How Seventh-day Adventist Church Is Organized.

Well, we are almost done with this book about who your friends the Seventh-day Adventists are and what we believe and why. This blog also provides many resources to learn more about who we are. We are not a crazy cult of any type. SDA Has so many good things out there for people. We have Hospitals and Universities, and outreach and several types of ministries for every possible situation out there. We base all we do solely on the Bible. Ellen White's writings never stray from the bible either. She is NOT our leader as some like to say. We do NOT follow her. We follow Jesus Christ and His word. If you do an honest study and research you will learn the truth about us. Stop believing the lies Satan has put out there. He hates us and is very afraid of us, because we do follow His commandments and we have the Testimony of Jesus.
Revelation 12:17 17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Now on to the next section of getting acquainted....
   
     Much like America's democracy, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has from the beginning chosen a representative form of government. The key unit of its organization is the local congregation.
     The congregation in a given geographical area such as a state or province make up a local conference In the United States, populous states may be divided into more than one conferences (California, for example, has four conferences), while in less populated areas, a conference may include tow states (North and South Dakota are a single conference).
     The local conference appoints ministers for individual congregations. Adventist ministers are all paid from the tithes sent to the local conference by the members of its individual congregations---and all the ministers receive the same salary whether their congregation is large or small.
     A number of local conferences together form a union conference. Nine union conferences, for example, cover the United States and Canada. The entire world is divided in to eleven divisions---each composed of several union conferences. together, these divisions make up the world wide level of church government called the General Conference.
     The world headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventist Church---its General Conference---is located in Silver Spring, Maryland. The chief executive of the church is its president, who is elected (or reelected) every five years at a General Conference session. Delegates from each level of church government convene for this quinquennial session to hear reports and transact business that relates to the world church.

Next post will be The primary activities of the SDA Church. Stayed tuned! :)

Spiritual Gifts....Let's Get Acquainted Continued...

     Through the Holy Spirit, God gives special spiritual gifts to each true Christian. God intends that just as each part of a human body fulfills a specific function, each member of His spiritual body will also fulfill a specific function through exercising the spiritual gifts He has given.
     The Holy Spirit chooses what spiritual gifts each Christian receives. Some of these gifts are most useful for building up the body of Christ---that is, for ministering to those already in the church. Others are designed primarily for reaching out to win others to Christ and His church. If each member fully exercises his or her gifts, the church will be growing and vigorous. Some spiritual gifts mentioned in the Bible include wisdom, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, evangelism, teaching and pastoring.
     One of the gifts which the Bible says will be present in the church just before Christ's second coming is the gift of prophecy. This gift often includes a special ability to publicly expound the Scriptures. But it also may include the ability to predict future events and to deliver special messages from God to His people.
     Seventh-day Adventists believe that the gift of prophecy in a ll its fullness was evident in the life and work of one of its founding pioneers---Mrs. Ellen G. White. Through scores of books and magazine articles, as well as through public speaking, Ellen White faithfully shared God;s messages to our young and growing church.
     Though Adventists do not believe that Mrs' White's writings in anyway take the place of the Bible or add to it, we are convinced that she enjoyed God;s special guidance and inspiration as she wrote. Her books such as Steps to Christ and The Desire of Ages have led thousands to see the character of Jesus more clearly. 

Eph. 4:4-16        1 Cor, 1:4-7        Amos 3:7
1 Cor. 12:1-11    Joel 2:27, 28      2 Chron. 20:20
Rom. 12:4-8        Rev. 12:17         Jer. 28:9
1 Pet. 4:10, 11     Rev. 19:10         1 John 4:1-3, 6

The Church... Getting acquainted continued....

     Though the rebellion against God which Satan exported from heaven to earth soon enlisted the majority of the human race, there have always been those who responded to God's appeal to come out of the world and follow Him.
     In earth's earliest history, the families of faithful patriarchs composed His "church." Later, God chose the nation of Israel to be His "church"---to represent Him to the world. And before He left earth to return to heaven, Christ launched the New Testament church, which He described as His body. 
     Christ's church today is a spiritual body made up of all who accept Him as their Saviour and the Lord. Though many denominations exist, Adventists believe that Christ's true followers---His body---may be found scattered among all these organizations. 
     Salvation does not come through joining any church organization. Salvation comes through trusting in the Head of the church---Jesus Christ. But those who truly trust in Christ will quite naturally want to become a part of His church---the body of Christ on earth. It is really not possible to accept fully the Head of the church while rejecting fellowship with His body.
     The purpose of the church is to provide for group worship of God, for the mutual encouragement and fellowship of its members, and for reaching out to the world with the good news about Christ and his salvation.
     Although we as Adventists do not see ourselves as better than any other true Christians, we do believe that---in fulfillment of Bible prophecy---God has called Adventists into existence just before the second coming of Christ to help restore certain Bible truths that have long been lost sight of. We believe that God has asked us to proclaim a special message to the world and to other Christians, which will produce a faithful remnant of the church to meet Christ when He comes. 


