1872 Fundamental Principles

1. God's Nature

We believe in one God as a personal, spiritual being, the creator of all things, omnipotent, omniscient, and eternal. God is unchangeable and present everywhere through the Holy Spirit.

2. Jesus Christ

Christ is the eternal Father's Son and creator of all things. We emphasize His incarnation, exemplary life, sacrificial death, resurrection, and ongoing priestly ministry in heaven's sanctuary where He makes atonement for sins.

3. Biblical Authority

The Old and New Testaments are inspired Scripture containing God's full revelation and the only infallible rule of faith and practice.

4. Baptism

Baptism is a Christian ordinance following faith and repentance, commemorating Christ's resurrection through immersion—the only mode properly representing these theological truths.

5. New Birth

Regeneration comprises moral transformation through conversion and physical transformation at Christ's return, involving resurrection or translation to immortality.

6-7. Prophecy and History

Prophecy is essential revelation designed for believers' understanding. World history and empires are outlined in prophetic chains, now all fulfilled except the closing scenes.

8. Millennium Doctrine

We reject the "world's conversion and temporal millennium" as false doctrine promoting complacency. Christ's second coming precedes the millennium, not follows it.

9. 1844 and the Sanctuary

The 1844 mistake involved the nature of the expected event, not its timing. The 2,300-day prophecy (Daniel 8:14) terminated that year, pointing to sanctuary cleansing.

10. The Heavenly Sanctuary

The sanctuary of the new covenant is the heavenly tabernacle where Christ serves as High Priest. His work parallels the Jewish priestly system, with cleansing occurring post-1844 through sin removal.

11. God's Moral Law

God's moral requirements remain constant across dispensations, summarily contained in the commandments spoken by Jehovah from Sinai. These laws are immutable and eternal.

12. The Seventh-day Sabbath

Saturday is the only weekly Sabbath known to the Bible, established before sin entered and continuing in the restored paradise. Human terminology like "Jewish Sabbath" is unscriptural.

13. Sabbath Reform

Reform regarding the fourth commandment will occur among believers before Christ's advent, countering papal attempts to alter God's law.

14. Spiritual Transformation

The carnal heart is hostile to God, requiring radical transformation of affections and holy principles through repentance and faith via the Holy Spirit's work.

15. Justification and Grace

We depend on Christ for justification from past transgressions and for grace enabling acceptable obedience to His law going forward.

16. Holy Spirit's Gifts

The Spirit manifests through specific gifts enumerated in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4, neither superseding Scripture nor replaceable by it. These gifts enable ongoing spiritual understanding and conviction.

17. Three Messages of Revelation

God's proclamation of Christ's second advent is symbolized by Revelation 14's three messages, with the final message emphasizing law reformation and preparedness.

18. Investigative Judgment

The sanctuary cleansing period coincides with the third message—a time of investigative judgment determining worthiness for resurrection or translation before Christ's appearance.

19-20. The State of the Dead

The grave (Sheol/Hades) is a place of silence, inactivity, and complete unconsciousness with no mental activity or awareness.

21. Two Resurrections

We affirm bodily resurrection of the righteous at Christ's second advent and the wicked after the millennium, separated by one thousand years.

22. Translation of the Living

The living righteous will be "changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" and caught up with resurrected saints to meet the Lord in the air.

23. The Millennium

Immortalized saints will dwell in heaven's New Jerusalem for one thousand years, judging the world and fallen angels. Meanwhile, earth remains desolate, Satan is imprisoned there, and eventually destroyed.

24. Final Destruction of the Wicked

After the millennium, resurrected wicked are consumed by divine fire, becoming "as though they had not been"—experiencing everlasting destruction from God's presence, constituting eternal punishment.

25. Restoration

New heavens and earth will arise from the old, featuring the New Jerusalem as capital and eternal inheritance for the righteous to dwell forever.