The Tempe Seventh-day Adventist Church is part of a sisterhood of Seventh-day Adventist churches. We believe that the Bible is the inspired revelation of God's will for mankind and defines who He is, who we are, and is the last word for all experiences and teachings. Below is only a synopsis of a few of our beliefs stated in a very easy to read style. For a comprehensive treatment of our beliefs, please contact our church for info on the book, "Seventh-day Adventists Believe."
GOD'S CHARACTER
God's greatest desire is for you to see a clear picture of His character. When you see Him clearly, you will find His love irresistible. For many, "seeing God clearly" requires that they see God's face. However, how He looks is not the issue. Seeing and understanding His character is what's most important. The more clearly we understand Him, the more we will find His love irresistible. As we begin to experience His love, our own lives will begin to make more sense.
God most clearly reveals His character in three great events. The first is His creation of man and woman-and His giving them the freedom of choice. He created humans with the ability to choose to love Him or to hate Him. The death of Jesus Christ, God's only Son, on the cross as our substitute is the second great event. In that act He paid the penalty we deserve for our disobedient choices toward God and His ways. Jesus' death guarantees forgiveness for those unfortunate and destructive choices and allows us to spend eternity with Him. The third event confirms the first two and fills every heart with hope: Christ's tomb is empty! He is alive, living to fill us with His love! Jesus' disciple John wrote that if everyone wrote all the stories they knew about Jesus, the whole world could not contain them. Our knowledge of God helps us understand His love, character, and grace. Experiencing that love begins a lifelong adventure in growth and service. This knowledge and experience powers our mission to tell the world about His love and His offer of salvation.
JESUS CHRIST
Everything in this world is always changing-our desires, interests, skills, and body shapes. But Jesus? He's consistent. He's always the same. Sure, He's always surprising us and touching our lives in thousands of new and different ways, but His character is unchanging. He's God's Son, the Creator, our Savior, and Friend. Jesus has promised to be all of that, and more, for each of us. We can trust His promises because He is God. When the words of Colossians say "in Him all things hold together" (1:17, NIV) that includes everything in our lives. He keeps us whole when the enemy is trying to make us fall apart. Seventh-day Adventists believe that Jesus is one of the three persons, called the Trinity, who make up our one God. The Bible describes Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit as each being committed to our growth as Christians and to our salvation as their children. They made this salvation possible when Jesus came to Bethlehem as a human baby. He lived a life perfectly in accord with God's will and then died innocently for all of our sins. He was placed in a borrowed tomb, but He came back to life three days later. Now he is in heaven interceding with the Father for us, preparing for our deliverance from sin and death and a soon return to our world. When everything may be falling apart, when you feel totally alone in the universe, Jesus is right there in the center of it all, offering personal peace and hope. Allow Him into your life. He immediately begins "remodeling" who you are and how you live. Jesus, in fact, is busily transforming His followers into accurate representatives of God's character. Look to Jesus, and you'll be looking into the understanding and loving face of God. He is the one who never changes in a universe that always does. Jesus is Creator, Sustainer, Savior, Friend, God's Son, and God Himself!
THE SCRIPTURES
The Bible is a road map and through it we may hear God's voice, speaking His love personally to us today. It speaks the Creator's directions to us, like a detailed road map that clearly shows the exit ramp directly into heaven. It is also much like an owner's manual for a life ready to be lived on the cutting edge of liberty and touches upon many subjects and areas of life. Sometimes His voice speaks through stories, such as those of David and Goliath, Ruth and Boaz, Naaman's little servant girl, Christ on the cross, and fisherman Peter learning how to tend sheep. Some of these stories teach us how to handle the troubles we face each day. Others fill us with hope and peace. Each of them is like a personal letter from God to you. Portions of Scripture are direct instructions and laws from God such as the Ten Commandments, recorded in Exodus 20. These tell us more about God and His expectations for us. When people asked Jesus to summarize these commands, He focused on the way God's love affects the way we live. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul," He said. "And love your neighbor and yourself as well." On other pages the Bible gives God's practical advice and encouragement through parables, lists, promises, and warnings. Amazingly, though many different writers throughout thousands of years wrote the Bible, each page describes the same God in ways we can understand and apply in our lives today. This book is always His voice talking personally to anyone who is willing to read and hear. God loves us even when we choose to reject His love. In those times He allows us to walk away into the life of our own choices. Yet He is still there, always ready to redeem us from the results of our decisions.
