News
Adventist Students in Kenya Win Sabbath Rights Court Decision - 13 February 2019 | An appeals court in Kenya has ruled that Adventist students cannot be forced to attend classes or take exams on the Sabbath. The decision of the three-judge panel on Friday, 8 February, was announced today by KTN television news across the central African nation. The constitution of Kenya protects the religious […]- News Briefs for February 15, 2019 - News reports from Pocatello, Idaho; Jamaica, Loma Linda University, the Bahamas and Paradise, California. According to Idaho State Journal, the Adventist church in Pocatello, Idaho, has, for the past year, benefited from seven volunteer organists from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who take turns playing the organ for Sabbath services. “It’s been […]
- AT1 Speaker Kendra Haloviak Valentine Answers the Question: How Does Christ Challenge Today’s Culture? - We asked each of the speakers for this year’s Portland, Oregon-based October 4-6 AT1 gathering to answer the question, “How Does Christ Challenge Today’s Culture?” We gave them an 80-word limit for their replies. This week we’ll feature the answer we got from Kendra Haloviak Valentine, professor of New Testament Studies at La Sierra University’s […]
- Polish Adventists Meet with President Andrezei Duda - From ANN – 14 February 2019 | “Despite differences in faith and ethnicity, we create a national community of people on Polish soil,” emphasized Andrzej Duda, the President of Poland during a meeting with representatives of all major churches, religious associations and ethnic and national minorities present in Poland. Four leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist […]
- Spicer University, Venerable Adventist Institution, Existence Threatened - 14 February 2019 | The Times of India has reported that government regulators may no longer allow Spicer University to function as an accredited university in India. The article cites unspecified irregularities in admissions procedures, as well as the discovery last year of forged Ph.D. certificates by the vice-chancellor and two other top officials. The […]
- Denomination’s Leaders Go to Jamaica to Get in Shape - From ANN – 13 February 2019 | Adventist leaders are experiencing the church’s health message in a whole new way as they do blood tests, adopt a special diet and exercise program, and attend lifestyle seminars on the Caribbean island of Jamaica. The 12th annual Global Leadership Summit, themed “Wholeness in Christ: Mission Vision in […]
- Ugandan Government Condemns Alleged Caning at Adventist School - 12 February 2019 | In an announcement titled “Press Release About the Unprofessional Incident at Ishaka Adventist School of Nursing,” the Ugandan government’s Uganda Media Center condemned the alleged beating of students by staff at the Adventist institution. The release claims that a video clip of students at the Ishaka-based school being beaten by the “School […]
- Angelina Jolie Visits ADRA Site in Bangladesh - 11 February 2019 | Actress Angelina Jolie visited Rohingya refugees at Adventist Development and Relief Agency’s Cox Bazar, Bangladesh, site on February 4. The site features ongoing projects related to protection, water development, hygiene and emergency assistance according to a post on ADRA’s Facebook page. The Dhaka Tribune reported that this was Jolie’s first visit […]
- John W. Thurber, Second Tenor of the King’s Heralds Quartet, Youth Worker, Passes to His Rest - 11 February 2019 From the North American Division: John W. Thurber, best known as second tenor of the King’s Heralds quartet with the Voice of Prophecy from 1961–1967, passed away Sunday, February 3, 2019, in Lincoln, Nebraska, at the age of 87. Thurber was widely known and loved across the North America Division during his […]
- A Legacy of Empowerment – Celebrating Adventism’s History of Social Engagement - 7 February 2019 | From a North American Division News Release Huntsville, Alabama | Carlton P. Byrd It was one of the most iconic moments in biblical antiquity. God spoke to Moses and enlisted him in the divine work of deliverance. Moses would not deliver Israel from sin; that work was reserved for the Messiah. […]
- AT1 Speaker Karl Haffner Answers the Question: How Does Christ Challenge Today’s Culture? - We asked each of the speakers for this year’s Portland, Oregon-based October 4-6 AT1 gathering to answer the question, “How Does Christ Challenge Today’s Culture?” We gave them an 80-word limit for their replies. This week we’ll feature the answer we got from Karl Haffner, pastor at Kettering SDA Church and mission strategist at Kettering […]
