Federal headship

Some scholars have proposed (1) that man and woman were equal before the fall and that there was no “hint of a headship . . . or hierarchical relationship” (2) or that headship is a “new theology ... that permits no compromise or diversity.” (3)  In general, those who believe in a pre-fall equivalent role status (4) are referred to as “egalitarians.” (5) One scholar noted “there is nothing in Gen. 2 to indicate a hierarchical view. . .  [and] no hint of a headship of one over the other or a hierarchical relationship between husband and wife.” (6) He further proposed that before the fall there was full equality in “resemblance/constitution, in relationship, and in representation/function.” (7) Those who believe in a pre-fall non-equivalent role status are called “complementarians.”

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Your investment with ADvindicate

You can help ADvindicate raise $30,000 in four months to expand its news coverage and reach. From now until Dec. 31, we will be fundraising to cover projected expenses for 2015. Over the last two years, you provided the funds for ADvindicate to establish itself as a 501(c)3 non-profit, which benefits future supporters by allowing all donations to be tax deductible. You provided the funds for the basic operation of ADvindicate, and we are so thankful. You provided funds that allowed ADvindicate to host booths at ASI and GYC. These conventions help bring greater awareness and increased readership.

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Church celebrities: assessing an old but contemporary challenge

Her name was Maria Anne Hirschmann.  I don’t even know if she’s still alive.  (Her former husband recently passed away, I am told.)  An Adventist teenager living in the German-dominated Sudetenland of what was then Czechoslovakia, she left home at the age of fourteen to receive advanced training in the Hitler Youth movement.  Soon she became a devout and passionate Nazi, leaving the faith of her childhood behind.

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Unity on the ship that will go through

Today I make an appeal to leaders and laymen at every level of the church to begin an ongoing, unceasing dialogue on how to finish the work of God according to His plans. We know that our track record regarding that message is not good and what the outcome is if that message goes unheeded: we will be spewed out. Friends, it is time to unitedly study Revelation 3:14-22 on our knees with fasting and prayer. It's time to humble our pride, put aside our prejudices, meet, pray and plan together and practice the “unity in diversity” that the Lord prayed for as He went to the cross for us.

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Ted Wilson: No room for evolution in Adventist schools

Seventh-day Adventist world church President Ted N. C. Wilson forcefully asserted that life has existed on the Earth for only a few thousand years, not millions of years, as he opened an educators conference in Utah on Friday, and he said teachers who believe otherwise should not call themselves Seventh-day Adventists or work in Church-operated schools.
 

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Squeeze the toothpaste from the bottom

I’m a big fan of matrimony (referring to marriage, not your eccentric aunt’s secret pile of cash under her bed mattress). Marriage is one of the more meaningful things that you can experience on earth, outdone by, and linked to our relationship to the Godhead. In other words, marriage is good stuff. So why do people get married? I believe there are several reasons.

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The Guns of August

This month marks the centenary, the hundredth anniversary, of the beginning of the First World War, which erupted in Europe in August, 1914. It was the most destructive war in history up to that point, with military deaths of about 9 to10 million and combined military and civilian deaths of about 16 to 17 million. The war also facilitated the rapid spread of an influenza epidemic in 1918 that killed an estimated 50 million people.

“Fearful tests and trials await the people of God. The spirit of war is stirring the nations from one end of the earth to the other.”-- Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 17. (1909)

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3ABN's ordination survey: bubble or bombshell?

At the recent international ASI convention held in Grand Rapids, Mich., 3ABN broadcast a live program during which hosts Jim Gilley and Danny Shelton moderated an open study regarding women’s ordination. The panel featured Michigan conference president Jay Gallimore; Pastor Doug Batchelor, president of Amazing Facts; and Don Mackintosh, chaplain of Weimar Center of Health & Education. All the panelists on the program supported the historic Adventist view.

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The Record Keeper leaked online

The controversial web series funded by the General Conference that was originally cancelled has been leaked to the web. The series was leaked on director Jason Satterlund's YouTube channel July 2 and on Ricardo Raposo's YouTube channel August 2. No announcement of the series release has been made on Satterlund's website or the two Facebook pages promoting the site. It's also been released on http://www.thehaystack.tv/. The Daily Haystacks tweeted this yesterday.

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The Godhead and Dualism

There is a movement within Adventism that, as I write, appears to be growing exponentially. Those associated with it haven’t given themselves a name possibly because they, like our friends the feast-keepers, are not an organized body yet and, like the feast-keepers, there are differences of opinion among themselves on what they believe.  At the moment they are known as non-Trinitarians but rather than a negative label I'd prefer to give them a name that captures what they do believe so I'll refer to them here as Dualists.

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Judas and the Sons of Eli

The question of how to deal with religious offenders, whether doctrinal or moral, is one deeply troubling to many laypersons and leaders in the Seventh-day Adventist Church today.  How are we to properly address challenges to the integrity and practice of our faith?  How are justice and mercy to be balanced in such decisions?  At what point does responsible firmness give way to undue severity, Christian tolerance to secular license?

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Herb Montgomery Aligns with Kinship

Independent Adventist seminar speaker Herb Montgomery, who describes himself as “an author, internationally recognized speaker, and director of Renewed Heart Ministries,” has aligned with SDA Kinship, a homosexual organization that, among other activities, holds Kinship Kampmeeting each summer. Montgomery, who is married with three children and lives in West Virginia, was a featured speaker at last week's Kinship Kampmeeting.

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Put the flag up

Some are crippled by bitterness, some are crippled by guilt, and some paralyzed by fear. For some there are painful memories that they cling to, allowing the pain to define them. In this condition, we are the first to criticize, and the last to forgive. Some, crippled by lies, run from relationships, fearing the honesty that they demand. But that's not who you are, friend. God created each of us with the ability to give and receive love (1 John 4:7; 2 Cor. 7:2). 

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Pope hints at change to celibate priest rule

It appears that Pope Francis may be rethinking the idea of clerical celibacy.  In an interview with La Repubblica, an Italian daily newspaper, Pope Francis described the celibacy of the priesthood as "a problem" in need of a solution.  “There definitely is a problem but it is not a major one. This needs time but there are solutions and I will find them,” Francis said, without elaborating further. 

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Moses and the origin of homosexuality

Human sexuality, along with a pleasing sexual imperative, is introduced at the very beginning of the Bible story. Mankind was created with gender. Gender was created with purpose. Compliantly, in the narrative, Adam “knew” his wife and she conceived a son, and then another, and then a third. And though we don’t have details about differing sexual orientations before the flood, it is certain that only heterosexuals were on the Ark.

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