
Get some insight into our church history
1844 – In March of 1844, approximately forty or so people began observing the Sabbath in Washington and New Hampshire. In those States, 1944 was the year that some Adventist pastors knew the truth of the Sabbath. One of them, T. M. Preble, was the first to have communicated this truth, through the press, to Adventists.
– October 22 1844 was The Great Disappointment.
1845 – A Preble article on the Sabbath, written in East Weare, New Hampshire, dated February 13, 1845, in Portland, Maine, attracted the attention of Joseph Bates.
1846 – The first document published by a person related to this name was a leaflet dated April 8, 1846 and addressed the “dispersed quarter.” It was written by Ellen G. Harmon (who later became Ellen G. White) 250 copies were printed by James White and H. S.S. Gurney. - On May 8, 1846, Joseph Bates published the first pamphlet entitled "The Opening Heavens" which was 40 pages long.
– In August 1846, Joseph Bates published a 48-page pamphlet entitled "The Seventh Day Sabbath, the Perpetual Sign", about which James White said in the Review and Herald, vol. 2 p. 61: “He has confirmed us on the subject.”
“In the autumn of 1846 we began to observe the Bible Sabbath, and to teach and defend it. ” (Ellen G. White,
Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, p74)
1848 – First general meeting of Saturday’s observers, on April 20 and 21, at Rocky Hill, twelve miles from Middletown, Connecticut, had 30 people present.
1849 – The first bi-weekly journal The Present Truth, founded by James White, came out of the press in July in Middletown, Connecticut. Eleven issues were published by November 1850. In total, 88 pages: 10 x 20 cm. Which included the first printed hymn book of 48 pages, with 50 hymns without music.
1850 – In November, the Second Advent Review and Sabbath Herald began as a monthly periodical in Paris, Maine; the publishing commission was composed of Joseph Bates, S. W. Rhodes, J.N. Andrews and James White; James White being the editor.
1851 – The Review and Herald was published for some time in Saratoga Springs, New York.
1852 – On May 6, the first number of the vol. 3 of the Review and Herald was printed in Rochester, New York in a handprint,
with types purchased thanks to the first general contributions of believers at the “second advent.” The total cost of the press and the material was $652.93USD; the contribution for this end of $655.84USD.
– In August of that year it appeared in Rochester, New York, the No. 1 of the Youth’s Instructor, especially dedicated to the Sabbath School.
1853 – The price for the signature of the Review and Herald was fixed, which was published weekly during that year.
– The first regular Sabbath Schools were organised in Rochester , Buck’s Bridge, New York, where the denomination’s
first parish school also began.
1854 – The Pr. J.N. Loughborough made the first sales of Seventh-day Adventist publications at a tent meeting in Rochester.
All the publications for sale then cost 35US cents.
1855 – At a meeting held in Battle Creek, Michigan on September 23, it was decided to move the headquarters to Battle Creek.
– The first issue of the Review published at Battle Creek December 4.
1859 – “Systematic tithing-based dome was adopted” at a general meeting of Sabbath keepers held June 3-6, in Battle
Creek, Michigan.
1860 – On October 1st the name of “Seventh-day Adventists” was adopted as the name of the denomination. Until then the message and the work were distinguished by the words, “of the second advent.”
1861 – The Review and The Herald Seventh-day Adventist Editorial Association was inaugurated on May 3. For the first time, our churches were formally organised.
– The Michigan Association was the first to be organised on October 5, 1861.
1862 – The Association of Michigan was the first to establish a regular system of payment for pastors, whose salaries were
fixed by an examining committee of accounts.
1863 – The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists was organised on May 21, with the presence of 20 delegates from 6 associations, and a three-member executive board was appointed.
1864 – The American government recognizes Seventh-day Adventists as noncombatants, and assigns them to the services
of hospitals during the Civil War.
1865 – Ellen G. White published her first health reform book named, How To Live.
1866 – On August 1 the first issue of Health Reform was published; the author was the Dr. H.S. Lay.
– On September 5, the first Adventist sanatorium was opened in Battle Creek, Michigan, under the direction of Dr. H.S. Lay.
1868 – The first missionary publishing society was organised in South Lancaster, Massachusetts. J.N. Loughborough and D.T. Bourdeau began work in California on August 13.
