While it is imperative that we condemn evil in all its forms, including the LGBT lifestyle, the ultimate test that will face God’s people and the whole of humanity will not be sexual perversion or the legalization thereof, but rather, a professedly Christian power that will purport to bring the world back to God through civil enactments.

One of the strangest ideas floating around certain circles of contemporary Adventism is the notion that Last Generation Theology—the belief that God is waiting for a people perfected through heaven’s power so that Jesus can return—somehow denies the efficacy of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. 

Let us each attend our Lord in His search for His straying sheep.  And when even one is found and brought back, let us never fail to rejoice.

While the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist movement studies the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14, certain voices among us would have us adopt a localized interpretation of this pivotal Bible passage, an understanding which they can’t even identify, much less define.

It is one thing to permit public schools to display religious documents, whether one holds such permission to be constitutional or not.  It is entirely different for the state to require that such documents be conspicuously posted in taxpayer-owned, taxpayer-funded institutions.

It’s no longer just Ellen White and our distinctive teachings under attack anymore.  It’s the Bible itself—the very foundation of Christian faith and practice—that is now being disputed by certain professed Adventists.

Today marks the thirtieth anniversary of the destruction of the Mount Carmel Center (sometimes called Ranch Apocalypse) in Waco, Texas, headquarters of the so-called Branch Davidians and their leader, one David Koresh. Five years ago, this website published the present article to mark the 25th anniversary of this tragedy. We are publishing it again, with some editorial revisions, to highlight the spiritual lessons of this horrific episode, with the goal of moving beyond and above the debate and demagoguery from several perspectives that has so often contorted memories of this sad event.

As the mission of the church is defined by the Word of God, it is not possible for an employee or member of the church to be “loyal to the overall mission of the church” while differing with one or more Bible-based tenets taught by the church.

My last article addressed a number of challenges to the classic Adventist sanctuary doctrine as voiced in a recent online interview   The events of Glacier View 1980 and the subsequent removal of Desmond Ford from the Seventh-day Adventist ministry on account of his denial of key features of classic Adventist sanctuary theology, continue to arouse interest and discussion in various segments of the contemporary church.  The present article will address other notable challenges to classic Adventist understandings of these issues, as raised by Ford and others.

Prior to his recent death, William G. Johnsson, retired editor of the Adventist Review, gave an interview in which he offered reflections of his own regarding the pivotal Glacier View conference of August 1980, which addressed challenges to the classic Adventist sanctuary doctrine by Dr. Desmond Ford. What follows is an assessment of these reflections by the present writer.

No Seventh-day Adventist Christian should fear, much less loathe, these terms.  We simply need to define and apply them in harmony with the teachings of God’s Word. 

Biblical morality, or the denial thereof, is often a simple case of the right thing being wrongly placed.

Whenever Bible doctrines and standards are devalued in deference to experience-driven, comfort-seeking spirituality, ignorance of the most basic Biblical principles can easily result.