Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists

Grace or Justice?
Later, following Israel's apostasy at Sinai, the
Lord revealed His benevolent-but-just character to
Moses, proclaiming, "'The Lord, the Lord God,
merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and
abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the
children's children to the third and the fourth
generation'" (Ex. 34:6, 7).
God's character reveals a unique blending of
grace and justice, of a willingness to forgive and an
unwillingness to clear the guilty. Only in the
person of Christ can we understand how these
qualities of character can be reconciled to each
other.
To Forgive or to Punish? During the times of
Israel's apostasy, God often pleaded longingly for
His people to acknowledge their iniquity and return
to Him (Jer. 3:12-14). But they spurned His
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