Adventist News Network
Released by:   Ray Dabrowski
Phone:   +31-30-955-324 (June 29-July 8) or +301-680-6300
Written by: Herb Ford

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 1, 1995

SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CONGRESS: SECOND DAY ENDS

Utrecht, The Netherlands ...  The Seventh-day Adventist Church, whose
mid-19th century founding grew out of intense anticipation for Christ's
second coming to earth by others, have denounced speculative efforts by
what the Church calls "misguided persons" to tie Christ's return to the
year 2000.

"While anticipating Christ's return, Adventists reject any attempt to
set specific dates for the event," said a statement released, Friday,
June 30, at the 56th World Congress of the Church by newly re-elected
Adventist Church world president Robert S. Folkenberg, Silver Spring,
Maryland, U.S.A.

"The approaching end of the second millennium of the Christian era
undoubtedly is leading some misguided persons to propose date-setting
schematics and events tied to the year 2000, the end of the world, and
the return of Jesus," the Church leader's statement says.

"Adventists have no confidence in such speculative efforts, for they
violate Christ's explicit statements that although humans may indeed
recognize when His return is near, they cannot know the exact time."

In the 1840s, before the Seventh-day Adventist Church was formed,
groups of clergy and believers from various Christian churches became
convinced Christ would return to earth in 1844. Out of such groups came
those whose reading of the Bible told them that no person can know the
exact time of Christ's Bible-promised return to earth.  From among them
came those who in 1863 founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The 18,000 delegates and visitors attending the world congress earlier
on Friday heard G. Ralph Thompson, Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A.,
Adventist world secretary, characterize the Church as one of the
fastest-growing among all Christian denominations.

In his report, Thompson said: "1,725 people join the Seventh-day
Adventist Church every day, one new member every 50 seconds.  We are
doubling our membership every 11 years.  Our rate of growth is now
about 6.5 percent a year, while the world population is growing at only
1.6 percent a year.  Whereas there was one Seventh-day Adventist for
every 93,000 people in the world in 1880, today there is one church
member for every 670 persons in the world."

Reporting on the financial state of the Church, Donald F. Gilbert,
Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A., Adventist world  treasurer, told the
assembly that per capita giving of tithe (one tenth of income) by the
8.5 million members of the Church in 1994 was US$110.97.
Gilbert said while tithe income to the Church increased by 21.9 percent
during the 1990-95 quinquennium, church membership increased by 25.8
percent.  World mission offerings increased by 4.4 percent, he said,
and local church offerings increased by 22 percent.  Gifts to specific
purposes increased by 37 percent.

The world congress also received a statement by Adventist world
president Folkenberg declaring that "The Bible provides authentic,
reliable reports of the Creator God and His activities in bringing into
existence the world, as well as its inhabitants.  They provide
knowledge of origins, giving meaning to life, and disclose the ultimate
destiny of humanity.

"The Holy Scriptures lie at the foundation of the Seventh-day Adventist
understanding of purpose, message and mission," the statement also
says.  "The Holy Scriptures stand as the infallible revelation of God's
will, the norm for Christian values and life, the measure of all things
within human experience, and the sole reliable guide to salvation in
Christ."

In a devotional entitled "United in His Salvation," those attending the
world congress heard Gordon Bietz, Decatur, Georgia, U.S.A., president
of the Georgia-Cumberland Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, compare
spiritual and human barriers to unity.

"Humans draw lines where God does not," said Bietz.  "Humans make
distinction where God does not.  Humans make rules that God does not. 
We separate where God combines.  We isolate where God unifies.

"We become exclusive where God is inclusive.  We build barriers where
God builds bridges.  We build walls, where God came to break down the
dividing wall of hostility."

Bietz warned, "We assure a schism in the Church when that which is
conditioned by history is imposed as law; when that which grows from
culture is made the standard for all; when that which is local in
importance is made universal in application.

"We will break into national separatist churches when we elevate the
circumcision of our time to the position of the glue of our unity and
identity.  The only glue that will hold the Church together is the Holy
Spirit."

The 10-day Church world congress, which began on June 29, continues
through July 8, with week-end attendance expected to be close to
40,000.  The 2,600 official delegates to the assembly serve as
representatives of Adventists in 205 countries.

           -end-