How Seventh-Day Adventists Began

     Though we did not officially organize as a church---a denomination---until 1863, our roots go back at least early 1800's. As the new century began, a great wave of interest in the Bible swept over America. This interest focused especially on the Bible prophecies concerning the second advent---the return to this world---of Jesus Christ.
     Between 1831 and 1844, William Miller---a Baptist preacher and former army captain in the War of 1812---launched the "great second advent awakening." which eventually spread throughout most of the Christian world. Based on his study of the prophecy of Daniel 8:14. Miller calculated that Jesus would return to earth on October 22, 1844. When Jesus did not appear, Miller's followers experienced what came to be called "the great disappointment."
     Most of the thousands who had joined the "great second advent awakening" left it, in deep disillusionment. A few, however, went back to their Bibles to find why they had been disappointed. Soon they concluded that the October 22 date had indeed been correct, but Miller had predicted the wrong event for that day. They became convinced that the Bible prophecy predicted not that Jesus would return to earth in 1844, but that He would begin at that time a special ministry in heaven for His followers. They still looked for Jesus to come soon, however, as do Seventh-day Adventists yet today.
     From this small group who refused to give up after the "great disappointment" arose several leaders who built the foundation of what would become the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Standing out among these leaders were a young couple---James and Ellen White---and a retired sea captain named Joseph Bates.
     This small nucleus of "Adventists" began to grow---mainly in the New England states of America, where Miller's movement had begun. Ellen White, a mere teenager at the time of the "great disappointment," grew into a gifted author, speaker and administrator, who would become and remain the trusted spiritual counselor of the Adventist family for more than seventy years until her death in 1915. Early Adventists came to believe---as have Adventists ever since---that she enjoyed God's special guidance as she wrote her counsels to the growing body of believers.
     In 1860, at Battle Creek, Michigan, the loosely knit congregations of Adventists chose the name Seventh-day Adventists and in 1863 formally organized a church body with a membership of 3,500---all in North America. By 1900 our membership had spread abroad and stood at 75,000. By the mid-1960's it had swelled to over 1.5 million. And today as we find ourselves in the twenty-first century, we have become one of the fastest-growing churches, with a membership of approximately eleven million and growing at nearly 3,000 a day.