A FULFILLING LIFE
God's vision for you is life as He lives it! God loves you, and wants to give you the highest quality of life imaginable. Not a second-rate existence somewhere on earth, but the highest quality of life imaginable, here and in eternity with Him! That's what God wants us to have-the best! This is why He provides church families where we can belong. This is why He gives each of us special gifts and talents, so we can live life fully. Amazingly, this is why He's concerned about what you're doing, when you're doing it, and how you relate to Him. God doesn't want anything to get in the way of our friendship. He especially doesn't want us to get involved in anything damaging or hurtful. He's like a loving father or a good big brother. He's someone who loves you so much that He's always looking out for you. When God designed you, He included special talents and skills that will help you become a uniquely valuable individual. These may be your ability to teach, your love for others, or your leadership skills. Still, whatever special gifts you have received, God has also provided all of the energy and wisdom necessary for you to use them well. By the way, how God feels about death is part of the quality life He offers. For followers of Christ, death holds no fear. Remember, Jesus defeated death on Calvary and has given us freedom from death. Cemeteries, then, are filled with followers of God who are in the "peaceful pause before the resurrection." Yes, they are dead, but that death holds no power over their future. Jesus is coming to take them (and those of us who are still living) HOME! Death is almost like a wintery promise of spring. The Seventh-day Adventist faith in today and in the future comes from seeing this life "overflowing" with hope! Because love is the key aspect of His character, God is also deeply into gratitude. Before we even finish saying thank you, He's already busy sending more blessings.
SALVATION
God loves us so much that He did everything in order to save us from sin. That "everything" came in the form of Jesus, His son. If God were to have a refrigerator in heaven, you can bet your picture is on it! His love for us is deep and personal.
Pictures of everyone fill that refrigerator door: Nepalese, Brazilians, Nigerians, Yupiks, Germans, people of every nation, culture, background, gender, hair color, and foot size. In God's eyes all are equally "children of the King"! The gift of salvation is for everyone. And that salvation is possible because Jesus lived a perfect life and died on the cross as the means to save and restore the human race to Him. God cleans away all our sins and replaces them with His goodness. We don't have to be "good" for Him to accept or save us. In fact, there is no amount of good deeds we will ever be able to accomplish in order to earn eternal life (see Ephesians 2:8, 9). Nevertheless, we must accept His free offer of forgiveness of our sins and eternal life with Him. We must also give Him permission to clean out everything the enemy has left in us. Then we begin to experience the transforming power of His love. It's like a giant war: one side pulling us toward empty pleasure and destruction, and God urging us to accept His offer of peace and purpose.
IN TOUCH WITH JESUS
Because Christ is our Lord and best friend, we will spend time with Him and strengthen our bond. The idea is that you and Jesus will spend time together just as friends do. Each day you'll share a hello and discuss how you can face the day's events together. Throughout the day you'll talk with Him about how you feel, whether it's happiness, sadness, frustration, or something exciting. It's pleasant being a friend of Jesus, able to "snuggle" comfortably into the safety of your relationship through daily prayer and contemplation of His Word, the Bible. And you can always trust Him to treat you well because He loves you. The seventh day of our week, Saturday, is an extra-special part of enriching that relationship. The Bible, from Genesis through Revelation, describes the seventh day as the one day God has set aside for focused fellowship with His people. God has named that day "Sabbath" and asked us to spend it with Him. "Remember the Sabbath day," He says, "to keep it holy." The Sabbath is a specialized 24-hour period to deepen our friendship with the Creator of the universe and to rest from the toil and stresses of everyday life; a day when we're together in special communion with Jesus Christ. There's another great truth about friendship with Jesus. It doesn't end in a cemetery, because He is planning a homecoming better than anything we can imagine. A homecoming filled with angels, trumpets, and resurrections! He's promised to bring His followers, those who have accepted the offer of His life-changing love, from this earth to His home, a place He calls heaven. A place where our friendship can go on growing forever, endlessly, joyfully!
CELEBRATING JESUS
God has given us practical and very meaningful ways to celebrate and keep in mind what Jesus means to us and what He has accomplished. Jesus has already won the war against sin. He is victorious! And now we can celebrate His victory in our lives when we participate in Baptism and the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper includes three symbols:
· Foot washing (which symbolizes our commitment to love others as Jesus loves us, John 13:14, 15)
· Bread (which symbolizes the body of Jesus that He gave for the world, John 6:51)
· "Wine" or grape juice (which symbolizes the purity of Jesus and His shed blood that gives eternal life, John 6:54)
And to help us understand how God can transform us into His children, Jesus modeled the process of baptism for us. Baptism symbolizes dying to self and coming alive in Jesus. Seventh-day Adventist Christians practice full immersion baptism because by being fully buried beneath the water we symbolize that we have said "no" to a sinful life (dying to sin) and by rising out of the water, we are "resurrecting" to a new life-living the rest of our lives for Jesus Christ. Through baptism we are truly born again in Jesus. Eternal life, peace, purpose, forgiveness, transforming grace, and hope-Jesus offers all of this and much more! We can truly trust Him to do exactly as He promises. Accept His gifts, and you immediately become an active part of His family, and He joyfully becomes part of yours.