Overview
Seventh-day Adventists
Quick Reference
One of the groups of Adventists who originally expected the Second Coming of Christ in 1844. Later that year they began to observe the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath, though the name ‘Seventh-day Adventists’ was not adopted until 1861. In England their beginnings as an organized community go back to a mission at Southampton in 1878. They are a staunchly Protestant body, believing that the Bible provides the unerring rule of faith and practice and that the return of Christ is imminent, though they set no date for this event. They practise adult Baptism by total immersion, require strict temperance, and observe the Sabbath from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. Their current world membership is over 13 million (c.24,000 in the British Isles).
