The Primitive Advent Christian Church is a small body of

Adventist Adventism is a branch of Protestant Christianity that believes in the imminent Second Coming (or the "Second Advent") of Jesus Christ. It originated in the 1830s in the United States during the Second Great Awakening when Baptist preacher Willi ...

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

which separated from the

Advent Christian Church The Advent Christian Church, also known as the Advent Christian General Conference (ACGC), is a "first-day" body of Adventist Christians founded on the teachings of William Miller in 1860. The organization's Executive Director is Reverend Just ...

. They have a common early history. Adventists who had adopted the "conditional immortality" views of Charles F. Hudson and George Storrs formed the ''Advent Christian Association'' in

Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located on the North Shore (Massachusetts), North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem was one ...

in 1860. Like

Primitive Baptist Primitive Baptists – also known as Regular Baptists, Old School Baptists, Foot Washing Baptists, or, derisively, Hard Shell Baptists – are conservative Baptists adhering to a degree of Calvinist beliefs who coalesced out of the contr ...

s, and

Primitive Methodist The Primitive Methodist Church is a Christian denomination within the holiness movement. Originating in early 19th-century England as a revivalist movement within Methodism, it was heavily influenced by American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–18 ...

s the ''Primitive Advent Christian Church'' uses the modifier ''Primitive'' to signify the idea that they represent the original teachings of the church. They differ from the parent body mainly in two points. They observe

feet washing The foot (: feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is an organ at the terminal part of the leg made up of o ...

as a rite of the church, and they teach that reclaimed backsliders should be baptized (even though they had formerly been baptized). This is sometimes referred to as ''rebaptism''. Officers in the ''Primitive Advent Christian Church'' are pastors, elders and deacons. A conference for church business is conducted annually. The church had 427 members in 9 congregations in 1990, all of which were located in central

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

External links

References

*''Churches and Church Membership in the United States (1990)'', Glenmary Research Center *''Encyclopedia of American Religions'', J. Gordon Melton, editor Adventism in the United States Christianity in West Virginia Christianity in Appalachia {{Christian-denomination-stub