The Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement is a Protestant Christian denomination in the Sabbatarian Adventist movement that formed from a schism in the European Seventh-day Adventist Church during World War I over the position its European church leaders took on Sabbath observance and on committing Adventists to the bearing of arms in military service for Imperial Germany in World War I.Holger Teubert, "The History of the So called "Reform Movement" of the Seventh-day Adventists," unpublished Manuscript, 9.

The movement was formerly organised on an international level in 1925 at Gotha, Germany, and adopted the name "Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement". It was first registered as a General Conference association in 1929 in Burgwedel, near Hanover, Germany. Following the General Conference association's dissolution by the Gestapo in 1936 it was re-registered in Sacramento, California, United States in 1949. Its present world headquarters are in Roanoke, Virginia, USA.See on "The Name of Our Church", official SDARM Website, http://www.sdarm.org/origin/his_12_name.html

The Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement is governed by a General Conference, a worldwide association of constituent territorial Units consisting of Union Conferences, State/Field Conferences, Mission Fields and Missions not attached to any other unit. Through its local church congregations and groups of adherents, affiliated publishing houses, schools, health clinics and hospitals, the Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement is active in over 132 countries of the world.

The movement's beliefs largely reflect its distinctive Seventh-day Adventist Church heritage and foundational pillars, with some small divergences. See the "Beliefs" section below.

History

1914–1918 schism and early history The Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement came about as a result of the actions of L. R. Conradi and certain European church leaders during the World War I, who decided that it was acceptable for Adventists to take part in war, which was in clear opposition to the historical position of the church that had always upheld the non-combative position. Since the American Civil War, Adventists were known as non-combatants, and had done work in hospitals or given medical care rather than combat roles.http://www.sidadventist.org/lead/index.php/resources/essent/89-leadership The Seventh-day Adventist leaders in Europe when the war began, determined on their own that it was permissible for Adventists to bear arms and serve in the military and other changes which went against traditional Adventist beliefs.

The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists sent Seventh-day Adventist minister and General Conference Secretary William Ambrose Spicer to investigate the changes these leaders had instituted, but was unable to undo what L. R. Conradi and the others had done during the war.

After the war, some disfellowshipped Adventists in Germany had organize in 1919 as Internationale Missionnsgesellshaft der Siebententags Adventisten Alte seit 1844 stehengebliebene Richtung Deutsche Union (International Missionary Society of Seventh-day Adventists, old movement standing firm since 1844). The Seventh-day Adventist church sent a delegation of four brethren from the General Conference (Arthur G. Daniells who was president of General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, L. H. Christian, F. M. Wilcox, M. E. Kern) in July 1920, who came to a Ministerial Meeting in Friedensau with the hope of a reconciliation. Before the 200 Pastors and the Brethren from the General Conference present at this meeting, its European church leaders, G. Dail, L. R. Conradi, H. F. Schuberth, and P. Drinhaus withdrew their statement about military service and apologized for what they had done. The Reformers were informed of this and the next day saw a meeting by the Adventist brethren with the Reform-Adventists. A. G. Daniells urged them to return to the Seventh-day Adventist church, but the Reform-Adventists maintained that the European church leaders had forsaken the truth during the war and the reconciliation failed.http://www.sidadventist.org/lead/index.php/resources/essent/89-leadership Soon after they began to form a separate group from the official Adventist church.

In November 18, 1921 representatives from different countries meet in Wurzburg, Germany, discussed their Principles of Faith, in harmony with the three angel’s messages based on the Bible and Testimony. At that same time, Otto Welp was elected as the leader of their General Conference.

On 1925, the General Conference again convened, in Gotha, Thuringen, Germany. During this meeting they adopted their Principles of Faith that was discussed on 1921, and they approved as well to published the adopted principles under the publication title, The Principles of Faith of the Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement and Constitution. During this meeting, there was no discussion of any change of the name used by the Movement, which was International Missionary Society of the Seventh day Adventist Reform Movement. On June 24–30 1928, a General Conference meeting was held in Isernhagen, Germany. On this meeting, the delegates approved to register the General Conference legally, and on 1929, the General Conference finally got registered. The name of the General Conference is the International Missionary Society of the Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement, General Conference.

In April 1936, the Nazi government confiscated all General Conference property in Germany. Many leaders and followers died in concentration camps. Some of them were allegedly denounced by members and leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. From 1936 until the conclusion of the World War II, there was no legally registered SDARM General Conference entity anywhere in the world, and would not be until 1949. The international situation during those years prevented the convening of a General Conference Session.