- News Briefs for February 8, 2019 - News reports from Andrews University, The Northern Australian Conference, Southern Adventist University and an announcement regarding Adventist World War II hero, Desmond Doss. The Medical Laboratory Sciences (MLS) Clinical Year program at Andrews University has been successfully reaccredited by the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (NAACLS). Recognized by the Council for Higher Education […]
Commentary
- Charles E. Bradford: Chosen Builder of God’s Church - by Christopher C. Thompson | 15 February 2019 | I’m not sure exactly when it happened for me, but I have long been enamored with super-seniors. Particularly for me there is something about the builder generation (those born around 1925-1945). My mom’s mom was a builder. A block away from my grandmother lived another builder […]
- Rocking Our Geological Orthodoxy? - By Sven Östring | 13 February 2019 | I am delighted and encouraged to read that John McLarty is committed to being a lifelong student and enquirer after truth. This is evident from his careful and fairly accurate observations regarding the spectrum of creationist positions within the Seventh-day Adventist church. It is also evident from […]
- The Motivations of Real Love - by TJ Sands | 13 February 2019 | I am coming across the idea more and more that love is fleeting. That love doesn’t last, and it definitely doesn’t last as long as we would like. But is it true? Love and Money In the month of February (especially during the days leading up to […]
- My Summer as a Literature Evangelist - by Arthur Klym | 12 February 2019 | My earliest memories of public prayers, and hence the model I used when I learned to pray, included a phrase nearly as ubiquitous as “In Jesus name, amen.” It may sound strange to the ear of recent generations of Seventh-day Adventist youth, but to the children of […]
- Sensing God’s Nudges - Melissa Brotton | 10 Sunday 2019 | “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. 2 Chronicles 16:9 NKJV There is a way to hear God, we are told in Scripture. Psalmists such as David, […]
- The Mystery of the Infinite Turtle - by Erv Taylor | 05 February 2019 | In his book, A Brief History of Time, Nobel Prize laureate, the late noted British physicist, Stephen Hawking, related one of the versions of a widely quoted story which many of us may already have read or heard: “A well-known scientist delivered a public lecture on astronomy. […]
- A Third Reconstruction? - by Dr. Sydney Freeman, Jr. | 6 February 2019 | Earlier this year as I was checking my Facebook statuses, I saw that a colleague of mine had posted a message about the need to study the U.S. presidency of Andrew Johnson in light of our current political and societal climate. Johnson had previously served […]
- When People Find Jesus in a Different Church, Part 2: The Sectarian Identity - by Loren Seibold | 6 February 2019 | Read Part 1 here. Theologically, we Seventh-day Adventists are acceptably Protestant. The whole first half of The Great Controversy, arguably our most defining book, celebrates the Reformation. Most of us could say all but a line of the Apostles’ Creed without flinching—and all of it if we […]
- When People Find Jesus in a Different Church, Part 1: Our Side of the Wall - By Loren Seibold | 5 February 2019 | Some years ago a friend of mine, raised and educated in the Seventh-day Adventist church, revealed to his parents that he was joining a church of another denomination. It is important for you to understand that he wasn’t becoming a spiritualist or a Scientologist or even a […]
- The Perfect Adventist Couple? - 4 February 2019 | I didn’t want to date him. But a simple “no” didn’t stop him from asking me out. Over the course of the next three months he pursued me hard—flattery, gifts, big gestures—all to prove his interest in me. “He’s a good Christian man,” our friends said. “He’s involved in the church. […]
- So You Want a Theocracy? Are You Sure? - by Sonja DeWitt | 2 February 2019 | There’s a powerful conservative Christian movement in this country which finds the idea of a theocracy powerfully attractive. Imagine: a government like ancient Israel’s, with God directly in charge, favoring his chosen people with blessing and prosperity and cursing their enemies with dire punishments. A righteous nation […]
