Origins of The Advent Christian Denomination

“The story of Advent Christian beginnings is centered in a remarkable man. He, and the movement associated with his name, stirred America spiritually as has no other, before or since. For years newspapers recorded his every move and message. In the press, the pulpit, and even the political arena, he was praised and condemned, but never ignored. His following was never great – perhaps he had some fifty thousand at the height of his ministry. Few persons of prominence or wealth followed him, but thousands of dedicated Christians gave him a respectful hearing. He was the butt of interminable jokes, some bawdy, most of them crude, all of them slanderous. His career ended in a monstrous anticlimax called the “Great Disappointment,” but from his ministry came a great spiritual awakening and the renaissance of long-buried truths. This man, soldier, farmer, justice of the peace, and preacher, a skeptic turned believer, was William Miller.” (From Our History by Clarence J.  Kearney, click here for the online essay).

William Miller (1782-1849) was an American Baptist preacher born in Pittsfield, MA.  After a foray in deism, and serving in the War of 1812, he came to Christ and began diligently studying the book of Daniel, soon becoming convinced that Jesus was going to return on or before March of 1844.  At the time talk of the imminent return of Jesus Christ was either shallow or non-existent.  As the date grew closer Miller’s popularity increased and the Millerite’s multi-denominational movement was underway.  As March 1844 passed without incident he continued to affirm his belief in the soon and coming return of the Messiah.

Samuel Sheffield Snow, a Millerite preacher, continued to predict the return of Christ (against Miller’s recommendation) and set the date for October 22, 1844.  Many people sold all they had in eager anticipation as the fervency of belief boiled over.  When the date passed without incidence it became known as the Great Disappointment.

After this, many Millerites returned to their own churches though many more, finding only judgment, ridicule, and public shame (some even tarred and feathered) for their belief, banded together into small congregations.

After the Albany Conference on April 29, 1845 some congregations soon veered off the orthodox track becoming Seventh Day Adventist while others pledged their allegiance to Evangelical beliefs (i.e. Advent Christians).

However, the seismic impact of fervently living in the shadow of the imminent return of Christ forever changed two aspects of their doctrine, though they never lost their iron resolve to remain Evangelical.

First, if the central Gospel hope of all believers is in fact the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting in the kingdom of God (1 Thessalonians 4; 1 Cor. 15; 2 Cor. 5), as some scholars like N.T Wright in Resurrection Hope or Randy Alcorn in Heaven only now realize, then nothing should detract from this most cherished teaching.  The idea that we die and go into the immediate conscious presence of God in a cloudy transtemporal heaven (without resurrection bodies and without a kingdom to rule) became seen as a distraction from the core hope of biblical theology.  However, an unconscious existence sleeping in the “grave” (Sheol as it is called in the Old Testament, Hades in the New Testament) awaiting the resurrection puts full emphasis on this hope.  This became a defining distinctive of the Advent Christians often referred to simply by the biblical euphemism “sleep” as in “soul sleep.”

Second, all life and all hope for the coming kingdom of God comes through the resurrection of Jesus and his return.  Adventists realized that “God alone is immortal” (1 Tim. 6:16) which means that contrary to many Greek philosophers such as Plato, we are not.  Adam and Eve never gained immortality because they lost the right to eat from the tree of life (Gen. 3:22-24) and yet through the Gospel Jesus has freely given immortality (2 Tim. 1:10; Rom. 2:7) so that those who overcome will one day eat of the tree of life and live forever (Rev. 2:7; 22:14).  If immortality is not natural to us as humans and can only be gained through Jesus Christ, then what will happen to those who are raised at the Great Judgment who do not believe in Jesus?  Adventists realized that imagery such as the wicked being “burned up” (Matt. 13:40), “burned up like chaff” (Matt. 3:12) or “ashes under your feet” (Mal. 4:3) as well as descriptions such as “everlasting destruction” (2 Thess. 1:9), “consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29), and “set them ablaze…leaving them neither root nor branch” (Mal. 4:1) are far more literal than most may want to admit.  “Eternal punishment” then, refers not to the process of “punishing”, though this occurs for some unspecified duration, but to the final result:  complete eradication and destruction from the memory of God (Psalm 9:6; 34:16).

Today’s Advent Christian Church is far less concerned with the distinctives, and far more concerned with how to actively wait in the shadow of a quickly passing cloud, living out the urgent, fervent, passionate expectation that at any moment the glory of the Son will be revealed and the long awaited hope of all the ages will be upon us as the voice of our Lord thunders the earth, the dead in Christ rise to their eternal inheritance in the kingdom of God, and we worship and enjoy our eternal king, Jesus Christ our Lord, forevermore.