In 1926, Heinrich Ostwald—a Russian-German pastor in the Soviet Union—established and led the Russian Field of the Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement following contacts with Reform-Adventists in Germany and having obtained Otto Welp's consent to work as a preacher for the movement; after several years of imprisonment, he formed the All-Russian Union of Adventist Reformers in 1936, but was arrested the following year and died during the investigation. Later, a related group which also came about for the same reasons was the True and Free Seventh-day Adventists (TFSDA) which formed in the USSR, whose most well known leader was Vladimir Shelkov.

1951 schism A major division then took place within the Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement itself at its General Conference session held at Zeist, Utrecht (province), Netherlands in 1951. The cause for the division involved tensions that had arisen over unresolved issues of the preceding years. Charges of arbitrariness and authoritarianism by the Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement leader and on the part of the General Conference administration towards member Units, failures by the General Conference committee to adequately resolve moral failings among leaders, issues concerning mal-administration of Church finances, and procedural and organisational irregularities prior to and during the Session itself are cited by the present organisation as significant contributing factors.Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement General Conference, "Our GC Delegation Sessions" 1948, http://www.sdarm.org/origin/his_11_sessions_III.html#1948 Accessed 2011-04-01.Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement General Conference, "Our GC Delegation Sessions" 1951, Accessed 2011-04-01.

After two weeks of deliberations within the Session trying to resolve some of these tensions, a move was made by a number of delegates to read a declaration enumerating the main problems involved and requesting that a committee to address the entire situation be established. The motion carried on the first vote but was overturned by the chairman. To signify their protest at what was held to be an arbitrary decision of the chair, 45% of delegates present, led by the then Secretary of the General Conference, left the Session room. The Session's proceedings faltered at this point. Efforts to reconcile the situation while all delegates were still present in Netherlands failed.Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement General Conference, "Our GC Delegation Sessions" 1951, Accessed 2011-04-01."International Missionary Society Seventh-day Adventist Church Reform Movement - About IMS" Accessed: April 1, 2011.

Another factor affecting the administration of the Session at the time was the international situation behind the Iron Curtain.Ward R & Humphreys R, Religious Bodies In Australia 3rd Edition. New Melbourne Press, Victoria, Australia. p.171. 1995. Many of the units attached to the General Conference were unable to send delegates to the Zeist session due to restrictions on religious bodies in communist lands. Proxy letters from a number of Union Conferences were held by the General Conference SecretaryWard R & Humphreys R, Religious Bodies In Australia 3rd Edition. New Melbourne Press, Victoria, Australia. p.171. 1995. enabling the session to convene legally (a provision enabled in the 1949 corporate registration), though the proxy holder still only had one vote regardless of the number of proxies held. Those Units not represented directly accounted for approximately 60% of the organization's membership. Consequently, neither of the two factions that became evident at the Zeist session were in a position to make any unilateral decisions.Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement General Conference, "Our GC Delegation Sessions" 1951, Accessed 2011-04-01.

Over the course of the next year, steps were taken by both parties to explain the situation to their respective member bodies (Union Conferences) that were affiliated up until this time to the one worldwide church administration. Both factions re-organised themselves as General Conference committees independently of each other and proceeded to take the oversight of the SDARM General Conference affairs.

SDARM General Conference Headquarters in Roanoke, Virginia, USA The Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement had been first registered as a general conference association in Burgwedel, near Hanover, Germany in 1929. Though never approved by the inaugural 1925 Gotha SDARM General Conference Session, the designation "International Missionary Society" was added to the beginning of the name. The full registered name at that time took the form "International Missionary Society, Seventh-day Adventist Reform Movement, General Conference". The reasons for adding the designation to the beginning of the name were purely pragmatic, and done in the interests of securing General Conference finances on loan to one of its member Units, namely the German Union Conference. The SDARM General Conference operated under this German registration until 1936 when the association was dissolved by the Gestapo.

In 1948, the first post-war General Conference session was held, that the delegates agreed to re-register the worldwide interests of the Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement by incorporating the SDARM General Conference as an association in the USA. They also agreed to do this "under the name that was adopted by the General Conference delegation in session in 1925". This decision was carried out in 1949. The registered name was now correctly, "Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement General Conference." It was under the By-Laws of this newly incorporated body that the 1951 Zeist General Conference Session was convened.