- 6 Days and 6000 Years for Everything? “God did not teach the rocks to lie” - By John McLarty | 1 February 2019 | The December 2018 Ministry Magazine carried an article by Sven Östring, “Our Miraculous Planet Earth.” Östring makes the astonishing claim that . . . Genesis 1:1–31 describes the creation ex nihilo of our planet Earth and its subspace in six literal days. This means that our planet […]
Features
- Ted Wilson and the Trajectory of the Adventist Church - by Ronald Lawson | 13 February 2019 | We have uploaded two closely-related papers to my web-site. The title of the first is “From Sect Towards Denomination: Tracing the Trajectory of Seventh-day Adventism in the USA over Time.” Many Adventists become upset when Adventists are referred to as a “sect.” (One such uproar occurred on […]
- The Trumpets: Symbolic or Literal? Past or Future? - By Werner E. Lange | 10 February 2018 | This is commentary for Lesson 7, The Seven Trumpets The description of the events that take place when the trumpets are sounded (Rev 8-9) is one of the most controversial parts of Revelation—even among Adventist interpreters, who come to very different conclusions about what these events mean. […]
- Aunt Sevvy on Valentine’s Day - 7 February 2018 | Aunt Sevvy isn’t answering a question this week. Instead, she wants to talk to you about Valentine’s Day. Historically, Valentine’s day started out as a quasi-religious holiday—a feast day to the now-demoted St. Valentine, who may never have actually existed. But who cares? Even in its present commercialized form, Aunt Sevvy […]
- Sect-State Relations of Three American Religions - by Ronald Lawson, Ph.D. | 1 February 2019 Long before I became fascinated with comparing Mormons, Adventists, and Witnesses, the three religious groups that began in the United States during the nineteenth century and went on to globalize, I had a discussion with the then-editor of Sociology of Religion about how Adventists and Witnesses, which […]
- Good and Bad News About the 144,000 - By Werner E. Lange | 1 February 2019 | This commentary corresponds to Sabbath School Lesson 6 for February 2-8, “The Sealed People of God.” Revelation 7 describes the sealing of the 144,000. The meaning of this seal is described in Rev 9:4: “They [the locusts] were told not to harm the grass of the earth […]
- Dear Aunt Sevvy: Objections to Spectator Sports - 1 February 2019 | Dear Aunt Sevvy: The Super Bowl is coming up, and it caps a season of disagreement between my husband and me about sports. I like fitness, and I do think playing certain sports taught our children fairness and cooperation—Ellen White’s competitive sports statements notwithstanding. But all I see in professional and […]
- Comparing Mormons, Adventists, and Witnesses in Mexico, 2000-2010: Contrasting Their Growth, Who They Baptized and Retained, and the Reliability of Their Data - by Ronald Lawson, Ph.D. | 26 January 2019 | Many of you have reported finding the last two papers, which compared the growth and spread of these groups throughout parts of the world, and where their memberships are concentrated, very interesting. That pleased me, for I agree with that assessment. Now we come to a […]
- Aunt Sevvy: My Wife’s Shape Is Showing - Dear Aunt Sevvy: I disapprove of the way my wife dresses. She wears tops and pants that reveal her female form. I know what goes through my mind when I look at a woman’s curves, and I’m afraid other men are looking at her that way, too. What can I do to convince her that […]
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- A Pastor’s Wife Who’s “Had It” - 18 January 2019 | Dear Aunt Sevvy: My husband is a pastor. On a recent Sabbath morning I taught Cradle Roll Sabbath School, told a children’s story, then sat up in front and kept my little ones quiet for the whole service, helped serve fellowship dinner (for which I’d prepared two dishes), and met after […]
- In All Humility: Saying No to Last Generation Theology - In All Humility: Saying No to Last Generation Theology. by Reinder Bruinsma. Oak & Acorn Publishing, 2018. Reviewed by Steve Case. While this book is written primarily for Seventh-day Adventists, the background for it certainly predates Adventism. Christians for centuries have debated the nature of Christ and the nature of man. Was Christ fully God? Was […]
- Crisis in the Heavenly Council - Commentary on “Jesus Message for the Seven Churches,” January 12-19, 2019 by Werner E. Lange | 16 January 2019 | Can you image that there is a big crisis in the heavenly council? Nothing less is described in Revelation 5:3-4: “No one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open […]
