Many Adventists believe the Bible offers an accurate view of antiquity; Carson for example attributes creationism as the idea that God created the world in six days. Many of the series’s 2,000 visions of the Bible and other mundane topics, such as healthy eating, are incorporated into church teachings, leading other Christians to denigrate Adventists. This has helped to fuel intense anti-Catholicism within the Seventh Day Adventism, with groups such as Millerites blaming the Catholic Church for shifting the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday.
Other Adventists go even further with erroneous teachings: Seventh-day Adventism has roots in Adventism, a nineteenth-century movement that anticipates the imminent appearance and coming of Jesus Christ. The Seventh Day Adventist Church, known for its observance of Sabbath (Saturday) and other unique beliefs and practices, dates back to its origins in the first half of the 19th century in the United States when preacher William Miller founded a religious movement around his prediction that Jesus would return to Earth in 1844. The Adventist movement traces its influence to William Miller, a farmer, and Bible teacher, who predicted Jesus “return to earth between March 1843 and March 1844 based on his interpretation of Old Testament passages and other writings.
Adventists are members of a group of Protestant Christian churches which originated in the mid-19th century in the United States and are distinguished by their emphasis on faith in the personal and visible return of Christ and the glory of the Second Advent, a faith shared by many Christians. Along with the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints (Mormons) is one of the few religious denominations that originate in the United States. The Church of the Seventh-Day Adventists is a Christian denomination characterized by its doctrinal belief in a literal and visible return of Christ at close range and that the Old Testament Sabbath is still relevant today because God is true in the biblical sabbath.
The name of the church, Adventist, reflects how its followers await the return of Jesus. The Adventist Church has about 12 million members in North America and more than 18.7 million worldwide and is the fastest-growing denomination.
Edson Joseph Bates (1846-1849) published pamphlets insisting that Christians should observe the Jewish Sabbath on Sunday and worship on Sunday, and Ellen Gould White claimed to have received many visions that confirmed this doctrine and founded the Seventh-day Adventist denomination which took its name in 1860.
The SDA Church proclaims its belief that salvation comes only by the grace of faith in Christ. His teachings imply that certain outward acts of righteousness are needed to ensure the certainty of salvation by observing the seventh day, the Sabbath. The fourth commandment of God is an immutable law that requires observance on the Sabbath day of rest, worship, and service in accordance with the teachings and practices of Christ.
The Sabbath is a special day of worship at home and in church, a day of joy for ourselves and our children, and a day to learn more about God through the Bible and the great teachings of the Book of Nature.
God has given the members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in this age the spiritual gifts of each member to use in loving service for the common good of the Church and of humanity. These gifts are given by the Holy Spirit, who bestows upon each member as he pleases, thus giving him the ability to perform the service that the Church needs in order to fulfill her ordained functions. Chaque member is called by God to be equipped with the Holy Spirit, in the knowledge that the pastorate and evangelistic teaching and the ministry of the churches must equip members for their ministry, build their spiritual maturity and promote the unity of faith and knowledge of God.
The main problems separating Seventh-day Adventists from Biblical Christianity are their unorthodox view of Christ’s work and atonement, their illegitimate elevation of Ellen G. White’s prophecy, and their legal insistence that believers are required to follow the Sabbath and mosaic diet laws. Mission work is important to the church, and Adventists believe they have the duty to share their faith with others.
The Church considers Miller’s original prophecy false in its data, but one of the central beliefs is that Jesus will return. The imminent second coming of Jesus Christ, whether literal, personal or visible, is according to the church documents of the Seventh Day Adventist churches, 28 fundamental doctrines. Salvation comes through repentance for sin and adherence to faith in Jesus as the grace granted by God, the Church believes.
Adventist youth programs focus on the younger members of the church but the church also runs a Boy Scout-like program called Pathfinder, which focuses on Bible study and its relationship with God as well as physical activities like hiking and nature observation.