IMPORTANT DATE LIST
Dates in large bold type are examinable.
Millerite Adventism
1816-1818 William Miller studies the Bible and
Cruden’s Concordance.
1818 Miller concludes that
“in about twenty-five years the affairs of our present state would be wound
up.”
1831 Miller begins to preach.
1833 Falling of the stars.
1840 Joshua
V. himes published The Sign of the Times for the first time.
1842 William Ellis Foy, a Millerite
preacher of African-American descent, receives the first of four visions
relating to the Advent movement.
He faithfully carries out his commission.
Oct. 22, 1844 End of the 2300 Days of
Daniel 8:14.
Doctrinal Formation
(Sabbath-keeping, sanctuary-believing Adventism)
Oct. 23, 1844 Hiram
Edson’s insight in the cornfield.
Dec. 1844 Ellen
Harmon’s first vision.
Jan 1845 Ellen Harmon’s second vision
1845 Joseph Bates accepted the true about
Sabbath
1846 Crosier wrote “The law of Moses” in Day-Star
Extra
1846 Joseph Bates published of his first
edition of Perpetual Sign
1846 James and Ellen White began to keep the
seventh-day Sabbath
April 6, 1846 Ellen
Harmon, “To the Remnant Scattered Abroad.” Broadside, 250
copies; first “denominational publication.”
April 3, 1847 Ellen White’s vision about Sabbath
(Halo vision)
1848-50 Sabbath and Sanctuary
Conferences.
Nov. 1848 “Seal
of God” and “Print a Little Paper” vision(s), at Dorchester, Mass., study conference.
July 1849-Nov
1850 The Present Truth published
Sept. 1850 The Advent Review begun [Note that it overlaps the Present Truth.] The name was changed in
November to The Second Advent
Review and Sabbath Herald.
1851 First
ordination: Washington Morse
Aug. 1852 James
White launches the Youth’s Instructor.
Headquarters settled at Rochester, New York.
1854 First
tent evangelism.
1855 Review office moved to Battle Creek,
Michigan.
Nov. 1855 “Sunset
to sunset” decision.
1856 “Laodicean
message” of Revelation 3, first applied to Seventh- day Adventists.
Dec. 1856 “Dash
to Waukon” (Iowa) to recall J. N. Loughborough and J. N. Andrews to the ministry.
1858 “Great Controversy”
vision, Lovett’s Grove [now in Bowling Green], Ohio.
1859 “Systematic
Benevolence on the tithing principle” adopted at a general
meeting of Sabbath keepers in Battle Creek.
1861-65 United
States Civil War
Development of Church
Organization
1860 Name “Seventh-day
Adventist” adopted, in order to legally incorporate the Seventh-day
Adventist Publishing Association in
Battle Creek.
1861 The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing
Association established
1861 Local
churches formally organized.
Oct. 1861 Michigan
Conference organization started (completed Oct. 1862)
1863 General
Conference organized on May 21. Twenty delegates present from six conferences.
John Byington is elected president, with executive committee of three.
1863 “Comprehensive
health reform” vision on June 5, in home of Aaron Hilliard, Otsego, Michigan.
(This was a Friday night; the date is some times given as June 6.)
1864 M.
B. Czechowski sails for Europe. By 1867 he would organize a company of Sabbath
keepers in Tramelan, Switzerland.
1865 “Health
Institution” vision on Dec. 25 (God’s Christmas present.)
1866 Health
Reform Institute was established in Battle Creek, Michigan
1868 First official Camp
meeting, Wright, Michigan.
1871 E. B. Lane becomes
the first Seventh-day Adventist minister to preach in the American South.
1872 Joseph Bates dies at
the age of 80.
1872 Goodloe Harper Bell’s
school in Battle Creek officially adopted by the denomination.
1874 June
4, Signs of the Times launched in
California. The Pacific Press was dedicated the next year (1875) in Oakland,
California.
1874 September
15, J. N. Andrews sails for Europe with his children, Mary and Andrew.
1874 Battle
Creek College opens (building dedicated in Jan. 1875.)
1876 General
Conference session adopts tithing system
1877 General
Conference sends John G. Matteson as a missionary to Scandinavia
1878 William
Ings spreads Adventist’s message to Great Britain
1878-95 Sunday law persecution (17
years).
1881 James
White dies at the age of 60.
1882-83 Battle Creek College closes
for a year
1885-87 Ellen
G. White in Europe.
1886 The American Sentinel begins publication; transform to Liberty in 1906.
1887 D. M. Canright leaves
the denomination.
1887 D.
A. Robinson and C. L. Boyd arrive at Cape Town, South Africa as the first
missionaries to this continent
Crisis and Reorganization
1888 General
Conference at Minneapolis, Minnesota. Studies on law and righteousness by faith
stir the denomination. W. C. White, acting GC president, divides North America
into “districts.”
1889 Fundamental
beliefs appeared in the 1889 yearbook for the first time. However, it
did not last long and resumed in the years 1905-1914, then disappeared until it
was listed again in 1931.
