Seventh-day Adventist

As a Christian church, Seventh-day Adventists are a faith community rooted in the beliefs described by the Holy Scriptures. For a more thorough description of the beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church go to the link below.

Most Seventh-day Adventist Believe:

In a personal God

In Jesus as our Saviour and God in the flesh

In the regeneration process called the "New Birth" through the acceptance of the Gospel.

That the Bible is the inspired Word of God

In the literal second coming of Jesus Christ

That human by nature is mortal

That death is an unconscious state

There will be a resurrection of the righteous dead at the second coming of Jesus Christ

That eternal life is gift from God received only through faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour

That the wicked will not burn eternally but will be burned up

In righteousness which comes by faith and not only by works

That the Ten Commandments is the standard of righteousness by which all will be judged

That the original Seventh-Day Sabbath (Saturday) has never been changed by divine authority and that all Christians are under obligation to keep it holy

In the support of the gospel through tithes and offerings

In baptism by immersion

In discarding unhealthy practices such as the use of alcohol, tobacco, drugs, unclean foods, etc

That the foregoing principles are practiced not from a sense of obligation to "earn" any place in Heaven, but rather they are practiced as a result of a consistent love for Christ, as well as the desire to walk with him daily. They are a natural consequence of accepting Him as a Personal Saviour.

The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists publishes a book that outlines the generally held beliefs of the majority of the members, so-called "fundamental beliefs." This is not the same as a creed (which is static), because Adventists believe that God may continue to provide new light. The number of fundamental beliefs was changed from 27 to 28 in a General Conference session in 2005.

When the Adventist church was founded, the founding members were non-trinitarian, and non-tritheistic. While some people would consider the official position of the church to be tri-theistic (given that in the church's view there are three separate beings that make up the Godhead) rather than trinitarian (which some would describe as one God with multiple personalities), the church officially describes their view as trinitarian, and states in their second fundamental belief that "There is one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a unity of three co-eternal Persons." This is considered a mystery that we may never fully understand, but it is not considered a belief in three gods.

Seventh Day Adventists believe that Sabbath (The day of rest) is Saturday, based on the bibles teachings that say God rested on the Seventh Day. SDA's also believe that God's coming is a soon coming event (adventist=awaiting).

Hogs-and-Other-Hazards

By Joe Crews

During my 46 years of ministry, largely in public evangelism, I have observed some interesting methods of Bible study. For example, many people diligently search the Scriptures, not to find truth, but simply to gather support for their preconceived religious ideas. Their minds are not open to be taught by God's Holy Spirit, and therefore they can manipulate the sacred texts to mean exactly what they want to believe.

One of the great, basic principles of Bible study is to search out the truth on any given subject from all the texts in the Bible. It is literally true that you can prove almost anything you want to prove by using a single, isolated text of Scripture. That is why it is so important to bring together the consensus of what Moses, David, Jesus, Paul and all other inspired authors have to say on the subject. That may involve a hundred or more verses! And even then, there still might be some confusion, because five or six of those hundred texts can always seem to contradict the rest.

So should those half-dozen aberrant verses be discarded since they don't harmonize with the others No indeed. They should be given special study in the context of surrounding verses, and also in comparison with the 95 which are in agreement. Very quickly it will be discovered that the ambiguity exists only in the mind, and the total Bible picture is in perfect focus and unity.

Someone has said that a text without its context is a pretext, and I believe it. This is particularly true of several strange verses which have been a stumbling block to thousands of earnest Bible students. Under careful scrutiny, however, these "problem texts" are found to be in harmony with each other and also with the rest of the inspired record. Because these texts relate to diet -one of the most popular subjects on the public mind today- we shall seek to untangle some of the confusing questions which have been raised about forbidden foods and biblical health laws.

The four scriptures we shall examine are in apparentconflict with scores of other clear declarations scattered throughout the Old and New Testaments on the subject of proper diet. But before we begin, it is important to note some of the landmark points which God has made through the writings of His servants.

Entire chapters, such as Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, have laid down detailed listings of the clean and unclean categories of animals. And since the original diet prescribed by God included no meat whatsoever (Genesis 1:29), we can be absolutely certain that no forbidden, "unclean" meat was included in the diets of those who lived before the flood and followed God's law.

After the flood, even though clean animals were introduced to the diets of the eight survivors due to the universal destruction of all vegetation, no unclean animals were permitted for food. God commanded the preservation of clean animals in the ark by sevens and the unclean animals by twos (Genesis 7:1-3). Obviously, this allowed only for the clean category to be eaten, while the male and female of the unclean animals were preserved for perpetuating the species.

Incidentally, this post-diluvian per-mission to eat even the clean animals produced an interesting phenomenon. Almost immediately, the life span of the human race fell from around 800 years to about 150 years.

