When the church organization was formally established. From the early years, and through its history, Seventh-day Adventists have been recognized as a group of conscientious Christians who are vocal about and prominent in taking up a stand for a number of causes and issues. The list of these is quite impressive -- civil rights and anti-slavery stance, religious liberty, health and temperance reform, leadership in prevention of alcoholism and drug dependency, anti-tobbacco lobby, education, welfare, aid and development, and so on.
So, though Adventists successfully used the church pulpit and the classroom to speak against social ills or promote Christian values, they have not, until recently, formalized their official position through public statements. It was a non-creedal approach at the outset, with the "fundamental beliefs" being formulated into a "doctrinal statement" only in the 1930s.
This web site presents statements and guidelines discussed, approved and voted by the church leadership since 1980. These were written with a different public in mind, some reflecting a particular internal interest of the church. Here you will find documents issued by the General Conference in session, by the General Conference Executive Committee, by the Administrative Committee of the General Conference, or by the Office of the General Conference president. The documents accessible here fall into three categories:
