Sources: Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy (1888); William Miller’s lectures; the Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual; Adventist Review.

Seventh-day Adventism (~1863 AD) emerged from the Millerite movement’s great disappointment. William Miller (~1782–1849 AD), a Baptist lay preacher, calculated from Daniel 8:14 (“2,300 evenings and mornings”) that Christ would return in 1843–1844; when he didn’t, this became the “Great Disappointment” (October 22, 1844). Hiram Edson and others proposed a reinterpretation: Christ had not returned to earth but had entered the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary to begin an “Investigative Judgment” of the dead. Distinctive SDA theology: (1) Saturday Sabbath — the seventh-day Sabbath (Saturday) is binding; Sunday worship is the “mark of the beast” associated with papal authority (a position that has significantly moderated in contemporary SDA discourse); (2) The state of the dead — soul sleep; the dead are unconscious until resurrection, rejecting the immortal soul; (3) Ellen G. White (~1827–1915 AD) as a prophet whose writings have inspired status; (4) Health reform — vegetarianism, abstinence from alcohol and tobacco as religious duties; SDA health institutions (Loma Linda) have contributed significantly to nutritional research; (5) Investigative Judgment — the heavenly review of human lives preceding Christ’s return. SDA has ~25 million members, operates one of the world’s largest Protestant school systems, and is strongest in the Global South.