1870 – On November 6 the first missionary society of publications of an association, in New England, is organised.
1872 – Adventists begin their first periodical in a language besides English. It was Adventist Magazine in Danish-Norwegian, edited by Pr. J. G. Matteson, at the premises of the Review and Herald, Battle Creek, on June 3, under the responsibilities of the General Conference board and directed by Prof. G. H. Bell.
– The first Adventist primary school in Battle Creek, MI. was established.
1874 – The Seventh-day Adventist Educational Society is created on March 11.
– The college of Battle Creek was founded, which began its schoolwork with thirteen teachers and 279 enrolled students. The total cost of the building was $53,341.95USD.
– The first issue of Signs of the Times was published in Oakland, California on June 4.
– J.N. Andrews was the first official missionary sent to a foreign field, he departed from Boston for Europe.
1875 – The April 1st incorporated the Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association in Oakland, California, with a subscribed capital of $2,900.00USD.
1877 – The first Association of Sabbath Schools encompassing a state was organised in California.
1878 – The Sabbath General School Association is organised, and the earliest contributions of the Sabbath School are received.
1879 – The second health institution is open: Rural Health Retreat, in Santa Helena, California.
1880 – The first baptism of Adventists is celebrated in England on February 8, when J. N. Loughborough baptized six people in South Hampton.
– The first regular Adventist canvasser was George A. King: The first subscription book was about Daniel and Apocalypse; the first buyer, D. W. Reavis.
– In Denmark the first Adventist association in Europe is organised.
– A sanatorium is established in Skodsborg, near Copenhagen, under the direction of Dr. J.C. Ottosen. It was sponsored by royals and other notable Europeans. He became one of the largest in the denomination.
1882 – Other schools are open: the Healdsburg college in California on April 11 (opened on October 2), and the South Lancaster school, Massachusetts, April 19 (incorporated on December 12, 1883).
1883 – The first Yearbook (Annual) of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination is published.
1884 – Battle Creek, Michigan, the first course for nurses among Adventists, begins.
1885 – The work of the pay-bearers by commission begins in Europe.
1886 – L.R. Conradi is sent to Russia as the first Adventist missionary to a non-Protestant country.
1887 – The first missionaries are sent to Africa: D. A. Robinson, C. I. Boyd and others.
1889 – The National Religious Freedom Association is organised in Battle Creek on July 21. The name is later changed to make it international, and in 1901 it became a department of the General Conference.
1890 – The first missionary ship Pitcairn is built and launched to carry the message to the South Pacific islands. Its first voyage sailed from San Francisco on 20 October.
– In July, the journal Our Little Friend is published.
1894 – The first Union, Australasian, is organised. The work begins in pagan lands, in Matabeleland, South Africa.
1895 – Miss Georgia Burrus arrives in Calcutta (now Kolkata) India in January 23 to start work in favor of women.
– F. H. Westphal goes as the first Adventist pastor to South America and settles in Argentina.
1896 – Ellen G. White lays the foundation stone of the first school building in Cooranbong, Australia. She spent nine years in
that country.
– The first missionaries arrive in Japan on November 19.
1899 – The Christian Braille Foundation begins operating in Battle Creek, Michigan. There, in January 1900 they edit the
first 75 copies of publications for the blind.
1901 – At the General Conference Assembly that year, plans were made for the organisation of Unions throughout the world.
A plan based on the budget system, or merger of resources, was adopted for the expansion of missions and to strengthen the work in weaker associations.
– In Nashville, Tennessee, the Southern Publishing Association is established.
1903 – The headquarters of the denomination of Seventh-day Adventists moves to Washington, D.C., on August 10.
1905 – A center of medical education, the College of Evangelist Doctors, is established in Loma Linda, which received the
initial approval in 1909.
1907 – In Mount Vernon, Ohio, the youth department of the General Conference is organised.
1908 – The first Morning Devotion is published.
– The General Conference adopted the Annual Collection plan, based on the experiences of Jasper Wayne, Iowa, 1903.
1909 - The correspondence school is organised to help isolated students obtain a Christian education.
1910 – At the end of 1910 a general jubilation fund was adopted to support the disabled workers, as well as the widows and children in need of deceased workers.
1913 – The Seventh-day Adventist Church (IASD) adopts the organisation by divisions.
