The

Seventh-day Adventist Church The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and i ...

is a major

Christian denomination A Christian denomination is a distinct religious body within Christianity that comprises all church congregations of the same kind, identifiable by traits such as a name, particular history, organization, leadership, theological doctrine, wors ...

with a significant presence in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

with a reported 472,314 members as of June 30, 2020. Many of its pastors in China are women. There are or used to be more than 350 SDA congregations in

Jilin Province Jilin (; alternately romanized as Kirin or Chilin) is one of the three provinces of Northeast China. Its capital and largest city is Changchun. Jilin borders North Korea (Rasŏn, North Hamgyong, Ryanggang and Chagang) and Russia (Primor ...

. Pastor Jan Paulsen, a former Adventist world church president, visited China in 2009. There he said "so many things have changed in China over the last two decades, and while freedom -- the increase of freedom -- is difficult to compare, I am very, very grateful for the fact that so many changes have taken place in this country."

History

In 1888, a Seventh-day Adventist layman named Abraham La Rue began selling publications to people in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta ...

. He also arranged to have the first Adventist tracts to be published in Chinese. In 1902, Jacob N. Anderson (1867–1958) and his wife were sent to Hong Kong where they opened a school for Chinese children. When the Andersons arrived in Hong Kong they found Abram La Rue still selling church publications. They ministered to him in his last illness. Edwin H. Wilbur arrived in

Canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ente ...

and eight people were baptized in 1903. In 1905, Dr. Harry Willis Miller began publishing ''The Gospel Herald'' and later established four large hospitals. By the end of the Second World War, there were twenty-three thousand Seventh-day Adventist members in China with two hundred and sixty one churches.Gary Land, ''Historical dictionary of Seventh-Day Adventists'', p.58

References

External links

UNHCR on Adventism in Singapore and China

Schaefer, Richard A. (2005). Legacy: chapter 23, Outreach, section "The China Doctor", i.e. Harry Miller.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seventh-Day Adventist Church In The People's Republic Of China Christian denominations in China History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church Protestantism in China China Seventh-day Adventist Church in Asia

History

See also

References

External links