This summary of history must necessarily be brief, and it will be impossible, for lack of space, to quote authorities. From the testimony of Josephus it is clear that the Jews, as a nation, continued to observe the seventh-day Sabbath until their overthrow, when Jerusalem was captured by Titus, 70 AD. As colonies, and individuals, scattered over the face of the earth, the Jews have preserved a knowledge of the original Sabbath, and the definite day, until the present time. They constitute a living testimony for the benefit of all who desire to know the truth of this matter.
The conservative end of the theological spectrum is represented by historic Adventists, who are characterized by their opposition to theological trends within the denomination, beginning in the 1950s.[33] They object to theological compromises with Evangelicalism, and seek to defend traditional Adventist teachings such as the human post-fall nature of Jesus Christ, investigative judgment, and character perfectionism.[34] Historic Adventism is represented by some scholars,[35] is also seen at the grassroots level of the church[36] and is often promoted through independent ministries.
Accordingly, many Adventists are opposed to practices such as body piercing and tattoos and refrain from the wearing of jewelry, including such items as earrings and bracelets. Some also oppose the displaying of wedding bands, although banning wedding bands is not the position of the General Conference.[66] Conservative Adventists avoid certain recreational activities which are considered to be a negative spiritual influence, including dancing, rock music and secular theatre.[67][68] However, major studies conducted from 1989 onwards found that a majority of North American church youth reject some of these standards.[69]
Historically, Houston has been a center of Protestant Christianity, being part of the Bible Belt.[131] Other Christian groups including Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christianity, and non-Christian religions did not grow for much of the city's history because immigration was predominantly from Western Europe (which at the time was dominated by Western Christianity and favored by the quotas in federal immigration law). The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 removed the quotas, allowing for the growth of other religions.[132]
Few people realize that the Sabbath vs. Sunday controversy raged during the first three centuries of the Christian era, and thousands were tortured and put to death over this question both before and after the Emperor Constantine supposedly "resolved" the heated debate in his Sabbatical edict in AD 321. If so many chose death over observing a day not commanded by God, could not this dispute be more significant than we may have thought?
The world church is governed by a General Conference, with smaller regions administered by divisions, union conferences, and local conferences. It currently has a worldwide baptized membership of over 20 million people, and 25 million adherents.[9][10] As of May 2007, it was the twelfth-largest religious body in the world,[11] and the sixth-largest highly international religious body.[12] It is ethnically and culturally diverse, and maintains a missionary presence in over 215 countries and territories.[2][13] The church operates over 7,500 schools including over 100 post-secondary institutions, numerous hospitals, and publishing houses worldwide, as well as a humanitarian aid organization known as the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA).
The Theater District is a 17-block area in the center of Downtown Houston that is home to the Bayou Place entertainment complex, restaurants, movies, plazas, and parks. Bayou Place is a large multilevel building containing full-service restaurants, bars, live music, billiards, and Sundance Cinema. The Bayou Music Center stages live concerts, stage plays, and stand-up comedy. Space Center Houston is the official visitors' center of NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. The Space Center has many interactive exhibits including moon rocks, a shuttle simulator, and presentations about the history of NASA's manned space flight program. Other tourist attractions include the Galleria (Texas' largest shopping mall, located in the Uptown District), Old Market Square, the Downtown Aquarium, and Sam Houston Race Park.
The Uposatha has been observed since Gautama Buddha's time (500 BCE), and is still being kept today in Theravada Buddhist countries. It occurs every seven or eight days, in accordance with the four phases of the moon. Buddha taught that Uposatha is for "the cleansing of the defiled mind", resulting in inner calm and joy. On this day, disciples and monks intensify their practice, deepen their knowledge, and express communal commitment through millennia-old acts of lay-monastic reciprocity.
