Who are the Seventh-Day Adventists?

- Charlotte Ishkanian

I would say that Seventh-day Adventists are Protestant Christians who take the Bible seriously and at face value as God's revealed history of the world and will for His creatures. Adventists in every country and every culture look to the Bible for guidance in determining their actions and beliefs. That is why they worship God on the seventh day, which they call Sabbath. When God created the world he finished His work on the sixth day when he made man and woman. Then God gave them a birthday (or a wedding) gift--a special day to spend with him. He called it the Sabbath. On that day they were to put aside their labors and sit at His feet to learn from Him. After sin entered the world the Sabbath became even more important as a time to rest from the wearisome toils and the worries of the week and to focus on God and His love and care.

For a time the Sabbath was largely lost to humanity because of sin and selfishness, but when God made Abram the father of a "chosen people," and later brought those people out of the land of Egypt, He instructed them in how to obey His will and reminded them of His special gift to them, the Sabbath. Since that day to this, the Sabbath has been a promise and a gift from God, a gift of time. Sabbath-keepers do not put aside their tasks and worries on the Sabbath merely because God commanded it, or in order to earn favor with God, but because He has asked them to spend time with Him, learning from the Bible and from nature more about their Creator. The Jewish people still observe the Sabbath, as do several Protestant groups, the largest being Seventh-day Adventists.

Seventh-day Adventists, as their name implies, also believe that Jesus Christ will come again and look forward to his second advent; hence the name Adventist. Christ came the first time in human flesh, as a baby. The next time He comes He will come as King of the universe, with power and majesty. He has promised this in the Bible many times. First Thessalonians 4:16 and 17 say that

"The Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud call,... and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead [who believed] in Christ [and who looked forward to His return] will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever."