Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists

of mind. This forgiveness God is eager to grant
repentant sinners. To the sin-burdened, guilt-ridden
race, Christ graciously calls, "'Come to Me, all you
who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you
rest'" (Matt. 11:28).
d. The control center of sin
The seat of sin is in what the Bible calls the
heart--what we know as the mind. From the heart
"spring the issues of life" (Prov.4:23). Christ
reveals that it is the person's thoughts that defile,
"'for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false
witness, blasphemies'" (Matt. 15:19). It is by the
heart that the entire person--the intellect, will,
affections, emotions, and body--is influenced.
Because the heart is "'deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked'" (Jer. 17:9), human nature
can be described as corrupt, depraved, and
thoroughly sinful.
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