As the homosexual lifestyle and same-sex marriage become normal and accepted in society, the Adventist Church will face greater pressure to accept them as well. The church will be expected to welcome homosexual members, deacons, and elders; this is already happening in some local Adventist churches. One of the arguments employed by those who seek to gradually normalize practicing homosexual church members is that it is “just another sin, and we are all sinners.”
Read MoreReport on the International Conference on the Bible and Science
This August I was blessed to attend the International Conference on the Bible and Science: Affirming Creation, which was put on by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists’ Faith and Science Council, with significant contributions by the General Conference Education Department and Loma Linda University Department of Earth and Biological Sciences. The 400+ attendees came primarily from Adventist unions, conferences, and educational institutions all over the world. They included scientists, theologians, graduate students, and church administrators as well as some lay members and a few guests from other denominations.
Read MoreLegal representation in scripture
In "Federal headship," we saw that Adam was the legal “representative of the whole human family” (Ellen White, Patriarchs and Prophets 48), and that his fall directly affected the nature of humanity. This point alone negates the egalitarian position of full equality in representation function. While there was ontological equality, Adam’s role as monarch or legal representative, shows that God intended him to fulfill a role different than Eve. Interestingly, the idea of a legal representation is not unique to Adam’s federal role. The concept can be found throughout Scripture.
Read MoreHow is your GLOW being used?
While I was traveling by train from Germany to the Czech Republic, I met my former language teacher for Czech. We had a nice conversation and as a thank you gift for the fairly good language course she taught, I gave her The Great Controversy in Czech and a Steps to Health tract in German and Czech. She thanked me especially for the GLOW tracts and said she would like to use them as...
Read MoreFederal 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.”
Read MoreYour 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.
Read MoreChurch 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.
Read MoreUnity 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.
Read MoreTed 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.
ASI Highlights
Adventist Laymans' Services and Industries (ASI) recently held its annual convention, this year at Grand Rapids, Michigan. I wasn't there this year (for only the second time in the past six years) but I took note of some of the highlights.
Read MoreSqueeze 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.
Read MoreThe 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)
Read More3ABN'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.
Read MorePathfinder Camporee kicks off this Tuesday in Oshkosh
The Center for Youth Evangelism announced its main speakers for this year's Forever Faithful International Camporee would be Sam Leonor and Gilbert Cangy.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreClean thinking and women's ordination
A small number of influential men will not decide this issue for the entire world church, and that is good. Let us pray for our leaders and delegates to vote to return to apostolic, primitive Bible godliness. The urgency of the times demands this in our decisions leading to, and at, General Conference Session in San Antonio, 2015.
Read MoreGrowing up imperfect in a perfect family
It might surprise you to know that this family was headed for trouble. They were all very happy, and their property was the finest anywhere, and everybody loved each other, but Lou ended up in a lot of trouble.
Read MoreJudas 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?
Read MoreHerb 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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