Is the end near? A look at Seventh-day Adventists.

With their disciplined lifestyle and anticipation of the Second Coming, the Seventh-day Adventists have attracted nearly 8 million people around the world to what they believe is the true church.

As we approach the year 2000, we can expect a revival of interest in millenarianism, the belief that the end of the world is near and the reign of Christ is about to begin. From the earliest days of Christianity various groups have emphasized the imminent Second Coming. Today the Seventh-day Adventists constitute the largest millenarian body although they no longer set a specific date.

For 150 years the Seventh-day Adventists have proclaimed that the climactic Battle of Armageddon and the return of Jesus Christ are just around the corner. Nearly 8 million people around the world have accepted their message. Nine out of ten Adventists live outside the U.S. although the church was founded in this country.

Unlike the Jehovah's Witnesses--another large millenarian sect--who concentrate on proselytizing, the Seventh-day Adventist Church pours its resources into education, health care, and disaster relief as well as evangelism. For example, this remarkable denomination operates the largest parochial-school system in the world after that of the Roman Catholic Church. It enrolls 860,000 students in 5,835 schools, including colleges and universities. Adventists try to organize a school if as few as 20 pupils can be enrolled. The eminent church historian Edwin Gaustad wrote that while the Adventists were "expecting a kingdom of God from the heavens, they worked diligently for one on earth."

The Seventh-day Adventist Church traces its history to the excitement generated by an early 19th-century preacher named William Miller. A veteran of the War of 1812, Miller went through a period as a skeptic before embracing Christianity and launching a rigorous study of the Bible.

Like others in the millenarian tradition, he concentrated on the Books of Daniel and Revelation. Daniel was actually written in the second century B.C. but purported to be a product of the sixth century. The Book of Revelation is attributed to John the Revelator, an official of the church of Asia Minor. His vision of the end times was accepted into the canon of the Bible by 200 A.D.

Miller focused on a particular passage in Daniel 8:14: "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." He made the assumption that one day really meant one year. But when did the countdown begin? For Miller it was the year 457 B.C., when the command was given to rebuild Jerusalem. By his calculation the world would end sometime between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844.

With a license to preach from the Baptists, Miller began to tell others about his prediction. His views attracted many people from Methodist, Baptist, and other churches. At the peak of his popularity an estimated 200 Protestant ministers and 50,000 laypeople could be identified as Millerites.

But March 21,1844 came and went and the sun rose as usual. Some of his followers became disillusioned, but Miller kept faith in his calculations. That summer one of his followers developed the theory that Jesus would return on Oct. 22,1844. Again the prediction apparently failed to come true. (Miller never became a Seventh-day Adventist and died in obscurity in 1849.

Many Millerites refused to abandon their faith and returned to their Bible study. Hiram Edson in western New York state announced that Oct. 22,1844 was indeed a momentous date but that it did not refer to the Second Coming as generally understood. Instead, according to Edson, it marked the date on which Jesus Christ moved from one of heaven's apartment to another to begin the "investigative judgment." In this phase Jesus would begin to determine who was eligible to enter God's presence.

A second early Adventist leader, Joseph Bates of Washington, New Hampshire, promoted the practice of worshiping on the seventh day rather than on Sunday. Bates explained that the change from the Jewish Sabbath to Sunday had been ordered by a pope in violation of the biblical injunction. In the Adventist Church the proper observance of the Sabbath became a necessary mark of the true church, which set Adventists apart from both Catholics and Protestants.

Led by a vision

Satisfied by Edson's explanation of the Great Disappointment of Oct. 22, 1844 and persuaded to adopt Bates' Sabbatarianism, the pioneer Adventists found a latter-day prophet in the Adventist community of Portland, Maine--Ellen G. White.

Undoubtedly the most influential leader in the history of the movement, White was never ordained or held an official church office. Born in 1827 and raised in Portland, White joined the Methodist Church as a teenager, but she and her family were disfellowshipped when their adherence to Millerism became known. Her education was limited mainly because of a childhood accident, which prevented her from going beyond three years of formal schooling and contributed to her lifelong health problems.

