Church Opposes Predicting Date of Second Coming

The Seventh-day Adventist Church, a worldwide organization founded on the concept that the Second Coming of Jesus is imminent, has issued a statement opposing the setting of dates for his return.

“While anticipating Christ’s return, Adventists reject any attempt to set specific dates for the event,” the church announced in a statement released by the office of its president, Robert S. Folkenberg, during the 56th world session of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Adventists are holding their 10-day meeting in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

“The approaching end of the second millennium of the Christian era undoubtedly is leading some misguided persons to propose date-setting schematics and events tied to the year 2000, the end of the world, and the return of Jesus,” the statement said. “Adventists have no confidence in such speculative efforts, for they violate Christ’s explicit statements that although humans may indeed recognize when his return is near, they cannot know the exact time.”

The church grew out of a movement that began in the mid-1800s and believed that the resurrected Jesus would return and the world would end in 1843 or 1844. Some church pioneers who were disappointed when that did not occur restudied the Bible’s teachings and declared that it did not set a particular date.

Ray Dabrowski, a spokesman for the church’s world headquarters, said the statement is directed more at non-Adventists than Adventists.

“People are suggesting maybe because it’s the end of the millennium, that something significant will happen,” he said. “We as a church would like to distance ourselves from anybody who is setting dates for the end of the world and the Second Coming of Christ. . . .

“We as a Christian denomination are very concerned that people are getting confused a little bit about this,” he said.

The statement was adopted by the administrative committee of the General Conference before being released by the president’s office. It was drafted in preparation for the world session, which takes place once every five years.

The session, which began on June 29, will conclude today.