Enric and Natália Pinheiro arrived at the Central Adventist Church in Brasília for the first time. At the door, they were welcomed and offered a choice of Bible studies: participate in a class for visitors or another on the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. The couple, who for some time had questions about Bible prophecy, chose the second option.

How it all began

Six years ago, a group of teachers from the Sabbath School of the Central Church of Brasilia, realized that they needed a class to reach visitors to the congregation. After all, the world church’s Sabbath School lesson theme was not always easily understood by first-time visitors.

A visitor’s class was the answer. Every Sabbath, this class studied introductory topics. Over time, participants, still new to the church, asked to study more complex subjects. Occasionally, studies of the main biblical themes were paused for a series of studies on prophecy.

“We soon understood there was a lot of interest from the people watching. Normally, Bible study classes are attended by non-Adventists, but we also noticed many Adventists began attending, motivated by a desire to learn about prophecy,” said businessman Guilherme Giroto, a church member and one of the class’s leaders. With the increase in the number of people interested in learning about prophecy, the classes needed to be divided, one for general Bible subjects and another to study Daniel and Revelation.

It was in this context that Enric and Natália arrived. It was not their first time in the Adventist Church, but it was their first time studying prophecy, after a long time searching for a church that would follow exactly what was in the Bible.

“We chose this class because we didn't know much about these books and we have been waiting for an opportunity to learn about them for a long time,” said Natália. “In the first instance, I was very happy, because we were very well received by the church members. They paid the attention that we needed and we found answers to our doubts regarding the church and its history,” she recalled.

Baptism

After some studies in the prophecy class, the couple understood that this was the church in which they should be baptized.

“We were still a little afraid, but after the meeting with Pastor Jim (who leads the Central Church of Brasilia), we were delighted with his approach and we were even more sure about the baptism,” said Enric.

Enric and Natália were baptized in September 2019 and continued to attend prophecy study class meetings. However, due to the pandemic, they have not yet had the opportunity to participate in the social activities that took place regularly outside the classroom.

“We used to interact outside the class with the participants as well. We became friends and regularly met for lunches or celebrations for completing a study. We haven't been able to hold these meetings for a while, due to the pandemic. But as soon as everything is over, we will be back,” said class teacher Guilherme.

In six years of class, dozens of people have already been baptized and others have come to better understand the books of Daniel and Revelation. For Guilherme, the best way to study these texts is in person, in a classroom, something unavailable during the pandemic.

“It is very good to have sermons about prophecy, remote classes via the Internet, television programs and the Internet, but the best technique is still the classroom, even for the time available for questions and exchanges of ideas,” he says.

About 40 people attend the class every Sabbath and, on average, 30 percent of them are not Adventists. According to the professor, people who are interested in the topic usually attend the class for a period of two years, enough time to go through two study cycles of each book. After that, the participants are encouraged to migrate to the regular Sabbath School classes of the church, to learn about other subjects, and to develop spiritually.

This article was originally published on the South American Division’s Portuguese news site