History and Teachings of the AC Church

HISTORY AND TEACHINGS OF THE ADVENT CHRISTIAN CHURCH

By Lee E. Baker, D.D.

The Advent Christian denomination was organized in 1860 and is one of the groups that comprise the Christian Church. Like other communions, it maintains its own publishing, educational and foreign mission enterprises. Its local, state, and provincial conference organizations in the United States and Canada, along with its several institutions, are associated together as the Advent Christian General Conference of America, the denominational headquarters being maintained at Charlotte, N.C.


Those of Like Precious Faith (2 Peter 1:1)

The Advent Christian movement traces its origins to a notable revival that took place 175 years ago in the eastern United States, especially in New York State. The powerful motivation behind this revival was a rediscovery of the biblical doctrine of the personal return of Christ to this earth to establish the everlasting kingdom of God.

The person through whom the Spirit moved in this momentous revival was a self-educated man of keen intellect and oratorical powers, a patriotic and honored citizen of Hampton, New York named William Miller. Giving up his earlier deism, he accepted the Bible as the word of God, became a Christian, and subsequently a Baptist minister. Through a comparison of history with biblical prediction, his faith in the prophecies concerning the Second Advent of Christ sent him forth on a crusade that resulted in the conversion of hundreds of infidels and skeptics and in turning thousands to a belief in the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But the basis of the Advent Christian fellowship (of which Mr. Miller never became a part) was not only his doctrine of the Lord’s return; with it was coupled another fundamental and related teaching respecting the mortality of man. This latter doctrine was introduced into Adventism by George Storrs, Charles F. Hudson, and other contemporaries. The association of these two doctrines made for clarity in the efforts of the Adventual fathers to understand the mercy, grace, and justice of God as simply stated in the golden text of the Bible, John 3:16.

The founding fathers disclaimed any intent to form a separate denominational communion. Finding themselves cut off, however, by persecution and excommunication from the churches of their choices when their witness was repudiated, their common need for Christian fellowship and service caused them to form local groups which eventually became associated together in one united body. To this new entity they eventually gave the name Advent Christian, thus uniting their belief in the blessed hope of the Lord’s return and the mortality of man with their profession of Christian discipleship.

Advent Christians believe that the Holy Scriptures are an inspired, authoritative revelation of God to men. They believe that this revelation throws revealing light upon the mystery of origins, the march of history, the nature of man, his future and the destiny of the earth. They believe that the Bible sets forth the truth concerning God and his grace toward men as manifested by Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit, that these are powerful agents of the grace of God in preparing the way for faith and in molding human character after the one perfect example and that they afford divine comfort to those who put their trust in God. They believe that the Holy Scriptures should be taken literally when possible and that no basic Christian teaching should be founded upon isolated parabolic or symbolic passages, but that all doctrines should be defined in the light of and in harmony with plain literal statements of the Word.



The Faith Once Delivered to the Saints (Jude 3)

Although Advent Christian believers do not set forth a well-defined creed, because they declare that the Bible is their only rule of faith and conduct, yet they do have a “Declaration of Principles” which is available in printed form. The first ten points in the declaration were the result of earnest reflection and careful collaboration on the part of the early Adventual fathers and were adopted by the vote of the Advent Christian General Conference at Boston on January 25, 1900. An eleventh point was subsequently added.

Advent Christians profess to hold in its purity “the faith which was once delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Advent Christians assent to the Apostles’ Creed, but they reject the incorporation into Christian thought of the Platonic doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul and of all other dogmas not taught in the Bible.


The Things Most Surely Believed (Luke 1:1)

Included among the specific beliefs of Advent Christians are –

That man is unconscious until the resurrection.
Psalm 146:4; Ecclesiastes 9:5,10; John 11:11-14;
1 Corinthians 15:18,20; 1 Thessalonians 4:13.

That immortality is conditional on faith in Jesus Christ.
John 3:16; Romans 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:16-22.

That Christ will return to the earth personally and visibly.
Acts 1:4-11; 1 Corinthians 15:51-58; Philippians 3:20,21; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10.

