Beliefs

Aventists believe in one God, a trinity of three beings – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We receive salvation because God gave his son Jesus to be a sacrifice for our sins, a perfect sacrifice, as he lived a sinless life. Jesus was crucified, buried, and arose on the third day which now is a representation of baptism. The Holy Spirit was sent to be our Counselor and Comforter when Jesus returned to Heaven. Jesus also promised that one day he would return, a second time, to finish the plan of salvation, and to take all of the believers to Heaven.

Our name originates from two different parts: “Seventh-day” meaning the adherence to the biblical Sabbath on the seventh day of the week, and “Adventist” which refers to the advent of Jesus, or his return.

History

The Seventh-day Aventist Church was started in the 1840s as part of the Millerite movement, when a small group of believers from New England re-discovered the seventh-day Sabbath. The denomination was officially formed in 1863 with almost 3,500 members and 125 churches.

They quickly expanded to other countries outside of North America and by 1874 were in Switzerland, then Russia, Ghana, South Africa, Argentina, and Japan.

Today the church has almost 17.2 million members in 214 countries around the world, becoming one of the fastest growing Christian Protestant Churches.