We were so blessed by an amazing experience during our Youth and Pathfinders Retreat on April 20-22, 2012. Despite terrible weather conditions on Friday, the youth and Pathfinders faithfully drove the 2.5 hours from Houston to Jasper-- and were all happy they did! From fantastic fellowship to beautiful hiking trails, from contagious laughter to amazing outdoor experiences, we all had a wonderful time growing closer to one another as well as growing closer to God. Praise God for a wonderful retreat!
In the creation of the heavens and the earth the foundation of the gospel was laid. At the close of His created work, "God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31). The Sabbath was both the sign and the memorial of that creative power which is able to make all things good. But man, made in the image of God, lost that image through sin. In the gospel, provision is made for the restoration of the image of God in the soul of man. The Creator is the Redeemer and redemption is the new creation. Since the Sabbath was the sign of that creative power which worked in Christ, the Word, in the making of the heaven and the earth and all things therein, so it is the sign of that same creative power working through the same eternal Word for the restoration of all things. "Wherefore if any man is in Christ, there is a new creation:
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a mainstream Protestant church with approximately 19 million members worldwide, including more than one million members in North America. The Adventist Church operates 173 hospitals and sanitariums and more than 7,500 schools around the world. The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) works within communities in more than 130 countries to provide community development and disaster relief.
In harmony with this revelation, members of the LDS church attend sacrament meeting each week. Other Sabbath-day activities may include: praying, meditating, studying the scriptures and the teachings of latter-day prophets, writing letters to family members and friends, reading wholesome material, visiting the sick and distressed, and attending other Church meetings.[18]
America's fourth-largest city is a cosmopolitan destination, filled with world-class dining, arts, hotels, shopping and nightlife. Take a stroll through the historic Heights, spend the day exploring the Museum District or head down to Space Center Houston. Later on, grab a bite in one of dozens of award-winning restaurants, or hang out with the cool kids on Washington Avenue. There's always something to do in this Southern hospitality meets urban chic city. Come explore YOUR Houston!
The increased production of the expanded shipbuilding industry during World War II spurred Houston's growth,[34] as did the establishment in 1961 of NASA's "Manned Spacecraft Center" (renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in 1973). This was the stimulus for the development of the city's aerospace industry. The Astrodome, nicknamed the "Eighth Wonder of the World",[35] opened in 1965 as the world's first indoor domed sports stadium.
From the very nature of the basis of the Sabbath, as set forth in this commandment, both the institution itself and the definite day of the Sabbath are of a permanent nature. So long as it is true that God created heaven and earth, and all things therein, so long will the Sabbath remain as a memorial of that work; and so long as it is true that this creative work was completed in six days, and that God Himself rested on the seventh day, and was refreshed in the enjoyment of His completed work, so long will it be true that the memorial of that work can properly be celebrated only upon the seventh day of the week.
The holy day of rest and reflection observed each Saturday among the Jews. This custom fulfills the fourth of the Ten Commandments (“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy”). The Sabbath commemorates the last of the seven days of Creation as described in the Book of Genesis, the day God rested from his labors of creating the heavens and the Earth.