That the divinely ordained ordinances are baptism (by immersion) and the Lord’s
Supper.
Matthew 28:19; Romans 6:3-4; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.

That the first day of the week is a day for worship in commemoration of Christ’s
triumph over death.
Mark 16:1-9; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2.

That the earth made new will be the home of the saints.
Daniel 7:27; Matthew 5:5; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 5:9-10.

Advent Christians believe that man is completely mortal and subject to death, which, they understand from both the Bible and science, is the cessation of all the life processes, including consciousness (Ecclesiastes 9:5); that man is a candidate for immortality by the grace and providence of God, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, though not the present possessor of it; that the sheol (hell) of the Old Testament and the hades (hell) of the New Testament indicate the place of all the dead where there is neither conscious felicity nor suffering; and that death is “the last enemy that shall be destroyed”(1Corinthians 15:26). They believe that man is as completely within the power of God as is any part of his creation. For them, death is the final curtain on the play of life unless there is to be a resurrection from the dead. This solves for them the otherwise perplexing problems respecting the intermediate state of death and the “second death” (Revelation 20:14). With the inspired Peter, they understand that “David is not ascended into the heavens” (Acts 2:34), and with the apostle Paul, they believe that “if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: …our preaching…vain… Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished” (1 Corinthians 15:13,14,18).

Death does not end all, however; for, with Paul, they believe that “there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust “(Acts 24:15). Christ himself said, “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28-29). The triumph of their Lord over death is, for them, both a pledge and a pattern of the resurrection of the just. He who now has all power in heaven and on earth has the “keys of hell (hades) and of death” (Revelation 1:18), and he can save them from both hades and gehenna unto everlasting life.

The final conferment of rewards or punishments, Advent Christians believe, is to be reserved until the establishment of the divine tribunal at the second advent of Christ, when he shall sit upon the throne of his judgment. God is just, as well as merciful, so every man must finally stand at the judgment seat of Christ. The wages of sin is death; and “Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished” (Proverbs 11:21). For them, there will be neither evasion of the divine tribunal nor any miscarriage of divine justice. The men of Sodom will be there, as well as any who may have escaped human justice in this world. The righteous sentence will be either, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”; or, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:34,41). The gehenna fires, which have evidently not as yet been kindled, will utterly destroy, completely purging the realm. Jesus assured men that God has power to “destroy both soul and body in hell” (gehenna, Matthew 10:28). After the fires of the last day have consumed the evil, there are to be “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13).

Advent Christians set their affections upon the kingdom of God, long promised and clearly previewed in both Old and New Testaments. They are mindful of the present important phase of the kingdom, which was preached by John the Baptist and was illustrated frequently in the parables of Jesus. They also anticipate that ultimate phase, when “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).

In accord with their Lord’s instructions, they earnestly pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). They believe that when the Gospel is adequately proclaimed and spiritually apprehended many will earnestly join in the request of the penitent thief, “Lord, remember me, when thou comest into thy kingdom.” They accept the conditions of entrance as set forth by Jesus to his disciples when he said, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3), and to Nicodemus when he told him, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven”(John 3:5). They endeavor to foster such Christian virtues as will assure them an abundant entrance into the “kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:11).

Members of this denomination believe that “the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace” (Psalm 37:11); that men may become the children of Abraham by faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:29); that they may become joint-heirs with Christ of the world – a world at rest from sin and war and death; that although God’s heaven seems to be closed toward men, the renovated earth will become the paradise of God; that the New Jerusalem shall come from heaven as earth’s capital city; that, although “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him,” yet he “hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).

Thus, Advent Christians ascribe to Christ his due preeminence as the author of eternal salvation, who has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel, being assured that “He that hath the Son hath life: and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:12). For them the earthly ministry of the Son of God was an earnest of the coming kingdom when “all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord” (Numbers 14:21).



For more information, contact:
Dr. John H. Roller
5847 Brookstone Dr.
Concord, NC, USA 28027-2535
704-782-9574
johnroller@faithbiblechristian.com