It is a query that ought to shake you all the way down to the soles of your comfortable shoes. George R. Knight has been wrestling with this very question for nearly five decades. He says he wasn’t born that way (like some) and isn’t addicted (like others)—hence the struggle.

His dilemma?

The Seventh-day Adventist Church was founded upon an apocalyptic message that needed to be preached to the entire world—immediately and at any cost. But does the church today preach that same message with the same urgency? Has the Adventist Church become irrelevant because it has sought to be more relevant to the world? Does the Adventist Church have any reason for existence if it has lost that which makes it different from all the rest of Christianity?

And if in fact Adventism has neutered itself, is there anything we can do—as individuals and as a denomination—to remedy this shocking condition in which we find ourselves?

Knight challenges us to go back to our roots, to examine the prophecies that fueled the early Seventh-day Adventists’ determination to evangelize the world. Buried within the books of Daniel and Revelation are the only reasons for this end-time church to exist. But beware: you may have to uproot yourself from the pew in order to be truly Adventist.