This is a very good question, for there is an amazing Bible answer. Who started the Seventh-day Adventist Church? When was this church started? Is it a church, or is it an end-time movement prophesied in the Bible? What is the purpose of the Seventh-day Adventist Church? Let us find out.
Who started the Seventh-day Adventist Church?
The Millerite movement
The Bible says that the end-time remnant church comes after the end of the 1260 years of papal persecution. Jesus says that it has distinctive signs, such as keeping the Sabbath, having the testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit of prophecy, preaching the 3 angels’ message, preaching the sanctuary judgment-hour message, preaching in all the world, and having a message like Elijah that is life or death. Who is this remnant?
It all started around 1830, when a farmer called William Miller started to read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. In fact, William Miller was a Baptist. He was not a preacher. But sometimes, when the local Baptist preacher was away, William Miller took the role of the preacher and Bible reader.
Before that, William Miller did not believe in a personal biblical God. He took on this two-year Bible study. When William Miller arrived at Daniel 8:14, he found this verse.
DA 8:14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
William Miller connected this verse to Revelation 14, which says, “The hour of his judgment is come,” and to the Jewish sanctuary. Every October 22, the Day of Atonement was the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary. Here William Miller found that this was the same thing, but the high priest this time is Jesus. And it was not only for the Jews anymore, but it is the cleansing of the sins of the whole world since creation. We could say William Miller was the founder, but there were no Adventists until twenty years after the 1844 message.
William Miller took the Bible principle of one day for a year. In Bible prophecy, most of the time, one day is one year. We see that in Daniel, where Gabriel says 1260 days to the time of the end. After that, Gabriel says this refers to the end of the world. We know, then, that it cannot be 1260 days in Bible prophecy, as 1260 years after the start of the prophecy only ends 3 years and a half later, not at the time of the end.
DA 12:7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by him that liveth forever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
Time, times, and half a time is the same thing as 1260 days and 43 months. We find this prophecy repeated in Revelation. This repetition means it is very important. Time is one year, times is 2 years, and half a time is 6 months. Or 42 months by 30 days is 1260 days or years.
Who started the Seventh-day Adventist Church? Day for a year
The day-for-a-year principle is confirmed by these two Bible verses.
EZ 4:6 And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.
NU 14:34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.
After Gabriel tells Daniel when the end of those wonders will be, Gabriel confirms:
DA 12:8 And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?
9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
This confirms the fact that it cannot be 1260 days, as it refers to the end of the world.
Who started the Seventh-day Adventist Church? 2300 days
We see that William Miller was a Baptist, yet God called him to start the preaching of the end-time 3 angels’ message. But Miller started preaching the first angel’s message. William Miller calculated that the 2300 years of the cleansing of the sanctuary, or the start of the judgment in heaven, began when Jerusalem was rebuilt in 457 BC. After that, it is easy to calculate the end year of the 2300 years.
DA 9:25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
So 457 BC + 2300 years is 1843. We add the zero year and arrive at 1844. The mistake was not the calculation, which is biblical and inspired, but God put a veil over their eyes concerning what the sanctuary is. William Miller thought the sanctuary was the earth. Calculating 2300 years, it arrives at October 22, 1844. When that day arrived, nothing happened. It was a disappointment.
But not for long, as the next day God gave a vision to Hiram Edson, who saw in vision the heavenly sanctuary. As they studied the heavenly sanctuary, they found out that the sanctuary was in heaven, where Jesus started to judge all humans in the Most Holy Place on Oct 22, 1844. This means that everybody that ever lived on earth is being judged by Jesus since Oct 22, 1844. As Noah’s time remained 120 years, we know that Jesus will soon finish deciding who goes to heaven and who is destroyed very soon.
We are living in a solemn time, in which the end will happen soon, and in which everybody’s words, actions, and thoughts are being passed in review in heaven. With God, all things are possible, and we know God is merciful and forgiving, not wanting that any shall perish.
Who started the Seventh-day Adventist Church? Adventist pioneers
A question to ask is: did nobody else give a sanctuary judgment message after the 1260 years of papal persecution? No. Then this prophecy can only be fulfilled by William Miller and the Seventh-day Adventist Church afterward. When Jesus says they have the spirit of prophecy in RE 12:17, it means not only one prophet but a group of people to whom the gift of prophecy was given. The explanation of the sanctuary was given to Hiram Edson.
