Eight Basic Beliefs of the Seventh Day Adventist Church

The Last Day Church?

From the time I was born, until my mid 20's I was a Seventh Day Adventist. People often want to know what this religion entails. They associate it with the Branch Davidians, or the Armstrongs. While both had their beginnings in the Seventh Day Adventist Church, their beliefs changed over the years, especially the Branch Davidians.

Seventh Day Adventists got their start in the early 1840's. There were a group of people , led my William Miller, that mistook Bible prophecy , and believed that Jesus Second Coming would be in the fall of 1844. The believers who gathered were extremely depressed when the great event did not occur. But in the process of studying about the Second Coming, they had stumbled across many of the beliefs that would become the core foundation of the church.
These early believers were first known as Millerites, before they became Seventh Day Adventists.

The Seventh Day Adventist have a set of core beliefs. They are:
1) That the Seventh Day Sabbath or Jewish Sabbath was never changed. They still observe the Sabbath on Saturday, but observe it from sundown Friday night until sundown Saturday night.

2) That Jesus Christ is coming back soon, and our work and mission should be to prepare people for this soon coming. Most other Christian denominations hold this belief, so this alone does not set them apart.

3) They believe in religious freedom. You will find Adventists fighting in courts, and around the world for religious freedom, and for the right to worship as you wish. This believe is based on the idea in the church, that those who worship on Saturday will one day be persecuted by their countries. So the church is trying to delay what they believe is immanent.

4) A life of abstinence. This not only includes abstinence from alcohol , drugs, and tobacco, but it also included the belief that animal meat is unclean. Many Seventh Day Adventists are vegetarians.

5) The belief that we should live a moderate and temperate life style. This includes simple dress, no jewelry besides a watch and a simple wedding ring, and no dancing or movies. Dancing and movies are seen as ways that the worldly lusts enter ones lives.