1915 - Ellen G. White died on July 16, 1915, at her home in Elmshaven, which is now an Adventist Historical Site. She was buried with her husband James White in Oak Hill Cemetery, Battle Creek, Michigan
1916 – The South American Division of the SDAS is organised.
1917 – The Far East Division (reorganised in 1931) and the South Asian Division of the SDA are founded.
1920 – The South African Division of the SDAS is organised.
1922 – The Southern and the Inter-American Division of the S.S.S.A.
1928 – The European Central Division (reorganised in 1948), the Northern European Division (reorganised in 1951) and the European Southern Division of the IASD is founded.
1934 – The Adventist Theological Seminary is established in the United States for higher studies.
1942 – The Voice of Prophecy, an Adventist radio program, inaugurates a broadcast that spans all of North America.
1948 – The publication of the journal Listen begins, with the purpose of sharing scientific instruction to avoid the consumption of alcohol and the addiction of narcotics.
1950 – The Folding Club for young Adventists in North America begins.
1951 – The first issue of Life and Health magazine (Life and Health) for the blind is published. - In October, a dental school was added to the Medical College of Loma Linda.
– Organisation of the Middle East Division of the SDA, with the missions of the Levant and the Nile.
1952 – Centenary of the Sabbath School, department of IASD.
1955 – The Chapel Records of Pacific Press is created, to produce records and magnetic tapes specially intended for religious music.
– The Sabbath School is raising $100 million USD for the missions.
– The number of Adventists exceeds their first million.
1957 – The Potomac Adventist University is established in Takoma Park, MD, partially moved to Berrien Springs, Michigan, in 1959 – It is now called Andrews University.
– Inter-American publications move from Brookfield, Illinois, to Mountain View, California.
1961 – The University of Loma Linda is established in Loma Linda, California, covering what was the College of Physicians and the higher courses of the College of La Sierra.
1970 – The SDA reaches 2 million members.
1971 – Adventist World Radio begins its operation in Portugal.
1972 – The Adventist Social Assistance Center in Vienna is opened, where hundreds of homes are served daily, with the aim of caring for newly arrived hospital patients, or mothers incapacitated with young children.
1978 – Number of members of the SDA exceeds 3 million.
1982-1985 – The program “A Thousand Days of Harvest”, the ADSD evangelistic campaign in the world, in the period from June 1982 to June 1985, with the objective of preaching the Word of God to one million people is launched: a thousand people on each day of the thousand harvest days.
1985 – Australians celebrate 100 years in the church of Avondale while Cape Verde celebrates 50 years.
– A large church is dedicated in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
– ADRA assists in the earthquake of Mexico.
1986 – The number of SDA members exceeds 5 million.
1987 – World Adventist Radio reaches half of the planet.
– The Ile Ile Hospital of Nigeria returns to the hands of Adventists.
– In Mali, in the tribe of Bambara, ADRA builds a straw and mud Evangelistic Center for $2.50USD
– The Inter-American Division exceeds the one million-member mark.
1988 – Hospital The Guyana's broadcasts on radio messages on health.
– France is the host of the Convention on Communication of Adventist Radio Broadcasters of Europe.
– Congress in Denmark attracts young people from 20 countries.
– The Ecumenical Center of Canada receives Adventist books.
1989 – The General Association moves to Silver Springs, Maryland.
– Australia hosts representatives from 19 countries for the II International Healthy Food Association Seminar in New South Wales.
1990 – The Euro-Asian Division of the SSD is organised.
–The Global Mission project was voted to be implemented by the world church on the occasion of the General Conference Association meeting in Indianapolis, USA. This project aims to reach geographical areas without an Adventist presence until the year 2000.
1991 – The believers of Albania find the faith after 50 years of isolation.
– The church establishes an official presence in ancient Cambodia.
– The presence of SDA is now in the islands of Barbados.
– The Adventist nursing faculty of California celebrate 100 years of existence.
– In the Soviet Union the church prints 100,000 Bibles.
– A series of conferences attracts more than 1,000 people per night in Romania.
– 10 churches open schools in New York.
– The number of SDA members exceeds 7 million.
1992 – Adventists establish a presence in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
– The Religious Freedom Association is founded in Poland.
– In Malawi, Adventists start an Emergency Food Program.
