The 7^th Day Adventist Church

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On June 30, 2001, at 11am, I attended a service with the 7^th Day Adventist Church. Of course, the service was on Saturday. They believe that God must be worshiped on the original Sabbath.

The man at the front door was very welcoming and so was the greeter. The second guy talked to us for awhile, gave us a program and had us sign their guest book. Somehow, he knew we were visitors. I wrote my address and phone number and said I would like someone to visit me. So far, nobody has called, written or visited.

The church looked pretty normal. It was a decent sized sanctuary. They also had other rooms (that I didn't investigate). There was organ music playing and people of all ages with their families. There was stained glass in the front and rear of the church. There was a long strip from the bottom to the top of the building. It had a huge, vaulted ceiling.

I thought it was a little interesting that they had a sign saying to support General Mills in the front of the church. A long time ago, there was a little scare that General Mills has the symbol of the devil on their products. It was a hoax, though. Nonetheless, it was odd to see that and nothing else like it.

Incidentally, this church is sharing a building with another church that meets on Sunday. I'm not sure which one owns the place (or perhaps neither of them do).

It was queer that they wouldn't use the words Sunday or Saturday. They always used the word "Sabbath". Recently, I wrote one of my pastors and asked him why we worship God on Sunday. Here is what he wrote:

1. The Lord rose on the 1st day of the week (Sunday).

2. There is evidence in the NT that the early Christians meet on Sunday (Acts 20:7 and 1 Cor. 16:2).

3. The Sabbath is fulfilled in Christ. Therefore we don't observe the Sabbath. Hebrews 4:10-11

I think that the key for me is in Romans 14. There it talks about observance of days and eating and drinking. If a church wants to meet on Saturday, I have no problem. If they say that another church is not godly because they meet on Sunday I would disagree.

Although this church didn't say anything (in this service) about their adherence to Sabbath worship or how wrong it is to worship on Sunday, they are very serious about "Sabbath" worship. You can learn more about their beliefs by clicking the link below.

There were 36 pews in this church. There were about 300 people in attendance. Children were in the service and talking.

Their worship was more like a Protestant or Evangelical Christian church. They used two guitars, a bass guitar and piano. Plus, there were seven singers and a signer (for the hearing impaired). They had words on a screen and the hymns were up-tempo.

They sang "Leaning On the Everlasting Arms" (hymn #469), "I am a C" and two other songs. They were relatively well-known songs.

They knelt in prayer. Nearly everyone did this. I hadn't seen a group do this in a church service like this.

They had an offering and a brief prayer. The pastor said he appreciates the gifts. He also prayed for God to bless the gifts. Saying he appreciated the gifts seemed a little distasteful. Asking God to bless the gifts didn't make a lot of sense.

This service had a vacation Bible school video which took a good chunk of time. They also had the kids come up and sing. The video was choreographed with a Michael W. Smith song, Amazing Grace and Silent Night.

The sermon was by far the worst part of the service. Incidentally, it was taped with a tripod and handheld video recorder.

The entire sermon lasted 19 minutes. The pastor used two verses from the Bible: Philippians 4:8 and a Proverb. He told some story about him being in a boat and having to trust God. It was terrible and hardly illustrated his point.

One thing that this guy said that I didn't like was this: "if you've done your best and asked for forgiveness, you're forgiven." This doesn't seem to correlate with John's words: "If you confess your sins, God is faithful to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness."

Just like the Jehovah's Witnesses, this church talked nothing of their doctrines. It is impossible to make a righteous judgment about this church by attending this one service. Therefore, we have to rely on the information provided by them and people who have compared their beliefs to the Bible. We can take what they believe and compare it to the Bible, too.

If you'd like more information about the 7^th Day Adventists, please go here.