Brief description
The Seventh-day Adventist church originated in the United States in the middle of 19th century, during a time of a great religious awakening, which spread over most Christian churches about the year 1844, when the Second Coming of Christ was expected.
The first Polish Seventh-day Adventist was Michal Bylina Czechowski, who also was the first missionary of the new church in Europe.
Because of the political situation of the second half of 19th century he was unable to go to his native country, but he founded several Adventist groups in Switzerland and other countries.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church began its work in the regions of Poland in the early years of the 20th century. At the present there are about 10 thousand members in Poland. There are also about 3 thousand more spread all over the world, one thousand of them in Australia.
The majority of them live in Melbourne, there is also a large group in Adelaide and smaller groups in Sydney, Newcastle, Canberra and the Gold Coast.
There are over 15 million Seventh-day Adventists in the world, and the number is increasing daily by over 3 thousand.
In Sydney there are over 7000 Adventists. For more information please go to The Greater Sydney Conference Website
The name of the church
The name of the church alludes to two of the basic teachings of the Holy Scripture: the importance of the 10 Commandments and the Second Coming of Jesus to this earth. Before Jesus ascended to heaven He promised: “I will come again” (John 14:3). The word “advent” simply means “coming”.
The great majority of Christians recognises the validity of the Commandments, ignoring, however, the fourth, about God’s day of rest, which (in part) reads: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8).
The Sabbath day is the seventh day of the week, established by God as a token of remembrance of Creation (see http://www.creationontheweb.org), when after six days of activity “on the seventh day he rested, …and blessed the seventh day and made it holy” (Genesis 2:3).
Basic beliefs
- The basis of all the beliefs is the Bible, the inspired Word of God.
- We believe in one God in three Persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
- God created the whole universe that man can observe, including man himself, in six days, about six thousand years ago. Man having a free will, decided not to trust God and through this choice brought sin on the world, on all mankind.
- To save mankind God Himself came to this earth in human form in the person of Jesus, taking upon himself the guilt of man and the punishment man deserved.
- God did not leave man without instructions on how to live. They are the 10 Commandments.
- The wages of sin is death, that is eternal destruction, but thanks to the death of Jesus on the cross, everyone, who believes in Him does not have to perish. The death that people die now is only a temporary sleep, without any consciousness. Everyone will rise from this sleep at the resurrection.
- The life of everyone will be reviewed in the judgment, and his destiny decided before Jesus returns to this earth.
- Jesus will return to close the present history and take His faithful ones away and then finally cleanse the earth of sin and all its results.
- Everyone who believes in Jesus should be baptised by total immersion, as Jesus Himself was baptised.
- All believers should partake of the Holy Communion with the emblems of bread and wine. The purpose of this is to bring to remembrance His death and His coming again.
- All believers should join the church community, in order to support each other and carry out the commission that Jesus gave the church.
- The commission given to the church is to carry the Good News of the redemption from sin in Jesus to the whole world. For this purpose all members are to give one tenth of their income.