At the age of 17 White began to experience visions-to Seventh-day Adventists then and now these visions and her voluminous writings are a modern example of the gift of prophecy. Adventists insist that the Bible is the "sole rule of faith and practice for Christians," but her interpretations of scripture and the content of her visions have become primary sources of Seventh-day Adventist theology. Article 19 of the official Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists affirms that the "gift of the Spirit of prophecy is one of the identifying marks of the remnant church . . they [the Seventh-day Adventists] recognize this gift was manifested in the life and ministry of Ellen G. White."

White wrote 45 books and about 4,000 articles of some 25 million words. Her estimated 2,000 visions provided the substance for her writings. In her early ministry the 80-pound woman would fall into a trance, which might last from a few minutes to several hours. The Adventist Review (1983) reported that while in the trance state, White would cease breathing for as long as three hours.

Her visions not only confirmed Adventist positions on the Second Coming and Sabbath observance but also covered hundreds of topics from health reform to proper dress to the evils of masturbation to numerous other doctrinal and lifestyle questions.

One Adventist scholar, since excommunicated, estimated that at least 80 percent of White's enormous literary output was copied word for word from other writers but attributed to divine inspiration. The Adventist Church contests this charge, although it has come to recognize that the extent of her literary borrowings is greater than once believed.

White married a young Adventist preacher, James White, in 1846 and bore four sons. The family moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, which remained Adventist headquarters for many decades. The church itself was organized in 1863.

Later denominational offices were moved to Takoma Park, a suburb of Washington, D.C. and a few years ago moved again to Silver Spring, Maryland.

All of the distinctive Adventist doctrines were confirmed or revealed by White: the imminent return of Jesus Christ, the importance of Oct. 22, 1844, the unconscious state of the dead, the observance of Saturday instead of Sunday as the day of worship and rest, the dietary laws, the requirement of tithing, and baptism by immersion. No Adventist theologian or pastor would dispute the content of her visions and expect to remain in good standing in the church.

Some of White's positions changed over the years. At one time she advised Adventists to avoid medical doctors and drugs, but eventually she was instrumental in setting up the church's medical school at Loma Linda, California. She dabbled in phrenology, a theory based on the idea that you can identify character traits by examining the bumps on the skull, but lost interest.

Her concern for health reform paralleled that of many of her secular contemporaries, but since she attributed her prescriptions to divine guidance, they became part of church teaching. Adventists refrain from using alcohol, tobacco, coffee, tea, and narcotics. They must not eat certain foods prohibited in the Old Testament, such as pork, ham, and shellfish. Most Adventists follow a vegetarian diet, the rest eat meat sparingly. Recent studies show that faithful Adventists live three to six years longer than their non-adventist neighbors and report fewer incidences of cancer and heart problems. (Mormons, who follow a similar regimen, enjoy longer life spans as well.

Beyond the dietary restrictions, White told Adventists to avoid gambling, card playing, dancing, and attendance at theaters. A current church manual warns against the use of jewelry: "We understand this to mean the wearing of rings, earrings, necklaces, and bracelets, and showy tie tacks, cuff links and pins--and any other type of jewelry that has as its main function display--is unnecessary and not in harmony with the simplicity and adornment urged by Scripture."

Young Adventist men who might be drafted receive an exemption from bearing arms but serve their military time in noncombatant roles. They call themselves conscientious cooperators" rather than conscientious objectors." An Adventist medic won the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery in Okinawa during World War 11.

To support the church's extensive missionary, health, publishing, and educational programs, Adventists are expected to tithe their incomes. The Adventist Church usually leads all the larger Protestant bodies in per capita contributions. Some Adventists give more than 10 percent and contributions of 20 percent are not uncommon.

At the church's Battle Creek sanatorium the staff promoted good nutrition, fresh air, and exercise as aids in recovering and maintaining health. They pioneered the use of hydrotherapy, sometimes known as the water cure.