Poetry & Arts
- Somewhere: Spiritual Lessons from West Side Story - by S.M. Chen | 26 April 2018 | “There’s a place for us…” —from “Somewhere,” song in 1957 Broadway musical “West Side Story” One of the finer achievements of the late musician (conductor and composer) Leonard Bernstein was the music he composed for “West Side Story.” In collaboration with Stephen Sondheim, lyricist, he created for […]
- Revelation 2:17: A Poem - by Carolyn Shultz | 13 April 2018 | A smooth white stone. Mystery-white like Melville’ s whale? Alabaster— Or perhaps a new-made onyx Forged in the last prolific fires That purge and permute the once clean earth To Earth again. Inscribed, John says. Ur-Hebrew? Apocalyptic Greek? I think I’d fancy Strange new shapes and lines […]
- Lest We Forget - “Love is so short; forgetting is so long.” ~Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet (1904-1973), Nobel laureate (1971) in literature “… before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” ~Isaiah 65:24 I take a number of pills daily. These include a multivitamin formulation, chewable megavitamin C, vitamin D, L-lysine, and […]
- Something for the POTUS - by S.M. Chen | 23 February 2018 | I don’t know if Donald Trump reads USA TODAY. The back page of the first section of the 2/13/18 issue caught my attention. Someone named Tom Blair took out a full page ad entitled “Mr. President,” with the subheading: “In anticipation of Presidents’ Day (February 19) consider […]
- Ken Lauren: An Appreciation - by S.M. Chen | 12 February 2018 | Dr. Ken Lauren died not long ago of an injury sustained in Costa Rica, while he was working as a volunteer on the construction of a church. A report was posted here at Adventist Today. I visited Peru in 2005 at the invitation of my brother, taking […]
- Jesus’ Response to Nationalism & Racism - by Lars Justinen | 2 February 2018 | There was an immigration problem back in Jesus’ day. It seems the culture then was steeped in nationalism and racism. Especially hated in Israel were the “Muslims” of their day: the Samaritans. While sharing the same roots in Father Abraham, the Jews viewed the Samaritans as […]
- Doing Nothing Because You Can Do Only a Little? - by S.M. Chen | 22 January 2018 | “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” —Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Irish statesman and philosopher The story is told of an old man who walks the beach. He is in the habit of doing this before he begins […]
- Sunrise, Kapaa 1/11/18 - by S.M. Chen | 12 January 2018 | Some ancients bent a knee to sun. With outstretched arms they welcomed it And turned their face to catch its light And heat that warmed them to the bone, That took away the chill within. We, too, have shared the wonder of A rising sun in flaming […]
- More Rain - By S.M. Chen | 21 December 2017 | “The rain falls on the just And also on the unjust fella But mainly on the just Because the unjust steals the just’s umbrella.” —Heywood Broun, 20th century American journalist When, a few months ago, I wrote an essay, “Rain”, little could […]
- A Light to Lead Us Home - by Sharan Bennett | 20 December 2017 | Christmas, 2017 enters a chaotic and gloomy world that seems unprepared to receive it. But has our world every been much different? Ellen White says of the first Christmas: “The earth was dark through misapprehension of God.” (The Desire of Ages, p.22) And “While the light of […]
- On Learning from Bad Decisions - By S.M. Chen “There are no accidents in my philosophy. Every effect must have its cause. The past is the cause of the present, and the present will be the cause of the future. All these are links in the endless chain stretching from the finite to the infinite.” – Abraham Lincoln “Every why hath a […]
- After 500 Years, God’s Grace is Still Amazing - by Sam Millen, 4 November 2017 October 31st has come and gone. No, I’m not referring to Halloween in America, but All Hallows’ Eve (All Saint’s Eve) in Germany 500 years earlier. On October 31st, 1517, the German monk and theology professor Martin Luther decided to nail his 95 Theses against Indulgences on the Bulletin Board […]
All
- Charles E. Bradford: Chosen Builder of God’s Church - by Christopher C. Thompson | 15 February 2019 | I’m not sure exactly when it happened for me, but I have long been enamored with super-seniors. Particularly for me there is something about the builder generation (those born around 1925-1945). My mom’s mom was a builder. A block away from my grandmother lived another builder […]
