Concept
Seventh-day Adventist Church
Overview
The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) is an Adventist Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath; its emphasis on the imminent Second Coming (advent) of Jesus Christ; and its annihilationist soteriology. The denomination grew out of the Millerite movement in the United States during the mid-19th century, and it was formally established in 1863. Among its co-founders was Ellen G. White, whose extensive writings are still held in high regard by the church. Seventh-day Adventists have compared Ellen G. White to biblical prophets.
Some of the theology of the Seventh-day Adventist Church corresponds to common evangelical Christian teachings, such as the Trinity and the infallibility of Scripture. Distinctive eschatological teachings include soul sleep, the doctrine of an investigative judgment and annihilationism. The church emphasizes following the Jewish dietary law, advocates vegetarianism, and its holistic view of human nature—i.e., that the body, soul, and spirit form one inseparable entity. The church holds the belief that "God created the universe, and in a recent six-day creation made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day." Marriage is defined as a lifelong union between a man and a woman. The second coming of Christ and resurrection of the dead are among official beliefs.
The world church is governed by a General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, with smaller regions administered by divisions, unions, local conferences, and local missions. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is as of 2016 "one of the fastest-growing and most widespread churches worldwide", with a worldwide baptized membership of over 24 million people. As of May 2007, it was the twelfth-largest Protestant religious body in the world and the sixth-largest highly international religious body. It is ethnically and culturally diverse and maintains a missionary presence in over 215 countries and territories. The church operates over 7,500 schools, including over 100 post-secondary institutions, as well as numerous hospitals and publishing houses worldwide, a humanitarian aid organization known as the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), and tax-exempt businesses such as Sanitarium, the proceeds of which contribute to the church's charitable and religious activities.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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Time, then, and the heaven came into being at the same instant in order that, having been created together, if ever there was to be a dissolution of them, they might be dissolved together. It was framed after the pattern of the eternal nature, that it might resemble this as far as was possible; for the pattern exists from eternity, and the created heaven has been, and is, and will be, in all time. Such was the mind…
Plato, Timaeus
States what Seventh-day Adventist Church is.
The 148th and 149th Psalms set forth a certain form of such praise and thanksgiving, where the sun, the moon, the stars, the fishes and the dragons are called upon to praise the Lord. But there is no one psalm so beautiful, but that any one of us might compose one far more excellent and more perfect, if we had been born of the seed of Adam in his state of original innocence. Adam would have preached that highest of…
Martin Luther, Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1
States what Seventh-day Adventist Church is.
iv. stand on either side of the golden candlestick to supply the lamps with oil: and Olive-trees, according to the Apostle _Paul_, represent Churches, _Rom._ xi. They supply the lamps with oil, by maintaining teachers. They are also called _the two candlesticks_; which in this Prophecy signify Churches, the seven Churches of _Asia_ being represented by seven candlesticks. Five of these Churches were found faulty…
Isaac Newton, Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John
States what Seventh-day Adventist Church is.
Related ideas
- Cult
- Evangelicalism
- Jesus
- Genesis creation narrative
- Arianism
- Gospel
- Arminianism
- Hong Kong
- Heaven
- Iran
- Jerusalem
- Soteriology
- Peru
- Los Angeles
- Latin America
- Argentina
- Plagiarism
- Birth control
- Moscow
- Culture
- The Guardian
- Infobase
- Holism
- North America
Place in the tradition
Part of Pandeism.
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