This editorial was written by the late Kenneth H. Wood, who served as editor of the Review and Herald (later the Adventist Review) from 1966 to 1982. It was published in the Review and Herald of October 19, 1972, as the U.S. presidential election of that year approached. Though written many years ago, its insights regarding Seventh-day Adventist participation in the secular political process remain cogent, balanced, and timeless. Its thoughts would be helpful to ponder on the eve of the pending U.S. presidential election.
Read MoreImportant responsibility in following voted World Church actions, from the Adventist News Network
The Biblical Consensus, Slavery, and Contemporary Adventist Issues
In the article under review, a professor from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University examines the Christian debate over slavery in nineteenth-century America, and how different approaches to Biblical authority allegedly led to different conclusions.
Read MoreQ and A with Elder WIlson
In the wake of this year's annual council, Elder Wilson has published a Q and A session that addresses many of the issues and concerns that have been voiced.
Read MoreWhere are the Pauls?
We then come to the conclusion of three kinds of relationships at creation: first, between Man and the lower creatures, second, between man and man, and finally, between man and God. Relationship seems to pervade the kingdom of God, an evidence of how particular it is to Him. No wonder God took all the necessary measures to ensure that there could be perfect relationships.
Read MoreAutumn Council's Other Issue
This year's Autumn Council generated much interest with its focus on reconciliation and mission. Yet General Conference President Ted Wilson chose neither unity nor mission, but education as the topic of his October 8 Sabbath sermon. A gift copy of Ellen White's Education had been placed at each seat, and he recommended it as both a complement to the educational instructions in the Bible and a book that could change the direction of our institutions.
Read MoreAnnual Council 2016: Reflections and Analysis
On October 11, 2016, the Annual Council of the General Conference Executive Committee voted to approve a procedure by which the non-compliance of certain denominational entities with world church policy is to be addressed. This procedure will involve a year-long, two-step process in which efforts at reconciliation will be conducted by those strata within the church organization which bear responsibility for those entities—such as Unions and local Conferences—who have lately veered in their practices from the voted decisions of the worldwide Adventist body.
Read MoreDismissal of Unfaithful Shepherds, Part II
In the first article of this series, Dismissal of Unfaithful Shepherds, it was seen that unfaithful ministers in the remnant church must be converted or purged out before the remnant church receives the promised showers of blessing through the latter rain, or makes decided progress in the movement of the Three Angels’ messages.
Read MoreWho Should I Believe?
Annual Council 2016 is imminent. Union and Division presidents and other church leaders are arriving at American airports. Some have never been here before; others were present in San Antonio in 2015 or have come at other times. But some puzzle over the Adventist Church in North America. They are told that most American Adventists decidedly favor women’s ordination. Then they discover that many, many American Adventists strongly oppose women’s ordination. They ask themselves, Who should I believe?
Read MoreRise and Shine! Is punctuality important?
Should a Christian have a habit of arriving late to places? Does punctuality have anything to do with representing God? It is possible there are times where maybe we are doing too much during our days, maybe putting too much on our plates?
Read MoreWho Can Fix the World?
Our world is a vast lazar house, a scene of misery that we dare not allow even our thoughts to dwell upon. Did we realize it as it is, the burden would be too terrible. Yet God feels it all. In order to destroy sin and its results He gave His best Beloved, and He has put it in our power, through co-operation with Him, to bring this scene of misery to an end (Ellen White, Education, 264).
Read MoreCarry Out and Enforce Order
The prophetic voice spoke in 1861. Organization was the issue. Warning was delivered via the pen of Ellen White: “And now unless the churches are so organized that they can carry out and enforce order, they have nothing to hope for in the future. They must scatter into fragments” (Review and Herald, Aug. 27, 1861). The churches subsequently organized. The Seventh-day Adventist Church was born! But now, after a century and a half, the church faces this question again.
Read MoreGod Don’t Make No Junk!
The author went on to observe that many times people make the decision to have plastic surgery without fully considering the outcome. The results, however, are permanent. The author feels that this is a result of a culture that is accustomed to having everything instantly and without much work or sacrifice on their part.
Read MoreThe Futile Quest for Neutrality
The book The Reformation and the Remnant: The Reformers Speak to Today’s Church, penned by a lawyer-turned-theologian currently serving as a professor of church history at the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University, seeks to address a cluster of contemporary Adventist issues both from the perspective of Protestant Reformation history and a focus on ideological positioning so far as various convictions in the contemporary church are concerned. References to “liberals,” “fundamentalists,” and “centrists” abound throughout the book with regard to different ideas and their alleged place on contemporary Adventism’s spectrum of thought.
Read MorePresent Truth and Love
God alone can be the source of ultimate goodness and love. God is not an arbitrary being, making laws one day and casually violating them another. God created laws that everything, both spiritual and natural must adhere to or face dire consequences. It is only in the fact that there is an objective Source of moral values do we understand that there is such a thing as love.
Read More“Who can find a virtuous woman?”
At the General Conference Session last summer, a decisive majority of delegates from all over the world voted against women’s ordination—a decision which, I believe, was based on God’s Word. Certain segments of the world field have responded by presuming, against a world church policy that has now been voted three times, that they will presume to ordain women to the gospel ministry anyway.
Read MoreThe False Dichotomy Between Freedom and Righteousness
Over the last two articles in my series on Religious Liberty I emphasized the separation of the spheres of Caesar and God. In this last article of my series of Religious Liberty themed essays, we will explore the importance of freewill.
Read MoreRomans 5:12 and Original Sin
Ever since the 1950s’ dialogue between Seventh-day Adventists and evangelicals and the 1957 publication of the book Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine, there have been a number of huge controversies within Seventh-day Adventism about the nature of sin, the human nature of Christ, and the nature of the atonement.
Read MoreEllen White, Religious Liberty and Prohibition
When confronted with the notion that Church and State must remain separated, the subject of voting against Prohibition is quickly brought. There is no denying the fact that Ellen G. White and the Adventist Pioneers saw the consumption of alcohol as a pernicious evil. There is near unanimity in the condemnation of alcohol consumption in the early stages of the Adventist Church, and for very good reasons.
Read MoreAlleged Ellen White Contradictions: Exploding the Urban Legends, Part 4
In this article, the fourth in our series on alleged contradictions in the writings of Ellen White, we will consider three additional issues in Ellen White’s ministry where critics and revisionists have accused her of contradicting herself—the “daily” in the book of Daniel, the scope of the law as described in Paul’s epistle to the Galatians, as well as some of her statements where a surface reading might lead some to think she wrote inconsistently regarding God’s love for sinners.
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