellen White (“messenger of God”).
They believe that they correspond to the signs of the true Church of the last days before the Second Coming:
“The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”
(Rev. 19:10)
They revere Ellen White as their main prophetess and firmly believe in her visions.
Preaching the “three angels’ message”:
“fear God and give glory to Him”;
“Babylon, the great city, fell because...
He made all nations drunk with his fornication";
“Whoever worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand will...
tormented in fire and brimstone...
and they will have no rest day or night.”
(Rev. 14:6-12)
They believe in the Trinity of God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).
Why Saturday
They keep all the commandments, including literally the Sabbath. The Lord created the earth for 6 days, and on the seventh he rested - and commanded us to do so. Historically, Saturday was the last day, and Sunday was the first.
For Adventists, Sunday is a symbol of Catholic tradition, an illegal change of the holiday with one’s authority. By keeping the Sabbath, Adventists follow the example of Jesus and the apostles.
And God finished His work on the seventh day,
which He did, and rested on the seventh day from all His work,
which I did.
And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it,
for in him he rested from all his works,
which God created and created.
(Gen. 2:1-3)
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy;
Six days you shall work and do all your work, and the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God:
On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your maidservant, nor your ox, nor your donkey,
neither any of your livestock, nor the stranger who is in your gates; For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all things,
what was in them, and rested on the seventh day; Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.
(Ex. 20:8-11)
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and, as was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read.
(Luke 4:16)
However, there are other references to the Sabbath in the Bible, including Jesus himself not always keeping the Sabbath:
“Then some of the Pharisees said, “This man (Jesus Christ) is not from God, because he does not keep the Sabbath.”
(John 9:15)
“And the Jews sought even more to kill Jesus because He not only violated the Sabbath, but also called God His Father, making Himself equal with God.”
(John 5:1-18)
“The Sabbath is for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”
(Mark 2:28)
So the position regarding the Sabbath is controversial.
Afterlife
Adventists have a non-canonical vision of the afterlife. They deny the immortality of the soul and eternal torment for non-believers. Adventists believe that at the Second Coming only the righteous will be resurrected to eternal life:
I do not want to leave you, brothers, in ignorance about the dead, so that you do not grieve like others who have no hope.
…Jesus died and rose again, then God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
...we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not warn the dead,
because the Lord Himself, with a proclamation, with the voice of the Archangel and the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first;
Then we who are left alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
(1 Thess. 4:13-18)
The rest will be resurrected after the Millennium, judged for their sins and destroyed by fire.
...the time is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God; 29 and those who have done good will come out into the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil into the resurrection of condemnation.
(John 5:28, 29)
... who did not worship the beast or his image and did not receive the mark on their foreheads or on their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 But the rest of those who died did not live again until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection.
and each one was judged according to his deeds. Both death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whoever was not written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
(Rev. 20:4-5, 13-15 4)
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Rom. 6:23)
The doctrine of the Investigative Judgment and the purifying service of Jesus in the heavenly Temple is drawn from the descriptions of the purifying services:
- Book of the prophet Daniel. 8:14;
“And he said to me: for two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings; and then the sanctuary will be cleansed"
- Chapter 16 of Leviticus
- chapter 9 of Hebrews.
Although the phrase “Investigative Court” does not appear there even once, it doesn’t matter.
Ancient Jewish priests conducted services every day and forgave people's sins. Once a year, on the day of purification, the high priest served in the inner compartment of the temple - the Holy of Holies, thereby cleansing the church itself from sins.
Likewise, according to the Adventist faith, Jesus Christ, from his ascension in the 1st century A.D. e. Until October 22, 1844 he served in the church, forgiving people's sins. Now he examines the lives of believers (dead and living) to determine whether they deserve eternal life. This is the “investigative court”.
The names of those who were justified are erased from their respective books, and the names of sinners are erased from the book of life.
In the end, everything on Earth will be destroyed, and God's 1000-year judgment on unrepentant sinners will begin. They will be resurrected and the verdict will be announced. Then fire will come down from heaven, all sinners, fallen angels and Satan will be destroyed forever. The earth will be recreated - without sin.
And nothing unclean will enter into it, and no one devoted to abomination and lies, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
(Rev. 21:27)
Documentary film "Seventh-day Adventists"
Daily SDA Readings
Morning readings 2021
July 24, 2021. The Courage of Confessing Guilt
Audio / mp3 And David said to God: I have sinned greatly that I have done this. And now it’s simple...
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Morning readings 2021
July 24, 2021. The Courage of Confessing Guilt
Audio / mp3 And David said to God: I have sinned greatly that I have done this. And now it’s simple...
Read more ›
Evening readings 2021
July 24, 2021 Actual Prayer
by Judith Cruz Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you...
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Evening readings 2021
July 24, 2021 Actual Prayer
by Judith Cruz Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you...
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Daily Readings for Teens 2021
July 23, 2021. Solomon's wives
When Solomon grew old, his wives carried him away to other gods, and he was not...
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Daily Readings for Teens 2021
July 23, 2021. Solomon's wives
When Solomon grew old, his wives carried him away to other gods, and he was not...
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Let's talk
Daily readings for children 2021
December 31, 2021. As you close the book,
let the Lord be your joy and give you whatever your heart desires (Ps...
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Let's talk
Daily readings for children 2021
December 31, 2021. As you close the book,
let the Lord be your joy and give you whatever your heart desires (Ps...
Read more ›
All readings
