Science Fair Project Encyclopedia Seventh-day Adventist Church
According to historians of the movement, this group gained its
more recent name from the teaching that the expected return of
Jesus on October 22, 1844 had been fulfilled in a way that had
not previously been understood. This was termed "the Great
Disappointment." Further Bible study led to the belief that
Jesus in that year had entered into the Most Holy Place of the
heavenly sanctuary, and began an "investigative judgment" of the
world: a process through which there is an examination of the
heavenly records to "determine who, through repentance of sin
and faith in Christ, are entitled to the benefits of His
atonement"¹ after which Jesus will return to earth. According to
the church's teaching, the return of Christ may occur very soon,
though nobody knows the exact date of that event (Matthew
24:36). Early Seventh-day Adventist leaders, including Ellen G.
White, taught that those who did not accept the Adventist
message prior to October 22, 1844,