“Seventh-day Adventists are a global family of Christians who hold the Bible as the ultimate authority and look to Jesus Christ alone for Salvation.”
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Christian denomination distinguished by its doctrinal beliefs that the literal, visible Second Coming of Christ is close at hand, and that the Sabbath of the Old Testament is still relevant today and is God’s true biblical Sabbath.
We are a mainstream Protestant church with more than 21 million members worldwide and more than one million members in North America. Our doors are always open to the community and to anyone who wishes to worship in one of our more than 151,000 Seventh-day Adventist congregations around the world.
The denomination grew out of the Millerite movement in the United States during the mid-19th century and was formally established in 1863. Among its founders was Ellen G. White, whose extensive writings are still held in high regard by the church today.
While its critics regard it as a sectarian movement, the theology of the Seventh-day Adventist church is Protestant; there are several unique teachings amongst many of the basic beliefs held by other Protestant Christians.
The world church is governed by a General Conference located in Silver Spring, Maryland. Divisions, unions, and conferences govern smaller areas in the General Conference. The Seventh-day Adventist church operates numerous schools, hospitals, and publishing houses worldwide, as well as a prominent humanitarian aid organization: the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA).
Acknowledging the call to be unique, or “set apart” from the world, Seventh-day Adventists are also known for their emphasis on diet and health, separation of church and state, their advocacy of vegetarianism, and their culturally conservative principles.