Who We Are
Here at Living Waters, our local church belongs to a much larger Seventh Day Adventist body. This body consists of over 20 million members in over 209 countries around the world. All local Adventist churches are attached to and reports to Conferences. The Conference that Living Waters is attached to is the South Atlantic Conference . Conferences are attached to and reports to Unions. The Union for the South Atlantic Conference is the Southern Union . Unions are attached to Divisions. The Southern Union is attached to and reports the North American Division . And finally, all Divisions are attached to and reports to the highest level in our organization, the General Conference located at 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904, USA.
The Great Dissapointment - Millerite roots, 1831–44
The Seventh-day Adventist Church was formed out of the movement known today as the Millerites. In 1831, a Baptist convert, William Miller (until then a Deist), was asked by a Baptist preacher to preach in their church. Miller sermon was based on the Second Advent of Jesus. According to his interpretations and calculations, he clained that the return of our Lord Jesus Christ would occur somewhere between March 1843 and March 1844, based on his interpretation of Daniel 8:14.
Several more request for Miller to preach this same message came from all denominations. A following gathered around Miller from several denominations. These denominations included many from the Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and Christian Connection churches. In the summer of 1844, some of Miller's followers promoted the date of October 22 as the date when Jesus would return.
They linked the cleansing of the sanctuary of Daniel 8:14 with the Jewish Day of Atonement, believed to be October 22 that year.
By 1844, over 100,000 people were anticipating what Miller had called the "Blessed Hope". On October 22 many of the believers were up late into the night watching, waiting for Christ to return. He didn't and they found themselves bitterly disappointed when both sunset and midnight passed with their expectations unfulfilled.
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This event later became known as the Great Disappointment. Today, we believe this was prophecy in Revelation 10:8-11 being fulfilled.
"And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings."
Edson and the Heavenly Sanctuary
After the disappointment of October 22 many of Miller's followers were left upset and disillusioned. Most ceased to believe in the imminent return of Jesus. Some believed the date was incorrect. A few believed that the date was right but the event expected was wrong. This latter group developed into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. One of the Adventists, Hiram Edson (1806–1882) wrote "Our fondest hopes and expectations were blasted, and such a spirit of weeping came over us as I never experienced before. It seemed that the loss of all earthly friends could have been no comparison. We wept, and wept, till the day dawn."[5] On the morning of October 23, Edson, who lived in Port Gibson, New York was passing through his grain field with a friend. He later recounted his experience:
- "We started, and while passing through a large field I was stopped about midway of the field. Heaven seemed opened to my view, and I saw distinctly and clearly that instead of our High Priest coming out of the Most Holy of the heavenly sanctuary to come to this earth on the tenth day of the seventh month, at the end of the 2300 days [calculated to be October 22, 1844], He for the first time entered on that day the second apartment of that sanctuary; and that He had a work to perform in the Most Holy before coming to the earth."
Edson shared his experience with many of the local Adventists who were greatly encouraged by his account. As a result he began studying the bible with two of the other believers in the area, O.R.L. Crosier and Franklin B. Hahn, who published their findings in a paper called Day-Dawn. This paper explored the biblical parable of the Ten Virgins and attempted to explain why the bridegroom had tarried. The article also explored the concept of the day of atonement and what the authors called "our chronology of events".
The findings published by Crosier, Hahn and Edson led to a new understanding about the sanctuary in heaven. Their paper explained how there was a sanctuary in heaven, that Christ, the High Priest, was to cleanse. The believers understood this cleansing to be what the 2300 days in Daniel was referring to.
George Knight wrote:-
- "Although originally the smallest of the post-Millerite groups, it came to see itself as the true successor of the once-powerful Millerite movement."
Growth and Mission
- Ellen G. White (1827–1915), while holding no official role, was a dominant personality in the movement. She, along with her husband, James White, and Joseph Bates, encouraged the denomination to a concentration on missionary and medical work. Mission and medical work continues to play a central role to Adventist in the 21st century.
- Under White's guidance the denomination in the 1870s turned to missionary work and revivals, tripling its membership to 16,000.
By 1880; rapid growth continued, with 75,000 members in 1901.
By this time the church operated two colleges, a medical school, a dozen academies, 27 hospitals, and 13 publishing houses. - By 1945, the church reported 226,000 members in the US and Canada, and 380,000 elsewhere.
The budget was $29 million and enrollment in church schools was 40,000.
In 1960 there were 1,245,125 members worldwide with an annual budget of over $99,900,000. Enrollment in church schools from elementary to college was 290,000 students.
As of the year 2000 there were 11,687,229 members worldwide. The global budget was $28,610,881,313. And the enrollment in schools was 1, 065,092 students.
In 2008 the global membership was 15,921,408 with a budget of $45,789,067,340. The number of students in SDA run universities, secondary and primary schools was 1,538,607.
Today, there are over 20 million members in 209 countries. Guided by our Lord Jesus Christ, we are one of the fastest growing denominations in the world.