On August 4, 2017, AToday published a review of the Scripture, Church Structure and the Path to Unity symposium. Hosted by the supporting ministry Secrets Unsealed, the symposium dealt with the issue of Church unity in the face of the ongoing crisis regarding Women's Ordination in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Read MoreMessage and Mission
The fear that religious controversy inside the church holds the potential for distracting its leaders and members from their mission to the world is an age-old concern, especially when the body of Christ finds itself acutely rent by doctrinal or moral divisiveness. As the Seventh-day Adventist Church today confronts a variety of theological and moral disagreements, concern that the church might experience the distraction noted above has become especially serious among thoughtful persons at all levels of denominational life.
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 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 MorePerceived pro-WO wording recommended for church manual, debate ensues
“The next item” Wollan said, “to bring the harmony of the church manual in the way we use the term ‘pastor.’ Some places we use the term ‘minister,’ sometimes ‘pastor,’ and we are actually suggesting throughout the manual, to use the word ‘pastor’ instead of ‘minister’ . . . I so move.”
Read MoreAccusing the brethren: an analysis of Nick Miller's 'final arguments'
I have asked for my article "Accusing the brethren: an analysis of Nick Miller's 'final arguments'" to be pulled from ADvindicate's website.
Read MoreDo the Writings of Ellen White Authorize Female Ordination?
When we read Ellen White in context, she confirms what Scripture teaches. Men are the heads and priests of their families, and that headship role carries over into the church, to the male office of elder/overseer. Ellen White does not contradict Scripture on the roles of the sexes in the church, but rather fleshes them out, suggesting ways that women should be involved in a ministry that will complement the ministry of the male elders/overseers.
Read MoreWomen’s Ordination Symposium: History, Issues and Implications
Secrets Unsealed invites you to join them for a live streaming of “Women’s Ordination: History, Issues and Implications” from Fresno, Calif., Oct. 1-4, 2014. You can watch online at youtube.com/secretsunsealed channel, or at SecretsUnsealed.org (click “On Air”).
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 MoreHalting between two opinions
Perhaps the most significant development of the fourth and final meeting of the General Conference Theology of Ordination Study Committee (TOSC) was the development, by a recently-formed group within the Committee, of a “third way” or “moderate option."
Read MoreThe best argument for ordaining women
There is one argument for female ordination that always struck me as having considerable merit. It goes like this...
Read MoreBiblical hermeneutics: blest be the tie that binds us
The World Church, in its General Conference (GC), has voted twice not to allow the ordination of women to the office of elder/minister. This was not because the GC saw women and men as created unequal, but because of divine order assigning different roles to the genders. Once again the issue is being urged. So the GC has invited all of its divisions to give input on the matter.
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