ne of the most beautiful experiences I have had in my life has been attending the General Conference session every five years. I have been privileged to attend five of those events.

The most recent one was held in the city of Toronto, Canada, during the summer of 2000. Delegates from around the world and visitors gathered together for several days in the SkyDome next to the convention center. There were inspiring sermons, business sessions, songs of praise that filled our heart, working committees, election of world leaders, the parade of nations, nightly reports from each of the world divisions of the church telling us how God is blessing His church all around the world, and much more.

But the most emotional element was to see all the races, languages, and people of our planet represented by the thousands of church members present there. During the last Sabbath in Toronto more than 70,000 Adventists crowded into the SkyDome. As we sang the congregational hymns, it was impressive to listen to all the languages mixing and ascending to heaven in praises and adoration to our heavenly Father.

The mayor of the city of Toronto told us that this was the largest convention held in that city and added, “How can you understand each other, come to agreements, and be united if you are so different?” Certainly the great majority of us did not know each other, did not speak the same language, and had different cultures, but we were happy because we all knew that we belonged to the same family—the family of faith, the family of God. It was a constant joy to see smiling faces expressing gladness for having been there. Friends met and embraced each other, talked and enjoyed life together. Some made new friends. Those who had not seen each other for a long time met there; there was neither discrimination nor different ideologies. We felt that we were all one. This was a foretaste, perhaps a pale reflection, of what our experience in the kingdom of heaven will be.

The Languages of Seventh-day Adventists
Often when we travel to different parts of the world we feel like strangers in the cities or places we visit. But when in those same places or cities we go to our churches we are no longer strangers. We may not know their language, we may not have seen any of the church members before, but we know that we are with our family, that we are with our people. We identify ourselves with them, and we feel united to them, happy and safe. What makes it possible for us to experience that unity and sense of belonging and identity? The answer is that Seventh-day Adventists speak only two languages in the whole world. Yes, you heard it right. Let me repeat it: Seventh-day Adventists speak only two languages in the whole world. Not Spanish or English or Chinese or French; those are the languages most spoken in the world. The two languages we speak are the language of love and the language of hope.

How Do We Learn Those Languages?
We learn those languages from Christ, our beloved Saviour, when we surrender our lives to Him, when we accept Him as our only and sufficient personal Saviour. We learned the first language, the language of love, after confessing His name and being forgiven. Jesus said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, [I] will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32).^*

His love is like a great magnet that draws us first to Him and then to one another and unites us. We learn to love and accept each other the way we are. The Word of God declares, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household” (Eph. 2:19). It also says, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29). Jesus prayed, “That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me. . . . I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:21-23).

When we experience God’s love in our lives, there is new meaning for our existence. We think not only about the present but also about the glorious future that awaits us. Now we live in hope. That is the second language we learn when the love of Christ propels us to live for Him.

The language of hope identifies us and, like love, gives us a sense of belonging. The Bible says, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction” (Rom. 12:12). Many times we may have to confront problems, crises, and difficulties, but we face them with hope. In fact, Jesus is our hope. His return is our assurance: “We wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). That is why we are a people with a future.

The Word of God Unites Us
I was traveling, fulfilling the mission that the church had entrusted to me, when a person seated by me said, “You Adventists are a very peculiar people. I like your interest in people, your emphasis on health, and many other things you have. There is only one thing that I do not like very much. You talk more about your doctrines than about Christ Jesus. Please, talk more about Jesus and less about your doctrines.”

I informed the gentleman that our church is based on our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is the only way, the only means of salvation, that we know Him through the Bible, and that God reveals Him to us in the Scriptures. Jesus Himself said, “It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me” (John 6:45).  He also said, “Go and make disciples of all nations, . . . teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:19, 20). Therefore, when we receive Christ as Lord of our lives it is implicit that we come to know Him through the Bible and that it is precisely the Bible that teaches us the doctrine of Jesus Christ.

As a matter of fact, Jesus unites us in His doctrines. The 27 fundamental beliefs that we as Adventists have and that we teach in the fulfillment of our mission are derived from love and hope. They unite and identify us as God’s people around the world. We have the same doctrines everywhere. When we teach people about Jesus Christ we have to teach them the doctrine of Jesus Christ. The Sabbath, the second coming of Christ, tithing, Christian norms, and the rest of the doctrines are the result of knowing and walking in love and hope, placed by Jesus in our hearts. When I finished explaining this, that man said to me, “Now I understand, and I can see that you are right. To know Christ is to know His doctrines.”

Let us thank God for Jesus and for the knowledge that He gives us through the Scriptures that unite us in the blessed hope and in the love that comes from the Father. His Word unites us. We are one world church fulfilling the most important mission ever entrusted to human beings—proclaiming the good news of salvation and preparing as a people to go to the kingdom of heaven. Blessed be the name of the Lord for that great blessing that He has given us.

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^* Bible texts in this article are from the New International Version.

Questions for Sharing:
1. What are the “two languages” identified by the author as the only languages of Seventh-day Adventists? How do you react to this idea, from your own experience?

2. In your own words, state how the Word of God unites us into one people.

3. How can we show that there is no conflict between Christ and doctrine?

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Armando Miranda-Conchos is a general vice president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Silver Spring, Maryland.