(shabbath ), "a day of rest," from shabath "to cease to do to," "to rest"). The name is applied to divers great festivals, but principally and usually to the seventh day of the week, the strict observance of which is enforced not merely in the general Mosaic code, but in the Decalogue itself. The consecration of the Sabbath was coeval with the creation. The first scriptural notice of it, though it is not mentioned by name, is to be found in ( Genesis 2:3 ) at the close of the record of the six-days creation. There are not wanting indirect evidences of its observance, as the intervals between Noahs sending forth the birds out of the ark, an act naturally associated with the weekly service, ( Genesis 8:7-12 ) and in the week of a wedding celebration, ( Genesis 29:27 Genesis 29:28 ) but when a special occasion arises, in connection with the prohibition against gathering manna on the Sabbath, the institution is mentioned as one already known. ( Exodus 16:22-30 ) And that this (All this is confirmed by the great antiquity of the division of time into weeks, and the naming the days after the sun, moon and planets.) was especially one of the institutions adopted by Moses from the ancient patriarchal usage is implied in the very words of the law "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." But even if such evidence were wanting, the reason of the institution would be a sufficient proof. It was to be a joyful celebration of Gods completion of his creation. It has indeed been said that Moses gives quite a different reason for the institution of the Sabbath, as a memorial of the deliverance front Egyptian bondage. ( 5:15 ) The words added in Deuteronomy are a special motive for the joy with which the Sabbath should be celebrated and for the kindness which extended its blessings to the slave and the beast of burden as well as to the master: "that thy man servant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thought. ( 5:14 ) These attempts to limit the ordinance proceed from an entire misconception of its spirit, as if it were a season of stern privation rather than of special privilege. But in truth, the prohibition of work is only subsidiary to the positive idea of joyful rest and recreation in communion with Jehovah, who himself "rested and was refreshed." ( Exodus 31:17 ) comp. ( Exodus 23:12 ) It is in ( Exodus 16:23-29 ) that we find the first incontrovertible institution of the day, as one given to and to be kept by the children of Israel. Shortly afterward it was re-enacted in the Fourth Commandment. This beneficent character of the Fourth Commandment is very apparent in the version of it which we find in Deuteronomy. ( 5:12-15 ) The law and the Sabbath are placed upon the same ground, and to give rights to classes that would otherwise have been without such--to the bondman and bondmaid may, to the beast of the field-is viewed here as their main end. "The stranger," too is comprehended in the benefit. But the original proclamation of it in Exodus places it on a ground which, closely connected no doubt with these others is yet higher and more comprehensive. The divine method of working and rest is there propose to work and to rest. Time then to man as the model after which presented a perfect whole it is most important to remember that the Fourth Commandment is not limited to a mere enactment respecting one day, but prescribes the due distribution of a week, and enforces the six days work as much as the seventh days rest. This higher ground of observance was felt to invest the Sabbath with a theological character, and rendered if the great witness for faith in a personal and creating God. It was to be a sacred pause in the ordinary labor which man earns his bread the curse the fall was to be suspended for one and, having spent that day in joyful remembrance of Gods mercies, man had a fresh start in his course of labor. A great snare, too, has always been hidden in the word work, as if the commandment forbade occupation and imposed idleness. The terms in the commandment show plainly enough the sort of work which is contemplated-servile work and business. The Pentateuch presents us with but three applications of the general principle -- ( Exodus 16:29 ; 35:3 ; Numbers 15:32-36 ) The reference of Isaiah to the Sabbath gives us no details. The references in Jeremiah and Nehemiah show that carrying goods for sale, and buying such, were equally profanations of the day. A consideration of the spirit of the law and of Christs comments on it will show that it is work for worldly gain that was to be suspended; and hence the restrictive clause is prefaced with the restrictive command. "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work;" for so only could the sabbatic rest be fairly earned. Hence, too, the stress constantly laid on permitting the servant and beast of burden to share the rest which selfishness would grudge to them. Thus the spirit of the Sabbath was joy, refreshment and mercy, arising from remembrance of Gods goodness as Creator and as the Deliverer from bondage. The Sabbath was a perpetual sign and covenant, and the holiness of the day is collected with the holiness of the people; "that ye may know that I am Jehovah that doth sanctify you." ( Exodus 