Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists

they demonstrated outwardly the decay that was
within. When they shouted, "'We have no king but
Caesar!'" (John 19:15), they were refusing to allow
God to rule over them.
At the cross two opposite missions came to a
climax: the first, that of a church gone awry, so
centered upon itself that it was blinded to the very
One who had given it its existence; the second, that
of Christ, so centered on love for people that He
perished in their place to give them eternal
existence.
While the cross signified the end of Israel's
mission, Christ's resurrection inaugurated the
Christian church and its mission: the proclamation
of the gospel of salvation through the blood of
Christ. When the Jews lost their mission they
became just another nation and ceased to be God's
church. In their place God established a new
nation, a church, that would carry forward His
mission for the world (Matt. 21:41, 43).
The New Testament church, closely related to
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