– England celebrates the bicentennial of the missions.
1993 – Number of SDA members exceeds 8 million.
– The first baptism takes place in Mongolia.
– The school of Heidelberg, South Africa, is 100 years old.
– Evangelism in Ukraine results in 297 baptisms.
– In Moscow (Russia) more than 10,000 visitors attended the end of the conference series with Mark Finley.
1994 – The first church in Albania is dedicated.
– Paradise Valley Hospital in California completes 90 years of ministry.
– The Adventist Museum is opened in Friedensau, Germany.
– The Lao Adventist Church in the Southeast Asian Union reopens after 33 years of strong political persecution.
– ADRA begins a Rwandan Refugee District Hospital.
1995 – The SDA is established in Sri Lanka.
– The writings of Mrs. White are available on the Internet for the first time.
– A new Health Center is open in Colombia, and construction of the new Cancer Center in Florida begins.
–The first English-speaking church is organised in Egypt.
– The number of members of the SDA is over 9 million.
1996 – Centennial of the Adventist Church of Crespo, Argentina, considered the first Seventh-day Adventist Church in South America.
1997 – The first Adventist church in Mongolia is founded, where conversion to Christianity implies the abandonment of nationality.
– The number of SDA members exceeds 10 million.
– In the South American Division 131,151 people joined the SDA, divided: Brazil – 80,651; Peru – 28,245; Bolivia –
7,668; Chile – 5,071; Argentina – 4,788; Ecuador – 3,238; Paraguay – 1,097 and Uruguay – 393.
– The church celebrates 100 years in Iceland.
– Nearly 7,000 people were baptized in Korea, increasing the number of Adventists to approximately 150,000.
– The first Adventist temple is inaugurated in the city of S. Petersburg, Russia, though there had been an Adventist
presence since 1880.
1998 – Adventists expand their presence on the Internet through virtual missionary journeys, evangelistic programs, training
resources and information.
– Adventist World Radio begins broadcasting its mid-wave messages to China, generating a church in Vietnam.
– The SDA celebrates 50 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
– Adventists in Fiji reach the number of 17,000.
– The centenary of the Ministry of Women and the first meeting of the Ministry of Women in Thailand, with the participation of two divisions and 13 countries.
– The magazine Message, whose original name was Gospel Herald, aimed at blacks in North America, celebrates 100
years.
– In the Baptism of Spring 26,720 juveniles and young people joined the SDA in South America.
– John N. Andrews is inaugurated, at Andrews University. A sculpture is unveiled in honor of
his patronage.
1999 – Centenary of Friedensau, Germany, the first college founded in Europe.
– 150 years of the Ministry of Publications (1849-1999).
– 40,000 people joined the SDA as a result of Net 98.
– The Adventist World Aviation prepares aircraft to operate in Roraima (border between Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela).
– Adventist Pastor in England is chosen as preacher of the year.
2000 – As of the year 2000 there were 11,687,229 members worldwide.
2008 – In 2008 the global membership increased to 15,921,408
2009 – A review of membership revealed an average of about 2,900 people were joining the Seventh-day Adventist Church
every day, which show the denomination now has 16.6 million adult baptized members according to church statistics.
2010 – In his July 2010 keynote sermon, Ted N.C. Wilson, newly elected President of the Seventh-Day Adventist church
counseled, “Stay away from non-biblical spiritual disciplines or methods of spiritual formation that are rooted in
mysticism such as contemplative prayer, centering prayer, and the emerging church movement in which they are
promoted.” Instead, he said, believers should "look within the Seventh-day Adventist Church, to humble pastors,
evangelists, Biblical scholars, leaders, and departmental directors who can provide evangelistic methods and programs
that are based on solid Biblical principles and The Great Controversy theme."
2014 – The 2014 documentary film War in Heaven, War on Earth: The Birth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church During the
American Civil War by Chris Small and Loren Small looks at the history of Adventism from the Millerite movement
through 1865.
2016 - Tell the World, made in 2016 by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Australia and directed by Kyle Portbury, also looks
at the history of the Adventist faith.
2023 – February 3–9, Pastors Doug Batchelor and Jëan Ross presented “Seven Signs of Christ’s Return” at the Due Drop
Events Centre in Auckland, New Zealand.