Worshipping on Saturday mornings does pose some problems -- some members have had to decide against taking jobs that might require them to work that day, and it also prevents them from taking part in sports or other activities which normally occur on Saturday. "It is counter-cultural," says [Jeff Potts]. "It takes a certain level of commitment to be a Seventh Day Adventist."

Adventists also don't believe in the existence of an immortal soul; when people die, they do not go immediately to heaven or hell, says Potts. Instead, they enter a state of unconsciousness that the Bible refers to as "sleep" and, at the end of time, are reawakened and judged. Believers go to heaven, but non-believers don't go to hell -- their punishment is to be destroyed.

"We believe in eternal punishment, not eternal punishing," says Potts, explaining that Adventists reject the idea of hell as a place of eternal fiery torment. To them, that misrepresents the character of a loving God. If God punishes people for eternity, Potts notes, "who would want to believe in that kind of God?"