Please click on the verses to read;

     Acts 7:38             Matt. 28:19, 20         Rev. 12:17
     Eph. 2:19, 20       Rom. 12:4, 5             Rev. 14:6-12
     Heb. 10:23-25     1 Cor. 12:12-27        Rev. 18:1-4
     Matt. 16:13-14     Eph. 4:4-16              Rev. 19:10

How Seventh-Day Adventists Began

     Though we did not officially organize as a church---a denomination---until 1863, our roots go back at least early 1800's. As the new century began, a great wave of interest in the Bible swept over America. This interest focused especially on the Bible prophecies concerning the second advent---the return to this world---of Jesus Christ.
     Between 1831 and 1844, William Miller---a Baptist preacher and former army captain in the War of 1812---launched the "great second advent awakening." which eventually spread throughout most of the Christian world. Based on his study of the prophecy of Daniel 8:14. Miller calculated that Jesus would return to earth on October 22, 1844. When Jesus did not appear, Miller's followers experienced what came to be called "the great disappointment."
     Most of the thousands who had joined the "great second advent awakening" left it, in deep disillusionment. A few, however, went back to their Bibles to find why they had been disappointed. Soon they concluded that the October 22 date had indeed been correct, but Miller had predicted the wrong event for that day. They became convinced that the Bible prophecy predicted not that Jesus would return to earth in 1844, but that He would begin at that time a special ministry in heaven for His followers. They still looked for Jesus to come soon, however, as do Seventh-day Adventists yet today.
     From this small group who refused to give up after the "great disappointment" arose several leaders who built the foundation of what would become the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Standing out among these leaders were a young couple---James and Ellen White---and a retired sea captain named Joseph Bates.
     This small nucleus of "Adventists" began to grow---mainly in the New England states of America, where Miller's movement had begun. Ellen White, a mere teenager at the time of the "great disappointment," grew into a gifted author, speaker and administrator, who would become and remain the trusted spiritual counselor of the Adventist family for more than seventy years until her death in 1915. Early Adventists came to believe---as have Adventists ever since---that she enjoyed God's special guidance as she wrote her counsels to the growing body of believers.
     In 1860, at Battle Creek, Michigan, the loosely knit congregations of Adventists chose the name Seventh-day Adventists and in 1863 formally organized a church body with a membership of 3,500---all in North America. By 1900 our membership had spread abroad and stood at 75,000. By the mid-1960's it had swelled to over 1.5 million. And today as we find ourselves in the twenty-first century, we have become one of the fastest-growing churches, with a membership of approximately eleven million and growing at nearly 3,000 a day.

Separation of Church and State

Separation of Church and State


and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her...
- Revelation 18:3


In that grand old document which our forefathers set forth as their bill of rights--the Declaration of Independence--they declared: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." And the Constitution guarantees, in the most explicit terms, the inviolability of conscience: "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office of public trust under the United States." "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." 


"The framers of the Constitution recognized the eternal principle that man's relation with his God is above human legislation, and his rights of conscience inalienable. Reasoning was not necessary to establish this truth; we are conscious of it in our own bosoms. It is this consciousness which, in defiance of human laws, has sustained so many martyrs in tortures and flames. They felt that their duty to God was superior to human enactments, and that man could exercise no authority over their consciences. It is an inborn principle which nothing can eradicate."--Congressional documents (U.S.A.), serial No. 200, document No. 271. 


The Bible was held as the foundation of faith, the source of wisdom, and the charter of liberty. Its principles were diligently taught in the home, in the school, and in the church, and its fruits were manifest in thrift, intelligence, purity, and temperance. One might be for years a dweller in the Puritan settlement, "and not see a drunkard, or hear an oath, or meet a beggar."--Bancroft, pt. 1, ch. 19, par. 25. It was demonstrated that the principles of the Bible are the surest safeguards of national greatness. The feeble and isolated colonies grew to a confederation of powerful states, and the world marked with wonder the peace and prosperity of "a church without a pope, and a state without a king." 


But continually increasing numbers were attracted to the shores of America, actuated by motives widely different from those of the first Pilgrims. Though the primitive faith and purity exerted a widespread and molding power, yet its influence became less and less as the numbers increased of those who sought only worldly advantage. 


The regulation adopted by the early colonists, of permitting only members of the church to vote or to hold office in the civil government, led to most pernicious results. This measure had been accepted as a means of preserving the purity of the state, but it resulted in the corruption of the church. A profession of religion being the condition of suffrage and officeholding, many, actuated solely by motives of worldly policy, united with the church without a change of heart. Thus the churches came to consist, to a considerable extent, of unconverted persons; and even in the ministry were those who not only held errors of doctrine, but who were ignorant of the renewing power of the Holy Spirit. Thus again was demonstrated the evil results, so often witnessed in the history of the church from the days of Constantine to the present, of attempting to build up the church by the aid of the state, of appealing to the secular power in support of the gospel of Him who declared: "My kingdom is not of this world." John 18:36. The union of the church with the state, be the degree never so slight, while it may appear to bring the world nearer to the church, does in reality but bring the church nearer to the world. 


When religion is good, it will take care of itself. When it is not able to take care of itself and God does not see fit to take care of it so that it has to appeal to the civil power for support, it's evidence in my mind that the cause is a bad one. -Benjamin Franklin