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Basic Beliefs Overview of Seventh-day Adventists All people are children of God. Because of His Son Jesus Christ, every man, woman and child can find peace and joy in this life and in the promised life to come. The Bible is our source of this assurance as well as the source of our Christian beliefs. As we come to know and love our Creator and Heavenly Father, we discover His purpose and will for our lives. We learn beyond question that God wants us to share His love with others. Adventists care deeply about the people in our communities. Our ultimate desire is not simply to share a set of doctrines or behaviors, but to share God’s healing love. So what do Adventists believe? The Church is a Safe Haven The Seventh-day Adventist Church is one of many Christian denominations. The name comes from the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath and a belief in the Second Coming (advent) of Jesus. Adventists hold church services on Saturday—joining together to worship, fellowship and study the Bible. The Adventist Church welcomes all people to their worship services. Formal membership includes being baptized (immersed) in water. The most important function of the Church is to provide a safe haven for people in a troubled world. Church membership is our way of declaring that we need God and each other if life is to make any sense. (Acts 2:42; Matthew 24:14; 28:18-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Mark 1:5, 9; Romans 6:3, 4) Perfect Beginnings... God the Creator made us. In fact, He made everything—the heavens, the earth, the sea and every living thing. His creation was perfectly glorious and precise in every detail. The Bible says, “God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” His crowning work was man and woman—formed in His very own image. Adam and Eve loved God and spoke with Him face-to-face. They were not forced to love and obey God. God gave them freedom of choice rather than demanding their love and obedience. (Genesis 1:1,31; Psalm 33:6-9; John 1:1-3, Genesis 1:26, 27; 3:8-11, Colossians 1:16). Perfect Beginnings Gone Bad Sadly, Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, which the Bible calls “sin.” Their sin distanced them from their loving Creator. It changed everything. They could no longer communicate with Him face-to-face. And the trust relationship was broken. The earth, once a place of life, joy, peace and love, was plagued with death, disease, suffering, sorrow, hatred and misery. That’s how the human story began. (Genesis 3:1-15) Some Very Good News However, that’s not how the story will end, because there is good news, really good news! These terrible results were never God’s desire for His children. After sin put distance between God and humans, the Creator continued to reveal Himself to His children over and over again. If we listen, we can still hear God’s voice through the Bible, through the beauty of nature and through our deepest human relationships. Adventists believe that the best message from God comes through His Son, Jesus. Even before Adam and Eve made their fatal choice, God had prepared a plan of salvation—that is, a plan to bring man and God back into perfect harmony. Father, Son and Holy Spirit made an amazing commitment that, if necessary, Jesus would die on a cross to restore the perfect world that had been broken by sin. (Genesis 3:16-24) The Gift of an New Life The sacrificial death of Jesus teaches us that sin is best understood, not simply as breaking God’s law, but also as breaking the loving heart of God. The death of Jesus on the cross means that we can be forgiven of our sins and have a new life. This seems too simple, but it’s true. God gave us the ultimate gift of His Son, and He continues to give us new life daily as part of that gift. (Romans 3:24; 5:6; 2 Corinthians 5:18; Galatians 1:4) The Gift Giver: Perfect God, Perfect Man Salvation and new life are gifts from Jesus, who is God in human form—divinity and humanity perfectly united. Because He is God, He has the power and authority to forgive and save us. Because He is man, he understands our joys and sorrows. Although He was born as a human being, He lived a perfect life on our behalf. When he was 33 years old, He died on a cross. He was placed in a tomb, where He rested in death over the Sabbath. He arose on Sunday morning and later ascended bodily into heaven where He is now with the Father. But He didn’t leave us alone and forsaken. He is still with us through His Holy Spirit, every minute of every day. (Matthew 1:18-23; Luke 1:26-35; Hebrews 4:14-15; Luke 3:23; 23:23-24: 6, 50-51) How Life Can Be Really Good In His Ten Commandments (Exodus 20), God explains how we can have a loving relationship with Him and with each other. So the commandments are really a blueprint for living the good life. The first four guide us in our relationship with God. The remaining six remind us to treat our neighbors with love and respect. Obedience to these commandments requires discipline. But discipline alone isn’t enough. When you love someone, you naturally want to please that person. That’s how it is when you love God. Living the Christian life arises from gratitude to God and a desire to honor Him. In addition to the Ten Commandments, we learn how to live from Christ’s teaching