What is Seventh-day Adventism? Where has it come from? Where is it going? This "Vision of Adventism" attempts to provide a fresh perspective. It is not an alternative Adventism, nor some "new" Adventism, rather it is an intensification of Adventism, an attempt to re-ground it in its original roots.

History

Seventh-day Adventism arose in the USA in the 19th century, arising out of the "Millerite" movement, which we shall now briefly explain. In the early 19th century William Miller interpreted Biblical prophecies to mean that Christ would return and the world would end in 1843 (for details, see Arguing the Apocalypse). Following the failure of this prediction, this was revised to 1844, but when this too proved to be incorrect Miller lost faith in his endeavour. Other followers of Miller however believed an important "end time" event had happened, not on earth but in heaven. This belief began after one of these followers had a vision that 1844 marked the beginning of the time of the end (the "cleansing of the sanctuary" in heaven), subsequent Bible study confirming this vision. This group believed God had a special message for them to spread to the world, and after much Bible study and many visions from God identified two key doctrines that made them unique. The Seventh-day Sabbath and the immanent Second Advent of Christ. These two doctrines were not the foundation of their faith - they were orthodox Christians whose foundation was Christ - but they believed the truth of these teachings had been lost and the Christian world needed an urgent reminder of their importance.

This movement grew quickly, not least because of many visions received by one of their number, Ellen White, who guided the group through a combination of revelations from God and expositions from scripture. Eventually in the 1870s the group formally became the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Ellen White was never a leader of the organisation, but recognised as a prophetess whose messages from God were essential to the development of the church.

A key characteristic of the new movement was its use of Bible prophecy - in particular the books of Daniel and Revelation - to understand the historical context in which we live. Other distinguishing doctrines were the "state of the dead" - the belief that the souls of the dead do not go to heaven at death, but rather remain unconscious in "soul sleep" until the resurrection - and the health message. The health message developed the Biblical doctrine that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, to mean that the Christian is responsible for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. In particular it was recommended that the Christian adopt a vegetarian diet, abstain from alcohol, tea and coffee and exercise regularly in the fresh air.

After Ellen White died in 1915 no other prophets have been officially recognised by the SDA church, although others have claimed to be her successors, most notably Victor T. Houteff, who in the 1930s founded the breakaway "Shepherd's Rod" movement (the "Davidian Seventh-day Adventists"), and David Koresh, who in the 1980s became prophet to the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventists (a breakaway from the Davidian Seventh-day Adventists).

During the Twentieth Century no new doctrines have been added, and the church has established itself in the ultra-conservative wing of Christianity.

The Meaning of Seventh-day Adventism

The meaning of any organisation or institution is open to interpretation. In England the meaning of what it means to be English is debated between those who believe "England" is symbolises Empire, discipline, respect, order, victorian values and a stiff upper lip, and those who belive England represents radicalism, democracy, pluralism and multi-culturalism. Similarly there are many Seventh-day Adventisms. Not only does each breakaway group write its own history of the movement, but within Adventism there are those who believe it has strayed from its foundations (the "Firm Foundation" movement), and those who believe it needs to move further towards traditional Christianity. Typically the leaders try to steer a middle course between traditionalists and radicals.

At least since the 1970s there have been groups of Seventh-day Adventists who have tried to radically change it "from below", removing much of Adventism's "uniqueness" to make it a part of the Christian mainstream. Groups such as Evangelical Adventists and leaders such as Robert Brindsmead have been responsible for numbers of Adventists, sometimes whole churches, breaking away into mainstream Christianity.

At the end of the Twentieth Century what Seventh-day Adventism means is a much debated point. Does it make sense to talk of Seventh-day Adventism for the Twenty-First Century? Does it mean remaining true to its Ninteenth Century roots, or merging back into traditional Christianity? What are the possible directions it can take? Does God still have a purpose for the Church?

Typically any challange to the status-quo has been fiercely resisted by the church leadership, whether from conservatives or radicals. However, rather like Russia in the time of the Soviet Union, there is much more variety and plurality below the surface that is officially recognised. Imagine visiting Seventh-day Adventism without the "offical" site-seeing tours. What could you discover?

The meaning of "Seventh-day Adventism"

The "Seventh-day" appears right at the start of the Bible in the story of creation. In it, God creates the world in six days, but rests on the Seventh-day. However the Seventh-day is not a day like the other six, but rather a day without evening and morning - a day out of time, a piece of eternity. Later in the Bible we read that God's Seventh-day means his "rest", his heaven - that other reality, outside of this world in which God radiates his glory.

