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The Birth of the SDA Church – a lesson in history

Seventh Day Adventism (SDA) arose from the aftermath of the Adventist movement of the mid-1800s.
"Seventh-day" refers to the focus on Sabbath, or Saturday worship. "Adventist" refers to the SDA belief
that they are the fulfillment of prophecies pertaining to the latter days remnant and the coming of
Christ. The world was predicted to end in 1844 with the Second Coming of Christ, by William Miller, a
New England Baptist itinerant preacher. Miller's followers condemned all the churches of the day as
apostate and "Babylon," and warned Christians to come out of them. A great many did, and the
"Adventist" movement was born and grew rapidly (Melton, J. Gordon, Encyclopedia of American
Religions, Vol. 2, pp. 21–22).

Christ did not appear on October 22, 1844 as predicted. William Miller publically admitted that he had
been wrong about the prophesy and had miscalculated the day of Christ’s return. But the damage had
already been done. Hundreds of people had given away all their earthly possessions and money. The
day after was marked by suicides, ridicule, lawsuits, hysteria, and much weeping.

After this "Great Disappointment," one "little flock" still insisted the date of their
original predictions had been correct. A New York farmer named Hiram Edson
was among those who spent the night of the great disappointment weeping and
grieving. However, the next day, he and his friend, O.L. Crosier, decided to go
comfort some of the other believers. While cutting across Edson’s field, suddenly
Hiram looked up and in the clouds, he said he saw the heavens open. Instead of seeing Jesus come as
King of Kings, he saw God the Father and Jesus as our High Priest, rise and move from the Holy Place in
Heaven to the Holy of Holies (a second apartment). Hiram called this the “Sanctuary
Doctrine.” He explained that it was the time when Jesus began his scrutiny of the works
of believers, His “Investigative Judgment.” They declared the event marked by 1844
was not the Second Coming, but the entrance of Christ into the Holy of Holies in the
Heavenly Sanctuary. There, they said, He began the "Investigative Judgment." This
doctrine was received, endorsed, and promoted by Ellen G. White (Ibid., p. 680). We will
study this doctrine in detail shortly.

From 1844 to 1851, the group taught the "shut door" doctrine, based on Jesus' parable of the ten
virgins. Anyone who had not accepted the Adventist message by the time Jesus entered the Holy of
Holies was to be shut out permanently, as were the five foolish virgins. Cut off from
the Bridegroom, they could not join the Adventists or have any hope of eternal life.
Ellen White not only approved and taught this doctrine, but her first vision
experience (she claimed over 2,000 visions) was largely responsible for its being
received by the Adventist group (Brinsmead, Robert, D., Judged by the Gospel: A
Review of Adventism, pp. 130–133).

By 1846, the group had adopted the Seventh-Day Baptists' view that the Saturday Sabbath
must be observed by Christians. A highly elevated form of this doctrine, together with the
doctrine of the Investigative Judgment, became the hallmarks of Seventh Day Adventism.
In 1850, James and Ellen White began publishing a magazine, The Review & Herald, to
disseminate Adventist and Sabbatarian doctrines. This helped many of the remaining
"Millerites" to coalesce into a distinctive body, which adopted the name of Seventh-Day
Adventist Church in 1860, and formally incorporated in 1863, with approximately 3,500
members in 125 congregations (Encyclopedia of American Religion, Vol. 2, p. 681).

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