About Seventh-day Adventists
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a mainstream Protestant church with approximately 19 million members worldwide, including more than one million members in North America. The Seventh-day Adventist Church seeks to enhance quality of life for people everywhere and to let people know that Jesus is coming again soon.
Adventists believe a Trinity of three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—make up one God. They made salvation possible when Jesus, the Son, came to earth as a baby in Bethlehem and lived a sinless life in accordance with the Father's will. When Jesus was crucified for the sins of the people of the world and arose from the dead on the third day, victory was won for everyone.
When He returned to heaven following the resurrection, Jesus left the Holy Spirit to serve as our Comforter and Counselor. He promised to return to earth a second time to complete His plan of salvation and take His people to heaven. Adventists are among the believers who look forward to that day.
Adventists believe that God is concerned with the quality of human life, and that everything—the way we live, eat, speak, think, treat each other, and care for the world around us—is part of His plan. Our families, our children, our jobs, our talents, our money, and our time are all important to Him.
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From the Canadian SDA Conference comes this "About" section:
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week, and by its emphasis on the imminent Second Coming (advent) of Jesus Christ. Its utmost desire is to proclaim the beauty of God’s character. Adventists are confident that Jesus Christ reveals Himself as the ultimate way for people to come to God (see John 14:6.)
The church has 28 fundamental beliefs that are simply articulations of the church’s current understanding of the teachings of Scripture.
The core elements of Seventh-day Adventist teaching can be distilled into the following main topics:
- Meaningful Understanding of History. The Bible unfolds to us an extraordinary plan of God, presenting the world from God’s perspective of love, where evil will not have the last word.
Belief #8: The Great Controversy
Belief #18: The Gift of Prophecy
- Divine Power Available to All. This is the beauty and way of salvation: that God gives freely to each and everyone without restriction. Thus, divine power is available to all, making it possible for the human life to experience positive change.
Belief #9: Christ’s Death, Resurrection
Belief #10: The Experience of Salvation
Belief #24: Christ in Heavenly Sanctuary
- Positive Future. The Bible reminds us that God’s promises are true and that we will see Jesus and enjoy eternity in His presence.
Belief #25: 2nd Coming of Christ
Belief #26: Death and Resurrection
Belief #27: Millennium and the End of Sin
- Noble Origins. In the Bible we discover our roots and that the Almighty God desires to bring us back into harmony with His initial plan, so that His image in us may be restored.
Belief #23: Marriage and the Family
- Living in Harmony. God calls people to live in balance and harmony with God, others, and the universe. This is why rest is an essential value for Seventh-day Adventists. They learn the art of living according to the divine rhythm, acknowledging that God has the best solutions for all aspects of human life.
Belief #7: The Nature of Humanity
Belief #22: Christian Behaviour
- Authentic Fellowship. Adventists dream of promoting authentic unity in Jesus Christ. Church life should be a foretaste of heaven, where equality, fairness, justice, and transparency empower the community of believers to share God’s love.
Belief #14: Unity in the Body of Christ
- Divine Values. The Bible provides us with countless lessons on living an abundant, whole, and inspiring life. The observance of the Ten Commandments is not a goal to achieve but, rather, the tenfold expression of God’s love. The power of God fills the human mind with His grace, writing the law of love in the person’s heart and allowing him or her to live in harmony with the entire universe.
Belief #1: The Holy Scriptures
Between 1831 and 1844, William Miller—a Baptist preacher in the United States—launched the “great second advent awakening,” which eventually spread through most of the Christian world. According to his interpretation of Daniel 8:14, Miller strongly believed that Jesus’s coming should happen in 1844. However, on October 22, 1844, it was clear that his understanding was wrong. One group of his followers continued to study the Bible to discover Bible truth for their time. They saw that Daniel 8:14 referred mainly to the beginning of the judgment time, but they were also strongly impressed, and concluded, that the true date of Christ’s coming will remain unknown until the end. Thus, Adventist end-time theology is not driven by speculations about last-day events but rather the proclamation of the blessed hope in Jesus Christ.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada (SDACC) performs a key role in the governance and leadership of local Seventh-day Adventist congregations and provides guidance to Adventists schools and conferences around the country. Through its various departments, it provides an array of services to current and retired church employees, such as health benefits, legal counsel, planned giving, trust services, and a retirement plan. Moreover, the SDACC is pleased to support ministries such as the Native and the South Asian Religions Ministries. It is also the headquarters for the magazine Canadian Adventist Messenger, which features church news from across Canada and articles chosen to inspire, inform, and encourage readers.
The headquarters of the SDACC, located in Oshawa, summarize the church’s primary role in the following statement: proclaiming Christ, nurturing believers, and serving humanity.
