Charles Mills was an elder at a Seventh-day Adventist church. He began to feel impressed that more was needed because the church, as a whole, had departed from what he believed to be present truth and was no longer feeding the people of the church as God had intended. He began a separate Bible study with a small group of people in his home, once a week. They began with a book by Julius Gilbert White entitled “The Christians’ Experience and the Overcoming of Sin.” Four to eight people attended this group.

The study went on for over a year, as each page of the book, in conjunction with the references to the writings of the Bible and Ellen G. White, was read word by word, discussed, questions asked and answered. Spiritual growth ensued in each of the participants. While this was going on, Charles felt impressed of the need to write a book discussing how the current Seventh-day Adventist Church was so different from the historic Seventh-day Adventist Church and the message given by God to teach and preach to the world.

Each of the participants in the group also took part, at least initially, with the preparation of the book, along with the group study. As time went on, the group began a different study (now regularly six people) while at the same time, doing work editing or preparing material for the book. By the time the book was finished, it had become obvious that what we had thought of as the remnant church was not a church after God’s order at all; that the spiritual truths of the sanctuary message, righteousness by His faith, the Antitypical Day of Atonement, the reality of the Law of God and its place in our lives, etc., were no longer taught at all in the church, let alone the overcoming of sin, which can only be done when the whole message is given, not bits and pieces or none at all.

On this basis, some of the group felt the need to begin a different church that was fully and completely after God’s order. The group undertook searching for the necessary requirements in order to bring this body into existence. We understood that the General Conference did not take kindly to any church taking the name of Seventh-day Adventist that was not part of the Conference, but also recognizing that the message that we needed to, and had to preach, could not be preached in a Conference church.

It was during this search that we discovered the name “Free Seventh-day Adventist”. There were two primary groups claiming that name and by being a part of those respective groups, we could preach the message of present truth without fear of interference from the Conference. We joined one of those groups and formed the church HIS Vine Free Seventh-day Adventist Church.

We leased a space in a commercial building in which to have our services initially. Being a small group, money was an issue for we only had $500.00, but God provided for us in special ways, allowing us to purchase our own equipment prior to any service ever being conducted. On the basis of several other factors, including what we had agreed to start with as to our Sabbath School lessons [that being an eight-month study in the book of Galatians, which, starting in November would conclude the last Sabbath of June and set up the following studies in the typical quarters of the year], we chose to have our first service on November 4, 2011. One of those attending commented how surprised they were at how well the service was conducted and how smoothly things flowed considering as it was our first official service.

Another matter of immediate importance was to make sure we videotaped every sermon (and eventually every Sabbath School lesson as well) and make them available to the world at no charge on You Tube. God knew that this was the best way to make His truth available to every nation and language and tongue that cost us nothing except the purchase of the equipment and software to make it happen, which God also provided to us in miraculous ways, especially as to cost.

Over time, God provided us with sufficient funds to obtain a more private setting from which to hold our services, one that could truly be called His Sanctuary. Like Abraham, God called us out to a strange land, not knowing where we were going. We obeyed and went forth, and when we arrived at where we are today, which is just a temporary holding place until we take the next step of obedience, God blessed us yet again. We made this move in July of 2012. Shortly thereafter, God allowed us to move next door to a place already set up for church services and that is where we are today, at least for a little while longer.

One of the burdens God had laid upon us was not just preaching and teaching the message of present truth, but making it available to the world. From generation to generation, it became clear that the farther removed from its finding, the more and more the church had left the truth in the dust and separated from it, desiring, as the children of Israel before it, from whom we were to learn lessons in order that we did not make the same mistake, to be like everyone else and thus gain acceptability. In so doing, the founders of the church, the pioneers, men such as Joseph Bates, James White, J. N. Andrews, J. N. Loughborough, J. H. Waggoner, Uriah Smith, and later A T. Jones, S. N. Haskell, E. J. Waggoner, and others, were left behind. The church had been instructed by God to continue to print their writings after them and their deaths in order to propagate the truth that it not be changed or altered to one degree, for God had given that truth and not one pin or peg was to be removed from it. But no, instead, either the books were changed and altered by later generations taking liberties that should never have been taken, or never should have been allowed to be taken, or they simply were never printed again. Even the writings of God’s voice to the church, have been taken and mutilated into compilations that have been used in large part to deceive the church into thinking that one thing was spoken under the inspiration of God, when in fact what they read has been manipulated into something spoken by the enemy of God, Satan, and not God at all.

