Thank you for visiting this page to find out more about George Street Church, Lutterworth and the Seventh-day Adventist believers who worship here. We opened on 6 November 2021. This is a brief overview of who we are.
We are Bible believing Protestants, and we believe that we should refer all teachings back to this principle in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 ‘Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.’.
Many of you may never have heard of Seventh-day Adventists or it has just been a name with no actual meaning. This page will clarify who we are and what our basic beliefs are. The clue is in the name.
The Seventh-day, or Saturday is the Sabbath of the Bible and is the day we worship the Lord, read on to find out more.
In Genesis chapter 1 we see God created the earth in six days. In Genesis 2 : 1-3 we read ‘Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.’
You will also find in Exodus 20 : 8-11, in the middle of the Ten Commandments that God wrote with His own finger and gave Moses, commandment four says ‘ Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.’
This clearly shows that the seventh-day is the day we should worship. It is the Lord’s Sabbath not a Jewish Sabbath although it is the same day as that which the Jews reverence. There are no Bible verses that say Christ or the apostles or disciples changed the day to the Sunday. Some people do think there are some verses in the New Testament that show there were Sunday meetings. We explain these verses here.
Seventh-day Adventists believe in the literal six days of Creation and not the theory of Evolution.
The word Advent means the arrival of a notable person or thing. Adventists believe that Christ will be returning soon to this earth. His first advent or appearing was when He was a baby born in Bethlehem. We believe that since 1844 Jesus, our Great High Priest, entered into the Most Holy Place in the temple in Heaven to begin cleansing His sanctuary. Since then He has been judging the world from the time of Adam. Once this judgement is finished He will return for His redeemed, the people who have confessed their sins, turned from them and have accepted Christ’s forgiveness. We believe this second advent of His coming to earth will be sooner than many people think or believe, possibly in our lifetime.
Many Christians believe there will be a secret rapture where Christians are taken from the earth and then seven years of tribulation for those remaining, giving them a chance to be saved, but that is not what the Bible says. In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 we read ‘For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.’ There is nothing secret about this. There are other verses that also show the Lord’s coming or Advent is not going to be a secret but prophecy has to be fulfilled before Christ returns. Seventh-day Adventists are aware of these prophecies in the Bible and can see they are being fulfilled in our day.
Seventh-day Adventists proclaim the Three Angels message of Revelation 14:6-12 as we believe this is a message for our times.
We practice believers baptism following personal confession and repentance of sins; seeking the Lord Jesus who is faithful and just to forgive those sins and enter into our hearts and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9); and an understanding of Christian beliefs. This baptism is carried out by total immersion in a pool of water. The new convert, by going under the water, dies to self and is ‘buried’, rising to new life in Jesus. This is the way Jesus was baptised in the River Jordan by John the Baptist. We do not baptise anyone who does not have an understanding of what they are entering into. Baptism is entrance into the church. Baptism is how we acknowledge Jesus’ death and resurrection.
We also believe that when a person dies, they do not immediately go to heaven, hell or purgatory but rather are in a state of sleep. In John 11 we are told what happened when Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, died. Jesus said he was asleep. The disciples said that he would get better and Jesus had to correct them by saying Lazarus was dead. Jesus raised to life the sleeping Lazarus four days after he had died.
Man does not have an immortal soul. That is the first lie of Satan where in Genesis 3:4 it says ‘And the serpent (Satan) said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.’ Speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Timothy 6:16 says ‘Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto…’ It is only God who is immortal. Mortal man needs to wait until the resurrection to receive immortality, and then only those that have accepted Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
We do not believe that hell exists yet, but that the Lord will pour down fire on the earth to destroy all sinners who will be part of the second resurrection after the millennium, all the demonic angels and Satan. This is hell fire and is the second death. It is the punishment that is everlasting not the punishing. God will then re-create the earth and the redeemed will live for eternity on the new earth.
Seventh-day Adventists use the writings of Ellen White, a prophetess who lived over one hundred years ago, alongside the Bible. Her writings are known as the Spirit of Prophecy. Everything she wrote points the reader back to the Bible and Jesus. Her best known work is The Great Controversy.
Our beliefs and others that have not been mentioned, may seem strange to you, but they are all Biblical. Please feel free to ask someone who regularly attends our church to find out more if you cannot find answers to your questions on this website.