Frequently Asked Questions

The Church of God (Seventh Day) has more than 200 churches throughout the United States and Canada. To locate one near you, use our Find-A-Church tool by clicking here.

Many of the doctrinal teachings of the Church of God (Seventh Day) can be found on our website under What We Believe. For an in-depth look at our doctrine and values, you can purchase the book This We Believe.

Both of these church organizations began in the mid-1800s as outgrowths of the William Miller Adventist movement. The two share several major teachings in common, including these:

• The whole Bible, Old and New Testaments, is the Word of God.
• Salvation is by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
• All of the Ten Commandments are standards for God’s people today, and the seventh-day Sabbath is to be observed on Saturday.
• There is no consciousness for humans between death and resurrection.
• Jesus Christ will soon return physically to the earth.
• The wicked will finally be annihilated, not suffer eternal torment in hell.

Most differences between the groups involve the role and writings of Ellen G. White. Mrs. White was a founder of the SDA Church and is regarded by it as a true prophetess. The Church of God (Seventh Day) considers Mrs. White as it would any other writer since the completion of the biblical canon: Her “truth” is mixed with error. The Church regards neither Mrs. White nor her writings to be an expression of the “Spirit of Prophecy.” This is the fundamental difference between the two churches.

Beyond this basic difference, here are some teachings of the Church of God (Seventh Day) that are not endorsed by Seventh-day Adventists:

• We believe that the year 1844 has no special significance in Bible prophecy. We believe that provision for salvation was completed when Jesus died, rose from the dead, and returned to heaven — not in 1844. Therefore, we believe that SDA teachings about the cleansing of the sanctuary and the investigative judgment are invalid.
• We believe that the earth will be inhabited by the saints — not desolate — during the 1,000-year reign of Christ.
• We believe that the entombment of Christ was for three full days and nights, from Wednesday evening until Sabbath evening.
• We believe that the common celebrations of Christmas and Easter are seen as a compromise with pagan customs and should not be practiced by the Church.

The Church of God (Seventh Day) does not require observance of the annual Hebrew holy days in Leviticus 23.  This is why:

1. The annual holy days were part of the Levitical law of the old covenant and were intimately linked to its system of animal sacrifices.
   The annual holy days were neither creation ordinances nor part of the Ten Commandments, but they belong to a portion of law that may be called ceremonial.
2. The annual holy days were commanded to the nation of Israel when she departed from Egypt, and they were to be observed where the Lord placed His name: Jerusalem.
3. The annual holy days have an agricultural framework, inextricably tied to the land, crops, and climate of ancient Palestine.
4. The annual holy days were observed according to an ancient (Hebrew) calendar that is impossible to decipher from Scripture.
5. The purpose of the annual holy days was for the Hebrew nation to celebrate her own history and to anticipate the greater salvation that would come through Messiah.
6. Observance of the annual holy days often casts a shadow on the final work of redemption and grace that was accomplished by Christ on the cross.

Bible Advocate subscriptions are free to those who personally request them. Sample copies may be given or sent to prospective readers, with the invitation to become subscribers at their personal request. Gift subscriptions are allowed but must be accompanied by an offering. You may order through email at bap.orders@cog7.org.

Club subscriptions of six or more copies sent to the same address may be ordered at the prevailing cost per copy. Write to the Bible Advocate Press for cost information, or send an email to bap.orders@cog7.org.

For a brief history of the Church of God (Seventh Day), visit our History page. For a more detailed account, you can order the booklet The Story of the Church of God (Seventh Day), by Robert Coulter.

Herbert W. Armstrong was a licensed minister of the Oregon Conference of the Church of God (Seventh Day) for several years in the 1930s. He was personally known by many of the Church’s ministers at that time and worked in cooperation with them. In the late 1930s, Mr. Armstrong left the Church to begin his own work, which became known as the Radio Church of God and eventually the Worldwide Church of God. The two churches have had unofficial dialogue among leaders in recent years, but no official connection exists between them.

Several of our tracts, booklets, and other literature are now, or will soon be, available to order in our online store. For items not available in the store, please contact us at bap.orders@cog7.org.