Adventures in Adventism The Sects Which Spawned from the Great Disappointment  

Adventism In 2010, Adventism claimed some 30 million believers scattered in various independent churches.  The largest church within the movement—the Seventh-Day Adventist Church (SDA)—had more than 19 million baptized members in 2015.  The Jehovah's Witnesses come in at a distant second with 7 million members.  The Adventist Christian Church, the next biggest group, has only 100,000 members.

William Miller Near the end of the Second Great Awakening, there was a prosperous farmer and Baptist lay preacher named William Miller.   Miller spent years of intensive study of symbolic meaning of the prophecies of Daniel, especially Daniel 8:14 (Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed), the 2300 day prophecy.  Miller believed that the cleansing of the sanctuary represented the Earth's destruction by fire at Christ's Second Coming. Using the day-for-a-year method of prophetic interpretation, Miller became convinced that the 2,300 day period started in 457 BC with the decree to rebuild Jerusalem by Artaxerxes I of Persia. Simple calculation then indicated that this period would end about 1843.

William Miller In 1832, Miller submitted a series of sixteen articles to the Vermont Telegraph—a Baptist paper. Since he was unable to respond to all the inquiries about his views, Miller published a synopsis of his teaching. He starts gathering followers They were united by a belief in the imminent return of Jesus Christ—the Second Advent.  This was a one issue movement: just Jesus is coming. had adherents across denominational lines, especially from Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist and Campbellite churches.

William Miller Very different ideas are brought into this movement. The Gospel becomes different for Millerites.  The Gospel becomes Jesus in coming, pack your bags. (1 Thess 5:2-4. watching is the gospel).  Thus the "material principle" for all the Millerite/Adventist groups is preparation for the end of the world. Some understand this as the immanent second advent of Jesus, others as Armageddon.  The "formal principle" would be a specific "eisegetical" method of biblical interpretation, focused on prophecy and chronology

Joshua Vaughan Himes From 1840 onward, Millerism was transformed from obscurity to an national phenomenon.  The key figure in this transformation was Joshua Vaughan Himes—the pastor of Chardon Street Chapel in Boston, and an able and experienced publisher. Himes established the magazine Signs of the Times to publicize Miller's  teachings. (In addition to other periodicals and tracts.)  Himes was from a group called the Christian Connexion which believed in Arianism and Conditional Immortality! (This is an important connection!)

The Great Disappointment When Miller's original date of March 21, 1844 didn't pan out, he said that they were in the "tarrying" time mentioned in the parable of the ten virgins. A follower proposed the date of October 22, 1844, based on a different Jewish Calendar.  Many people closed their shops, sold all their possessions, left their cattle and farms unattended, and their money in the streets. When Jesus doesn't return it is called "the Great Disappointment". Miller and his followers were mercilessly mocked in the newspapers. The break offs began as a result of the Great Disappointment. Many suddenly realised that they disagreed about a host of others things and fragmentations begun.

Themes of Millerism (with some exceptions) Focused around the second Advent of Jesus (usually premillennial) Biblical Chronology Arianism  Conditional Immortality (Annihilationism or Soul Sleep) Pacifism Restorationism Anti-organization before Civil War Publish magazines and hold conventions Sabbath and sometimes Zionism

The Albany Conference  Some members rejoined their previous denominations. But those still committed to Millerism called a conference in Albany in 1845.  The Albany Conference was called to attempt to determine the future course and meaning of the Millerite movement.  The conference included many major Millerite leaders, such as Miller himself.  Following this meeting, the "Millerites" then became known as "Adventists" or "Second Adventists".  However, the delegates disagreed on several theological points.  Wrestlling with the shut door or open door in the ten virgins parable. Shut door (After 1844 no one can be saved) Open door (people can still be saved.) Two major groups = Sunday Adventists and Sabbatarian Adventists

Splintered! Four major groups emerged from the conference: The Evangelical Adventists, The Life and Advent Union, the Advent Christian Church, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. There were many splinter groups.

