Seventh-day Adventists, << AD vehn tihsts, >> are a Christian religious denomination. Adventists believe that Christ will return in person. They also believe that at death the breath of God—the energy for life—returns to the Creator while the body rests in the grave awaiting the resurrection at Jesus Christ’s Second Coming. Adventists observe the Sabbath on Saturday, the seventh day of the week.
Adventists originated in the mid-1800’s, when many people in America and Europe became absorbed in the doctrine of Christ’s Second Coming. References in the Bible that seemed to prophesy the time of Christ’s coming aroused their interest. Followers of William Miller, a Baptist minister, predicted a definite time for the coming, but his interpretation proved wrong. One group restudied Bible prophecies. It decided that what had happened was the beginning of the judgment in heaven that is to precede the Second Coming of Christ. This group formed in 1863 as the Seventh-day Adventists.
The denomination has about 121/2 million members throughout the world, including over 950,000 in the United States and Canada. Its international headquarters are in Silver Spring, Maryland.
