ADVENTISTS. Bodies of believers who take their name from their belief as to the second coming of Christ. They came out of the movement begun by William Miller, a Bap tist of New England, who, after a long study of the Scriptures, especially of the prophecies, reached the conclusion that the second coming of. Christ would take place in 1843, at which time Christ would personally descend to earth and reign with the saints a thousand years. He based this prediction on the prophecies of the book of Daniel, holding that the periods spoken of as "2,300 days," "the seven times of Gentile supremacy," and the "1,335 days," were pro phetic periods and, applied chronologically, led to the end of the world in 1843. He also interpreted the Gospels and the Apocalypse as showing that the millennium" to be ex pected "is the thousand years which are to intervene between the first resurrection and that of the rest of the dead." He confessed his disappointment at the failure of his pre diction and admitted his error ; but insisted that the day of the Lord was at hand. Miller drew many followers from the Baptist, Christian, Methodist and other churches, and the discus sion was attended with considerable excite ment. He fixed upon a second date, 22 Oct. 1844, after which many left the movement. Those who remained held a general conference in Albany, in April 1845, and set forth their belief in the personal proximate coming of Christ, without naming any dates, and in the resurrection of the saints at his appearance, the millennium have follow. Small companies of Adventists have since fixed upon various dates, but the body of believers have not supported these predictions.
Societies, or churches, were formed during the progress of the movement, but no very definite organization was at first attempted to bind these societies together. Organization came into use when differences of view began to divide Adventists. The Evangelical Ad ventists may be regarded as the oldest organ ized branch. Adventists baptize by immersion. The six bodies reported in 1916 a total of 112,054 church members, 2,794 churches and 1,501 ministers.
1. Evangelical These refused to accept the belief that the soul of the wicked is mortal. They announced the doctrine that the soul is immortal; that all the dead will be raised, the saints first and the wicked last; that the saints will participate in the millennial reign of Christ and after judgment enter upon their eternal reward; that the wicked who will rise at the end of the millennium will be sen tenced to everlasting punishment. They also held that the dead are in a conscious state. They had in 1890 two annual conferences and about 1,147 church members. According to the census of 1906 they had decreased to 481 mem bers, with eight ministers and 18 churches. As an organization they are now nearly extinct.
2. Advent This branch, which has shown a tendency in recent years to closer organization and to increase, opposed the doc trines enunciated by the Evangelical branch in 1855 as to the conscious state of the dead and the resurrection of the wicked, holding that immortality is conditional and does not belong to the wicked who will be raised from the dead at the end of the millennium to receive sentence of banishment and annihilation, while those who accept Christ shall rise and receive the reward of eternal life, at his second coming, which they believe is near at hand and is to be personal and visible. They avoid any attempt at fixing a particular day for his coming.
The Advent Christians are congregational in polity; they have district conferences to the number of 50 or more (including six in Canada, England and China) which hold annual ses sions; also a general conference, meeting bienni ally, composed of delegates elected by the dis trict conferences. Its function is to serve as a means of co-operation incarrying on the missionary, educational, publishing and other work of the denomination. In 1916 there were 602 ordained ministers, 30,316 church mem bers and 640 churches. The body is strongest in New England where it originated; but it also has churches in the West and South. Their headquarters are at 160 Warren Street, Boston, Mass.