So this body felt a serious burden to do two primary things. The first was making our sermons available in some way other than You Tube, as we discovered a lot of people didn’t have internet access or the equipment to see us on You Tube. In late October 2013, God provided the means that anyone could access on their cell phones, which everyone seems to have worldwide. That function was called Spreaker. It’s an application that is free to download on anyone’s cell phone. and costs us very low little to purchase the space for our sermons where anyone with a cell phone and the application can access them at any time.

Secondly in February of 2014, we felt the burden to begin to publish the works of the pioneers that had been left to rot in the dust for so long. God provided us with a list of primary books establishing the basis of our faith in relation to the Scriptures as God provided it to them. Then, He provided us with the necessary tools to do the work in the way of digital printers, binders, cutter, etc., once again in unbelievable fashion (for example, the initial retail cost of the digital printer was in excess of $20,000.00 and God provided a used one that had been leased for a little over a year for a little over $2,000.00 in good working order). He also provided us with the means to obtain original works so we could insure the accuracy and integrity of the books God has led us to publish, for we discovered that certain people, feigning to be Adventists, had substantially altered some books (of particular note, Daniel and the Revelation by Uriah Smith, initially published in 1897. By 1944, it was no longer his book even though it bore his name because of the numerous changes, alterations, deletions and additions that had been made after his death).

We have now published over 40 of those books, with another 50+ being edited and prepared for publishing. We know our time is short. The waymarks God has provided to His church to advise us and keep us in the straight and narrow path are rapidly passing and coming to a close. But we are not yet done.

During these formative years, God used this time to form His character more fully in each of us. He was preparing us for some trying times that were to come our way, things we did not expect to happen, but did. The first of these was the group we had chosen to become a part of in 2011, claiming to be historical Seventh-day Adventists, turned out not to be a true statement. We discovered them bringing in persons, particularly to their camp meetings, who did not have or preach present truth. They paid lip service to the pioneers, but rejected their writings outright. It was for this reason, we believe, that God led us to this group first: a) to expose the errors they were making; b) to encourage them to correct these errors and how to do so; and c) if they refused [which they did], to build us up so we could depart in peace and carry on the work without them. God continues to protect His children when they are engaged in humbling themselves before Him and allowing Him to do His work through them.

God led us to try the second group that was founded by Elder Manns in 1915 under a different name; The General Assembly Free Seventh-day Adventists. Initially, they seemed to be closer to the true Adventist message, as their statement of beliefs was the original as set forth by the founders and in accordance with the pioneer beliefs. But it was not long, as this church revised its charter and its own statement of beliefs to reflect more fully God’s truth as it had been revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, that this second group’s real character, that was not in accordance with the character of Christ was shown. But God used this exposure to open the door to a third group we had not been previously aware of that does believe, teach and practice present truth. We are now a part of that group and we hope, as God enables us, both as a church and as a group of Bible-believing, God-fearing, Free Historical Adventist churches; named, The Free Seventh-day Adventists World Assembly. As we continue to upgrade our work and our websites, which the message of truth will go forth to His glory to the entire world, and that many will be converted because God is in the work, and not man.

God has instructed us through His prophet that we are not to be living in the city. Living in the city is equivalent to staying in Egypt as a type of sin and no place for the believer. We are to work in the city as God’s ambassadors for truth, but not live there. God has shown us we need to be self-sustaining in the work as the Waldensians were during the Dark Ages.

God has led us to a location in the Red Boiling Springs area, of Tennessee, that meets this burden of living in the country; close enough to several good-sized places for ministry work, but far enough away from the cities — not to be caught-up in all their allurements.  We are confident that it was only through God’s provision, as He has always done in the past, that we were able to make this move, and we went forward in obedience to Him and His will for us.

He never promised that everything would be easy, but that He would never leave us nor forsake us, as long as we remained submitted to him.  The challenges of securing a place for worship in the community, and continuation of live broadcast of church services online, have been many — with very little manpower help and poor quality of available internet connection.  God has however seen us through this, along with all the other difficulties of setting-up home.

We thank God for His provisions, and for all the brethren whom He has inspired to be supporters of the work He has given us.  Thanks to everyone who have supported us in one way or another, and we pray that God will continue to richly bless you, as we move forward together by His grace, directions and provisions.