The first Seventh-day Adventist to become a medical doctor, John Kellogg, invented corn flakes and changed the breakfast habits of millions of Americans. At one time he offered the rights to the process of manufacturing dry cereals to his church, but the offer was rejected; this decision cost the church a large fortune. Kellogg supervised the Battle Creek sanatorium for many years but was excommunicated in 1907 in a dispute with leading elders. His brother, W. K. Kellogg, turned breakfast cereals into a major U.S. industry.

After her husband died, White moved to Australia and then to New Zealand before settling in California in 1900. When she died in 1915 at the age of 87, her church reported about 136,000 members worldwide. One of the few women to match her influence in American religion is Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science Church.

Outreach is far reaching

The Seventh-day Adventist Church began to direct human and financial resources into foreign missions in the 1870s. It dispatched its first missionary in 1874 to Switzerland. Today 34 percent of Adventists live in Latin America and 31 percent in Africa. The church operates in 190 countries and supports more than 1,000 full-time missionaries; in addition many Adventists, young and old, volunteer to do mission work for a year or two. (One footnote: all of the residents of tiny Pitcairn Island of Mutiny on the Bounty fame belong to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

One of the church's most effective evangelistic tools has been its far-flung health system: 154 hospitals and sanatoriums in addition to some 400 dispensaries, clinics, and nursing homes. Many Adventist medical personnel receive their training at the Loma Linda medical complex and at a smaller medical school in Mexico.

It is said that the Adventists educate a larger percentage of their young people in their own schools, colleges, and universities than any other denomination. They attend the 84 colleges and universities run by the church, including 14 in North America, and attend the 834 Adventist high schools. Most of the church's pastors in the U.S. attend the theological seminary at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan.

All Seventh-day Adventist educational institutions are expected to support the church's strong anti-evolution position. Creation, they believe, took place about 6,000 years ago, and the days of the biblical account signify literal 24-hour periods. An official doctrinal statement declares: "Evolution in whatever form or shape contradicts the basic foundations of Christianity."

Besides its medical and educational outreach, the Seventh-day Adventist Church makes good use of the printed word and radio or TV to reach members and prospective converts. Its "Voice of Prophecy" program has aired for decades, and its "Faith for Today" program is seen on dozens of TV stations. Some 60 publishing houses print Adventist literature in almost 200 languages.

Those who do accept the Adventist message must make a serious commitment, which may demand basic changes in their daily lives. Only then can they seek baptism. The Adventist Church encourages its members to tithe their incomes, follow the dietary code, abandon worldly fashions, send their children to parochial schools, sever connections with any secret society, avoid work on the Sabbath, and take an active part in the life of the local congregation.

Adventist worship resembles that of any evangelical Protestant church but is scheduled on Saturday. Every three months the church holds a memorial Lord's Supper, which is always preceded by a foot-washing ceremony.

At sun down friday night the adventist household begins its Sabbath observance. Cooks prepare food for the next day's consumption, as in Orthodox Jewish homes. Besides church attendance, family members are urged to spend their Sabbath reading the Bible, taking nature walks, and engaging in family and church activities. Radios and TVs are not turned on during these 24 hours.

Despite many doctrines and customs that differ from historic Christianity, the Seventh-day Adventists agree with other Christians on major theological positions. They affirm a belief in a triune God, the Fall and original sin, the full deity of Jesus Christ, and the importance of baptism. But other Adventist beliefs have led some conservative Protestant writers to debate whether this church is simply an unusual expression of Protestantism or a sect that has put itself outside the boundaries of orthodox Christianity.

In his book The Four Major Cults (Eerdmans, 1963), Anthony Hoekema examined Christian Science, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Seventh-day Adventism. Other Protestant scholars, such as Walter Martin, refuse to label Adventism a "cult" but express concern over the dominant role of Ellen White in interpreting the Bible.

George R. Knight, professor of church history at Andrews University, says: "In terms of the tension between Hoekema and Martin over whether Adventism is a cult or a genuine branch of evangelical Christianity, it seems to me that official Adventism and the large majority of its pastors and membership is definitely within the realm of evangelicalism." But, Knight adds, "a percentage of its members either border on or demonstrate cultic aberrations (in practice even if denied in rhetoric) in their putting the writings of Ellen G. White above the Bible and in certain legalistic tendencies related to behavioral perfectionism."