The term "Advent" means arrival or coming. Christ's "First Advent" is his coming to earth to live, die and rise again. The "Second Advent" refers to Christ's return, after his First Advent. The term "Seventh-day Adventism" therefore refers to the return of Christ on the Seventh-day - the return in that mystical eternity of God. The true Sabbath is rest in God's eternity. To understand what exactly this means, let us return to the Bible.

A Vision of God

Many people in the Bible have visions of God. The Old Testament prophets all have visions of God - read Ezekiel, Daniel, Isaiah. The law is given when Moses goes up into the mountain for 40 days and has a vision of God. Jesus goes into the desert and has visions of temptation and of salvation, Paul has a vision on the road to Damascus. In the book of "Revelation" John has visions of Jesus in heaven. This "vision" - the interpenetration of the human and divine - provides a "portal" into God, an experience of God on the "Seventh-day" - outside of created space and time.

So the early Adventists who received visions were are part of this community of believers who were taken up into heaven to have God revealed to them. This visionary, ecstatic experience of God has always been a fundamental part of the experience of God. Those who developed doctrine and moved belief forward have lived with God as much as with humanity. "Entering God's Rest" is not simply a doctine or a theological statement, but an experience of God's presence by the believer.

Christianity and Religion

The gospels make it clear that Jesus rejected the way of the Pharisees. Yet who were the Pharisees? According to historians these were the religious leaders of the people, respected by the people as genuine believers of God. Yet for Jesus love of religion is not love of God.

The Christian theologian Karl Barth clarifies this confusion by explaining that while religion is humanity's search for God, Christianity is God's revelation to humanity. Thus while there may be those who love religon, and religious devotion to God, Jesus does not believe these people can hear his message (he who has ears to hear, let him hear). The religious cannot understand how religion can be a yoke or a burden - they love their religious duties! To the devout, nothing is more pleasurable than religious devotion to God. Yet Jesus appeals to those who see religion as a heavy burden - he will take it off you. This of course is the "rest" of God, only if you are able to see religious requirements as a yoke and burdensome are you able to enter Christ's rest - the Seventh-day Advent, the vision of a portal into heaven.

Christian Ethics

Paul says we have "died to the law" (Rom 7:4). For Paul this "death" is clearly a key concept, what does it mean for something to die? For Seventh-day Adventists, the "state of the dead" is that nothing survives - there is no "something" after death. Hence it is necessary to insist that nothing of the law survives our dying to the law.

Once we have entered this vision of heaven - the Seventh-day Advent - we have been marked with the seal of the Spirit. God takes us into heaven to give us our revelation (our "apocalypse" - this is another word for "Revelation"). Like the prophets, like Jesus, like Paul, like the early Adventists, we need to enter into this vision of God - to live in the Seventh-day, to understand the true Sabbath. God is like a mountain, our vision allows us entrance to the "cave of God", an entrance into the mountain, to find the treasure within.

But in vision, how do we grow and develop? What of "sanctification"? Our ecstatic vision gushes up and explodes in our soul, how do we maintain this experience?

The "Vision" and Scripture

"Scripture is God breathed" - it has to be inhaled and taken into us, not logically understood and interpreted. Every account of scripture in the Bible shows us that those who lived in God in the past did not study the Bible logically and rationally. Rather the meaning of scripture was given to them as part of their ecstatic vision of God. Read any quote from the Old Testament in the New Testament - this is not some rational reading. Each reference is radically re-interpreted in the light of the writer's experience of - vision of - God. So the "world" of the Old Testament is gone in the New Testament - all the meanings, logics, reasons - instead this is new wine and is cannot be held in old wineskins. The meaning of the Old Testament is opened up by the new experience of God in the New Testament, meanings of scriptures are turned upside down - single verses suddenly have new meanings, stories are changed symbolically. Suddenly Jonah, the sacrificial lamb, Joseph and David are all types of Christ. A "scholar" living in the time of the New Testament could not have made these interpretations (as neither did the Pharisees). So similarly we need to realise that we need to trust our vision of God, to enter deeper into that ocean of the Spirit, and see the Bible through that experience. The Book of Revelation is the clearest, most close-up revelation of how scripture enters and lives in the believer.

Early Adventists trusted their visions. Through their visions scripture spoke, meaning and truth developed. Without vision we are back to religion, without vision the people perish. Without vision we are back to logic - do we choose traditional Christianity or traditional Adventism? With vision we rise above that choice because the world changes. Even if as a church we don't trust the vision, as individuals at least we can turn back to the visionary experience of God described in the New Testament - Paul's experience of the Third Heaven, John's apocalypse of God. Let us at least as individuals have a vision of Adventism.