Seventh-day Adventist Church

The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant denomination, but it has some beliefs that are different from most other Protestants. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is also called the SDA church. Although "SDA" is commonly used, "Adventist" is the church's own officially preferred shortening of "Seventh-day Adventist". It came from the Millerite group which included people from many denominations. The Millerites started in the 19th century, after the year 1800. The Millerites were people who followed the teachings of William Miller. Miller preached that Jesus is coming very soon, in the Second Coming or Second Advent. That is why the church that came from them called themselves "Adventists." The SDA Church also believe that the day we should worship God is Saturday. They call this day Sabbath, like the Bible does. It is the seventh day of the week. That is why they are called "Seventh-day Adventists".

Important teachings include the unconscious state of the dead (which means that when people die, they do not wake back up until Judgment Day) and the doctrine of an investigative judgment. The church also focuses on diet and health, its holistic understanding of the person, its promotion of religious liberty, and its conservative principles and lifestyle.

The Seventh-day Adventists also think many of Ellen G. White's writings were important. She was a dedicated Christian who believed she got visions from God about the end of the world and what heaven will be like. As Seventh-day Adventists, they believe that they should not eat unclean foods like pig, certain fish, and animals that the Bible names as unclean. They practice healthy eating, vegetarianism (not eating meat), and staying away from things they think are immoral smoking, drinking or doing anything to harm what they consider the Temple Of God or their bodies.

A National Geographic article printed in November of 2005 said that Seventh-day Adventists were one of the groups of people in the world that live the longest because they take care of their bodies. The Seventh-day Adventist community in Loma Linda, CA was also mentioned in the book "The Blue Zones", which features parts of the world where people commonly live past the age of 100.

Organization

The Seventh-day Adventist Church is organized with a representative form of church government and the world-wide Church has 13 Divisions.

The Seventh-day Adventist World Church Statistics show a growing church with 15,660,347 members as of December 31, 2007.

The Adventist News Network reported in June 2010 (during the 59th quinquennial General Conference Session of the Seventh-day Adventist Church held in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.) that Seventh-day Adventists reached a membership of 16,300,000, according to the church's Office of Archives and Statistics. The world church Secretary stated that when counting unbaptized children and family members who attend services, the church numbers between 25 and 30 million.

Mainstream doctrine

Seventh-day Adventists uphold the central doctrines of Protestant Christianity: the Trinity, the incarnation, the virgin birth, the substitutionary atonement, justification by faith, creation, original sin, the second coming, the resurrection of the dead, and last judgment.

The official teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination are expressed in the Seventh-day Adventist 28 Fundamental Beliefs. This statement of beliefs was originally adopted by the General Conference in 1980, with an additional belief (number 11) being added in 2005.

In Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine (1957), Adventists outlined the core doctrines that they hold in common with mainstream Christianity. "In Common With Conservative Christians and the Historic Protestant Creeds, We Believe—

1. That God is the Sovereign Creator, upholder, and ruler of the universe, and that He is eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.
2. That the Godhead, the Trinity, comprises God the Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
3. That the Scriptures are the inspired revelation of God to men; and that the Bible is the sole rule of faith and practice.
4. That Jesus Christ is very God, and that He has existed with the Father from all eternity.
5. That the Holy Spirit is a personal being, sharing the attributes of deity with the Father and the Son.
6. That Christ, the Word of God, became incarnate through the miraculous conception and the virgin birth; and that He lived an absolutely sinless life here on earth.
7. That the vicarious, atoning death of Jesus Christ, once for all, is all-sufficient for the redemption of a lost race.
8. That Jesus Christ arose literally and bodily from the grave.
9. That He ascended literally and bodily into heaven.
10. That He now serves as our advocate in priestly ministry and mediation before the Father.
11. That He will return in a premillennial, personal, imminent second advent.
12. That man was created sinless, but by his subsequent fall entered a state of alienation and depravity.
13. That salvation through Christ is by grace alone, through faith in His blood.
14. That entrance upon the new life in Christ is by regeneration, or the new birth.
15. That man is justified by faith.
16. That man is sanctified by the indwelling Christ through the Holy Spirit.
17. That man will be glorified at the resurrection or translation of the saints, when the Lord returns.
18. That there will be a judgment of all men.
19. That the gospel is to be preached as a witness to all the world."

Adventist doctrine resembles trinitarian Protestant theology, with premillennial and Arminian emphases. Adventists uphold teachings such as the infallibility of Scripture, the substitutionary atonement, the resurrection of the dead and justification by faith alone, and are therefore often considered evangelical.