Adventists have not escaped minor schisms, including that of the Branch Davidians, which dominated the news in April 1993. Americans watched their TV screens in horror as more than 70 members of the cult perished in the flames of their compound in Waco, Texas. This sphnter group was started by Victor Splinter, a Bulgarian-born convert to the Adventist Church, who began teaching his version of Adventism in the mid-1930s. His followers remained in the larger church until World War 11. After Hout's death his widow attempted to retain leadership of the group but lost control to a ninth-grade dropout by the name of David Koresh. The rest, as they say, is history.

" I know of no Seventh-day Adventists who were even aware of the Waco people before the problem hit the headlines," says Knight. "Most of us thought the Waco movement had died in the early 1960s. I knew nothing of the Branch Davidians in Waco even though I serve as a kind of unofficial coordinator for the only Ph.d. program in Adventist Studies in the world."

What they stand for

What distances the Adventists from other Christians are such doctrines as the seventh-day Sabbath, the nature of human beings, the state of the dead, and the afterlife.

Adventists deny the almost universal Christian belief that a human being consists of a body and a soul, one physical and the other spiritual. Instead, they maintain that a man or woman does not have a soul but is a soul. The Adventist's basic doctrinal statement explains: "Man was endowed at creation with conditional immortality; we do not believe that man has innate immortality or an immortal soul." Any concept of an immortal soul, they maintain, came from pagan influences in the early church.

At death, say the Adventists, each individual, whether righteous or wicked, enters a state of unconsciousness. For a time he or she becomes nonexistent. At the end of the world Satan and his cohorts will lose the Battle of Armageddon since they will be no match for the power of Jesus Christ. For 1,000 years Satan and the other fallen angels will inhabit a desolate earth. All the wicked will have been put to death and believers will be translated to heaven. Finally all the unrighteous will be resurrected only to face total annihilation. Adventists, therefore, reject the idea of an eternal hell. The true believers will be resurrected to enjoy eternal life with Christ.

Seventh-day Adventists see themselves as members of the remnant church, which can be identified by its observance of the seventh-day Sabbath. All other Christian churches demonstrate their apostasy by their Sunday worship. This does not mean that all other Christians are condemned. We fully recognize the heartening fact that a host of true followers of Christ are scattered all through the various churches of Christendom, including the Roman Catholic communion" (Questions on Doctrine). White wrote:

We should not go out of the way to make

hard thrusts at the Catholics. Among the

Catholics there are many who are most

conscientious Christians and who walk

in all the light that shines upon them,

and God will work in their behalf.

Officially the Seventh-day Adventist Church identifies the Roman Catholic Church as the beast of the Book of Revelation and the Protestant churches are described in Adventist polemics as the daughters of the beast.

In particular the Adventist Church criticizes most other Protestant bodies for worshiping on Sunday, allowing infant baptism, and promoting the passage of blue laws, which restrict the sale of liquor and commercial activities on Sunday.

Small wonder then that the Adventists do not participate in such ecumenical organizations as the National and World Councils of Churches nor in local councils except as unofficial observers. One of White's many predictions was that over the years relations between Catholics and Protestants would improve, and in this she appears to have been correct.

Their demanding lifestyle and aloofness from other churches have not hampered Adventist growth. Their world membership, which did not reach 1 million until 1955, has grown nearly eightfold since then. Most of this growth has been in foreign countries, but since 1965 U.S. membership has increased 95 percent. The many wars, floods, earthquakes, acts of urban violence, new diseases, and other catastrophes persuade many that the end of the world may indeed be near.

Through their medical facilities, schools, and disaster-relief efforts, the Seventh-day Adventists have made major contributions to alleviating the suffering of their fellow men and women. They lead lives marked by discipline and self-sacrifice. The debate about whether the church is a Christian body within the boundaries of Protestantism or a religious cult will no doubt continue.