31:12-17 ; Ezekiel 20:12 ) Joy was the key-note Of their service. Nehemiah commanded the people, on a day holy to Jehovah "Mourn not, nor weep: eat the fat, and drink: the sweet, and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared." ( Nehemiah 8:9-13 ) The Sabbath is named as a day of special worship in the sanctuary. ( Leviticus 19:30 ; 26:2 ) It was proclaimed as a holy convocation. ( Leviticus 23:3 ) In later times the worship of the sanctuary was enlivened by sacred music. ( Psalms 68:25-27 ; 150:1 )... etc. On this day the people were accustomed to consult their prophets, ( 2 Kings 4:23 ) and to give to their children that instruction in the truths recalled to memory by the day which is so repeatedly enjoined as the duty of parents; it was "the Sabbath of Jehovah" not only in the sanctuary, but "in all their dwellings." ( Leviticus 23:3 ) When we come to the New Testament we find the most marked stress laid on the Sabbath. In whatever ways the Jew might err respecting it, he had altogether ceased to neglect it. On the contrary wherever he went its observance became the most visible badge of his nationality. Our Lords mode of observing the Sabbath was one of the main features of his life, which his Pharisaic adversaries meet eagerly watched and criticized. They had invented many prohibitions respecting the Sabbath of which we find nothing in the original institution. Some of these prohibitions were fantastic and arbitrary, in the number of those "heavy burdens and grievous to be borne" while the latter expounders of the law "laid on mens shoulders." Comp. ( Matthew 12:1-13 ; John 5:10 ) That this perversion of the Sabbath had become very general in our Saviours time is apparent both from the recorded objections to acts of his on that day and from his marked conduct on occasions to which those objections were sure to be urged. ( Matthew 12:1-16 ; Mark 3:2 ; Luke 6:1-5 ; 13:10-17 ; John 6:2-18 ; 7:23 ; 9:1-34 ) Christs words do not remit the duty of keeping the Sabbath, but only deliver it from the false methods of keeping which prevented it from bestowing upon men the spiritual blessings it was ordained to confer.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a mainstream Protestant church with approximately 19 million members worldwide, including more than one million members in North America. The Adventist Church operates 173 hospitals and sanitariums and more than 7,500 schools around the world. The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) works within communities in more than 130 countries to provide community development and disaster relief.
^ "Adventism" in Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism by Randall Balmer, p7 describes Seventh-day Adventists as "an evangelical denomination." The Christian Research Institute claims "mainstream Adventism is primarily evangelical" in the sense that "the great majority of Adventist scholars, teachers and pastors that [the author has] spoken with believe firmly in salvation by grace through faith alone." "Seventh-day Adventism: Christian or Cultic?" from the Christian Research Institute. Accessed 25 Feb 2008.[dead link]
Houston is the seat of the Texas Medical Center, which describes itself as containing the world's largest concentration of research and healthcare institutions.[251] All 49 member institutions of the Texas Medical Center are non-profit organizations. They provide patient and preventive care, research, education, and local, national, and international community well-being. Employing more than 73,600 people, institutions at the medical center include 13 hospitals and two specialty institutions, two medical schools, four nursing schools, and schools of dentistry, public health, pharmacy, and virtually all health-related careers. It is where one of the first—and still the largest—air emergency service, Life Flight, was created, and an inter-institutional transplant program was developed.[citation needed] Around 2007, more heart surgeries were performed at the Texas Medical Center than anywhere else in the world.[252]
The Grand Prix of Houston, an annual auto race on the IndyCar Series circuit was held on a 1.7-mile temporary street circuit in NRG Park. The October 2013 event was held using a tweaked version of the 2006–2007 course.[213] The event had a 5-year race contract through 2017 with IndyCar.[214] In motorcycling, the Astrodome hosted an AMA Supercross Championship round from 1974 to 2003 and the NRG Stadium since 2003.
Adventist churches usually practice open communion four times a year. It commences with a foot washing ceremony, known as the "Ordinance of Humility", based on the Gospel account of John 13. The Ordinance of Humility is meant to emulate Christ's washing of his disciples' feet at the Last Supper and to remind participants of the need to humbly serve one another. Participants segregate by gender to separate rooms to conduct this ritual, although some congregations allow married couples to perform the ordinance on each other and families are often encouraged to participate together. After its completion, participants return to the main sanctuary for consumption of the Lord's Supper, which consists of unleavened bread and unfermented grape juice.[43]
