Southern Asia Division of SDA,

P.B 2, HCF, Hosur, Tamil nadu-635 110.

Ph: 04344-22170, 22170, 22171.

E-mail: sudpre@giasbg01.vsnl.net.in

History: Seventh-day Adventists are, doctrinally, heirs of the Millerite Movement of the 1840’s.  The members of the church celebrate the Sabbath, the day of rest and worship on Saturday.  Although the name “Seventh-day Adventist” was chosen in 1860, the denomination was not officially organized until May 21, 1863, when the movement included some 125 churches and 3,500 members.

                Work was largely confined to North America until 1874 when the Church’s first missionary, J.N.Andrews, was sent to Switzerland.  Africa was penetrated briefly in 1879 when Dr. H.P.Ribton, an early convert in Italy, moved to Egypt and opened a school, but the project ended when riots broke out in the vicinity.  The first non-Protestant Christian country entered was Russia, where an Adventist minister went in 1886.  On October 20, 1890, the schooner Pitcairn was launched at San Francisco, California, and was soon engaged in carrying missionaries to the Pacific islands.  Seventh-day Adventist workers first entered non-Christian countries in 1894-Gold Coast (Ghana), West Africa, and Matabeleland, South Africa.  The same year saw missionaries entering South America, and in 1896 there were representatives in Japan.  In 1890 the first Seventh-day Adventists set foot in India.  In 1893 two Literature Evangelists arrived in Madras.  Their efforts were successful to the extent that there was a demand for translation of the books they were selling to a number of Indian Languages.  The Church now has established work in 204 countries.

                 The publication and distribution of literature were major factors in the growth of the Advent Movement.  The Adventist Review and Sabbath Herald (now the Adventist Review), general church paper was launched in Paris, Maine, in 1850; the Youth Instructor in Rochester, New York, in 1852; and the Signs of the Times in Oakland, California, in 1874.  The first denominational publishing house at Battle Creek, Michigan, began operating in 1855 and was duly incorporated in 1861 under the name of Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association.

                The Health Reform Institute, later known as the Battle Creek Sanitarium, opened its doors in 1866, and missionary society work was organized on a state-wide basis in 1870.  The first of the Church’s worldwide network of schools was established in 1872, and 1877 saw the formation of state-wide Sabbath school associations

                In 1903, the denominational head quarters was moved from Battle Creek, Michigan, to Washinton, D.C., and in 1989 to Silver Spring, Maryland, where it continues to form the nerve center of an ever-expanding work.  The main center of the Church in India is Pune, Maharashtra.

              The distinctive Seventh-day Adventist message may be summarized as “the everlasting gospel”, the basic Christian message of salvation through faith in Christ, in the special setting of the threefold message of Revelation 14:6-12, the call to worship the Creator, “for the hour of His judgment is come”.  This message is epitomized in the phrase, “the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus”.