- Adventist Students in Kenya Win Sabbath Rights Court Decision - 13 February 2019 | An appeals court in Kenya has ruled that Adventist students cannot be forced to attend classes or take exams on the Sabbath. The decision of the three-judge panel on Friday, 8 February, was announced today by KTN television news across the central African nation. The constitution of Kenya protects the religious […]
- News Briefs for February 15, 2019 - News reports from Pocatello, Idaho; Jamaica, Loma Linda University, the Bahamas and Paradise, California. According to Idaho State Journal, the Adventist church in Pocatello, Idaho, has, for the past year, benefited from seven volunteer organists from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who take turns playing the organ for Sabbath services. “It’s been […]
- AT1 Speaker Kendra Haloviak Valentine Answers the Question: How Does Christ Challenge Today’s Culture? - We asked each of the speakers for this year’s Portland, Oregon-based October 4-6 AT1 gathering to answer the question, “How Does Christ Challenge Today’s Culture?” We gave them an 80-word limit for their replies. This week we’ll feature the answer we got from Kendra Haloviak Valentine, professor of New Testament Studies at La Sierra University’s […]
- Polish Adventists Meet with President Andrezei Duda - From ANN – 14 February 2019 | “Despite differences in faith and ethnicity, we create a national community of people on Polish soil,” emphasized Andrzej Duda, the President of Poland during a meeting with representatives of all major churches, religious associations and ethnic and national minorities present in Poland. Four leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist […]
- Spicer University, Venerable Adventist Institution, Existence Threatened - 14 February 2019 | The Times of India has reported that government regulators may no longer allow Spicer University to function as an accredited university in India. The article cites unspecified irregularities in admissions procedures, as well as the discovery last year of forged Ph.D. certificates by the vice-chancellor and two other top officials. The […]
- Rocking Our Geological Orthodoxy? - By Sven Östring | 13 February 2019 | I am delighted and encouraged to read that John McLarty is committed to being a lifelong student and enquirer after truth. This is evident from his careful and fairly accurate observations regarding the spectrum of creationist positions within the Seventh-day Adventist church. It is also evident from […]
- Ted Wilson and the Trajectory of the Adventist Church - by Ronald Lawson | 13 February 2019 | We have uploaded two closely-related papers to my web-site. The title of the first is “From Sect Towards Denomination: Tracing the Trajectory of Seventh-day Adventism in the USA over Time.” Many Adventists become upset when Adventists are referred to as a “sect.” (One such uproar occurred on […]
- Denomination’s Leaders Go to Jamaica to Get in Shape - From ANN – 13 February 2019 | Adventist leaders are experiencing the church’s health message in a whole new way as they do blood tests, adopt a special diet and exercise program, and attend lifestyle seminars on the Caribbean island of Jamaica. The 12th annual Global Leadership Summit, themed “Wholeness in Christ: Mission Vision in […]
- The Motivations of Real Love - by TJ Sands | 13 February 2019 | I am coming across the idea more and more that love is fleeting. That love doesn’t last, and it definitely doesn’t last as long as we would like. But is it true? Love and Money In the month of February (especially during the days leading up to […]
- My Summer as a Literature Evangelist - by Arthur Klym | 12 February 2019 | My earliest memories of public prayers, and hence the model I used when I learned to pray, included a phrase nearly as ubiquitous as “In Jesus name, amen.” It may sound strange to the ear of recent generations of Seventh-day Adventist youth, but to the children of […]
- Ugandan Government Condemns Alleged Caning at Adventist School - 12 February 2019 | In an announcement titled “Press Release About the Unprofessional Incident at Ishaka Adventist School of Nursing,” the Ugandan government’s Uganda Media Center condemned the alleged beating of students by staff at the Adventist institution. The release claims that a video clip of students at the Ishaka-based school being beaten by the “School […]