AVVENTISTI (ADVENTISTS, SECOND ADVENTISTS). — This name, which designates certain Protestant sects of America, derives from the belief of their faithful in the second coming of Christ to earth. Their founder was William Miller (born at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on 5 February 1782, died at Low Hampton, New York, on 10 December 1849), of the Baptist confession of New England. From as early as 1831 he began preaching a doctrine which he had developed through the study of the sacred books, especially the prophetic ones, and expounded in the volume Evidence from Scripture and History of the Second Coming of Christ about the Year 1843 (Brandon [Vermont] 1842), succeeding in making converts even among the Baptists and Methodists. His conviction was that Christ would once again descend to earth to reign, in human form, in communion with the Saints, for a period of one thousand years, during which the exaltation of the good and the condemnation of the wicked would take place.
On the basis of calculations made by taking as the determining term the 2300 days (to be considered as years) of the prophecy of Daniel (8:14), and reckoning them from Ezra’s return to Jerusalem, placed in 457 B.C., Miller went so far as to fix the year of the end of the world and therefore of the second advent, which according to him was to fall between 21 March 1843 and 21 March 1844. This term was subsequently postponed by one of his followers, S. S. Snow, to 22 October 1844, following the disappointment—admitted by Miller himself—over the failure of the event to occur; the reason given was the lack of correspondence between the Jewish year and the Christian year. But the passage of this last date as well, without anything having occurred, cooled the ardour of many of the new converts, who gradually withdrew from the central movement and entered the ranks of other sects. Those who remained adherents of Miller (approximately 50,000) were gathered by him in a general assembly at Albany on 25 April 1845. There the fundamental canons of their faith were established, centring chiefly on the imminent second advent of Christ, without fixing its date, and on the resurrection of the Saints to life in the millennium; and the name «a.» was adopted as the official name of the sect.
In the course of time, however, differences of opinion further divided the community of the a.; thus, from the original stock—today almost extinct—of the evangelical a. (Evangelical Adventists), which is to be regarded as the primitive body, five new Churches were successively formed. While retaining in common the constitutional and programmatic belief in the physical return of Christ, they differ from one another in particular characteristics. Today, therefore, the Christian a., the Seventh-Day a., the Church of God, the Life and Advent Union, and the Churches of God in Jesus Christ are counted among them.
The Seventh-Day a. (Seventh-Day Adventists), so called because of their observance of Sabbath rest, began to organize as early as 1844 in New Hampshire, establishing their first headquarters at Middletown, Conn. (1849), then at Battle Creek,
Mich. (1885), and finally at Washington (1903). Like the other sects of a., they too regard the personal second coming of Christ as near at hand, triumphant in the glory of the Saints, for the reign of the thousand years, at the end of which the good will receive the eternal reward and the wicked will be dispersed. The guiding spirit of these new a. was Ellen Gould White, regarded, on account of the inspiration of her preaching, as a prophetess. The Seventh-Day a. constitute not only the largest branch of the entire so-called Adventist Church, in terms of the number of members, institutions, and ministers, but also the best organized, both in internal spiritual and temporal administration and in the field of foreign missions, which embrace countries on every continent.
The Christian a. (Advent Christians), originally formed in New England (1861), where they still have the largest number of adherents, have their official headquarters in Boston. They partly oppose the doctrines proclaimed by the evangelical a., especially with regard to the immortality of the soul, holding that this does not belong at all to the wicked, who will be awakened from death at the end of the millennium only to receive their final condemnation, while eternity is reserved for the good and will be bestowed upon them by Christ as a reward at his second return.
Around 1864–65, all those who refused to accept the «inspired» word of Ellen G. White separated from the Seventh-Day a. under the leadership of the Adventist pastor Cranmer, forming a separate community under the name Church of God (Church of God); in all other respects they agreed with the general theories of Adventism.
For the adherents of the Life and Advent Union (The Life and Advent Union), who constitute the minority of the divided family of the a., the millennium has already passed and was not a period of serenity and enjoyment, but of persecution and suffering for Christians. Organized in 1864, they still hold that there will be no resurrection for the wicked and that eternal life will be a reward only for the good.
Another small group of separated a., gathered in Philadelphia in 1888 under the name Churches of God in Christ Jesus (Churches of God in Christ Jesus, otherwise called Age-to-Come Adventist), holds that, upon returning to earth, Christ will establish Jerusalem as the capital of his kingdom and restore the Israelite nation to God’s favour. For this reason they are also called restorationists or restitutionists.