For almost 120 years Liberty magazine has reached people and places that are almost impossible to reach. Decade after decade this flagship journal of our church has reached into the offices and homes of people of influence in society. And today we regularly hear back from judges, city and county leaders, lawmakers, academics, and many others who tell us that they’re reading and engaging with the biblically formed messages on the pages of Liberty magazine.

We’re sharing with people of influence a profoundly Seventh-day Adventist message. It’s a message that tells of a Creator God who has endowed every person with the right to worship according to their conscience. It’s a message that says that the kingdom of Jesus Christ is not a kingdom of this world, but one that transcends the politics of today. It’s a message that looks to the future and says: A time is coming soon when every person must choose whom they will serve.

As Seventh-day Adventists we have a tremendous history of standing up for religious liberty—not just for ourselves, but for every person. And this is a history to be proud of—a legacy we should never forget. But it’s also a responsibility.

As tithe receipts have increased within North America over recent years, support for the religious liberty ministry of our church has not kept pace. And yet your support is needed now more than ever as religious freedom threats multiply in the courts and in both federal and state legislatures. These are such threats as:

• our right to speak and act on our beliefs in public settings.
• our right to administer our schools and institutions, and make hiring decisions, in ways that reflect our Seventh-day Adventist identity.
• our right, as individual Sabbathkeepers, to be treated fairly in the workplace.

Your offering today and your subscriptions to Liberty magazine will help us protect your religious liberty rights in the courts and through direct advocacy with lawmakers. It will allow us to send Liberty magazine to even more thought leaders across the North American Division of our church.

If we can reverse the trend—if we can help religious liberty support keep pace with tithe increases—we’ll be providing a vital lifeline for the mission given to our church so many years ago; a mission that is still ours today.

“The banner of truth and religious liberty held aloft by the founders of the gospel church and by God’s witnesses during the centuries that have passed since then has, in this last conflict, been committed to our hands,” wrote Ellen White more than century ago. “The responsibility for this great gift rests with those whom God has blessed with knowledge of His Word” (Acts of the Apostles, p. 68).

Thank you for your prayers, for your gift to the religious liberty ministry today, and for your sponsored subscriptions to Liberty magazine as together we continue to hold high this “banner of truth and religious liberty” in these last days.