Adventist Christian Church The Adventist Christian Church grew from those who accepted all the decisions of the Albany Conference.  Two influential thinkers need to be mentioned:  Jonas Wendell had recalculated and predicted that Jesus would return visibly in 1873 or 1874. George Stetson was Pastor of an ACC Church in Pennsylvania. By way of an aside, the Evangelical Adventists were the largest group but fizzled out of existence by 1916.

Charles Taze RusSELL Charles Taze Russell, (1852-1916) Raised Presbyterian. As a teenager he left the Presbyterian church and joined the Congregational Church. At age 16, a discussion with a childhood friend on the perceived faults of Christianity led Russell to question his faith. For a time he had no religion, until, at age 18, he attended a presentation by an Jonas Wendell who was giving a lecture disputing the existence of Hell. This restored his confidence in the Bible. He went on from there to join Geroge Stetson's bible studies. Stetson was essentially pastor and catechized him.

Nelson Barbour Nelson Barbour was an Adventist writer loosely associated with the ACC.  Taught that from 1844-1873 the Bridegroom Tarried 1874 Midnight Cry Jesus is back Invisibly 1874-1878 3 1/2 year harvest 1914 Gentile Times Over Nelson Barbour splits with Russell Nelson Barbour doesn't believe in the vicarious sacrifice of Christ, Russell does Russell changes Barbour's Chronology

Life and Advent Union The Life and Advent Union was founded by George Storrs in 1863. He had established The Bible Examiner in 1842. It merged with the Adventist Christian Church in 1964. He was a Non Trinitarian. Easter/Passover was to be celebrated once a year. The goal of Christ's sacrifice is to restore man to paradise earth. (Premillenialism).

Zion's Watch Tower Charles Taze Russell drinks deeply of these three guys.  All of his major ideas are not actually his but things he has picked up and learned from others in the Adventist movement.  In July 1879, Russell began publishing Zion's Watch Tower, the principal journal of the Bible Student movement.  Several years after Russell's death, the magazine was renamed The Watchtower and the Bible Students were renamed Jehovah's Witnesses. Note the Millerite/Advenist themes: Ariansim, annihilationism, biblical chronology, pacifism, restorationism, focused around the second advent of Jesus, premillennial. Russell believed that Christ had returned invisibly in 1874. He predicted that a period known as the "Gentile Times" would end in 1914, and that Christ would take control of Earth's affairs at that time. He interpreted the outbreak of World War I as the beginning of Armageddon. Russell died suddenly in 1916. When Joseph Franklin Rutherford, his attorney, took control of the Watch Tower Society and its properties, a leadership dispute followed, resulting in several groups breaking away. Rutherford made significant organizational and doctrinal changes, including adoption of the name Jehovah's witnesses.

Seventh-Day Adventists The idea that the Sabbath was supposed to be kept by Christians was being preached by Millerite Preachers, like Joseph Bates, before 1844.   The Sabbatarian Adventists had a different take on how to handle the Great Disappointment Hiram Edson received a vision in Oct. 23, 1844.  Hiram Edson and other Millerites came to believe that Miller's calculations were correct, but that his interpretation of Daniel 8:14 was flawed as he assumed Christ would come to cleanse the world.  Hiram came to the conviction that Daniel 8:14 foretold Christ's entrance into the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary rather than his Second Coming.

Seventh-Day Adventists Jesus enters into the holy of holies in heaven, in which every person's eligibility for salvation was determined on if they have kept the Sabbath. By faith your name is written in the book, but Jesus goes through the names and lets those who keep the Sabbath in. Doctrine is called the investigative judgment.  1863 SDA was formed. Ellen White came to occupy a particularly central role; her many visions and spiritual leadership convinced her fellow Adventists that she possessed the gift of prophecy. Brand-Davidians of Waco fame are an offshoot.