The flood experience also demolishes a popular argument used by those who insist on eating both clean and unclean animals. They claim that the law of unclean foods only applied to the Jewish people. This cannot be correct, since there were no Jews in Noah's day when the restriction was laid, by God Himself, upon all the human race. Furthermore, the Bible declares that the forbidden-meat law will still be in effect at the second coming of Jesus. (Isaiah 66:15-17.)

It seems that from its very earliest years, Christianity was riven by divisions, 'heresies' and rivalry. In his epistles, Paul complained of those who opposed his teachings, teaching a "different Christ". He, in turn, visited the Jerusalem Church to inform its leaders, James and Peter, of the gospel he preached: (Galations 2:2) "And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privily to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run , or had run, in vain." Whether or not Paul sought an exchange of beliefs, it does seem that he believed his gospel to be different from that taught by the Jerusalem Church. There were other early Christian communities during the first century, with some scholars suggesting as many as fifty rival Church organisations.

We can no longer say which was the oldest Christian Church, although the Jerusalem Church of James and Peter, believed to have been the original Ebionite Church, appears to have existed before Paul began to preach. Nor do we really know exactly what doctrine either Paul or the Ebionites taught; the New Testament gospels were not written until many years later.

Thus, we can not really identify the 'true' Church of Jesus Christ, or even know if one single true Church ever existed. All Christians can do is listen to the claims of each denomination and make a choice among them.
Christianity.

We view our service to God to be 24/7, so there are no special days of worship. We believe our worship to be done on a daily basis by how we live our lives, interact with others, and conduct ourselves.

By your question, you may be asking when we meet at the Kingdom Hall for formal worship. If that is your question, then the answer will vary depending on the individual congregation and their circumstances. There are no set days or times dictated by the organization. Each congregation meets together three times a week, and each meeting serves a specific purpose. At one meeting a week, the congregation meets in small Bible study groups(usually 12-15 people) throughout the area in individual homes for 1 hour. These studies focus on deep study of the Bible. Right now, all over the world, we are studying verse-by-verse the Bible book of Revelation. At one meeting a week,(a 2-part meeting aprox 90 minutes total) we study how to be more effective ministers in our public preaching work, and at another meeting,(a 2 part meeting aprox 90 minutes total) we have Bible based instruction on a wide range of topics such as family life, comfort in the troubled times we live, or some other timely topic.

The times and days may vary depending on the needs of the area that the congregation serves, and how many congregations are using the same Kingdom Hall. Most Kingdom Halls have more than one congregation meeting there, for example, the Kingdom Hall I go to has three congregations. On Sunday, a congregation meets at 10AM, a second congregation meets at 12:30PM, and a third meets at 3PM. We are soon to form a fourth congregation, which will open up another meeting time, or they may meet on Saturday, whatever suits their needs.

We do not hold to any particular days for our worship. This provides for a variety of meeting times and days. In larger cites, such as the one I live in, there is many opportunities to attend, so that even when secular work makes it difficult to attend, there is usually another congregation that one can go to to still be able to get the benefit.

In short, traditionally most people go out preaching Saturdays (though it can be done any day of the week) Sundays are meeting days with public talk and watchtower study (though depending on # of congregations and kingdom halls some may have this meeting on Saturday and currently there is only one other day of the week that we have bible study ministerial school and general bible instruction on any one night of the week- each congregation has their night.

It's a no-go. Here's a little piece I found from the Adventist website, :

Testimonies, vol. 1, p. 497. She also states that in the future, " just before the close of probation," 'there will be shouting, with drums, music, and dancing. The senses of rational beings will become so confused that they cannot be trusted to make right decisions. And this is called the moving of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit never reveals itself in such methods, in such a bedlam of noise. This is an invention of Satan to cover up his ingenious methods for making of none effect the pure, sincere, elevating, ennobling, sanctifying truth for this time" (II SM 36).

From the beginning of the bible some animals were referred to as Clean and Unclean.

The time of the flood with Noah - Gen 7 & 8.

This suggests that these laws were known and practiced before the Flood and even from the earliest days of mankind. Sanctification and holiness imply being "different" or "set apart" for a special purpose. God instituted His law of clean and unclean to show the difference between His people and the nations around them

Naturally, the things SDA do not eat are based on the Clean and Unclean Laws continue in similar manner.

They were outlined in detail in Lev 11

Beasts:

You must not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he chews the cud, but divides not the hoof; he is unclean unto you, hare, swine (pig)

From the water:

all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you. Eg. Shrimp, Catfish, Shark, Crab

From the Fowls:

All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you. Eg. Owl, Eagle, Vulture, Kite etc.

Creeping Things:

All creeping things that creep upon the earth; the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise, ferret, and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole.

Dead Animals

Once dead before whether by natural means or accident

Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you.

Some people do not realize it, but the creator of this law is perfect in the writing as these animals do have a purpose for our existence whether great or small, but the fact that it goes into our bodies does harm immediately or gradually because of some toxins they possess. These are only discovered by scientists years later when the harm has already been done.