The Sabbath came about with Joseph Bates, a sea captain. One day he was walking on a bridge. Someone asked him, “What is new, Captain Bates?” Bates answered, “The Sabbath is the news.” He published a paper about the Sabbath, proving beyond a doubt that the Sabbath was still valid and that the law of God was not annulled, like many Christians teach. We cannot keep the commandments about killing and stealing and say the Sabbath is done away with. The whole law is one.
Who started the Seventh-day Adventist Church? The Sabbath and the pioneers
William Miller, who in fact never kept the Sabbath, and a few Adventist pioneers such as Joseph Bates, Ellen G. White, her husband James White, and a few others such as John Byington, John Andrews, and Uriah Smith, among others, helped establish the movement. Other arguments for the Sabbath are that Jesus, the apostles, and all the prophets kept the Sabbath. The Sabbath was never changed in the Bible. Three hundred years after Jesus died, people started to keep Sunday by tradition from the Catholic Church. The Sabbath was still Saturday and still is today.
When Jesus died, the apostles still kept the Sabbath. Luke 23 tells us that they rested on the Sabbath after Jesus died on Friday. They returned to see Jesus’ tomb on Sunday.
LK 23:54 And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.
55 And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid.
56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.
Then on Sunday, after they kept the Sabbath, even after Jesus was in the tomb:
LK 24:1 Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
All the apostles still kept Sabbath after Jesus rose. If Sabbath was changed into Sunday, then they would have rested also on Sunday.
It says in Isaiah that in heaven everybody will keep Sabbath.
IS 66:23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.
24 And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
When Col 2 says, “Let no one judge you about sabbath days,” this is not the Seventh-day Sabbath. It talks about the yearly feasts of Leviticus 23. These were yearly sabbaths, plural, that fell on Monday, Tuesday, etc. These yearly sabbaths were not the seventh-day Sabbath. This was the law of ordinances that was nailed to the cross. The Ten Commandments were not nailed to the cross, because the Ten Commandments are not the law of ordinances but the moral law.
Who started the Seventh-day Adventist Church? The 3 angels’ message
The continuance of the first angel’s message of the cleansing of the sanctuary was continued with the second angel’s message, which says Babylon is fallen. Most churches around the world refused the first angel’s message. They fell into a Babylonian state. They did not want Jesus to return. As they refused light, they fell into a dark spiritual state. New light was not revealed to them. Many left those churches to join the 3 angels’ message movement. Here is the second angel’s message:
RE 14:8 And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
The papacy is the mother church. The Protestant churches fell into a Babylonian state for refusing light from Jesus, who will judge all humans.
This 3 angels’ message is very similar to the ark of Noah. Those who entered the ark were safe. Those who refused to enter were destroyed by the flood. Here, all people have to make a decision: either follow human inventions and Sunday worship, or keep the Sabbath as the Bible teaches.
RE 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
This remnant church, or 3 angels’ message movement, is different from the other churches that teach that we are under grace and do not need to keep the law of God anymore.
RE 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Who started the Seventh-day Adventist Church? The loud cry
Yet a shaking will happen, not only in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, but many Adventists will leave the church, and many Sunday Protestants will start to believe in the 3 angels’ message. The loud cry will be the latter rain, in which righteousness by faith will be the revelation of the love of Jesus in human hearts.
The Seventh-day Adventists who refuse the righteousness by faith message will leave the truth. Only those who experience this amazing gift of righteousness by faith will give the loud cry, the latter rain. We are saved by faith. Our works cannot gain us an entrance to heaven. Only when we recognize that we are sinful and that there is nothing good in us do we have hope.
Then we have hope. Legalism is men thinking that he is good and his works are good enough. This is a great deception. Only God is good. Only God can give us His righteousness, an amazing gift. This gives amazing peace, to know that God Himself does all through us. Peace like a river can flow once this message is experienced.
Do you know that Jesus loves you? Why not accept Jesus in your heart now? Repeat after me: Father God, forgive my sins. Come into my heart. Heal and bless me. Give me Your righteousness. Help me to walk with You, in the name of Jesus, amen.
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