The Seventh-day Adven­tist (SDA) Church is one of the fastest-growing Chris­t­ian churches in the world today adding one new mem­ber by bap­tism every 32 sec­onds of every day and near­ing the 16 mil­lion mark by the end of 2008 with an aver­age of more than 2,750 peo­ple bap­tized each day. From its orga­ni­za­tion in the US in 1863 with around 3,500 mem­bers, today fifteen(15) out of sixteen(16) mem­bers live out­side North Amer­ica — in 200 other coun­tries of the world.
[fig­ures based on sta­tis­tics released Novem­ber 2009 at adventiststatistics.org]

Spir­i­tual Heritage

Beliefs Overview

God

Adven­tists base their faith in God as revealed through Jesus Christ and as shown through the Bible, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Faith

Faith means plac­ing com­plete trust in God, and accept­ing his offer of sal­va­tion. Such trust­ing faith is fun­da­men­tal to Adven­tist beliefs. A liv­ing rela­tion­ship with God is essen­tial to faith.

The Bible

Writ­ten down over many years, the Bible presents the essen­tial truth about God. The Holy Spirit inspired human writ­ers to reveal the char­ac­ter of God and how he wishes to save all those who come to him. The Bible explains the nature of God and the way God’s fol­low­ers will behave as a result of their rela­tion­ship with him.

The Gospel

The heart of the Adven­tist mes­sage is the gospel, God’s good news of sal­va­tion. Through Jesus’ death on the cross human beings may be won back to love and trust God, and accept God’s free gift of eter­nal life for all those who fol­low him.

Cre­ation

Cre­ator of the Uni­verse, Christ formed our world in seven days, and cre­ated the first man and woman. At the close of his cre­ative work, God gave the Sab­bath as a day of cel­e­bra­tion and worship.

The Sab­bath

The seventh-day Sab­bath (Sat­ur­day) is given as a reminder of the God who both cre­ates and saves, and is the day God invites all to come and wor­ship him. Jesus observed the seventh-day Sab­bath while on earth, and Adven­tists fol­low his exam­ple in keep­ing the fourth of the Ten Commandments.

The Sec­ond Advent

Adven­tists look for­ward to the soon return of Jesus Christ as proph­e­sied and as he him­self promised, but do not set any date for this glo­ri­ous event when he comes to take home all who accept him as their Lord.

Life After Death and the Future

Adven­tists fol­low Jesus in iden­ti­fy­ing those who die as sleep­ing. Those who have trusted God are raised to life when Jesus returns, and look for­ward to a won­der­ful future – eter­nal life in God’s presence.

Bap­tism and Commitment

Those who choose to accept God’s way for their lives and his offer of eter­nal life demon­strate their belief through bap­tism (being immersed in water), fol­low­ing the exam­ple of Jesus. Adven­tists fol­low lives of com­mit­ment to God and his plan for us, which include fol­low­ing his com­mands as being for our best good.

Edu­ca­tion

The Adven­tist Church oper­ates one of the largest edu­ca­tional sys­tems in the world, and fea­tures Uni­ver­si­ties such as Loma Linda whose Med­ical Cen­ter is at the fore­front of treat­ments such as the inno­v­a­tive Pro­ton Accel­er­a­tor for can­cer treat­ment. Through a world-wide net­work of schools, Adven­tists seek to bet­ter human­ity through pro­vid­ing edu­ca­tion and voca­tional training.

Com­mu­nity Aid

Through the Adven­tist Devel­op­ment and Relief Agency and other pro­grams, the Adven­tist Church pro­vides prac­ti­cal assis­tance to those less for­tu­nate, car­ing for the poor and dis­ad­van­taged in many coun­tries of the world, with­out regard for race, reli­gion or nation­al­ity. The Church also oper­ates youth camps, com­mu­nity ser­vice projects, fam­ily life coun­sel­ing and other pro­grams to assist those wish­ing to over­come drug addic­tion and alco­hol or tobacco dependence.

The Com­mu­ni­ca­tion of Hope

Seventh-day Adven­tists will com­mu­ni­cate hope by focus­ing on the qual­ity of life that is com­plete in Christ. Com­mu­ni­ca­tion is a vital aspect of faith, shar­ing the good news of God and keep­ing the fam­ily of believ­ers in touch through a global sys­tem that includes satel­lite broad­cast­ing, TV, radio, print and the Internet.

Visit our Resource Links » to learn more about the Chris­t­ian world­view, Bible teach­ings, and Seventh-day Adventists.