A denomination which most evangelicals view as "peripheral heretics," whose most popularly known (though not the most theologically significcant) feature is their observance of Saturday as the day of rest. They are also everywhere known for their educational and medical ministries.
The origin of the Seventh-Day Adventist (henceforth, SDA) may be traced back to William Miller (1782-1849), a self-educated American farmer and lay Baptist preacher, who predicted that Christ would return some time in the year between 21 Mar 1843 and 1944, though the date was postponed to 22 Oct 1844 by one of his followers. Disillusioned by the failure of his prediction, Miller fell out of the movement. His other followers, led by three pricipal leaders—Hiram Edson, Joseph Bates, and Ellen G. White—and braced with more visionary 'revelations,' re-organized themselves into the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, with its official inauguration in 1863. The failure of Jesus's return on the dates that had been predicted was explained (or explained away) by the claim (and affirmed by more visions and prophecies) that they had failed to observe the biblical instruction to keep the seventh-day as the Sabbath. Today the church has spread itself worldwide; it is estimated that one in four SDA believers live outside the USA.
SDA shares many of the main theological tenets as evangelicals—the Trinity, the deity of Christ, his atoning death, and his second coming—but also hold on to some doctrines that many evangelicals see as incompatible with evangelicalism. Apart from the minor customs of keeping Saturday as the Sabbath (Friday sundown to the following sundown) and observing the dietary regulations of the OT (matters indifferent to most evangelicals) the SDA is distinctive in at least two ways.
1) the doctrine of "investigative judgment," the teaching that a person will, upon her death, be subject to an review of her life to see if she is worthy of being among the "first resurrection," i.e., the resurrection of all believers.
2) that the SDA is the "remnant church," i.e., they are the last of God's commandment-keeping people, whose mark is the gift of prophecy.
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