1889 C. M. Kinney, first
African-American minister ordained by Seventh-day Adventists.
1890 Pitcairn
was launched to work in the South Pacific
1891-1900 Ellen G. White in Australia
1894 J.
Edson White and Will Palmer begin evangelizing Southern Blacks via the
steamboat, “The Morning Star.”
1894 The
first Union conference was established (Australia)
1895-1910 American Medical Missionary
College, Chicago, with Dr. J. H. Kellogg as director.
1894 Australasian Union
(the first union conference) organized. Departmentalized in 1897, it became the
pattern for GC reorganization in 1901.
1896 Oakwood Industrial
School opens. It would become a senior college in 1943.
1901 Reorgaization
of General Conference (begun April 1 in Battle Creek). Battle Creek College
moves to Berrien Springs, Michigan, and reopens as Emmanuel Missionary College.
1902 Feb. 18, Battle Creek
Sanitarium and Hospital burns.
Dec. 30,
Review and Herald Publishing Association burns.
1902-07 Kellogg Crisis
1903 GC Session held in
Oakland, California, votes to move denominational headquarters from Battle
Creek.
1904 May 18-25, “Berrien
Springs Meeting” [of the Lake Union Conference].
Summer, E.
A. Sutherland and P. T. Magan found school that becomes Madison College
Autumn, Drs.
David and Mary Paulson found Hinsdale Sanitarium
1905 Loma Linda property
purchased, School of Nursing organized.
1907 Young People’s
Missionary Volunteer (MV) department organized.
Dr. J. H.
Kellogg disfellowshipped.
1910 College of Medical
Evangelists opens at Loma Linda, chartered to grant M.D.
1913 Divisions of the
General Conference organized.
The World Church in the Twentieth-century
1914-18 World War I
1915 July
16, Death of Ellen G. White
1918 General
Conference accepts divisional organization
1919 Bible
Conference, Washington, D.C.
1922 Ministerial
Association formed, A. G. Daniells appointed first secretary.
1923 Ministry magazine formed with L. E. Froom, editor.
1929-39 The Great Depression
1930s Accreditation of North
American colleges
1931 Twenty-two
fundamental beliefs of SDA was printed in the 1931 yearbook; it stood
until 1980
1934-36 Advanced Bible School,
during the summer, at Pacific Union College, becomes forerunner of Seminary
1937-1960 Seminary established at
Washington, D.C., which becomes Potomac University.
1939-45 World War II
1942 The
Voice of Prophecy broadcasted over a national radio network
1944 Regional Conferences
voted (first seven organized 1945-47)
1950 Faith
for Today program was launched in New York City.
1952 Bible Conference,
Sligo Church, Takoma Park, Maryland.
1953 The
first volume of Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary published
1957 Publication of Seventh-day Adventists Answer Question on Doctrine (QOD)
1960 Emmanuel
Missionary College with Potomac University becomes Andrews University.
1962 College
of Medical Evangelists becomes Loma Linda University.
1968 Finland
and the Northern European Division request counsel on ordaining women.
1970 Insight replaces Youth’s Instructor.
1971 Adventist World Radio begun
1974 NAD
Bible Conferences
1975 GC
Spring Meeting authorized ordination of women as local elders.
1980 Glacier
View Consultation examines Desmond Ford’s theology and
prophetic interpretation.
GC
Session in Dallas, Texas, approves statement of 27 Fundamental Beliefs
Walter
Rea published allegations about Ellen White’s literary borrowing
1985 Vienna,
Austria, GC session, first to be held outside the United States.
1990 Indianpolis
GC session, women denied full ministerial ordination to women, but authorized
women ordained as local elders
to perform all the functions of an ordained minister.
1995 Utrecht,
Nethlands, GC Session. (1) Voted to deny the NAD motion
to allow each division to decide for itself to ordain women to the ministry. (2)
Voted the most far-reaching restructuring
of GC governance structure and GC session representation
since 1901.
2000 Toronto,
Canada, GC Session. First GC session under new rules of
representation.
2005 “Growing
in Christ” was voted as a fundamental belief of SDA (28 doctrines)
General Conference Presidents
1863-65 John
Byington
1865-67 James
White
1867-69 J.
N. Andrews
1869-71 James
White
1871-74 G.
I. Butler
1874-80 James
White
1880-88 G. I. Butler
1888-89 W.
C. White (acting)
1889-97 O. A. Olsen
1897-1901 G.
A. Irwin
1901-22 A. G. Daniells
1922-30 W.
A. Spicer
1930-36 C.
H. Watson
1936-50 J.
L. McElhany
1950-54 W.
H. Branson
1954-66 R.
R. Figuhr
1966-79* R.
H. Pierson
1979-90 N.
C. Wilson
1990-99 R.
S. Folkenberg
1999-2010 Jan Paulsen
2010-present Ted
N. C. Wilson
*Resigned for health reasons.
