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 century
amid Sunday‟s observance domination. The majority of the SDA pioneers are Sunday
keepers. The seventh-day Sabbath was first brought to the Millerite Adventists by Rachel
Oakes. She is a member of the Seventh-day Baptist who joined the Millerite Adventists. The
first time the seventh-day Sabbath was introduced in Millerite Adventists, there was upheaval
and conflict. But finally, a group of Sabbatarian Adventists was formed which kept the
seventh-day Sabbath. This group finally became SDA Church. The purpose of this work is to
find out what were the reasons for the Adventists pioneers to accept the Sabbath. This paper
argued that there were four reasons why Sabbatarian Adventists received the seventh-day
Sabbath. First, the Sabbatarian Adventists kept the seventh-day Sabbath because of their
investigation of the Bible, which led them to abandon Sunday observance and accepted the
Sabbath. Second, one of the co-founders of the SDA, Ellen G. White, confirmed that the
Sabbath is related to the temple in heaven, because the Ten Commandments, including the
fourth commandment, still remains there and never been eliminated. Third, the pioneers of
the 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 a
historical approach using documentary research method. For each reasons, researcher utilizes
primary resources. Secondary resources are employed only to see current opinions about the
issue.