Reasons of How Adventist Pioneers Accepted the Truth about Sabbath (1844-1863)

Abstract

Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) emerged as a denomination in the nineteenth centuryamid Sunday‟s observance domination. The majority of the SDA pioneers are Sundaykeepers. The seventh-day Sabbath was first brought to the Millerite Adventists by RachelOakes. She is a member of the Seventh-day Baptist who joined the Millerite Adventists. Thefirst time the seventh-day Sabbath was introduced in Millerite Adventists, there was upheavaland conflict. But finally, a group of Sabbatarian Adventists was formed which kept theseventh-day Sabbath. This group finally became SDA Church. The purpose of this work is tofind out what were the reasons for the Adventists pioneers to accept the Sabbath. This paperargued that there were four reasons why Sabbatarian Adventists received the seventh-daySabbath. First, the Sabbatarian Adventists kept the seventh-day Sabbath because of theirinvestigation of the Bible, which led them to abandon Sunday observance and accepted theSabbath. Second, one of the co-founders of the SDA, Ellen G. White, confirmed that theSabbath is related to the temple in heaven, because the Ten Commandments, including thefourth commandment, still remains there and never been eliminated. Third, the pioneers ofthe SDA also found that there was a connection between the Sabbath and the three angels‟messages, in which the issue will be the worship of God and its closely related to the seventhday Sabbath. Fourth, they saw that Sabbath was related to eschatology. In this understanding,they understood that Sabbath would still be observed in the new world. This paper is ahistorical approach using documentary research method. For each reasons, researcher utilizesprimary resources. Secondary resources are employed only to see current opinions about theissue.