and example. Among other things, He tells us to love God, to love each other and to love ourselves. Happily, God generously gives us the ability to love, gives us the gifts of faith and love, which makes it possible for us to obey the commandment to love one another. (Matthew 5:1-7, 27; 16:24-28; John 15:5-8) When we fall short of perfect conformity to God’s law and a relationship with Him, we need to remind ourselves that God offers forgiveness as a gift of grace through Jesus. (Exodus 20:3-17; John 15:10; Romans 3:20, 23-24 28) God Listens When We Pray Through prayer, we open our hearts to God as if talking with a friend. We don’t actually need to “learn how” to pray. If we can talk, we can pray. Indeed, if we can think, we can pray. No topic is too great or too small. Jesus taught His disciples to praise God in their prayers, to ask for daily bread and to share the burdens on their hearts. While God already knows what we need, prayer provides the way for us to receive the good things He wants to give us. But sometimes we don’t get what we ask for, and that can be very difficult. We don’t always understand why our prayers aren’t answered as we wish, but through faith we can be absolutely sure that God loves us and that He is with us, no matter what happens. And we believe that one day God will restore all we have lost because of sin. (Matthew 6:6-13; Job; Romans 8:37-39) Promoting Good Physical Health God gives each of us the opportunity to be all that He intends for us to be. Seventh-day Adventists believe a wholesome lifestyle contributes to good physical, mental and spiritual health. Adventist Church founders developed this whole-person concept of health over 135 years ago in Battle Creek, Michigan. Why are Adventists so passionate about good health? The Bible says, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? . . . For God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.” So it makes sense that Christians abstain from alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and harmful drugs and narcotics. A healthful diet, adequate exercise and rest are also important in taking care of your body-temple. Seventh-day Adventists choose not to eat meat that the Bible forbids, such as pork and shellfish. And long before research revealed the great benefits of a vegetarian diet, Adventists promoted vegetarianism as part of a healthy lifestyle. (1 Corinthians 3:16,17; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Proverbs 20:1; 23:29-32; Leviticus 11) Rest from Stress, Fear and Anxiety The Bible tells us that after God created the world in six days, He rested on the seventh day. He “sanctified” it— that is, set it apart for holy purpose. Later, when He gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, God explained the Sabbath in more detail. The Sabbath reminds us that God is the Creator and worthy of our worship. When God rested on the first Sabbath day it wasn’t because He was exhausted or needed to recover from His creative labors. Rather, He rested as an example to us, because He knew that we would become weary and would need weekly rest. The Sabbath is God’s gift of rest. Celebrated from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, the Sabbath is a spiritual experience as well as a physical rest. During His earthly ministry, Jesus made it clear that the Sabbath was made for our benefit. It was never intended to be a burden or encumbered with unreasonable man-made rules. Jesus celebrated the Sabbath by attending synagogue, healing the sick and spending time with those He loved. (Genesis 1:5; 2:1-3; Exodus 20:8-11 Leviticus 23:32; Mark 2:27; Luke 4:16, 31; 6:1-10) The Very Happy Ending The Bible teaching that Jesus will return to this earth to take us home to heaven with Him forever is at the heart of Adventist beliefs. “I am going there to prepare a place for you,” Jesus said. “When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.” On that happy day, the entire universe will know beyond doubt that God is indeed a God of forgiveness and love, and that His ways are best. The Bible says Jesus will come in glory to deliver His people and to restore all things. Loved ones who have rested asleep in their graves will be called back to life to join us on our journey to our new home in a perfect world—a world free from pain, suffering and death. We don’t know all the details about heaven, but we do know it is a very real place. A place where followers of Jesus Christ who have sincerely pursued an obedient, faith-based relationship with God from every generation and every nation on earth will experience everlasting life, love and joy in fellowship with one another and with our wonderful Lord. (John 14:2; Acts 1:9-11; Revelation 1:7; Matthew 24:27-30; 25:31; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) Joining Hands and Hearts That’s the short version of what Adventists believe. We hope you have discovered our basic beliefs. More importantly, it is our hope that we can join hands and hearts together with you to offer spiritual and physical health and healing to all people in our community. If you would like to learn more about Seventh-day Adventist beliefs and lifestyle, please contact LifeSource Community Church or visit www.adventist.org. Your questions are always welcome.
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